Practical Witchery: Grounding (1/3)

Dear Reader,

Image from Pexels.com

One of the first skills I was taught as a young witch was how to ground and center myself. Grounding and centering are very helpful for managing stress and anxiety in addition to being extremely useful in preparation for magical work. The first steps in grounding are a matter of becoming aware of your personal energy state. This is intimately tied to your mental and emotional state. The more agitated you are, the higher your personal energy state will be.

Now, as anyone with a basic understanding of psychology can tell you, there are two kinds of stress. Good stress is the sort that comes with the excitement of a much anticipated fun event. Bad stress is the sort that comes with things like a dreaded exam in a class you're struggling with. In terms of personal energy state, good or bad stress are neutral and they just elevate your energy levels. Grounding restores your energy levels to your personal baseline neutral.

Grounding can help reduce stress and anxiety through the restoration of one's baseline energy level. It is more effective, however, as a psychological tool where in one learns to let go of the stressors. In either case, grounding is a healthful practice for any witch to learn, regardless of the variety of witchcraft they are practicing.

The method of grounding that I am going to share with you today is a combination of one that I was taught when I was a very young witch and a method of becoming fully present in the moment that I was taught to help me cope with my cptsd. This is a sensory based exercise. Before you do this exercise it is important to find yourself sitting in a comfortable position. This doesn't require full lotus to be effective (indeed if you're not flexible and experienced in yoga, full lotus is going to make this exercise harder to do).

As you are sitting, focus your awareness on your breathing. Draw in a deep breath to a slow count of three. Hold it for a count of three. Exhale to a count of three. Then pause for a count of three. Repeat this process until you are comfortable with it. This can be an immediate quick relief for mild anxiety and partial grounding.

Move your awareness from your breathing (but continue the process as best you can) to your body. Starting at the top of your head, feel the tension in your body. As you move your awareness down through your body, feel that tension softening and relaxing. When you reach your feet, feel the tension going down from your feet into the floor and the earth down below. Continue this process until you are fully relaxed and comfortable.

At this time, your excess energy has been released into the earth to disperse. You are now ready to begin magical work.

Divination: Major Arcana 1 - The Magician

Dear Reader,

The second trump card we encounter in the Major Arcana is numbered '1' and named the Magician. This is both the Fool's teacher and goal. The Magician is in possession of all the tools of his trade (the suits of the Minor Arcana) and has the knowledge of how to use them. 

In the direct orientation, the Magician suggests that one is in a position of power and knowledge. It speaks of an individual who has the capacity to share that knowledge in a masterful way. The reversed Magician warns of a manipulator who distorts knowledge for the sake of tricking others into doing what they want.

Interestingly, this particular deck has a pair of images in the upper corners of the direct oriented card that relates to the trump card in question. On the right side we see the phoenix, a bird of transformation and great knowledge. On the left side, we see an image of Hermes. Hermes is the patron deity of magicians and the occult. Like Hermes, the Magician can be a trickster figure in either orientation. The question is, is the trickster working in your favor or not.

This week's card comes from the Renaissance Tarot deck by Brian Williams and is produced by US Games Systems Inc.

Godspousery Notes: Taboos lifted, now what?

Dear Reader,

The taboo that I have been under about writing in greater detail about my relationships with Loki and Freyr has been lifted. I'm honestly not sure what to write. I mean, how does one explain that the deities spend their time just being themselves around you and stuff? It's like being around another person who has their quirks and habits. In short, it's like any other relationship.

They've been concerned about my health. I've been under a fair amount of stress over the last few months and that has driven my blood sugar levels higher. I'm still sticking to my healthy diet. Apparently stress is just that awful for me. It's frustrating. Frey has been strongly encouraging me to drink more water and exercise more. We did yoga today and it was unpleasant.

I hate doing yoga because I am so stiff due to the arthritis. Frey tells me that will improve with time. We took a walk this afternoon but the weather was pretty awful, so I didn't exactly enjoy that very much. Environmental factors and my joints are conspiring against me finding pleasure in exercise right now. I enjoyed the company but the physical discomfort sucked.

Loki is pushing me to be more social. I have been struggling with this. He's taken to calling me a cat stuck in a tree on this matter. I suppose the description is fitting. The poor health and poor functioning of my brainmeats worked together to make me reluctant to talk and go out. Now I am finding myself struggling with mild agoraphobia. I know it is because I'm afraid that I'm going to have a diabetic emergency while I'm out and have no one around to help me. And because I have always been afraid of getting lost, which has just gotten worse over the last year.

But, Loki has a plan for this stuff. He says that he and Odin have it all figured out. That makes me a little nervous. I trust them but I don't trust myself to not screw things up.

Reading for the Intermediate Witch: Full Contact Magick

Dear Reader,

Kerr Cuhulain's Full Contact Magick (Llewellyn Worldwide, 2002. ISBN 9780738702544 ) is a bit dated but the material hold up well. Mr. Cuhulain received some complaints that his book was a touch on the too aggressive side for many Wiccans. It is my opinion that Full Contact Magick was timely and a necessary addition to the general body of knowledge for the Wiccan community when it came out and remains so even today.

Mr. Cuhulain covers the basics of magical practice with a deft hand. He really shines and shows his experience when discussing the essentials of magical self defense. His blending of practical non-magical analysis of magically threatening situations and the assessment of the correct magical approach to a problem is elegant and efficient. Mr. Cuhulain gives very direct instruction on how to handle magical problems. This makes his work highly accessible to most magical studies readers. He breaks down the more complex ceremonial magic elements of his practices into simple steps that are easily followed.

Rating: 7/10

Curious about the New Books?

To the right is the first volume of The Veiled Witch's Ritual Book.
It is available on Amazon as a paperback (pictured) and as an ebook. This volume covers rituals and rites for the Filianic community. These rituals are based in western European belief practices and are similar in structure to Christian practices.

Included in this volume is a rite to dedicate oneself to Dea, daily devotionals, and an abbreviated book of hours. Also, rituals are presented for recognizing children of Dea as they pass through major phases of their life, instruction upon the matters of setting up and maintaining a shrine, and how to handle offerings to Dea that may be made at public or semi-public access shrines.

Paperback Link: https://www.amazon.com/Veiled-Witchs-Ritual-Book-Filianic/dp/1090888449/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

Ebook Link: https://www.amazon.com/Veiled-Witchs-Ritual-Book-Filianic-ebook/dp/B07PP6NGJB


Rose Petals: A Filianic Psalter is now in its fourth edition.  This edition has new prayers for the year as well as a collection of devotional 'songs' in a style similar to that of the Christian psalms.  Rose Petals also contains an abbreviated book of hours, instructions on how to pray the Filianic rosary upon a 5 decade set of beads, and a brief glossary of who the Janyati are and what aspects they govern.

Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1797491695

Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NVXJMY9

Divination: Major Arcana 0 - The Fool

The Fool from the Barbara Walker Tarot

Dear Reader,

The first Major Arcana card we encounter in the Tarot deck is numbered 0 and named 'The Fool'. In the image to the right, you see pretty standard iconography for this card. 

The fool is dressed in a jester's motley and carries a satchel on their shoulder and a flower in their hand. They are approaching a chasm with a small dog at their heels and a butterfly before them. The sack they are carrying is usually said to contain all of the suits of the Minor Arcana - the pentacle, wand, sword, and chalice. The fool is not watching where they are going. It is unclear if they are following the butterfly as many interpret it. Or if the dog at their heels are trying to warn them of danger or goad them onward.

In an upright orientation, the Fool speaks of beginnings. It is a card of optimism and hope. In the reversed orientation, the Fool is a warning for the querent to be cautious and carefully consider the situation before leaping in feet first.

In the story of the Fool's Journey, the Fool card introduces the intrepid soul full of potential and adventuresome spirit. The Fool's Journey is the story played out through the Major Arcana that is full of archetypal themes and is considered to be a manifestation of the Hero's Journey or the Soul's Journey through Life.

Godspousery Notes: Have a cookie!

Dear Reader,

Life has been really stressful and challenging of late. I was venting about this elsewhere when I was told by Loki that I should have a cookie and a cup of tea, just a bit of a treat to relax. Being in a mixed episode, I was half ready to start and argument about how a cookie was the last thing I needed because my blood sugar has been high due to all of this stress. Then I stopped and thought about it for a minute. I really hadn't had a chance to sit and relax for at least a week. So, I had a small cookie (no frosting at all for me) and a cup of tea.

Sure enough, I felt a bit better after that. I still found myself spoiling for an argument, but I wasn't quite ready to sharpen my proverbial claws for that argument yet. As I was meditating and doing my best to ground myself a bit later, Loki showed up again. He just sat with me and reminded me to concentrate on my breathing as my kids rather loudly debated as to if I was asleep or meditating right in front of me.

He's been around in the odd moments when the little things that the kids do would have made me flip my lid and pointed out the humor in it so that I was laughing instead of screaming. Tomorrow is the last day of Spring Break. I think we might all survive this intact. Thanks to Loki pointing out that kids are just as funny as they are exasperating. (And at least the boys weren't saying that I was dead when I was meditating.)

An Excerpt for the Ritual Book, Vol. 1 - Filianic Rituals and Rites

Dear Reader,

While my training and education as a priestess is from a Wiccan and neo-pagan position, I did a great deal of research into Christian and Catholic Christian devotionals in the process of writing this book. The profession of devotion to Dea that is given in this volume of the Ritual Book is actually an adaptation of a profession of life long devotion to Mary. The version presented in the book is designed to be facilitated by clergy but it does not require clergy to be effective.

For a solitary vow of perpetual devotion, the following may be recited before one's shrine. Prior to making the recitation, it would be advised to have some manner of garment or jewelry that would be worn as an outward sign of the vow to serve as a visual reminder of one's vow and special bond with Dea. Head covering is a common outward sign of devotion but in cases where that is not possible, a special article of jewelry such as a necklace, bracelet, or ring.

The vow:

My Queen and my Mother,
I give myself entirely to you.
And to show my devotion to you,
I consecrate to you this day my heart,
my spirit, and my whole being without reserve.
Therefore, good Mother,
As I am entirely your own,
keep me, guard me, as your treasured child.

After making the vow, retrieve the items placed upon the shrine and put them on. Spend some time in contemplation of the vow and your special relationship with Dea.

Veiled Witch's Charity Work: Hat's for Preemies

Dear Reader,

I've been doing this charity project for a while now. In the picture to the right, is a doll with some history and it is important to this project. I was born premature. I weighed one pound, eleven ounces and given 50/50 chance of living. It was a scary time for my family. The charity and kindness of our community helped in many ways.

I began making hats for the preemies at a local hospital two years ago. I started doing it for two reasons. First as a way to give back and thank these people for my life. Second to honor these tiny babies who are fighting for their own lives.

Annie is the doll that my parents purchased so that I had clothes to wear. The very dress she is wearing in this pic is one that I had worn myself so many years ago. I use her as a test model for the hats I am making for the babies that are about the size I was. For the smaller babies, I have a darning egg that is approximately the size of their heads. It sounds odd that a darning egg would be the size of an infant's head but these micro-preemies have heads that can be described as the size of lemons.

If you decide to start making these hats for your local NICU, remember they are going to want hats made from acrylic yarn because it will be easy to clean and it is hypoallergenic for the most part. The sizes the babies head range from that of a large orange/small grapefruit to that of a moderately sized apple and all the way down to the size of a lemon.

(In addition to the preemie hats, this year I have started making scarves for the homeless as well.)

An Excerpt from the New Version of Rose Petals

Dear Reader,

You may be considering if you should pick up the new version of Rose Petals. The prayers added are of a rather wide range of emotion. Some, like the one I am about to share with you, are songs of praise. Others are songs of appeal and contrition. I am still working on more devotional poems. Your support would be most deeply appreciated.

A small donation via paypal goes a long way towards helping me focus upon this work if you can not purchase a copy. For the cost of a cup of coffee, you support everything from my on going charity work (I'm making preemie hats for a regional NICU and scarves for the homeless.) to maintaining a semi-public altar space (if you're local to me and you want to pop in to have a moment at the altar, please contact me and make an appointment).

Here's the excerpt from the fourth edition of Rose Petals: A Filianic Psalter.

Song 22

Hail to the Sublime Light
Hail to the Maiden Bright
Hail to the Lady Benevolent
Hail to the Banisher of the Malevolent
Hail to the Princess of the World
Hail to the Queen of Heaven
Hail Anna

Divination: New series of info posts coming!

Dear Reader,

It's been a while since I have posted about divination. Over the next few months, I will be posting a walk through Tarot to help you get to know the Major Arcana and the story they tell just as they are in standard order from the Fool to the World. This in depth look at the Major Arcana helps us grasp their meanings more completely when they show up outside of order and in different positions.

I will also share with you some Major Arcana only Tarot spreads and feature some pictures of these spreads with decks from my collection. It is not only possible to get a very complete and nuanced picture of a situation with just the Major Arcana, one can also learn something of coming events based upon the Major card that falls in the future cast position.

You may want to follow me on Instagram where the pics of my daily readings for myself (which I am desperately attempting to get back into the habit of doing, so help me stay accountable here!) go up and the pics of my Major Arcana only spreads are going to appear first. Some of these spreads are going to be based upon key cards in the suit and others are going to be just for special use. With each Instagram pic, I will be detailing what deck I'm using and the general meaning of the spread. Here, I will give a larger pic of the spread and explain how to read it.

First, however, let's get to know the Major Arcana. Next week, we meet The Fool.

Devotion while depressed.

Dear Reader,

Some days, devotional worship comes easily. You feel that connection with the Divine clearly and your devotional activities come easily to you. No one talks about the days where devotional worship is really very hard. Days when you are sick, stressed out, or just 'too busy' to do what you expect for devotional worship happen more often than we'd like. In some cases, we just don't feel like there is any point to it because it feels like we're just going through the motions.

Building a devotional relationship is like training for a marathon. It takes a long time to reach that marathon level of practice. It starts with small motions and focused attention on what you are doing. Watching my Beloved train for his first marathon was an interesting experience. He couldn't just go out and start running. He had to learn how to stretch and prepare for running. He had to start with walking the distance and work his way up to running it. Then he had to keep running until he built up the endurance to run that marathon.

It is important to keep in mind, not everyone can run a marathon the same way. There are people who make record time consistently. There are people who wind up walking most of the way. And there are some who can only make part of the run and have to be helped across the finish line. Now, one may ask me how this metaphor holds up when we are talking about devotional relationships with the Divine.

First, everyone has different levels of devotion as their goals. Second, everyone has different levels of devotion they can accomplish at a given time. Thirdly, these levels change overtime, sometimes even on a daily basis. When you are in a state where you can not reach your devotional goals for the day, week, month, or year, it is very discouraging. This disparity between goals and what you can accomplish for the given time is often the reason why many give up on having a devotional relationship.

As a person who struggles with depression and low energy/spoons on a regular basis, I have learned a few things over the years since my diagnosis. The first thing I learned is that I have to accept that I have limits. These limits are not a sign of moral weakness or laziness. They are simply limits just like a box has confined limits for what can be placed in them and how much weight they can hold. This was a very difficult lesson for me to learn and I still struggle with it, to be honest.

The second thing I learned is that the Divine knows and accepts that I have limits. It takes a considerable amount of humility to say that the Divine knows and accepts that I have limits. We are often goaded by our pride to say that we must do 'better' and say that we must do 'better for ...' the Divine, people in our lives, our employers or any number of others who we say we must exceed our limits for. But what is really pushing us to do 'better' when we're not at peak performance is our pride (and possibly a heap of anxiety if you're like me). It's scary and awkward to say that Zeus, for example, recognizes and accepts that you are a human being who can't give offerings every day or engage in daily prayer because of life circumstances.

The over culture teaches us that if we can't do these things all the time, we are some how in the wrong. This is entirely inaccurate. The Divine is well aware of our limitations (more so than we are ourselves in many cases) and interacts with us on the basis of where the Divine can meet us where we are at. This brings me to the third point that I have learned in having an active devotional life even when I am unwell, everyone's devotional life and devotional practices look different, even within the same religion.

On days when I am so depressed that doing the bare minimum to keep the household from collapsing under its on weight is too exhausting, all I may manage is to mumble a few prayers or just to think of the gods. On days when I am hypomanic and I can't focus enough to get through my prayer routines, I more or less do the same thing. Same for when I last had the flu and was sleeping pretty much all day and didn't even so much as look at my altar the time I was sick. The Divine does not want us to push ourselves to the point where we can not function, they will forgive us for forgetting to say our prayers properly or forgetting them all together. It is our greater struggle within ourselves to have that level of understanding and forgiveness.

No video this week or next week.

Dear Reader,

I just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about posting videos. My children are on spring break and the household is rather noisy. This doesn't work too well for making videos. I will be posting a video the week after break ends. In the meantime, I wanted to thank you all for watching my little videos. I appreciate your viewership and the fact that you took a little time out of your day to watch my ramblings on life.

The next video topic has yet to be chosen. If you have any suggestions, please let me know in the comments.

Regarding readings for hire.

Dear Reader,

As you may be aware, I have been attempting to do readings for hire through Keen. It is with great regret that I announce that I will no longer be doing so. The challenges of making Keen work with my schedule and my disability issues are simply impossible to reconcile. I will continue to offer email readings through my blog here. All I ask is a small donation via paypal to help fund the operations of this blog.

Your payment for a reading will not simply allow me to engage in greater research to bring you more quality content. It also supports charity projects that I am engaged in at this time for the betterment of the world. Presently, I am making hats for a regional neonatal intensive care unit to give to premature babies and I am making scarves to donate to the homeless.

The suggested amount of donations for readings are as follows:

Basic 3 Card $10
This spread includes one modifier per card as needed. It takes approximately 15 minutes to write this up.

Basic Celtic Cross $20
This is the standard 10 card Celtic Cross reading. This includes one modifier per card as needed. This take approximately 30 to 40 minutes to write up.

Detailed Celtic Cross $50
This is the standard 10 card Celtic Cross spread. This includes up to three modifiers per card as needed. This takes 60 minutes to write up.

Developed Tarot Spread JUST FOR YOU $60

This is where I develop a tarot spread just for you. This would be written up via email and a photo would be sent to show you what it looks like.

Life update.

Dear Reader,

I feel as though I have done wrong by you with my silence of late. While I am striving to work on another manuscript and I am still quite busy with the business of being a stay-at-home-mom, the main reason for my silence has been the fact that I have been struggling for the last several months with seasonal depression and a depressive episode at the same time. Once in a while, my bipolar and my S.A.D. synch up to make things difficult. This happens to be one of those times.

I want to write but my misfiring brain chemistry has me convinced at some level that I am an utter fraud and that my writings are nothing but vanity. It has been very bleak for me. On top of this, I am still trying to come to grips with the passing of my paternal grandparents in the last few years, the loss of a great-aunt, and the severe illness of a great-uncle. And all of the familial complications that have come with these things.

Easter was a big celebration for my family when I was younger. The celebration of familial bonds and the exuberance of spring was a big part of the happier of my formative memories. Life has changed and now the holidays that were times where we celebrated our family are just days on the calendar. I am struggling right now with this as much as I am with the neurochemistry being out of sorts.

Some one once told me that no one wanted to hear about my troubles or bad news. I was convinced for a long time that I had to be stoic about such things. I have been learning better lessons. Unfortunately, I am dealing with a lot of pain on an emotional and spiritual level right now that is making it hard for me to do much beyond the basics to keep my household running.

Administrative Note.

I will be in the process of creating archive pages of old content on this blog. The archives will be chronological in order with a page dedicated to a given year. I know that searching through years worth of information to find something that you're looking for can be maddening. (Gives the multi-volume book of shadows the side-eye.)

I expect this to be a project that is going to take me several months to complete. If there are some manner of difficulty accessing material on the blog, please check back again at a later date. I'm still working on trying to make this thing more user friendly and compatible with more people's learning styles.

E.T.A: Oh, lookie, Blogger created those archive pages for me. I'm losing my marbles. Don't mind me.

Necromancy vs. Mediumship.

Dear Reader,

Necromancy is the art of divination that involves communication with the dead. It is an art that is often conflated with the creation of zombies, necrophilia, and playing with corpses in film and fiction. Mediumship is the art of divination that involves communication with spirits. Not all mediums are necromancers. Not all spirits out there are the dead. The universe is populated with far more strange and diverse spirits than what you can find in the category of the dead. Ultimately, the dead is a relatively small subset of spirits, it gets even smaller when you start discussing the human dead.

It has fallen out of fashion to refer to oneself as a necromancer because the term is fairly loaded with a lot of Hollywood baggage and a pretty wide range of cultural taboos. I use the term necromancer because it is the most accurate description of what I do when I am dealing with spirits. Most of the spirits I deal with are the dead. I have items that I have kept which are attached to spirits of the dead who owned or were in ... intimate contact with them.

My familiar spirit, for example is the spirit of a deceased cat that I owned when I was younger. I also have a spirit ally in a deer whose vertebrae are in a jar on my bookshelf and another deer whose tooth is in a bag on my altar. Among the spirits of the location where I am living, is that of a blue jay whose skull I found perfectly intact while I was walking in the woods near the property one spring afternoon. Some declare this to be morbid. Others question if it is taboo for me to be engaged in this as I am a Filyani and a godspouse to Freyr, who is ostensibly is a god of life.

I would argue that my work as a necromancer, which generally serves to act as a guide to point the recently deceased in the direction of their next life, is a life affirming work. When I facilitate communication between the living and the dead, this is also life affirming most of the time. The messages from the dead to the living concern how to live a better, more enriched, and more prosperous life. They are passing on lessons from their own lives and from what they can see in their new perspective as the dead.

And the dead can see this world in ways that we can not. Their messages generally are for us to cherish life as we have it and not to fear death because death is a part of life. I've wandered a bit afield from where I started. As I said earlier, not all mediums are necromancers. But most of the modern necromancers you see in the public eye are mediums. They use their skills to facilitate messages from the dead to the living.

Place holder for future content.

Dear Reader,

The last two weeks have been incredibly busy at my house. I am finally getting to a point where I can sit down at the computer and type in the evening. My schedule is still a bit topsy-turvy but I am working on material for future posts. If you have been looking for a reading from me on Keen, please be advised that I am in the process of deciding if I am going to remain with them. There have been some challenges for me in working on that platform and I am trying to resolve them. I will keep you appraised of the situation.