Blessed Sai Herthe's Day!

Dear Reader,

I hope that this post finds you feeling well. It's been a challenging week over here at my house because everybody just had the flu and now the youngest has an ear infection. And I appear to be coming down with a vicious cold wherein I have already lost my voice two days in. If he and I are not doing much better after tomorrow, it will likely be a trip to the family doctor for both of us.

Sai Herthe's day is a day of purification. For me, it has been a day of cold medication and cleaning between bouts of napping. When I'm not doing either of the above, I have been trying to get my life organized for 2019. The way I see it, if I organize for things like for the storming of Normandy, I should be able to get stuff done despite pesky irritations like having a cold.

I have also resumed my habit of praying the rosary on Mondays. Life got complicated and I fell out of that habit over the last few months. So, it felt good to be doing so again this morning. My focus as I prayed today was for the healing of all in the world who are ill or unwell in any fashion.

It is my plan this evening before I go to bed to walk through the apartment with a candle bearing light into all the rooms with a prayer that with it comes Dea's blessings. I would burn incense also but even my lovely scented candle has been making me cough today. Still, I am going to ritually ask Dea's blessing over my home and for her to make us secure against all harm tonight.

Life update & Blessed Mother's Night.

Dear Reader,

As Yule is literally right around the corner, I have been busy. We've been cleaning house, cooking, and decorating. This is on top of the usual daily rounds of parenting and keeping house. Honestly, I'm looking forward to the break that I'm going to take after Nativity starts. I am taking the 12 days of Nativity (which is when my family also celebrates Yule) off from things like making projects for other people and doing hard housework. Just light housework and the minimum necessities to keep the house running.

Today was exhausting. I had this goal of getting all of the hard cleaning and housework done by sunset. Sundown was at 4:30 in the afternoon. Thus, I was hustling and going at it in serious effort all day from when I got up at 5:30 this morning. I am unofficially celebrating Yule over the weekend too, because why not get a few more ounces of joy out of the days. Big family doings are happening on the 25th with the extended family celebrating Christmas. It's going to be a busy day.

In the last few days leading up to Nativity, I am going to be working on getting my planner set up for next month and writing more devotional poetry. Tonight, I am tired and my feet hurt from being on them all day. Hefting furniture around to clean around it is not as easy as it used to be when I was 20. I blame the fact that I turned 40 this year.

Tonight is Mother's Night. I honor the disir and my foremothers tonight. If I weren't so worn out, I'd keep vigil until sunrise. In my stead, I will have a little electric candle going on the altar and in my ancestor's shrine. I also put out an offering of rose water for Dea, the great Mother, during her time of labor. I remember labor, it was thirsty work and tiring. I can only imagine how great the work of labor is for Dea in this world, such as it is.

I wish you all a peaceful and blessed Mother's Night. My posting will be sporadic because the kids are on vacation right now. I am also making a point of resting over the time of Nativity, which means I may be doing other leisure activities instead of posting in the coming time. I view Nativity as a time of celebration and joy. I view Yule the same way. I also believe they are a time where the hard work of life should be suspended enough so that we can enjoy ourselves during this period.

No video this week.

Due to my recovering from the flu, I am not making a video post this week. My home's a disaster, my voice sounds like a frog at the bottom of the well, and I'm still pretty burned out from the flu.

I did, however, want to point out something special that is coming up.

There is going to be a full moon on the winter solstice. If you are sensitive to that sort of thing, your life may be kinda interesting at the moment. The last winter solstice full moon was in 2010 and had a lunar eclipse. The next winter solstice full moon is in 2029 and an eclipse is anticipated for that one.

This is also the peak of the Geminid meteor shower today and tomorrow. The best time to look for meteors is in the dark hours before dawn when Gemini is in the sky. At peak, there is expected to be upwards of 100 meteors per hour. If you are viewing around midnight, you have the chance to see a comet as well.

There's a lot of interesting stuff going on in the sky over the next few weeks. I'm sure my astrologer and astronomer friends can agree that this stuff is pretty cool.

Feast day of Virgin of Guadalupe

Today is the feast day of the Our Lady of Guadalupe. Given how many in the Filianic and Déanic community have adopted imaged of her as icons of Dea, I think that it would be nice if we all took a moment to honor her. It may be as simple as lighting a candle or saying a small prayer of thanksgiving to Dea for this apparition. It may be saying the rosary in her honor. Or going out and doing some act of random kindness as a devotional deed.

For my part, I have lit a candle and I will be saying the rosary after I finish up some more of my chores for the day. I am finally making progress recovering from the flu. I am inclined to give credit to Dea for this given the timing and the fact that the one medication that I can actually take was one that was over the counter and not super expensive. (My life has gotten so complicated since the diabetes diagnosis. It's frustrating and confusing. I'm still learning how to cook proper meals for myself that don't have too many carbs. It's got a steep learning curve, to be honest.)

I hope that all of you find today to be filled with Dea's blessing and joy.

Godspousery notes.

I'm sick with the flu. It makes things awkward on so many levels. I'm walking around half tranced out because of a low grade fever. I'm tired and just feeling rotten. I really found myself wanting somebody else to take the wheel for a few minutes there around lunch time. I just was exhausted and exasperated with being sick.

That's when Beloved (my husband on this plane) charged off to brave the wilds of the grocery store to do this week's shopping. That's when Freyr calmly told me that it was perfectly fine if I just made myself a pot of soup and gave the kids peanut butter sandwiches for lunch. I didn't need to clean the whole kitchen and get started on the other chores I usually do on Sunday. I didn't even think about grumbling, which is what I usually do when I'm sick and anyone suggests that I slow down and take time to rest.

I spent my morning bleary eyed and knitting. I spent my day weary and sipping tea. The entire time, Freyr was supportive and encouraging me in this self care business that I'm not so great at. At the same time, so was Beloved. The kids got on my nerves a bit but then calmed down when I explained that I was sick and couldn't keep up with them that well today.

Last night as I was falling asleep, Freyr told me that messy hair and a messy kitchen was less important than taking time to rest when I'm sick. He strongly encourages me to do what I can when I am feeling better, but he discourages my bad habit of pushing myself too hard when I am not well. Because foolish me thinks I can still power through the flu on just sheer stubbornness.

He gets a little exasperated with me at times, but not today. He actually said he's proud of me for stopping and taking the time to rest over the last two days as I needed it.

Incoming rant.

Dear Reader,

I'm honestly not sure where to begin. I've been busy with family stuff, book stuff, and I'm sick with the flu. I haven't had much time over the last several days to do much online. So you can imagine my surprise, irritation, and anger to discover that Facebook and Tumblr are implementing policy changes that are going to make the lives of many people more difficult. I could go through an entire list of why these 'family friendly' policy changes are bad, but I'm too sick to fully cogitate that list beyond the fact that I know they are going to be implemented against marginalized people such as my transgender, LGBTQ+, and kinky brethren. I'm too angry to really put into words how disgusted I am with the fact that these platforms have decided that courting the favor of the ultra-conservative community is acceptable.

My ire is not limited to this situation. There is also someone attempting to incite a version of the Satanic Panic of the 80s and 90s in the direction of the Lokean community. I would have just let that go except for the fact that this seems to be a thing that is slowly gaining traction. As the Lokean community just exists, we have had detractors from just about day one. Now we have to deal with these people saying that we're some how responsible for that reprobate who happens to be president of the United States and attempting to bring about ragnarok. Listen, if we had the capacity to bring about the end of days, do you think we'd do it? All our stuff is here.

More seriously, the continued and ongoing slander of Lokeans is really making me angry. It's like a sucker punch from the back when it comes out of the heathen oriented community who theoretically worship the same gods that we do. Last I checked, Loki was part of the same pantheon. Last I checked, Loki was ODIN'S BLOOD BROTHER. Almost all of the treasures of the Aseir are a result of Loki's doings.

I used to laugh at the norse crisis flow chart. Then I got annoyed with it. Now I'm ready to light the thing on fire and use it to light some other shit on fire. Why? Because Donald-fucking-Trump is not Loki's fault. If you want to sit there and point fingers at some religious group for political fuckery, take those fingers and point at the 'moral majority' known as the 'religious right' aka the dominionist christians. They've been working on this and planning this, just waiting for the right pasty to put into place if they couldn't get their own guy in first for the last sixty years. Ronald Regan was their test run.

You want to know who your 'enemy' is? It's them. And people like me have been saying so for at least thirty years now as everyone else said 'but they're so NICE'. You know what, there's plenty of people who are nice to your face and stick a knife in your back. They're usually pretty good about hiding the fact that they're utter bastards from everyone except for their target. That's how it works. Trust me, I know a thing or two about those kinds of relationships on multiple scales.

While I'm up on my soapbox and ranting, I'm going to draw a line here. I honestly don't care if I lose readership, sales, or standing in the community. Transgender exclusion has no place in Filianism or Déanism. Full stop. TERFs shouldn't be tolerated, welcomed, or given the time of day. They ARE tyrants. The official scripture of Déanism and Filianism says we should not tolerate tyrants, nor partake of the fruit of their labors except in necessity (and at that time offer them up to Dea so that we might not be contaminated with the miasma of their tyranny). Of all people, the Filianic and Déanic communities should embrace the transgender persons with the deepest of empathy, especially the orthodox communities. For the idea that a femme soul could incarnate into a masculine body is a doctrine that is held in many of the orthodox communities. This should be celebrated as evidence of your theology being accurate.

As someone who has struggled with their gender identification due to varying factors in their life, I have absolutely zero tolerance for someone who is going to tell anyone that they're gender is invalid. I'm sorry, but you have no idea what that person's life is like or who they are beyond what they tell you. And you have no business asking about what is in their pants. As a woman with a vocal range that drops down into low tenor, I've had people threaten my safety because I answered their girlfriend's phone. And I am very clearly female in appearance and genome. Transgender women are women, full stop. As soon as you start saying that you have to have certain traits to be a woman (ie breasts and a vagina plus functional reproductive organs) you prove that you are an asshole. Transgender women are women. They're as much women as the woman who is unable to bear children due to medical complications. They're as much women as the woman who lost her breasts to cancer.

They're as much women as the countless women who are murdered and assaulted every day just for being women. As a matter of fact, they're more likely to be murdered and have their murderer get away with it because they 'panicked'. I'm sorry, but I have a panic disorder and I don't murder people. Countless people have panic disorders and they don't murder people. Transgender women are women. You don't get to murder them, discriminate against them, or otherwise be a general bastard to them because you get squicked by the possibility that they may not fit your idea of what women are supposed to look like.

And while I'm on the topic of transgender people and religion, I've got something else to add. Transgender men are men. Full stop. You don't get to harass, murder, discriminate, or otherwise be a general bastard to them either. Why? Not because transgendered people are a special class. Nope, it's because in civil society, you don't get to harass, murder, discriminate, or otherwise be a general bastard to people. I've gotten an earful on this topic from various fronts.

I'm probably going to get some hate mail. That's why I moderate comments. I'm probably going to lose some readers. To Hel with 'em. If you think that this approach is vulgar, you haven't seen me when I'm really angry. I am not going to debate these points. These things are facts. These things are part of the hill I will die on. They're called principles. One of the things they boil down to is don't be a dick to everybody. The other thing that they boil down to is have some empathy and respect for the fact that everybody is fighting some kind of fight right now in their lives.




Postscript: I'm not "nice" to everybody. I am kind up until you give me a reason not to be. Then I return what's given to me in full force. Don't mistake my kindness for weakness either. There's a reason why I know so much about 'dark' magic. It is not a strictly academic knowledge base. And I don't forgive or forget.

New Book is Available for Purchase!

Dear Reader,

You may have recalled I was working on a book last month. After the editing and reviewing of the proof, I am happy to announce that Garlands of Grace: Filianic Rosary Meditations is available for purchase. The digital edition will be up in the near future on Lulu.com. If you want your book by Nativity, now is the time to order.

Thank you so much for your support and encouragement in the adventure of writing this book.

♥

Is it a little hectic for you too?

Dear Reader,

I have been really busy over the last two weeks. I am expecting the proof of the book to arrive any day now. I'm working on getting the apartment cleaned up and ready for holiday decorating. The youngest child has a report due in two weeks that we're going to need to take a trip to the library or something to work on. And then there is the holiday crafting that I am so close to finished on.

Somewhere between orthodontist appointments for the children and getting car maintenance done, I caught a head cold. It's made things awkward because I can't take any of the cold medications with the other medications I'm on and my diabetes. Social engagements are starting to pop up in the family schedule and it's mildly vexing because I'm trying to find time to finish up the books I was working on last month. (I have two other books I was working on as part of the NaNoWriMo finish ALL THE THINGS challenge I set for myself. One is fiction, the other is not.)

I'm also attempting to get my spinning to a point where I have nothing sitting idle by Mother's Night. I want Dame Hulda to find my spinning is all caught up. I'm pretty close to that point as well. I just have been having a hard time juggling all of these things and remembering that I have a blog to post on.

Such is the holiday season. I have whittled the list of people to shop for down to my immediate household. I've been very busy with hook, needle, and spindle this year. I will do my best to post more frequently over the coming weeks as things calm down.

An Explanation of Sayings.

Dear Reader,

It gladdens my heart that many of you are finding A Year with Dea to be of use and comfort to you. There is a question that has arisen about the sayings that I have quoted that are not canonical. While I have included a reference to the text those sayings are contained in, I think it better that I tell you the story of them in addition to what you can find in Drowning in Light.

I have had visions of Dea since I was young. My experiences with her have been confusing at times but always a comfort. My first vision happened September of 1991. I went to the woods to meditate, for I was still learning this practice and the woods was where I could escape the distractions of my parents' house. A vision came over me. I was in a place of white light. The light emanated from something so bright it blinded me. I vaguely saw a female shape but the light was so brilliant that I couldn't look on it to see her features. A voice filled the air. It spoke my name and I felt like I was in a ringing bell. The air vibrated and I could feel the vibration from that voice fill me. When my vision returned, I was no longer sitting against the tree but rather laying flat on the ground as though I prostrated myself before something.

I didn't speak of my vision to anyone. I knew that my parents would be hostile towards me for it and accuse me of making things up. I was twelve and afraid of the reaction anyone would have had towards me for it. The household I grew up in did not consider the supernatural as more than anything for a laugh and cheap movie tricks, at best. A few weeks later, in late October, I was again in the woods behind my parents' house. A voice filled the air. It was a sweet sounding female voice. It called my name and I looked around to see who could possibly be there. Then, before I could call out to see if anyone was present, the voice said to me, "All who believe are kin." In that moment, I knew that I was having some kind of spiritual experience. For the voice that spoke had the same feeling of being within a bell as happened with my first vision of her. I ran home, frightened that I was in some manner of trouble for even having an experience that my upbringing had so firmly denied.

The statement echoed. It echoed in ways that did not make sense to me at that age, not knowing much of anything about anything religious at all. Still, I looked at the different faiths in the world and saw how they were all related. I saw how everyone who had faith were somehow kin to each other, including they who had nihilistic beliefs, for they had faith in their own beliefs. Somehow, I didn't understand it, but somehow the capacity for faith had made us all kin.

Recurring dreams of a woman of queenly bearing in white and blue happened for months. In these dreams, she held flowers and walked in a garden more lovely then I had ever seen on Earth. She was always dressed as a great queen of the high middle ages. I struggled to understand the fact I kept having this dream. At the same time, I was in the midst of my early spiritual training as a witch. Thus, meditation was a thing I practiced daily and I kept a detailed journal of what came of it, as I did of my dreams as well. I came to the conclusion that the Lady in my dreams was a goddess of some kind. (At this time, I was unfamiliar with Catholicism and only had a vague concept that Mary was revered by them. For all my fascination with the middle ages, I was more interested in the stories of knights wooing their loves than I was with the era. After all, I was twelve.)

It was in the midst of all of these dreams and my confusion that I had my second vision of Dea. It was late November. I had gone off to the woods with out my parent's permission and in secret (and rather recklessly, I confess now for it was at the beginning of hunting season) to meditate where I had my first vision. It was chilly and the poplar leaves were on the ground now instead of a few up in the trees still. I was in a garden filled with flowers. At the center of the garden there was a noble Lady. She held lilies in her right hand and roses in her left. A silver circlet was on her brow. She wore a white wimple and veil. Her gown was a dark blue, almost cobalt in color. She held out the flowers to me and said, “Come, my chosen daughter.”

When it had passed and I hastened home, my mother complained that I stank of roses, as though I had bathed in perfume. I hadn't any perfume and the distance from where I had been to my parents' kitchen should have been enough to have muted the scent just because of the wind blowing. I didn't say anything of the vision because my mother was already irate that I smelled as I did and I was fairly sure I was going to be punished if I said anything that sounded strange to her.

Over the years, through out my education and studies, I sought to find and know the Lady who had claimed me as I sat in a grove of winter-ready poplar trees on a hillside. It lead me through many different paths and many different ways. In the progress of it all, I discovered that the Lady was not the only deity out there who took interest in me. But, she was always there. Always. At one point, I thought perhaps I was to become Christian and that was the meaning of this all. Then I had the confusing "It's not you, it's me," conversation with Jesus, where he said I was very clearly not one of his people, though I was a very nice and good person.

Filianism made itself known to me in 2005. I was at a dark place in my life and said that it clearly couldn't be the right path. After all, I had all of these OTHER gods around me and I deal with spirits and the dead. I was a witch, how could I be of that faith and be one at the same time, right? Filianism continued to come up as a theme time and again. When I started this blog, I finally stopped avoiding what was right in front of me.

I am a seer. Dea or perhaps one of the other gods, I honestly don't know, has given me this gift. Sometimes it seems a curse because what I see is so tragic. Sometimes I feel as though I'm going crazy. For a time, I honestly thought that my spiritual experiences simply had to be my imagination running away with me or perhaps hallucinations. Until I started having hallucinations, which was horrific. My spiritual experiences didn't go away with the hallucinations. They became the lifeline that helped me endure them until I hit a point of absolute crisis.

I'm on medication now for my psychological illnesses. One would logically expect for these spiritual experiences to cease when they are on high doses of antipsychotic medication for an extended period of time. They have not. They continue with a good degree of regularity, waxing and waning with the seasons in some cases. In others, they're just random and daily. But the sayings in the book I published and that I referenced in my other book, they have been said to me by Dea and the angels.

I am humbled by them. I am guided by them. And, I live in some degree of holy awe of them. My relationships with Dea and the angels is different from my relationships with Loki and Freyr. Dea is my mother, my Lady, and the source of all wisdom. From her all of my other loves stem. But, Dea claimed me as her priestess an a cool autumn day when I was hiding from my parents and siblings, giving me a place of refuge for my spirit that I was desperately seeking.

Godspousery Notes: Why aren't you writing?

I had opportunities to write and blog over the last several days. Sure, it was five minutes here and five minutes there, but it was time. I, however, avoided it because I was anxious. Then, last night as I was staring at the computer consumed with the feeling that I was a complete fraud and everyone was going to realize I had no idea what I was doing, Loki popped up.

Now, this is typically Freyr's season. So, Loki showing up was a surprise. He just looked at me and said, "Why aren't you writing?"

I answered, "I don't feel like I'm good enough."

He retorted with "Why aren't you writing?"

We went back and forth for around a minute with my listing off my anxieties. Then he said to me, "You know, all of that is why you edit. You should be writing." And then he was off and away to go do something somewhere else. And I started writing. I still don't feel happy about what I'm writing, but he was correct in saying all of the problems I was worrying about are ones that get resolved in the editing process.

Gemstones and the Janyati

What I have been working on today. Compiling a list of stones and their associations with the janyati for use in beading devotional jewelry. My notes are all over the place and I've only a partial list. You will find that there are stones with meanings that overlap and stones that are shared between different janyati. I find it interesting how many are associated with Sai Raya and Sai Vikhë. This is the table I'm working on for the rosary book's section on how to construct one. This is but a partial list. I expect the table in the book to be larger. I will likely be reorganizing it by the names of the stones in alphabetical order. But, this is a work in progress.

Stone	Meaning & Janya
Quartz, clear	Calming, Sai Candre
Citrine	Warming, Sai Raya
Quartz, smokey	Grounding, Sai Rhavë
Diamond	Clarifying, Sai Raya, Sai Thamë
Quartz, rose	Love, Sai Thamë, Sai Sushuri
Hematite	Grounding and courage, Sai Rhavë, Sai Vikhë
Blood stone	Vitality, Sai Vikhë
Pearl	Peace, Sai Candre, Sai Sushuri
Agate	Protection, Sai Vikhë
Goldstone	Prosperity, Sai Raya
Onyx	Protection, Sai Vikhë, Sai Rhavë
Amythest	Clarity of thought, Sai Thamë, Sai Mati
Garnet	Courage, Sai Vikhë
Topaz	Wisdom, Sai Mati
Zircon	Spiritual growth, all janyati

Wednesday Rambling

Dear Reader,

This has been a busy week and it is only Wednesday! Some of the chaos has been my children having half days from school and now the rest of the week off. They are pros at distracting me. Some of the chaos has been running from appointment to appointment over the last few days. Today has been the first day that I got to sit down and just do nothing for a little while.

Did I do nothing? Nope, unless you count falling asleep for a half hour as doing nothing. Aside from that, I have been doing research on gemstones and their associations. I have been editing the book regarding the Filianic rosary that I wrote, and working on a fantasy novel, while trying to figure out the kinks of the transition between CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing.

I have also been managing the kids, trying to get some housework done, and figure out what I can bring to Thanksgiving dinner at my parents-in-law's house tomorrow. It looks like I'll be making almond bread and some kind of zucchini dish. I'm kind of anxious about food because I am still figuring out what on earth I am doing with food as a diabetic. I'm sure that inspiration will hit and things will turn out well.

I'm just a ball of anxiety right now.

Video post no: 18 - Song 2

Because I know that many of you are curious how the new work for the next edition of Rose Petals: A Filianic Psalter is coming along, here's Song 2. If you decide to put this to music, please attribute the lyrics back to me and contact me. Because I'd like to collaborate with you to come up with some hymns. This is a copywrite protected piece but I wanted to share it with you. And because I'm the original creator, I get to do fun stuff like that. Share it with attribution, please.

Song 2

Glory, oh Glory to the Mother
Shining wonder of all wonders
The Mother sends her Light into all dark places
Oh lamp of liberation
All glory be upon the Daughter
Light born of Light
The Daughter is the breaker of our traces
Glory, oh Glory to Deam Mysterium
Gatherer of the light of heavens
Light beyond all light
Our home beyond all places

(copyright 2018)

No video this week.

Dear Reader,

I apologize for the lack of a video post this week. I've been so busy today working on book stuff that I completely forgot about making a video until just now. And, well, my son is home from school and eager to discuss everything with me. We're currently under a winter storm warning right now. The snow has just moved into the area. It's still pretty light. I'm not sure if we're going to get enough to bring down limbs, as some of the trees still have leaves on them. I'm hoping that won't be the case. But over the next day or two, we're projected to get up to a half foot of snow.

My joints are not super painful, which makes me optimistic that the weather won't be too harsh. Beloved calls me the human barometer (with nothing but affection and good hearted teasing) because of how my arthritis gets before serious weather moves in. My real concern is the possibility of ice. I just saw the first of the county snow plows go by dropping salt and sand. Hopefully, the real bulk of the weather will wait until after Beloved gets home from work. My youngest has been hoping, asking, and praying for a blizzard to get everyone a four day weekend. I don't think this will be it, but who knows.

Wednesday rambling.

Image from Pexels.com

Dear Reader,

It's been a busy couple of days. The weekend was spend focusing on chores. Today has been a day recovering from poor sleep last night. Monday the children had off from school, which made getting pretty much anything done hard. For some reason, they bicker more when their schedule gets disrupted. I'm sure there's a connection there.

I have completed another rough draft. This is the psychic's handbook that I was working on for the last three years. This makes two books finished during NaNoWriMo. True, I started them earlier, but they are completed now. This year is the year I am working on getting caught up on unfinished projects. With the demise of the desktop computer, I discovered that the second half of posts I had lined up earlier are just gone. So, I will be rewriting content, hopefully making something better than it was last time.

I am vexed with the fact that I have lost a good amount of content due to issues with back up storage. I am seriously considering investing in some form of storage device where I can keep copies of things like my books. I am also seriously contemplating burning books to CD in PDF format. This way if someone wants to purchase a copy of all of my Filianic writings in one shot, they can with out any screwy problems due to format issues with the publication process. I have to first learn how to burn stuff to CD with the laptop. It theoretically has this function, I have never used it.

As it gets closer to spring, I will be posting more excerpts from things that I will be releasing then. I have a few more irons in the fire right now. I am presently working on organizing the main blog so that there are index pages that will let you jump to the topic and entry you are looking for. I am going to be reworking some of my material, but I will be keeping the originals here as an archive.

I am realizing that there is a lot of intersection between my personal life and what I have going on here with my blog goals. This is not a bad thing, but I need to filter the serious information material out so that you can tell what entries are my rambling about my life and what entries are about topics like theology. This is a project that is going to take me a couple of months. I hope to have it all sorted out by the beginning of February, if the holidays don't eat too much of my time.

High Holidays: Filianic

Eastre

Florimaia

Exaultation

Rosa Mundi

• Blessed Solstice & Rosa Mundi 2016

Chelayna

• Autumn:Harvest and Creation 2018

Cuviyana

• Autumn: Harvest and Creation 2018

Tamala

• Tamala/Samhain 2018
• A Shrine for the Beloved Dead 2014

Nativity

• Yuletide 2015
• Advent Begins 2015

Lucaid

Amity Day

• Love is Love is Love 2017

Moura Day

• The Season of Moura 2018
• Moura Day 2016
• Moura Eve 2016

Kala

• Eve of Kala Thoughts 2018

Hiatus

• Hiatus and Equinox 2017

This page will be updated as the relevant posts are collated and put here.

Spiritual Hygiene

Spiritual cleansing: Personal Cleansing

Spiritual cleansing: Items

Spiritual cleansing: Places

Divination: Runes

Introduction

Lesson 1: Intro part II

Lesson 2: History

Lesson 3: Reading Techniques

Meanings

Divination: Rune Meanings.

Runes are an ancient written language. As a divination system, history is unclear how they were used. Modern divination with runes really came to the fore in the 1980s with the success of Ralph Blum's The Book of the Runes. Countless websites propose different meanings for the runes. Given below is an abbreviated version that I use in my readings. One may find that the runes have different names if you look them up on different websites. The names used here are the variants that I was taught when I first started learning to read them.

There are different techniques for reading the runes. Those will be covered in my next divination post.

Rune	Meaning - Direct	Meaning – Reversed
Feho	Luck, possessions earned	Loss of wealth, poor luck
Ur	Courage, strength	Cowardice, weakness
Thorn	Tendency towards change	Danger, defenselessness
Ansuz	Blessings, power of speech	Misunderstanding, manipulation
Rad	Seeing a larger perspective	Irrationality, injustice
Cen	Passion, sexual vitality	Illusion of false hope
Gyfu	Gifts	N/A
Wynn	Comfort, pleasure	Loss of comfort and pleasure
Hagalaz	Crisis	N/A
Nyd	Delays, innovation	Distress, poverty
Isa	Mental block to progress	Treachery
Ger	Cycles of the universe	N/A
Eoh	Enlightenment, trustworthiness	Confusion, weakness
Poerdh	Knowledge of future things	Stagnation
Algiz	Follow your instincts	Hidden danger
Sowilu	Honor, success	Gullibility, false goals
Tyr	Willingness to self-sacrifice	Strife, conflict
Boerc	Love affair, new birth	Anxiety about a loved one
Ehwis	Movement for the better	Feeling restless
Manuz	Expect to receive assistance	Expect no help at this time
Laguz	Success in travel	Poor decisions, confusion
Ingwaz	Familial ties	N/A
Dagaz	Time to begin a new enterprise	N/A
Othala	Fundamental values	Ties that bind you

The chart above is an excerpt from a forthcoming book I have been working on. More details and excerpts from the book will be shared as I get closer to the release date next spring.

Recommendation: Internet edition.

Dear Reader,

If you haven't checked out the Internet Sacred Texts archive, you really should. There's tons of great information on pretty much every topic you can think of. Their digital occult library is fantastic. This is a site where you can do deep research on obscure things. Their digital reproduction of J.G. Frazer's The Golden Bough is excellent, for example. If you can't find what you're looking for elsewhere, check this site out. They've been around since the 90s and are 100% supported by donations. If you were looking for a good place to donate money to help preserve our cultural heritage, this is one of the ones I would recommend as well.

Video post delayed.

Dear Reader,

Video posts are delayed right now because I have caught a cold. Hopefully next week, I will have my voice back. In the meantime, I am drinking tea and writing tons of words on my current project. I am working on a handbook for psychics. It will cover multiple forms of being psychic as well as multiple forms of divination.Some of the divination content may look familiar because it has been addressed in previous blog posts. As I get a bit closer to the end of this project, I'll post up an excerpt for you to take a peek at.

Dea bless.

As seen on my Tumblr account

Photo by JUAN CARLOS LEVA from Pexels

Observe the Holy Child turns from the Mother towards the fallen. So it is that love flows outward from the very beginning of the Holy Child’s days. Blessed are we upon whom the Holy Child gazes upon with mercy.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I have been thinking about devotional lives. Not everyone is called to a life of solitude and prayer. But there are many who are called to devote themselves to their deities. I think that the deities turn towards us even as we turn towards them. That the devotional life is a life of communication and communion with the divine. And I think that is beautiful and should be embraced in all communities. Because the people who go to the divine come back to the community with wonders to share because of their special relationship.

Wednesday Ramblings.

Dear Reader,

I am in the process of finishing up projects right now. It is NaNoWriMo. This year, instead of starting a new project and trying to hit 50k words by the end of the month, my goal is to finish up books I have already started. I just finished the first draft of the rosary book (title is yet to be determined, but there have been some great suggestions). Also, I am working on a handbook for psychics. That's been a project in the works for about three years. I am about 10k words from finishing it. I hope to have that done within the next week.

I paused in writing poems and prayers for the updated version of Rose Petals to work on this stuff. If I can hit my goals before the thanksgiving break, I'll get back to that project. In the works on that one is a wider range of prayers, better organization of the prayers, and hopefully some songs that can be sung. I don't know how to write music, but I can sing to some extent. So, if I get to where I am writing songs, you will find I'm posting some youtube videos with my singing the lyrics I have written.

I'm going to try to base at least some of my lyrics on English, Irish, and American folk tunes. If I do accomplish that, I will note what folk song they are set to to make it easier to sing them. I got the idea from a Presbyterian Christian hymnal that had songs written based on other hymns in the book and at least one based on a folk song.

Exciting News!

Dear Reader,

I have been working on a book about the rosary for the last month. I just finished the first draft. I could use your help. I am at a loss for a title. Please, post your suggestions in the comments!

Dea bless.

Adoration of the Dark Mother.

Dear Reader,

Much has been written about adoration of the Bright Mother and her Daughter. The Dark Mother is equally worthy of adoration. Perhaps Deam Mysterium is not written about because she is mysterious and hard to describe. Perhaps the Absolute Deity is too intimidating to approach because of how vast she is. When one is in the ocean, one is surrounded by the ocean. This can be terrifying. And yet, the ocean remains surrounding the person regardless if they close their eyes to it or not.

It is not unnatural to be uneasy with that which surpasses us. It is a survival trait that has served humanity and the rest of life upon this planet quite well, hence why we still live. At the same time, as thinking beings, we have the capacity to transcend that discomfort and engage with the overwhelming things that surround us. If we did not, humanity would never have built boats to sail upon the ocean with, aircraft to soar the skies, or spacecraft to explore the stars.

Such daring can be brought to our love of Dea. Though the Dark Mother is the light that blinds us, we can still love in our blindness. A child within the womb is blind but surrounded by their mother's love regardless of the blindness. We can adore Deam Mysterium with the pure simplicity of a child's love. Through that love which the Dark Mother gives us in return, she is the darkness that reveals mysteries.

In all things, let us love Dea as she loves us. Unconditionally and simply.

Godspousery notes: Why aren't you writing...?

Dear Reader,

I was struggling with chores when Freyr popped up and asked me why I wasn't writing. I was about to say something about how I didn't have time. That was when he pointedly looked at the pile of dishes and said "They're not going anywhere. I'll make sure they don't escape you." I wasn't sure if I was going to laugh or be exasperated. When Freyr does deadpan, it's hard to tell. He's really good at it.

Godspousery Notes: Stop taking it so seriously.

Dear Reader,

I was having a crisis of confidence in my writing last week. I was working hard, I was being serious about it. And suddenly my play list changed. A nordic drinking song came on and completely derailed my train of thought. The message was clear, stop thinking so hard about everything. And get a drink.

Video Post. 17: Support your local witchy author

I have no transcript for the above video because it took me three tries to come up with content. It's not one of my best videos. I'd have maybe given it one more try except for the fact that one of the kids is home making tons of noise now. Because 'YAY! IT'S FRIDAY!'

That said, I posted an update on how the rosary book is coming. I'm half through my outline but I am not going to say that I am half through my text because I'm honestly not sure how long this will be. I am confident that it will be a novella length work, but it might be a novelette length.

I have works available for purchase through Lulu.com. The paperback books are of standard quality. The proof copies that I have are proving pretty sturdy and I go through them on a daily basis. The ebooks are Epub format on Lulu. I'm having technical difficulties getting them distributed through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other outlets because Lulu and those companies are having some kind of technical glitch they are working out. (I suspect this is somehow related to the CreateSpace and Kindle Direct Publishing merger, but it is possible I'm quite wrong.)

If you enjoy my work and my blog, please support me. You can do so by recommending my works to your associates and friends, or anyone you think might be interested. You can purchase my books. I am also making my books available via PDF for a donation. The way this will work is that you contact me at cydira13@yahoo.com and inform me which text you are looking for. Then you make a donation. Once the donation is processed through paypal (see the link on the sidebar for where you can donate), I will send you the PDF.

If you just want to donate, that would be exceptional. Any amount helps. It funds the process of producing these books, maintaining the altar that I keep for the gods, candles and other supplies required for ritual prayers on people's behalf, and magical supplies.

I do have a spell casting service and a spell writing service. (See the services offered page.) I also offer tarot readings, rune readings, and spiritual advice. All of this can be funded through paypal.

Tamala/Samhain

Photo by eberhard grossgasteiger from Pexels

Dear Reader,

Please forgive my lack of posts over the last few days. I have been sick with a cold. I seem to be on the mend, thank the good gods for that. I'm going to make something of a personal post here about this holiday. Samhain (pronounces sow-en) has always been a special time of year for me. Partly because I love how it is one of the few pagan holidays embraced by the over culture (albeit in a very shallow and materialistic way). Partly because I find it easier to spend time with my beloved dead.

I keep a shrine for the dead and give them daily offerings (when life isn't too hectic and I remember). I talk with them regularly. It's like sitting down with them over a cup of coffee and just keeping them up to date about what is going on in my life. I treat them, in many ways, as though they are still alive and with me. Because, death is but stepping through a doorway into another room that we can not follow through in life.

In the last few years, the secular aspect of this holiday has begun to grate on my nerves. Perhaps it is because the weather's been poor and the kids didn't get to go trick-or-treating. (With young children, that equals a meltdown of epic proportions after a day of school getting them hyped up for the hunt for treats.) Perhaps it is because I want to do more formal observances but it is hard because I have young children. In either case, I've been feeling less joy and more curmudgeonly annoyance with it all.

As people around me focus on the 'spooky' elements, I get annoyed. Skeletons are cool and all, but the likelihood of them rising up from the grave is pretty small. Dragur are spiritual beings, not physical. The images of blood sucking vampires are laughable in their grotesqueness. But they don't mention anything about the fact that there are spiritual beings that are about this time of year that are pretty nasty. Some of the stories about how Samhain is the 'devil's night' hold a little bit of truth to them.

Haunted locations become more active. The spirit-bothered people get to deal with even more clamoring for attention. Strange things happen this time of year just because the energies are running weird compared to the off season. But, people get so focused on gorge themselves with candy and throw wild parties that they forget that randomly playing with magic is a bad idea. Those stories about the person who played with a ouija board and wound up with the thing getting haunted, at least 80% of them took place around Samhain. Because the veil between the physical and the spiritual world is thinner and pretty much anyone can move between them regardless of aptitude for such magic.

This is how people get spirited off by the fair folk. I'm absolutely sure that some of the missing people are off in another realm because they got lost. And their bodies, inhabited by changelings who wanted to see what human life was all about. So they're off living another life with out little if any recollection of their life before because they've been taken over by a spiritual being. I may get looked at as weird for this belief. I've seen enough weird stuff, however, this belief actually looks kinda logical.

♥

Reading for the Intermediate Witch: Advanced Wicca

Title: Advanced Wicca: Exploring Deeper Levels of Spiritual Skills and Masterful Magick
Author: Patricia Telesco
Publisher: Citadel Press   New York, NY        Date: 2000
ISBN: 0806521376

This is a book very focused on how to do magic. The skills and techniques described are accessible to one who is not on a Wiccan path, though they may need to be adapted to make them work better. Adapting and customizing spells and rituals is among the information presented here as well as a solid set of knowledge for magical safety in doing so. While the book is a bit out of date, the skills it teaches are still applicable and highly useful.

Quiet time: Is it just for Christians? (Spoiler, it's not!)

Dear Reader,

Modern Christians attempt to dedicate a part of their day to prayer and contemplation. They call this 'quiet time'. Some journal their experiences. Some pray their version of the rosary. Others engage in reading of their holy scriptures. Most commonly, this is found in the Evangelical Christian community as a morning discipline for communing with their god.

Daily prayer is something that most of any faith would benefit from. For those of the Filianic/Déanic faith traditions, daily prayer is very helpful because it bolsters our spiritual strength in a world where we are in the stark minority. Quiet time for contemplation and communion is beneficial for many reasons. This time should not be used for prayers of contrition and penance. Nor is it a time that should be for prayers of petition beyond that of guidance.

Quiet time is a meditative period that can be of any length of time focused upon opening oneself to Dea's guidance and simply being in her presence. I personally keep a prayer journal. I spend my quiet time meditating upon Dea and simply listening for guidance for my day. I then spend a bit of time writing a few lines about my prayer session. More often than not, I write a 'letter' to Dea about my concerns and what came to me as I had my quiet time with her.

I know people of a wide range of religious paths. Almost all of them spend some 'quiet time' with their gods. In almost all cases, this has been reported to be something that brings them a greater sense of peace and union with their gods. It has also been said to be a cherished part of their day that helps them be a better person.

Books?

Photo courtesy of Pexels.com

Dear Reader,

I do have ebooks of what I’ve written available for purchase through Lulu.com. Due to some technical glitches between Lulu and other platforms, you are going to have difficulty finding them on Amazon and related big book sellers. I am currently trying to make sense of the CreateSpace - Kindle Direct Publishing merger. (I’m locked out of my account right now because they have my zipcode as two towns over. It’s weird. Customer service can theoretically fix it, we’ll see.)

As much as these works are a labor of love and devotion, I am trying to bring in a little more income for my family. I am willing to offer these books as PDF documents for donations to the paypal account attached to my main blog, The Veiled Witch, here at Blogger. We’re at a bit of a tight spot right now, I don’t like asking for your assistance but if you can support this, I can produce more work for you.

Titles available are:

A Year With Dea: A Filianic Daybook (Northern and Southern hemisphere editions available)

Drowning in Light (This is a collection of visions and guidance I have had from Dea over the years, including my first experience with her back in the early 1990s before I had even heard of Filianism.)

Rose Petals: A Filianic Psalter

I deeply appreciate your support thus far. The fact that I am now a ‘real’ author is the realization of a lifelong dream. It couldn’t have happened with out your assistance. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Wednesday Ramblings

Dear Reader,

I said I was going to be busy this week. I didn't anticipate a norovirus slowing me down or various other random things going awry. While the Norse crisis flow chart says this would all be Loki's fault, I think it is more likely that my kids are in school bringing home every virus they could catch and my disorganization over the last several months due to being severely depressed is catching up with me. I'm making progress getting things back on track, but it has been slow going.

The notebook that I have been working on writing the rosary meditation book manuscript in has started to fall apart. I'm one fifth of the way through it. So, I am now transcribing material from the notebook and attempting to add to it at the same time. This is not working very well, as one may expect. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I am at an utter loss for how to get the ebooks so that they can be available on Amazon and other sites. I am having format issues and getting nowhere fast on that front. I'm trying to fix them but it seems like each fix creates another problem.

Sometimes it really is a Sign.

Dear Reader,

As you may be aware, I have been working on a manuscript discussing the Filianic rosary. It has been slow going and pretty frustrating. I mentioned my frustration with this a few times to my husband. Less frustration with the subject matter and more with the fact that writing is going a lot slower than typing would be.

Less than a day after this, the pretty little red notebook that I have been working on the manuscript in has begun falling apart for no apparent reason. As such, I have begun the process of transcribing the notebook's contents into a document file and typing this up. I suppose Dea decided that I shouldn't be doing this the hard way.

I'm presently one fifth of the way through my page count goal. I'm still writing notes as I have to charge my laptop between transcription sessions, but in the space of an hour I managed to type up what was two days worth of hand writing. I will honestly say I was glad that I wrote my work with pen instead of pencil. Pencil would have been harder to read as it gets smudged if you look at it funny.

But, that is where this project stands right now.

Dea bless.

Thoughts on Necromancy for the Intermediate Witch

Dear Reader,

I'm taking a break from my manuscript to type up this post. (Partly because I'm about to go cross eyed from going over my notes and partly because the notebook I was writing in has spontaneously begun to come apart for no apparent reason. Thus, I have started the process of typing that monster up.)

If you are wondering, I'm a necromancer. That doesn't mean that I play around with dead bodies. That's a necrophiliac. I suppose in polite company, one would call me a medium that specializes in contact with the deceased. I prefer to call a spade a spade and own the term necromancer. Spirit contact is a skill pretty much anyone can pick up with some time and patience. The thing with necromancy is you have a few basic guidelines you need to remember.

Point the first: they are dead for a reason. Perhaps that reason is that they passed peacefully in their sleep at a nice age of 98 and a half years old, surrounded by loving family. More likely, they passed by way of some manner of misadventure. Most misadventures happen because somebody did something stupid and dangerous. The deceased may have been a hapless bystander to the lethal misadventure consequences or they may have been the one who did the deadly dumb thing. Either way, remember that they're dead for a reason and they may not be entirely upfront about that reason.

Point the second: they are not always going to be 'nice' or 'good'. When you die, you die. You don't change into another person immediately and your root characteristics are going to stick around for a while on your soul until you're ready to move on to your next life. That means the person who was an unsavory, smarmy character in life is quite likely to be the same scumbag in death. There are some who realize the errors of their ways during incarnation and make a complete 180 in their behavior. They are the exception, not the rule.

Point the third: there are going to be dead people with agendas out there and are going to try to get you involved in them (with or without your consent). The dead who interact with the living usually have something they want to get done. They are as inclined to manipulate information and what they present about themselves as they are motivated to get the thing done. Some may do it by way of trying to scare you into doing what they want. Some are going to do it by trying to charm or guilt you into it. Either way, they have an agenda. Especially when they come looking for you to pass on a message of some sort. Remember, you don't have to go along with their agenda. As an embodied being, you are actually pretty well off in this case if you decide to tell the dead to go bug somebody else. There's a reason why they can't just reach through the veil and pick you up by the scruff of the neck. They don't have a body to do it.

It's almost Samhain/Halloween/Tamala. A lot of people want to try necromancy around this time of year because the cultural attitude in the western world says that this is the time of year for it. Just be careful if you are going to try it out. Remember, there are as many good people as there are bad people in this world, living or dead. And always, always use magical protection when you are trying out necromancy. Because the dead are not the only spirits out there and the other spirits are just as, if not more, manipulative when it comes to their agendas. No matter how big and spooky the spirit appears, you are in control of the situation. You can order them to run back off to the left corner of Hel just as easily as you can summon them from it.

Update Note.

Dear Reader,

Due to how busy this week is going to be, I will not be posting much new material. I will, however, post a few 'info dumps' on the mirror blog to share old material. I am at the point of working actively on the manuscript for the rosary book by hand. This requires a good number of hours of my day between the tasks of raising two children and keeping house as best I can manage.

I thank you for your patience with this and I promise that the results are going to be well worth the wait.

Blessings upon your kith and kin.

♥

Video Post 16: Politics

This is not a transcript. I have no transcript for this video post. I make an appeal for everyone who can to get involved in the political disaster that is unfolding in the United States right now. I am a liberal in a conservative county of WNY. I'm registered as a conservative because that is the only way I get to have any say about who is on the ballot come election time, that's how conservative my county is.

If I had the capacity to be out in the street protesting the things the government is doing under color of law that is deplorable and entirely against what I was taught meant to be an citizen of this country, I would be doing so. As it is, I've become cautious about my veiling styles because people are more inclined to slow down and give me angry looks if it isn't a bandanna or a hat. I'd go out and actively protest if I didn't have to worry about someone coming to harass me later.

My social phobia and my PTSD keep me just this side of home all the time. The current social climate is increasingly close to what I dealt with growing up and it makes me fearful for the safety of my children. The fact that the government has all but declared open season on everyone who doesn't fit their increasingly white supremecist mold is profoundly disturbing. The fact that there are concentration camps in this country is deeply distressing. Our steady march towards facism or something new and somehow worse is the stuff of my nightmares.

I fear that the republic can not stand this assault on our core beliefs. What is happening now is a direct assault on the positions stated in the documents that are fundamental to this nation's functioning and nature. Documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Consitution of the United States are but two that present administrative actions are actively working towards undermining. Not only is the administration guilty but so is the legislature for failing to uphold their duty to check the power of the executive branch of the government. Now, the parties in power are working to set up a Supreme Court that will rubber stamp decisions in their favor. This is a dangerous time for our nation.

Please, for the love of everything holy, go vote.

Wednesday ramblings.

Dear Reader,

I have been very busy on the domestic front. Some of this is getting ready for Yule/Nativity (I hand make presents for the most part. I'm half done with my list.) and some of this has just been the business of helping the kids with school stuff. I am also on the mend from a rather nasty norovirus that hit the household pretty hard.

On the witchy side of things, life's been about making decisions. Some of those decisions have been hard. I have been attempting for a few years now to run a tarot reading business through Keen. I have come to the conclusion that I'm just going to leave that as a hobby because the business model is one where I'm losing money. I just can't get the customers to afford to invest more effort there. So, I'm leaving Keen chat up as a distraction when I'm doing boring research or chores. I'll post some spells up for sale on there but I don't anticipate any income coming from that. Not if the reception remains as it has been.

I've been working on a book about the Filianic rosary. It's been slow going but I'm making progress there. I'm writing it out by hand as a first draft. Then I'll be editing it and typing it up. I hope to have this available for purchase through Lulu.com by the end of November/beginning of December. The side effect of spending so much time working on the manuscript is that I forget to post on my blogs. Sorry about that. But, as of today, I'm almost finished with the first major section of the book. I'll be working on it more this evening.

Reading for the Intermediate Witch: A History of Witchcraft

Title: A History of Witchcraft
Second Edition
Authors: Jeffery B. Russell and Brooks Alexander
Publisher: Thames & Hudson
ISBN: 0500286345

This is a rather comprehensive book covering the history of witchcraft starting with the late middle ages. Don't be fooled by its slim appearance, this book is packed with a lot of great detail. It gives an extensive explanation of what the troubles were that caused the infamous 'Burning Times' and maps out a fairly clear path of the rise of modern witchcraft. I find this book to be a little bit dated but it is approximately ten years old. If a third edition is out, I would snap that up in a heartbeat.

The discussion of the differences between sorcerer, heretic, and neopagan is interesting. It is also timely considering the increased resistance towards the idea of witchcraft within the United States. It would be wise to review the social system imbalances that gave rise to the 'Burning Times' and consider the parallels to today.

Wednesday ramblings.

Dear Reader,

Pictured is how I spent my day, working on my manuscript. The red book is where I'm writing the rosary book I'm working on. The composition book is where I have my notes. Today was a passable day for writing. I got my goal done for page count and a page beyond. I lost about half of my writing time to fixing research errors that I had made. Tomorrow, I hope to do better.

As I was reading through my list of blogs I follow, I was delighted to see this post from Cara Freyasdaughter. Her description of 'dark Freyr' is rather consistent with the face of Freyr that I see during the autumn and winter. Some years, he shows up earlier than others. My experience of this facet of Freyr is not what most people expect of Freyr. He is the hunter and the hunted. In my experience, he has his own Hunt party that goes about to chase off and take down the dangerously nasty spirits where they go. I find it telling that Freyr in his dark aspect became very persistent and present early this year (as in almost mid-July) and that there are now more reports about deer with bovine tuberculosis. (None reported in WNY at this time, but it is a thing to keep an eye on. It is unclear if this disease can be transmitted to humans. Hunters, take full safety precautions as per usual.)

This is going to be a bad year for hunting, I can feel it. Freyr's warned me that things are happening that requires the Hunt to begin soon. If it hasn't begun already, I'm not sure. Both Freyr and Loki have been telling me to focus on myself and my household. The last of the summer's heat is passing away with the ending of this heatwave, if my joints are accurate in their predictions. I was going to harvest my herbs but it is going to rain tomorrow and I just didn't get to it today. Hopefully I will get it done before the first frost hits. Again, I have a feeling that it is coming sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, I am going to be working on my writing and taking that harvest of knowledge and putting it to use. Maybe this weekend I'll talk a little bit about autumnal Freyr. Spring and Summer is Loki's season with me. Autumn and Winter is Freyr's season with me. But sometimes they make their presences known at random during the other's season. It may be heretical for me to say it, but Freyr and Loki get along well and have some kind of relationship. Maybe a friendship, maybe something else that I just don't have the word for. They've more points in connection than me. I've watched them have disagreements. They don't have screaming arguments, they have very civil, very calm and very cold discussions. I've watched them also conspire together. Well, sort of watched half of it unfolding. Loki is very much the "I have a GREAT IDEA!!1!eleventyone" guy as Freyr tends towards the direction of "I have a plan."

It gets weird sometimes when that happens. Weird like last January weird. But, everything works out well in the end. I trust them implicitly. It is when I stop trusting myself that things get hard.

Intermediate Witchcraft: Psychic Safety Lessons

Here is a link to the posts on psychic safety. I will be posting on psychic safety in the future something like a series of lectures on how the mechanics of some of this stuff works. Because if you know how your equipment works, it is easier to service and use it properly. I'll be getting into some weird topics like egregores eventually. I'm going to start out with the nuts and bolts level of basic magical 'machines'.

If we were talking about actual machines, this would be my showing you how hammers, saws, and levers work. The previous posts are simple exercises using those proverbial hammers, saws, and levers. Egregores^* and related topics would be the simple computers of magical construction. Now, just as tools can be used for various purposes beyond what they were originally intended and in the hands of a creative and properly motivated person anything can be a weapon, I know that these lessons can be taken in directions beyond what I am promoting.

Anything you do with this information is on you. Caveat emptor. I am the writer who produces the spell book. You are the one who decides if it is a coffee table book or a tool. And what you do with said tool is your karmic and moral responsibility.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

* Somewhere, I know, there is a ceremonial magician ready to pull their hair out right now. Homonculi, egregores, and tulpa are on one level more complicated than computers and at the same time, they're very simple. So, I apologize to the ceremonial magicians who are probably just this side of a meltdown over this eventually coming up. You're not the only keepers of this knowledge and I assure you that my path to it is different from yours.

Pagan Parenting: Demigods?

Photo by Mat Brown from Pexels

Dear Reader,

My boys have some interesting ideas about the divine. They call out to gods from a pretty wide range of pantheons for a rather wide range of reasons. When there was a fire at a garage a block away from us, my eldest called on every single storm deity he could think of to help put that fire out and keep people safe. He made a special point of calling on Zeus first and a few more times in the prayer. He's come to the conclusion that Zeus is a god who supports heroic professions, such as fire fighters because of how Zeus stood boldly against chaos in the beginning of all things (as per the book of mythology we have here that I read him the old stories out of). Zeus is a hero and therefore must be a god of heroes, that's how Cuddle Bear explains it.

(Interesting side note about that fire, it was a pretty severe fire. When the structure began to collapse, there were people inside. As the firefighters described it, the building paused for a moment long enough for them to get out. Considering the timing of it all and when we heard the building collapse, which was terrifying for Cuddle Bear, I'm pretty sure that his prayer was being answered by the firefighters getting out with minor injuries.)

They have also come up with alternate names for the powers that manage things when they can't remember the names given to them from the myths. The one that stands out strongest in my mind is how they have decided that in the Norse pantheon there is a deity named Windia (pronounced wind-dia) who is female and directs the winds. They have called out to her to help make the weather better for them to play outside. Interestingly, they argue that Windia is a helper to all the Norse/Germanic storm deities. That her job is just to move the wind in the right direction.

I've tried explaining to them that Njord is the god of the winds, but they insist she is his helper. I'm not sure, but I think this is how demigods happen. I've done divination on the matter, fortunately, the gods find the children adorable on this and think that having a being to delegate tasks to is always helpful. So, I guess there's a new household demigod here.

Triune Goddess: Separate or not?

Photo by Alem Sánchez from Pexels

A kind soul on Tumblr messaged me with a question that had been troubling them. At the end of time, when all of reality is in-gathered by the Dark Mother, what becomes of the Daughter? It is a question that can be rather fearful, to be honest, to think that the Sustainer and Savior of the World may cease to exist. In reading the Scriptures and meditating quite a bit on the matter, I do not think this should be cause for fear.

The Bright Mother and the Daughter are one. From one perspective, this means that the Daughter shall continue to exist as part of the Bright Mother. The Daughter, however, is more than a mere creation but Dea herself. As such, the Daughter stands beyond the limits of time. The holy Daughter is also one with the Dark Mother. Just as the Dark Mother moves in mysterious ways that we may never fully comprehend, so too does the Daughter.

In the beginning of all things, the Daughter was present with the Bright Mother in the potential of creation and the creative urge. Obviously, the Daughter is present during the era of history and time, sustaining reality and protecting us from oblivion. In the final time of existence, the Daughter is present with the Dark Mother, guiding us to our true home and She that loves all.

Examination of the Heart

Filianic Sutras: The Temple of the Heart

Verse 1

Know your own heart and make examination thereof: for if you know not your own heart, there can be no true knowledge of anything.

We are all familiar with the maxim – An unexamined life is not worth living. We are called to have the simple faith of children but we are also called to be responsible in ourselves through self knowledge. When a small child acts out of frustration and we ask them why, their answer is almost invariably "I don't know." This is because they do not know their own heart and/or have the language to express what is therein.

We must carefully study our own hearts and acquire deep knowledge of ourselves. Through this process, we may come to know something of our spirit and that which transcends our humanity. Most of all, we may answer the question of whey we acted in the fashion we have when we find ourselves at the feet of our Teacher and She is giving us our lessons in Thamë. 

Because through deep self knowledge we find ourselves pulled along the thamelic path of our current incarnation and we draw closer to Our Lady.

Dea bless.

Godspousery notes: DO THE THING (again.)

I have a problem with anxiety. It gets in my way rather often. With the current state of affairs of my nation, I am struggling with heaps of it. As a result, I find myself trying to diminish my expression and limit how much I say in the hopes of not repeating the horrific harassment that I endured when I was younger. It is a daily struggle for me.

I was quibbling with myself over weather or not to write some things today when Freyr calmly said, "Are you a writer or not?" I answered that I was indeed a writer. He then asked me why I wasn't writing. It's been a discussion we have had on several fronts and on several different occasions. It always boiled down to "are you YOU or not? why are you not acting like YOU?"

It is always an awkward moment when you are getting called out for not acting like yourself. Especially when you are in your own home, technically alone. It is especially awkward when you are called out for not acting like yourself, when you're home alone not to be disturbed for several hours, and there are to be no negative consequences except for making yourself feel bad.

Did I mention that Freyr has sternly told me that I shouldn't be making myself feel bad for being myself? I have a taboo about this. It's on my list of things to be working with my therapist with. It's on my list of things to meditate and work with my spirit companions on healing. At the same time, when I have days that I get so caught up in anxiety and fear that I am not conscious of the fact that I am breaking my taboo.

Fortunately, Freyr is kind enough to remind me. Though it is usually with a droll comment, something that is directly to the point but also with enough dry humor to make me pause and chuckle. And breaking that tension and anxiety with a laugh is often a big part of what I need to get moving forward on things.