Samhain: Spirit Communication & Power of the Craft

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k4SH3e-Io2A/VjKNZP_JJOI/AAAAAAAADjc/qwxt0_metL4/s1600/circe1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-k4SH3e-Io2A/VjKNZP_JJOI/AAAAAAAADjc/qwxt0_metL4/s400/circe1.jpg" width="242" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Circe by John William Waterhouse</td></tr> </tbody></table> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Samhain (AKA Halloween) is almost upon us.  For some this is a fun time of year, filled with imagination and illusion.  For others it is more.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> For witches and pagans, Samhain is a connection to our collective past, a time when Halloween wasn't only dress up, and the space between the worlds was magic in the old, full sense of the word.  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> The old Celtic New Year of Samhain (literally summer's end) was celebrated because it was the dividing line between the two seasons of the Celtic year - summer and winter.  This division was a liminal space (or threshold) and liminal spaces were meaningful to the Celts. <br /> <br /> In the case of the liminal space of Samhain, the veil between the living (summer) and the dead (winter) was paper thin and anyone who really wanted to could peer through it and see the otherside.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> In our own less focused era, the secular holiday of Halloween is strongly (if lightheartedly) associated with witches - as well as with the dead.  But this association shouldn't be in any way surprising.  Talking to the departed is an age old practice of the craft.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Ancient texts confirm this connection, linking spirit communication with witchcraft over and over again.  Sadly, however, even in the earliest literate times, witches were already being deliberately (and negatively) misrepresented - so it's hard to say exactly how early witches communicated with spirit or what those long dead practitioners were really like.<br /> <br /> But there are glimpses.  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> One such glimpse is the biblical witch of Endor summoning the spirit of one king for another.  Another is my personal favorite the daughter / priestess of Hecate we know as Circe.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Circe appears in the writings of Homer not as a frightening old woman but as a beautiful enchantress ruling over animals and men, directing Odysseus to the land of the dead and helpfully telling him what to do once he got there.  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Thought by some to be a Goddess (her magic is natural as opposed to practiced and her parents were divine), Circe probably had a good deal in common with other ancient practitioners of the craft.  One very likely similarity was that both witches and Goddesses understood the mysteries of the otherside - which was a plus in ancient times.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> In the ancient world the dead were thought to be a very reliable source of information, possessing special knowledge not ordinarily available to those who were alive.  Communicating with the dead was an important practice, witches were a resource, and - among the ancient Celts - Samhain was the perfect time. <br /> <br /> What a incredible testament to the power of the ancient practitioners of our craft that, over two thousand years later, this  very special holiday still persists!<br /> <br /> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fZgYBXas0DE/VjLGqb1UKDI/AAAAAAAADj4/78Yc4f-20R4/s1600/circe-awaiting-odysseus-by-libertinemedic-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="452" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-fZgYBXas0DE/VjLGqb1UKDI/AAAAAAAADj4/78Yc4f-20R4/s640/circe-awaiting-odysseus-by-libertinemedic-1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div> <br /> <br /></div>

Samhain: Spirit Communication & Power of the Craft

Circe by John William Waterhouse Samhain (AKA Halloween) is almost upon us.  For some this is a fun time of year, filled with imaginati...

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Blogging My Way Home

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8rHlSP4oNCI/VjJ_WDxfqII/AAAAAAAADjM/WOLT9xT_hZk/s1600/womanpath.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8rHlSP4oNCI/VjJ_WDxfqII/AAAAAAAADjM/WOLT9xT_hZk/s320/womanpath.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> This morning I saw that a reader had commented on a chakra series I wrote in 2012, telling me they'd enjoyed the article. </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> I have a long history of receiving guidance through comments on the blog so I decided that I should revisit those old posts.  One post in particular (on the solar plexus chakra) made me think about my connection to spirit and the confidence it takes to share that experience with others.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> I hadn't thought about this blog in terms of confidence building for a long time but as I reread the solar plexus chakra post I remembered how, in the beginning, the idea of posting and making videos and talking on internet radio was a very scary thing.  I remembered that I didn't want anyone I <i>really </i>knew to find out that I was doing it and that this was why I decided to use an old family surname name and keep my posts to myself. </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Not sharing the content of my blog wasn't hard for me.  I had been keeping my interest in tarot and the paranormal and all things occult to myself for quite a while.  To just keep on doing so suited me just fine.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> I didn't do social media or in any way promote those first posts and I sometimes found myself hoping that no one would read them.  But despite my reticence I did want to share.  Partially because I felt isolated, perhaps, but mostly because I believed that spirit had encouraged me to do so.<br /> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> That encouragement came in the form of a dream followed by a synchronicity followed by a vision.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> In the dream I was shown a spectrum of blue and an ancient book and made to understand that I had somehow written it.  Through the synchonicity I was made to understand that the world was in fact evolving and that each of us has a part to play in that evolution.  Through the vision I was convinced  that communication was an important part of my life path.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> My take away from all of that was that I should write a spiritual book and that this blog would help me find the confidence to do so.  This, as it turned out, was easier said than done.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Somehow writing a spiritual book never felt quite right to me and every attempt I made at a manuscript seemed worse than the one before.  At first I thought that this was because I lacked confidence and then I thought it was because I needed to evolve.  I worked hard at evolving but the book still didn't come and as I traveled from 53 to 57, I worried that it never would.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> And then, in my 58th year, something funny happened.  I began to see the blog not as a stepping stone to something else but as an end in and of itself.  It occurred to me that I could share on spirit in a blog just as well, and maybe even better, than I could in a book. It seemed to me that I should just take a breath and continue to do what I'd been doing.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Released from my own expectations, I began to reconnect with old (and new) things I liked to do.  I dug out my old my fiction manuscripts and began to edit and, before I knew it, new ideas were coming.  I found my old drawing box and bought myself a sketchbook and then I did a sketch.  I decided I might like to make artsy-crafty things to sell in my online shop and that I might want to train in astrology and attempt a full length work of fiction or spiritual non-fiction when I was ready.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> At the time, these small decisions didn't seem like any sort of step in any particular direction.  But this morning it occurred to me that the person who had written those old posts about the chakras, the person trying so hard to evolve, the person so stuck on what she wasn't that there was always something between her and the person she wanted to become, had undergone a very quiet transformation.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> I thought about the book I read this week on the practice of magic and about how the most important step in that direction is to know yourself, to know who you are, and who you are not. And I thought, I've got that.<br /> <br /></div>

Blogging My Way Home

This morning I saw that a reader had commented on a chakra series I wrote in 2012, telling me they'd enjoyed the article. I have ...

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Crystals as a Gateway to the Fairy Realm

<div style="text-align: justify;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CAOHqfh8Akk/VhKwScVL04I/AAAAAAAADWo/lrmTgTcTDXE/s1600/greenfairy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CAOHqfh8Akk/VhKwScVL04I/AAAAAAAADWo/lrmTgTcTDXE/s320/greenfairy.jpg" width="212" /></a></div> My experience with crystal grids began at Inner Peace Holistic Health and Healing Center.  The grid was featured at the monthly gathering given by the center's owner, Donna Will.   </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> While the rest of the group, enjoyed a wonderful potluck meal and even better company, Donna laid out a beautiful fourth chakra crystal grid in an adjoining room.  When the grid was ready, she smudged and led us in one by one.  She then allowed us time to rest on a mattress and experience the energy of the grid.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> When my turn came, I stretched out and drifted into a light peaceful trance.  I noticed color almost immediately in the form of a clear, vivid green. <br /> <br /> Within a few minutes, a scene took shape and I found myself moving over shining landscape of bright green water and low-lying land. Gradually, the scene below and before me brightened until it was totally illuminated with a soft glowing yellow-green light.  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> At the edge of my awareness, I could just make out the silhouettes of otherworldly beings, their hands apparently manipulating the luminous green-gold light.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> This was not my first experience of otherworldly landscapes, luminous spiritual light, or the energy of green.  In my other experiences, however, the green light I saw was confined to a bright circle at my third eye - and my otherworldly landscapes ran to purple or blue.  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> I believe that  my vision of green landscapes and the beings of that realm was triggered by the fourth chakra grid and my own inner need. In the spirit of the vision, I've become increasingly aware of my need to improve my connection with nature, the element of earth and the fairy realm  - something that might not have happened without Donna and her grid!</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UiadcVmuOWY/VhAW-CHyMuI/AAAAAAAADUc/DkC-QX0lL9U/s1600/greencrystal.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UiadcVmuOWY/VhAW-CHyMuI/AAAAAAAADUc/DkC-QX0lL9U/s200/greencrystal.jpg" width="200" /></a>But what do I think of the actual powers of the crystals used?</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Crystals are talked about a lot in New Age circles.  So much so, that the many meanings associated with these beautiful stones can be overwhelming.  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> Sometimes, all that hype can override our fundamental connection to crystals - as a living creation of our inner earth.  In my opinion, it is this connection that transcends the standard meanings and offers a potential portal to the inner realms.  </div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> <br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"> A few days ago I attended a class given by Donna on the topic of crystals at the Inner Peace Holistic Fair and really learned a lot.  Even better - the word is that there may be more classes to come. I'm looking forward to learning more about crystals and creating my own crystal grids!<br /> <br /> For more about upcoming classes and events at Inner Peace please check out the <a href="http://www.meetup.com/Inner-Peace-Metaphysics-Meetup/" target="_blank">Inner Peace  & Metaphysics Meetup here</a>.</div>

Crystals as a Gateway to the Fairy Realm

My experience with crystal grids began at Inner Peace Holistic Health and Healing Center.  The grid was featured at the monthly gathering...

Read more »