Lughnasadh is Right Around The Corner

Hello and Blessed Be!

Lughnasadh (also know as Lammas) is right around the corner (taking place anwhere from tomorrow to Tuesday the 6th depending on how you calculate the day(s)), so I thought I would share with you some information on this holiday and how I plan to celebrate it. Lughnasadh is the first of the Wiccan harvest festivals (though it is celebrated by other Pagans too) and in Wiccan lore marks the time when we can clearly witness the beginning of the death of the Sun God. His death can be seen through the earlier sunsets, cooler nights, and the vast amount of produce coming into season during this time.

Even though the God is dying this is a time to celebrate because the seeds planted during Imbloc (physical, mental, and spiritual) are becoming ready to harvest. While the trend now days is to celebrate this holiday on August 1st or 2nd its actual date is the day that lies halfway between the Summer Solstice (Midsummer/Litha) and the Autumnal Equinox (Mabon) which lands on either August 5th or 6th depending on how you count. Originally this holiday would have been celebrated when much of the produce became ready to harvest and the date would vary widely year to year. However you choose to calculate the date for this holiday there are some key themes involved in most Lughnasadh celebrations.

Primarily this holiday is a time for food and community; and fairs, farmers' markets, and craft shows are great embodiments of this theme. If one of these is happening during this time somewhere near you I encourage you to check it out, spend some time with friends or family, sample the foods, browse the wares and in general have fun.  As part of my Lughnasadh celebration I will be attending a Renaissance Faire and Art Festival and am greatly looking forward to the elephant ears, handcrafted wares, and spending time with my friends. Another good way to celebrate this day is to look into what is coming into season in your area (both farm grown and wild) and then using some of these fresh ingredients to make dinner for your friends of family.

The other main theme of this holiday is death and growth. The Sun God is dying but he is doing so willingly so that the people will grow and prosper (though the harvest of fruits, grains, and veggies). This is a prime time to witness how some things must die so that others can grow. Produce is harvested to feed a family, a rabbit is killed to feed the coyotes, a tree falls so that smaller plants may receive light and grow, all of these are reminders of how we are all part of the never ending cycle of life, death, and rebirth. This theme of death is what has lead to the burning of the "wicker man" that many Pagan groups take part in this time of year. The "wicker man" is usually made of stick, grasses, and/or corn husks and represents the God. People either then fill him with thanks and their hopes of what will bear fruit in their lives (either by speaking it or placing a slip of paper in him) or by filling him with all the things they wish to be rid of, either way the "wicker man" is then lit and a party or feast begins.

If you can't do anything else this Lughnasadh I encourage you to get out and spend some time in nature. Take note of which plants are flowering, are their any berries that are ripe, and what plants have gone to seed. Remember that as one life ends, another begins, and still another continues, summer may be coming to an end but it is glorious while it lasts so give thanks and go have fun :) And as usual I would love to hear from you, what are your plans, do you have any past Lughnasadh experiences you would like to share?

A Poem

Hello and Blessed Be!

I wanted to share with you a poem that I wrote called "I am a Pagan". This poem came about as a way for me to reconnect with my path after spending a long period of time in an environment where I could not continue my usual practices. I recite this poem to myself whenever I'm feeling lost and I even wrote it in my Book of Shadows (which is a book that is usually used by Wiccans that acts as a manual and record of their religious path and includes things such as spells, prayers, rituals, essays, poems, recipes, tables of correspondences, etc, essentially anything that is meaningful or important to them). 

I am a Pagan

My mother is Selene,

My father is Pan,

My brother is the Raven,

And my sister is the Wolf.

My family are the animals large and small

My friends are the plants a many,

And my ancestors are the countless stars that smile down upon me.

My body is that of the Goddess,

But I carry the fire of the God in my heart,

And even though I am a child of this Earth,

My head is often in the clouds.

My temple is the majestic forests,

My home is where ever I lay my head,

And my final resting place will be that land of eternal summer,

Across the vast sea of tears,

In the realm that exists beyond the veil.

Obviously there is much more to my religious identity than this, however I find this to be a good summery and a good way to remind myself of who I am. If this inspires anyone else to write a poem about religious identity (feel free to follow this form or create your own), or if you have already written something like this, I would love to read them :)

Be Careful What You Bind Your Spells To: A Cautionary Tale

Hello and Blessed Be!
Firstly I'd like to apologize for my very long absence. To sum it up, I needed some "away" time due to numerous personal and financial issues that had cropped up in my life. However I am glad to be back and while my posts will be more frequent, they will still be sporadic.

Now onto the lesson (that I learned the hard way), that I wanted to share with everyone today. We all know, or at least should know, that we must be careful when doing magical workings due to potential unseen repercussions, and that we also must consider these before we start any new spells or other magical workings. As you may have guessed, in February of 2012, I had not considered the consequences of my actions and this resulted in some very interesting repercussions in February of this year.

So my story begins with a miniature rose plant named Alice that I had received from my (at the time) long-term boyfriend. Knowing that plant life didn't last long in the apartment we were living in at the time, and believing that the love between us was strong I performed a (self-invented) ritual to tie the condition of the rose's growth with the growth and strength of the love (not the platonic kind) that existed in my life. The wording I used, which ended up being very important later on was, "As love in my life grows and blooms, so too shall this rose." My thoughts at the time were this, "if I want this rose to survive my roommate and her wild parties I should magically connect it with something strong and unwavering...I know! I will tie it to the love between me and my boyfriend, there is nothing stronger in the world than that!" Oh, I was wrong, and the gods love to remind us that nothing is concrete, especially when we get cocky (in my defense though we had been considering marriage, so my belief that it would last a lifetime wasn't completely unfounded).

For the longest time this seemed like it was an excellent idea, Alice thrived as did our love, but gradually our relationship stagnated and Alice suffered. At first it was only little things, like the cat suddenly deciding his new favorite past-time was shredding her leaves, but as our relationship fell into a rapid downward spiral, my rose became infested with spider mites (which managed to survive everything I threw at them) and rapidly declined too. By the end of it all poor Alice was nothing but a leafless withered stem, and the combination of being left by my boyfriend of 3 years and the apparent death of my rose was almost too much to bear. Remember the wording of the spell, "As love in my life grows and blooms, so too shall this rose," well that also meant that as love in my life withered and declined, so too shall this rose. Luckily I met someone else and as the spark slowly but surely grew between us, Alice recovered. Now she is back to her magnificent self and despite being warned by everyone that her spider mites would return, she is till mite free and even the cat no longer messes with her.

Now this may not seem like that big of a deal but we need to remember that while Alice may only be a plant she is still a living organism, and while I like to consider her my "enchanted rose" she would probably think of herself as more of being cursed to have her growth controlled by the whims of the heart of a college student. I imagine there could be some sort of karmatic retribution of this, even if it is small, and if only due to the irresponsible way that I acted (I really only did so that I could have a pretty rose). Also what does this do to the potential of her rose petals for other spell work? I still don't have the answer to that one.

So what have I learned from this? Don't bind fluctuating things such as luck, health, love, etc to an item, it doesn't even have to be living. Let's say I would have instead did a spell to tie the condition of the love in my life to a trinket saying, "as long as I have this trinket, our love will be strong," and then lost said trinket, that too would have been bad. So to sum it up, be careful of your magical workings, and always consider the possible consequences.

Open Your Eyes? No, Open Your Ears!

Hello and Blessed Be!
It seems that too often we are told to "open our eyes", to see the God/Goddess in nature. I myself even alluded to this in a previous post (although I was going for more of a "open your mind" thing), but why? Why do we put such an emphasis on seeing? I know "seeing is believing", but what about touching, tasting, smelling or hearing?
Sit with your eyes closed for a minute and really listen, I bet you will hear things that your mind usually tunes out (whether it's the hum of the refrigerator or bird song outside your window) and because of that I would like to propose an experiment; some day this week I think we should all stop trying to see the divine/sacred in everything and start listening for it. This line of thinking has led me to write a poem about listening for the spirits of nature. While this poem is heavily influenced by my desire to go home and see my family (the things I describe in it are all sounds that are commonly heard in my hometown), I think it will help you realize what I mean.

Stop and Listen

Stop and listen, do you hear that tune?

It’s the nature spirits of old,

Hear them in the haunting calls of the lover loons,

And in the whisper of the falling snow.

Hear them in the creaks and groans of cedar trees,

In the bellows of a stag in rut,

Hear them in the summer song of buzzing bees,

And in the yips of coyotes on the hunt.

Hear them in the robin song of a bright spring day,

In the waves crashing on the rocks,

Hear them in the chatter of squirrels at play,

And in the wing beats of the mighty hawk.

Hear them in the ancient raven’s lonely call,

In the chorus of the peeper frogs,

Hear them in the rustling of the leaves of fall,

And in the drumming of woodpeckers on a log.

Open your ears and close your eyes,

Do you hear the spirits all around?

We much too often seek out the sights,

And ignore these sacred sounds.

P.S. If you do try the experiment let me know what you hear :)

Helping the Children of Hurricane Sandy

Hello, and Blessed Be!
There are a lot of great fundraisers and relief programs you can donate to for the victims of Hurricane Sandy, but there is one in particular that I would like everyone to consider helping out.
I'm not sure how many of you have heard of author and blogger Mrs. B (her blog Confessions of a Pagan Soccer Mom is awesome and I highly recommend it) but she is a wonderful lady who lives in one of the areas hit hard by Hurricane Sandy, and while her family made it through alright and are getting back on their feet, others in the area were not as fortunate. Being the awesome person that she is she has started a Holiday Drive to raise funds to fulfill the holiday wish lists of children who's families were hit especially hard. You can find out more about her fundraiser here.

A Shrine to Pan

Hello and Blessed Be!
I've been doing a lot of thinking lately and I have realized that I really want to build an outdoor shrine to Pan (well actually lots of shrines to various deities but Pan is my priority right now). Nothing fancy, perhaps a small wood or stone makeshift altar, with an image of Pan painted on a rock or piece of driftwood, decorated with pretty rocks, dried flowers, acorns, and pine cones. On the altar I would leave an empty space on which candles and incense could be burned, and offerings could be left. Preferably this small shrine would be built in a wooded area, although a field would suffice too and of course it would have to be on private land so as not to offend anyone and to protect if from being destroyed. Right now the only problem is, is that I rent an apartment and have no land, wooded or otherwise, on which I could build a shrine so this project will have to be placed on the back burner.
Pan and many other nature deities were never meant to be worshiped inside and my small shrine to Pan located in my apartment seems so disconnected from him and everything he stands for that I rarely use it. Ask yourself this, where would you prefer to worship (insert the name of you favorite nature deity/spirit), in a corner of a room in your home, or outdoors, surrounded by nature? If your answer is inside, then consider where would they rather you worship them? I know that not everyone has the luxury of owning land (I'm one of them) or having a natural area they could use, but if you did would you build a shrine there?
Has anyone ever built an outdoor shrine or worshiped/performed a ritual at one? If so how was it, did you seem more connected to the divines or the natural world? Is it worth it in your opinion?

Keychain Talismans

Hello and Blessed Be!
Today I wanted to share with you how to make a keychain talisman or charm. A talisman is an object (such a ring, caved bone or stone, necklace, etc) that has been charge with with powers with a particular purpose (such as protection, to improve health, to boost confidence, etc). These are usually worn or carried on a person in order to gain their magical benefits. A talisman can be charged with powers in many ways, some people inscribe or carve magical runes and sigils onto them, some people make them out of materials that are already known to naturally contain the desired powers/energies, some people focus their own energy and intent into the object, and some people use a combination of all three of these methods.
While talismans can be any number of objects I prefer to make my own keychains to be used as talismans. The reason for this is unlike jewelry (which may not look good with all clothes you wear), a keychain can be carried on your person at all times by attaching it to your key ring or backpack. Also unlike a stone or similar small object, a keychain is harder to lose because it is attached to something else. These are also perfect for children as they make fashionable backpack accessories. They also make great gifts for friends and loved ones (if you are going to give one as a gift make sure the person knows it is a talisman and not just a nifty keychain, not doing so can decrease it's effectiveness and is somewhat unethical).

The first thing you need to do when making a keychain talisman is to select your intent or goal for it. Make sure it is something specific like "to strengthen my mind" and not something vague like "to improve my life".
After you have your goal picked it is time to select the materials. Natural materials such as glass, wood, clay, metal, shell, and stone work best because they hold energies better. Some people also say you should use a natural material such as raw hide or cotton thread to string everything onto but it isn't necessary and I actually prefer to use the jeweler's line that is similar to fish line since it is more durable, but you should use whatever you are most comfortable with. Remember that certain stones and metals are better for certain goals as are certain colors, this information can be found fairly easily online or in many books.
After you have your materials it is time to start making and charging it. Before you begin make sure you have a clear head and are focused on your goal (for example if you are making a talisman to help manage stress but are thinking about your stressful job while creating it your results will probably be disastrous). If you want to inscribe or carve any runes or sigils you should do that first, selecting ones that are appropriate for the goal and focusing your intent as you do it. After any carving or inscribing is done you will want to begin stringing each bead or trinket, charging each one as you go. I do this by holding each one in my power hand (your dominant hand) and while saying my intent out loud I focus my energy and visualize it moving into the object (for example I would say "I charge this black glass bead with the power to protect" while visualizing protective energy flowing from me to the bead), but you can use whatever method you are most comfortable with.
Once everything is charged and stung it is time to put on a clip or key ring. Usually as I do this I do a final charging, this time of the whole thing, to further ensure the talisman is completely charged with my intent. After you are finished with this step it is ready to use. You may need to recharge your talismans after long periods of use if you feel they aren't as effective as they used to be.

The talisman pictured to the left was designed to be charged every full moon with the moon's energy. Then it can be used to add moon energy to a spell, no matter what time of the month it is. This talisman is made of fish line, glass beads, metal discs, fresh water pearls, and a piece of stone shaped like the moon. For this talisman I didn't attach a key ring or clip to one end because I never intended this one to be carried on the person, there is a loop at one end however so that I can hang it up under the light of the full moon.