Everything Under the Moon

Here's our procedure so far, please don't hesitate to say your thoughts (suggestions, objections, amendments, etc)

Water Purification

Envision all of the thoughts and emotions which are blocking your inner eyes to have a reliable perceptive insights. Focus on the darkness, murkiness and filthiness that surround them. This is your materialist orientation, egoism and your reactive consciousness that doesn't initiate new things and refuse to take a wider view and just become entrenched in conditioning and habit. Imagine all of these facades, screens and veils pulsating within you in the form of a dark gray light, barely visible, but clouding and obscuring your sight.

Imagine the gray light moving downwards from your third eye chakra towards your arms, feeling all of the facades and clouds traveling down your arms and eventually to your hands. Imagine the gray light streaming from your hands and into the dirt in your hands, saturating and infusing it completely. Feel the veil lift slightly as murkiness and filth are captured in the dirt.

Next, put the dirt into the goblet or chalice of water. The dirty water symbolizes your ego-consciousness (Yesod). Visualize your materialism and egoism swimming around in and pervading the liquid. Take a spoonful of alum powder and drop it into the water. Add a little bit of salt too to purify it and Using your athame or your wand, stir the water while saying:

Water and alum, take this obscurity of mine
Here, bound and shut in this confine
And thus dissolve and wash away
Facades and filth without delay

Stir it clockwise until the alum powder and salt is dissolved completely while you see the water becoming clearer and clearer. As you do, visualize all the facades and clouds in your third eye dissolving and finally unveiling your eyes. You have now moved away from ego (Yesod). Feel the light of your third eye chakra glowing as brightly as it can glow. The gray light is removed.

Gem and Spice Box and Bag

Now, put the herbs in the box and drizzle ten drops of honeysuckle oil into it. Lift the box and inhale its pleasing smell, giving you a supernatural endowment to perceive personally the greater good and avoid pain and destruction. Thank the Mother Earth for the lovely aroma which reminds you of the sweetness, spice and diversity of life and the continual blend of the physical reality (the gems and the spices) and mental reality (the scent).

Light the candles and standing facing the altar with arms raised above your head, say:

May truth grant me to see the reality,
And take away pride and vanity
May wisdom bless my eyes and lips,
And bless the judgement I give

Pour half the mixture into the drawstring bag along with the crystals, visualizing that you are receiving the provision of discernment, "the ability to distinguish the identities of Selfs". Cover the box containing the other half in a place where you will be able to enjoy the fragrance. Keep the bag with you at all times and sleep with it under your pillow.

Weighing of Self

As you turned the dirty water into a clear one, the water now represents your real Self (tiferet), the unique person who lives inside our personality.

Having just sharpened your discerning ability with the help of the spices, look at yourself as if from outside. Ask questions to your self as if you are 'knowing thyself'. If you can do this, this means you have taken the path of honesty and reached the balanced state where we can observe our reactions. Wait your Self to answer you and hold the comment about yourself and stay conscious. It is sometimes helpful to talk yourself by name (this cannot be attained overnight and thus requires conscious awareness and repetition).

After making reasoned observation of yourself, take the raptor's feather which symbolizes the 'truth'. Place it on one surface of the scale then take the chalice of clear water while processing your reflection or observation in your mind. Using a dropper, drizzle a drop of water into the other surface of the scale (if you try to pour it in, water has a tendency to go all the way and fill the surface). Make sure the water (the Self) and the feather (the Truth) are balanced. Focus strongly on your heart chakra and repeat to yourself, "balance, balance". As you do this, visualize yourself weighing all data and arrive at a Truth-guided conclusion.

Keeping this phrase in mind, "We can only discern others what we have discerned in ourselves", if you want to discern something from a person to make a sound judgement and wise decision, then put yourself in the person's shoes and be that person in a particular scenario, observe yourself for a minute, step out and watch yourself and determine and understand why 'you' as this person act that way or feel that way. Go ahead and read the condition of your mind and emotions, see through the outer appearance and determine your intentions, feelings, motives and character. Repeat or perform the Weighing of Self ritual.

I think this is beautiful. It resonates with me.

Oils work great in baths, too, for those so inclined, so I could see a bath working.

Truth in matters hard to see,
In clouded times, find clarity,
Undisturbed by hasty thoughts,
Honest, fair decisions wrought.
[Goddess/God/etc.], I pray to Thee
That in this task, You might help me:
Making judgements that are right,
Bring the truth into the light.
Help me discern what is true,
That I might know what to do.

(Quick thank-you to my Ever-loyal guardian Ranno for the boost he gave me.) Thoughts? Obviously free to alter. Yes, I consistently rhyme. It's a thing of mine. XD

Oh my Gee! I didn't see this WONDERFUL incantation. Wait, I have to add this in our final draft!

Thank you for this Silversong! I really love your suggestions!

I think this is beautiful. It resonates with me.

Really Becks. Are you planning to do this?

I am absolutely. It's coming at a difficult time for me and it's perfect.
I will stop by my local herbalist and procure what I need, that I don't have on hand, in the next day or so.
I appreciate the work and thought that the community has put into this.

Absolutely perfect.

Thank you, Seraphin. :3 You have little idea how much that means to me.

Out of the mists we come bearing gifts to inspire and ignite your discerning ability that flow through your wickedly witchy veins! Come now and see what we have brewed up:

WEIGH THY SELF

Best performed: Assuming these are times... wow I really need to reorganize the astrology section of my BoS this makes no sense whatsoever to me never mind

Yah, they are 'preferable' times when to cast the spell.

Spell for October: Spell/Ritual to Honor the Dead

This coming Samhain, we're going to craft a spell that we could cast in our sacred circle with the souls and spirits of our beloved ancestors and departed friends, neighbors, etc. I think this spell or ritual we're going to brew would actually does more benefit to us, the living, than to the dead. In recalling the them, we will recall that part of us that has gotten lost when they left the physical world.

That's a wonderful idea.

Jumping right in. I love this idea!

I suggest a bonfire or a small fire made out of elder. Elder is associated with the passing of the soul. It's a wood, used in funeral pyres.
Periwinkle is a plant associated with immortality, rue - with karma cleansing.
Ivy is often used to celebrate the life of the loved ones who passed away.
Lavender brings peace.
Thyme or mint tea could be an offering to the loved ones.
I can think of some other things, but right now, I'm a little too tired. I'll chime in if I get another idea.
Looking forward to seeing what everybodys ideas are.

Nice suggestions Yana! And Becks, perhaps you know I'm going to say this! We love to hear your thoughts too!

Some important materials for the ritual would be photos and written names of the deceased, as well as offerings for them.

We could also use the smoke of frankincense in our introductory rites/ceremonies, enveloping our Samhain shrine to dispel negative entities around, purify the magickal space and for protection.

Orange candle -- the color of the setting sun, and black candle, the color of mourning.

For the Deities, perhaps we may call the presence of Papa Legba or Eleggua.

And of course, pumpkins or Jack-o'-Lanterns -- for timely Facebook profile photos.

I hesitate to burn elder - 'Elder is the Lady's tree,/Burn it not or cursed you'll be' is its line in the Nine Woods part of the Wiccan Rede, after all. Several "firewood poems" agree that burning elder is generally a bad idea.

God(s)/Goddess(es): Anubis would be my instinctive first choice. Hades/Pluto would also work, though.

Crystals: Amethyst is good for alleviating sadness and grief and supporting coming to terms with loss; rutilated quartz aids astral travel, scrying, and channeling, facilitating contact with the highest spiritual guidance. (I personally will be wearing the jet pendant I made myself when Samhain rolls around, but that's just me.) I came up with surprisingly little on this one, probably because I can't find anything relating to this in my Crystal Bible's index -.-