Pagan Thoughts

The Following tips are to save money making tools and supplies for beginners in the Craft and those of us that cannot afford to buy expensive costly items brought from Occult shops.

Altar cloths:

Use old sheets cut to appropriate size. Or go to a fabric store and search through the remnants. These are often at least 1 yard in size, and cost 50% or less of their original price. Sheets and remnants can be embroidered, appliquéd or painted (fabric paint) with symbols and other designs. Make sure the fabric is washable though.
 
Incense:

Check the spice and herb shelf at your grocery stores and Health food shops. There are many dried whole and powdered herbs and spices that can be used individually or in combination for incense. Save your money to buy those which are not available through the grocery store (I.e. frankincense, myrrh, copal). Same idea applies to herbs for magickal use. you can grow things like lavender and sage and thyme and many other herbs and flowers in pots or in your garden. Try steeping herbs in a virgin olive oil or nice base oil for like Jojoba or a few weeks and make your own oils. Also try the Body shop for low cost oils and base oils.

Censer:

Shops charge a pretty penny for censors (I’m talking of normal
censers, not the little cone ones), so don’t buy them there. Check discount stores, jumble sales or flea markets and garage or boot
sales for suitable containers. I bought a heavy brass bowl which is on a pedestal and has handles for about £6.00 / $12.00. If money is tight, try using a deep natural seashell or even aluminum pie pans.
Fill with sand or cat litter and set on a hot pad or a trivet (just to be safe). The charcoals used for burning incense get *very* hot, so be careful with choosing what you will use….some materials have very low heat tolerance/resistance. I have a little copper bud vase to hold my incense/joss sticks. It was second hand and very cheap and polished up was lovely. I hot copper and brass candle sticks and holders by keeping my eyes open. Polished up they are really something to look at.

Chalice:

Have you a nice goblet or wine glass at home? Use that. No need for anything fancy. If you keep your eyes open, you can find a nice crystal or glass goblet fairly inexpensively at stores such as Boot sales, Jumble sales, Charity shops and Second Hand shops ; or garage sales if you are American try Wall- Mart and Kmart, kitchen shops, flea markets. You can buy a glass engraver tool or use silver or gold enamel paint or special silver or gold pens from craft shops to inscribe pentacles and decorations, Wicca blessings or chants ect.

Candle holders:

Fill jars with sand and stick the candle into the sand. You can paint symbols on the jars if you like to represent the elements, etc. The small votive candles can be burned in small aluminum pans (pot pie size…I’ve even seen custard cup size for sale in grocery stores). Even some of the larger pillar candles can be burned in these pans. Candles can also be burned in seashells and cans of appropriate size.See above for candle holders brought second hand in brass and copper. Make your own candles from kits. Amazing moulds can be made from wet sand lined with Clingfilm. I have also used unraveled toilet rolls inside of glass jars, the cardboard is peeled away easily after the hot wax hardens. Wax crayons can be added to make different colors. Buy white candles and prick them all over, now add a mixture of sea - salt and food coloring and dip the candles to get any colour you wish. it`so the vibrations of the colour the spell is requiring and it saves raised eyebrows about you having so many coloured candles.

Robes and sandals:

Not essential. What you wear is a matter of choice, unless you belong to a coven that specifies what you wear. In solitary practice, it’s just you and the deities. I wear whatever I happen to be in at the time, and for certain occasions a long skirt & chemise. You can make a robe from a dyed or bleached sheet or buy a caftan type of garment kept just for rituals. Of course it simple and it`so often recommended for witches or be sky-clad (naked!)
A friends wears a long white shirt she pinched from her husband! She has Wicca symbols embroidered on it! Covens tell their members to make their own ritual robe and to bless each magickal stitch they sew. They are supposed to only be worn for ritual use. Scour the shops for jet and amber beads to find beads to make a priestesses necklace to wear. You can look for cheap beads to sew into a Mandela to meditate with.

Athame:

It will take time to find the right one for you. It can be the
traditional style, or it can be a dagger or knife that has special meaning to you. Go to pawn shops, flea markets, and garage sales to keep the cost down. Look for letter openers and things like that!. Before buying, handle the knife. If it doesn’t feel right, or if it doesn’t call to you in some way, it’s not the one for you. If you’ve handled a knife and still aren’t sure about it, don’t buy it right away…go back and handle it several times over a period of a week or two. Until such time as you find *your* athame, any dagger or long bladed knife will suffice. New-Moon has a very inexpensive athame
which is discounted now. The handle may be painted white or black or left in it`s natural wood effect.

Wands:

It’s best to make your own. Take walks in parks, along beaches or in the woods. Keep your eyes open for branches laying on the ground. Handle the branch and see what impressions come to you. If it’s meant to be a wand for you, you’ll feel it. My wand was from a willow tree (female life-force) blasted by lightening. I have taken off the bark and sanded it down and then with a silver and gold pens inscribed Wicca symbols and my magickal name in the Theban witches alphabet. I have an oak one (male life-force) when I chose a branch thanking the tree. With a heated sharpened nail I burnt into the stripped and sanded down wand the Viking runes. I then varnished my wands and attached a crystal to the first at one end with super aend a small length of copper pipe at the bottom end. I have feathers and shells on the oak one. You can add the skull of an animal personal to your coven . The thing is to personalize it and to keep the natural life-force to maximize the energy .. My altar patent is a dried out starfish but these can also be made from painted tiles or a baked salt bread recopied with a pentacle marked on and painted and varnished in the same way Christmas tree decorations are made sometimes by children. Wicca [protection balls are made easily from Christmas tree clear ornaments and silver paint. Scrying mirrors are also easily made by spraying any ordinary glass black with a spray enamel paint and setting it back in an attractive metal or wooden frame you can make look Magickal with emblems and symbols painted on and herbs put inside the "scrying mirror" to make it special and personal
The same method applies to finding other useful items such as seashells, stones, etc. Feathers can make magickal quill pens or are handy to waft incense smoke or represent the element of Air. Seashells hold water and salt and can represent the element of North as can stones. a Lava stone or pumice stone can represent the element of fire.

Staffs:

See wands …..just use a bigger branch. Try a Do it yourself shop to find a sturdy wood rail you can chop to size. A small piece of dowel can make a wand, A copper wand filled with herbs is a good conductor Magick.

More on jewelry:
Sometimes there is no helping the expense of this if you want
quality. Jewelry is not essential, but if a piece is especially
meaningful, it can be a useful tool (at least in the sense of your mainframe or mindset). Of course, you can find good jewelry at good prices at flea markets, pawn shops and garage/estate and boot sales and second hand shops. See where I put about beads.

More on Altar Pentacles:

You can make one out of flour "clay" and paint it. You can make one out of a square of wood, and either paint or burn the pentagram, or even carve it.. At many hardware and larger home repair supply stores, you can find a tile and paint it. The cost of any of these will be a fraction of a pentacle ordered through a catalo or bought in most stores.

ON SAVING MONEY

The main thing to remember is that you don’t have to spend a lot of money. Take a good look around your home, and look at things with the idea of making it a useful tool. Use your imagination and creativity.
Even if you don’t have the money, frequently visit your favorite
shop and look through catalos. This way, if something goes on sale, you’ll have a good idea whether or not it’s really a bargain price. And haunt the discount stores…there’s no telling what useful items you will find at great prices.

Also remember that not every tool or item you read about in the books is essential. Before buying or making something, ask yourself "Do I really need this in order to practice my beliefs?"