Magical Spell of Kindness

Art done by JaiMa James Buidinick

 

 

“Magic that sparkles, laughs and dances; magic you can feel in your own body; magic that takes your breath away; a beautiful magic that protects and enriches everyone who touches it; magic that really does stuff…” ~ Starfields

“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it for I shall not pass this way again.” ~ Steven Grellet

“Loving kindness is not just love for some particular person, but the spiritual state of loving everybody.” ~ Tolstoy

 

There is a woman in my town whose Ohio salt rusted car is pasted with bumper stickers.  When anyone sits behind her at a traffic light you can’t help reading the messages: “Peace Now, Pay it Forward, Commit Random Acts of Kindness Daily, Have you laughed today?  LOVE Overcomes Intolerance…”  She is the same woman who dresses in Talbots' casual at our monthly gallery hop.  Instead of drinking wine and looking at the artwork, she walks up and down the ‘View’ passing out yellow smiley face confetti.  During past Memorial Day parades dressed in red, white and blue, she walks with the children cyclists carrying a sign that reads ‘Kindness is Patriotic.’  There is a special kind of magic she radiates; you can’t stop smiling.

In analyzing what this woman is doing falls into the category of what Starfields describes as “THINK magically, and ACT in a magical manner.”  The woman is following one of the master laws of the universe: You reap what you sow.  In her case, she is sowing kindness and believing this is the way to create a gentler, more loving world for all.  It has been my experience that she has never asked for anything in return.  She just wants all beings to be happy which of course seems to go against the nature of our popular culture for competitiveness. 

I believe her enchantment is part of an old group of spells whose purpose is to make other’s feel good.  In my readings, I have discovered that kindness spells are a subgroup that fall under the Classification of Love.  Unlike other spells that people have to learn and carry out under guidance, everyone is born with the ability to create and share love and kindness spells.   If we choose, we too can sow this spell by weaving acts of kindness into our day by sharing Good Mornings, Thank you and thoughtful gestures like a smile.  My experience is that not many people are doing this because they equate these spells to an economic gain or they haven’t been given an accurate recipe to follow. 

One problem I have observed is we tend to share love and kindness spells like we do money.  We hoard it, deposit in the bank for a rainy day or the right investment (i.e., If I’m kind to them - I know they will be kind to me.)  Magical spells under the Love Classification don’t work this way.  If you want to get the biggest bang for your bucks – you need to be generous in sharing love and kindness.  You need to be what my Grandmother would say as a spendthrift by handing it out willy-nilly or spontaneously to anyone on the street.  Additionally, these types of spells should be handed out without any expectation of getting anything in return.  These spells aren’t about you; it is about sharing with others.

In cases of Kindness spells, I’ve found many people are carrying out a modified recipe missing heart energy.  One reason may be that the spells are written in a coded manner within a Book of Shadows.  Historically, this has been to protect the owner from being burnt or the non-initiate from using them inappropriately.  I too am guilty of carrying out modified recipes missing heart.  My extended list of reasons include that I’m exhausted after working all day, being a Mom, taxi driver to sporting events, going to school and not paying attention to details; or deciding to change the ingredients by either cutting corners or wanting to do my own thing.   In all these cases, I have found these spells don’t turn out the way they are intended.  It’s like exchanging applesauce for butter when making cookies.  The result is a low-fat healthier cookie but the texture isn’t right.  The same can be said with those carrying out Kindness spells, they come out insincere. 

Activities

Sunshine Blueberry Mini Muffins

Z. Budapest writes in Goddess in the Office (91) a spell for bringing more cooperation into the workplace.  Her recipe includes baking cookies with traditional spices that promote friendship and happiness.  I’ve produced the same results with my mini muffins.  Similiar to her's, I've jazzed up my muffins by adding runes and magical energy.

My magical ingredients are lemons and blueberries.  Blueberries are known as a wonderful anti-oxidant today, but in witches’ lore they were used for protection.  Witches were known for eating blueberry tarts when under a psychic attack.  Lemons are known for promoting purification, love, and friendship.  The combinations of the two ingredients have brightened up my office  when I’ve shared them with heart.  And, not to mention - these mini muffins feel like a burst of sunshine on your tongue especially on one of those gray Ohio winter days. 

Ingredients

2 eggs
¾ cup sugar
1/3 cup of vegetable oil
3 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 Tbsp. grated lemon peel
1 ¼ cups of all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
¼ tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp salt
¾ cup fresh blueberries or frozen

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Line mini muffin tins.  Stir together dry ingredients.  With a mixer, beat eggs and sugar together until pale and thick, about 2 minutes.  Add oil in thin stream.  Stir in lemon juice and peel by hand.  Mix in flour mixture by hand using a stirring motion with the following rune signs: Wunjo (i.e., joy & happiness) and Mannaz (i.e., cooperation, teamwork, collaboration, and aid from others).   While stirring these signs into the batter, visualize their meaning using the energy from your heart.  Lightly fold in blueberries. 

Pour into muffin tins and bake for 15-25 minutes until lightly brown on the top and toothpick comes out clean.  Share abundantly. 

Starfields' Kindness Spell

All you need to do is to ...

a) start to treat yourself with love, respect and kindness (that includes the way you speak to yourself, think about yourself, dress yourself, touch yourself, feed yourself, protect yourself, and entertain/delight yourself);

and

b) start treating other people, especially those who you perceive as isolated, with attention, love, respect and kindness.

This changes YOU *into* someone who will reap what they sow.

It makes you into a better person.

It's ongoing, but it is absolutely essential to leading a full and happy life.

KINDNESS
by Naomi Shihab Nye

Before you know what kindness really is

you must lose things,

feel the future dissolve in a moment

like salt in a weakened broth.

What you held in your hand,

what you counted and carefully saved,

all this must go so you know

how desolate the landscape can be

between the regions of kindness.

How you ride and ride

thinking the bus will never stop,

the passengers eating maize and chicken

will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,

you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho

lies dead by the side of the road.

You must see how this could be you,

how he too was someone

who journeyed through the night with plans

and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,

you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.

You must wake up with sorrow.

You must speak to it till your voice

catches the thread of all sorrows

and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes any sense anymore,

only kindness that ties your shoes

and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,

only kindness that raises its head

from the crowd of the world to say

It is I you have been looking for,

and then goes with you everywhere

like a shadow or a friend.

History of Random Acts of Kindness Movement:

In the spring of 1993, Professor Chuck Wall was teaching a human relations class at Bakersfield College. He was pondering his next class assignment and was half listening to the radio news when he heard:  'We have another random act of senseless violence to report.'

In the seconds that followed, he coined the phrase.

'I just took out the word "violence" and stuck in the word "kindness". All of a sudden I had a great phrase that turned a negative into a positive.'

Later that day he walked into his classroom, and told eighteen students, ranging in age from 18 to 67, to pick up their pens. The week's assignment: 'Today I will commit one random act of senseless kindness.'

Wall says that hands went up and the students seemed confused.  One student complained: 'I don't know what I'm supposed to do.'

Wall explains: 'They wanted me to tell them what kindness was about. I insisted they figure it out for themselves