Practice & Learning

Arrived

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Look what my Mom got me for Yule/Xmas! It arrived today.

Defence Against the Dark Arts (When You are Locked Out of the Circle)

A young woman contacted me a while back asking for knowledge. Not some Craft secret or anything. What she wanted to know was why. WHY?

 

You see, she had spent the year or two (or more) being harassed by what we shall call a (demon) nasty asshole spirit. She hadn’t done anything in particular to attract such a beastie. She’s not sure when it found her, but she thinks it started with nightmares that kept her up at night and by the end of it, she was a mess. Depression, lack of sleep, couldn’t really eat. The joy of life being sucked out of her, strange obsessions and compulsions. The constant feeling of being watched.

 

It wasn’t a mental illness, it wasn’t a physical illness and she wasn’t playing games or looking for attention.

 

She searched high and low for help and found none. She lives in a large-ish city in the USA, a city with a thriving Pagan community. Yet, there was no help for her there. She went to bookshops and asked for help. She went to Meet & Greet Coffee Cauldron type events and found no help. She went to the local teaching coven… Continue reading

To Answer Some Questions

What are you up to?

 

Getting ready for Yuletide; I found tree ornaments that look like fly amanita mushrooms! Writing, working, unpacking, playing Skyrim.

 

 

Is the podcast going to keep going?

Yes. Bren put up an episode recently and we hope to get back into the swing of things with the new year.

 

 

I am interested in casting objects and divination as spirit communication. Can you recommend some books?

I recommend that you look for books on the divination and spirit communication systems that appeal to you.

My main sources of inspiration were the FUTHARK and the Ogham. There are people who cast personal sets. I come across them from time to time, usually online. Not always though. I lead a workshop on it for Fest one year and a lady showed up with her casting cloth based on Hoodoo concepts.

I’m really rusty in some areas, tarot seems so long ago. I moved on from tarot (because it just wasn’t a good fit) in my early twenties, so about 7 or 8 years ago? I am amazed at what I have forgotten. It’s weird. Or not, since I never really clicked with it. It’s… Continue reading

Let Go and Slip Away

I let my mind wander

I allow it to drift

I don’t understand why people expect it to be rigid

Focused, perfect, single minded

Why do they seek trance in text book rigidity?

It’s not about staying in the box

I let my mind go out of bounds

Beyond the boundaries of what is allowed

In the daytime in the sunshine in the work-a-day world

We have to be so polite

So nice and sweet

Structured and organized

I am not disciplined as I sit before Them

Chatting and rambling on about nothing

They listen indulgently

Like grandparents letting a small child prattle on

I let my mind wander

Out of bounds

Beyond reason

What focus?

There is no focus

I drift on a sea of thoughts

Unbidden and unfettered

Thoughts come and go as they please

I drift here and there

I open up

I become expansive

Too big to fill my little shell

I slip and slide away and down

Out of bounds

Beyond the boundary

I slide away from the body sitting before the altar

And we go wandering in a twisted landscape

Some might fear if they realised this is what is to be found

But… Continue reading

It’s All Rather a lot of Bother

(okay, I’ve been working on this one for a while now. But it wasn’t ready yet. Now it is)

 

When folks come over and inquire about the macaroni in the offering dishes upon my house shrine I act like it’s no big deal. I just made too much and so I gave it to my spirits. It gets a little more complicated to explain that I am expected by my spirits to make too much and give them their fair share. That I keep their offering bowls small because they expect them to be filled.

 

It’s all rather a lot of bother.

 

Spirit work and devotional practice that is. A bother. That’s why it’s called work and practice I suppose.

 

Years ago, I was researching medicine bags and crane bags and the like. I came across something talking about Native American shamans and their relationship with their medicine bags, and with the spirits within their medicine bags. For some, they had to sing a specific song for each item/spirit in the bag before opening it. Over the years the bag would acquire more and more items. When they died, they might pass their bag onto someone… Continue reading

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