The Hedge Witch's Way: Magical Spirituality for the Lone Spellcaster - Rae Beth 2006

Prayers and Spells for Good Fortune

In the Scandinavian tradition, the Goddess of Fate — or luck — is a Triple Goddess, called the Norns, who presides over a sacred well, beneath the world tree. As such, she is an underworld Goddess. In the Celtic tradition, also, the Fate Goddess is connected with water. Magical lands beneath the waves, or islands across water, were said to be the home of the fate-weaving faeries. This may be because in her upperworld aspect, the Fate Goddess is linked with the Moon, and Moon and water are always seen as being connected, especially Moon and ocean. For the Moon’s magnetic power creates the tides of the earthly seas and also rules over the tides of fortune. The Moon, wishing-wells, the tides that ebb and flow and the spinning, weaving or cutting of something are all linked with ’Lady Luck’, in European belief. As Morgan Le Fey (or La Fate), what she and her assistant faeries weave is the soul of life, which can be seen, psychically, as a dream picture, as though reflected in water. And, as explained before, the faeries weave partly with what we give them. They weave in our feelings and attitudes, high ideals or unresolved conflicts. They weave in our links with one another and the lessons we choose to learn. This, in turn, creates our future. If our aspirations are noble, it helps. They can work with bright threads then, to make a much better picture.

When looking at issues of feeling and meaning, this is what we see — the dream picture that is made in the underworld. On the other hand, when looking at the tapestry of fate from the point of view of middle Earth matters, many psychics see a vast web of light, a three-dimensional and cosmic web. We are all placed on this, somewhere, and through it we are linked to all living beings, and also to the Moon and stars and Sun; in fact, to all of creation. This middle Earth vision shows clearly how we are all part of one huge organism (the Universe), and that we are each affected by, and affecting, all else that lives.

In the upperworld reaches, where the Moon holds sway, and where we can ’read our fate in the stars’ as astrologers, the issue is how we respond to concepts like ’eternity’, and what we make of the great and eternal themes, like love and parent—child relationships and the search for meaningful work. Ideally, how do we think these things should be? How should life be lived, collectively, for peace and justice? And how well will we stand by our ideals? Will we be prepared to adapt them, if they prove false or wrong? Upperworld aspirations are reflected in the soul-weaving done by the faeries, just as the Moon or stars may be seen reflected in a lake or shining on the sea, but they are lived out in middle Earth.

The Witch Goddess of Fate, however we name her, is she of Moon and stars and Earth and water, the upperworld, middle Earth and underworld. By her, we can attempt to heal our fortune, when we have gone astray from the best destiny that is possible. It is by her, also, and by the God, that we can read fate and try to understand destiny, through divination.

There is no ’Lord Luck’ that I know of. The deity of fate has always, traditionally, been a Goddess. However, the God can reveal destiny, and also change it — and he can bestow blessings and avert evil. I do not know why luck is female. Cynics might say it is because men have perceived women as fickle, just like fate appears to be. More profoundly, it may be because women weave the genetic material, that shapes our destiny in a very basic way, inside our bodies, during pregnancy. So we might well say that the feminine force, the Goddess, is the prime fate-weaver. But the God, the great cosmic magician, also has work to do. In nature, he brings genetic diversity, and in life, generally, he challenges us to experiment and to increase creativity.

In fact, the Goddess and God are one, being simply the polar opposites on a continuum of divinity. So ’Lord Luck’ does exist, in fact? Perhaps more as a ’bolt from the blue’ than as the settled outcome of obvious causes. As a woman, I feel comfortable praying to the Goddess for clairvoyant and fate-weaving power, and to the God for the power to realize my best destiny. A man might prefer a different approach, but these are individual matters.

The main thing to understand is that the faerie realm, the underworld, is where the business of fate gets most attention. It is here that Moon and stars (or ideals) are reflected, and here that causes are woven into our soul-picture that make our life on Earth. The Goddess is queen of all fate in this realm, and the God is a prophet, like the Celtic Bran, or like Merlin or Odin, and a healer of destiny. They will both help us, if we ask them. We can say prayers like these — first, to the Goddess.

Prayer to the Faerie Queen Goddess for Good Fortune

Goddess of Fate, Faerie Queen Goddess, I now invoke you. Lady who ordains the ebb and flow of every tide and the wine in the cup of life, and the work of faerie fate-weavers, I call upon you. Help me to sense my own fate clearly, to understand the signs, to divine meaning. May faerie helpers, in your name, bring good opportunities. So may my luck increase, that my life may serve life, my happiness and good fortune to be shared with many.

Wear something green, the faeries’ colour, when you say this prayer. Next, write the faeries a letter. Tell them that you need a change of luck, so that you may be well placed enough to be creative. If you feel you have had bad luck in love or about money or any matter, then mention that especially, asking for a change to good fortune. It is always best to write to them about just one subject at a time.

Now describe in detail the life that you want to live, the life-serving things that you plan to do, when you have better luck. With whom would you share your good fortune? Tell the faeries about them, too. What plans do you have for creative projects? How could you help people around you, or the land or the creatures, if you had better luck? What are the exciting and life-enhancing things you would do?

Do not be too specific about the form your improved luck should take. Do not tell the faeries, for instance, where your home should be, or who could be your new lover or how you should make more money. They know far better than we, how things can work out for the best. Just tell them what you need, and leave them room for manoeuvre.

Finally, make them a promise: ’If this comes to be, I will . . .’ (for example, if asking for better luck about housing) ’always be hospitable/give a home to a stray animal/make of my home a temple’ or whatever is appropriate for you. This is not a bribe for the faeries, but a way of pledging to share what comes to you. It is the ’sacrifice’, the offering, that is part of a traditional spellcasting. Besides, the faeries give out luck to those who will pass it on — they really, really do not like hoarders. Remember, however, you must keep your promise, if the luck is not to run out.

Spells like the above have a childlike quality, rather like writing to Father Christmas, but it is the innocence and the simplicity of them which brings the power. In this instance, leave the letter in your garden overnight, at full moon (or on a balcony or windowsill, if you feel that would seem more private — or if you don’t have a garden). In the morning, retrieve it, so that its contents remain secret, known only to you and the faeries. Do not show it to anyone.

If your household is large and busy, so that you cannot guarantee that your spell will remain unnoticed by others, then you can bury the letter, instead. This is like delivering it into the earth, so that the faeries who are underground, in hollow hills, will be able to find it. Try to use the most earth-friendly materials for a letter that you mean to bury — preferably unbleached recycled paper, and, if you can manage it, biodegradable ink made with blackcurrant juice or red wine, perhaps thickened with a little cornflour or cocoa, or something similar. You can then use a dip pen, as calligraphers do, to write the letter. Alternatively, you could use a pencil. All this extra care and attention is troublesome, but it does boost the magic.

This is a most beautiful spell to do if you are camping somewhere that is remote from all cities, some wild and green place, where faeries gather. To leave your letter outside in the full moonlight in such a place as that could be an experience to remember.

Can the faeries read? Yes, because to them, all language is magical. All early writing systems were developed for magic and ritual purposes. They know that to write is a sacred act. They do not like some of the uses to which letters have been put in the present-day human world — as currency for mind manipulation and all manner of other desecrations, which have debased words altogether. But they know and understand writing. In any case, the letter’s contents will be made known to them, telepathically, as you are writing it. The real point of the writing and the leaving of the letter in the moonlight or underground, is that it makes it a ritual act, one that makes such contact possible on psychic levels.

What is luck? Many say it is the art of being in the right place at the right time, or the knack of making the most of our opportunities. This is largely true, though not, of course, the entire story. Another popular piece of folk wisdom is that ’we make our own luck’. This is a vital piece of information, for it tells us that our own positive attitudes, a psychological readiness to be fortunate, as well as an instinctive sensing of which are the good opportunities, make all the difference.

Many of us feel we don’t deserve good luck. Conscious or unconscious guilt about past wrongdoing (whether real or imagined) keeps many of us believing we deserve a hard time. Then there is the issue of what really is lucky, in the long run. To take an obvious example, a job loss can appear a real piece of ill fortune, at first. But, if it leads to a new and happier life, it is actually lucky. It may force a career change that leads to a more fulfilled existence. Some things are blessings in disguise. More subtly, even genuinely bad experiences can lead us to wisdom or increased compassion for others, through understanding of suffering. There may be lessons more valuable than gold, in many difficult experiences, though we may not see it at the time. However, some suffering is pointless. The faerie fate-weavers do not want us to have lives of dreary, sad deprivation. They want us to learn and grow, yes, but they want us to flourish.

How do we tell which life events are gifts, or even just plain unavoidable, and which are instances of settling for less than we need? Sometimes, if we’re spoilt, we may complain a lot, even when given a lucky break others would love to have (the ’it’s not quite good enough’ syndrome). At other times, we may not have realized that our ’good luck’ is only the icing on a stale and disgusting cake.

All this can be really confusing, but we can pray for guidance, by saying something like this.

Prayer to the Faerie God for Understanding of Fortune

Wise Lord who helps us to steer our lives by the stars, God of the Crystal Boat and Crystal Tower, I call to you. Guide all upon the Earth to a good destiny of increased wisdom and fulfilled love. Grant to me to understand my own fate, and to know what is right and good in my life, and what is not. To know what I need and what I should accept with gratitude — and what to avoid. Enhance in me the understanding of what my good fortune is, and how to use it. May I be in harmony with the true needs of all, and so fulfil my best destiny.

When the above prayer is answered, through a dream or a psychic reading, or just as a sudden realization, a new light is shed upon old problems. Sit or lie quietly after saying it, and see if you can feel the answers. But do not worry if you cannot. It is very usual for the guidance to come unexpectedly.

To return to the subject of fate itself, as woven, we can gain a good understanding by relating it to the real structure of a cloth or tapestry. There are two kinds of thread in material and also in our lives — the warp and the weft. The ones that go across the loom to make the picture are called the weft. These may be changed often, bringing in new colours, making a (hopefully) good design. They are what we are handed as we go along through life, opportunities of many kinds — relationships, education, work possibilities, gifts, travel options and so on. Some may be far better than they, at first, seem. Yet others are mistakes in fancy packaging. We can choose some and discard others. We are not all handed a good thick bundle of these, and we are not all handed threads of the same quality. The fact remains, some folks get given many fabulous threads, gold and silver, and still make a terrible mess of their life picture. Others are given quite a limited range of what seem to be dull colours, yet still make a picture that is beautiful and speaks to all of us. This is the extent to which we ’make our own luck’ — by using what life hands us, wisely or adventurously, and with imagination.

Then there are the other threads, the warp ones. These go along the loom, as the foundation of any design. They are what can’t be changed, the things we don’t choose but must work with or around, like it or not: for example, the socioeconomic conditions of the country where we live, or the attitudes and characters of our parents. Arguably, we may have chosen these before being born, for the sake of life lessons or of what we wanted to achieve, but not a lot can be done about them once we are born. Many things come into this category. The country where we live may be at war or peace, in a state of famine, or of increase. There may be an especially cold winter, or long-term climate changes may be going to occur. Laws may be passed which cause stress or unhappiness throughout most of the nation, or there may be a time of liberality. Our parents, or somebody else close to us, may suddenly die, or they may live long or become rich and famous. All these things are outside our own control. They are the given things. We cannot choose whether to experience them or not. We can, however, choose what we will make of them, how we will react, and so on.

These longwise warp threads quite clearly demonstrate that the picture of our own life is actually a detail within the big tapestry that is all life. They show us more clearly than the weft threads may do that we are all connected with one another, and with the fate of Earth herself. For example, if the South American economies continue to do badly, it is more likely that what remains of the rainforests will be chopped down. This will affect Earth’s atmosphere for us all. Closer to home, you may have a neighbour who likes to play loud music late at night, and is deaf to ’please turn it down’. This means that your family may suffer from increased stress and poor sleep, with repercussions the next day. Events ripple out. The luck of one person, or country, is ours as well, for good or ill. What affects one, affects us all. The best thing that we can do about this is to pray for good fortune, an increase in blessings, for all beings. All blessings and well-wishings improve the luck of others, or of the land (according to what we bless) and, from the point of view of a wildwood mystic, these may be some of the best prayers that we can say. As the general level of wellbeing increases, so do each of us live in a more relaxed, generous world — and this is undoubtedly good fortune. Such prayers may be requests to the deities to grant good luck. Or, as in the following example, we may ourselves give the blessing, in their names.

Prayer to the Deities of Middle Earth for Good Fortune/World Blessing

Great Lady and Lord of the Web of Light that links us all, we are your creation. In your names, I bless us all, I bless all creation. Especially, today, I bless—[here name your family, friends or any person/creature/place in need of a blessing]. May all good fortune be theirs. May their happiness increase.

Such blessings are a very important part of a witch’s work. They are good to say on a hilltop, on a bright sunny day, or at any peak time when you are feeling good. The summer solstice is an ideal time for them, but anywhere, anytime, will do. Touch the ground when you have said any general blessing — place one hand, palm down, upon the earth.

Of course, you can say a specific blessing for just one place, person or being of any kind, rather than a world blessing that includes the specific. In that instance, you might (if possible) place your hand lightly upon the person or place or creature or object. But if blessing someone from a distance, you may just project your thought towards them, as though touching them in spirit.

Finally, upon the subject of fate, we have to remember that it is our ideals (or lack of them) which shape our lives, perhaps most of all. In illustration of this, if the highest ideal that we have is to live in the most luxury we can acquire, then we may have a very comfortable life, but our life-tapestry won’t be very inspiring! And obviously, we, ourselves, may end up feeling rather unfulfilled, empty and frightened inside, as though it were all meaningless. Ideals are connected with upperworld matters. This is the realm of the high elves (the Shining Ones, long known to Celtic ancestors and others worldwide), whom the Church refer to as angels. These beings guide us in respect of the larger view of life, rather than just comfort and ease. They inspire us to take risks, to serve a creative vision, to find answers to the world’s problems — or, at least, to try. How we respond to them is always reflected in the soul-weaving or life-picture, created by the underworld faeries.

Prayer to the Upperworld Deities of Higher Purposes

Great Lady and Lord of the Upperworld, the starry heavens, I call upon you. From olden times you have shown us a sense of the sacred and lifted our minds above the mundane — away from our own troubles. Bless us all with an increased understanding of more than just our own lives. For myself, I ask to see clearly how I may aspire to serve an ideal. Let the winged beings, the shining ones, who are your messengers, now visit me in sleep and give me knowledge of what I may live for. And how to let my fate serve higher purposes.

This prayer may be said last thing at night, before you go to sleep. It is even better if you can be outside, gazing up at the stars, in some quiet country place, and then say it.

You can, of course, pray to the Goddess or God, as guide to destiny, in every aspect of the entire world tree, on every level. You can say something like this.

Prayer to the Fate Goddess of Upperworld, Middle Earth and the Underworld

Great Goddess of Fate, Lady of Moon and stars and the web of light in the Earth and woven waters, I call upon you to guide us all. Help us return into harmony with nature’s tides, which reveal the tides of fate. Help us fulfil our best destiny. Show us, by your messengers, the nature spirits and faeries who come in guiding dreams, or walk with us on the lonely road, what our best fate might be. Guide each of us to walk our path in wisdom. I ask you especially to show me/my friend—[name them] the truth of—[state the question]. Let me/her/him decide in truth and beauty.

This kind of prayer can be said before giving a psychic reading to anyone, perhaps using the tarot cards or runes or dreamstones, or any other system of divination. It can also be said before going to sleep, in request for a guiding dream.

Tradition tells us that what may be used to read fate (the runes, Celtic tree cards etc.), may also be used to heal or reweave it. For example, in a reading showing a forthcoming illness, other cards/stones etc. may be added to the spread, bringing a protective and healing influence. Or, the symbols for illness may be removed altogether, and replaced with others showing creative life changes. If this is done with a prayer to the Lady and Lord of Good Fortune, to let this fate be changed for the better, according to your spell, then bad events may be averted (that is, unless they are what must come to be, for what the peoples of the East call ’karmic’ reasons. Even then, your spell may soften the blow).