Miracle under Mercury

I have an amazing announcement!

My lap top was returned!!!!

Here is how the story played out. After posting my tragedy blog I didn't get on the internet for a few days. I just didn't want to be near a computer or have anything to do with them because it reminded me of mine being stolen. But when I did get on I saw the most uplifting and wonderfully helpful comments! Thank you to Aine, Wendy, and A. for the amazing advice and help. Aine, you must have some powerful mojo behind you because it came back! lol ;)
Wendy and A.
Thank you for the advice to work with Mercury. The night I read your comments, I went outside and had a chat with my new friend Mercury/Hermes. I didn't make any bargains from him, rather implored him to return my computer and if he couldn't return it to send me a new one if possible. Also since he is the messenger god I asked him to deliver a message to the thief's of my computer.
I was not sure how this was going to turn out. I had never worked with Mercury before, although I did love the character Hermes from the Disney movie Hercules! So I decided to do a little research on our dear friend Mercury/Hermes. From the beginning, Mercury had essentially the same aspects as Hermes, wearing winged shoes talaria and a winged petasos, and carrying the caduceus, a herald's staff with two entwined snakes that was Apollo's gift to Hermes. He was often accompanied by a cockerel, herald of the new day, a ram or goat, symbolizing fertility, and a tortoise, referring to Mercury's legendary invention of the lyre from a tortoise shell.
Interestingly enough, when the Romans conquered the Celts many Roman gods and goddess' were assimilated into the Celtic pantheon. When they described the gods of Celtic and Germanic tribes, rather than considering them separate deities, the Romans interpreted them as local manifestations or aspects of their own gods, a cultural trait called the interpretatio Romana. Mercury in particular was reported as becoming extremely popular among the nations the Roman Empire conquered; Julius Caesar wrote of Mercury being the most popular god in Britain and Gaul, regarded as the inventor of all the arts. This is probably because in the Roman syncretism, Mercury was equated with the Celtic god Lugus, and in this aspect was commonly accompanied by the Celtic goddess Rosmerta. Although Lugus may originally have been a deity of light or the sun (though this is disputed), similar to the Roman Apollo, his importance as a god of trade and commerce made him more comparable to Mercury, and Apollo was instead equated with the Celtic deity Belenus. But his tricks also made him patron of thieves. The Romans also made him god of merchants and he lent his name to "mercantilism". Wednesday was his day of the week. This day the Romans called "Mercurii dies", which survives in the names for that day in many of the Romance languages, such as the Spanish, "miércoles". He protects and takes care of all the travelers, miscreants, harlots, old crones and thieves that pray to him or cross his path.

As I was doing this research my father called me into his room. I was not sure why he wanted to talk to me but we got to chit chatting. He then proceeded to tell me that he was going to buy me a computer to replace my stolen one! I almost cried. I told him he didn't have to do that, but he said that the universe had been good to him this christmas season so he had the money to spend. Being a jeweler is not the easiest job but luckily he had a lot of work to do this year. So the universe always has a plan. And then after he bought me my new one I received a call from my roommates that my laptop had been returned. No one knows by who. It was just there on my door step waiting when my roommates got home. There is nothing missing no files taken and it seems like the person who took it must have heard about me filing a police report.
The gods have a funny way of working things out. Mercury is a tricky one, we got a new computer to find out my old one returned. He had a plan to get me a new one and then returned the old one. I feel very blessed because my father is giving me the new one and giving my sister my old computer. I universe is a tricky thing, but always seems to work out for the good of people.
I can't thank you all enough for the wonderful energy you put out there for my computer to be returned. I am so grateful to all.
All is right and I am ready to get the new year started off with clearing the negativity from 2010!!!
Blessed be!

Tragedy

Two nights ago my lap top was stolen. To be honst I felt violated.I was so upset when I realized what had happened. I am now starting to deal with this better but I just don't understand. I feel betrayed because it was at my house and there were only 5 people over. I met them this semester, but don't know them well enough to call them friends. I did not invite them over but what can we do. I am just hoping that whoever took it had a good reason. The universe has its way of evening things out and in the mall today I found $43. I miss all my picures and just feel like someone could be looking at them. I am going to do a protection spell I think becuase it is gonna make me feel better.
It is going to be hard to post items for a bit so don't hold it against me. I will talk to you all soon.
Blessed be!

Full Moon, Lunar Eclispe, Winter Solstice, YULE!!!!!

Happy Yule everyone!
I hope you all are enjoying this amazing time of the year. It seems like so much energy is floating around in the air. Last night when I was watching the Eclipse block out the moon I started calling in abundance and prosperity for the upcoming year. Also since the moon goes through all the phases I decided that she could be a big help when it comes to magick concerning breaking ties. I am not sure why I felt that way but I did. I was very pleased to feel some intense chills when I was doing my magick workings and to me that signifies that something was listening. On this path there are times when I really feel what I am doing. I really felt the work last night. Whether it was because I was into it or because I opened myself up to the possibility I'm not sure, but I don't care. It is moments like last night that make me wanna keep going the way I am going.

This was a very interesting occurrence last night. I found out that the last time there was a full moon and lunar eclipse on Winter Solstice was in the 1600s. Can you believe that?! That means there was some serious mojo running around. The next one is supposed to happen in 2094. I don't plan on being here in 2094, but if I am I will have been very blessed to see two lunar eclipse's on a full moon on Winter Solstice.
I was doing some research on the meaning behind the events of last night and here is what I have found:
Full Moons highlight the completion and maturity of projects, and in this case the full moon/lunar eclipse will highlight the Gemini/Sagittarius polarity and themes of intelligence, thought, and communication. It is time to realize the power of our inner thoughts and desires, and to perhaps re-evaluate where we have been and on what path we are going. Eclipses are also harbingers of change, so the feeling of a need or desire for change may feel urgent or pressing.This eclipse is one of change, thought, and reflection on who we are and where we are headed, as well as where we have been in the last few months.

I was excited to find all this out when I was reflecting on my night and what I personally had worked on!
But today I am crafting! I am excited because I am going to be making a goddess figure to match the god figure I made on summer solstice.

Blessings to those in the Southern Hemisphere celebrating Litha and blessings to those celebrating Yule!

I WON!!!

Over at Wendy's blog The Year of the CatsI entered a lovely giveaway! I was super excited and hoped to win but I was not sure. Well obviously from this posting's title you can tell that I won the giveaway!
I was so happy and couldn't wait to see what it would all be like. To be honest I did not realize there was going to be so many things in the giveaway!

The most exciting giveaway item is the Kitchen Witch Journal. I am definitely going to be using that for all my herbs and what they are used for as well as the meaning of using certain foods in my cooking. I also would like to develop a kitchen blessing I made myself and use on a regular basis.
Next came the poster to hang above my stove area with a blessing for the kitchen. Then came the wonderful little bottles of perfume. I am not sure what kind of oil/perfume they are but they smell amazing. They all had a wonderful smell and a cute name!
Perhaps one of the best items in the box was my first yule ornament!!!!!!!!
The ornament has a witch on it in a snowy white robe carrying a Yule Log. In front of the witch sits her black cat with a witch hat on.
I had just been thinking about how I needed to have ornaments for Yule. I love seeing Christmas ornaments so I wanted some that would pertain to Yule and low and behold, this showed up in the package.
All of the small items came in this wonderful drawstring bag made of beautiful snowy sparkly fabric.

Thank you again to Wendy for having the wonderful giveaway! I feel very blessed this holiday season and am finding a new joy in my pagan path!

Blessed be!

Kemetic Ritual

The Neo-Pagan Alliance decided to have our last ritual of the semester be last Sunday!
I was not sure what to expect because I did not have any part in planning this ritual. I have been uber busy with school work and personal life drama this semester that after Samhain I dropped off the planet. Well that has mostly come to an end and even if it hadn't I was going to go to this last ritual. This was the last ritual I would perform with Caitlin. She has been amazing. Since I first met her she has taken a leadership role that I look up to and she has been my pagan companion. I honestly am not sure what I would have done without her a certain times. She just knew how to help me connect with my inner pagan and brought the crafty pagan out in me! Thank you to Caitlin and many blessings on your journey!

Becca was going to be planning this ritual and I was super excited to have another member put on a ritual. She chose a kemetic theme for the ritual. Kemetism is the neopagan movement of the Ancient Egyptian religion. I had never heard of kemetism so when we got the layout for the ritual and I saw the word for the first time I looked it up. I wanted to know more about it and after reading all of what wiki had to say I was pumped. I thought what a coincidence that we will be working with Egyptian mythology and energies for ritual after I had just had my first experience with Bast. Check out my last post if you didn't see it!

It was an intimate ritual, there were only about 6 of us. To begin Becca had us go outside where we all started to cleanse ourselves by drinking some Natron. Natraon is the liquid the would have used to mummify people in ancient Egypt, but it is seen as a purifier in modern days. It is a mixture of salt, baking soda, and water. It did not taste very good. We passed around the chalice and if you wanted took a sip of natron or as I did pour some into my hands and purify your body that way! Becca said that it is important to rinse out your mouth because in kemetic ritual the mouth is an important tool and for it to be dirty it not good.
After that we moved upstairs into Mark's living room and we called the directions. I had East and I enjoyed doing this because I normally work with North. I think I did a good job on calling in the direction and energies and so did everyone else. Next Mark made a call to our ancestors. It was to our specific blood ancestors and then to our ancestors of a spiritual path and any other ancestors we may have.

Oh I guess before that came the circle casting. Becca had the four elements represented in the elements, not just as candles and to cast the circle she walked around the room with all of them while we concentrated on providing energy for the circle. Once this was done Becca had a lesson to provide us and told us more about her path. Then we were led in some meditation.
This meditation was not a normal meditation, we had Egyptian music playing on youtube and we had a kemetic box on the altar in front of us. None of us really knew what it was but once we got to the meditation Becca explained. The box on the table was something that holds the deity the kemetic is working with. Becca took out her representation of the deity out and prepared it for us to use.
During the meditation we were guided to put all of our worries, doubts, frustrations, and problems from the last semester into the box so that we could release ourselves of that. As Becca put it, hand them off to the deity who knows what to do with them. I have to tell you all that meditation is one of the hardest things for me to do, but for some reason the purpose and the music all seemed to help make this meditation a success. I had the weirdest feeling during meditation. I felt as if the energy was swirling around me. It was moving my body, well at least it felt like that, and I was in bliss! As I focused on my problems I placed them into the box now looking eerily ancient with the candle in front of the mirror.

Once the song stopped we came back to the room. We closed the box up and thanked the deity. I keep saying the deity because Becca did not choose one, we got to pick one that worked for us.
Finally we celebrated the ritual by eating, releasing the corners, and letting the circle down. Overall it was a wonderful night and a great first experience to working with Egyptian energy in ritual! I am excited to try it again!

Have any of you worked with kemetism? Or any deities from the Egyptian pantheon?

Blessed Be!

Another giveaway

One more giveaway to post about going on over at Seshat Moon Willow!
Check it out I added her button to my blog today! I really enjoy the blog so far!

Blessings!

Giveaway

There is a great giveaway going on over at Dancing with a Spactula Wand!!!!

I am really excited about the prize. It is a cute little crocheted penguin. Enter for your chance to win and check out the blog!

Chant to Bast

This is a chant I found in a book (can't remember the name) and it is to the Egyptian goddess Bast aka Bastet. As I found out yesterday she helps to remind people to play when they get to serious. Being a cat goddess she must be associated with play! As cats are so energetic (only when they do play) I can see the connection.
In Ancient Egypt she used to be represented as a lioness goddess. But when the upper kingdom was conquered she became a cat goddess. It is said by Herodotus that her temple was situated in a lake of sorts. One three sides of her temple was water. There were two rivers flowing and a lake forming. This was called an isheru. It was common to find around Lioness Goddess temples.
Bastet is sun goddess and although she is now a cat goddess she has no problem being fierce and putting on her lioness mask!

The chant I found is called Bast Chant for Liberation

Feline Goddess, Cat-like Bast,
Give me what I need at last.
Scratch through mental knots that bind,
Bring independence to my mind.
Claw through ropes that hold me tight,
Bring liberation to my life.
Help me let go of what is old
And venture forth, reborn and bold.
Help me live my life in truth.
Bast, I ask these things of YOU!



I think it is beautiful and hope others will use it!

Blessed be!

Giveaway

Over at The Deepest Well there is a great giveaway going on for a magic wand with a bell on it!
Check it out to see if you like it!



Working on another post! Get ready for it!

Shamanism and the Horse

AFter watching this amazing documentary called, The Horse Boy, on netflix I had a lot on my mind. The documentary follows a family of three on a journey that forever changes their lives. The story is about Rowan, an 8 year old who has autism, and his parents journey to Mongolia to see if Shamanic rituals can help heal Rowan. His mother is a psychologist and teaches at a university and she has the most doubts about the journey. His father, Rupert, studies the Bushmen of Africa and is the reason the family is making the journey to Mongolia.
Rupert has a love for horses and one day when he took Rowan to the stable he noticed something peculiar. The animals didn't mind Rowan's behaviors. They had an amazing patience with him, it was as if they had an unspoken bond that his father could only observe from a far. Rowan's father Rupert stumbled upon something extraordinary. He noticed that his quarter-horse mare, Betsy, displayed submissive body language to the two year old boy whenever he wandered, babbling and spasmodic, into the horse pasture. Intrigued, Rupert put him up on the mare's back. Immediately the 'stimming' (self-stimulation) stopped, replaced by an unusual, even blissful calm. The next day Rupert took Rowan riding with him, holding him in front of him in the saddle. Not only did the shrieking and jerking cease, Rowan began to talk.

Rupert got to thinking about how the people he worked with viewed their shamans as healers that contact the spirits and use various chants and tools to heal their patients. He wondered if there were any shamans around the world that worked with horses? What he found would change his life forever. He discovered that the shamans of Mongolia honor and work with the horse and have for thousands of years.
With much convincing his wife agreed that they would make the journey to Mongolia. Much preparation goes into the adventure. Rupert had to find a guide that would take them from the city they land in to the forests of Siberia close to the Russian border where they will find the Reindeer people. The shaman of this tribe is rumored to be the most powerful shaman of the land. The hopes is that they will be able to get a meeting with the shaman for a healing.
After word got around that Rowan and his parents were coming to Mongolia to find shamans to try and heal Rowan many of the gathered outside of the city the day they all arrived. In total there were 9 shamans gathered. The shamans were from various places around the city and they were men and women. The wonderful thing about most shamanistic cultures is that womyn as well as men can be shamans and even in some cultures womyn were the only shamans. As Rowan and his parents arrived at the base of the sacred mountain outside of the city the shamans started to get ready. All of them have an assistant that helps them get into their outfits as they are very elaborate. The picture you see is of the last shaman of the Oroqen people. His name is Chuonnasuan and he died along with his tradition in 2000.
The Shamans who helped Rowan all had one thing in common, the drum. The beating of the drum allows the shaman to achieve an altered state of consciousness or to travel on a journey between the physical and spiritual worlds. You need to watch to see how Rowan reacts to the drums. But anyway, as the shamans worked, they would have messages and other instructions for the family to do as he or she worked. Interestingly all of the shamans believed that Rowan's mother had a woman in her lineage that had a mental disease and that is why Rowan has his illness. Also one of the shamans said that a negative spirit entered her womb as she was giving birth and she had to run and ritually cleanse her vagina. ( I hope me using that term is not offensive, I work with the vagina monologues and the term is second nature to me)
The family leaves those shamans and heads out on their journey. I will let you watch the movie to find out how that went!
After days of traveling the family finally finds the Reindeer people and the shaman agrees to see Rowan. The clip they have of the shaman performing his ceremony is not the best quality but it is powerful. The shaman tells them they have to leave after the ritual and the next day he tells them what he found. He says that Rowan will get better. He says the tantrums will stop the day of the ritual and that one day Rowan will be a shaman. For many socities with shamans they believe that Shamans have to get sick. They get very sick because they need to understand how their patients could feel. And also to make it through a great sickness means you are strong and are meant to be the shaman.
Over all the story is amazingly beautiful. I cried many times ( I am a cry baby) but it was worth every minute. I am happy to say that when I was posting this blog I researched the family and they have started a foundation to help children with Autism to learn to ride horses. Check it out. The Horse Boy Foundation



This movie has really sparked something in me. I have really become fascinated with Shamans. As I was doing my research I discovered that shamans used to be the healers of Hungary. In fact there were shamans there until about World War II.
My great grandfather on my father's mother's side is from Hungary. He was studying to be a rabbi and had to flee to America. I want to go talk to my grandmother to see if she has any stories from her father. I want to see if she can give me any hints to see if there are any links in my heritage to pagans. Not necessarily a "witch" but maybe there are stories or folklore that can deepen my path. I would love to have some personal stories to put in my book of shadows and work with in the future.
I found an awesome story of a Hungarian Shaman named Joska . His story is mostly what I want to ask my grandma to see if anything like this was around when my great grandfather wandered the streets of Hungary.

I have decided that I will make a post about Slavic Mythology! Hope you all look forward to it!

Blessings!

Fall Cleaning

This past weekend Bobby, Rafiki and I went to work on our gardens and yard. When Bobby and I started our new garden in the spring we new it wasn't going to be easy but I personally felt that we would receive some sort of crop from it...and we didn't. Well that is not entirely true becuase for the first time Bobby and I both cultivated our first crop. Our sunflowers grew big and strong this year and when they died we happily collected the seeds to plant next year. This was a learning experience for me because it is another reminder that nature and the natural order of things takes time. A garden is not something that can be perfect in the first year, especially when we are taking clay like soil and working to turn it black and full of life. The garden we planted in will be much better next year and the years to come. Using Bobby's permaculture knowledge and our combined hard efforts we hope to have some crops next year. For fall cleaning in that garden we chopped down the stems of the sunflowers and mulched them. Then we raked leaves from the yard into the garden. We have been doing this for a couple weeks now and there is a nice layer of decaying mulch that is adding to the nutrition of the soil! We have also been burying compost in that garden. I have seen the wonders of composting and am hoping that this soil will really enjoy what the compost can do for it and help the plants to grow strong next year.
Once that garden was done we moved onto the garden the Bobby created 4 years ago. It is a more native species garden. There are species native to AZ and species that survive in the desert climate. In Sedona it does get cold so he had to keep that into consideration and he must have done it right because the plants he picked have grown wonderfully! One of the best growers was the thyme plant. It turned into a field of time. This is a pic of Rafiki playing in it!

We trimmed all the plants in the garden getting them ready for the winter so they can grow back big and strong. We also added layers of mulch to this ground to help further the growth of the garden. Rafiki was helping out by digging a hole for us. He was very proud of himself. One of the plants I was happy to see get trimmed was the rosemary plant. I don't have any fresh homegrown rosemary in my witch cabinet so I thought that cutting the rosemary with a spiritual intention and drying it would be a good chance for me to experiment with herbs more.

While Bobby was busy trimming away, I was working on the weeds. The weeds have gotten a little out of control in a part of the yard so I decided that I was going to get at them. They needed a good talking to. I pulled them out for an hour or so then when I was done I had to make a decision. I wanted to compost them somehow, but as Bobby reminded me since they have stickers and are weeds they could grow back and would benefit no one. So I decided to throw them away, but as I did this I said a blessing over them. I wanted to make sure that I sent the intention for the weeds to grow and multiply in the landfill. I wanted them to help break down all that garbage so that one day instead of toxic waste in the landfill there will be a luscious garden waiting to burst through.
Next come the house and I can't wait to get on that so we can have a safe haven inside durin the winter months!!
I hope everyone is staying warm if it is cold where you are or if you are in the Southern Hemisphere (*cough* Nydia *cough*) enjoy the weather. I hear it is nice!

Blessed Be!

Samhain and the turning Wheel

Samhain was AMAZING!!!
It was a wonderful ritual and so much good energy was raised. This was my second year participating in a Samhain ritual. My mentor Madrone invited me to her house along with 15 other people to gather for Samhain. The difference between last year and this year is that I was going to be "the guide" for our Samhain journey. This meant that when the individual going on the journey started from the fire I would instruct them to pick a black bag to place the items they gathered along their way. When I arrived at the house Madrone, Rich, and Kalaana were getting the house ready and finishing the outside path everyone was going to walk. With all of them running around so much Madrone turned to me and asked me to sage the backyard. I was really excited to be asked to do this because I view saging as setting the stage for the ritual. As I went outside and lit the sage wand, which was from Madrone and Rich's wedding, I cleared my mind and got myself ready to purify the space. As I got the smoke going I imagined all the negative energies leaving and asking that only good and positive energies to move in. I felt as if I was standing in my power in that moment. I took my time doing the saging and when I was finished I felt ready.
Everyone started arriving about an half an hour after I saged. Madrone got her list out and once she saw everyone was here we were ready. To start the ritual we gathered in the kitchen of Madrone's house. We introduced ourselves so that we could loosen the tension and then Madrone explained what was going to happen.
After the introductions were completed Madrone, Betty, and Terez went outside with Kalaana, and Rich. Betty and Terez were the ones that were doing the actual saging. I was at the top of the stairs waiting for all of the facilitators to get in place so I could send the individuals going on the journey down the stairs to be saged. Once they were ready I went into the kitchen to have everyone head to the door to go down to get saged. Everything was going well and we only had 3 people to go and of course what happens? Robyn one of the participants missed the step from the door to the landing and fell down. Luckily she didn't hurt herself too bad, she received a bloody lip, but to be truthful I felt horrible. I felt like I was trusted with guiding all these people to their journey and before we could even start the journey a person fell. After that happened I felt like I was good for nothing. I couldn't sage the area properly otherwise she wouldn't have tripped. But later I found out she tripped over by the Crone so I felt as if it partly was the woman's doing not on purpose but her body had a reason for tripping so often.
Then after all the participants had gone through saging I went threw. Betty and Terez saged us and that I felt a little better.
We gathered around the fire to start the ritual and I read the greeting. It was a welcoming and calling to the audience. The hersotry told us that we would be meeting three goddesses along the way, Babe Yaga, the Shadow, and the Crone. The reading told us to wait in quite gratitude for our chance to journey with the goddesses.
As Baba Yaga rang her bell (not a high pitched bell but a low resounding bell) I would direct the participant to grab a black pouch for items they will gather along the way and send them on their journey. This took almost a couple of hours with 14 of us going on the journey. After the last person left I put out the fire and heading to Baba Yaga myself.
Baba Yaga is the grandmother who lives in the forest. She is not your average normal sweet grandma. Many people think she is an evil crone who lurks in the forests of Eastern Europe with her house made of bones that moves with two giant chicken feet. In her cottage children go missing regularly and for many Baba Yaga is a scary woman. But do not fret, for some Baba Yaga has an important message. During our Samhain ritual Baba Yaga meets you outside of her hut and leads you into the dark hut. Inside it was dark. Baba Yaga tells us that we need to look into ourselves. She handed us a mortar and pestle to smell death
and she asks us what we need to leave behind then leaves us to sit in the darkness.
When Baba enters again she tells us to have courage and that we will move on to the Shadow but that she will always be here in the forest to strip us to our bones. She then hands you a rune to place in you bag.

My rune was Raidho! It is the rune that looks like an R. This rune is the rune of travel. Literally it means journey or ride. This rune is about the journey of life.
From there we move to the Shadow. The Shadow is always hard for me. To look in the mirror and see yourself and what you are most afraid of or worried about is not an easy thing. The way the Shadow was explained to me is that when we meet someone who we cannot get along with or do not particularly like we have encountered our Shadow. It is not something that we want to examine because to do that would mean we would have to fix something about ourselves. It is so much easier to point at someone else who has a characteristic we don't like than to say that is what I do not like about myself and I need to change me first. The Shadow gave us a mirror with an invocation to the dark goddess.
The Invocation says:
Out of the darkness light shines,
In shadow there are lessons waiting
To be brought to light.
The Dark Goddess, Queen of Mysteries
reveals to us truth from the night.

After the Shadow comes the Crone. At the crone you draw a crone card of wisdom and receive a stone from the Crone. She imparts her wisdom and luckily the Crone is my spirit mama and I got some extra wisdom which was wonderful!
After leaving the Crone you journey to the divination room and since I was the last one everyone was stirring around and chit chatting. So once all the goddesses could join us we gathered in a circle for the giveaway. The way the giveaway was explained to me is that it is a Native American tradition that one uses to cleanse and rid yourself of some negative energy or some items that symbolize those feelings. The items do not have to be about negative feelings for example one woman gave a plant away because she was experiencing growth in her life. The funny thing is that she got the plant back in the giveaway, which usually signifies an important lesson for the individual. The way it works is whoever goes first picks the bag they want and whoever's giveaway the got explains what it is. After the explanation the individual who picked it can say how they feel if they would like or just accept the giveaway with gratitude.The wonderful thing is that by giveing up these items you are cleansing yourself and the item of those energies so the next person to inherit them are just blessed with a new gift.
As the people picked bags I wondered who would pick mine. You know the gods certainly have a sense of humor because the person to pick my item was Robyn the woman who tripped. I had been worrying the whole night that she was mad at me and when she grabbed my bag I was in shock. My giveaway had a lot in it. There was a book called witchcraft medicine that I put in there, a small tarot deck, a rune set with book, and a yellow stone from my summer camp. All these items represented what I wanted to accomplish during the Samhain season. Divination and introspection is something that I want so I passed on two of my divination tools. The book and rock symbolized letting go of certain attachments that no longer serve any purpose in my life. They are wonderful memories and I will never forget them but it was time to leave my life.
Once Robyn saw everything she started crying. Apparently she is newer to the craft and she wanted to learn as much as she could but her mind had absorbed as much as she could that night and she was sad. She was sad because she wanted to look up her rune and find out about it but didn't have the energy. She said she was grateful to have reading and new tools to explore with. And just like that we hugged and the universe corrected my night. The giveaway I picked next was Madrone's. I was surprised to get her giveaway. Inside was the abundance candle she created on the Blue Moon on the New Year. I was unable to make that ritual so I am happy that I can not say that I feel like apart of it. Also in there was a picture Madrone took and a moldavite necklace piece!


We ended with wonderful food that everyone brought and I was stuffed. I left that night feel accomplished and enlightened. I had many things to work on during the dark part of the year!
Blessings to all on the introspective journey of the dark season!

Full Moon and Samhain ritual!

Last Sunday the Neo-Pagan Alliance gathered for our first ritual of the semester. It was a wonderful occasion. Full moons always seem to be a great ritual to have bonding experiences. It was a great chance to gather and celebrate in a new way and share sacred space with others. For this ritual we went out to Kachina Village outside of town and I honestly did not know what to expect. Katie one of our memebers suggested the location (I believe she has done ritual there before or just hung out) and it was amazing!

To be honest one of my top three places I think I have seen in Flagstaff for ritual. It lwas a mini mountain/clif/huge rock thing. I don't know how best to describe it. We walked up one side of the mountain and it was fairly easy to get up, we wondered through some lava rocks and came to the clifs edge area. It was a beautiful open space as you can see in the picture. The cliff was about I would say 2 stories high. When you faced north on the plateau you look down and see a big pond with tons of reeds. It was honestly beautiful. In the middle of the plateau there was a huge rock that we used as our altar and it was absolutely designed for that purpose. It had a place to put all of our candles, sage, and items to charge in the full moon light!
Before the ritual started Katie told us that there were caves below the cliff and that we could get to them. I was super excited and said take me there now please! It was awesome. The cave kinda looks like a giant took a slice out of the middle side of a cake.
It formed an acute triangle and was perfect to sit under. There was also a crack from the cave to the top of the plateau so of course I had to climb up it. Mark and I decided to go through it. Ps check out his blog it is called Behind the Vines. A few people were still down in the caves while I was looking at hte lake and was starting to focus on ritual, when all of a sudden, one of our members started playing her flute. It was magnificent. She was hidden in the cave so it reminded me of a movie. It was a lovely song that fit the mood perfectly. The wind was blowing Erins dress. She looked like Eowin from Lord of the rings! It was magical.
We gathered everyone together. Discussed what we were going to do in the ritual and then waited for it to get darker. As the light dimmed and the temperature dropped the group was ready. We found two rocks that we used as an entrance way to our ritual area and where we were saged. Liz did the saging for the group and then we went into calling the directions. Mark did west, Caitlin did north, Erin did east and Becca did south. I really enjoyed Becca's call to the direction of the south, I found it moving and inspirational. With the directions invited I cast the Circle. I used a circle casting from my mentor Madrone. It is a wodnerful circle because it focuses on each direction as part of the goddesses body. I also used a flash light as a modern day wand if you will. I was using the flashlight to focus the energy and represent the light of the full moon!
Once that was done we were going to light some candles on the altar for our ancestors and I had a feeling that everyone should light a tea light candle for there own personal ancestors. It was one of those ideas that the goddess sent down and I just went with it.
It was very nice and to have the rock altar all lite up like that was great! Next Becca did the invocation of the goddess and then played another song. We had some alone time to meditate and clear our minds. A time to appreciate the silence and cold and start the introspection process of the dark period of the year.
Mark lead our calling down of the moon. We each had a cup that had water in. The water was Katie's sacred water so that was special. We blessed the water to make our three wishes. On the full moon my mentor taught me to make three wishes. One for yourself, one for someone else, and one for the Earth. I don't know of many other witches who does this but I love the tradition.
So I pass it on to who ever I can. The magic of the moon is amazing and can help heal many wounds. I was very stressed that day but during the ritual I relaxed. I calmed down and allowed myself to observe what was around me. Knowing that the group was holding sacred space for each other was comforting. I was so happy to be apart of thsi experience. After the wishes I am pretty sure everyone was very cold so we took down the circle and said goodbye to the directions and the goddess.
Afterwards we shared some wonderful moon cakes that our member Kelli made. She couldn't be at the ritual but her cakes were there and she was also there in spirit.
Over all a wonderful experience.

Tonight is my big Samhain ritual and I cannot wait! I am really excited to strip my soul to the bones and start over for the new year. Update on the ritual soon to come!
Blessings to you all!

Giveaway!

So Today is the 20th day of Halloween over at Mrs. B's blog. Go check it out. My favorite is the Intuitive Goddess reading! I am really hoping for that one (hint hint goddess hahaha). And don't forget that for the rest of the summer she will be holding this wonderful blog event.

Also over at Nydia's blog there is her amazing giveaway going on. Check it out I am hoping for a mini god to match my mini goddess!


And last but not least I won a giveaway over at Following the Path as a Thrifty Pagan!. I am super excited to see what the pentacle is going to look like!

I am getting more and more inspired for my giveaway. I hope it is coming soon.
Have a wonderful day and don't forget to wear purple today for Spirit Day!

Thanks all!
Blessed be!

TIme for a spiritual hike

I would like to just say that I am finally starting to get into the Samhain season and am LOVING IT!
This weekend was a big part of it. I had a wonderful time with my partner and our amazing friends Brad and Matt. I cant forget to mention that we both had our adorable dachshund's Darci and Rafiki. Rafiki is mine and he is just a joy! He and his sister had so much fun romping around the creek!
But anyway back to the season. The boys came down for a couples retreat which was perfect! We had some champagne, dinner, and fun laughs. We woke up on Sunday morning and made AMAZING breakfast. Then we headed to the creek.

I wasn't really thinking that it was going to be a terribly spiritual event but it turned out to be what helped me to realize the seasons were changing. When you live in a Pine Forest you don't get to see the leaves change. (although that is not entirely true because the Aspens up on Mt. Humphrehys change and I can't wait for pics of that).
Down in Sedona by the creek there happens to be many signs that the fall faeries have been at work. The hike was honestly so beautiful. Walking along the creek with the boys, dogs, and my partner combined with the magic of Sedona and the creek is what I needed to help shake the negativity I have been carrying around with me.
On the way to our destination there were trees that were starting to change colors. The yellows, oranges, and reds whispered to me "Samhain is on its way. Are you ready?" As if that was not enough our walk led up to the most beautiful doorway I had seen by the creek. There was a patch of grass that the dogs loved and a doorway of trees above.
That is my friend brad over there. He was my model but didn't know it. (side note check out his blog Chronicles of an Ex-Smoker)
Next came the huge Cottonwood tree that was basically parallel to the ground and perpendicular to the creek. It was an awesome break that just invited us to climb all over it and even a place for the puppies to take their first steps in a creek.
Darci really liked it but Rafiki was having none of it. We continued on our hike further down the creek area.
As we traversed the landscape we had to climb up mini mountains, past cactus, down a rock face, between a tree and rock, and pass the puppies over a part in the creek. It was intense and I loved every second of it. The further we went and the harder I had to work the less I thought about troubles. They all seemed to fade away. I was focused on the hike and the nature around us. I saw some cool lizards and one fish. The water is very sediment filled. We hiked for about and hour and a half and then decided to turn on back around. This picture is where we stopped and went back. I love how peaceful the water looks behind the branches.

In our garden in Sedona we have experienced the end of our growing season. There are a few things popping up that I am not sure about but we will see what becomes of them. The sunflowers died so we chopped them down and broke them up. We layed them on the garden to become mulch for next years growing season. Even the pear tree is showing signs of Fall coming.

I am getting more and more excited for this season!
Can't wait for more and more signs of fall!

PS after that long hike Rafiki was totally tired! Isn't he so cute?!



Blessed BE!