Magical Almanac: Practical Magic for Everyday Living - Lauryn Heineman 2018

A Glamour Dinner Party Rite by Deborah Castellano
Water Magic

If you are unfamiliar with glamour as a magical concept, your mind may immediately go to Sephora or current Hollywood faves. While they are a part of what makes up the whole of glamour, the additional part to consider is what makes you interesting and exciting to yourself and others. Magically speaking, you would use your glamour to give your intention a push (. . . sometimes a shove). Glamour is used to help you see doors that are about to open to you, recognize potential allies, and see potential outcomes more clearly, and it gives you the ability to figure out how to be perfectly charming as needed, as one of my mentors would say.

Why do you do magic? If you are doing magic minus the spiritual worship aspect (which also a completely valid practice, of course), you Want something.

No, no. I just—

No. You Want something. You Want something so badly that you’re willing to get into a chicken fight with the universe to get it. You Want something so badly that you’re willing to admit to desire. You Want something so badly that you’re willing to use means and methods that are laughed at by 75 percent of the first world’s population. You Want something so much that you can’t sleep, you can’t eat, you’re sick with it.

Let’s break down why people do magic:

• Protection

• Revenge

• Love

• Sex

• Power

• Money

• Fame

You can couch it however you like, but this is what it boils down to. In what scenario would glamour be a hindrance? Here’s a hint: um, none of them.

Protection: Who gets more protection—someone who people feel inclined to help and protect or someone who people don’t feel inclined to help and protect? Why do they feel inclined to protect you? You have the attractive or exciting quality that makes certain people or things seem appealing or special.

Revenge: When you want an eye for an eye and you’re looking for the universe to salt the earth on your behalf, what would make goddesses and spirits more inclined to help you over someone else? The attractive or exciting quality that makes certain people or things seem appealing or special.

Love: What makes you interested in someone else? What makes someone else interested in you? The attractive or exciting quality that makes certain people or things seem appealing or special.

Sex: What makes you want to get down with someone? What makes someone else want to hook up with you? The attractive or exciting quality that makes certain people or things seem appealing or special.

Power: When describing powerful people, what words are often used regardless of appearance? Magnetic, forceful, commanding, influential. What makes someone all of those things? The attractive or exciting quality that makes certain people or things seem appealing or special.

Money: How do you get hired for a job over someone else? How do you get more of an inheritance than your cousins? How do you get insider investing tips? Through the attractive or exciting quality that makes certain people or things seem appealing or special.

Fame: How does someone get famous even though it’s a scientific fact that there are many people in this world who work harder, have more talent, and have more influence and better connections? Through the attractive or exciting quality that makes certain people or things seem appealing or special.

Host a Dinner Party

Who do you think is going to win in the chicken fight with the universe? The person who is using glamour as part of their magical practice or a person who is doing the same practice but without glamour? Coffee’s only for closers, and you, my friend, need to be a closer.

So let’s have a dinner party and take your glamour out for a trot so you get comfortable using it. Bonus: now your guests will have a foot in the door with glamour too!

Step 1: Select the Guest List for Your Party

Everyone should be able to fit comfortably around your table. While each guest doesn’t have to be a Witch, it will work better if you pick people who are either Witchcraft-adjacent or tend to be game for anything. You want a mix of people who get along well and perhaps one unexpected guest—someone from out of town, someone new to you, someone’s new significant other. Children would probably be difficult to manage for your first magical dinner party, though you may be able to figure out how to include them for a magical brunch in the future with some practice.

Step 2: Choose Your Intention

Let’s start small. You can have as many dinner parties as you like, n’est-ce pas? You can always go bigger later. Maybe you want to get a piece published in a small magazine, maybe you want to sing at an open mike, maybe you want a meeting to go well, maybe you want to attract a partner, maybe you want a flirty vibe with your current partner. It’s up to you. Make it tangible and set a time frame to accomplish it. Prep your guests to do the same.

Step 3: Set the Scene

Make sure your house is in good order and you have the table arranged as simply or as extravagantly as you would like. Mason jars full of fresh flowers, tiny succulents, fresh herbs in heaps, seasonal fruit in a vase, seashells, natural stones, tealights—whatever strikes you. Consider if you want to burn some incense beforehand. Ponder music choices. If you want to create a cohesive wardrobe for everyone, suggest that everyone wear black or white. Most people have either or both in their closets, so there shouldn’t be too much whining.

Step 4: Set the Menu

What food is both glamorous and affordable to you? In my circles, it’s usually an epic-size antipasto plate that takes up most of the table with bread, different cheeses, olives, artichoke hearts, dried meats, fresh figs, bruschetta, and cold beans. I always enjoy that because it’s affordable and even my pickiest and most diet-restricted guests can usually find something they’ll eat.

If you’re not into antipasto, think about setting a grazing table with vegan treats, carnivorous delights, fresh light nibbles, heavily decadent tiny dishes—whatever would please both you and your guests the most. Eating with your hands and dipping with bread adds glamour to the event. Pinterest and Instagram are going crazy with how photogenic grazing tables are even if you have a small budget and a small table.

Consider a signature cocktail for the evening or bottles of champagne. I often serve Verdi or a champagne from my local grocery store, both of which are less than five dollars a bottle. If your guests aren’t drinkers, consider a variety of fruit- or herb-infused waters.

Have your guests each bring a dessert that will add decadence to your glamour, which is always a good mix. On a magical level, when everyone contributes something that everyone will consider eating, it makes for a stronger egregore.

Step 5: First Ritual

Before you eat, have small bowls or teacups at each guest’s place. One should be filled with salt, one should be filled with fresh spring water with a little rose water in it, and one should have some fresh sage leaves in it. Put an extra napkin by each person’s plate. Have your guests take a moment to remind themselves of their individual intention. Have your guests consider what’s keeping them from their intention. Then have your guests touch the salt to their lips. Have your guests pick up the sage leaves and smell them. Have your guests then dip their fingertips in the rosewater and touch their fingertips to their foreheads.

Step 6: Second Ritual

After dinner, have everyone consider their intention again and focus on obtaining it. Teach your guests the mantra , Om Namaḥ Śivāya. I bow to the divine within me.

Say it three times together, each focusing on opening your glamour to the universe so that you can manifest your intention.

Step 7: Third Ritual

After dessert is finished, have everyone draw an omen for their intention. It could be using tarot, bibliomancy drawn from each guest’s selection from your bookshelves, drawing runes, a screw eye on a thread that you make for each guest as a pendulum for yes or no questions. My personal favorite to use with a group is the Golden Moth Illumination Deck because there’s not a set interpretation for each card, which makes it much more novice friendly.

Step 8: Farewell!

When it’s time for your guests to leave, when you say goodbye, take a moment with each other to wish each other well in your respective intentions. Be sure to catch up in the weeks to come to see who has manifested what for themselves!