THE OCCULT SHOP

Greetings from the Creatrix of THE OCCULT SHOP.com 

I have owned this Domain for over 19 years! This URL was used for my Brick and Mortar Store: THE OCCULT SHOP in Cincinnati Ohio. I still retain the URL, and it points to OCCULTPRIESTESS.com 

The second WITCHES BALL and my Motley CREW! 

RETAIL was never my thing, it was a WAY. Seemingly the only Path to be a Priestess was to be in Retail or a Book Author (not as effective). Having a Store, brought the Entire community to my door. I had been an Active participant in my pagan community for 10 years before I became “THE OCCULT PRIESTESS” or “BANSHEE” my Pagan Name. I was Known, infamous, as the First Tarot reader in a Local Nightclub “The Warehouse”. I was always seen as that Metaphysical Girl. For a tiny fish bowl, I was famous, or infamous.

~ I am Bansidhe, Queen of the Fairies! ~ my saying back then

I am the MOST QUALIFIED METAPHYSICAL TEACHER I KNOW. hands down.

During my Time Raising an entire Community- I WROTE, A LOT. I was NOT focused on Money, Fame or Power! I wanted ENLIGHTENED FRIENDS! A horrible business plan, I admit. I still don’t know any better! See my RESUME to be EMPRESSED (Empress 3 #Tarot)

Here I will place some of my Dusty Tunes, from Occult Shop Past…

BE A REAL WITCH, not a Trendy Bytch! 

Copy Paste:

Pagan Festivals 
There are many things to look forward to when planning to attend a festival. Time away from work and stress, a chance to get back to nature and your spirituality, and finally to be in the company of others who think like you do. Plus it’s more fun than a barrel full of monkeys!
Upon arrival most festivals will have a welcome tent where you can register, or sign in. The first day there is an opening ritual for everyone to attend. This is a great chance to see all the people you will be spending your time with and meet festival organizers. Before or after this main rite tent set up is done. Camping is the only way to spend a festival if you ask me! Although a few people may opt for a hotel near by if available.
Classes take up the bulk of activities during the day. Some festivals provide famous authors or pagan leaders who lecture and sign books. The classes are a great way to expand your spiritual focus and ask the questions that you never had anyone to answer for you. More often than not you will receive answers from the teacher and many different perspectives from the others attending the class. Festival planners usually assemble children’s activities and games. Some sites have a place to swim; most will have woods to wander. Vendors from near and far gather in a merchant row offering goods from the rare and exotic to the mundane (from batteries to Band-Aids).
Some festivals offer meal plans so you don’t have to bother with cooking, while others will offer coffee, snacks and breakfast.
In the evening you may attend a main ritual, to celebrate the season, or a member of a coven receiving a degree initiation. Later in the evening festivals offer large bonfires. Some of these fires are set aside for a bardic circle, where people sing, tell stories, read poetry and socialize. Main fires are reserved for drumming, chanting and dancing. These fires are the high point of the festivals for me. If you have a noisemaker bring it along. It’s an amazing feeling to be drumming by a fire at night, watching pagans dance and move with spirit. If you don’t drum try out your dancing feet, belly dancing is always appreciated. It is easy to slip into a trance with all the energies present.
The last day consists of clean up and packing. There is a closing ritual where you can get all those e-mail addresses you wanted.
Check out the HEARTHFIRE Festival in June! Rumors of a Bacchanalia this summer check back next month for more details. Say have you been to Pan Pagan? This year is the 25th anniversary. The Occult Shop will be there, will you?

DRUID KING ISSAC BONEWITS Was our Paid Guest at THE HEARTHFIRE FESTIVAL in Kentucky. Now all we have is Hippy Orgies, “Burning Man”. My Festivals were CLEAN. 

Winter Cloak: If your planning on attending any out door rituals a warm cloak is a must. They can be as fancy or plain as you wish. Take your personality into account when purchasing. Are you going to wear your cloak mostly for it too look pretty, or may you be using it to cover large mud puddles for ladies to cross over? Take these things in consideration when choosing the material and style. Be sure to check the length before you buy a cloak. I can’t tell you how many people I have seen stumbling and bumbling because their cloak was too long. A hood is not a necessity for those with long hair. Yet if you do intend on wearing a hood, make sure it is comfortable and does not compromise your vision for this could cause problems when around an open flame.
By: Rev. Banshee

Self Empowering Ritual: Tools you will need are a red candle, a white candle, dried orange and lemon peels, a garnet or tigers eye stone, a red cloth, parchment paper, a pen, string and some kind of solar, or fire oil. In front of your altar cast a circle and call in Deities such as Lugh, Hel, or Pele. Light the white candle as an offering of fire to the deity. Hold the stone in your left hand as you write on the parchment what you wish this spell to do for you. Do you want to be more popular? Be taken more seriously? Feel confident in a certain situation? Be creative, this spell is only limited by your imagination. Anoint the red candle with the solar oil, an anoint your root and throat chakras Light the candle saying “Bright fire of power, I no longer cower. Confident in your light, I am filled with strength and might.” Allow the flame to burn, as you meditate on your rising thoughts. Next take the red cloth and fill it with the herbs you have selected. You may also include your stone in the cloth. Gather the edges and tie with the sting. Hold the newly made sachet in your dominant hand, and speak to the Gods what you have written on your parchment paper. Feel them empowering you as you empower the sachet. You may go into chanting at this time. When you are finished you may snuff out both of the candles if they have not burned down. Thank all who have helped you in this rite, and dismiss them. Close the circle as usual. You can do this spell as often as you wish.
By: Rev. Banshee

Recipe for Moon Water: Take a crystal or glass bowl and fill with spring, or natural water (sea water is best). On the night of the waning or full moon go outside or to a window where the moon shines through. Place the bowl in direct contact with the moon so that you can see her reflecting in the water. You may sit there and meditate on the Goddess at this time, thus empowering the water, or walk away and let the moon work her own magick. The time you leave the bowl is up to you, I suggest at least an hour. Then draw a hot bath and drop in any lunar herbs, sea salt, bath salt, etc. that you wish. Let the materials seep as if a tea. Then add the moon water. This should make one powerful magickal experience!
By: Rev. Banshee

Boxing Aphrodite
Being pagan I revel in my relationship with the God and Goddess. Among you I worship, among you I teach, learn, among you I dance. My spirituality has taught me to appreciate my body, it’s form and functions. I feel the liberation in running naked through the woods, stirring up the fire with ecstatic dance, but do I feel safe?
Too many times I have noticed when speaking to a “spiritual” man about the religion or philosophy, I find this “Spiritual” man staring at my spiritual breasts. This leads me to think that my body is held in higher regard than my wisdom. How are pagan women really valued? Actions speak louder than words.
Patriarchy has overrun us in recent centuries, as you know for we all “Fight the good fight”. They took statues of pagan old and bashed their heads and tore of their limbs to render them “powerless”. For instance the famed Aphrodite statue was desecrated because she symbolized a beautiful and powerful Goddess. Are we taking the power away from our pagan women by only noticing their physical beauty?
We clearly recognize that the Goddess is celebrated through the female form and sexuality. Now is the time to recognize the mind within the Goddess. The joyous, carefree, playful, compassionate, healing, intuitive, mysterious, wise- Maiden, Mother and Crone.
So when you are attending your next pagan festival watching a woman dance the dance of the Goddess, dare to show your interest in the way she talks, not just the way she walks.

New Years Resolution: New Years: Sticking to your resolution!
Many of us have participated in the tradition of the “New Years Resolution”. When faced with a new calendar year we are often called to reflect on how the past year has effected our lives. Did we accomplish all that we had hoped to? Are there new issues now that we did not foresee last year? How do we wish to spend the next year? Some people have a 5 year plan, while many others just set short term goals. Now at the beginning of 2001, where do you see yourself at the beginning of 2002?
We all have a great opportunity this month to set our lives straight. Goal setting can be a very magickal operation. Join us as we teach you how to set your goals in motion, and manifest the best!
The History: The celebration of the New Year is the oldest of all holidays. Although in the first centuries AD the Romans continued celebrating the New Year, the early Catholic Church condemned the festivities as paganism. But as Christianity became more widespread, the early church began having its own religious observances concurrently with many of the pagan celebrations, and New Year’s Day was no different. Other traditions of the season include the making of New Year’s resolutions. That tradition also dates back to the early Babylonians who celebrated it in March. The early Babylonian’s most popular resolution was to return borrowed farm equipment. The tradition of using a baby to signify the new year was begun in Greece around 600 BC. It was their tradition at that time to celebrate their god of wine, Dionysus, by parading a baby in a basket, representing the annual rebirth of that god as the spirit of fertility. Although the early Christians denounced the practice as pagan, the popularity of the baby as a symbol of rebirth forced the Church to reevaluate its position. The Church finally allowed its members to celebrate the new year with a baby, which was to symbolize the birth of the baby Jesus. The use of an image of a baby with a New Years banner as a symbolic representation of the new year was brought to early America by the Germans. They had used the effigy since the fourteenth century.
The New Year, no matter when people have celebrated it, has always been a time for looking back to the past, and more importantly, forward to the coming year. It’s time to reflect on the changes we want, or often need, if we’re to have the motivation to move forward. Resolutions are a reflection of the Babylonians’ belief that what a person does on the first day of the New Year will have an effect throughout the entire year.
The Strategy: There are three factors in writing a functional New Years resolution.
1) Figuring out what you truly desire.
2) Writing it down in a motivating manner.
3) Then keeping up with the resolution and making slight changes if necessary.
1) In order to figure out what we would like to change about our lives we must reflect on the past. What issues or situations have been nagging at us? Using a form of divination such as the Tarot cards can help us see things more clearly. Shuffle the cards asking them what issues you need to work on most to attain fulfillment in your life. Cut the cards then lay them out in a 5 spread. Here you have the question, the past, the present, the environment (or possibly the near future) and lastly the answer.
Making a laundry list of self-improvements is not always conducive to motivation. We may tend to get bogged down thinking of the work we must do to improve our quality of life. So start out with a reasonable list of a few well rounded goals. If your goal is something you have been trying to do for years yet have still not succeeded try working on just that one goal. After that is accomplished you can always move on to the next thing.
2) Writing a functional resolution may sound easy, yet it is a task that if done correctly can make all the difference in keeping your Resolution. Let’s say your resolution is to relax more in the coming year. Word this carefully. Try not to think of it as “This year I am going to relax.” That’s a stress-inducer waiting to happen. It forces you into thinking of the resolution as something you must do, not something you want to do. Try to make it sound a little gentler: “This year I’m going to explore different ways of relaxing.” It also suggests more of a plan-you’ll fulfill the resolution by experimenting with relaxation techniques. The first resolution sounds as if you’re going to force yourself to relax by sheer willpower. Also keep it positive. Try to keep your resolution free of negative words such as “not”, “won’t”, “can’t”, “stop”, etc. There are some theories that the subconscious mind does not process such words. So saying “I won’t eat my weight in chocolate” translates into “I eat my weight in chocolate”. Some people prefer to write affirmations as if they had already taken place, such as “I am free from chocolate cravings, and enjoy eating healthy”.

3) Keeping up with your resolution can be the most exciting and creative part of the process. We are making changes in our lives when we set these goals. Yet there is some part of our selves that enjoys not meeting these goals, or we would have accomplished them already. Think of him or her as a 5 year old you. He/She wants what he/She wants and will try many tricks and games to get it. He/She will try to coerce you into cheating just a little, then go into full blown tantrums if they do not get what they want. Disciplining the mind and body is a must when attaining goals. I suggest meditation. If this goal is really important to you, then meditate on the benefits, visualize the outcome and how different your life is because you have reached this goal.
Making slight changes in the goal may also be necessary to keep up with the wiley ways of the 5 year old.
Ritual Work: Picking out a candle, crystal, oil, incense and herbs can start you on the path to working a powerful goal attaining New Years spell. After having written the perfect resolution, doing a little magick will surely put you over the top. Using the tools, and the resolution a simple ritual can be crafted. Write your resolution on parchment paper, use calligraphy pens if you wish. The more work you put into preparing any spell the more powerful it will be.

Rev. Banshee

THE CROW
A glossy black bird known as the crow was seen to be much more to our ancient ancestors. They worshiped immaculate ivory carvings of a Goddess who’s features were a beaked mouth, talon fingers and women’s breasts. Centuries later our Crow Goddess has become our Crow God. We see traces of her in Cronus (which literally translates to “the crow”), Odin and Apollo.
Still, today the Crow is seen to be a bringer of death or bad omens similar to a black cat. He is basically an underworld God, a taker of souls. In Laurie Cabot’s book Love Magick she describes underworld Gods as mournful, reclusive and dark. For example, Vanth of Etruscan origin leads the dead souls to the underworld similar to the story of the ferryman taking souls across the River Styx in Greek Mythology. The Crow is the bringer of dreams, he is your escort on your journey to the astral.
Friday, May 13, 1994, Mirmax films released a 90’s version of this ancient myth. The Crow is based upon a series of comic books created by James O’Barr. Brandon Lee (R.I.P) plays Eric Draven, an unknown musician who lives with his fiancée in a dark and dirty urban setting. On “Devil’s Night”, the eve before Samhain (Oct. 30), he and his fiancée are brutally murdered by a gang. Eric lies in his grave until a year later. We are shown a crow pecking upon Eric’s tombstone and the earth covering his body begins to break away. This dark and morbid scene is when Eric is awakened from his slumbers by the spirit of the Crow to bring karmic justice upon the souls of the murderers. Another twist of the story is Eric newly acquired sight. He practices the art of psychometry (touching objects such as jewelry and seeing the past) to gain insight and ultimately to defeat the object of his revenge.
Eric is a dark, beautiful angel of death. The Crow as done by J. O’Barr is a modern myth of death, rebirth, sorrow and the laws of karma.
One can only contemplate the strong irony of Brandon Lee’s death only eight days prior to the film’s completion. He was shot with a projectile from a prop gun in the last scene that involved firearms. He was engaged to marry shortly after The Crow was finished, but as fate would have it, he had a visit by the real Crow. Blessed Be Brandon and thank you.
Brandon Lee
Born: February 1, 1965 (Aquarius)
Died: March 31, 1993

OH BY THE WAY… 

My Community- Like Most,

DEMONIZED ME, and I HAD TO LEAVE!

 

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~ The One and ONLY #OccultPriestess

Kore/Persephone/Korinne WILson