Category Archives: Uncategorized
Religions of the World
Here’s a detailed map of all religions of the world on a map.
This was orignally seen at http://metal-gaia.com/
Dream Interpretation
Dreams are amazing. They are a harmless way for us to play out our desires, fears, and just experience things we otherwise wouldn’t be able to (like flying).
Dreams can be literal or symbolic. Some folks are stuck asking “What does it mean?”. I do that sometimes too! Sometimes dreams are so bizarre that everything has to be a metaphor. Surely I don’t literally want to be a manatee (okay honestly I do) but what are the correspondences?
If I have absolutely no idea – I will traipse over to one of my favorite dream interpretation dictory sites and look it up. http://www.dreammoods.com/dreamdictionary – Dream Moods Dictionary says this for a manatee:
To see a manatee in your dream represents your passiveness in a situation. You are lacking ambition and drive. Alternatively, it represents someone in your life who is lazy, slow or gentle.
I’ve even had dreams that I’m a man with a constantly erect penis and am baffled that no one is offended or saying anything about it.
Dreams can be silly, meaningful, mournful, beautiful – and they are all unique to each person. This is something that I always hope to explore more but rarely get the opportunity.
On the rare occasion when my dreams are so detailed I am questioning whether I am awake and in reality – I will always wake up with a debilitating migraine. When something in my mind clicks and I do realize I’m in a dream – I will start to bend a shape the dream and make it even more ridiculous. Why not? I’m going to have a migraine anyway, so I might as well have fun!
Pagan Resources
When I was a little baby witch the Internet was in infancy. Finding like-minded folks was really difficult. You really had to be serious to go through all the trouble of ‘putting yourself out there’ to find someone!
These days there are all sorts of resources at your fingertips.
You can search by country, state and type of person, group you’re looking for. Adult, Military, Teen, and Recovery are some of the categories.
Perfect for those who don’t want to put themselves out there but want information. This site offers a lot of information on different paths. Read, decide and follow your heart.
Local UU Churches
If you are looking for other Pagans, the easiest place to start is a local UU church. If no one there is Pagan, someone will at least know where you should start searching. Most UU Churches host craft faires and things which other Pagans frequent. Check it out!
In the same vein of UU Churches – the Pagan sector of UU called CUUPS has a great resource site:
http://moonpathcuups.org/resource.htm
Slow News …. Months
It has been quite some time since I’ve sat down and written a blog post.
I hope to make this my Saturday afternoon ‘thing’ soon. I’ve gotten busy with being a 30-something college student and trying to juggle all the homework. It has only been a few weeks but I’ll get the hang of it. Slowly I’ve been learning the ropes.
Starting this Saturday – February 21 I will spend a few hours writing posts that will auto publish throughout the week. Will the posts be useful? Maybe to some. Will they have cited sources? Fuck. Probably not.
This is an outlet. A place for me to easily share my spiritual observances without worrying if my words are misconstrued or if my natural ‘resting bitch face’ is sending the wrong message.
NEXT WEEK – more regular posts coming.
Fatigue or even Over Stimulation after ritual or workings
I have to admit that for a long time I was either one side or the other. After a ritual or working I would either be totally wiped out – or I would just be bouncing off the walls. I’m sure I’m not the only soul on this planet who has had this experience. This blog post will give you my end of things and how I have dealt with this issue.
It took a long time – but I realized that the reason I would be fatigued after a ritual or working because I simply made it all about me. I put too much ‘me’ into it instead of relying on the assistance I called on. Like most witches I do call the elements to protect my circle. Instead of putting my trust in the energies of the elements – I took it upon myself to do it all. Although I invite divine female and male to join and enhance my circle – still – it was all just me.
Was that wrong? Well maybe not. Who am I to say it is wrong? I will say that it just didn’t work for me – and if you’re reading this and have experienced this then you’re probably feeling it is wrong for you too.
Most times (especially as a new practitioner) it is really hard to disconnect yourself – especially after planning rituals and putting so much energy into it – but you have to release it. When you don’t – this is when you may find you have way too much energy after a ritual or working. You have to release it!
I will wholeheartedly agree that most of the time it can feel really anti climatic when you’ve taken the time to raise that energy then just let it go – but it really has to be done. There will always be some residual energy – but inside your circle (or wherever it is that you do your rituals or workings) but when you notice it why not just offer it? Offer it to the universe. Offer it to whoever may need it. Each time you make that offering – the next time you do ritual and maybe you feel totally worn out – a portion of that energy will be there for you. Cakes and ale (or eating and drinking something in a ritual setting) why not push some of that excess energy into those items – so when you leave your libation you are making an offering of that extra energies.
Grounding, of course, is another alternative. For some folks (myself being one of them) this can be difficult to master. Why do I have a hard time? Well – I have obviously spent a lot of time raising the energy for a certain purpose and just to ‘throw it away’ just seems wasteful to me. Again – I have a huge issue with making things about ‘me’ and I shouldn’t – but I am being totally honest here.
An alternative is to store that excess energy into a vessel of some sort. A crystal, a jar with a lid – whatever you want. I have a couple crystals that I use as a storage unit. This means that when I am not feeling on the same vibration frequency as my circle – I will leech from one of those crystals until the energies of myself and the energies of my circle are even. Again – it is all still under my control and ‘me me me’ – but this is something I have to work on and have been working on. On that same vein of thought – I own my circle. The circle I cast is mine. Everything that happens is because I manifested it or made it happen.
Those excess energies, or lack of energies – are because of you. You have to deal with those energies to keep your physical self and your energy or spiritual self are balanced.
Here are some suggestions to equalize energies before you ‘pick up’ your circle:
Write (something short like: headache, tired etc) – deal with those before you leave.
dump energies into a vessel (breathe into a bottle and seal it, hold a crystal, charge items)
cakes and ale (the act of eating and drinking can bring you back into the reality of the physical and out of the spiritual)
wipe your hands, feet, shoulders and ‘flick’ the energies into the air
Take a moment to really release it – or ask for a little something!
Holiday Celebration vs Commercialism vs Christian Popularity
Every week I tend to meet up with a small group of Pagans. These Pagans range in age, gender, career, experience, and paths within Paganism.
Tonight we we discussing the different Pagan holidays. I found it particularly interesting to ask each person:
What do you do to celebrate this holiday?
What do you associate with this holiday?
If you don’t celebrate this holiday why not?
As we (the whole group) went holiday by holiday I found it interesting that a large majority of people (myself included at times) celebrated a few “main” holidays.
Those holidays were:
Ostara
Beltane
Samhain
Yule
I started to draw some interesting lines between things. All of these holidays fall in/around/near a Christian holiday OR a commercial holiday.
Ostara. Easter.
Beltane. Memorial Day. May Day (in some places)
Samhain. Halloween (widely accepted holiday even with Christians)
Yule. Christmas.
I asked the question:
Do you think perhaps we celebrate (we meaning the individuals in the group) simply because of familiarity with the Christian counter-part holiday?
Do you think we concentrate on these holidays because of the commercial appeal and overall ‘acceptance’ during this holiday?
Another point was raised that there are basically 4 celestial holidays. These holidays are based on a solstice or equinox. The other holidays are harvest holidays. These are based on harvest times of different crops.
One group member brought up the point that since we are no longer farmers/gatherers we don’t have the same connection with the land as we once did. Now that we’ve got supermarkets and can get any variety of fruit and vegetables all year round we have little working knowledge of harvest type holidays.
Is this a good or a bad thing? To bring proper balance should we observe each holiday’s counterpart?
These are all just thoughts/ideas I’m sharing. Feel free to chime in!
The answers were really interesting. I’ve been Pagan for the better part of 15 years. Perhaps even a few more, but I only consider myself a 15 year practitioner because I was still really super clueless during those first few years. During all my time as a Pagan I have also chosen some holidays which are ‘high’ holidays and some which aren’t.
After hearing everyone else’s feedback I then started to analyze my own observance of the holidays.
Did I not celebrate the others simply because of no personal connection – or – was I not celebrating simply because it was too much work?
I now bring the question here, to those who read this.
Are there holidays you don’t celebrate? Do you abstain simply because you don’t feel a connection to that holiday or is there another reason?
The First Post
Well here goes.
This is officially the first post. Well, the second actually. I spent way too much time filling in the ‘about’ page. Have you read that? You should.
I hope to post here very often with information, inspiration, divination and anything else that pops into my mind.
As a witch who started her path at the dawn of the Internet Era, I have sifted through a lot of garbage as far as my online guidance attempts go. I grew up in the Bible Belt where there was no ‘New Age’ section at the Barnes & Noble (which was over an hour away from where I lived) or any way of finding other Pagans easily. If they did exist – they were super deep in the broom closet.
Some posts here may be as simple as a picture. Perhaps as complex as a new ritual I am trying. Maybe I put a song I heard on iTunes that I think others will enjoy.
I am not the authority on Paganism. I would go so far as to say there are many people out there much more qualified to share what’s in their mind than I am. However, without the guidance of other Pagans from all over the world I would have never become the Witch I had always wanted to be. I think there is a time in everyone’s life path where they need some information, ideas, or inspiration from someone else’s mind. I want to be that. I want to help push others. I want them to be the witches they want to be, too!
Information I share here will be open ended with no path as a focus. That is because it is the way I have chosen to travel my path. I spiritually identify with a lot of paths, but I can’t seem to 100% follow everything on any one path. Instead of having any internal conflict – I take the bits I like. The bits that feel right. The pieces that are non-restrictive. I’m just totally Pagan.
TotallyPagan 