It is the beginning of a new year and what better time than to set intention and create affirmations? The following article will give you some great ideas on how to do this through creating sacred tools. By creating an object that carries your affirmation energy, you are anchoring your intent in the 3rd dimensional world and reinforcing the energy of the intent.
If you would like to create a custom ritual to set intent this January, contact me. I can give you some very simple ideas.
CEREMONIAL CRAFTS
Ceremonial crafts (also called spirit crafts) are items created from natural materials that will be used for sacred or ceremonial purposes. These items can be placed on altars or in Nature, they can be buried, burned, or released in water, depending on the intent of the creator.
Many medicine people create their own sacred tools because these tools will amplify their personal power and will focus their attention and intention.
Creating ceremonial crafts is a form of art medicine. The process of creating art medicine can be a powerful healing in the following ways:
1. The creation process itself is healing.
2. The creation process focuses intentions for manifesting, affirming, and gratitude.
3. The final product can be used to heal others through gifting.
4. The final product can be used as a powerful tool for ceremony and ritual.
5. The final product can be used as an offering of gratitude or honor.
6. Mother Earth and Animal Spirits are honored when their natural materials are used for sacred purposes.
It is a Native American belief that in order to gain the attention or blessings of the Higher Spirits that you offer a gift that will delight them. The more work and effort put into an item for offering, the more inclined the spirits are to bless the request put to them.
FINDING MATERIALS
The best way to source materials for your item is in the natural world. Material that will want to be used will “call out” to you. Find them by going into a meditative state, walking along with a specific intent of being open to finding objects, and they certainly will pop right out to you. If you believe you have found an item, open a dialog with it. Ask its Spirit for permission to be used in your sacred tool. If the item gives you permission to take it along, leave an offering of gratitude.
1. To make an offering, hold your gift in your hand and present it up to Father Sky.
2. Present your offering to Mother Earth to show appreciation.
3. Hold it out to each of the 4 directions.
4. Leave the offering while voicing your thanks and intention.
In the North American Native tradition, tobacco is most often used, while the Celtic tradition uses salt or whiskey. The offering can be anything that has special meaning to you and is in harmony with your magic: flowers, stones, coins, bee pollen, cedar, copal, cornmeal, juniper, lavender, rosemary, rose petals, sweetgrass, white sage, or something especially made such as bread or cake. If nothing is at hand, use your own spit or some of your hair.
SETTING INTENTIONS
The number one, most important rule in any intention work is that you cannot intend your will on another being. This means that you cannot include someone in your intention without their informed consent. To do so is a form of sorcery and sets karmic action into motion. This may be karmic action that you do not really want down the road. Remember the Wiccan Rede: ‘An ye shall do no harm!
Intentions are like affirmations. They are powerful and positive thoughts and statements sent out to the universe. There are two basic forms of intention: to banish something or to manifest something. Through repetition, they plant seeds in your subconscious mind. Using visualization with intention greatly increases the power. Here are some guidelines to help you set your intentions:
1. Keep your intention short, clear, concise, personal, realistic, and accurate.
2. Keep the language of your intention positive.
3. Keep the language of your intention in the present and in the first person.
4. You can juice up the language of your intentions by adding words of positive emotional intensity.
5. Repeat your intentions with emotional intensity and a feeling of certainty.
6. Write your intentions perhaps as many as 10-20 times per day. First thing in the morning and last thing at night is best.
7. Repeat your intentions aloud in front of a mirror 5-10 times.
8. Feel the emotional power of your intentions in your body.
9. Visualize yourself as having already created the results of your intentions.
10. Sing your intentions.
11. Believe. Always believe that what you are saying is happening.
12. Place your intentions on post it’s and place around the house, car, and at work.
13. Record your intentions to listen to them while falling asleep or as you drive.
14. Journal your intentions.
15. Be thankful. Feel gratitude for intentions already completed.
16. Take some kind of action toward the completion of your intention.
A petition paper is a spell or intention that uses the written word and/or drawn symbols to achieve a desired result. Here is how to create a petition paper:
1. You may burn or tear the edges of a small piece of paper so that there is no machine cut edge.
2. Craft a short sentence to affirm your intention.
3. Write the sentence on the paper in a circle without lifting your pen from the paper. Do not cross ‘t’s or dot ‘i’s until you are completed. Do not include spaces in between the word. You may repeat these sentences as many times as desired in order to complete the circle. If you mess up in any way start again on new paper. You can include symbols that create a pictorial representation of your intention: hearts, dollar signs, X’s, crosses, or pentacles for protection, glyphs, sigils, or stick figures. These maybe placed in the corners of the paper, the center, or anywhere else that feels appropriate.
4. Anoint the paper in the 4 corners and the center with your intention oil while you pray over the paper asking it to bring your desired result.
5. Fold the paper toward you (for an intention to manifest) and away from you (for an intention to banish). Turn the paper (clockwise for invoking, counterclockwise for banishing) and fold again. Repeat until it can’t be folded anymore.
6. Pass the paper through incense smoke and ask that its power be sealed in to it.
7. It is done. It now may be placed under a candle for a candle spell, buried in the yard, carried in a mojo bag to attract influences, or thrown in running water to banish them.
CREATING SACRED TOOLS
There are many items that are used as sacred tools including: masks, theater, dolls, talismans, sand-painting, signs, seals, sigils, etc. The most important part of creating your sacred items is intention. The entire process of creation should be done in a sacred and meditative state, constantly repeating the intention for the item you are making.
Following is list of some of the items that I create. Additional information and photos of these items can be found on my webpage at http://www.drakeinnerprizes.com/ceremonialcrafts.htm.
PRAYER TIES Prayer ties are a way to pray using tobacco. Tobacco amplifies prayers, provides healing and purification, extracts negativity in spiritual healings, and allows communication with spirits. Prayer ties are released into the universe through burning. This releases the prayers in the smoke and allows them to be carried to Grandfather, Grandmother, and Great Spirit. The ties should be burned within a year of being created.
PRAYER STICKS (aka SPIRIT STICKS or VISION STICKS) & MAGICK WANDS The prayer stick can serve multiple purposes. It is used to focus magical forces (intentions and affirmations) and directs energy during ritual. Prayer sticks can be created for specific purpose and left in places in nature. Or you may have one prayer stick that you use over and over in ceremony. Stick energy can also be used for healing, programming common items, balancing and grounding yourself. A wand is a shorter stick that focuses magical forces (intentions and affirmations). It represents the element of Air or Fire and directs energy during rituals.
CANDLE DRESSING Candles absorb one’s personal energy and release this energy when burned. Candle magick is based on these 3 principles: 1. Decide on a goal. 2. Visualize the end result. 3. Focus your intent, or will, to manifest that result.
MEDICINE BAGS Medicine bags are a container for your portable living altar. The reasons to carry a medicine bag are for guidance, healing, and protection. By wearing it close to your heart, you are connecting with your spiritual self and always remembering who you are.
MOJO BAGS (aka MOJO HAND/ CONJURE BAG / TRICK BAG / ROOT BAG / TOBY / JOMO / GRIS GRIS BAG) The word mojo comes from the African word mojuba meaning a prayer in a bag. A mojo used for divination is called a jack, jack bag, or jack ball. In the Caribbean, a bag is called a wanga or oanga bag, from the African word wanga, which means charm or spell. The mojo bag is a portable altar that reminds you of what you are manifesting and keeps you immersed in the energy of the spell. It amplifies your affirmations.
DOLLS Dolls can be created from many different materials. One way is to create a corn husk doll. Cornhusk dolls have been made by Northeastern Native Americans for at least a thousand years to be children’s toys and to be used in sacred healing ceremonies. A type of Iroquois cornhusk doll was made in response to a dream. The doll was then discarded, put back to earth to carry away the evil of the dream.
Another form of sacred doll that is easy to create is called Jizō (aka Ksitigarbha or Ojizō-sama) that originates from Japanese Buddhist mythology. Jizō is the guardian of children, particularly those who died before their parents. He is the guardian of the souls of stillborn, miscarried, or aborted fetuses. Jizō’s features are commonly made babylike to resemble the children he protects. Create Jizōs by molding clay or play dough.
SPIRIT TRAPS Spirit traps (aka spirit bottles or witch bottles) originated from African, European, and Middle Eastern practices. They were used by the ancient Hebrews in some parts of Babylon to drive away energy manifested as illness, demons, the evil eye, or curses. The purpose of a spirit trap is to draw the spirit into the bottle by forcing it to count items like poppy or mustard seeds, or by luring it down into the bottle with a spiral trail of herbs, knotted string, or nails. The spirit trap attracts and traps hostile spirits by tricking them into believing they have found their target i.e. you.
CONSECRATING SACRED TOOLS
When you first come into possession of a sacred item, either through constructing it, purchasing it, or being gifted with it, it is necessary to consecrate it before using it. Consecration involves two steps: cleansing and energizing. Cleansing can be done by any of the following methods:
1. Water – Place under running water or dip in the ocean.
2. Crystals – Lay on an amethyst or quartz cluster for 24 hours.
3. Earth – Bury under the earth for 24 hours.
4. Sound – Tibetan singing bowls, tuning forks or ring bells can be used.
5. Smudge – By burning dried herbs and waving the smoke over and through them for 5 minutes.
6. Sun & Moon – Energize in sunlight and moonlight for 24 hours each. The Universe’s energy is enhanced at these times: full moons, blue moons, new moons, eclipses, solstices, equinoxes, and specific astrological aspects.
7. Salt or Crab Apple – Soak in a non-metallic container filled with water to which some purifying sea salt or crab apple Bach Flower Remedy and place in the moonlight 3 days before the full moon. Sea salt can be mixed with water or used dry.
8. Herbs – Bury in a cupful of dried herbs. Suggested herbs for this are rose petals, sage, frankincense, myrrh, rose petals, sandalwood, clovers, daisies, comfrey and sandalwood.
9. Pendulum – Hold a clear crystal pendulum over it and pass the pendulum in slow clockwise circles 9 times. To cleanse, pass the pendulum slowly anti-clockwise 9 times. Keep the pendulum well charged and positive by holding it under cold clear running water and then leaving it in water steeped with rose petals, over which a cleansing and empowering incense, such as pine, and a white candle flame have been passed.
10. Visualization – Hold your item in either hand and say these words, “I will and command that this be self-cleansing”. As you repeat these few words you should visualize the negative energies falling away and only the natural, pure, energies remaining.
11. Reiki – Infuse your item with Reiki energy (if you are an attuned practitioner).
12. Florida Water – Spray or blow Florida water over the item.
I perform both of these steps together in a consecration ritual that involves sitting in front of a lit candle and:
1. Cleansing the item: Smudge with white sage, Florida water, or cigar smoke.
2. Energizing the item:
– Blow my intent into the item. Breath is a powerful form of prayer.
– Infuse the item with Reiki (universal life force energy)
– Offer the item to be blessed by Mother Earth, Father Sky, the 4 Directions, the Ancestors, my Spirit Guides, and the 4 Elements.
– Say some words that set the intention of the item. (see examples below)
Each action is performed with the specific intent of the item in mind at all times. It is appropriate to finish with words of gratitude to all the Spirits. The item should be kept on your altar or in a special covering. Covered items are only exposed when it is time for them to be used in ceremony.
No one, at any time, other than you, should touch your sacred tools. Their touch may change the energy with which the item has been charged. If the item is touched, you will need to repeat the cleansing and energizing process again.
Other energizing and consecrating rituals may be found in Wicca, wizard, and magickal books. The item that is being cleansed and charged should be used as soon as possible and after that as frequently as possible. This keeps the power connection alive.
SAMPLE WORDS
Below are some sample words you can use. Before the ritual, take some time to write down exactly what you want to say with words that come from your heart and your personal power.
“I consecrate this [item] and make this tool sacred.”
“I invoke the power of this [item] to [intent].”
“Allow this [item] to lend itself for my divine work.”
“May my intent in the use of this [item] always be pure, true, and of the Light.”
“Through the power of divine love, I claim and cleanse this [item] for the purposes of light and truth.”
“I banish the energies of previous owners to make it new and fresh.”
“I declare and decree that this [item] is fully protected from any forces of Darkness.”
“I dedicate this [item] and to [purpose].”
“By the power of all that is good, all that is true, no harm will come from my [item] nor to my [item].”
“Charge this [item] and keep it safe.”
“Power it! Charge it!”
“I command it so, now.”
“So mote it be!”
Copyright © 2015 Drake Bear Stephen. Except where acknowledged. www.DrakeInnerprizes.com
While I respect the sacredness of one’s path and manifestations, it is also very easy to see that there are TOO many rules and regulations !!!! in creating something that is sacred for one’s life and path. The gift of creativity is spontaneous, and free and WITHOUT any rules whatsoever…. If one does NOT face the 4 directions or say “special words” but allows Spirit to guide one, it is NOT less sacred, in fact it is more.. because there is NO person telling you how to do it. Every being is FREE to make their “medicine bag” or whatever they choose WITHOUT the “rules” that you are so ready to dictate. Why hasn’t man yet learned the TRUE art of creativity, which is WITHOUT the ego on any level… therefore NO rules…. Spirit sees our heart, and does NOT need us to simply reveal the arrogance of ego thinking it makes the rules (yet again). The Art of having a “medicine bag” comes to you, and NOT you creating it. Once again, man is taking over the sacred, thinking HE know all. It is very obvious that you know NOTHING of what it truly sacred, for if you did, you would NOT be so arrogant in “telling” people how to make something so sacred, which is NOT your right. How arrogant you are to believe or think you know better than the Divine. Only man would be that arrogant, of course.
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I agree with you completely and I would have no need to post “directions” on how to create sacred tools if I were not asked by others to do so. Many of us, such as yourself, have the ability to source this information directly from spirit while others still need help or confirmation in what they are doing. If you knew me personally, you would know that I support each individual’s unique medicine.
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If you “truly” respect other’s individual paths, you would NOT give them confirmation which only disempowers them to look outward for validation from you instead of looking inside themselves. TRUE teachers advise seekers to ALWAYS look within and NOT without to human beings based in ego consciousness,, which only seeks to control and dominate other beings. NO one needs confirmation from ANY external or outside source. They ALREADY have their own inner wisdom to follow, which you would be wiser to acknowledge. You have NO answers for ANY being, nor any confirmation. they have it already inside them. and you have NO idea of what any human being needs ONLY divine Spirit knows the needs of every being. How arrogant to think you can give some high and mighty “confirmation” to any being. you have NO power to do so. Human beings have been conditioned to seek validation from external authority sadly. And it is people like you that are perpetuating this disempowering behavior by offering them your “validation and confirmation” which you have NO right offer. If people are NOT taught to seek within, they will always be seeking without to self styled “gurus” such as yourself. Very sad indeed.
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