Godspousery Notes Are Moving.

 Dear Reader,

In my effort to make this blog make sense, I'm realizing that my domestic tidbits about life with Loki, Freyr, and my family just doesn't fit here. If I were talking about the technical aspects of spiritual relationships, that'd be one thing (which I am going to start doing) but random stories about how life is going will be going into my other blog.

I was struggling all day with how to make this post and Freyr just gave me a look. You know the look that you get when someone thinks you're worrying too much about the details and making things too complicated? That was the look that I got. I've been worrying a great deal over the past several days for reasons I can't define. Freyr is beginning to get exasperated with my obsessing over making sure that details are perfect. Hence the pointed look and him mentioning that I have about twenty minutes before dinner's ready, plenty of time to write.

So, I sat down and I did some writing. I apologize if this post isn't that great or is more rambling than usual. My brain isn't firing on all of its cylinders right now. I'll figure it out, somehow.

No Video Post This Week.

 Dear Reader,

Because I am having technical issues with the microphone on the laptop and on my headset, it is going to be a little while before I can do another video post. Beloved's got an idea where he can find me a decent headset. It may be a week or two before I can get a video up because of things like shipping and the postal service being a mess right now. (Anyone else have their bills go missing last month? I had to call everybody to make sure they got paid and to resend my current bill. I'll be so happy when the postal service is fixed.)

I am beginning to look into the possibility of replacing my laptop. If you have any suggestions for a good model to work with, drop them in the comments.

Herbalism: Black tea as a base for edible potions.

 Dear Reader,

Tea has a long standing history of being a drink with curative properties. It is a staple in almost every pantry and is equally popular as coffee for bringing a bit of energy to perk one up in the morning. Black tea is the most popular form of tea on the market. There are a lot of different varieties you can purchase. If you are engaging in blending your own teas, I recommend purchasing a tea strainer and using loose leaf tea. 

Black tea has excellent magical properties. It works to help ground us when we are agitated. It works to give us energy when we are feeling depleted. It also has the capacity to act as a good carrier substance for other herbs used in magic. A pinch of mugwort plus a few pinches of black tea, for example, can give you a nice, gentle potion that will help you develop your psychic gifts. 

Taste wise, black tea can be brewed quite strong. The tannins in the tea can cover up the less than savory elements of your potion. It is also something that brings out the floral flavor components when you add herbs such as lavender or chamomile when it is brewed to a mild degree. Strong black tea is very grounding. Weaker black tea is not as intense in its flavor profile, thus it lends itself to herbal blends that can work to lift you up out of your mundane state of consciousness.

A good general purpose tea blend that works to balance one's energy levels is one part black tea, one part mint, and one part chamomile. This can be sweetened if you desire or have milk added to it. The three herbs in this tea blend work together to ground your energy, clear your mind, and settle your body into a more relaxed state. (Chamomile has a long history of being good for digestive upset and settling the mind.)

As always, when using teas as potions or herbal medicine, consult with your doctor or pharmacist. You do not want to have any interactions between your concoction and medications you are on. You also want to measure your ingredients precisely to make sure that your 'dosage' is healthy for your build and conditions. Some herbal teas/medications can have adverse effects on the body despite their flavorful qualities. Raspberry tea, for example, can gently induce labor for a person in late stages of pregnancy even as it eases the severity of menstrual cramps for non-pregnant people. 

Practical Witchery: Elementals

 Dear Reader,

The system of correspondences that includes the classical elements has been around for so long and in so many variations that its origin is lost to the mists of time. I am going to introduce you to the system of working with the classical elements of existence that I have been using for over two decades now. Unlike what some of the newer authors in the Wiccan community have claimed, this system has been around for millennia. Wicca did not invent the elemental classification system. If this claim is put forth, consider the entire work with a grain of salt because the author didn't do their homework and is ignorant about the history of Wicca.

In the European historical context, the classical elements are: Air, Fire, Water, Earth, and Spirit. In the Asiatic historical context it is a bit muddied because of the influence of European invaders destroying documents with their efforts to force the conversion of the native peoples to some variant of Christianity. The clearest evidence of the classical elements in that part of the world comes from China (which has a very, very long history as a nation and an astounding historical record). In traditional Chinese thought, the classical elements are wood, fire, metal, earth, and water. 

Wikipedia has an interesting article on classical elements with relatively reliable sources. I am not going to go over the different cultures that have used different classification systems. That is beyond the scope of this post and I am not well versed enough in pan-cultural elemental classification systems from the pre-Christian era of history to do the topic justice. (This is something that would be worthy of a doctorate level paper. I'm simply not able to accomplish that, yet.)

Wicca comes from the European line of historical metaphysics. There is some disagreement within the Wiccan community as to what the correct order and classifications are for the classical elements. This lack of singularly codified system of classification is not an indication of disorganization as much as a signifier of the diversity of the Wiccan community. If we look back at the work of Gerald Gardner, considered the father of Wicca and modern witchcraft, we find that he organizes them thusly:

• Element of Air; Direction is East; Magical Weapon is the Sword/Athame*
• Element of Fire; Direction is South; Magical Weapon is the Wand
• Element of Water; Direction is West; Magical Weapon is the Chalice
• Element of Earth; Direction is North; Magical Weapon is the Paten/Pentacle

In my personal magical workings, the directional orientations remain the same. The magical weapons for Air and Fire are reversed. My logic for this is blades are fashioned in fire and wands are the branches of trees, which are high in the air. Now, each element has an Intelligence associated with it. They can be described variously as Angels, Janyati, or other spiritual beings. In traditional Wicca, these Intelligences are the Guardians of the Elements and known as Elementals. They can be worked with to grow in one's studies of the occult, to develop greater spiritual balance in one's life, or to manifest that which one desires. Elementals are generally kindly inclined towards humanity. They are a manifestation of the Divine within the realm of the world we live.

While the elemental classification system helps to organize the world we live in, the Elemental beings can influence the world through the things we recognize as under their purview. Next week, I will be introducing you to the Element of Air. 

*Note*

The term athame here is not to be confused with the Filianic term athame. The athame of Wicca (and other witchcraft traditions that use the term) refers to a ritual knife or dagger that is used for magical practices.

Housekeeping: Some changes on the way here.

 Dear Reader,

You may have noticed that my blog as a ton of tags and is kinda disorganized. I'm going to be using the 'Pages' feature here on Blogger to try to fix that. I started doing so in 2017 and then a major depressive episode hit me like a freight train and I got way off course. (Yes, I resisted the urge to pun right there.) I am going to be doing so slowly over the next several months.

I am also in the planning stages of another series of lessons. This is going to include video content. I am going to try to walk through some of the basic witchcraft lessons that I had as a girl. I am currently attempting to locate the first volume of my book of shadows so that I can clean up those notes. It's in a box, somewhere safe. I think that box is in the project room, which may as well be a black hole for all of the stuff crammed in there.

I have a desire to delve into my perspective on Heathenry but I am still assessing the best way to do that. I have posted (and will continue to post) a lot of Filianic and witchcraft oriented content. But that is not the whole of my practice. It is my belief that Heathenry that is non-racist and not macho viking LARP is under represented. I have nothing against LARPing. I did that for over a decade as a hobby until life got in the way of it. If I could, I'd continue that form of gaming because it was a lot of fun. Macho viking LARPers, however, gives the world a bad image of what all of us are like because they're so loud. I also want to make clear that people like the idiot "Q Shaman" are outliers not the norm.

I am going to be doing a number of interesting and kind of weird things with this blog over the course of this year. This is your heads up. There is going to be some content that is exclusive to this blog and some content that is going to be on both this blog and the mirror blog. I will figure out a way to sort that out. It's a work in progress. I still have a backlog of material to port over to the mirror blog (again, started in 2017 and was stalled by bad brain chemistry).

There is yet another witchcraft oriented blog that I own. It's older, more random, and dates back to when I was actively hanging out with the Discordian community. I'm going to be posting material on there as a public extension of my book of shadows. I currently have a page up there listing about half of what I have in my library. I have grown since I was most active on there. The old material is an archive of where I was at in that point of time. 

One thing that will be on there and not on this blog or the mirror blog is my notes regarding anything prophetic/channeled. I am a seer on top of all of this other stuff I do. As such, I will have times where I get insight or foreknowledge of things happening in the world. I will be keeping that strictly to the other blog. The focus of this blog and the mirror blog is informational. Prophecy, while it can be informational, falls outside of the scope of these two blogs. It does happen, however. If the insight or foreknowledge is relevant to anything here, I will be linking to it and providing disambiguation of what it all means.

Divination: Being Psychic is a Skill and a Talent.

 Dear Reader,

I've touched on this topic before. I am going to do so again because of how often I see people insisting that you have to be 'special' to be a psychic. Psychic stuff does require a measure of talent. At the same time, it is a skill that can be learned and honed. If you have raw talent and do nothing with it, you will never realize your full potential. It will just sit there in that rough shape and give vague information. 

I have seen psychics who learned their trade through a great deal of hard work. Some of the best tarot readers that I have encountered built their ability through hours of study and practice. Some of the worst ones I've met just go off the fly to rely entirely on their intuition, taking a shotgun for flies approach to answering your query. There are times where skill and talent intersect. You can get some really awesome tarot readers who have raw psychic talent that they developed and keenly honed through hours of study and practice. 

The difference between the three is simple. Your psychic who has invested study and practice despite lacking raw talent will have a dogged determination in their approach to reading. They will be relentless in their effort to draw out as much information as they can from the cards. Your psychic who is relying solely upon their innate talent will have information that is difficult to decipher and seemingly random pertaining to your query. Your psychic who has invested in building their skills and honing their talent will have the relentlessness of the psychic who learned it all the hard way with the bonus of having a deeper connection with the spiritual side of the world. The third psychic will be able to present to you the connections between the seemingly random elements that pop up in your reading.

Now, for some people, it is intimidating to try to learn the psychic arts. The over-culture of the West views the psychic arts in a mixed fashion. There is a degree of skepticism and mockery while at the same time, people are quite devoted to their daily horoscope. The mixed reviews of the psychic arts in modern society should not stop you from learning the psychic art in question that fascinates you. All knowledge is worth having.

Godspousery Notes: Going back to Keen.

 Dear Reader,

I am not sure if I noted this earlier or not, I am going back to doing readings on Keen. It's the only platform that allows me the flexibility I need in my schedule and methods of reading. I was very frustrated when I came to this realization. Going months with out doing tarot readings or interacting with people outside my family wasn't helping me in any fashion. Frey and Loki staged an intervention.

They demanded to know why I was letting my pride get in the way of doing things that I loved. That stung. But, that was the point of that statement. After some discussion, they convinced me to give Keen another try. They gave me ideas for how to market it so that I actually build up a customer base even as I am working on other things. Most of all, they sat and held my hand as I faced my fear that I'm just not good enough to do this sort of thing.

I'm going to start posting links to Keen blog articles. The content is going to be different. I can't cross post material from Keen or to Keen. It's against their rules for blogging on their platform. I'm going to try to post daily across multiple blogs. There's going to be a bit of a learning curve here. Frey assures me that I'll master it again. I'm not so sure about it. 

I feel real hesitant about taking this step. I worry that Keen isn't acting in good faith with their advisors. Loki basically laughed and asked me what intermediary is doing that these days? I guess he has a good point. I just have to out think them and push myself to expand my social efforts, despite how much I dread doing so. If I have learned anything from 2020, it is that I must force myself to be social or I start having even worse problems with depression and flashbacks to trauma from when I was a kid.

As much as I hate to admit it, Keen is going to be a crucial part of that process of rebuilding social connections and getting more practice interacting with people. It's going to be as brutal as when I had to do physical therapy after I fell and hurt my back a few years ago, if not more so. But, if they have faith in me, it is the height of hubris to say that I can't possibly have any reason to have faith in myself. I've seen the price of hubris and my rib aches when the weather gets cold just to remind me.