The Ramblings and Wanderings

Archive for August, 2009

“Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.” ~ Joseph Campbell

Throughout history the hearth has had a special significance in the home. For ancient cultures, the hearth was the center of the home. Nearly every household in history had a hearth, in one form or another, which was particularly respected by each member of the family, but typically cared for and safeguarded by the household matriarch. The fire had greater meaning than merely the source of light and warmth it symbolized the lifeline of the family and its ancestry.

In Modern days, the kitchen is still a focal point of the home, as is the fireplace. Even the fire pit out in the backyard is still a place around which humanity instinctively congregates. Personally, the sound of the furnace “firing up” is very welcome in my home during winter.

Finding the sacred in your home is as easy as stopping for a minute, and thinking about the sources of heat, warmth, comfort, food and togetherness in your home. This may be the ornamental fireplace, the stove, the fire pit outside, even if you lack all these things, there is still someplace in your home where you and any members of the household congregate.

It may seem daunting to select a windowsill in the kitchen, a place on the mantle etc to create a new shrine. It doesn’t have to be. Are not the family photos on the television a kind of shrine? Is not the collection of knickknacks and oddball items on the microwave stand full of sentimental value and fond memories?

Choose one such place in the home and finding a way to signify the importance of the spirit of hearth and home. This spot will be shrine to family, home and the hearth flame. It will be a place to honor household gods and invite helpful household spirits to bring protection to your home.

“To this very day fire is sacred to all Lithuanians. No other phenomenon fits religion so well as fire. Only the flame turns wisdom to the path of spirituality” ~ Vydunas

Lets take a look at what Sacred really IS:

Sacred:

* Dedicated to or set apart for the worship of a deity/In the service or worship of a god

* Worthy of religious veneration

* Made or declared holy

* Dedicated or devoted exclusively to a single use, purpose, or person

* Worthy of respect; venerable/ Regarded with particular reverence or respect.

* Of or relating to religious objects, rites, or practices

* Protected from violation or abuse by custom, law, or feelings of reverence

* Given over exclusively to a single use or purpose

A lot of what is Sacred boils down to perspective. Making the conscious decision to treat your kitchen, fireplace, woodstove etc as something sacred. An electric range or modern stove can have a dual purpose, to provide food and to act as a ritual object in its own right. Even the most modern oven can be home to the ancient hearth flame.

The simple act of placing a candle or lamp in a corner of the kitchen or living room can bring the sacred into that room, if done with the right will and intent.

Take a second look at your kitchen, or around the area of your chosen “hearth”. Sometimes something as simple as painting or wallpapering a border, putting an attractive piece of fabric on a shelf or placing family mementos and pictures of your dog can help to encourage a sense of a sacred and magickal home. Hanging something decorative in the window, or hanging a new picture on the wall may seem like ordinary acts, but that is entirely the point. Hearth craft is all about finding the sacred and magickal in ordinary, everyday acts.

Well we have finally reached our server storage space, so while I wait for the hosting company to bill me and upgrade us to the next size up, read these:

Wyrd people and community, part one

Wyrd people and community, part two

Cheers!

Success! We have been upgraded, we are now no longer a tiny

website folks. Grow little Hedge grow…

If I could play any song, on any instrument, anywhere at all in front of anyone, and play it perfectly … I would …

Play that Christmas Bell song on a xylophone on Mars watching the sunrise over the giant red face the aliens left us.

Or it would be playing “Redemption Song” on guitar in Madison Square Garden in front of all the world leaders on one side, and as many of my friends, family, hippies and Pagans I can cram into the other side.

Oh yes.

Redemption Song

Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the ‘and of the Almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won’t you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
‘Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
‘Cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? Ooh!
Some say it’s just a part of it:
We’ve got to fulfill de book.

Won’t you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
‘Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.

~ Bob Marley

If you are never late for work, yet never on time at an Open Circle?

If you always try to keep your promises, but feel justified in not showing up to help out at Pagan Pride Day like you said you would?

If you will go out of your way to buy that expensive latte at your favorite coffee shop, but never make an appearance at the local Pagan Coffee Meet & Greet?

If you donate to the food bank through work every year at Christmas, but somehow never remember to bring a can of beans when the local Pagan clergy are collecting?

If you spend a fortune on cheap beer and yet have never bought a jug of mead from your local Heathen brewer?

If you always mean to do this or that ritual, but never get around to it for any real reason?

If you’ll spend $200 and a weekend drinking with your buddies, but never show up for Pagan Pub Night?

If you go to the pharmacy and buy up all the bottles labeled “herbal” but have never been to the actual herbalist in town?

If you would always offer to do the dishes after having dinner at a friends house, but never volunteer to help out at a Fest or Gathering?

If you will spend $80 on a ticket for a concert, but won’t spend $20 cover charge to see a Pagan band play at the pub?

If you can make time to play video games, but not to meditate?

If you will stay up late to finish reading that mystery novel, but still haven’t read any of the Witchcraft books you bought last month?

If you buy cheap beer for Odin and expensive wine for yourself?

If you spend $45 dollars on a new blouse you might never wear but you won’t spend $15 at the local metaphysical shop on a candleholder?

If you would rather spend your evening watching reruns of Lost than watch a documentary on the Celts? (or the Viking, or Egyptian burial practices or whatever)

If you can recite whole episodes of the Simpson’s by heart, but can never remember which Element goes with Emotion?

If you will march proudly with your gay friends in their Pride Parade through downtown but won’t show your face at Pagan Pride Day in the park?

If today was your last day
If tomorrow was too late
Could you say goodbye to yesterday?
Would you live each moment like your last?
Leave old pictures in the past
Donate every dime you have
If today was your last day?

Going against the grain should be a way of life
What’s worth the price is always worth the fight
Every second counts cause there’s no second try
So live it like you’re never living twice
Don’t take the free ride in your whole life

~ Nickleback

You don’t have to climb mountains
Go through complicated rituals
Or follow some guru around
All you have to do
Is accept that you are part of god
And god is part of you
Failures, mistakes and fuck ups included
To honor the Creator
Celebrate all of Creation
Look around you
The air moves, the trees grow
Cells divide, suns are born
solar systems spin, ants march
animals die, leaves fall
fruit rots, lava flows
You breathe
Everything is always going
Doing, moving, flowing, growing, and changing
Do you really expect all this to suddenly stop and be still and calm and peaceful
Just because you have decided to meditate for thirty minutes?
Do you really expect a spiritual experience to always be a kind of stillness?
You cannot blank your mind
Or stop the growth of your Self
Any more than you could stop the wind
They are all parts of the same Whole
Just be
Breathe with the land
Love what you love
Celebrate all of Creation
Including yourself

I need pompoms and pigtails!

Grow Paganism!

Grow Paganism
Grow Witchcraft
Grow grow grow grow!
Turn Covens into Communities
Fam Trad into Clan Trad
Buy up whole city blocks
And turn them green
Show the whole damned world
That when we say Witch
This is what we mean!

Juniper