Summer KAL Update

BEMS - KAL Summer Scarf

As you can see – this is my wonderful scarf that is being donated.  The proceeds of the sale will go to Cat Welfare.   This organization helps orphan kitties find new human friends. 

Thanks to all who contributed by giving me the next color to knit.

Solar Oak, Meryln, Maria, Jean, Diane, Criag, B, Adrienne, Tom, Amy, RC, Adrienne, Beth, Kathy, J, Joyce, Roberto, F, Z, Norma, Walter, H, Naderah, Kim, Betty, Debra, Nancy, Linda, Avonell, Rayma, Dorothea, Deb, Rainbow, Phoenix and several friends who wanted to remain anonymous........

If you participated in this KAL – please share.  Would love to see your scarf.

Changing the world’s energy one task at a time.

Next project after Yule?

Love Champions - Sightings

Runners Embrace Chance to Help Residents Recover

If the New York City Marathon had not been canceled because of Hurricane Sandy last week, Michelle Leichtling would not have found herself in a grief-stricken neighborhood on Staten Island on Sunday, trying to salvage a stranger’s soaking-wet wedding album.

Macur, Juliet. Runners Embrace Chance to Help Residents Recover. The New York Times. 4 Nov. 2012. Web. 8 Nov. 2012 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/05/sports/marathon-runners-embrace-chance-to-help-storm-stricken-new-yorkers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Mirror Mirror on the Wall Spell New Research

More Plus-Size Models Could Change Women’s Obsession With Thin Bodies

British women's obsession for thin bodies could potentially be changed if advertising showed more plus size models, suggests a preliminary study published November 7.

Journal Source:  Lynda G. Boothroyd, Martin J. Tovée, Thomas V. Pollet. Visual Diet versus Associative Learning as Mechanisms of Change in Body Size Preferences. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (11): e48691 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0048691

Durham University. "More plus-size models could change women’s obsession with thin bodies." ScienceDaily, 7 Nov. 2012. Web. 8 Nov. 2012.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121107200146.htm

Visioning: A New Year of Possibilities

Great site to talk about gathering seeds

Happy New Year.

T and I went down to the garden one more time.  Monday they plan on plowing everything under.  We spent a good two hours picking green tomatoes, peppers, dill and dug up carrots and turnips.  We cut the arugula and lettuce for a last week of salad.  I went around cutting dried cosmos, zinnias and marigolds – seeds for next year.

The sky was over casted and the wind picked up.   It took me half a book of matches to get the incense lit.  This happened back in April when we started planting….  The wind made the smoke rise in little spirals.  One more time I thanked the garden and then turned and walked away.  It’s hard to say goodbye, but I know this isn’t the end.  The flower seeds tell something different.

A gardener knows this season is needed.  It isn’t final, but a part of a never ending pattern.  The gardener knows this death is necessary to bring about a successful harvest next year.  Everyone needs a rest – even the dirt and the spirits.

~#~

"When we realize the extent of the myriad interconnections which link us to all other life, we realize that our existence only becomes meaningful through interaction with, and in relation to, others." ~ Buddha

~#~

This past year I’ve been reading from many of my old friends.  Authors who I found tucked away in my bookshelf.  I’ve discovered new nuances in their writings – a “Mary Poppins Factor” so to speak.  I’m amazed at what I missed the last time I read the texts.  Specifically, how essential it is to see a goal completed – even those goals which seem overwhelming like seeing a world where everyone is fed, everyone feels safe, or everyone shows empathy for their neighbor. 

In Dreaming the Dark, Starhawk talks about the interconnected principle.  Meaning – nothing on this earth or universe exists in isolation.  We are all linked together.  If one changes we all changes.  When talking about dreams and goals – these won’t come to fruition if we don’t do some work.  This work includes seeing the goal completed and saying and doing one concrete thing.  An individual who does this changes themselves energetically and this causes everything else to change due to the interconnected principle.

As a gardener, I can hold the seeds in my hand and easily can picture the flowers blooming next summer.  Seeing people not in need of food pantries, I admit this is something I struggle wrapping my mind around.  And, maybe this is one of the reasons why energetically speaking hunger, domestic violence or any social justice issue is hard to tackle.  We can’t see it and we all have different ideas on how to begin.

I keep going back to Starhawk’s book and the interconnected principle.  If we each set a goal to do one small thing; “we make a change in relationship in which we take part” (44).  I might not be able to see the ending of hunger, but I can help hand out food or grow tomatoes to share in my garden.  I can see this and I can do this.  This in turns helps transform the energy around me. 

~#~

Activity

New Year Goals to help change my world

Make a list of 3 things you could do to change the status quo energy of exploitation, pollution and destruction.

1. In 2013, I will grow nine tomato plants strictly for the food pantry.
2. On Earth Day 2013, I will participate in my community’s activity of cleaning up a corner.
3. During Sexual Assault Awareness Month – April 2013, I will post daily on facebook information about promoting healthy relationships.

River of Souls by Dan Fogelberg

 

 

Samhain in CCWWW tradition

 


Blessings to all my ancestors

For all the saints - a favorite hymn of my grandparents.

For the Beauty of the Earth - Everytime I hear this sung I think of my Grandmother.
 

 

As Beltain was for the Summer Solstice, Samhain is for the Winter Solstice.  To me it marks the end of a cycle.  The leaves shed their colorful dresses and lacy frost carpet the browning grass.  It’s a last minute chance to dig holes for garlic and daffodils – buried hope to arise next spring.     

At Samhain, the fall sun sets early allowing more time for reflection.  Specifically, for me Samhain is a time to remember all my teachers and ancestors – the saints in my life who’ve passed over into the great love source.   It’s my time to be grateful for all their wisdom they have shared – those that I use and those I’ve decided needed to be changed or not carried on to another generation. 

I tend to think of this of this Sabbath as a prequel to our American Thanksgiving.  The last vegetables are gleaned from my garden plot and the tomato stakes are put away until spring.  It’s one more time to light incense and thank the garden spirits and Motherfather Spirit for allowing me the space to grow nourishing food for my family.

A Scottish Prayer
Slainte - I lift my ancestors up in remembrance of all the things they taught me. And, as the long days of summers draw close I pray to Motherfather spirit to watch over me and my love ones through the dark days of winter. May our bellies may be full, and that we have warmth and shelter when we need it. Keep us from harms way and give us strength to help others who may not fare as well as we do.

 

Rituals:

New Year Attraction Candle

Materials:

Essential oils

Multi-color sheets of beeswax – I buy in a kit

Wick

Before the night of the new moon near Samhain – meditate and write down what you would like you would like to come into your life next year.  Think of this more in terms of emotions and feelings (e.g., protection, love, creativity, prosperity).  Visualize what these would look like in your life.  How would this love feel in your life…  how would creativity feel like in your life….. be very clear.

With this list in mind – I go to my books and intuitively pick out essential oils that match my intent of next year.  I also choose the color of my candle.

On the new moon…….

Take a sheet of beeswax and lay it on a smooth surface.  I place my hands on the wax to warm it up.  If you don’t warm it up; it tends to crumble. 

Cut the wick to the length the candle is going to be and lay it on the edge to be rolled up. Role the wax around it once. 

Place your hands on the candle and visualize what your intentions would look like in your life.  Going back to what you wanted and meditated on.

Splash the different essential oils on to the surface of the candle.  When I do this I say for each oil:  I sprinkle Cedar to bring for healing, purification, and protection in my life.

I roll up the sheet – focusing what I want for my new year.

I then raise the candle up to the new moon praying to Motherfather Spirit that these may come to be.

I place the candle in my window so it may gain the strength of the increasing moon.

The first full moon following Samhain I burn this candle.

 

Banishing Bowl (Modified Stein for a soloist)

Create a safe fire space outside.  (i.e., fire pit, candle in a bowl with water)

On slips of paper write what you would like have banished for next year.  This can be personal or this can be global.  (e.g., I would like to banish biting my nails.  I would like human trafficking banished….).  One banish per slips of paper.

Read each slip of paper out loud and then light it.

Wait until it is fully burned before lighting another.

Blessing of lost spirits

Since the veil is thin on this night between here and there, I light a candle at midnight.  I put out a blessing for those spirits that have lost their way.  I pray that all no matter what the reason they didn't make it - that they may find their way to love source. 

Love Champions: Revisited

Saturday Game 10/27

South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore went down - and both teams came out.  It was pretty amazing.  

Read more - http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1386880-marcus-lattimore-injury-players-react-with-twitter-support-for-carolina-star

Vibrations – Creating Intention





Interference pattern in water

“Energy and mass (matter) are different forms of the same thing mass/energy” Einstein





“You are what your deepest desire is.

As your desire is, so is your intention.

As your intention is, so is your will.

As your will is, so is your deed.

As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

 ~ Upanishads

“The Law Of Vibration: Just as a pebble creates vibrations that appear as ripples, which travel outward in a body of water, your thoughts create vibrations that travel outward into the Universe, and attract similar vibrations that manifest as circumstances in your life.” ~ Unknown

 

Back in college, I remember sitting in my chemistry lecture.  The professor was droning on about atoms and chemical elements.  As you may know, the type of element (e.g., zinc, calcium or oxygen) is determined by the number of neutrons and protons.  He talked about how each element can be identified by using a mass spectrometer because each gives off its own unique signature vibration or color or how I came to think of it - their own song.   I sat, really not listening to the lecture absorbed in my own metaphysical thoughts.   Sitting and thinking:  Wow.  We’re each made up of the same elements held together through vibration or singing our own unique tune – like the uniqueness of our DNA.

Walking the magical path is about learning to understand and work with these different vibrations.  These vibrations can take the form of another person, an emotion, a place or an idea.  The only differences are the frequency of their vibration.

 

I think the biggest challenge comes when we come in contact with a different vibration.  Take Goldilocks’ experiment; to Goldie the smallest chair was just right for her.  The other two she didn’t like – for whatever reason.  However, Papa Bear liked the too hard chair and not the others.  The same is true when we enter a room.  Some rooms have a buzz we may connect to and others we want to run the other way.  These vibrations may be subtle or distinct like two pebbles dropped into waster and the waves collide.  In physics terms this is called an interference pattern.  Again, your colliding into another’s vibration may create beautiful music together or stormy crashes. 

Another aspect many magical practitioners tend to forget is that we leave our vibration signatures on the places and things we touch.  This becomes a problem when we are working with our magical tools.  For example, if you use candles you need to clean the candles of the vibrations and energy of everyone who has handled them: the woman who packaged them into their shipping boxes, the UPS gal delivering them to the store, the guy who unpacked them onto the display counter, and all the people who came into the shop who may or may have not touched them.  Everyone has left their vibrational signature onto the candles.  It doesn’t mean that everyone is out there zapping angry energy at everything – it’s just a fact.  The point being, if you don’t clean the candles then all these people become part of your magical work. 

I tend to use sea salt with everything.  As you know, sea salt is a combination of two elements: earth and water.  It seems to have a way of absorbing negative energy and transforming it into positive energy.  I like to leave a dish out in the Northeast corner of my house (Feng Shui).  I tend to think of it like air freshener and change every month.  The old is flushed down the toilet, however do not do this if you have a septic tank.  For my magical elements, I either put it into a dish of sea salt or lay the object near the bowl.  I then offer a prayer to Motherfather Spirit.

 

~#~

“All that we are is a result of what we have thought,” stated Buddha

~#~

A ritual, prayer or magical spell is used to bring an intention into form.  By lighting a charged candle of a certain color frequency or incense to attract a certain emotion or by creating a spell pouch or creative visualization collage - you are adding a physical representations to the intent.  When you add spoken words or a song you add yet another vibration to the intention.  The candle and the words spoken each have different vibrational frequencies that the practitioner is sending out into the world to manifest their desires.  I view these all as a means of communicating with Motherfather Spirit what I desire. 

Note:  Think hard and long if you are doing this work because you are angry or in pain or you are out to hex someone.  Remember all that you send out will be returned back 3 times multiplied.  Also, I’m a firm believer of blending western medicine with spiritual work.  Check out Dr. Weil and integrated medicine – it is the best of both worlds. 

 

~#~

Protection candle spell

Cleaned black candle and candle holder

Cedar essential oil
Pin 

Sit down and write out what you want.  Specifically, what protection would look like?  How would protection make you feel?  Keeping these thoughts in mind, use the pin and mark in the following runes onto the candle: Algiz, Fehu, and Thurisaz.  Next, anoint the candle with the essential oil.  Rub the essential oil into the candle thinking about the answers to the two questions.  Hold the candle in both hands.  Out loud, tell Motherfather spirit what you want.  Tell Motherfather spirit why you want and need protection.  At the end of your prayer or spoken words add “Not my will but thy will – so mote it be.”  Next light the candle and leave it to burn.