Santa Muerte, Our Lady of Holy Death, is a Mexican folk saint who personifies death, and an estimated 12 million people ask her for protection, love, healing, and justice. Here is who she is, where her devotion came from, what her robe colors stand for, how devotees keep her altar, and why the Church opposes her.

A small black cast iron cauldron with a wire handle on a slate altar tile, holding sand and a charcoal tablet, its lid beside it, with tongs, a lit white candle, and a bowl of frankincense resin

Witch’s Cauldron: Meaning, Uses, and How to Use One Safely

Spirituality for Beginners

A witch’s cauldron is a small cast iron pot on three legs that holds fire, smoke, and water on the altar. Here is where the cauldron came from, the myths behind it, what practitioners use it for, how to burn incense and petitions in it safely, how to choose a size, and how to keep cast iron from rusting.

Pair of copper dowsing rods with sleeve handles and ball ends on a wooden garden bench

Dowsing Rods: What They Are, How They Work, and How to Use Them

Spirituality for Beginners

Dowsing rods are two bent rods, one held loosely in each hand, that swing together or apart in answer to a question or a place. People have walked fields with a rod for five hundred years, looking for ore, water, and answers. Here is what dowsing rods are, the kinds, what makes them move, what the tests found, what the churches said, and how to hold, calibrate, and question a pair step by step.

Copper cuff bracelet half polished and half tarnished beside a cut lemon and a dish of salt

How to Clean Copper: Caring for Copper Jewelry, Dowsing Rods, and Altar Tools

Spiritual Living & Everyday Practice

To clean solid copper, rub it with lemon juice and salt, rinse it, and dry it at once. Plated, sealed, and beaded pieces need dish soap or a dry cloth. Here is why copper tarnishes, which pieces are solid and which are plated, four cleaning methods with exact amounts, what never to use, how to keep tarnish and green skin away, and how to care for copper bracelets, dowsing rods, pyramids, and altar tools.

White pearl resting in an open oyster shell on wet sand

Pearl Meaning: Spiritual Properties, Symbolism, and How to Work With It

Spiritual Meanings & Symbolism

Practitioners keep pearl for purity, patience, and love: it is the moon’s gem, the only one made by a living animal, and the one that grows by wrapping an irritation in layer after layer of light. Pearls have been the wedding gem, the queen’s gem, and the tear of the gods for three thousand years, and the shell that makes them, mother of pearl, carries the same lore for a fraction of the price. Here is what a pearl is, the kinds from freshwater to Tahitian, what mother of pearl is, the meaning from Cleopatra to the crystal books, what pearls are good for, who should and should not wear them, how to tell a real one by touch, and how to care for the softest gem in the box.

Translucent honey and cognac tumbled amber pieces and one rough amber nugget on a wooden table

Amber Stone Meaning: Spiritual Properties, Uses, and How to Work With It

Spiritual Meanings & Symbolism

Practitioners keep amber for warmth, luck, and protection: it is the sun’s stone, the tears of the sun god’s daughters in the Greek story, and the one crystal on the shelf that was once alive. Amber is fossilized tree resin, tens of millions of years old, warm to the touch and light enough to float in salt water, and it has been worn as a charm since the Stone Age. Here is what amber is, its colors from lemon to cherry to blue, its meaning from the Amber Road to the crystal books, what it is good for, its chakra and zodiac, how to use it, how to tell it from copal and plastic, the plain truth about teething necklaces, and how to care for the softest gem there is.

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