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

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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

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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.

Uncertainty Whammy

Tarottteaching.com

“Always remember striving and struggling proceeds success in the dictionary.” ~ Susan Ban Breathnach

 

“Shake the burden that comes from seeing your baby steps as a necessary discipline.  See them, instead, as optional dance moves, in life's conga line, that spark miracles, open floodgates, and lead to the near effortless manifestations of I now have my owns. “ ~ Notes from The Universe - TUT

 

Uncertainty Whammy, or UW as it is commonly referred to, falls under a group of hex spells that causes a person to be skeptical, doubtful and unsure of making a decision.  Left untreated the long term prognosis is grave.  Research shows that the infected person ultimately never lives out their dreams and become spiritually stagnate.    Those interviewed with a tertiary infection of UW, describe it to be like having a scratch on a record album or CD playing out in their head; a voice keeps playing that same spot discouraging them from even leaning or inching their toe forward toward their dream.  Observed, the person relies on carefully prescribed maps recommended by others rather than self-exploration and being open to the unexpected.
 

UW is considered to be an opportunistic spell that seems to take advantage of certain situations.   Researchers have been unable to dissect the original source of this spell, but many studies conclude that all people are at risk and reactions vary person to person. 

The signs and symptoms of UW vary depending on which of the three stages it presents (i.e., primary, secondary and tertiary).  Most people are born with primary stage UW.  They begin to show outward symptoms during early childhood and are described as an awakening to spirit.  These symptoms are considered socially good and are often encouraged.  Those having primary UW are described as having analytical traits to discern simple information and can easily identify, make and follow through with a decision.  Most of these decisions are made unconsciously and spontaneously.  An example of primary UW would be deciding what color of socks to wear or what kind of cereal to eat or what rock you like.  Secondary UW, the infected person begins to have problems making choices.  Often, this is due to environmental factors such as options made by others, time pressure, higher stakes, or increased vagueness of not knowing where the choice will lead.  This may lead to difficulties because the person begins to shut down to the aspect of the unknown and the unplanned.  Those interviewed with secondary UW say they are more likely to “go with the flow” rather than choose an unfamiliar path.

Tertiary UW can be seen in early art such as the Fresco painting in Villa of the Mysteries (Pompeii, Italy), the 9 of swords in the tarot deck, The Nightmare by Henri Fuseli and Picasso’s Weeping Woman.  The person becomes trapped to a repertoire of voices all coming within their head.  Those interviewed stated that a past image or voice (e.g., parent, teacher, and etc.) takes control and they become immobilized. 

~#~

I’ve been cutting up pieces for a baby quilt I’m making for a new cousin.  Going through several bins of fabric I found 4 completed wagon wheels a friend of mine gave me.  They’ve been sitting around for over ten years.  I decided to cut them up into 4 inch strips and sew them to complementary solids and calicos from my stash.  I’m not following any quilt pattern other than the quilt needs to end up 36 inches by 51 inches.  I’ve no idea how this quilt will turn out since I’ve decided to work this way.  I’m uncertain, but hoping for the best. 

I suppose if I’d thought of this quilting project in context to the pictures above, I’d say it looks bleak with no positive outcomes.  I don’t know if I’d really start it or even set the material down on the table to be cut out.  Within my mind I’d see all the worst case scenarios acted out that include hearing voices from the past saying: it’s a waste of fabric, looks ugly and it will be hidden in a closet; better yet, the quilt will be given away to Good Will or Salvation Army… Note - none of this is real.  All of this negativity would be played out in my mind stopping me from moving forward.  I become like the person in this image – trapped and afraid to take the risk of stepping forward. 

When it comes to spirituality and living a magical life, I know that I’m not alone when it comes to being open to where Motherfather Spirit takes me.  I’ve talked to several friends who didn’t pursue their dreams because they were imprisoned by the “What ifs.”  It is easier to stick with the sure path that is often dictated by the norm.  For me, it’s the whole stepping out into the unknown; doing something for the first time that causes me to get that sickening feeling.  My mind grips to some past images and “What people will say” that seems takes control.  I end up losing my heart compass; I end up not following my intuition.

I can remember the first time I was told a crystal could talk.  The societal norm would say "Really?”  I too was very skeptical with my scientific method.  However, by allowing myself to be open to other possibilities and realities I find myself becoming more flexible to the boulders and challenges put on my path.  When I listen to my heart somehow I manage to find new solutions and the details seem to fall into place.  It’s not that I don’t hear my mind’s litany singing the “Pit of Despair;” I just don’t let it be in control.  When I’m listening to my heart, I’m living out the magical life.

~#~

The Geese

By Jane Mead 

slicing this frozen sky know

where they are going—

and want to get there.

Their call, both strange

and familiar, calls

to the strange and familiar

heart, and the landscape

becomes the landscape

of being, which becomes

the bright silos and snowy

fields over which the nuanced

and muscular geese

are calling—while time

and the heart take measure.

 ~#~

Activity

Stepping out of your comfort zone

• Make a list of all your “I could never do…..”  Don’t list the reasons why – just list “I could never do….”
• Choose one from the list and say yes to it.  If you don’t know how you are going to do it – just let Motherfather Spirit take over.
• If the chorus begins, just let them sing.  Think of them as a song you don’t like that is playing on the radio, because you’re waiting for the secret message for the day.
• Do a small step to begin.  Example: you want to take a cruise – go on-line to see the different types of cruises.  Begin to create a I can do creative visualization sheild. 

What's so funny, 'bout peace, love and understanding

Elvis Costello and Elmo on Sesame Street

“Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” ~ Albert Enstein

  “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”  ~ Carl Jung


I have been really thinking about what is going around me lately.  Trying to explain things I believe in (e.g., social justice, why PBS should be funded, why just having lists of women's names in a binder are limiting, why healthcare should be for everyone, a process model everyone can use, cookie ingredients, relationships, why human trafficking needs to end, why access to birth control and emergency contraceptives is important ....fill in the blank) Well it all gets messed up..... 

I find myself coming back to living out of love.  Specifically, thinking about the act of giving and receiving love.  And, it is very hard down here on earth to at least keep in balance. 

If we were to believe we are all precious beings of love rather than having an attitude of accomodation - maybe we would get along better.  I've been meditating a lot on the balance between the iron and pearl pentagam and how to reclaim unity.  I keep coming back to trying to fully understanding how the Love Spell works.

Elvis Cstello - well he says it all.   Check it out.  What's so funny 'about peace, love and understanding. 

Transformation – giving up the caterpillar suit.

Monarch Butterfly Site

"Every exit is an entry somewhere else." - Tom Stoppard

"Perhaps the Egyptians chose the beetle as a god of creation, and not some more noble creature, because that lowly image hints at the possibility that transformation begins at the bottom level and attains the highest."  — Normandi Ellis in Dreams of Isis

“One cannot become a butterfly by remaining a caterpillar.” ~Anonymous

I’ve been sitting on my porch mourning the loss of my Ash.  There’s a circle of dirt where she used to stand.  The leaves in my neighborhood are turning orange and burnt red; I miss seeing hers turn yellow.  I wonder where my winter bird feeders will hang without her outstretched arms.  And, know that next summer my house will be hotter without her shade.    I wonder who will take her place.

In my front bed garden, there’s a lone Monarch dancing between the last butterfly bush flowers and the browning white coneflowers.  I think, “Honey you aren’t going to make it to Mexico.”  I know it isn’t thinking this; it isn’t like me who’d be obsessing over these thoughts like wondering if I had enough money for gas and snacks to make it to Mexico and did I remember to pack my passport and contact lens case.  No.  I know the Monarch is living for the moment like it did when it hung up-side-down in that dark cocoon.   Because death is inevitable; everything dies.  It’s part of the great carbon nitrogen cycle.    

Part of magical living is to gracefully revolving around the transformation cycle.

~#~

We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.” ~Maya Angelou

“What the caterpillar perceives is the end, to the butterfly is just the beginning.” ~Anonymous

~#~

Admit it.  When you see this card, you hear the sound effects from the Psycho knife scene (Hitchcock, 1960) Your stomach lurches and you want to run in the opposite direction.   We see ”Death” as the end, a termination, going bust with no more tomorrows or the final words seen after the last paragraph in a book that we loved reading;  that cake that got lost in the rain and you’ll never have that recipe again (Summers, 1978); or that beloved sweater that has a hole in it; or trying to figure out what to do now that your retirement funds have bottomed out.  The same can be said anytime we have to change, we mourn the loss of doing something familiar and it’s hard to let go.  It's hard to let go of our caterpillar suit.

But death isn’t really like that.  It’s all in how your see it and how you deal with it. A CCWWW knows it is healthy to mourn the loss and is respectful of how painful change may be.  But, they also know death is about an entrance to something new.  It’s about transformation and hope like the phoenix rise from the ashes. A CCWWW can see change as the next step to a life make over like getting a new hairdo or a new clothing style.  A CCWWW sees themselves as a forever student in magical living and part of growing includes changing in mind, body and spirit.

~#~

Changing Woman

By Annie Finch

If we change as she is changing,

if she changes as we change

(If she changes, I am changing)

Who is changing, as I bend

down to what the sky has sent us?

(Is she changing, or the same?)

~#~

Joseph Campbell stated,  “We're not on our journey to save the world but to save ourselves. But in doing that you save the world.”  A CCWWW knows this and tries to live out their life in a different way.  They work out of their heart versus their mind and ego.  They live by knowing themselves and in a way that doesn't hurt others or the enviornment.  A CCWWW knows that by healing themselves they heal the world.  Or as Mahatma Gandhi said: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world."

~#~

NOTE:  A CCWWW knows sometimes it is hard to grieve loss alone.  Sometimes change brings about depression and you feel like you’ve hit rock bottom.  A CCWWW knows that as a wise leader who sets examples by showing others that it’s okay to seek out help from a licensed counselor or social work.  A CCWWW also knows the local hotline or can share the US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (24/7) 1-800-273-TALK(8255).