What a day

So this morning I wake up feeling like I just want to cry. Ugh. I get up and check my school site and someone has decided to redo everything so that I have to start my part of the assignment all over again. I find three spiders, which I am completely terrified of in my house. Then - I get to the school where I am subbing and on my walk around to the front door, there is a dead rabbit being eaten by crows. I think I should not have gotten out of bed this morning, should have just stayed there.

Of course this is a long day. I have not had any time to myself to ground and center and will not get any time except in my car on my way to my next job. What a day.

The sub I am subbing for (the regular teacher is on maternity leave) left redicuous plans noting that everything is set up - nothing is. The students are loud and off task (the loud could just be because I am annoyed) and I just want to go home. Can't wait until this day is over.

Still moving forward

So... This week there is no school Friday and a small chance I will not be working tomorrow either. So, going to see if I can meet with someone about doing market research and finding out how to do projections for my store. Gotta get this business plan done so that I can keep moving forward with my shop. 

In the mean time, applied for 6 more teaching positions today, all sped - at the elementary level. Hoping to secure one for next year. This will releive so much stress, give me a way to do everything I want to do. 

Goddess please grant me the strength to do what I need to do and keep moving forward with positive spirits along the way. 

To Stir a Magic Cauldron - finishing it up

Great book. Highly recommended by this little witch. That last couple of chapters talks about knowing who and where you are in the big scheme of things, the pagan community, what is happening around the world, and how we fit into it. Great reading, some additional info, and many many recommendations and references. As noted, i most definitely recommend this book to a newby or anyone who just wants to know more - like me. I love to know what other people are thinking and Silver is definitely a favorite.  Have you seen her book "Solitary Witch"? Great reference material also... Anyway, ending this book, another to finish up on that I already started here. Moving back to Path of Druidry by Penny Billington... Blessed be to you all.. Have a great week! 

To Stir a Magic Cauldron Ch. 8 ~ Conjuring by Circumstance

Keep my words positive - words become my behaviors

Keep my behaviors positive - behaviors become my habits

Keep my habits positive - habits become my values

Keep my values positive - values become my destiny

What great words. I see them floating around facebook often copy and pasted onto various inspirational pictures. I am sure that I have even shared them in the past from someone else's posts. This chapter is opened with them as this chapter deals with using magic as the need arises. There are many reasons to use magic and it can be used for any reason. Remember, however, to stay positive, use it for benefit, and be careful not to try to or even accidentally change the course for someone else when they are not aware. There are many laws and rules floating around but it basically comes back down to our our beliefs and how you see Karma. Don't do things that could hurt others as it may come back and bite you on the butt... Even if you feel you are helping, you really do not know how things will turn out, you do not know the whole story, and you do not want, while trying to do something good, to make things worse. The best rule of thumb, I think, is to just stay away from doing things for people without their permission. 

Anyway, back to chapter 8. This chapters is basically full of many spells and rituals used by Silver at one time or another. It's a great chapter if you are looking for a way to solve a specific problem. We all know that spells are better when written by you, they tend to hold more power, your power, but if this is not something you can do yet, by all means, there are some great ones here. Otherwise, reading spells from another that have worked can be a great basis for ideas when writing your own. Ready them and learn. The chapter includes various banishing spells, divinations, love spells (that doesn't effect the other person), rites of passage, and others. 

The chapter also talks about when to perform spells and when it's better to wait. I wanted to touch on this briefly because I know we have all had moments when we are angry, upset, or hurt and we kKNOW the thing to do right now is to give the guy worts or a sixth finger on each hand or make his hair all fall out but this is not the time. Do not do magic when you are overly emotional. Magic is emotion and strong emotions can make things happen that you do not necessarily want to happen - at least you might not want it to happen tomorrow. And always remember Karma... You don't want some emotional spell coming back on your three fold or ten fold or whatever you believe. That would just not do. If there is a problem, put it away for a while. A day, a week, come back and handle it when you have your wits about you, when you can make a good valid decision and carry it out without becoming "crazy." In the long run you will be glad you did. And also, remember that thing called Karma... It doesn't just come back to bite us witches - it comes back on others too. Someone who does you wrong will get their "come up ins" - of course they will. I will admit though it's much more fun to help Karma along sometimes, isn't it. 

To Stir a Magic Cauldron Ch. 7 ~ Minor and Major works

Spells ~ Prayers ~ Celestial Magic ~ Lunar Magic ~ Days of the Week ~ Planetary Hours ~ Planetary Aspects ~ Minor Magic ~ Petition Magic ~ Eight Gates of Light and Dark ~ Candle Magic ~ Cord Magic ~ Gem Magic ~ Element Magic ~ Trance and Magic ~ Major Magic ~ Tarot Magic ~ Herbal Magic ~  Tallismanic Magic ~ Magical Alphabets ~ Sympathetic Magic ~ Ritual Magic ~ Cauldron Magic ~ along with spells and correspondences.... 

What can I say about chapter 7? Wow. I am not sure that she could have squashed any more information in one chapter and then you get to the end and three pages of correspondences. 

What are major magics vs minor magics  Well, Silver lists minor magics at petition spells, gem magic, candle magic, cord magic, and element magic. I am sure there are many more but these are the main categories that she lists. She then lists major magics as tarot magic, herbal magic, talismanic magic, alphabets, sympathetic magic, ritualistic magic, and cauldron magic. I am not sure I agree with all of this or that it even matters. I feel that, if you are going to label your magic, the more you put into it or require of it is what is going to magical working minor or major. 

Now I use petition spells often. The first spell I ever cast, one to remove all possible negativity from my classroom at the time, was a petition spell and it worked very well. Most of my spells, despite the types, has  a petition quality to them as I find actually writing my needs or requests on parchment using the appropriate colors of ink, etc, works well for me. I mix the petition spell with meditations, herbal, candle, and gem magics among other things. I do what feels right and maybe because I am a writer, I love to write my wishes down and send them skyward in the form of smoke and ash. 

Choosing the right spell for the job. Yes, this is important though it's not always something you have time for (at least to think about it to much ~ we talk more about that in Chapter 8). When you have the time, it's always good to look at every aspect of your spell that you can. Days of the week, time of day, where is the moon and sun at any given time. What color of candles or ink do you want to use. What Runes or witches alphabet will you use in your inscription or to inscribe your candles? 

This chapter is one to open to again and again just to check thing. Some really great info here... Check it out! 

To Stir a Magic Cauldron Ch. 6 ~ Aspects of Divinity

When you cast our circle, work your spells, or set your rituals, do you call specific deities? Do you call upon the Lady and Lord? The God and Goddess? Or do you just call upon the powers that be? For me the answer to this question varies depending on what I am looking to do, the purpose for my spell or ritual. When I need courage or strength  I call upon the Morrigan, the Goddess who chose me over a year ago through various means. I have written several spells/rituals to call upon specific deities as well as general callings depending on the need. I also have spells and such written specific to call upon he aid of the elements, which I work with often. 

Gotta love the comic book Celtic Gods/Goddesses

In chapter 6, calling Power and the aspect of divinity, Silver talks about many ways to call upon any power you may wish to invoke. She talks about what she calls the ten ways to raise power.

• meditation
• aspecting (a form of possession) and invocation
• trance and/or astral projection
• potions including herbals, incense, and wines
• dancing and or drumming or other music
• blood control (biofeedback)
• working with stellar, earth, sun, astrological energies
• chants and sacred breath
• spells
• sex

These calls can be used individually or mixed together in ritual, as I am sure many of you do. I know that when I attend public or group rituals you see mediation, dancing and drumming, chants, and work with energies. In my own circle, I use mostly mediation, aspecting, potions, energies, chants, and spells ~ often many at once or maybe individual such as a healing mediation. 

This is such a fun and informational chapter... Not going to give details cause I truly think you will want to read it yourself. I will say, however, that you want to read Circle of Stars. Great... The other rituals she gives are fab. Drawing up plants to help them grow is one I am looking forward to trying once I am in a place of my own. Also, living in the Seattle area, I am so going to be trying Conjuring the power of the wind and rain. That one, it seems, like it should have been made for this area specifically. A variation of this one, I am sure, will eventually make it into my own BOS. 

As i have written several callings for the Morrigan and her personalities (Macha, Babd, and Anu), I was thrilled to read the one she included in the book. Her's is nothing like mine but gave me thoughts in possible future writings of my own. Hmm. Interesting... 

Where are my own spells? Rituals? Well, maybe someday I'll write a book too.. Maybe. Working on it? Hmmm. More thoughts. Ya know, I seem to be thinking to much today, lol. 

He could totally be a God, couldn't he? 

She includes rituals for aspecting divinity, The Morrigan, Wisdom, using the power of drumming and rattles, Moon power, sun power, star power (no i don't mean Johnny Depp though I would like to know how to conjure him), and using trance work... Yes, not going into it any more then that. Enjoy!!! 

To Stir a Magic Cauldron Ch. 5 ~ Casting Circles

This was in interesting chapter of not entertaining. She discusses the basics of casting circles but then goes on to talk about some pretty interesting, even funny versions of circles she has seen cast. Exploding circles, misty circles, circles of fear and circles of power. She discusses balance in circles, talks a lot about what she feels is a must in circles (I think that it's great to know what other people do but that you need to decide what you want on your own), and goes on to give examples.

Yes, this is a very quick summary of chapter 5. It's great and if you are looking for some great examples of circle casting to get you started, i highly recommend this chapter. But I'm going to leave it there. Enjoy!

Thinking

Ok, so I keep moving forward, my eyes always on what i really want, what truly makes me happy, even though it seems I have so little time for it right now. What makes me happy? With my druid training and just life, I think about this a lot these days. What do I want with my life. Where do I want to be in a year, five years, ten years? 


Well, it's really quite simple. I want to have my store and know it's doing well. I do not want to be rich or anything, I just want to know that I am self sufficient and not have to go to bed each night wondering how the bills will get paid next month, whether I will be able to make rent, etc. 

I want to be on my own property, or at least property that i will own as soon as I finish paying the bank for it. With my little hobbit house. A place where I can grow my gardens, hold my rituals, solitary, or with others if I so desire. I have met some really great people these past few months and would love a place where I could invite them over for a BBQ or a party, a ritual like the one we are going to at a friend house next weekend for Beltane. It won't be fancy but it will be mine, a place where I can do what I want, be me, without listening to the neighbors party through the wall or the vacuum cleaner at midnight up stairs. A place where I can come home from my store and be peaceful and happy. A place where my kids can visit, my family can visit, and it will be mine... Like I said once I pay the bank for it.... But still mine. 

I would love to have someone... Someone who knows when to hug me when I'm having a bad day. Someone to say he loves me without wanting something. Someone who is there when I need him. Will i get married again?d Oh no! Did that twice, done with that. But I also don't want to be alone. 

I have worked hard my whole life. I raised my two beautiful kids and they have turned out quite well if I do say so myself. They are fabulous wonderful people. I went to school and worked hard to become a teacher, turning out at a bad time to be a teacher. I am currently working on my second master's degree. All in an attempt to just make it... To be self sufficient. To be able to support myself. My credit is bad, in fact I had to file bankruptcy last year. I have no money, I sub, no real job because no one will hire me - I am either over qualified or I require to much money. I deserve a little bit of ease in my life. 43 years, to me, seems like it should be long enough living this way. 

I try hard to give this all over to the Goddess. May days I succeed quite well, others not so much. I have learned from life that if you don't work hard, you get no where. I have also learned in life that often no matter how hard you work, you still get no where. 

Goddess... My Morrigan, please, if you would, tell me when is my turn. What do I need to do to get where I need to be. I want to help people. I want to give people like me a place, a safe place to learn, study, and congregate. I want to give them a place to be free. Can you please give me a sign, tell me how to find the mystery that hides what I need to know to reach my goals in life, these simple goals. 

As Saturday night closes, I sit here in my bed, computer in my lap, thinking about where I am and where I want to be. I can see me sitting there in my shop. I can see people coming and going. Talking, smiling, being happy Friends and customers. Potlucks, festivals, ceremonies  rituals, divinations  all being held in my shop. I try to manifest what I desire, what I need to move forward with what I feel I need to do, moving forward to where I know I belong. I just need to know how to get there. 

To Stir a Magic Cauldron ~ Ch. 4

Ok, jumping right on in on this one.... 

Josephine Wall: Spirit of the Elements

Calling the quarters, the elements, the elementals. What do you want the quarters to do? Witness, protect, add power? Silver noted the importance of telling them, whoever you call, what you need or want them to do. When I go back through my own written rituals, I found I do this anyway, that just came naturally to me when opening my circle, performing my rituals or spells. It's not something I would have thought of having to mention. Maybe it's the teacher in me, make sure everyone knows what they are doing, why they are here. Hmmmm. She gives some great, very imaginative ways to call quarters.... I was I intrigued as I read through them. Enjoyed them. Complicated, I am more for simple but loved them. Some great ideas and visualizations.

The differences between elements and elements was interesting. I did not realize that they were different, always saw one as part of the other, an element is the manifestation of the elemental. Have to think about this one a bit. She compares the elemental to a spirit and the elemental to the actual thing such as Tue element earth a dirt. She does not see the dirt as living thinking being which it's very different then my own druidic way of thinking - everything has spirit, life.

Watchtowers was also a be idea to me. she calls Watchtowers in addition to laments, to guard her circle, again, making sure they know what they are there to do. So read her information, I picture something like gargoyles standing at the corners (yes I realize circles are round, so does she) standing guard protect the rites as they happen.

She tasks some about faeries but I will leave that for you to check out, I had never heard of the Airts so I would rather touch upon this. What's an airt? Well, I learned that an airt is a word that means the point off the wind, at least as far as I can tell. She makes a lot of a sense here, we here in the USA read so much information that comes from elsewhere that we forget to take into account our own environment, what is on out area. Remember, our areas are very different then Europe and other places around the world. When talking about using the winds, we need to study what we each have in our own areas. What does the north wind bring, the south. How often and when do the different winds happen? How do the animals respond to the winds when they come ? How do/should you respond? These are all questions we need to study when working with any elements in our respective worlds. She hours on and I highly recommend this section of reading.

I have always loved this painting.... 

She talks about Angels... How different people from different traditions might view them if they do at all. The differences between the various beliefs in angels is huge depending on who you talk to. Do I believe in angels? Yes I do. Do you?

She then goes on to talk about totems, and them archetypes. The ancient ones is another area she covered briefly before moving on to chapter 5. And I am moving right along.

Ok, so this has been sitting in my drafts box for a while now. Want to get this one posted. Don't think I have it done yet but will come back and add more to it. But, you all can't read it if it's sitting in my drafts box so watch for more... It'll get added hopefully this weekend...

Ok. So something else I felt needed a word or two. Have you ever heard of Airts? I hadn't until now. Webster's defines airt as a "new direction. channel into a new direction." Silver talks of Airts noting that it is a Gaelic term used to describe compass points and the directions of the winds. She makes a great point about using the "airts" from our own areas. As a rule, we tend to study magic and ritual from Europe so when we start to use the winds and directionals  we use them as we seen them in books. Now I had not thought about it before but duh! If course the winds and such would be different here in Seattle then they would be is say, Glastonbury. Makes total sense. She recommends taking time, spending time out side. Making notes in our journals about wind directions at different times year. Noticing what is happening around you at different times of year. This is how you determine what elemental to use, to know what is coming "on the wind" at any given time in the year. To know what the wind bring in the spring when it blows in from the North, or what it brings in July when the slight breeze blows in off the Pacific ocean. It all makes sense, doesn't it? Hmmmm. Truly got me thinking....

I kinda gleamed over it when writing this a few weeks ago but decided today to come back to it. Totems. Do you have a totem? I would love to hear about other people's totems if they would like to leave comments. Things like how do you know. What brought these totems to you or you to them. I find this topic fascinating. My own totems consist of the horse, whom often guides me through the dream world and takes me to areas away from my sacred grove when I'm in mediation (which I am having difficulty making time for lately ~ can't wait until summer).

Silver talks about using totems animals when calling quarters. This is not something I do. In fact, usually my totems are something completely not associated with my circle casting. Not that they do not appear when I cast, but usually that is on their own accord, not because I call them. My totem animals usually come to me when they feel there is something I need to know or do, or when they feel I am in need. Where I live, there are several old oak trees outside of my apartment, both off my front door and off my patio. At any given moment, there are at least 100 crows in these trees. Early in the mornings when you leave my house, the sound is hypnotizing and they chatter above. It's amazing. the amazing thing is, from what I understand, they were not here before I came. How fun is that? To interesting. They follow me. When I am out and about, i see them everywhere. They stay outside the windows that I am close to when I am inside. When I send healing to others, they start seeing them outside their windows too. Even family members who do not know about my crows have reported seeing them when they know I have done a healing on them. And people insist on not believing. 

To Stir A Magic Cauldron: chapters 2 - 3

Chapter two starts out by talking about sacred space. What is sacred space? Depending on your path or "religion" as Silver calls it, it is where ever you feel the most safe, a place that has been cleansed and blessed as a place for ritual and spell work. Silver is a lot mroe formal in these things then I am in my own practice and she is very into the ritual and all of it's components. She has some great ideas here and a lot can be learned from her.

She discusses shrines to the areas where you sacred space might be. In your home, your yard, etc. I love how she talks about walking the land, your space, getting to know the area where you live. Learn the weather patterns, learn about the energies that are there, learn which way the winds blow and what comes and goes with them. Some really great information here. Introducing yourself and speaking with the earth energies in any given place is a great idea and will help you not only in your work, but also give you a better understanding of the spirit world would have availble for you to work with in your area.

One of the "Your Work" sections in this chapter asks you to think about what makes you feel sacred and what makes you feel no so sacred. This was a difficult task for me an it took a lot of thought. Things that make me feel sacred are the love from my family and friends, but I am far away from my family at the moment and really do not have many friends. Unfortunately, due to axiety issues and being quite shy, friends are difficult for me and I find that I am not a very good friend to even the best of friends. I try, but lately times have been difficult and I find that I tend to be on my own most of the time. I also feel sacred when I am in my grove, when speaking to my druid guide, completely my bardic grade studies through OBOD, and/or working on my own personal studies such as working throught this book. When do I not feel so sacred? When I am angry or frustrated which recently has been often. I do not feel very sacred when I am sick (as I am today) or when I feel that I am not accomplishing or able to accomplish the things I need to do.

In this chapter she also talks about centering yourself and then seeing yourself from outside of your body. I would say that this is the beginning of an astral travel kind of thing. I am looking forward to trying this but am not at a place in my home where I can at the moment. My mom is going to be leaving, going back to Spokane and then I will have more time alone, lots of time alone, where I will be able to focus more on these types of skills. The idea of astral travel has always scared me but I feel that I am ready to try and the way that Silver approaches it is easy and slow paced. Sounds like a plan to me.

She goes on to talk about various salutes and triggers. The salutes are really not soemthing I am intersted it but the triggers, I think, is something that we all do maybe without even realizing that we do it. Triggers are movements of things you can say that bring you to a specific feeling, spot, or idea. For example, to calm yourself you might have a hand movement or a quick prayer or saying that automatically brnigs calm to your being. I love this and know that I do it often.. especially in my car when I am having a bad day... "goddess bless me with peace" does it and I immediately feel that peace and calm throughout my body allowing me to smile a bit and move forward with whatever it is I need to do.

Silver loves speeches and shrines. If I have learned nothing else (I have learned a lot from this book by the way) from this book, I do know this. There is one shrine idea that I love and plan to do myself once my home is all my own. the Eternal Flame House Shrine sounds amazing. Decorating your shrine to your goddess/god of house and home sounds amazing and like a great way to keep things in your home as they should be. My goddess of hearth and home is Macha (one aspect of the Morrigan, my patron Goddess). This will be an amazing project to do.

The information about the meditation fo the five winds was interesting and there is some great information here. I loved reading about it and plan to learn about the winds, the directions they come from, and what each directions does for us. This could be so usful when wanting to bring things into being or rid ourselves of things we do not want. Can't wait to get started on this reasearch project and be able to use it in my own spell work.

Laughter. We all know that laughter has healing powers. When performing rituals, spells, whatever, we need to remember to laugh at ourselves. Everything does not have to be all serious all of the time. I would not start laughing if your priestess is perfomring a great rite that you are part of, but knowing when to laugh, espicially at yourself, can be a wonderful thing. We all make mistakes and the Gods know this. They are not going to strike you donw because you get the giggles during the calling of the directions or the closing of the circle. Don't take youself quite so serious all of the time.

Important: Remember, it's all about intent. What does this mean? It means that reading a ritual from a card means that you are probably going to spend more time on reading it correctly then the feels, the intent, the focus of what you are trying to do. Intent is everything. Not tools, not works. intent. Memorize what you want to do. It's not a race, take your time, visualize, focus, see what you want. Spend time with each aspect of your ritual or spell... It's all about intent. Without strong intent, strong will, your spell or ritual will not have the power you want tor need to do what you desire.

I'm not going to tell you about the Robe of Star because I want you to read about it. it's awesome! Check it out.

This is a full chapter... I have skipped talking about much of it, touching on parts that I found interesting for my own practice or that I found particularly cool... I highly advise reading this book so far so that you can see what I have neglected to discuss here.

Choosing your patron dieties. This, now, is a serious matter. You do not have to choose a patron diety if you do not want to. However, many prefer to have one diety or set of dieties to work with. This can help to bring specific qualities and powers to what you do. I myself was chosen by my patron Goddess, The Morrigan chose me a little over a year ago. Well, actually, she chose me before that but told me who she was a little over a year ago... I call to her three sides, Macha, Anu, and Badb. She covers all areas of my life msot of the time and we work well together. Don't get me wrong, she is touch on me. Definitely not all peaches and cream and she has kicked me in the butt to straighten me out on more then one occassion.. But she also leads me, protects me, and watches over me as I move through my days.

Well, you are not caught up with me in this book, all the way through chapter three. I have actually read chatper four too but will catch you up there next time. Have to say I am loving it so far and wish I could spend more time with it... It will most definitely become a new go to for info along with my my Scott Cunningham and Anne Moura books. Can't wait to delve deeper into Silver's work.