Group or Solitary: Which Is Best For You?

Group or Solitary: Which Is Best For You?

Author: Bronwen Forbes

One of the biggest and most important decisions you will make as a newcomer to the Pagan path is whether to join an existing group of like-minded practitioners or go it on your own as a solitary. Of course, there will be other big decisions to make later but they are all dependent upon what you choose to do now.

In the interest of full disclosure, I will confess that I am a big advocate of finding others who a) are further along the path than you and learning all you can from them and b) are folks your gut seems to trust (more on this in a future article, I promise) . Why? Let me give you an example.

At one time my group’s holiday rituals were open to any Pagans in the area who chose to attend (if they told us they were coming in advance) . Since our group was the only one and the first one in the area for some time, we attracted a lot of people who hadn’t ever been in ritual with other Pagans, even though they’d been solitaries for years.

A solitary came to one of our rituals, speaking to anyone who would listen about her “astral fiancé.” Apparently she’d met a man on the astral plane – but never in real life – and they planned to marry just as soon as she moved to Ireland and figured out which one of several million Irishmen he was. To further hinder her search, she didn’t know what his name was. At some point in the ritual they apparently got “married” (it was Beltane, after all!) because by the end of the evening she was referring to her “astral husband.” As an occasional writer of fiction, I wish I could make up stuff this good!

Does the idea of an anonymous “astral fiancé” sound a little farfetched? It sure did to us – especially when she quit her job, moved to Ireland, and (no surprise) never found him. Last we heard she was back in the States, flat broke, and living out of her car. If this woman had had some basic non-book training and/or regular contact with a group at the beginning of her Pagan studies, she’d have known better than to delude herself to the point of homelessness.

I’m not saying that every solitary Pagan is going to end up doing something profoundly stupid, spiritually-speaking, and end up living in a car, but just as you turn to a more experienced roadster when you’re learning how to drive that car, it makes just as much sense to find someone – preferably several someones – when you’re learning the Pagan basics. The book you study in order to pass the written driver’s test is good for learning the rules of the road, but you’re not going to get your license without a lot of supervised, hands-on experience. So it is with Paganism.

On the other hand, there are times and places and personalities that are better suited for solitary work. Perhaps you live too far away from the nearest group to make regular travel for rituals and classes impossible. Or maybe the local coven or grove sets off your “icky alarm” and you’d prefer to never be in their presence again, thank you very much. Or maybe your work life is too hectic and home life is too full of the needs of small children to be able to make a commitment to a group’s calendar.

Or maybe, just maybe, you are more suited to a spiritual life of quiet, private observance and contemplation and will, in fact, go farther on your Pagan path if you travel alone. I’ve met some fine people in my life for whom this is the case; I admire their personal dedication even though I can’t emulate it.

If it’s just my husband, my child and I in the house on a holiday or full moon, we’re not likely to have a formal ritual – much like my widowed mother-in-law who will cook up a storm if a few of her children or grandchildren are expected for dinner but “just can’t be bothered” to cook if she’s just feeding herself.

So how do you know if you’re more suited for a group or a solitary practice? Ask yourself the following questions. Your answers should tell you what decision you need to make to better your chances of a satisfying spiritual future.

Is there a group nearby that I like and trust? If the answers are “yes” (Yes there is a group, yes it is nearby, yes I like them, and yes I trust them) , and they have space for you, by all means petition to join. However, if there is even one “no” (There’s a group nearby but I don’t like them and wouldn’t trust them to teach me how to walk my dog, much less take an active role in my spiritual development) , you’re much better off on your own.

Do I have the personal discipline to actively practice on my own? I freely admit that I do not. I need to commit to a group and the group calendar to actively, integrally observe even the basic holidays and moon phases. And that’s okay – I’m not the only one!

However, if you can – or would even prefer to – make a personal commitment to make small observances to the Gods at this time every day (or week, or holiday) and know you’ll keep that commitment, then I say good for you! You have at least some of what it takes to be a solitary.

Am I willing to ask for help or a reality check from time to time? I don’t think it ever occurred to our above-mentioned Beltane guest to ask anyone online or in person if she was deluding herself or if her astral experiences were real. When my husband was first starting to study Paganism, he made a point of seeking out community elders and experienced practitioners at local Pagan festivals and asking them questions. Even though these good folk weren’t his formal teachers, they were more than happy to answer him.

If you join a group, your High Priest or High Priestess will provide help and reality checks – that’s their job. If you choose to go solitary, you should consider attending a nearby gathering, Pagan Pride Day, or workshop at a Pagan store once in a while just to touch base with the rest of the community. I’d hate for you to drop everything and move to Ireland if it’s all in your head.

Ultimately, only you can choose whether to join a group or strike out on your own at the beginning of your Pagan life. Only you know your geographical, work, family, and personal circumstances that will all factor into the decision.

Whichever way you choose, I wish you all the best. In some ways, we are all alone – the Path is different for each person who walks it; in other ways we are all part of this wonderful, awe-inspiring, sprawling Pagan community.

Samhain Inspired Thoughts on Community

Samhain Inspired Thoughts on Community

Author: Crick

Hey folks, Samhain energies are at work and so I woke up this morning with some thoughts that I would like to share. First I would like to preface my thoughts with an analogy that I learned about many years ago. Basically, it is about a frog and a scorpion.

The Scorpion wanted to get to the opposite shore of the English Channel. And so he sought out various creatures that could assist him in the endeavor. Each time he was turned down, in part because of the fear of who he was and in part because of what he was capable of doing to others.

At any rate, he finally came to Frog with his entreaty. At first Frog turned him down like all of the others before him. But Scorpion kept pleading, as he knew this was his last chance to reach the opposite shore. Finally Frog relented and agreed to carry scorpion across the channel on his back. When they got to the middle of the channel, Scorpion stung Frog with his venomous tail.

Aghast, Frog cried out to Scorpion, “Why did you sting me, for I am dying and we shall both surely drown now?”

Scorpion responded, “You knew the nature of my personality before you agreed to help me!”

There are several reasons why I offer this analogy as a preface to my early morning thoughts. Imagine that, an Irishman resorting to the art of Triad (grin) . To begin with, there has been a great deal of talk over the years by modern pagans about “pagan community”. The reality is that such a community is a long way from becoming a valid entity. It is a concept that is rife with the insecurities of those who claim to adhere to such a concept. Many modern pagans were once members of the Abraham faiths, in particular, Christianity. And in many cases, such folks have parents, siblings, relatives and friends who still are Christians or what have you. And that is all good.

However, this has created a consistent undercurrent of insecurity because these modern pagans feel an overwhelming need to either hide their current pagan beliefs from their families and friends or to frantically seek approval from such folks.

To my mind, if folks have doubts about their self-professed beliefs, then perhaps they should reassess their desire to follow said beliefs. For to be true to others, one must first be able to be true to yourself. And such insecurities are detrimental to any efforts to build a genuine community whether it be modern paganism or what have you.

In view of such insecurities, there are many modern pagans — either individuals or groups — who feel that their primary mission as pagans is to engage in outreach with other religions. In spite of the fact that there are over four-hundred established religions in the modern world, this generally means that these modern pagans ignore four-hundred of these religions and reach out primarily and in most cases, specifically to the Christian religion.

At this point, I would like to point out that in this age of electronics that genuine communications skills are falling to the wayside. The current generation is losing the art of one-on-one communication due to their reliance on such electronic devices.

And as such, there will inevitably be the “me, me, me” types who will assume they know what I am trying to convey here. They will not seek clarification, because they already have the ‘answers’ to my thoughts… at least within their own self imposed limitations they will think so.

To such folks, I can only shrug my shoulders and hope that one day they will actually grow spiritually and thus find the genuine wisdom to understand a concept that is greater than themselves.

It will be said that that damn Crick hates Christians. My response would be “of course not”, but like the scorpions, I am aware of their own established behavior.

It will be said that that damn Crick is against community outreach. My response would be “Of course not”, but it should not be a primary and driving force in order to validate my pagan beliefs. And such outreach should be “attempted” with an expectation to meet with an equal amount of reciprocity… reciprocity of which is clearly absent from the Christian community. Yes of course there are exceptions to every rule, but it is realistically not the norm.

What then to my mind should be our primary goal you may ask? Well actually there are two very general goals if the modern pagan community is ever to reach a degree of cohesion and thus validity as a genuine community.

The first is to accept the realities of your chosen path. There are very few, if any, real “Masters” in modern paganism. The regurgitation of over the last fifty years of “101 Paganism” should be clear confirmation of this. And besides, we are all students over the course of our lives.
It is this denial of being a student that gives birth to the plethora of twenty and thirty-year-old ‘masters’ that modern paganism is noted for. It is also this denial that precludes modern pagans from acknowledging the pagan paths around the world that have been in place for many, many generations. And finally, it is this denial that sets modern pagans upon those who actually may know more than just the basic 101 scripts that defines modern paganism.

This is why the word “Elder” creates such a conflicting morass amongst modern pagans. For to define the word “Elder” in the manner that it is used among pre-modern pagans is to admit that one may actually be a student and not the “wise know it all’ that so many modern pagans strive to present themselves as, no matter how subtlety it is done. Yes, I know. Let the denials begin. It is to be expected when insecurities cloud reality. Besides, in this modern generation, everyone is right and no one is responsible, which is why we have the current me, me, me mindset in the first place.

Anyway, moving on.

The modern pagan community needs to find the strength to grow beyond such self-centered concepts of me-ism. Each community, pagan or otherwise is the sum of its members. If the modern pagan community is ever to become a genuine community, it must first learn to be true to its own tenets. Many within the modern pagan community will mouth the words acceptance and diversity. Sounds like good tenets to establish a community by doesn’t it?

And yet as soon as a free thinker such as myself proffers an “opinion” that is divergent from some other pagan, well … the ugliness rears its head. Hateful and disparaging words are hurled at will, in an attempt to hurt the author of such individual thoughts, and in extreme cases, threats of physical violence are made. Are such reactions, which in all reality are based upon personal insecurities really conductive to creating a sense of cohesiveness in a budding community?

And finally, we need to find the strength to break out of the modern concept of “me-ism” and reach out to other pagans in this fragile community without preconceptions and/or preconditions. As an umbrella community, we do not walk in lockstep with each other. The modern pagan community, unlike pagan communities of olden times which consisted of folks of identical beliefs and usually of small enclaves such as covens, tribes and the like, is now a morass of many, many different paths.

We need to reach a genuine understanding of the modern interpretation of pagan community that goes beyond just mouthing the words.

Perhaps when we develop genuine outreach amongst ourselves then we can validate the inordinate amount of energy that some modern pagan individuals/groups employ towards the Christian religion as being based on something other than an attempt to give in to ones personal insecurities.

Before I stop here and grab my first cup of java of the morning, please keep in mind that the preceding thoughts are simply the personal opinion of one old witch who has more years behind him then he has in left in front of him. And before you allow the “me -ism” to take precedence in your thoughts, please understand that my sole purpose in this rant is to spark the fuse of thought… it is an attempt to ignite a blaze of introspection that in the end will open the door to a understanding that is greater than you or I.

Now, where is that cup of java?

Nymph Love Wish (Blood/Harvest Moon)

Nymphs are amorous faeries born on the water, or are celestial or terrestrial, Gods, Titans, heroes, and mortals have all fallen in love with them. A nymph lives to be the same age as the Phoenix, who outlives nine ravens, who outlives tree stags, who outlives four crows, who outlives nine generations of ages mortals. Nymphs live in the place they protect and care for such as a star, planet, tree, crystal, flower, cave, ocean, lake, spring, river or mountain. Generous to the kind-hearted, they are sensuous shape shifters. Luminous, graceful and beautiful, they grant the wishes of loves. Cast this spell to call upon the Nymphs to help your love wish come true.

For this spell, you will need your wand and a bell.

At dusk, draw a magick circle and call in the Elements. Use the base of your wand to knock nine times on the altar table, in three series of three. Put your wand back upon the altar, and then hold the bell in your receptive hand, and ring it seven times. Now say:

“Beautiful nymphs of the moonlight

Silver mist clad Ladies of starlight

Graceful and loving friends, I call to you now

Moon women of enchanting powers

Faery spirits wild and free

Beautiful nymphs of beauty and brightness

Please grant me my wish tonight.

(State your love wish.)

Thank ou lovely Ladies, blessed be!

After you are done casting the spell, ring the bell three times with your receptive hand and use the base of your wand to knock on the altar three times. Thank the beautiful and generous nymphs, bid farewell to the elements and pull up the circle.

Samhain’s Revels


Samhain’s Revels

Come! Come! Samhain Revels, Summer’s End

Sing! Dance! Celebration For The Dead

Pour! Pour! The Libation For The Dead

Life! Death! Part The Veil, Summer’s End

 

~Magickal Graphics~

Goddess of the Season

Goddess of the Season

 

The Time of the Croneby HP Kerritwyn

Samhain is a time of deep magick within, a time of hard honesty, clear vision unclouded by sentiment, and truth.

It is the Time of the Crone.

In the pure, beloved honesty of Deep Dark, She is there, to lead us away from false or frivolous pretensions, into an exploration of the Center of who we are, to the place of stark honesty within that glimmers and pulses with Her righteous peace .

In the velvet warmth of Deep Dark, She is there to wrap us in the comfort of our profound vulnerability, so that we may awaken to the profound essence of our Spirit, as we release all that is false.

We shiver in Awe at Her clear, unsmiling love, and are enraptured by Her embrace, which echoes out into the Universe around us.

She reminds us of all that we have been, all that we are, and all that we CAN BE……if we open to Her with passionate surrender.

Out of the Death of our insecurities and false fears, we are Reborn into our True Selves.

It is the Time of the Crone.

HP Kerritwyn was raised Irish Catholic and searched for years for a faith path in which she could feel at home, free of the misogynistic sexism and patriarchy of her original faith trad. She found Celtic Wicca in September of 1997, joined a local coven for a while, and, in June of 1999, joined the White Moon School, which had just then been started by our founder, Luna Blanca.

 

Kerritwyn was elevated to an HP in the Order in December of 2000, legally ordained in 2003 after the OWM was formally incorporated as a 501 c 3 nonprofit religious corporation, and offers OWM teachings to women in The Sacred Three Goddess School, and to male-to-female transgendered seekers in the Order of the Rainbow Moon.  

In mundane life, Kerritwyn is a practicing attorney, and she is married to a biologically male transgendered partner. They live happily on 22 acres in southcentral PA. She was elected by her sister HPs on July 23, 2009 to be the President of the Board of Directors and the Spiritual Head of the Order of the White Moon.

Today’s Runes for Thursday, October 20th is Inguz

Today’s Runes

Ice Runes are most commonly used for questions about struggle, conflict, and achievement. Inguz is the rune of completion and fertility. The presence of this rune suggests that tasks which have been initiated will come to fruition. This rune is associated with Ing and Frey, it is this connection that explains its connotations of both fertility and sexuality. The variant of this rune shown here is reminiscent of the twin strands of life, and of the challenge and rewards of bringing together things complimentary.

Today’s Runes for October 18th is Gebo

Today’s Runes

Spirit Runes are most commonly used for questions about mysticism, spirituality, and religion. Gebo means gift, and like any gifts, the rune may be understood on many levels. Gifts are generally positive things, for both the giver and the recipient. In many cultures however, gifts and favors carry with them an obligation to respond in kind. It is for this reason that gifts, and hence the rune Gebo, are frequently symbolic of friendships, marriages, alliances, mergers, and other bonds between people or organizations. Gebo is a strong rune and the unions represented are strong as well. Moreover, Gebo is not reversible, as true friendships are not easily undone.

In The News…….American Council of Witches Returns

By Patti Wigington, About.com Guide

One issue that is often a bone of contention in the Pagan community is that we don’t have a universal set of guidelines – some of us may not even identify as Pagans, but as witches or something else. There have been repeated attempts to unify the various branches of the Pagan community, but in general, these are unsuccessful because we’re so diverse and varied in our beliefs and practices. Back in 1973, a group of witches decided to give this a shot, spearheaded by Carl Llewellyn Weschcke, the president of Llewellyn Worldwide. They formed the American Council of Witches, and attempted to define what the standards of modern witches and Neopagans could be. The group then disbanded after only a year or so of existence.

Now, it appears that the group is re-forming as the US American Council of Witches, in order to take a stand against the ever-increasing notion in American politics that non-Christian beliefs are somehow less valid than Christian ones. The group intends to “engage in an interfaith dialogue to identify and address the legal and social needs of members of our religions,” and will be composed of members of a wide variety of Pagan paths.
A press release states:

Newly Formed Group Defends Witchcraft Rights And Beliefs

The United States is a nation whose very foundation, the Bill of Rights, guarantees its citizens freedom of religious beliefs. Yet those citizens with beliefs that fall well outside of Christianity are often misunderstood and persecuted. There seems to be a rising voice in American politics that non-Christian beliefs are somehow less valid than Christian beliefs. One arena where we have seen this is the attack on our President by those claiming he is Muslim, which they appear to believe invalidates his ability to lead our nation. Another arena is such outspoken organizations as David Barton’s Wallbuilders, who advocate a Federal acceptance that the Unites States is a Christian nation.

In light of these attacks upon our basic religious freedoms, members of the community of Pagans, Wiccans, Witches, and other polytheists have united to re-form the American Council of Witches. First formed in 1973, the Council was a group of over seventy Witches and Pagans who drafted a set of principles outlining the common practices of Neopagan religions in North America. This statement was adopted by the Unites States Army for inclusion in their Religious Requirements and Practices of Certain Selected Groups: A Handbook for Chaplains in 1978.

Though the Council was disbanded in 1974, individuals who each follow a Pagan, Neopagan or Witchcraft Tradition feel it is time to reform the organization in order to achieve certain goals that were not addressed by the original council in the early Seventies. Among these goals are: to revise the original council’s Thirteen Principles of Belief Common Among NeoPagans; to re-submit revisions to the United States Army Handbook for Chaplains; to provide government and law enforcement on Federal, State and County levels with information on NeoPagan beliefs and practices to be used in creating and upholding laws, allowing NeoPagans their Constitutional rights, and ministering to the beliefs of Pagan inmates.

The revised American Council Of Witches will be composed of Pagans,Wiccans, Witches and other NeoPagan practitioners from each of the fifty United States. We will engage in an interfaith dialogue to identify and address the legal and social needs of members of our religions, and we will create policy and documents as deemed necessary. And we hope to dialogue with members of other faiths to foster a basic understanding of our beliefs.

For information, interviews and membership, please contact: usamericancouncilofwitches@yahoo.com

On Choosing and Following Your Own Path

On Choosing and Following Your Own Path

Author: Alfred Willowhawk, MMsc, RMT, CTM, Shaman

“What path is right for me?” is a question that each seeker asks at least once in their lives. As children, most individuals follow the pathways of their parents. Even if a parent has no particular spiritual path, the child is influenced by their parent. This is almost genetic as, regardless of a path, the mother, to the child, is the goddess. As they grow older and begin to think for themselves, they begin to feel a desire to either embrace or reject their parental suggestions. This includes the chosen spiritual path of the individual.

In my own life, I have spent time in many “spiritual” and “religious” pathways. Some of these were even of my own choosing at the time, so I thought. However, as we are social creatures, even the most reclusive of us, we still seem to blunder about until we finally settle on what works well for us.

Over the years as I facilitate myself and others on reaching some kind of accommodation with their desires for spiritual connection, certain indications seem to be prevalent with the majority of individuals.

What is a Spiritual Path?

Dictionary.com defines the word spiritual, (among other things) as: of or pertaining to the spirit or soul, as distinguished from the physical nature: a spiritual approach to life.

We will not concern ourselves in this article with the definition of the soul, despite differing presuppositional ethics, but accept this as a good working definition to add to our word “path”.

Again, Dictionary.com defines a path as: a route, course, or track along which something moves, or a course of action, conduct, or procedure.

So, combining both of these we have a spiritual path is one where an individual is taking a route whether physically or metaphysically that pertains to the non-physical being of a person.

This definition allows for many diverse methodologies including those that are primarily of the physical realms, and those that are primarily of the non-physical realms.

Pressures that act as filters

As we stated in the introduction, many factors influence our examination and determination of our path. Some of these factors include, environment, social network, (including parents, friends, and co-workers), ethnicity or bloodline, and connectedness, or lack of it, to the world around us.

Each of these acts as filters through which we see the world around us. Ask any couple in a relationship how many times they “read between the lines” of a statement just to see how effective filters are in our daily lives.

One example of filters in relationships is as follows:

One partner is cooking dinner and asks the other partner: “Would you please take out the overflowing trash please?”

The partner who was asks responds: “What, why do you do that, I work all day and of course I will take it out. I simply forgot. What do you think I sit and read all day? I work too! If it is too much trouble for you to cook dinner tonight then we could have gone out!”

The first partner is taken aback by the vehemence of the response as all they really asked was for their partner to take out the trash! Not everything else! The second partner read between the lines, of the other through there own filters.

While this is an extreme example, you can see what filters do in this mundane world, imagine what it does for our pursuit of a spiritual path. Each individual’s path is unique. One may utilize the same aspects of the divine; yet call them by another name. Take the deific aspect of healing.

In some pathways, the deity of healing is Bridghid, (and lets not forget that spellings and language for even the same deity show regional differences), others it is Kwan Yin, and others Quanyin. Whole nations have gone to war over the NAME of a particular deity rather than listening to the aspect and intent of the name.

In our early 21st century world we have many examples of what I call “filter-itis”. Christians fight Muslims, Jews fight Christians, and Wiccans fight Heathens, on and on and on.

Therefore, the first step in choosing a path is to put away the expectations of the society you are in and focus on the intent of the pathway without these filters.

Society and Acceptance

There is a quote from John Donne (1572-1631), which is in his “Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions”, Meditation XVII: that goes like this:

“All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a better language; and every chapter must be so translated…As therefore the bell that rings to a sermon, calls not upon the preacher only, but upon the congregation to come: so this bell calls us all: but how much more me, who am brought so near the door by this sickness….No man is an island, entire of itself…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

While Mr. Donne was a Christian, the sentiment expressed above is still true, (See, I practice what I preach). We are social creatures that desire the acceptance of those around us. The problem occurs when we desire our existing friends, colleagues, family, etc, to accept our new choice, just because we do!

Our brother or sister, who follows another path, cannot always see that our path is equally valid. Sometimes this is because they are not following their true path either, however, it can also be that they truly feel that their path is RIGHT and yours is WRONG. While, based on the concept that all paths are one path, (my own pre-suppositional ethic), this is not necessarily the filter that others see through.

Therefore, seeking acceptance by others, while part of our social conditioning, does not “play well” with some of those around us that follow a different path.

I have many Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, (not what they call themselves-a topic for another article), Jewish, Pagan, Wiccan, Eclectic, Heathen friends, and family, the only thing that is important to me is that they respect my path as I respect theirs.

What to look for in a path

Since, each of us must live within our own filters, examine the path that calls you in as objective way as possible. If you are called to Quanyin, (the bodhavista form of the deity of Compassion and Love – androgynous) then accept that particular deity as one that speaks to you.

If you feel that the trees speak with you, and you can hear/feel this then follow this where it leads you and don’t automatically say, I am not ____ (insert appropriate group here) and can not really be associated with trees.

If you feel that a particular set of rules (i.e. The Wiccan Rede) speaks to you and reverberates within, then follow it and find others that can support you.

What is important is that it fills some needs within you.

The next step is to investigate the teachings of the path and take on that which speaks to you.

Be true to yourself and don’t belittle, or agonize over the choices you have made.

Be confident in yourself. You are the one who must follow the path, so you are the only one that needs to “understand” the path.

Lastly, do not label yourself if it would put you in a box that you do not wish to be part. Boxes are created by large groups and if you are a “round peg” why fit into a “square hole”?

Enjoy the Journey! After all – ALL life is a Journey.. We don’t REALLY know what is TRUTH – (OOPS, another topic for another day)

¡Buena mañana, mis estimados amigos!

Magickal Graphics
 Lmao! I couldn’t resist. I told you I was trying to think of new ways to say, “Good Morning!” Before you run to Babelfish (like me, lol!) the above says, “Good Morning, my dear friends! Hey it’s different (not the greeting, the language, lol)!

 

 The photo I used today, I read and then re-read it. It touched my heart and it also describes me to a tee. I am sure if you read it, it will also touch some of you. It is true our past experiences, good and bad, make us who we are. We learn from them and we grow. We never stop learning if we do, we stop growing. This is especially true in The Craft. Witchcraft is a never ending journey. You must have your mind open and always be willing to learn. With an open mind and a willingness to learn, the Goddess will show you all the beauties and mysteries of this world and the universe.

~Magickal Graphics~

A Witch’s Calling

A Witch’s Calling

Author: Moon magik

From the moment we are born into this learning experience called life, most of us have our spiritual paths chosen for us. If your parents are Catholic, you’re going to be Catholic. If your parents are Baptist, you’re definitely going to be Baptist. Children have no choice to their own beliefs, because their parents require them to follow family tradition. We then grow up doing the same thing to our own children. There are very few people that grow up and just decide after 20 or 30 years that they do not believe what they were raised to believe. There are also some that grow up with absolutely no spirituality in their lives at all.

My mother and father were divorced just 8 months after I was born. My father raised me, because my mother was young and irresponsible and he wanted me to grow up in a good environment. During the first seven years of my life, we lived with my grandparents. My grandparents were Lutheran, so naturally my father was Lutheran as well. There was a Lutheran church conveniently located just a few houses down from our home.

I knew from a very young age that I did not belong in a Lutheran Church. Most Witches’ have a calling to the old ways and earth traditions at some point in their lives. I hated bible study and had no interest in learning about Christ. I didn’t know anything about Witchcraft, or have a clue that I would one day find myself casting spells in a circle on my bedroom floor. I just simply didn’t care for church. It wasn’t until I was about 11 years old when I started having dreams that I was magical.

It began sporadically and then eventually became an every night dream. In my dream I was standing in the middle of the woods during the peak of fall season. I was spinning in circles and dancing around trees. Every time I had the dream, I notice I had a wooden stick in my hand. I now realize the wooden stick was my wand. I went to the library one morning to check out a book on Diana Ross, because I had a book report for school due on the following Monday.

When I sat down at the table in the library there was one small paperback book left behind by what I’m assuming was a lazy citizen. The book was about Witchcraft. I was extremely intrigued, so I decided to check it out and bring it home to read.

When my father saw the book, he was very unsure whether he wanted to allow me to read it or not. I used my charm and wit to persuade him, plus he was the biggest push over ever. The strange thing is, my father told me just a few days ago, that a few years before I checked out that book, I was scolded for drawing pentacles on my bedroom door. He said he couldn’t figure out where I got the idea to draw pentacles. He said he would have not been so freaked out by the action if the drawings were only stars without circles around them. He understands a bit more now that I am 27 and he knows about my spiritual practices.

As I grew older my dreams became more vivid and lucid. I started having dreams of things before they would occur. My first prophetic dream was about my mother. In my dream, the doctor called me on the telephone and told me that my mom was going to die, because she had a tumor in her stomach. About two weeks later my mother had to go to the doctors, because her premenstrual cycle would not end. The doctors ran some test and then found that she had a large mass, the size of a baseball growing in her uterus. They advised her that she needed surgery immediately to get the mass out. My mother called me on the telephone afterwards to talk to me. She was astonished how similar my dream was to her situation.

The second dream was even scarier. I was blind. The only thing I could do was listen to the sounds that were around me. I heard screaming and arguing and then a blast of gunshots so close like the gun was going off next to my ear. The next morning I went to work and received a phone call from my mother in the middle of the day, which was very uncommon. When I answered, she was frantically crying. She proceeded to tell me that one of my closest friends was shot in the head in the middle of the night.

She explained to me that he was still alive, but he was in a coma and the doctors said we should come in and say our goodbyes, because they did not expect him to live through the day. We all gathered at the hospital for which turned out to be a week while he struggled to survive on life support. Finally, he woke up from the coma.

He could not speak, because he had a trachea tube in his throat, so none of us knew if he could hear us or not. A bandage covered his eyes, so we did not know if he could see us. The bullet in his head traveled back down the path in which it entered and actually fell out into the bandage that was wrapped around his head. The doctors did not have to perform any surgery because of that. Unfortunately once the bandage was removed we found out that he was blind.

I have accepted the fact that I am not a psychic. I cannot read tarot cards. I cannot read runes or tea leaves or make use of any other divining tool. The only thing that I have is my dreams. Therefore, I call myself a dream witch. I love witchcraft. I love the freedom of being solitary eclectic and choosing beliefs that make me feel comfortable.

I love the art and beauty of casting a circle and uniting myself with the Lord and the Lady to mold the energies of the universe for my intentions. I love herb magick and candle magick. I love every aspect of earth traditions and wish that more people would discover the beauty and mysticism that surrounds it.

I wish more people would give their children the knowledge and independence to explore different beliefs to decide what or whom they want to worship. Children continue to be lead into their predecessor’s political, social and religious views. I am not saying that I want everyone to follow the path of the ancient traditions; I am just concerned with the limited freedom we give in a country founded on freedom.

Bewitching

Bewitching

Author: Bob Makransky

  Witchcraft is a craft. It’s something you learn. Witches usually do have supernormal powers. However, these powers are learned. There can be inborn talent, but it takes a lifetime of practice just to perfect one such power. This is why the terms “occultism”, “secret science”, “mysticism”, and so forth are silly. There is nothing secret or hidden going on here. Witchcraft is merely a matter of paying conscious attention to the things, which our society has taught us to ignore.

Witchcraft is what everyone is doing all the time, beneath the surface of everyday life. Most people just pretend they aren’t doing it or else they don’t consider what they do to be witchcraft. For example, infatuation is a species of mutual bewitching. Lovers bewitch one another and themselves. But they wouldn’t consider this witchcraft. They consider it love – at least until the bewitchment, the infatuation, wears off.

Similarly, people who cannot break free of an abusive relationship are usually bewitched by their partners. Doctors, and all healers, cure people by stimulating and encouraging the people’s own faith in getting well. Good salespeople are adept at bewitching their customers. And so on.

Everyone is manipulating everyone else on a witchcraft level all the time. Any time people command another’s attention, or manipulate their feelings in any way, they are bewitching them. Thus all art is witchcraft, and great artists are merely great witches. Artists are highly intuitive people who can tune into profound feelings in their art and take other people with them.

Witches are perhaps a bit more psychic to start with than average people. At least witches rely upon and trust in their intuition more than average people do. To most people, psychic events such as precognition, prophetic dreams, omens, telepathic communications happen now and then unbidden, but are beyond control. Such things happen to witches with somewhat more frequency because witches welcome, or intend, such things. Or better said, witches are more attentive to such things whereas average people tend to brush past them (or in many cases, reject what they just experienced because it contradicts their beliefs about what is “real” or “socially acceptable”) . With some experience and practice witches learn how to control their psychic abilities.

For example, when faced with a problem, one thing many witches do is to pray (intend) upon retiring at night for the solution to their problem to come to them. With a little practice they find that this works most of the time. They receive the answer in a dream that night, or else it comes in the next day or two. And as they see this technique work time and time again, it builds their faith, and as their faith builds the technique keeps working better and better for them.

Faith, the emotional content of belief, is the key to making witchcraft work. It can move mountains. It is the lever by which we create our own realities. The only reason our thought form world works is because we put our faith in it. If we believed in witchcraft with the same certainty that we believe turning a key in an ignition will start a car, then witchcraft would work as well for us as science and technology do.

That’s what faith is all about. There have been societies on this earth, which were based upon witchcraft, such as the Mayan Indians of Central America. These societies get witchcraft to work for them as well as materialistic science does for us, because that’s where they put their faith.

The reasons why witchcraft often doesn’t work as well as the books, and one’s own spirit guides, for that matter, say that it should, are sundry. Sometimes it just isn’t time yet. “To everything there is a season.” All the prayers and spells in the world won’t make Christmas happen before December 25th. Sometimes our prayers and spells are contingent upon the right astrological influence occurring.

Other times our prayers and spells don’t work right away because we have heavy karma in the way that has to be cleaned out first. This is often the case when what we are telling ourselves consciously that we want (love, wealth) contradicts self-esteem issues left over from our childhoods. Moreover, this karmic barrier to realizing our desires might stem from previous lifetimes, as well as this one. In my own case it took twenty years of just putting in the time and paying my dues between when I first made the decision to follow the witch’s path (after reading Carlos Castaneda’s books) , and when my spirit guides appeared in my life, which was my actual entry into the world of witchcraft. From there it was another fifteen years until I started seeing some real results from witchcraft working on my own, without spirits backing me up. However, I never lost faith, and that’s why I have succeeded so far.

The difference between witches and average people is that witches have infinite patience and a willingness to confront any danger and endure any pain necessary in order to realize their desires. Average people, on the other hand, always seem to be looking for a free ride or handout in life. Average people’s decisions don’t have enough power behind them to accomplish anything worthwhile because they back down and reverse their decisions the minute the going gets a little tough. What helped me a lot in my own quest, I see now in retrospect, was that my situation was truly desperate and miserable. I had nothing to go back to, so I had no choice but to press forward.

The Spirit always plays little games on our heads to test us in our resolve. It always makes it as difficult as possible to stand by our decisions. Things never happen the way we fantasize them or rehearse them. Average people are ready to throw in the towel and weep in self-pity at every little disappointment. Witches know that once a decision has been made, there’s no going back unless the Spirit itself grants release. The basic principles of witchcraft are to make absolutely irrevocable decisions; and to go to any extreme necessary to stand by those decisions.

Power is the same thing as luck. True power involves leaving nothing to chance. Average people, if they believe in witchcraft at all, believe that witches control chance. This isn’t correct. Witches, at least white witches, don’t dominate chance or enforce their own will on the universe. Rather, they are wholly dominated by it. They give up all personal desires of their own, cease caring whether they win or lose, or get their own way or not. In this way witches become one with chance and merge themselves with it. Then their will becomes unstoppable.

Witches will to accept the Spirit’s will as their own. They give up all their own images of what they think they desire and let the Spirit’s desires for them prevail. When witches synchronize their own desires with those of the Spirit, everything becomes possible for them. The great enemy of witchcraft is doubt.

I happen to have the power to bewitch women to fall in love with me (okay, no snickering out there, this happens to be true) . My spirits taught me how to do this to show me that witchcraft does indeed work – that it is possible to make impossible things happen merely by willing it. They also wanted to teach me to hold my attention fixed upon a single object, moment-to-moment, all day long every day. They know me pretty well: they knew that the only thing that would motivate me to put out the effort and discipline needed to do this was the promise of sex.
I’ll save the details of my experiences with bewitching women for my autobiography, except to say that the last time I tried it, it backfired on me in such a way that I’ll never do it again. Besides, although you can get sex by bewitching, you can’t get love that way, so why bother?

Psychic healing works the same way that bewitching does. The healer visualizes the patient as being well, and thus overrides the patient’s doubt and self-pity. Any form of ‘ensorcellment’ involves substituting the witch’s will for the subject’s will. This can only take place if the subject is willing, consciously or unconsciously. That is to say, no one can be bewitched, or healed, against their will.

Bewitching is really no different than Creative Visualization. Witches know to keep their Creative Visualizations within the realm of reasonable possibility. Thus they don’t try to bewitch famous movie stars to fall in love with them, or to win the lottery. These sorts of outcomes are too unlikely. In order to make witchcraft work it is necessary to overcome doubt, and wishing for something that’s way out of one’s league, or too improbable, starts off with too big a doubt debit.

When bewitching for love, for example, witches start out with someone with whom they already have desire lines in place. This means someone with whom they have already shared feelings; someone they’ve already looked directly in the eye and flashed with. That flash doesn’t necessarily have to have been one of love. The flash could have been anger, disgust, humor, or sadness as well as attraction. It doesn’t matter. If, for an instant, two people look in each other’s eyes and some emotion passes between them, then at that moment they stuck lines in each another. They bewitched one another. If there is any feeling at all between two people, whether positive or negative, then they can be bewitched through that feeling.

What passes in brief moments of direct eye contact is very powerful sexual witchcraft. It is so potent, in fact, that it scares most people. They immediately get flustered, avert their eyes, and pretend that nothing happened. Even when the emotion that is being shared is humor or gaiety, there is a polite limit to how long direct eye contact can be engaged before it becomes threatening, i.e. sexual. Even if the emotion is anger or disgust, that just means that the feeling is so sexual that it has to be hidden by its negation

Sexual feeling is the matrix of all feeling. Sexual feelings are actual lines that people shoot into one another, like arrows, whenever they flash on each other by sharing a feeling. These lines appear to people with psychic vision as fibers of living light. It’s through the light fibers, which join people that they pass emotional information, such as the psychic knowledge that the other person is hurt, or dead, or having sex with someone else. It’s also through these light fibers that bewitching takes place.*

In short, if two people have ever shared any direct feeling, then there’s already a sexual bond between them. Witches can use this bond to bewitch, or to heal. They force energy through that desire line by intense visualization of their desire coming true. This brings pressure to bear upon the interpersonal barrier. This barrier is the pretense that there’s nothing going on between the participants.

Sexual desire can exist from previous lifetimes and realities – this is usually what’s behind the phenomenon of love at first sight. If there’s an underlying sexual attraction (which can in fact be read from the natal horoscopes of the people involved – e.g. the man’s sun or Mars conjunct or opposition the woman’s moon or Venus) , then there’s fertile ground for bewitching even if the two people have not yet met face-to-face.

On the surface, the witches act cordially but disinterestedly. They keep a poker face and they do nothing on their own account. Eventually that pressure brings about a moment in time when the Spirit itself opens the floodgates and the other person’s defenses evaporate. If and when it’s time for an overt move, it comes on its own in a moment of power.

In everyday society most of the actual sticking of desire lines into other people is done in the state of dreamless sleep, although the intent is set up in waking. If you have ever had a dream war with someone, that person was trying to stick a line into you, but you successfully fought him or her off. If you hadn’t successfully fought them off, you wouldn’t have had that dream. It would have remained unconscious, on the level of dreamless sleep.

Witches, both black and white, sometimes rely upon spirit helpers to cue them on what to do and when. These messages come across as sudden ideas or inspirations. But witches don’t act unless prompted.

In other words the witches’ superficial behavior betrays nothing of what they are actually thinking or feeling. Contrast this with how most people try to make their desires come true. Most people get caught up in making obvious moves, polishing their self-presentation, trying to somehow flag other people’s, or God’s, attention: “Yoo-hoo! Here I am! Over here!”
This approach will work sometimes, but it’s really inept. This is what the dating game is all about, which is why people find it so boring and predictable. There’s no sport to it. Besides there’s no true feeling to it, much less love. It’s all phony.

When witches bewitch, all their energy is held rigidly in check. Desire is inflamed by visualization, which is why witchcraft is basically a matter of bewitching oneself. Witchcraft is hypnotizing oneself into an intense, single-pointed desire. Witches first have to bewitch themselves to be madly in love – they go first. Then they impose that feeling on the subject of their desire. Better said, they give the subject a powerful option.

No one can be forced to do anything against his or her own will by witchcraft. It’s quite possible for the person being bewitched to block the ensorcellment by detaching his or her light fibers from the witch. This is felt as closing up to them emotionally. What witches, particularly black witches, count on is that most people’s wills are so weak and confused.

Witches may use some object symbolic of their desire and pour all of their attention on it. They imagine the face of the person in it and talk with it and make love with it and cuddle with it at night. For example, in the movie Bell, Book and Candle, Kim Novak bewitched Jimmy Stewart with a cat. In the book The Witch’s Dream by Florinda Donner, the protagonist bewitched his love with a devil’s mask. The symbolic object can be charged like a charm.

Thus bewitching is like normal daydreaming or fantasizing, carried to an extreme (visualized in the here-and-now rather than projected to a future which will never come) . When bewitching for love, the witch visualizes him or herself in the physical presence of the beloved – holding hands, kissing and caressing, having fun together – as if the person were actually there. In bewitching you look the other person (the lover you desire, the boss you want a raise from, the jerk you want out of your life, whomever) directly in the eye.

In normal daydreaming and fantasizing, by contrast, you’re usually not making eye contact at all. In bewitching the focus is on the other person and how enjoyable it is to be in their company (or to be rid of them, depending upon what you are bewitching for) . In normal daydreaming the focus is on yourself. Other people serve only as mute witnesses to your own glory and vindication. This is the difference between bewitching and fanning the breeze with idle daydreaming. When you bewitch someone you’re right there in front of him or her eyeball-to-eyeball. You let them do the talking and make the moves. In daydreaming they’re fawning over you while you carry on a monologue.

This is another difference between Creative Visualization, what witches do, and fantasizing and daydreaming, which average people do. Visualization is a matter of feeling, of longing, of reaching out for the object of desire. Daydreaming is a matter of thinking, imaging, distancing oneself from the object of desire. Daydreaming is actually reaching out towards self-pity, not towards the realization of one’s true desires.

You should not daydream or have romantic or sexual fantasies about someone whom you are bewitching. They will feel this through the light fibers you have in them as a sleazy vibe, a sexual expectation, coming from you. They will raise defenses against it. Creative Visualization, true bewitching, usually doesn’t have a context of sexual or romantic excitation at all. It’s too here-and-now, too spontaneous and unpredictable. It has a light, joyous feeling to it as compared to the obsessive and directed intensity of most daydreaming. Daydreams are about control, whereas Creative Visualization is about joy.

When bewitching to get rid of someone, witches don’t visualize bad things happening to that person. Rather, they visualize themselves happy, relieved, joyous, now that said person is gone. Psychic healing is done by visualizing the person as well. The point is that the visualization has to be done as if the action is unfolding in the here and now, unlike normal daydreams, which take place in the future. One has to feel all the feelings – joy, relief, health, whatever – that would be felt if the visualization were actually true. It’s those feelings, which are being felt which attract the object of desire; which make the visualization come true.

My Mayan teachers showed me some techniques for bewitching to overcome. I really think this whole thing is childish; but since it does it indeed work; and since it has helped me out a few times (e.g. when I was subjected to a nuisance lawsuit) ; I’ll pass the information along here. If you can obtain a photograph of the person you wish to overcome; or a hair or fingernail cutting from the person – great. If not, just make a small drawing of the person by hand. Make a little cross of sticks (my Mayan teachers use jocote – flat pine sticks oozing sap and used for fire starters) . Wind a red thread around the sticks to join them into a cross. Then place the photo or artifact of the person you wish to overcome in the center of the cross. Fasten it to the cross by winding the red thread around it (my teachers said not to pierce the photo, since that would be definite black witchcraft and result in physical injury to the person being bewitched. The idea is to overcome the person – not incur bad karma, which will have to be paid in other lifetimes) .

After performing a “Scat” ritual over the cross (Choose a Saturn hour for this and follow instructions in the BOS in the Witchcraft 101 folder
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WitchcraftalAlmanac/files/How%20to%20use%20Witchcraftal%20Almanac/) , place the cross in your shoe (I wrap these crosses in duct tape first to keep them intact) ; and imagine grinding the person you wish to overcome into the dirt with every step you take (as Nancy Sinatra crooned) . As I said, it’s childish; but it does indeed work.

Conscious awareness is where all links ultimately have to be made. A witch, however, never makes links through direct intervention, by acting on his or her own accord. This is how most people blow things or trip themselves up. They fail by acting on their thought forms, by being impatient and pushy, by being unwilling or unable to trust in the Spirit to bring them what they want in the fullness of time.

This shows lack of faith. Only the Spirit can move the wheel of chance. Therefore the basic principle of witchcraft is patience. Conscious awareness can only exist if there is also unconscious awareness – something that is being hidden. The trick of witchcraft is to take in everything so that nothing is any longer hidden. Another way of saying this is, we must become aware of our own prejudices and taken-for-granted assumptions, since it is our own images and expectations which blind us to the truth.

Everybody already knows intuitively how to make witchcraft work, but they don’t do it much since if they succeeded they’d scare themselves silly. This is another difference between daydreaming and Creative Visualization. In the former the person doesn’t really want the desire to come true. He or she is just playing games, fanning the breeze with self-pity. Therefore it usually takes an intense, overwhelming desire or desperation to activate average people’s true witchcraft powers. Miracles do sometimes happen, when people are 100% clear in their intent – when they permit their higher self to surface and take command. Witches strive to make every moment a miracle.

Creative Visualization, is the same thing as prayer. Everyone intuitively understands the efficacy of prayer, but most people don’t call upon it unless they’re desperate. However, desperation isn’t the best motivation for prayer since people create their own realities. They wouldn’t be in that situation in the first place unless they created it for some reason, to learn some lesson. If that lesson happens to be learning the power of faith, that prayer does work, then their prayers will save their butts; but not necessarily otherwise.

The problem with witchcraft as a spiritual path, and bewitching people in particular, is that it hangs us up in all the same stupid games of winning and losing that average people play in normal, everyday society. Witchcraft is like capitalism – it’s really pretty slimy and distasteful, but it’s the name of the game; so if our demonic society forces us to play such games, then let’s at least play to win. Witches – like capitalists – aim to be winners… whereas average people aim to be losers – to wallow in helplessness and self-pity.

In the coming century and a half our decadent, degenerate society will collapse under the weight of human greed and stupidity, and the pressure of the earth herself turning against us. The surviving remnant of the human race (if there is one) must willy-nilly reorganize itself along the lines of what is now considered to be “witchcraft”. Or another way of saying this is, that only witches – people who have learned to rely upon their own intuition and intent instead of belief in society’s lies – will survive the coming holocaust.

Fundamentally witchcraft is as much a dead-end street for an aspirant on the spiritual path as is seeking the validation and glory of society. The only value to witchcraft, which seems baffling at first but which is learned through experience, by making lots of mistakes, is understanding the difference between when one is acting on one’s own impulse, or when one is truly being prompted to act by the Spirit. This is the crux of the matter, and the reason why learning witchcraft is worthwhile.



Footnotes:
* See the drawings of humans interacting on a light fiber level in Barbara Brennan’s book Light Emerging, Bantam NYC 1993.

Brennan, Barbara, Light Emerging, Bantam NYC 1993

Being Spiritually Centered (And Tips On How To Get There)

Being Spiritually Centered (And Tips On How To Get There)

Author: Michael ‘Blackthorn’ Furie

Witches are taught that life is an intricate web of interconnected forces; that we are all one and that each piece of the microcosm can influence the whole. We are also taught to think for ourselves (a bit of an oxymoron, I know) and that every living being has its own destiny and right to exist. Furthermore, we are told that everyone should be able to believe whatever they choose and that all beliefs have validity even if only for their respective adherents, since one’s perceptions can influence their reality. This I believe is a true but potentially dangerous teaching if not framed in the proper context.

Most of us are taught how to “ground and center” in the moment as part of proper preparation for ritual or at least as a stress relieving technique however, an increasing number of us haven’t been given instruction in the necessity of, or the way to becoming, spiritually centered beings. I have known several people in my life (some Pagan, some not) that struggle with a feeling of spiritual emptiness and unrelenting frustration. They feel abandoned by the universe and whatever concept of Deity they hold dear. They don’t understand why so much of their life is filled with chaos. They feel continual conflict, both in the outside world and within themselves. I myself have suffered from this ailment and have struggled to find answers as to why. I have come to identify a reason for this chaos and conflict: a lack of being spiritually centered.

Being spiritually centered is a powerful tool that we have to truly embrace who we are as people and how we approach life. If you study spiritual gurus or masters of any faith, one key factor keeps presenting itself; they practice what they preach. In other words, they live their lives according to a set of clearly defined beliefs that they adhere to without exception. They leave no room for inner conflict or hypocrisy.

Psychologists have identified a state known as cognitive dissonance, which is defined by the American Psychological Association as: a state of despair that is induced when a person holds two contradictory beliefs, or when a belief is incongruent with an action that the person had chosen freely to perform. Because this situation produces feelings of discomfort, the individual strives to change one of the beliefs or behaviors in order to avoid being inconsistent. Hypocrisy is a special case of cognitive dissonance, produced when a person freely chooses to promote a behavior that they do not themselves practice.

I believe cognitive dissonance to be one of the greatest social ills faced in human society. When people feel driven to hold a belief because it was instilled in them as a child but they personally feel that the belief is either too restrictive or wholly invalid, a frustration and dissatisfaction with life builds within the mind. We’ve seen the results of unrelenting cognitive dissonance on a societal scale many times in the past.

When a group (let’s say the Puritans, for example) feels compelled to hold personally restrictive beliefs that are too difficult for even themselves to comply with, they then feel a gnawing sense of inadequacy, guilt and despair, now known as cognitive dissonance. This would then result in a large number of spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically unfulfilled people which, (I guess) is fine if that is their free choice.

If however, another group of people is nearby that practice a different set of beliefs (let’s say Native Americans, Pagans, Less restrictive Christians, well anybody really…) and those people appear happier and more fulfilled than the former group, the inner conflict only grows. To ease this conflict they have only three possible courses of action: isolate themselves away from the less restrictive people and continue in their ways, change their own restrictive beliefs and live a more relaxed life, or persecute those that live more freely than they, in order to reinforce their own sense of values and ease some of their secret feelings of inadequacy.

Sadly, this last choice seems to be the one that is most often chosen. Far too many people throughout history (in my opinion) have mistaken the sense of power felt when they convert people to their beliefs for true spirituality and religious fulfillment. Instead of becoming spiritually centered themselves, they choose to force their values on others; attempting to stamp out other belief systems in the hope that this will reinforce and ‘prove’ the supremacy and truth of their own beliefs to themselves.

This is why at the beginning of this article I stated that I believe that the fact that everyone’s beliefs are valid on at least some level because a person’s perceptions can influence reality, can be a dangerous teaching. If a person believes that inner conflict and a feeling of spiritual emptiness are ‘the way it must be’ then, they are living in needless misery and becoming potentially dangerous to those around them that do not share in their narrow outlook.

With all that being said, I shall (finally!) come to the point of this article and discuss becoming spiritually centered. In order to be spiritually centered, you must know who you are. You must have ‘found yourself’ as they say, and you must be comfortable in your own skin. This requires a process of evaluation and conscious acknowledgment of how you think and what you believe. The first step in this process is to ask yourself what you believe. Take a notebook and write down everything that you believe. No, seriously! Make the list as complete as possible; write down your entire Spiritual, cultural, political, and personal beliefs, both positive and negative.

After this list is complete, consider each item and determine whether you hold this belief because you truly believe it or, merely because someone else told you to believe it. Now, consider each item and decide whether or not you want to continue to hold that belief. Those beliefs you no longer desire to keep should be crossed out on your list. It is vital that a truly Spiritual person be free of clouded judgment and the weight of other people’s beliefs.

To hold any belief only because someone else claimed it as fact is a giving up of personal control to that person. A belief should only be held if, upon personal examination and experimentation, you find that it truly speaks to you and enriches your life.

Any shame or fear-based beliefs must be thoroughly examined. Truly determine whether or not any guilt, shame, fear or doubt is based on genuine wrongs that you may have committed or rather, based on unfair labels and projections placed upon you by others. This no doubt, will be an emotional journey but I assure you it is definitely worthwhile. Depending on the nature and severity of any emotional issues, therapy may be required to properly resolve them. In that case, I would highly recommend it but use your best judgment. Just remember that we are all human and prone to mistakes. One of the great challenges in life is to learn from and grow beyond, our mistakes. Let go of shame and fear.

The next step is, create a new revised list (I’m big on lists) of your personal beliefs and scan this list for any conflicting beliefs that you still hold. As I previously mentioned, hypocrisy is just another form of cognitive dissonance and will continue to keep you away from your centered self. Remember, there is a difference in being able to see both points of view in an argument and never being able to give a singular personal opinion on anything because you don’t feel able to take a definitive stance on any issue. The latter results from continuing to hold conflicting beliefs that keep you bound in shame and guilt and blur the lines so that you can’t find personal truth.

When you are centered, you are able to speak your truth with a clear and proud voice because you know deep within your heart that it is your truth and you will be unwilling to abandon it.

Once all your beliefs align, there is only one more step in becoming centered…actually living according to those beliefs. Remember that it is just as important to ‘do’ as it is to understand and feel. There are three aspects to our personalities: thinking, willing, and feeling. We need to utilize all three as equally as possible in order to live fully. Thinking and (hopefully) feeling have been involved in the process so far, but never forget the power of the human will. It is connected to the fire element and is that special spark that is only gained through actual experience; contemplation, evaluation, intellectual understanding and emotional connection are only parts of the process.

To be complete, we too must practice what we preach.

Blessed Be.

Today’s Runes for Sunday, Oct. 9th is Thurisaz

Today’s Runes

Spirit Runes are most commonly used for questions about mysticism, spirituality, and religion. Thurisaz represents a thorn, the most basic of barriers to our boon or our bane. In the case of hedges, thorns protect our encampments from that which skulks towards us from the outlands. In the case of rosebushes, thorns keep us from beauty. Though thorns are passive and have no thoughts, they puncture, tear, and may even be poisonous. Hence, this rune may also represent irrational violence and anger.

Today’s Runes for Saturday, October 8th is Wunjo

Today’s Runes

Spirit Runes are most commonly used for questions about mysticism, spirituality, and religion. Wunjo is the rune of Joy. Since joy is least frequently a solitary emotion, this rune often represents mutual or communal bliss. Wunjo is also seen as a rune of the gods and a rune of perfection, carrying with it the elation that blazes from the creation of a perfect work – perhaps this is the true joy of the gods, that they can create perfection. That aside, this rune does not focus on the struggle for perfection or on our inevitable imperfections, but rather on a job well done and the satisfaction that comes from it.

Similarities Between Christian Sacraments and Pagan Rites

Similarities Between Christian Sacraments and Pagan Rites

Author: Kaya DeDanu

 
Magick was first spelled with a “k” by Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) to differentiate between religious magick, and the stunts and illusions performed by stage magicians. Crowley was the leader of a cult called Ordo Templi Orientis, but is better known for his time with The Golden Dawn. Crowley says, “Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.” (The Sidereus Foundation)

There is another part to this definition that will have to be added in to make a usable definition for this article. Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will and the Will of Deity. Since we are talking about religious magick here, there must be some sense of a divine being in our working definition. There are practitioners of magick who believe that magick comes from within, not from a deity. In this case, I would say that their “deity” is the life energy within themselves. Deity comes in many forms.

I would first like to pause and make it clear from the start that there are many movies out there about Pagan rites (The Craft, a movie about 4 teenage girls that dabble in magick comes to mind first) that are highly inaccurate. Since that movie came out, I can’t count how many people I’ve had approach me asking if I’ll help the “call the quarters.” Movies like that make real practicing Pagans look bad. When you think of magick, don’t think of movies or TV. Remember that those are not real.

I used to sit in church and feel inspired. When I was young, I saw the magick of God in the church in the faces of the people around me. I felt it in the air around me. I was a child then, so naturally I felt bored, but I can still recall feeling something there. I won’t deny that there is some kind of magick involved with the church experience, even if people don’t want to call it that.

I haven’t been to church in fourteen years. As I grew older and kept returning to church, week after week, year after year, I felt the magick slipping away. I knew it was time to move on. I needed to find magick again. I took my Bible and my thirst for spiritual fulfillment, and walked away.

Since it had been so long, I had almost forgotten about the magick of the church. But when I take a step back, I can’t help but see that there is magick on both sides. It’s easy to see that Pagans have magick in their spells, blessings, coming of age rites, and Sabbats, because Pagans will openly call it Magick. The Christians, however, simply choose to call their Magick by different names: prayer, Communion, Baptism, holidays, and other holy sacraments. All of these involve some kind of ritual and divine power, whether from within, or from an outside source.

As I study the differences between the Christian world and the Pagan world, I see that Christians and Pagans will debate and battle about this topic, and there are some from both religions on each side. Many Christians argue that magick is wrong, immoral, and satanic. Many Pagans say that Christians use magick too, to try and put both religions on a more equal base. Some will say that magick comes in many forms. Some Pagans will even say that Christians do not use magick, and to say that prayer is the same as a spell is an insult to both religions.

I have a friend who is a very strict Christian, and whenever something went wrong, or she felt scared, she would pray. In her prayer, she would put her hands together, with clasped fingers, bow her head, and close her eyes ask God to help her, or guide her. She would begin with a phrase such as “Dear Heavenly Father, ” or “Dear Jesus, ” speak her wishes, and then end with “in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.” It is systematic, ritualistic, and it is used to request something of a higher power. Is it magick?

Marina Patelos, a member of the Greek Orthodox church in Albany, NY, says “for your average person a ‘Hail Mary’ or an ‘Our Father’ wouldn’t count [as magick] because most people just say the words and never really stop to look at what they’re actually saying. But if someone’s praying for, say, their mother not to die of cancer, then yeah, that could count.”

Shirley Oscamp-Colletti, a United Methodist Minister who has been with the Church of the Wild Wood for the past 10 years, says that prayer is a form of magick “If I use your definition. Prayer is a form of connection with an inner or outer deity. Prayer connects with God; some say it is to accomplish a goal. I say it’s more to open yourself to possibilities. The highest form of prayer is to focus on a person and allow the divine light to that person, so the goal is to bring the divine light into that person or situation, not that you want a certain thing to happen.”

I used to find a lot of magick in Communion when I was finally considered mature enough to take it. There was no real class or preparation for it at the Calvary Baptist Church in Springfield, Vermont, but when a person reached the age of 12 they were expected to sit through a whole service instead of attending junior service in another room, and were offered Communion.

The lights in the church were dim, I remember, but sunlight shined brilliantly through the stained glass windows on either side of the room. Each window depicted a different Bible story in symbols and color choices. They were the most beautiful things about the church. Small clear plastic cups that resembled test tubes filled with grape juice would be waiting in circular holders on the backs of the pews next to the hymnal pockets. The pastor would speak the same words ever communion service as bowls of bread were passed around the church and people took a piece out for themselves.

“And Christ said, ‘take, eat. This is my body, ’” the Pastor would say, and everyone in the church would eat their piece of bread. The same pattern was followed with the grape juice, and then everyone would gather in a circle around the pews and sing. It seemed like God was there at those moments when we all held hands and sung together.

I have learned that the little Protestant church that I grew up in was a little different from other churches. Some use wafers instead of bread, and drink wine instead of grape juice. Some churches see this as a symbolic ritual, and some others see it as literal. “According to the Greek Orthodox Church, ” says Patelos, “the bread and wine are transubstantiated into the body and blood of Christ.” This means that “The Holy Spirit” changes the food into the blood and body of Christ. “[This] happens at the part of the blessing where he (the priest) holds up the chalice of wine and says ‘this is the blood of Christ’, in Greek, and then holds up the bread and says ‘this is the body of Christ’ and crumbles it into the wine, ” says Patelos. This sounds like a magickal transformation to me. “Although most of the people at my church would sh*t a brick if someone suggested that, yeah, I would [call it magickal, ]” Patelos says.

Colletti says that Communion is symbolic. “The other interesting things about this in the Methodist church, we don’t use wine. Methodists have been involved in the prohibition movement.” They do this out of respect for those who can’t drink. “We didn’t want them to not take Communion, ” she said.

”I do Communion very informally, ” Colletti continued. “If you’ve been to church there are words in the Hymnal that you’re supposed to read, but I speak more from the heart because I feel that is what the meal is supposed to be a time for people to come and share a simple meal together. My Communion is very earthy. When people in my church come up, they give hugs to me and the person that helps me serve, so it’s a very connective thing, and I like that. People come up out of the pews. I also often will tie it back to Jesus eating with his disciples and the meals that he shared and that’s when people let their hair down and get close to each other. Part of what Communion is about is to break down the barrier.”

“There are two sacraments, ” Colletti says, “[and] the other is Baptism. It’s initiation. The Baptism sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an outward and spiritual grace, so it’s kind of enacting something that’s already happened, which that might be where one of the difference is. When you’re talking about Magick you’re creating magick to make something happen, where as Christian magick, if you want to call it that, is an expression of what has already happened, rather than asking the divine to do something for us, and that’s Methodist through Shirley’s eyes. Catholics [say that] if you don’t have a baby baptized it’s bad. We believe babies are a part of God. Basically showing it’s bringing someone into the Christian church. It’s dying and being brought back to life in the traditional sense.”

Baptism is when a person chooses to accept God, and they are dunked in water to show that they trust God, and to represent dying and being reborn. Catholics do not completely submerge a baby when they baptize him/her; they only pour water over the baby’s forehead.

Catholics aren’t the only ones who baptize babies. “Our kids get completely dunked, ” says Patelos. “For Orthodox it’s Baptism, Chrismation, first Communion and Confirmation all in one go. After you go through that, you’re entitled to all the Rights in the Church.”

The way I see it, Baptism is very much like a cleansing in Paganism. Water washes away negativity and cleanses both physically and spiritually. This cleansing can be used for tools, as well as for initiation. There are many different ways a Pagan can use water to cleanse. Sometimes different oils or herbs can be mixed in, as with the Orthodox Baptism to add blessing properties. Often salt will be added to the water, which makes it holy because salt is part of the earth. Another common additive is rose oil for both its blessing and cleansing properties. A tool that will be used for magickal rituals can be dunked into a goblet of water and left in the moonlight overnight to be cleansed. Some initiations use this water and its additives to draw a pentacle on the forehead of an initiate. Many rituals will vary from tradition to tradition, making it impossible to cover all of them.

Pagans have their form of prayer in spells. I will reiterate that spells will vary in many traditions. Some will be the simple lighting of a candle and wishing. Some will involve chanting or poetry. Some will involve knives, wands, pentacles, circles of candles of every color shape and size, robes, and a script. It just depends on who you’re working with. I prefer the simpler rituals.

I take a candle of the appropriate color (different colors mean different things) , carve what I want down the side with my athame (ritual knife) , such as “good health, ” or “confidence, ” carve the first and last initials of the person who is to receive these things on the bottom, cover the candle with ashes, and light it, letting it burn all the way down. I will frequently sit in front of my altar (usually a table decorated with a cloth, statues of Pagan gods and goddesses, candles, and ritual tools, such as that athame) and think on this act and its results, but I usually do not incorporate words into the spell. I can’t remember where I picked it up, but it is the one spell that has worked for me consistently for the last dozen years.

“I feel that a prayer works the opposite way, ” says Salgamma, in her article “Magick Vs. Prayer” for The Pagan Library, an online Pagan journal. “The prayer is a request to effect a change in the ambient energy and invoke God. This change in energy is slower because it is ‘diluted’ in the surrounding energy and depends solely on faith (‘I believe it will happen, so it will’) .”

I have read of a Wiccan ceremony that may somewhat equate to communion. In the “Cakes and Ale” (Or “Cakes and Wine”) ceremony the bread represents the body of The God, and the wine (red) represents the blood of the Virgin Goddess. The cake does not have to be cake. It can be bread or something else as long as it has been blessed for the purpose of this ritual. Wine can be replaced with juice if necessary. This is a ritual to give thanks to the God and Goddess. After a poem of thanks is recited, all who participate partake of these symbolic food items, and leave what is left as an offering to the deities.

It seems to me that the Sacraments that I’ve covered above all have a Pagan equivalent. Baptism is a cleansing; Communion and the Cakes and Ale Ceremony are symbolic of taking in deity (deities) ; and a prayer is a spell. I have participated in most of these rituals (save the cakes and ale, but I’ve done similar things as well) at various times in my life, and I will say that there is something magickal about all of them.

“Samhain Dream”

“Samhain Dream”
by Myria/Brighid October 1999

It is Samhain …The Night of Shadows. The Circle is cast around the fire, And through the darkness, we glance, For the veils are thin, in this sacred night! Ancient voices around us, Whispering old and forgotten songs, While we dance the Spiral Dance, To meet Her. And there She comes, The Lady of the Gate! Power and compassion evolving us, As a dark but comforting wave. Beautiful Queen of the Dark Night! With Her mantle of raven’s feathers, And eyes deep with wisdom. Cerridwenn! She opens Her arms, in a welcoming embrace, We feel around us the flow of love, Of Her Eternal Grace. And then we hear Her voice, Melodious and grave, That speaks from inside our soul, As an echo in a cave. Blessed Daughters of My Heart, I hear your prayers from afar. And that is why I came tonight! Do not despair when the times are hard! Do not abandon the Path you found! For time has come for My return, And you, Loved Ones, shall open the way, Singing my name as the ancient bards. I am always with you, do never doubt that! I am the Old and the Young One! I am the Keeper of the Gate! I am the Master of Time! I am the Dark Goddess of Death! I am the Bright Goddess of Dawn! I am The One! I am Cerridwenn!

Now I Am Going To Do Things Just A Little Different….

Samhain Comments & Graphics

~Magickal Graphics~ 

 

I thought today I might change things up just a tad. I get tired of the same old same old, don’t you? Anyway today, I am going to give you a closer looker at some of the Goddesses, Gods, incense, recipes, crystals and etc., associated with Samhain. I know Samhain is still a couple of weeks off, but I hate to wait to the last-minute to do anything. Besides Samhain is our highest holy day, why not get familiar with the things associated with it?  I hope you enjoy!

The Survival of Ancient Ways in Today’s World

The Survival of Ancient Ways in Today’s World

Author: wolf witch

Witchcraft, Wicca, and Pagan belief systems in general are more popular now than since the advent of Christianity in the West. As society gradually moves away from the group and toward individuality with respect to spiritual development, people seek alternatives to “organized” religion in order to more thoroughly immerse themselves in that sense of inner spirituality that, in the East, comes from meditation and a closely controlled lifestyle and in the West has its roots in the ancient Western Mystery Tradition in part or in whole surrounding the teaching founded upon Hermetic philosophy.

Wicca is, depending on which “expert’ you read, either very ancient or extremely new and linked to Neo-Paganism. Still, its practices demand individual dedication and action, and, even in its most basic form, stirs the inner workings further toward the sort of self-realization equated with spiritual enlightenment. Whether this enlightenment is as thorough as that of the Buddhists or is that a devoted Christian attains through constant prayer is unimportant. What is truly a key factor here is that Wicca, in whatever form, requires the individual to ultimately take responsibility for his own spiritual development, as must the Buddhist or the Christian or any other person of faith.

The claim for the Craft being a part of the spiritual movement of modern times collapses in the face of archeological and anthropological evidence to the contrary. The Internet and the ready availability of books from a wide range of authors resulted in an incredible number of “traditions” birthing literally overnight, each of which possesses their adherents and, in the case of many founding members, zealots, a rather surprising response from a religion that is by no means evangelical. The point of this text is not to criticize new or old traditions. Each finds its place in spiritual development. Those with more parochial views may learn something here but will find no further argument with any modern path.

If no other law holds true in the Craft, “Each to his own” certainly applies.

In order to understand Western occult philosophy, one must grasp the words of the Emerald Tablet, the essence of which is the statement, “As above, so below, ” and its reverse. There is no dictum of control implied here, so the phrase does not lose, as suggested by some authors, its validity in reverse. It merely explains that the nature of things is best discovered in any one thing within the set; that is, if something exists in this universe, then its structure and function resulting from that physical existence resembles in kind all other things in this universe.

The axiom applies equally to Man and Spirit. The whole reason for its existence is to tell man that the universe he sees and the Universe his spirit knows is hardly imaginary but very, very real. The stone is the Almighty’s message to Man that what he cannot see has no reality whosoever in relation to the greater Universe of gods, angels, demons, and the like. Man is part of that magnificent continuum.

Thus is the Creator known to Man.

There are as many paths to spiritual awakening as there are people on the planet. Some folks are so convinced their method is right that they insist on bringing it to others which in some cases is a truly positive gesture. However, when that new system comes into place through the annihilation of what went before, then the result proves destructive and dangerous.

In the time of Charlemagne, Paganism died in Europe at the hands of Christians bent on destroying every other belief system but their own. St. Patrick did not drive the snakes out of Ireland (there were none to begin with) , but he did burn every piece of literature concerning the religious history of the Celts, a close equivalent to the burning of the great library at Alexandria by the Romans who simply knew no better. Patrick knew exactly what he was doing, and the Church made a practice of eliminating all but their own warped view of religion as a source of power and authority.

The Craft has few written records that cover events from the Dark Ages. All such literature became personal as each witch kept a Book of Shadows though few would have called it that. The books held recipes and formulae for everything from herbal remedies to dynamic rituals, most of which these days are drawn from a single surviving grimier, the Key of Solomon. From this text, Gardner drew the rituals in his book.

Fortunately, the worst persecution could not eliminate folkways, and many made their way to the present, especially those regarding healing. This knowledge forged an excellent foundation for modern witches to expand their knowledge of the human psyche in order to better help those in need.

All of the present day’s rites and rituals owe much to Hermes and his simple statement. Understanding the universe makes clear the path delineated by the Craft, so the study of how the universe works is definitely worth the effort. In the end, the universe unfolds itself to each in its own way.

Here is one of the great gifts of the Goddess, as claimed in Celtic tradition: the Stone, a foundation upon which all else stands.

The occult deals with those entities and forces that, in general, lie outside the bounds of what most would define as normal existence. Where the world around us takes its description from physics, the occultist studies metaphysics. Where the scientist relies on proof as determined by experimental data, the occultist speculates using intuition as an equally valid point that influences understanding the true reality of any situation. While science plods on toward a complete understanding of the universe in detail, the occultist works more as a generalist using Hermes’ statement as a guide: “As above, so below”.

Today’s trend, thanks to the rapid spread of information and its verification relying very much on popularity rather than true alacrity, creates almost as many Craft belief systems as there are individuals capable of committing those beliefs onto a web page. More than a few seek a sense of authority within the old religion earned only in their own right. Many forget the trials that shaped Wicca over the years and the powerful forces and strong enemies that sought to wipe the Craft from the planet, burning, killing, and torturing every follower and many more who were rumored to be followers of the ancient ways.

There is a common feeling among these folk and a host of other witches that the burning times are over; that the public broadcast of one’s own faith can safely travel the Internet airways without fear of any repercussion.

One careful perusal of the news will prove this merry affection dangerously incorrect. With the smallest change in today’s status quo, the burning time could come back in force. Fundamentalism favors intolerance. There is absolutely nothing wrong with stating one’s beliefs in any public forum, but the defense of those beliefs to the blood must be the heart of that statement.

Bring Out Your Dead: Celebrate and Grieve at Samhain

Bring Out Your Dead: Celebrate and Grieve at Samhain

by Freya Ray

Sometimes it seems the past is this great labyrinthine thing, infecting, affecting, even overshadowing the present. When you’re “doing your work,” it’s easy to get stuck in process hell, reliving the painful events of your past. If, on the other hand, you’re busily pretending your past is no longer affecting you, the serpentine tentacles of old behaviors and fears reach out from your subconscious, pushing you to recreate your pain until it can finally be healed.

Quite frankly, both of these extremes suck.

We all have pasts, we all have old pain that needs to be healed. We have all lost friends, loved ones, cherished places and times. We have all had things that brought us joy that are no longer part of our lives. All of us.

Bring out your dead!

There is a middle ground. I don’t mean “therapy light,” or giving lip service to your “issues.” I mean truly honoring and grieving the things you have lost, in their time, and then moving on.

There is a saying that I’m going to mangle, something to the effect that the deeper our pain, the deeper it carves the channels for our joy. Samhain is not the time of year that encourages you to continue in a shallow, placid existence. Samhain is not big on denial or avoidance. Samhain is the time of the dead. The time when the doors between the worlds open.

This is not a trivial moment! It is a spectacular opportunity to bring out your dead. Bring them out! Celebrate their lives, their passings. Honor the good and the bad of what there was. Grieve, rage, and celebrate. All together.

For the worlds are mingling on All Hallows Eve. The worlds are closer, all this month.

Feel the presence of those who have gone, and take this moment to celebrate their passage through your life.

Celebrate.

Grieve.

It is all one; both are the path to truth and beauty. You must explore both of these extremes to be at peace with your past.

To be at peace with what has gone.

Your dead need not be physically dead. They can be dead to you, the relationship shattered. They can be an active part of your life, but some aspect of your relationship is no longer possible. When you think of what you have lost, it may be your innocence, or your childhood home, your first love, your soulmate you’ve never met, the eighties, dependence or independence, being part of a family or a lost pet.

No matter. We have all lost things that were precious.

We move through our lives, full of “I’m fine” and “No big deal.” Or we relive it over and over, complaining about it to anyone who will listen, paying therapists to be our guaranteed audience.

Three things must happen: grieving, celebrating and moving on.

Leave out one of this magical trinity, and it loses its power. You must admit the feelings of pain and loss to get them out of your body. Unshed tears form a wall around your heart like a moat. I can see them when I look at people’s auras. They stay there until you move them out of your body, flowing toward release on your tears.

Celebration cannot be neglected. If you don’t honor the good things brought to your life by something gone, you cannot understand the pain. You cannot embrace the experience as a gift, a lesson. You disempower yourself if you choose to ignore the gifts of any experience in your life. “Poor me, that sucked” is a weak stance. “Yes, that hurt, what a pain in the ass that I had to go through that loss, and yes at the same time I am grateful for the gifts the experience has brought me” is a powerful stance.

“It was my experience, you cannot take it from me. You cannot convince me that I am a lesser person for having lost that thing I cherished. I made no mistakes. I chose my path, as the best path for my growth.”

And then moving on. That’s why we have the seasons, the cyclic energies of the planet. The larger forces that surround us are here to aid us in releasing that which no longer serves us. The energies will be building, coming to a peak. October 31 is a beautiful night for ritual, for honoring, grieving and releasing that which is gone. That which is dead.

Bring out your dead.

Bring them out! Create an altar honoring those who are gone. Put pictures or mementos of your ancestors on it. Arrange photos of family or friends who have passed. Draw representations of things you have lost — pictures of your feelings about hope vanished, possibility eradicated, love lost, opportunities gone. Bring it all up, let it all out. Put it all there, together, where you can see it.

When you’re done crying…

Stand there and love it. Love it! Love them all, all the things you’ve let go of. Love yourself for being a living, breathing being standing there loving what’s gone. Love the gifts of memory that allow you to cherish beings who no longer have physical form. Love all of life, which teaches us with pain as well as joy.

Love. Decorate your altar with offerings. Choose items from your heritage to honor your ancestors, or borrow freely if you resonate more with another culture. Burn sage, offer pollen or cornmeal, put out cups of whiskey or tea, light a cigar, give chocolate or rice or sweet cakes or honey, arrange fresh flowers.

Allow this altar to be a part of your life for a few days, bringing the lost into your consciousness.

When it is time, let it go. Burn offerings or painful reminders. Burn your drawings of your pain. Send prayers of gratitude and good wishes for the departed off wherever prayers go. Send your ex your blessings.

Release, release, release.

When your tears are done, when the time of grieving and celebrating the past is done, let it go. Dismantle your altar, putting photos back where they belong, giving the offerings to the earth, getting rid of that which no longer serves you.

Release, release, release.

Then bring your attention back to you. Still standing, you. Still breathing, you. Still loving. Take your attention and your power back inside your own body, and embrace this moment. This one moment, when all power is yours. When all choice is yours.

And move forward with the living.

Freya Ray is a professional psychic, shaman, writer, and teacher.