The snow started to fall here in Northeast PA on Wednesday morning and continued through the day, covering the garden, and softening the untended edges of the yard.  The woods behind the house filled with snow and the path that leads up the hill was buried.  And I was glad to see it.  

I love the changing seasons and the rhythm our circling earth supplies. But I know that each season brings its own unique set of opportunities and challenges and that this is especially true of winter.

For me, winter is a time of clarity and inspiration.  A time of creativity and deep thought and blinding illumination.  Winter opens the mind to new things, things we would have never thought of in other softer seasons, things that can put the whole rest of the year into a meaningful perspective.

But winter is a time of limitation, too.  Those of us living in the colder climates may feel hemmed in by snow or cold or icy roads.  We might not get outside as much as we would like and even when we do go out - the days end early.  This can affect us in many different ways and some of us may struggle to keep our spirits high.

I have found that the best way to keep my spirits up is by celebrating the unique energies of this very special season.  Here are a few tips that have helped me:

Cyber space is littered with orphaned blogs, after all, and most ordinary people (or dilettante bloggers) aren't especially troubled by that sad reality.

But I haven't been a dilettante blogger.  I have been a two or three times a week for four years at the same blogspot url blogger.  And my blog has become part of who I am.

So why would I quit?

Several reasons actually.  But the main one was burnout. 

My blog, at its best, was informational AND experiential.  Sometimes that experience came from books but more often it came through doing things - taking psychic development classes, studying with the spiritualists, running various groups, reading cards for others. Doing those things changed me but there was a certain amount of weight to doing them as well.

I decided that I might scale back a bit on the doing and focus more on the writing.  Writing helped me learn, helped me focus, helped me stay on track.  It held me accountable, yes, but it helped me understand my personal spiritual experience, as well.  Writing led to insights and those insights beamed right back into my conscious awareness from the eureka moment magic of my computer screen.
 

I decided to keep blogging on October 23rd, 2014 but only if I could do it on my terms.  

As it happened, this October 23rd was an auspicious day.  It was the day of the solar eclipse.  The day that the sun and the moon sailed into Scorpio together.  The day that the new moon was born in a sign that looms large in my chart. I decided to get a real dotcom and redesign the blog.

As I worked on the site, I searched for a new blog name, brainstormed with those who were close to me, made lists and charts and name maps and sketches.  I spent hours searching for available domains on GoDaddy where each dotcom I looked at was worse than the one before. MysticReview.com was taken. Of course.

I didn't give up but I was really, really beginning to want to.  I was struggling.  Struggling not only with blog names and templates, but with bigger things to - like my decision to be writer, and the entire trajectory of my personal journey in spirit. As I struggled, however, something interesting started to happen.  I started to learn things about blogging - things I probably should have figured out a long time ago.

I learned, for example, that I could point my old blogspot URL at any dot com without resetting anything.  I learned that blogger blogs could have menus just like websites and that my best posts didn't have to be buried.  I learned that cool templates were available for 21 dollars if you could make them work on your own.  I learned that my blog could be saved and how it could be saved and, in some instances, I learned these things almost immediately before I was about to make that might have been the virtual death of my blog.

As the days passed other non-blogging things began to fall into place.  I realized that I loved the mystery of earth and sky just as much as I loved the mystery of spirit, that I liked ancient wisdom more than I liked new, that looking in was better than looking up, and that I had reached a place where I was no longer exploring mystical information. Instead, I was beginning to live it.

As I did, I realized that experiencing things isn't about going out there to do things. It's about what happens in between those things.

The truth is - real transformation isn't about doing at all.  Real transformation is about energy. The energy that knocks things over and out of our way, the energy that helps us find the tools that we need most, the energy that shows us just how to apply what we have learned.  This is the energy that helps us rebuild. This is the energy that makes the things that we build stand up all by themselves.

This energy is there for us, of course, but we in we have to learn connect with it.  And in the time between the new Moon in Scorpio and its sextile with Neptune, I learned how to ride the great wave of personal change.

And then, on day 28, I searched for my domain again and found it waiting.  I checked my spelling three times.  I felt my heart thumping as I added MysticReview.com to my cart.  And I took that small miracle as a sign that what I'm building here will stand.  

But I didn't stop.  The energy was still flowing and I let it move me along.  

Today is day 30 and I am just starting to put it all together or maybe, more correctly, starting to let it all fall into place.  I have a new template which is still just a bit buggy but it has opened up the blog, making all those old half forgotten posts much easier to find.

There is more to do, of course.  Designing.  Updating.  Defining.  And building.  But the true power is not in those things.  The true power is inside, in the place that real magic happens.  And incredibly, joyously AND magically that process is ongoing.

My advice to the creative person looking to redefine and revitalize their creative identity? Think about where you are and give yourself the space to discover just where you'd like to be.  Set your intention at the right point in time.  Honor the process that is unfolding. Trust in the universe. Do the groundwork. And believe in the magic!

Tonight marks the Hindu festival of Diwali.  The festival of light which honors the goddess of prosperity, Lakshmi.  

I have an affinity for Hindu goddesses (and still bear the scar given me by a top heavy metalwork Kali!).  Because of this affinity I have a beautiful Lakshmi statue but I have never properly honored her.  And until this week was woefully ignorant of her festival.

I consider it significant that I learned about the holiday just before it occurred on tonight's super auspicious new moon in Scorpio / solar eclipse Thursday.  Timing is everything when it comes synchronicity and this kind of timing is too tight to ignore.

I learned about the festival yesterday afternoon.  I was reading Ellen Dugan's wonderful book "Practical Prosperity Magick: Crafting Success & Abundance" and there was Lakshmi.  Lady of the white owl.  Goddess of the white elephant.  Floating upon the water in her lotus blossom.  Offering gifts.  

How could I not give her the altar she so deserves?

About Tonight's New Moon:  Tonight's New Moon in Scorpio is particularly potent New Moon because it occurs on the evening of a Solar Eclipse.  It represents a new beginning in the fixed water sign of Scorpio. It's a great time to manifest the passionate, focused, resourceful and transformative qualities of this powerful sign.  And to ask the water goddess Lakshmi to open the gates to the flowing current of abundance and prosperity.

Today on the equinox, day and night are equal.  But that isn't going to last.  The days are getting shorter.  Winter is on its way.  Today I saw a hawk flying in the most vivid of blue skies.  Two crows called - a winter sound if I ever heard one.  Life is always moving.  Always on its way to something else.  But there is something to be said for the moment, even as it passes. 

Today I realized that I always think of autumn in the context of a world on its way to winter.  For me that is not a bad thing - at least not entirely.  Winter is an uncomfortable season here in Northeastern PA but it is a beautiful one as well and it has a depth to it that other seasons lack.  Still this time, this season should be important in its own right and I should honor it as such.

So today I sat out side and thought about the turning trees, the falling leaves, the woodland debris on its way to becoming earth.  Summer seeding the land in a different sort of way.  Not sprouting but preparing.  Today the sky was blue and the sun was bright and I sat outside with my journal and mapped out a new course. 

This course includes more time out of doors and I intend to honor that commitment through the cold months and into spring.  As always I will blog about it <3

For...  [the poet] there is no other woman but Cerridwen and he desires one thing above all else in the world: her love... Other women, other goddesses, are kinder-seeming. They sell their love at a reasonable rate—sometimes…for the asking. But not Cerridwen: for with her love goes wisdom.~ Robert Graves, The White Goddess

I have been think about Spirit Circle, feeling that mediumship isn't really for me. It's not about it being wrong or anything like that. It's just a lot of responsibility. People come for medium reading for different reasons. Some are just curious. Others are on the edge of despair, desperate to believe they will see a lost loved one again. To me, this is a heavy burden on reader. 

I don't know if I want to continue with the circle at this point or not. I've made friends there, and I like going which complicates things. So, I asked for guidance in a dream. 

I had the following dream a few days later. I'm not sure what it says about Spirit Circle, to be honest, but I feel that it's pulling me to something new:

I am standing on the edge of the dream which had come before wondering if this new dream belonged to me or if someone else was dreaming it instead. Immediately before me, a beautiful woman with long curling, light auburn hair is rising slowly and majestically into the air.    

I see flowers and vines and tiny newborn pigs and sparkling drops of what I know to be milk spinning slowly around her. The drops of milk brighten until the shine like stars in the great drifting vortex of animals and vegetation.  I am now suddenly quite close to woman, as if she is no longer above me, and I see each detail of this amazing train of life float past me, with a delicate, hyperreal beauty.

The tiny pigs are pink and tender.  The flowers are colorful and detailed and incredibly vivid.   The small traveling stars shine.  I was in awe of what I am seeing but I am also quite clear.  This is no ordinary woman.  This is a goddess.

It's a wonderful moment.  And then my modern sensibilities kick in.  I find the tiny newborn pigs disconcerting and the milk seems odd and out of place.   'Why pigs?" I asked myself, and then I began to wake up. 

Abruptly, right at the edge of awakening, a white sow's head  flashes across this oddly beautiful scene. She isn't pretty but, like every else in the dream, the detail was remarkable.  I see coarse hair, a single wild eye, a smudge of dirt.   

And then I am awake. 

I was embarrassed by the dream and didn't want to share it. I didn't even actually want to think about it. So I spent three days trying to ignore it. But it stays with.  It is too beautiful, too vivid, too bright.  And I know what dreams with that kind color and light always mean. I know it's a spiritual dream. Disconcerting or not. 

So I decided to write about it.  

UPDATE OCTOBER 2014: I did some reading about pigs and goddesses. At first I was drawn to the tales of Britain. I imagined the goddess traveling from Sumer to Egypt to land of the Kelts though there is no clear indication that's what happened. I read about the cult of the white sow goddess, Cerridwen and the flame-keeper known as Brigid. I learned that Brigid is associated with milk and a magical boar.

Inspired by their Goddess, the Keltic bards drank the fire of inspiration from the sacred cauldrons and called themselves her sons.

I learned that the sow was associated with the Egyptian goddess Nut and sometimes with Isis and would resurface centuries later in the ancient Greek worship of Demeter and Persephone. I read an article suggesting that Israelite sanction against pork was related to the worship of Asarte, who was once called Ishtar. I couldn't find any direct link to Asarte but I read a Bible Hub commentary saying that it was true that the pig was associated with idolatry. 

I still wasn't comfortable with the imagery, but when I thought about the way the word sow or pig has been used against women over the centuries or probably the millennia, I saw my reaction in a different light. 

Most importantly, I knew that without that detail - a detail so significant that it impressed upon my mind a second time as I began to wake up - the real meaning of the dream would have been lost or forgotten and I would have never connected the dots.

I'm currently taking a fascinating course on Astral Projection (Astral Projection Practical Intensive) and wanted to share a bit on my progress.  We are currently in Session 3 and, while I have not projected as of yet, I do feel I'm progressing. 

The course is given by OBE expert Robert Bruce.  It utilizes Robert ebook (free on his site at AstralDynamics.com) as well as the Hemi-Sync astral projection meditation CDs/MP3s produced by Robert Monroe.  Each session begins with several videos, as well as some text and recommended reading on the new material, and assigns a new and very specific level of astral practice.

All practices include daily energy work followed by the Hemi-Sync Meditation.  I am now using the second (or condition A) MP3 meditation and have been having some interesting experiences.  These include lots of tingling sensations, occasional feelings of expansion, and a few visions.  The visions have been interesting because they have been consistent.  I have seen archways, tunnels, roads, paths and a kind of moving tunnel where it appeared that I was rocketing through space with energy streaming by on either side.

My current challenge is that I'm going very deep in trance with the meditations and losing my awareness at times - though I don't really feel like I'm falling asleep. Yesterday I lost awareness and then became aware of being around people - which made me feel that I was dreaming.  In the dream, I was yelling "I want to fly" over and over. :) I did used to fly in dreams but haven't done so for some time.  Seems I might have missed it.

I feel very alert when I come back from these episodes of lost awareness (or checking / clicking out), not sleepy at all.  What worried me was the memory loss. I was concerned that I might be missing actual OBE activity or rather failing to remember it.  Robert believes we all astral project in dreams (for more on Robert's teachings please check out his interview on this topic here Astral Projection with Robert Bruce - affiliate link) and that the real challenge is to remember it.  

One of the great things about this course (and all the Glide Wing courses) is the forum component.  In it the instructor responds to questions on the material.  In a course like this is incredibly helpful.  Because of my concerns, I posted my problem with awareness  in the forum.

Robert got back to me immediately.  He said that these were good signs and that success should not be too far away.  He also recommended several things which I'm going to put into effect today.  They include:

Robert also has been encouraging me to utilize daily affirmations which he believes in whole-heatedly (more on that in the interview).  This isn't hard because I really do believe that I will successfully project provided I stick with it.  

I am getting so much out of this course!  I am also thrilled that when it ends I can be part of Robert's free community (Astral Dynamics Forum) and receive the support of others.  There is even a new special area for graduates of the course which I am really looking forward to joining!

I'm planning to begin Robert Bruce's 90 day program Mastering Astral Projection next week.  In order to do this, I've decided to create the space Robert talks about in the book.

I have a small space in my office  which I use for meditation and journaling. My plan is to that spot, equipping it with a recliner as suggested in Robert's book. 

This space will be perfect both for my astral exploration, and my soul writing, which I've decided to begin again in earnest.

Last weekend I picked up a $10 recliner at an estate sale.  My project for next weekend is to fit it into my office!

I will be working with Robert's book Mastering Astral Projection (affiliate link) as well as the Mastering Astral Projection CD Companion  and reporting on my progress.

Friday was the fourth birthday of my old friend, this blog.  The blog was born on the same day as I was - August 22.   It was inspired by my need to focus on anything really which at that point in time happened to be New Age spirituality.  

The blog made a difference in my life.  It listened when no one else could.  Never judging.  Always available.  And it did, indeed, help me focus.  Over time, it became a bridge between my steadily expanding world and a long list of others.  The blog led me to books and courses and workshops and people.  It allowed me to share what I was learning and in so doing in some small part repay the debt I owed others - for the wisdom they so freely shared with me.

The blog became a channel for my own spiritual experience and it in turn helped me to define that experience.  As I followed that current I learned things I did not expect to learn.  And that continues till this day.   Finally, I think, it has led me back to the place I most need to be.  

I was poet when I was young and then, for the most part, life took over.  In the late nineties and early 2000s however things changed.   I wrote a series of manuscripts.  Born of my own strong need to escape disappointment and personal tragedy they were wild, impassioned and ultimately flawed - though not perhaps irretrievably.  But the writing of them taught me a few things about the craft writing.  And my work here has taught me too.

I am now following the wisdom of another not so New Age writer, Ray Bradbury.  He was born on August 22nd and his writing is sharp and poetic and filled with passion.  Perhaps because we share a birthday, his writing method appeals to me and I have promised myself that I will take the advice he gives in Zen in the Art of Writing: Essays on Creativity and write 1000 non-blog words per day.

These words and the time it takes to write them have to come from somewhere and I may be cutting back on things.  Less workshops.  Less radio episodes.  Less down time.  But I will still be here every week for as long as I can type, paying my debt to those who have inspired me and those who care to read what I have written - and to my old friend The Mystic Review as well.