The Ramblings and Wanderings

Archive for the ‘Photography & Art’ Category

Breaking the rules with words: I have been a busy little bee these last couple of weeks. Many things to do, podcast, work, finishing my stang, a lot of writing and such. Also I gave the main website a make over. Most importantly (at least to you guys) I have created a new section on the main website for the Collection Casting (divination with bits and pieces) and am starting to transfer info over there, as well as working on making new articles and making the workshop I taught at KG make sense for online purposes. Keep checking the “newest articles” box on the main page!

Thannk you Caroline for taking pics!

(Breaking the rules of wordless Wednesday … Sorry I haven’t been around much! I have lots going on right now. I’m writing like crazy, reading like crazy, working and job hunting, Bren’s birthday is coming up, helping with the starting of a ritual group, planning and performing all night rituals and Hedge crossings, doing some wood burning, there’s the podcast … the list goes on.

Two things I owe you guys: an article on Hedge Crossing for here and an article on building a relationship with a landscape for New World Witchery, I hope to have these finished up asap.

Also check out the upcoming book from Pendraig Publishing called “To Fly by Night” recognize any names? Only my first name is listed right now hehehehe)

I went for a lovely walk at a local nature reserve with a friend. We walked half way around the small lake then settled down to sit on the dock, give offerings and watch the geese try to con us out of food.

(Honestly folks don’t feed the wildlife and especially don’t feed them white bread!)

Since its rededication I have been dragging my bag of bits around everywhere with me. Its good to go through a bonding period and it also makes sure I don’t fall into a bad habit of just leaving it to collect dust on a book shelf.

After some pleasant conversation and giving the lake a couple of small pieces of rose quartz I decided to bring out my bag. Mostly just on a whim (it felt right) and partly because I’m always looking for an excuse to cast. We got the cloth directionally aligned and laying flat and as I pulled the collection out of the bag I said “Let’s see what the spirits of this place have to say”. Then without much pomp and circumstance (I did tell the bits to not fall off the dock) I cast them.

It was obvious right away this casting was not intended for me. Firstly there are certain motifs that always come up when the spirits are talking to me, about me, through the collection. Sort of like how when working with tarot, the same cards will often show up for the same person again and again. These did not show up in this casting at all. The second indication was the bright eyed interest of my friend.

When doing a reading I will try not to ask leading questions, such as “I see the romance/love stone is in the west, how is your love life right now?” I feel rather like this is cheating. I also don’t like to pry. If there is information that I need or that the client is willing to share, they will usually offer it to me without prompting.

My job is not to tell people what to do or how to do it. Nor is my job to tell people what is going on in their lives or impress them with my special knowledge or any such silliness, my job in not even to tell their fortune. The gods/spirits/ancestors use the collection to communicate, it my job to translate, to facilitate a dialogue between the client and the spirits. That is all.

I will ask the client if there are certain groupings or pieces that have a stronger draw or that feel more significant to them. I will also ask if they feel that any pieces or grouping are connected to each other.

I also encourage the client to tell me their own impressions of the casting. What a grouping might mean to them. I will give them a brief description of the meaning behind the pieces and a general idea of what a combination of pieces might mean and allow them to come to some of their own conclusions, should they have any. Allowing the client’s thoughts and feelings help to direct the reading can be very helpful. Many of the pieces are self explanatory and people will often know what their meaning is without needing me to tell them. A key means more or less the same thing to everyone, as does a wedding ring, a coin or a turtle.

I don’t allow them to do the actual casting as I find it requires a certain amount of practice to cast a collection that contains pieces of varying shapes and sizes properly. It is much easier to cast lots or stones that are roughly the same shape and size.

I do not actively encourage the client to touch the bits, but I do allow it. I watch carefully which pieces in collection the client seems most drawn to touch, poke, shift and pick up. This can give me additional information that will help me with the reading.

My friend touched a few pieces, especially the grouping in the southwest and the centre grouping with the rabbit bone. The pieces she touched the most were the acorn, the thorn stick, the key and the rabbit bone. The antique ring is the only piece she actually picked up to examine.

Turtle facing away from centre but looking towards amethyst means “Hurry up towards spirituality/religion”. This is in the north and therefore in the physical realm, the here and now, the mud between your toes reality. But it is also at the edge of the circle, meaning that this is not something totally vital, or something at the edge or just outside.

The Goddess Charm is combined with the Stone with a Silver Stripe in north. This says something like “women/goddess will bring the light at the end of the tunnel/be the silver lining in a dark cloud” that this is in the north tells me that this is something very real that will affect my friends life not just some esoteric mystical hocus pocus.

In this reading my friend felt that the pieces in the west were connected strongly with the grouping that bordered the west and south. We both agreed that the whole of the groupings in the centre were strongly connected to each other and possibly also associated with the other pieces and groupings in the west and southwest.

The whole clump of objects in the centre reads something along the lines of “Commitment of resources (both emotional, physical and material) is at the foundation of your otherworld journey to find what you seek. The ancestors, heritage and tradition along with arts and crafts (and possibly commitment to a certain Witch and Stitch group) are what lie below and at the very heart of the matter. Journey with/to find the goddess/feminine can be dangerous and you must be cautious, however doing so will lead you to the male deity that you seek. This male deity is associated with magick, witchcraft, the otherworlds/shamanism and nature. (My friend took a look at that grouping and decided it was probably Odin and I had to agree. Another possibility would be the Horned One) Searching for your animal totems and familiar spirits is what surrounds the matter and will bring you spiritual/magickal purification/clarity.”

(This all seems reinforced by the Goddess Charm and Stone paring previously mentioned)

The objects in the west and southwest point towards the objects in the centre, this is what they say:

“That which fuels you emotionally, as well a romance, is either causing a blockage or causing you to create a protective blockage. Once this protective blockage is removed it will lead you to unlocking a change that will be like a bolt out of the blue, a flash of insight and inspiration that leads to all the things spoken of by the pieces in the centre.”

Exactly how my friend goes about removing this blockage is up to her. Will she be open to these emotions and the romance she is blocking/protecting herself from, or will she remove the person involved so that she doesn’t have to protect or block? Only she knows what its best for her. I find with these readings people usually know what needs to be done, they just need that validation or the kick in the ass to make it happen.

Another thing worth noting is the Jingle Bell and the Bloodstone together in east. Perhaps this means something like “Intellectual creativity and artistic pursuits can lead to a connection with the land”

Also in the east is the Tooth of Communication: “Communicating intellectually” or “Intelligent communication” or “Talking about it is smart” possibly associated with this is the Tiger Eye in the north: “Think about the land”, “Study the Earth” or “Learn about what is physical”

Well, that’s it!

EDITED TO ADD: Check out Emma’s updates on building her own system! I don’t have a livejournal account so I can’t post comments but I thought I’d send you her way.

30 trips around the Sun!