So, today is my birthday.  As the years have gone on I’ve done less and less to mark my birthday, and not because I’m getting older but mostly because I guess it just isn’t that big of a deal to me anymore.  I mean, it’s not as though I have anything against parties, presents, and pointy hats (for more reasons than one), but I guess I’ve just gotten to a point where I don’t care?  I don’t know.  Either way, my birthday is something that I certainly acknowledge but I’m happy to just mark it with a yummy way-too-big meal of either Chinese or Italian food, some beer, and a marathon of whatever show I’m obsessed with at the time (currently that would be The Big Bang Theory).  Kind of lame, I’m sure, but it seems to works for now.  I do plan to have a nice big party with a bunch of old fiends next year when I’m back on the east coast.  But today it’s me, Sheldon, Leonard, Raj, Howard, and Penny…and then my husband when he gets home from work.

When I was little, before I can even remember, my Mom had started a birthday countdown or age counting candle.  Anyone else remember these?  There were blue for boys, pink for girls, and on the candle you’d have numbers 1 to 18 and each year on your birthday you were supposed to burn down that section and it would bring you luck for the coming year.  Talk about veiled candle magick!  Add to that the whole “make a wish and blow out the candles” tradition and there sure is a lot of candle magick and wish magick involved in our birthdays!

Birthdays are a pretty big power day for the individual.  It’s a time when we say “It’s YOUR day”.  So what a perfect time to work magick that’s meant for you!  Wish spells are some of the best types of spells do on your birthday because they pull on your personal energy and alignment, which are going to be strongest on your birthday, and we have a history of working with wish magick on our birthdays, even before we knew that’s what we were doing.

As many people who know my work are aware, working with candle magick and gris gris or mojo hands are some of my favorite kinds of magick.  They are deceptively simple and quite powerful when you really put yourself and your energy into it.  The spell I have here for you is one that I created a handful of years ago, originally for a friend and then one I started to do for myself.  Give this a try on your birthday!

Rowan’s Birthday Gris Gris
For this spell you’ll need the following items:

1. A mojo bag, spell bag or a square of plain fabric (and a piece of white twin, string, or yarn to close it) in your astrological color
2. 1 bay leaf
3. 3 Mojo Wish Beans (or dried fava beans)
4. 1 penny (if you can find one with your birth year on it, all the better)
5. 1 square of brown paper (ripped from a brown bag and ripped so there are no edges that have been cut with scissors or anything like that)
6. A few strands of your hair (just running your fingers through your hair should give you all you need)
7. 1 candle in your astrological color
8. Oil in your astrological sign
9. Incense in your astrological sign (or just your favorite blend if you can’t get or make one in your sign)
10. A pen
11. A pin or knife

 

First here are color correspondences that you can work with as a guideline for your candles and spell bag:
(naturally if there are other colors that you prefer to use with your astrological sign, use that)
Aquarius (Jan 20-Feb 18): Sky Blue
Pisces (Feb 19-Mar 20): Lavender
Aries (Mar 21-Apr 19): Red
Taurus (Apr 20-May 20): Green
Gemini (May 21-Jun 21): Pink
Cancer (Jun 22-Jul 22): Silver
Leo (Jul 23-Aug 22): Gold
Virgo (Aug 23-Sep 22): Navy
Libra (Sep 23-Oct 22): Green
Scorpio (Oct 23-Nov 21): Red
Sagittarius (Nov 22-Dec 21): Navy
Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan19): Brown

If you would like to blend your own astrological oil in case you can’t find or don’t have one in your sign, here are some recipes to use as a guide to make your own (blend these recipes in 1 dram of carrier oil such as jojoba).  You can also use these as guidelines for blending incense if you don’t have incense to use:

Aries:
9 drops allspice
6 drops cinnamon
6 drops clove

Taurus:
6 drops cardamom
3 drops patchouli
3 drops rose

Gemini:
9 drops benzoin
6 drops peppermint
3 drops lavender

Cancer:
9 drops sandalwood
6 drops myrrh
3 drops lemon

Leo:
6 drops frankincense
6 drops rosemary
3 drops cinnamon

Virgo:
6 drops patchouli
3 drops cypress
3 drops lavender

Libra:
9 drops peppermint
6 drops geranium
3 drops rose

Scorpio:
9 drops clove
3 drops black pepper
3 drops ginger

Sagittarius:
6 drops sage
6 drops orange
3 drops clove

Capricorn:
6 drops patchouli
6 drops cypress
3 drops myrrh

Aquarius:
9 drops cypress
6 drops peppermint
3 drops patchouli

Pisces:
9 drops clove
6 drops myrrh
6 drops sandalwood

Constructing your bag:
With a pin or knife, carve your name and your astrological sign into the side of your candle and then anoint it with your astrological oil.  Hold the candle in your hand for a few moments and give thanks for another year and fill the candle with your thoughts and energy focused with intent on your wish.  If you don’t have a specific wish you can simply place within it the intention of wanting to have lots of love and luck come into your life over the next year.  When you’re ready light your candle.

Place your mojo bag, penny, bay leaf, and beans on your altar.  Each of these items are going to be charged and placed in the bag individually.

Start by picking up the penny and holding it in your power hand and saying:
As I take this penny up
I shall have a year of luck.
Place the penny inside the bag.

Take the bay leaf and say:
Adding in this leaf of bay
May all evil and negativity stay away.
Place inside the bag.

Next hold your mojo beans and say:
With these magick mojo beans
May all my wishes come to me.
Place inside the bag.

Next, run your fingers through your hair a few times.  Everyone sheds hair throughout the day and when you do this you’ll find that you’ll get at least a few strands of hair.  You don’t need a lot; if you have short hair and find you can’t easily extract any hair, you can snip off just a little bit or, if hair just isn’t an option, you can substitute a finger or toe nail for hair.  Place this inside the bag.  This acts as a draw for the energy that you are using the bag for.  These things are often referred to as personal concerns in hoodoo and your personal essence and energy resides within it and by placing it within the bag with these other items you’ll be blending those energies with your own, whether you carry the bah with you at all times or not.

The next step is to write out your petition.  If you’re familiar with how to write a petition paper in the hoodoo tradition you can do that here.  However, for the purposes of keeping this a little more simple, if you’re not familiar with this method, write out your petition in the same way that you would any petition that you might use in other forms of magick.  Write your name and astrological sign on it, write the current year on it, and include your specific desires on it or, if you just have a general wish for luck. love, health, and wealth, write that.  Use whatever words, symbols, images, or runes that you wish.  On the corner of the paper write your initials.

Take your astrological oil and anoint the corners of the paper over your initials.  Then take the paper and fold it in half, folding the paper toward you.  Turn the paper to the right once and fold it in half toward you another time.  Then turn the paper one more time to the write and fold in half again, also toward you.  Place the paper in the bag.  Close and tie the bag closed.

Hold the bag up to your heart and fill it with energy for your desires.  Take the time to really focus on this and if you have words that you want to say out loud, do so.  When you feel you’ve filled it with your energy, hold it aloft and ask the spirits and any specific Gods or Goddesses you work with to bless it for your desire.

Now you can light your incense.  Take your bag and run it through the incense; this is called “smoking the mojo”.  Let the smoke from the incense completely surround the bag.  Give this time and let it happen naturally.  This process both purifies and blesses the bag as well as fills it with more energy.

Next take some of your astrological oil and either drip it on the bag or anoint the bag with your finger, being sure to use it generously.  This is referred to as either “feeding the mojo” or “dressing the mojo”.  This is a process that you’ll want to repeat from time to time.  Some people will do it once a month, some do it on a particular moon phase, others do it only when they feel the bag needs it.  How you’ll do this in the future is up to you.

Now take your candle and over the knots that bind the bag closed, drip 3 drops of wax. Let the rest of the candle burn down naturally.

And then you’re done!  The bag is ready for use.  For the first 7 nights you should sleep with the bag under your pillow.  After that you can either carry it with you in your pocket or pin it to the inside of your clothing or keep it in your home in a special place like on your altar, hanging above your front door, or hidden away in a draw, under the bed, etc.

And there you go; a simple but useful birthday wish gris girs which, in all honesty, could be made and used anytime you wanted one.  😉

Today’s Mood: Working