This week we're looking at the second part of part one of Practical Magic (Kindle) by Nikki Van De Car. Instead of a traditional review I thought I would take the next few weeks to go into each of the chapters with you at my first read as opposed to reading the entire book and then giving a review. You can find several of her publications at Running Press.
The author continues part one by talking to us about Crystals and Auras. Being a wire weaver I spend a great deal of time working with different types of crystals. This book offers a list of some of the more common crystals, their chakra association as well as their most common uses. An example would be Amethyst for calm and Citrine for success and money. Though not mentioned in this book, one of my favorite stones is a Labradorite. Labs are considered to be a stone of transformation and magic. (source) It helps in reducing stress and anxiety as well as intuition and psychic development.
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| Photo Credit - Book Cover |
Here is one of my favorite Labradorite pieces. At the time of publication this piece as well as many others are available on my website.
She also talks about how to choose and activate a crystal. For years owning my shop I have often been asked to "charge" a pendant or pendulum for clients. There are several methods for prepping crystals. Often you'll want to start with a good cleansing. Several methods include leaving them on a window sill in the light of the full moon or burying them in the ground over night to soak up the earth's energy. Choose a method that works best for you and remember, if you don't have a yard improvise. Get a little pot and put some potting soil in it and set it in the a cleansed area of your space. One popular method is to dip your crystals in a running stream or river. While I'm lucky enough to live right next to a river not everyone has that luxury. A few alternatives would be to request some river water from someone living near a river and then simply pour that water out over your crystals or use sage smoke to symbolically pour the smoke (water) over/around your crystals. We have to remember that witches worked with what they had on hand. When all else fails, improvise.
The remainder of part one is dedicated to Auras. It reviews the basic layers and colors associated with aura reading. Auras are basically colored fields that begin around two inches from the skin and continue outward. There are seven separate aura fields and according to this author the color ranges from red to white. With three shades at each color level. For example this author suggests that orange indicates a healthy, vibrant personality. Red orange is confidence, yellow orange is creative, intelligent perfectionist and muddy orange is indicating this person is in a "clogged" stage and is unable to move forward. To cleanse these auras she refers back to the chakra section and recommends alignment to ease/erase these blockages.
I found this video related to auras and thought it might be useful in learning about this process. This video is not related to the book.
I became really interested in learning about aura reading after I noticed that I could look at people and see things about them. Things they were hiding inside themselves. Just after my 20th birthday I noticed that when I would walk into stores I could see people who were abusive. I could actually see them hitting someone or hurting others as they walked past me in the store. It became very frightening so I started "turning it off" as much as I could. To this day when ever possible I wear sunglasses so no one can see my eyes when I look at them. When I see their secrets and we make eye contact they know I see their secrets. I decided to just not look at people. Today, I offer reading services on photos instead of in person readings. Still being that close to someone and being able to see what lies below is a bit scary for me. One person a few years ago, showed me a picture of her husband's mistress but didn't tell me who she was. She asked for a reading on her. When I told her that the girl was very much in love but was being lied to by the man she loved she person got very upset. Not too long afterwards she ended our friendship. I can only assume it was because my words hit too close to home for her. Around that same time, I referred to what I was doing as aura reading. However after speaking with a very gifted reader I know now that this gift is very different from aura reading. I cannot quite figure it out yet and will continue to work to figure it out. (link)
Next week I'll be going into Part Two of Practical Magic. Remember you can grab your copy by clicking the links above and I will be compiling a giveaway from all the comments on this blog series and I'll do a giveaway with this book, the matching kit and another book called Feng Crochet all by the same author.
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