Ouroboros

This morning I was working on an essay I had to complete and turn in before I offically started my spring break! I cant wait to be able to just relax.

Any way. I was busy typing when my puppy Rafiki started to chase his tail. It was the cutest thing I had seen since I woke up. He looked like an Ouroboros so I had to takea picture.

The ancient Ouroboros is a symbol of a snake or dragon eating its own tail and is a symbol of self-reflexivity and eternal return. It is a symbol of cycles just like the Phoenix.

This symbol is also special because the NPA is working on a symbol that will represent the group and part of the symbol is the Ouroboros. The snake circles our pentagram which has many other symbols in the pentagram. I will make sure to post it once we have an offical design.


Just wanted to post these amazingly cute pics of Rafiki!

Hope you are all ready for a beautiful weekend!

Blessed be

Winter plans taking root!

This winter season has been wonderful for the Neo-Pagan Alliance. I feel so blessed because Mark, Liz, Becca and I all started the semester sowing seeds for the club. We met and planned out half of the semester! It was lovely. The seeds that were planted 2 months ago have taken root and are sprouting. The last NPA meeting we had 13 people there. It was a dream of mine come true. The people who have joined the club truly have made my pagan experience so far. I have started a community that I can participate in and see flourish. Many of the members have made new connections with each other and it is beautiful to see the pagan community I desired coming to fruition.
This semester is my last semester and it will be 2 years that I spent with the NPA. I have met so many beautiful people and will continue to meet more. I also am super excited because the NPA is going to be hosting a public ritual during our schools Earth Week.
It is going to be an Earth healing ritual with the main element being Water!
I cannot wait for this to happen. We are forming a subcommittee (the first in the clubs history) to form the ritual. The committee has myself and my mentor and 4 other members! I am super excited because this will be my debut (if you will allow me to indulge) as a pagan to the whole campus. I NEVER thought I would be doing that in my college career. I have a pride about my paganism and am proiud to stand up and offer a healing to Mother Earth on my campus.

The ritual will be wonderful and as soon as I have it complete I will post it up here for you all to see.

Another big event for the NPA is our Beltane camping trip. We are going to be camping from Saturday night to Sunday May 1st. I cannot wait! We have a lot of people interested and it seems like it will turn out amazingly! We are in the process of finding a spot and making lists of what we will need.
This semester is turning out to be a beautiful expereince and I feel so blessed to be able to end my college experience with this amazing club!

PS I am gearing up for Country Witch's 15 days of Welcoming the God. If you haven't checked it out you should!

Blessed be!

False Spring

I am sitting here doing too many things. I am currently writing down another home remedy a wonderful Mayan woman told me to use for my father who has prostate cancer and diabetes. Don't worry too much, he says the cancer is in remission, but I don't know how I feel about that. So if you could send some loving healing energy to my father!
But anyway the home remedy is Apricot seeds! Marina says that if you take the pit of the apricot and dry it and then take out the little seed inside the pit and dry and crush it, the powder will help. When she worked on an apricot farm, she said drug companies used to ask for the pits to use in caner medication. I am gonna try. Anything that will help save some money and maybe help heal my dad I am willing to do!
But back to the post!



As many of you know the groundhog told us on the holy day of Imbolc that there was to be no more winter! It was going to be spring soon and we would enjoy a warming trend. At least that is how I interpreted it. Well I hate to break it to the council of men who now control when winter ends, but you should have checked with the snake.
Just like Brigit did in times of old, the snake was the indicator for when spring would be over. And I think that this year the snake has not come out of her hole yet. Once she does then I will be ready for spring time!

As the title of the blog says in my opinion we were experiencing a false spring here in Northern Arizona. For about a week it got warm and the plants and animals were starting to come to life again. Their activity excited me and was getting me ready for the upcoming spring, but my partner ruined my feelings when he said that the week of warm weather was just a false spring. I did not want to believe him. I kept telling him you are wrong the groundhog said it was going to be spring and as day after day passed without more snow or horrible weather I was sure he was wrong.

WELL...it turns out I was wrong and he was right! Darn you universe!!!!
It was a false spring. About 3 days after we had this conversation a snowstorm hit Sedona. Luckily it was not horribly bad, but it covered everything. I was very concerned with my garden because we had planted garlic and onions and they were sprouting. I didn't want them to die but I also knew that if I went and removed the snow around them they would not be hardy and might not survive later if cold comes.
A few days after the snow I went out to make sure the plants were fine and they were. Some have taken a bit of a hit and weren't growing very fast, but the ones that were tall enough started to poke through the snow or reach above it. I was surprised to find that even the smaller ones that had snow around them seemed to melt the snow. Just right around the 2 leaves sticking up, it looked amazing. I wasn't sure if plants had a heater system that they each carry around or if the energy from the plants was causing the snow to melt.
If you know please let me know. I am going to do some research but nothing to big.

The good news is that the snow has melted, even though I fear we might get more, and the plants are fine. I am happy to say they survived and are growing again. It was quite a joy to see the onions poking through the snow. The contrasting colors of bright lime green and white snow was beautiful.


How is the weather where you are? Do you plan on planting this year? We are starting our seeds this weekend so we can get a jump, but I have to be ready for the idea that we won't be able to put them in the ground for a while.
Oh well.

Blessed be!!

PS
OMGoddess. I forgot to say. The NPA had a meeting last night and we have 10 people there. It was amazing! There are new people showing up all the time and I am so happy and blessed that they are coming!

Brigid and Imbolc

As Imbolc approaches I am gathering all my material. This year I am planning an Imbolc ritual for the Neo-Pagan Alliance. This year we have formed our full moon ritual that we will be using for each full moon and I am really excited about this. I am excited because so much of our time last year was used to plan full moons. I love full moon ceremonies because that is what got me started on practicing and taking leading roles in my new spiritual path, but for the NPA we want to do more than full moon this year. Before the semester started Mark, Becca, Liz and I all got together to plan out the semester. This meeting was very useful. We planned out meeting days and planned the 1st four meetings of the semester! WE also decided that we wanted to celebrate more than the full moon so we agreed to write the full moon ritual and have that be the format we use. We did this so a) anyone who is new to the group and wants to come can easily fit into the ritual and feel comfortable b) so we could allow the group time to work on their own spiritual path c) so we can teach everyone who comes about the particular moon and d) so the group can work on writing other rituals. The one thing I am having trouble with is finding information out about the full moons and what they mean. I have different names for them but I need to find what they mean. If any of you have a good website or book that talks about the full moons and their meanings I would love the link or info! Thanks!

Anyway,
Imbolc.
At last night NPA meeting we solidfied the time and date of the ritual and now I have to get working on all of it entirely. So I had to do some research on Imbolc and what kind of activities go on during this event. What I found is that the holiday is also known as Brigid (after the goddess the holiday is centered around) or Candlemas. This holiday celbrates the coming of the Spring. We prepare the way as the snake emerges from the depths of the Underworld to tell us how many more days of Winter there will be. The warmth is coming and on Imbolc we recognize that and honor that.
First I think I will provide a little herstory of Brigid.

The first thing you should know about Brigid is that she is a Celtic Triple Goddess. And for those of us who work with triple goddesses we know they are cpmplex be-ings that also have a great deal of power and respect for those who call on her name. One figure of her triple aspect is the Callieach. The Cailleach is seen as a seasonal deity or spirit, ruling the winter months between Samhainn (November 1) and Beltane (May 1), while Brìghde rules the summer months between Beltane and Samhainn. Some interpretations have the Cailleach and Brìghde as two faces of the same goddess, while others describe the Cailleach as turning to stone on Beltane and reverting back to humanoid form on Samhainn in time to rule over the winter months.
The second thing you should know about her is that she goes by many names here is a list of examples:
Scotland: Bhrìghde, Brighid, Bride
Ireland: Brigid, Brigit, Brighid, Brìd, Brígh
Manx: Breeshey
Wales: Ffraid
England: Brigantia, Brittania
France: Brigandu

Brigit is the Celtic Saint and Goddess of Poetry, Healing and Smithcraft. She has been worshiped by the Celtic people as a Saint for over fifteen hundred years, and as a Goddess long before the Roman invasion of Britain and the birth of Christ. As the goddess of smiths and of healing.
Fire is a crucial element for her. In her temple and in her convent in current Ireland there was and is a fire burning at all times. It is said that her 19 handmaids service the fire and on the 20th day Brigid herself tends the fire. I found this amazing tradition on an amazing blog called Celtic Dreamscape! One folk tradition that still continues in certain places on Imbolc is that of the Brigid's Bed. The girls and young, unmarried women of the household or village make a corn dolly of wheat, rushes, or grain from the last of the harvest to represent Brigid; they adorned it with ribbons and baubles such as shells or stones. The dolly was then placed in a basket which had been lined with a white flower bedding. Often, a public ceremony would be held, and the village girls, dressed in white, would carry the basket door to door and each household bestows a gift upon the image. The gift may be a shell, a crystal, a flower, or a bit of greenery to decorate the person of Bride. Click here to find out the rest of that tradition. When Christians took over Gaul and Ireland they took Brigid and converted her into a Saint. Her evolution from Goddess to saint linked Pagan Celtic and Christian traditions much the same way the Cauldron of Cerridwen and the Holy Grail were combined in Arthurian legend. She acts as a bridge between the two worlds and successfully made the transition back to Goddess again with most of Her traditions retained. The worship of Saint Brigid has persisted up until the early 20th century with Her Irish cult nearly supplanting that of Mary. She is commemorated in both Ireland and the highlands and islands of Scotland.
In order to incorporate Brigid into Christian worship, and thus insure Her survival, Her involvement in the life of Jesus became the stuff of legend. According to the stories in The Lives of the Saints, Brigid was the midwife present at the birth, placing three drops of water on His forehead. This seems to be a Christianized version of an ancient Celtic myth concerning the Sun of Light upon Whose head three drops of water were placed in order to confer wisdom.
Further, as a Christianized saint, Brigid was said to be the foster-mother of Jesus, fostering being a common practice among the Celts. She took the Child to save Him from the slaughter of male infants supposedly instigated by Herod. She wore a headdress of candles to light their way to safety.This happened quite often in ancient times to powerful goddesses and gods. It was the easiest way to convince the "pagans" to follow Roman rule. Another popular thing for Christians to do to cover up pagan holidays is to replace the original holiday with something new and exciting. Imbolc was replaced by groundhog day. In modern times the groundhog comes out to tell us when winter will end, but in ancient times it is said that on Imbolc, the snake would slither out of its mound. It had been hibernating there all winter and as such the snake is seen as a creature of regeneration as well as lying between the worlds. Snakes were demonized by Christianity, so I think it is clear to see why they used a groundhog instead of a snake.
She is seen as the patroness of Imbolc and for that the NPA will honor her in our ritual.

Here is what we are going to do for our ritual.
First we are going to cleanse and ground with sage!
Then there will be a greating of the audience.
The Herstory of Brigid and the meaning of Imbolc.
Calling the Directions
Casting the Circle (using an aspen wand from the forest by my house)
Invoking the Goddess
Lighting the Brigid Crown
Carving Snake Medallions (made of crayons)
Meditation (possibly design Brigid knots)
Blessings of cups and cakes
Releasing Directions and Circle
Then Grounding and more snacks!

I am super excited to lead hte event and take a leadership role in this ritual. It will be the second holiday ritual that I have planned and lead for others! I can't wait!

Blessings to all of you as Imbolc approaches! And may Brigid bless you as the Spring approaches faster and faster!

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!

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!

Busy Busy Busy

I am busy as a bee this week. It started out on Monday with an amazing Neo-Pagan Alliance meeting! It was the first of the semester and the turn out was amazing! We had about 12 people show up to the first meeting, which is double that of our first meeting last semester so I couldn't be happier. I think there are about 6-8 people that seem very interested and I hope they keep coming back. The exciting thing is that there are people who cannot make it to our meeting time and are still very interested. I am not sure if we Will be able to change our meeting time but who knows. I just feel like the goddess sent some of her positive energy to start the week off right!
I really think that there was a good mix of people at the meeting and am very hopeful for the upcoming year. We are hoping to do a henna tattoo event next week as an event to get to know each other and to get our clubs name out to the students. We are really hoping to put on an event for the school this year whether it is a May Day celebration or a pagan pride festival. I am putting it out into the universe that if it is going to work out I need someone to help out with the planning so I can make sure I still graduate on time.
In other news, I recently purchased some books and many of them came from an interview that Mrs. B had with Judika Illes.
After reading the interview Mrs B had with her I really was inspired to go purchase some nice books to expand my reading. I ended up getting Pure Magic, Encyclopedia of Spirits, and Dictionary of angels. It was really great to get them in the mail. I felt like I was getting presents everyday.
I also received Mother Moon's giveaway gift for me! I am so grateful that she was kind enough to send me something even though I missed the giveaway I actually won. Thank you again so much. I have just one question though, what is in the perfume bottle?
I was so happy to see inside of it incense, candles and a 2011 Herbal Almanac! I am super excited to use this in the up coming year and I think it will be perfect for the Neo-Pagan Alliance for our herbal candle making.

I am about as happy as a pagan running in the forest sky clad. HAHHAHA I tried the pagan humor I am not sure if it worked though.
Anyway, today is a day of cleaning for me. I am cleaning my room and saging immediately. I need a fresh start. My apartment still doesn't really feel like mine. I am also going to use a garlic protection spell that my friend Caitlin made. I am really super excited. My altar needs to be cleaned and rearranged so I figured I would so a ritual cleansing of it. I am working on a altar cleansing spell, as well as designing a little ritual around it. Wish me luck.
When I get it all done I will post pics here! And my writings.

Hope you all have a witchy weekend!!! And get ready for the Equinox/Ostara and full moon!
Blessed be!

Mojo Bags

Before I left for the summer to the in-laws I met up with Caitlin from the neo-pagan alliance and we decided to have a craft day. After meeting on campus and occasionally having ritual and outside of school meetings I wanted to get together and do pagan things with someone else who wanted the same.
Caitlin and I had been talking for a while about getting together to have a pagan craft day, where we could exchange some ideas and also join together to talk and make wonderful crafts.
I suggested making mojo bags that I had heard about on MrsB's blog. She mentioned it in her post about Voodoo and I was so intrigued by the topic that I spent the next 2 hours reading all the links I could find. I really was interested in the mojo bags becasue I have always wanted to work have talismans, make amulets, and things that I can carry around but never could sit down and do them. So when I read about these bags I knew I had to make one. The goddess has an interesting way of pointing you in a certain direction. Caitlin had made a necklace pouch type thing ( I'm not sure what to call it) weeks before I discovered mojo bags and I had expressed my want to make them, but it never worked out. Well, when I knew I wanted to make a mojo bag, I knew Caitlin would be the perfect person to work with because she a) likes crafts and b) has the supplies I didn't have for crafts.
Once I asked Caitlin if she wanted to have a craft day and she said yes, I went to my local magic store and picked up some Smoky Quartz!
When reading about mojo bags for travel I found that smoky quartz was good for protection and that is what I picked out. It was a very reasonable price for the stones and I was excited to get working. The day came and we discussed what we wanted to put into the mojo bags. I had brought over some protection herbs I had in my house and lucky Caitlin seemed to have the protection herbs I wanted but did not have or had forgotten. One thing we needed ws dirt. I had read that dirt from the place you are traveling to is the best, but unfortunately I didn't have any. That didn't stop me from making my mojo bag because I have learned that the intention behind what you are making is just as important if not more important than the ingredients you put in.
Anyway, Caitlin and I decided to go down to river bed that was dry because there was no more snow melt and to walk until we found some dirt that caleld to us. The walk I thought we were taking was only going to be a quick one, but we ended up walking for about an hour if not more. It was so nice. Caitlin showed me where she worked and she also took me to a little runoff lake that has been created. It was nice, there wasn't much life (except for algae) but it was a nice walk.
We then came back and started to set up the herbs we were going to add. I told Caitlin about Black Salt which I also learned about on MrsB's blog and we decided to make some while we were sewing. So we set aside out protection herbs and started burning some new herbs for the black salt and then picked out our fabric for the actual bag.
I decided that I was going to make a mojo bag for Amber who was traveling to mexico and to make that with a protection ruin on it and use blue fabric which is for protection while traveling. It turned out so pretty and I couldn't wait for her to see it.
Weeks went by and i still had mine to work on. I was supposed to have it done by the time Bobby and I left for Vegas so I could have a nice talisman to put in our car, but of course I didn't get it done. I am happy to say that I finished in time for the last full moon to charge it. However, I am not pleased with the way the top turned out because I got lazy and just started stitching to get it closed. ( On a side note, I added purple sage, which is growing on a neighboors bush and the flower in the mojo bag is a purple sage flower. Smells gret and is beautiful! )
I realized after I made it that I was not happy with the way it looked and that I had forgotten 2 key ingredients. I left out mesquite and palo verde thorns. I was thinking of herbs for protection and was looking out the window and saw a mesquite and palo tree and all of a sudden I knew that the thorns on the tree were perfect for protection. My partener is a huge fan of using native plants and using those thorns is just one way to increase my use of native plants in my spell workings. I am going to cut out the top stitching and I redo it and also add in the thorns. I was looking at a new blog called Spellcrafts and was very intrigued by the idea of a drawstring on top of my bag. When I get the new top done I will post a picture of it.

I learned to take a chance and trust that the goddess will help work it out.
Blessed Be!

Ritual of Celebration

On Monday the 10th the Neo-Pagan Alliance met for our last celebration for the school year. We have had a successful first semester as a club. I feel so blessed that I have met new peers that I can practic with and grow with. Just the other day Caitlin and I made mojo bags. An idea I first heard about on Mrs. B's blog. That is another post to come.
Anyway, when we decided to do the ritual we talked about it being a celebratory ritual, but it ended up being that plus a little of a end of the school year closure.
I was in charge of the invocation of the goddesss and Mark came up with the idea of drumming and setting intentions for the next school year. Also, he thought it would be a good idea to write down some negative things from the year we would like to be release from out life and then burn those. And to balance that out, we also had to write down as many (if not more) good things about the year. I agreed with Mark and thought that this definitely was a good idea. We decided that if you wanted to wirte down and burn the good things you could as well and if you also wanted to set an intention on the paper you could.
The best part for me was writing the invocation. I honestly had never written an invocation before and was really nervous about it. One of my major struggles on my path is believing that I know what to do. Being a Catholic was easy. I just had to recite the prayers, kneel when others did, and go take the wafer. With Wicca, there isn't any rules. Well, I mean restrictions on what and why I do something. Harm none and it seems like the goddess will guide you.
When starting the process of writing I needed a goddess that fit the ritual. So I went to my favorite website of The Order of Our Lady of Salt to find a goddess. And as I was looking through the goddesses I saw one that instantly caught my eye. Nortia jumped out at me as I was researching goddesses and had to read into her further, She is a an Etruscan triple goddess and is thought to be one of the main goddesses of the ancients. She had a temple at one of the huge cities at the time and people came from all around to visit her temple. At her temple followers hammered nails into the wooden door frame for her to fix their lives and bring good fortune in the coming year.
For our ritual, the year we were asking Nortia to bless and fix was the academic year ( didn't want to end the real year earlier than necessary as Madrone put it). The writing of the invocation was actually a really nice process. I learned a lot about me and about working with a goddess. I am very glad that when I called Madrone to tell her that I wanted her to look over it, she told me to not worry and that it would be fine. I knew she would say something like that, but I still had to call her.
The day of the ritual came and I was so excited to meet and get merry. We made it a potluck so we could ground, have some good conversation and then head into ritual. The day was nice and it was a little windy but we were waiting for the sun to go down and for the wind to calm so we could have a fire.
The food was delicious.
I made asparagus, broccoli , and potatos cooked in the oven with lovely spices. It ended up tasting great and Bobby made sweet potato curry and it was the biggest hit . The food led to great conversation just as I had hoped it would and then we went out to set up the ritual.
We started the ritual off by walking down towards the fire. Amber met us at the end of the stairs and she saged us before we walked into the circle.
After everyone was saged and down we called the directions, cast the cirlce and then led into my invocation. When I let Madrone read the invocation she looked at me and said wouldn't it be nice to hammer some nails into wood. I had wanted to do that but didn't have a hammer or any nails, so it was nice to have confirmation that my idea was good. We took three nails to be hammered into a piece of wood. Before I read the invocation I told the group a little about Nortia and then explained that as we hammered in the nails that we should think about what we would like patched up from the academic year. As I read the invocation I felt a sense of power. I felt like I had made a huge leap on my personal spiritual path.
After we did the invocation and everyone hammered the nails, we through the piece of wood into the fire.
Then we wrote on paper the bad things from the past school year on the paper and when participants were ready they through the paper into the fire. After the bad we put the good down and some of us set intention for the next year to come. After that we started drumming.
The drumming was great. Madrone brought out her drum Radiance and Amber and I had a session on her and it was greatttttt. Dancing, drumming, and getting lost in the music was AMAZING. We let the fire start to die down and we all gathered around Radiance. We started to sing songs around her and the sound of our voices blending together was magical. Madrone offered a song, I did, Mark sang an Icelandic song, and Bobby sang a Thai song. It was beautiful to hear the different languages and I learned that Caitlin has a wonderful voice.
Overall the night was truely a wonderful end to the academic year and a great start to the summer!!
More entries to come about the garden and mojo bags.
Below I will post the invocation and Goodbye for Nortia!
Blessed Be!



Invocation of Nortia
Nortia, Goddess of Fortune and Fate,
be with us on this special date.
As we close the chapter of our school year,
bring your message loud and clear.
Help to mend the breaks and tears,
And bring us good fortune this coming school year.
As in old we slam the nail,
Bring the Fortune without fail.
Nortia, Nortia, NORTIA.
Be with us now!
Hail and Welcome!

Farewell for Nortia
The nail is sealed,
Our year is healed.
Nortia, you brought your fortune,
We feel the wheels in motion.
Thank you for your guidance.
Go if you must, stay if you will.
Hail and Farewell!

Garden Starters Update 2

Tragedy has befallen the garden starters. I had to go out of town for a show (only a night and came back the next day) and I came back and the starters were all DEAD!

I had one tomato plant that was alive and now from the picture you can see that the tomato is dead as well. I have learned a valuable lesson. I think that I planted the seeds to early. But when Bobby and I went down to the garden in Sedona what I found made me very happy. Most of the garen was still just dirt, but in one area was teeming with life. The bend where we planted the Three Sisters was full of life
. We also added sunflowers in the area and they seem to be doing marvelously. The base of the stalks have a very beautiful purpleish color. I believe the sunflowers will have some different colors in them! Can't wait to see what they look like!
Bobby and I decided to plant a whole new batch of seeds because we think a frost must have killed the previous seeds.
Hopefully they will start growing soon so we can see what this garden will really look like!




I am constantly being reminded that there is always a good that will come out of the bad. Even though my trip to France did not work out the goddess had other plans for me. Now is a time for grounding and enjoying my summer. I have many new plans this summer. I think I will post a list so I can check them off as I go.
The Neo-Pagan Alliance had our celebratory ritual this past Monday so I will be posting about that very soon.
I invoked the goddes NORTIA. It was such a fulfilling ritual!

Full Moon Ritual

Last Monday was the full moon!
This was no ordinary full moon ceremony, it was special for a specific reason, the reason being it was the first group ritual I celebrated with the Neo-Pagan Alliance. We have been been a group since January and haven't done much "witchy-stuff" as one of our members Caitlin says. I totally agreed with her and just needed to get some of the "stickystuff" out of the way that comes with becoming a club on campus.
So after a few meetings with not much, if any, witchy stuff, we decided to plan a group ritual. The ritual was going to be on the full moon which I think was a great choice for us as a group. The full moon to me represents a time for renewal and also a time to set intention for the coming month. For the NPA this was perfect because as a new group we are still forming bonds and setting intentions together will help to strengthen those bonds.
When we started planning the ritual we divided up roles, did some research on full moon rituals, and came back together to share ideas and form our ritual. We decided who was going to bring candles, altar supplies, and who was going to find the place to hold the ritual. Amber and I volunteered to go pick the spot so we headed over there later in the week and when we got to the area it just felt great. We picked a spot in the edge of the lake. There was a bank and some trees to cover us from the road and plenty of wildlife in the area.
On the night of the full moon the group met up early so we could all travel together. We got to our spot with the moon high over head and we started to set up the altar and the direction candles. Aside from all of the items to be placed on the altar we had items we wanted to charge and candles and herbs that we were blessing. We are putting the herbs into the candles by sealing them on the outside with another wax. The candles will be sold as a fundraiser at our tabling events.
After setting up the altar we walked back close to the cars and started the ritual.
FULL MOON RITUAL
The group gathered in a circle and Caitlinset the intention for the night's workings with input from the rest of the group.
After setting the intention we moved towards the altar and were met by Amber. Amber was smudging us with a cedar wand she had made with her Native American tribe.
After we were smudged we walked to where the altar was. The walk was supposed to be meditative and everyone was told to pick up an item from the walk and later we would be instructed what to do with it.
Once everyone was at the altar, we cast the circle and called the directions. The circle casting was created by Madrone and it involved going to each direction and calling out to the goddess. ( I will see if I can post them on here so keep your eyes peeled)
Half of the directions were made up by the members and the other half were done by Madrone.
After the directions Tony invoked the moon spirit. We chose the moon spirit because we couldn't decide if we should invoke a goddess or god. Personally I have never invoked a god so I wouldn't know what to do.
But to be gender neutral we decided to just go with spirit, although Madrone did point out at our meeting that the moon is usually female and the sun male.
After the invocation we made 3 wishes each. I was taught that on full moons people can make 3 wishes. One for themselves, one for another, and one for the earth. The wishes could either be said aloud or silently.
For the wishes we all had a bowl that had some water in it. We used these bowls to pour water out after our 3 wishes as libations for the earth.
Next, we took the remaining water and used it for some water gazing. The idea behind this was to work with a new form of divination. I had tried water gazing before but only once and it wasn't very meaningful. This time I kept my mind open and was hoping for the best.
The actual water gazing was not very successful for me, but one thing I was drawn to while gazing was the moon. Being in an area with no trees immediately around me and no car lights or house lights was an awesome time to look at the moon. She was so full of wonder, was so big and bright. I loved it. As I looked up at the moon I realized that I was happy. For so long I had been waiting for a group of people close to my age to practice with. I have finally found them and to be present in that very moment was amazing.
When the water gazing was done, we gathered around the altar and decided to do an impromptu blessing of the candles that we are using for our fundraiser and it went so well.
Then came our drumming part. The truth is we ended up having one drum and 3 other noise making instruments and 2 hullah-hoops. At first, looking around at the other 5 people in the circle I wasn't sure how the drumming would go. But I decided to let it all go and just not care. The results were amazing. At first people were shy and seemed liked they didn't want to dance around, sing out, or play instruments. But after I was dancing around and the hullah-hoopers as well everyone else got involved. It was so amazing. I started to really dance around and as I got a little further from the group I looked back and was so moved. It reminded me of what ancient pagans must have felt like.
There were 5 candles burning and people dancing around singing out.
After the drumming we grounded with cakes and tea. Amber made 12 individual pumpkin cupcakes and it worked out perfectly that we each got 2. They were so delicious and after eating we gave back a piece of the cupcake and some tea.
We thanked the directions took down the circle and then headed home.
Overall it was an amazing experience and one I cannot wait to celebrate again with the NPA!
Blessed Be!!!

The Begining of the Spiral Dance

About 2 years ago I started my new spiritual journey as a witch.
I didn't know where this journey would take me or if it was the right path for me, but with every step I take on the spiral I realize it was the right one for me. Growing up in the Catholic faith was good until I realized that their exclusion of many different people (especially the exclusion of women) was not something I agreed with. My mother is such a strong figure in my life and to see her repressed in a sense by her faith really upset me. I thought that she should have been allowed to lead the church. To me she knew more than the priests did and certainly cared more for people and definitely was in my opinion far more advanced in her spiritual journey than the priests. But because males can only be priests in the Catholic faith she could only get involved in what they had for her.
Other factors surfaced in my life and my time with the Catholic faith came to an end. I drifted for a bit trying to find what I believed and always in the back of my mind was earth based spirituality. I had dabbled when I young. My mother found my book, which was Silver Ravenwolf's Solitary Practitioner, and as you can imagine it didn't go very well. But back to the present. So I was doing my own research into Wicca and felt I was lacking something. I realized I missed the community of my Catholic faith. Even if I didn't like the people in the church they still worshipped with me in the same way. Not knowing how to find other witches I was at a lost. However, the Fates were on my side and I was led to the Goddesses of The Cinder Moon. GCM was a local group of women who started a monthly goddess circle. This circle was a public ritual and I was lucky enough to go to the first one. I attended the first one and was amazed. That was where I first met my mentor and my spiritual mother, Madrone. She is amazing. I have learned soo much from her. After that first meeting I asked to meet with her because I was going away that summer to work and wouldn't be able to attend the goddess circles. I wanted to know of some books that she thought would be good to read for a beginner. She directed me to Starhawk's The Spiral Dance.
That book started it all. On the plane to Massachusetts I read, underlined, and wrote down questions about the book. I enjoyed the book so much and was so pumped when I came back after the summer. I of course attended the next goddess circle and afterwards I said I wanted to volunteer. I became involved and was hitting my peak in the group when the circles ended. It was sad but Madrone reassured me that it was not an end. Just a time to regroup and come back in a different way.
She was right. Because there were no more goddess circles I have developed on a solitary level and now I have started a club at my university, the Neo-Pagan Alliance, to meet other people my age who were also practicing. There are many stories in between GCM and the NPA and those will surface sometime in the blogs future I am sure.
NPA has brought into my life new friends who I can practice with and enjoy my spirituality. We are having our first full moon ritual that we designed and I am super PUMPED about it. Also at that ritual we will be blessing candles that we are going be making into herbal candles to sell as a fundraiser!
This blog is exciting for me because I have a place to record events other than my journal. Hopefully along the way I can encounter other traveler's of the spiral dance and hear their insights and perhaps offer some of mine.
Blessed Be!
Merry Meet Merry Part Merry Meet Again!