Drum Trance

Welcome to all visitors from THe Real Witches of Halloween!
Sorry for the delay in the post but I had a magickal evening that I would love to tell you about!

Last Night six other people and myself spent some time on a vision Quest with the Mama Drum, Sacred Yellow Drum, of Flagstaff. It was a beautiful exerience. I was leading the trance and people seemed to really enjoy it and receive a lot from it. This definitely made me happy as SYD and I had this vision of drum trances this summer. It was a total moment of transformation and manifestation in my life. To see a vision come to fruition created a sense of being in the right place at the right time. A conformation of this feeling is when poeple were drawing Tarot/Medicine cards, one person drew the Dolphin! I was blown away. THe dolphin is the messenger of the dreamtime people to the people on this Earth and back again. Dolphin had a message for all of us that night and I was in shock! Have any of you all experienced this feeling?

The trance borught out the best in me for sure. I took the role as leader of the trance because I had the vision to make them happen. But this was a big step up for me. This drum has a lot of magick in it and to be able to guide people with that Magick is wonderful and something that I can't wait to do again. When this vision was manifesting itself ono this plane I thought that there would be only one of these occuring and it turns out SYD has different planes and has called for more Trances to happen. Drums are entities that know what they want. They are our ancestors and they have something they want to tell us! Listen to their heartbeat and when you are lost or just looking to be rocked by the mother listen to your heartbeat to tap into the
Drumbeat.

Blessed be!

Moving into the Cave

As we turn the wheel of the year, we are heading into a time of harvest and preparation. We head into the mysterious world of the Cave! The West, the Womb of the Mother where we seek rest and comfort. Here we will journey with the mother to know ourselves better and to learn another grain of her infinite wisdom.
This time of the year is one of my favorites! Of course there is Samhain, which is one of the most exciting witchy holidays! This year my sista witches and I will be celebrating Samhain with a lovely ritual and it just so happens to be the 5th anniversary of this Sahain ritual. This year instead of just visiting Baba Yaga, The Sahdow, and The Crone, there will be a new guest bringing a message of sacred magick and bits of wisdom. This new entity will be Crow. Crow/Raven medicine is a new medicine for me. I just started walking my path with Crow in August and already she has opened the world of Sacred Law to me and has brought ample amounts of insight for the path I walk.
One project that I have prayed on and been working out is creating a Crow mask. This mask would be used for ritual and if everything goes accordingly I will be done with the mask in time for Samhain. Ever since a drumming session in August I have been finding Crow/Raven feathers all over. I always seem to find a feather when I am talking about spiritual topics or thinking about my spiritual path. This mask has really started to evolve over the past few weeks and is becoming a spiritual labor of love.
I have been researching on various ways of expressing the Crow through dance and one day I found this beautiful picture of some Native Women dancing with amazing masks and capes fashioned after Crow. Of course there are no videos or descriptions of Crow dances so I am on my own to make one up, but that is the creative aspect of my spiritual path. This is a chance for me to allow Spirit to flow through me and teach me gentle lessons to further my spiritual path.
My altar is covered with feathers from Crow and has been bringing the medicine and magick of Crow into my everyday life. The Goddess on my altar looks fierceeee with the feathers standing guard on either side of her! On the altar you should also see a picture of Hecate with two feathers followed by a Smoky Quartz crystal which then starts a direct line to the bowl on the right. I am not used to having direct lines on my altar but the magick that it creates has really manifested in my life.

What to do when you are lost...

Recently my life has taken a drastic shift. My partner and I ended our relationship and are transitioning to friendship. This is not an easy task and something that I have never wanted to do before with an ex. Honestly the road ahead is filled with tricky turns and blocks that I am not fully prepared for but with the grace of the Goddess I will make it thru.
In this time of great crossroads in my life I find myself exploring the Goddess Hecate. She is the Goddess of magick, witchcraft, and crossroads. In ancient times people would leave offerings, poles, and altars for Hecate at the crossroads.
It is said that, food was often left at the crossroads to honor Hecate, especially at junctions where three roads met. Frequently a pole was erected at the intersection and three masks would be hung from it to pay homage to Hecate and to request her guidance in helping to choose the right direction.
This seems kind of hard to do now-a-days but part of me feels compelled to leave an offering of something at a crossroads. I feel as if Hecate is calling me to look inward and look into the future for some insight. She is the goddess that can offer these wonderful gifts and as such when I feel such a calling I know I must make an offering. I do not believe that I have to make an offering to work with Hecate, but to me it is part of the process. The universe works in a reciprocal way. There needs to be a balance in the universe and to me that means I need to make an offering to the area I live in. Appeasing the area I live in is important because the spirits of this place have made this one of the most welcoming and loving places to live.

Back to Hecate. She is the great teacher of change! She is there to us release negative things from the past, especially those things that are not serving our personal growth any longer. She is also the mother of acceptance. Accept the things we cannot change and accept the change that comes with it. I also read that "She sometimes asks us to let go of what is familiar, safe, and secure and to travel to the scary places of the soul". During this time of transition I feel an extra special bond to Hecate because I need a teacher to help me let go and search within myself for the answers. My mentor is on a spiritual retreat for the next week and I already miss her. There are some things I need to learn to cope with on my own and this is one of the lessons. Then again we are never really alone we just feel lonely.
New beginnings are not easy but Hecate is there at the crossroads waiting to guide us down the path we choose and lead us with her torch.

On Saturday I am participating in a LongDance and we will be drumming from 9pm till we fall asleep. This is connect with my sister witch on her retreat in Washington. I hope that Hecate will be there to guide me as Sacred Yellow Drum guides us into a deep trance where answers can be found and the world of energy maybe accessed.

Blessed Be Sisters!
Ponderosa Pagan

Magickal Mother Earth

Here is the video of the song.
I hope you enjoy and as a wise womyn I had the pleasure to meet once said "Never stop singing, our voice is our gift!"
Blessed be!

Drumming into my Heart

Drums. What beautiful entities they are!
I have never worked with drums before in my life but thanks to my wonderful mentor Madrone I have had the most joyous experience since they have entered into my life.
Over a year ago Madrone had the vision come to her through spirit that a Mother Drum was being called to come into exsitence in the Flagstaff area and she was to create this with a drum council. Together eight womyn were holding space to birth this be-ing
for the Flagstaff community. They worked together with the spirit of the drum to see what She saw the Flagstaff community needed.

On the weekend of May 28th the drum was birthed. 15 Womyn were a part of this process and two other mother drums were there to witness the birth of their sister. Buffalo Heart and Otter Woman played as the womyn birthed Sacred Yellow Drum (that is her name until the drum council receives another one). The other mama drums are part of a group called Woman's Way Red Lodge. If you have not heard of them please visit their website and find out more about them. Here is their LINK. Supporting groups this like are important on our pagan paths and some of you might even be called to start similar groups in your areas.

Sacred Yellow Drum was played for the first time on June 12th in the first drumming into the seasons and she was amazing.
Her Medicine is already being felt by myself and others in the area. At the sunrise ceremony when we welcomed her into the world Otter Woman and Buffalo Heart surely touched me in ways that are indescribeable and I am forever changed because of them.

For my graduation Madrone got me a frame drum made with Goat hide and it is beautiful. She sits on my altar and she herself has experienced the healing powers of the mama drums.
On summer solstice a small group of us went out to the peaks and celebrated the sun in ritual with Sacred Yellow Drum (SYD) and other drums. I brought along my drum (she doens't have a name yet) and was excited to play her while SYD was playing. The ritual was lovely especially as the sun was going down. I played many songs on SYD and then decided it was time to take my drum and head on out to do some playing for the sun. I am not sure what came over me but I started singing a song. I couldnt believe it....me creating a song all because I was with SYD and my drum. In my tradition we call it being "sung" because the song comes from some spirit, most likely my drum or SYD but the song came through and I went with it. My mentor wanted to hear the song right away but I explained I was nervous and that I only had one line. So when I got home the next day I decided to have some time with my drum. Next thing I knew I was singing the song again and chose to right it down this time. Two days later the song was complete and I have never been more proud of myself or more amazed. The song is called Magical Mother Earth and evolved into a sort of call to the directions. I will put up the lyrics and perhaps a video or me singing it at a later date. If you chose to sing this please remember that I worked very hard and do not mind sharing just hope that you will honor and respect my hard work and the intention of the song.
This picutre is where the song came to me!

Magical Mother Earth
Goodbye brother Sun,
Brother Sun

We Welcome Sister Moon,
sister Moon.
We the people guided by your light
call on you for your great insight.

Ancestos of the Drum,
of the Drum
Bring your wisdom,
wisdom
Help us through the day into night...

Great Fire Spirit, in the south
Enliven our senses, to your flame
Awaken us to our voice deep within

Wonderful Water, of the West
Womb of the Mother, we seek rest
Purify our hearts and our minds....

Whispering Winds of East,
sing your song
Carry the breath of change to our hearts,
Inspire new growth, on hte future horizon.....

Magickal Mother Earth, home of life
Resting place of Ancients, we seek peace
As we walk down our path in the life,
Strengthen our steps with your ancient might!
Copyright Ponderosa Pagan

That is the song. Hope you enjoy! I will post the video soon!
If you have not picked up a drum before Isuggest doing so. They are beautiful bright spirits that long to sing with you!

The Goddess was calling me..

The Goddess has a unique way of communicating with us. Not often do I hear Her voice so loud and intense telling me I need to do something. This was not the case though when it came down to my spiritual journey of finding myself and what I need.
For the past few weeks since graduating I have been looking for what I am going to do next. It has been a very hard experience because normally I know what is coming and I prepare for it. Graduation was intense and I feel as if it was an end to an era in which I found me. It is hard to describe but I suppose the correct term would be that I felt like I was in a warm womb and that I was taken care of no matter what happened. I have friends, family, mentors, spiritual advisers, and a university that I felt like I knew plenty of people.
After leaving this comfort I was feeling lost. Nothing was helping this feeling and I did not know what to do. One day while thinking about my struggles I realized that I needed to go on a spiritual journey. I needed to undertake a journey that would help my body mind and soul and one that would provide me with some insight into my life and my path in this life.
I am calling it a cleanse but it is also a spiritual journey. I knew that this cleanse would not just be a boring "no meat" cleanse or no soda or no candy, rather it is going to be an overhaul. This means for me no meat, no candy, no alcohol, no smoking, no facebook, no twitter, and implementing daily practices in my spiritual life. Realizing I was going to be taking on this process I needed to prepare my body.
I started using less facebook and twitter time and this was hard enough but I definitely knew that this journey was going to be amazingly difficult but rewarding.
To gain some insight into this journey I went over to my mentors house and told her about what I was going to be doing. She said that she felt this was a good idea and besides now she wouldn't have to try and keep up with me when we went out. hahaha. This was funny to me but also meant a lot because she has been instrumental in my life for the past 4 years and without her I am not sure I would have discovered my path as soon as I did. She offered some positive advise and then she told me to draw a medicine card for a guide for my journey. The card I drew was Salmon. To read the full description follow this link. The Salmon symbolizes wisdom and inner knowing. This is exactly what I was needing on this journey. The Salmon represents that I have the knowledge that I am seeking but that by doing this cleanse I am going to find that information within myself. For me that is a powerful teacher and guide for the next 4 weeks.
Even after this card I was still having some reservations for my journey so I knew that I needed another guide and would pray on it and see what comes up. I did a tarot reading and my guide that came up was The Empress.
I was confused at first when I saw her as my guide but I was willing to believe that she was pulled because she has something to teach me.
The Empress symbolizes emotional balance as well as fertility. It is not just a fertility of love but a fertility of ideas as well. This queen gives birth to our personal ideas and for my cleanse this is good news. I am happy to have her by my side on this tough journey.


To be honest after having done just 2 days of the cleanse I find myself struggling. The drinking is not a problem to cut out because I only really like nice beers and my friends mostly like hard liquor so I can avoid that easily. The other items I have given up are proving to be rather hard. I really would love to say that I am breezing through this but if I was I would not consider it a challenge or something to gain knowledge from.
Send your support and I will keep all of you posted on how it is going.
I will be posting my daily routine up here in the next few days and just so you know blogging is one of the daily/weekly tasks for me. We shall see how this all goes!!!

Brightest blessings on you all!
Ponderosa

I found the Path Back!

WOW. I cannot believe it is May 19th, 2011. I have missed a lot and I apologize for keeping all of you out of the loop and hoping that some of you would still continue to read. I have faith in the Goddess that she will motivate me again to write and inform myself and others on whatever comes into my path.
Too much has been happening in my life. I graduated from my university on Friday the 13th. I wish the goddess would have alerted me to the fact that I graduated on Friday the 13th because I had too much trouble getting to the ceremony. The trouble started weeks prior but you know what, it doesn't matter because I completed my degree. I am currently attending a community college to finish up my minor which is in biology. I am very proud of myself and since then I have been relaxing and preparing for school and applying for jobs in the real world.
The end of the semester was hard as Hades but I did it. Although there were flames biting at me every step of the way there were cold fronts that moved in to cool the flames. This cool breathe of the goddess came in the form of my partner, rituals, and friends.

My partner has been too wonderful to me during the end of my semester. He was always there to support me and I unfortunately was not the nicest to him during the dark times. hahha. For making it through the hell I think that he is going to get a really good graduation gift from me! ;) hahah.
The other day after stressing out about everything going on in my life Bobby and I went on a beautiful hike on the Urban Trail in town. It was beautiful but I also had a mission. I needed to ground again and do a meditative walk The urban trail is perfect because it goes all through town. I brought Rafiki with us and he enjoyed it thoroughly.
There are beautiful trees that symbolized the flow of life. The Ponderosa Pines are strong and resilient trees. They take all the wind in Flagstaff is stride! There was also a lovely uprooted tree that had a root sticking out that was perfect for a wand so I had to grab it. Of course had the tree root not been ready to come off I wouldn't have taken it but I feel as if the tree allowed me to take it!
Along the way there were various animals, Bobby and I were training our eyes and I am happy to say both of us found creatures that neither of us could see. I was proud of us.
I was the first one to see this chipmunk. He was so cute and let me get really close till Rafiki started barking.

The only problem with this hike is that the stream that runs along side of the trail is a reclaimed water area. It was originally a natural stream thru Flagstaff but because of daming there is no natural flow until the snow comes and melts. We walked all the way to the lake that the city has made that contains waste water effluent as they call it. If you do not know anything about reclaimed water I would suggest looking it up. The water is filtered and cleaned by the city and is deemed suitable for wildlife to drink from and to live around, yet the sign on the lake says WARNING: DO NOT USE!
How is this safe water? Shouldn't all life have access to clean water? And why don't the majority of people in this world value the environment and all more-than-human life? (The phrase more-than-human comes from a book I read called the Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram look it up if you get a chance) I took a class this semester entitled Gender, Nature, Culture and this was the most eye opening experience. I will making a post about all of the books I read and give reviews for anyone who is interested in educating themselves can do so.
The lake is a perfect example of the intersection between Culture and Nature. Seeing the sign at the lake helped open my eyes and remind me that I have a lot to accomplish in this world still!

This hike was beautiful and I am so happy B. and I went on it!
I owe him a lot for helping me ground and keep my insanity in check and for that I say THANK YOU AND BLESSED BE!

Friends have always been a help and will continue to be help. The wonderful thing is that I found a best friend in someone that I never thought would end up being that close to me. She has helped me so much this semester and I hope she continues to remain in my life. Rebekka you are divine in all senses of the word and am so happy that found someone I can lean on and learn from and I hope you know I am there for you! I share some of the most out there ideas and some of the most connecting ideas with you and because of you my spiritual knowledge has grown tremendously!
Friends are the rocks that I lean on and consider them as close as fmaily. DJ, Mari, and Sebbi love you boys! DJ- we did it!

The other factor that helped to get me through the end of the semester was ritual! From April to May 18th I did four big rituals. For some people that might not seem like a lot but for many of them I was leading different aspects. The first was a full moon ritual. It was really basic and a good way to set intention for the coming month which was the end of my career at NAU. This was very grounding and I am thankful it happened.
The next ritual that came was Beltane! Beltane was beautiful and I will be making a post about the ritual of Beltane in the coming days!
Then I had my class ritual. For one of my classes this semester we had to design a ritual that focused on bringing awareness to the land of Flagstaff and balancing the energies of fire and water in the area. That is also going to be part of the post on Beltane. Keep your eyes open for it!

Then finally my club (unbeknown st to me) designed a whole ritual for me and graduating. I had no idea that they were doing this and I was blown away. To be honest it made me tear up a bit to hear all the things people wanted to say to me and about me. I feel blessed that the club thought it fitting to send me off with some guidance! That will be a separate post as well.

Thank you all for holding out and waiting for me to return. I knew it would happen I was just not sure when.

Blessed be and look forward to those posts!!!