Ah gods, has it really been that long?

Dear Reader,

I apologize that I dropped off the internet for over a month. I was severely depressed and dealing with a very challenging medication change. The side effects were the hardest part. Aside from the utter exhaustion that had me sleeping through the night and all day, I had a lot of difficulty focusing. The most exasperating bit about this new medication on the witchy front is the fact that it has filled my head with utter silence. I am head-blind and having difficulty connecting with the gods. 

As such, I have resorted to alternate means (which I will describe) and I'm trying to get a feel for using these means more often. They say that once you learn something, it is like riding a bicycle. They are wrong because you forget details and snippets of how it works depending on the length of time since you've done the thing. Astral temples, liminal communication where your mind meets the general psychic space of the area, and such are not easy exercises. It is, however, very effective once you get the hang of it and working while in trance states. 

In the grips of depression, I was struck with powerful waves ennui and I contemplated shutting down all my blogs. I didn't do it because I didn't have enough proverbial spoons to do so. I am not up to my full spoon count for a given day. I'm pretty sure that I am going to have days that a ten minute writing session is going to be too much. But this is the beginning, which is always hard. I anticipate doing my writing and getting some texts out for you all to read.

As I glanced at my multivolume Book of Shadows, I realized that I had enough research in there to write several serious papers about occult topics. As such, I am going to and try to organize and filter everything so that it makes sense. I had been contemplating going back to school for my master's degree in divinity, but I don't think I have the energy to be that ambitious. So, I'm just going to crank out papers based on my research and peddle them to public resources where they can get peer review and basically do the work for a master's thesis on my own time. I was considering Cherry Hill seminary but the limitations of doing the work there is things like timing and technological resources.

Med-Moura is coming, what are your plans?

Dear Reader,

Med-Moura is a break in the discipline and fasting of Moura. It is a time for the celebration of mother of all sort and of spiritual leadership. We pause in the austerity of Moura to look around and see the beauty left in the world and the wonders that remain despite Our Lady's journey into the Darkness. And we give thanks. This is by no means a bacchanal and a time of wild delight. We are still encouraged to maintain self-discipline and to prepare for the Holy day of Kala, when the Daughter dies and her body is desecrated by being hung as an ornament on the World Pillar. We are exhorted to prepare ourselves for Hiatus, the time when all is spiritually void of meaning and prepare to pray to Marya to rescue her Daughter Anna from absolute oblivion.

Because it is a leap year, here in the northern hemisphere, Med-Moura falls on March 4th. If you can, today, gather your elements for your celebration and take time to put them up late in the evening this way you can wake to Med-Moura's delights. And then take them down and place them in a safe place until next year. Through Med-Moura, we breath relief that all has not flown into the outer darkness of chaos and Khear. And we gird ourselves for the challenges of the upcoming weeks. 

Flowers for Moura.

 Dear Reader,

I have a habit of keeping some manner of flowers on my altar as an offering. They're artificial flowers because as soon as flowers pop up in my garden they either get eaten by the deer or picked by the neighbors. And there's a good part of the year that snow just won't let them come up. Because I use artificial flowers, it meets the bloodless sacrifice requirement (it's a monetary one instead). I was taught the following flowers have these meanings which make them applicable to the time from Purple Monday to Hiatus.

Tweedia: spiritual growth, innocence, and grace (during the period between Purple Monday and Moura Day)

Pansies (purple): contrition, penance, grace, love (during the period between Moura Day and Kala)

Gladiola (purple): royalty, strength, grace (Kala through Hiatus)

Daffodils: Spring, rebirth, renewal (Eastre)

Moura rosary meditations.

Picture from Pexels, Ksenia Chernaya, photographer

Dear Reader,

It is the holy, yet mournful season of Moura. As Our Lady descends into the Netherworld, she faces challenges that all make for strong meditative foci while reciting the Rosary.

Decade One: The temptation of Our Lady and her fear in the face of it.

Decade Two: The abasement of Our Lady as she is stripped of her signs of power and authority.

Decade Three: The humiliation of Our Lady as she is forced to kneel before the Dark Queen and suffer the insults of the Dark Queen's daughters as if she were not royalty herself.

Decade Four: The death of Our Lady. This one is pretty self explanatory. 

Decade Five: The desecration of Our Lady's corpse by hanging it upon the world pillar.

These meditative foci can be used at other times of the year. But they are especially well timed for Moura, Kala, and Hiatus.

Let us consider the time between Luciad and Moura.

Dear Reader,

At the time of Luciad, Our Lady Anna steps onto the iron wheel of incarnation. To move through the different layers of Creation, she must take on different forms. Indeed, she must move through the whole of Creation to reach the Netherworld and where the Abyss of Khear awaits her. 

On one hand, many will rightly argue that Our Lady is present within our hearts and therefore in the world. This is a powerful mystery in its own right but to focus only on this one is to ignore her sacrificial descent. Because of her descent through the whole of Creation, there comes a time where she will incarnate in this layer of Creation. There are infinite ways she might incarnate. Perhaps as a bird, perhaps as a sleeping seed, or as a human child that breathes three breaths and then dies. We can not to know how or in what form Our Lady will incarnate in this layer of Creation. But it will happen and her shining light will bless our layer of Creation in her infinite mercy.

At Moura, she has reached the outer reaches of the Netherworld. Moura-eve we celebrate her successful journey to those dark gates even as we prepare for the solemnity of her journey through the Netherworld.

Disregard my incense recipe for Loki!

 Dear Reader,

If you happen to have a copy of my incense recipe for Loki, throw it away and don't use it. In my ignorance, I included cinnamon which is toxic to burn. Please, for the love of what is holy and the good of your health, don't burn cinnamon. It can have very negative effects on you if you breathe it in.

I apologize for a lack of Divination related posts.

Dear Reader,

I have not given up the practice of divination. Indeed, I am still deeply in love with this aspect of magical study. My problem is I am rather stumped on what direction to go next. I have to review the plethora of posts I have made on this topic to find the loose threads that got dropped so that I can pick them up and work them out.

It has been difficult to do that because of two things: 1 - there are so many posts to go through from the years that it is overwhelming. 2 - my health issues are getting in the way of posting things or really doing any writing except for that which is therapy related. It's kinda bad, y'all. I'm working with my doctors and specialists to get it sorted out. I'm eyeballs deep in alligators trying to make handbags while they're gnawing on me. It's not fun. But I'm trying.

Dame Artemis and the Wild Hunt.

 Dear Reader,

I have spent the last few weeks contemplating Dame Artemis (not to be confused with the Grecian goddess) and her role in the spiritual architecture of Filianism and Déanism. In my contemplation, I saw a connection between this lesser known Janya and the Wild Hunt of Germanic and Nordic paganism (which has been adopted into wider groups of pagan religions). 

Their purpose is much the same. The Hunter goes out in search of the spiritual beings that have strayed from the Way and returns them to their proper places. Additionally, the Hunter seeks out malevolent forces to put down and return to their proper places. It is both a rescue operation and a cleansing.

For the Germanic and Nordic pagan community, the Wild Hunt is active for a season (typically winter). In the Filianic and Déanic community, Dame Artemis seeks her prey on a monthly basis. The fifth day after the new moon is hers. I have found no rites honoring her nor much in the way of lore that says why this day was chosen or describing her role in relationship to the other Janyati.

I use the term Dame instead of Lady, because a Dame is the feminine equivalent of a Knight. In my meditation and attempts to logically understand things, I've come to a few conclusions.

If we take a moment to look at Dame Artemis as the equivalent of a Knight, one may see that she is under the direction of Sai Vikhë. Her lunar aspect also puts her under the direction of Sai Candrë. Considering these things, one might say that Sai Vikhë is her commander and that Sai Candrë is her Lady, whom she holds in devotion and esteem and will align her works with Sai Candrë's desire when not acting on the command of Sai Vikhë.

The life cycle of a myth.

Dear Reader,

I will not be doing a video post today because my living room still looks like a disaster because of how many projects I am working on. I really should have started last January on making things for last Yule. But I had to be foolish and wait until November. Lesson learned, I am not doing that again.

If I were to make a video, it would be discussing today's topic: the life cycle of a myth. There are going to be some who are going to be highly annoyed with me for the views pointed out here. I apologize in advance for any distress I may cause with this post. It is the fruit of literally three decades of study in mythology and religious literature. Some of this study was formally academic, most of it was almost obsessive reading and note taking. 

All myths began as stories to explain the world we live in and how it operates. They became popular with a cultural group because it made sense to them to interpret the world that way. Over time, due to cultural drift (also known as cultural cross-fertilization), these myths grow and change. If we look at Norse mythology we can see an example of that cultural drift in the role that Tyr and Odin play in the most recent record from antiquity. 

During the Migration period, studies of Norse mythology points to Tyr as being the leader of the Aesir. His epithet of Sky-Father suggests that he was originally in the position that Odin is in. Once the Settlement period began and raiding became an important part of their culture, Odin arises as the All-Father. Tyr is referred to as an adopted son of Odin, which is a large reduction in stature from one who was once chieftain of this tribe of gods. It is reasonable to argue that Tyr's loss of stature came from him sacrificing his right hand to the Wolf. Because he is no longer whole, he cannot hold the status of chieftain.

This concept is heavily borrowed from the Celtic peoples, where their mythology has a similar story of the king of the gods loses his arm and can no longer lead. Odin's loss of his eye would presumably make for an argument that he is no longer fit to be ruler. That story, however, presents later in the mythology than Tyr's loss of his right hand. As such, Odin is well entrenched as the head of the Aesir and is during the cultural period where the Nordic and Germanic people are struggling to keep their cultural identity in the face of encroaching Christian influences.

As cultures change, the original stories are forgotten or regulated to fireside fiction. With the arrival of Christianity among these peoples, laws are enacted to prohibit worship of the old gods. This happens regularly with the conquering of one culture by another. Sometimes, a culture gets lucky and aside from folktales and folk magic, there is some kind of documentation of the previous iteration of the mythos. This, however, must be read through the lens of the changed culture that wrote it and the recognition that significant portions are missing due to the passage of time.

Nativity & Yule have passed. What now?

 Something of a personal post today because I have been so busy that I haven't had time to come up with anything for the topic of Divination. If I can, later today, I will post a reading for the Filianic community at large. I had wanted to do one draw each day of Nativity to give an overview of what the corresponding month is bringing next year. That didn't happen. I wanted to do a reading for the heathen community at large and the lokean community, but that didn't happen.

I've been so busy knitting and finishing projects that I haven't had time. When I wasn't doing that, I was cleaning. I'm still in this position because I have a bear to finish for my younger son and a sweater to sew together for my eldest son when it is done blocking. It has all together been frustrating and dealing with crisis after to crisis for the last month has been grueling. Gods only know what's coming next.