Practical Witchery: Grounding (3/3)

In the first two posts on grounding, I covered two very tactile methods of grounding your energy. The first involved using bodily awareness and focusing your energy down into the ground beneath you. The second involved using a tool and projecting your energy into the tool at which point the energy disperses gradually.

The third method I am sharing with you is an equally bodily focused method. It is somewhat more involved than the first two, but not by much. The focus of grounding one's energy is two part. The first is to restore one's personal energy to balance. The second is to refocus one's attention upon the physical world that we inhabit.

The act of preparing a meal and eating can be tremendously grounding. This is one of the reasons why the 'cakes and ale' portion of a Wiccan ritual is so important. It helps to reestablish 'normal' space. Simply eating something serves to ground your energy. For an especially effective method of grounding, eating something with a little salt in it can ground your energy quite quickly. (Dissolving a little salt under your tongue grounds you very quickly. The author has found that this method is not just effective but can lead to a mild headache if there has been a great deal of magical energy dealt with prior. Use with discretion.)

Divination: Major Arcana 5: The Heirophant

This week we meet the Heirophant, also known as the Pope. The card pictured comes from the Tarot Art Noveau published by Lo Scarebo and the work of Anotella Castelli. The Pope is a figure of traditionalism and rigid adherence to dogma. He could be described as a restricting force upon the querent.

In the Fool's Journey, meeting the Pope the Fool finds themself in the position of having to bend to authority under the weight of tradition and cultural 'wisdom'.  In a direct orientation, the Pope is a benevolent figure that shows the querent is guided by tradition and the rules of their culture to greater prosperity and happiness. In a reversed orientation, the Pope shows that the querent is stifled and in conflict with said traditions.

Divination: Tarot Major Arcana Tour On Hold

Dear Reader,

In the process of cleaning things, I have misplaced my box full of tarot decks. The tour of the Major Arcana is on hold this week until I find where I put that blasted box. It's bright yellow. It shouldn't be that hard to lose but the room it is in is kinda a disaster right now. It's probably underneath a bag of yarn. Check back in next Monday for the next card we are going to review.

Thank you for your patience.

Godspousery Notes: Keep your shield up.

It's been a while since I posted. My life has been difficult of late. Partly because of problems with my physical health and partly because of problems with my psychological health. Depressive episodes makes it hard for me to function. I've gotten better about it with the assistance of better medication. But, being depressed still takes the wind out of my sails.

I've been struggling as new information about past trauma is revealed to me. I feel like I'm in the middle of a war with some force that uses my traumatic past like weapons against me. I start to get my footing and get myself moving despite my depression and then a PTSD landmine goes off. I'm on the upswing out of depression, but not fully out of it.

I feel the threat of something looming over me. I know that this sense of dread is because of my PTSD, it is a literal symptom of it. Instead of quavering with it, I am exhorted to 'keep your shield up'. This is less a literal thing and more of a spiritual thing. I struggle with keeping myself well and truly safe on a spiritual level when I am in the midst of a flashback. I've been having those a lot of late with the depression going on.

My focus on my spiritual shield helps mitigate the intensity of the flashbacks. I am not sure how that works, but it does. I've begun wearing protective jewelry to help with that at the urgings of Freyr and Loki. They are doing things on their side of the situation to help me. It's little pushes of encouragement, like the pack of sugar free gum that appeared last week in the midst of a stressful day that helped me not grind my teeth, that make big differences.

With my head making about as much sense as a sack of angry cats, it's been hard for me to 'hear' them and the spirits around me. They've been making their presence even more clear by doing things like casting their shadow beside me. I'm pretty sure that they've moved a few things when I was looking for them.

I was shown something, a quilt made in the colors of cream, burgundy, dark brown, and dark green. I was told that it was a mile marker for my progressing out of this state. When I went to spinning guilt, I saw that quilt. Except it wasn't just a quilt, it was a full bedset from the 1940s in mint condition. The message I took away from that was things are going to be alright and I and my family are going to be taken care of completely. While today is a low mood day and the rain has me feeling like I should hide somewhere and cry (I still haven't figured out why I'm having this response, hence the shadow work and therapy writing.), I know that the gods are good and will provide.

Shadow work & Filianism

Image from Pexels.com

Dear Reader,

If you're in the pagan community, you may have heard the term 'shadow work' thrown around a few times. Shadow work is a form of psychological healing through ritual and magic that accesses the 'darker' elements of our psyche and works to reintegrate them and process the traumatic things that lead to the splitting off of and repression of these parts of ourselves. An excellent book on this from Timothy Rodrick is titled Dark Moon Mysteries: Wisdom, Power, and Magic of the Shadow World. I've reviewed this book before, this post is not another accolade. This post's focus is different, it is to illustrate the role of shadow work in a religion as focused on light as Filianism.

It is easy to forget in the mystical imagery of Filianism and Déanism that shadows and darkness are an important part of the whole. The Bright Mother and her Daughter are the primary foci for many. The janyati/angels whose aspects are more 'light' oriented are more frequently addressed because there is a degree of wariness lingering with respect to the janya who is associated with the 'dark' aspects of things, as well as a convenient forgetting that the others have their own 'dark' elements. This is not a criticism of this practice. It is an acknowledgement of it and an attempt to address the necessity to consider the shadow/darkness behind the light.

The Dark Mother is a mysterious figure as is Sai Rhavë. Both are associated with the ending of things. The janya Sai Kala is perhaps the penultimate association with endings as the janya of death and the terminal end of fate. This triad, however, should not be feared. They can help us handle our own shadow side and usher us into the light that exists within that shadow. These faces of Dea are benevolent. They see our suffering and desire to help us transmute it into healing.

It is under the auspices of the Dark Mother that we might explore our interior wounds and find healing as we reach a place of acceptance. It is under the auspices of Sai Rhavë that we may explore the deep injuries we have sustained within our souls and bring the shards of ourselves back to integrate into the whole for greater stability within ourselves. And it is under the auspices of Sai Kala that we may let go the pain of the past and move forward into the future to a new life with that pain having no power over us anymore for it's sway has died with our acknowledgement and acceptance of the truth of the situation.

Unwell, again.

Dear Reader,

I have been struggling to get things done and work on my writing. I realized that I'm in a mixed episode that falls more towards the depressed side of the ledger. I am having a hard time focusing and I'm super anxious. It is not something that encourages getting work done. I'm disabled due to mental illness and times like now I am forced to admit this is not something I can ignore and simply push through.

In an attempt to be brutally honest with you and myself, I must admit that keeping up with daily blog posts on multiple topics is too much of a strain right now. I'm struggling with stuff off-line like keeping up with the household chores at the moment because of how my brain chemistry is off kilter. I genuinely and sincerely wish that I wasn't feeling like a complete failure because I'm sick. It has me feeling like I should just delete this blog and give up all of my hopes and dreams of being a 'real' writer.

Depression and a laundry list of bad experiences come together to act as the exact opposite of a cheering section. It highlights all of the possible negative outcomes. It convinces me that everything is futile and all that I have accomplished thus far is simply luck and vanity.

Scumbag brain is a hell of a drug.