Hi, Folks! Thanks for finding this blog. But unfortunately, it is not my “real” blog. This is where I back up my other blog sometimes or practice some stuff.
To access my actual blog, which I update every single day, please go here!
Thanks again for stopping by, and blessed be.
– Beth Owl’s Daughter
What we need is more people who specialize in the impossible.
– Theodore Roethke
As we begin our journey on The Artist’s Way, I want to note that because I am approaching this endeavor from my own spiritual path, one that I believe many of yousome (not all) of Julia Cameron’s frequent references to “God” with “Goddess,” as well as occasional other, more Pagan-based nomenclature.
She does a very good job of being inclusive in her book, but when I worked through it before, I found myself frequently itching to scribble in the “-dess.” So now, here, when I want to, I get to! I hope this doesn’t bother or distract anyone!
Today we begin with Julia Cameron’s fundamental spiritual principles for the discovery (or healing) of our creativity. She recommends that throughout this process, you read these once a day, “keeping an ear cocked for any shifts in attitude or beliefs.”
I agree. I also suggest that you read them out loud, letting the sound and meaning really penetrate into your deep awareness. Notice any parts that arouse resistance or your disagreement. And observe where you resonate in harmony with the views being presented. You might want to journal some of your personal responses, especially if you are reading these for the first time.
1. Creativity is the natural order of life. Life is energy: pure creative energy.
2. There is an underlying, in-dwelling creative force infusing all of life – including ourselves.
3. When we open ourselves to our creativity, we open ourselves to the Creator’s creativity within us and our lives.
4. We are, ourselves, creations. And we, in turn, are meant to continue creativity by being creative ourselves.
5. Creativity is the Goddess’ gift to us. Using our creativity is our gift back to the Goddess.
6. The refusal to be creative is self-will and is counter to our true nature.
7. When we open ourselves to exploring our creativity, we open ourselves to God:
Good Orderly Direction.
8. As we open our creative channel to the Creator, many gentle but powerful changes are to be expected.
9. It is safe to open ourselves up to greater and greater creativity.
10. Our creative dreams and yearnings come from a divine source. As we move toward our dreams, we move toward our divinity.
Pretty juicy stuff, isn’t it? I look forward to your comments as we continue!
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
– J. R. R. Tolkein
Lughnassadh (pronounced “LOO-nahs-ah”) or the Anglo-Saxon “Lammas,” is one of the Greater Sabbats and honors the First Harvest. In agricultural traditions throughout the Northern Hemisphere, this marks the start of the harvest cycle, when grains and corn are the first to ripen. We give thanks for these early, life-giving crops, as well as the fruits and vegetables that are now filling our pantries. Now is when we are reminded to save, preserve, and store food for the dark, hungry times ahead.
This Lughnassadh is especially momentous, for it comes on the Leo New Moon, which has featured a total solar eclipse. For important and understandable astrological interpretations of this pivotal confluence, I urge you to visit here, here, or here.
Of course, magically, the New Moon is the time when we plant the seed of our intention, to be fulfilled as the Moon waxes to Her fullness. Since Lughnassadh is primarily a grain harvest, it is the time that provides the precious seed for next year’s crops.
Corn, wheat, barley and grain products such as bread are featured during this celebration. At this time, Witches celebrate the Harvest Gods and Goddesses, as well as honor the stories of sacrificial Dying and Resurrection — stories that are far older and more universal than just the currently famous Christian one.
This is a splendid time to raise your awareness about the food you eat. Take action to support your local farmers and sustainable agriculture. Whether you live in an urban location or out in the suburbs, or even in rural areas, get to know the food on your table — where it comes from and those whose labor put it there.
We live in troubled times of faceless corporate agribusiness, where in recent years, we have seen thousands sickened and even dying from tainted food of questionable origins. This is what happens when the bottom line takes priority over wholesomeness, and marketing trumps wisdom. Merciless exploitation of the land, the animals, and even the workers — who are all treated like parts in a factory, turning out quotas of product — is rampant and deeply harmful to all involved. Including those of us feeding these products to our families.
Instead, let us honor the Goddess, as the Queen of Abundance. What we buy and feed ourselves and our families is holy. The food on our tables ultimately comes, not from the scheming of a multinational corporation, but by the grace of She, who is the Mother of bounty, and the God, who is the Father of our prosperity.
Therefore, honor Them today by choosing only what is in harmony with the Earth Herself. Because in all our choices – where we shop and what food we buy, how we prepare it and how we bless it with our gratitude, we are working the most profound magic of all.
May you never hunger. May you never thirst.
Blessed be.
Dance of the Harvest © Rik Berry
Trumpets, harps, hollow-throated horns, pipers, timpanists, unwearied… fiddlers, gleemen, bone-players and bag-pipers, a rude crowd, noisy, profane, roaring and shouting.
– Medieval eyewitness account of Lughnasadh festival at Teltown
Happy Birthday today to Harry Potter and, coincidentally, Madame Helena Blavatsky, author of Isis Unveiled, co-founder of the Theosophical Society, and one of the earliest, and most influential magical women in modern times.
Most noticeably, though, this is the eve of Lughnasadh (variously spelled with one or two Ds and possibly some extra Ss or Hs). The ancient Celts counted days from sundown to sundown, so the celebration of Lughnasadh would have begun at sunset tonight.
This day is named in honor of the Celtic God Lugh, who had dedicated this festival to His foster-mother, Tailtiu. She was the last queen of the Fir Bolg, the ancient race that preceded the Tuatha De Danann. She had died from exhaustion after clearing a great forest so that the land could be cultivated.
When the men of Ireland gathered at Her death-bed, She told them to hold funeral games Her honor. As long as they were held, She prophesied, Ireland would not be without song.
Tailtiu’s name is from the Old Celtic Talantiu, “The Great One of the Earth,” suggesting She may originally have been a personification of the land itself, like so many Irish Goddesses.
Tailtiu is the source of the name of Teltown in County Meath, where the festival was traditionally held in early Ireland. The games evolved into a great tribal assembly, attended by the High King. There, legal agreements were made, political problems discussed, and huge sporting contests were held on the scale of the ancient Olympic Games.
And naturally, artists and entertainers also displayed their talents, traders came from far and wide to sell food, farm animals, fine crafts and clothing, and there was much storytelling, music, and high-spirited revelry.
Tonight, as we prepare for the New Moon, a Solar Eclipse, and the beginning of the season of harvest, we also honor the Great Triple Goddess Hecate, for the last day of every month is sacred to Her.
Hecate is the psychopomp, showing the way between the living and the dead. She is the Lady of the Crossroads and the quintessential Crone. She is the Goddess of Witches and the Wisewomen.
As we observe this night of the dark Moon, and tomorrow’s darkening of the Sun in the eclipse, we ask Hecate’s blessing, for She is our loving guide when we must face Shadow.
There was three kings into the east,
Three kings both great and high,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn should die.
— Robert Burns
We have come to another turning of the Wheel of the Year, for now is the time when many flowers have ripened into fruit, grain, or seed, and what has been growing must be harvested. That which we have sown is now ready to be reaped.
Today as we continue our journey to Graceland, the mirthful, flowering Thalia relinquishes Her guidance. We are now led by Her sister, Euphrosyne, the Grace of Festivity and Cheerfulness. Pronounced “you FRAHS uh nee,” She welcomes us as we approach the magical threshold between July and August. For this is the beginning of the harvest festival season for many in the northern Hemisphere.
In ancient Athens, today would have marked the beginning of the Kronia. It was a festival in honor of Kronos as a God of the grain harvest. He is often depicted with a reaping hook, and is the source of our modern image of Father Time.
On this day a harvest supper would celebrate the harvest, giving thanks to Him. Recalling, of course that all Greek festivals, celebrations and gatherings, without fail, first invoked the Graces.
The Kronia was celebrated in ways that were similar to the Saturnalia, not surprising since the Romans associated Kronos with Saturn. But the Roman Saturnalia was held at the Winter Solstice, and the Greek Kronia was at the grain harvest.
The Kronia was celebrated by the ancient Greeks in memory of an even more ancient Golden Age, when Kronos and the Great Mother Goddess Rhea ruled the world. In his epic poem, Works and Days, Hesiod describes the era of Kronos as a time when men “lived like Gods, free from toils and pain,” when old age did not exist, and when the “grain-giving earth brought forth her fruits spontaneously.” Since there was no need for agricultural labor, slavery was also unknown in this mythological era.
This Golden Age was before Kronos was overthrown by His son, Zeus, who took over and introduced law and order to the free-wheeling ways of Kronos. Thus, the Kronia was a chaotic, wild festival. During the days of Kronia, slaves were allowed to run riot in the streets, and were invited to sumptuous banquets by their masters.
During the Kronia that would have begun on this day, let us celebrate by remembering that stories of Golden Ages speak to the deep, universal desire in the human heart for equality, abundance, pleasure, and personal freedom. If we can dream it, we can make it so.
Tomorrow, Euphrosyne will guide us into the time of Lughnassadh. May our celebrations be blessed by Her.
Sending prayers for the Unitarian Church members in Knoxville who were attacked Sunday during their children’s pageant. The killer acted, in part because his hatred for the Fellowship’s tolerance and support of equal rights for all races, sexes, beliefs, and sexual preference.
May the victims and their families find solace and peace.
Blessed be.
Update:
The Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA) in collaboration with the Thomas Jefferson District has established the Knoxville Relief Fund to bring ministry, spiritual care, and practical financial assistance to those affected by the tragedy in Knoxville, Tennessee. Your gifts will assist the Tennessee Valley UU Church and the Westside Unitarian Universalist Fellowship and their members, and will show them that they are not alone during this time of shock and grief.
Please give as you are able by going here.
He saw the garden of Eden…and…came to a tall, dark tree..and told to go up…
near the top of tree a beautiful woman, like the Goddess of Life…
gave him a rose.
– W. B. Yeats
Like the Rosicrucians, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn used the rosy cross as a representative symbol. They also had a ‘The Ritual of the Rose Cross,’ designed for spiritual protection and as preparation for meditation.
Based on the Rosicrucian symbolism of the Red Rose and the Cross of Gold, author Israel Regardie notes in his 1994 book, The Golden Dawn, that the Golden Dawn rosy cross contains attributes for the Elements, Planets, the Zodiac, Hebrew alphabet, alchemical principles, the hexagram and pentagram, the sepheroth of the Tree of Life, and the formula of INRI (an anagram from Latin that represents the phrase “Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews”).
In other words, the ambition of the Order of the Golden Dawn was no less than to synthesize ancient, Pagan knowledge with the mystical works of Jewish and Christian esoteric studies into a system of initiatory degrees and rites of high magic.
Regardie writes, “The Rose-Cross was a badge synthesizing a vast concourse of ideas, representing in a single emblem the Great Work itself—the harmonious reconciliation in one symbol of diverse and apparently contradictory concepts, the reconciliation of divinity and manhood. It was a highly important symbol to be worn over the heart during every important operation. It is a glyph, in one sense, of the higher Genius to whose knowledge and conversation the student is eternally aspiring. In the Rituals, it is described as the Key of Sigils and Rituals.”
Of course one of the great legacies of the Order of the Golden Dawn is the gift of the Tarot, made widely available for the first time to the general public. And of course, as mentioned last week, their rituals and formulas for magic laid the groundwork for most Pagan and Craft rites and fundamental concepts to this day.
But while the roses in our gardens will continue blooming until frost, we can see by the slant of the late afternoon sun that Summer is swiftly passing, and we are approaching the midpoint between Solstice and Equinox. The time of flowering gives way to the time of grain and fruit, gathered with magic and intention this week.
We continue our journey with the Graces this week, celebrating the abundance of the first harvest.
The Hanged Man
The greatness of a man’s power is the measure of his surrender.
— William Booth
This week, we are graced for only the second time by this powerful Major Arcana image. The Hanged Man is one of the most misunderstood cards by novices to the Tarot. In a recent class I taught, he was picked by several as the most unpleasant of the Majors. This is a perfect example, I think, of why it is vital to study the Tarot, instead of just flying by the seat of your pants, and relying purely on personal, uneducated responses to the cards.
For as grim as the Hanged Man may sound or even appear at first glance, look closely and you may see that it is not a card about death or punishment. Instead, the Hanged Man has a halo around his face, his eyes are open, and he is at peace. It becomes clear that he has chosen to hang in this way upon the T-shaped Tau cross.
His legs are in an odd position, one crossed behind the other, like the number four, which is symbolic of Earth, and stability. So although he is hanging upside down, he is still grounded, in a non-ordinary way. His position even looks like a dancer’s pose.
In fact, if you reverse the Hanged Man, you will see he is in the same pose as the World Dancer figure in the World card. However, unlike the World figure, who extends the magic wands she holds, the Hanged Man has his arms behind his back; his power is not yet revealed, but withdrawn, or still in the process of being understood.
This week, we celebrate the Sabbat named for the Celtic God, Lugh. This festival marks the beginning of the harvest season. In many cultures, tradition required the king to sacrifice himself for the land. In the Celtic practice, this happened at Lughnasadh. At one time, this was a literal human sacrifice, later it became a ritual death.
It was performed as an act of devotion. This was the king’s surrender to an authority higher than himself, to the divine order, and because his ultimate purpose was to serve the good of his people. His surrender of himself was given willingly, that the land would remain fertile through the coming Winter, and be reborn in the Springtime.
Like this ancient wisdom, the Hanged Man advises us to leave our comfort zone. Be willing to be led by a higher power or truth that has called to you. Take time out to listen and receive the insight that you have needed. Let go of your props and the insulated safety of your ordinary routines.
There is deep wisdom awaiting you, but like an initiate, you must surrender control of the situation, and allow Mystery to guide you.
Making your own incense is very easy, and using the powerful energy of roses, it will bring a boost to your rituals and magic, especially those rites you wish to keep “sub rosa,” as we have been discussing.
Mix and store only in a clean glass container. Plastic is not only NOT airtight, but it contains petrochemicals that can leave undesirable energetic residue on your ingredients. Like your cooking herbs and spices, it’s also best to store them out of direct sunlight, which will fade their color and energy over time.
For best results, as you prepare your incense, do so with intention and focus.
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon anise seed
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried lemon peel
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon of peppermint extract
The dried petals of three white roses (please: try to find organic roses. Many commercial roses are absolutely saturated with toxic chemicals).
Once you have mixed these ingredients, allow them to sit overnight, so the peppermint extract will be completely absorbed and dried. Once everything is dry, grind it all into a fine powder. During this, you would want to charge the incense with your intention.
When you are ready, in a small burner, light an incense-style charcoal (this is not the charcoal you grill outdoors with). Sprinkle your incense upon it to bless and energize your rituals. Enjoy!
If you were wondering if you can still join us THIS AFTERNOON for my Herbs and Magickal Gifts from the Garden workshop, the answer is —
There are still seats for you (maybe even a friend or two).
Join us from 1 to 5pm TODAY at Dancing Moon Books in Raleigh as we:
In addition, Beth Budd, of Bailey and Willow Tea Emporium, will be offering a tea tasting for us, so we can experience the magic of herbal blessings inside and out!
Perfect for gift-giving, or just to bring a little Green Magick into your life, please join us this afternoon for magic, creativity, and delight! Call Dancing Moon at (919) 833-8081, or come early to register! Only $50 which includes all materials!
