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.

Conjuring the Quarters

Silver asked that we write down our quarter call for at least one direction.

"Hail to the Guardians of the Watchtowers of the North, rulers of strength and wisdom, I call you from your ancient Hearth to witness and to guard me in my art. By name I implore, Gnomes! Lend your might tonight!"

I don't use the same call for each circumstance, that is the call I would use if I performed a circle cast tonight. The next assignment as I use Watchtowers is to find or draw what they look like to me. Introduce myself to them in meditation then practice my new quarter call.

To me the Watchtower is a physical structure, like the rook in chess, or a medieval looking lighthouse. It is staffed by an individual spirit, the Guardian of the Watchtower is a spirit mentor or guardian that I have worked with in meditation and named to the task. This Guardian lights the Watch-fire and summons the actual elemental on my behalf. Which is why I have candles in the Quarters of my circle.

When each Watch-fire is lit, a wall travels to the next forming a wall along the outside of the circle.

Two for One

The last thing that Silver said to do was try using my salutes during my daily devotionals, which I already do, so I am skipping ahead. Selecting a Patron or Matron Deity was discussed in my last book post, and I hosted a shrouded supper last Samhain with plans to do the same this year.

So we come to setting goals. 10 for the next 6 months. This is hard for me, as there is a lot that I want to accomplish. And a lot of that I need help with, and not all my goals are spiritual.

10 GOALS

1. Get the squatter out of my Dads house.
2. Clean up the house and property
3. Fix any damage to the house
4. Set up a Temple
5. Finish my Spirit House project
6. Make Libation Wine for a year of Sabbats and Esbats
7. Clean and package the Salt from the last trip to the flats
8. Make Smudge Sticks
9. Prepare Sabbat specific incenses
10. Make Beesom

Patrons

I will admit that in the last couple months of missed posts, I decided to skip some of Silver's activities, performing specific salutes everyday for a month, performing a shrouded supper. All things that I have done, and as the supper is something we do at Samhain, I consider that to just be a suspended exercise.

But she did talk about Patron deity work. Which is to say the least, fascinating. I find that everyone has a different perception of the job performed by a Patron, or the result of a Patron relationship.

On my personal altar I like to keep the figures un-named and generic.

It allows me to keep my altar dressed at all times. But I feel then when I talk to the Lady she knows who I am communicating with. Each Sabbat has a different Patron deity, Silver mentioned that she selected a different God and Goddess for each initiation that she underwent, alluding to the belief that we have a different patron/matron for each stage of our lives. She also stated that the fountains and springs in her yard had yet different gods attached to them.

So I would like to  purport that the gods as we know them are a lot like the Catholic Saints, which is what made it so easy for the church to amalgamate pagan beliefs.

"A patron saint or a patron hallow is a saint who in Roman Catholicism is regarded as the tutelary spirit or heavenly advocate of a nation, place, craft, activity, class, clan, family or person. Supposedly, patron saints, having already transcended to the metaphysical, are able to intercede effectively for the needs of their special charges."

If you lay claim to a God or Goddess and declare yourself to them, they should be at the core of most of your magick. This is a decision that you should take seriously, work your way up to a personal patron, choose one for your property, one for your home, one for your family and then one for you. This isn't the sort of  relationship that you should walk into blindly, so do your research.

If I had the space I would have a different altar (set up and least) for each branch of my practice, my family traditional path, the Celtic Path and Faery Craft. But I don't, so what I have done is collect a series of artifacts and sorted them into smaller boxes, that I call spirit houses so that depending on my working I can dress my altar appropriately.

Triggers

I have to say that in retrospect I am gaining a lot more from Silver while I review her work with mature eyes. I will argue with some of her exercises, I personally would not teach the same way. When she wrote out her Triggers assignment as one of physical gestures, this to me is a salute.

I have always stylized my movements and gestures after the etiquette of a knight. Not very feminine of me, when I visualize my motions I am usually holding an athame or a staff. To think of simple motions for empty hands. Its hard to describe as most of the actions and energy through visualization. And I'll be the first to admit that I am much more graceful in my own mind than in reality.

My gestures in reality my hand is tilted to the side, like a blade. The motion is dependent on my goals. More of a salute than a trigger.

From the Heart

Silver wants me to write or memorize a ritual soliloquy that I can use faithfully in rituals. This is hard, most Pagan poems are simply too long for me to feel comfortable reciting them, and invariably I end up tripping over my words. Its easier to recite Shakespeare when I'm out with friends. So writing something like that, that I can memorize became my best option.

But I took time to come over Pinterest. I searched Google and Bing, and I pawed through my books. In the end it was already there. Words that I spoke during my dedication:

"I am the Breath of Life.
I am the Whisper of Death.
I am the Light in the Darkness.
I am a Child of the Old Gods...."