Totem and talisman stones

 Painting stones has become quite a trend, and you can find all kinds of tutorials online (and sometimes even workshops at places like your local library) that will guide you through the process of creating them.  And while many people create these as pure art, we can infuse such stones with intent and make them as talismans or totems, tools we can later return to for spiritual work.

Creating something by hand is always a labor of love, and the process of finding the right art and the right way to lay it onto a stone invests that stone with energy.  We often learn details about our subject as we study pictures for inspiration that we didn't know, and paying attention to these details helps us gain a greater appreciation for the subject as well.

Now, before we get any further, this is a project that doesn't require any artistic ability!  Because you are using your intention to create a stone dedicated to something you want to work with, you can make the simplest picture and have it hold the spirit of the thing you are painting.  Think about some of the early cave drawings, that are little more than stick figures, and yet clearly display whole scenes and emotions!

The first thing you will want to decide is what the purpose of your stone will be.  There are so many applications for this process, but a few ideas are:  an animal you wish to work more with, a plant who's energy you want in your home, an event you want to commemorate, a protective symbol, a blessing.  Really, you can turn any spell or working into art to be put on a stone, and once you do that stone becomes a holder for the energy of the spell, to be tapped into whenever you like.

 

You also don't have to stick to stones!  There are lots of other mediums you can use, for example clay or salt dough, to create your 'stones'.  You can mold forms out of the clay, like I did here with this cat and wolf head, or you can roll them out like cookies and carve symbols into them.

Of course, if you want to add more details you can, you can even fully paint the forms after they are hard, but simple suggested shapes work well too.

 

Wolf and cat have always been powerful figures in my life, and these two in particular are also associated to deities for me (wolf and Odin, cat and Freyja), so they have a double representation on my altar space.  I can use them as touchstones when I want to connect to their animal energies, or as a sort of go-between when working with their deity.

On the more symbolic side, you can create talisman stones that represent more abstract energies.  The stone with the circle and dot was created as part of a community project, a linking symbol for everyone to work with, while the sigil on the flattened bottle cap was one I made as part of a tarot journey I took part in.

Both of these are ways for me to tangibly connect to a project (and to the group associated with the project), and when I want to work with those projects I can pull out my stones to assist.

This stone is my Memorial day stone, and features poppies (the red for veterans who died for their country, the white for non-combatants who died and the purple for animals).

I created this stone as a way to honor and remember the many people who have died, so that I could put it on my altar and be mindful of all the lives lost in conflict.  I use it as a way to keep their sacrifice in mind, and to reflect on how I have benefited from their loss.

These are eclipse stones I made during a solar eclipse.  I painted the stones ahead of time, and then took them out to charge as the sky darkened overhead. 

I see these as a container for the energy of that event, a way to tap into that eclipse energy and all the magic it holds.  They remind me of that time, and stones like these can be made at gatherings or other events, as a way to tap into the energy that was present at that time, or to connect to the people you were with.

The great thing about creating stones (or other non-stone objects) like these is that you can put them on altars, around your house, at the edges of your property, or wherever you want to call upon the energy they represent.  You can use them as touchstones for meditations, journaling or other internal work.  You can create them as a way to deepen your connection to their subject.  You can infuse them with a spell and give them as gifts.  The possibilities are endless!

Simple tools

We live in a world that is shaped by our society.  We are bombarded with messages all day, every day, about what we should be, feel, think and do.  We are shown images of things we should want, products we should buy....because money fuels the world we live in.

And, don't get me wrong, there are amazing, wonderful products out there, things that I love and things that I want...and things that I will buy.  I am a sucker for a beautiful deck of cards, for sparkly dice, for shiny tools and nice smelling stuff.

But, what we can sometimes forget is all those things are luxuries...they are great if you have access to them (and if you have the means to get them, then by all means, get the stuff that makes your heart sing!), but if we can't, that shouldn't stop us from honoring our spirituality and practicing our craft.

There is so much we can do with stuff that is everywhere, with things that we find or make, that cost us nothing (or at the very least are much less expensive).  The beauty of it is, the more you invest in your spiritual tools, the more you imbue even the simplest of objects with power and meaning.

I have been making simple tools pretty much since I started.  And often, as my money situation changed, I would upgrade tools, though I still use many of my simple ones.  My very first rune 'set' was simple flashcards.  I wrote the names and meanings of runes on bits of paper (ordinary printer paper that I tore into squares).  Later, I made another simple set by finding small rocks outside and using a bottle of old nail polish to mark the runes on them (you can also use permanent marker, I've done that for other symbols).  I made an ogham set with craft sticks (like the kind they use for popsicles...and you could totally clean and use popsicle sticks...or go find sticks outside)!

My very first wand, which I still have and use, is a stick that I found at my college, while they were trimming trees.  I let it dry, and stripped the bark off, sanded the ends, and there you go:  wand!  Driftwood also makes great wands, the water often does the sanding for you.  If you want to dress it up a little, I've wrapped sticks with yarn or thread, which gives a pop of color and a bit of grip.  You can add in feathers you have found or bits of fur.  I like to bind stones to the tips of my wands, and I tend to use leather strips...but you can totally glue them in place, adding other decorative elements where they join, if you like.

Letter openers make great athames, especially if you are somewhere that a blade might not be acceptable.  I used a pocket knife for ages as my ritual blade (because I wanted one that could cut things as needed), and those are really reasonable to find.  Old kitchen knives can be transformed into ritual blades, and can often be found really cheap at thrift stores or garage sales.  I actually made a 'blade' for one of my art classes with some poster board, cutting out the pieces and gluing them together (I finished it with clear packing tape...it didn't have an edge, but it was pretty neat looking).

For a pentacle, my first was a simple silver (looking) coaster.  I have made pentacles out of salt dough (which is a fantastic medium for crafting all kinds of things, especially statues!)  You could take wire and make a pentacle as well, weaving the circle outline first, then bending the wire to form the star inside.

You can go even more simple, and paint or draw symbols on rocks to represent your tools.  Think about what the purpose of the tools is:  what does it represent, how does it function for you, what do you need from it?  Search out rocks that feel right, and decorate (or don't!) them to suit you.  I have a crystal point that I use to direct energy, but I could easily use a similarly shaped found rock.  I also have a large, oval shaped river rock that I use as a healing focus, and representation of fire.

Another, really portable option, is to find images of the tools you need and print them out.  For durability, you can laminate or simply seal them with clear tape.  In college, I had images that I had printed for all four elements, as well as a God and Goddess image, so I could carry a full circle in my wallet!  I had a friend who simply used a tarot deck this way, using different cards to represent things he needed (he was military, and often couldn't have the tools he wanted at hand).

I have also made sacred tool images in an art journal.  I painted some, but I also used collage, so no matter what your personal artistic comfort level, you can create pages to represent different parts of your practice.  I made an altar page, a cauldron (which was painted with chalkboard paint so I could add things to it and erase them as needed), a grounding page (that was a really fun one...with outlines of my hands, so literally I can put my hands on the book and ground myself).  You could also make pages dedicated to deities you work with (like shrines!).  If you draw out runes or other divination symbols, you can grab a handful of pebbles and cast them on the page to see what runes the rocks land on.

The possibilities for tools are as endless as your imagination.  If you can make the connection in your mind, you can use something as a tool.  Never feel like you are limited because you can't afford all the fancy tools, because there are tools all around you!  And sometimes, the ones you find or make yourself become the ones that you use the most.

My eclipse experience!

I didn't actually have big plans for the eclipse originally.  I tend to get caught up in my daily life, and all the regular stuff, that sometimes I forget about these big events.  I remember an eclipse when I was in grade school, though looking at the dates, it must have been an annular (where the moon is smaller than the sun) and not a total eclipse, because I would have only been 1 year old at the last total eclipse! 

But what I remember is the wonder and fascination.  I vaguely remember some kind of glasses, though I also sort of remember the pinhole box thing, so I don't actually know how we viewed it, but we did stuff for the eclipse at school.  I was really surprised that so many schools closed for the eclipse.  My son's high school didn't, however he brought a form home that we could sign that would allow him to stay home, 'officially' so that we could watch the eclipse from a better viewing location.  He went to school, but said that very few people did.

Because I didn't have big plans, I didn't actually have glasses or really any kind of set idea about what I wanted to do.  Then I saw someone post pictures of painted rocks they made in honor of the eclipse.  I love painted rocks, and really work with rocks a lot (both actual crystals as well as ordinary rocks), and knew I just had to try my hand at it.  And then my art journaling group had the eclipse as this week's prompt, so now I was doing eclipse stuff!

On the morning of the eclipse, I decided to start with my rocks.  I had some of those plain black rocks that are sold for decorations (I got mine from the dollar store, though you can also find them at the hardware store or craft stores).  I use these for all kinds of purposes, but I love to paint them.  Normally I use nail polish (I love the durability and I have tons of bottles in all kinds of colors and glitter options), but I think because I saw painted rocks and was thinking of my art journal I went with proper paint this time.

The first step I have to do when painting these kind of rocks is wash them really good with hot water and soap.  They always have a sort of waxy coating on them, and it doesn't completely come off, but it gets better.  I assume the coating is to make them look sort of shiny like polished river rocks, but it's not kind when you want paint (or polish) to stick to them.  Then I cut little circles out of a post-it to use as a blocking stencil.

My thought was that the rocks were black enough I could paint the halo, using the post-it to keep the center unpainted, which would make it look like the eclipse.  Post-its are sticky enough to keep in place, but easy to peel off (because trying to peel off actual tape without messing up your paint edge doesn't work well).  What I forgot the first time through was that I have to take the stencil off as soon as I am done painting.  If I let it dry with the stencil in place, the paint peels off with it.

Of course, I painted both the gold and silver parts of the halo, and used a hair drier to set the paint and then tried to peel the stencil off....only to peel off the paint with it!  I knew I'd have to redo them, so I figured I'd try my hand at painting the detail before I did, so I knew if it would work or if I'd just have to leave them plain (because I could see that just the metallic halo looked pretty cool on it's own).  I used the stencil to mark out the edge for a tiny yellow crescent, and then added a white starburst.  I tried to add a bit of white haze too (as the one I saw had it and it looked neat), but I couldn't get mine to look right, and I thought it looked nice without it so that's what I decided to do.

A bit of nail polish remover took the paint off my rocks, and I started again, this time painting and removing the stencil right away.  I actually got brave and painted the crescent on one of my rocks free-hand (and wasn't that terrifying....my hands shake with tiny detail work, so frustrating).  But I was super happy with how my rocks turned out!  They have been sitting on my desk altar now, and it's fun to be able to look up and see the shiny metallic halo, and I absolutely love how the crescent and star effect came out. 


Once my stones were painted, I wrote in my art journal for a bit, working through the prompts about the eclipse.  I am really loving the process of journaling and then painting (or collaging) over my journal entry.  I have so many ideas about things to art journal in the future!  I had thought I might actually get my page painted before the eclipse, but by the time I got my stones to where I wanted them, and had painted on the Gesso (to help cover the writing and give the paper in my journal extra weight), I knew I wouldn't have time to paint the page properly, so I decided to paint it later.

I was not in the path of totality, but we were at a .99 magnitude (over 1 is considered a total...so we were close), and I had looked up the times, ours hit at 1:30, but stretched for just under 3 hours around that time.  I knew I wanted to charge my eclipse stones outside in the eclipse light, so hunted about for a place to set them.  I am always nervous setting things outside unattended (and I knew I wouldn't be outside for the full time of the eclipse) because we do have neighbors and little kids, and these were shiny painted rocks!  But there was no good place out back on our tiny patio, so I set them out front on one of the columns near our door where they got the full light.

I went out myself about five minutes before the peak of the eclipse.  Most of our neighbors had gathered in the front, and there were quite a few kids.  I knew I wanted to sit and just enjoy the experience, so I went out back, toting my art journal with me.  I didn't have glasses, but I also know that I can do quick glimpses at the sun (I don't recommend this....I'm not always smart with myself lol), so I sat out with my journal open to my eclipse page on my lap and let the sun wash over me.

I'd look up for one blink, then close my eyes.  I could see the afterimage of the eclipse with my eyes closed, and it was really interesting to watch it change as time passed.  I could see the sky getting darker and more blue.  Colors seemed to be changing, and the temperature dropped.  It had been really hot and muggy, and now it was sort of cool and pleasant.  As I was looking around, it was just different enough to make it feel like I was looking at the world through a strangers eyes, or that the world around me was subtly different from the one I was used to.  It was a fascinating feeling.

I was leaning backward, looking at the more-blue-than-usual grass, and had another moment of slight disorientation.  Something about the way I was leaning and the angle of the hill of grass behind me, made it feel like the world was curved.  I lay back, so I could see nothing but sky and arched my head so I was looking at the sky below me and the curved horizon of grass above me.  It was a total inversion of the world, and crazy cool. 

I lay there, for the rest of the eclipse, watching the sky get darker.  The sun itself was no longer directly in my view, but off to the side, so I could stare at the sky easily.  And I thought:  about taking this moment to pause, about just existing in that space.  It was something I had written as my intention for the day (I set an intention each morning as part of my calendar work), and today it was to pause.

I realized I don't often just stop and let myself BE.  I do often zone out, or tune into something like music or a show, but I haven't been spending as much time tuning inward, sitting with my breath and the earth and the sky...and I missed it!

For me, this really encapsulated the eclipse.  I my not have planned ahead, but I did decide that I wanted those moments, that time right at the eclipse, to just be, and to be me.  I didn't care about what the neighbors were doing, if they were to come out back and see me and wonder.  In that moment, none of that mattered to me.  I found my peace and stillness and I cherished it.

My last moment of wonder with the eclipse came as I was walking down to get the mail.  We were still in the eclipse window, and I noticed the light filtering through the big tree onto the driveway.  I had seen instructions for viewing the eclipse through small holes (like a strainer or the holes in your blinds) by looking at the shadows it created, but I thought it was particularly lovely to see these crescents of light where there would normally be just random patterns.  I think there is something really special with noticing these kind of magical, natural moments.  Things we normally don't even register, but something happens to make them different, and all of a sudden it is this unique crazy thing and when we stop and take notice, it changes us.