by Isobel Bird
But of course she couldn’t stop thinking about what she’d done. Would her sister ever read her message? What if she did read it but decided she didn’t want to contact Annie? That would be even worse. It was better to think that she would never get it at all.
Eventually she forced herself to mostly forget about it by concentrating on her homework. But that only took an hour. Then she tried working on a new painting, but it just wasn’t coming along. She was relieved when she heard her aunt and Meg return and she could go downstairs and lose herself in Meg’s recounting of their shopping trip. Annie dutifully approved each of the purchases Meg had made—which included some new clothes and, as a reward for putting up with trying on shoes, several books. Then she helped her aunt make dinner. By the time they’d eaten and she’d done the dishes, she had only a few hours to kill before she could go to bed. She passed the time practicing her Tarot card skills and writing in her magical journal.
Fortunately, the next night she had class to occupy her. Unfortunately, Olivia Sorensen was still teaching them about astrology, and they spent the evening talking about transits and eclipses and other things that Annie jotted down in her notes and tried to understand, but wasn’t sure she really understood at all. Thinking about stars made her think of Northern Star, so she concentrated instead on memorizing what astrological signs went with what birth dates. But she kept getting Sagittarius and Capricorn mixed up, and eventually it all became a gigantic blur.
She was relieved when it was time to go home. She was even more relieved when Sophia announced that, starting the next week, they would be moving on to another topic. Astrology was beginning to get on Annie’s nerves big time, and she was happy to leave it behind.
Cooper had driven to class, since she was still staying with Thea and Sasha, and she offered to give Annie and Kate a ride home. They all scrunched into the Nash and headed through town.
“Have you talked to your mom?” Kate asked Cooper.
“Yeah,” said Cooper, sounding tired. “I told her that I thought she needed some time by herself. She didn’t seem to care one way or another. My father wanted me to come stay with him, but I think it’s better if I stay with Thea and Sasha. I don’t want my mother to think I’m choosing my dad over her.”
“When do you think you’ll go home?” asked Annie. She couldn’t imagine being away from her family like that, even for a night, and she wondered how Cooper was handling it.
“I honestly don’t know,” said Cooper. “Thea says I can stay as long as I need to, but I don’t want to be there for too long. It feels weird going to my house to get stuff and then leaving again.”
“You know you’re welcome at our house any time,” Kate told her.
“Same here,” added Annie.
“Thanks,” Cooper said. “But I hope I can go home soon.”
They drove the rest of the way in silence. Cooper dropped Kate off first.
“’Bye,” Kate said, leaning in the window after getting out. “Oh, and Annie, I’ll call you in a little bit with that chocolate cake recipe I was telling you about in class. You’ll love it.”
Cooper continued on to Annie’s house.
“Have you noticed that Kate’s been really perky lately?” Annie asked as they drove.
“How could I not?” Cooper remarked. “Something has happened to that girl. Any idea what it is?”
“None,” answered Annie. “But as long as she’s through being mad at me, I’m not going to ask.”
Cooper stopped outside the Crandall house. “This is you,” she said to Annie.
Annie started to get out, then turned to Cooper. “Everything is going to be okay,” she said, “with your mom. I know it sounds stupid, but I just think it will.”
Cooper smiled at her. “I think you’re right,” she said. “I just hope it happens soon. Don’t tell anyone I said this, but Thea is the worst cook.”
Annie laughed. “Good night,” she said, waving good-bye to Cooper as she pulled away.
She walked into the house just in time to hear her aunt say, “Oh, wait a second. Here she is.” Aunt Sarah held up the phone. “It’s for you,” she said.
Kate didn’t waste any time, Annie thought as she took the phone and walked into the kitchen.
“Hey,” she said. “Let me get something to write with and you can give me the recipe.”
“Recipe?” said a strange voice.
“Oh,” Annie said, surprised. “I’m sorry. I thought you were Kate.”
“No,” said the woman on the other end, laughing warmly. “My name is Juliet Garrison.” She paused. When she spoke again, her voice trembled with emotion. “I think I might be your sister.”
Follow the
with Book 13:
And it Harm None
The broken glass that littered the floor was not the worst of it. That could be swept away—was, in fact, being swept away by Archer when the girls arrived at Crones’ Circle the next morning for the workshop. Already most of it was in a pile, ready to be thrown into the waiting trash can.
“What happened?” Annie asked as she, Cooper, and Kate stood in the open doorway, looking around.
The store was a mess. Books had been thrown onto the floor. Shelves had been ransacked. Candles of all colors were scattered on the floor, and the jars of incense had been overturned, their multicolored powders blending together in a fragrant stain. Sophia stood by the cash register, looking at smashed cases that had once held jewelry—pentacles and Goddess pendants and silver rings—and at the open cash drawer in which nothing but a few loose coins remained.
“Somebody broke in last night,” she said.
The girls entered the store, stepping over the broken glass and the spilled incense. Simeon, the big gray cat who called Crones’ Circle his home, came out from beneath a bookcase and began rubbing against Cooper’s leg.
“At least they didn’t hurt Simi,” said Sophia.
“Do you have any idea who did this?” asked Kate.
Sophia shook her head. “No,” she said unhappily. “We left here at around ten o’clock last night and everything was fine. When Archer came in this morning to set up for the workshop, this is what she found.”
“What about the alarm?” Cooper asked. “Why didn’t it go off?”
“We’re having a new one installed,” answered Sophia. “The old one wasn’t working.” She surveyed her store, taking in the mess. “At least no one was hurt,” she said, obviously trying to make the best of a bad situation. “That’s the important thing.”
“Hey, what’s going on?”
The girls turned to see Sasha coming in. She was carrying a cup of coffee from the shop around the corner, and she was wearing sunglasses. When she saw the condition of the store she removed her glasses and let out a low whistle. “It must have been some party,” she said.
“We’ll help you clean up,” said Annie to Sophia.
The girls all pitched in, returning books to the shelves, straightening up what could be straightened, and throwing out what couldn’t be salvaged. Within a short time the store looked a lot better, but it was still a bruised and battered version of its old self.
“It looks like they only took what they thought they could sell,” remarked Cooper as they worked. “There are no books missing, just stuff like jewelry and cash.”
“Whoever did it must have known the alarm wasn’t working,” Archer said. “No one would try to break into a store with an alarm system. They’d have to be nuts.”
“Who knew about the alarm?” asked Annie.
“Just the repair guy and everyone who works here,” answered Archer.
“That’s a pretty short list,” Cooper said. “Why would any of those people want to steal from the store?”
“That’s what makes this so weird,” remarked Sophia. “No one who works here would steal from the store. We all own it together. If someone steals, she’s really only stealing from herself.”
“Maybe someone was watching the place
and noticed that you weren’t setting an alarm when you left at night,” suggested Sasha as she restacked a table of books.
“Maybe,” Sophia said. “It doesn’t really matter, though. What’s done is done. All we can do is go forward.”
“You have insurance though, right?” asked Sasha. “I mean, this is all covered?”
Sophia shook her head. “Our policy doesn’t cover theft,” she said. “We save money by having a very basic policy. So this all comes out of our pockets.”
Sasha frowned. “Oh,” she said quietly, and went back to cleaning up.
“I just can’t believe someone would do something like this,” Kate said. “It makes me so angry. I wish we could do a spell or something to teach the person a lesson.”
Archer put an arm around Kate as she walked past carrying the broom. “Didn’t you learn your lesson about putting spells on people the hard way?” she joked.
Kate blushed. “You know what I mean,” she said. “I just hate to see whoever did this get away with it.”
“You never really get away with anything,” said Sophia. “Remember what the Law of Three says: whatever energy you put out comes back to you three times as strong. I imagine that whoever broke into the store is really hurting.” She looked around the store. “But that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to tell that person a thing or two.”
The Universal Check Ritual
In Written in the Stars, the girls discuss the idea that our lives are controlled by the universe. While very few people would argue that everything that happens to us is decided for us by cosmic forces outside our control, many of us believe that we can ask the universe for help from time to time. (By universe I mean whatever spiritual forces you believe help you accomplish your goals. You may think of the “universe” as a particular god or goddess, or you may just think of it as an unnamed force.)
What does it mean to ask the universe for help? In Wicca we teach people that real magic is learning how to use our intentions to make the things happen that we want to happen. Learning to focus these intentions, and discovering how to remove the obstacles preventing us from achieving what we want to in life, is at the core of practicing Wicca. Asking the universe for help means asking for help in accomplishing this focusing of our energy.
There are many ways to ask the universe for help. You can pray. You can meditate and think about what you want to achieve, silently asking for help from your chosen deity. One of my favorite rituals to do to ask for help is what I call writing the Universal Check. We’ve all used checks, or at least seen them. What are they? Basically, a note one person gives another person promising to do something, in this case pay money. A check is a symbol of a person’s intention to pay for something.
Well, the Universal Check is also a symbol of intention. It is a check that you write to yourself, drawn on the imaginary but nonetheless incredibly wealthy Bank of the Universe. It is a statement you make in which you ask the universe to provide you with something you need. What kinds of things? Pretty much anything you really need: help, money, inspiration. The important thing is that the check you write yourself be for something you really need in your life and not, say, for a new pair of shoes (unless, of course, a new pair of shoes is something you very much need) or a lot of money you want just so you can have money (money you need for something important is another matter).
No, the Universal Check is something you write when you really need the universe to give you a hand getting something or accomplishing something. It’s actually more of a request you make to the Bank of the Universe, asking for help in achieving what you want to do. It’s a physical statement of your intention to make what you want to happen, happen.
So how does it work? First, you create the check. Below is a sample check. Feel free to copy it, or make up your own checks. What your check looks like isn’t important. The important thing is to make something physical, something you can write on and hold in your hand.
Once you’ve created your Universal Check, it’s time to fill it in with what you’re asking for. Let’s say you really want to attend a class on Tarot card reading being offered by your local bookstore. It costs $50 for the class, and you don’t have it. Write yourself a Universal Check for $50. Then just sit back and wait for the $50 to show up, right? Of course not. The check is the symbol of your intention to make that $50 somehow. You’re asking the universe to help you find a way to earn that money. Seeing how the universe answers your request is all part of the magic. Maybe you’ll find yourself getting more babysitting jobs than usual, or perhaps you’ll get lucky and someone will send you money for an upcoming birthday or other occasion. The important thing is to not sit around waiting for the universe to pay out on the check you write. Look for ways to make what you want happen, and trust that the universe will give you the extra help you need.
As another example, let’s say that you’re having a difficult time making a decision about something. You can write yourself a Universal Check asking for “guidance and clarity,” or something like that. In this case, you’re asking the universe to help you sort through the various obstacles preventing you from making your decision. You’re putting your desire and intention to make the decision out there, and you’re asking for some backup, as it were.
Again, keep in mind that the Universal Check is a symbol. It is a statement you’re making, a request for help in achieving your goals. This in itself can be a very powerful thing. A famous movie actor tells a story about the days when he wasn’t so rich and famous. Frustrated but determined, he wrote himself a check for ten million dollars. He folded that check up and put it into his wallet. Whenever he felt discouraged, he took it out, looked at it, and thought about a time when he would really be able to write himself such a check. In the meantime, he did everything he could to make his dream of becoming a successful actor come true. But he always remembered that check, and that helped him visualize the success he wanted to achieve. Now, of course, he really could write himself that ten million dollar check. Did the check he wrote all those years ago make him rich and famous? No, but perhaps because he repeatedly pictured himself writing that ten million dollar check, he was able to focus his energy and intention on taking advantage of every break that came his way. When you can do that, then you are working real magic.
Most of us probably aren’t trying to achieve something as ambitious as becoming movie stars. But we do each have our own goals. When I was thinking about writing the Circle of Three series, I knew that it might be difficult to get people to buy a series of books about teenagers involved in Wicca. One of the things I did was write myself a Universal Check like the sample one you see above, filling in the blank with “one series of Wicca books.” I kept that check taped above my desk while I wrote the proposal for the series and began work on the first book. I pictured myself holding a printed copy of the first book in my hand. I didn’t think about how many books there would ultimately be in the series, or about how successful they would be. I concentrated on just writing the best proposal I could, and on doing whatever I could to sell the series. Ultimately, of course, I did get to write that series. Was it a result of writing that Universal Check? No, not entirely. But writing that check helped me focus my intentions, and that did help me succeed in doing what I wanted to do. And perhaps the universe did throw in a little good luck, too!
You’ll notice that the Universal Check — unlike real checks — has lines for two signatures at the bottom. One is for the Goddess of Plenty, the goddess I like to think is in charge of handing out funds from the Universal Bank. You can use her name, or you can use the name of any deity you happen to like working with. The important thing is that the second line is for your signature. Why? Because, as I mentioned earlier, cashing this check requires a commitment from you as well as from the Bank of the Universe. You’re working as a team here, and you’re making a pledge to do everything you can to make your intentions manifest themselves, just as the Goddess of Plenty is making a pledge to lend wh
atever help you need.
Each of us has the power within us to change our lives, to achieve the goals we set for ourselves and to accomplish the tasks that we face. Yes, there is often some luck involved in achieving these goals. But mostly it’s just a matter of hard work. When you write yourself a Universal Check, don’t stop there. Consider it a declaration of your intentions, but don’t expect the universe to drop whatever you’re asking for into your lap. Do expect that the universe will help out with that added piece of luck you might need, and with helping you keep your intentions focused and your determination fired up. Think of the check as a contract between you and the universe. You’re asking the universe to help you out a little, but you’re also promising to do everything you can do on your own to make your dreams come true.
It can be helpful to do a little ritual around the Universal Check. What I like to do is cast a circle and sit inside it. I hold the blank check in my hands and I imagine myself achieving whatever it is I’m going to ask for, whether it’s writing a book or going on a much-needed vacation or getting the money for something I need. I visualize myself doing whatever is necessary to achieve the thing I want, and I try to figure out exactly what step of the process I need help with. Sometimes it’s just one step, while other times I need help with everything! But once I know what it is I need help with, I ask the universe to help me out with that particular thing. Then I fill out the check, writing down what it is I want to achieve.
As I mentioned earlier, sometimes I keep my check where I can see it. It provides inspiration when I need it. Other times I fold it up and keep it somewhere on my altar. This is particularly true if I’m asking for help with something that isn’t exactly concrete in nature (like help with not worrying, or with not feeling angry toward someone) or with something that will take a long time. Knowing that it’s on my altar can be very reassuring. Like the movie actor who wrote himself that ten million dollar check, you might also want to carry your Universal Check around with you. What you do with it is up to you.