Green Tara Mantra
I really need this right now. Spiritually it has been a difficult time for me as a Buddhist. I live my life as a pagan, a witch in all my daily dealings but my religion – my true spirit belong to Buddhism and is embodied by the Goddess Green Tara.
I need her more than ever right now. I need her guidance.
I say her mantra 108 times and it does not seem to be enough for I need to be saying it 108 times by 10,000 times.
Here is a beautiful rendition of the mantra set to music and sung by Chinese artist Su Ching-yen.
In Tibetan “Om Tare Tuttare Ture Soha”
In Sanskrit “Oṃ Tāre Tuttāre Ture Svāhā”
Tibetan culture, and some others, green is considered to include all the other colors.
The practice of Green Tara helps to overcome fear and anxiety, but devotees also believe that she can grant wishes, eliminate suffering of all kinds and bring happiness.
When called upon, she instantaneously saves us from eight specific calamities. The First Dalai Lama lists the 8, and interprets them as representative of corresponding defects, flaws, or obscurations:
- lions and pride
- wild elephants and delusions
- forest fires and hatred
- snakes and envy
- robbers and fanatical views
- prisons and avarice
- floods and lust
- demons and doubt
OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SOHA
OM represents Tara’s sacred body, speech and mind.
TARE means liberating from all discontent.
TUTTARE means liberating from the eight fears, the external dangers, but mainly from the internal dangers, the delusions.
TURE means liberating from duality; it shows the true cessation of confusion.
SOHA means “may the meaning of the mantra take root in my mind.”
According to Tibetan Buddhism’s beliefs, this mantra can not only eliminate diseases, troubles, disasters and karma, but will also bring believers blessings, longer life and even the wisdom to transcend one’s circle of reincarnation.
Friday the 13th Fun
I write about Friday the 13th every year because 13 is a very lucky number for witches. I thought I’d do something a little different this year and just post a few fun tidbits.
Some events are intentionally scheduled for Fridays the 13th for dramatic effect. They include:
- Black Sabbath’s eponymous debut album was released in the UK on Friday, February 13, 1970.
- The 13th book in A Series of Unfortunate Events was released on Friday, October 13, 2006 by Lemony Snicket, also known as novelist Daniel Handler.
- Five of the twelve films in the Friday the 13th series, including the most recent (reboot of the series), were released on a Friday the 13th.
- A long-running theatrical show, Supernatural Chicago, premiered on Friday, February 13, 2004.
- AdventureQuest Worlds MMORPG features special in-game events featuring Voltaire (musician) and other guests for each Friday the 13th.
Events that have occurred on Friday the 13th include:
- On October 13, 1307, Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay and several Templar Knights were arrested by King Phillip of France. Most were eventually tortured to death.
- On January 13, 1939, the single worst bushfire in Australian history struck Victoria, Australia, claiming 71 lives and causing widespread damage.
- The renowned rapper Tupac Amaru Shakur was pronounced dead on September 13, 1996.
- On August 13, 2004, Hurricane Charley slammed in to Southwest Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, the strongest hurricane to hit the United States since 1992. (I was in this hurricane btw!)
- An engineering train on the Northern Line of the London Underground became uncoupled and went on a 13-minute journey southbound from Archway station, finally stopping at Warren Street tube station on the West End branch of the line on August 13, 2010. The train in front was forced to skip several stations and was diverted to the City branch of the line.
- On January 13, 2012, France, Austria, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Italy, Portugal and Spain had their credit ratings downgraded by Standard & Poor’s.
- On January 13, 2012, the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia sank in front of the island of Isola del Giglio, killing at least sixteen aboard and injuring 64.
- North Korean satelite launch attempt Kwangmyŏngsŏng-3 failed on April 13, 2012. (that’s today!)
- The asteroid 99942 Apophis will make a close encounter with Earth, closer than the orbits of communication satellites, on April 13, 2029. (YIKES!)
Take the Leap!
Here are some interesting facts about Leap Year (which is today!)
- Despite what our elementary teachers told us, a year isn’t really 365 days. Our planet actually takes 365 1/4 days to revolve around the sun. These six additional hours each year add up to an extra 24 hours over four years, at which point we add a day to our calendar in order to keep us in sync with the sun. Without leap day, annual events would slowly shift seasons—eventually, we’d be celebrating Christmas in July.
- While the first leap day was likely observed by the Egyptians, Caesar is credited for incorporating a leap year into the Julian calendar in 46 B.C. However, scientists noticed that annual events were still shifting over extended periods of time. While the calculation of 365 1/4 days for the Earth to lap the sun was close, the true figure is actually about 11 minutes short of that, and this tiny miscalculation caused a day of discrepancy every 128 years. Pope Gregory XIII came to the rescue in 1582, ruling that leap year would be skipped three times every four centuries to fix the snag.
- Though the point of a leap day is to keep our calendar aligned with nature, hundreds of years ago people thought that messing with our months would throw Mother Nature for a loop. Farmers worried that the change would lower crop yields and sicken livestock. In fact, a Scottish saying declared that “leap year was never a good sheep year.” Lore also held that leap day babies were unruly and tough to raise. (Maybe we should ask J.Lo—whose twins were born on Feb. 29, 2008—if this adage proves true.)
- Speaking of leap day babies, those born on Feb. 29 are called “leaplings” or “leapers.” Since their actual date of birth only comes around a quarter of the time, leaplings often celebrate non–leap year birthdays on Feb. 28 or March 1. Legal permissions like getting a driver license or drinking alcohol are granted on whichever day a particular region deems official. Most U.S. states test leaplings’ patience by making them wait until the 1st.
- Four hundred years ago, women weren’t allowed to propose marriage to men… except on leap day. While the source of this switcheroo isn’t 100 percent clear, folklore traces the tradition to fifth-century Ireland, when St. Bridget supposedly complained to St. Patrick that gals were sick of waiting around for their procrastinating men to pop the question. Patrick consented to a leap day role reversal and, by some accounts, also declared that men who declined the proposal would be fined!
- In the 1879 opera The Pirates of Penzance, the character Frederic is apprenticed to a band of pirates until his 21st birthday. When that day arrives, he abandons ship, falls in love and plans to marry. That is, until the pirates realize that Frederic was born on Feb. 29, meaning his contract does not officially end until the 21st time that date occurs—when he’ll be in his 80s. He’s forced to leave his fiancé and return to a soggy life at sea.
It’s official!
All the posts from shaktiwitch.com have been migrated to this new blog – whew!
You will notice some password protected entries. Please just email me at amita@magickrituals.com to get the password. Posts about my personal life will usually be password protected.
I will now start on adding pages and links and other fun things to the site here as well as posting more often. I’m so happy to finally be using this domain name too – it’s much more appropriate than shaktiwitch.com was but I was going through my heavy yoga phase at the time (still do it every day but don’t consider it a lifestyle though I am quite flexible!)
Comments are turned on for all posts. I will not be migrating old comments – they can stay on shaktiwitch.com until the site is no longer there.
Almost There
I’ve been spending time updating this new blog and getting everything into the archives from shaktiwitch.com. Once I do shaktiwitch.com will be taken down but everything that was there will be here with a few new things too including resource pages, links and various and sundry materials that I think you may find interesting from my life as a witch.
I will also include a password protected area for those of you who would like to read more about my life as a witch that include stories that I would not feel comfortable revealing to the public on a blog. They are still part of my life, very personal about my journey and I will gladly share them with those who request a password from me. I will let you know when that area is set-up and how you can get the password.
I am also going to re-vamp magickrituals.com – I know I have spoken of this before but I am serious about it now – I want it to stay as a record of where I’ve been but the front page needs to reflect this so I will be adding that soon. I am taking care of witchy business.
I cannot believe it is almost Beltane and I look forward to celebrating that as I have not in a long time. It was always one of my favorite sabbats. Following that comes my favorite time of year: SUMMER! I am truly ready for summer at this point. Even though I live in Central Florida we had a pretty cold winter here and though it’s been warming up nicely (in the eighties and nineties) it doesn’t quite feel like summer yet.
I’ll post again once I am closer to completion of the changeover. Thanks for bearing with me!
Merry Meet!
I’m switching to this new blog because I had some trouble with an older edition of the WP software. This new blog will replace Shakti Witch (which will stay live for some time while I transfer old posts to this site).
Once I get everything transferred over here I plan on this being a much more updated blog having to do with my spellcasting sites (mysticspells.com and magickrituals.com) and my personal life living as a witch.
The reason I’ve had a blog for so many years has to be to defeat the con-artists out there who claim to be witches and spellcasters (and they are legion on the Internet) since this is both what I do for a living (alongside a successful career as a freelance journalist) and how I live my every day life (magick is a part of everything I do).
Once I get everything updated you will find out more about me (those of you coming here for the first time) and to my followers, you might even find out a few new things about me!
To clarify, although I am a witch and was initiated in the Gardnerian tradition, I am not a practicing Wiccan. I practice all mysteries as a witch (I consider myself an eclectic solitary, I am no longer part of a coven) but my religion is Buddhism and has been for 12 years.
Thus I am what you would call a Buddhist Witch.
I live with my Mom in Central Florida, have a great tuxedo kitty named Lucy, I am widowed and recently started dating again. I’ll share much more, as well as keep you up to date on love, life and everything else.
Note to Clients on Payment Plans
Occasionally it happens that I have some difficulties (just like non-witches) and I have been dealing with something that I never thought I’d have to cope with – deadbeat clients.
I’m not sure how this happened. Previously I have always offered financial accommodations to my long-term clients so they could purchase their spells on monthly payment plans to make it easier for them to get the spells they desired. That coupled with a reduction in prices for my spells is something that I was happy to offer to all my clients, new and old to make magick affordable for everyone.
I don’t get rich as a working witch. I do this because I love being a witch and using magick to help people. It is very rewarding in many ways and it allows me to use a great deal of creativity in my work, from keeping up websites to the spells themselves, crafting rituals, communicating with clients, working at crafting oils and herbs etc.
Still, I have bills to pay like everyone else and I am the sole support of my household which consists of my mother and me. When I offer a payment plan to a client and they don’t come through at the agreed upon time that sends my finances into a tailspin because that is money I am counting on to live.
I pride myself on completing the spell work and sending it out before all the payments are complete because I offer my trust to the client. I have fulfilled my part of the arrangement by casting and completing their spell and ask that they in turn will pay me according to their plan.
When this does not happen as it has for the first time since I offered this option, it forces me to reconsider how I can work with my clients in such an arrangement. I am thinking that in the future on payment plans I will not be able to offer the spell results until the payments are complete. I don’t want to do this and truthfully it is only a handful of clients that have ruined it for everyone but I can’t see that I have another choice.
To those clients who have not paid for their spells at the agreed upon time, ultimately you will only hamstring yourself. Casting spells requires energetic commitment from both caster and client. If you do not fulfill your end of the agreement your spell will not manifest because you have not completed the energetic exchange. This is a caveat I include in all my spells. Spells are mutual from witch to client.
In other words if you cheat the witch – you will only cheat yourself.
Friday the 13th
For a witch this is simply a grand day! For a Knights Templar – oh, bad, very bad day. Here’s a little more on that cribbed from Wikipedia:
According to folklorists, there is no written evidence for a “Friday the 13th” superstition before the 19th century. The earliest known documented reference in English occurs in an 1869 biography of Gioachino Rossini:
[Rossini] was surrounded to the last by admiring and affectionate friends; and if it be true that, like so many other Italians, he regarded Friday as an unlucky day, and thirteen as an unlucky number, it is remarkable that on Friday, the 13th of November, he died.
* In numerology, the number twelve is considered the number of completeness, as reflected in the twelve months of the year, twelve signs of the zodiac, twelve hours of the clock, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve Apostles of Jesus, twelve gods of Olympus, etc., whereas the number thirteen was considered irregular, transgressing this completeness. There is also a superstition, thought by some to derive from the Last Supper or a Norse myth, that having thirteen people seated at a table will result in the death of one of the diners.
* Friday has been considered an unlucky day at least since the 14th century’s The Canterbury Tales and many other professions have regarded Friday as an unlucky day to undertake journeys or begin new projects. Black Friday has been associated with stock market crashes and other disasters since the 1800s. It has also been suggested that Friday has been considered an unlucky day because, according to Christian scripture and tradition, Jesus was crucified on a Friday.[
On the other hand, another theory by author Charles Panati, one of the leading authorities on the subject of “Origins” maintains that the superstition can be traced back to ancient myth:
The actual origin of the superstition, though, appears also to be a tale in Norse mythology. Friday is named for Frigga, the free-spirited goddess of love and fertility. When Norse and Germanic tribes converted to Christianity, Frigga was banished in shame to a mountaintop and labeled a witch. It was believed that every Friday, the spiteful goddess convened a meeting with eleven other witches, plus the devil – a gathering of thirteen – and plotted ill turns of fate for the coming week. For many centuries in Scandinavia, Friday was known as “Witches’ Sabbath.”
Another theory about the origin of the superstition traces the event to the arrest of the legendary Knights Templar. According to one expert:
The Knights Templar were a monastic military order founded in Jerusalem in 1118 C.E., whose mission was to protect Christian pilgrims during the Crusades. Over the next two centuries, the Knights Templar became extraordinarily powerful and wealthy. Threatened by that power and eager to acquire their wealth, King Philip secretly ordered the mass arrest of all the Knights Templar in France on Friday, October 13, 1307 – Friday the 13th.
The connection between the superstition and the Knights Templar was popularized in the 2003 novel The Da Vinci Code. However, some experts think that it is relatively recent and is a modern-day invention.
A further theory goes back to a combination of Paganism, Christianity, and the Battle of Hastings. For many, the number 13 was considered a lucky number (such as 13 lunar cycles each year), but with the efforts of Christianity attempting to degrade all things Pagan, they promoted 13 as an unlucky number, with Friday thus also being considered a bad day of the week. However, on Friday the 13th of October 1066, the decision was made by King Harold II to go to battle on Saturday the 14th of October, rather than allow his troops a day of rest (despite his army having made a long and arduous march from a battle near York just 3 weeks earlier).
This decision in going to battle before the English troops were rested (the English lost and King Harold was killed), further established Friday the 13th as an unlucky day.
My plans for today include casting (this is an excellent power day), going out to dinner with my Mom to continue her several days of celebrating her birthday (yes my mother needs at least three days to celebrate properly and she deserves them!), more work, grocery shopping and likely a nice bonfire tonight since the temps are getting much cooler. I’ll light a candle too for the Knights Templar as I do every year.
I hope your day is filled with luck and good fortune. The number 13 is a sacred number to witches and I bless you with its power!
Good Fortune for All
One of my clients purchased my Chinese Good Fortune New Year’s Day spell (which I cast on New Year’s Day) and then asked for some tips on how to keep luck flowing throughout the year. I found some interesting Feng Shui information on luck in my files and thought I would share it here.
In Feng Shui and China, the Chinese words are graphically beautiful. They communicate special meaning through a visual experience. So, in Feng Shui, products and objects are used as symbols of good luck. Some products have hidden meanings other products are more obvious. Some of the most common Feng Shui symbols, products, cures and adjustments include: Chinese Coins.
* Feng Shui symbols of wealth – old Chinese coins represent a union of heaven and earth. Wear them as amulets, or spread them throughout the home or business. A three-legged toad is one of the most auspicious of all the Feng Shui objects and products to enhance prosperity. It signifies the unattainable. Goldfish call in money into a space and exchanging gifts of fish is goodwill. In Feng Shui, the dragon and the phoenix are products of prosperity. Feng Shui is about adjusting energy, so placing beautiful crystals in a room are symbolic of jewels. A Feng Shui money tree is another good product to call money from the Universe. A pair of gold chopsticks is a product for good fortune and a nice gift. The laughing Buddha is a Feng Shui symbol of wealth and prosperity.
* Feng Shui symbols of love and romance – In Feng Shui, love and romance always means the luck of having a happy marriage, family life and many children. Mandarin ducks are famous symbols of lasting love. The same Feng Shui symbol could be a pair of geese that soar through life together. A statuary or product of the peony signifies romance, youth and beauty and of upcoming marriage. The lute is an ancient Feng Shui symbol of bringing harmony to the relationship. Feng Shui lanterns cast beautiful light bringing joy to families. Red lanterns are hung by a bridal bed for luck. Pink or rose quartz crystals and other gem products are good in the partnership area.
* Feng Shui symbols for longevity and health – There is no luck without health and long life. Good Feng Shui creates both for anyone practicing it. A crane is a favored bird that creates harmony and longevity. A product of Feng Shui is a marble crane sculpture in a garden. A pine tree is a strong Feng Shui symbol of permanence because it does not lose needles in the winter. A statue or product of a peach tree symbolizes protection and longevity. Bamboo is durable and thrives in all soils. The bamboo is a Feng Shui symbol that bends and adapts, but won’t break. A perfect Feng Shui tortoise is a great symbol of long life for a home. It also is a symbol of wealth, protection and support. Feng Shui uses the jade cicada as an emblem of immortality and happiness. Displaying a dried gourd around the home is a good omen in Feng Shui.
Not all products in Feng Shui have to symbolize good luck or good fortune. Red is a powerful color and can be a tool as a ribbon. Feng Shui mirrors are products that adjust energy when it is blocked and a host of other possibilities. Feng Shui wind chimes make sound that call in money, help, support and more. Crystal products adjust energy flow also. Candles in specific colors are good Feng Shui cures when some fire and spark is needed in a situation. Aromatherapy is nice in any room to add impact or clarify the energy. Essential oils when blended with water create scents that energize or relax the homeowners.
Charitable Acts
Do you really need another pair of slippers for Christmas this year?
Even though Black Friday turned out fairly well (considering the economy) this holiday season, charities are feeling the lack of funding now more than ever. I counter that we all can do something. No matter how little it may seem to you, the truth is, every little bit counts.
I’m sure you’ve seen the collection boxes for Toys for Tots – you can pick up a new toy, even just a small stocking stuffer at Walgreen’s or Wal-mart for a couple of bucks. There are also giving trees this time of year for seniors and for needy children and teens too. It doesn’t take much to get a tag from the tree and purchase a nice item of clothing on sale to give to someone who really needs it.
Ask yourself what you need and then decide if you can go without this holiday season. Then spend that money on someone less fortunate. Give it to a complete stranger. Give it to charity.
Or take things to your local Goodwill, I’m sure you have stuff around the house that you can take there. Go through every room. Take things you haven’t used or worn in a year and give them away.
In my town we have a hospice store that we donate to. They actually have pretty cool items to purchase from the generous donations that people make. It gives you such a great feeling to know that you can make a difference.
Don’t forget the animals! Donate to the Humane Society and PETA. Visit your local animal shelter with a couple of big bags of pet food. They will be so appreciated this time of year. You might want to visit with the doggies and kitties that are still there during the holidays. Even if you cannot support another pet in your home you can still give your love and compassion to them.
Perhaps you can make a new tradition where every person in your family puts in $10 and then you decide where to send the money. Wouldn’t that be great?
There are so many ways to give. Just open your heart.
