At the next full moon, make a vow, alone or with your partner, to bring forth all your inner erotic powers. Begin with a blissful bath in oil-scented water; this essential oil must be the one that makes you feel sexiest. For me, it is an equal mix of vanilla and amber; my vamber has never failed me. When I wear this unguent, I feel as if a cloud of sensuality surrounds me.
Sit in a darkened room, encircled by flickering jasmine, musk, or “vamber” candles. Raise a cup of jasmine tea or a glass of wine from a vintage that represents a lucky year for you, and speak this spell aloud:
A great relationship can be cultivated, literally. By planting and carefully tending flowers that have special properties—like night-blooming jasmine for heightened sensuality, or lilies for lasting commitment—you can nurture your relationship. During a new moon in the Venus-ruled signs of Taurus or Libra, plant an assortment of flowers that will surround you with the beauty and energy of sweet devotion.
Before you place your hothouse posies or seeds into pots or flowerbeds, bless the ground with a prayer of health for your plants, yourself, and your relationships.
Tantra, a greatly overused and gravely misunderstood term, comes from Sanskrit, and means “Ritual, Meditation, and Discipline.” It involves a form of mutual worship of the Godhead (lingam) and the Goddesshead (yoni), in which divinity is achieved through simultaneous erotic and emotional union. This exquisite approach to deepening the love between you and your partner requires you to share mutually held intentions.
At the nearest greenhouse or floral show, buy as many gardenias as your purse will allow. Ten or twenty of these heavenly flowers will fill your bower with a sweet, seductive air. Place some of the flowers in crystal-clear bowls of water and some in a warm footbath, and scatter some petals in your bed. Undress and light a single gardenia-scented candle at the head of the bed. Crush some of the petals and rub them into your skin and hair, then chant this love spell:
To transform the object of your desire into your partner in passion, try this powerful attraction spell. Get together the following elements for this spell:
To attract new love, two nights before the full moon, take a small pink votive candle and place it inside your cauldron or any large metal pot. Lay a rose and a bell beside the cauldron and your altar. Use either rose or apple blossom essential oil to anoint the candle’s wick. For the next two nights, light the candle, cup it in your hands, and direct loving thoughts into its flame. On the night of the full moon, take a thorn from the rose and carve the name of your heart’s desire into the candle’s wax, reciting:
On a small piece of paper, write the name of your would-be love in red ink and roll up the scroll. Anoint the paper with rose or amber essential oil. Tie the scroll with red threads, incanting one line of the following spell per knot:
Erin Lale
Fellow faculty at Harvard Divinity School posted an open letter to Wolpe in response to his article. It's available on this page, below the call for p...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. The Wild Hunt has a roundup of numerous responses on its site, but it carried this one as a separate article. It is an accoun...
Erin Lale
Here's another response. This one is by a scholar of paganism. It's unfortunately a Facebook post so this link goes to Facebook. She posted the text o...
Erin Lale
Here's another link to a pagan response to the Atlantic article. I would have included this one in my story too if I had seen it before I published it...
Janet Boyer
I love the idea of green burials! I first heard of Recompose right before it launched. I wish there were more here on the East Coast; that's how I'd l...