The Ramblings and Wanderings

Posts Tagged ‘101’

It’s the same old, same old.

I’m sick to death of it!

I have spent the last 15 years inundated with Paganism 101.

The next time I have to do the “Be a Tree” meditation I’ll scream.

I’m going to pull my hair out the next time I have to eat a salad mindfully to connect with Earth.

I am so sick to death of “All Hail Great All/Goddess/God/Spirit/Nothing” pick something already!

If I have to sing yet again the same stupid Wiccan chant I’ll puke.

I spent hundreds of dollars on the OBOD Bardic Grade course to spend the next year studying the Classical Elements? I don’t fucking think so.

What the hell do they think I’ve been doing for the last decade?!

“May you never thirst” makes me want to kick someone.

Would it kill you to serve something other than store bought shortbread cookies for ritual meals and offering once in a while?

I can’t take it anymore!

What the hell is wrong with you people?

Come up with something new!

This isn’t CHURCH

GAHHHH!!!

We are brainwashed folks. Let’s face it.

We shove size 9 feet into size 7 shoes. We starve ourselves down to fit a specific dress size. We laugh at people wearing socks that don’t match. We assume that just because someone does something a different way than we do, they must think we must do as they do as well.

Conformity runs so deep in our society we do it without thinking.

We are so used to having to fit ourselves into an established institution that we often can’t fathom anything else.

You don’t join Wicca because it’s almost everything you believe, except for a couple of things, and then change those opposing beliefs just to be Wiccan!

Your clothing should fit you, not you fit your clothes. The same goes for your spirituality.

Of course we all want to belong and today you need a label to get anywhere.

“What Trad are you?”

But aside from finding a name, or BrandName, how do you build a spiritual path around … yourself? I suppose this is why Mystery Schools have the words “Know Thyself” abouve the doors eh?

It used to be that we had no choice but be all things to everyone. Most folks were solitary or in small Covens. Tiny communities don’t have as much talent, skill and ability to draw upon. Old school Wicca was, and still is, very much about being a Priest/ess, which made everyone a Priest/ess.

However in this new millennium, more and more of us are out of the closet and showing up at events or meetings and so forth. We have a wider pool to draw upon.

You don’t have to be a Jack-of-all-trades or a Priest/ess anymore, unless that’s your thing of course. You can find a niche, or two, and fill it

Personally, I’d call myself something of a Jack-of-many-trades but certainly not a Jack of ALL. Divination has never really been my thing for instance. I connect and work with the land in the wild and with animals more than in a cultivated garden for another example.

I have spent most of my adult life practicing as a solitary, also practicing on a farm or acreage. Much of my path is based around having to be resourceful, using what is at hand, and getting by on your own. For that is how I have lived much of my life.

My path has a strange mix of modern practice, revivalism and reconstruction, for I am a modern woman, a child who grew up a child of immigrants and in the Celtic Diaspora. I have lived somewhat traditionally, on a farm raising livestock, drawing water from a well and all of that. Yet I have also lived in major cities and practiced in parks surrounded by skyscrapers.

I walk my Path the way I live my life.

How do you live your life?

Does your spirituality fit you, or are you trying to fit into a spirituality?

So they say the only tools you really need is you, and that is true. But we all still start with tools anyways. This is a good thing. Not only do these tools help us learn to focus our minds and hearts and to help create a ritual atmosphere, they also help give us something to do, something to pick up to hold on to etc during ritual.

But there is another reason why we start with tools. We need to learn the energy of each tool.

If you want to cut something psychically or energetically, like a Circle, using just your hand you will need to know how to use your hand like a knife or how to create a knife with energy to go cutting negative energy surrounding someone. But in order to do that you first need to know, and know well, the feel of a knife in your hand, the energy of a blade, the feel of cutting energy with that tool.

To learn how to cup and pool feminine energy in your hands, you start by holding it in the cup or chalice. You learn the feel of that cup and the energy pooled within, you learn how to handle it. Then one day you can put down the cup but keep the energy in your hand.

Want to learn how to cast out the unwanted energies in a room with naught but a glare? Start sweeping with your broom, then sweep without your broom but recreating the feel of it. That’s the start, the first steps.

Time to go look at those tools with different eyes kids.

Call of the Horned Piper – Nigel Jackson

Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits – Emma Wilby

Hedge-Rider: Witches of the Underworld – Eric de Vries

Secrets of East Anglian Magic – Nigel Pennick

Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy – Mircea Eliade

The Nature Path – Starhawk

Masks of Misrule: The Horned God & His Cult in Europe – Nigel Jackson

Natural Magic – Doreen Valiente

Shamans – Ronald Hutton

Psychedelic Shamanism: The Cultivation, Preparation & Shamanic Use of Psychoactive Plants – Jim Dekorne

The Way of the Hedge Witch: Rituals and Spells for Hearth and Home – Arin Murphy-Hiscock

Popular Magic: Cunning-folk in English History – Owen Davies

The Way of the Green Witch: Rituals, Spells, And Practices to Bring You Back to Nature – Arin Murphy-Hiscock

Spiritwalking – Poppy Palin

Leechcraft: Early English Charms, Plantlore and Healing – Stephen Pollington

Encyclopedia of Natural Magick – John Michael Greer

Craft Of The Wild Witch: Green Spirituality & Natural Enchantment – Poppy Palin

Healing Wise (Wise Woman Herbal Series) – Susun S. Weed

Ecoshamanism: Sacred Practices of Unity, Power and Earth Healing – James Endredy

Ancient Herbs – Marina Heilmeyer

Plant Spirit Shamanism: Traditional Techniques for Healing the Soul – Ross Heaven, Howard G. Charing, and Pablo Amaringo

Nine Worlds of Seid-Magic: Ecstasy and Neo-Shamanism in North European Paganism – Jenny Blain

The Witching Way of the Hollow Hill – Robin Artisson

The Other Side of Virtue – Dr. Brendan Myers

The Basic Essentials of Edible Wild Plants and Useful Herbs – Jim Meuninck

Peterson First Guides: Trees – George Petrides, Olivia Petrides , Janet Wehr

The Essential Guide to Herbal Safety – Simon Mills

The Complete Book of Herbs: A Practical Guide to Growing and Using Herbs – Lesley Bremness

The Secret Garden: Talking Beetles and Signaling Trees: The Hidden Ways Gardens Communicate – David Bodanis

Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth – James Lovelock

The Ages of Gaia: A Biography of Our Living Earth – James E. Lovelock

The Magical Household – Scott Cunningham

Herbs of the Northern Shaman – Steve Andrews

Pagan Visions For A Sustainable Future – Ly de Angeles Emma Restall Orr, Thom van Dooren

Walking With Spirit: A Guide to Working with the Otherworlds – Poppy Palin

Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft: The Complete A-Z for the Entire Magical World – Judika Illes

Irish Witchcraft – Lora O’Brien

Earth Spirit Living: Bringing Heaven and Nature into Your Home – Ann Marie Holmes

Green Pharmacy: The History and Evolution of Western Herbal Medicine – Barbara Griggs

Sacred Gaia: Holistic Theology and Earth System Science – Anne Primavesi

Wild Witchcraft: A Guide to Natural, Herbal and Earth Magic – Marian Green

Natural Witchcraft: The Timeless Arts and Crafts of the Country Witch (Natural Way) – Marian Green

The Wild Plant Companion: A Fresh Understanding of Herbal Food and Medicine – Kathryn G. March

The Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy: An Herbalist’s Guide to Preparing Medicinal Essences, Tinctures, and Elixirs – Manfred M. Junius

Veterinary Herbal Medicine – Susan G. Wynn

Psychedelics Encyclopedia – Peter Stafford

The Secret Life of Plants – Peter Tompkins, Christopher Bird

The Magical Garden: Spells, Charms, and Lore for magical Gardens and the Curious Gardeners Who Tell – Sophia and Denny Sargent

The Healing Power of Celtic Plants: Their History, Their Use, and the Scientific Evidence That They Work – Angela Paine

The Fairy Faith In Celtic Countries – WY Evans Wentz

The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live It – John Seymour

The Meaning of Herbs: Myth, Language & Lore – Ann Field

Garden Witchery: Magick from the Ground Up – Ellen Dugan

Spellcraft – Robin Skelton

White Magic: And the Cunning Folk – Karen L. O’Brien

Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic – Cat Yronwode

The Horn of Evenwood – Robin Artisson

Witchcraft Medicine: Healing Arts, Shamanic Practices, and Forbidden Plants – Claudia Muller -Ebeling, Christian Ratsch, Wolf Dieter Storl ph.D

The Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales

Aradia: or the Gospel of the Witches – Charles G. Leland

Traditions And Hearthside Stories Of West Cornwall – William Bothell (an old Celt)

The Philosophy of Natural Magic – Henry Cornelius Agrippa, ed. L. W. de Laurence

The Roebuck in the Thicket: An Anthology of the Robert Cochrane Witchcraft Tradition – Evan John Jones, Robert Cochrane, and Michael Howard

The Pillars of Tubal Cain – Nigel Jackson

Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early England: A Collection of Documents, for the Most Part Never Before Printed, Illustrating the History of Science in This Country Before the Norman Conquest. Volumes I; II: III – Thomas Oswald Cockayne and Charles Singer

The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants – Samuel Thayer

(By no means complete or anything)

The hearthstone symbolizes the ancient hearth, as well as the very heart of a family or coven, it also helps to connect us with our ancestors and other household spirits. It can be used to symbolize hearth and fire deities as well. Any items to be blessed can be laid upon the hearthstone as you do so. This is a very useful tool indeed.

The most popular places to hide witch bottles used to be under the hearthstone or doorstep. The seventeenth century witch-bellarmines of East Anglia have mostly been found buried beneath the threshold or the hearthstone of old buildings.

It is interesting to note that in old Mexican lore the umbilical cord is to be burned in the hearth to detach the baby from unclean, antisocial prenatal influences. In this lore the hearth symbolizes the unity of those who live together and endows this unity with sacred characteristics.

There is an old Somerset tradition that says you must draw a cross on a new hearthstone before you light the first fire – but not with an elder stave.

It was at the hearth where communication with spirits and ancestors was practiced and it was on the hearthstone where food offerings were left and incense burnt.

We all require light, heat and food, shelter, well-being, and companionship, all of which are represented by the hearth.

Even though most of us do not have literal hearths anymore, we can still honour a hearth goddess, or our ancestry, and all that the hearth stands for generally, by setting up a household shrine, or by simply placing special objects in our home.

The hearthstone is interesting in that it is associated with both earth (it is a stone) and fire, arguably, air could also be tossed in there, as fire needs air to burn and smoke often is symbolic of the element of air.

The hearthstone represents the home itself, the family, the heart or love the family shares, as well as the ancestors and our future descendants. It connects all these things and more.

If the hearth is the center of the home, then the hearthstone is the very heart of the home and family.

A hearthstone can also represent the axis mundi. In some traditions this is not a world tree but a world mountain, so use that to aid in your visualizations if you wish.

Just as fire is the center of home and ritual space, the center where the spirits can come to us and join us in our rites, the hearthstone is the very foundation upon which this hallowed fire sits.

“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.