Aspiring Mystic Artisan

Medieval Women Cutting Out Fabric artist unknown

If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s.  CG Jung

Spirit first, technique second.  Gichin Funakoshi

God gives us the capacity for choice.  We can choose to alleviate suffering.  We can choose to work together for peace.  We can make these changes—and we must.  Jimmy Carter

It’s been three years since I wrote regularly on this blog.  When I checked in over the holiday break, I was surprised to learn how many people have read my blog.  Thank you. 

• Where have you been? 
• I checked-off of an item on my bucket list.  I set off to university and finished my graduate degree.
• And what’s next?
• I’ve have many ideas floating in my head, but I’m waiting.  I’m taking time to listen to Motherfather Spirit before packing my backpack. 

Starting a journey under the Capricorn moon has shook me up.  In the past, my bags would be packed, rituals done, and off I go.  I was determined to get my dream at any cost including setting off into uncharted and unfriendly places. However, not this time.  I'm being opened to the path Motherfather Spirit pushes me towards.

Many of you know the Capricorn symbol has a dual body. It is both mountain goat and fish.  (The fish part I often forget.  Perhaps I’m always concentrating on the goat side because it is in front.  The fish part is in the back--hidden.) To be a master at anything you must practice with discipline (this is the goat part), but you also have to be connected to Motherfather Spirit and your soul (this is the fish part).  A master of (name your skill) has balance between what they are trying to create and spirit. 

It means before picking up a pencil, shovel, whisk, keys, (fill in the blank), you stay put and take the time to listen. 

Oh this is so hard to do in the world I live in.

 Tina Turner - Mother Within (Heavenly Home) - 'Beyond  


Action:

This year I am changing how I make my Feng Shui Shield. For nine days I plan on meditating on each square/bagua. Before beginning my meditation, I will focus on the theme of the bagua and ask Motherfather Spirit to give me insight. Each day I will keep a journal to keep track of what wisdom is shared with me.  I will build my shield from this.  

During the darkness of the new moon I will anoint my shield with the "Candle Spells for New Beginnings" ritual.  

Cycles, Composting and Creativity



Landscape with Snow (Paysage enneigé), by Vincent Van Gogh
late February 1888. Oil on canvas, 15 1/16 x 18 3/16 inches
(38.2 x 46.2 cm).  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York,
Thannhauser Collection, Gift, Hilde Thannhauser 84.3239

Silent Moon - How can we find silent time to restore and regenerate our enthusiasm for our lives/work/relationships? ~
CAYA's Full Moon Questions.

“Only to a magician is the world forever fluid, infinitely mutable and eternally new.  Only he knows the secret of change, only he knows truly that all things are crouched in eagerness to become something else, and it is from this universal tension that he draws his power.” ~ Peter Beagle

“In nature the life-death-rebirth cycle is clear as we watch flash fires ignited by lightning level the prairies.  It may appear that all life is gone, lost to the ravages of flame and smoke, but within days, tiny green shoots begin to poke above the surface of the soil.  Mother Earth has cleared the land for new life.  Even in my garden I sense the seasons and the cycle of life-death-life.  Perennials planted in my yard years ago go through their seasonal life span: a new green shoot, a blooming tulip, soon gone, but the bulb below the soil holds all the necessary ingredients for repeating the cycle again next spring.” ~ Kathleen A. Brehony, Awakening at Midlife

Ohio Story:

A guy is nursing his beer at a downtown Cleveland bar.  For over twenty minutes he’s been studying the pictures that decorate the place: Cy Young, Doris Day, Neil Armstrong, John Glenn, Bob Hope, Jessie Owens, Orville and Wilbert Wright, Toni Morrison, Thomas Edison, Bernadine Healy, Erma Bombeck, Rita Dove…  He leans over and asks the bartender.  “What’s with Ohio?”

The bartender shrugs and tops off another order.

“How does Ohio get all these famous people?  You know 8 presidents and 25 astronauts...”

The bartender nods.  “Four months.”

“Come again?”

“We Ohioans are blessed with four months.”

“I don’t think I’m following you.”

“Ohio winters.  That gray, snow and cold that people from other states complain about, well it has an opposite effect for us Ohioans.  We are taught at an early age that the best time to fertilize dreams is during an Ohio winter.  It makes you contemplate.  You know – chew on it and compost the stuff that doesn’t work.”

~#~

"To everything, there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven." Ecclesiastes 3:1.

Turn! Turn! Turn! by The Byrds

~#~

I love Ohio winters.  The cold temperatures that bite your cheeks, icy sidewalks and the gray sky days?  Not so much.  What I like is the stillness of the time.  I find this seasonal period always inviting me to rest, be silent and to listen.  It calls me to gather unfinished projects or those that are broken and to decide to: fix them, finish them or unravel them.  Spiritually, I know it’s a way for making room for something new.


I see winter as the ebbing part of an endless cycle. It reminds me of the ocean’s tide gently pulling back before the next surge forward.  Winter is the nighttime when dreams percolate as you sleep and all you have to do is choose one star to follow the next morning.  To exhale is winter.  The air rushes out of my nose and I can feel my shoulders relax for a bit or enough to catch my breath and focus my thoughts.    

As a gardener, I value this part of the seasonal cycle.  I’m hoping this year’s frigid temperatures will decrease the bug population.  (2012 bean patch was continually munched down and my salad mix had Alpine lacey holes).  I’m hoping it will create a big sugar rush in the Maple trees so that that the cost of a gallon of syrup will go down. (2012 too warm of a winter).

My compost bin also likes the winter.  The freezing and thawing (1/29/2013 60F and 2/1/2013 16F) helps break down the vegie matter into this primordial black stuff that T spreads into our garden.  The unwanted egg shells, used teabags, cabbage core and the moldy lentil soup that was forgotten in the frig all magically turns (science speak - decomposes) into this green silky film.  It then mixes with the other earthy smelling brown matter in the bin.  By October, the end product is this ultimate fertilizer for next year’s garden.

~#~

“The ancient rhythms of the earth have insinuated themselves into the rhythms of the human heart. The earth is not outside us; it is within: the clay from where the tree of the body grows. When we emerge from our offices, rooms and houses, we enter our natural element. We are children of the earth: people to whom the outdoors is home. Nothing can separate us from the vigor and vibrancy of this inheritance. In contrast to our frenetic, saturated lives, the earth offers a calming stillness. Movement and growth in nature takes its time. The patience of nature enjoys the ease of trust and hope. There is something in our clay nature that needs to continually experience this ancient, outer ease of the world. It helps us remember who we are and why we are here.” ~ John O’Donohue, Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

~#~

Many of my poems, knitting projects and short stories have come from the scraps transformed in my creative compost bin.  The yule scarf that I’m working on for a friend has evolved out of an intended sweater I was knitting 25 years ago.  Every time I’ve looked at the beautiful red yarn and unfinished sweater in my basement, I immediately thought of the bad memories attached to it (i.e., old abusive boyfriend, laughing ex-friends (1980s) who thought knitting was an old lady activity, family members who believed I couldn’t finish anything I started).  This past January’s full moon I decided I needed to let go of those memories and tossed them onto my creative compost pile.  Immediately, I felt a winter – a stillness, a soft place with clean snow, and the ocean’s tide pulling back.  As January's moon let go of her fullness, I found a new and lighter place in my psyche.  The red yarn was free to become something new. 

Cable Scarf @ BEMS

Knitting Activity

Spirit Stitch’s Irish Fisherman Cable Scarf or Cindy’s wish for a fruitful day at the sea.

You will need a cable needle in addition to the regular knitting needles (I used 5 American needles)

Cast on 42 on regular knitting needles.

Knit 4 rows (8 rows total – down and back)

Pattern:

Row 1: Knit 8 (purl 1 knit 4) 6 times knit last 4 stitches
Row 2: Knit 8 (purl 4 knit 1) 6 times knit last 4 stitches
Row 3:  Knit 8 (purl 1 knit 4) 6 times knit last 4 stitches
Row 4: Knit 8 (purl 4 knit 1) 6 times knit last 4 stitches
Row 5: Knit 8 (Cable stitch Back the 4 purl 1) 6 times knit last 4 stitches
Row 6: Knit 8 (purl 4 knit 1) 6 times knit last 4 stitches

Repeat 1- 6 to desired length

Knit 4 rows (8 down and back) at the end of the scarf.

Note:  I crossed my cable needle behind for this scarf - this is different than the Youtube video.

Additional Reading on Composting

Dreher, Diane. Inner Gardening: Four Seasons of Cultivating the Soil and the Spirit. William Morrows. 2001.

Goldberg, Natalie. Writing Down the Bones. Shambhala Press. Boston, Massachusetts. 2005.

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.