I work part-time as a model – mostly I do figure modeling, where the point is to be as Interesting a human shape as possible (my height and long limbs come in handy here) and presenting a certain Look – beyond the shape of your actual, physical body – is not such a huge thing. But I also work as a photographer’s model doing fetish, glam and art nudes, and concept shoots… and, for that, Glamour comes in handy.
Given that, it’s maybe a little weird that I’m not that good (or maybe just not that consistent) at invoking/implementing it in my day-to-day life.
I’ve written before about trying to figure out what my “hook” is, in terms of visual presentation – the work of sorting out what looks good on me and how to combine that with what I actually want to wear. But Glamour, in the magical sense, is more than that. There’s a whole slew of Things A Witch Can Do to subtly influence people around her (and her, herself) to see her the way she wants to be seen. Everything from wearing charged[1] jewelry and/or perfume, to taking magical baths or using a Glam Wash on her windows and mirrors, to doing Miss Sugar’s trick with unscented hand sanitizer, (unused) eye-shadow brushes, and sigils.
I recently started doing (or at least attempting) sigil magic. Beyond writing dollar signs, hearts, and happy faces, on my arms in body glitter[2], I mean. And I decided to try and help them along by doing a Glam Bath.
“Glam Bath” is not a technical term (but it could be!). It’s what I’m calling the mix of essential oils that call up sensuality and hedonism and which, added to my bath water (or built into a scented candle, or whatever), can be used to charm for love, joy, protection, action, and attraction (with a side of extra cash and good luck).
The foundation was Sweet Orange (happiness, love, and a few other Good Things) with additions of:
Vanilla absolute
Cinnamon
Clove
Ylang Ylang
and
Cocoa absolute
… to round things out.
Strictly speaking, you could do (most, if not all, of) this with sweet orange, clove, and vanilla, but I like to add the cinnamon for an extra power boost + protection, and the cocoa and ylang ylang up the attraction factor quite a bit.
My general thought is that (a) if you’re drawing love and happiness to you, you’re going to feel beautiful and you’re going to have that Glow going on, AND (b) if you are radiating love and happiness, everyone around you is going to pick up on it (on some level) and is going to see you as beautiful and, assuming my social theory isn’t totally out to lunch, will want to do nice things for you and give you what you want.
So I had a fabulous bath, did a ritual wash of my head and my heart chakra[3], and then went about the business of actually getting clean – scrubbing off the old (I spend all day at the Pride Grounds, working an info booth. There was a LOT of exfoliating) and letting the oils soak into the new. I felt gloriously clean and pretty damn sexy by the end of. 🙂
We’ll see how it works out but… I figure it was worth a shot (and, hey, I also got a great bath out of the deal!)
TTFN,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.
[1] The charging part is actually (woops) the part I tend to forget. You have to actually push some energy into the perfume/jewelry/bathwater/sigil/ingredient/whatever in order to jump-start it and get it working. That’s essentially what makes this stuff “magic” and not “wishful thinking”.
[2] Oh yeah. If you’re gonna do glamour, do glamour, baby!
[3] This was more trying to accomplish two related goals in one shot by helping myself to emotionally focus on The Good Stuff and, in so doing, draw it a little more visibly into my life.
Urban Meliad 