Thoughts on Love.

Dea calls for us to extend compassion, forgiveness, and love towards they who have wronged us. She calls for us to extend loving compassion and mercy towards people who have offended us. She calls on us to emulate Her perfect, universal love to all people regardless of their stature in the community or their standing in our eyes. Because we are diminished and more distant from Her than we were in the beginning of all things, the weight of the world makes it harder for us to love the whole of creation.

There are places within and without us that cry out for that love and kindness. Our eyes are blinded by the veil of matter and all the confusion that comes with it. None of us see clearly through that veil, no matter how holy we may be or seem to be. All of our wisdom is but a drop of water in the sea of Reality. The simplest of laws binds all of us together and yet it is the hardest to adhere to in this life. Love unto all beings is our Lady's law. How, one may ask, do you love the very persons who have wounded you to your very soul?

Love can be unconditional while healthy boundaries are kept. One may love from afar. Transpersonal love can be unconditional. It is a more abstract sense of love than interpersonal love. But one can love in this fashion. Transpersonal love or the love of all people is difficult. Very few want to love all people. There are those who stand out from the rest of the crowd and appear to embody wickedness. I tell you, as surely as these people may elicit feelings of rage, disgust, or some other potentially hostile emotional response, you can transform it into love. It takes a great deal of patience and practice.

It requires us to examine what has provoked this response. Just as we fall in love with people who resemble traits in ourselves that we love, we come to hate people who have traits within them that resemble traits that we hate within ourselves. For this reason it is vital to know ourselves as best we may so that we might consciously and deliberately love each other, and ourselves.

Some mistakenly believe that the only truly valid form of love is romantic or familial. The love of one's pets is no less valid than the love of one's friends or the love of one's family. Popular culture is beginning to recognize this with the expression of 'pet parent'. With the rise of friendships with elements of 'classic' romance incorporated in them, these relationships are beginning to get recognition for how important and necessary it is to have loving relationships beyond the single romantic partner model.  In addition to this, we are finding more open evidence of healthy self-love practices in the younger generations.

Our culture is in the midst of a quiet revolution being lead by the younger portion of generation x, generation y, and the millennial generation. They have been fighting for all forms of love to be recognized. In some cases, their struggle is in spite of death. And this is not a strictly 'first world' struggle. We can see these brave people challenging governmental and cultural practice all around the world. In many  places they do so at great danger to themselves and their loved ones. The punishments for challenging theses heavily entrenched cultural beliefs about love range wildly.

The mildest is ostricization. There is the criminalization of things like the open expression of homosexuality, which can result in the leveling of fines, imprisonment, and in some parts of the world execution. Polyamory is illegal in most of the United States unless is done on the sly outside of the "sacred institution' of marriage. Even in that grey area where partners are not married, there is still social condemnation for all parties in that polyamorous relationship. The expectation that one person should meet all of the social and emotional needs of their partners is a toxic and unhealthful claim to how love operates.

Love is patient and kind, as the Christian saint wrote. Love is also respecting the limitations of oneself and others. Love is setting boundaries and protecting oneself from harmful people. Love is fighting for the oppressed people's well being. Love is the kindness that brings the terminally ailing to a good death. Love is the kindness that allows for the parting of partners in an unhappy relationship with respect and compassion for each other. Love is the strength to endure hardship for  the sake of the greater good. Love is the willingness to put aside pride and choose to compromise instead of fighting over who is 'right'.

There are countless ways to love the world and it takes great courage to love the world.There are many who will scoff and name you a fool. Let their scorn be as the rattling of an empty can. For their scorn is born of ignorance. Perhaps, pity them for their narrow vision. But do not be troubled by it.

Life Update.

Dear Reader,

I apologize for not posting more. Life has thrown my family several curve balls and I keep striking out in the attempt to hit them. The kids are officially done with summer school. I have a birthday party to plan. My sister-in-law's husband just had surgery for intestinal cancer. It looks like he is having some serious other health issues as well. We're trying to be the best support for them as we can be, but it makes staying on top of writing stuff challenging. And, then there is the usual business of running a household that's been getting a bit out of hand because I haven't been sleeping well over the last month due to my anxiety running out of control.

In a few weeks, the kids go back to school. I find out the results of the genetic test my doctor ordered to figure out why my psych meds are not working properly. I'm pretty sure there will be a medication change done then and I have no idea how that is going to go. I'm still trying to find a therapist that will take me. I'm not going back to the county clinic after how poor my treatment went there. So, I'm somewhere between depressed and having a bad day most days of late. It's been exhausting.

I pray for guidance and aid. I think that the Divine's intervention is the only reason why I am not a gibbering wreck right now. I will try to post more. I thank you for your patience while I juggle all these things at once.

Practical Witchery: Basic Sigil magic

Dear Reader,

There is a great many posts on how to do sigil magic. It is a highly individualized and artistic form of magic. Some sigils are made using sigil wheel. Others are made by writing out the intention and striking out repeating letters. Once this step is complete, an abstract design is made using the shapes of the individual letters left. Sigils of this design have a great deal in common with bindrunes. Sigils can also be formed using symbolic pictograms.

Activating a sigil can be as simple or complex as the caster desires. One may carve the sigil into a candle and burn the candle completely to activate it. One may write the sigil on a piece of paper and burn it to activate it. Or one may choose to carry the sigil on their person until what it is designed for manifests.There are as many ways to activate a sigil as there are to cast a spell.

A sigil is used to jumpstart the unconscious mind in locating the desired result. Through the ritual of creating and activating the sigil, one impresses the desire into their unconscious mind. With focused attention and a measure of self hypnosis, one may have a highly effective result from their sigil magic.

Divination: Major Arcana 10 - The Wheel of Fortune

Dear Reader,

This week's card is The Wheel of Fortune (or as it is known in this deck, simply The Wheel). The card pictured comes from the Art Nouveau Tarot from Matt Myers. The Wheel of Fortune is best known as a card of change. Its presence in a reading speaks of a cyclical change from favorable to less than favorable circumstances and back again. It reminds us that nothing is permanent except for the fact that things change.

In the Fool's journey, the Wheel speaks of the Fool experiencing this rise and decline in fortune only to rise again. In the direct orientation, the Wheel of Fortune portends positive change and an improvement of circumstances. In the reversed orientation, the Wheel of Fortune warns of ill luck, poor opportunities for improving the situation, and possible embarrassment.

Life Update.

Dear Reader,

It's been a challenging month. August looks to be equally challenging for various reasons. I've been really struggling with my complex posttraumatic stress disorder over the last several weeks. It's been hard to nail down what has been triggering the flashbacks but I'm working on it. My kids have kept me busy with things like daily walks to the park when they get home from summer school and the general business of our daily affairs. Last weekend we celebrated my younger son's birthday (a little late because he had Fifth disease and was unwell for a week) and that party went well though it took some of the starch out of me.

Monday, I had my monthly appointment with my psychiatrist. We discussed my c-ptsd issues. He suspects that one of my anxiety medications is not working properly. He's ordered a test to figure out what medications work well for me and what ones we should avoid. Once we have the results, I suspect there is going to be a medication change. It's been a difficult time dealing with these flashbacks. It has been messing with my sleep and mood accordingly. I'm hopeful that this test will help me avoid something like hospitalization to adjust my medications.

But, suffice it to say, I have wanted to be posting but struggling to do so.

♥