After cleaning, repairing, and filling my box, I set it on my altar for a moon phase, allowing it time to experience some magical workings and the full cycle of the moon. At the new moon, I blessed it before the gods and the elements with this enchantment:
Spinner Clotho spin the thread,
Lachesis the apportioner, measure the charge,
Atropos the inevitable, cut the measure,
Please bless these tools to their task
For mending, sewing, all sorts of repair.
Imbue their work with love, joy, and magic,
Conscious and Unconscious
The magic does mend.
Reverence and mirth,
Power and joy,
Honor and humility
Each stitch does employ.
This magic and power
Through my hands and my tools
Repairs and mends the heart and soul.
With your blessings,
For the good of all
And the harm of none.
As I will it so mote it be!
After raising a cone of power and grounding the energy in the sewing box, I put it in its place to do its work.
There are many household goddesses and goddesses of creativity and needlecrafts in every culture of the world. Athena is the goddess with whom I work most frequently for this and other areas; however, as I pondered who to work with for this tool kit, the Moirae stepped in to take the foreground. These three Fates of the Greek guided the life stories of humans, and even the gods could not influence them. Clotho was the spinner who spun the thread of our lives, Lachesis decided the length of each person’s life, and Atropos made the final cut, the snip that ended life and began the journey to the land of the dead. So to them I committed my tools of repair and mending.
And yet the Moirae are not the only deities I work with for mending and sewing. Hestia, Vesta, Brigit, Xochiquetzal, Ix Chel, Athena, Arachne, Erinia, Spider Woman, and First Woman are all well known goddesses of the hearth or of the needle arts. It isn’t always easy to identify gods and goddesses associated with the needle arts. As a so-called womanly art, needlework and sewing is a humbler craft than some of the larger issues such as war, fertility, nature, etc.; many of the needle goddesses’ attributes are lost in time. So as we research the gods, we need to be well aware that our own personal interaction and understanding of the gods is as reliable and authentic as the documented historical evidence. If you are called to consecrate your needlework to Aphrodite, heed her call! Choose your goddess wisely but remember the gods ultimately choose us.
Each tool in your mending kit can be charmed to bless its work. Sometimes in the middle of the hurly burly of getting things done, it’s hard to remember to stop and do the magic and then solve the problem. Recognizing that each of our mundane tools has a magical purpose and enchanting them at the beginning of the task can ensure that magic is imbued in the foundations of our mending. Our tools are ready always to be both magical and practical.
Scissors
Scissors are a wonderful tool, as they are sharp and shiny. I am picky about scissors, so I buy a particular brand. There are scissors to cut paper and others to cut fabric (be sure to buy the right ones for your needs); large ones for big jobs and small ones for projects that challenge us to use our fine motor skills. Still other cutting tools are made for snipping threads and getting close into the work. In my mending kit, I have a pair of scissors in the shape of a heron, a bird sacred to me, which is almost always used for ritual items. I have embroidery scissors, paper scissors, and two sizes of fabric scissors. Naturally all you really need for mending is a large pair and a small pair. Keep them sharp and free of the fuzz that develops from cutting thread and fabric. Scissors have an esoteric history as well, as in the story of Atropos. A sharp, clean pair of scissors honors the work, no matter how hard or how difficult. A charm for scissors is:
Scissors, scissors, shiny and bright
Make my cuts straight and right.
Ragged edges made clean and new
Shows my magic, loving and true.
Spoken three times with the scissors in your hand, your scissors become empowered with the energy of love to do their job with skill and magic.
Needles
Needles with their eyes for thread bespeak of the ability to connect and bring things together. Of course, eyes are seen as a tool of vision, both inner and outer. Running a thread through the eye and then sewing something together or decorating with thread, the eye is essential for keeping all the tools and materials together and for creating the vision of the project.
Needles bend with long use, and their outer polish is rubbed off. Their sharp point wears down. It’s important to replace your needles periodically. The Japanese have the Festival of Broken Needles, Hari-kauyo, where all the old needles are gathered together and brought to Buddhist and Shinto temples. The old needles are then placed in cakes of tofu. The idea is that the sorrows and joys of the women sewing are passed through the needle. This festival, on February 8, honors the service of the needles and the spirit of small, practical tools. I replace my needles on a regular basis, retiring them to a witch’s bottle, something I make as a housewarming gift for my friends in the Craft. My charm for old needles is:
Though my shiny needle grows dull,
Magic and love never lulls.
With magic and thanks you retire
Into the rest you aspire.
Thankfully, the gods are amused by rhymes and charms, and it doesn’t always
