Warning: Witch At Work!
Your Environment
If your workplace is anything like the one from which I've just extricated myself, it's
noisy and difficult to work in (and in my case, filled with crappy techno music
and Madonna posters). So the first thing you'll want to so is to have a teensy
space you can personalize with your own witchy stuff which will not only remind
you of who you really are under the workaday persona, but will also give you
something to feast your eye upon in times of stress. I used to have a hunk of
rose quartz and one of amethyst on my desk - the quartz to instill a love of the
job, and the amethyst to clear my head and keep me calm during the many
stressful phone calls I had to make and take.
Other nice things to keep on your desk are: pictures, especially of natural settings; tiny God/Goddess statues; shells; geodes, which aid grounding; growing plants. You might like to have something to represent each of the four elements on your desk; a shell for water, a geode for earth, an air plant for air and a candle for fire, for example.
I also had an oil burner on my desk. Unfortunately my supervisor claimed that citrus-scented oils gave her hay fever, but we managed to burn them during her frequent plastic-surgery absences. Here are a couple of oil blends which will improve your mood, mind and productivity.
Oil Blend for VDU Users (from Nerys Purchon's
Aromatherapy)
1 tsp cypress oil
1 tsp cedar oil
1 tsp pine
oil
2 tsp lemon oil
Blend in a bottle and add a few drops to an oil
diffuser - or put a few drops on a tissue and wipe over work surfaces. This
blend will create a fresh atmosphere in the office and the lemon oil will
encourage alertness.
Anti-Exhaustion Oil
2 drops each lavender and peppermint oils OR 1
drop lavender, 1 drop lemongrass, 1 drop bergamot
Anti-Stress Oil
Use this to calm the atmosphere during very
stressful periods, when everyone's panicking
1 drop camomile, 1 drop clary
sage, 1 drop lavender, 2 drops rose geranium.
Clear the Mind Oil
2 drops lemon, 1 drop basil, 1 drop
rosemary.
Harassment
OK, so it's not exactly ethical to practice magick to
influence someone's mind, but sometimes there are those in positions of power
who use their position to unfairly harass their employees. Here are a few ways
of evening things up.
Candle Spell to stop Harassment at Work or School
This is a
really cool spell from Z. Budapest's 'The Holy Book of Women's
Mysteries'
Do this during the waning moon.Use a brown candle (an image
candle, if you can) to represent the person who is harassing you. Write the
person's name on the front and back of the candle. On a small piece of parchment
paper, write: 'From now on, (name) will say nothing but sweet words about me and
to me. By the power of Aradia, so mote it be!'
Put a drop of honey in the middle of the paper and roll it into a ball. Heat your athame, make a gash in the candle (in its mouth, if it's an image candle) and stuff the paper ball into it. Let the candle burn a little while every night for an odd number of nights, to a maximum of nine nights. Throw the remnants into flowing water, but save some candle drippings or ash to sprinkle in the path of your oppressor.
Silencing the Lion
My supervisor was one of those people who spends
most of her time yelling. In fact, she used to yell four-letter words while we
were on the phone to clients but as her dad owned the business she was never
disciplined for it. Anyway, here's a little trick I used to prevent her habits
from putting me in a bad mood. I used to visualise her with white cotton wool
wrapped around her mouth, so that the sound was muffled and neutralised from
causing me harm. She still shouted, but the shouting's effect as a stressor for
me was greatly reduced.
Magickal Oils
These oils can be used for anointing, candle dressing, baths, charm bags or any other magickal purpose. Please use only pure essential oils rather than 'scented' or 'fragrance' oils, which are often made from artificial ingredients and have no therapeutic or magickal benefits.
You can also make your own oils for anointing and candle dressing by the kitchen witch school of enfleurage. Fill a glass bottle with the herb in question, pour a carrier oil over it, leave somewhere warm until the oil is saturated with the scent of the herb, changing the herbs when they lose their colour. As essential oil blends generally have to be diluted with a carrier oil anyway, I figure oils made in this way will still be very effective, and in this way I have made oils from herbs whose essential oils are either prohibitively expensive or almost impossible to purchase, including vervain, lemon verbena, yarrow and mugwort. The carrier oil is a matter of personal choice; olive is traditional, sweet almond is a good light oil, hazelnut and macadamia are also light and lovely.
Please note that these recipes are proportional, so that you can make up the quantity you want. Just add the essential oils in these proportions, drop by drop, until you achieve the desired strength of scent.
Love Oil
15 parts dilute Rose Otto (3 percent rose otto absolute in a
jojoba oil base)
15 parts dilute Jasmine (3 percent jasmine absolute in a
jojoba oil base)
2 parts Lavender Oil
Add a 1-inch piece of vanilla bean
and a little sprig of Yarrow to the bottle.
General Anointing Oil
5 parts Frankincense
5 parts Cedarwood
4
parts Sandalwood
2 parts Myrrh
Add a tiny Amethyst crystal to the
bottle
Full Moon Oil
6 parts dilute Jasmine (3 percent jasmine absolute in a
jojoba oil base)
3 parts dilute Rose Otto ( (3 percent rose otto absolute in
a jojoba oil base)
3 parts Sandalwood
3 parts Lemon
Add a moonstone to
the bottle
Money Oil
7 parts Patchouli
5 parts Cedarwood
1 part Basil
1
part Clove
Add a length of cinnamon stick, and a tiger's eye, or a bloodstone
or green aventurine, to the bottle.
Spring and Summer Oil
The inspiration for this oil came to me one very
warm spring day. Anoint yourself and candles with it during Ostara, Beltane or
Midsummer rituals - it's beautiful and connects you to your natural surroundings
if you use blossoms from your own area.
Make the oil at the beginning of
spring. Go for a walk somewhere where there are flowering fruit trees. Collect
blossoms from as many kinds of fruit tree as possible, preferably scented ones
(apple, cherry, peach and apricot, etc). Fill a small bottle with the blossoms
and cover with a light carrier oil such as almond. Leave in the sun until the
oil has become impregnated with blossom scent, strain, but add one fresh spring
blossom to the bottle.
Storage of Oils
Store all oils in dark or opaque glass bottles, and in
a cupboard away from light and heat.


