There are so many benefits to working with animal energy, but today, I want to share with you three of those benefits…
Animals are deeply connected to the energy of the earth, even animals who haven’t lived a physical life on earth. Working with animal energy helps to awaken and strengthen that earth connection with us. We feel more stable, supported, grounded, and aware.
Working with animal energy helps us to have more compassion for ourselves, our earth, our fellow humans, and our fellow animals. Similar to the strengthening and awakening of the earth energy, working with the animals seems to tap into a special place within our heart-center.
When we work with the animals it awakens a special type of intuition within us. This intuition feels very natural and fluid, while also feeling very grounded and secure. We can then use this intuition to help us an other areas of our lives.
As I said, there are lots of benefits to welcoming animal guides and energy into our lives, as well as many ways to connect to and work with that energy.
In my new course, Animal Guides, we delve even deeper into this special bond. You’ll learn about the different types of guides you can work with, ways to connect, how to decipher their messages, and more.
Vampires are real. Maybe not the Anne Rice or True Blood vampires, but vampires nonetheless.
The vampires I’m talking about are psychic vampires, or energy vampires. These are people or spirits who intentionally or unintentionally siphon energy from others in order to feed their own energy.
When a psychic vampire is taking our energy we may find ourselves exceptionally tired, worn down, and irritable. We may even have weird dreams and physical symptoms.
But not to worry! There are some things we can do to strengthen ourselves and repel these energy vampires.
A strong aura or energy field is our first defense. By maintaining our own energy and keeping a strong aura, we can more easily prevent our energy from being drained.
Repairing or healing our aura and energy. Many things can cause “tears” in our energy field, including draining from vampires. This is why it’s important to patch up our auras and heal any spots that energy could be leaked from.
Regularly “shave off” unwanted energy and cut energetic cords.
Repel energy vampires with essential oils and herbs.
I recently felt like my energy was being depleted. I felt like my aura wasn’t as strong as it could be and that not only was my energy sort of leaking out of me, but I was leaving myself vulnerable to energy vampires.
I decided to create this spell/ritual to help strengthen and repair my aura while also repelling any potential vampires.
Check out the YouTube video below for a walk-through of this spell/ritual.
Rainwater is such a beneficial thing to incorporate into your spiritual and magickal practices. The uses for it are almost endless. Today I want to share with you why and how to collect rain water, how to properly store and label your water, and share 21 ways you can use this water in your practice.
Why Would You Want to Collect Rainwater?
Rain water has some serious energetic benefits to it. Depending on where and when we gather the rain, it can have different energetic properties. Water is a big energy conductor, so it only makes sense that it absorbs various energies around it that we can then utilize in our spiritual and magickal practices.
For instance, if you collect rain water from a lightning storm, not only does that water contain the element of water but it also contains the element of fire (from the lightning).
Depending on other factors, like the current moon phase or day of the week, can also contribute to the different energetic properties within the water.
So, by collecting the rain water and working with it’s energies, we can add more elements and properties to our daily life.
Not only can you collect rain water, but you can also collect water from streams, rivers, lakes, oceans, etc.
I do always suggest when collecting water, even the rain from your back yard, that you take a moment to offer a prayer of thanks to Mother Earth and Spirit. If collecting water from a body or source of water, you might even choose to leave an offering like a small crystal or stone.
Is Rain Water Safe?
There are some misconceptions to the safety of rain water. Really, rain water is pretty safe to consume or bathe in. There are some things to keep in mind though.
I suggest not collecting water that is falling off a building or roof as this will contaminate the water. Whatever is on that roof or building will enter into the water.
Do not collect your water from puddles or other areas that could be dirty or contaminated. This is also something to keep in mind if you’re collecting your water from a water source in nature.
If you gather your water off of trees or plant life, please be mindful of the plant. Not all plants are safe for us to ingest or put on our skin. If you’re gathering water from a plant, that plant matter could enter into the water.
I would suggest not gathering rain water (or any water for that matter) from highly polluted areas or areas of radiation (like Chernobyl).
And finally, some folks are concerned about the acidity of rain water. When they talk about the acidity of a liquid, they’re referring to anything lower than a ph of 7. Rain water typically has a ph level of 5.6 or 6. For comparison, orange juice has a ph level of 4. So in regards to acidity levels, you should be good.
How to Collect The Rain Water
The easiest way to collect rain water is to set your container out in the rain. I recommend using only glass, ceramic or wooden containers to collect your water and to store it. Metal has a lot of it’s own energetic properties and I personally feel that this interferes with the energies within the water. Plastic is pretty much just no good, and a lot of the chemicals in the plastic can seep into the rain water. Yuck.
How to Label and Store Your Water
We talked about how everything from the type of rain to location to moon phase can contribute to the unique energetic properties of the water. This is why it’s really important to label your container of rain water. Here are the things that I find helpful to include on the lable:
Time of day, date and day of the week
Moon phase and current moon sign
Location the rain was collected from
Type of rain (just rain, thunder storm, hurricane, etc)
The feelings the rain invoked within you (peace, clarity, self love, intuition, etc)
As for storing your water, you can keep it on your altar or in a cabinet. You may also choose to store it in the refrigerator. For longer storage, you can freeze the water.
The length of time that you can store the water before it loses it’s energetic properties varies on who you ask. I always say to use your intuition with this. If you go to use your water and it just doesn’t feel the same to you anymore, then don’t use it. Simply dispose of it outside.
The longest I hold onto rain or blessed water is roughly 30 days. Typically I try to use my water within the first week of collecting it.
21 Spiritual and Magickal Uses
And now, on to some ways to use your rain water. Really, the ways to use your water are almost endless. There are many more ways you can use this water that I haven’t included on this list. But here are 21 ways that I personally use the water or ways that I would use it.
You can also check out the YouTube video or listen on The Goddess Life Podcast (on iTunes and most podcasting apps) for more detailed info.
During the first week of August, my family and I took a road trip and vacationed in the South Brunswick Islands, staying in Ocean Isle Beach.
It was a ton of fun, but like most vacations, was over way too quickly. We took some time driving down to OIB to make some cool stops along the way and then we experienced lots of cool stuff while on the island.
I want to share with you a list of the things we saw and experienced in hopes of perhaps inspiring some fun stops for you on your next road trip or vacation.
A lot of this list includes cool nature spots, paranormal locations, and oddities but also includes “normal” road trip and vacation ideas.
We started our trip in Ohio where we live, making our way south. Here is a list I compiled of things we did and stops we made. I tried to make this list as close to the route we took as well as timeline of our trip, in case you’re traveling the same direction.
On the way down we made a stop at the Old City Cemetery & Museums in Lynchburg, Virginia. This place is amazing and I highly suggest making a trip out here sometime. This cemetery was established in 1806 and is on 27-acres of land. It has beautiful old tombstones as well as a plethora of gardens and plants. Something that makes this cemetery especially interesting are the small museums houses located on the property. They have a chapel & columbarium, pest house medical museum, station house museum, hearse house museum, and mourning museum. The pest house medical museum and the mourning museum were my favorites. Lots of death history here for you Death Positive folks and death history enthusiasts.
Pest House Medical MuseumAn old hearse at the Old City Cemetery
The Mourning Museum
While in Virginia we made a stop in Covington to see the Falling Springs Waterfall. This is a gorgeous 80 foot waterfall that can be seen from the roadside. They have a small picnic area, parking and viewing area which makes it really convenient for roadtrippers looking for a quick but interesting site to see. We went around sunset and it was just beautiful.
After night fell, and because we were out in the mountains and “middle of no where”, we made sure to pull off onto a small road to take a moment and enjoy the stars. I don’t recall exactly where we stopped off at, but anywhere really will do. As long as it’s away from city lights. Absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking moment seeing all of those stars. We even got to see a couple shooting stars!
Something pretty awesome that we got to drive past but didn’t really get to stop and experience (hopefully another day) was the Hot Springs Resort in Hot Springs, Virginia. This place looks freaking stunning!
We finally checked into our beachfront apartment in Ocean Isle Beach. This was our first time to this area, and we were not disappointed. Ocean Isle Beach is a great place for families and folks traveling without kids. I personally loved it because it has all of the amenities you could want, including a few beach shops, but without all of the touristy feel. We were traveling with our two kids, ages 14 and 7, and we were all sufficiently entertained on our trip without all of the tourist junk that a lot of beach vacations entail. It wasn’t super crowded either. Nothing worse than a crowded beach. I highly recommend checking out these islands.
The view from our home for the week
Ocean Isle Beach may not be a super touristy hot spot, but there are still all of your favorite beach activities to participate in. My husband and son went jet-skiing on the intra-coastal as well as taking a helicopter ride, we played putt-putt, ate ice cream on the pier, walked the beach at night, collected shells and sharks teeth, went boogie boarding, swimming, saw the sunrise over the ocean, shooting stars at night, and more.
While in Ocean Isle Beach, we took the OIB Ghost Walk. This walk is put on by a husband and wife who live on the island. They’ve also written a book about the hauntings of the area. It was only $10 per person and really didn’t entail much walking. It was pretty neat to be near the ocean and hear some ghost stories and history of the area. The only thing that was kind of a bummer was not really seeing many of the locations that they talked about in their stories. It was less of a ghost walk and more of hanging out near the ocean and hearing ghost stories. Which I’m totally cool with. But if you’re looking for more actual site-seeing of haunted locations, this might not be for you. Also! The tour is in the early evening and the mosquitos can be really bad so bring bug spray.
View of the intracoastal waterway at the end of our ghost walk.
While walking along the beach one night, my mother saw a ghost orb in the sky, not too far from where she was standing. I only wish I’d gotten to see it!
I’m a big fan of stopping off in random places while on vacation. Sort of just “seeing what you see”. My favorite is when you happen upon a cemetery. While driving through Sunset Beach I happened to see a small and old sign for Pleasant View Cemetery, so we turned down the sandy road to find a small cemetery. I do believe this cemetery is still in use today, and if you go to the cemetery please be courteous and respectful. I will say though that this was one of the spookiest cemeteries I have ever been to in my entire life. We all (my husband, mom, two kids and myself) felt like something was extremely “off” and felt very weird in that cemetery. I normally don’t get spooked by cemeteries, I actually find them quite peaceful usually. But this one has still stuck with me even a month later. I tried to find some history of the land or something to explain that feeling we all had, but so far I’ve been unable to come up with anything.
Not far from the cemetery is Gause Landing Road. This road has a lot of history as well as haunted claims of children laughing and playing in the trees. A lot of the roads lead off to private drives of homes so if you drive down this road, please be aware of private property. Even if you’re not into the whole haunted road thing, you won’t be disappointed by driving down this road. It’s really quite beautiful with old oak trees and Spanish moss.
One evening we went on a sunset cruise with Lighthouse Watersports. This isn’t your typical wine and dine, relaxing sunset cruise. This one had us getting sprayed by sea water and enjoying the sites. We even got to see dolphins! Our captain/guide was amazing. He is a lifelong resident of the area so he really knows his history and did really well pointing out all kinds of interesting facts and tidbits. This company also offers a kayak tour through the swamps. If we’re ever in the area again, we’re going to participate in that one for sure.
Wilmington, North Carolina isn’t too far from OIB so we decided to spend an afternoon there. We explored the USS North Carolina Battleship which was definitely a cool experience. This ship is loaded with history, and ghosts! Unfortunately we didn’t experience any paranormal activity on our self-guided daytime tour, but it was still pretty freaking cool. Make sure to wear good walking shoes as there’s lots of steps. I’m not a huge fan of small spaces, but I was able to do this tour. There were times that I did feel pretty dizzy and lightheaded though and had to take a moment to gather myself. My mom, who is extremely claustrophobic was not able to do the tour.
I basically fell in love with Wilmington and want to go back. It’s a gorgeous little city along the river. It’s full of history, charming historical homes, interesting shops and lots of restaurants. We didn’t get to spend too much time here, and there was lots more that I would want to check out. Maybe one day in the future!
Downtown Wilmington
While in Wilmington we ate dinner at Bourbon Street Restaurant. I thought it was really delicious and I loved the New Orleans vibe! We went during the day and it was kid friendly. Not sure if it becomes more suitable to adults only in the evenings or not.
One evening we drove about an hour south and met my husbands family (who were also on vacation) for dinner at Barefoot Landing. Barefoot Landing is in North Myrtle Beach and has lots of shops, restaurants, tourist stuff and music. We ate at River City Cafe which has tons of really tasty burgers (vegetarian and vegan options too).
One of my favorite crystal shops, Black Market Minerals, is located in Barefoot Landing. We made sure to make a stop in there where I picked up a few new crystal babies.
Before we knew it, our week was up and we were making our way back north. But first we stopped in Durham, North Carolina. This is such a cute little downtown area! We stopped in Durham so I could meet up with my friend lovely Rhonda, and also check out a crystal shop there. We met Rhonda and her husband for lunch at Bull City Burger & Brewery. Food was decent and they have vegetarian and vegan options.
Rhonda and I in front of Everyday Magic
While in Durham we of course had to take a stop into Everyday Magic! This is a stunning crystal shop and I honestly felt a little like a fan-girl being there, as I’ve been a huge fan/follower of Everyday Magic on Instagram for awhile. Gorgeous crystals and metaphysical supplies as well as fabulous staff.
All in all this was such a wonderful vacation and road trip. I consumed tons of yummy food, soaked up the sun, had lots of laughs, experienced new things, enjoyed some paranormal things, connected with nature and more. I would love to go back down to this area another time, perhaps staying at one of the other South Brunswick Islands.
Essential oils are excellent at helping us with a myriad of emotional needs. That’s because our sense of smell is connected right to our limbic system of the brain.
The limbic system is responsible for memory, emotions, behavior and learning.
So when you smell an essential oil, it’s literally affecting the part of your brain that’s responsible for your feelings.
This then triggers your body to release specific chemicals and endorphins related to that particular feeling.
Scientists have even found that various parts of our brains become more active depending on which scents we’re smelling.
So this means that we can actually help our brains and bodies release various emotions and even reprogram our brains accordingly!
It’s all pretty cool if you ask me!
I’ve been working on releasing some emotions and came up with this blend to use. I suggest using this blend (or any oils) for emotional release, paired with some affirmations.
In a 5mL roller bottle mix:
11 drops Ylang Ylang
5 drops Cypress
3 drops Lime
2 drops Geranium
1 drop Siberian Fir
Tip off with fractionated coconut oil
Optional: add rose quartz chips and rose petals
Why these oils?
Ylang Ylang helps with releasing emotional blocks and boosts confidence
Cypress helps you to release the judgments others have placed on you while assisting you with change, trust and patience
Lime helps you to work through your feelings while providing you with inner peace
Geranium is a very soothing and comforting Oil
Siberian Fir helps to ground your energy and provide you with strength
Many Blessings!
Please make sure to check for any contraindications before using essential oils. I am not a medical doctor or psychiatrist. Please seek a professional for any emotional, physical and mental needs.
Whether or not you’re an empath, this blend will be beneficial to you as we all need a boost of confidence sometimes. But if you are an empath, this blend will be especially helpful for you.
What is this blend for?
-This blend is especially good for the solar plexus chakra.
-It’s beneficial for empaths as it helps you filter out others emotions from your own.
-This blend helps boost your confidence so you can attract what you desire in life.
-It has the added benefits of being good for your digestive system.
-It raises the vibration of your aura so you can attract more high vibe things into your life, while blocking lower vibes.
What’s in this blend?
Cardamom essential oil (10 drops)
Grapefruit essential oil (8 drops)
Fennel essential oil (4 drops)
Fractionated coconut oil (top off the bottle)
Ginger root (a pinch)
Rose quartz chips (1-3 chips)
10mL roller bottle
What do these ingredients do?
Cardamom
Encourages clarity so you can see the direction you want to go in life
Helps you filter out energies and emotions so you can release what isn’t yours
Helps bring motivation, confidence and courage
Physically it benefits the digestive system
Grapefruit
Brings joy, happiness and positivity which will help raise your vibration so you can more easily attract what you want in life while deflecting what you don’t. A higher vibration also brings more confidence
Fennel
Helps you to be more assertive
Encourages perseverance and motivation
Ginger root
Represented by the element of fire which helps activate the solar plexus chakra (confidence and motivation)
Helps attract success and power into your life
Rose quartz chips
Vibrate with the energy of love, which helps our aura vibrate higher
Encourages us to have love and compassion for ourselves. The more we love ourselves, the more confident we are
How do I use this blend?
Apply this blend to your abdomen (solar plexus chakra)
Use this blend whenever you need a boost of confidence
If you’re an empath, use this blend prior to going anywhere around other people
Use this blend every day until the blend is gone to strengthen your solar plexus chakra, bring about confidence and success into your life.
I suggest saying some affirmations when you apply the oil, such as:
I am confident and assertive
What I desire in life for my highest good comes easily to me
I attract success and abundance easily in my life
My aura vibrates at a high frequency
I am a divine being of love who is confident and deserves good things
My aura is strong and only pure energies of the highest good may enter my energetic space
Anything else to know?
This blend contains a citrus oil. Avoid applying anywhere on your body that the sun or UV rays may get to.
Looking to get your own essential oils? I use and recommend dōTERRA essential oils.
Selenite is such an amazing crystal with lots of great benefits and qualities. Selenite is a form of gypsum and it’s named after the Greek Moon goddess, Selene.
Selenite can help balance and cleanse our entire energy body. A great way to do this is to take a selenite wand (like one pictured above) and simply scan your body with it. Hold the crystal several inches from your body while you sort of sweep the air around you. I personally like to envision a white light emanating from the selenite and strengthening my aura.
You can do the selenite aura cleanse each morning, anytime you’ve been in a large group of people or whenever you feel a bit drained, energetically.
Selenite is a very cleansing and high vibrational crystal and is one of the few crystals that never need to be cleansed. In fact, selenite can be used to cleanse other crystals! Simply place your crystals needing to be cleansed or charged, next to the selenite for a bit. You could also do the energetic aura cleanse with your crystals. Just swipe the selenite around the crystal you want to cleanse.
I like to keep a small piece of selenite near my card decks as well, to keep them nice and cleansed. Similar to cleansing your aura and crystals, you can use selenite to cleanse your tarot and oracle decks as well.
Selenite is a very soft stone, so be careful not to get it wet. But since you don’t have to cleanse this crystal, there’s really not much of a reason to get it wet in the first place.
Physically, selenite is excellent for headaches and migraines! Lay down and place a piece of selenite near the top of your head. You may even like to place a piece of amethyst on your third eye. Lay there quietly with your eyes closed for about ten minutes. I suggest placing a grounding stone near your feet as well, such as smoky quartz or black tourmaline. And don’t lay there longer than ten minutes. As I mentioned, selenite is very high vibe and laying with it at your crown Chakra for an extended period of time can cause that Chakra to open too widely and may cause some dizziness for you.
Another physical benefit of selenite is for sore muscles. Since it’s so good at breaking up blocked energy, it can help loosen muscles. If you’re feeling sore or tight, just run the selenite over the area or let it sit on that area for a bit.
There comes a time in our lives when we all want to attract a little more prosperity into our lives. Times when we could use a little more money. Whether you’re using visualization, setting up a crystal grid or working a spell, it helps to use things that correspond to the energy frequency of prosperity. In this post I’ll share an easy to reference list of prosperity Correspondences.
When creating an oil blend, crystal grid or doing a spell, it helps to use the energy of specific days to amplify your workings. Each day of the week has specific energy that corresponds to various topics, planets, color and more.
For instance, when creating an oil blend for love, you may choose to create this blend on a Friday, which is the day of love (energetically).
Perhaps you want to do a spell for protection, Sunday would be your day.
Having legal issues? You could set up a crystal grid on a Thursday for best results.
Check out the handy list below to see which day may work best for your particular goal.
Monday:
Planet: the moon
Colors: silver, light purple and white
Good for: healing, psychic gifts and peace
Crystals: selenite, amethyst and moonstone
Essential Oils: jasmine, lemon
Goddesses: Diana and Selene
Tuesday:
Planet: Mars
Colors: red, black and orange
Good for: passion, strength, victory and courage
Crystals: bloodstone, garner and black tourmaline
Essential Oils: basil, patchouli and ginger
Goddesses: Kali and Athena
Wednesday:
Planet: Mercury
Colors: yellow and white
Good for: communication, study, travel
Crystals: blue lace agate, sodalite and fluorite
Essential Oils: peppermint and eucalyptus
Goddesses: Freyja and Seshat
Thursday:
Planet: Jupiter
Colors: green and purple
Good for: careers, prosperity, abundance, legal matters and expansion
Crystals: citrine, pyrite and lepidolite
Essential Oils: clove, patchouli and cinnamon
Goddesses: Abundantia and Lakshmi
Friday:
Planet: Venus
Colors: white and pink
Good for: love, friendship, beauty, romance and fertility
Crystals: rose quartz, clear quartz, amethyst
Essential Oils: rose, rosemary, sandalwood
Goddesses: Venus, Aphrodite and Kuan Yin
Saturday:
Planet: Saturn
Colors: dark blue, black and brown
Good for: banishing, endings, home, cleansing
Crystals: black obsidian, hematite, labradorite and salt
Essential Oils: clove, sage, cedarwood
Goddesses: Hekate and Arianrhod
Sunday:
Planet: the sun
Colors: yellow and gold
Good for: healing, success, individuality and happiness
