Letters to Moonchild

July 6 1998 Bright blessings Moonchild, Yes it is definitely possible to sense the aura of objects, especially of objects created for divination or ritual use. My tarot deck has become so charged over the years of constant use that it gives people who are psychically sensitive a shock. (To me they just feel warm almost like clothes right out of the dryer.) And it sounds like you found a deck that is right for you, that is usually how I advise my apprentices to select a deck, handle several until they find one that they can "feel" the power in. Evil is anything that harms another or proceeds from an impure motive. One of the most "Evil" people I have ever met was a pastor of an Assembly of God church. He only thought of himself and how to make more money or how things looked. Any ministering he did was not an attempt to bring comfort to those he ministered but a way to show everyone else how "holy and generous" he was. (shudder). He was the kind of man that would kick you when you were down provided no one was watching. Evil is any one who views other people as objects that they may use. ( serial killers and child molesters fall into this category) as to demons, while there are spirits of incredible power who are not balanced (these are what are commonly called demons) they are not evil in themselves, but not what we would consider to be sane and interacting with them is always dangerous. I reccommend that any summoning of demons be put off for many many years, and even then it would need to be done only in the most dire of extremes. As for protection, all you need to do is have faith that Artemis protects you. Nothing more elaborate is needed. True faith in any religion will coat you in a teflon shield. If you remember that belief, and your own Will is the basis of all magickal energy then all you need do to enact a protection charm is to visualize Her power flowing around you in a perfect sphere through which no harmful power from outside may penetrate. This in NO WAY will protect you from the consequences of YOUR OWN actions. There is no defense for the Rule of Three. As to dark magick, the Rule of Three ensures that whatever magick you cast or anyone else casts comes back to the sender three times as powerful, so it is a very wise course to examine your motive very closely before you do any spell, and never ever cast a harmful one. There are those who try to follow the dark path for a while but the effects of so many harmful spells bouncing back three times as bad as they were cast tends to make their lives shorter, meaner, and many of these end up in mental institutions raving about demons. Be wary of any book that advocates casting "spells to harm rivals" or "love spells" . Both are violations of the Wiccan Rede (An it harm none, do as ye will). Casting a spell to harm a rival is just as evil a deed as grabbing a kitchen knife and cutting them, and casting a spell to make someone fall in love is a violation of that person's free will and any result obtained from such a spell would not be true love (true love defined as caring more for another's welfare than for your own). Yes I consider you an apprentice of a sort, and I believe the Goddess leads people to where they need to be. The Goddess directed you to sign the guestbook on my web page, and She directed me to help you. The Goddess always finds a way to help those who seek after Her. True power is found in knowing your limitations, in only doing magick that careful thought and consideration has been deemed to be absolutely necessary, in striving to be understanding , considerate, helpful, generous, loving, patient, in living each day as if it were the most important day of your life. A Book of Shadows IS a personal journal, in which you write down those things that pertain to your spiritual life. If you have a dream journal, than that is a Book of Shadows, if you keep notes about which spells worked best for you and which failed, then that is a Book of Shadows. As I said on my web page, each person's Book of Shadows is as individual as the person themselves. I am an Eclectic Wiccan which means that I take whatever I like and whatever feels right to me and blend it in to my worship of the God and Goddess and into my spells and ritual. There are more formalized Wiccan traditions like the Gardnerian and the Alexandrian, and they tend to keep their rituals secret and according to stricter formulas as set down by the founders of their tradition, and these are valid, but I have chosen not to be limited in my worship, if an American Indian ritual seems Right and pleasing, then I will use it, if passages out of the Egyptian Book of the Dead seem good, then I use them. An it harms none, do as ye will. :) May Isis and Osiris Guard you through all the Empty places through which you must walk. Firesilk

This page last modified 9/10/98