Digging for Dreams

http://sparklefauxdesigns.com/

“What is right for one soul may not be right for another. That is why it is important that you seek your own inner direction and act on it without trying to follow in anyone else's footsteps. You have free choice, for I have given all human beings free will. You are not like a puppet that cannot move without having the strings pulled. You can seek and find what is right for you, and then it is up to you what you do about it. You only find real peace of heart and mind when you follow what you know is right for you, so seek and go on seeking until you have found your specific way and then follow it. It may mean having to stand on your own and do something strange in the eyes of others, but be not daunted. Do whatever it is because you know within that it is right for you and that only the very best will come out of it.”  Eileen Caddy, Findhorn Founder.

Digging

I really like this word.  I like the different meanings.  I’m digging a hole to plant a flower.  I really dig this music.  I dig your new hair cut.  I’m digging in my purse for the grocery list.  I’m digging for buried treasures.  Okay let’s dig in (said by my relatives after grace has been said).  I’m digging into important work.  Like all cool positive words – dig has a dark side.  You can dig into someone by bullying and harassing them.  Unusually, their digging is a mechanism to make you change because you’re different or on a different path from them.  Often, their digging is because if you change – they may have to change.  Some people don’t dig change.

Poet Elizabeth Alexander describes words like ‘digging’ as shimmering words.  They are words that feel interesting in your mouth.  They’re fun to say.  Personally, I like how the word digging starts in the front of my mouth, hits the middle, then the back and finally goes forward out to the world.  (D – i- g- ing).  It feels like breathing. 

One of my favorite poems is “Digging” by Seamus Heaney.  The narrator of this poem writes listening to his father dig.  The narrator is respectful of his father and grandfather’s work.  Personally, I’m well aware of how hard it is to dig and turn my 20’x16’ community plot for vegies by hand.  I like the physical feeling of the shovel in my hands and the sound as the metal blade striking the soil or in my case, Ohio clay.  I feel like I’m doing something.

Dreams are like that.  You need to dig for them – dig down deep for them like an archeologist carefully unearthing a shard of pottery.  Finally, you need to actively pursue them even if others don’t dig them, because these dreams are right for you.

~#~

Digging by Seamus Heaney

(I’ve included a Youtube link – I dig hearing Seamus Heaney read his Digging poem)

Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun.

Under my window a clean rasping sound

When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:

My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds

Bends low, comes up twenty years away

Stooping in rhythm through potato drills

Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft

Against the inside knee was levered firmly.

He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep

To scatter new potatoes that we picked

Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade,

Just like his old man.

My grandfather could cut more turf in a day

Than any other man on Toner's bog.

Once I carried him milk in a bottle

Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up

To drink it, then fell to right away

Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods

Over his shoulder, digging down and down

For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mold, the squelch and slap

Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge

Through living roots awaken in my head.

But I've no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb

The squat pen rests.

I'll dig with it.

~#~

I Forgot How to Dream Activity:

Materials needed:

Pencil and paper

15 minutes

Directions: Look at this picture.  What do you see?  What do you think happened to the people that use to live there?  Why did this home get abandoned?  If you had this home what would you do?

(You just made up a story – I just caught you dreaming)  The main point of this exercise is to set side time to allow yourself to dream.  If you are rushing here and there – how are you going to find time to dream?  The key to getting your dreams is seeing yourself in the story.  To see yourself as the main character. 

Creating a Kick Ass Bucket List or Big Dream List

Materials needed:

A small notebook that has at least 50 pages and a pen

15 minutes

Step One:  On each page write one thing you would like to do before you die – think big.  Don’t think about how you are going to do it.  Just write the idea.  Don’t think about money, time etc….. just write the idea.  Think Big.  Career change? Trips? Marathon completion? Hiking a specific mountain? Graduate School or certificate completion, paint the dining room.  You can do this!!!!

Step Two:  Go through the book and pick two and set a deadline for doing them.


Step Three:  I believe in goals that are positive.  Meaning creating something positive.  Example: I want to eliminate self doubt.  I would change this to:  I have self-confidence.  OR I want a new home.  I would change this to: My home is by a stream and I feel comfortable and safe in it.

Step Four:  Develop a plan on how you intend on doing it. 

Example:  I am holding my 50^th Birthday Party at Phantom Ranch.  Research cost for hiking down the Grand Canyon – for friends who may want to go on the mule find out cost or friends who want the mule to carry everything down and how much it cost to stay in the cabins or tents, how much does it cost for the meals.  Invite friends and family.  Save money.  Training Schedule.  Hiking and surviving the Grand Canyon.  Deadline: May/June 2013

~#~

Digging a New Dream Ritual


Materials needed: 
A place to hold a ritual - or candles to burn undisturbed.
A small pot with dirt
Watering pot with water
Flower or herb seeds (I usually use nasturium seeds which I pre-soak)
Orange candle and holder with matches.
Rosemary essential oil
Paper and pencil


Creat your alter.  Bless the space and create a circle depending on your tradition.  I like to bring in Great Motherfather Spirit into the place, the Archangels and the elements.  Do what is right for you.


On the paper write your dream/goal.  Meditate seeing yourself having the goal.  What does it look, hear, taste and feel like?


Dig a hole into the dirt and plant the paper.  Cover it up.  Next take three seeds and plant them into the pot and cover them up.


With the candle.  I mark the candle with rune markings:  Thurisaz (Beginning new projects), Ansuz (Wisdom and attracting others to my cause), Algiz (protection, success).  Again, use the symbols that you feel is right for your cause.  Next bless the candle with rosemary oil.  Meditate on seeing yourself having this goal. Ask the Great Motherfather Spirit for blessings.  And then light the candle.


Water the flower pot saying:  I nurture these seeds as I nurture my dream.  May my dreams be made real with your help.

Open the circle by thanking those spirits who you asked to be with you.

Allow the candle to burn out. 

Nurture the plant.  Work on the steps towards your dream.

Denaturing Domestic, Dating and Sexual Violence

Important Safety Information for Reading this Entry

For victims of abuse using a computer/technology at home, or where an abuser has access to it, can be very dangerous.  It is impossible to erase all computer history.  Additionally, spyware can be installed onto your computer/technology without your knowledge and give the abuser ways to track and monitor your computer activity.

I highly recommend that you use a computer/technology that you know is “safe,” and to which the abuser does not have access.  You can go to a trusted friend’s home, a public library, or a rape crisis or domestic violence program in your community.


If you are in danger now and in the USA dial 911 now.



"We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face...we must do that which we think we cannot." Eleanor Roosevelt.  You  Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life


"It isn't enough to talk about peace.  One must believe in it.  And it isn't enough to believe in it.  One must work at it." Eleanor Roosevelt.


You never know where you'll be called to do work as a wise witchy person.  When I was in college I’d never be caught saying: “I’m pursuing a career in ending domestic, dating and sexual violence.”  I'd been raised to not talk about “it.”  “It” was treated like a contagious disease.  "It" happened in other families and to those kinds of people.  Talking about “it” put you at risk for becoming a victim. 

Before I left for college (81-85), I was given a long laundry list of rules to follow so "it" wouldn't happen to me.  Most of the rules focused on: my clothing (no plunging neck lines or miniskirts), my hair style (no pony tails), not walking at night alone, not going to bars alone, being at home before dark, knowing where all the blue boxes were on campus…  I was to beware of all the shadow areas on campus and strangers who might follow me (it was a large campus and how was I really going to know everyone).  I was told "it" was apart of loving relationships.  Everyone fights and sometimes it just gets physical.  I needed to stick with the cultural norm of being tolerant in relationship and learn to bend more, lay back and take it, and to not be so "earthy" (I think this was a euphemism for feminist, a behavior never encouraged in my household).

The above rules I found out were garbage.  They were created for people to blame the victim (known as victimization).  These rules still influence jury members and the general public.  The defense attorneys count on and still uses them during the hearing.  I find them bogus rules whose only purpose is to make others have a false sense of security.  And, I'm amaze at how people still cling to these rules: "He/she was a nice person, a boy/girl scout, a church elder"...when "it" happens.  The biggest lie I was told was the stranger one because 95% of assaults are committed by an acquaintance.   

Needless I avoided these topics like – the plague.  Because I also found out talking about "it" is a party silencer.  

But, sometimes the Great Motherfather Spirit has something else in store for you.  I personally like the the kind of magic that is full of light and healing (think Cinderella’s Godmother, babies, flowers, puppies and kitties).  Denaturing Domestic, Dating and Sexual Violence doesn't fit this description.  It is the kind of work I hate most – cleaning up messes or preventing the mess from ever happening.

~#~

Facts:

Domestic and sexual violence, human trafficking and child abuse is a crime in the USA.

It is also a crime in violation against the International Human Rights Treaty

Domestic violence is a pattern of behavior used: to manipulate, to exert power and control over another, and make the other person feel bad about them self.  It comes in the forms of: emotional and physical, stalking, sexual, digital (technology), and financial.

Domestic and sexual violence, human trafficking and child abuse can happen in rich and poor families, it can happen in young and old, straight or LGBT couples.

~#~

To denature:

The first time I came across this word was in Mr. Boyle’s 11^th grade Chemistry Class.  It was changing the physical structure of a molecule into something else.  His lecture was about the nitrates in proteins and how they became possible cause for cancer.    This same lecture was repeated several times in my college pre-med experience.

When I define denaturing domestic, dating and sexual violence – it is diminishing and ultimately eliminating this structure in society within the context of intimate relationships.  Ultimately, if the properties that cause domestic, dating and sexual violence are removed people would have healthy relationships. 

As a wise witchy person we have the ability to help harness energy to do this.  Thinking back on the burning times, I believe our integrity to speak out against injustice was one of the many reasons those in power didn't like us.  We were truth tellers.

~#~

Z Budapest 68



My discovery of Z. Budapest was through my friend C.  I'd attended many Take Back the Night events, you might say, as an initiation to becoming a feminist.  For those who don’t know – Take Back the Night is an international march to protest and bring awareness to end sexual and intimate partner violence.  It was C who told me that the first Take Back the Night march in the U.S. was organized in San Francisco, California on November 4, 1978.  Budapest and the Susan B. Anthony Coven were one of the lead organizers. 

Reading her book, I felt comfortable about hexing.  Her definition was more in line with my belief system of pursuing social justice in a civil society.  It was about exposing and ultimately bringing people to justice who had a disregard and contempt for human rights by committing barbarous acts that outrage the conscience of society (Declaration of Human Rights).  Hexing to me became another way to plea for justice to the Great Motherfather Spirit. 

The following link is a video to her hexing ritual against an unknown Richmond rapists who left a woman almost dead in the winter cold.   


In The Holy Book of Women's Mysteries Part 1 there are two hexing rituals: stop harrassment at school (59) and to hex a rapist (63).   In Goddess in the Office there is a whole section regarding sexual harrassment within the office (39-49).

 

~#~

The Catylis for this work - Barbara


I worked with Barbara for about nine years.  She was a licensed social worker in public health.  Barbara had a sense of humor.  She collected “Barbie” items even though she was a feminist.  The closest comparison to Barbie was her long hair that was brown.  She was able to find humor in the worst situation.  If there wasn’t anything funny, she would do something funny like draw a silly doodle.  Barbara would refresh everyone with her contagious laughter.  She had a way with fostering the best in everyone by drawing out individuals’ strengths and commonalities. 

I know that Barbara liked books.  She read mysteries and criminal investigation stories.  Barbara was fascinated by the criminal mind.  Barbara was a dog lover.  Her ideal retirement would be to open up a book, plant, coffee and adopt a pet shop.  She cared for people - especially those who were the underserved and poor.

What I didn’t know was Barbara’s home life was a secret from many.  Her marriage to her husband was filled with violence and isolation. And, she was very good at hiding the abuse.  Visual bruises or broken glasses were laughed off as her being clumsy or that her two beloved dogs being underfoot.  Long sleeve dark tops were worn in the middle of summer, because the building was so cold.  I'd hear her husband’s frequent telephone calls.  When we'd comment, she would tell us “they were still in love.”  Many didn’t know that he had gradually isolated her off from her sister and close friends.   

   

In the late eighties, the American Medical Association stated that all health care facilities should screen for domestic violence, Barbara was a vocal advocate in stating all publicly funded health clinics should do this type of screening.  Ohio was one of the first states to sign on.  And, she was the key person who made this happen.

I can still remember that Tuesday after Memorial Day (1997).  I was watching the morning news.  The reporter was broadcasting in front of her house.  Her husband was announced that he had been taken into custody.  I was in denial all the way to work telling myself how many (Barbara’s Last Name) live in Central Ohio.  I made our supervisor call her house.  We got the answering machine.  Within hours we were called in by Employee Assistance Program.

Looking back, I can read all the signs.  Back then – I’d have never believe one who was the loudest advocate when it came to helping women get out of violent relationships would be in one herself. 

Her death called for me to begin working to shine light on the darkness.  To be a part of a community working to end domestic, dating and sexual violence.  To become part of the solution by finding ways to prevent this behavior from ever happening.    

Barbara's death was the catalysis for me.  Her death made me feel the final push of the Great Motherfather Spirit's calling.

~#~

Why is it in my handbook?


Sometimes you are called to do hard work and clean up messes that have been going on for many generations. 

Sometimes this work goes against what is popular.  That's okay.  Sometimes you need to call for help from the Great Motherfather Spirit and your plea maybe in the form of a hexing ritual for social justice. But, know that you aren't alone - there are others doing this work too.


You will know that you are doing good work - when magically time slips away.  This is what happens when I do this work.  

~#~

Activities:


Things you can say to a friend who is victimized

• I believe you….
• I am here for you….
• No one deserves to be……
• There is help for you

Know and share your local resources and national numbers

• National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or TTY 1-800-787-3224 http://www.thehotline.org/
• Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or visit their on-line hotline at https://ohl.rainn.org/online/    http://www.rainn.org/
• National Teen Dating Violence Hotline  1-866-331-9474 or TTY 1-866-331-8453  http://blog.loveisrespect.org/
• If anyone is in danger now – dial 911.

Things you can say to a friend who is making a sexist remark or joke, bullying, texting sexual rumors, displaying pornography.  (Note: When you say something –they may say “no big deal” or “everyone is doing it.”)

• Say it: I just heard you call Chris a (fill in the blank)
• Claim it: The word (fill in the blank) is personally offensive to me and is an offensive term in general.
• Stop it:  Please don’t use that word in my presence again.

Participate in one of the many marches that bring awareness to ending domestic, dating and sexual  violence.

The Slut Walk - http://www.slutwalktoronto.com/

Walk a Mile in her Shoes - http://www.walkamileinhershoes.org/

The Bride March - http://www.bridesmarch.com/
The College Brides Walk - http://www.collegebrideswalk.com/default.html


Plus there is the work that Eve Ensler on V-Day 

For men: Oakland Men's Project 
White Ribbon Campaign -  http://www.whiteribbon.ca/
Men Can Stop Rape - http://www.mencanstoprape.org/

Paul Kivel and the Oakland Men's Project and Jackson Katz and......

Creative visualization collages



Feng Shui Shield

"Everything will now come your way." Fortune Cookie

My first taste of magical living came in 1986.  It was my first job out of college and the environmental buzz of “lay-offs” created this huge knot in my shoulder.  My stress management techniques used in college didn’t work.  I decided to take a class on “stress management” however this title was a disguise for what the class was really about: creative visualization and changing one’s thoughts about the stress.  Looking back I remember how New Age, Eastern ideas and touchy feely therapy were considered on the fringe of traditional western medicine.  It was considered folk medicine and didn’t meet the requirements set forth in by peer reviewed therapies that are published in fancy scientific journals.  Yes, western medicine has made some acceptance today only if the practice has met the battery of tests. 

In my class I learned that I could use my imagination to visualize what I wanted.  This desire could be something physical like a new job or new house or it could be something less profound or like handing stressful situations better.  The first key was developing an understanding that everything around me is made up of atoms or energy.  (Note: This made sense due to my Pre-Med Chemistry and Physics classes.) That everything has a different vibration, but we all in some way attract each other.  If I needed something or desire an answer to something - the universe is willing to provide.  But, I first must be able to clearly formulate the idea of what I wanted using all my senses (i.e., taste, smell, feel, see, and hear).  And, look subconsciously and face my fears head on.  And, clear out my mental goo that distracted from my focus. 

One of the nuggets I carry with me from my instructor is: “we each have the ability to make dreams a reality, but we need to learn how to concentrate on our intent.”  So I sat through the five week course visualizing red and yellow, being on a beach or next to a mountain stream.  I practice within my mind walking up stairs and down, tasting chocolate or smelling a marigold.  I would practice the exercises she assigned us and by the end of the class I could sit for thirty minutes.  Finally, I could keep my mind from wandering and talking.  This helped me focus clearly on my dreams.

~#~



Feng Shui Shield 2

In most books I’ve read about living the magical life, I’ve discovered that our actions and rituals solidifying our goal.  When I create a candle spell I have a desired outcome.  Before the match is struck, I have to have a clear picture of what I want.  I have a multisensory picture of how it will be when it comes into my life.  I put this picture energy into the candle.

~#~

Activity: Re-solution Collages

Treasure maps and dream boards aren’t new.  Even Oprah uses this concept.  I heard Patricia Spadaro interviewed while she was here for Central Ohio’s Light Expo.  She discussed using them on a spiritual level. 

Every year I put together one of these collages.  I’m not different from anyone else and have a laundry list of what I want.  But, over time the material things have dropped (i.e., extreme wealth ) to more tangible things (i.e., publishing a poem or short story, painting the dining room).  But putting these dreams into pictures has been helpful for me.  My collage layout is different.  It is based on the Feng Shui floor diagram of how energy moves.   Sometime in the last six years my collages has turned into a shield (i.e., circle). 

I use a worksheet I created based on the 9 areas.  I also don’t take any credit for these questions because they are based from many sources.  After I fill it out the worksheet I find pictures that represent these ideas.    

Before starting on the sheet – I light a candle and pray to the great motherfather spirit saying:  Looking back, may I be filled with gratitude; looking forward my I be filled with hope; looking upward may I be aware of strength, looking inward may I find peace. 

Worksheet:

1.        Journey/Career: where are you going?  What new beginnings or new opportunities would I like for this year.

2.       Relationships with partner, self, family, friend, colleagues:  How do I want my relationship nourished this year?  Who in my life do I want to surround me and uplift me to get to my dreams?

3.       Elders: family heritage, ancestors, parents, authority figures – What would I like to see happen this year with my parents.  How will my Grandmothers and Grandfathers teach me and guide me? 

4.       Fortunate Blessing:  wealth, universal flow of abundance into life, money, blessings and prosperity – How can I continue to feel richly blessed?  What do I need to make me feel full of inner peace and happy?

5.       Unity: Health, connection with God/Goddess/Universal Life Force:  Are you physically healthy?  Do you feel connected with spirit?  What needs to happen in this coming year? 

6.       Helpful friends/travel: books, angels, friends, philanthropic acts – who do I want to be supported and guided this year?  Where would I like to travel this year (physically or in a book), Who can I help this year?

7.       Creativity: children, what do I plan on giving birth to? A project?  How will I show creative fun this year?  What new projects would I like to finish this year?

8.       Contemplation: Knowledge, new learning, study, intuition, spiritual force?  How is my relationship with myself?  What new thing will I learn this year? 

9.       Illumination: fame, spiritual enlightenment, self-realization? 

Once the questions are answered, I go through magazines and old Holiday cards tearing out symbols to represent my answers.

I then past them in their respective areas ( See below).  Finally, on the new moon I dedicate the shield.  I have the shield hanging in my office next to the phone.  If someone asks, I tell them I’m being creative. 

4) Abundance, fortune, blessing, wealth	9) Identity, illumination, fame, enlightenment	2) Love, relationships, family, friends, colleagues
3) Community, elders, family , heritage	5) Mother earth, health, unity, connection to universe	7) Creativity and Children
8) Wisdom, contemplation, knowledge, learning	1) Life’s passage, life’s journey, career	6) Connections, helpful friends, books, angels.

A Better World

Dear readers,

As you look out to the moon tonight - see possibilities.  Think about one thing you can do to create a better world. 

Ideas?

1. Knit scarfs for the homeless.
2. Give your old magazines to a food pantry.
3. Bake cookies at work anonymously.
4. Visit an elderly person in a nursing home.
5. Write a letter to your state or national representative on a social issue you support - in the USA - the Violence Against Women Act is up for reauthorization.  It is having problems in the house getting sponsors.  Your e-mail could help.
6. Share something with your neighbor.
7. Paint a picture of a better world.
8. Write a poem of hope.

Any more ideas?

Here is the link to the California Women who are organizing this prayer tonight.  http://motherofthenewtime.blogspot.com/2012/02/invitation-to-women-of-world.html

Clearing out mental goo

Sacred Space 2 - naioth.com

“Organizing is what you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up.”  A. A. Milne, creator of Winnie-the-Pooh.

“You can't afford the luxury of a negative thought.”  Peter McWilliams


“Our thoughts are where everything begins.” Mike Dooley

The supervisors ordered the big blue trash and recycling bins to be rolled into our office area under the auspice of “Spring Cleaning.”   Reality, the director is making a “hello” sweep the third week of February.  My cubicle has already had the once over with demerit looks.  I’m the first to admit that it isn’t tidy with the piles stacked around my cubical.  Each equates to six different projects I’m simultaneously working on. 

From a Feng Shui perspective, I should happily be cleaning and tossing to bring in fresh possibilities and allowing space for new growth.  And, from my experience at home I love that refreshing and good feeling when the chi moves freely.   But, honestly I don’t need any more new work projects roosting in my office yet, or at least until my co-worker comes back from her educational leave. 

My gripe is about the who is in charge and how people are told how their offices should look - the supervisor who’s a minimalist and known for delegating all his work and manages to get the glory.  His approach isn’t like Mary Poppins singing a song to move the job along.  It’s more like the ‘office police.’  His technique makes me feel like a teenager with no choice as to how I organize my space.  It’s my way or the highway approach.  

As the day wore on, I could feel myself becoming more worked up about being told to clean my office.  It was draining my focus from my tasks at hand. 

~#~

I was talking to my good friend C Thursday night.  I told her I was writing about clearing out the clutter.  She said downsizing, selling the majority of her things and her house and then moving away was very traumatic decluttering.  But, every day she is amazed how new things come into her life.  She wishes she’d done it sooner.  C found a furnished condo and has strawberries for breakfast daily.  C says every day she wakes up thankful and waiting for the next thing to pop into her life.  She firmly believes having all that stuff back in Ohio was stressful and interfered with her life.

I told her I was thinking about writing about mental clutter.  “You can't afford the luxury of a negative thought; I know someone wrote a book on that.” C says.  We both agreed that mental clutter can manifest all kinds of negative consequences. 

Basic magic 101: thoughts manifest into reality – both negative and positive.  “Our thoughts are where everything begins,” says Mike Pooley in Infinite Possibilities.  If your mind is clogged up with thoughts and feelings over previous bad relationships, anger about that bad grade from 4^th grade or guilt that you didn’t tell a deceased relative goodbye it will sabotage the intent of your magic.  It could take away your focus.

Magical living starts with intent.  You have to be able to see your goals, dreams wishes and the great things happening around you.  However, if you have mental clutter things will run amuck.  Personally, I’ve found the stuff that's floating around in my brain interferes with my concentration, focus and visualization.  These are the primary fundamentals needed for a path of possibilities.  When I don’t address my clutter immediately: I’m daydreaming, stuck in a rut, ticked off, obsessed about some injustice and not seeing the yellow brick road ahead.

~#~

Activities:

Cleaning my physical environment is easy.  I just need to watch an episode of Hoarders.  It sends me to the bathrooms, nooks and corners.  Personally, I empathize with those people.  Their stuff has been attached to emotional baggage and feelings of self-worth.  It’s easy for me to say – okay let’s get out the white trash bags and cleaning supplies.  However, you can’t clean the brain with a SOS pad. 

Activities that have worked for me to break up my messy mental clutter:

• I’ve made a list of all my complaints, gripes, fears, anxieties and bury it with a penny next to a tree.  The tree spirits have always helped me out.  They seem to change that negative energy and make it something good.
• I’m a firm believer of the Julian Cameron “brain dump.”  She calls it “Morning Pages.”  Basically it is 3 pages worth of how you are feeling, what is on your mind – physically, mentally and spiritually. You’re writing in longhand and it doesn’t matter how you hand writing looks, if the words are spelled correctly or if you’re are using Mrs. Boomer’s 8^th grade English grammar rules – your hand is moving putting down what is going on in your brain.  At the end of three pages, you close the book.
• Mediation, Yoga and walking
• Have lunch or tea with a friend – get another perspective. 
• Using the Rules of Disengagement by Gail Blanke from her book Throw out 50 Things.
• One. If it – the thing, the belief or conviction, the memory, the job, even the person – weighs you down, clogs you up, or just plain makes you feel bad about yourself, throw it out, give it away, sell it, let it go, move on.
• Two. If it (see above!) just sits there, taking up room and contributing nothing positive to your life, throw it out, give it away, sell it, let it go, move on. If you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. Throwing out what’s negative helps you rediscover what’s positive.
• Three. Don’t make the decision – whether to toss it or keep it – a hard one. If you have to weigh the pros and cons for too long or agonize about the right thing to do, throw it out.
• Four. Don’t be afraid. This is your life we’re talking about. The only one you’ve got for sure. You don’t have the time, energy, or room for physical or psychic waste.

Finally, my activities don’t take the place of seeking or replacing a licensed professional.  Nor do they replace taking prescribed medication.  I’m a firm believer in calling in someone who has been trained in the field of mental health.  I went to a licensed social worker to understand why I kept attracting and dating alcoholics so I could move on.  If you find that you can’t get rid or cope with your mental goo seek a professional.  A witchy wise woman/man leads by example in their community.  She/He gives equal importance to mental health issues as vocalizing social injustices or getting a mammography or prostate exam.  A healthy witchy wise woman/man practices the magical life more effectively.

Other Inspired Readings

Note:  I've linked my books up with Amazon - however - please please please - go to your local independent book store first.  If you have the ISBN they can order the book for you.  My link to Amazon can get you that number. 

Ariana. House Magic. Berkley, California: Conari Press. 2001.

Budapest, Z.  Goddess in the Office. New York: HarpersCollins. 1993.

Kingston, Karen. Creating Sacred Space with Feng Shui.  New York: Broadway Books. 1997.