We’ve got help for those who are far too guilty of being swept into the madness that is our modern life. The beating pace of it all, the fear and anxiety, the brushes with hopelessness and lack of purpose can suck the life out of any mere mortal.

March’s Spell Caster card, included in every purchase this month, is all about shrinking your bills, managing the amount of money that leaves your house, and creating stability around your money. We all have bills to pay. They never seem to stop coming around every month, but watch how they shrink and maybe even disappear with this spell.

Welcome Spring!!!

New beginnings, the start of the gardening cycle, longer days, shorter nights, and warmer weather is the perfect time to bring out Coventry Creations World Magic Candles. Be sure to fill your magical toolbox with:

Limited Edition World Magic Greenman and Brigid Candles

Will there be enough? March’s Coventry Magic Oracle reading taps into that ever present fear. I have interviewed many people, from the struggling, to the wealthy, to spiritual

February’s Spell Caster Card, included in every purchase this month, is all about creating the life your heart desires. We have the power within us to manifest all the things we want to have. But, this is not about keeping up with the Joneses.

Prosperity, love, abundance, happiness, peace, or whatever you choose to have as the mainstay in your life Coventry Creations has the candle for that! 2017 is the year for new beginnings, and manifesting your intentions! Be sure to fill your magical toolbox with:

What is it that some people have that makes it look like they are living a charmed life? They don’t have to sweat as many details as you do,

January’s Spell Caster Card, included in every purchase this month, is all about the overwhelming information that we are all under siege with. Not only are we over informed, everyone around us is too and that can cause a lot of unclear voices rolling through your brain, muddying up the truth.

Goals, resolutions, wishes, intentions, no matter what you call them, we all have an idea of what we want 2017 to look like for us. Good thing Coventry has a candle for that!!! No matter what your intent is we have the magic for your toolbox this year - you may want to stock up.

Mercury retrograde is often a useful tool. What you say? That’s right. A useful tool. Mercury exposes issues that need to be resolved and reveals exactly what is not working. Mercury is always communicating, even if we don’t like what it has to say.

I hate it when my day, week, month starts to spiral down into the abyss of crap.

When it feels like everything you touch turns to

The Mercury Retrograde Spell Box is the perfect tool to get in front of the mayhem that this astrological aspect can cause. Pre-shadow begins December 1 and intensifies as it approaches December 19. This is normally when those annoying little miscommunications begin, with their effects felt through the rest of the retrograde which runs through January 8.

Don’t get stuck in a quagmire of dirty energy, take a broom to all the corners and get that stagnant muck out of your house with this month’s Home Clear and Bless Spell Box. Get rid of the old and make room for the new! This spell box comes complete with Wicked Good Smudge Spray, a Power Votive Coventry Glass candle holder, a Happy Home Blessed Herbal Votive candle, and a spell crafted by our resident enchantress, Jacki Smith.

Hold Out for the Real Thing

How do we know what true happiness looks like? Is a full bank account? A happy marriage? That perfect job? It’s a

And that jumble of grandparents, great grandparents, and all of the rest of them.  Standing right behind you.  Whether you call it All Saint’s Day, Halloween, the Day of the Dead it is a time when those closest to us come through the veil, not to frighten but to bring blessings, share love, and allow you to connect with them on a deeper level.

Modern Witch tradition makes Halloween spooky, but the longer standing history is that this is a day of celebration with the loved ones who have helped shape you into the person you are today.  Even if there is hurt and pain associated with them, this is the time for amends to be made and family wounds to be healed.  From the harshest beginnings we are given the opportunity to thrive and evolve.  It is from the darkest moments that the greatest potential for light is created.

Ancestors are in our blood

Cultures all around the world revere ancestors as a large part of their spiritual practice.  In West African traditions, ancestor altars are created by the largest tree on your property or in the kitchen of your home.  In China, they create a high altar in the main room to watch over the family.  In Rome, they would have Spirit Houses by their front door for their ancestors to protect the family and home from evil entering.  Reclaiming or creating your own ancestor reverence helps ground you in your cultural roots and give you a strong base to grow from.  Why do you think we are in the midst of a ghost hunting craze?  We are disconnected from our foundation and need to find some way to reconnect with the spirit realm.

No matter what the story of your ancestors, they are in your blood and their actions got you here today.  When they pass in full from this world to the next they leave behind the issues, fears, and hurts that limited their ability to love while they were human.  Even the nastiest ancestor, once they pass on, is working on making amends for their negative actions.  Bringing blessings to you and your life are a way they can do that.  Put them to work!

Why it works

I have an ancestor altar in my office at Coventry.  I put it there rather than my home because I was in the midst of moving and was not sure how long I would be at the new place.  I needed a place where I could secure my roots; so in the office it went.  My people love it here.  Once I moved them all to my office and talk to them regularly, I discovered that many of them were entrepreneurs and risk takers in their lives.  From the Grandfather that my Dad never knew who started a machine shop that employed his whole family, to my Grandmother who ran a daycare out of her home after her husband died to keep all of her kids in decent schools.  They lend us the energy to weather any storm, resolve issues and general blessings.

My ancestors protected my old house until it was time to go, and then they pushed us out.  When there is a lot of negative influence in my life, my ancestors make themselves known and let me know to feed them energy so they could work in my life.  Glasses of water move from the counter to the floor and once a roast that flipped out of the roasting pan and slid across three door jambs to land in front of their altar.  Sometimes it’s pictures that move on their own or the door that opens on its own to show us where the item we were looking for was stored; in any case they talk to us.

Start your own tradition

You don’t have to subscribe to any one tradition, you can start your own, but there are a few key universal ingredients for an ancestral altar.

A place to start – You need a place that is only theirs.  This is where you build your altar and set your offerings to them.  It is a special, reverent place; not the junk collecting place.  This is not where you go through your mail or put your dirty shoes on.  Give them a place of honor in your life.

Pictures or items from your people - Let your ancestors know who you are talking to by adding their photo to your altar.  Make sure only people who have passed on are in the photos.  You can also add their name and birthdate or if that is not available put on a piece of paper “My beloved Ancestors; known and unknown.” No worries if you are adopted, you got to choose your family and they choose you – it’s even more powerful!

Water – A universal symbol of the communicating with the spirit world

Candle –This is a universal symbol of spirit, use it.  White is most often used, but if your grandma loved blue, honor her with a blue candle.

Flowers – This is another universal symbol of bringing the spirit world into the living.  A fresh bunch of flowers is an excellent offering for your ancestors to give them some physical energy to use in this world.

Treats – Your ancestors all had their favorite treats from cigarettes to candy (or maybe candy cigarettes) and leaving them an offering is a sign of love and respect.  Offerings give them energy to use to bring blessings into your life.

Food – Give them a little of Sunday dinner.  Giving them food, especially food they liked while living, is a boost to the energy they use to help you in your life.  You see, they need tangible physical energy to create tangible physical change in your life.

There are many traditional prayers to use, but I start with a simple invitation for them to join me and a little conversation.  I talk about what I learned about them, how they have helped me in my life and what struggles I am experiencing now.  I ask for their guidance and then spend quiet time in front of the altar in thanks for all that they have done.  The biggest ritual I do for my ancestors is collecting things over time that they enjoy.  For instance, I have a door lock that is in pieces for my Uncle Maury.  He was a locksmith and loved to re-key locks.  I learned my Grandmother Teeny loved angel food cake.  Whenever I find an individual size at the store, I know she wants to talk to me.  My Uncle Pete loved to play Euchre so I made him a “Go it alone” hand and have that with his funeral program.

Temporary or permanent it’s a good practice to start your magic with your ancestors; they have your back!

Norman Rockwell Was an Ass

Pink cheeked children with sugarplums in their heads, a darling man in a red suit, tidy little caucasian families gathered around a

They come out of the woodwork this month, all the Halloween witches that just love October and witchy the trappings that make them feel magical; kind of like Sunday Christians.  Being a Halloween witch is a good start, but let me give you some things that you can do all year long to earn that Witches Union Card and master your magical self.

Give yourself the authority over your own well being.

You are the decider in your life and there is nothing more magical than a choice made from intention and empowerment.  If you are in a crappy situation, make a new choice every moment, every day, to see your way out of it.  Baby steps may be what it takes, just make sure you are stepping and not standing still.

Connect with a power greater than you.

You are part of a greater consciousness and the path that you choose to connect with that higher power is less important than connecting.  Pagan, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian, Agnostic; it doesn’t matter.  Dogma is more interested in the Divine than the Divine is interested in dogma.  When you seek communion with your higher power you are filling the energetic voids created by stress, grief, anger or any of the negative emotions that plague your every day.

Understand the value of your ancestors.  

You are the culmination of all the hopes and dreams of your ancestors.  Good or bad, they have paved the way for your life today and they are the spirits that are most invested in your success.  Your ancestors are free of the personalities that made up their human lives and only have your highest good at heart.  With every legacy left to you by your ancestors there is something to be healed and a blessing to be embraced.

Don’t settle for failure; dig deeper and find what is broken

Magic is all about reaching outside of your comfort zone.  If you could have, you already would have and failure is just a sign that you need to shake it up and challenge your beliefs.  Witches know that a good spell makes you nervous and challenges you to be more than you think you can be.

Listen to your divine self

Your divine self or higher self is the part of you that is always connected to the Divine (by any name you use).  When you are quiet and gentle with yourself you can hear the messages of your higher self and they always take you in the correct direction.  The more often you take the time to meditate and listen, the louder your higher self is and easier it is to hear the guidance.

Face your fears with courage

Courage is not a lack of fear, but an embracing of fear.  Fear is a tool that your ego uses to stop you from doing something that threatens your sense of self.  Sometimes that sense of self is damaged through experiences and needs a bit of healing, thus the need to face your fears with courage and create a new experience that writes a new sense of self.

Know your boundaries

Some boundaries are for keeping and some are for breaking; know the difference.  There are no hard and fast rules to guide these boundaries and your needs for them will change from year to year and experience to experience.  Know that they are always moving and always important because unrestricted growth can quickly become cancer.

Perform random acts of kindness

When you do kind things without reward out in the world, you build your magical bank account.  Wild magic is that force at work in everyone’s life bringing luck and fortune, but it is how you feed your wild magic that will make it good or bad.

Choose your acts of respect for the earth we live on  

Whether you believe we are guests on this earth or entitled to all that it has to offer, we have to keep it in good shape to support us.  Choose your activities and let them become habits and grow.  Just start with one thing, master it, and make it part of your day, every day.

Play and allow your inner child to awaken your magic

Magic comes from your inner child.  It is that innocence to trust in the universe, trust in humanity, and trust that wishes do come true that magic is born from.  Even in your most desperate moments you suspend all doubt and believe that miracles can happen and it is your inner child that makes this possible.  Get out your crayons, coloring books and glitter and help your inner child love the world.

Cast spells when you need them and be purposeful in your actions and intentions

The most powerful time to cast a spell is when you need it.  You don’t have to wait until everything is perfect because life doesn’t work that way.  Don’t sit there and suffer, take action when you need to and be purposeful about it.  Set a clear intention and dig deep to find the issue under the symptom and craft your spell from there.  Remember, magic = healing.

Do the work and practice, over and over again  

Magic does not work by a timer.  There is no guarantee that 3 days from now you will get a $100,000 check because you cast a spell.  You do your work, set your intent, light your candles, wear your oils, arrange your crystals, and see what happens.  Then you do it over and over again.  You do all this while you go out there into the world and do the physical work that supports the energy that you put into your spell.  When you do both, you spell manifests faster and you find the errors quicker.

Start every day with gratitude

Gratitude is magic on steroids.  When you start every day and every spell be being grateful for the bounty in your life, you are infusing it with jet fuel.  Any moment that sets you off into a downward spiral can be rerouted by a quick recounting of your blessings and finding gratitude in the moment.

Witches are not a religion, but a state of being.  You are a witch when you know there are energies at work outside of what you can touch, taste, and feel.  You are a witch when you empower your ideas with the vibration that will facilitate their manifestation. You are a witch when you make a wish and then do the work to make it come true.