Tag Archives: paganism

The Cards Are Speaking.

Posted on August 6, 2010 | 13 Comments
 

    So here’s what happened today at our card altar- I was paring down the decks (only setting extras aside in case I got on-line tonight and there was an overwhelming response that said “crazy witch!  We want to see every single card you own!”) and arranging what was left.  When I read cards for a person (in person, that is, someone sitting in front of me and paying their hard-earned pesos for my skills) I have them touch the deck.  By touching, I mean getting themselves all over the cards.  Shuffle, handle, mess ‘em up all over the table, fondle, and basically really connect with them.  That’s what I did with the ones we are going to use.  I had them in a sort of (almost) circle (decided not to try and find a larger table) so I could go around the group and not confuse my swiss cheese brain.

    I was thinking about each of you who have commented, those of you who I know in real life, those three I’ve given birth to or the one I married (who married me, whatever), those of you I am friends with, those of you I’m related to, and those of you who have blogs or websites I read.  I was waiting for the cards to tell me where we were going to start.  Of course, they did.  (My cards are always reliable.) 

     While I had one deck all scattered and completely disorganized in front of me I noticed how really cool the back illustration was.  Now, this is a deck I have probably had for five years or more.  But today I saw something I hadn’t been made aware of until this point (the cards do this a lot).

   Lora commented the other day about a butterfly tattoo, so that immediately popped into my head while I was handling this deck.  Then, when I was putting them back together one decided to jump out.  (When a card throws itself at me, I take notice.)  This will be where we start.

Healing with the Fairies ~ Oracle Cards by Doreen Virtue

      Making New Friends

    Our circle of friends and acquaintances is shifting to a higher frequency.  Old friends may not be as noticable on a regular basis, and new people are entering our day-to-day existence.  Our changing interests and priorities have made a ripple effect throughout our entire life.  As our thoughts and emotions center on more spiritually natured topics, or focus on new interests, we are now attracting like-minded people around us.  The Fairies ask us  not to worry about these evolving shifts.  We are making room for growth, and acknowledging the Law of Attraction.  Know that we deserve wonderful friends who inspire, support, understand, and complement us.

(This deck has an affirmation with each card, not all do though.)

I am grateful for my wonderfully supportive and loving friends.

    I won’t be describing, in-depth, every single card we select.  Some are just kind of plain, and their meaning is more than their picture.  In this case, it’s a lovely friendly fairy standing amongst some blue flowers, with blue toned butterflies all around her.   (This entire deck is not all about butterflies, I swear!)

I need to Thank the Universe today for connecting me with Gina at the U of O, and allowing me to be part of the her reasearch study.

 

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The Sun, The Moon, and The Stars.

Posted on July 27, 2010 | 9 Comments

   Picture, if you will, a barely 29-year-old stay-at-home mother of three children.  There I am, living in a decent little house with a lovely yard, devoted husband, and my babies (okay, so they were more like, a kindergartener, a toddler, and an infant).  I have everything I’ve ever wanted.  True, we have next-to-no money and I’m bordering on the brink of insanity, but for the most part, all is well.  Some other stuff is going on though: I’m hearing my dead grandmother calling my name, I’m seeing a walk-beside animal (gleaming golden eyes at the end of the bed), I’m smelling a barn fire from a previous life, I’m being visited in my dreams by a woman in a gray cloak (regularly visited), I’m hearing a ghost in our pantry.  But really, everything is fine.  Or maybe it’s not….  I wake up one morning convinced that I need to have a blue crescent moon tattooed in the middle of my forehead (this would be before I read The Mists of Avalon, well BEFORE).  Finally Daniel, in his ever-patient tone says, “you should maybe see someone.”  YA THINK?!

   He finds me a local psychic.  I attend seminars, take classes, and generally learn that the things I am experiencing all have labels, titles, and names.  Psychometry, spontaneous regressions, mediumship; glaring psychic abilities are spewing out of me.  Oh right, I’m not losing my mind, I’m a witch.

    (Side note here.  I spent nearly every summer from the age of 10 to almost 17 with my maternal grandparents.  He told me, “Julie-kins I love you so much.  Don’t be a fishwife.”  And she told me I was more special than I even realized (discussing, from the age of about 3, what a real witch was, and did, and saw, and heard), dragging me to temples, churches, spiritual book stores, missions, sacred sights across two states, and mystical shops of all varieties.  They lived in Hawaii and the year before I graduated from high school, he said that the business was failing, they’d have to move back to the mainland.  She promptly grew a brain tumour and died.  I shut down, one of the last conversations we had together was that I would die before I turned 30.)

  Now, here I was, coming to the last month of my 29th year.  I finally saw what was happening (with the help of Dan of course, who never once said I was crazy).  My grandmother had come back to remind me of my gifts, and my blessings.  I embraced these experiences, was thankful for my ancient genetic knowledge (and the new-found labels), and I allowed a part of me to pass away.  I had been angry at her for leaving me, but I had needed to acquire my little house, my beloved husband, and my brilliant children.  Now all I had to do was mark the occasion and begin this part of my life.  (And, I had NOT become a fishwife.)

   For my 30th birthday Daniel gave me

The Sun
The Moon
and The Stars

 

    Tomorrow: we Wave.

   Cross stitch update, I just got a catalog in the mail yesterday from The Stitchery.  It has some really good sales, and a new product (spoiler alert for tomorrow): The Great Wave Off Kanagawa pattern.

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Card # 42, Only Two More Days, and Continuing Paganism

Posted on July 23, 2010 | 7 Comments

      Ally, our “mostly shamanistic” deputy reminded me, in yesterday’s comments section, about a funny story.  Daniel is as out of the broom closet as I am, wears his pentacle as a silver and onyx ring.  Other cops sometimes don’t understand an officer with different beliefs than their own.  One such guy spent an inordinate amount of time (years and years) being afraid to stand too close to us, ya know, when that lightening bolt struck, he didn’t want to catch any of the shrapnel.  At one point, he asked Dan, “so you guys believe in Pegasus-ism….” or something to that effect.  All we can do for folks like that is continue the eduction, and then, yes, laugh later.  (If you have been reading along for a while, you’ll recall that I made a reference to this exact guy a few weeks back, if not, I implore you to poke around in the archives and find it.  He saw my car, made a sneering “I smell something very bad” face, and then when he realized it was me had the terrified look of a cartoon character, bulging eyeballs, “O” shaped mouth, eyebrows leaving the top of his head, the entire deal.  Gawd I love days like that.)

    You’ve seen pictures of my ridiculous father now, and you’ve read about him showing up at the kitchen table, so it will come as no surprise when I tell you that he appeared at my garage door yesterday.  I had been vertical less than half an hour, and was in my outside office (yes, the garage, no, we don’t park cars in there, it’s all full).  I pull our card of the day earlier than I put it up here, read what the guidebook has to say, and write it up in my journal.  He came in and I offered him my chair (there is only one out there, I sat on the step to the house door).  He picked up the cards and started going through them.  Intentionally mispronouncing each one and lifting his reading glasses for a better view of the illustrations.  It was very amusing for us both.  He has pretty much accepted me as I am for my entire life.  I am the oldest kid and he has turned to me in some pretty tough times.  As a four-year old I was his buddy, and went for rides with him when he had his own erranding to do (gosh, wonder where I get it).  Because of him I drank at a frighteningly young age (also quit before I was 22), got tattoos, and smoked.  He was with me when I graduated from high school (my mother was with her dying mom), and he’s been my go-to guy, even after Dan took up the role.  Last night when I sat down here to write up our forty-first card I looked in the box and realized I only had two left.  WTF?!  Did my oh so smooth brain throw me a curve ball?  How had I miss counted?  So I shuffled about in the cards we had already done, they were all right side up (because Dad had righted all the Challengers), but one was facing the wrong way.  It had been stuck to the one under it.  If he hadn’t come by, and farted around with me first thing in my day, I wouldn’t have found the missing card.  See, once more, I need to be grateful.  Thank You, Universe, for giving me these moments with a father who is there for me, even when he doesn’t even know it.

    The Well Watcher ~ 7 ~ wisdom, power of the Divine (reversed).

       This Challenger comes to help us to be aware when we may be running out of steam.  Sometimes self-will alone is not enough to make things happen when we want them to.  This is a resting phase.  We are asked to remember the sacred, creative Source  of the water in the well.  Drink some, be still, and contemplate the true origin of power.  Take time to listen to the beautiful music playing through our lives right now.  We are not to struggle with what is before us, we are to observe now, and begin again later, refreshed.

   (This is a Universal Truth, when the going is difficult and you feel as though you are banging your head against the proverbial wall, it’s because it IS hard.  Don’t do it.  Go another direction, look for an easier route.  Life is not about the fight, it is about the learning and the love we share.)

   Think old sepia toned daguerreotype pictures for this one.  There is so much going on in this illustration, not only its color scheme but the depth of the images.  The Well is made of smooth stone or concrete, with sides that come up and a decorative rail almost all the way around it.  The Watcher stands just in front of it, with a light, almost white owl coming to rest on her/his shoulder (some of these folks are what we call “gender optional” -so I don’t want to commit, you need to look for yourself and decided who/what you see).  S/He is wearing a very dark tunic, with cream-colored full sleeves, a belt (possibly with a weapon hanging from it), leggings that match the almost black, brown top.  In the background is a gorgeous old wall or fence, with a tall gate just past the Well.  Behind that are trees and an ancient domicile.  The feeling is age and wisdom and knowledge here, soothingly worn and powerful.

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Our 41st Card, and Words.

Posted on July 22, 2010 | Comments Off

  Look what my wonderful and talented daughter did to the header!  Can you see the new wave?  Thank you so much Hurricane!!!  

I watched a very haggard woman today wrestle one of those rigid plastic kiddie pools into the backseat of her compact car.  That was not the most entertaining part, she was wearing sandals, with only one black sock.  I was so tempted to offer her aid, or babysitting, or an adult beverage.  She seemed to need…. something.

    I mentioned before how the word “witch” has always been something familiar and comfortable to me.  My belief is that I have worn this title before, in lives previous to this one.  It has never scared me nor had a negative connotation.  (What I have always been offended by is the unfair depiction of the green warty nose and bad teeth.  Now that just hurts.)  The word itself has been around an extremely long time, and it was not with the definition most folks think.  Originally it was a wise woman, the elder who was sought out for her herbal knowledge and healing remedies.  She was the keeper of the wisdom, she was occasionally also the local dowser.  Her reverence took a turn for the worst about the same time all women’s reputations lost footing.  (Keep in mind when you read the next part, I am not picking on anyone, re-read yesterday’s post if you feel bothered by this next statement.)  When men of the church, at that time, started to feel threatened by the fact that people were still seeking out the wise ones they had always turned to, they struck back.  (This was also about the time that bibles were being re-written, fact here kids, not crap I am just making up.)  These narrow-minded men were all about the negative spin, what with the way women could bleed and not die from it, this had to mean that there was something very wrong with that half of the population.  It’s a complicated history (not HER-story) and it took quite a while for those changed meanings to catch on.  But they did, the word, title, label, formerly esteemed heading, eventually came to be a scary and harmful term, generally and ignorantly applied.  Don’t forget that what we say has great strength, when we recover an orginal definition, and we use it in its proper form, we are returning that power to where it belongs.

   The Dream Walker ~ 8 ~ dreams, the collective good, illusions.

       Arriving as our Ally we are reminded that dreams really can and do come true.  We have the gift of playing an important and unique part in the Divine dreaming of the world.  We are accompanied so that we may move effortlessly through the illusions around us, observing the Truth and celebrating the waking dream of our lives that result.

    There is so much symbolism in this illustration.  The central figure stands atop a rock, with the ocean below and a glowing golden sky behind, soft clouds and the suggestion of stars in the distance.  S/He plays a flute, back turned to a white egret perched on another large stone, with a small dragon, tale aloft, just beyond.  There are a few leaves peeking in from the other side of the scene, the overall feel is gentle, and yet full of a quiet energy. 

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Card Four Oh! And I Rant on Tender Topics.

Posted on July 21, 2010 | 12 Comments

  I am loving all the comments lately, nice stuff you guys, thanks.  Yeah, there is a saying, never discuss politics or religion.  Well, I’m going to discuss religion, so there.  Actually I’m going to just talk about how the topic of religion can get ugly.  I have a set of beliefs that works for me, it’s a combination of lots of things, bits and pieces that make sense in my heart, brain, and soul.  They can mostly be categorized as Pagan.  Much of my path is Wiccan, but I don’t follow rules well, and don’t need to gather a lot, so I don’t call myself that.  I do, however, call myself a Witch.  It is a word that has always (and I do mean always) been familiar and comfortable to me, but it is also a word that jumps up and sometimes scares folks.  It shouldn’t, but then so much of our culture falls under the “shouldn’t” banner, and that pissed me off.  Not the topic of the day though, so I’ll try to stay focused.  I think, and this is simply me, that what a person believes or follows is only important to that individual.  Why should I care if someone worships doorknobs?  I don’t.  And wouldn’t it be a lovely place if everyone thought that way?  The Wiccan Creed talks about doing what we will, and not harming anyone.  This is how I raised my children, harm none.  Which means don’t hurt anyone’s stuff, anyone’s body, or anyone’s feelings.  Why yes, it can be that simple.  And who you pray to, or meditate on, or honor, is simply up to you.  I hope it gives you peace, and tranquility, and it fills your life with love.  I don’t see any reason why anyone needs to live in pain, or discomfort, or fear, or guilt.  Why does a label need to change that?  Well, it doesn’t.

   Tracy mentioned recruitment yesterday, or having someone persuade another person to believe one way only.  I have a few words that rub me the wrong way instantly, recruitment is one of them.  Normal, is another.  No such thing there.  (Just like coincidence, doesn’t happen.)  If I find solace in my way of life, I will tell you about it, or I won’t.  But it is never right for me to try and make you do what I do (although we really need to recycle more, and vote with our dollar whenever we can, don’t even get me started on big box stores or MalWart…. again, another topic, for gawdsakes Jul, focus).

   Okay, lecture over.  Your beliefs are yours, enjoy them, and if you don’t, change them.  Either way, up to you.  You are now free to move about the cabin.

(Hold on to your socks, it’s that kind of day, even our cards are on a tangent.)

     The Prison Waif ~ 31 ~ self-sabotage, poverty consciousness.

When he arrives in his realm as Ally, he is reminding us of the Law of Paradoxical Intent.  This one is all about the view we have of ourselves.  If we don’t like the way something is going we need to step out and change it.  We need to always be aware of what we say and what we do, because it will be true before we know it.  We don’t want to be in a self-imposed prison, so we need to let ourselves out, we have the key, we have the power of release.  The way to change things is to think them and they will manifest.  The way to walk our highest path is to acknowledge the positive and make it be so.

    The colors here are much more hopeful than they first appear (much like the card itself).  The central figure is a young boy sitting on a stone bench, his knee up and his chin resting on it, one arm around his bare leg.  There are large green plants behind him and barred windows in front of him.  The brilliant light that streams down on his back is from a break in the foliage, seemingly showing him a way out, and up.

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