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| author unknown Character Candle This is a great Saturday project. Ask your child to name one thing he / she would like to improve on. (Give them examples like - being more patient, kind, helpful and so on.)Choose a colored wax that accents that goal. For example; kindness might be pink while patients might be blue. Also choose a corresponding aromatic oil and an easily carved emblem that represents the child's intent. Melt the wax, let it cool a little bit, then add the aromatic oil. Pour this into an old milk carton with a wick attached with a paper clip. While the candle cools have the child hold their hands over the top of it, and repeat a word or phrase that represents their goal. Using the examples he or she might say: " When this light shines, I will be more kind" or "Patience I claim, within this candle s flame". Once the candle hardens, dip the carton in warm water long enough to loosen the sides, and unmold the candle. Help the child carve the! symbol light it when they feel the need, Repeating the power Phrase as the candle ignites (make sure they ask for you help when lighting the candle). The light signals the release of the magical energy placed within. Some families make a similar candle (one per person) to signal the need to talk about something or as a silent way to ask for help. Love Bear There's nothing like a huggable teddy bear (or other stuffed animal) to make younger children feel better when they're sad. With this in mind, take a special stuffed animal and make it into a love charm that releases warm, comforting energy whenever the child needs it. This particular charm might best be fashioned when the sun is in Pisces to Emphasize empathy and love. Have the child hold the toy closely, hugging it tight. Wrap your arms around both Child and toy, then say together: This ________ [type of animal] of cloth has a magical heart. When I hold it tight, let the magic start. Love and peace bound inside, There the magic will forever abide. As we do things in Three's, it wouldn't hurt to say it thrice. Sadness Scent Find a small swatch of brightly colored cloth. With the child, place a pinch of marjoram, catnip, and lavender within. As you do this repeat this incantation: Marjoram and lavender keep sadness away. Catnip reminds me to laugh and play. Wrapped in this cloth so bright, Joy to me, sadness take flight. Put the aromatic sachet in the child's underwear or sock drawer so the energy of joy goes with them each day with their clothing. |
| Of course, when children are under the age of 1 there really isn't a way to involve them other than by just having them in the area when you are doing things or sharing Pagan themed stories and mythology with them, and continue to share age appropriate stories with them as they grow. Once they are about 1 you can start including them by helping them blow out the candles on their cake explaining to them about making a wish first (the simplest and most common form of wish magick that everyone gets to do once a year!). They can also with supervision start to explore the world of crystals by showing them yours and letting them touch them while you hold them. As they get older teaching them about the Elements while teaching them their colors or about the magick in the other colors is a great way to introduce color magick, the Elements, and colors for each Element. You can even come up with simple symbols for each of the Sabbats that children can identify with and explain them in simple terms. You can use a pumpkin for Samhain, snowflake for Yule, candle for Imbolc, decorated egg for Ostara, baby animals for Beltaine, the sun for Midsummer, wheat for Lammas, and a colored leaf for Mabon. At about the age of 3 or 4 my boys became interested in our tarot cards and runes. So we let them look at the cards and runes picking out the ones that they liked and telling us what they liked about them. After letting them do this for awhile they were allowed to pick one while asking a simple question. Once they had chosen we would explain to them the meaning of the card or rune in a way that they could understand then they would tell us if it made sense in relation to their question. Sometimes it did and sometimes it didn't, but the more they did it the more they made sense. ==================================================== Some of my favorite things to are are to: A) Deal out a few cards from a tarot deck and let them make up stories from the pictures. If they're to young to make the stories themselves, let them point out a few things in each card and you tell the story. It gets their imaginations going and helps to teach them about the meanings of the cards. B) Teach them little singsong spells that they can do easily. Most of us were taught the rhyme 'rain, rain go away' when we were little. Most people just don't realize that it is a very simple spell. I let my two older ones make up their own spells sometimes, too, then we cast them together. C) Teach them colors and their respective meanings at the same time. IE: a red candle would be red because it's like fire, a green candle is like the green plants growing in earth, etc. I hope this has helped you, krienne. Jen This was submitted by a wonderful woman at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WitchyParents/ Hopefully it will give you some ideas. |
| Baby Magick |
| I've been asked alot lately about things to do with younger kids...birth to 3 years old. I am part of several wonderful groups and the people there has provided me so much good information. I hope you will take the time to visit them, their links at at the bottom of the page. Here is a collection of songs, short stories, ideas and some spells. |
| First try to explain to your children, young and old, the benefits of being tidy and organized - how this can make them more successful and happy people. For the littlies: Tell them about 'Tidy Fairies'. Tidy Fairies live in their room and they can help you and give you good luck if you keep them happy. They get very sad when where they live is really messy. Make a little special place for the tidy fairies. Buy a small colorful lamp and put it on a timer. Whenever the lamp comes on the tidy fairies are 'in the house!' and it's time for the kids to clean up their room before the tidy fairy gets too sad. When they finish they can leave a little present at the base of the lamp - maybe a biscuit or a flower. Then Mom and Dad can swap this for some pocket money or a little present. For older kids: Buy them a lapis lazuli necklace and encourage them to wear it. Lapis cleanses the aura and encourages a more orderly approach to living. |
| Marble magick is a simple way to introduce children into the craft. It's fun and easy and teaches color and crystal use for beginners. I personally like old-fashioned handmade marbles as they tend to be of one color rather than a mix. and you can still find new handmade marbles on the market if you look. I think www.hearthsong.com carries them from time to time. Some of the color correspondences your children will know intuitively like green=growing/money, with others, they might need help to find the correlations, and still others will insist that that color is all wrong. If they feel that strongly, trust that their instincts are right and let them use the color that pleases them most. Here are a few simple guidelines for color correspondences: Green: Health, physical well being, deep healing, the element of earth, Grounding, centering, and balance, money, Gnomes, Fairies, finances, fertility Blue: Peace tranquility, release from pain, cooling, the sea, the element of water, emotional balance, emotional strength, purity, cleansing, Merfolk, change. Darker blue: Deep meditation, intensity, the Mysteries, the Mother, psychism, healing Red: Passion, (of all types), desire, strength, raw power, the element to fire, renewal, cleansing, need, lust, physical exertion, Salamanders, Dragons, good fortune, life, transformation, protection, courage, blood. Orange: Luck health, attraction, polarity, energy, success, the God, stimulation, Honor Yellow: imagination, creativity, writing, studying, the element of Air, Clarity of thought, organization, speech, Pegasus, the Sun, divination, memory. Pink: Emotional love, emotional healing, and friendship. White: Purity, strength, cleansing, unity, harmony, the Fifth Element, of Spirit, Goddess, Maidenhood, purification, Moon, hope, truth, protection. Grey: Neutrality, the astral realms, peace, and rest. Black: Absorption, and destruction of negativity, reversal, cleansing, Midnight, the Crone, Change, transformation, banishing. Brown: Earth, healing animals, home, balance, and building foundations. Purple: Spirituality, duality, Fifth element of Spirit, spiritual balance, clergy, and power Some of these definitions will be too complex for little ones but teens can use these for more in depth spell work on a budget. The first thing to teach little ones, is how to cleanse the marbles, which can be as easy as running them under tap water, covering them with salt, or sitting them on the window sill on a full moon. Explain to your youngsters that this helps them to get rid of bad feelings that the marbles might have. I explained it to my daughter by showing her how a bath makes you feel better when you're sick. We don't know why is works but it does. Clean things just work better. and children readily accept that inanimate objects have feelings/vibrations. Other things children will need are a box or a pouch to place the marble in. I prefer small pouches because they are easy for the child to take with them and a single marble won't rattle and make Mom crazy. but a box will work fine if no pouch is available, We've used altoid boxes, and they work fine as long as you don't have very little ones who will take joy in shaking them. Have the child hold the marble they have chosen and squeeze it tightly, thinking of the thing they desire. Hold this thought in their head for as long as they can, when they feel their mind wander, tell them to say the color of the marble and start again. Do this three times. Children's minds wander very quickly so this shouldn't take them very long, and as they get older this exercise will teach them to learn to focus. they have just "charged" the marble with magickal intent. Now they have the basics for Crystal magick, as they get older. Place the marble in the pouch or bag, and have them place it somewhere they will see/touch it often. (This is important because glass does not hold energy as well as crystal) If it is in a pouch, they can place it in a pocket and take it with them. Whenever they feel the need to focus, they can hold the box or pouch and concentrate on the color and what it means. This spell work is especially effective when children are stressed, like concentrating during a test.or when moving to a new place, it can help them gain the confidence to make new friends. By feeling the marble, they are reminded of their goal, and makes it easier to obtain. When they have reached the goal, have them put the marble back with the others, because marbles are like people and like to have company. As they get older, they can combine different colors and see how/If they react, or you can teach them herb lore to increase the marbles effectiveness. Children are some of the most successful spellworkers, I think it is because they still believe in Magick, and it hasn't been conditioned out of them. I hope this gives you ideas for putting a little magick into your children's lives. |
| Decide what rituals are suitable for your child's age and which one are too much for them. I have tried to make them as simplistic as possible. Bubblemagic: Have you ever blown bubbles when you were a child? This rite is quite simple but will work if the right mindset is in order. First go out into nature, on a hill, in a field etc on a windy day if possible. Tell your child to make a wish and blow the bubbles. When they blow the bubbles their wishes are put inside the bubbles and carried up to the Gods where the bubbles pop who will see their wishes and grant them. Explain to them that sometimes the bubbles will pop before getting there by being attacked by Loki's forces who take the form of bugs, birds, crosswinds, people and other things. If they say a little prayer before the bubbles are blown to ensure a safe journey of the bubbles to the Gods then that will help them do beginning invocations. Kite Magic: Hand make a kite with your child(ren) doing most of the work. Onthe kite write messages of what they want, wishes. The message can be anything they want the gods(desses) to hear. It can have a poem written on it, or a request or a simple happy birthday to the God during Yuletide forthe beginning of our year. The thought being that the higher the kite goes it gets closer to the realm of the Gods and they can read it easier. If the kite string ever breaks and the kite is lost maybe the Gods have decided to keep the kite? Don't lie to them but let their imagination decide what happened to the kite. If you lie to them they'll never believe you again or will have doubts about what you say in the future. Divination: Divination can be of anything. One idiot man who claimed to be an elder who was my teacher told me that I had to use certain things for divination, that other things wouldn't work. I told him that it's not the tools that the power comes from but that it comes from inside, he didn't believe me so I took three quarters out of my pocket and before tossing the quarters I said,"show me yes" then tossed them. Two of the quarters were heads and one was tails. I then told the,"Show me no" and tossed them again and two were tails and one heads. I told the HP to ask me any yes or no question and I would answer him with this divinatory method. He did and I tossed the coins. We did this several times with different questions and got an accurate response each time. I later found out he was not an elder at all but lied about his eldering. For kids, you can create any type of divinatory method and it will work. Some examples are: Take three black beans (can be any number of beans) and paint white on one side and leave the other side black. Ask the question, "Show me yes", then toss them and the same thing for no. You now have one divinatory technique. Take some Ping Pong balls and write on them, yes, no, now, later, up, down or whatever words you decide to write for divinatory purposes. Put the balls in a bag, ask the question and shake the bag up. Reach into the bag and pull out a ball and there you have your answer. Balloon Magic: Write on a piece of paper your wishes, a song, poem or whatever you want the Gods(desses) to see. Roll up the paper and insert it into a balloon. Inflate the balloon with helium and let it fly. A good variation to this would be to put a handful of birdseed inside the balloon so that when it pops the seed will feed the Goddesses children, the birds. You could tie a ribbon onto the balloon with your message tied to the other end. If you put too much seed inside the balloon it will not fly but just drift close to the ground. Water Magic: Work together to make a boat made of wood or out of scraps of wood. Fill the boat with fish food and a leaf that your kid has written his/her wishes onto. Before your child sends the boat into the water have them say a prayer of what they wish and that in exchange for granting their wish they have fed the Goddesses children, the fish. Old Vitamins: If you have any old outdated vitamins ready to be tossed into the trash there is another way to get rid of them that will be most useful. Have your child(ren) plant a fruit tree of their choosing. After they dig the hole have them crush up, or maybe you can, the old vitamins and mix them in the dirt. This technique was created by a child and the article put in the Mother Earth News. Now put the tree into the hole and fill in the hole with the rest of the dirt. That tree shall be their total responsibility from this time on. As they water the tree have them recite words of their choosing about how the water helps the tree to grow. Tell them the tree is a living being and they should talk to it, as it understands what they say. Have them once a day go and hug the tree for a few minutes explaining that they exchange energy doing this. Magic with Fire: You will need to supervise your kids with this one. Have them write down everything that makes them mad onto a piece of paper and then have them toss it into a fire. If they want wishes to be granted by the Gods(desses) have them write, or draw a picture or what they want on a piece of paper and toss it into the fire. Tell them that as the paper gets burned up it turns into smoke and is carried up to the Gods and then magically turns back into a piece of paper and lands on their alter where they read it. Home For the Faeryfolk: If you have access to a forest this one is cool. Go out to the forest and assist you child(ren) in building a home for the faeryfolk there. Don't use two-by-fours but branches instead. Make it as elaborate as you wish. Tell your children that sometimes the faeryfolk take on the form of animals and will move into the home you've built for them. To lure them into the home put a variety of fruits and vegetables inside and a note to them stating that you've built this home for them and if they wish they can grant you your wishes. When the winter snows start piling up they will be very happy you've built them a home and stocked it with food. They may feel grateful enough to grant you your wishes. These are only a few of the spells I am working on. feel free to use these and pass them around. Permission is granted to put these in publications as long as credit is given to me. Source: Vidar Andrewson - Mind Fire |
| I Spy: How many times have moms heard "I spy with my little eye"? Probably too many to count! But it's the perfect game for teaching toddlers colors and helping kids learn to observe the things around them. Plus it can be played anywhere and at anytime without game boards! |
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