The Sunday Stew: June 8-14, 2014

In many Japanese villages, an ancient rice festival is held annually on this date. Women wearing traditional kimonos recite prayers and light rice-straw fires to honor the god of the rice and to bless the crops.  In China, the Grain in Ear festival is celebrated at this time. The grain gods are honored with old rituals to ensure a harvest of plenty.

On this date in 1892, Grace Cook (a popular spiritualist medium and founder of the White Eagle Lodge) was born in London, England. Her first psychic vision of Indian Chief White Eagle and other Native American spirits occurred early in her childhood. With the aid of her spirit guide, she authored many books on healing and spiritual growth. She believed that after her death (which occurred on September 3, 1979), her spirit would be reincarnated in Egypt.

On this date in the year 1692, a woman named Bridget Bishop was hanged on Gallows Hill in Salem, Massachusetts, after being found guilty of the crime of Witchcraft. She was the first person to be publicly executed in the infamous Salem Witch Trials.

Wednesday, June 11 

On this date in 1912, spiritualist-medium Ruth Montgomery was born in Princeton, Indiana. Her interest in the world of  the occult began in 1956, when she first began attending séances. She has written numerous bestselling occult books and is famous for her gift of communicating with spirit guides through automatic writing.

Light gold-colored candles on your altar and wear oak leaves in your hair to honor the Greek god Zeus, who is traditionally honored on this day.  In Korea, rice farmers wash their hair in a stream on this day as part of an annual ritual to dispel bad luck and to ensure an abundant crop. This ritual has taken place since ancient times.

On this date in the year 1884, Gerald Gardner was born in Lancashire, England.  Nicknamed King of the Witches, he went on to become a famous and well-respected Wiccan author and the founder of the Gardnerian tradition of the modern Wicca religion. He died on February 12, 1964.  Irish poet and ceremonial magician William Butler Yeats was also born on this date in the year 1865.

In ancient Rome, the Goddess Minerva (patroness of wisdom and the arts, and a deity of battle) was honored annually on this date at her sacred festival, the Lesser Quinquatrus of Minerva.  In India, this is a day sacred to Jagannath, a benevolent incarnation of the god Vishnu. An annual festival in honor of him is celebrated in the city of Puri on the East Coast of India.

Wishing everyone a fantastic week!  

Karen

Today I look at the clock and think about all my deadlines.  I have four blog projects.  I have four Facebook Pages I manage.  I work a full time job and run a business in which I create the majority of the product by hand.  I rescue and foster as well as participate in TNR programs.

I’m also tired.

My brain is a very busy place.  I am in “go mode” most of the time.  My idea of relaxation is sitting in front of the TV with hubby, making jewelry while watching a show and chatting on Facebook while writing a blog post.  Because of the speed in which my thoughts travel I’ve been presented with the following statement many times:

“I’m not a part of that conversation you’re having in your head.”

I do what I can to try to stay focused.  I go outside and walk barefoot.  I stand in front of the fire and look up at the stars.  But still my brain moves forward faster and faster.  Sometimes it reminds me of the boat ride in Willy Wonka.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X48RiKQmFQ)  It starts out at what seems to be a normal pace and before you know it I’m barreling out of control.

As my brain speeds up, I become more creative.  The large majority of my blog ideas are born in this mindset.  While it is difficult to explain to those who have not experienced it, this is very similar to feeling as though you can accomplish anything.  There are no bounds to the mind and everything is achievable.  In the past, I was told this was called delusions of grandeur.  To me, it’s called the “Sparkle”.

I believe that every person has this undeveloped place where dreams and ideal live.  Each person can tap into that area.  We’re taught as children that we cannot live in this area; that it is fantasy, or it is make believe.  Some of us still have access to this magical world that allows us to delve into the waters of fantasy and bring back glimpses of whimsy.

I also believe that even as adults who have had the magic stolen away from them, we can go back into that childlike state.  And notice I said childlike, not childish.  That childlike state that lets you look up into the fireworks with awe.  It allows you to spin in circles under a full moon until your legs are so tired you collapse.  It allows you take a journey back into your imagination where dreams are reality and reality is just a faraway dream.

In my place there are trees and fields of flowers.  There’s a light breeze and faeries play.  This is the place where I want to live.  This spot of never ending creativity and happiness.  A place where no one can ever dull your sparkle.

Namaste & Blessed Be

Sosanna

)O(

Yesterday, June 7, I turned 45. 

I look in the mirror and I like what I see. I have laugh lines around my eyes and mouth.  Grey hairs sprout like tendrils of silver ivy, weaving among the black strands. I recently stopped bathing my tresses in chemical colorants, and the results are stunning. I am back on the heavier side of my range, and I love my strong arms, generous breasts, and soft thighs that children climb for stories and snuggles. This is a good place to be.

I may have little else in common with rocker Kevin Rudolf, other than those duets with Lil’ Wayne -- or did I dream that? – but, I completely embrace the words to his song, “I Made It”:

“I used to dream about the life I’m living now; I know that there’s no doubt: I made it.”

This is my dream, and I am overcome with teary gratitude -- on a very regular basis, my equally emotional husband can attest. I have a marriage that is perfect. There is no other word for it. I have four healthy, funny, intelligent children -- all unique, all loving and generous. I have a job that allows me to stay home, as I desire. The children I babysit brighten my days. I have an affordable house in a city I love, with a backyard packed with toys and plants. My husband and I stand in the driveway with our arms around each other, and he whispers in my ear, “This is my paradise.”

I never thought I would enjoy mid-life this much. Never have I felt more sure that I am where I belong, doing what I should be doing. I can look back on my life as a string of mistakes, and missteps, and miscalculations -- or I can look back and say, “All those things brought me here: to a place where I can appreciate what I have, feel like I have learned something, and have more confidence moving forward.”

We are guaranteed nothing. I may have another 45 years ahead of me, or I may not see another moonrise. I have made peace with that. As the old sage said, “It’s not the years in life that matter, it’s the life in your years.” It’s a glorious life. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

The Universe never ceases to amaze me. Just as life is chugging along you find everything has been turned upside down and you’re thrown into chaos. For the past month, this has been the state of my life. On May 10th, my son went to his senior prom. On May 24th, he graduated high school. On May 26th, I was told he would be going to live with my parents indefinitely. He and his stepfather have been like oil and water for several years now. I feared this day would come, but always believed that our bond was strong enough to prevent it. I was wrong. Thus, on June 1st, life as I knew it ceased to exist. I became an empty-nester at the ripe young age of 37. I feel empty and broken and have descended into a deep depression that I’m struggling to climb out of.

Several months ago, my mom started talking about the practice of mindfulness. She is a behavioral therapist and this is one of the techniques she teaches her clients. Jon Kabat-Zinn, a major player in the practice, defines mindfulness as “…paying attention in a particular way; On purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.” You can read more here. Mindfulness requires us to be present and aware. It teaches us how to feel our feelings without judgment and to let them flow past. It allows us to experience life as we never have before. This is something that speaks to my soul.

I have battled depression since I was very young. I tend to pre-live situations, which is something depression feeds on. I also tend to ruminate on the past. Therefore, when something goes wrong, I manage to dredge up every negative emotion or hurt I have ever experienced. This is a breeding ground for depression and anxiety and keeps the downward spiral going. When my son announced he was going to live with my folks, I went from happiness to full-blown depression in a nanosecond. Thankfully, I had the foresight to order some workbooks to help me cope with depression and anxiety using mindfulness practices.

I want to add that I believe a mindfulness practice can help everyone, not just those with depression, anxiety, or stress issues. Mindfulness can be practiced at home, at work, while driving, while eating, parenting, and so on. I also think this could be an excellent tool for our spiritual lives. As Witches and/or Pagans, our spiritual lives are very important to us, and we need to make sure we are present and aware during all magickal workings. We should also make it a priority to be present and aware in all that we do. A mindfulness practice will not only help us focus our intentions during rituals or spellwork, but it will also help us appreciate nature more fully. We will be able to see and experience more beauty than we ever have before. 

I am just beginning this journey from madness to mindfulness, and I am nervous but excited. I am nervous because I feel like my life is about to change in profound and magickal ways. I am excited because I know these changes will make life so much sweeter. 

Every magical garden, no matter how big or how small, needs a sacred space, a place for meditation, for grounding and centering, for working spells, for performing rituals, and for celebrating sabbats. Like a garden, a sacred space is a very individual thing, created with your own likes and needs in mind and infused with your energies and beliefs. It may be part of the natural landscape of your magical garden or something that stands out on its own, surrounded by the garden. You may have to sit back and really think about your ideal sacred space or you may already know what you want and need. Simple or elaborate, easy or labor-intensive, this is the week to plan and create your magical space, with the June Full Moon on the rise and Summer knocking at our doorsteps.

Spend some time this week out in the garden, just walking around and spending time with its energies. Study the areas of your garden, noting its shapes, colors, scents and textures. The ideal spot for your sacred space may jump right out at you or may pull you slowly in its direction. If you prefer to work with elemental energies, you may want to set up the area in the northern (Earth) corner of your yard or patio or in the eastern (Air) corner to bring creative energies. Like me, you may want to work at the center (Spirit), surrounded by all the elements and your entire garden.

Once you know where your sacred space will be, get to know the area. Sit in the area at dawn, at noon, at dusk and at midnight. Learn the energies, the happenings, and the comings and goings of the area. There is much natural magic occurring in the garden at these in-between times of the day. Recall what that area of the garden looks like through the seasons. Remember the exercise I wrote of a few weeks ago about listening to your garden grow? This is a perfect meditation to do as you sit there because you will tune in to and bond with the energies in that area. Be sure that you feel comfortable in the area. If it does not feel right, then it probably is not and you need to take another walk around. Also, you want to ensure the privacy of the area. Who wants a nosy neighbor peering over the fence at you in the middle of drawing down the moon?

It’s now time to think about what your sacred space will need for magical and meditation work. Do you want an altar and what will you use to create it? I use a big wide log cut from an old tree but you may want to use a small stone bench or a large paving stone tucked into a garden bed. It’s up to your imagination and your preferences. You may want to add some elemental representations around the area, like wind chimes (Air/East), a candle holder (South/Fire), a bird bath or fountain (West/Water), and a stone or crystal (North/Earth). If it’s a large area, you could add a fire pit as a central hearth and a place to burn herbs during your magical workings. I have one that looks like a cauldron at the center of my area and it is not only wonderful for my rituals and spell work but for gathering with family and friends on a chilly Autumn night. The area can be filled with as little or as many magical items and tools as you wish. Your imagination is the limit. Your sacred space can also be just the area itself, with no adornments, no statues, no tools, just nature all around you.

When the Full Moon arrives, gather your items for your sacred space, if you have them, and begin setting up the area. Cleanse and dedicate the items to their new purpose, aiding you in your magical work. Cleanse the area and consecrate it as your sacred space. You may want to add some protection to the area too. I use small perfectly round and smooth river stones with protective runes drawn on them placed at intervals around my area and tucked into the landscape away from prying eyes. Spend the evening of the Full Moon, weather permitting, out in your sacred space. Meditate, draw down the moon, work a spell or two, whatever your magical need.

Often you may find that the energy of your sacred space changes. It may need a cleansing or a magical boost or you may have just outgrown an item in the area. Do any cleansings at the New Moon and perform protective reinforcements at the Full Moon or sabbats. Use the in-between times of the changing seasons, when the energies of change are heightened, to add new plants or magical items to the area.

Every magical garden needs a sacred space and you will soon see the effects of that space on the plants in and around the area. There may be more abundant blooms, quicker growth, more wildlife, or, if you are really lucky, a few other-worldly visitors taking up residence among the flowers (but I’ll get to that next time around). Your space may seem to hum or vibrate with the magical energies. Take care of it. Work your magic in it. Above all, enjoy it.

Happy Gardening and Full Moon Blessings!

My Blog:  http://johanna-villagewisewoman.blogspot.com/

This week I've come back to my chakra series. It's time to learn about your 4th chakra, the heart chakra, the Anahata. The Anahata is the center of your being, it is your connection to others, to your world. 

You can do nothing until you love yourself. This is the most important thing. Often, people have a problem finding their self-love. But this is of the utmost importance. Self-love will help you to be more accepting of yourself, your situations, your relationships. 

When this chakra is healthy you will fall in love with your life and being alive. You will see the world as the beautiful place that it is. You will learn and give unconditional love. Everyone wants to be loved, it is a basic need and a basic right. We all want and need this inner peace. It is what our very souls long for and we should give it to ourselves freely, and we will be able to when this chakra is a beautiful spinning orb of glowing green.

True love, peace, respect, and forgiveness are all things that will be yours when this chakra is in balance. Compassion, forgiveness, and empathy in their correct forms will be given freely from your balanced heart chakra.  Read more at Saga's Cottage Blog. 

My spirit boards: http://lapuliabookofshadows.com/product-category/spirit-ouija-weejie-boards/

Nature's Most Wanted with Julie Baker

Ants

Just the sound of that word makes people groan in the spring and early summer. By mid-summer, they are growling and come fall, you would think that human and insect were in a state of eternal combat the likes of which, few could ever understand, except, perhaps everyone that has ever owned a home, rented an apartment, or sat down outside with their lunch.
   
There are an estimated 22,000 species of ant, of which about 13,000 have been classified. Much like the kitchen, as soon as we think we know them all, more pop up.  They sprang onto the scene around the cretaceous period, having evolved from a wasp like ancestor that must have thought that one day, humans would spring up out of the goo and need more to do in the summer.  I can only feel that their thought process must have been benevolent. They are merely helping us grow our frontal lobe, help us figure things out. In their little way, weren’t they just assisting us in not becoming food for some large toothy creature that may have been hanging around outside of the cave we were in?
   
Yes, I did say wasp ancestors, honest, I did.  They are related to wasps and bees and just like many species of wasp and bees, are highly social animals with a very complex social structure.  Yes, they are animals, Here. Let me show you.

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)
No Taxon (Aculeata - Ants, Bees and Stinging Wasps)
Superfamily Formicoidea (Ants)
Family Formicidae (Ants)

     
Ants live in colonies, many of which are millions strong and cover large swaths of land. Some just build a home in a crevice with a few dozen others and live out their amazing little lives tending to this small family. They, like most wasp and bee colonies, consist of mostly sterile females that comprise the workers and soldiers. With ants, these are the wingless adventurers you find on the kitchen counter one morning, out of the blue, having found out somehow, that you left the lid off the sugar jar.
     
There they are, stretched out along the length of your counter, a row coming and a row going, ceaseless, removing the sugar, one tiny grain at a time to carry back to the family. Back home, a colony made up of a queen or two, some fertile males called drones, and thousands of other hungry workers, and larvae. It’s a tough job! The food they take back is the life of the colony. Yet, here they are, on the counter, trundling along, back and forth, and yes, in the open sugar dish as well.
   
Most people do not think about being cruel to these creatures, they ARE Ants right? It’s us or them! They were IN The Sugar!! They not only have taken,, perhaps a half a teaspoon, but they also left footprints and butt prints and all manner of rude ant stuff in the bowl. Off to the internet we go, to start leaving lines of salt, Diatomaceous earth, peppermint and cinnamon. Those that do not have an issue, break out the bug spray and go to town, certain that once the line of workers is gone, the sugar replaced and the lid firmly on, then our worries will be over.
 
 Yeah…. I laughed when I typed that…. I also laughed when I came down stairs one morning and noticed that the ants had used their bodies to build a bridge over the Diatomaceous earth, moved salt crystals aside to create an open path, were happily taking mint back to their colony and were sporting cinnamon antennae as they wandered along my counter, having noticed that I did not clean up ALL of the bread crumbs from my victory sandwich..
   
Not only that, there was a triple platoon on the sugar bowl investigating ways of getting the lid off. I’m sure those were engineers, I swear, I saw tiny clipboards and hard hats. Back to the internet I go. Laying down strips of dryer sheets along every possible place they might be getting in, sprinkling vinegar, trying some wintergreen. Then back to bed, only to find the next day, rows coming and rows going. Oblivious to my work, they came in and were scouting out some none dairy creamer my uncle left a bit of on the counter.
       
It got to the point, where I just left a little pile of sugar in the corner of the counter hoping that if I gave them a gift, they would be considerate enough not to suicide in my coffee cup when I had my back turned. Still scouring the internet, still hoping to find the magic potion. I one day, went up to my bathroom for a shower and low and behold, the little bastards had found my sugar and oil scrub.
         
Somewhere,, the culinary ant goddess was turning cartwheels..  because there were more ants then I had ever seen… it was insane. So I started to dust them up, and put them outside. No Means No! I will not share my shower scrub. I could just envision washing down with a scrub liberally infused with a billion tiny ant bodies. I was NOT happy! I was doing my best to sweep up those I could, when I whacked a bottle of “Clean & Clear Morning Burst Facial Cleanser” off the shower shelf and it splashed open, all over the tub and into the corner were the sugar and oil scrub was.
     
 I have never seen, ants run so fast…. So I quickly picked it up and rubbed it all over the bathroom wall edges, around the windows, around the tub and toilet. My bathroom smelled quite lively when I was done! I took my shower, and just to see, I left the lid off my sugar and oil scrub. I went down for a cup off coffee and sprinkled the stuff along the counter and ants fled. I was feeling,, pretty triumphant.
   
This of course lasted all of a day, until the ants found another way in and around the defenses, but, I found a way to keep the tide back to just a few, and whatever it is in the stuff, they don’t have to touch it to detest it.  I know that in the course of life, ants die, they hatch by the thousands and die by the thousands and those I kill in the course of my life hardly make a dent in the scheme of things.  Still, I do not Want to do them harm, though I know that I do and will if that is the only way I can keep them from drowning in my coffee cup and becoming that grit on my tongue that makes me shudder when I realize what it is. I know that their lives will be lost and I take no pleasure form that, even though I know its ok to take pleasure in ridding my home of a problem. It’s a double edged sword, these emotions. So, I do what I need too and honor their tiny lives with a muffin in the garden, or a tiny pile of sugar near the driveway.
     
One day, these creatures will help take apart my mortal coil and carry it off to their young and family. I understand their place in the world and the job they do and how they are part of our world and environment. So today, I tip my hat to the tiny engineers, the the wee culinary artists, and the queen and her studs, because when I am dead and gone, they and their kind will still be finding ways into the sugar bowl and building bridges over the barriers made by we so called superior beings.