Magick – Adam Sartwell

Ancestor work is always popular as the veil goes thin around Samhain. Some magic workers set up an altar or shrine at this time to our ancestors to connect and work with them. Many magic workers leave it up all year long. Our ancestors have lived through troubled times and their line continues through us. They understand what we are going through and can aid us in dissolving our worries and bringing strength and peace. Here is a spell to work with your ancestors to dissolve worries and put peace in their place.

Gather two candles, one white and one black, some oil you associate with the ancestors, holders for the candles and an offering for the ancestors for doing this work for you. Go to your ancestor shrine or place where you work with your ancestors. Set up your candles with the black on the left and the white on the right as you are facing the ancestor altar.

Call on your ancestors in your own words to come and work with you. Make your offering. Anoint the black candle and charge it for dissolving your worries. Imagine your ancestors before you, taking on your worries like little blobs of darkness and taking them away to be dissolved. Light the candle and start to confess your worries to your ancestors. Know that they are taking them, neutralizing them, and dissolving them so your energy won’t manifest them. When you are done say something like:

“I know worry is a misuse of my imagination, please take these worries and dissolve, transform, and neutralize them so they can do no harm. “

Then anoint the white candle and charge it with a visualization of peace or some other blessing you desire in place of these worries. Light the candle and connect to your ancestors as you chant:

“Take my worries and leave peace in their place.”

Chant this over and over until you feel like you are ready and change the chant to just repeating the last line.

“Leave peace in their place”

Chant this until you feel it is done. Thank the ancestors for this work with you, leave offerings of gratitude, and go about your day.

I’ve been a part of a gay mens Group that explores Magick and mysticism for many years now. We are all pretty versed in our individual craft and we come together to learn from each other. Our last group was a great experience that I think other covens or groups who are versed in shamanic technique could do for each other for bonding and healing. Since it is a gay mens group we focus at times on what we call the Queer Spirit. Since we are men we usually connect to it from the male side of the Queer spirit. Our facilitators of the night explained that we as gay men have a very special community that is able to aid other gay men. Some times it is detrimental but in its highest form can really bring a great support.

One example is that one of our members was asked to help out a younger gay male by his parents if he had any questions his parents couldn’t answer. In light of the blessings of support that we can give to each other we talked about how we as gay witches can support each other. One of the lessons we talked about is that we as witches can be very self contained and not ask others to help us with their talents. We rarely seek out another to journey for us, do a reading, or cast a spell. We talked about how this opened us up to vulnerability and exposure to have to ask for something from another. How opening up to others like this is also a sign of inner strength.

So our facilitators called on us to do a journey for a partner in the group. We wrote out on a piece of paper our issue that we wanted aid on. Keeping in mind that we were a gay mens group some of us chose issues that gay men have: e.g. body image, self image, disconnection, identity, family, internalized homophobia, and so on. Since drawing from a hat would not give us pairs, we drew match sticks from a cauldron because one of our members had just watched the film “Clue”. Strangely we ended up getting similar issues to journey on in the pairs we ended up in. We also had couples end up in pairs. A majority of the group found that when we journeyed for another their symbolism was more represented then our own. Their guides, their Gods, and their way of looking at life seemed to show up in the journeys.

We all came away from the group feeling like we had gotten what we needed to know. It is interesting to get perspective from another on an issue because it may not be the way you see it from your own perspective. We also got some “assignments” for future work to aid us with our issues. Overall a successful night that could spark other groups to do the same for their own support network.

Tag: Magick

Connecting with the Ancestors to Alleviate Worry

Journey for another