During this time of Spring Cleaning and the purging, it is important not to overlook home cleaning of a different kind. Just as we track in dirt on our shoes and hands, so do we bring in psychic debris from our ventures into the outside world. “Smudging” is the act of using the smoke from an herb to cleanse away negativity and is an important part of self-care. Continue reading “A Different Kind of Spring Cleaning”
In Monday’s blog, we talked about symptoms of psychic attack and these may come from intentional malice or inadvertent ill will (like pouting and wallowing in anger). In this post, we discuss how to work with psychic attack without incurring karmic backlash. Continue reading “Managing Psychic Attack”
In Monday’s blog, we talked about the feasibility of working magic toward a positive outcome using the food we prepare. In this posting, we will discuss the nuts and bolts of how to do it. When working magic through food, there are two categorizations to consider. Continue reading “Food and Energy – Part 2”
Creating a particular outcome through the use of food is a practice as old as eating itself. It is less about ideas such as “Apricots will make you flirty” and “Eating bananas will draw in a lover” and more about the way energy operates in the world around us. Where there is energy, there is magic. Continue reading “Food and Energy – Part 1”
On Monday, the Energy Magic blog focused on an important subject: Where does your energy go? What follows is a brilliant meditation developed by my husband, Eric Rasbold, for visualizing your energy flow, plugging up the leaks, and widening the passages to let more flow to your desired recipients. Continue reading “The River Meditation”
Where does your energy go? Often, I hear even advanced magical practitioners talking about physical, mental, emotional, social, sexual, and magical energy as though these are unconnected. Some even equate success as a Pagan leader with working well beyond healthy exhaustion of limits on those energy reserves. Anyone truly worth their Himalayan Sea Salt knows a deficit in any of these levels compromises them all and if you physically and mentally exhaust yourself, your magical energy suffers greatly. Continue reading “Take Back Your Power Eggs”
To the seasons of life and beginnings
To the egg, the bud, and the seed
To a successful harvest yet to come
And the meeting of every need
Ita fiat!
To all earth’s beings great and small
To promise of blessings to be
We lift our cup in sacred praise
And honor results we can’t yet see.
Ita fiat!
We plant our seeds; they germinate
In our hearts and in our minds
They manifest in reality
And The Gods respond in kind.
Ita fiat!
Our seeds prosper and grow to greatest good
With the care and love we give
With the blessings of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air
A better life to live!
Ita fiat!
We ask the Ancient Ones of old
The Lord and Lady of the Field
To bless our harvest in this seed
The best results to yield.
Ita fiat!
In my own spiritual practice, CUSP, the time between Imbolc and Spring Equinox is critical to our harvest process and the manifestation of positive life change for the coming year. This is especially true of the final few days before Ostara when we officially plant our goals. At Imbolc, we submit our list of desired outcomes for the harvest season and we spend the next six weeks tuned into the Universe to receive confirmations that what we intend to plant is for our greatest good and redirects that tells us, “No, do not plant this…plant this instead.” Redirects may come because what we intend is not in our best interest or perhaps what we plan is already on the verge of manifesting for us and the magical energy we would use for that purpose could go elsewhere. Continue reading “UnOstara: Celebrating An Unplanting”
Pagans are big on history and gleaning the ancient origins and practices of our holidays is akin to sifting through piles of sand to find the handful of diamond flecks that might be scattered within. Much of our “history” actually comes from inferences derived from literature and the smattering of observational accounts that managed to survive thousands of years of war and the overt pissiness of nations. It becomes the odious task of modern day readers and scholars to sort out what happened from what we think happened or what we hoped happened during these celebrations of old. So here we go… Continue reading “Ostara, Then and Now”
Funny how so many of the classic phrases honoring monarchy involve their salvation or ability to remain alive. After the last several weeks, I can certainly see why.
Eighteen years ago, my priest/husband/co-author and I outlined a spiritual path that got to the bare bones of the agricultural sabbat cycle and created a plan for positive life change through magical manifestation. What was born of those long nights of drinking, writing, drinking, researching, drinking, and plotting was CUSP (Climbing Up the Spiral Pathway). Little did we realize that it would turn into a practice used worldwide and by practitioners of many faiths. It influences our lives daily. Continue reading “On the CUSP”
Humans often consider the power of speech and written word to be the defining quality that sets us apart from the rest of the animal world. With the exception of some animals specially trained to communicate, Koko the Gorilla, for instance, humans alone possess the demonstrated ability for the ongoing use of language. There is little denying the power of words. We all have memories of times when words cut us to the bone and left us to bleed. Theory says it takes 100 positive words to make up for one negative word. Sometimes, words imprint on our psyches and become the filter through which we experience our lives. Words can damage us forever and often the person doing the wounding has no idea they have hurt us or changed us in some significant way. Continue reading “The Power of Words”
In 2012, I wrote and published a book called Energy Magic that was many years in development. In it, I explore a practice that is as old as humankind itself: the use of magical energy to achieve positive manifestation for life change. As I began to work with the spiritual energy and “buzz” that exists above and beyond whatever path we take to reach it, I came under fire from all sides. The Christians felt I was too Pagan. The Pagans felt I was too Christian. The hardcore Pagans thought I was too vanilla and New Agey. I was called “pedestrian,” and had to sit and think for a while on all of the connotations of that grand slam.
Continue reading “Of Gods and Goddesses and Tenets (Oh My!)”
Thursday’s blog post discussed ethical considerations such as the power of intent and working for others without their permission. Today, we move further into the subject, beginning with Karma and Three-Fold Law…
There is much to say about magical ethics, especially when you consider the variances from tradition to tradition and spiritual path to spiritual path. A person’s head could explode trying to keep track of what candle to put out first or which way to walk in circle without courting disaster. Continue reading “Simplifying Magical Ethics (Part 1)”
I am either the best or the worst High Priestess in the history of, well, ever. Whichever you tell me, I will likely argue anyway. One of my beloved, and I do mean beloved, long-time circle members messaged me today with a perfectly reasonable question.
BLCM: We have a rosebush in our Earth quarter that needs to be removed right away with great prejudice. What can we do to appease the Earth quarter once it is done?
ME: Leave a five dollar bill on the nightstand and promise you will call.
O_O
I was admittedly in a strange headspace. I had just finished a particularly steamy scene in the new novel I am writing and I was, shall we say, all dressed up with nowhere to go. Of course, during those times, the Goddess is not just present, telling you where to turn and how fast to go, but is driving the bus.
The appropriate response is about leaving a nice crystal or a different plant or a pretty statue for restitution. I could throw in some stuff about being at a crossroads at midnight with a vial of menstrual blood and a crow’s feather and while that is fun, it really is kind of superfluous to the process. But then, as I will drone on about momentarily, ritual is for us, prayer is for us, homage is for us. Continue reading “Powers of Earth – Be With Us… How?”
It has been a weird and freaky time, let me tell you. I last blogged when I was still processing all the feels from my recent belly dance class. I enjoyed it and it was a fantastic workout, plus I have always liked that particular instructor, both personally and in her teaching style. Unfortunately, some scheduling conflicts came up requiring that I make some tough choice and I did not continue the class. I love belly dancing and hope to continue learning, but I realized after a lot of thought that the Egyptian style simply does not feel expressive enough to me. I am more of a tribal fusion kind of person so I will pursue that study on my own.
Three years ago this month, I decided to take a belly dance class in town. Belly dance has always impressed me and of all dance styles, it is what I most wanted to learn. Hint: the banner above is not me. I have seen women much larger than I am dance beautifully, so I knew size was not a limitation. I found a wonderful teacher and started a beginner class. Within a month, I developed horrible sciatica that lasted for the next two years.
As much as I love what I do, this “working” shit is for the birds. I have done many jobs from my home over the past seventeen years, but as much as I have hated some of it, none of it was as bad as having to leave my house in the early dark and come home in the late dark and only get a few hours’ of sleep in between, even if it is only on the weekend. I leave at 5:00 AM, drive for a million hours, then work for ten hours, then drive a million hours back. By Monday morning, I’m a zombie.
Continue reading “I’d Have Cheese With This Whine…But I’m Too Tired To Get It”
