====== Pumice ======
<div #singlebox>
---- dataentry gem----
latin_names: 
folk_names: 
energy_tags: Projective
gender_tags: 
planet_tags: Mercury
element_tags: Air
deity_tags: 
effect_tags: Easing childbirth, banishment, protection
----
</div>
<ifauth @user>
===== Magical Uses =====
Pumice, a volcanic product, is a curious substance. Light and rough to the touch (one soap boasts it contains pumice to help in cleaning dirty hands), it also possesses the unique property of floating on water.

At one time, pumice was pressed into the hands of women during childbirth, or worn, to ease the passage of the new life into the outside world.

*A banishing spell:* Take a piece of pumice and hold it in your projective hand. Visualize the problem you wish to be rid of-a damaging habit, negative emotion, physical ailment, or unrequited love.

While holding the stone, through your visualization send the energy that is behind the problem into the pumice. You might imagine it as streams of thick, black smoke, the consistency of molasses, flowing into the light, porous stone.

Then, throw the pumice into a lake, stream, the ocean, or any body of water.

As it hits the water, it releases the problem and its root causes into that element. Floating on the surface, the pumice strengthens your ability to "rise above" any and all negative conditions.

If you do not have access to bodies of water, fill a large basin or bucket with water and perform the ritual; then pour the water, stone and all, on to bare earth.

Pumice can also be placed on the altar during protective magic or in the home as an amuletic sponge. Empower it with the property of absorbing negativity.</ifauth>