We used them, not all of them, but we DID use them during Beltane festival last weekend. I put two on the makeshift dining table; two sat on the table Ember brought with her; I put two in our hotel motel; and I gave one or two to Ember for her tent. They gave off some light Friday and Saturday and all was good.

Kender decided to stay at camp Saturday night. He's not into the big bonfires. So Ember, her friend, and I hung out with the community, our new Queen and King. We were warm by the fire and watched the antics and swapped stories. It was a good, mellow evening. Later on, I wandered back to our campsite and Kender had made a fire in our makeshift fire pit. Going into the tent, he also had taken some of these Everlasting Tealights and made a heart out of them. For me. They were sitting on my bedroll. It was perfect and very much a loving surprise.

We had to "put the lights out" before going to bed. Except, this one candle refused to go out. I clicked the switch and expected it to dim, but it refused. Clicked it again and still nothing. So, instead of ticking off the "everlasting tealight goddess" we decided to leave it on. A nightlight of sorts. I placed it on our altar table where it could "dance" the night away.

It was still burning when we packed it up with its sleeping brothers and sisters the next day.
It was still burning when I unpacked the box when we got home.

It still burns where I have it sitting on our kitchen counter. The light... refuses to go out. Today is Beltane proper. And when I left for work an hour ago, it was still glowing. I've decided that this little fake candle, this battery operated toy, is our Beltane Fire. The fire of our passion, of the seeds of ideas and hearth and community, that will grow throughout the year. The fire of the change in weather.

The package claims the candles "burn" for 120 hours, but I think it's been longer than that by now.

*************************************
Happy Beltane everyone!

Candlelight flickers and dances across the walls of the room. Wispy, light sounds of japanese pipes drift through the incense smoke into your ears. A tiny woman, her head wrapped in a bright red and gold turban sits at a intimate wrought-iron table covered with a purple, silk table cloth. A white candle, its flame flickering; a palm sized crystal ball; and a pack of cards, the top card displaying the picture of a giant wheel; lay carefully positioned on the table’s top. The woman beckons you to take a seat directly across from her. You take a seat as the woman waves her hand over the deck of cards and begins to shuffle them. As you stare at her, gauging her true intentions, the woman begins to position the cards onto the table in a careful layout. Then she begins to tell you your future as she describes how the cards and what each position relate to your life.

Tarot cards. One of the oldest means of exploring symbolism and your spot in the universe. A simple pack of 78 cards with a myriad assortment of images and cross-culture symbols painted on them, used as divination device by people all over the world. It contains a major arcana of 22 cards that seek to explain higher powers at work as well as a minor arcana composed of 4 suites corresponding to the 4 elements (wands, swords, cups and coins). Of course, there’s a lot of tarot history I’m glossing over here but I just wanted to give you a small background on the cards. If you’re curious about the tarot and want to learn more about its history, check out aeclectic.net and wikipedia’s tarot page for more information about the tarot and variety of decks out there.

So, how can a divination deck help us generate story ideas? There’s a wide variety of ways to use the tarot to trigger lots of creative ideas. First, you’ll need to get yourself a tarot deck. I recommend the Rider-Waite Tarot that comes with a little white book of meanings and information. Once you have your deck, open it up and start looking at the images. What do you see? Unlike a standard deck of playing cards, every card in this deck has a picture painted on them. Images of colorful Fools with dogs yapping at their heals, people partying, towers burning, lovers uniting and knights and Kings on horseback appear in the often strange scenes. Let your imagination guide you into the cards and place yourself in the imagery.

Which images strike a chord with you? Which ones repulse you? How many images out of the deck inspire you? Pull out a a card that you’re drawn to or repulsed by and write about the scene. If you aren’t sure what is going on in the picture, use your little white book to read about that card and what the meaning is and then write about that meaning. What are the swords doing to that person in the 9 of Swords card? How does The Lovers card make you feel? Stare into the card’s scene until a feeling or thought emerges, then pick up your pen and let your thoughts spill onto the paper. When you are working with the tarot, there's no right or wrong way to interpret how the images on the cards are supposed to make you feel. The little white book is not the ultimate authority on the tarot, you are. You are free to interpret the cards however you want.

Another way to quickly generate ideas is to look through the deck of cards and pick a few out that seem to tell a story to you. Lay out as many cards as you want, in any order and then write the story that connects the cards? How does the scene in the first card get to the scene in the next card and so on. This works especially well as the 22 Major arcana cards do tell a story in most decks about how The Fool takes a journey from knowing nothing to being learned about The World he is apart of. Sometimes the little white book that comes with each deck tells the story of this change.

Of course, what would an article on tarot be without a few spreads? So, for those of you who are curious about divining some story ideas from the cards themselves, here’s a few small layouts that you can do with your cards. These three spreads should help you come up with some interesting inspiration for any story or creative endeavor. Reading with tarot isn’t as hard as you think. First, shuffle the cards and think about your story’s goal or what you want to write about. When you have that idea firmly in your mind, stop shuffling. Begin laying out the cards. After you’ve laid down the amount of cards for whichever spread you’re using, open your little white book to uncover the meanings of the cards and how they represent people or traits in your stories.

Short story Spread
1. Protagonist: this card represents your main character.
2. Antagonist: this card represents your antagonist.
3. Beginning: this card represents the beginning of your story.
4. Middle: this card represents the middle of your story.
5: End: this card represents the end of the story.
6: Theme: this card represents the theme of your story.

Story Idea Spread
1. The Protagonist: this card represents your main character.
2. Conflict: this card represents the conflict.
3. Background: this card represents the background behind the conflict or character.
4. Subconscious: this card represents the underlying motivation for the conflict.
5: Reaction: this card represents how your protagonist responds to the conflict.
6. Outcome: this card represents the outcome of the story.

Creative Advice Spread
1. Blocks: this card represents what’s blocking your creativity.
2. Brainstormer: this card represents what can help you get started.
3. Expression: this card represents the idea you want to express.
4. Stepping stone: this card represents the advice on your next step.

I’m constantly using my tarot deck for a source of guidance and inspiration in my creative life. When I started coming up with ideas for my NaNoWriMo novel last October, I pulled out my cards and did a reading on a possible story. I used the Short-story Spread to come up with a few different ideas on what my novel could become. In the end, I chose to base my protagonist, Autumn Chase, off the Strength card. A woman with fiery red hair who’s inner strength helped her to overcome the evil that threatened to destroy the world and turn it into a living nightmare filled with daemons. In the end, it was the idea I ran with and she successfully carried me through the entire month of November to 50,408 words.

I hope you try some of the techniques I’ve discussed. Like The Hanged Man card, that depicts a man hanging upside down tied from one leg on a tree, hoping to gain a new perspective on the world, the tarot can help provide you with years of inspiration and introspection. You’d be amazed at the things you can discovery from working with the cards. I’ve attached 3 amazon.com links for you to peruse as well. The first one is for the traditional Rider-Waite tarot deck. However, I know many people may not be receptive to using a tarot deck, so I’ve added two other popular creativity decks that I’ve used in the past to help unblock my creativity. No matter what deck of imagery you favor, remember that the tarot means whatever you think it means. It’s up to you to find out how to relate to the symbolism depicted on the cards. I love learning about tarot, discussing their meaning and imagery with others, and all the different ways a deck can used to deepen and enhance the meaning of our lives. So feel free to email or post comments on what you think.

I love the Dante Tarot for it's bright vivid colors and how they contrast to the dark symbolism many of the cards represent. I have always been a fan of Dante and the Inferno; when this deck got published, I immediately ordered a copy. The imagery does not disappoint me at all. This deck offers a rather interesting and unique perspection into tarot and it's meanings. However, the design of the deck being radically nontraditional in suite and meanings, does tend to make me think that this tarot deck is better for collectors than readings. It's not a deck for the faint at heart.

The Dante Tarot is a non-traditional 78 card deck. Black backgrounds with the title (and/or number) of the cards printed on top in english frame the cards. The title of the cards, written in 4 other languages, appears at the bottom of each card. The back of the card appears almost like a chess board, with a castle one one side with a person writing and a landscape with a knight riding a dark horse on the other.

The deck's artwork, painted by Andrea Serio, makes the deck unique. Done in watercolor and pencil Serio's images are rather dreamy and does a good job of representing Dante's ideals. Even the box the cards are kept in contains original artowrk. However, I found it hard to associate many of the images on the cards to their meanings (traditional or otherwise) as the arcana switch between ideas and people throughout the entire deck. The Dante Tarot also comes with 2 variations of the King of Fire (swords) card. One depicting an beast-like character while the other is more scenic in nature. The pamphlet that comes with the deck does not give any explainations as to why they did this.

The deck deviates from a standard deck with it's minor arcana names. The Swords have been replaced by Fire, the Coins (pentacles) become Clouds, Wands are Bricks and the Cups are Lights. The deck comes with a small pamphlet and according to it, the symbolism was changed to conform more to the standards Dante wrote about in his works, mainly the Divine Comedy. The second way the Dante Tarot deviates from standard decks is in it's interpretations. It does not follow the Rider-Waite and Crowley interpretations of the cards. For example, the Fool, normally represented by most decks as new beginnings and adventures now becomes "Need. Eccentric behavior, recklessness, and material or psychological problems".

The cardstock it's printed on is thicker and glossier than other decks. At first I thought this was a good thing making the deck appear as if it would last longer. However, shuffling the cards was a bit harder to do without damaging the darker edges of the cards. The pamphlet that comes with the book is more of a reference to the deck and does not go into great depth on each card's imagery and meaning. This was a bit disappointing since The Dante Tarot is so different from other cards. The pamphlet does include two different layouts for the card.

Because of the dramatic changes in the cards meanings and the inability to quickly "connect" with the cards makes it almost unapproachable for me as a reader to utilize quickly as a divination deck. It would take a great deal of studying this deck and practicing readings using the methods it describes for one to adequately use the Dante Tarot for divination. I do, however, love the imagery and believe that it would make a great companion to those studying Dante and his Divine Comedy.

Everyone loves stones. Crystals and gemstones are an easy way to aid magick. I use them in my spells, wear them and decorate my rooms with them. Crystals provide me with the necessary energies I need to manifest my desires. Depending on my energy level or what my spells require, I try and showcase a stone or two at home and at work. Sometimes it's hard to display magickal items without someone wanting to know why you have rocks on your desk at work. That's why I create Magickal Zen Rock Gardens. Not only do these beautiful displays show off your creativity, they provide a discreet way to continue working with magick no matter where you are. I'll show you how to make your own tabletop gardens in this article, however you can adapt these ideas to sculpt beautiful outdoor landscapes for ritual use.

Japanese Zen Rock Gardens are fashioned by strategically placing rocks in containers filled with sand traced with waves and lines. These landscapes blend into their natural layout of one's surroundings providing good places for meditation and connecting back to the natural world. The rocks and sand designs display the Zen concepts of balance, simplicity, and harmony in Nature. The rocks symbolize mountains and the Earth; the sand and its patterns represent flowing water. As far as I know, gardeners do not select and place garden rocks based on their energy properties. However, we'll sculpt our gardens with stones selected according to a theme and purpose.

Building a garden is easy. In addition to creativity you need 3 things. Obviously, you'll need stones. Without them, you have a sandbox. You'll also need some sand and a container. The sand holds the rocks into place and creates an illusion of water. The sand also grounds and cleanses your stones. Sea salt can also be used as an alternative to sand since salt also helps to cleanse stones. The container holds the sand and stones; most Zen Rock Gardens use simple, black-framed trays. Craft stores sell these trays at reasonable prices. Of course, you can use or build your own container. You may also want to grab a fork or use a finger to draw in the sand.

If you already have a theme for the garden and the stones you want to include that's great. However, if you have no idea what you want to do, think about the garden's purpose. Do a little research to help focus your intent. Be creative. Maybe you want to place a small protection garden at the front door to banish or keep away negative energies? Or maybe you want to create a mix of energies stressing things you need to keep you sane throughout a workday? Once you have your theme, begin matching the stones and their energies to your theme. Keep in mind that the stones affect the room the garden rests in as well as your magickal endeavors. You can always make as many gardens as your magick dictates.

Once your garden has a theme, gather the stones you want to use. Your stones can vary in colors, sizes and shapes and textures. Playing off these differences help you to arrange the garden's appearance. Larger stones become focal points and draw energy from other stones and the sand. They also direct energy from the garden outward. Use larger stones sparingly. You may want stick with one or two large stones and then group the other, smaller stones around them. These smaller stones help to balance or enhance the energy of the larger stones and aid the garden's visual flow. Combining several sets of these groupings in the sand create an illusion that there are islands in the water. Unless the goal of your garden is to provide overall balance, I recommend using a variety of stone sizes and shapes.

Assemble your garden once you have all the supplies. Dump sand into the garden's tray. Fill it until you have enough sand to hold and support the stones in the positions you want them to rest at. Begin laying your stones. The goal here is not to cram as many stones into the sand. Take each stone one at a time and locate the best place in the tray for it. You'll know the spot because the stone's energy shines the strongest. Continue placing stones until you feel you have achieved the idea of what you wanted. If you don't use all the stones, that?s okay. You can make another garden or use them somewhere else.

Traditionally, gardeners restricted the amount of rocks in gardens by keeping them in one or two groupings. You may want more groups in yours. Maybe you just want to place the best stones in the center of the tray. This is your garden; design it how you want it to look, just make sure the completed arrangement gives you the highest energy return. If you aren't getting the correct balance between energy and design, move the stones around to different locations. Stop adding or moving stones once you achieve the desired balance between energy and design. No matter what you do, remember, this is a Zen Garden so the energy needs to feel and flow naturally among each stone, stone grouping and the sand; like a river flowing along the Earth into the ocean.

At this point you're done. However, you'll want to trace lines or patterns into the sand. Using a fork or your finger, draw lines from one edge of the tray to the other. Create swirls in the spaces containing nothing but sand. Drawing in the sand brings watery motion to the garden and connects the rock islands together, acting as energy conduits. The lines, waves and swirls also direct where and how the energy flows and pools inside the garden and out into the world.

Once you've finished drawing into the sand, move the garden to its new home. Sit back, relax and appreciate your creation. Building Zen Rock Gardens is fun and inspiring and addicting. You can easily change the theme appearance of your existing garden to display new stones and waves whenever you wish. Give gardens as gifts. Composing simple designs with the right amounts of stone, space and sand makes your garden successful. By using the Zen ideals of simplicity and harmony with Nature, you'll make beautiful displays for your stones as well as tools to help perform magick with your crystals and gemstones at work or home.

Summer brings light and warmth. It strengthens our Will and ignites our passions. Summer's association with Fire also means that it's a time of new perceptions and creative endeavors. Perform this quick spell in summer when the light is out. It gives your Will and your projects a jolt of creative juice. Use it when you need to open yourself to creativity or when you're stuck on a project or want to start something new.

Items needed:
-- A piece of Tiger's Eye (small enough to carry or wear)
-- Vervain or other inspiring incense of your choice
-- Blue candle (blue inspires and helps the flow of creativity)

Arrange the above items on your altar. Place the tiger's eye in front of the candle, where you can focus your eyes on it. Light the blue candle and burn the incense. Ground and center yourself. Think about what creativity means to you, and how you want it to manifest in your life. Build that energy up and place your hands on the stone, letting the energy flow from you to it. As the energy flows, say the following chant:

Summer sun burns bright,
Summer light shines all night.
This fire ignites my creative wire.
My will from mind to stone
Creativity this summer shall I own.
So Mote it be.

Let the candle burn down when you are done. Carry or wear the charged tiger's eye with you when you want more creativity or need that jolt to spur your muse into action.

Review by innowen
Shades of Maybe Designs

Garden Witchery brings fun back into the garden chores. Ellen Dugan, Master Gardener and witch has written a manual to delight anyone. Dugan writes as if she were speaking to you while wandering though her own garden. This book is extremely practical and fun to read. The stories and wisdom on her own gardening experiences sprinkled throughout the book help to illustrate and remind the reader that gardening is a process and mistakes happen. There aren�t many pictures in the book but it does contain some decorative illustrations and charts. As a new homeowner with a yard waiting to be sculpted, Garden Witchery got me excited about planting and making my gardens magickal.

The book opens with gardening basics. While she lives down south, Dugan presents her gardening wisdom as generically as possible. This section includes a copy of the US Hardiness Zones chart that explains how to pick the best plants according to the weather. Some might find such practicality odd to include in a pagan-themed book. But Dugan points out that gardening and planting is fun and very magickal. She shows readers how to plan their garden, select plants and which ones to avoid. Plants, flowers, herbs and trees are discussed equally in the book. She explains that a magickal garden doesn�t need to include exotic and expensive flowers, or flowers that aren�t native to the area. Instead she invites the reader to look outside and within their local area to see what it has to offer their magickal gardens.

She includes a chapter devoted to different types of gardens that focus magickal energy into different intentions. Shade gardens, cottage gardens, moon gardens, faerie gardens and more. Dugan makes each garden magickal by listing a �witches dozen� listing of plants one can add to their garden. She also gives spell and ritual suggestions for each garden. The plants in Garden Witchery are chosen for their �witchyness� as well as their ease to plant, locate and grow. Like the circle of life, Dugan teaches that with garden magick, everything is interconnected.

Dugan starts imbedding her magickal knowledge by sharing her ideas on planting correspondences tables. She believes that the seasons, time of day and the day you choose to plant something affects the plants, their blooms, and the magick you can draw from them. Then she relates all those correspondences back to the lists of plants and trees the book contains. The spells, rituals, simples and other crafty examples all draw from the plants she includes in the book. The book includes an entire chapter written about the art of florigraphy (the meaning of flowers) and flower lore. Then she ties the magick back into a whole garden by giving the reader ideas on how to construct their own Garden Book of Shadows and spells.

The book ends with a garden journal for the reader to record his or her own thoughts. However, I found that it�s not the end of what the book has to teach. After having read this book I found that I became more knowledgeable and aware of the soil my yard has. I also know more about what plants I do currently own and can get to incorporate into my spells and rituals. Garden Witchery helped me see the value and fun in planting and keeping gardens.

Welcome to the Perch Studio. When I moved into my home, I gave my house a name: The Perch. It’s my sanctuary. And I converted this room over to my artistic studio. As you can see, my computer desk sits in one corner; Smudge, my Apple powerbook rests on top of it along with a few candles. Don’t let Smudge’s 12” size fool you. That little computer contains my life's writings and designs. My workbench is on the opposite wall, where the closet used to be. It's pretty chaotic at the moment. Bottles of Luminere paints and paper and stamps and pens litter the surface. I'm an artist and writer and when I want to be creative, I head into this room. However, I’m also pagan. A witch. For me, there is no separation between my daily activities and my spiritual life. The two intertwine. And that holds especially true when applied to my art.

My studio is a reflection of my inner self and of my spiritual beliefs. Whereas many pagans and witches dedicate themselves to a particular deity or pantheon, I do not. I am eclectic. I don't believe in worshipping one particular deity or spirit. Instead my stories and art displays the facets of my muses and goddesses. When I’m not writing or crafting I get grumpy and depressed. Indulging in my creativity keeps me happy and sane. Making art renews my body, mind and spirit while allowing me to share my passions with others. When I wander into the Studio I am no longer just an artist. I become a goddess, going into my circle to give life and form from the blank pages and nothingness. The magick happens here in this room. It's the place I go when I need to get the ideas out of my head and into this world and to recharge my passion and let my imagination run rampant. Creating art renews me, gives me a sense of belonging and gets me involved in what I love doing in my life.

Because I see a connection between making art and spirituality, this room transforms from just an ordinary room to something special. It's my altar where my pens and brushes and ideas in my mind mix and merge to form something tangible. The Studio is my sacred space. I define sacred space as a physical or mental place reserved exclusively for a specific purpose. The purpose of The Studio is to give me a special place where I can write, make art and express myself. Defining a special space for my art achieves two things. First, it helps me to organize my art. Before I defined the room's purpose and what things I wanted in the room to help my creative endeavors, my art felt disjointed and rushed. I didn't want to ruin the kitchen counter or desk with paint or stamp ink and Exacto knife scratches. Once I converted that room from just another room in my home into a special place that represents my perception of my art I felt free to make the messes that comes with creating art. The closet got ripped out and converted into a dual bookcase and workbench. Inspiring books and magazines now line its shelves. The workbench is a whirlwind mess of half-finished projects, brushes, pens and glue sticks.

Secondly, it prepares my mind to play and be creative. The world, all my worries and the noise inside my head get pushed away. The space brings my focus to the here and now and grants me the right to make mistakes and be childish. The moment I walk into the room my mind enters design mode. Ideas creep out of its corners and my energy levels rise. I light candles and stream music from my iPod. But, once I enter this room, nothing else matters. I give myself permission to create, to make mistakes and to have fun. Schedules and restraints do not exist in the Studio. It's the one place I am free to express and create things for me rather than for others. I may work on a new project for a few minutes only to switch to something else; or I may work on one project for the rest of the night only to have my husband drag me out of the room kicking and screaming.

Every artist needs space to create his or her works. Some artists have a small table tucked away in a corner of their apartment while others are fortunate enough to have an entire room rented for devoted for their work. No matter how big or small that space is, artists agree that their space is personal and sometimes an extension of their art and their selves.

Anyone can create his or her own creative sacred studio space. You do not need to be particularly spiritual, per say. Identify what space you have at home or access to. Look at your creative projects, usually they determine exactly how much room you need to effectively create art. Make a list of qualities and items you identify with creativity. Sketch your ideal space in your journal. You do not need to go out to the store (unless you want to) and buy anything new. Look around you and see what things from the list you already own. I may not need a whole room to stamp and create altered books, but the things I want to surround myself with take up space as well. When you are done planning your space, take the plunge and turn those ideas and sketches into practice. Take time to admire your new space, but make sure you've created a usable space. You WANT to use this space to get dirty.

Creating a sacred artist’s space is fun to do and you don’t need to spend money to make your space. The following is a list of items that you may find helpful when you put together a room of your own. I find adding books and inspiring posters or other items near me helps to focus my mind and get me generating energy and ideas for creating art.

• Books
  
• Pens or other artsy things (stamps, paint, brushes, etc)
  
• Music
  
• Smudge (my computer, handy for writing and graphic design)
  
• Tarot deck
  
• Journals
  
• Candles and incense
  
• Chairs, beds or other comfy seating
  
• Light (or lack of!)
  
• Funky or inspiring posters
  
• Colorful fabrics or drapes that reflect your favorite colors and style
  

I believe that every artist needs to have some space, whether it's a corner table in their apartment or the whole warehouse luxury. Having predefined spaces allows us to focus our minds and energies we put into the tasks we're doing and pushes us to get more out of our art. It expands our traditional perceptions of creativity and helps to turn it into something deeper and more spiritually fulfilling. Any room or space can be defined as sacred if you want it to be. Even the kitchen. Of course you don't have to limit your ideas of sacred space to just art. The Perch also has a funky L-shaped room that I turned into my spiritual center. I go to this room to meditate, think about my life or journal. So let your imagination run wild! Go build sacred spaces of your own. Strengthen your connection to your art and your soul.

This book is THE definitive guide to working magic with crystals and gemstones. Scott Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic presents a whole curriculum of working with stones and their meanings in this all-in-one reference "field guide". The first few chapters cover the basics of stones and metals and gives a bit of magical background. He also shares how he collected some of his information and provides some tips for becoming a seasoned rock collector.

Cunningham then dives headfirst into the practical uses for stones and metals. First he explains how to buy stones and how to get the best deals, from haggling in swap meets to store purchases. An appendix in the back of the book lists a few select places to purchase stones. He also suggests ways to interact with stones by in how one selects, attunes and cleanses them. There is even a chapter devoted to divination and another on spells. The exercises are fun to do and do not require lots of pagan wisdom or background training. One could base an entire magical practice just on this book alone.

The rest of the book explores the different crystals, gems and metals. Cunningham divides these sections into two chapters. One contains crystals and gemstones, and the other has the metals. The sections are alphabetized by the rock's and metal's common names. For example, to find information on Bloodstones, you'd look the stone up with that familiar name. Cunningham also references the folk names of each item.

Each entry contains a list of stones and their associations to planets, colors, days, etc. followed by a quick summary of power associations. All this information is used to match the best stone or metal with what you intend to use it for. After these quick summaries, Cunningham goes into great detail and depth with his explanations on the magic and background lore of each. The center of the book contains a colorful guide displaying "best" examples of some of the stones. I found this color-inset useful as I was reading through the text and trying to grasp a mental image of what each and every stone looked like. A quick Reference Table follows these chapters summarizing all the book's information.

Not all stones are covered in this book. Not all stones have the same information either. However, Cunningham does try to thoroughly cover each stone he does list with as much information about it as he can. Some stone lore includes ideas for healing with the stones; some include simple spells one can do with the stone. The book focuses solely on naturally occurring stones and metals; it does not cover man-made or dyed stones (like the Goldstone). I believe that this book should be included in the library of anyone who is interested in the spiritual aspects of stones and metals' as the information contained is some of the best and most practical information on using stones and metals in magic on the market. I also believe that the lore and stories Cunningham provides for the stones also makes this book fun to read by anyone, not just pagans or witches.

Review by innowen
Shades of Maybe Designs

Gemstones and feng shui; the marriage between the two isn't as apparent as it should be. However, stones and their energies are a perfect companion to the ancient Chinese practice. Sandra Kynes's book, Gemstone Feng Shui, explores this complex and interesting relationship. I imagined a whole system of feng shui that used gemstones to counter and support the natural energies of feng shui. While the book has a wealth of information on how to use crystals in conjunction with traditional feng shui practices it fell short of that first impression. Instead the book attempts to describe how to use the stones with current good feng shui practices.

The book has two parts. The first part introduces crystals, healing properties, feng shui basics and tools. It then goes into limited exploration of how to use gemstones in combination with feng shui. The book does a great job of introducing the basics of crystals. Ms. Kynes's gemstone-circle meditation is a great way to introduce new users of crystals and their energies to one another by placing them around a person. The book uses the 9 Square, or Lo Shu Grid to teach readers feng shui. The Lo Shu Grid divides a room up into squares instead of the more common practice of visualizing a room broken down into a circle with each direction representing a piece of the pie.

The second half of the book goes into the gemstones themselves. Over 100 pages are dedicated to explaining the history, lore and energy properties of selected stones. This part of the book is worth its weight in gold. These tables and lists show readers new gemstone correspondences as they relate to the 5 traditional Chinese elements.

Gemstone Feng Shui falls short at teaching readers how to incorporate gemstones into daily feng shui practices. When it describes how to remove blocking or harmful energies it is done separately from gemstones. The two topics seem to have very little to do with each other. When they do interact, it is through descriptions of situations and their blocks and a few suggestions on how to counteract, harmonize or enhance aspects of this element. The book makes a series of statements rather than exploring the rationale behind how the stone's energies work to produce the desired feeling in a room. It quickly goes from element to element as well as showing how the colors of the stones or one's birthstone can also produce and affect feng shui energies.

Overall, this book is not for beginners of crystal work and feng shui. Even with the introductory chapters on each topic, the book tries to cram a large amount of study and history of both feng shui and crystals but doesn't do much to describe the marriage between the two. However, the time and energy spent on describing the stones and their energies make up for the lack of practical applications.

Items Needed:
1 Love Ewe
1 Piece of paper (per person)
1 Holy Stone (per person)
10 While candles (5 for Quarters and 5 for altar)
Imbolc Altar items
Pens
Cakes and Wine

Ritual Outline:
Cast Circle by using wand. "We are now between worlds."

Call Quarters, each person lights a white candle after they are done.

Imbolc is a time for renewal and spring cleaning. When the first flowers and hints of spring fill the air. Candles are lit signifying the cleaning out of the old winter blahs and they draw in the new energies for the next seasons. We cleanse our Hearth and Home of the old, dank winter and get ready for the fresh clean air of Spring. Our bodies are our temples and during Imbolc, they too need to be cleansed. Tonight during this ritual each and everyone one of you looks deep within yourself and think about something you want to cleanse from themselves or their life. Whether it is quitting smoking or losing weight or overcomming a block we need to get rid of to allow the energies within us to continue walking the path we Will.

Take 5 minutes to think about what this thing is you want cleansed from your life. Make it something attainable and reachable. Something you can have done by Lammas. If this thing is greater than a short time commitment, break it down into steps and try and identify when and where you want to achieve each step. That way you can have some bit of it done by Lammas.

Once you have thought of that idea, grab a piece of paper and a pen and write it down. On the outside of the paper, sign you name, or make your majickal mark. If you want, you can even create a rune about your goal. Do whatever you think is the best way to get it out so you can start working on it. However, you will revisit this goal later this year, so if you create a rune or sigil of it, be sure it is something you can remeber later.

One by one, we'll share our cleansing items, (if you wish). Once you are done sharing it, go to the altar and grab a Holy Stone. Roll the paper up and place it inside the stone. The stone and it's hole means purification and peace, and being close to the Goddess and your divinity. Placing it inside the stone tells us that you will walk that path, work on that cleansing aspect until it is completed by Lammas.

Now, walk over to the ceremonial Love Ewe and place it in the hole. This hole represents the belly of the beast, where the fruition of all your majickal workings will be born. By Lammas you shall see the results of your labor, or at least some change occurring with the area you want cleansed.

Now, everyone stand in circle around the Ewe, holding hands, direct energy into the Love Ewe and the things that we have just written down. Say:

Hail Brigid, mother maiden of all things New. We invoke thee, bring your loving light and your warmth to us and our cleansing offering. We ask that you give us the courage, creativity and light to carry forth our desires and goals. Until Lammas eve we shall carry forth this cleansing to heal ourselves abd those we love in your light always. So Mote it Be.

Pass cakes and ale around. Give everyone time to reflect on the evening and what has been done. Decide who keeps the Love Ewe till Lammas.

When Lammas comes around, the time of reaping what we have sown, we will gather once more. The Love Ewe will be retrieved and each person will get back their stone and paper. We'll see how far we've come with our goal and cleansing. The stone shall be a reminder to keep as we kept or will work on the goal before the next turn of the moon.

Devoke Quarters, each person blows out candle when finished.

Close circle.