Stuck

Me again….nothing for months and months and then 2 posts in a week! You lucky readers you!

Anyway, a good and very wise friend shared a link earlier that really resonated;

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/naturessacredjourney/2021/05/four-ways-to-get-unstuck/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Pagan+News+and+Views&utm_content=37

After reading this, I decided to take the dog to my local park where there is a Labyrinth, as I have most definitely felt ‘stuck’. It’s probably because of the state of the world we are in right now, stress closer to home…lots of things and I’m probably not the only one.

This is the entrance to my local Labyrinth, the long grass ‘walls’ have a wonderful purple sheen, granted not very visible in this image as they were all weighted down with rain!

Walking inwards, at each direction change, I said out loud what I wanted to get rid of…along the way I found 2 bees that were stuck on the ground in the heavy wet grass, so they were dutifully lifted and went along on their merry way. Once at the center I stood still and just listened…to bird song and distant voices..and just listened! (While the dog ate grass…he loves to eat grass!)

As we walked back out of the labyrinth, as mentioned in the article, I said allowed the things I wanted. As I circled out I found the wettest, soggiest bee I have ever seen! I mean look at the poor thing?

Picked the little guy up and carried him with me as I circled out…once out I managed to find some blackberry flowers for him to sit on and dry out. As I walked he kept vibrating his wings to dry off…he was so cute.

I must admit, I do feel better for walking the labyrinth, I always do and I had left it far too long before today.

It’s now back to work for the afternoon shift, but I do feel somewhat better so I will endeavour to try another suggestion or two from that article…..and thank you for sharing it my friend, x

Wishing you a blessed Summer Solstice

Good morning, how are you?

No, really how are you doing? It’s been a strange year and a bit hasn’t it, I hope you are ok in the grand scheme of things.

The Wheet has turned once again, it doesn’t stop, no matter what is happening in the world, it keeps on turning and we are back to the Summer Solstice. As usual, I had plans, plans to mark it, a small fire out the back, making a honey cake or sun biscuits to simply lighting a candle on my altar. Yes, you guessed it….I havent done any of it!

My altar had had a clean up at the New Moon but I didn’t Solstice-fy it, I didn’t have a fire, I never made any cake or biscuits….I was about to give myself a hard time like I usually do, call myself a rubbish pagan blah blah blah…..but I didn’t do that either.

I havent got the energy, plain and simple. I am tired, there are lots of things going on in my life that are taking up my time and an awful lot of my energy, mainly looking after my family, who all have their own rather large issues going on from mental health to physical health, along with doing all the other bits like dog walking and food shopping as well as trying to build up a small wood carving business. I am learning, thanks to walking my pagan path and all of the wonderful friends I have made along my path, that I can’t do everything. Yes, it would be nice to do all of the above mentioned ways of marking the turning of the wheel, it would be wonderful to go out and do something Instagram or Pinterest worthy….but I can’t, I am tired. So, this morning I set my alarm clock stupidly early and I got up to welcome the sunrise from my little back yard.

I had a candle lit (and a warm drink!), I played my drum quietly and I watched the sky brighten. I could tell when the sun had risen by the slight change in clouds, I could see white ones instead of just silhouettes.

I looked around my quite wild and overgrown container garden and gave thanks to my fruit trees, my herbs and all the other plants….my St John’s Wort (Hypericum Perforata) is about to flower- I wonder if it will open by the 24th, St John’s day/Midsummer?

I then went back to bed, satisfied that I had marked the Solstice in a little way…but I had marked it. See, I’m not such a rubbish pagan, I mutter to myself as I climb back under my covers.

I have now done the first part of my day job and I had to call in at the depot for new paperwork, and just to remind me how beautiful and resilient nature is, this poppy bank is growing year on year in a very dry, dusty, industrial area….it is so cheery, was fullnof buzzy bees, ladybirds on the daisy types, mugwort growing in the cracks between containers.

All in all, I feel good about my Solstice so far and this makes me happy.

So I would like to wish you all a wonderful and blessed Solstice, however big or small you plans are, enjoy your day, x

Yule and Winter Solstice blessings.

Yule tide greetings and blessing to you and yours.

We have had the longest night and today will be the shortest day but daylight will start to increase from here as the wheel continues to turn.

We are heading into a new year and a new decade (in a calendar sense), I wonder what changes will be brought in as the days gets brighter, the seeds of plans that have been made in the dark evenings maybe sown and we wait to see whether they germinate or not.

To welcome the sun back I decided to get up and go the park to walk the labyrinth before sunrise. Thankfully it had stopped raining when I left the house and there was just the barest sliver of the moon left…not that you can tell that from this stunning phone camera image!

This looks more like a quarter moon so you will just have to trust me on that!

I walked around the park, listening to the birds and their chorus – although they could easily have been shouting to each other about the bonkers human walking around in the dark!

Anyway I got the labyrinth and I wanted to light ny candle to welcome in the sun, but my lighter decided that it wasnt going to play ball (even after I had checked it at home). Walked the labyrinth without a lit candle to the center and tried to light it again, success this time!

I had a mini meditation at the center while watching the flame on my candle as I waited for sunrise, I knew what time sunrise was, so there I was, full of pagan-y excitiment and I watch the eastern sky for my first glimpse of the sun….

and as I wait, I get a lovely view of the clouds rolling back in. I waited, sunrise came and went, I could tell from the light levels but the clouds made sure I didnt see the sun…..oh well, the intention was there.

People think that holding a ritual of any kind is just how you see it in the movies and that its all as beautiful as you see from the staged images on Pinterest….but in reality your lighter doesnt work and the weather throws a spanner or a cloud in to feck up your aethestic, you gotta laugh and go with it! My intention was there, my thoughts and feelings were on the solstice/Yule so to me I had a successful personal ritual. Now I am back home with a coffee and my family!

I would like to wish you a blessed Yule and Winter Solstice and enjoy your plans, wbatever they may be.

Samhain

It is here…Samhain is here, the air is charged and magick is afoot!

Samhain means ‘Summers End’ and marks the end of a Pagan’s year and the start of a new one.

The veil between the world we live and the world in which our ancestors live is at its thinnest making it the perfect time to honour them and invite them to join you in your celebration.

The death of the year, the dying of the plants are all part of the cycle of life, the wheel of the year, death in itself is a fact and therefore not to be feared. We acknowledge that on this day more than any other. Many Pagans believe that light follows darkness, that we cannot have the light without the dark so the new year starts with the dark part of the year and we move through it towards the light again.

There is the area of Paganism that acknowledges the Goddess in her Crone phase, there are witches whose deities are Heckate and Cerridwen,  again working with darkness, birth, death and rebirth. There are Druidic and Celtic ways of marking this day along with many others but the same theme runs through all of these practices, it marks the end of the old and the start of the new while honouring those who have come before.

As the veil is thinner it also allows easier passage for tricksome spirits and the Fae so to appease them you leave an offering of food, unsalted bread and a libation of one variety or another.

Alongside the loaf of bread I have made for our family, I have made a smaller unsalted one for the Fae,

I have my altar set for tonight, with photographs of my grandparents and my great aunts, uncles and great grandmother.

I may also have a fire outside tonight after I come back from a Samhain gathering in a local park. A simple ceremony I will do if I have a fire is to collect some small sticks from the park, write a simple word or phrase for something I want to get rid of, that I don’t want to take forward into the new year and then throw into the fire to be removed from my life.

This is what I wish for everyone I know and love today, may you have a wonderful and blessed Samhain!

Pagan the pigeon

A couple of weeks go I took the dog out with a view to digging up a baby cherry tree before the council came and mowed the grass banks and chopping it up.

I came back with said sapling and a baby pigeon I had found in the road. Daft beggar was close to fledging but had obviously taken a tumble from its nest. I found it in the road not able to move properly and it had a few peck wounds from the local corvids doing what corvids do. I couldn’t leave it to die out there on its own so brought it home.  Funnily enough I put the pigeon on some cloths in a plant pot (and forgot to plant the tree!!) thinking that it wouldn’t last more than a couple of hours – but at least it would just pass on gently.

However, later that evening the pigeon seemed to have recovered, much to my surprise so the decision was made to overnight it in the shed with some food and we would see what would happen by morning!

With some trepidation I opened the shed the following day to find one very much alive pigeon! Okaaaay, now what do I do with the bird?

Rang and spoke to a wildlife worker at an animal rescue center who said they would take it but were quite full so if I was happy to keep it in the shed I would be doing them a favour!

Off out to get some wild bird seed, I managed to get some water into the bird, cleaned and put some plantain balm on its wounds….it would appear that we would have a pigeon living in the shed for a while!

The children decided that the pigeon needed a name and chose Pagan…..so Pagan the pigeon became the resident of the shed,

Pagan knew that the plant pot was his new nest and after eating would always go back to his ‘nest’.

After a week or so, my husband had the idea of making a perch for Pagan so it could get stronger and use its wings, its wounds were healing nicely and there was plenty of food being eaten.

Pagan went from strength to strength, scoffing food and putting on weight, legs and wings getting much stronger as it was getting harder to hold the bird. I was intentionally handling the bird less readying it for release.

It was decided that we would release Pagan today, it seemed happy, healthy (as far as I could tell) and strong, so took the children out to say their goodbyes (tears from the youngest)

We put Pagan on top of the shed along with the bowl his food was in, the bird tottered around having a good look about.

After exploring the neighbours walls and yards it proved it was strong enough to fly by taking off and flying up to the top of our house, although I am sad that the pigeon has flown ‘the nest’, I am exceedingly happy that Pagan survived and now hopefully will go on to have a good pigeon life, who knows, maybe it will remain a visitor to our yard?

Full Moon Wolf Moon

Full Moon Blessings

Hello again, here it is, the first full moon of 2016, known as the Wolf Moon!

I am all set, so is my altar, this time with an orb shaped candle, inscribed with a glyph representing the full moon, my clear crystals are out, I have smudged my area and I will perform my ritual later.  Whatever your plans for your full moon, blessings to you.

Here is some more information of the Wolf Moon courtesy of Goddess Rising 13 Moon Sisterhood;

*WOLF/LEO FULL MOON JAN 23*
Wild Sacred Blessings on this first Full Moon of 2016!

The name Wolf Moon comes from Indigenous Tribes of North America, who gave names to each of the moons, in relation to their qualities connected to nature and the seasons.

The Sacred Wolf Medicine, representing ‘Teacher’, great wisdom, wildness and inner freedom is beckoning our attention. Maybe you are already feeling it in your bones and are ready to dance and howl! This Wolf Moon reminds us the importance of expressing our heart’s truth and our wildness, to live feeling free.

Connected with Leo, this moon mirrors the importance of reflecting our light from within, discovering and sharing our greatest gifts, and expressing our creativity from authenticity to expand in true sovereignty, as Wild Queen!

This full moon also illuminates the shadows that need clearing / healing / transforming, which are often thoughts and beliefs preventing us from living in our wild sacred nature and our fullest potential.

Another viewpoint!

Evening you lovely lot, I hope you are all well?  For those that have been off work over the silly season, have you gone back to work yet, personally I go back tomorrow and I need to, I need to get my brain working again!

A fellow witch shared the following post on er Facebook page and I think its brilliant, you know I have been having wobbles over which is the right path for me and am I doing it right, well this post explains it all brilliantly and I am so pleased to have read it that I have to share it with you!

If you follow this link you can read the full post, well worth a read if you are having a wobble or two like me, until we meet again, take care, x

http://witchywonderland.blogspot.ca/2010/09/finding-your-path.html?m=1

Candle meditation.

Hi again!

I haven’t had much luck when it comes to meditation…think my problem lies in the visualisation part so when I heard about candle meditation and the fact that some folk find it easier to actually properly look at something, I thought I would give it a try.
Today was the perfect chance as my husband had taken the little ladies out to see his mum. I had been out and had a lovely sunny 4 mile walk with the dog in the park so felt suitably relaxed.

I had my candle (tealight) in a holder on a weighted stand so it was nearer eye level, I calmed my breathing and we were off……….geez I have a loud mind, by looking at the candle I lost my peripheral vision and it turn quietened part of my brain but would other part shut up…oh no! Plus the dog (in the other room) was in one those moods where he needed to bark if could here someone breathe a street away and the two cats decided to have a snoring competition.
So in short, I have blown out the candle, I will make a pot of green tea and go find something else relaxing to do!

Signing off for now, one disgruntled Pagan!

Winter Solstice and a Blessed Yule

Hello, wishing you a blessed Yule on this Winter Solstice!

I am so excited, there is a Pagan Moot happening tonight, a Yule social gathering of a local Pagan group and I am able to go to this moot, I have missed the others due to a lack of childminding, however that is sorted for this evening which means I get to go to my first moot and meet some other Pagans, in real life, not on the internet!!  Plus it is the solstice, the start of a new Solar year, the sun will make a return from tomorrow, the days will start to get longer and the earth will start to warm slowly, there is still some cold weather to come but the wheel is turning and life will start to come back.

There are so many different paths and different ways to celebrate the solstice but I have chosen to light a big gold candle to represent the sun and leave it burning on my altar all day, I have been making bread, both for my family and to take to the social tonight, now that it is dark I am going to light a fire and burn my small Yule log as well and with it a releasing sachet.

You can find the instructions on how to make your own releasing sachet here, my sachet will contain lavender and sage as well as small notes about what I want to release, things like negative thoughts about myself, to turn things like limitations into possibilities, inaction into action and such like and it will be burnt in my Yule fire.  I also have a sprig of Holly to throw on the flame as it is reputed to burn away your troubles from this last year bringing a fresh start to the New Year.

As I said there are many paths and many practices, ways of honoring and celebrating, many traditions but these are what I have decided to use for my first Winter Solstice/Yule as a Pagan, this may change as I become more confident in my belief and my path, I would be interested in hearing how you plan to/how you did mark the occasion if you do!

In the meantime, have a blessed Yule and may the sun shine on you and yours in the coming year, x

My first spell!

Hello again!

I am sat here, nice and warm and cosy, listening to the wind throw itself around outside, with candles lit and incense burning and it feels good…hope you are feeling good where you are too!

Now I know not all Pagans are Witches but I consider myself to be a witch, not to be confused with Wiccan, but getting into that discussion could take over this entire post so that can be explored at a later date if needed!

Anyway, I am digressing…what I am trying to say is that I conducted my first spell the other week.

Things are a bit tight when its the school holidays as I only get paid for the weeks I work, so i thought I would work a Money Spell, I didn’t ask for a lot, for untold wealth, I explained when working the spell that I only wanted a bit more, just to make things a little less ‘tight’.

I worked the Basil Hand-wash money spell.  I made my infusion of basil tea (which to my amusement my husband drank a cup of and said it was rather nice – he thought I had left him a post of loose leaf tea!)

I kept my tea in a bottle by the sink and several times a day I washed my hands with it and visualised whilst also reminding both the universe and myself that I just want a little bit more, not a lot!

Did it work?  In my opinion yes it did, in the last week I have had the opportunity to work two overtime jobs, this isnt normally possible as the jobs clash with looking after my kids (evenings usually), there is a third lined up…..I have also learnt how to make my own bread so I am now making a small loaf a day for my family which is more cost effective for us as well as being better for us as there are no artificial nasties in there, but again I can write about that in another post.

So in short, overtime is falling in my favour for once and I am saving us money by learning how to make my own bread, so yes my spell worked.  I have got rid of the remainder of the basil water and I have stopped working the spell and I am grateful.