THE NATURAL MAGICK TRADITION OF MAGICK, WORSHIP AND OBSERVANCE

Natural Magick is now being offered by Cedar Stevens as a pathwork tradition within the modern NeoPagan, WitchCraft and Western Tradition.  The focus of Natural Magick is on Earth, Animal, Elementary, Plant, and Planetary magick, religion and spiritual practice.

Natural Magick System Statement of Principles

*Natural Magick is a system of magick within the modern NeoPagan and Western Tradition.

*Natural Magick is a tradition that honors and observes Nature.

*Human Nature is a subset of Nature and therefore Natural Magick is guided by love, respect and devotion of Nature towards the unfolding of Human individualism, will, and ritual magick.

*Natural Magick respects and advocates for the unfolding of the destiny and fortune of All Living Species.

*Natural Magick acknowledges Science as the Consensus Reality and the most current expression of the Western Tradition.

The Natural Magick Tradition of ritual magick is a direct descendant of the Reclaiming Tradition, and we are whole hearted participants and students of Reclaiming. Beyond that, we research, pioneer, test and adapt our modern tradition to serve the needs of the laity, Priest/esshood and Magick.

The Natural Magick tradition specifically teaches the arts of Botany, Native Botany, Native Gardening, Wildcrafting, Herbalism, Herb Gardening, and the use of Herbs, Essential Oils, and the natural produce of the international botanical market to create Magick Potions of High Quality for all manners of positive Human intentions. This art form we call “Potioneering,” and Natural Magick potions are produced under a rigorous System.

Natural Magick Shop turned ten years old on Thanksgiving Day of 2016. Over this decade, and the decade prior, I have been developing the Natural Magick process of potioneering, as well as training in Priestess skills. Gardening, Wildcrafting, Priest/ess skills, and a broad bandwidth of history and lore have woven together into Natural Magick, becoming what I believe can now be considered a distinct Magickal Tradition with a wealth of instruction, support and challenge for the Student and Seeker.

The intention of the Natural Magick courses will be to 1) train the Initiate in the Arts and Crafts of Natural Magick and Priest/esshood and 2) support Natural Magick Shop (the business) with a Fair Trade of Labor and Funding.

Simply put, classes will be taught in exchange for some labor plus some money on a sliding scale.

I have developed and am further developing material for two tracks within the Natural Magick Tradition. All Initiates will be trained in the Priest/ess Path, which will be a traditional year-and-a-day regimen of instruction in Sabbat, Esbat, lore and basic-imtermediate magickal technique. Initiates may also choose to join a Potions Path that can be taken alongside the priest/ess Path. The Potions Path will be a hands-on Gardening, Botany, Native Plants and Wildcrafting course of instruction leading up to training in making Magick Potions.

For now, this course of Natural Magick instruction is available for Austin area participants. In time, I hope to make it available far and wide via podcast and traveling magicians!

Cedar Stevens
Jan. 16, 2017

The Natural Magick Process

Why are my Natural Magick products superior? I don’t fudge or cheat, not on ingredients or in my process. You get high quality, natural products made according to strict traditional guidelines. Natural Magick takes cues directly from Nature and diligently researches literature and lore.

Here are the elements of traditional ritual production that are guaranteed in my products:

MAGICKAL TIMING
We take our cues from Nature. Some activities are favored by the New Moon, some by the Full Moon, others by the Dark Moon. Since Babylonian times, the days of the week have been said to be “ruled” by the seven visible planets: Sun, Moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn. This is why we have seven days of the week, in fact! Although called by different names, the essential properties and powers of the planets have been understood to be the same all this time. Natural magicians have used this system since ancient times for everything from planting of crops to business decisions to creation of magic incenses, oils and brews.

Natural Magick strictly adheres to a combination of this planetary and lunar influence. For example, Success is ruled by the Sun, and is a state of fullness. Therefore, Success oil is made on the Sunday on or just before the Full Moon. Blessing is a function of the Moon, Venus, or the Sun, and it is a quality of freshness and newness, so Blessing incense is made on Monday, Friday, or Sunday on or just after the New Moon.

ELEMENTS
Earth, Air, Fire and Water are the classic alchemical “elements,” and this system of correspondence is also used in Natural Magick products. It governs the selection of ingredients, and even the direction I face while making the product. Protection is a function of the Fire element, so I choose fiery ingredients for this oil, and face the South as I blend it.

KNOWLEDGE OF INGREDIENTS
For some reason, I have always been interested in the names of plants. I started this path as a native plant botanist. Unfortunately, magical texts are fraught with the use of common names rather than scientific Latin names. I was frustrated by this, and so I have for over a dozen years looked at references and compared the ingredients. Also I just seem to care more about botanical accuracy than other folks in this tradition. If I say “Bay” you will know if I mean Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis), Bay “Rum” (a blend of Pimenta dioica “Bay” and other spices) Bayberry (any of several Myrica species) or Sweet Bay (Magnolia virginiana), to give one fairly confusing example! Although all of them can be used to season boiled crawfish, they all have different magical properties!

CORRESPONDENCES
Magical formularies are filled with tables of correspondence, generally based on the principal of “Doctrine of Signatures.” Where no correspondence information can be found in literature, I can figure it out. For example, what phase of the moon corresponds to the goddess Iris of the Rainbow? The answer is in the bow of the rainbow. It was dark during the storm, now it is light with the rainbow in the sky. Therefore Iris is made during the bow-shaped New Moon which follows the Dark Moon. The colors of the rainbow are used to make art; Venus rules the arts, therefore Iris is made on Fridays.

Here is another example of how I use correspondences and Doctrine of Signatures in my work. I have an Anacacho Orchid tree (Anacacho bauhinia) in my yard, which has sweetly smelling white flowers. Was it a Moon or Venus tree? Bearing white flowers is often a Moon signature, whereas Venus rules perfumery. The answer came one Full Moon night as I wandered through my tangled forest gardens. I stopped to enjoy the fragrance of the flowers, and there was none! This tree’s flowers are only fragrant in the daylight hours; therefore it must not be ruled by the Moon but by Venus, the Morning and Evening star. Then I looked at the leaves which are heart shaped, clearly a Venus signature and thought to myself, “Well, duh!”

Just the way things smell, their colors, or their common names, is often enough information. Chamomile essential oil is blue, as is yarrow, making them excellent choices for a Water element formulation. Cedar wood smells like a coffin, which is why I combine it with Blood Orange in the Vampyre oil. Money is made where? At a mint, and the herb mint is much associated with prosperity. I try my best to find these correspondences and use them for the most potent Natural Magick.

DEOSIL OR WIDDERSHINS?
Deosil, pronounced JESH-ul, means clockwise, and is the direction of the motion of the Sun. It is used for all purposes of creation, making, blessing, and increase. Widdershins, surprisingly pronounced the way it is spelled, is the counterclockwise direction, and is the direction for magic of unmaking, getting rid of, banishing, uncrossing and if you must, cursing. The direction of rotation is most important while grinding Natural Magick incenses. Exorcism is the only incense I grind widdershins. All the others are magics of increase and therefore they are ground deosil. Also, the mother stock of my oil blends is made into a round bottle, swirled in the appropriate direction.

NUMBERS
Early on, mathematics, science and magic were all one and the same study. For better or worse, science split from magic, but magical tradition retains a reverence for numbers. Threes nines, and thirteen are considered moon and goddess numbers, so I use three essential oils in multiples of thirteen for the dark goddess Hecate. Five is the pentacle, and the number of fingers on my hand, so it is used for purposes of protection and human power. Sevens is for luck and prosperity, and planetary favors.

When this Natural Magic system is used, the choice of ingredients becomes like choosing words, and the way those ingredients are put together becomes grammar and syntax. This is the language that Natural Magick uses to communicate our intentions to the Universe, reflecting the clues we find in Nature back to the Source. So Mote It Be!

Welcome to Natural Magick Shop!

My name is Cedar Stevens and I have been a practicing witch and potioneer for over thirteen years. For thirty years I have been an avid botanist, herbalist, and gardener. I combine these sets of expertise with my naturally excellent sense of smell to bring you high quality potions produced under the most exacting protocols for Natural Magick Shop.

Under the Natural Magick (TM) process, I don’t fudge or skimp. Here are the guarantees that go into my ritually crafted goods:

*Timing of production according to both the best Moon phase and day of the week,
*Elemental associations rule even which direction I face while making a potion,
*Extensive knowledge of correspondences and Doctrine of Signatures,
*Deosil or Widdershins? Banishing and exorcism related potions are stirred or ground counterclockwise, everything else is made deosil,
*Knowledge of ingredients, their botany, Latin names, origins as well as traditional magickal uses,
*Knowledge of traditional herbal and aromatherapy uses. This allows me to choose ingredients that are both therapeutically and magickally appropriate AND smell good!
*Ritual hygiene. I use magickal shielding to keep my energies out of YOUR product!

Here is my complete manifesto on the Natural Magick process.

I hope you enjoy my products as I enjoy creating them. Let me know if you are looking for a formulation that does not appear here. Almost half of these products were created at customer request or inspiration!

An It Harm None, may these potions well work thy Will.

-…for my Law is Love unto all beings.

Cedar