Thank you for being my friends!
I am such a lucky witch to have each and everyone of you here each day.
Much Love & Many Blessings,
Lady A
P. S.
This morning during the regular posts, you will find info regarding herbs. These herbs are special because they pertain to Yule. Don’t hurt to refresh ourselves occasionally. Well for me at least it doesn’t. I hope you enjoy them!
More Friendship Comments
1. Revere, honour, tend, and heal the Earth.
2. Of that which you grow, make or use, let as much as possible return to the Earth as an offering to Her, as a way to nourish the cycle of life.
3. Do not judge those of other paths, but offer them love and aid.
4. Do not steal from human, animal, or spirit; if you have needs you can’t meet, turn to your community.
5. Offer friendship and hospitality to strangers who visit among you.
6. You shall never handfast or wed someone you don’t love.
7. Honour the relationships and commitments of others, and don’t couple together if it will cause harm to another.
8. Raise your children with kindness, feed, clothe, and house them as well as you can. Show them love and affection, teach them strength and wisdom.
9. Deal fairly and honestly in all your transactions with others, following the letter and spirit of any contract you agree.
Magickal Intentions: Love, Romance, Marriage, Sexual Matters, Physical Beauty, Friendship and Partnerships, Strangers and Heart
Incense: Strawberry, Sandalwood, Rose, Saffron and Vanilla
Planet: Venus
Sign: Libra and Taurus
Angel: Ariel
Colors: Green, Pink, Aqua
Herbs/Plants: Pink Rose, Ivy, Birch, Heather, Clematis, Sage, Violet and Water Lilly Stones: Rose Quartz, Moonstone, Pink Tourmaline, Peridot, Emerald and Jade
Oil: (Venus) Cardamom, Palm Rosa, Rose, Yarrow
Friday belongs to Venus, and its energies are warm, sensuous, and fulfilling. Efforts that involve any type of pleasure, comfort, and luxury, as well as the arts, music, or aroma (incense and perfume) works well on this day. As Venus lends its sensuous influences to the energies of this day, use it for any magical work that deals with matters of the heart.
More Friday Comments
A Warm Refuge
Our best friends are a warm refuge in which we feel free to be fully ourselves.
By the time we reach adulthood, many of us have had the good fortune to have at least one best friend. If we have moved around or changed our life situation repeatedly, we may be lucky enough to have had several. The best friend relationship is often our earliest intimate peer relationship, and it can be a source of great warmth and connection throughout our lives. The details of best friendship change as we grow up and grow older, but the heart of it remains the same. Our best friends are a warm refuge in which we feel free to be fully ourselves, to share our deepest secrets, to rest when we are tired, to celebrate when we are happy—a place in which we feel utterly welcome to give and receive that most precious of all gifts, love.
Most intimate relationships hit bumps from time to time, and one of the hallmarks of an enduring best friendship is its ability to ride out the turbulence and remain intact even as it faces changes. Our best friends are those who manage to love us through all of our transitions, as we do the same for them. We find ways to embrace and appreciate the differences that set us apart and offer love and support no matter what. We allow each other to be exactly as we are at a given moment, even as we allow each other to change over time. In this way, best friends sometimes feel like family. We know we will stick together regardless of where our individual paths lead.
We may be on the phone with our best friends every day, or we may not have spoken for a year, yet we know that our bond will be strong and immediate when we do connect. This bond ties us together even when we are apart and draws us blissfully back into the warm refuge of each other’s company when our paths bring us together again.
Ok, I am a sentimental sap today, lol! But we don’t tell you often enough, how much we appreciate you. Your caring, love and support means the world to all of us. You are a part of our family.
Through it all, you have been with us. To stand beside us and lend us a helping hand when we needed it. You are indeed the best bunch of people on the net and we are honored to call you friends and family.
Thank you & We Love You,
Goddess Bless You Always,
WOTC Management
More Friendship Quotes Comments
More Friendship Comments
Hey, it’s Saturday! I am like everyone else. I don’t like to work anymore than I have to on Saturdays, lol! So I thought what should I do, what should I do??? Hmm, share one of my favorite quotes with you. It is about friendship and it is oh, so true! I hope you enjoy it.
Have a great weekend, my loves!
“Making a thousand friends a year is not a miracle.
The miracle is to make a friend who stands by you
for a thousand years.”
by Scylla
Evaluating Our Relationships
There comes a time in all our lives when we may need to evaluate our relationships, making sure that they are having a positive effect on us, rather than dragging us down. Without realizing it, we may be spending precious time and energy engaging in friendships that let us down, rather than cultivating ones that support and nourish us along our path. Life, with its many twists, turns, and challenges, is difficult enough without us entertaining people in our inner circle who drain our energy. We can do so much more in this world when we are surrounded by people who understand what we’re trying to do and who positively support our efforts to walk our path.
We can begin this evaluation process by simply noticing how we feel in the context of each one of our close relationships. We may begin to see that an old friend is still carrying negative attitudes or ideas that we ourselves need to let go of in order to move forward. Or we may find that we have a long-term relationship with someone who has a habit of letting us down, or not showing up for us when we need support. There are many ways to go about changing the status quo in situations like this, having a heart to heart with our friend showing through example. This process isn’t so much about abandoning old friends as it is about shifting our relationships so that they support us on our journey rather than holding us back.
An important part of this process is looking at ourselves and noticing what kind of friend we are to the people in our lives. We might find that as we adjust our own approach to a relationship, challenging ourselves to be more supportive and positive, our friends make adjustments as well and the whole world benefits.
‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Everyone is a collector of something. And everyone’s collection looks peculiar to someone else. And yet, who knows why an item may have a certain appeal to one particular person. The shape, the color, the whole idea may have a hidden background, but it is most definitely there!
It may be old books, or magazines. Perhaps it is pill bottles, fishing hooks, or something “I may need someday when….” Who knows the reasons old calendars continue to hang, and scraps of this and that may someday be just what I need.
But more dear than any of these are the happy thoughts we collect to use along the way. We can use them to cheer someone, to pass along a word of courage, a simple prayer, a smile. And when someone has time to share with us an experience that we may profit by the pain they felt – yes, these are collector’s items. These priceless bits of life’s fabric, woven by someone’s cares and offered to us in hopes that it will help.
Whatever it is that we collect, we must never forget the dearest collections are the kindnesses, the thoughtful acts, the smiling faces that can be ours by giving the same.
What could be so priceless as true friendship? Friends for which time and space do not exist! It is written, “What a great blessing is a friend with breast so trusty that thou mayest safely bury all thy secrets in it, whose conscience thou mayest fear less than thy own; who can relieve thy cares by his conversation, thy doubts by his counsels, thy sadness by his good humor, and whose very looks give thee comfort.”
All of us have had many friends, but the special ones remain forever in our memories. The dearest are those who believe in us and are willing to trust us with their friendship.
We cannot force friendship. It is something mutually felt, mutually understood, and silently accepted. It is our opportunity to demonstrate our very best selves – to ask no questions and to pass no criticisms.
“Before us is a future all unknown, a path untrod;
Beside us a friend well loved and known –
That friend is God.”
Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.
Visit her web site to purchase the wonderful books by Joyce as gifts for yourself or for loved ones……and also for those who don’t have access to the Internet:
http://www.hifler.comElder’s Meditation of the Day
By White Bison, Inc., an American Indian-owned nonprofit organization. Order their many products from their web site:
Don’t let a friend or a loved one convince you that their newest “cure-all” will fix everything from cancer to dandruff. It is one in another string of such things that trace their dubious roots to the infamous “snake oil” salesmen of yesteryear.
This is not the best day to take a friend aside and confide your concerns, especially when those concerns involve their love life or their children. You may be tempted to offer unsolicited advice, and that is likely to backfire if you are not careful.
The family member who is in need of emotional support today is you. You cannot rescue everyone else, when you are dealing with emotional issues of your own. Right now, the best way to deal with your feelings is to confront them, and that may mean “telling it like it is” to someone who has not been paying attention.
Good news is coming in from friends or companions about an upcoming party or gathering. That may be excellent news, just in time to take your mind off some money worries or a dispute over a financial agreement that has you rather frustrated today.
If you are looking for new financial opportunities, you may stumble across an interesting “Get Rich” scheme on the Internet that, believe it or not, might actually pay off for you … just not maybe as much or as quickly as you had hoped.
An inner riot is getting deafening. If you are at all tempted to think that “it” – whatever may frustrate you right now – is coming from outside or is someone else’s fault, think again. You do create your reality sometimes, often because you need to learn something.
It’s another good day to stay silent, but that may be difficult, because you’ll have insights that may be helpful to others. However, if you offer advice before you are asked, it is likely to go unheeded at best – or be thrown back in your face at worst.
This is not the best day to trust in friendly investment advice. Avoid those who may offer advice or ideas, but whose real agenda is getting a slice of your financial pie. Be careful when discussions of religion or politics roll around too, because you could get trapped in someone’s circular thinking.
Communications troubles dog your ambitions today. You may find that you have problems with cell phones, fax machines and networked computers. If you are creative, you may find an alternative solution that actually helps you make a better connection with a boss or important client.
Family members are making unreasonable demands on your time and attention, when you have other plans or responsibilities. You can put them off for a little bit by throwing on the charm. If that does not work, there may be confrontations when you are forced to say “Not today, sorry!”
You may be looking at changes in your spiritual beliefs or value system today as the result of some unusual information you get from a friend. Some of what they have to say could be wildly speculative though, so it pays to keep an open but skeptical mindset.
A romantic relationship seems to skid to a halt today, but don’t worry. There are unlikely to be long-term repercussions to anything that is said or done right now, particularly in romantic or business partnerships. This is not a good day to sign partnership agreements.
‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
The greatest tragedy of life is not that we quarrel with our fellows, but that we do not take time to know them.
In his great understanding of man and nature, Thoreau wrote, “Let a man take time enough for the most trivial deed.” Take time.
How often what seems to be an unfriendly atmosphere is only a lack of time. Some of our dearest friends are hidden behind the mask of hurry. And we need so desperately to know each other.
Understanding comes when people are allowed to talk to one another. They discover the ways and needs, the loves and hopes, and the despairs and fears when they take enough time to speak of them. All these things that make for understanding and compassion come from personal contact and the knowledge and practice of good will.
People become more civilized, more peaceful, more as God intended them to be when they take time to make friends out of acquaintances.
To be a good listener endears many a friendship. Everyone needs someone with whom to talk at length on all subjects without later regret. It has been written, “What a great blessing is a friend with breast so trusty that you may bury all your secrets in it.”
And how often we need to be that friend and be the listener, and to make sure we are worthy of that trust.
Listening comes in many ways. We listen with all our sense, knowing many times without having to be told what someone’s needs are. Charles Dickens said that no one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else. And it just may be by listening that we lighten another’s load.
Sometimes we listen with our hearts and understand in silence. Sometimes we simply have to put ourselves into a situation to understand all sides of it. And we best do so by listening.
All our lives we carry secrets with us that we long to reveal to someone who understands.
There are relationships in our lives better and closer than the ordinary. Closer yet than brothers or sisters are those with whom we can share all our secrets, we think.
What a sad state of affairs when life imparts that others cannot always be trusted. What a shock to realize we have given all our hearts and bared our souls to people whose curiosity was the only motive that compelled them to listen.
Phillip Massinger, sixteenth century poet wrote, “I have played the fool, the gross fool to believe the bosom of a friend would hold a secret mine own could not contain.”
Not one of us can testify that we have nothing within our lives and thoughts that we cannot reveal. And many of us have not expressed our innermost thoughts because we have found no one in whom we can confide.
As Shakespeare said, “Many a man’s tongue shakes out its master’s undoing.” Sometimes the loquacious tell their secrets not out of a need to tell them, but out of a love of talking.
One of the greatest feelings in the world is to discover we haven’t told something we cherish very much to someone we once thought we could trust.
Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.
Visit her web site to purchase the wonderful books by Joyce as gifts for yourself or for loved ones……and also for those who don’t have access to the Internet:
http://www.hifler.com‘THINK on THESE THINGS’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler
Henry David Thoreau, whose love for simplicity often took him into solitude, also wrote of the sensitive side of human nature. “The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling.”
How easy it is to destroy the only approach to our true selves. And how often communications are broken down by the brutal force of “getting the point” and speaking “frankly.”
The only time an agreement has been reached by the frankly routine is when two people already believe in the same thing. And it is a most infrequent occasion when two people can meet head-on and believe the other honest because that person is direct and wordy.
More often, there must be some thought given to the sensitivity of the other person. First, that person is a human being with human dignity; feelings and thoughts, strong likes and dislikes. And it is a considerate person who has the sensitive perception and insight into the heart of another, and because of that thoughtfulness can be more honest and direct and progress by it.
Nevertheless, if one has to be constantly on the outlook to keep from offending a friend, then that person is not really a friend. It isn’t difficult to be a friend to someone who is endearing to everyone. Indeed it is a pleasure to be counted among the person’s friends. But it is another thing altogether to be a friend to someone who finds little friendship anywhere.
Other people seldom see us as we are. In fact, who we truly are is lost somewhere among our daily contacts. We react differently to nearly every person we meet. Their personality and ours may blend beautifully or they may clash horribly. And we can rather tell where the fault lies when we balance out the blends and the clashes. Are we easy to be friends with, or are we merely acquaintances and nothing more?
If people have to dodge around so many issues in order to keep us sweet, we need to hear some truth about ourselves. If we can’t do it, it may have to come from a friend. Then, we must remember the words of Thomas A. Becket, “Better are the blows of a friend than the kisses of an enemy.”
Available online! ‘Cherokee Feast of Days’
By Joyce Sequichie Hifler.
Visit her web site to purchase the wonderful books by Joyce as gifts for yourself or for loved ones……and also for those who don’t have access to the Internet:
http://www.hifler.comElder’s Meditation of the Day April 13
“Once you make a friend, a friend never leaves you, even to death. So a friend is really hard to find.”
–Wallace Black Elk, LAKOTA
Once, an Elder told me he made a decision to be my friend. He said this friendship wasn’t based on my behavior or how I acted; he said the friendship was based on his decision. He decided to be my friend. This friendship has happened like he said. Even if I don’t see him for a long time, or if I get mad at him, he has never changed his decision. This is true friendship.
Great Spirit, I’m glad you are this kind of Friend.
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Calendar of the Sun
23 Solmonath
Feast of Friends
Colors: Rainbow
Element: Air
Altar: On a cloth of many colors, sewn with symbols of clasped hands, place seven candles also of different colors, and a cup of milk.
Offerings: Colored candles. Offers to be better friends to those both in the house and out of it. Promises to make new friends.
Daily Meal: Any food, preferably simple.
Invocation for the Feast of Friends
Friendship is a light in the darkness,
A call in the wilderness,
A shelter in the storm.
It crosses all boundaries,
It appears where we least expect it,
And it is the first step
Toward opening ourselves
To something new and unexpected.
The friend who is like us
Is like an old comfortable quilt
That lies on our bed
And greets us every night.
Yet the friend who is unlike us
Is like an old comfortable quilt
Found in a stranger’s home
That comforts us
In our homesickness.
May we remember that the one
Is as valuable as the other,
For someday we may need
That spark of friendship
In a strange place
More than we may ever know.
(For this ritual, each steps forward and speaks the name of a friend who has come to be valuable to them, and all respond, “We bless _______ for the gift of friendship.” That day, friends from outside the house may be welcomed in for lunch, dinner, or merely socializing.)
January 26 – Daily Feast
There are in every life both sunshine people and rainy-day people. There are giving people and there are those who take, but how so few in number are those who understand. To have someone understand why we cry or laugh, why we feel downcast for no apparent reason, is to have a friend. A friend accepts our changes of mood without telling us to snap out of it. They know if we could so easily handle tears we would have done it already. All our loneliness and worry and fear seems to fade in the presence of a friend who never judges but stands alongside with loyalty. “My u na li, take my hand and walk with me until you can go alone.” It gives us what we need to be a friend as well.
~ We shall not fail….to nourish your hearts….about the renewal of our amity and the brightening of the Chain of Friendship. ~
CANASSATEGO, 1742
‘A Cherokee Feast of Days’, by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
August 12 – Daily Feast
Time and space mean nothing to friends. They find each other again and again, to share the things that are important – and a great many things that are ordinary, everyday events. Tsu na li I, friends or close ones, forgive us whether we deserve it or not. They know how easy it is to get off center. But they have high hopes for us – maybe even higher than we have for ourselves. We are at our best when someone chooses to be that kind of friend, to make allowances for our lapses of memory – for no other reason than precious, loyal friendship. It is a quiet, peaceful and dear relationship that never grows old and never ends. Being such a friend is a sweet and blessed responsibility.
~ The Great Spirit has smiled upon us and made us glad. ~
KEOKUK
‘A Cherokee Feast of Days’, by Joyce Sequichie Hifler
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Author: Beweaver
Now mind you, I’ve been asked to do magic for folks over the years. But none have ever followed through. They think it sounds good but for one reason or the other they bail. Don’t know if it’s because they become afraid or can’t get their act together enough or what. So it’s never happened. I’ve always been nervous at the thought. Those days are gone. And it came to me as naturally as snapping my fingers.
Some of you might remember the difficult wounding of a tender, fairly new friendship back in December. It kind of blew up and kind of healed. But we have not met outside of a meeting nor talked on the phone nor walked around the lake since that day. I have missed her terribly. Missed her and her daughter. But I did make a pact with myself, because of all the challenges I was having regarding all friendships, that I would seek out those who seek me. That it was time I stopped pursuing people who, when left to their own devices, did not pursue me.
I wanted her to have the time she needed, I didn’t want to push myself on her. I had told her I loved her and that I wanted her in my life. I hoped that something might happen, not holding my breath, detachment has been mine, and last week it happened.
She contacted me to ask if paying her psychic $500 to cleanse her house was a reasonable thing given what I know about magic. That the psychic said someone was trying to take her house away, that they were watching her house. Now I don’t know if this was truth or if the person was trying to scare her into spending a bundle on “magical” remedies. I told her my truth. That no witch I know would charge anyone $500 for any magic of any kind. That I would be very happy to come and do some work on her house for her but I would prefer it if she helped. For no charge, that witches in my tradition don’t charge for their services although they were allowed to accept gifts of thanks.
I suggested that her 13-year-old daughter would be very welcome but only if my friend, as her mother, approved. I felt that she needed this cleansing as much as her mother did. And to spend $500 on a new front door if she felt she needed to spend it. Tongue in cheek of course.
She said, oh yes please. I wrote up a ritual, sent her a shopping list, worked out the best day, and called my High Priestess for direction. Like my friend my high priestess is Jewish. She suggested that instead of pentagrams we use the Mogen David. The Shield of David. Yes, that six-pointed star, like our pentagram, is a shield. A shield used by God to protect his people. Perfect. I am not a squeamish witch; I embrace all the good, spiritual tools available to me. To be able to help them with symbols and a language that spoke to them was such an honor.
My friend said that she barely got it all out when her daughter excitedly said, “YES! I want to do this with you.” Awesome.
I actually got a little lost on my way there. When I got my new phone and they transferred the sim card info, I lost all addresses but hadn’t realized until I got lost that I needed theirs. When I finally found it I realized that I had driven right past it twice. I didn’t recognize the place. My friend had already begun to renew her home and her life. The lights from the windows, the colors of the walls radiating out, was so welcoming, quite beautiful. The inside had changed even more. She was half way there instinctively, intuitively. Moving furniture out, moving it about, changing the flow of energy, those are powerful tools. New locks on doors and windows.
So three women and a dog talked about what we would be doing, toured the house, and explained grounding and some of the tools we would be using. I gently suggested that she remove her ex-husband’s things from the house as soon as she could. That is was time. He is still around but he is severely disabled due to an allergic reaction to a medication and has no interest or use for what is left. That she buys herself and her daughter new sheets and physically cleanses their rooms to remove the sadness and depression that they had experienced in their beds for the past 3 years. That the house had always felt sad to me and that it wasn’t just their sadness, that it felt older to me. She said the neighbors had told her that a woman like Throw Mama From A Train had lived there with her children. Neglect, pain, sadness. I was so glad she was doing this.
I explained grounding and we began. We tried to start from a standing position, forming a triangle with our bodies to represent the female half of the Mogen David but the dog thought we wanted to dance and kept jumping up and licking faces. We had to sit. I walked them through a guided meditation for grounding and I felt them both ground. When the daughter opened her eyes we could both tell that something had really happened for her. She is thirteen but her ability to articulate what that felt like and what she experienced was truly beautiful. I wish we could all keep a part of that wise girl who’s just become a woman, who’s still experiencing the world and it’s wonders with a state of grace, inside us.
She was so excited to do this. Her energy was so bouncy, so pure, so joyful. Her bat mitzvah was only a few weeks ago and she was so excited to learn about the Kabbalistic Cross and to seal her doors and windows with something magical that was from her own faith.
We swept that house; we asperged that house; we cleansed that house. We sealed the doors and windows with Mogen David’s; we chanted the heck out of that house and sent the negative energy and spirits packing. We charged some stones to ward the perimeter of the property and necklaces for them to wear. We laughed, we hugged, we marveled, we sighed. It was so good, so wonderful.
She and her daughter honored and blessed me with their need and their request. And their gratitude. While I was packing up to leave they went down to the basement to turn off lights and lock up. What they came back with was something that I had seen in the basement. A black leather motorcycle jacket with studs on the collar, belt, and shoulders. It had belonged to her ex-husband, the father of her daughter.
I had said that if she was selling it in the yard sale they were planning that I would definitely be interested. She told me that this coat had seen the punk music scene in New York. That it knew Lou Reed, The Ramones, poets, playwrights, was even in a photo shoot for a Japanese magazine. That it had a real history, the man who wore it had lived the life with those I had admired back in the day. I was in awe of that jacket. And they gave it to me in gratitude for coming over to bless their house.
We laughed and talked and hugged some more. I drove home high as a kite, floating on air. It was hours before I was able to fall asleep. I had hung the coat up but kept it out of my closet. While that coat, one just like it, has been on my wish list for my entire adult life, I’ve never wanted to spend the money or didn’t find one I liked or that fit, I felt uneasy. I had planted my wish in her mind and I felt that in a way I had asked for payment. I wasn’t sure what to do.
When I woke the next morning I thought I should call her, see how she’s doing. “No, she’s out buying new sheets, ” sounded in my head. I set about cleaning my own room. 90% of what I brought with me to my parents house is in one room with me. 11 x 11. I’m certain I’m being generous to the size. Clutter builds up very quickly. I’ve got The Razor’s Edge on the laptop playing and I’m clearing and sorting out my underwear drawer (I believe MOST of magic is about making mundane acts magical) when the phone rang.
It was my friend. She was so excited, words bubbling out of her so fast, she’s so emotionally charged. She starts telling me that knowing that I have that coat has done so much good. That the man who was her daughter’s father was a man she had loved, who had been a very good man, that she had really loved him and knowing that the coat went to someone who really wanted it and who knew him and her and their story, someone who would honor it and give it a new loving life made her heart overflow.
Tears? Falling like a fountain, we’re both just sobbing. She tells me she’s been crying all morning but it’s been bittersweet, a cleansing. And she was putting the new purple sheets on her daughter’s bed as we talked. And that after I left, her daughter, with eyes as big as saucers, said, “She’s the real thing Mom. She’s a REAL witch.” Now that is a compliment indeed and I’m humbled and all kinds of grateful.
So much healing was done Saturday night. The night of Saturn, waning moon in Sagittarius. A banishing protective night. But this is the best part of magic. Things happen that you don’t expect and hardly dare to hope. Things happen that are counter intuitive. Good things, things like healings and blessings and love happen when it isn’t a full moon. New things begin; joy is embraced. All in black our bond was cast. The three of us, three women. And a dog. Three women who will always have Saturday, February 6th, in their hearts for the rest of their lives and beyond. Wealth beyond compare.
Be careful what you witch for. You just might get it. *wink*
Witches Of The Craft® 