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!