Let’s talk about mirrors.
We use them everyday and probably don’t think much of it.
We use them to comb our hair, brush our teeth or pluck our eyebrows during our morning rituals. Sitting at a favorite cafe, we use mirrors to put on our favorite shade of lipstick while spying on a handsome man that just walked in. We use them in our cars as we drive home from work, making sure as we make the exit off the highway that no one is behind us. Computers, TVs, iPhones, etc. can also be used as a mirror in a pinch.
Mirrors have been around for thousands of years in one form or another. Depending the location, make, culture and era, mirrors had a variety of meanings attached to them. In the west, they stood for seduction, vanity and individualism whereas in the east they stood for introspection. Mirrors were held in high regard as sacred objects to be used in shrines, not as decorations around a home!
In western occult, mirrors have been used as divinatory tools or windows to the Underworld allowing one to communicate with the dead. For this, people feared their soul would get trapped or lost if their image was reflected. Myths, folklore and superstition have surrounded mirrors so much even today people are afraid of looking at themselves for extended periods of time.
This is where I get to the point of my post. For the budding magician/witch if you have to have a dirty word let it be this:
FEAR
Fear will stop you from accomplishing great things in life, to take risks or make mistakes. I urge you to be courageous when dealing with magick. Why? Fear in superstitions will set you up for failure or worse in your experimentations.
Let me tell you my experience with mirrors. Anyone can see when they first come to my mother’s house it is covered in mirrors. Her home is probably a Feng Shui nightmare come true. Old, vintage to virgin, she has them. Growing up, I hated them. I loathed staring at them except for general use or when I needed one for a painting. You’d think me being raised in such a house I’d be a vain thing. Nothing could be further from the truth.
About two years ago, I was going to a Lilith group held by a priestess named Anya. In one ritual, she made everyone do a mirror meditation dedicated to this storm goddess…with the lights off.
Great. Awesome. No. Wait a minute…
I was petrified. I wanted to run.
“My friends are with me so it was okay,right?” I thought.
What would I see? Demons? Something weird or scary? What I really am?
And then I saw a vision (and it lasted awhile which was interesting). My face turned into a black lion with a paint white hand of a baby on my forehead. I asked Anya later that night what it could have meant. She suggested maybe being “marked as Ishtar’s” as a possibility. My fear was conquered and replaced with curiosity and wonder for mirrors. I asked my mother finally, “why all the mirrors?” after years of thinking it was just her fetish (like sunglasses or scarves) and took it at face value.
She replied, “First, it is very lucky to have a lot of mirrors in the home to deflect evil…They make me happy. I mostly use them to summon people, spy on the world, or see the truth of a matter. To see people who they really are when they walk through my door or make wishes. All while fixing my eyebrows and doing my hair.”
WTF mom. Where did that come from?
Since that time, it has opened a huge dialogue between mother and daughter about mirrors (and magick in general). If you come to my class on January 24, I promise to pass on this knowledge onto you and more. Even if you don’t, I urge you to look up this amazing magical tool’s history and start experimenting with it. Do a meditation, scry, or linger a bit longer while putting your make-up on while chanting an affirmation (men, you can do this too while grooming). You’re gonna see things change in big ways.