A Witches Rosary [Archive] - MysticWicks Online Pagan Community and Spiritual Sanctuary

Amethyst Rose

July 4th, 2001, 01:27 PM

Witch Rosary

Made in the form of a necklace or belt, the Witch Rosary is a consecrated Amulet that serves a triple function.

*It gives Amuletic power to the wearer.

*It serves as a 'reminder' in the performance of certain Spells, in the same manner as Arabic or Christian rosaries.

*It contains Stones that can be removed and used singly in magic operations.

The Witch Rosary may be made in two forms.

1) As a string of beads, each of which is a Stone with certain magical properties, and which may be removed from their settings at will (this type is rather expensive).

2) Or in the form of a belt or necklace with leather pouches, each of which contains one of the Stones.

The Witch Rosary ends in an Ankh, worn as a pendant if it is a necklace or worn as a buckle if it is a belt.

The components of a Witch Rosary are:

1) Moonstone (The Moon)
2) Hematite (Fire)
3) Crystal Quartz (Air)
4) Earth Stone (Earth)
5) Lapis Lazuli (Water)
6) Amber (Sun)
7) Birthstone (Stars)
8) Ankh, as pendant or buckle

Substitutions may be made as follows;

1) Opal, Mother of Pearl
2) Flame Agate
3) Crystal
4) Emerald
5) Blue Amethyst
6) Chrysolite
7) Gem with a Natural Star
8) No substitute for the Ankh

If worn as a necklace, the stones may be separated by knots in the cord, or there may be three silver beads between each stone. If it is worn as a belt, there may be three wooden beads between each of the leather pouches that holds a stone; these wooden beads may in turn be separated by knots in the leather cord (usually), if a cord is used.

The Witch's Rosary can be worn in the world, for it will pass as an unusual belt or necklace.

It is said that many Witch's liked to wear them when they expect to encounter hostile forces or possible enemies. It may be worn externally, seen by the world, or under the Witch's garments, invisibly.

Wyrdsister

July 4th, 2001, 05:08 PM

This is really interesting Amethyst Rose! Where did you find this information? Do you know the history of the Witch rosary?

Wyrdsister

Laiste

July 4th, 2001, 08:01 PM

That sounds so beautiful. I have all the stones needed I just need to figure out a way to attach them to the cord. Can they be wrapped in wire? Possibly silver to match the beads?

Blessed Be,

Laiste

Amethyst Rose

July 5th, 2001, 01:10 AM

Wyrdsister: I believe this was passed on to me through a mailing list about 2 years ago. Unfortuantely, I can't tell you any more than what's in the original email. :)

Laiste: I imaging you can do anything you want with it to make it fit you just the way you'd like. If I made one for myself I would put a pentacle on the end, not an ankh.

Laiste

July 5th, 2001, 06:59 AM

Thanks. I'll have to let you know how it turns out! Headed to the craft store!:D

Laiste

Lilu

July 5th, 2001, 08:54 AM

She doesn't have anything listed at the moment, but give her a few days and there will probably be something new up. But the following seller on eBay has some gorgeous witch rosaries for auction! She may have a site too, but it would be listed with the items when they are up.

http://cgi6.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewListedItems&userid=crane_s@yahoo.com

Lilu

PS. You can see an example here!
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1159491935

Vinga

July 6th, 2001, 01:23 AM

I'm just wondering about the Ankh, and the statement that one can't use a substitute. The Ankh is an Egyptian symbol (right?) so what if you are not following the Egyptian path? Wouldn't perhaps a pentacle/pentagram work? Or whatever other symbol that represents the personal path?
A friend of mine has a witches rosary with a pentacle and I made something similar (although I'm not a practicing witch) that ended with a Tree Of Life pendant. I've seen quite a few versions on ebay and e-witch and as far as I can recall, none of them had an Ankh. :confused:

Amethyst Rose

July 6th, 2001, 01:28 AM

My guess is that someone wrote a "how to" about how he/she made a witches rosary for *their* tradition.... hence the ankh. Also if it was originally for one tradition, then there wouldn't be a subsitite for the ahkh........Which is why I think it would be okay for anyone to use any substitutes that they like.

Truth be told, the whole ankh thing is the reason why I've held back posting this for so long.....

Dria El

July 6th, 2001, 03:19 AM

Ooooooh! Sounds awesome! Definitely gonna have to try this! Thanks for posting it!

:)

Lilu

July 6th, 2001, 08:32 AM

My thoughts would be that you personalise it to mean something for you, if you don't follow an egyptian path, then the ankh wouldn't mean as much to you as something else, for instance a celtic cross, or a pentacle, or the tree of life as was suggested. I think you should use whatever symbol means something to you :)

Lilu

EasternPriest

July 19th, 2001, 05:28 PM

I found the Ankh reference interesting as well. It is primarily associated with Egyptian religion, both Pagan and Christian. In the Christian world it is primarily used by the Coptic Church, and some Essene orders as well.

Sowelu

November 12th, 2002, 11:25 AM

Greetings Everyone....
As most of you know, I have been sick:mad: :( ....I am tired of being sick:( ...so I thought I'd make somethin' out of the spare time I have trying to get well:)
I made a Witches Rosary with a Goddess symbol at the end. This first one I made was more for practice sort of...the other's I plan on making will have different shades of one color, and possibly bigger beads, I don't know...I'm still experimenting;)
In this Rosary I included all colors of the elements with added extras. As usual, my cam takes crappy pics, but you should be able to see the detail okay....maybey:p :) :) :) :) :) :)

Sowelu

November 12th, 2002, 11:26 AM

Sowelu

November 12th, 2002, 11:27 AM

;)

Sowelu

November 12th, 2002, 11:28 AM

Sowelu

November 12th, 2002, 11:29 AM

:cool:

Lavender

November 12th, 2002, 01:19 PM

I think your rosary is really beautiful!

Morrighana

November 12th, 2002, 05:05 PM

It's beautiful! Is your rosary intended for use? How would one use it? I'm vaguely familiar with catholic rosaries, which if I'm not mistaken one is supposed to say a specific prayer with and pray certain words on certain beads, is a Witches' rosary similar to that? Or just decorative?

Demeter

November 12th, 2002, 06:16 PM

Originally posted by Morrighana
It's beautiful! Is your rosary intended for use? How would one use it? I'm vaguely familiar with catholic rosaries, which if I'm not mistaken one is supposed to say a specific prayer with and pray certain words on certain beads, is a Witches' rosary similar to that? Or just decorative?

My teacher was strongly influenced by Catholicism and she also came up with a similar Witches' Rosary. She used it for chanting - she had the beads divided into sets of nine, and would do nine verses of one chant, then nine verses of another, and so on. A couple of times we had several people using these simultaneously doing chants in counterpoint and when we got to a change point everybody would switch to the next chant in the round. By the time we got to the three beads and the goddes medallion at the end, we had some serious energy built up, and finished up with "The Goddess is Alive, Magic is Afoot!" and fired the energy off into the ether.

I later came across a very interesting rosary version in Starhawk's book on Living and Dying and then modified it for my personal use (this was a couple of years ago, I'll see if I can find the ritual I wrote for it). The idea here is that you have a whole string of different beads, each of which will remind you of something. Say, a red bead for South and the Element of Fire, a fish shaped bead for Water, gold and silver beads for the God and Goddess respectively, and you go through the chain first mentally casting a circle (the circle end of a toggle clasp), then calling the elements and invoking God and Goddess, then giving thanks for the animals and plants and the ancestors and such. And you'd have specific beads for particular prayers or chants you wanted to do, as a mnemonic. And then you'd get to another copy of the God and Goddess beads and the elemental beads, in reverse order, and then open the circle with the other end of the toggle clasp. It works best if each of the beads is distinct by touch, so that you can use them with your eyes closed, or even with your hand in your pocket.

I'm sure there are lots of other ways to use a Witches' Rosary.

Lavender

November 13th, 2002, 01:35 AM

There are so many variations of the witches' rosary. You can really make these so personal. Here's another thread discussing witches rosary.

http://mysticwicks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21129

shnen

November 13th, 2002, 05:48 AM

:) you beat me to it Wildchild! :lol:

Jade, yuor rasary is beautiful... where do you find goddess beading and such?

Sowelu

November 13th, 2002, 09:09 AM

Thank You (((Everyone))):heartthro :heartthro :heartthro
I am not sure if this Rosary will be used for ritual purposes or not. It was made to see if I could make one, to see how it would turn out.
(((Shnen))) I found the beads at a bead shop in town. I'm sure you can find them online at most bead shops. I'll have to look around...:D :) :D ...do some searching;)

Dryad's Wyrd

November 14th, 2002, 06:01 PM

What a great idea! I find wearing my pentagram very comforting but I always have to wear it under my shirt because we are not allowed to wear it at work (their attempt to keep the work place religion free). I would be allowed to wear some thing like this though! I'm thinking that I might make one myself....
Blessings,
Dryad

Flar's Freyja

November 14th, 2002, 06:11 PM

WhooHoo! Thank you all so much for this. We want to make them in Women's Circle and I've been looking for ideas to make them inexpensively. I've been thinking about making the symbolic pieces out of Sculpey clay.

Lavender

November 14th, 2002, 09:33 PM

Sculprey is perfect for that! You can get the really neat colours that look like stone. I just finished a set of runes in the granite colour & they look great. One suggestion...if you're baking a lot of pieces, use those oven bags. They keep the fumes from your oven.

Flar's Freyja

November 16th, 2002, 09:36 PM

Thanks, Wild! I didn't know that!

While searching for something else, I found a prayer that can be used for working with the rosary. I believe it came from RavenWolf's book about working with angels and magick:

RavenSwan's Realm of Mystery (http://home.earthlink.net/~ravenswan/angel_rosary.html)

shnen

November 18th, 2002, 07:45 AM

what exactly is scuprey??? is it like clay??? can you get it in different colours???

ovenbags??? from where?

Ganga

November 18th, 2002, 08:30 AM

Beautiful, beautiful! Beautiful rosary!

Mine is made with Tulasi (Holy Basil, form of Goddess, the presiding Deity of all trees) beads. There are 108 of them, and I do a certain number of rounds of chanting (Hare Krishna-mantra; Hare referring to Goddess and Krishna to God) with them.

Morrighana

November 18th, 2002, 10:28 AM

Shnen- Sculpey/Premo/Fimo is a special type of modeling clay that bakes in your oven. It comes in a rainbow of colors, including faux stone colors, and can be purchased at any craft store. It's popular b/c it's extremely easy to work with, fairly inexpensive, and keeps really well.

Flar's Freyja

November 18th, 2002, 10:37 AM

Originally posted by shnen
what exactly is scuprey??? is it like clay??? can you get it in different colours???

ovenbags??? from where?

It can be baked to harden in about twenty minutes. It's available at Wal-Mart and craft stores like Michael's and Hobby Lobby. I love their new granite-type that looks like stone. I love using it for runes.

Just wanted to mention that if you're not crafty, you can use a regular rosary if the crucifix doesn't bother you. I'm a recovering Catholic.......I have a beautiful one that my aunt had made for me in my birthstone colors with my kids' names in the beads. I had just entered this path when she gave it to me but it's the most beautiful gift anyone's ever given me and I cried when I received it. Rootwork13 also just sent me an absolutely gorgeous one with beautiful pearl beads with a purple cast and the joiner is an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary under a cover of amethyst flowers. It's hard to describe in words, I'll try to take a picture. It's awesome! I use a statue of Mary as my goddess representation. It was made by my aunt and given to my mother, so having this on a rosary speaks Goddess to me.

Lavender

November 18th, 2002, 11:51 AM

Freyja, that sounds so wonderful! Yes please post a pic of it. :)

Flar's Freyja

November 18th, 2002, 11:55 AM

:) I will, and Flar bought me some of that granite Sculpey a few weeks ago :heartthro It was cheaper at the University Bookstore than it was at Michael's!

Wild, did you mean the turkey and pot roast oven bags?

Witchy Cowgirl

December 14th, 2002, 10:03 PM

Beautiful Jade! Now I have something to add to my wish list! I gotta have one!;)

Old Witch

December 15th, 2002, 10:24 AM

I have been a really bad mod......I don't know how I missed this thread......those rosarys are just beautiful.....another thing to put on my list that will never get done......le sigh........

Witchy Cowgirl

December 15th, 2002, 10:28 AM

((((Old Witch))))
Hope you feel better soon!
I know, pull out your credit card and let Ken order you one of these rosaries for a Yule/Christmas gift. That'll make you feel better!:D

Old Witch

December 15th, 2002, 10:39 AM

Bad Mod.....not bad mood!!!!!:lol:

Witchy Cowgirl

December 15th, 2002, 11:11 AM

ooooppppppsssss! SORRY! :rotfl:

Oh well, let him order you one anyway!:D

Old Witch

December 23rd, 2002, 04:31 PM

After the madness of the Holidays, I am definitely going to the bead store and get me some Fimo and make me one of those............

VroomBroom

January 6th, 2003, 01:18 AM

I'm sorry i didn't find this earlier, but now I have some future Yule gifts!;)

VroomBroom

January 6th, 2003, 01:32 AM

I have my grandmothers old rosary, that the crucifix fell off of!!:rolleyes: I was just never able to part with since it was grammies, but now I see resurection for it! ;)

flar7

January 6th, 2003, 01:34 PM

Merging threads

VroomBroom

January 6th, 2003, 07:24 PM

Flar.....are you sewing??? What does that mean??? :huh:

Flar's Freyja

January 6th, 2003, 07:43 PM

Originally posted by VroomBroom
Flar.....are you sewing??? What does that mean??? :huh:

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Actually, I did that - with Flar's permission and under his ID, of course - there were two threads on rosaries and we merged the two into one. If the threads aren't too huge, this helps when someone does a search - they can find more of the info in one thread instead of in two, three or four.........

VroomBroom

January 6th, 2003, 07:47 PM

Ah, ok, I see now!!!!:D Thanks Freyja!!!!!;)

Flar's Freyja

January 6th, 2003, 07:50 PM

:D And as for sewing - no. The man can't even find the trash can. I just found a cheese wrapper in the dish drainer :rolleyes:

VroomBroom

January 6th, 2003, 08:11 PM

Now THAT sounds like a typical man!!!! :rotfl:

Flar's Freyja

August 11th, 2003, 12:22 PM

:bumpsmili:

flar7

August 12th, 2003, 11:08 AM

um. I can so sew.
I got a kit and eberting.
I did my patches on my gi. did some stuff like the hym(?) on my pants, and some alterations to garments that were to big for me. :thief:

Flar's Freyja

August 13th, 2003, 12:49 AM

um. I can so sew.
I got a kit and eberting.
I did my patches on my gi. did some stuff like the hym(?) on my pants, and some alterations to garments that were to big for me. :thief:

eberting? :woah:

Then I guess you'll be helping me figure out how to use that little sewing machine I bought last week! :heartthro

Lavender

August 13th, 2003, 01:04 AM

:lol: Are you sure you want his help, Freyja?

Flar's Freyja

August 13th, 2003, 01:05 AM

:lol: Are you sure you want his help, Freyja?

:T I must admit, he's probably better at it than I am!

mothwench

December 28th, 2003, 03:55 PM

BUMPah :smoke:

Vivianne

January 14th, 2004, 04:34 PM

Desert_Yaqui

January 14th, 2004, 04:55 PM

I know someone was talking earlier...about chants and what not with the witches rosary.

I ran across this site and thought I'd share...

I hope its a help to someone.

Viv

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Oracle/2310/rosary.htm

Hi Viv!

thanks for the link--I'm surprise that one never turned up on any of my searches... I do have one question about this though; in a traditional Catholic rosary, there are ten beads per decade (hence the name) and in this link there is talk of 9 beads.. Am I understanding that correctly? 9 beads per Witch's rosary for a total of 54 beads without the centerpiece medal and the pentacle (or end piece?)

thanks!

I happen to be working on rosaries right now and I was just curious because I do have enough components to do one.

Flar's Freyja

January 16th, 2004, 01:01 PM

Hi Viv!

thanks for the link--I'm surprise that one never turned up on any of my searches... I do have one question about this though; in a traditional Catholic rosary, there are ten beads per decade (hence the name) and in this link there is talk of 9 beads.. Am I understanding that correctly? 9 beads per Witch's rosary for a total of 54 beads without the centerpiece medal and the pentacle (or end piece?)

thanks!

I happen to be working on rosaries right now and I was just curious because I do have enough components to do one.

How are they coming? Here are some pics of the new Willendorf pendants, and a Nuit that I tried. We talked about your possibly using something like these in your rosaries. Unfortunately, the Nuit's arm broke when I dropped her on the coffee table :( For something that gets this much wear and tear, I'm worried about them breaking, but I really love the way she turned out.

Desert_Yaqui

January 16th, 2004, 01:15 PM

Freyja, those turned out awesome! I've been a big under the weather lately and haven't really had a lot of energy to do much... But I have tomorrow off and I will try to get something going to show you.

The ones I will take pics of will be traditional style rosaries except with a tree of life at the end. and a scrolly type center piece.

:wave: I'll be getting in touch with you soon about those Willendorf pendants you've made--I'm thinking that we can toughen up those babies with a little liquid plastic. What do you think? Maybe you can get Flar's opinion; there's a lot of good water-based products. I would go with an indoor/outdoor product to get the best results of course.

Flar's Freyja

January 16th, 2004, 01:18 PM

Desert_Yaqui

January 16th, 2004, 01:46 PM

What a great idea! I was thinking that there must be SOMETHING that can beef 'em up! The glaze I use only protects them from water. I hate it that my pieces are so fragile. Do you have any brand names?

Mind you, I do not have stock in any companies, but Minwax has a good product as does Behr. I've worked with both and they wear well outdoors so I wouldn't worry about them indoors :)

I don't know what method you were planning on using but since its such a small piece, I would recommend spray. About three light coats oughta do it. If possible try to use some light steel wool after each application dries to ensure that the next layer sticks well. let me know if you need anymore info.

:wave:

mothwench

January 16th, 2004, 01:54 PM

The ones I will take pics of will be traditional style rosaries except with a tree of life at the end. and a scrolly type center piece.
.

:boing: this i wanna see!
freyja, those are gorgeous little pendants! what are they made of? clay?

Desert_Yaqui

January 17th, 2004, 11:15 AM

Alright got the pieces done. I just need to take pics and I will upload sometime today. While I've got a wire wrapped rosary around here somewhere-these that I've done are strung on 49 strand nylon coated wire. This makes for a secure, yet flexible rosary. This is what I ended up with:

-one traditional style Catholic Rosary in faux pearl and tiger eye
-one traditional style Catholic Rosary in czech glass.
-one traditional style Catholic Rosary with scroll center piece and tree of life pendant in hematite and drunk glass
-one Anglican style rosary in faux pearl and fire polished czech glass

I will try to post pics as soon as I can--I have a little cheesy jamcam, but my sister in law just got a nice camera so I may have to ask her to come over and bring her camera!

:wave: see ya soon!