Pagan [Archive] - Butch Femme Planet

Bit

11-06-2009, 01:04 PM

An introduction--Hello! I'm Cath, screen name Bit; I answer to both but prefer Cath.

I'm an Eclectic Pagan. My family has Christian roots that go back hundreds if not at least a thousand years; it was hard to buck that, but Christianity just didn't fit me. I couldn't force myself to accept it, yanno? I just could not believe it. And when I finally discovered a book called When God Was a Woman, by Merlin Stone, I was shocked, astonished that I could have not recognized myself for so many years: I have always been Pagan. I grew up Pagan, despite my family's indoctrination. I have always seen the living world around me and known its Spirit.

My first steps into the world of acknowledged Paganism came through the Women's Spirituality Movement, through the Feminist Movement, and through books about both women's spirituality and Wicca, especially Dianne Stein's books and Starhawk's books. It took me a while, but I finally realized that although Wicca speaks deeply to me on many levels, I really don't feel comfortable in any one religion. I came to understand myself as an Eclectic Pagan, drawing what works for me from every spiritual source I could to craft a tradition, a way of life, that is intimately my own. Along the way, I explored the roots of Christianity and Judaism, the roots of Paganism, some Shamanic traditions, Buddhism, and even Humanism.

I am amused to tell you that after all that exploring, a large part of my inspiration, ethics, and philosophies come from none of those, but from science fiction and fantasy novels. I guess that's where all the "like minds" migrated to, since there was no room for them in the established institutional traditions!

As a Pagan Priestess, I work mostly with the Goddesses, but as an Eclectic Pagan, I pretty much speak to everyone and everything around me. I always seek to feel connected to the Land wherever I live, and to honor those who have lived here before me as well as those who share it with me now.

My primary psychic skill is Empathy. It's been hard, growing up an Empath in a skeptical world, and I still struggle with believing in myself sometimes.

So how about you? What kind of Path have you followed to get where you are today? What skills and talents have you wrestled with, what explorations have you made, to become who you are today? Who has inspired you along the way?

Let's talk!

Andrew, Jr.

11-06-2009, 05:23 PM

When my sister was diagnosed with skin cancer, it took my breath away. She was the only one who I could talk too. I converted to organized religion (Roman Catholic) hoping that God would spare her life. She still died.

I have always been spiritual. Not into Wiccan, or Pagan. Just hoping and praying to God that my decisions and my responsibilites in life were the right ones for me.

I know that you played a huge role in my top surgery nightmare, Cath. It is something that I will never forget. I think that we are all connected in some way or another.

Life is a gift. We all have different gifts to share, and to hold out our hands and help each other. Some will, some won't. Some have different motives that are less than admirable. But like my Grandmother always said, the dirt always comes out in the wash.

Mitmo01

11-06-2009, 07:24 PM

glad to be here, im an eclectic person but i truly believe in the goddess and all her forms. Im interested in all spirtuality but pagan and heathen is what is in my soul. hello to everyone

Bit

11-07-2009, 04:05 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{Andrew}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Hello and welcome!

Andrew, darlin, it doesn't work to bargain with God when someone is sick, and I truly don't think He would hold you to the that conversion if you find it doesn't work for you. It's so hard to know what will help when someone we love is dying, and people tell us all kinds of things, "do this" or "do that," and if it doesn't work? They tell us WE didn't have enough faith.

I say bullhockey. That's just absolute bunk.

People die for all kinds of reasons, and sometimes it's because their bodies wear out. Sometimes it's because they give up. Sometimes it's because they're needed on the next part of their life journey.

I personally believe in reincarnation... I mean HECK, if I cannot bear to waste a perfectly good paper bag, how could God bear to waste a perfectly good soul, right? So I believe that sometimes when people die young, it's because they have to be in place when it's time to be born again to their next set of parents.

A friend of mine has a brand new granddaughter and she was in danger of H1N1 because her sisters caught it, so I prayed for her. Later I asked how she was and my friend said all three girls were fine, healthy again---and sent me pictures of the grandbaby.

My father looked out of that baby's eyes and said hello to me.

Nothing will ever shake my belief in reincarnation again; I have seen it for myself.

So it might be that your sister, after some time spent with God, will be coming back for another turn at life. It might even be that you will be given a chance to know who and where she is. For now, she's safe with God and doesn't want you to worry--she sends her love and she's sorry for the pain you're enduring.

Bit

11-07-2009, 04:07 PM

Im interested in all spirtuality but pagan and heathen is what is in my soul. hello to everyone

Hello, Mitmo, and welcome! It's very nice to have you here.

Someone once said to me, "I'm pagan to my toenails" and I've always thought that just about sums it up. ;)

Andrew, Jr.

11-07-2009, 06:22 PM

Cath,

I understand what you said. It just hurts my heart and soul - if that makes sense. She was such an amazing woman, and the one who I could talk too. So her death just devistated me.

People say the worst things when it comes to death. I agree. I had someone tell me that I wasn't a good person, and that is why Jo got sick. She had to pay the price for my sins. Unbelieveable. That by far was the worst, most rotten thing ever.:(

I too believe in reincarnation. I have witnessed it myself. When I had a seen a picture taken of a newborn nephew, my dead uncle was in the background. No mistaking it. The hair on the back of my head do stand right up just thinking about it.

Something very strange happened recently at my home. I witnessed a black fog or cloud come out of no where. It traveled from my front lawn to my front porch then fast than anything I have seen, it went off my porch and disappeared. I have no clue as to what that was. Do you have any ideas?

Bit

11-07-2009, 06:54 PM

No Andrew, I don't know, but I'll ask Gryph. He should know.

I am so sorry that people say such horrid things when a person is hurting and so vulnerable!! Jo died because it was time--not for any other reason.

You know she's going to be watching over you for a while, right?

I think when people die those of us who are left behind ARE devastated, because they leave such a huge hole in our lives, yanno? Death is a healing thing for the person who experiences it... but for the rest of us, it's a ripping apart, and we have to somehow rebuild ourselves into a new person so that we can continue on. We're never the same again. We might be stronger; we might be more compassionate; we might be wiser... but we are never the same again.

Jo will be with you as you heal your ragged edges and rebuild. Her love will sustain you.

Andrew, Jr.

11-07-2009, 07:44 PM

Yes, I know Jo is around me. I can feel her presence. No matter how sad I get on some days, I still get up, get dressed, and go on. But life is so different without Jo.

Gryph

11-08-2009, 11:45 PM

Something very strange happened recently at my home. I witnessed a black fog or cloud come out of no where. It traveled from my front lawn to my front porch then fast than anything I have seen, it went off my porch and disappeared. I have no clue as to what that was. Do you have any ideas?

Just a spirit traveling through. The color was due to the porthole it was using.

Andrew, Jr.

11-09-2009, 07:25 AM

Let me ask this question because I am Christian and not Wiccan or Pagan, what happens when a Wiccan or Pagan curses me and casts "spells" on me?

Rook

11-10-2009, 02:01 AM

I believe this statement would apply to said "curse"..at least, in Most "branches" of Wicca/Paganism

An it harm none, do what ye will

Harm" is defined as "physical or mental damage" and to this we can add "psychic damage" as well. To inflict harm on another is simply not a thing that a Witch would do. Aside from the obvious karmic repercussions, Witches have a deep and abiding knowledge of the workings of the Universe.
The image of a witch dressed in flowing robe running around "zapping" people or casting random spells across the countryside is a fictitious one. All spells that Witches actually perform are directed to a very specific end, developed after much thought and should always end with the phrase "for the good of all and the harm of none".

An example can be given here in the working of love spells. To manipulate a person into a relationship in which they have shown no interest developing is to try to negate that person' s right to free will. To cast a spell "to make so and so fall in love with me" shows not a spirit of love but an insensitivity to another's feelings. But Witches do cast love spells. don't they? Yes, they do.. The first love spell a Witch should cast should be for her/himself. Self esteem is essential in correct magical working. To bring a complete and balanced person into a relationship, is indeed to give a precious gift to another. To be capable of receiving love, we must be able to truly give love..

WitchVox

Hope that helps a little....

Andrew, Jr.

11-10-2009, 07:50 AM

Thanks for the details. Personally, I think it was a scare tactic used by someone off kilter.

Bit

11-10-2009, 08:12 AM

Let me ask this question because I am Christian and not Wiccan or Pagan, what happens when a Wiccan or Pagan curses me and casts "spells" on me?

Oh for pete's sake, Andrew, why would anybody bother?

Real Pagans and Witches--yanno, the ones who actually know how?--don't curse ANYBODY. The backlash hurts too badly.

I would imagine that if someone says to you that they are a witch and are going to curse you--that just boggles my mind that anyone could be so stupid! but okay, I guess it might happen--it means they are a pretender who knows nothing of actual witchcraft and energy work.... cuz anyone who DOES know also knows that what you send out comes back to you, EVERY time.

That's one of the laws of energy work, like the law of gravity is one of the laws of physics, and it applies to everyone of every faith or religion. What you send out, comes back to you. (Don't be praying that other people get punished, okay? That will backfire on you--cuz what you send out comes back to you.)

So, if you are unfortunate to come across one of these witchcraft-pretenders and they say they're going to do anything, just say a prayer and ask God to protect you. He will, guaranteed.

Gryph

11-10-2009, 10:27 AM

Rook, Bit thanks for saying what you have. Those were my first reactions as well.

Mitmo01

11-10-2009, 10:37 AM

wow interesting conversation, I was just having this exact conversation a couople of days ago with a friend of mine who is a priestess of bastet. The energy that you put forth comes back at you and if your irresponsible and foolish with it the universe will not care. i truly believe that you do reap what you sow.

I stopped in to ask that anyone that feels up to it, send my lovely kitty diego all of your prayers and light, he needs it. My kitty is 4 1/2 and a couple of months ago was diagnosed with restrictive cardiac myeopathy. Its a very rare and hes on a couple of meds but lately i can tell that i think hes getting tired. I am trying to steel myself for his passing and this kitty has saved my life in more ways than one. He came into my life for a reason and ive been so lucky to have such a great companion.

I am going to be heartbroken when he passes but i know that its coming and there is nothing else the vet can do for him, so while i sit here bawling my eyes out watching him struggle to breathe, im also letting him know that im here for him and its ok for him to go....

im so sad about it but i know that i cant do anything but love him until its time for him to leave...

Gryph

11-10-2009, 10:51 AM

Mitmo01

11-10-2009, 10:57 AM

thank you Gryph so much I appreciate all the help : )

Andrew, Jr.

11-10-2009, 02:31 PM

Mitmo01, I will say my prayers for your furchild. I know how you feel.

ox,
Andrew

WhiteTigress

11-10-2009, 03:37 PM

Cath,

I'm so grateful that you have formed this haven for us to gather, who share a common spiritual difference from the monotheistic, patriarchal order.

I'm a lot more like you than I thought, as I'm a free-spiritual believer and child of the goddess. Mine is a matriarchal belief structure, as I'm tied to nature and nurture. I don't ascribe to a particular form of paganism, but it's probably more closely tied to Wicca. Mine is a blend of wiccan practices, tied in with Native American influences, as well.

I am an empath, and have known this to be true since childhood. I also feel called as a healer, and have spent several years in the process of learning to shield myself, while at the same time, sharing healing touch with others. In the beginning, I was often left injured, ill or emotionally and physically drained, when I would do healing, but I've developed a greater knowledge of how to prepare myself, prior to sharing this gift.

I am a solitary practitioner, and as my love will be joining my living space beginning tomorrow, I hope shi will continue to appreciate, understand and respect my practices, when I feel compelled to perform ritual. I believe that it will be a non-issue, as shi is a believer in Native American spirituality, too.

OK, I've said enough for this post, and I look forward to hearing from others out there as well.

WT

WhiteTigress

11-10-2009, 03:42 PM

Thanks for the details. Personally, I think it was a scare tactic used by someone off kilter.

Andrew,

You are right on track with this statement. Any practicing Wiccan (if that's how they consider themselves) knows that one never sends out to others, what they do not want to reap themselves, because of the Rule of Three. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rule_of_Three_(Wiccan)

WT

Bit

11-10-2009, 11:39 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{Mitmo}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Oh my heart aches for you! What a difficult thing for you and your Diego both! We'll keep him in our thoughts, darlin.

White Tigress, hello and thank you for joining us! I enjoyed your post. Honestly, I find that people who follow the Native American ways do tend to be understanding of the work a healer does.

Tis late and I need to go offline. Good night to everyone!! Blessings for peace, healing, and harmony on us all.

Arwen

11-11-2009, 08:13 AM

Hey y'all. Wiccan here.

I'm going to go against the flow and say that casting a hex or a curse does not invalidate your realness any more than leading a life of complete and utter spiritual fluff does. (NOTE: I do not think bit was invalidating me! I need to clarify that. This is a thought I've heard expressed before in a less ... kind manner. But bit is correct...witches do not go around randomly throwing curses. That's a Christian myth used to scare people.)

I have cast curses as well as hexes and also bindings. There is a difference. I would do it again in heartbeat if the situation were the same.

Several people here have pointed out that it comes back on the caster. It does but not always in the same way. In fact, rarely in the same way.

The Law of Threefold (Lo3) (not Three, but Threefold--that's important) is one of the few fundamentals of Wiccan spirituality. When I teach this part of Wicca, I have my students take a piece of paper and fold it three times. Then I ask them to count the layers.

That is the amount of return you can expect. For good and bad alike.

Drop a rock in to a bucket and count the ripples. When you stir up something, that is what happens.

I have stirred my share of ripples up. I also teach my students that we are not Lords of Karma. We are not the judges of our fellow man. To pass judgment on another is to see what we often dislike in our own mirrors.

I'm glad to be here. My views on my religion (Wicca) are my own. I do not expect to change anyone's mind but I do hope for intelligent discourse and fun camaraderie.

Andrew, Jr.

11-11-2009, 10:11 AM

Thank you all for teaching me about your beliefs. I am learning a lot here.

I do not understand Karma in all honesty. I thought Karma was something bad, but it is not. It can be good. Am I right in that? So what is paying back a debt in Karma? Isn't that = to throwing a stone and watching the water ripple?

Bit

11-11-2009, 10:21 AM

{{{{{{{{{{{Arwen}}}}}}}}}}}} I've done my share of bindings as well, but only when someone needed some serious protection.

Thank you for the edit on your post; when I first read it, I did think that you felt invalidated and quite honestly, I could see where my post might very well come across as invalidating! I truly did not mean to do so.
~~~~~~~~

Andrew, most people in this country misunderstand Karma and I am not sure I grasp the concept well enough to explain the way Eastern peoples (Buddhists, Hindus, etc) use it... BUT... I can tell you how we are commonly using it in the US. Here in this country, when most people say "Karma," they mean "consequences." And it is very true that consequences can be either negative or positive, just as the original actions were.

I think ripples in a pond would be a good analogy, especially since once the ripples reach the edge, they start back in the other direction and pretty soon there are ripples going out from the center AND ripples coming back INTO the center, crossing each other and affecting each other. That pretty much is how our actions affect our lives, I think, and that would be why it's so important to be sure that what we send out is positive, so that what comes back is positive.

foxyshaman

11-13-2009, 11:21 AM

Poppin' in for a minute... <waves hello>

I am looking forward to participating in the conversations. I practice shamanism and have for almost two decades. I believe that everything is alive and all things have a place in the world. I experience the worlds as all connected. I believe we live in a multiverse and not a universe. I think all people should be free to practice whatever they want, free from discrimination, judgment and oh yeah the biggie... no threat of death. I feel incredibly fortunate to live in a place that allows me the freedom to be who I am.

Must get back to work before the pile of paper on my desk becomes a landslide...

Bit

11-13-2009, 11:32 AM

{{{{{{{{{{{foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}} Wooohoooo!! You're here!! *rubs hands together gleefully* I fully intend to talk your ear off... um, so to speak. :rolleyes: Today I have other obligations but I'll be back!

Gryph

11-15-2009, 01:50 PM

JustLovelyJenn

11-15-2009, 01:55 PM

*jumps up and down and does a very exuberant happy dance*

I found it, I found it. I knew Bit couldn't be here and there NOT be a pagan thread. Me so happy. Thank you, thank you Bit.

Gryph

11-15-2009, 02:13 PM

So, in another spot I was starting to talk about using a pendulum. Her name is Gladys and she is Peacock Ore for the holding stone and Citrine for the pointer. I have had a couple others over the years and they work really well for me. Better in most cases then using cards.

I use a protective devise called Mirror box and that works really well. In cases of real need I will ask my Ancestors if I can push a person's karma, but its only in a major case of some one doing serious harm to several people.

Gemme

11-15-2009, 03:01 PM

JustLovelyJenn

11-15-2009, 04:38 PM

I am neither Pagan nor Wiccan, but follow my own way, taking pieces from both as well as other religions and ways I've come across. I find more understanding and tolerance in the Pagan and Wiccan communities and so I always tend to gravitate to folks who have some connection to either, if not both. I love the dialogue that is going on here. :)

For myself, Karma is as real as I am. I'm one of those people that when I do something that I know is 'below me' or just not right, I feel the repercussions very quickly. I've been known to joke that Karma not only has my address, but has me locked in on GPS :scooter: no matter how fast I go. :bolt:

I've learned to look within a bit more and not wish negative of another and to be more :ohm: in general and it's helped with my perceived Karmic backlash.

Doing a little bit more :deepthoughts: instead of reacting has helped too.

The consequences to negatives actions/thoughts/etc seems to come to me far swifter than positive actions/thoughts/etc. Maybe that is just my perception or maybe I am just not able to see the teeny tiny ripples that come back to me some days. I'd like to think of it that way, instead of thinking that I'm only on Karma's 'naughty list'.

I think that often we tie as many labels to spirituality as we do to sexual orientation and gender and so many other things. This shouldn't be necessary. Your spirituality, your belief, does not have to or need to follow anyone elses. Even within more organized religions you will find a variety of individual thoughts and beliefs.

I would not call myself Pagan, or Wiccan, or even Druid (though this is strongly tied into it). My beliefs have been gleaned from all of these, as well as Native American, Buddhist, and so many others. I am spiritual, committed, and I believe very strongly, but my belief is my own.

As far as karma is concerned. It is often easier to see the negative responses to our actions then the positive. It is so easy to take the good things for granted. A thank you, a smile, or simply a day where nothing goes wrong can be that karmic return. Never the less, it is always good to keep karma in mind. I have seen the results of such things in my own life. Karma has always made its presence very known to me, it reminds me often to keep on track and do what I know is right.

Mitmo01

11-15-2009, 10:28 PM

Gryph

11-15-2009, 10:34 PM

Mitmo,
Sorry to hear about Diego. Yep, he will always be with you in some form or another. Since I believe in reincarnation, I do suspect he will give you grieving time and then find another body to come back and be with you physically. Cath agrees with me on that.

Mitmo01

11-15-2009, 10:58 PM

I believe in reincarnation as well and i know we will meet again and be together, he was such a special soul
ty both for your thoughts and works

foxyshaman

11-16-2009, 10:38 AM

Nice to see you here!

Thanks Gryph. I look forward to hanging out and chattin' away!

SelfMadeMan

11-16-2009, 10:54 AM

My beloved Diego passed away on friday and he was truly loved beyond belief..
he had restrictive cardiac myeopathy and had a heart attack on the way to the vet...
the night before him and i were alone together and i whispered to him that it was ok to go and i loved him so much...to not hang on for me...and the next day i think he chose to pass..

thank you for all of your help and i believe he will always be with me just like all of my other furbabies that have passed, he is in a better place

I am so sorry for your loss - I work at a Veterinary hospital and I have seen patients deal with Diego's condition, and it is so unfair. But you loved him and made him happy while he was here and he was lucky to have you! Peace to you...

Andrew, Jr.

11-16-2009, 12:51 PM

Mitmo01,

I am very sorry for your loss.

Andrew

Bit

11-16-2009, 01:57 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{Mitmo}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Diego's watching over you, love. He'll be back--he's one of the souls you travel with. You've had him in your life before, you'll have him again. I know the pain of losing him is not an easy thing to bear, but remember, all you lost was his temporary body. He'll guard you and guide you until it's time for him to put on another body, and then he'll come play and live and love with you again.
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello, {{{{{{{{{{{{{Mike and Jenn and Gemme}}}}}}}}}}}}} Welcome, welcome! So very wonderful to see you all here!
~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am all bouncy and happydancing today---guess what??!!!! After FIFTEEN years, Gypsy has released another CD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.wlpssp.com/retaildetailpages/spirit_nation_cd.htm

I am SO EXCITED!! Been looking for this music since the day after I bought her first tape, lo these many years ago! And here she's finally given me what I was searching for all that time ago. :clap:

Bit

11-20-2009, 11:25 AM

:candle: :candle: :candle: :candle: :candle:

Hello, everyone. I've come to ask for energy and/or prayers for friends... the two-legged (I'll call her Raven) is in deep grief; her familiar, a 14 year-old tuxedo cat named Megosh, is in renal failure. Megosh is in immense pain and is close to death; her kidneys have shut down now. She's ready to go and just wants this one last weekend with Raven. Then she'll be ready to let go and see her beloved brothers and sisters on the Other Side.

If you have anything to send for pain relief, it would be such a blessing. We're trying to keep it down below a dull roar, but it's intractable and you know how it is for cats, there just aren't any pain meds, especially as the body shuts down.

Thank you so very much. :heartbeat:

JustLovelyJenn

11-20-2009, 12:27 PM

foxyshaman

11-20-2009, 01:02 PM

I am sorry for Raven's breaking heart and for Megosh's failed body. I certainly will say a prayer and send some love to them.

Bit

11-20-2009, 05:30 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{Jenn, Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}} Thank you both so very much!!

Mitmo01

11-20-2009, 11:20 PM

Bit, I feel for your friend and know just how hard it is to bear what she is going through. I will send light and thoughts to Megosh in the hopes that shes gets some relief from her pain. Also i dont know if anyone has any animals that could use the rest of my beloved Diego's medicine--it is called Vetmedin. It is the animal equivalent of cumadin--a blood thinner for the heart but i have like 40 1.25mg pills left that should go to someone that needs them. If anyone knows someone whos kitty or doggy could use them please let me know ill gladly send them to that person. They are expensive and id love to help out anyone that needs them since my lovely boy doesnt anymore.

love to Megosh, and everyone else, and all the beautiful creatures in the world

Bit

11-21-2009, 08:26 AM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Mitmo}}}}}}}}}}}}}} You are a kind and generous soul! If no one here needs the medicine, maybe your local humane society will know of someone who can't afford it?

Update on Megosh: although she's still in great pain, she has started eating again, and her litterbox abilities have also resumed some. I don't know if this means she won't die or if this is like a cancer patient rallying right before the end, but I am so glad she's doing a little better! Thank you all for your help!

Pennysparkles

11-22-2009, 03:39 AM

"pops in and waves"

Hi - I'm really glad to see this forum. I teach and practise Reiki, meditation and as an empath I strive to help wherever I can without forcing my views on anyone.

I look forward to interesting posts and healthy debates on here!

Blessings, Penny :)

Linus

11-22-2009, 08:19 AM

Bit

11-22-2009, 11:01 AM

Hi Penny, welcome! It's nice to meet you! Please feel free to comment or ask questions anytime!

Linus, that's a great question! I don't have kids--maybe a couple others will talk about that--but I can tell you that Santa is the strongest memory we have of an indigenous Northern Shaman. Red, black, and white are the colors of the Goddess in all the most ancient cultures, because they are the colors of Life itself. In those far northern cultures, reindeer (caribou, on this side of the pond)were sacred, the givers of life.

These days Shamans talk about the drumbeat being the "horse" they ride to do their work, but back in the mists of time, horses were unknown to the Northern peoples; their Shamans rode the flying reindeer in the drumbeat.

Evidently there was a strong tradition of the Shaman visiting villages at Midwinter, telling stories, singing songs, wrapped in his sacred furs and bringing his sacred reindeer with him. I don't know if gifts were part of the celebrations, but certainly they have been part of many other cultures' Midwinter feasts, so they might have been---and the tie between Santa and gifts DOES go back several hundred years if not a thousand, so who knows? Maybe that was an integral part of "Scandiwhovian" Midwinters also. It might also very well be that the Shamans were also traders, bringing trade goods to the villages at Midwinter, and that the "gift" tradition is a dim memory of that.

Hope this gives you a starting place!

JustLovelyJenn

11-22-2009, 04:16 PM

Hey everyone. I hope it's ok to ask this question but I was curious, for those who have kids, what did you do for winter celebration and how did you address the Santa for younger kids? K and I were discussing this and how we would address winter holidays, particularly with younger kids. (Although K is Atheist and I'm buddhist we both agreed that it would be fun and an important family time with the kids).

My family situation is so interesting for religious holidays. We live with my parents (who are Mormon) and my beliefs are not really... tolerated in the home. The compromise I have made is one of "don't ask, don't tell". I have an alter set up in my space but my mother just lets herself assume its an end table of knickknacks. I celebrate some of my traditions for holidays mixed in with theirs, and my children are taught that Christmas (or Yule, or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or whatever someone calls the holiday) is about giving, and appreciating those around us and all they do for us. That it (and Santa) are more of a feeling. Santa is most assuredly real, and as long as long as there are people in the world who give of themselves with complete selflessness, he will never die. I also tell them that each of them can be a Santa to someone else. That Santa can't survive unless we all do a little bit of the work... Its part of Santa's Magic. Santa exists because of people who give like Santa would give.

Bit

11-22-2009, 04:26 PM

That Santa can't survive unless we all do a little bit of the work... Its part of Santa's Magic. Santa exists because of people who give like Santa would give.

I like that very much! Thank you for sharing it, Jenn!

My sympathies on having to live stealth. I had to do so for five years and oh my, what a strain that was... more of a strain than I realized. I have a letter I wrote about Stealth Paganism around here somewhere; after I finish :laundryday: I'll find it and post it.

Bit

11-22-2009, 11:24 PM

Well, lol, no laundry--friends showed up. It was a happiness, since my freezer and fridge were overstuffed. I always feel like I have to share at Thanksgiving, yanno? It makes me feel "right" inside.

Oh hey--twas Raven and I have a report on Megosh! We still can't tell if this is a true recovery or if it's the equivalent of a cancer patient's last rally before they die, BUT Megosh is more alert, willing to move around the apartment, and she's eating and drinking more and more... plus peeing more and more, but hey... Raven will deal with it if it means she has time with Megosh!

Anyhow, I came back online to post that letter about Stealth Paganism, so that'll be next. I'm hoping it doesn't break the character limit! I'm known for that... :cheesy:

Bit

11-22-2009, 11:39 PM

We all find situations where we are just not able to be out as Pagans or Witches. Sometimes it's uncomfortable. Sometimes it would affect our children's school situation. Sometimes it could cost us a job. Sometimes we live with people of other faiths, or of no faith, and they're threatened.

Does this mean we have to deny ourselves and our spirituality, allow the situation to stifle our growth? No, not at all. It means we have the opportunity to truly examine what it is that makes us Pagan, what it is that makes us a Witch. It means we are gifted with a chance to get down to basics and to strengthen some of our abilities that might not otherwise get much attention.

When we're in the broom closet and living stealth, what gets emphasized is our attitude. We have certain choices... for instance, our Yule tree might look just like everyone else's Yule tree, right down to the five-pointed star on top... it can be as Pagan as we wish to make it, full of natural decorations including that classic animal companion of northern Shamans, the reindeer, and no one will know that it is Pagan. It will just fit right in.

Our holiday or Yule cards can talk about "the Season" and never have to say the word "Christmas."

Our Samhain/Halloween decorations can be as kitschy as anything you'd find at a dollar store, or they can be all natural, or they can incorporate the Mexican Day of the Dead decorations; they will all fit right in. Halloween is All Hallow's Eve (hallows means saints), and November 1st is All Saints' Day... in Mexico they call All Saints' Day the Day of the Dead--but it's all the same holiday at the root of it, concerned with ghosts and families. Day of the Dead is not focused on long-gone saints, btw, but on one's family members who have died. Unlike the scare-off-the-spirits approach of modern Halloween, Day of the Dead provides families with a way to honor and welcome their ancestors--but both holidays acknowledge the thinning of the veil between the worlds, that time when spirits are close.

Thanksgiving is traditionally celebrated in September in Europe and they call it Harvest Home, but we're a retail nation now (rather than a farming nation) and the harvest food is on sale in November here... it is still, at the root of it, one of the oldest Pagan impulses we have: to celebrate the harvest and give our thanks.

Easter is what remains of the Germanic Eostara celebrations; she was the Goddess of Spring and her symbols were the pig, the rabbit, and the egg... so yanno, ham for Easter dinner and the Easter Bunny bringing eggs, this is again a very old Pagan celebration. The Eastern European tradition of pysanky, or finely decorated eggs, makes use of very old Pagan symbols... again, a stealth way to incorporate Paganism without notice.

The end of April/first of May--Beltane--is traditionally a time to celebrate the beginning of summer, and although the custom of giving May baskets full of flowers has fallen by the wayside, we can still celebrate with bouquets of flowers for the house or with a good day's work in the garden.

Summer Solstice and Winter Solstice, Spring and Autumn Equinoxes, can all be marked and even celebrated as astronomy. When you think about it, that's pretty much what the early Pagans did anyhow.

Memorial Day is the US's answer to Day of the Dead, and provides us with another time to honor our Ancestors, this time with flowers rather than pumpkins.

The Fourth of July is not Pagan... but yanno, food and firecrackers... it oughta be! lol!

We can participate in these same events everyone else does, and yet make them more meaningful to us by privately acknowledging the ways they fit into our Paganism.

When we live in the Broom Closet, we do have to be cautious; maybe not as careful as our ancestors did in the Burning Times (from the 1400s to the 1800s, generally, especially in Europe), but still, we have a lot at stake and it pays to use discretion. We don't ever need to tell anyone what we are.

There is an old philosophy that says there are four requirements for being a Witch: To Know, To Will, To Dare, and To Keep Silent. This came out of the Burning Times, when speaking about Witchcraft was punished by death, and over the centuries it has built up a strong reservoir of energy. We can keep silent about who we are and what we do, and we will be joining in with our ancestors in doing so. Have you noticed that you can build up lots of energy around something you're keeping secret, but once you talk about it, all the energy fizzles away? We can make this same principle work for us in the Broom Closet. By choosing not to speak about our Paganism, we can keep our everyday energy contained the same way we would in a working Circle, and gradually get used to working with larger and larger amounts of energy as it builds up.

One of the key ways to stay stealth in the Broom Closet is to find the things that carry the same names as they do in the larger culture around us. For instance, many people grow up believing that "prayer" is something specific, that one is only praying if one is reciting specific words that other people wrote, but there is another, broader definition that says prayer is talking to God. And what are we doing when we do a spell, a working, a Circle, or when we send energy, but talking to God/Goddess/All That Is?

There are many Pagan gods. One can fit in nicely by talking about God........ and just not specifying which one.

Here is where it pays to be eclectic, as well... there is a very old saying in Islam, "All Gods are one God, and Allah is His Name." There is a very old tradition in Wicca that calls the Goddess the Lady of Ten Thousand Names. There is the known history of Paganism that equates various gods and goddesses in different cultures--for instance, Diana/Artemis, or Thor/Ares/Mars. If we take what is similar from these ideas and give it a Pagan twist, we have the statement that "all gods are one god--and the name doesn't matter." *cheeky grin*

Practical matters... how can we have a Pagan altar when we are living completely stealth? Nearly everyone has a dressertop or countertop, a windowsill or bookshelf that could use a little... well, you know.... ornamenting. An interesting rock or crystal gives us Earth. A fresh flower in a vase or a seashell gives us Water. A candle gives us Fire. An incense burner or a pretty feather gives us Air. A living
plant combines Earth and Water. A clear piece of glass gives us Fire and Air. A mirror gives us the Goddess or the God. A picture of our Totem animal calls them in.

No one ever has to know this is a Pagan altar. In quiet moments, we can allow its simple peace to seep into our souls, grounding us and giving us an unobtrusive focus for our prayers and energy work.

We can keep our Book of Shadows (if we choose to have one) on a computer--on a CD or a Flash drive. We can call it a journal--for what is more intimate to the workings of our souls than our own personal book of spirituality?

We can develop our talents at writing poetry, singing, making art--these are especially appropriate in Celtic Wicca and Shamanism.

We can become people of Nature, decorate with a natural theme, collect rocks, feathers, sticks, seashells, or other natural objects.

We can watch the weather, keep a cloud journal, notice the temperatures and the path of the jet stream, chart the rain and snow or the varying speeds of the wind.

We can wear jewelry made of stones and crystals, seashells, wood, bone.

There are so many things we can do. What ways have you found to fit in, to pass unnoticed while still honoring your Paganism?

Bright Blessings to us all!
Cath

Bit

11-23-2009, 02:11 PM

Here's a link to a new children's book.

Amazon.com: Growing Up Pagan: A Workbook for Wiccan Families (9780764331435): Raine Hill, Gillian M. Pearce: Books

There are many children's books linked to that page, btw.

foxyshaman

11-23-2009, 05:17 PM

Hi Linus,

I did tell my kids that Santa was not real... and then I got a call from the school, cause it made other kids cry... and then I got a call from my ex mother in law... and then I decided to take a fox approach...

Kids... Santa is an amazing magical being. Christmas is about Magic and the celebration of magic. Etc etc...

They accepted that and until they were 10 or 11 (I think) they continued to believe in Santa...

We still celebrate Christmas cause most of the family does, but we also celebrate Solstice which is to me more important.

Bit thanks for the info on shamanism, it may have been new information. I think personally the red and white of santa's uniform in the Saami traditions is in reference to Amanita Muscaria, or Fly Agaric the magic mushroom. Reindeer love it and it is one theory of flying reindeer... but only one mind you!!!

Bit

11-23-2009, 09:17 PM

I read a marvelous book on Santa and Shamanism several years ago, Foxy. The author made a cogent case for the sacred colors, and might have mentioned fly agaric--I don't remember--but also tied Santa into the tompte and other northern beings. He also traced Santa's history as he changed, passing through the Germanic and Celtic cultures.

Daryn

11-23-2009, 09:44 PM

Merry meet, my planet friends. Nice to see this thread here.

hottprof

11-23-2009, 11:41 PM

foxyshaman

11-24-2009, 10:39 AM

okay.. wow... I have literally read every post in this thread thus far and I am amazed and completely intrigued. I hope you do not mind me poping in an reading. I have learned so much and can not wait to learn more. I hope you are open to questions and or even conserns if they would pop up. Thank you.

peace and Smiles :frog:

Hottprof I am glad that you stopped by. You are most welcome to post anything you want and ask questions. I am sure there is always an answer for every question...maybe even more than 1 answer to every question!!

foxyshaman

11-24-2009, 10:52 AM

QUOTE=Bit;11145]I read a marvelous book on Santa and Shamanism several years ago, Foxy. The author made a cogent case for the sacred colors, and might have mentioned fly agaric--I don't remember--but also tied Santa into the tompte and other northern beings. He also traced Santa's history as he changed, passing through the Germanic and Celtic cultures.[/QUOTE]

Good Morning Miss Bit!!! :cheerleader:

I am always interested in reading other thoughts and ideas on Santa and how the traditions all started. I have found over the years that there is always an excited audience when we begin to discuss our holidays and pagan beginnings.

Right now I am preparing a Winter Solstice ritual called Dreaming the Dark. I did it in 2007 and have had requests to do it again this year. There are three parts to it, drumming, aspecting and joiking. We meet for a practice and then we meet for real on Dec 21. It is a good thing that the 21st is a Monday, cause not many people have office or family plans on a Monday. I am not including those who celebrate Yule and not Christmas. Those individuals are obviously busy :dimbulb: <sometimes I catch myself thinking and I am all like.... oh bright one Foxy, briiiggghhhttt...> :huhlaugh:

Now I won't have amanita muscaria for this, although they do grow where I am. I have seen them but never ingested them, I have heard they make you very sick, very sick indeed. But then ayahuasca made me very sick, and I knew that going in and it did not change my resolve to try it.

Anyway I am getting off track. :byebye:

Bit

11-25-2009, 02:56 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Daryn, HotProf}}}}}}}}}}}}} Welcome, welcome, welcome!

Daryn, I hope you might be willing to share a little about your path and the take your Tradition has on the holidays, because I've never researched that. *pretty please?* :eyebat:

HotProf, darlin, you ask all the questions you like! That's what keeps a thread like this active, people having questions and concerns, yanno? And I am always happy to talk, but what I love even more is when everyone talks cuz then I learn a LOT!

Good Morning Miss Bit!!! :cheerleader:
Good mornin', darlin! Even if it is another day midafternoon, lol... still, hello hello! And btw, thanks for checking on me. I'm okay, just tired from housecleaning and frustrated cuz the work doesn't show the way I thought it should.... lord love a DUCK this place needs work (twas vacant for eight years before we bought it). And we have company, so I haven't been online so much, but hey, I'm back!
I am always interested in reading other thoughts and ideas on Santa and how the traditions all started. I have found over the years that there is always an excited audience when we begin to discuss our holidays and pagan beginnings.

I've been searching for our Pagan beginnings for YEARS, yanno? I didn't find much at first, then I found books like the one I read on Santa being the memory of Shamans, then I found some things online. I think overall the thing which most influenced me was the realization that the Romans celebrated "Christmas" the same way we do here in the US (and presumably the rest of the Western World, lol, but maybe not to the same excess) long before there was anything known as Christianity... Saturnalia was a commercialized Mid-winter Festival held within a week of Solstice with obligatory gift-giving, loving gift-giving, huge traditional feasts, holidays from work, "mandatory" Temple celebrations---and lots of people bitching about the over-commercialization of the holiday. :shocking: :rolleyes::huhlaugh::thumbsup:

Right now I am preparing a Winter Solstice ritual called Dreaming the Dark. I did it in 2007 and have had requests to do it again this year. There are three parts to it, drumming, aspecting and joiking.

For those who don't know, here are some links to joiking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoik

YouTube- Sami Joik

YouTube- Yoik'n Roll - Yoik/music

Now, my dear Foxy, tell me please... what do you mean by aspecting? *eyebrow waggle* love learning new things!!

Now I won't have amanita muscaria for this, although they do grow where I am. I have seen them but never ingested them, I have heard they make you very sick, very sick indeed. But then ayahuasca made me very sick, and I knew that going in and it did not change my resolve to try it.

Whoa! You are braver than I, Gunga Din....

I have sometimes wondered if the utter disruptions of the electrical system one experiences with fibromyalgia might mimic some of the altered states one achieves with drugs....certainly not ayahuasca or amanita(!!) but maybe some of the milder drugs that are used in shamanism.

Anyway I am getting off track. :byebye:

Nope, actually, you are right on track. This is all part of Paganism as far as I'm concerned, anyhow. To me, Pagan is a big umbrella term that encompasses all the nature-based and psychic-based spiritualities including Shamanism, and I love it when you share your experiences with us because it broadens my knowledge, gives me new things to try and new ways to look at the world. And isn't that what it's all about? :cheesy: :heartbeat: :cheesy:

foxyshaman

11-26-2009, 02:11 PM

:pcthink: ahhhh sometimes I get confused when trying to get all fancy in a message... it takes this old fox time to learn new things. Gone are the days of the simple hen house and the chicken wire fence... now we got lights and electricity and alarms and fancy whatnots....

okay unrelated to anything but I had to get that out there.

Now Miss Bit you asked what is Aspecting. I learnt Aspecting from the Reclaimers in my area. And then I shamanized it :shocking: I know but true. Anyway, in this particular ritual we use cloths or bandannas or whatever the aspector is drawn to. Aspecting is akin to being a conduit. Aspecting is when the seeker makes a conscious choice to step aside and make space. It is a conscious intention to open yourself to allow this spirit (in this case the Spirit of the Dark) to cohabitate with you for awhile. We are a physical extension of spirit and moving with guidance, spiritual movement, whether that be physical, verbal or experiential – this is an interactive dance between the Spirit of the Dark and the body. We can use Ballroom dancing as an analogy in that the dance is a constant non verbal communication.

The cloth is used to facilitate the entry of the spirit helper it is a physical symbol of transcendence. As the curtain parts, or the cloth comes down, one world gives way to another. We are not using masks because we are not engendering a specific form or entity. The Spirit of the Dark is an ambiguous, formless spirit. The Aspectors sit inside the circle of joikers and drummers, so a very intense place to be. It is just fascinating to watch. You can tell who is in and who is out quite easily. It takes a lot to step aside and dance with another spirit. This is not the same as possession as is practiced say by Yoruba dancers or Voodoo priestesses. This is much more subtle and gentle. Usually the aspectors are left with an amazing sense of joy, upliftment and well they are quite high.

Now joiking is from the Saami people of northern Scandinavia who have a unique unaccompanied vocal style called joik. Thank you Bit for posting those videos. Joiking is chanting visions. It is an improvised style of singing that is less about actual words than melody and vocal textures. Our ancestors could joik about a hunt, a frozen stream or the birth of a baby, however what makes it unique is that there are no fixed rules and the fluid songs are not considered to be about a subject. The joik, and by extension the joiker, are said to actually become the subject. So when our voices are calling out to the Spirit of the Dark our joik returns the very response we seek. Joiking is the place betwixt and between when the singer sings the song and the song returns to sing the singer. The joik is the summoning of the unconscious or a wordless connection with the deepest archetype of song itself.

In this ritual the intention of the Joikers is to sing back the sun; the aspectors are becoming the Dark and returning with messages from the 'outgoing' darkness. The drummers are situated in each corner of the room and they are the energetic backbone of the ceremony. The drums are the energy elixer for the joikers. There is often a lead joiker and drummer, keeping the singers and drummers in sacred space. It is quite easy to lose yourself as a drummer or a joiker. The reason for this is because when you joik, aspect or drum it is your inention to go off on your own. However... that being said there has to be strong singer and drummer to ensure everyone gets back okay. All three roles within the ritual are open to move between the worlds... which is all well and good, but there has to be someone available to ensure they all come back intact and without hangers-on. And there are times when it can take work to bring someone back and work to clear the space after. This is an intense ritual and is only open to people who are very familair with altered states work. We meet for a practice so that people can see what each role is like and they are welcome to change it at the time of ritual.

Anyway...:canadian: Did that answer your question and then some?? I can get a bit long winded at times.

Daryn

11-26-2009, 03:19 PM

JustLovelyJenn

11-26-2009, 03:35 PM

I have decided I can only read this thread when I have at least an hour to spend just on it... I read something and then I want to look it up and research, and then respond with questions... and I just never seem to have the time.

This is directly related to my choice to consider myself Druid. I choose this signifier for its interpretation, even though my actual practices are such a splendid mix of all that works with me.... Druid, as I have found the interpretation, means... one that learns. I love this part of my religion. Learning what works for me, what works for others, knowing as much as I can on each thing...

It makes it so difficult for me to pay as much attention as I should. BUT... after the new year I hope to see this change some. One of my yearly goals (not resolutions, because I only care that I tried, happen or not) is going to be to devote more time to my studies and my faith.

That being said, even if I don't seem to post often. Please keep in mind I am here and listening. I have a tendency to wait first and speak later, wanting all of my words to be filled with wisdom and meaning.

foxyshaman

11-26-2009, 05:24 PM

Foxyshaman - Amanita mushrooms are pretty much all poisonous, many of them are lethally so. I personally would not mess around with fly agarics. People who want a spiritual experience would probably be better off with liberty caps which a one of the sub-species of psilocybens. None of these fungus are particularly good for a human body.

For a little info:

http://www.shroomery.org/8752/What-is-the-difference-between-Amanita-muscaria-Fly-agaric-and-Psilocybe-mushrooms

I have something of an interest in mycology though that interest is in edibles like chantrelles, morels, chicken of the forest, etc.

Hi Daryn,

Thanks for the information. I have been to that site a few times, I think it is pretty useful. I have no desire to try AM... like ever. I have however used Psilocybin mushrooms for spiritual work. I really respect the Little People and all that they have taught me over the years. In Canada it is legal to purchase the spores and grow them, but I find them tricky to grow. But hey that is what practice is all about.

:turkeyday:

foxyshaman

11-26-2009, 05:35 PM

Bit

11-27-2009, 11:49 AM

hey, we're flexible here... think of us as a stretchy people.... grab that post and tack it on to the train with your thoughts! ;) Nothing is ever out of date in this thread. :thumbsup:

Bit

11-27-2009, 01:38 PM

......so, I keep falling asleep, oh my, but I so want to answer. I find myself thinking I should eat something and that would wake me up but yanno... what I want to eat is turkey and it keeps putting me to sleep, lol....

Jenn, I think Druidry is a wonderful path and I love that saying about "one that learns." I have to say though, if you are like me--and I suspect you might be--waiting until you have wisdom to share is not the way to go. Wisdom comes through the pen, so to speak; first you write, THEN you gain wisdom--for how else can Nature speak to you, unless you open your (metaphorical) mouth and let the words pour out?

This was a hard lesson for me and it took me a long time to lose my self-consciousness and get comfortable writing in public, but it has been one of the most valuable lessons of my life. I have moved forward on my path every time I have been brave enough to just write, and not worry about censoring myself. It allows my thought processes to flow freely and brings new insights every time. I personally think writing is the best gift you can give yourself.

Besides, if you're here asking questions, the thread stays active. :eyebat:

Daryn, thank you for the shroom link!

Foxy, I love love LOVED your post! That was fascinating!

And I am jealous beyond words. :hrmph: I sooo want to be there!

Tell us more, please? I am assuming that you are the one who keeps everyone safe and brings them home? And omg... without hangers-on. You know, I think I begin to understand what happened to this world to create this society we live in...yikes!

So anyhow, it's fascinating to me the way we are all bringing our part of the spiritual world back into being, giving and borrowing back and forth from one spirituality to another. Good for you for Shamanizing things! I think this is as it should be.

And yanno, I also think that the more often people join in a ritual like this one, the stronger the balance of the world gets. We've been way off balance for a long, long time, and once the priests of the main religions stopped fulfilling their true priestly functions, I think there were too few people holding the connections open between physical life and Spirit. Too much did come through that shouldn't have--and too few connected when everyone should have.

As for :canadian: please continue!! I just love talking with you!

Holly and Ivy Blessings!
:xmascandle:

Daryn

11-27-2009, 02:23 PM

Foxyshaman - the psilocybens in the PNW really like cow pastures which suggests that they like a lot of nitrogen rich fertilizer. And they like open spaces unlike say things that grow in forests. That's about all I can tell you about growing them. Good luck though.

JustLovelyJenn

11-27-2009, 03:00 PM

Bit,

You make this a wonderful place for learning... and you are probably right about me. I need to open my mouth, so to speak. I don't know why, but this made me think of a dream of mine, one I had (and remembered which is what makes it weird) almost two years ago now, it was so profound that I woke and immediately wrote it down. I re-read it every few months, and I am now being prompted to share it with you all. I hope through my sharing I can gain something, and I hope also that some of you may as well.

-----

Dream from November 9 2007

Alison’s House

I walked down a path beside a river with a cliff face on either side. As I walked I felt a clam take over. This is all so familiar, a dreamscape, my place of reflection and guidance. After a time, the cliff on the far side of the river fell away to a plateau. I saw a hawk fly above me, almost as big as an eagle. He called to me and flew low. Then it was as if I was seeing through his eyes. I flew high and looked over the landscape. Once I was two men, intimately embraced, in another area a city sprung to life. At last I saw what I was seeking. A fire with three people gathered round it. I flew lower and as I landed I changed shape becoming myself again. I walked to the fire and set down among those already there. The first was and Indian chief sitting proud and erect; his chest bare and feathers in his hair, which hung loose to his waist. Next was a solider, from his uniform and equipment and American solider from WWII. He avoided the glance of the others, and I was fatigue in his face. The last was and old Chinese medicine woman. She too was proud; and like the Indian, used to being in charge. For some time we sat in silence as other images cam into my mind: a grave yard and my sister’s grave, playing a game in the yard as a child, lowering yet another loved one into the ground.

Finally I asked the chief, “Why are you here?” indicating the others as well.

He replied “We each represent a piece of you.”

As I again looked at each of my companions I became confused. I had similarities to the medicine woman; we both used herbs and energies to heal. But what could these other two represent in me? “I don’t understand,” was my guarded reply. “I am not a soldier, a warrior as this one.”

The Indian smiled patiently. “You are strong than you thing. You weather storms that would drown many. You fight to be yourself and make choices to place yourself in great adversity to achieve your goals.” He placed a hand on my shoulder before speaking again. “The battles you fight could be easily avoided, the warrior in you must fulfill honor. You must be true to yourself in the face of others.

As I once again looked at the soldier he raised his head and as our eyes met yet another mired of images flooded my head. First was the soldier on the battle field, kneeling beside a fallen comrade, assuring him things would be fine and help was on the way. Calm and in control, even through his friends dying breath. Next was a young woman, myself I realized, comforting a relative at my sister’s funeral. Controlling my own emotion until I felt others had been satisfied. I saw myself grow older as other battles in my life were played out beside me. When I returned to the fire I looked at the chief, unable to speak.

He nodded in understanding. “The woman is next. To her people she is invaluable. She is able to see the signs of sickness and relieve the pain of others. You also were given this gift. Not only to use plants as medicine, but to feel pain and remove it. The pain you have felt in your own life serves to heighten these senses, without it you would lack the understanding of the energies you see in others; not to mention the desire to remove from others that which you have suffered.”

In the old woman I saw many things. But, mostly I was reminded of the joy and awe I fee as I use my abilities to help another. This time it was I who nodded in understanding and I to speak. “But what of you? I am not a leader of masses; I was not born to a position of honor as you were.”

At this question he laughed, his head falling back and a great full sound filling the air. “It is true that the position I was born to was clear for all to see. I was a leader to my people and they knew to whom they could turn. I bore my burden of responsibility publicly. You are not so lucky, Little One. You are to be a leader, but quietly. Waiting as I did for a people to come to you for guidance and in return being guided yourself, the spirits putting those in need with in your path. But I represent more than that in you. I am also hear to guide you, as I was guided. Your spirit is close to the land. The animals and plants whisper to you. Listen to them. For to long you have ignored the call. Time grows short. Move quickly to ready yourself once more. You must go.”

At once I awoke, lying beside my lover; the light entering the room a gentle embrace. Still I was shaken.

Bit

11-27-2009, 10:47 PM

WOW. Jenn, profound is hardly the word for it!

My impression is that you were being shown past lives, and how your personality and roles in life have continued through the many turnings of the Wheel.

Thank you for the compliment about the thread.

This, I think, is the key to Empaths. "........You also were given this gift. Not only to use plants as medicine, but to feel pain and remove it. The pain you have felt in your own life serves to heighten these senses, without it you would lack the understanding of the energies you see in others; not to mention the desire to remove from others that which you have suffered.”

Maybe this is part of the reason so many Empaths have fibromyalgia and other chronic pain illnesses?

I have to say that every misstep, every mistake, every broken dream and shattered heart I have endured along the way have been like grist to the mill; they have all played into my healing abilities in one way or another. Everything I have endured, when I recognize it in another, I am driven to ease it, to ease their pain....

Thank you for being brave enough to share your dream with us. Thank you for the validation of the insight about pain and why we-who-are-healers experience so much of it. It's one thing to notice a correlation, and another to find confirmation! That's a gift--thanks. :stillheart:

JustLovelyJenn

11-27-2009, 11:14 PM

I actually thought of a question today, one that I have always been curious about. Meditation is such a big part of so many aspects of our work, and I have heard a different different ways to do it. I am curious, if you are willing to share, about your own personal forms of meditation. What types of breathing exercises help you, your visualization methods...

For me, I tend to dream-scape... I guess that's the best way to put it. When I sit down to meditate and reflect, I sit comfortably and begin to just breath deeply and regularly focusing on the beat of my heart and the rhythm of my breath, before too long I am two places at once. I am still sitting there relaxed and breathing, but I am also walking down the path from my dream. Its always the same one, the same place, only the things I see as I walk every change.

This process for me has always seemed so vastly different from the others I have encountered so I am curious to hear about other experiences... to learn what others see and do, so I can understand it better.

Bit

11-27-2009, 11:38 PM

Sounds like the beginning of a guided visualization to me, Jenn; seems like a really great way to do it!

I'll be back to post more tomorrow; tis time to :beddybye:
now.
:byebye:

foxyshaman

12-01-2009, 10:48 AM

Bit

12-02-2009, 03:26 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

I'm a little distracted right now *sheepish look* and I owe y'all a post for sure! But I also have to go to the post office... maybe I can put that off a couple days.... I need to mail cards overseas and my local store doesn't have that kind of postage stamps; I actually have to brave the post office during December... yikes! :bolt: Well, lol, actually, it's yikes and stand still, waiting in line for half an hour! :shocking:

And that reminds me, postage to Canada.... ah google how I love thee! I'll have to post that in the card exchange thread if someone hasn't gotten there first.

So if y'all here in this thread would like to get on our Solstice Card list, PM me your addy! I have cards and I can afford stamps! :cheesy:

Bit

12-02-2009, 09:38 PM

Am I bad? Oh yes, I am bad... didn't go to the post office, and didn't make it back in here either. :vigil: Thanks for leaving the light on for me. :sheepish look:

Meditation techniques... I've tried so many---and failed so many. Sheesh. I am a DISMAL DISMAL failure at "emptying" my mind. I can hold a visualization for a while if it's complicated enough to be interesting, but contemplating nothing? SHEESH before you know it there'll be a laundry list of stuff to do scrolling through my head... or I'll be off on some fantasy or other.

Many years ago I learned what used to be called Silva Mind Control (http://www.silvalifesystem.com/). It is a wholly benign magical system (shhhh! don't tell THEM, they think it's not magic!) that teaches guided meditations and strong visualizations, and everything is based on achieving specific brain wave patterns. Now two caveats--if you click the link, Jack Canfield will shout at you :shocking:--you might wanna scroll down and turn his volume off--and the Method is Christian-based. I had forgotten about that because it didn't used to emphasize it, and also because I was a Christian when I was first introduced to it, so I wouldn't have noticed.

Anyhow, obligatory disclaimers aside, Silva Mind Control taught me relaxation techniques and creative visualization; I still use the countdown to get down to the Alpha Level and I still walk out of the base level onto a wooded path that leads to one of my sacred spaces. So when I absolutely cannot get calm and centered, I close my eyes, take three deep slow breaths, and start counting from ten to one very slowly with my breathing.

I've just re-read your post again Jenn, and it occurs to me that maybe I'm not answering your real question... is your question how do I meditate? Or is it how do I work? Because they aren't the same for me unless I'm desperate to get grounded. Normally, I get grounded either by pushing my energy down into the earth--and I may do that frequently during the course of any day--or by touching Gryph, because he and I ground each other naturally.

How I work is different. I send energy--in the same sort of way that I push my own energy around, lol--anyhow, I send energy into the Universe or to another person. If someone needs healing, comfort, love, I send it to them using the same "push" feeling or sometimes (if they're farther away) a "throw" feeling. If I'm praying, I send the energy to Goddess or God or to the Universe.

There are lots of other ways to work, but this is the way I work right now.

JustLovelyJenn

12-03-2009, 09:38 PM

Hail and Good Morning Fellow Planeteers!!!

JustLovelyJenn I like your question. I like :praying: and drumming and singing and journeying and meditating... preferably not all at the same time tho'.

Okay no semi seriously... I use the drum and other instruments to alter my conscious state for trance work or altered states work. I specifically like the drum for trance work as I find it quite easy to enter the state and stay in it. I also like the didjeridoo for trance work as well. The sound of it allows me the opportunity, much like the drum does, to drop into the Theta state and into the liminal state. The rattle is also, for me a very effective tool for trance work, especially if I am doing trance postures. I also use the rattle and drum in healing work. The vibrations help the body to release whatever is stuck on or in the body.

I have found drums in particular very useful for certain things as well. In particular in my grounding and centering. Several times a year, as a general practice, and more frequently as needed I try to spend some isolated time getting myself back to center. My favorite way to do this is by what I call trance dancing. With the use of either recorded drum music, or I have also done this IN a river... my feet planted I do a very fluid type of dancing. Moving from high to low, side to side, as if pulling from sky to ground, I am told by those who have seen me do it that it is very beautiful... This practice has become almost second nature to me over the years and is the most effective method I have found to help me keep my focus in life.

I also enjoy guided meditations, I find that they allow me to access both the language and imagination parts of my brain. I also lead guided meditations which I love to do cause it is just as much a mystery to me where I am taking the room as it is to the room where they are going... <hmmm does that even make sense??>

Yes, this makes perfect sense.

I have tried various times quiet meditation, but I have to admit that I can be lazy and let me mind wander. So, I use tools to get me to the places I want to go.

You mention in your post that are always in the same place but that things change. In journey work I use the same starting place, I refer to it as my anchor. From there I travel to what is commonly referred to as the three worlds, upper lower and middle. The three worlds is a common motif in shamanic practice. From my anchor then either spirit takes me to a particular place, or I have a specific task which requires me to go to a specific land to travel through.

That description really clicks with me and the process sounds similar. I have moved on from the beginning point in my dream in many way. Remaining myself and walking, transforming into a hawk and seeing things from a different view, and also from a third person perspective, as if I were watching myself and everything that happened to me without the ability to influence it.

Anyway... I am about to get wwwaaayyy technical, far more than your question asked for and I am afraid I will show my :nerd: colors. I would be most interested in hearing others experiences too. :waitinggirl:

((((Bit))))) just sending you :bucktooth: :gimmehug:

Please never stop just because its going to get technical. While I have been told that what I do is correct, often advanced, and reliably accurate... I lack much of the language and terms for how to talk about it. When I first started my exploration and journey to this path, a mentor gave me the book Teen Witch, by Silver Ravenwolf (I was 18 at the time). She has remained a dear friend, and one of my "mom"s to this day. She often set and discussed things with me as I learned and very early on she made a comment that I knew things I should not. It has always been that way. I often know how to do something, or what to do... but I do not know what it is called, or in some cases, how I am doing it. The second I have learned to figure out... the first, takes guidance or tremendous amounts of research to accomplish.

friskyfemme

12-06-2009, 01:30 PM

Welcome to Pagan, a thread to discuss all forms of Nature spirituality, the occult and paranormal, alternative spiritualities, psychic phenomena, Wicca, Shamanism, Animism, Eclecticism, and whatever else wanders through our minds.

Samhain has just passed, and Hallowtide--those three days of celebrating the Ancestors, both far removed and most recent--and now the Wheel of the Year turns forward. In Celtic culture this is the New Year, and what could be more appropriate than a new beginning at the start of a new year? Come in, sit down, get comfy--and let's talk. :)
I am an eclectic individual in all areas of my life including my spiritual belief system. Some may think that this means I have no conviction. However, I have come to see the value in each belief, each thought, and each action of each individual. Without the diversity, we are stagnant. Being stagnant equals nothingness (to me). I have built my own traditions, ceremonies, and life practices based on different established ones and ones I have grown within. My standard life practice is 'treat others as you want to be treated' (segway of all belief systems). I believe in the strength of my 'spirit' as my blueprint for this life and the connection to preceding and future lives of mine. I believe in the ability of 'self-healing'. In the same breath, I acknowlege the lack of humanity's ability (vast generalization) to embrace it, which renders it useless. My Vision (of my Healing ability and my Path with regard to it) was revealed to me for the first time during meditation in 1994. It has unfolded and continues to unfold each day since.

I have come to understand it doesn't matter what you perceive the Great One is God/gods, Goddess/goddesses, Great Spirit, Higher Power, Universal Power, etc... What is important is how is grows you a person, how it urges you to care about yourself and others, and whether or not these actions increase goodness or diminish it. I do not prescribe to my Great One vs your Great One but rather the combination of each equals Greatness. 'All for One and One for All' has taken on a whole new meaning!

Bit

12-07-2009, 04:41 PM

Hi FriskyFemme, welcome to Pagan! Thank you for sharing your beliefs with us!

Stoney

12-10-2009, 10:04 PM

DARK GODDESS
By Amanda A. Leonard

Black Candles ,Heavy Incense.
Black dress for a mourning rite.
Dark...
....So dark before Dawn.
The Bones of Many Snap Beneath my Feet
The sweet smoky essence of Death
Surrounds my head like an adorning crown.
Inhale deeply.....
Fragrance so alluringly pungent
it sickens me
I embrace it.
I am one with all .
I am both Creator and Destroyer
Beginning
End
Beginning again.
Like the circle
unending

I face my shadow, my dark reflection.
I absorb all the power it offers.
With acceptance,reverence,and anticipation ,
I allow the melding of spirits to transpire.
Dark and Powerful .
My immunity to false realities created
claiming hope for things achieved
at the end of this pointless game.
Lies and deception.
Vision is reality
my quest is mine alone.
My rules,
are the rules I myself have chosen.
My fears
Are only the fears I have decided to entertain
In this space of transition
The light and dark are neither.
Only what I may accept
that they may be.
For I will not limit my power.
Slavery
I will accept no ones rules but my own.
For the rules are mine alone.
For this is my game and
always has been since the
Beginning
The end
The Beginning
I AM DARK GODDESS

Just felt like sharing a little.....

Stoney

12-10-2009, 10:09 PM

I am A Witch
by Amanda Leonard

First of all I proudly claim my identity as a Witch with no hesitation.
It is who I am , one of the most powerful parts of who I am.
It is the Goddess in me.
It is the healer and the teacher,
It is the old wise womyn and the young beautiful maiden.
It is the nurturing Mother,
A protector and a fighter.
It is my vision, my quest, my path, and my purpose.
It is my highest fulfillment.
I am a Proud Witch.
Not only am I proud witch, but also a proud Womon, I am a proud, determined, strong
and passionate Lesbian Witch,
A womon who loves womyn.
A womon that appreciates the beauty she sees in all womyn,
Yes I am a fearless, in your face, loud, proud, lesbian witch In a man's world.
I am also a psychic , I have been since I was young.
I would have dreams of being a witch........ along ago in a far away place.
I could distantly recall the shelves in my cottage filled with herbal tinctures and majikal
concoctions
I could so easily imagine the sensation of the cool dirt floors on my feet
The aroma of lavendar and sage could send me into a day dream of my garden boxes
Of herbs, and the soaps, and salves I would make from them.
I could sense my closeness to all living things and I swear mother earth would call out
to me and I would often crave the feel of digging with bare hands deep into her cool
moist soil.
For reasons I couldnt explain my mind held information about majik and things which I
had never studied
I knew majikal chants from off the top of my head....
and I would hum tunes I knew well but couldnt recall why that was.
I sometimes before I would fall asleep for the night, the strangely familiar celtic
melodies of an ancient past would set the stage for a regression to a lifetime once
lived.

Yes I am a Womon, a Proud Witch and I have lived that life many times.
For reasons I am constantly reminded of, I have once again chosen this life as a
Womon,
a Witch,
a Healer,
a Teacher
a Mother and a Child,
a Sister and a Friend,
a Protector and a Spellcaster,
a Conjurer and a Hexer,
a Reader and a Psychic,
a Medium and a Channel,
an Energy mover and a Shapeshifter,
a Shaman and a Sage,
an Exorcist and a Creator
A Priestess and a Goddess.
It is My rite to claim this to be so.
It is my wish to use my power to the highest good of all.
It is my vow to harm none which are innocent.
It is My desire to excell in all aspects of Majik and the craft and to never end my
study of majik and manifestation.
It is my destiny to live and die in this life as a Witch
And maybe the next ... and the next.... and the next.....
I am a proud Witch.
My strength Lies within this fact.

Bit

12-11-2009, 12:13 PM

Merry meet, Stoney! Thank you for sharing with us!

Forgive me, y'all, my mind is not on Pagan things--although it did occur to me this morning that Gryph was under attack, psychically, so I suppose my mind is never NOT on Pagan things, lol....but mostly my mind is on things like housebreaking a pup (9 weeks old; two months to go before he has reliable control, oy vey) and dealing with Winter.

The pup is a familiar, btw. He's one of the wounded healers, has a broken hip and is only just now learning to walk on four feet again. Being a baby, he does too much and then pays for it in pain, so we do our best to keep him down and quiet a LOT.

I know this dog is going to be strong. I dunno who will teach him; the cats teach each other, yanno? But Lady is only a healer in an instinctively loving way, is not an actual familiar and so cannot teach him to travel. I suspect Gryph will have to teach him in dreamwork.

Bubba, Travel Cat par excellence, is HIGHLY OFFENDED. Oy. *eyeroll*

Mitmo01

12-12-2009, 07:11 PM

Hello everyone...long time no talk

Bit I hope your pup recovers from his injury...my lovely Diego RIP--had his leg broken when he was a kitten and when he recovered you never even knew that he had been injured...the bodys ability for resilience is amazing..

Im feeling kind of in a schaudenfreude mood in these dark cold days, I suppose it has a lot to do with the weather and i always seem to forget that my mind is my biggest strength....that manifestation of our own power comes from within not outside...something so simple yet its a slippery concept for me

but i want to wish everyone well and happy holidays in the dark time...

im much more of a lurker than an author but i always enjoy this thread and the magnificent people who remain.....

Bit

12-22-2009, 10:36 AM

{{{{{{{{{{{mitmo}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Hello hon. I'm sorry--you posted here when I wasn't posting much anywhere and couldn't seem to catch up--sorry for the delay in answering you!

I think you're probably going to grieve for Diego for a while. And then, it's a hard time of year to lose anyone you love, yanno? Be kind to yourself, darlin.

Has Diego come back to visit?

Thanks for asking about Trooper! He's learning to use his back legs together and has started jumping... omg... I was all set for this long stretched-out recovery timeline and here it's only two and a half weeks and he runs faster than I can catch him, he goes up and down stairs by himself, he's potty-trained himself (although we sometimes miss his signals, and he doesn't have much capacity for holding it yet), he plays constantly--he'd rather play than eat!--and he jumps up on his hind legs.

If this dog were healthy I would NEVER be able to keep up with him.

We cannot tell yet how much he already knows (as a Familiar). I was practicing some quiet drumming last night and was going to do a guided meditation with Gryph, but the pup set up such a howl we finally had to let him out of the crate. He stayed in Gryph's lap for a long time; but even after I gave up on the drum, every time I started the meditation again, he would immediately start licking Gryph's face. We don't know whether he needed to be part of the work or he just needed to be out of the crate.

He seems amazingly well tuned to voice commands, responds appropriately almost every time to the tone of voice even if he doesn't know the words. I think he's picking up on our mental images--just like the day I met him, looked at him and thought "what happened to you, puppy?!" and immediately saw the kick and felt the impact.

Psychic boy.

We're working now on controlling the teeth. He's learning that even though Daddy Gryph is patient and willing to cut him lots of slack, Mama Cath is a bitch of an Alpha and has a rule: teeth on human skin is immediately and severely punished by crating, NO treat.

I will NOT lose a Familiar at two or three or even five years old because he bit someone, I just will NOT. And believe me, although the vet was kind and officially labeled him a lab mix, anyone who knows dogs will know that is a pit bull head and pit bull jaws. We can't afford to take any chances at all. Now, while he's still small enough to smoosh into the crate, we have to teach him this lesson about teeth.

And soon I guess we have to get a bigger crate. *sheepish smile*

Mitmo01

12-22-2009, 12:06 PM

Hi Bit so glad to hear that the pup is responding to your training, i believe that animals come into "Our Lives" not us into thiers...all of my beloved felines found me and im eternally grateful for their presence...my Bronwen that i have had for 10 years dissapered 3 weeks ago and has not returned...I think she is a hostage somewhere and im hoping she is being taken care of properly...she apparently decided that she wanted to wander and that is how she came into my life so i take comfort in the fact that not only is she intelligent but shes also autonomous and the universe willing will return hopefully...

It was heartbreaking to go to the humane society because i just wanted to take all of them home with us....My beloved Diego has not visited but I know in my heart that he will. A very good friend of mine is doing an egyptian ritual for him and that takes 70 days so he is in good company with all of his guardians as they prepare him for Bastet and her companions.....I miss him everyday but know he is in his happy hunting grounds with all of the stalking and hunting he could want...

Your Pup sounds like quite the Psychic and how exciting for you and Gryph to have a familiar like him...I bet he is going to get stronger and stronger with each day and those teeth and gums are probably just hurting a bit and its in his nature with want to chew probably lol but he is being structured by responsible loving humans and lucky him that he is soooo loved by you two.

No need for any apologies at all, i always enjoy your thoughts and words and your kindness

I hope that you and yours are safe and well this yule season
and all of the animals are safe and sound...: )

Bit

12-22-2009, 01:07 PM

Oh. My. Gawd.

He is like your MOST obnoxious little brother... on springs. I keep telling him, "Lady's gonna BITE you..." but he doesn't seem to get it yet.

She's just not amused. Dowager Diva Princesses do not take kindly to obnoxious little brothers on springs. *sympathetic laugh* And she's stuck with him... even if he weren't a Familiar, he's Gryph's puppy and I could never take him away from that Butch; it would break both their hearts.

LOL, I read your post Mitmo, saw him headed for the door and scooted out there quick to open it for him and avoid an accident... just who is being trained, here? :deepthoughts:

So you're not only dealing with gray days and Diego's death, you're also dealing with the loss of your Bronwen? My word! I'll mention this to Gryph--he's good at talking to cats--if I forget, remind me again, k?

Bit

12-22-2009, 01:11 PM

Ooops! I was so concerned about Bronwen, I almost forgot! *big blush*

{{{{{{{{{{{Mitmo}}}}}}}}}}} A blessed Yule to you also, darlin, and may you and yours be warm and dry. May the light of love shine through these days of darkness and may the Holly King see you safe to summer's light again!

foxyshaman

04-07-2010, 09:06 AM

it has been so long since I have posted on here. I have kept up somewhat with the different things going on, but things are changing.

I have been on a spiritual walk lately that has left me happy, tired and invigorated. Since Christmas I have been running around like crazy. I just wanted to stop in and say "hey"..

so

Hey... what has everyone been up to??

Bit

04-14-2010, 06:03 PM

Oh my gosh, I almost missed this! {{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Hi, honey! So glad you checked in!

I'm reading and growing, stretching my mind and skills. The latest book (I just finished it) is Soul Retrieval, by Sandra Ingerman. FASCINATING book. I bought it for Gryph, actually, but ended up reading it myself because I was curious.

I've been feeling disconnected for a while, haven't been able to meditate, so after I started the book I bought a couple Sandra Ingerman CDs. I figured, this is the premier Shamanism teacher, so Gryph should have access to her, right? And one of the CDs is guided meditations, shamanic journeys--so I thought, hey, two things at once, show Gryph that I support him on his path, and also get myself kick-started back into meditating and Circling again, right? Bring myself back into balance?

Sandra Ingerman has a loud voice, and she drums REALLY fast, and she never shuts up to let you get down into a meditative state... and if you persist, and finally manage to get there despite her voice?

She WHISTLES really loudly like a bird's cry. *buries face in hands*

What could we do but laugh, as she repeatedly popped us out of meditating/journeying? I guess she's not necessarily the teacher for us, although we have been enjoying her audiobook about soul retrieval.

So. At this point, I can send energy when I'm careful about it, and I can still of course get people grounded whenever I talk to them, but for the most part my meditating skills are on hold. It's the brain fog from the fibromyalgia. Gryph keeps it mostly at bay with energy work and that allows me to function on an everyday level--yanno, cooking, taking care of the dogs, getting the bills paid and the taxes filed--but although I can connect enough to hear the Goddess, the Ancestors, and our Allies, I cannot go deeply enough to do really profound work. So I figure the best use of this time for me is reading and learning, and when the brain fog eases, I can start working again.

foxyshaman

04-16-2010, 12:46 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{BIT}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Hey Sunshine!!! Good to hear from you.

Sandra Ingerman is the soul retrieval (SR) guru. I took her five day SR course and think she is a good teacher. Now I have not listened to her CD's, but I did read the book you are referring to a number of years ago. I started doing SR's long before I took her course... I took just to get "Cred".... you know shamans can be such a stuffy lot. Pedigrees who knew!! And here is little ol me just wandering about picking up wonderfully led spirit insight and info. Ah well what is a gal to do... besides keep trying.

I went to WI in early March and took a seven day Compassioante Depossession workshop with Betsy Bergstrom. :deepthoughts: It was 12 hours a day and lots and lots of classroom discussion about death and cosmology. But :seeingstars: it leaves your head full.

Then I came home and have been gearing down my drumming circle. This has been a way of life for me for 17 years and I have been teaching shamanism for 14 years. Tonite is the last journey circle. I thought I was gonna be all <granite> about it... I think I am granite softie :doh:. This circle is all about Middle World work and tracking. How to track your own energy, a patient's energy or even things that have been lost or misplaced. I am not sure who many ppl will show up, but I think my little buddist temple is going to be filled!!

I have had lots of patients for compassionate depossession... now that is fascinating work. And incredibly tangible. I have my first fibro patient in early May so I will keep you posted on how she does. Who knows maybe you could find a practitioner in your area and it may help you.

I feel like this is a great tool, and it certainly helps me to understand some of the 'things' I have encountered in my healing work over the years. I have gotten in touch with an old circle mate who is a psychiatrist at our local mental hospital to see if he would be willing to chat with me and perhaps recommend the work to some of his patients. I also would like to work with veterans, not sure how, but I think the work would be very helpful to some in their healing process.

Anyway... on my way to writing yet another TOME...

Lots of Love.. I am keeping your sister in my prayers and thoughts. Please give a hello hug to Gryph.

Bit

04-16-2010, 01:34 PM

Oh my golly, your last journey circle?!! {{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Dunno how a person could be granite for that! Are you ending the drumming circles as well, or just the journey circles?

How interesting, the way your work is evolving! It'll be fascinating to know what kind of things start happening, what you find, how it changes things. I would be really interested in what you discover when you work with the woman who has fibromyalgia!

What I've noticed over my life is that I seem to attract vampires and malicious-yet-small spirits (you know, the kind that take glee in making one extra clumsy?). The vampires are the most serious and drain me pretty badly, but are clearly external to me. I have no idea if there is any possession, but I am already so crammed full with just being me that I dunno where anything else would squeeze in!

*wry laugh* I tried to avoid saying that I'm "full of myself" since that has such a negative connotation! I guess I could say that I feel completely myself. :cheesy:

foxyshaman

04-16-2010, 03:09 PM

I am done teaching in journey circles. Cricles are places where we call in spirit, introduce a new topic every friday and journey (or other work) to get to know and work with the spirits who have gathered to help us. 14 years of being a leader is long enough. Every Friday drumming and teaching and learning and sharing and....

I am still teaching, I just want to take it deeper. So, private students, small groups and some larger workshops. I am enjoying the depossession work along with the other healing modalities I have learnt along the way. What a great combination. I will always have patients, of that I am sure.

I think every leader has their day and has to step aside for someone else who has vigor and naive ideas of leadership and all it is cracked up to be. My jaded self has learnt three very important lessons in this role:

1. Leaders are put on pedestals whether they want it or not. (falling off someone else's pedestal has always hurt me more than them)
2. For every Jesus there is a Judas.
3. For as equally valuable as you are... you are equally disposable.

Shamanism has been my passion for almost twenty years. I am so grateful I have practiced at a time in history when it was 'safe' to do so. This is the first time in history that we can learn from cultures half way around the world. I was not raised in a tribe, hell I barely have a nuclear family, so I don't have tribal teachings behind me. I used to lament that, but you cannot lament what you will never have. But I also don't have 1000 years of superstition behind my practices as well. So, I have been afforded more freedom in some respects. I have been incredibly blessed by the spirits that have taught me. I am blessed to have met and been taught by the shamans (Sangomas) I have from West Africa, Australia, and South America. I am grateful for the Grandmother spirits that have taught me and 'schooled' me.

But yeah... it is a hard day. Even though I have been gearing up for this - the finality of it looms ahead of me.

Energy vampires and nasty spirits are no fun. I have had my share of those over the years. And even though you and I practice differently I relish in our conversations and sharing. I am not bothered by those same spirits anymore, or at least not as much. I think I have been fortunate to have gathered around me some fantastic kick assers...which I need at times cause i can be pretty oblivious.

Anyway... I have to finish my handout for tonite. It will be a large circle, word of mouth and all... so I don't even know how many copies to have on hand!!!

See you later Sunshine!!!

Bit

04-16-2010, 08:02 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

That hug has been passed onto Gryph ~smiling~ and he says "hello!" We're both sending you love for this momentous day and evening.

It's been a long time since anyone called me Sunshine--you made me smile, darlin. Thank you.

I have to say, your three rules are spot on! I have also recognized those things, but not quite so succinctly as you have.

It seems you and I are very much alike. I also lamented not having that tribal background; I felt cheated even as a child by that lack. But it's true that when you don't have the background, you're also free to work without those constraints. Let's face it, humans have a tendency to get hidebound in our traditions and to therefore sometimes miss things which would work perfectly well, simply because they aren't part of the established traditions. So lately I have come to recognize the strengths of forging my own path; I look back and can see, "yes, I learned this better, and that, because I had to find my own way."

It helps a LOT that I am far enough removed from the pain of that forging to not be focused on it... indeed, sometimes now I manage to forget. :rolleyes:

This really is an amazing time to be alive and learning, isn't it? Sometimes I wonder how I ever managed without the internet, and each time I think about it, I'm conscious of the utter miracle of it all. When I was a kid I didn't even know what a computer WAS, and the only ones in existence took up entire rooms. When I first got a computer, there was only DOS and it was cumbersome and limited. When I first got online, Windows was an upstart.

Today the world is at my fingertips, almost instantly, any time day or night. I can literally learn about ANYTHING. Not only that, but my next computer will most likely take up not a huge room or two, but only the space my school notebook filled with lined paper took when I was a child, and I will most likely be able to use it anywhere in the world.

I think my "tribe" is online, Foxy. I actually have bookmarked two different sites about my own ancient heritage--if blood counts for anything when you believe in reincarnation, lol--and they're filled with information that I would have had to become an archaeologist to discover just thirty short years ago. It's tickling me no end that the people called themselves "The Purple People" because I can look at my extended family and see the preponderance of women who unabashedly ADORE the color purple, even three thousand years later.

It's also food for thought that in the description of these people who lived so very long ago (Canaanites), I find my own values reflected... a people who were skilled merchants and builders, and who believed in negotiation rather than war, always. I suppose in a way that's healing for me, because my other heritages are Celtic and Germanic, both so uncomfortably warlike!

I think maybe I'm rambling. Ooops. :rolleyes:

What I've learned since I have come to be with Gryph is the value of those ass-kicking Allies you mentioned. Once we realized how VERY vulnerable I am to random spirits, Gryph set up an early warning system with the Allies for me. We knew it was working the night I heard a rattlesnake buzz a warning in the bedroom... it was really Trooper pawing at his crate in his sleep--yanno, he was running in a dream--and I knew that sound when I heard it... but within about thirty seconds I realized I was hearing it again and again in my head as a rattlesnake and it really scared me. I woke Gryph up to tell him about it and sure enough, when he did a scan, there was a nasty intruder where I thought the snake was.

The next time it happened, instead of hearing something, I saw a malevolent face in the cat litter. I scooped the pattern away and told Gryph, and again--there was a spirit trying to get into the house there.

The next time, I saw a skinny man in a white shirt and yellow baseball cap cutting through our side yard (that really annoys us when strangers cut through our yard) and I rushed to the front door to ask him not to do that anymore... but he wasn't in my yard! And then I realized two things. His feet made no sound on the gravel, and I cannot actually see out that window--it's blocked off with opaque plastic.

It seems That House is full of what Gryph calls "portals" and new ones are opening as fast as the old ones get closed. I think we would have our hands full, and I would certainly be overwhelmed, if our Allies weren't looking out for us.

I begin to understand why it was important that we should live in THIS house, out of all the others available in our neighborhood... and why WE should live in this house, out of all the people available in our neighborhood. You don't often find people who can bring stability to such an active place. I suspect that after we've been here for a while we'll be pretty good at it, too: practice makes perfect, and we will certainly be getting a LOT of practice, lol!

I'm so glad to be talking with you again. I love being able to compare our ideas and experiences.

You know something... it would be so very interesting to know what kind place your patient with fibro lives in, whether it's a peaceful stable place, or wildly active (or something in the middle). I don't know if having fibro might contribute to a place opening up or not--I never really thought about it before--but I wouldn't be surprised to find out that having fibro makes a person more sensitive to spirits, since it seems to have been the key that opened me up psychically.

Take care, darlin, and let us know how the journey circle went? Gryph and I both love hearing from you!

Sunshine

Licious

05-01-2010, 09:47 PM

For any of those into Old Religion type things wicca, druid, generalpagan).. Happy Beltane (names in other languages not listed here but many countries celebrate).

May your spring be fruitful and fertile with growth...

:rose:

Bit

05-03-2010, 06:49 AM

Hello, Licious, Merry Meet! Happy Beltane to you also, and may your spring be fertile and fruitfull as well! Welcome to Pagan!

waxnrope

05-03-2010, 07:00 AM

Hello everyone! I am not a pagan, but I recognize the multiplicity within my roots, including the Ancestors. If it does not offend anyone, I will just drop by and learn, ask a question now and then, and respectfully listen.

Bit

05-04-2010, 12:15 PM

Hi waxnrope, welcome! I think you'll find the Pagan community welcoming, especially if your path includes reverence for the Ancestors.

What kind of questions did you have? There are probably enough of us that someone will have answers. *smiling*

*Magic_and_Silk*

05-04-2010, 01:19 PM

Hello, every one.

I have been a Witch for 26 years. But, even before that, I knew that some things were not as they seemed. I was raised in a christian home that started out as Southern Baptist (scary, I know) and ended up non-denominational. But, I could feel that I REALLY didn't fit in with them...Both my family with respect to their beliefs and with the 'church people'.

When I finally found the Pagan / Wiccan / Shaman / Witch lifestyle and began to get more involved and learn more and more, I realized that I had come home. The people didn't judge me (for the most part) and I was accepted like I never had been with the christians.

It was wonderful. It still is.

Bit, I know it was a little while ago, but, thank you for starting this thread.

Blessings to ALL!

Massive

05-04-2010, 01:35 PM

I've read through all of this thread and find it all utterly fascinating.
I've had my issues, and those very major, with 'organised' religion, I dithered between being an atheist and an agnostic.
Now I call myself a Spiritualist, Pagan, Buddhist, because I take what feels right to me from all three.
I'm a Spiritualist because I am psychic/empathic, I'm a Pagan because I feel more for what is tangible around us, and in the outside world, than I do with anything else, and I am a Buddhist because of their simple acceptance and their views on Karma ...
Fundamentally I have and always will have issues with christianity, because I had it forced down my throat, religious education here was about the christian faith; Hinduism, Buddhism, the Muslim religions, none were touched on, and when I asked why, I was sent out of the classroom, which made me rebel all the more.
I'd say I've found my peace now, and I firmly believe that it's personal choice as to what any one person chooses as their focus or religion, I will defend that for anyone, as long as I'm not then told what is wrong with my choices.
So, after all that, I really wanted to say Thank you to Bit, and everyone else who has posted on this thread, I feel welcome here, for the first time, in a 'religious' sense.

Just to be clear, these are merely my own opinions and I don't mean to offend anyone with them, this is just where I have travelled to through this lifetime, so if I have anatagonised or offended it was unintentional and I apologise.

chefjenn

05-04-2010, 01:46 PM

Religion is for people who are afraid of Hell;
Spirituality is for those who have already been there.

Bit

05-04-2010, 04:24 PM

Merry meet! And everyone is welcome, thank you all for stopping by!

{{{{{{{{{{{{{Magic}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Darlin I am always SO GLAD to reconnect with you! I look forward to your contributions!

Massive, I don't think you've offended anyone. I suspect most of us share your basic attitude of "live and let live."

chefjenn, I used to have a fridge magnet that said that! The only thing I would add? "And Shamanism is for those who aren't afraid to go back" lol!!

So, did anyone attend local Beltane celebrations?

*Magic_and_Silk*

05-04-2010, 04:40 PM

{{{{BIT}}}}

Actually, I was fortunate enough to attend a small Beltane circle with some very close friends. It was kind of Beltane / Birthday celebration, which was awesome!

I am fortunate to have such friends...and that includes all of you here.

:cheer:

Bit

05-05-2010, 10:17 AM

Oh cool! Happy birthday, Magic, and may it be the start of your best year yet! May all good things come to you and may you prosper in all things, especially financially, so mote it be!!

*Magic_and_Silk*

05-06-2010, 10:11 AM

Oh cool! Happy birthday, Magic, and may it be the start of your best year yet! May all good things come to you and may you prosper in all things, especially financially, so mote it be!!

Thank you so much, Bit. You have no idea how much I need to prosper financially right now.

Bit

05-06-2010, 03:27 PM

Oh, I'm sure you probably need financial prosperity as much as we do or even more, Magic! It's a great mantra. If you say it every single time you find yourself worrying about money it will change you AND your money circumstances.

I said it multiple times a day at first because I was in despair about our money. The first thing that changed was me; the despair lifted and I began to see things with hopeful eyes. That allowed room for change in our lives, and meant that the forces for change didn't have to buck through as much negativity, so even small positive changes could get through. That was a rocky path though; I was still prone to despair off and on for several months.

Then money started coming in before the end of that first month, ten bucks here, twenty bucks there--slow, yanno? never anything we could actually count on--but just enough to keep me saying the mantra. I started saying it October 1st a year and a half ago and on October 31st, we were told about That House. On March 17th (after a lot of failures!) we closed on That House. I am firmly convinced it was the mantra that brought us financing, because we were turned down by every conventional source we tried. If our credit was acceptable, the house was not, and vice versa, until we finally said the heck with it and gave up... but I kept saying the mantra, and then private financing appeared.

I kept on saying that mantra every day for over a year. It made a huge difference in how well we were able to pay the bills. I still say it, but not as regularly. I wonder if it might have been a mistake to stop saying it every day, yanno? But the things which I was using as prompts to say it have changed. Maybe I should start again. After all, who doesn't need to prosper?

So, back to Beltane, we attended a local picnic in a park, complete with two Maypole dances. It was great! There was a plant swap, a May Queen crowning, lots of sparring with foam swords to choose her champion, and a ton of really great food--WITH, I kid you not, a couple of bins to scrape plates into for compost!! Of course Pagans would think of that, lol!

My favorite part is that an eleven year old girl beat ALL the champion candidates at sparring, some of them over and over. She beat most of the adults, too; it was great. Gryph was the only one who held his own with this girl.

After Gryph and I had gotten home and relaxed some from a busy day filled with sun and new friends, I said, "...wow... I feel like I finally found my people..." and yanno, it still feels that way. The picnic was VERY much like a family reunion where you find adult cousins you hadn't met before, and discover that you're all really similar in important ways: that "shared family" bond. It was just like that! I really loved it and I want to get more involved with this community.

An intriguing part of the day was that the May Queen could have been Arwen's younger twin. It was kind of odd, feeling like I knew her when I'd never met her before, lol! And I think I'm going to have to consciously remind myself a lot that she is her own self, and not our Arwen, or I'll be expecting her to do and say things that she won't. :sunglass: :cheesy:

*Magic_and_Silk*

05-06-2010, 04:12 PM

[QUOTE=Bit;100496]Oh, I'm sure you probably need financial prosperity as much as we do or even more, Magic! It's a great mantra. If you say it every single time you find yourself worrying about money it will change you AND your money circumstances.

All good things shall come to me
And I shall have prosperity
As I will so must it be

Bit

05-06-2010, 04:16 PM

I like that. It has a lovely rhythm and rhyme.

*Magic_and_Silk*

05-06-2010, 04:24 PM

Thank you, Bit.

Nat

05-06-2010, 05:57 PM

Happy belated Beltane, y'all. :)

xx_1xbzFEQs

Anybody here listen to podcasts? I really love druidcast (http://www.druidcast.libsyn.com/) and paganfm (http://www.paganfm.com/), and a few others. :)

BB

Bit

05-06-2010, 08:38 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Nat}}}}}}}}}}}}} Thank you for the music, darlin!

I confess, I am a Luddite Lite... never figured out how to listen to podcasts. *sheepish look*

Nat

05-06-2010, 08:57 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Nat}}}}}}}}}}}}} Thank you for the music, darlin!

I confess, I am a Luddite Lite... never figured out how to listen to podcasts. *sheepish look*

Okay hmm. I tried making direct links but they did not work.

For Pagan FM (http://www.paganfm.com/paganfm.xml), you should be able to listen to the latest episode by clicking on the mp3 link down below each show description

PaganFM comes out once a week and it's a really comprehensive radio show (and the host is trans).

For Druidcast (http://www.druidcast.libsyn.com/), there's a "direct download" link at the bottom of each show description. Druidcast just has really great folk-music, poetry, folktales and interviews mostly. The host is Damh the Bard (ever listened to him? He's a musician you can find on youtube). I really enjoy it. It's more focused on druidry and Celtic mythology, but because it's a bardic tradition, they produce lots of beautiful stuff. I think you'd like it.

If neither of these options work, I would highly recommend downloading itunes (http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/). Then you can find them by clicking on the "itunes store" on the left-hand side of the program and then searching for the podcasts. If you need help, please feel free to ask or pm. I think the pagan podcasting world is really strong and kinda neat - it is a bit of "oral tradition". :)

2myladyblue

05-06-2010, 09:44 PM

Pops in to quickly say Merrymeet! *smiles & waves* Hope to come back & post very soon...:blueheels: ~LadyBlue

Bit

05-09-2010, 08:35 PM

Hello, LadyBlue, merry meet!

Nat, thank you for the links!

So is anyone keeping track of the changes around them as the seasons progress? This is something I've been doing for a couple years, and it occurs to me that I could post it here. I was inspired by something Starhawk wrote about in one of her recent books, which is paying attention to one particular place over time in order to reconnect yourself to the Earth.

I always remember reading (many years ago now) that it's silly to make a distinction between the city and the country, between artificial and natural, as if concrete and glass were not natural materials. It's true that everything which is ON the earth is also a part of the earth--it's not like asphalt is brought in from outer space, yanno?--and so we have the potential to connect strongly with the earth no matter where we are.

It's also true that there is wild and untamed nature all around us no matter where we are. That was hard for me to understand at first; I had to start looking at weeds and bugs and city birds in the proper way to get it. The truth is that they don't depend on us and would be here whether we were, or not.

Another truth: our own yards and gardens and pets can connect us to the earth as well.

What I've noticed is that when I write about the things I see, it sparks me to consider things I wouldn't necessarily think about otherwise.

I'll post my latest musings and observations in a separate post.

Bit

05-09-2010, 08:49 PM

Ahhh, Spring has settled into Wichita and shall not be dislodged. In early March, she was still dancing with Winter, and that continued through the whole month. The late-March snowstorm came the next-to-last weekend of March, and then the "weather waves" started, a pattern that includes a bright hot sunny day followed immediately by a big storm from the west which drops the temperature considerably, and is in turn followed by day after day of steadily increasing temperatures until we have a bright hot sunny day followed immediately by a big storm from the West which... well, you get the picture. *smiling*

It's just amazing to me how all our weather comes from the west, rolls in across the ocean and sweeps across the continent. Even when we get what Gryph refers to as an Alberta Clipper--the jet stream dipping south from Canada into the US--it's driven by weather from the west. I haven't yet figured out the significance of this in magical terms, but it doesn't seem to me that it was ever mentioned in any of the teachings I have read or heard about the directions and their symbolism; West=Water, yes, or even the Ocean, but never a word about weather... yet there it is, for a hugely significant part of the northern hemisphere, weather comes from the west. Rain, snow, ice, storms of all kinds; tornadoes, straightline winds, withering droughts, all born in and driven from the west as a function not of Water but of Air, of Wind, ferocious and untamed.

A strange match for the sweet gentleness of the idyllic Summerlands, yes? And yet it took me a while of musing and wondering about it before I caught that connection between the West as Source of Deadly Weather, so to speak, and the Land of the Dead. Maybe it was more obvious to seafaring peoples? Or maybe the Summerlands are just tied in my mind to Avalon, and to popular depictions which conveniently leave out everything about death and skip right to the idyllic afterlife, like some Pagan version of Heaven...

In any case, when Memorial Day comes to the US the last weekend in May, I'll be thinking about the West, and cycles of the weather.

All the trees have taken advantage of the weather waves, and have leafed out. The streets which had been open to the skies are now enclosed, sheltered by mounds of greenery. It started after the last snowstorm, wisps of palest green that suddenly opened into drifting billows, whiter than clouds. They lasted about a week, then as the blossoms dropped faded once again into palest green, opening slowly into the softness of spring greens. Now in the midst of May they've darkened, not quite to summer green but well on the way.

The earliest flowers have all come and gone, many, it must be admitted, victim to roaring lawnmowers. The ground was utterly speckled and peppered with drops of golden sunshine in mid-April. Stems and occasional fluffy seedheads still linger here and there. The dandelion leaves clearly benefitted from their early "harvest" as they're now putting great energy into new growth. The henbit and corn speedwell did not benefit in the same way; an occasional patch still catches the eye but for the most part they're done for the year. Star of Bethlehem responded to early mowings by flowering without leaves, a good month earlier than they flowered last year; whether this is because of the warmer drier spring this year or is solely due to mowing I can't tell. Violets are still growing everywhere and may give us a second flush of blossoms if the lawnmowers don't get them, but I think possibly there hasn't been enough rain for that.

Forsythia was a disapointment to me this year. It bloomed exuberantly all over the neighborhood, but the scent was actually, well, kind of nasty! I mourned the ending of winter when I smelled them.

The exquisite pinks of the redbuds made it a little better. Then the lilacs bloomed for more than a week, and perfumed the air with a heady warm sweetness that totally made up for the snow going away. Now the old-fashioned irises are doing their best to carry on with the job, purple and white alike. The roses have opened and are quickly spending their glory--no weeklong blossoms for them--and the various trees are still spreading sweetness. It started with the maples at mid-March, added early elms, segued into the oaks in early April, paused for a brief but brilliant burst of crabapple with the lilacs, and now is into more elms, the ashes and hackberries.

Half a robin's eggshell sits on Gryph's desk, a reminder that the cycle of birds has changed as well. Gone are the juncos of March, slipped away unnoticed with the crows. Hawks now rule the skies and robins rule the ground, splitting the neighborhood into territories, filling the morning with song from rooftops and treetops alike. The solar music boxes in my neighbor's yard have reverted to mere Arbor Vitae shrubs again, as the sparrows no longer come to the surface to soak up the sun. Indeed, they've moved out into the trees, built nests and laid eggs. The young birds are starting to show up foraging now, their short stubby tails, streaky brown feathers, and innocence charming me every time I see them. One flew up under my broken window screen to land on my kitchen windowsill the other day. No telling who was more amazed when I lifted the curtain and peeked out, her or me! She stayed a while, eyeing me from every angle before deciding to fly away.

Bugs are a subject I wish I could ignore. *sheepish smile* Haven't seen too many mosquitos this year yet, but then it hasn't rained as much as last year AND we started mowing the lawn earlier. Small flies are out, and the ants woke up and started foraging about a week ago. Bees have been awake on and off since the lilacs bloomed; they seemed to really love the henbit but left the lilacs completely alone. The fat brown beetles that hurl themselves at our lighted windows showed up last week, so we started leaving the porch light and living room lights off at night--no more beetles.

Lightning bugs aren't due until next month. I look forward to THEM, lol!

It occurred to me yesterday that once the season has truly changed, I settle into it and look forward to the rest of it. Now that Spring is solidly here and Summer is on her inexorable way, the gardener in me is awake and happy. I suppose this is what it is to live in a four season climate, this constant change, nothing lasting more than a few months, the Wheel always swinging about. It's so strange compared to the 9 months of heat I was used to!

I'm still looking forward to the snow again,
Cath

foxyshaman

05-10-2010, 10:04 AM

Hail and Hello!!!

Cath what great posts!! I was delighted to read your thoughts and impressions of where you live. We had our latest snow storm on Thursday and it left a good 7 inches of snow. Which was really good, we are in a 10 year drought so any moisture is good. We had some rain this weekend, but we could use quite a bit more.

Beltaine was fun. We had a faire here, with lots of neat performers, people in chain mail, hoola hoop dancers, sword jousting, a drum circle (yeah us) and of course a pot luck... what would a pagan event be without a pot luck? :gimmehug:

I have been working with angels recently, not something I thought I would ever do, but I am. I was wondering if anyone has a good reference book on angels, more from a historical perspective rather than from a more modern approach. I have taken the two encyclopedia's out of the library and they have held some interesting facts and information. I have recently been introduced to them and they help me with my depossession work. And HOLY MOLY does the room get HOT. OMG. I have never felt heat rise like that ever in healing work, it is quite something. And when they leave the room almost immediately goes back to normal.

One Angel in particular is called Raziel. The presence of Raziel is quite different from anything I have encountered.

Anyway... we are coming out of the deep freeze up here. It is +10C today and going to get warmer as the week goes on. We have some leaves out already, but they are still little. We are still waiting for Lilacs to bloom, those are my favorite. We were in Sebastapol (Santa Rosa) <taking a tantra workshop> a couple of weeks ago and what a huge difference :wateringgarden: from here... amazing what a couple thousand Kilometers will do for plants!! We are so far behind here. We just got green grass a couple of weeks ago. Saw some tulips this week... I was all like...oohhh ahhhhh.

Wishing everyone a fun and fabulous Monday!! And yes they can happen! :bucktooth:

Foxyshaman

Bit

05-11-2010, 01:28 AM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Thank you so much, darlin!

Yanno... it never occurred to me that Canada could have a drought? I honestly thought only places farther south could be drought-stricken. I learned something today! Glad you got the moisture but I hope you get Spring, also!

I have no resources on Angels for you but I do have a story. Once Gryph and I got together, he started sending healing and Allies to my family, mostly gryphons... but yanno, my family is all deeply Christian, so I asked him if the Allies would please appear to my family as angels, because I honestly didn't think they would be able to be effective unless they appeared as something my family members would recognize and trust.

The Alies have grumbled a lot about the "disguises", but they're pretty good at what they do and there's been some remarkable healing taking place for everyone in the family ever since they started helping.

Then Gryph started coming under attack again last week--it happens when he's stretched too thin--and so I asked my mom to put him on her prayer line. "Oh!" she said, "we've got to get some angels over there for protection!!"

When he got home, I relayed the message... *tilts head, curious* and asked if the angels had to disguise themselves as gryphons for him. He laughed pretty hard. :cheesy:

For me, I usually ask angels for help but I haven't ever traveled with them; when I talk to them--usually Michael or Raphael--I need them to be on a human scale.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I looked up Raziel. His name means "Secrets of God." The God in question is of course El, but hey, I'm being picky, lol... I suppose that I like knowing the angels predate the religion of the Hebrews. Anyway I mention this because what I found (in an admittedly cursory search) is that Raziel doesn't show up in the lists of angels until the Middle Ages, and he is consistently associated with magic.
The first part, "which contains little but strange conceits ascribed to the angel Raziel, and which describes the entire organization of heaven" (Zunz), was composed at the earliest in the eleventh century, as is shown by both content and language, and by the coined words and angel-names, which number several thousand (ib.).

Read more: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=142&letter=R#ixzz0nbP4WVjV (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=142&letter=R#ixzz0nbP4WVjV)

The legend is that he wrote all the secrets of God's (El's) magic into a book and gave it to Adam and Eve, to help them find their way back home after they were expelled from Paradise; the book was passed down until it reached Noah and is the source for his ark-building instructions; it eventually ended up in Solomon's Temple.

Who Raziel is, I don't know, but if he's different from the other angels you've encountered, maybe it's because he's still being formed? The rest of the archangels would be several thousand years older and would have a solid core built from millennia of expectations and interactions with humans... but the Wikipedia page for Raziel held all kinds of references to current popular literature and RPGs. If people are role-playing as Raziel, maybe that affects the ways the energy appears and expresses itself on the Astral?

This is only a guess, so please feel free to tell me if I am way out in left field, k?

Oh, and this image http://www.legacyofkain.it/Raziel%20vampiro%20(2).jpg (http://www.legacyofkain.it/Raziel%20vampiro%20(2).jpg) caught my eye immediately... to me, those are Dragon wings. Maybe Raziel is more than an angel?

foxyshaman

05-11-2010, 09:03 AM

Hey Sunshine!!!:sunglass:

Allies peeking through angel wings!! That made me :giggle:... We have to go with what we are given to get the message through sometimes! I hope Gryph has a better day today. Being stretched too thin is a true stressor. It seems like you two have been going through enough already eh?? Last year some of the farm areas around where I live were declared disaster areas because of the drought. But hey there is no global warming or anything silly like that is there?

Thank you for the information on Raziel. I too have found references to him in role playing games. His energy is completely different from the other Angels I call upon. The other three are Michael, Gabriel and Raphael. They come in the room and aid the suffering being that we are working on releasing from my patients. But Raziel merges with me. My core body temp rises and my hands feel like they are on fire. I have never felt a spirit quite like this one. I am going to call one of the Rabbi's in town and see if they have any further information. I am doing some research on funerary rights for a lecture at the University I am giving and so I think that the two questions will be rolled into one conversation for the Rabbi. I have never spoken to a Rabbi before!! But I was given the number by my Director at work <I disguised part of the reason I wanted to talk to a Rabbi> ;)

The growth of angels and the change in their personalities over the centuries is pretty interesting.

As always this is such a learning/teaching path. :deepthoughts:
I hardly feel qualified at times to even talk about it, there is so much information and I feel like I am in kindergarten!!!

Hugs and Love to you and Gryph!

Bit

05-13-2010, 10:16 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}} Hi darlin!! How are you this fine weekend? Busy, I'll bet!

Do your politicians do that "no such thing as global warming" stupidity also? I thought that curse was special to the US. *snort* Ohhhh yeah, let's just ignore 50 years of climate science, and when the predictions start coming true let's just say it was a coincidence... sheesh, politicians! :eyebrow:

That's very interesting about Raziel. Oddly enough, I almost typed Azriel... Angel of Death... I speak in my mind as I type and I really did say to myself "Azriel".... caught it just before I typed it. The meaning of Azriel is "God is my help" which is a pretty interesting name for the Angel of Death, lol.... the name is more commonly spelled Azrael, and can also be translated as "whom God helps". I would presume we would say "the one whom God helps".

I did find a reference to Raziel as the Angel of Death, but only on a page about Raziel; a search on "angel of death" didn't pop his name up at all, and he didn't come up on the Azrael Wikipedia page either.

Bit

05-16-2010, 12:50 PM

Wow, this is a great article on Feminist Witchcraft, well researched and well put together! You might enjoy it!

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=nlxx&c=words&id=13973 (http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=nlxx&c=words&id=13973)

You also might enjoy the rest of the articles on WitchVox.

http://www.witchvox.com/index_mov.html (http://www.witchvox.com/index_mov.html)

Daryn

05-16-2010, 01:17 PM

Bit - Reading your posts a bit (sorry for pun). One of the few things I miss from days in the East are fireflies. Two years ago in late June, when I was back in the area I grew up in I saw them again for the first time in many, many years. I wonder why you don't see them West of the Rockies.

Bit

05-16-2010, 01:27 PM

Ha! I like the pun. :cheesy:

I wondered that about fireflies too. The only thing I can think its that it's the Rockies themselves; they're a divide between so many species which only exist on one side or the other. Maybe the winters are too severe through the range to allow fireflies to spread?

Aww heck, so much for that theory; Gryph tells me there were fireflies in the mountains of California when he was a kid.

Well, maybe they're really sensitive to pesticides? I know in Phoenix (all through the metro area) pesticides have been routinely and, imo, indiscriminately sprayed for decades; maybe other cities have done so, also?

foxyshaman

05-16-2010, 01:31 PM

Heya Sunshine!!

Raziel and Azriel... interesting typo. For me that has a ring to it since some of the suffering beings I work with are dead humans, some are not, but many are. I am going to delve into that a bit deeper, if I come across anything interesting I will let you know.

I was busy yesterday, I had four patients, which is quite a bit for this little fox. The last patient I had was an extraction that turned out to be an extraction - depossession. It was taxing. My last patient had requested an extraction due to her health problems and that her man of twelve years, no warning, broke up with her ande moved to New York. Then her body rose up and demanded attention. Interesting work. I wear bracelets when I do extraction work, so that 'greeblies' do not go up my arms. It is just a small thing I do, I am sure others protect their bodies in different ways. I sometimes will wear necklaces that I have charged for protection or created ceremony specifically to create protection pieces.

I cleaned my entire spirit room last night after my last patient left. Today I am cleaning the house top to bottom. Washed all the floors, hell I even moved the fridge and stove!! Did all my laundry and now I am tackling the dusting... including my poor neglected bedroom. And then... argh... the office. I have one public talk tomorrow night on Compassionate Depossession and I have been asked back to the University to talk about shamanism in one of the ancient religion classes. Shamanism is ancient and yet still so very alive. It changes and has to evolve, or it will die.

This week is my last drumming circle in the temple. I am doing a Ceremony of Gratitude. Still working on which story to tell. Storytelling is such a vibrant part of shamanism. Is it so in witchcraft or wicca in your neck of the woods? I have been to many different rituals and ceremonies over the years and not many have told stories. The druid rites I have been to have had stories, and fun ones too!! It is hard to believe this is the last circle I lead. I suspect it will be a bit of an emotional roller coaster this week. :poc-scared: Perhaps that is the need to clean house? Well that and it has been grand central station here lately (trying to use an american reference :winky:!! LOL

Glad you put a link to witchvox... I have been advertising circles and events on there for a number of years. It is a fantastic resource. It is nice to see it here.

Well... my house work is yelling at me. I am off. No rest for the cutely wicked.

Have a fantastic day everyone. Cath pass my huge hug hello to Gryph!!

Foxyshaman

Bit

05-16-2010, 02:40 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxyshaman}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Gryph sends his hellos and hug back to you from the middle of typing up the minutes for the last Neighborhood Association meeting!

I would LOVE to hear what you might find re: Raziel and Azriel! And um, *admiration* what clean floors you have! Am I right that this is one way to clean the greeblies out of one's space?

I love the term "greeblies" and I think your bracelets of protection are an all-around good idea! I used to wear necklaces for protection--tis a Marian thing, to wear a medallion with Mary's image for protection--but I suppose they were more than that, because routinely they would get "fully charged" and then ask to be passed onto someone who needed them.

Lately I am wearing a pentacle that is less about protection and more about accessing. It seems to be a good trigger, helps me to work better.

I've been dealing with a lot of fear lately. I finally realized that no matter WHAT I happen to wish to do, if I think--just think--about working any kind of magic, I am automatically deflected into something mindless, usually a computer game, and it seems to grab hold of my mind and keep me there until I am utterly exhausted and have fallen asleep in the chair.

I have in the past been a victim of a pretty serious "Do Not" spell and it took me a LOT of effort just to identify it and then to deal with it, so of course that's the first thing on my mind, "omigawds, am I hemmed in by that spell again?!" BUT *sigh* I am also cognizant that it ain't necessarily so... this could be my own fears holding me back. In that case, I dunno what to do. (You cannot imagine how much I want to delete this post and go play Solitaire at this moment! OY!) I don't like feeling out of control; I especially don't like not knowing what's IN control of me. Damn.

Since what I want is to have access to my own power and abilities again, and since the necklace I wear seems to be helping, I think maybe I need to do as you do, and start using more of what works.

About stories, well, I'm a Solitairy [EDITED to correct lol, Solitary, Solitary!!] so I don't really know. Back when I was a newbie witchlet, the Women's Spirituality group I attended was big on stories, though.

Wishing you the very best on your drumming circle,
Sunshine

Nat

05-23-2010, 07:45 PM

I was wondering if any of y'all have a spirit animal that you know of?

Also, do you find yourself connected to any other-worldly beings/elementals?

And, do you find yourself connected to certain trees or types of trees?

-------------

my answers:

I feel especially connected to both cats and spiders. My mom has a thing with turtles, my dad has a thing with owls, and one of my aunts has a thing with fish.

I'm also very drawn to mermaids, I have a friend who's very drawn to faeries, an aunt who's drawn to pixies and another aunt who's drawn to gnomes and trolls. My mom tends to be drawn to dragons and other monsters, and my gf is also drawn to dragons.

I love trees - all trees - but especially sycamores, redbuds and mimosas.

Bit

05-23-2010, 08:39 PM

Dear Sycamore Girl,

{{{{{{{{{{{{Nat}}}}}}}}}} *utterly delighted!* How cool to run into someone else who is connected to them! How I love them! Sycamore branches were gifted to me (by the trees themselves) a little over two years ago and they've guarded our home ever since!

I've considered myself a Daughter of the Trees for most of my life, and I cherish the redbuds, hackberries, maples and oak that we're blessed with here in That House. In Phoenix, I adored mulberries and pines.

The trees that are the most special to me, although not in the spirit connection way, are fruit trees, apple, peach, plum, cherry, orange, date palm, etc, and my favorite, the fig tree. I suppose it's like the difference between my teachers and my little sisters (to put the difference in the ways I relate to them into human terms).

Animal connections, there are so many... they come and they go, depending on what I need and also on what the people I am with need. (You might remember I used to post as Mama Tigre--the tiger.) It's the same with beings on other planes. I'm not close to the fae, but I'm comfortable with many creatures better known through mythology, like gryphons.

Cath

Nat

05-23-2010, 09:08 PM

Bit - how awesome is that? :)

I have sycamore seed-balls at home and work. My grandfather used to write me letters on sycamore bark and sign them "A. Troll" or "D. Troll" and tell me that he "found" them.

There is a young sycamore tree at my work, and there were a few times I went out there and hung out next to it, and the trunk was covered in flies and the leaves were wilty. I was out there to meditate, so I suggested to the tree that we ground and center together. I held onto one of its leaves, and imagined both of use extending our roots down toward the center of the earth and bringing up that earth energy together. What surprised me, is that it seemed to me that the tree had an easier time with this than I did, and that the energy not only came up through it faster but that it sort of spilled over onto me. Since then, when I can, I go out there and listen to podcasts or meditate or check bfp under the tree on my breaks, and I always tell the tree hi and often sit in the grass and lean against the trunk. No more flies, btw.

Bit

05-23-2010, 09:53 PM

SWEEET!!! You healed that tree, Nat! *huge beaming grin at ya* Gryph says, "Good work!" and so do I!

Isn't it amazingly cool to have a tree for a spiritual partner?

I don't hang on to the sycamore seedballs because I have those huge long twisty branches. My favorite tree dropped them the first fall and winter I was in this neighborhood; one is twelve feet long! They're generally a couple/three inches in diameter at the base. I originally was going to make walking sticks from them and it confused me that each time I thought of it, they seemed to say no... I finally realized they were already doing what they wanted to be doing, by protecting us and adding tree energy to our home.

Nat

05-23-2010, 10:01 PM

heh well thanks, but i think the tree healed itself possibly. it was more proficient than I was anyway. :) I bet the long twisty branches are great. :)

Gryph

05-23-2010, 10:20 PM

heh well thanks, but i think the tree healed itself possibly. it was more proficient than I was anyway. :) I bet the long twisty branches are great. :)

Don't discount the energy you put out to help the young tree. Just because someone or something is proficient in something doesn't mean they can always get through to the right energy to help heal, clean or what ever is needed to not only survive, but to fully live.

Grins
Gryph

2myladyblue

05-24-2010, 11:21 AM

I was wondering if any of y'all have a spirit animal that you know of?

Also, do you find yourself connected to any other-worldly beings/elementals?

And, do you find yourself connected to certain trees or types of trees?

Hello Nat! Great questions!
I've always felt a kinship to Morrigan's messengers...the corvids...most specificially ravens & crows. Although my family name is daw...coincidence, no? lol
I keep company with felines & equines as often as possible. I find that I have a lot to learn from them...
And I find my peace of mind/body/spirit walking through a nearby forest, plentiful with oak trees.
~Skipping off to play in the forest~Blue

foxyshaman

05-26-2010, 03:37 PM

I was wondering if any of y'all have a spirit animal that you know of?

Also, do you find yourself connected to any other-worldly beings/elementals?

And, do you find yourself connected to certain trees or types of trees?

-------------

Oohhh nice questions!!!

I do have power animals that I work with and journey with all the time. I have my primary spirits which are lion, panther, owl, deer and moose. There are other animals that have taught me quite a bit over the years when I journey (which is a term used to mean altered state of consciousness, usually sonic driven). In ordinary reality I have worked with cats, lots of birds and horses.

I work with elementals carefully. Elementals in my workings are: Sylph, Undine, Gnome and Salamander. I do like contacting & working with the Little People. Every summer I lead a shamanic wilderness camp,last years theme was working with the Little people. We broke off into three tribes, elves, gnomes and faeries. It was fascinating and the journey work was quite substantial for the participants. I have a very healthy respect for the Fae and beings associated with that term. I have long researched Fairy Tales as a way of understanding my relationship (historical and familial) with the unseen. I don't generally see Faeries as kind and loving beings... at least they have certainly not always appeared that way to me... this one time... oh wait this is not story time:p

Trees, well you guys certainly have different trees than I do up here. I love my Spruce trees and the different kinds of poplars. I am also very fond of the Cedar forests of the West Coast and interior BC. Old Elm trees also hold a very special place in my heart. Oh and how could I forget choke cherry trees??? i loved climbing them as a kid and taking the bitter fruit. As an adult I still like to climb trees, but choke cherries don't support adult weight very well:huhlaugh:...

Arwen

05-26-2010, 03:50 PM

I was wondering if any of y'all have a spirit animal that you know of?

Also, do you find yourself connected to any other-worldly beings/elementals?

And, do you find yourself connected to certain trees or types of trees?

-------------

Great questions for discussion.

I have always been drawn to trees--particularly the pine, the oak and the willow. I started talking to trees when I was a girl (and was not surprised to get answers.) There was an old live oak in my front yard that I spent many hours in.

Yes, in. I was a mad tree climber when I was younger. Still get the urge to climb a big old oak tree and find a branch to perch on.

Otherworldly beings, yes. :) Mermaids in particular and green sprites as well. I see green men a lot (heh...that sounds bizarre.) I used to commune with fairies as a little girl but they don't stop so much any more.

Spirit animals? That's a tricky question because part of my path is not able to share all of this answer. So yes and not the wolf or tiger or lion. Grin. My spirit animal is a bit shyer than that. I do have some that are public like the Manta Ray and Kestrel. :)

2myladyblue

05-26-2010, 05:54 PM

Trees, well you guys certainly have different trees than I do up here. I love my Spruce trees and the different kinds of poplars. I am also very fond of the Cedar forests of the West Coast and interior BC. Old Elm trees also hold a very special place in my heart. Oh and how could I forget choke cherry trees??? i loved climbing them as a kid and taking the bitter fruit. As an adult I still like to climb trees, but choke cherries don't support adult weight very well:huhlaugh:...

Heya foxy! (Can you see me wavin' from a couple provinces over?) :canada: Your forests are BEAUTIFUL....and when I was in BC, I remember being amazed to see a real live holly tree!
I think Wpg is well known for its 'urban forest', but unfortunately, most of our elms are plagued by dutch elm disease. :(
:farmtree: I grew up climbing crab apple trees for an after school snack, but these days I prefer to walk amongst them or lay under them :farmer:
~Blue

Bit

05-26-2010, 11:15 PM

What a wonderful conversation! I'm so glad you started it, Nat!

Spirit animals? That's a tricky question because part of my path is not able to share all of this answer.

I also hesitate to share too much, but for a different reason; I used to be hounded by someone on another site. Anything I posted was turned against me; the better I got at shielding, the more skillful my assailant got at breaking through my shields. This happened consistently for many years, until I finally got so cautious that I just stopped talking about anything Pagan for a long time.

I still have that second-nature impulse that says, "watch it! anything you talk about will backfire!"

What I can say is that I work with all kinds of animals--whomever comes to my mind in a moment of need--and also with several different kinds of entities. I've worked with the animals ever since I first discovered formal paganism. The other entities are much more recent, and working with beings from other planes has really stretched my limits and helped me grow.

I don't generally see Faeries as kind and loving beings... at least they have certainly not always appeared that way to me... this one time... oh wait this is not story time:p

IS TOO. :hrmph: Is too.

How interesting that our trees are different! I didn't expect that; guess I thought that oaks and maples were ubiquitous once a person was north of the desert... silly of me, because I remember the Douglas fir/cedar/alder forests of the PNW!

For me, like for Blue, the trees are part of an urban forest, planted by people. I don't think of them in the same way I think of an indigenous forest... heck, all over the PNW oaks and maples are planted in people's yards. Maybe that's why I didn't think about the forests being different.

I think all our elms are probably Chinese elms at this point, because of Dutch elm disease. Some are very old but I suspect most are less than 100 years. A really massive elm that I thought had to be quite old is only about 60 years, so I guess I have to allow for the large yearly rainfall here having MUCH more of an effect on the trees than I expected it to.

Bit

05-27-2010, 03:43 PM

Hey y'all, Isaac Bonewits has cancer and is asking for help! He and his wife Phaedra have a facebook page and a website--here are the addies.

Here's their fb addy.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/isaac.phaedra.bonewits (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/isaac.phaedra.bonewits)

Here is their website. http://www.neopagan.net/ (http://www.neopagan.net/)

Here is the call to action, from the House of Danu:

Isaac Bonewits defines what it is to be a Druid in our time and place. A great friend to the House of Danu, he was the founder of Ár nDraíocht Féin and leader within many Pagan traditions. Isaac has been struggling with colon cancer (root chakra) and it has reached a point where he needs a miracle.

Phaedra Bonewits has put out a call for our greatest magik: A ROLLING THUNDER. The House of Danu asks that you rise to the call and participate in this event which is unprecedented in our history. From Europe moving West at 9:00P.M. in each time zone, the energies will rise and our will shall become manifest.

WHEN: On the night of the full moon, May 27, 2010, at 9:00P.M. in your time zone

HOW: Create a healing ritual within your tradition and that is joined with the rising energies with this chant:
"Isaac's tumors fade away. Thirty more years with Phae."

THEN: It will comfort Isaac and Phaedra to know when your ritual is done. Let them know. Their email adress is at their website, neopagan.net.
The Rolling Thunder has already begun in Europe and is moving across the face of the Earth. Please join in, and bring healing to one of the Pagan community's most beloved authors!

ps-I edited the email addy out of this post, as they are already swamped by over 1000 spam messages a day; no sense taking chances a bot would find the address here and add more.

Bit

05-28-2010, 04:50 PM

A new set of questions for us!

Do you prefer to make your own tools (wands, athames, cards, cups, etc) or buy them already made?

If you make them yourself, do you prefer to find the makings as you walk through an area, or to buy unadorned items and personalize them?
~~~~~~

My answers: I've done all of the above at various times. Sometimes I have found absolutely wonderful items in the shops, especially jewelry and cards--certainly, making one's own tarot cards is QUITE the daunting challenge for me, lol--and sometimes items have presented themselves to me completely unexpectedly.

My favorite example of the unexpected tool is a small geode I found once (now moved on to another owner, nonconsensually) that was naturally opened and bent back. It looked like a tiny shrine of the Mother from one angle and like a fish with its mouth open from another, and it served me well for several years.

Once in a while I make something just for the sake of creating, and then discover afterwards that it's become a tool. My favorite example of that is a small gourd I painted once to look like a curled up fox. It became my guardian while I worked in a haunted building by myself, until it broke in my pocket one day.

I find myself thinking that I *should* make all my own tools, mostly because lots of people have *said* so... but yanno what, if we all made all of our own tools, the Pagan artists among us would have to go out of business. So I think I like having a balance of both kinds of tools.

How about you?

2myladyblue

05-29-2010, 01:15 AM

A new set of questions for us!
Do you prefer to make your own tools (wands, athames, cards, cups, etc) or buy them already made? If you make them yourself, do you prefer to find the makings as you walk through an area, or to buy unadorned items and personalize them?

Great questions, Bit! :)
Of course, I would *PREFER* to make my own tools....but alas & alack, that rarely happens *eyes one of many piles of projects in process*...
I have made a few things out of clay. I love to personalize & consecrate something plain. And I love :stillheart: love :heartbeat: love :stillheart: discovering the *perfect* thing walking through the woods or in some wonderful witchy store I've wandered into!
~Blue

Nat

05-29-2010, 01:20 AM

A new set of questions for us!

Do you prefer to make your own tools (wands, athames, cards, cups, etc) or buy them already made?

If you make them yourself, do you prefer to find the makings as you walk through an area, or to buy unadorned items and personalize them?

Most of my main items have been store/internet-bought, but I don't have a good connection to most of them (yet).

I am happiest with my pentacle (which I made myself out of self-hardening clay. it was at christmas time, and my mom asked if it meant that I danced naked in the woods. I told her, "not yet!")

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2550/4218423873_908c8e99f1_m.jpg

I am also very happy with my chalice, which is actually a glass compote that I picked up from Goodwill. In that case, I knew what I wanted before I went into the store, and sure enough, I found exactly what I wanted and it felt right.

This was my altar on New Year's day - it was a bit crowded - but you can see the chalice back there on the right.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2803/4236803653_c7b2ec80ff_m.jpg

My wand is a plain willow wand, and I haven't really made friends with it yet, and my athame is a letter-opener. Unfortunately, I dropped it and broke a stone off of it, and I'm not sure how best to re-attach it. I also feel kinda bad that I dropped it in the first place. Somewhere I have a beautiful mermaid dagger but it's buried in my stuff. If I ever find it, I will probably make that into my athame.

I'm very new to the witchy and pagan worlds, so these are things I'm still in the process of feeling out. I do tend to collect things for my altar and also for my workspace. Acorns, fallen leaves, interesting sticks, seashells, ribbons, just stuff. I also have fantasies of creating little miniature altar kits. I love the idea of a tiny altar kit with a needle for the athame, a thimble for the chalice, a toothpick for the wand, birthday candles with spindles to hold them, a pack of match incense, a handkerchief for an altar cloth - but I never can think what to use for the thurible.

2myladyblue

05-29-2010, 01:21 AM

I really need to get some sleep, but I wanted to recommend a lovely selection from my bookshelf....
The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk
:reader:
Has anyone else read it?
~Blue

Nat

06-01-2010, 12:30 AM

I just saw these and think they are cute. They are three little beeswax candles.

http://desmitten.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/jane-box-beeswax-candle.jpg

*Magic_and_Silk*

06-01-2010, 08:41 AM

I really need to get some sleep, but I wanted to recommend a lovely selection from my bookshelf....
The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk
:reader:
Has anyone else read it?
~Blue

I have read it and I recommend it to anyone who has not. It is a wonderful book!

Bit

06-01-2010, 12:29 PM

Nat, I love the altar and tool pics! Also adore those candles *heartmelt* awww!

Blue and Magic, hello! Yep, I'm also one who always has piles of craft things in progress.

As for the book, well, that's one way I measure my growth as a Priestess, actually. The first time I read the book I was REALLY disappointed, could not BELIEVE that Starhawk would write such a "woo-woo" novel, couldn't even suspend my disbelief like I would for any other sci-fi novel, was SO turned off that I actually thought it was a badly written book.

The second time I read the book, I was like, "HEY! I can do that!!.... oh, I can do that, too.... HEY!! I think maybe I can learn to do that one if I work at it..." I was surprised that over the years I had done a complete 180 in my opinions about what is actually possible.... and I was also surprised what a good book she had written. *sheepish look*

I still have my reservations about the crystal communication for the computers.... but yanno what, I'm not dismissing it out of hand anymore. It might very well be that it will take considerably longer than the novel's time frame for it, but it also could still happen in my lifetime--you NEVER know, you just never know.

Also, now I'm the age of the grandmothers who took the pickaxes to the streets to break them up for gardens... and I can relate to them, oh I can relate! Even in my disability, I am stronger, more vital, more vibrantly alive than I was ten years ago, and that again is the opposite of what I believed when I first read the book. Age brings power, even to the disabled--who would have guessed that, living in this society??

I'm looking forward to the insights I'll find when I read it the third time. I hope I'll have made more progress!

oblivia

06-05-2010, 02:03 PM

I was wondering if any of y'all have a spirit animal that you know of?

Also, do you find yourself connected to any other-worldly beings/elementals?

And, do you find yourself connected to certain trees or types of trees?

I suppose it depends on your definition of spirit animal. I have had various animal guides (primarily a Unicorn).

I am VERY connected to Unicorns and many of my general journeywork and meditations have me in Unicorn form myself.

I am very drawn to the Weeping Willow and to very strong, old, tall trees in old growth forests.

oblivia

06-05-2010, 02:04 PM

Also...

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{bit}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

How are you!??

Bit

06-05-2010, 08:14 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{oblivia}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Hi darlin! How am I... oh my... on which level? *wry smile* Even speaking in terms of being Pagan, there are so many different things going on... mostly internal.

Externally, I'm really concerned for Isaac Bonewits right now. Have you read his books? I've only read Real Magic but I've seen his website and read many of the magazine articles he's written over the years. He has colon cancer and there's a world-wide effort to get him through the challenge. Gryph and I joined in the healing. He's our main concern in spirit work right now.

We've been working on clearing our space energetically for quite a while. I seem to be our weak link, so to speak; this is a very active area, and lots of ghosts/spirits/beings come through. Not all of them are friendly and when they aren't, I seem to be an easy target for them. We're constantly working on shields and also on keeping the portals closed. Now I understand why That House waited eight years for us! There's been a lot of weirdness, a lot of negativity, and a lot of hostility. The work and trouble are balanced by our getting to know Margaret, the Grandmother who watches over That House (and now watches over us, too). I don't think she'll ever be willing to move on; this was her house, she loved it, and she came back to it when she died.

One of my favorite memories was walking up onto the porch and being greeted with an unmistakable feeling of open arms and an offer to shelter me against the storms. At the time, I thought it was the house itself making the offer. Give it another hundred years or so, and there might not be much difference between Margaret and the house--but that day it was definitely Margaret, welcoming me into her home and her life. We're pretty sure she's the one who made it possible for us to buy the place.

The interior work I need to do is about ceremony and ritual. I've been a long time away, so to speak, have been working without formal Circles, without props of any kind. I think it's time I changed my working style again and got back to basics.

Now doesn't it figure that I would find this need in myself JUST as the fans and air conditioner go on? So much for candles and incense, lol!

So how have you been, darlin? What's up in your world?

oblivia

06-05-2010, 09:44 PM

Wow, that is a lot going on!! Congratulations on the house and while it sounds like you have your work cut out for you, it also sounds like it's a special blessing that you are there and not somewhere else.

Have you ever tried one of the incense stick holders where the incense is actually lit and held sideways with a (very well ventilated) lid that closes over it? Hard to describe. I had one of those and it protected the incense enough to keep it going even with a bit of breeziness. Also, cones inside small cauldrons or bowls with sand in them can protect them from windyness too (plus cones stay lit better) - bowls can be a helpful alternative for charcoal burning incense too.

As for me.... wow.... married and raising two boys. ;) Spiritually, I've been a member of the Sisterhood of Avalon now for almost 3 years and it's been incredibly empowering. I've also been doing a regular yoga practice and learning a lot from bits of yoga-based or buddhism-based wisdoms, which has been amazing.

It's interesting. My practice now seems to have many layers. There is the eastern, yogic/buddhist slanted layer such as my yoga practice and certain tools I use to work on my own internal battles. There is the more traditional pagan layer which involves honouring the eight sabbats in some way, and circling with my son or wife and having tarot nights with friends and having traditional circles with the elements. And there is the very personal Avalonian layer with the Sisterhood that is primarily a solitary path (but one shared with the other Sisters via online forums, and shared journeying/questing together) and ritual. Most ritual work I do is the Avalonian pathwork, with some exceptions when I am circling with others. The Avalonian stuff has been amazing. I've really been going through completely constant growth and evolution since joining, all to the betterment and increased mental/emotional/psychological health of me. Good stuff.

I feel pretty solid spiritually and very strong. It's a new and good place for me to be and I keep spreading my roots out ever further and deeper.

I think that many of us cycle with our spirituality in ways. We have periods of intensity and periods of rest. I really relate to what it can be like to come back after time 'away'. Sometimes, it starts with the smallest little thing, done consistently to dig one tiny little root in to anchor us, and then we can spread out as comfy from there....

Bit

06-06-2010, 11:37 PM

We were given a gift today--an incense burner that is enclosed! I didn't even REALIZE the significance of that until I read your post just now, oblivia!! It's pretty cool to have that need answered so VERY quickly. And I also found a square holder for a votive glass--in effect, an enclosed candle holder.

For cone incense, I have a ceramic echinacea shell, again, enclosed.

Today, we cleared space physically, rearranging the house. It's strange; now that we've moved the computers out of the dining room, it no longer feels like home to me... and yet the room we put them into doesn't feel like home either. I think this is going to take some getting used to.

Oh! I just realized... the walls are the wrong color. This room is white and the dining room is a mushroomy beige... how odd; I didn't know I liked that color--actually, I thought I DIDN'T like it! But now I miss it; it's soothing on the eyes. Huh.

Congrats to you on all the growth! It sounds like life has really settled down for you in all kinds of wonderful ways!

I agree about the cycling, spiritually, although I tend to think of it as ebb and flow. This might be because my physical energy ebbs and flows, and so it seems familiar to me. I am finding that the limits on what I can do are more and more a function of my own physical state. It's frustrating because I keep thinking I could heal my body, if only I could somehow dredge up enough energy to do the work properly! Catch 22. *wry smile*

Soft*Silver

06-07-2010, 10:26 AM

dropping in for a chat...

I too have had feelings of being welcomed to my new home. From the moment I sat in the driveway waiting for the realtor, I knew I had found my home. Only two families other than myself have owned this near century old house. I am carrying on the legacy of living simply and gardening heartedly. I also have such an energy surge when I am here. I have indulged in labor that I havent been able to do in many moons. And that says alot, with my fibro and my spinal problems.

I have literally lit up the place with plants. My front steps are filled with pots (left behind by the family who owned the house) filled with morning glories and sunflower seeds. I am hoping the glories will climb the sunflowers..how pretty that will be if it works! My back porch has raspberries planted, and a stand of strawberries, as well as a trellis of cukes...

I have 25 tomato plants waiting for me, all heirloom varieties. I will be swimming in them! Peppers, zukes, squash, cantelopes, punkins, etc are all in the ground garden or the trellis gardens. I have 5 trellises that I have planted beans and gourds on. Oh..and lets not forget the snap peas in the old metal tub outside of my porch...and lettuce in containers by the kitchen door...

I didnt have the energy to do this before...yet somehow, because of this house, I can. Its like a light socket...I am plugged into it..

Bit

06-07-2010, 03:46 PM

{{{{{{{{{{softness}}}}}}}}}}} Welcome, honey! Glad to see you here!

I love the magic of your house. I do believe in that, you know? Some places are utter drains on a person's energy, and some are like yours, power places that re-energize a person.

More than that, though, your house seems to have a very active and aware guardian spirit, or maybe animating spirit--it seems to know what you need and it brings whatever it is to you. That is so wonderful, and yes, magical!

As we clear the negativity out, That House is beginning to do the same for me. I was SO FLOORED when I found the second (new baby!) mock orange, and the daylilies are a song in my heart. I'm waiting to see now if I have morning glories or moonflower vine--either or both would thrill me no end!

Not only that, but the things I have been thinking we need keep showing up--like friends to help rearrange the rooms, or the covered incense burner, or a peaceful refuge of a room...

Now I need a compost bin and more bookshelves!

So... y'all know what I'm having a really difficult time with? The two silver maples in the back yard are That House's Guardian trees... and their roots are in the sewer line. It's killing me to think of pouring anything into that line to kill their roots... and yet I MUST in order to avoid terrible sewer troubles.

I cannot force myself to do it.

Also, the Grandmother tree has watersprouts and new branches growing along her lower trunk--and they're already almost at the electric and cable lines. They need to be pruned off and again, it's killing me to think of hurting her.

It just feels so disrespectful, to cause any harm to the bodies of the spirits who guard us!! And yet these things are a safety hazard. I really struggle with the whole thing.

Soft*Silver

06-07-2010, 07:11 PM

wow, Bit, you blew me away when you said my house was like a guardian spirit. I have felt this and not had words for it. My friend Jean told me she sees a "council of women spirits" around me and when i was trying to sell the trailer to buy this house, they told her to tell me it was all going to work out...they wanted me to know they were working on me,for me. I have felt hand picked for this house...Jean says its like I was selected to be the one this house was bestowed.

as for the roots of the tree..you need to realize that pruning roots and branches on trees are like cutting nails and hair on us. When you take something from her, just explain and beg her forgiveness but ask her to allow you to do so...

oblivia

06-07-2010, 10:18 PM

{{{Bit}}} That's so amazing about the incense holder!!! What a cool connection!!

Sounds like some really wonderful home energy has gotten ahold of you and of softness! I think that's amazing. I know what a HUGE difference it can make living in a home filled with positive and welcoming energy! Ours is like that, though I think a lot of it is the energy and love and hope we brought to it. I haven't had specific encounters, but I do love it here and find that being home brings me peace in a way earlier homes just haven't.

Bit

06-07-2010, 11:34 PM

oblivia, softness, thank you both!

I have a Council of Allies that I talk to. They give good advice and are strong protectors.

Nat

06-07-2010, 11:42 PM

In one of my meditations a while back, I received a gift. I'd like to pass it on because I thought it was a lovely idea.

It's a true beauty mirror.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51eC9jBWj1L._SL500_AA280_.jpg

When you look into it, you see your true beauty.

I especially like the idea of shielding with it - to reflect back to others their true beauty, to reflect back to yourself your own true beauty.

In my meditation, I had asked what I could do to raise my vibrations to a higher level. This gift was the answer I received.

I think it's a gift that's best shared. So if this is a gift you would enjoy, it's yours for the taking. :)

Bit

06-07-2010, 11:53 PM

Why Nat, thank you! What a lovely (and useful!) idea!!

oblivia

06-08-2010, 12:01 AM

I agree, that is lovely Nat, thank you for sharing it with us!

Massive

06-08-2010, 12:45 AM

When it comes to homes that feel completely safe and welcoming, I can completely understand. My Mums home is like that. It's so quiet and still and peaceful, I never get contacted by anything inside, although I often see the 'shadow' of a cat Mum once lived with, she comes to check in on Mum sometimes, she's brushed against me and Mum from time to time, but I'm the only one who 'sees' her.
The house is one of a row of homes that were built for miners, the village used to be the site of a coal mine. Other homes feel very busy, like a lot of people are still coming and going inside them, but not this one. I walk outside to smoke and if there's anyone around, I 'hear' them, but they never come indoors, they know that they're not allowed to follow me, so I get messages from our family outside to take inside to pass on to Mum.
I've never felt like this house needs to be blessed, I think it's welcoming enough without it. I's a very comfortable place to live, even if we're argueing as a family, it's still like being inside a cocoon of love and comfort...

And Nat, yes, I do have a spirit animal. Mine is a wolf!

Soft*Silver

06-08-2010, 04:55 PM

thank you, Nat, for sharing your gift with us! How beautiful of a mirror that is too! I had been looking for a special mirror for my alter and magic work with people, and my butch buddy, Jean, brought me a boxful of stuff one day, from the primitive shop she works at. Inside I found this old art deco hand mirror. It sits on my vanity where I use it to compel spiritual beauty as I prepare for the day...

2myladyblue

06-08-2010, 09:00 PM

I'm watching an interesting show on Stonehenge. Apparently drumming inside the stones would produce sound at the proper frequency (5-15 hertz) to induce alphawaves in the brain & a state of trance (which would be further enhanced by firelight). They've also likened this experience to modern day raves. Not that this is surprising, but I love it when science 'proves' the validity of rituals/ceremonies.

~Blue

Massive

06-08-2010, 10:36 PM

If you're interested in Stonehenge, did you know that further upriver, there is Woodhenge?
It's the start of the spiritual journey of the soul that Stonehenge is the culmination of. They celebrated the lives of the deceased at Woodhenge, then followed their spirits downriver to Stonehenge where the dead where allowed to go back to the beginning, so to speak, and pass on into the spirit world.
They've recently excavated Woodhenge, nobody even knew it was their until about a year or so ago.

Licious

06-09-2010, 09:45 PM

I really enjoy this thread and am thankful for it. I am in a fairly conservative community, and though small amounts of Buddhism and the like are "tolerated" really out paganism is basically a no no. Having mostly studied as a solitary and not knowing other pagans in my area, it can be isolating.

Thanks to everyone for posting. :)

Bit

06-10-2010, 10:20 AM

Hi Licious, welcome! That's why we're here, to give each other a community. I suspect a lot of us have experienced what you do, and some of us are still that isolated. Threads like this one have been my haven from a harsh world for a long time.

Massive and LadyBlue, thanks for the info about Stonehenge and Woodhenge!

Hello to Nat, oblivia, softness, Magic, Foxy Shaman, and everyone else!!

*Magic_and_Silk*

06-10-2010, 10:43 AM

Hi Bit...and everyone!

Bit

06-10-2010, 10:58 AM

*Magic_and_Silk*

06-10-2010, 11:15 AM

{{{{{{{{{{{{Magic}}}}}}}}}}}}} How are you today, darlin?

I'm looking forward to a new-to-me experience; we should be able to go on Friday evening to a local New Moon Circle. It seems to be a presentation rather than a ritual, a talk on Litha. It starts with a potluck, so no stress on getting dinner out of the way first, yanno? I like that. :cheesy:

Hey, Bit....I am doing better. I am going for another inversion treatment this evening. A friend of mine is a massage therapist and very good at what she does. She is Druid...Pagan. So, the energy is way good!

I hope you have a GREAT time this weekend. How very fortunate you are.

Goddess bless, my friend!

Bit

06-10-2010, 11:56 AM

Goddess bless you too, honey, and your massage therapist! It's a wonderful thing to find someone who understands energy work on that level!

*Magic_and_Silk*

06-10-2010, 01:22 PM

Goddess bless you too, honey, and your massage therapist! It's a wonderful thing to find someone who understands energy work on that level!

You're tellin' ME!!!!

Bit

06-11-2010, 04:15 PM

Yanno, one of the most inconvenient things about being disabled is the choices it forces you to make. New Moon Circles come once a month, Pride comes once a year... and my body is making it plain today that I cannot do both in one weekend. *sigh* So, no community time for me tonight. Maybe next month.

Massive

06-11-2010, 05:20 PM

Bit

06-11-2010, 09:07 PM

Massive, may your back heal quickly and easily and may it stay strong! Blessings!

foxyshaman

06-14-2010, 12:57 PM

Hello everyone!!

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Sunshine}}}}}}}}}}}} I am sorry your body rebelled and you were unable to attend the new moon ceremony. I was looking forward to reading how it went. Did you get to Pride? I missed the parade, I got caught up in stuff that was so not on my schedule. I really wanted to go. We are going to the pride film festival this week, well all two evenings of it. There are some other events going on, but I am not sure how much we are going to be able to attend.

Nice to read what everyone is doing. Massive I have never heard of Woodhenge, fascinating stuff.

Nat that is a beautiful mirror. Very ornate. I like stuff like that, it reminds me of Art Nouveau, such beautiful detail.

I have finished my transition and now I am not quite sure what is on the horizon, but I am sure it will be just as delicious as holding circles for years. We finished with a terrific Whoop Up Trance Dance... very cool way to end an era. But holy moly the energy released was intense. I was sooooo tired for the next week. I kept promising my body I could sleep on Saturday night and to just hold on... I slept 13 hours and got up at 1pm on Sunday... I felt like I had finally come home to myself. I had a great sleep and had lots of renewed energy.

My GF and I are writing a workshop on Sacred Sexuality. We were supposed to present a short version of it at a Co-ed spiritual retreat weekend, but I got word this morning that it was cancelled due to low registrations. Bummer, we really wanted to short run a workshop. We are still going to develop it, and then present a short day version this summer. We have enough couples to run it. We are most interested in running it for the LGBTQ community as there IS NOT ONE sacred sexuality workshop for us anywhere in central Canada. Well none we have found anyway. There are tantra weekends in Vancouver and Toronto, but none geared towards us. We had to fly to Calif. to find lesbian workshops. Stupid eh!!! Good thing I have that Mohammed mentality.

What is everyone doing for Litha? Ceremonies? Quiet evening? Long night of passion?? Anything????

:byebye:

Bit

06-14-2010, 09:19 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}} wooohooo!! Been waiting for you to come back! :cheesy:

Glad you've managed the transition with a wild and wonderful ending, and that you have lots of energy for your new beginning now! I think life has lots of cool stuff in store for you, darlin.

That workshop sounds amazing and wonderful.

Pride was lots of fun--after a while the freedom to be ourselves even made Gryph a little giggly; being kissed by a giggling Butch is a little strange, lol--but I sure am tired today. The chairman of the Pride Committee has asked us to work more closely with the committee this coming year, as we have a yahoo list and they're looking for more queer female input. I'm looking forward to that.

I skipped the Parade as I was staffing our table (and then later eating lunch), but the festival was lovely. The estimate so far is that we had 2000 people; it's bigger every year! Not bad for the buckle of the Bible belt. :cheesy:

Litha plans... nope, not so far... Gryph and I usually notice it but don't celebrate it. That may be different this year, as we have new friends who are Pagan. We're thinking about suggesting a picnic Monday evening. Their kids like to play with the fireflies in our yard and I'm hoping there will still be lots next week. Right now we are the major producer of fireflies on our block, but we have to mow the lawn tomorrow and fireflies very much prefer grass that is longer.

How about you? Do you have Litha plans?

So glad to see you posting again,
Sunshine

foxyshaman

06-18-2010, 12:30 PM

Heya Sunshine!!!!!!!!:flowers:

I think life does have lots of cool things in store for me. And I am just window shopping. I am trying to find the time to write and it is not that easy. There are always others things to do and then I can't seem to have a quiet week, always booking something. But summer is a busy time and who wants to work inside when it is nice outside.... especially when you get 10 months of crap weather... a girl needs a little sun :tanning:... especially when white enough to be a reflector!!!

The Pride Committee... you go girl!! And a giggly butch... that made me smile. And kisses...in public... say it isn't so...so the shy guy gryph came outt his shell a bit then!! Nice!!!!

For Litha there is a new group that is focused on world peace and well other fun lofty ideals as such. So I am taking my drum out to the main square downtown to play with some others. And then we are all wearing white T-shirts carrying balloons in front of us with inspiring words... I am not sure what the word on my balloon will say, but I am excited to cause some people to think and perhaps pick up a balloon and get excited. Sometimes I get depressed when all I hear is that the people around me are buying the basement bargain priced fear that corporate canada is selling. I am not niave and understand that we are at, if not past, the tipping point. I get that things are HORRIBLE... but if we do not accept that we are the dreamers and the dream we will not change. I refuse to dream a mass death for my human world. I choose to dream a world with hope. I am a dreamer and I am consciously dreaming my life better. I am dreaming that the people around me are going to get hope and that together we will refuse the bargain basement priced fear and dream a new paradigm. That is my dream for Litha. In the evening not sure I am conflicted... I could go to the pool and hot tub with some friends I don't get to spend nearly enough time with, or I could go to the park and continue with a public ritual. I am torn.

Next weekend we are heading to Southern Alberta to attend a Sun Dance in the Blackfoot Nation. I have never been to a Sundance, so it should be interesting. I suspect it will be very moving and powerful. I will be attending daily sweats and will be drumming inside. That should be a spiritual experience. I have been to sweats but never been able to bring my drums inside. Then on the way back home we are stopping at the a HUGE medicine wheel to leave offerings and get some energetic infusion. I will be back there in August with a group from the Depossession workshop. So, at least I will have an idea of how to get there and what to expect.

I have directions to another wheel just 340 KM away from me. That will be a nice Saturday :carride:. And won't take long... I am such a speed demon... :giggle:

:new:

Do you or anyone else on this list use drums or rattles for healing work?

:cheer::byebye:

Bit

06-20-2010, 10:58 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}} I keep thinking I'm gonna answer just as soon as I get a little energy... sheesh, that just ain't happenin' anytime soon! sheesh! sheesh!

I'm whupped...

I guess for Litha we're closing the back third of the house off again. :blink: Not exactly how I thought we'd be celebrating! But it means we can actually make it through summer's heat and humidity without getting heatstroke inside the house. :scared:

Our friend's car broke down; she talked about bringing the kids over on the bus to have dinner together and then walking home, but there's a heat advisory out for Monday and Tuesday is predicted to be even worse, so a two-mile walk home just cannot be a good idea, not even at night.

Truth be known, I'm relieved, because it was way harder than I expected to move the furniture and stuff in order to get the computers back out here in the dining room again, and I did walk to the store and back to get the groceries--my ice packs and the thermal bag didn't really keep the frozen stuff frozen because it's so hot right now, yikes! I really am worn out, as much from the heat as from anything, and will need a day to recuperate.

The good thing is that I FINALLY found the paperwork on the plumbing repairs we had done in October, so now I can call the city and tell them the work didn't hold. This is a terrible time of year to be without a shower, yanno? And our outdoor faucets turn inside the wall when we try to turn them on! That cannot be good for pipes!

So, there ya have our Litha plans, organizing and rearranging. Hope yours is rather more celebratory! lol! That new group sounds GREAT!

The Pride Committee... you go girl!! And a giggly butch... that made me smile. And kisses...in public... say it isn't so...so the shy guy gryph came outt his shell a bit then!! Nice!!!!

Oh I think that's backwards :innocent: the Butch got giggly because *I* was all kissy in public. He's always been much more uninhibited than I am.

Your time at the Sundance will more than likely be spectacular... but can drumheads handle the kind of intense steamy heat inside a sweat? I don't know what kind of drums you use. Gryph says it takes a while for the steam to affect rawhide drumheads, but you'll be there a while and then back again, day after day.... okay, I'm probably the only one who would worry about such things, lol... grew up in a family of musicians.

The Medicine Wheels sound wonderful!

I'll answer your question in a separate post; it deserves its own space.

Blessings!
Sunshine

Bit

06-20-2010, 11:07 PM

:new:

Do you or anyone else on this list use drums or rattles for healing work?

:cheer::byebye:

Gryph does sometimes. I'd like to learn.

I've always been pretty self-conscious about using tools or props--except candles and incense; I grew up with them--and I find myself really hesitant to just pick something up and start using it.

I confess though, every once in a while I pick up my wand, hold it up into the air, and exclaim "Wand powers actiVAAAAATE!!!" :cheesy: Hey, I wouldn't mind being a superhero. *eyebrow waggle*

Anyhow, I drummed a little bit at Beltane when they were dancing the Maypole and was shocked both that I was able to drum and also how little I was able to do. Go figure, eh? :cheesy: Guess I could use a LOT of practice.

Nat

06-21-2010, 01:06 AM

Happy Litha :)

I have been sick all day, but I did wake up a bit ago and have a tiny fire in a bowl on my porch to which I added the nine herbs. Also, a piece of my Yule log which happens to be shaped like a sort of creature has been on the front porch since Yule. I went ahead and made a place for him in my room, because I just really thought he should be indoors. I have grown attached to him, and knowing that his existence is half-over (since he will go into the Yule fire) is the clearest marker I have of midsummer.

I have been thinking a lot about shakespeare's midsummer night's dream - Titania and Oberon. I think it's kinda neat to have a representation of the world of faerie from Shakespeare. Maybe I will rent the movie tonight.

I am glad the days are waning - I think I am better friends with the holly king than the oak king - or rather perhaps, I am better friends with the night than the day.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff142/Mercurium/litha5.jpg

foxyshaman

06-21-2010, 11:11 AM

Gryph does sometimes. I'd like to learn.

I've always been pretty self-conscious about using tools or props--except candles and incense; I grew up with them--and I find myself really hesitant to just pick something up and start using it.

I confess though, every once in a while I pick up my wand, hold it up into the air, and exclaim "Wand powers actiVAAAAATE!!!" :cheesy: Hey, I wouldn't mind being a superhero. *eyebrow waggle*

Anyhow, I drummed a little bit at Beltane when they were dancing the Maypole and was shocked both that I was able to drum and also how little I was able to do. Go figure, eh? :cheesy: Guess I could use a LOT of practice.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Sunshine}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} a heat warning!!! okay we never get those. We get cold warnings and blizzard warnings, but nope no heat warnings. And I can't honestly say I am sorry about that!!! I can't even imagine that. We had floods in southern Alberta this weekend that have wiped out roads, entire crops, cattle herds and lots of farms. And yet in Northern Alberta where we were camping it was quite warm and no rain at all.

I did get it all wrong... you are the shy one!!!:shocking: Well happy to hear you lost some of it and enjoyed each other. :gimmehug: We went camping this weekend with some friends and family of friends and I think my girl and I were the first lesbian couple this woman had ever met. Then we were on the beach and I asked her what she was reading and then she asked me and I said Lesbian Short Stories... but she handled it really well (insert smirky smart ass grin)!!!

:drummer: can be hard work. It really does take time to build up the small muscles in the arms to beat the drum and hold it. Drumming for a fifteen minute journey always takes newbies by surprise. There are some that can't do it. So, you are not an anomaly rather you are the norm!!!! Nice to know you can fit into normal once and awhile!! :sunglass:

The sundance should be interesting. I will write more on it when I get back. I have several drums and some I would not take into a sweat they are made of goat hide. I have a cow hide drum that is exceptionally thick and takes a long time to change tone and lose its tightness. I have never taken a drum into a sweat either, so it is a learning experience for me too. I am looking forward to the experience. Now this is my totally human voice... god I hope it does not rain lots. I hope it is not too hot, cause that will be just tense for the warrior dancers. They start water and food fasting Wednesday. I think it will be a complete honor to share my energy and support them in their dance.

{{{Nat}}} sorry to hear you are sick. Nice to hear that you moved stuff about in honor of the Day. I like the Litha signature you have on there.

I am off to drum :musicnote: and walk around with a peace balloon. Wish me luck. :ohm: I hope I get some people to smile and maybe even one to think to dream of a different chapter to our human story. We need new myths... but that is a totally different post!!!

oblivia

06-21-2010, 07:01 PM

Just wanted to pop in here to wish you all a very Blessed Solstice!!!

Bit

06-21-2010, 08:07 PM

Solstice Blessings!! {{{{{{{{{{{{Nat, Oblivia, Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}

This Solstice, the oil spills are heavy on my mind. Foxy's mentioned dreaming new dreams (YES! write that post, please?) and we certainly need them. I think we also need to recognize that any of us who are tuned into the Earth are going to be feeling the oil spills (two in the Gulf; one in Alaska; there's a new one in Egypt today; Nigeria is awash--who knows how many don't make the news?) in our hearts, minds and bodies. Have you noticed when you're sick, really sick, how hard it is to control your moods, how depressed you might get, even how hopeless?

I think the current of hopeless despair that is poisoning so many of us right now is the exact same current of oil that is poisoning the oceans, like an infection gone out of control.

You, dear FoxyShaman, have the antibiotic. Spread hope! Dream it, drum it, believe it into reality! We WILL start using clean energy sources, we WILL stop drilling and spilling. Drum it into reality, oh Shaman. Bring it into the Now.

I hold the hope and the dream with you!

May the earth survive and prosper! So mote it be!

Bit

06-21-2010, 08:14 PM

I am glad the days are waning - I think I am better friends with the holly king than the oak king - or rather perhaps, I am better friends with the night than the day.

{{{{{{{{{{{{Nat}}}}}}}}}}}} I'm sorry you're sick hon, but so glad you had your ritual anyway! Good for you!

May your small creature comfort you through the waning of the year and may you be blessed when he comes to Yule!

You know something, the part of your post that I quoted above really spoke to me. I also am better friends with the night than the day. I think it's because everything quiets down so much--the background roar mostly goes to sleep and I can finally have peace, blessed peace.

Snowfall does the same thing. Something about snow hugely dampens psychic vibes. I don't know whether it's some kind of forcefield effect or whether people naturally respond to snow but turning their thoughts inward, but either way, the background roar cuts off entirely during snowstorms. If there were a way to afford the heating bills and to grow food, I would be happy for a world of constant snow!

Bit

06-21-2010, 08:58 PM

PS, lol....didn't answer the rest of your post!

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Sunshine}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} a heat warning!!! okay we never get those. We get cold warnings and blizzard warnings, but nope no heat warnings. And I can't honestly say I am sorry about that!!! I can't even imagine that. We had floods in southern Alberta this weekend that have wiped out roads, entire crops, cattle herds and lots of farms. And yet in Northern Alberta where we were camping it was quite warm and no rain at all.

{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}} Oh hon, I had to get used to blizzard warnings when I moved here, but heat advisories have always been part of my life because I grew up in the desert. What astounds me here in Wichita is that they issue the heat advisories and warnings when the heat index goes above 100 degrees F (38 C)... heck, they didn't issue them in Phoenix unless the actual temperature itself went over 115 (46 C)!!

I still think it's crazy for anyone to live where it gets that hot... and even crazier for people to just blindly accept it, as if that kind of climate were not completely made by humans! If the trees had been left in place rather than burned to smelt copper, gold, and silver, if the rivers had not been dammed, if the land had not been bulldozed for the convenience of cattle ranchers, Arizona would be covered in forests and marshlands to this day. Forests and marshlands don't get to 122 degrees day after day in the summer, nor do they build up such intense heat that the rain routinely goes around them. It's trees that call the rain down to earth; scientists haven't thought of that yet, so they haven't studied it--but I have lived where there are trees and where there are not. I have seen what happens when old growth forest calls the rain. I have seen what happens when city trees call the rain. I have seen what happens when there is no water near enough to bring that rain.

We have done this to ourselves. I don't understand why no one seems to understand that. We have done this to ourselves.

:drummer: can be hard work. It really does take time to build up the small muscles in the arms to beat the drum and hold it. Drumming for a fifteen minute journey always takes newbies by surprise. There are some that can't do it. So, you are not an anomaly rather you are the norm!!!! Nice to know you can fit into normal once and awhile!! :sunglass:

Ah well, what surprised me about being able to drum is that my carpal tunnel syndrome is pretty badly flared up. I have no speed or finesse at all, am only good for a simple bass beat at this point--but that's more than I expected to be able to do. I doubt I could go fifteen minutes at a time though!

The sundance should be interesting. I will write more on it when I get back. I have several drums and some I would not take into a sweat they are made of goat hide. I have a cow hide drum that is exceptionally thick and takes a long time to change tone and lose its tightness. I have never taken a drum into a sweat either, so it is a learning experience for me too. I am looking forward to the experience. Now this is my totally human voice... god I hope it does not rain lots. I hope it is not too hot, cause that will be just tense for the warrior dancers. They start water and food fasting Wednesday. I think it will be a complete honor to share my energy and support them in their dance.

The cowhide drum sounds like the one I would try, for sure! And hey to that human voice, I share those concerns. I had no idea the dancers don't drink water and the medically aware part of me is screaming inside about that.... but I know it's a spiritual thing and that they should be okay. I'm looking forward to reading about your experiences, whatever you can share.

Blessings!
Sunshine

foxyshaman

06-23-2010, 04:28 PM

{{{{{{{{{{Sunshine}}}}}}}}}:clap:

I am glad I do not live in a dessert zone. We do get 100 degrees here, and even sometimes hotter. But not often and certainly not for many days in a row. Thankfully!!! :blink: I am not antiheat, but sometimes the house just gets too hot to do anything...

Drumming with carpal tunnel can't be fun. I used to get bursitis in my shoulder that held the drum and oooyyy vvveeeyyyyy that hurt. Then I had this journey where I was practicing fighting with a sword.... cause really every shaman has to know how to weild a sword cause you never know what is coming your way... and I am only 1/2 joking. Anyway.... the spirit I was sparring with sliced the shoulder with bursitis. In the journey I looked down saw the flap of skin where my shoulder was, flipped it back up, tapped on it (futile in hope that it would stay that way... I just needed a good sewing kit) and kept on fighting. Not without pain the Spirit World, but not enough to yell "uncle"!!! Well when I got out of the journey the arm I could not lift higher than my breasts because of the bursitis had 0 pain... nada... and it never came back...

Now I did re-injure it while holding onto the head board... but that is a WHOLE OTHER story (insert rascally grin)...

We do need to Dream. We do need to accept that we are POWER-FULL and stop buying the package of powerlessness that we are sold by the sandman of our generation. WAKE UP our spiritual powers and reconnect with the POWERS that are and be. We have all tapped into the Dreaming. How many of us have manifested what we needed. Sunshine I know this has happened for you, I have read that in your posts. And I know that whoever reads this will be nodding their head because they too have manifested. That is the Dream Stream... if we can dream it...

It is difficult to create a space ~ or find a language where others will see this as well, or know it anyway. During the Peace March... which I quite loved... there were a lot of "WTF" looks and some unkind words spoken, but most people watched this silent parade for peace dumbstruck. Argh... it just gets the Aries in me all Fired Up. And then the Pisces in me just wants us all to get together and create a beautiful world. Good thing I accept my split personality!!! The other thing which I found surprising, well I always find this surprising, is that besides the people who came with me, all the participants were young, many much younger than my 44 years. I am always perplexed by that. I have been an activist for many years and my peers just keep getting younger. That is a tangent and not really relevant to this post, but what the hell!!!

Story of dreaming... I did a journey where the Spirit of the Wheel showed me how to build a Medicine Wheel for healing a specific problem one of my patients had. Well I was short three stones and they had to be fist sized. When I realized this I just simply said out loud "okay I am all here to build it and you said I had enough stones. Where are my three stones?" I went about my business and thought I would find the stones I needed next time I was out walking or something. That night I put the kids to bed and I was walking past my daughters door and in the corner between her doorway and my doorway were... yup you guessed it... three fist sized stones. So, if dreaming and open honest communication did not work I would not have those stones. It is one of my favorite stories for the simple reason that you can't make up stones. They are either solidly there, or they are not. And they were solidly there!! LOL.

Are there gatherings in anyone's areas for spiritual leaders/practioners for the oil spill? There is another gathering of the practioners in my area for spiritual relief for the Diva of the water. And the Divas of the animals. I journeyed the other night I saw Mother writhing in pain. The Spirit of Oil was PISSED. The council I meet with simply said this is a human issue and you need to deal with it. It is overwhelming... and the # of spills that occur each year... I had no idea until i started doing some research into this.

Shamanically I am doing all I can do. I try to get people excited or at least driven to do something to change. When I journey I just keep getting the message to keep the prayers coming. Keep the Reiki coming (I don't do Reiki so this must be a message for others). I am doing journey work to the mechanism for the pipes and the systems that have failed. I am just at a heart broken loss as to how to make a tangible difference. I know that spirit work is rarely tangible, but this is a tangible devastating issue.

What are others doing? Anyone want to share prayers or ceremonies that I can pass onto others?

Bit

06-24-2010, 12:04 AM

I must say this first.
I am doing journey work to the mechanism for the pipes and the systems that have failed. I am just at a heart broken loss as to how to make a tangible difference. I know that spirit work is rarely tangible, but this is a tangible devastating issue.

Stones, my dear, are utterly tangible.

So... how do you know you aren't making a tangible difference? None of us actually know what difference we might make, so why assume it is no difference?

Maybe your energy is keeping some research team going night after day after night when all they have is not enough food or sleep and too much coffee, eh?

Maybe your energy is guiding some sea creatures to swim in a different direction.

Maybe your energy is adding to the movement for safe and sane energy sources.

Maybe your energy is helping to keep the earth stable, so that the ocean floor doesn't collapse into a sinkhole from hell. That would be my guess, btw... but then, maybe your energy is keeping the pipes from further collapse.

Why assume you are ineffective? Why assume there is no tangible result from your work, when by a simple request you are given stones?

{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}} When you are most discouraged and at a loss, you and your efforts are most crucial. Think about this: you are highly sophisticated and aware, spiritually. If you allow yourself to get discouraged, to give in, to feel despair--to falsely assume your efforts have no results--then what happens to those who are not as far along the path as you are?

Believe, oh Warrior, that you are winning this battle. Believe that you are not working alone. Believe that everything you do makes a difference.

I believe. I believe in you, in us, in all the love and outrage and care and heartbreak and worry that are pouring into the Gulf in the wake of the oil. Take hold of that energy, oh Shaman, and direct it to do the good those who send it want it to do. We are not all as skilled as you are--help us, please; help us to do what we wish to do. Help us to heal the Gulf.

I believe.

Bit

06-24-2010, 12:14 AM

Now I did re-injure it while holding onto the head board... but that is a WHOLE OTHER story (insert rascally grin)...

Lord love a goose, you are a HOOT!!! We both laughed hard at that--thanks for ending our day with grins.

I'll come back and answer the rest of your post soon.

{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}} To know you is to love you, darlin, and I think we're getting to know you,:sunglass: you racy thing, you! lol!

foxyshaman

06-24-2010, 01:35 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{SUNSHINE}}}}}}}}} }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

You made me :watereyes:!!! :goodscore: :gimmehug:

Bit

06-24-2010, 04:00 PM

:gimmehug: {{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}} :gimmehug:

Sometimes I do my job right. *cheesy grin and a big wink*

Seriously, this problem with the Gulf, with the contaminated water and the dying wildlife--it's going to go on for a long, long time. We who are the healers of this world, and that includes vast numbers of people who are not awake to that role yet, are going to be called on for a sustained effort. That means we have to do three things:

Believe in ourselves
Hold on to hope
Take occasional breaks
We do no good if we use ourselves up and wear ourselves out, spending everything we have trying to "get 'er done quick!" yanno? We cannot afford to forget the Gulf, but we also cannot afford to forget the rest of our lives and those who also need us.

At the same time, there are energy resources which are going unused, precisely because the vast majority of us are unaware and unskilled; they are swirling around the Gulf just as the oil is. Do not let them aimlessly go, oh Warrior! Harness them to the use they were intended for, and remember, As Above, So Below. Contain and guide that energy in order to contain and guide the oil. Use it to bring healing and justice for the Gulf and for the Earth, as those who have sent it, aware or unaware that they are sending, would wish.

There is enough energy there for all who are willing and able to do the job.

Mama Tigre

Bit

07-20-2010, 11:55 AM

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.html?a=usca&c=words&id=13897

This article is amazingly well-reasoned and well-written, although there are several typos near the end (the kind of typo which makes the word different, for example, "ass" for "as"). The author makes a very convincing argument that Christianity is a polytheistic religion, detours into mysticism, and then brings the article full circle back to the nature of Christianity. It's fascinating and thought-provoking! I enjoyed it.

Cath

Venus007

07-21-2010, 01:12 AM

I have been a solitary pagan for about 20 years, I am thinking about finding a group to share the celebrations with. I am afraid since last time I did this (about 10 years ago) it turned out to be an adventure in drama and weirdness with a dash of tedium and megalomania thrown in for good measure.

Do y'all practice as solitaries or in a group and can you give any advice for finding a good, sane, well grounded group of people to share with?

foxyshaman

07-21-2010, 08:57 AM

Venus007;

I can certainly identify with what you said, I have practiced in groups and led groups for many years. I think the key to joining a group is to go more than once. I am not sure how long you were with a group, but it takes a bit to get into the groove.

The other option is starting your own. I did and it lasted for 14 years I stepped down this year and two other members stepped up to lead. It takes a lot of dedication and time, but it was a very fruitful experience.

What type of paganism do you practice??

Venus007

07-21-2010, 10:08 AM

What type of paganism do you practice??

I am eclectic, not Wiccan. It is sort of complicated to define. The tools that work for me are trance, drumming, sweats, herb craft, some representational magic, dance, orgastic ritual, really whatever works to tap into and move the energy and intention or to alter the consciousness to "see". I am Swedish and Irish and I try to draw on my ancestral connection to Celtic and Heathen but it is really at the most basic level about whatever moves the energy and resonates with me. I am pledged to no specific deity as I am an atheist and view the Gods and Goddesses as representations and facets of the life force.

foxyshaman

07-21-2010, 11:13 AM

That sounds pretty eclectic. I have never contemplated the word atheist, so thanks for your definition.

Sounds like we use some of the same tools. I drum and trance and use some 'magic' and have delved into sacred sexuality for quite a few years. I define my practice as shamanism. My parents are from the Netherlands (I am adopted so I don't know much more than that) but it is very difficult to find 'pagan' information unless you speak Dutch and I don't. I really resonate with the Seidhr practices, and Joiking (glossolalia). I have studied medicine wheels for almost 15 years and find that they are never ending in their complexity and applicability to life... on this side of the veil or the other.

What type of group are you looking for?

Venus007

07-25-2010, 10:42 AM

I am looking for a group to just partake in ritual with and perhaps to do group energy work with. Honestly I am not exactly sure. I am just wanting new thought and interaction with other like minded people in real time. Before I moved to Texas I had a group that I occasionally went to sweats with and really enjoyed that but now that I am here I am unconnected. I think I am feeling a little lonely.

Bit

07-26-2010, 11:36 AM

{{{{{{{{{{{{Venus}}}}}}}}}}}} I hear you on the loneliness. Have you checked Yahoo groups to see what's in your area? Here's a start. http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=pagan+Texas&sort=relevance (http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=pagan+Texas&sort=relevance)

Also, Witchvox maintains a list of area groups. Here's the main page. http://www.witchvox.com/index_mov.html (http://www.witchvox.com/index_mov.html) On the lefthand side there is a dropdown menu that will let you choose your state and will then take you to a listing of groups and people.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}} Hon, I know someone who is Dutch. Would you like me to ask her about resources?

Soft*Silver

07-26-2010, 12:25 PM

Omg...amen...same experience!

I have been a solitary pagan for about 20 years, I am thinking about finding a group to share the celebrations with. I am afraid since last time I did this (about 10 years ago) it turned out to be an adventure in drama and weirdness with a dash of tedium and megalomania thrown in for good measure.
Do y'all practice as solitaries or in a group and can you give any advice for finding a good, sane, well grounded group of people to share with?

foxyshaman

07-27-2010, 12:37 PM

[SIZE=3][COLOR=teal]{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}} Hon, I know someone who is Dutch. Would you like me to ask her about resources?

{{{{{{{{{{{{SUNSHINE}}}}}}}}}}}}}}:flowers: :kissy:

That would be lovely. I am always looking.

Right now I am looking for stories about the elements for my shamanic camp. There will be four clans..air earth fire water... and I am going to give examples of the energetic connection through story... and then some exercises.

One of the exercises I do at camp is a blind fold walk, which is pretty fun... and funny to watch... but this year I am changing it up a bit. Just as an exercise to trust your clan mates.

Then there will be a ritual on Saturday night and then more work on Sunday. If your friend has stories that would be great... and if they are not in line with what I am researching for right now... well hell I am sure I will love them anyway.

It is kinda hard to find specific stories about the elements, moreso you find stories about beings who brought the 'elements' or awoke the 'elements'. So... I am looking in the kids section of the library... they have the best resources. I have found some funky and fun stories in there over the years.

I love my wilderness camp... but <wiping brow> I am such an over acheiver!!! One day that will end...right??

Venus07 google is good like Bit suggested but so is Meetup.com. You may be surprised with what you find. I also like witchvox and have been known to toss an ad or two on there over the years... which reminds me I should probably do that today for the camp... <wanders away absent mindedly>

foxyshaman

07-27-2010, 12:39 PM

Omg...amen...same experience!

So what has been your experience, both of you. What made it so? I especially like the word megalomania... it made me giggle...

Bit

07-28-2010, 01:49 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}} have you found this Dutch resource before, darlin? http://www.silvercircle.org/ (http://www.silvercircle.org/)

My friend tells me that even though the website is in Dutch--I could *almost* read it!--Morgana is British. Maybe you could write to her, and she would know where the resources are?

Ah, Merlin writes in English also. http://www.silvercircle.org/merlinsarchive/cunningfolk.htm (http://www.silvercircle.org/merlinsarchive/cunningfolk.htm)

http://www.silvercircle.org/mk_history.htm (http://www.silvercircle.org/mk_history.htm) This is the story of the Moon Calendar they publish.

Here is some history for the Silver Circle. http://www.silvercircle.org/sci_grimassi.htm (http://www.silvercircle.org/sci_grimassi.htm)

Hope this helps!

Your wilderness camp sounds amazing. I haven't found any stories about the elements. I sure would love it if you would share whatever stories you find with us!

I did rewrite the Kore myth for Samhain, if you'd like that.

Bright Blessings, oh overacheiver! :cheesy:

Sunshine

Venus007

07-28-2010, 10:38 PM

Hey there friends, I am really busy with work right now but I will be responding in a couple days. I didn't want you to think I was ignoring you and your lovely willingness to help me. Smooches until the weekend

BarbaraRyan

08-04-2010, 10:43 PM

Happy Lammas/Lughnassadh!

Nat

08-10-2010, 05:14 PM

Update on Isaac Bonewits (http://wildhunt.org/blog/2010/08/update-on-isaac-bonewits.html)

Yesterday, Phaedra Bonewits announced on Facebook that her husband, noted Pagan author and theologian Isaac Bonewits, was nearing the end of his battle with cancer.

“Just wanted to address the rumors that Isaac is back in the hospital. He is at home as he had wished, but he is nearing the end. His brothers and sisters are on their way to say goodbye. Please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers.”

http://wildhunt.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/isaac_and_phaedra.jpg

2myladyblue

08-10-2010, 11:28 PM

*smiles & waves all around the room*

I haven't been by in ages, but I had a lovely little lughnasadh circle last week. Hope everyone had a wonderfully blessed esbat.
I've been reviewing my notes from What the Bleep Do We Know...has everyone seen that?

:glasses: I wake up in the morning and I consciously create my day, the way I want it to happen. The more I do that, the more I guild a neural net in my brain that I accept that that's possible. It gives me the power and the incentive to do it the next day.

:glasses: Thought alone can completely change the body. Most people don't affect reality in a consistent, substantial way…because they don't believe they can.
Thinking positive is not really thinking positive, its just disguising the negative thinking that we have.

:glasses: Mr. Emoto became interested in the molecular structure of water and what affects it. He set up a series of studies, applied mental stimuli, and photographed it with a dark field microscope. He printed out words (thank you, love) & taped them to bottles of distilled water & left them out overnight. Mr. Emoto speaks of the thought or intent as being the driving force. The science of how that actually affects the molecules is unknown.
90% of our bodies are water. If thoughts can do that to water, imagine what they can do to our bodies.

:glasses: In Washington D.C. (murder capital of the world), there was a big experiment in the summer of 1993, where 4000 volunteers came from one hundred countries to collectively meditate for long periods of time throughout the day. It was predicted in advance (on the basis of 48 previous studies) that such a sized group, you would have a 25% drop in violent crime & the results showed this.

:glasses: The universe is mostly empty. Matter is not as solid as we think it is. Electrons & nuclei pop in & out of existence. It’s like a concentrated bit of information. Ideas, concepts, information make up things. (The ball isn’t solid & never touches anything (electrons of the ball, push the electrons of the ground away).

:glasses: There literally are different worlds in which we live. There's the macroscopic world that we see. There's the world of our cells. The world of our atoms, the world of our nuclei. These are each totally different worlds. They have their own language. They have their own mathematics. But they're complimentary because I am my atoms, but I am also my cells, and I am also my macroscopic physiology. It's all true. They're just different levels of truth. The deepest level of truth uncovered by science and by philosophy is the fundamental truth of unity. At that deepest sub-nuclear level of our reality, you and I are literally one.

*wandering away...pondering quantum physics*:byebye:

Nat

08-12-2010, 02:17 PM

Hello :)

I was wondering about y'all's thoughts and experiences with money magic? Do you or have you done it, has it worked, what are your feelings about it?

Also, because I have seen the two correlated, do you tithe to anybody?

Bit

08-12-2010, 06:15 PM

Ooops, edited to say I'm replying to Nat's questions about money magic--didn't quote her cuz I forgot to check on whether the page would turn...

No, I don't tithe, although if I could, I would GLADY spend 10% of our income at the local pagan store!! :cheesy:

Yes, I have done money magic. Yes it works. YES you need to be careful and set parameters.... Early on, my money magic resulted in car accidents--you know, people rear ended us, and then we got settlements--NOT what I had in mind. :scared:

So now my main parameter when I do money magic is that it MUST be completely positive means that brings me money, and nothing painful or bad may happen to bring me this money--"bad" in my judgment, not in the universe's judgment, which is way more impersonal than mine. Sometimes the money shows up as a $20 bill in a parking lot (although the last one was counterfeit, dang), sometimes as a rebate of a utility company deposit, sometimes as an outright gift, sometimes as a contest or lottery win (small so far, no jackpots). I'm sure it will show up in other ways, too... heck, every once in a while, the grocery store sends me coupons for free stuff and that counts, too!

How I feel about it is frustrated that I haven't yet won the big money, and frustrated that I evidently still have some sort of "I don't deserve anything" mental block going on. At the same time I feel grateful, grateful, grateful for all the times that money has shown up just in time.

I try to live in the cycle of abundance, rather than in scarcity mode. I try to be like water, always flowing, always more where that came from.

But that does remind me, you cannot escape the limits of bad parameters by saying "abundance" instead of money. The first time I tried THAT, I gained twenty pounds. :shocking: :bolt:

Nat

08-12-2010, 07:11 PM

thanks bit - your post was both informative and cute :) (the abundance comment - ha!)

I think I have a lot of ambivalence about money. I can't seem to work it out inside my own head and heart, and I feel like my intention is too muddy.

Bit

08-14-2010, 07:52 PM

thanks bit - your post was both informative and cute :) (the abundance comment - ha!)

It's funny today. It wasn't funny when I had to go buy new pants back then! :readfineprint: But yeah... I do laugh about it now. :cheesy:

I think I have a lot of ambivalence about money. I can't seem to work it out inside my own head and heart, and I feel like my intention is too muddy.

Are you a writer? I worked at least part of it out by journaling. I wrote about what money means to me, why I want it, why I need it, why I deserve it... oh that one was HARD hard hard!!! I wrote about cycles and abundances and scarcity and fear.... and yanno, at the bottom of it all--at least so far--is fear. I'm afraid, on a deep deep level, that I'm going to be badly punished if I have money... it's the religious brainwashing I was subjected to and I haven't yet gotten rid of all of it. *sigh* But I work on it all that I can, and it is getting better. I've released a LOT of the fear just by using the mantra "may we prosper in all things, especially financially" on a regular basis.

Uh oh, big thunder--better disconnect computers until tomorrow!

Nat

09-02-2010, 08:24 PM

It's funny today. It wasn't funny when I had to go buy new pants back then! :readfineprint: But yeah... I do laugh about it now. :cheesy:

Are you a writer? I worked at least part of it out by journaling. I wrote about what money means to me, why I want it, why I need it, why I deserve it... oh that one was HARD hard hard!!! I wrote about cycles and abundances and scarcity and fear.... and yanno, at the bottom of it all--at least so far--is fear. I'm afraid, on a deep deep level, that I'm going to be badly punished if I have money... it's the religious brainwashing I was subjected to and I haven't yet gotten rid of all of it. *sigh* But I work on it all that I can, and it is getting better. I've released a LOT of the fear just by using the mantra "may we prosper in all things, especially financially" on a regular basis.

Uh oh, big thunder--better disconnect computers until tomorrow!

Bit - I'm sorry I missed this. I do write in a journal but not nearly enough to have clear thoughts. :) I think I'll take your recommendation with that.

Nat

09-02-2010, 08:31 PM

I wanted to recommend a podcast episode I really enjoyed: linky (http://newworldwitchery.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/podcast-14-%e2%80%93-an-interview-with-cat-yronwode/)

It's an interview with Cat Yronwode, the owner of quite a few websites including Lucky Mojo (http://www.luckymojo.com). If you're at all interested in Hoodoo, I think it's worth a listen. She's very insightful and knowledgeable.

Also, I just got to listen to Arwen's latest Tarotscope (http://tarotbyarwen.podbean.com/) and it was great as usual. :)

Bit

09-02-2010, 10:03 PM

Hi Nat! How are you this week?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have a couple books to recommend. A friend lent them to me and I've been enjoying the inspiration!

Witch Crafts: 101 Projects for Creative Pagans, and The Crafty Witch: 101 Ideas for Every Occasion, both by Willow Polson. The projects range from beginner to advanced-intermediate crafter and cover a wide range of materials, from simple embroideries to constructed fabric crafts, painting pre-made wooden items to carving your own wooden items, stringing simple beads to peyote stitching an amulet bag, working copper tooling foil to making wire jewelry. Working with yarn, naturecrafts, paper and glass are also included.

What I like the best is seeing craft item after craft item with a Pagan theme. So often I look at craft books and have to stretch to see the projects as Pagan, and certainly when shopping (especially at the holidays) the "Paganest" things I can find are just nature-themed... it's just plain flat NICE to find over 200 projects which are specifically meant to support us on our paths.

Soft*Silver

09-02-2010, 10:33 PM

I have a question for the pagan group. Do you think, as a serious life long ancestorial based pagan, that you could couple with someone who is a devout xtian? Clearly a genuine xtian.

A friend of mine is about to do this and I think she has lost her mind. I have a very tarnished view of xtians and while i have nothing against the religion, nor Jesus, I DO have things against the individuals and the groups within this religion that use it to hurt people.

Like abortion issues. She is so pro choice and her intended is so pro life. She reads cards and her intended feels its a potential evil. Prophesy is a no no. She is a solitary and her intended is very much active in hir church.

both are good people from what I can see. I know my friend is and this new person seems to be.

Not that its my business but until now, I never thought of religion being a factor in a relationship...but...

thoughts?

Nat

09-03-2010, 06:33 AM

Hi Bit :) I'm good. The book sounds like fun. :)

softness - I think it depends on what kind of Christian the person is. If the person is a "judge not lest ye be judged" type, it could work out. I think it would be a little tough but I think people work stuff like that out often enough. I was married to a Christian and I was an Atheist at the time - it was never the issue I was afraid it would be. I haven't tried the Pagan / Christian combo.

waxnrope

09-03-2010, 09:08 AM

Hey Softness,

I'm a Christian who believes that people have the right to believe in whatever they chose, or not. With the proviso that these beliefs, or non beliefs, do no harm to others. I also had been in a relationship with a non- practicing Jew, who was an atheist. I did/do not believe in prosecuting. However, her contempt for religion was such that it drove a wedge between us. I seldom discussed my pov, nor invited her to the church. She was capable of asking for what she wanted.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that, first of all, it probably isn't our business what piles our friends step in, unless we are asked. Having said this, it FEELS like an unworkable situation. Believe it or not, there are Christians who support a woman's right to chose, and believe in same sex marriage, etc. Many of your friend's so called "secular" beliefs are core values, IMO, and seem so very incompatible with her new partner. I suppose one can give up that piece of herself, but ... Then again, as the old adage goes, "miracles do happen." Just an opinion.

Soft*Silver

09-03-2010, 09:11 AM

thanks...and what I decided is I dont need to step into her pile...so I am backing away....

miracles happen...I just want her to be happy...

lipstixgal

09-03-2010, 09:12 AM

So are Pagans Christians too??

waxnrope

09-03-2010, 09:15 AM

BTW, sorry if I seem to be an interloper, I don't mean to be such. I read this thread often, and hope that you do not mind my comment.

Soft*Silver

09-03-2010, 10:17 AM

in my opinion, catholics are pagan christians. They took all our holidays and rewrapped them in the new religions so the villagers would follow them. I am a hybrid of sorts...

And I welcome any faith to come to the pagan thread. I dont mind sharing my spirituality and I did ask for feedback and Wax offered.

2myladyblue

09-03-2010, 02:16 PM

Hey everybody!

I think the pagan/christian convo can be an interesting one as long as everyone can keep an open mind & come to the table with a historical/anthropological sort of view as opposed to a dogmatic one.

I was once lucky enough to participate in a book study of highly & widely educated people (it was a fairly academic book). I think it was called The Historical Mary. The author discussed christian mythology in the context of what is now known of the relevant places/time/cultures. He also referred to pagans & christians as belonging to "sister" religions/beliefs. To be honest, without the room full of people from such widely varied philosophical backgrounds, I wouldn't have stuck with it as long as I did & I probably didn't get as much out of it as people with more knowledge of christianity, but it was an interesting viewpoint.

The whole topic kinda reminds me about the convo I had with my mother once about Jesus being Jewish (not christian!) & not exactly the white man with blue eyes that she pictured him to be. It didn't go over very well....devout baptist that she is <shrug>.

Bit

09-03-2010, 06:51 PM

Awww Lady Blue, so sorry about the deleted post!

Wax, you are of course welcome here! Everyone is.

lipstix, no, Pagans are not normally Christians. In order to be Christian one has to accept Jesus as God--the only god--and Pagans almost always either believe that Jesus is not God, or else accept him as only one of many gods.

That doesn't mean, however, that someone who is Christian cannot be a witch, because being a witch has two different definitions. One is "to be a follower of the religion, Wicca," and the other is "to work magic through natural, spiritual, or psychic means." The second kind of witch can easily also be a Christian.

softness, if your friend is strong in her path, she is likely to come in for a lot of tension in the new relationship. Of course, there is always the possibility that the charms of the new love more than make up for that... and there is also the possibility that your friend has subconsciously chosen her new love as much *for* the Christianity as for anything, and will convert. It does happen that people's paths lead them into some surprising life decisions! It might be that this is a time in her life when she needs to walk an easier path than solitary Paganism, one that offers much community support and few hassles.

I think interfaith marriages in general are tricky. People who are open-minded and willing to put some effort into understanding each other's paths and faiths are likely to have a MUCH easier time of it than those who have chosen partners who are more rigid in their interpretations.

It was difficult for me to be in an interfaith marriage even though my partner WAS open-minded, understanding, and supportive. It was also difficult for me to be relationships where we were both nominally Pagan but my partner had rigid ideas about the only right way to be Pagan, or was full of ridicule for my Paganism. I'm really grateful that even though Gryph and I don't walk the same Pagan path, we share similar enough beliefs and practices that we have no tension.

Most important of all, we share enough respect for each other that even when our practices differ significantly, we work together to find common ground. Maybe that's what it all comes down to: respect for each other.

Nat

09-03-2010, 07:08 PM

It is however quite a bonus to be partnered with a person with whom you can share at least some of your practice.

There was actually an enjoyable podcast from new world witchery regarding interfaith relationships -

http://newworldwitchery.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/episode-09-witchcraft-and-relationships/

Nat

10-15-2010, 09:11 PM

Anybody doing anything this year for Halloween / Samhain / Day(s) of the Dead / All Soul's Day?

I will definitely be doing something to honor friends and family who have passed over. I can't this year but I would love to do a dumb supper some year.

Bit

10-15-2010, 11:49 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{Nat}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Hi hon!

My plans are for Halloween and Samhain both. Our neighborhood association always has a huge Halloween party in the park, and Gryph and I are part of that.

This year our local Pagan group is having a Samhain party on the Friday before, and I'm really looking forward to it! I don't know if it will include any actual ritual but I'm okay with it either way.

One of the things I always do--obsessively, lol--is play A Soalin' by Peter Paul and Mary. This performance actually mentions Trick or Treating and relates it to the souling tradition. I don't mind the Christmas verse at the end because I sing this song for the whole entire season and sometimes--if I'm not sick of it yet, lol--all the way to Valentine's Day.

gnbD3QLU5o4

Lorraine Washburn also has a stunning version of A Soalin'. She ties it to Autumn with falling leaves.

tL4zpBjSTt0

Sting ties it to Christmas. This youtube includes pictures of the Swedish countryside and is just gorgeous.

07tu3e-otkU&NR

It is impossible for me to be still listening to this song!! Doesn't matter how much I hurt, this song has me dancing. What better way to bring in Samhain?

Bit

10-16-2010, 12:08 AM

Oh my gosh, look what I found!!! Links galore on this page, as well as the lyrics to the youtube below.
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=21280497&blogId=516025050

j35dvmdse9k

Bit

10-16-2010, 04:40 PM

It's that transitioning time of year again. The fruits and vegetables are changing; squash comes into season, melons go out of season, apples and pears replace berries, sweet potatoes replace tomatoes. The leaves have started turning on the Virginia creeper along my back fence and my neighbors' trees are starting to show soft yellows and oranges. Music comes up from the depths of my soul, channeled through childhood memories and recent discoveries alike. The Gardener in me simmers down, and the Baker wakes up: tis Autumn time.

In my yard, the barren heat of the Summer drought has ended. The dandelions and plantains are green and growing, leaves tender, succulent. The violets which barely survived the summer are strengthening. Ragweed is blooming enthusiastically. Who knew it was such a mimic? The sassafrass-mimicking giant ragweed is gone now... but the "pigweed" has just shown itself to also be a ragweed and must come out as well. The beggars' ticks have gone to seed, all sticky with tiny hairs, long seeds barbed like harpoons. I pull them whenever I find them and the yard is free of them for the winter, but they'll be back again come spring, just like the poison ivy. The grass is frantically blooming and setting seed. Vines and trees all over the neighborhood have blazed forth with red berries. The Autumn Leaf Show has not truly begun yet, but it's coming... it is coming. The world beneath the surface growth is slowing down, taking a breath; tree roots are preparing for the long sleep. Earth is awake and content, just a little drowsy around the edges as sleep time comes closer.

Samhain is just around the corner. It seems to be coming unusually fast this year, but I know tis only because Summer held on through what should have been the first month of Autumn. Only two weeks now, and we will be in the U.S. Holiday Season: Samhain/Halloween, Thanksgiving, Solstice/Yule/Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day. Tis the inner Baker's dream season, time to set butter-and-flour magic into motion, time to create breads and cakes, muffins and cookies, brownies and gingerbreads. Tis time to stock the larder; grocery store sales on the staples of a Baker's kitchen are just around the corner. Time to slow roast squashes and root vegetables, time to create stews and roasts, time to cook to my heart's content.

I find myself feeling connected to generation upon generation of cooks and bakers. An image persists in my heart's eye, a cook in a huge stone kitchen, feeding a small army's worth of children and adults all through the winter, secure in the knowledge her larder is full. How many hundreds of years does this image go back, its cauldrons and kettles and bake ovens steaming? It lives in me like an archetype and I am happy to be inspired through the long Autumn and Winter months by the Cook's happiness, by her need to feed the multitude of those she cares for, by her great satisfaction in practicing the arts of Kitchen Alchemy.

The Gardener, though, has not entirely let go. Autumn is a slow time but still a growing time, and this year the Gardener in me is determined to save some of these plants and bring them inside. It means finding a way to keep cats and dogs out of the containers, finding space for them all, obtaining lights to keep them growing and happy. The bell and banana peppers, the mint, the geraniums will all winter over nicely if protected from freezing. Tis time to think about starting herbs for wintering over, as well, and choosing a place within the house for a garden area, which leads to thoughts of preparing the house for the coming Winter, sealing the windows and doors against drafts, checking the furnace over, moving the furniture to take best advantage of heat vents--and back to plants we come, for those which must go dormant will need to be in a room which has no heat vent, and those which will continue growing will need to be in warm rooms.

The Singer in my soul has taken note of the direction of my thoughts, these changes, preparations, anticipations, transitions: chants and carols come bubbling to the surface, invoking the falling Autumn leaves, the Soul Cake traditions, the remains of Pagan music hidden in holiday songs. "A Soalin'" winds through my heart and soul like a thread weaving the traditions together, half-remembered childhood folk music favorites bound into recreated Medieval custom, "God Rest Ye Merry" trailing through "Soul Cake" on bright ribbons of brass and love. Red leaves fall through the newer "Autumn Time" chant, and the Beloved Dead speak through the Souling Song. The Singer does not care if the message fits her tradition or not, for the old music is Pagan to its bones and the spirit of Autumn reaches even through others' words. She sings, and cries for the magnifence of the gift resurrecting itself down through all the generations, and sings again--and the Horned God, the Green Man hear: the songs are once again Pagan in her mouth.

Life is full and overflowing in this most beautiful and magical season of change. Bright Blessings for the deep roots of Love to us all,
Cath

Soul cake recipes:
http://www99.epinions.com/content_4439384196 (http://www99.epinions.com/content_4439384196) Montrose Family Tradition, 5th generation, gingerbread
http://www.food.com/recipe/soul-cakes-143070 (http://www.food.com/recipe/soul-cakes-143070) cookies (source not specified), spicy but not gingerbread

Autumn music:
YouTube - Peter Paul and Mary, A Soalin Peter Paul and Mary, A Soalin
YouTube - NEAL WOODALL A Soulin' Neal Woodall, A Soulin' (A Soalin)
YouTube - A-Soalin' - Loraine Washburn a Peter Paul and Mary Cover song Lorraine Washburn, A Soalin
YouTube - A 'Soalin' (BYU?) Choral Christmas Version, A Soalin--just beautiful, medley with A Wassailing and God Rest Ye Merry
YouTube - Sting, Soul Cake. Sting, Soul Cake--photos from Gotland, Sweden--utterly gorgeous and IMPOSSIBLE to sit through without dancing
YouTube - Libana- Autumn Time Libana, Autumn Time
YouTube - Halloween Music - "Souling Song - Samhain Version" - Kristen Lawrence Kristen Lawrence, Souling Song, Samhain version
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=21280497&blogId=516025050 (http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=21280497&blogId=516025050) Kristen's lyrics

aldebaran

10-17-2010, 03:27 PM

It's that transitioning time of year again. The fruits and vegetables are changing; squash comes into season, melons go out of season, apples and pears replace berries, sweet potatoes replace tomatoes. The leaves have started turning on the Virginia creeper along my back fence and my neighbors' trees are starting to show soft yellows and oranges. Music comes up from the depths of my soul, channeled through childhood memories and recent discoveries alike. The Gardener in me simmers down, and the Baker wakes up: tis Autumn time.

In my yard, the barren heat of the Summer drought has ended. The dandelions and plantains are green and growing, leaves tender, succulent. The violets which barely survived the summer are strengthening. Ragweed is blooming enthusiastically. Who knew it was such a mimic? The sassafrass-mimicking giant ragweed is gone now... but the "pigweed" has just shown itself to also be a ragweed and must come out as well. The beggars' ticks have gone to seed, all sticky with tiny hairs, long seeds barbed like harpoons. I pull them whenever I find them and the yard is free of them for the winter, but they'll be back again come spring, just like the poison ivy. The grass is frantically blooming and setting seed. Vines and trees all over the neighborhood have blazed forth with red berries. The Autumn Leaf Show has not truly begun yet, but it's coming... it is coming. The world beneath the surface growth is slowing down, taking a breath; tree roots are preparing for the long sleep. Earth is awake and content, just a little drowsy around the edges as sleep time comes closer.

Samhain is just around the corner. It seems to be coming unusually fast this year, but I know tis only because Summer held on through what should have been the first month of Autumn. Only two weeks now, and we will be in the U.S. Holiday Season: Samhain/Halloween, Thanksgiving, Solstice/Yule/Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day. Tis the inner Baker's dream season, time to set butter-and-flour magic into motion, time to create breads and cakes, muffins and cookies, brownies and gingerbreads. Tis time to stock the larder; grocery store sales on the staples of a Baker's kitchen are just around the corner. Time to slow roast squashes and root vegetables, time to create stews and roasts, time to cook to my heart's content.

I find myself feeling connected to generation upon generation of cooks and bakers. An image persists in my heart's eye, a cook in a huge stone kitchen, feeding a small army's worth of children and adults all through the winter, secure in the knowledge her larder is full. How many hundreds of years does this image go back, its cauldrons and kettles and bake ovens steaming? It lives in me like an archetype and I am happy to be inspired through the long Autumn and Winter months by the Cook's happiness, by her need to feed the multitude of those she cares for, by her great satisfaction in practicing the arts of Kitchen Alchemy.

The Gardener, though, has not entirely let go. Autumn is a slow time but still a growing time, and this year the Gardener in me is determined to save some of these plants and bring them inside. It means finding a way to keep cats and dogs out of the containers, finding space for them all, obtaining lights to keep them growing and happy. The bell and banana peppers, the mint, the geraniums will all winter over nicely if protected from freezing. Tis time to think about starting herbs for wintering over, as well, and choosing a place within the house for a garden area, which leads to thoughts of preparing the house for the coming Winter, sealing the windows and doors against drafts, checking the furnace over, moving the furniture to take best advantage of heat vents--and back to plants we come, for those which must go dormant will need to be in a room which has no heat vent, and those which will continue growing will need to be in warm rooms.

The Singer in my soul has taken note of the direction of my thoughts, these changes, preparations, anticipations, transitions: chants and carols come bubbling to the surface, invoking the falling Autumn leaves, the Soul Cake traditions, the remains of Pagan music hidden in holiday songs. "A Soalin'" winds through my heart and soul like a thread weaving the traditions together, half-remembered childhood folk music favorites bound into recreated Medieval custom, "God Rest Ye Merry" trailing through "Soul Cake" on bright ribbons of brass and love. Red leaves fall through the newer "Autumn Time" chant, and the Beloved Dead speak through the Souling Song. The Singer does not care if the message fits her tradition or not, for the old music is Pagan to its bones and the spirit of Autumn reaches even through others' words. She sings, and cries for the magnifence of the gift resurrecting itself down through all the generations, and sings again--and the Horned God, the Green Man hear: the songs are once again Pagan in her mouth.

Life is full and overflowing in this most beautiful and magical season of change. Bright Blessings for the deep roots of Love to us all,
Cath

Soul cake recipes:
http://www99.epinions.com/content_4439384196 (http://www99.epinions.com/content_4439384196) Montrose Family Tradition, 5th generation, gingerbread
http://www.food.com/recipe/soul-cakes-143070 (http://www.food.com/recipe/soul-cakes-143070) cookies (source not specified), spicy but not gingerbread

Autumn music:
YouTube - Peter Paul and Mary, A Soalin (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnbD3QLU5o4&feature=related) Peter Paul and Mary, A Soalin
YouTube - NEAL WOODALL A Soulin' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uI637NIdP88&feature=related) Neal Woodall, A Soulin' (A Soalin)
YouTube - A-Soalin' - Loraine Washburn a Peter Paul and Mary Cover song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL4zpBjSTt0) Lorraine Washburn, A Soalin
YouTube - A 'Soalin' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH2AjW1_h1s&feature=related) (BYU?) Choral Christmas Version, A Soalin--just beautiful, medley with A Wassailing and God Rest Ye Merry
YouTube - Sting, Soul Cake. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07tu3e-otkU&feature=fvsr) Sting, Soul Cake--photos from Gotland, Sweden--utterly gorgeous and IMPOSSIBLE to sit through without dancing
YouTube - Libana- Autumn Time (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoJvo3_xm9s) Libana, Autumn Time
YouTube - Halloween Music - "Souling Song - Samhain Version" - Kristen Lawrence (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j35dvmdse9k) Kristen Lawrence, Souling Song, Samhain version
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=21280497&blogId=516025050 (http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=21280497&blogId=516025050) Kristen's lyrics

Bit,,, thank you for the beautiful, soulful welcoming of the season and Samhain.
I am new to BFP but feel so welcome especially reading all of your posts on this thread.

Bit

10-18-2010, 11:52 PM

Hello aldebaran, it's nice to meet you! Welcome to the Planet and to Pagan!

IrishGrrl

10-23-2010, 11:02 AM

I'm looking forward to attending next weekends Samhain fest. Hopefully I will be able to go up on thursday for the sweat lodge. I will also be working on my alter this week.

For the last couple of years I got so busy with life in general, that I havent taken the time to nurture my spirit. I havent taken the time to process in the way that is healing for me. For at least the last year, things have gotten to a very stressful, unhealthy point spiritually. When I get stressed it's much easier for other energy to influence my own , and I dont like that, it's very uncomfortable. Time to redirect and meditate. Back to my journey..the one I have neglected for far too long.

Irish

Bit

10-24-2010, 10:09 AM

{{{{{{{{{{{{Irish}}}}}}}}}}}} I think we all have times when we realize we have to put spirituality back into the center of our lives.... it seems to slip away unnoticed during times of deep stress.

oblivia

10-31-2010, 02:50 PM

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash2/hs563.ash2/148559_445630796147_695926147_5872446_402155_n.jpg

Soft*Silver

10-31-2010, 03:20 PM

well I for one am eating some soup tonight if I can get any trick or treaters to come to my door.......

Corkey

10-31-2010, 03:38 PM

Happy Samhain!

foxyshaman

12-13-2010, 02:37 PM

Hail & Hello Everyone...

I have been away for a few months and wanted to check in and say well what is says above!!

I had a fantastic Samhain, I went to my daughters house we gave out Candy, I was dressed as a freaky spider woman, and scared a few little ones. Oh the joys of being me!!

Is anyone doing anything for Winter solstice?? I have planned a ritual for it. We have a full moon lunar eclipse on the 21st (albeit just into the 21st) which I felt was really special. I then had the opportunity to meet and do a San Pedro ceremony with a shaman from Machu Picchu here in freezing cold Alberta in November...oohh and it was cold. We had a 4 hour drive on hockey rink ice roads in -30C weather... the car was slipping EVERYWHERE. Anyway, I digress... I was planning a ritual and then the shaman spoke of the celestial importance of this winter solstice. So, he explained what his people had handed down through the years regarding this particular solstice.

In honor of that I meditated for a long time and Spirit showed me a ritual I could do with others that would enable us to gather in the special energy and bring it into ourselves and our community.

So... anyone else have plans??

All in all I just wanted to pop in and wave hello to everyone here.

Bit

12-13-2010, 06:07 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{foxyshaman}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Hey there! Hello!!

It's a funny thing, I'm all about Thanksgiving--you know, First Nations Day, when we celebrate the gifts of Native American farmers and plant breeders with that famous dinner--but even though Christmas was always THE most important holiday in the year to me, it just didn't transfer to Yule/Solstice. Most years my acknowledgment of Solstice is nothing more than that, an acknowledgment. We have chosen family here in Wichita who make a big deal out of Christmas and we'll probably do the family thing.

Spiritual energy wise, we have a friend at death's doorstep, fighting very hard to come off the medical machinery, and we're pouring so much energy into her that I can't really imagine being in any kind of good shape by Solstice (let alone by Christmas). It isn't that I expect her to recover, but the community has made a commitment to support her through this and bring her whatever healing we can to make this easier for her and for her sons.

foxyshaman

12-14-2010, 10:06 AM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{BIT}}}}}}}}}}}}}} :cheer::cheer::cheer::cheer:

I fully understand what it is like to keep vigil for someone you care about. I have never been a fan of Christmas, for various reasons, not all pagan related ;)!!

I love celebrating solstice and think it is a wonderful time to welcome the sun back from its long journeys through the underworld. This is going to be exciting.... compared to some gatherings I know this will seem small, but we will have @ 40ppl... we are going to build an entrance for the gatekeeper,and each person offers a gift for the gatekeeper... not the person performing the sacred role, but the energetic being... then each person in the process goes to the elemental stations to receive a blessing from the elemental beings... fire earth air water. Then we start with our usual breath work, with some additions since we are working with the Rainbow Serpent (Earth Kundalini energy) and then we move into our roles... joikers, drummers or aspectors. I don't know how many hours we will be in ritual space, but I feel very excited...

I have kept up with you and Gryph's comings and goings and you two have been having quite the time. I just want you to know that even tho' I fell off the face of BFP I have been thinking about you two and keeping you very close to my heart.

It is with absolute love and warmth that I say hello again my friend and thanks for saying hi!!

Foxy

Bit

12-14-2010, 02:53 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}} Ah darlin, I always watch for your posts! And you did fall off the face of the Planet, lol... well, I've been fairly quiet here myself.

Your rituals sound so intense; I can't imagine attending one and NOT coming away fundamentally changed. I'll tell ya true, Foxy, sometimes I think I'm missing such a bet by not seeking out formal ritual.... I make my own way but sometimes it would be really nice to get that jumpstart on the path. I think if I lived near you I would have to find a way to attend at least one of your rituals!

I suppose that one reason yours seem so appealing to me is that your description of them seems to leave so much room for the spirits to express themselves, and for people to connect in their own ways. I don't exactly know what it is about attending rituals from specific traditions that bothers me so... not the different Goddesses/Beings, but I suppose the dogma that so often accompanies other people's beliefs, maybe. I find myself bridling whenever anyone of any belief starts telling me How Things Are And Must Be. I used to have more patience. *sheepish look*

Anyhow, I do seem to be making some progress on my path. I remember you and I talked a while back about my being stuck, and not being able to meditate. I finally went and found a link to one of the Silva Exercises, the Long Relax. Again, I resist doing it like I want to--they tell me How It Must Be and I get tired of it--but it got me through a bad patch when I was so knotted up in pain that I couldn't function, and it seems to have started my own energy flowing again. Not that I am meditating, lol, but it helped me to see that my path doesn't require meditating right now.

Lately, people are starting to tell me that I move a lot of energy. I hadn't realized that. I was judging by the need, yanno? And so what I have been doing seems so small because the need is so overwhelming. It spurs me to keep on reaching, keep on trying, keep on doing just a little more each time. I'm trying to build up my stamina as well as my capacity. If it weren't for my Allies, though, I'd be toast at this point! They handle most of the work, sending the energy on when I run out of steam.

The biggest change in our lives the past two months has been Lady's diabetes. After that heart-stopping discovery, I thought we had gotten it under control... but over the past month she has grown two pearly-white cataracts that almost completely cover her eyes, and two days ago she woke up truly blind. She falls on the steps now, and is VERY reluctant to go outside. I spread lavendar essential oil along the edges of all the steps in the front to be an "edge marker" so to speak, but it kinda didn't work; she ignores it and doesn't seem to understand what it means. I think she's having some trouble adjusting in practical ways.

My only comfort is that dogs seem to live completely in the present moment and to accept whatever the day brings as "just the way things are," so emotionally, she doesn't seem to be in a lot of distress...... although she is milking my attempts to comfort her for EVERYTHING they're worth. :sunglass: Still my same ol' Ladybug, after all. :stillheart:

So how are you doing lately? I remember you had some sadness about leaving a group you had been part of for years and years. Did you replace it with another group or maybe take some time for yourself? And you had started exploring a new form of healing work, too.

Gryph says hi, and sends you love!

You're always in our hearts, too, yanno!
Cath

foxyshaman

12-15-2010, 10:50 AM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{BIT}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} :flowers::bouquet::gimmehug::gimmehug::gimmehug::g immehug:

I was very fortunate a number of years ago (I won't say how many a girl has to keep some secrets:sunglass:) and I feel in love with the energy. I have attended a LOT of rituals over the years that, IMHO have fallen, well, flat. And they often came tied to gods and goddesses that I had no association with or relationship with. But I do love going to others rituals, not so much anymore, but it is important to me to support my community. And I do enjoy the social aspect of it afterwards... snacky pot luck... but why oh why does everyone think EVERYONE can eat chocolate. :eatinghersheybar: :)

Anyway, I digress....

The rituals are ways for spirit to express themselves and for people to experiece something. However I have long sinced stopped caring whether or not someone gets something from one of the gatherings. I used to care ALOT. Like ALOT. And then spirit gently reminded me that we are all at the exact place we are supposed to be at, doing exactly what we are all supposed to be doing and it was THEIR experience and not mine. It took a few times to hear that before I actually HEARD it. And it releases me from pressure, self imposed pressure, but pressure nonetheless.

One of the great (and not so great) parts of being raised in a culture that is not tribal with assigned roles and cosmology is that I can incorporate who or what speaks to me. I am free to experience my spiritual connection without the dogma of a religion, practice or deep rooted cosmology. I think, shamanically speaking, that has its good points and its bad points. I love to research myths, legends, customs and practices. I used to feel like "less then" because I did not have a tribe or an elder to teach me. That took quite some time to let go of, and accept that spirit is the best teacher. But still when I am telling a story (and I love to be a storyteller... shocking but true) I would love to know the roots in the culture that created that story.

Anyway... I digress.

I was very sorry to hear about Lady and her diabetes, and I am even more sorry to hear that she went blind. That is alot for you two and her to deal with. However, I really do love your attitude and the reminder that dogs live in the present. She will figure it out, all three of you will figure it out. And you will do it with love and grace.

I have no problem believing that you push a big energy. No problem with that at all. And I am glad to hear that you are moving through your pain, meditating and finding some of your energy coming back. Keep working on it. I have a daily practice that takes 5 minutes that keeps me grounded and focused and energetically prepared for my day. Keep going, you my sweet friend are worth every breath spirit breathes.

How am I?? This has been a heck of a roller coaster. I am very glad that I have stepped aside and retired from leading the drumming community. Two other women have stepped forward and are keeping it going. I have attended some of the circles, but they are not the same for me. I like to go because I have ZERO responsibilty <insert evil grinz> which is nice nice nice... and I get to do my own work, which is also good.

I have been working on a new website www.shamansway.net - I honestly don't know how to make that a link, but if you are interested please give it a whirl. It is a subscription site, but there are lots of free bits. It is all about... wait for it... shamanism... yup that is what it is about... ha ha. Shocking but true... I even have five hours of voice recordings for it. We are also going to voice record the ENTIRE solstice ritual, funky eh... If I can would you like a copy?? I would happily send it to you. It will be the joiking and the drumming.

My spirit work has grown leaps and leaps and bounds. I am doing so many compassionate depossessions that it just boggles my mind. After I took the training I wondered how it would keep going. Well no worries there. OMG. Word of mouth just keeps it growing and growing and growing. I am working on this one case right now, which I will tell you about in another note, but it really is stretching the boundaries of what I believe, and what I thought I believed and was all right with. I never stop getting my head shook!! Like seriously what is up with that?? :)

Anyway, I have written a tome. I look foward to hearing back from you. And anyone else who is reading this. We all have beautiful voices and I would love to hear as many as possible.

Uddles of Love

Foxy

Bit

12-15-2010, 11:15 AM

She's awake!! Our friend is awake!!! She talked on the phone!!!

I have to take the dog out but I'll be back to answer your wonderful post, Foxy. I subscribed to your website, too.

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

foxyshaman

12-15-2010, 11:47 AM

YYYYYEEEEAAAAHHHHH!!!! The amazing and wonderful power of prayer and healing...

Most wonder filled news!!

Bit

12-15-2010, 12:52 PM

Grrr! I hate it when the dog lies to me. He didn't have to go out, he was just bored. It's way too cold out to alleviate boredom that way! Sheesh, we're at the point in the weather where I don't think my hands will be all the way warm again until July... grumble, grumble, eh? *sheepish smile*

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} *uploads gingerbread* :cheesy:

What a lovely long post! Lots to think about.

For me, ritual (whether my own or someone else's that I'm attending) is about connecting to the Source. I usually say Goddess, but it doesn't matter to me what the name is; I crave that connection, and it's the only thing which justifies for me the time and trouble in doing ritual. Not that other people don't have pefectly good reasons for doing ritual, mind you, just that I get my other spiritual needs met in other ways; so for me it's all about connecting with Spirit/Goddess/WhateverTheHeckYouAre. *cheeky grin*

That means if someone insists on defining things, insists on setting rules, insists on set formulas, I'm going to have trouble getting through it all to make the connection. If the ritual is all about bringing Spirit in, whatever way Spirit chooses to come, then I'm good to go... but if anyone gets in the way of that I get pretty impatient and I sure won't waste my time going back again. Get to the point, says my impatience; if you cannot call down the God or Goddess at least do some serious energy sending! Whatever others may need to get from a ritual, I need to feel like I haven't wasted my energy or my time, and only feeling powerfully connected allows me to feel that way.

I suppose it might be very different for me if I weren't disabled. I've learned over the decades that all my activities have to have the kind of pay-off that makes me feel like I haven't wasted my energy or time... because yanno, I'm going to be crippled up and/or exhausted for days afterward. It has to be worth it.

You mentioned the pot luck afterward; we have the potlucks and skip the rituals, lol... there's a small group of us who get together every couple of weeks to have a potluck and discuss everything under the sun, from what kind of Pagans we are to how to get off the energy grid, and always--our perennial favorite topic--gardening.

You said, "One of the great (and not so great) parts of being raised in a culture that is not tribal with assigned roles and cosmology is that I can incorporate who or what speaks to me. ....... I used to feel like "less then" because I did not have a tribe or an elder to teach me. That took quite some time to let go of, and accept that spirit is the best teacher."

I think if I had been raised in a tribal culture and the shamanism worked, I would be perfectly happy with it. I was happy with Catholicism as long as I thought it worked. But I was thrust willy-nilly into a very nearly trackless wilderness and told to find my own way, and now I cannot bring myself to be happy with any kind of "received" spirituality. I've had the experience of living it. I cannot settle for less now. BUT like you, for years and years I thought I also was "less than" for not having a human teacher. Oh how I chafed at the idea that I had to teach myself! But in the end, the entire Universe became my teacher.

I've learned much from Gryph, too, just as I did from the one Teacher who was finally sent my way several years ago... but I learned it through observation. I saw what they did and I copied it. Neither of them ever said, "here is your lesson, here is your homework." They just did what they did--healing people, protecting them, sending energy, working with Others, shapeshifting--and I paid attention to how they did it; they told me what they believed, shared their philosophies, and I researched to learn more.

These days, if someone sets themselves up as my teacher, I get... well *sheepish smile* I get impatient. I want to see them in action before I accept them as any kind of authority in my life, yanno? And even if I can learn from them, I want it to be like it has been. Don't TELL me what to do... just do what you do, and let me watch.... can you tell I just ran into that? Made the mistake of looking for a sympathetic "that's a rough way to go" or the equivalent, and got "do this, and this, and this, and..."

I suppose I would be more patient if I had been allowed to say, "I already know these things; this and that one worked, the others didn't." But I wasn't listened to, and for me that is the death knell of any student/teacher relationship. If people cannot listen long enough to figure out that a student is not a neophyte, then they're not the teacher for me....

What a sweet thing to say, that I'm worth the breath of spirit!

Morning practice.... I don't have a specific one. I'm practicing all day long--the luxury of not having to concentrate on a job--but I think I've pared it down to the essentials: ground, send energy, again and again. Maybe that's the lesson of this part of my life? Because it is practice, and the more I do it the better I become. Maybe there will come a change in the cycle and I'll focus on something else. Right now though, the need is immense and so I keep on , ground, send, ground, send.

I am so glad you can do your own work in the drum circles now! I wondered if you might need to grieve the change. It sounds like you've come through it with flying colors!

I like your Shamans Way website! Thank you so much! The link works fine, btw. And I did subscribe. Took a look at your blog (haven't read it all yet) and so far I really like it! I would LOVE a copy of the Solstice Ritual if that works out!

Compassionate depossession--that's what I was trying to remember! Glad to hear it's going so well. Now you have me all curious about anything which stretches the boundaries of your belief. My own boundaries have been stretched again and again the past three years--I was just telling someone yesterday that a couple of my Allies had to wait for me to grow up enough to believe in them again before they could work with me. ;) I hope you will share what you've found and what you're doing (or what it's doing to you, lol); it's so fascinating! I like it that I finally came to a part of the wilderness where many paths are converging, and I like it that yours is one of them. Thanks for holding up a beacon so the rest of us can see more clearly as we walk!

Much love back to you!
Cath

Nat

12-20-2010, 10:30 PM

Winter solstice tonight - full lunar eclipse starting in about two hours y'all. Happy Yule! :)

The last time winter solstice and a full lunar eclipse happened was during the first year of bloody mary's reign. Princess Elizabeth was locked up in the tower of London at the time, and Protestants were being burned at the stake in England by early the next year.

Turtle

12-21-2010, 03:01 AM

Ahhhh, it's amazing out tonight. It is crisp and clear and the moon is beautiful Enjoy y'all....

Mitmo01

12-21-2010, 07:26 AM

a beauttiful event and now im watching the sunrise and glad to be alive....feelin it in my bones today

I have had some bad insomnia the last couple of nights and my kitties have also been restless and i think this is why so its interesting to actually understand why....

hope everyone is safe and well

foxyshaman

03-02-2011, 10:27 AM

Hello everyone...

I just wanted to pop in to say hello!!

Hellllooooo...

I just wanted to post an excerpt of a handout I wrote for a workshop I did recently called "Curse Unravelling". I have been reworking it and adding to it but for now... I know many people do not believe in curses, and I certainly did not... well until I kept running into them in my healing work. Then I started to do some investigations and then I set about learning how to unravel one, or many as in some cases.

So... if anyone objects to irregular postings on odd things I am working on please feel free to say so. I won't even curse you ;)

There is a nature to curses, a pattern or life of their very own. Tonite we are learning how to safely unravel the energetic pattern of a curse. We will be exploring through journey work, in partners how to recognize a curse, chart its course and resolve it without harm to the curse originator, the curse creator, the object of the curse, or the person unraveling the curse.

How to recognize a curse, the energy around it and learning how to energetically unravel it, is important information for the Shaman. In our diagnosis and treatment our partners, we need to assess the nature of our visions and what treatment to use. Shamans must contextualize the origin of the patient's disease within his or her own family and cultural history, as well as within the context of the patient's past lives. Essentially, it is necessary to understand the kind of negativity that has taken over the patient's life (a curse, an invasion, an attack, and so forth), its origin, and its history.

Soul Retrievals are never boring and certainly no two are ever similar. Negotiation is a primary component to soul retrieval work. If & when you are performing a soul retrieval or an extraction you must have an understanding of how the deeds of the present generation will affect the next seven generations. There has been some work with ancestral wounds that requires going back to the point of the original misdeed to affect a healing. I use this approach to uncover the ancestral fear and shame that can be a cause to illness, disease or general spiritual malaise. I have experienced the effect of deeds and misdeeds on a person, indeed an entire family. The Elders tell you the energetic trace stays in the field of the family for at least seven generations.

Adam Crabtree author of “Multiple Man” has written about this phenomenon in terms of a family or “group” mind. He describes how Shamus, the spirit of one member of a Celtic family, carried the family misdeed from generation to generation. As his host died, he would join another family member (much like the Spirit of Addiction) until his or her death, and so on. The family did not remember the misdeed, but it was commonly known that the family had been cursed for centuries. When Shamus was brought out of the spirit world (family field or group mind), he told the story of the misdeed. Once told, Shamus mourned the pain and suffering caused by the misdeed, at which point the curse was lifted and the family healing began. I am reminded of the name it to claim it part of our healing work.

I believe that many families suffer from some type of ancestral malady, as do many countries. I believe that we have ultimately five levels of soul, personal, familial, community, city, country; at some level, the atrocities committed by this country in trying to exterminate the native peoples are trapped in a large spirit wound, or, if you prefer, the collective unconscious. Within this collective unconscious or national spirit wound, are hundreds, possibly thousands, of families who have been plagued with this wound as part of the family field. Assuming this to be true, it seems that finding this wound and releasing it would initiate a new way of being in the world for these families. Furthermore, instead of committing ecological suicide as a nation, we might become conscious of the consequences of our actions and reverse the deleterious direction we have set for ourselves.

When we work with curses and unraveling curses the act of calling out the spirit of these wounds could lead to a tremendous healing.

Curses… I curse the very day you were born…. or some such curse… In North America we don’t place a great deal of energy or even thought to curses or hexes. Our Ancestors did, our great grandparents probably did. What we have forgotten is that words spoken create an energetic pattern that manifests into reality… whether that reality is apparent to you or not, does not make any less valid. In other countries a curse is still very powerful, the effects of the curse is still very palpable. Why… because words are power, which in turn create a manifestation. I can’t really explain it in practical terms, but I have seen enough curses and bad wishes on each person I have worked with to come to realize that there is some validity to this.

Bit

03-08-2011, 10:24 PM

I just wanted to post an excerpt of a handout I wrote for a workshop I did recently called "Curse Unravelling".

Ah, Foxy, I love your latest post!! Thank you for sharing this with us!

I myself never believed in curses until I got spiritually self-confident enough to take another look at all the things which have been belittled as "superstition" and pay attention to what I was really seeing--without that skeptical voice chiding me in the background about people thinking I'm crazy.

That ghost story is scarily familiar--I know someone who had the same sort of thing (not exactly the same; more malicious and directed outwards, rather than at family), and I became a victim of the malice. The situation lasted for months and the effects spilled over onto everyone in my family and onto our house, as well. Once that sort of thing happens to you, it's really hard to endure plain old bad luck after that without freaking out a little and wondering if you're being attacked again, yanno?

It's popular in some circles of thought to say that there is no such thing as a curse, that a curse cannot hurt you if you don't believe in it, that people draw their own bad luck to them by expecting bad things, that if you talk about it you have created it yourself. None of that kind of thought allows for the fact that just as people naturally have varying abilities at sports or art or finances, so they also have varying psychic abilities... and just as some people are willing to use, say, their financial abilities to hurt others, some people are willing to use their psychic abilities to hurt others.

Curses, like prayers, do not depend on the belief of the receiver, but on the belief (and skill) of the sender.

I will never take curses or hexes lightly again, never write them off as "too outlandish to be true" again, never dismiss them as "a figment of (whoever's) imagination" again... I have learned to look and see what might be going on before I rush to judgment on these things.

foxyshaman

03-09-2011, 11:40 AM

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< BIT>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

:gimmehug:

:deepthoughts: I NEVER believed in curses. I thought they were poppycock!! And then I kept running into them over and over again when I did soul retrieval work. Lucky for me I had spirits who were more than willing to help me to remove them.

When I taught this class in 06 I did it completely differently than I do now. I have been able to shorten the process just so that I could teach others how to do it and what impact it could have on their patients.

I offered myself as the guinea pig :seeingstars: for the class in Feb. So I had 15 of the 20 participants remove curses. I am going to bore you with the details so grab your :tea: now. I wore all black and took a 30 ft white nylon rope and had one of the students tie me in it. The reason was to have something 'tangible' to follow. Well all I can say was what a totally humbling exprience that was. People who did not know me came back telling me stories of ancestors being cursed for killing in a battle, & love gone awry, & abandonment and the list goes on. They were so accurate. Each person also had to tell me, if they could, what I could do with the rope to be a physical manifestation of the curse being removed. Well I had a number of suggestions. It was endlessly fascinating how many people came back with the same imagery... desert, black caves, lonely landscape... to name a few. Some of the curses were the same, or had the same underlying cause. It was interesting. And much of it completely related to long standing personal issues that are private.

That night I went home and bathed and felt like - picture this - two chicken breasts four inches apart with string criss crossing to tie them together. That is what I felt like energetically. And I was not able to burn the rope for two weeks (the joys of being balls to the wall busy) but I felt all that time like I was wading through really heavy water. I was abnormally tired, sore and unable to wake. During the release ceremony the bag with the rope, which should have burnt like <snap fingers> didn't. It took on faces and fangs and a couple of other "looks". It took over 1/2 hour for the bag to even begin to burn. Then only a small hole burnt, then the inside burnt, the packing paper never really caught fire it just changed in darkness & layers. Anyway... about 3/4 of the way through I felt this enormous weight lift off my body. Duh... and feel SO MUCH BETTER.

The difference is remarkable. Will I change, well I think I will if I continually work on it. Do I think it helped, yes but in subtle ways and is still working. Would I ever let 15 ppl take curses off me at once... can I get a HELL NO. The energy work and removal was intense. Aside from the symptoms above I had a temper like crazy, and I don't really have one. I was a freaking basket case a couple of days there. Very unusual mental patterns. Since the release.... peace... more peace than I have had in a very long time.

I taught the class again last weekend and did not offer myself up. But changed how things were done. I have not heard back from the students to see if they are changed, but I know if it worked for me, I am sure it will work for others.

I am teaching a level 2 class in May combining curse removal and power retrieval and will touch on soul retrieval as well. Should be intense. I am gonna work em hard :blink: :4femme:

Anyway, there is my tome.

Curses, never believed in them.

But google the word Defixiones, it may give you some interesting food for thought.

:bolt: :canadian:

Andrew, Jr.

03-09-2011, 04:02 PM

Foxyshaman,

Do you sage your home? What do you find/feel afterwards?

Thank you for your many posts. I sure do enjoy them.

Peace,
Andrew

Bit

03-09-2011, 11:41 PM

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} :kissy:

I cannot believe how jealous I am of your students. *sigh*

But hey *perks up* at least we get to talk here!

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< BIT>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

:gimmehug:

:deepthoughts: I NEVER believed in curses. I thought they were poppycock!! And then I kept running into them over and over again when I did soul retrieval work. Lucky for me I had spirits who were more than willing to help me to remove them.

You might notice I ever so carefully did not mention how LONG it took me to get spiritually self-confident *looks around, whistling* an awful lot of things have changed pretty drastically for me here in Kansas.... but then, this is the first time I can claim long-term and close-up experience with any kind of shamanism. It deals with different kinds of energy work and different kinds of beings than I have dealt with before.

I offered myself as the guinea pig :seeingstars: for the class in Feb. So I had 15 of the 20 participants remove curses. I am going to bore you with the details so grab your :tea: now. I wore all black and took a 30 ft white nylon rope and had one of the students tie me in it. The reason was to have something 'tangible' to follow. Well all I can say was what a totally humbling exprience that was. People who did not know me came back telling me stories of ancestors being cursed for killing in a battle, & love gone awry, & abandonment and the list goes on. They were so accurate. Each person also had to tell me, if they could, what I could do with the rope to be a physical manifestation of the curse being removed. Well I had a number of suggestions. It was endlessly fascinating how many people came back with the same imagery... desert, black caves, lonely landscape... to name a few. Some of the curses were the same, or had the same underlying cause. It was interesting. And much of it completely related to long standing personal issues that are private.

So what I want to know is whether you expected them to find anything at all. I would have expected that you would be pretty "clean" psychically speaking, after years and years of taking care of yourself the way a shaman does! Did all those people finding curses surprise you, or was it only the intensity of the experience that was a surprise?

That night I went home and bathed and felt like - picture this - two chicken breasts four inches apart with string criss crossing to tie them together. That is what I felt like energetically. And I was not able to burn the rope for two weeks (the joys of being balls to the wall busy) but I felt all that time like I was wading through really heavy water. I was abnormally tired, sore and unable to wake. During the release ceremony the bag with the rope, which should have burnt like <snap fingers> didn't. It took on faces and fangs and a couple of other "looks". It took over 1/2 hour for the bag to even begin to burn. Then only a small hole burnt, then the inside burnt, the packing paper never really caught fire it just changed in darkness & layers. Anyway... about 3/4 of the way through I felt this enormous weight lift off my body. Duh... and feel SO MUCH BETTER.

Got any idea why it was so resistant? I'm curious because I'm running into resistant things lately, things that morph as I try to get them out of my head, my life, That House... the cleansings I do seemed to be easy at first and I don't know if it's getting harder because it's less effective now, or because I'm still tired and burnt out from December's huge energy-sending, or because I've cleaned out all the easy stuff and what's left behind is entrenched and really IS harder to get rid of...

The difference is remarkable. Will I change, well I think I will if I continually work on it. Do I think it helped, yes but in subtle ways and is still working. Would I ever let 15 ppl take curses off me at once... can I get a HELL NO. The energy work and removal was intense. Aside from the symptoms above I had a temper like crazy, and I don't really have one. I was a freaking basket case a couple of days there. Very unusual mental patterns. Since the release.... peace... more peace than I have had in a very long time.

Peace is a good thing, love. It makes me smile to know that you have new levels of it.

I taught the class again last weekend and did not offer myself up. But changed how things were done. I have not heard back from the students to see if they are changed, but I know if it worked for me, I am sure it will work for others.

I am teaching a level 2 class in May combining curse removal and power retrieval and will touch on soul retrieval as well. Should be intense. I am gonna work em hard :blink: :4femme:

If they're worth your time, they will love you for working them hard. I would, anyway.

Anyway, there is my tome.

Curses, never believed in them.

But google the word Defixiones, it may give you some interesting food for thought.

:bolt: :canadian:

Yeah, those old curse tablets are pretty amazing, aren't they? I didn't look at any of them... yanno... just in case. :superfunny:Lord love a duck, I think I might be gun-shy now. :scared:

My latest lesson in curses: I know someone who made the terrible mistake of buying a cursed house. He thought he was safe because he had a priest bless the house. He thought that removed the curse.

Then someone gifted spiritually removed the curse... they thought.

But yanno what, the whole time it was still working. It's still working today, even though Gryph quietly took the curse off three years ago.

The guy's wife keeps putting the energy back the way it was, to make it feel the same as it always did. Nobody can un-curse the house as long as she insists on being tied to it, because she doesn't know she's doing it and she wouldn't understand or believe anyone who tried to explain it to her. All she knows is that she feels safer when everything around her feels like it always did, so she puts it back "in order" when anyone disturbs it.

So. Even though I said before that cursing depends on the skills and belief of the curser, it is also true that once a curse is in place, other people can keep it there. A person doesn't have to be very sophisticated psychically to be strong, yanno?

:canadian: Keep talking, oh Foxy one, you're sparking me to all kinds of insights now... :rose: Someday I would love to figure out how to call Canada and :phonegab:talk your ear off, lol....

Cath

foxyshaman

03-10-2011, 09:41 AM

Foxyshaman,

Do you sage your home? What do you find/feel afterwards?

Thank you for your many posts. I sure do enjoy them.

Peace,
Andrew

Hi Andrew,
Thank you for your kind words. I am glad you enjoy my posts, that makes me spirit smile.

I do use sage in my house. I love blending smudges. The house just feels deeply peaceful afterwards. I also find when I am outta sorts a good smudge put me back in my proper energetic alignment.

I use an old coffee grinder to put my sage in, and then I usually put frankinsence or myhrr in with it. I also have a myriad of other resins and plants that i grind in with it depending on what I am using the smudge for. I love smudge. Absolutely one of my favorite things to create.

Foxy

foxyshaman

03-10-2011, 10:04 AM

You might notice I ever so carefully did not mention how LONG it took me to get spiritually self-confident *looks around, whistling* an awful lot of things have changed pretty drastically for me here in Kansas.... but then, this is the first time I can claim long-term and close-up experience with any kind of shamanism. It deals with different kinds of energy work and different kinds of beings than I have dealt with before.

It took you a long time... girl it took me a long time to believe in curses!!! Let alone figure out how to remove them. We are similar in more ways than I think you think!! :balloon:

So what I want to know is whether you expected them to find anything at all. I would have expected that you would be pretty "clean" psychically speaking, after years and years of taking care of yourself the way a shaman does! Did all those people finding curses surprise you, or was it only the intensity of the experience that was a surprise?

I TOTALLY expected them to find them. I was really hoping they would find them. What I have learnt over the years is that I, despite working as hard as I do, can be as blind to myself as others. It can be really hard to work for ourselves because we have uber super duper filters that we have worked "lifetimes", not to mention this lifetime, on. So, I don't always see it. And to tell you the truth I never really put a great deal of effort into removing my curses. I have done quite a bit of cognitive behavioural therapy lately and think that it was the right time to get spiritual results that mirrored my cognitive results. As with most intense spiritual practice it is always better to get someone to else to do the work, it just works better.

Got any idea why it was so resistant? I'm curious because I'm running into resistant things lately, things that morph as I try to get them out of my head, my life, That House... the cleansings I do seemed to be easy at first and I don't know if it's getting harder because it's less effective now, or because I'm still tired and burnt out from December's huge energy-sending, or because I've cleaned out all the easy stuff and what's left behind is entrenched and really IS harder to get rid of...

You may want to change what it is your doing. Its akin to an antibiotic, spirit, negative spirit can get resistant to what we are doing. Change it up and come at it from a different angle or use another technique. Perhaps you know someone, or even Gryph, who can do an extraction on your body. It may be that you have an attachment or two that is stopping the work. Another set of eyes on your spiritual health cannot hurt at all.

My latest lesson in curses: I know someone who made the terrible mistake of buying a cursed house. He thought he was safe because he had a priest bless the house. He thought that removed the curse.

Then someone gifted spiritually removed the curse... they thought.

But yanno what, the whole time it was still working. It's still working today, even though Gryph quietly took the curse off three years ago.

The guy's wife keeps putting the energy back the way it was, to make it feel the same as it always did. Nobody can un-curse the house as long as she insists on being tied to it, because she doesn't know she's doing it and she wouldn't understand or believe anyone who tried to explain it to her. All she knows is that she feels safer when everything around her feels like it always did, so she puts it back "in order" when anyone disturbs it.

So. Even though I said before that cursing depends on the skills and belief of the curser, it is also true that once a curse is in place, other people can keep it there. A person doesn't have to be very sophisticated psychically to be strong, yanno?

It to me sounds like you are dealing with a suffering being. Now I am going to sound totally like a loon here, but bear with me. <cause seriously it won't be the first time I have seemed that way> I had a case in January of a house that had been REPEATEDLY cleared. One priest even came to the house to do a memorial service, and it helped the house, but only a bit and for a very short period of time. I was asked to come in and see what i could sense. The first thing I did was compassionately depossess the woman who lived in the house. Then, this was a total first for me, I offered my body as the way to get the spirits out of the house... now I would never ever have done that if I did not have my partner with me and was sure she could get them outta me. The spirits who left through me, spoke their story and told what we were specifically to do to interrupt the ley lines so that the house was not on a "super highway" of traveling spirits. We came back two weeks later, did the follow up work. Called in our spirits and cleared the house one last time. Peace in the house. It was a very humbling experience, but it worked. Quiet house. First time quiet in many years

The curse/being/unknown energy of the house you are referring to may well have attached itself to the Lady of the house. They are tricky tricky tricky beings and not to be underestimated. If you were fighting for your life (even if that is not what it really is) you would do anything. And so do they. I would suggest that the owners of the home google Betsy Bergstrom, and send her an email and ask if she has any students living in the area who can do this work. At this point they have nothing to lose. And you may be able to be a part of the healing ceremony and see some fascinating work done. Those are my thoughts.

We do have to figure out a way to get together. I think it would be divine to meet and share our collective knowledge. Put it out there, you never know what may come back!!

Have a wonderful day my sweet friend.

Lots of love

Foxy