A chat about Spirituallity.

This post is more for me than for my readers, but I'm sharing it anyway.


In the ancient world when a land was conquered the defeated lord or newly made vassal would deliver unto his new lord a jar or dirt and a jar of water to be symbolic of surrendering power over all the land and water of the realm to the new lord. I learned of this practice when I was maybe eight or nine. The few things that my fourth grade teacher did right was teaching science and history (sorry Mr. Podalack its true, if you ever read this know that I am significantly smarter than a box of rocks, I shall never forgive you for telling my family I was just 'Lazy' I really needed help. But I again thank you for chess club, it was the only thing I enjoyed that year.) Since learning that I have collected these bits of earth and water from the places I have lived and visited.




Since I began keeping an altar, I have always erected elemental altars, though their forms have changed over the years, something that remains constant is the physical presence of earth and water on my altar. I collect earth and stones from sacred sites as well as water to serve as an anchor to those places in my magick, I keep ash and char from balefires, you get the picture.. what I am pondering is capturing the essence of Air in a bottle.


I have heard of capturing a breath or using feathers (which I have done) but neither of those acts resonate with me spiritually. I have played with the idea of igniting incense and sealing it in a bottle to catch the smoke, but as the incense suffocates it creates a vacuum, i.e. removes all air. So I'm a little lost and I'll admit, air is sometimes the most difficult element for me to connect with. I would like to ask you all.. If you were to bottle Air how would you do it? (Open invitation to post in  the comments).




The new set of vials that I have for this project are much slimmer than the spice jars that I use to use, so I may set each in a small box to use as an elemental shrine, another thing I have done for a while in creating a spirit house for each element. I may buy another set of vials so that I can have one for the shrine and one for my altar.




Since I work with Faeries, and practice traditional Witchcraft I think that I want to combine lore and symbolism,




For Earth I feel the pulse of the natural world, the Faery influences on the trees, grass and stone. I may grow alum crystals inside the vial, add sacred Earth (mound of Tara or Ewan Macha) and a piece of Schorl. I can color the Alum green for color association, and in magick it is used to silence gossip, so I can tap the Witches Pyramid pillar of "Be Silent" and Schorl or Black Tourmaline is used for grounding and protection, I also have a Preseli blue stone (think stone henge) that I can use. My connection to earth is far from lacking, it is the element that I am most in tune with.




For Air, which I have already admitted I have a difficult time connecting to, Its the dance of light and sound, the chime of bells and the flash of light from the will-o-wisp. I might decoupage a pigeons feather to the glass and then I thought about a layer of blue topaz chips to form the horizon, a small parchment scroll for Intellect. Air is the pillar of Knowing so I would have the scroll, air has dominion over communication and spirits we  have Blue Topaz, freedom is gained from the feather, the pigeon an old world currier. Just an idea, however I am starting to consider suspending a small prism from the cork.




For Fire I want to channel the spirit of the Phoenix. More fiery spirit than either Dragon or Salamander the Phoenix is all that Fire is both creation and destruction, healing and rending and what's more through its cycle, it is immortal.


For water, I want something to represent, beyond just a vial of water, I fully plan on using water from a sacred source as I have water from one of Brigid's Wells in Ireland as well as the River Boine. I have an auger shell that I have decorated to closely resemble a unicorns horn, to call on the purification aspect of the element and associations between Unicorns and wells or rivers and lore of the horn being used to remove poison.


Sorry for being a little random, please share your ideas!

Long Time no See..

Sorry for the long break, a lot has been going on in my life, the least of which is the fact that my Computer crashed. I finished To Stir a Magick Cauldron (more than a year ago) and to be honest even after all these years I found most of it to be irrelevant to me. What she has on Angels and Faeries or Nature Divas just doesn't mesh with what I know, I have my totem sorted out and have for years, but as my Native American blood too thin to be worth mentioning I don't use her as a guardian but as a Guide.

My Totems are a Doe info here and a Hawk info here. I determined my Totems the old fashioned way, by observing the reoccurring animals in my life and the roles they have played for me, the Doe made herself known to me by the time I was fifteen the Hawk appeared later as I took my place as an adult I was driving down a side road and she was in the road, sitting in the middle I stopped my car and physically removed her from the road. Both have regularly been there when time has come to make hard choices.

Circle casting and psychic protection is old hat, and I find that Silver has too many different Circle casts in the book. Weather magick is essential to every Witch should know how to do and Silver covers it very well before transitioning into drawing in divinity (invoking the Gods). These exercises were in the form of meditations and I'm afraid that I don't have much to share.

Spells? Prayers? This section discussed the Witches Pyramid, which I have reviewed in the past. Celestial Magick, which corresponds with the moon, sun and stars, another thing that I have reviewed in the past. To be honest learning to cast a spell was not something I needed after this many years.

The later portion of the book introduces The Oath which again I have already discussed, but Silver does a good job in introducing.

Thoughts on the Mysteries I am still sorting out, I know what I want to say, but as to how I can share it without breaking my own Oath. I have a practice that I use with students, I create a box, stain it dark and mark it with runes, inside the box I place Items connected to the Mysteries of the Craft. Once they take the Oath on their own I give them the box. Its a fun little tradition filled with symbolism and tying back to the idea of a new life.

Next came Silver's talk on Lineage. Lineaged and FamTrad are not the same which she implies. I am Fam Trad. I have a heritage within the craft that stems from my father (Gardenerian via Buckland) and another that stems from my mother both very different grandmother traditions. I count that before my Coven Lineage, my Coven was home brew, an amalgamation of mostly Gardenerian Teachings, I was initiated by one of Doreen Valiente's craft grand-children.. but what Tradition was she working with at the time of that initiation was she still practicing as Gardner taught or was she practicing as taught by Robert Cochrane? That isn't the heritage that affected my practice in the craft, my FamTrad Lineage shaped me.

The BoS I have already written about and that concluded To Stir a Magick Cauldron.