The end of the road
27 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
After much pondering and soul-searching I have decided to stop blogging.
I initially started blogging as part of my Oak and Mistletoe outer court working in order to hold myself accountable for writing down weather observations and the like. And while I have enjoyed blogging I’ve ended up doing it more because I feel I should than because I truly want to. I constantly feel guilty when I haven’t blogged in a few days and it makes me reluctant to blog at all. Additionally after having started art journaling all I feel like doing with my evenings is create art. Aside from having a full-time job I also have my studies with Oak and Mistletoe and I was accepted to Christopher Penczack’s apprenticeship (yay!) and so time is becoming even more scarce. This has led me to realize that I need to prioritize what I want to do and so I’m choosing the things that nurture my soul the most. Blogging just doesn’t come high enough up on the list.
On the day when I live off my art, have quit my day-job and spend my days at home creating beautiful things and nurturing my soul, then I will take up blogging again. For now I am taking a hiatus to live my life off-line. Time is too short to feel that one is wasting time in front of a computer screen (I am*not* saying blogging is a waste of time, I am saying that I feel I am wasting my time maintaining a blog of my own when it gives me so little satisfaction).
Art journaling and personal insights
13 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Art
Image from here: http://cassandramarie.wordpress.com/
I’ve already shared my profound love for books, however my love for art comes in at a close number two. When I first started “reading” books as a child my favorites were always those books which had the prettiest pictures, the most detailed drawings or the most harmonious color schemes. Color and beauty has always been very important to me (it must be my Taurus/Virgo side) so when I heard about art journaling it seemed to be something that was right up my alley.
If you’ve been following my blog you know that I have mentioned Fey from ‘The Dark Side of Fey’ and ‘SpiritsCast’ often enough and that she often inspires my own work. A little while back she changed her on-line presence to Effy and started the Wild.Precious. blog (and now vlog). Effy has been art journaling and seems to be absolutely loving it which makes her enthusiasm for this art form so contagious.
Effy’s passion combined with my own love of art has made me want to start my own art journal now more than ever. And yet I find myself being held back. I don’t know where to start. I have so many images and ideas in my mind that I fear will be no more than bleak, washed-out fakes if I try to put them down on paper. I look at the gorgeous artwork of others and fear that my own work will never be good enough.
And then, as if sent from the divine (and really, who’s to say it wasn’t?) Effy provides me with the link to a prompt-a-day art journaling project. I’ve been looking over Sarah’s blog and it seems like such a great and inspirational site. I can’t wait to get my materials together and start working through the prompts. I’ve been wanting to fit some more art into my life and this seems like such a wonderful way to accomplish this. I’ll have to see how much, if any, of the art journaling I will share on this site as I suspect it will turn out to be quite a private process for me, however I’ll leave you with some other wonderful and inspirational images.
New Moon and solar eclipse
11 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Astrology, Books, Spiritual practice
Today is both a new moon and a solar eclipse. These two astrological events make the perfect time for new beginnings, so I’ve decided to start my work on ‘Queen of the Night’ which I recently acquired. The book works through the year, one moon at a time and I’m very excited to start this work with the Goddess.
For more information on the new moon and the eclipse check out this wonderful post over at ‘Owls Wings’.
Pagan Music and Musicians
11 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Music
Listening to podcasts over the past year has introduced me to the world of pagan music. There are so many wonderful artists out there making inspirational, wonderful and divine music that makes me happy and brings me closer to divinity. I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce you to some of my favorites. I’m sure there are artists I’m forgetting, so please forgive me, I just wanted to share this with you.
My inspiration for this post is the wonderful Michelle Mays and her rendition of ‘Gently Johnny’. I’ve been hearing this song in my mind all day and wanted to share it with you.
Above is a picture of S. J. Tucker. She is involved in several acts, the picture is taken from Tricky Pixie. My favorite album of hers is ‘Blessings’, which I first heard on The Wigglian Way, and my favorite song is ‘Hymn to Herne’ (you can listen to an mp3 of it online here or here). The song has such a wonderful power and the beat reverberates deep within my body. An amazing song.
Another great artist is the lovely Wendy Rule.
Wendy Rule writes the most amazing, haunting songs. This winter when I was putting in long hours of overtime at work I listened to Wendy Rule on Spotify. Her music puts me in a very calm and happy place, I imagine it would also be great for meditation or trance work. I really like all her stuff, but I think ‘The Circle Song’ is my favorite song of hers.
Speaking of trance work, the wonderful beats of the Dragon Ritual Drummers is sure to help you achieve another level of consciousness.
If drum beats aren’t your cup of tea there is Damh the Bard who plays more traditional Celtic music. He is also the host of the OBOD podcast; DruidCast.
And finally I want to tell you about Kellianna, who also has wonderfully enchanting, Celtic-type music.
So there you go, pagan music for your enjoyment and to nourish your soul as well as help you connect to the divine. Music speaks to a primitive part of us, the subconscious, the sticky self, our inner child. Whatever you want to call it it is the part of us that connects with the divine in the universe and which communicates with the Oneness that surrounds us. Support your pagan artists, pick up some of their music.
New podcasts that I love
10 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in Podcasts
I guess these podcasts aren’t really new, but they are new to me and I’m loving them so I want to share them with you.
The first is ‘A Witch’s Primer’ by Ariel. This is a great podcast which covers basic, non-denominational witchcraft. It is essentially the podcast version of Ariel’s witchcraft lessons and I love it. The podcast is informative and a great tool for learning more about witchcraft. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a 101, more like a 120. It’s great to have some information of witchcraft/Wicca/paganism in your bag, but it’s not a requirement.
The second new one which I absolutely love is ‘Standing Stone and Garden Gate’ by Brendan Meyers and Juniper. The podcast is a great mix of armchair intellectual paganism as well as practical, fingers-in-the-dirt paganism.
I strongly recommend checking these out. I’ve also started listening to a couple of other podcasts, but I’m not entirely sure where I stand on them yet so I am hesitant to recommend them just yet.
Books, books, books, books
08 Jul 2010 2 Comments
in Astrology, Books, Religion, Spiritual practice
I love books.
No really, I L-O-V-E books. For my 8th birthday my parents bought me two grocery bags *full* of books. It was the best present I have ever gotten. Does this make me nerdy…? Maybe, but I don’t really care. As I’ve gotten older my love for the written word has in no way diminished. As a teenager, lonely and angsty (weren’t we all) the library was my source of comfort and joy. Shelves FULL of stories and knowledge, just waiting for me to absorb it. As I’ve gotten older and now have more money I purchase many books as well. In fact the other day my husband was complaining about the amount of money I spend on books (granted I spend a lot). I told him: ‘Some women buy shoes, I buy books. Do you want me to switch to shoes?’ That ended the discussion pretty fast.
So why this sudden declaration of love? As the soccer world cup dominates tv’s around the world I find myself in dire need to take steps to survive the onslaught. Being highly competitive, what better way to do this then to start a bet with the hubby over the final meet-ups. And as the World Cup in no way has turned out to follow the odds I had the great fortune of winning. And what better prize for this little bookworm? Right you are, books.
Thanks to several countries messing up their soccer performances (seriously, Spain?, England?, France?, Italy!?) as well as some of my own hard-earned cash I am now the new owner of a shiny new stack of books. I hope to write down my thoughts on these books as I finish them (I hate buying poor books when I can buy good ones) for now here is a list of my recent acquirements.
First though, two books which I obtained outside of the world cup betting. These books are by Swedish author Johanne Hildebrandt. I’m reading them in Norwegian, and as far as I know they have only been translated to Norwegian (and possibly Icelandic). She has written a trilogy based on Norse mythology called ‘The Saga of Valhall’. I have bought the two first books in the series (I randomly came across book two – ‘Idun’ – in a used bookstore and couldn’t resist it. I later obtained the first books – ‘Frøya’) and so far I am really enjoying the first book. The books are definitely partially fictitious, however they also incorporate elements of the Norse history and mythology and being half Norwegian (other half American) and having grown up in Norway this really speaks to me.
In addition to these I’ve obtained:
‘Your Astrology Guide 2010′ – by Rick Levine and Jeff Jawyer – I learned about this book from my mom and I’m really liking it so far. It talks about the various signs, the houses and the planets and how these influence your horoscope. They also talk about how your ascendant and Moon are important for your reading, which I feel many other astrologers ignore in these type of mass-produced books. In this book they have a detailed month-by-month forecast for each sign, and for me they are quite accurate. To make matters better the book also contains a $15 gift-certificate to their website: tarot.com which is enough for a full horoscope on the site. I had mine done 
‘Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sisters: Heroines in Folktales from Around the World’ – This looks like a fascinating book about strong women in world mythology. I can’t wait to start reading it.
Following up on the mythology theme I also got ‘Parallel Myths’ – by J.F. Bierlein. This book fascinates me as it takes various myths – creation myth, flood myth, underworld myth – and compares these across cultures so one can see the parallels between myths from various cultures.
A real treat for me was getting ‘The Triumph of the Moon’ by Ronald Hutton – a bona fide pagan historian. I’ve been longing for this book for years, so it’s a special treat for me. Granted the writing is *tiny* and the book is a brick, yet Mr. Hutton is funny and smart and I find that knowledge of the history of witchcraft is important to have. It might be heavy reading but I believe it is worth it.
‘Queen of the Night’ by Sharynne MacLead NicMhacha is a book that I’m not certain how I came across. I think it’s a combination between an amazon.com reccomendation and something I read over at Sarah Lawless’ blog. Anyways, the book covers exercises for 13 moons to connect with the Moon Goddess. SOunds pretty amazing to me.
Lastly I got ‘Psychic Self-Defense’ by Dion Fortune. I got this book as part of my 2nd degree training over at Oak and Mistletoe, and so far I love it. The book was first published in 1930 and is one of the classics.
Self dedication
05 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
I know I’ve been blogging sporadically lately, and that when I have been blogging the posts have been short and somewhat wishy-washy. I don’t intend to make any excuses here, particularly because I don’t feel I need to excuse my absence. I will however provide a reason. On June 20th I performed my self dedication in addition to celebrating the summer solstice. Just to clear up some potential confusion, when I say self dedication I mean that I dedicated myself to the God and Goddess and to following their path for me. This is not the same as a self initiation – an initiation is when you you go through a ritual to join a certain path. I do not believe you can effectively self initiate, but that is a separate discussion.
For anyone who has undertaken a self dedication I am sure you appreciate how much thought and meditation goes into the process. I spent several weeks prior to my self initiation contemplating my decission and trying to decide if this was what I wanted and if it was the right decission for me.
Once I had made up my mind that it was in fact the correct path for me I went about creating my ritual. And now, after the ritual I have spent a lot of time reflecting over ritual, the decision and how I feel. In short, I have spent a lot of time contemplating and I have not been in the right head-space to write any posts. I have simply needed some time to myself.
What we want and what we need
02 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
We always want to hear nice stuff about ourselves, but sometimes what we *need* is a kick in the butt. That certainly is what I needed today and that is what I got (actually I’ve been getting it for the past two weeks, but today I understood that it’s for my own good).
I pulled this card over at Collette Baron-Reid’s website and it perfectly describes what’s been going on with me lately. As I don’t usually put much stock in online readings (I believe they need personal energy) I was happy to have received this card.
One night I had a wondrous dream,
One set of footprints there was seen,
The footprints of my precious Lord,
But mine were not along the shore.
But then some strange prints appeared,
And I asked the Lord, “What have we here?”
Those prints are large and round and neat,
“But Lord, they are too big for feet.”
“My child,” He said in somber tones,
“For miles I carried you along.
I challenged you to walk in faith,
But you refused and made me wait.”
“You disobeyed, you would not grow,
The walk of faith, you would not know,
So I got tired, I got fed up,
And there I dropped you on your butt.”
“Because in life, there comes a time,
When one must fight, and one must climb,
When one must rise and take a stand,
Or leave their butt prints in the sand.”
– author unknown
Favorite places of the interweb
13 Jun 2010 Leave a Comment
in Other
- ‘The Witch of the Forest Grove’ – The blog of Sarah Lawless, the wonderful witch and artist who puts out the Hedgefolk Tales podcast. The blog shows Sarah’s arts and crafts as well as discusses her spiritual path and mythology. A truly wonderful blog that I am very glad to have come across.
- ‘An Inner Journey: The Moon, mythology and you’ – A great blog that showcases myth and deities from all over the world. Very educational and interesting if you are interested in myth.
- Rae Beth’s homepage – Rae Beth, the original Hedgewitch has a wonderful website. She was featured in this month’s episode of Druidcast and her thoughts and views really resonated with me.
- ‘Avalon Revisited’ – A great blog that talks about everything Avalonian and has lots of information on Celtic/Avalonian spirituality.
- ‘Celtic Dreamscape’ – Another blog full of information on everything celtic.
- ‘Finding Faerieland’ – A very informational blog about all the Fey, the good, the bad and the ugly.
New beginnings
09 Jun 2010 2 Comments
Well, I’m back to blogging sooner than I thought. The puppy left for a new family two weeks ago, and while they are wonderful people and he is settling in very well the whole thing simply breaks my heart. The puppy leaving (and arriving for that matter) has been only one of many things that has occured lately and everything combines to signal new beginnings.
Many of you probably know that I am a student at Oak and Mistletoe, and a few weeks ago I completed my first degree training. On the solstice I will be doing my self dedication to the God and Goddess, and after that I will be starting upon my second degree training within the Oak and Mistletoe tradition. I am *very* excited to say the least, and the solstice seems like such a wonderful day to do my dedication.
I have also applied to for training within Christopher Penczak’s ‘Inner Temple of Witchcraft’ school and am waiting to hear back regarding my application. I have been wanting to join for some time and I’ve finally taken the leap and committed.
All in all it should provide for an interesting time ahead.
