A Full Moon shines, the breeze picks up, and caped figures gather to celebrate in ritual and song. All are dressed in fine ritual wear bought at Renaissance fairs or from magical vendors, but few are wearing truly magical garments of power. Truly powerful magical garments must contain the physical essence, perceptions, and intention of the wearer's spirit.
This psychic investment can only be achieved through the actions of the wearer. You cannot buy it or trade for it. While these wonderful cloaks and other clothing offered for sale are a greet place to start, what you add to them--and the way you do it--is what will transform a beautiful, but impersonal, garment into a powerful and extraordinary one. Ancient shamans, priestesses, wizards, and healers adorned themselves and their clothing with things that held special meaning for them, things that held power and expressed the spirit of magic.
Your spirit and your journey are like no one else's; you are a unique expression of the universe's energy. Why should your magical adornments and clothing be manufactured just like thousands of others? Any cloak can easily be adorned with beads, shells, thread, ribbon, or other personal effects to make it the expression of your own magical journey. The more you focus your energy into a piece of clothing, the more powerfully charged it will become for your magical work.
The first rule of living a magical life is claiming your own power and learning to trust your own perceptions. All magic and spell work flow from this simple beginning. Just as creating an altar is a way of defining your ritual workspace, adding ornaments to your clothing can define your sacred personal body space.
Creating magical garments is like a blessing spell you cast over yourself and your ritual work. Each stitch, each bead, each detail has a transformative power that adds deeper meaning and potency to your garment. Like planting a garden, the work put into a piece of magical clothing can grow to become beautiful and soul nurturing. All who see such a hand worked piece will be enriched and enchanted by its uniqueness and beauty.
Visualize your personal magical clothing in meditation or ritual. Ask the universe to guide you in creating it. Be open to influences from different cultures and eras--even different aspects of yourself. Opening yourself to this creativity is the beginning of a mystical journey of exploration that will last a lifetime. What you create now will likely evolve over time as you wear it in rituals and celebrations.
There is no end to the wonderful pieces of ritual clothing you can create. If you sew, that is great, but sewing is not essential--manufactured clothing is OK. The base clothing you use for your magical ritual wear can be anything you like, as long as the fabric is strong enough to carry the adornments you add to it without ripping or sagging.
An ordinary cloak can be painted, beaded, embroidered, appliqued, or ornamented along the hem, around the hood, across the back, or left plain on the outside and elaborately decorated on the inside. You can create anything you can imagine. Often, the final design can stem from the first embellishment, so sit with the item you want to make more powerful, and in time your inspiration will come.
Starting Your Magical Wardrobe
A beautiful shoulder mantle can be made with a simple piece of square fabric one yard long. Versatile garments, shoulder mantles can be worn over any dress, shirt, or robe, making them a good place to start if you aren't sure what you want to do. Choose sturdy velvet, cotton, or other comfortable fabric with a tight weave that will drape well. Fold the fabric in half (straight or diagonally), cut a slit in the center of the folded edge for a head hole, and finish the edge with stitches or iron-on binding tape. The outside edges can be finished in the same way, or frayed to make a short fringe. Before you begin adding to the mantle, ask yourself a few simple questions.
What is important to me? Do I like simple or fancy? Do I want subtle or bright colors? Do I want things hanging down from the mantle or not? Do I want a woodsy feel or a more urban feel? Ancient or futuristic? Do I want to add items to my mantle over time? DO I want to make it for all rituals or do I want a specific element like earth, air, fire, or water? Do I want to dedicate it to a specific goddess or god? Do I want to make an animal energy shamanic mantle? DO I want my mantle to jingle or make a sound when I walk? DO I want to use paints or not? Once you know the answers to these questions, you will know how to create a mantle that is uniquely yours.
For a natural ocean feel, you can add shells--loose shells from inexpensive shell necklaces are great because the shells are already drilled. If you live near the ocean, try adding dried seaweed, tiny driftwood pieces, or beach glass. Seashores and riverbanks can offer some amazing treasures that are perfect for your purposes. You can also add blue, aqua, green, or sandy-colored beads, thread, or ribbons, which can be sewn or tied on with embroidery floss (thread) or clear fish line. You will need to poke a hole in the fabric with a thick needle to put the floss or line through when tying pieces to the fabric. If you hot-glue items to your clothing, it is a good idea to also add a piece of thread over three sides of the piece to make sure they stay in place.
A wooded-groove feel can be created using small fallen twigs, dried moss, seedpods, acorns or other nuts, as well as long strands of grass or wheat, which can be woven or braided. Fresh leaves or flower petals can be ironed between two sheets of wax paper to preserve them, then cut out and sprayed with lacquer to seal them and to prevent melted wax from seeping out later. Small stones can be wrapped with floss and hung so they sway slightly and clink together softly when you move. Bark, willow roots, beads--you can use just about anything you like.
Feathers can also be used in interesting ways, but feathers should always be decontaminated by washing and letting them dry, and then spraying with a tick and chigger repellent spray. This is very important because bird feathers have many types of parasites. (If you want to skip this step, store-bought feathers have already been cleaned and treated.) Once cleaned, feathers can be added individually or in rows to create an amazing garment. Beads can be slipped onto the quill before sewing or tying into place.
For a more futuristic feel, silver-colored washers with a center hole can be tied onto the mantle, and beads can be placed in the hole. Chips, circuits, and other computer parts, metal bits, holographic fabric, brass items, parts from broken appliances, and tiny mirrors can be added. Wire can be braided or woven together in all kinds of shapes.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, personal treasures often make wonderful additions to ritual clothing. Charms, crystal pendants, amulets, small sturdy keepsakes, buttons, or bits of fabric from cherished clothes or old ritual garments can be added. Mementos of childhood or special moments also can find a place n your ritual wardrobe. Painting your ritual clothes with acrylic or fabric paints is also a wonderful way to make them your own. Painted scenes, creatures, goddesses, Green Man, magical symbols, or simple areas of color and texture work well. You are the creator and whatever you are drawn to create will be an expression of your magical self.
These suggestions will work equally well for cloaks, robes, pants, tunics, shoes, or any other kind of magical clothing. Cloaks with Celtic interlaces can be ornamented by edging the interlaces in gold and silver thread.
One of the most wonderful ways to create a powerful piece of ritual clothing is to add a memento from each ritual you participate in--a pebble, a twig, stone, flower petal, ribbon, or bit of fabric. Every time you put your magical garment on, you will be calling forth the energy and power of all those past rituals and celebrations and wrapping yourself in their power. Whatever you create, may you walk in magic always!
by Abby Willowroot,
copyright 2007
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