Types of Waters for Magickal Uses INTRODUCTION~~~~

Dear Ms. Q,

So you've collected your first batch of rain water, and it happens to be that first rain after the Spring (or if you live down under) Fall Solstice.

Now you want to know what types of Rainwater there are and their magical uses as well as other types of water, how to collect it, how to filter it, how to store it and what are their individual purposes.

Well remember how I told you about all the different kinds of Graveyard Dirt and how to collect it, classify it, even how to do substitutions if going to a graveyard or cemetery was not easy?

Well it’s the same thing with WATER----there is all kinds of Waters and believe it or not there are sub-headings for a number of those waters.

The General Headings are these:

Rain Water

Spring Water

Well Water

Ocean or Sea Water

Lake Water

River Water

Holy Water or Consecrated Water (yes there are two different types)

Snow (yes Snow)

Hail (yes Hail)

And Made Waters--- I’ll explain that later

Trust me the types of Waters, their combinations, how to collect and store them, their uses would take a book.

So I will have to post it under separate headings, and also have to deal with different living conditions, such as City, Country, Desert, Forest, Ocean side, not Ocean side.

How you will collect each type of water will be covered in each section.

It’s what you’re going to do with each batch that’s important after you collect them.

And you are going to need bottles, bottles of different colors if possible, and this is where you become a repurposing practioner----Say you have a neighbor who LOVES Vodka, and he gets the Vodka that comes in dark Blue Bottles---ask him to set those bottles aside for you, Bombay Gin and some Saki comes in pale blue bottles and one brand of Sake comes in pale pink bottles, certain types of sparking waters (for drinking) come in blue and green bottles, also look for bottles that are black, red, purple, yellow, look for any unusual color bottle.  Brown beer bottles are also good as well but don’t overdo them.

Then you are going to need corks that will fit the open neck of the bottle, and this will mean different size corks, no you cannot use the metal twist on tops, metal takes away the energy.

Now after you have a supply of bottles Wash them with lemon dishwashing soap and if they have paper labels remove them, so it will mean soaking those bottles to remove the labels, if the label is permanent to the bottle cover it with an appropriate color paper and either glue it to the bottle or tape it, but leave a side edge open so you can see how much water you have in that bottle----it will tell you when to replenish your supply.

Eventually over time you can get fancy with your bottles in designs, as you do that it will make them more connected to you and the type of workings you will be doing with each type of water.

COLLECTING----as I said each type of water has their own way of being collected, no matter what  when you collect your waters use only either glass bottles or glass or ceramic bowls, or cups, those too need to be pre-washed with lemon dish soap, now in the case of transporting the bottles if they have plastic twist on tops that is fine, and if the area is dangerous to walk in then use plastic bottles for safety  to collect the water but then transfer to glass bottles as soon as possible.

All Waters that are collected should be filtered afterwards at your home,  use paper filters like for coffee making to remove debris and particles.  My Granny in her day use to use clean white cotton cloth or muslin or several layers of cheese cloth, if you have a plastic funnel that is a good holder for the filter.

SUPPLIES LIST---

So the supplies you will need are:

 bottles in both clear and color,

corks in different sizes,

 a collecting bottle,

 a collecting bowl,

filters and funnels (remember all this should NOT be metal),

color papers in case,

label papers,

water proof pens with water proof inks. 

A map to show where you can freely collect waters that is not rain water,

A list of locations where you can carefully collect specialized waters,

And a link to your local weather station to see what kind of conditions for rain.

Now in my next set of postings for Waters you will see how all of this comes into play.   And I will use the Key Tag word Water for your Searches

Blessings Ms. Q

The SPRING or FALL Equinox~~~~

Yes Ms. Q,

Today is one of two days in the year when everything is in balance, equal hours of day and night.

In the Northern Hemisphere its called the Spring Equinox, in the Southern Hemisphere anywhere past Mexico its the Fall Equinox.

Later in September it will be reversed for us Fall here and Spring there, but no matter what on these two days it is in balance.

Now for those that practice Wicca it is a day of spiritual celebration, or the preparing of certain oils or incense, if one is lucky to have rain on either of those two days, gathering the rain water is espeically powerful because by storing that collected rain water in blue colored bottles one can add a few drops to any speical water mixtures such as either Peace water, War Water, even Florida Water or Kanaga Water.

But it is espeically important in making Holy Water. 

For some practioners if it doesn't rain, then on this day they will go to a source that has "living" water, now what it "living" water?   This is water that has not been run through a pipe or treated and is from a free running source such as rain, a river, stream, creek, lake (not a pond),  ocean, or a free flowing spring.

Certain natural Holy Waters such as from Lourdes, Fatima or the River Jordan or those springs associated with saints or holy people have magical properties in protection.   However although the Ganges River is concidered Holy, it is also highly polluted,  so it would need to have natural flitration to fliter out impurities.

Even collecting water from any free flowing source, once the water is collected it needs to be filtered of debris, so having it drip through several layers of natural muslin or white cotton helps.

This water that is collected is not to be drunk but to be used in protection rituals, to bless a place, an item, a person.   I have known people to make speical trips to the River Jordan and bring home gallon jugs (carefully packed) of River Jordan water to be mixed with baptismal water for baptism.

Another type of Holy Water is that which is Priest blessed, that would include Catholic and Anglican churches,   This Holy Water cannot be purchased, you must go to the church and request it from the pastor of that church, you can purchase speicalized containers to hold the blessed water.

I will go more into the types of Waters in another specific post.

The phase of the moon is also important at this time in ritual work as well.  So that needs to be noted.

Getting up early in the morning on the Equinox and if you're lucky collecting the dew that has fallen that morning is also good.

But before the Equinox my Granny would ask me to take the day off from work, to not go in.  So knowing how many vacation days I would have I always set aside vacation days for the Equinoxes,  Halloween,  the day after Thanksgiving,  then I would know what amount of vacation time I had left over.

So what would we do on the Equinoxes?  Mostly gather herbs and the waters, then we'd relax, and try to be in balance and harmony with ourselves and be at peace.  It was a good day to work on re-alineing our energies, so utilizing the Balancing effect of the Equinox's to aline your Chakra Centers is important,  starting just a few minutes before the noon hour in what area you may live in, working from the lowest chakra to the top chakra to focus and elevate the energies to it's highest point and being in touch at the same time with the earth and the heavens.

Once that is achieved it is best to relax for the rest of the day, being in the garden or just walking in a nature area, but being in the herbal garden is best. 

In March in most places that maybe too cold, so relaxing, meditating and doing things that is good for your body is important to keep your personal energies in alinement and in balance.

Blessings Ms. Q