In the wave of thoughts and emotions that came up over the last few days I kind of lost my head when I was writing my newsletter this week and I forgot to add something to it that I am planning to make a regular weekly feature – Magic For The Week. The plan is to pull a card from an oracle or tarot deck {are you really surprised…lol} and then use the message to present a simple but helpful magical or metaphysical practice, process, or technique that you can use for your week. Since I missed it this week I thought I would share it on the blog for everyone! And of course if you’re not on my email list to get my love notes each week you can sign up and you’ll get a cool ebook on creating your daily spiritual practice as a thanks!
OK, here we go!
The deck I’m using today is the Witchlings Oracle by Paulina Cassidy. This is a new deck that I grabbed just a few weeks ago and I love it! I’m a big fan of Paulina’s work and I’m always a little sad when someone doesn’t like her work and doesn’t appreciate her whimsy. She also makes beautiful, haunting music!
The cards is…
Happiness!
We hear a lot about how our life is all about finding happiness, that we have to seek out the things that will make us happy. Ironically most people who live this way then to have the hardest time truly being happy. When you focus on trying to find happiness outside of yourself and your own ability to create it, you will fail. Every time.
In September of last year I wrote an article for Wild Sister Magazine about happiness and the anatomy of true happiness. Happiness for a reason, or conditional happiness, is the surest way to set yourself up disappointment later. It’s things like “I’ll be happy when I get the promotion,” “I’ll be happy when my boyfriend proposes,” “I’ll be happy when I take that vacation.”
But what happens if you lose the job, get divorced, or come back from vacation right back to all the stress you left behind?
That’s why unconditional happiness, being happy for NO reason, is ideal. By simply having gratitude for everything, good and bad, and working actively to let go of the things that stress us out can keep us in a state of unconditional happiness far easier.
It takes work, don’t get me wrong! But it can be done.
[Tweet “I seek to be happy for no reason so no one can take my happiness away.”]
So this week’s card asks for us to do work to support our work to let go and be happy. This simple ceremony will help clear the pathway for noticing more positive things to be grateful for and to being more happiness into your life.
You’ll Need:
- 1 yellow candle with holder
- Fire proof pot or bowl {you can use a cooking pot if you don’t have anything else handy}
- 1 piece of pocket or palm sized citrine {rough or tumbled, your choice}
- Floral essential oil {your choice – I prefer honeysuckle for happiness work}
- 1 piece of plain white paper cut in a roughly 4×4 square
- A pen
- Matches or a lighter
Light your candle. Place the pot to one side of the candle and the crystal in front of the candle. Have the paper, pen, and oil nearby.
Take a few deep breaths and think about your level of happiness right now. How happy are you? Are you happy with conditions? What is blocking you from happiness, or worse, robbing you of your happiness?
Take your pen and paper and write down a list of the things that come up. Use both sides of the paper if you have to. Once you’re done hold the paper up to your heart and make a clear, firm statement that you are ready to be rid of these things for good. Something like:
I release the things that block my happiness once and for all.
My happiness comes from within not from without.
Carefully hold the edge of the paper in the candle’s flame and allow it catch. Toss it into the pot and as the paper is consumed visualize these things going up in the smoke and being carried away. Hold gratitude in your heart and say thank you.
Put a few drops of the oil in you palms and rub them together. Hold them up to your face and breath in the scent. Feel it shift your energy, filling your heart and energy body with lightness.
Pick up the citrine and hold it in your non-dominant hand, your receptive hand, and close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths and for a few moments feel into the energy of happiness. What does true happiness feel like for you? As you hold on to that feeling visualize it forming as a ball of golden yellow light, like the color of the citrine, at your heart. Then visualize the energy being pushed down your body and into the earth like roots. This will help you to root yourself in the feeling of happiness keeping you more deeply connected to it.
When you’re done you can let the candle burn down or snuff it out and burn it a little each day until it burns out, taking a few moments each day to re-energize your sense of happiness. Toss the ashes from your burned paper to the winds {or blow them away from the pot outside} and carry the citrine with you as a reminder of your work.
This is an ideal time to do this work too because we’re getting close to a full moon coming this Tuesday. This kind of work, where you’re letting go of something because you’re looking to increase something else, can be done really any time, but I have found close to the full moon, in the waxing gibbous phase, is a great time do it since you’ll have a little added boost.
Now go out there and be happy!
