December Favorites

We have come to the end of 2018. The holiday season. So my favorite things this month brought all the warm and fuzzies I needed during the cold.

Salt of the Earth

Last time I talked about salt and its practical uses. Now let's talk about its spiritual and magical associations and uses. Salt is literally from the earth. All kinds. The one we are most used to is sifted directly from water; the world's oceans and seas are full of salt. There are also tons of salt deposits from dried up seas. Basically the water evaporated long ago and left the salt behind.

Saltiness is one of the fundamental taste sensations every human being has. Rock salt is mined from underground. Salt is also naturally occurring in most meats and even in the human body. So as you can sea salt is a natural element to life on the planet earth. Naturally occurring salt crystals (sea salt, table salt, rock salt) come from the earth. Hence its association with the element of earth.

Many witches and other types of pagans use salt to represent the element of earth in their rites and rituals. Earth is seen as grounding, strength and stability. So you can use salt for rituals or magical intent you need one of the above. Such as for meditations, spirit walking, visions or divination. It is also good to help you focus on increasing your own strength and stability.

Baking soda is a chemically altered salt. It is often used to put out fires or kill bugs,  as well as a leavening agent. You can use it in rituals or magic where you want protection or to grow something. Some examples are a protection circle or protection against the negativity of others. Or if you would like to magically assist your business in growing.

Lastly, Epsom salt, aka magnesium sulfate, is another salt often used. Particularly in baths. This salt is said to release aches and pains. Epsom salt is used for skin inflammations and small infections. It also is often used on the soil of plants that really like magnesium such as roses, tomatoes and peppers. Therefore this salt would be good to use in rites where your intent is to feed or grow something in your life like a good habit. And of course it makes a good addition to any ritual bath letting you detox and relax before focusing on your ritual or baths intent.

That's why I add it to all Scarlet Moon Creations bath soaks. So try some out and see what you think. All of these salts are fairly inexpensive and easy to get so why not use them in a ritual one day soon and tell me how it went.

~Lashette
  Scarlet Moon Creations

D for Dandelions

Dandelions have many uses both therapeutically and spiritually. To keep a quick reference of its uses I made a journal page for myself.  You can see that process and what's on the page here in this video.

After some requests and a little trial and error I have made a digital journal page for you all as well. This page includes therapeutic, culinary, medical, ritual and magical uses or attributes. The page is available in both Letter and A5 sizes. 

If you'd like this free download, click the preview image below for access to the free SMC Resource Library, which has other free downloads. You'll also get exclusive updates for when new journal pages are ready for downloading. Plus so much more.

I hope you enjoy it all,

~Lashette
  Scarlet Moon Creations

Skin Benefits of Bath Salts

You'll have noticed that a large portion of the bath magic creations I offer are bath salts or bath soaks, which are the same thing by the way. This is partially because they are simple to make but also because putting salts in your baths have several good effects for you and your body.

• Sea salts soften water and add minerals. Dead sea salt included, which is well known for being rich in minerals.
• Epsom salts relieve aches and pains, is detoxifying and may restore magnesium.
• Table salt softens water.
• Baking soda relieves itching and irritation a

Even outside of soaking in a salt water bath, using salt as an exfoliant is a no-brainer. Salt grains can help slough off dead skin cells. Coarse salt crystals work especially well on the thick dry skin of our elbows, feet and any other place you may have thick calluses.

However, salt of any kind can be drying to the skin. So mixing it with moisturizing oils, butters and plants can help prevent dry skin after your bath soak or scrub.

Check out some of the Bath Salts and Scrubs available in my shop below.

So, how do you like using salts in your bath?

~Lashette
  Scarlet Moon Creations

Bath Magic

You've heard me talk about facets of bath magic in videos and know the Etsy shop Scarlet Moon Creations is mostly focused on that. But what is Bath Magic?

Hair Care as Self Care

Another form of self care that I employ regularly is my natural hair care.

Herbs and Oils for Lughnasadh

Hail and welcome back to the latest installment of my Sabbat herbal series. This is part 4 of this series of Sabbat Herbs & Oils. You can check out part 1, part 2 and part 3 at those links. It is now the beginning of the harvest season. The traditional first harvest happens during the time of year in the northern hemisphere. Lughnasadh, as I call it, is one of the four Celtic Fire festivals. It corresponds with Lammas, Calan Awst and many other holidays or festivals celebrated during this time of year. This time of year, this season is all about love, abundance, luck, strength, protection and kitchen magic.

Youtube

I have officially been an active youtuber for 1 year now. I knew I wanted to write a blog post about this topic but wasn't sure when and then I looked at the date and voila! So I'll talk about my journey with youtube so far and what my goal is. I'm also thinking about having a contest. Something I have never done before.


Wow, so I really can't believe its been 1 whole year since I jumped in with two feet. Maybe I should be making a video about this, lol. Maybe I will but I wanted to talk about this in case those who follow my blog are unaware of Scarlet Moon Creations on Youtube.

About 2 years ago I started watching more youtube videos. I am more of a reader than a watcher so up until then my youtube activities were restricted to the occasional music video and following a few friends who made videos. I got into watching kpop reactions videos, some tv show recaps and tarot readers channels. That expanded over the next 6 months to all sorts of pagan videos and journal making videos like plan with me's and handlettering how to's and even some booktubers. Then I came across this challenge called One Book July. At the time I was deep into making junk journals and using my brand new bullet journal in a traveler's notebook system. However, I found out that One Book July is a youtube challenge. Earlier in the year, I randomly had bought a selfie stick / tripod and had been toying with showing journal flip throughs.

So I jumped into making videos for One Book July (OBJ) with the focus on Go Big or Go Home where I used my various journals daily and filmed weekly updates for OBJ. That was a huge undertaking as I hadn't filmed anything by myself before and my experience before that was 10 years ago in one college course. But I made it through and wanted to continue these journal related videos so I started doing monthly Plan With Me videos. This January, I joined another youtube challenge called 31 Days of Tarot, and filmed, edited and uploaded videos for every day in January. I had been wanting to expand my video offerings and this was the perfect segue as I was also starting to offer card readings in my Etsy shop.

In February, I came across yet another youtube challenge called the Youtube Pagans challenge. My aim was to add more videos directly connected to Scarlet Moon Creations. So spiritual and pagan related topics as well as my knowledge of self care and herbalism. This channel serves as a cross between a video grimoire of sorts and a promotional tool for my products and services both free and paid. All highlighting Sacred Self Care which is the foundation of Scarlet Moon Creations.

With that in mind you may be wondering why so much focus on journaling. Well, since day 1, offering handmade books has been a goal of mine. I've blogged about it several times as far back as this Bookmaking post. I have learned a lot more about bookmaking since then and plan to start offering handmade books for journaling and planning purposes this year. FINALLY. I know I've said it before but this year I have been making books that I will start putting up for sale soon. So look forward to those.

You've already seen some of the journal inserts I've made for myself and how I use them is you follow my on Instagram. I joined the 100 Day Project again this year with the focus being on journaling. If you haven't look up #100daysof SMCjournaling. I also show more in depth usage on my youtube channel in my plan with me video series. Coming soon you will see even more as I am joining in on One Book July this year again.

Also, coming up on my channel are more pagan videos. Honey, Intuition and Journaling are just a few of the videos coming soon. I also plan to do a giveaway for my 1 year anniversary. So subscribe to get the notification when those videos goes up.

Thanks so much for 1 year on youtube to all of my subscribers there.
~Lashette
  Scarlet Moon Creations

Herbs and Oils for the Summer Solstice

Welcome back to the latest installment of my Sabbat herbal series. This is part 3 of this series of Sabbat Herbs & Oils. You can check out part 1 and part 2 at these links. This time we are focusing on the Summer Solstice. Also called Litha, or even Midsummer by some, this time of year is all about celebrating the Sun, empowerment, healing and revitalizing, growing, sweetness, marriage, and faeires.

Journaling for Self Care

The past two years, I've gotten more and more into journaling.

March Favorites

Spring is here and so are my March Favorites. this month is all about feeling good. What put me in a bright or empowering mood. All that renewing spring energy. That inspiring Pisces and Aries self care mindset. These are the people and things that were my favorites this month.


Every month I'll share my favorite things, people and businesses from around the web and in life. Everything from blogs and candles to tarot decks and YouTubers. They all deserve some love because of the quality they offer. So sit back and joy. Links are all included so you can check them out for yourself. Watch the video below to see why I think they are all awesome.


Instagram
Haus of  Hoodoo
Instagram | Website

Behati Life
Instagram | Website

The Hood Witch
Instagram | Website

Books
She Means Business

The Good Witch's Guide

Music (click the CC button for English subtitles if you like)
Spring Day - BTS

Starry Night - Mamamoo

Boss - NCT U

Go Go -NCT Dream

Daydream - J-Hope

Essential Oil
Helichrysum

Resin
Dragon's Blood

See you next month,
~Lashette
  Scarlet Moon Creations

Herbs and Oils for the Spring Equinox

Spring has sprung. It is now a time of new beginnings, of finding your balance, planting seeds, youthful energy, rebirth and the fertility of nature. With that all in mind I thought I'd share some of the many plants and oils associated with this season.

31 Days of Tarot

Hey guys.

Wow, so I did this. This past January I participated in Ethony Dawn's 31 Days of Tarot challenge on Youtube and Instagram. Mainly on Youtube though. 

The 31 Days of Tarot consisted of 31 prompt questions for us to follow. As a tarot and oracle reader I was excited to participate. It was a lot of hard work including the technical aspect of putting out 31 videos daily. But I persevered and it resulted in new reading clients, new friends and followers on YouTube and IG, a newfound confidence and of course new video editing skills.

Pagan Business Network

I have been neglectful in talking about the Pagan Business Network. Its amazing how much this group has done for me and I have done for them in the short time that I have been a member. I cannot believe it has taken me this long to write about this great group.

The Pagan Business Network (PBN) is exactly what its called. Created by Charissa Iskiwitch in the fall of 2014, PBN is all about networking and creating resources for pagan business owners and pagan-friendly businesses. I found out about the Pagan Business Network through an article on Patheos Pagan about it last year.

In the spirit of collaboration and cooperation PBN offers many benefits depending on your needs. For me the most useful part of PBN is the Facebook group. There you find many people in the same or similar position to you. Whether you are pre-startup or are in your 10th year of business; doing ecommerce or a brick and mortar store; offering a supply or a service; a pagan or just pagan-friendly, as long as you are there are people and businesses willing to help you and do business with you. I love that it is a judgement free zone. And I have learned a lot and improved my business thanks to the many knowledgeable and helpful people within the group.

But the group is not all. The website, PaganBusinessNetwork.com, offers tons of more official resources. Such as paid membership, the blog roll, a list of wholesalers and other suppliers, upcoming events of interest for those who are vendors, business spotlights (an interview of your business), free swag bags for event organizers, a chance to have your business products and/or literature in those swag bags, PBN radio, reviews, many advertising opportunities and much more. Then there is the Pagan Marketplace by PBN a free place to advertise your business, products, services, and events.

And of course I can't forget the various social media channels where PBN has accounts set up to spread the word about its most active members and other important information. For example, The official Facebook page offers pagan and business news and advice from around the web as well as sharing ladders to help get your business, products and services out there. There is also an Etsy Team created to help those with shop on the Etsy marketplace take advantage of all Etsy has to offer. Look for PBN on Twitter, Pinterest and Google+ as well with more to come soon.

Being an admin gives me the privilege to know what is going on behind the scenes, because I'm nosy. And let me tell you there is so much more to come. PBN is only going to get bigger and brighter from here. So go if you consider yourself pagan and have a business or run a pagan-friendly business you should definitely check out the Pagan Business Network (PBN).

Now I am off to do some more work. Have a great day and see you next week,

~Lashette

  Scarlet Moon Creations

How I Got Started: Paganism and Witchcraft

This is part IV, the last of the How I Got Started series. Each part can be read on their own but if you want to read part I, part II, or part III click the links.

An old altar set up of mine.

That Paganism would draw me into a field of work I never even thought of is kind of an amazing thing to look back on. And it hasn't even been that long.When I graduated from undergrad I had a stable job and decided that my next step would be to start exploring various Pagan religions to see if that way lay a place where my spirituality was comfortable. It was. In the process of learning I was drawn to nature-based religions. They teach that all around us in energy is various forms and that we can connect with those energies to enhance our own. Those that follow nature-based religions often venerate or worship nature in its various forms; the how and why differing from religion to religion. Because of that I some of the classes or lessons I took were about topics like herbalism and natural healing. I learned about common herbs, spices, oils, roots and resins and the various ways to use them.

I was taught that these and other elements of the earth each have their own natural energies as well as a history of associations that humans have created over the years. These things could be used individually, like essential oils in a diffuser, or combined, in an oil blend, to enhance my own or others personal energies and workings so that we can affect change. I also learned how lots of plants are the basis for our modern medicine and have healing and therapeutic properties. I became particularly interested in those that helped with allergies and those that could be used topically, or on the skin, our body's biggest organ. I will add this, as much as I learned then, I am still learning now and as a friend likes to say, I am not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV.

Not too long after these lessons started the natural hair movement for black women in the United States started gaining traction. I was interested in this and had been considering going natural for awhile since I didn't like the process of straightening my hair at all (in fact I hate having to go to a hair salon at all). After doing a bit of research I realized that I can use many of the natural ingredients that I had been learning about in my pagan lessons and using in my personal practice and take it one step further by using them to improve my health. Keeping my hair and skin healthy by no longer using products that had chemicals I was allergic too and starting to make my own hair and body care mixtures was so freeing. As I mentioned in my Allergies post, I am allergic to a lot of things and while this is more annoying than hazardous, it can be distracting and stressful after awhile. These natural ingredients helped take some of the load off. I wound up learning more about myself and my spiritual path.

As I mentioned previously, a friend (a witchy friend to be more specific) told me about Etsy where people can sell their handmade items. After I decided that this was a path I wanted to take another witchy friend agreed to be my business consultant. I talked in a previous post about the 'homework' she would give me. One such assignment was to think about myself and all the different facets and how I can use some or all of them to personalize my products. How can I make them stick out. She suggested I try to include my spirituality in some way. After looking around Etsy, I decided not to do that. There were tons of witches and other pagans selling their wares, spells, potions, etc. They all seemed more experienced and knowledgeable than me at the time. Nowadays things are different on Etsy due to some of their policy changes.

However, now after being a part of the Etsy and pagan communities online and in the real world I better understand finding your niche and selling something you love. As I continue to learn about herbs, skin care, aromatherapy and expanding my knowledge into related areas such as body care, self care, Reiki, chemistry, perfumery, aromachology and more, I see more connections with my spirituality. And vise-versa. I am inspired by my own spiritual journey as well as that of those around me. Right now as I am on the cusp of revealing two new product lines that have been years in the making, I keep jotting down new product ideas I want to explore. 

I had my first ever tarot card business reading recently and everything pointed to my including my spirituality in my business and using my business to clarify and expand my personal practice as nothing but a good thing. Now, I'm not one to believe in fate and having your whole life being predestined to the point where there is no choice. But I do believe in reading the signs, of weighing your options and choosing from the many possibilities. I feel we are both independent beings and connected to those around us. That every choice we make can lead us somewhere different. At this time I've made the choice to longer make such an effort to keep my businesses and my spirituality apart. I think they can only enhance each other as they have already. 

So that's how I got started. And its also how I plan to go on. 
~Lashette
Scarlet Moon Creations