To get rid of negative energy and bring yourself back into balance I'm a big advocate of ritual baths. Putting together a simple bath of sea salt and any herbs that you find relaxing (I like rose and lavender for this) and add it to a hot bath and soak in it visualizing that all the dark, icky energy that you feel is weighing you down leaving your body and going into the water. When you're ready to get out leave that energy behind and see it flow down the drain when you drain the bath. When drying off visualize and feel any remaining energy being wiped away and be sure NOT to reuse that towel until after it's been through the wash.

If you don't have a bath rub you can still do this in the shower by taking the sea salt and herbs and putting it in a muslin bag or wrapped in cheese cloth and tie it to the shower nozzle so that the water will flow through it when while you stand under it. Visualize the water running down your body while it takes the negative energy with it and then see it running down the drain.

Negativity towards men is something that you could work on with ritual baths as well but you might also want to work on a spell on yourself to open your heart up to men in a positive way. This can be done with something as simple as a candle spell (pink candle would be the best color for this) or something as involved as a poppet spell. If you'd like some specific help, feel free to email me privately and I'll see what I can do to help. :)

Also, it's important to remember that you power animals can change over time and sometimes and animal that we feel connected to may not actually be our power animal. Often our power animals have lessons to teach us or things to help us get through. Because of that an animal that has connections to things we are already solid or set in within our lives and paths wouldn't have much to offer us. So it's possible that you may do a journey to meet your power animal and you may find that a completely different and somewhat unexpected animal may appear. Don't ignore it or discount it. Whoever arrives is there for a reason and has something to teach you.

Hi Christopher,

My first recommendation would be to do a journey specifically to connect with your power animal. Here is the meditation process that I would recommend for that.

Get yourself in a meditative state (relax, breathe deeply, etc). Visualize yourself standing in front of a giant tree with deep, deep roots and branches that reach so far up into the sky and clouds that you can't see where they end. This is the World Tree. Traveling through the World Tree will bring you to either the Upper, Middle, or Lower world. Walk around the tree, smell the earth and the leaves around you, reach your hand out and feel the bark of the tree. As you do this place the intention into the tree that you want to meet with your power animal.

Find a place in the roots that open up and create a passage way or tunnel. Go into the tunnel and follow where it leads. Do this while still holding the intention that you are going to meet your power animal. When you come to the end of the tunnel it may either open up into a space like a forest or other surroundings or you may come to a door. Open the door or step into the space and ask that your power animal that is most right and correct for you right now to come to you.

At this point the journey is all yours. You'll want to look around, take note of your surroundings, observe any sounds, smells, etc. Your power animal might come right away or it might take a little while. It's also possible that your power animal may not every show up; it's possible that they may be in the background or hiding so that they can observe you. If you wait and feel like they aren't going to show up you can always just let them know that you would like to connect on your next visit and then try this journey again in a few days.

If your power animal does arrive you can ask it questions and communicate but they may or may not communicate back right away. Sometimes they may want to build up a trust or relationship first. Give it time and make these journeys regularly. Your gratitude is often all the repayment a power animal requires but you can always ask if there is something in the way of an offering that they would like in exchange.

You know what they say about great minds...lol :)

Aww....thank you! :)

I received a few email questions about this calendar so I wanted to address them here (hopefully people with these questions will see this response).

"What does the money get used for since they're donations?"
The money that comes in from the calendar is used to pay for the monthly web hosting fees, the domain fees for the year, the photo storing account, and other small things that come up for the site. Money that is left over from paying these fees will be used for some new things that I'd like to do with the site including making some new items and features available that aren't feasible right now.

"Is there any way to get a pre-printed version?"
I actually received several requests about this today and I am going to look at making one available. If I am able to do it they wont be available for at least a few weeks and they will cost more than the current offering.

If anyone else has any other questions, just ask! And if you've made a donation and received one and would like to share your thoughts on it, please do! I'd love to hear what you think of it!

For letting go I would try something simple like a petition spell. I like burning and cutting things for letting go and I think that with the energy around the night simple would be fine. I would recommend a black candle and either a banishing oil or frankincense oil (has vibrations for exorcism) and anoint the candle. Take a piece of paper and and write something like this:

"I __________________ (your name or magickal name) call upon the powers of the Goddess, God, and Great Spirit (or specific deities you might work with) to aid me in the power to let go of __________________ (be very specific in detailing what you want to let go of). I ask for the ability to become more _______________________ (what you would rather have once letting go of whatever it you are letting go of). I ask for this for my highest good, harming none. So more it be!"

When you're ready light the paper from the candle flame and burn it in a cauldron or other fire safe container. Meditate for a bit on releasing what you need to release and then focus more of your energy on what you want in it's place. You can then either snuff the candle when you feel done (don't relight it, you're done with the spell at this point) or let it burn all the way down. Leave an offering on your altar or outdoors in thanks to the Gods for their help (wine, fruit, chocolate, etc...or whatever is right for the Gods you might be working with).

Hope that helps! :)

Magick, in this case, is often spelled with a "k". The practice originated with Aleister Crowley who used the "k" after the work "magic" to help show the difference between slight of hand tricks (magic) and spiritual, high ritual and what many considered spellwork (magick). Today it's often a matter of either preference of the writer/individual since many people feel that context will differentiate which is which. I personally use Crowley's spelling and philosophy, as many still do.

Glad you\'re enjoying them! They\'re certainly fun to do. :) If you have any specific Yule related topics that you\'d like to see covered, by all means, let me know!

Well, there are certainly a few things to bring up with your link and the information there. I think it's highly important to mention right from the start that your comment and link it stems from deals with things not at all mentioned in this article (so I do wonder if you yourself aren't Pamela Shuffert looking to spread your propaganda). My post deals with the history of human sacrifice in ancient cultures, not modern day Satanists. And as I mentioned in response to another's comment, abortion is not a subject that will be discussed here.

That said...

I think Ms. Schuffert needs to do a little looking into exactly what investigative journalism is because she is using that term to describe her work in the most loose of terms. Woodward and Berstein are text book investigative journalists. Ms. Schuffert is someone who has a pesronal agenda presenting baised information with no foundation. Investigative journalism is all about fact, it's"smoking gun" journalism that is backed by soild information that has been hidden from the public. This in hardly that. No facts with proof to back it up, just the typical "Satanic Panic" style Christian fear mongering. Top that off with the grammatical errors and horrendous, ammature style formatting it's really hard to take this as a serious piece of journalism rather than just a blog post by someone with a fanatical religious point of view.

The entire "article" makes some grand accusations. I don't care how liberal the media may be, if there really was actual, tangible evidence about these illedged number of people in the "upper hundreds of thousands every year" being kidnapped, bought and sold, and otherwise aquired by Satanic cults in America for the purpose of human sacrifice I am pretty sure someone would let the cat out of bag on that and the media would eat that up! They love those sorts of sensational stories! Ted Gunderson has long been know to be an Illuminatti conspirist and extremly biased in his "investigations". Since Gunderson (supposedly) retired from the FBI he's found some way to be involved in any and every public case of suspected Satanic ritual abuse and is always very cryptic in his acusations, claming that the FBI knows the truth but nobody wants to tell. That doesn't make him sound creditble or even like he really knows anything but more as though he's simply paronoid and delusional.

In general this blog post, and the whole blog in general, which I sent quite some time going through, is hardly proof of anything other than one Christain extremist who is convinced of some very crazy conspiary theories of the religious right. Maybe if Ms. Schuffert was more transparent in her "investigations" and actually presented hard evidence of her claims rather than hearsay it would help her cause. Maybe given the fact that she's isn't a a trained journalist or the fact that she believes her father was recruited into some government Satanic cult while working at the Pentagon in the 80s, or maybe it's the usual claims we often hear from Christians who have a desire to really push the "Satanic Panic" when it comes to the occult; she claims to have once been involved with the occult herself and "nearly died" as a result (reading her "My Testimony" article, which I found through archive.org http://web.archive.org/web/20050314222658/http://... since it's no longer hosted, reveals some really interesting information that explains the flavor of her "journalism", though this is one of those pieces that's the typical "I was in the occult and not I'm born again" stories that are always so extreme and almost undoubtedly fabricated).

Other articles like this one by Kerr Cuhulain and the one on RumorMill News also shed some light on her only adding to the suspect of her work.

I know that you are fully aware of what you're doing by posting something like this here. I am always open to having anyone share their thoughts and opinions regardless of what religion the affiliate with. While I can't speak for all of my readers, as they vary greatly, I can only speak for myself and say that I'm not a Satanist, I'm a Witch. And in all my years of being involved in the Craft, and even having known Satanists as well, I have never seen any evidence of any of the claims that Ms. Schuffert and those like her claim. And, frankly, I don't she or many of these others have either since no one has ever come forward with anything but acusations.

But thank you for your thoughts and sharing the link.