Learning Your Lesson

“Know thyself.”
-Greek

“When I’m trusting and being myself… everything in my life reflects this by falling into place easily, often miraculously.”
– Shakti Gawain

“I don’t want to be a passenger in my own life.”
-Diane Ackerman

“If you spend your life changing for others, pretty soon there will be nothing of you left.”
-Me

These are words I have always taken to heart. Because of this I have often been accused of being immature, unreasonable, and even childish. Everyone has told me this from family members, to teachers to even my soulmate. And to certain degree this is true. I am outspoken, blunt, sarcastic and often uncompromising in who I am. I have always had a lot of attitude and a tendency to speak before I think. My personality is very extroverted and I dress and style myself accordingly. I very much see myself as a  ‘take me as I am’ sort of person. This is not always acceptable to everyone and it has given me no small degree of trouble.

So when I was told this from the people I work with in a job I care a great deal about and wish to stay in, I decided that maybe people are right. Maybe I could stand to rework myself a bit and reconsider the way I face the world. I stood down, kept my mouth shut and tried to let others lead the way while I followed quietly, allowing myself to be molded into the shape the others felt I should be.

And then I got fired for doing exactly that.

Or rather for not doing it well enough to suffice.

So frankly, fuck it. If I am going to be disregarded and looked down upon regardless of my attitude, I’m going to continue to be exactly who I am and to hell with anyone else!

Herbal Oils

Part of what annoys me about witchcraft is that once you’ve read all the ‘beginner’ books out there, not a whole lot is provided for you to take the next step. Sure some places give ‘lessons’ or make it available for you to move up ‘degrees’, but from what I hear half the lessons are reiterating exactly what you already know from the books. North is Earth, Artemis rocks, millions of women were burned to death during the witch-craze…

So when you finally do hit that point, it takes a certain amount of umph to decide where you go to next. And frankly, that umph can take some time to decide upon.

Something I have always wanted to learn about was homeopathy and working with herbs and oils. So I decided to work along that path and get in touch with the more practical elements of witchcraft. I’m starting out with attempting to make some basic oils which I will later turn into salves. These are NOT for sale or commission. I’d rather not risk selling anything till I know I can actually manage to do it correctly.

Someone was ready to help the instant I opened those catnip herbs.

 

 

I HATE the smell of burning sage. It gives me a horrid headache, aggravates my asthma and my allergies. But everyone just insists on using it to purify themselves before enter a circle. So I decided to use something a little different. This is a sage and lavender mixture I’ll be using for ritual purification.

 

 

Even though I personally don’t need to attract any more familiars (PLEASE DEAR GODS NO MORE) I thought this would make for a nice experiment. This is catnip as well as three whiskers I’ve collected from my cats over time. (NOT pulled off, just collected).

 

I stored them in a cool dry place. I read that any water or high heat can cause them to go rancid. They will need to sit for 3 weeks before their ready. After that I’ll start work on turning them into salves.

 

The Burning Times

This is an older documentary, but it remains to me one of the best descriptions of this particular period of interest and does a far better job explaining some perceptions of witchcraft than more modern documentaries.

Vikings and Warrior Women

The Celts weren’t the only ones who’s women fought alongside their men on the battlefield.

http://www.themarysue.com/vikings-women/

The Magic of Touch

In our society, people as despondent. They remove themselves from the social significance of their fellow man and pull away from the intimate connection we share with one another. I believe this makes us disconnected from humanity, which in turn makes us more self absorbed and narcissistic, focused on our own well being over that of others.

Which is why I so thoroughly enjoy massage.

I like to touch people. I get a good sense of who people are by their physical responses to my touch. Most people aren’t used to skin to skin contact so they react a little stiffly and become quite shy. But none the less people respond well to massage. They seem to separate it from random touch. So when someone is stressed I offer a quick hand massage or shoulder rub to ease the tension and help them feel better. I think this works on a more than physical level, creating a sense of relatability and comfort that allows someone to feel a real, true human connection. This benefits their mental state of being and can help bring them back to normal.

One of my favorite things is to take a long hour and give my girlfriend a back massage. It helps her a lot physically because of her spinal trouble but at the same time I think it makes her feel appreciated, wanted and desired. And believe me not a bit of that is un-warrented 😀 But it also gives me a sense of how she is feeling. I touch her skin and I feel her emotions course through me, whats on her mind. Now mind you it’s not like I read minds or anything. I just have a few moments to really let the day sink in and think about things she had said earlier. I have a chance to see how the stress is effecting her and help her by either being there emotionally, physically or just by saying the right things.

It allows me insight. And sometimes that’s all we really need to know about one another. Just a little bit of insight that allows us to connect as human beings.

Brehon Law

A lot of my interest in paganism stems from my interest in my Irish heritage. Since I never really met my father, and all my Irish bloodlines come from him, it’s a little difficult to trace my actual ancestry at this point. But the fascination has always been there. Some of my favorite myths are from the Ulster cycle, Cuchulain (Naisie and Deirdra specifically), Finn MacCool. But through these I’ve developed a definite interest in Celtic society and more to the point, Brehon Law. I can’t really explain why, only that from what it appears, Celtic people had a sense of established morals based on higher concepts of honor, duty, family and responsibility. It emphasized not only the world around it, but seemed determined for the people it governed to be mindful of the nature of themselves and their cultural heritage. Today’s law, which seems bent on whatever can be argued, pushed or lobbied into existence, Brehon Law was largely based on the situation and establishing amicable relations between involved parties. Instead of pushing for who was going to win, the laws were made to keep the peace and treat everyone according to their place in society. Admittedly this was largely a class based system, so the laws (like any) were biased to some, but it also told you what you could expect to receive for a damage dealt you or yours. It established that you were due some compensation or restitution when you were wronged instead of everything being up to a media screaming match and public opinion.

Perhaps I am over romanticizing much of this. But it fascinates me none the less. If anyone would like to add any books or good forums on this discussion, I’m all ears.

Witch’s Familiar

I saw this and coupled with the caption I couldn’t hardly resist! All things considered, the housecat we know and love has always been a predator. We get sad or upset when they follow their natural instincts to kill small birds and rodents. They are just doing what a cat was born to do. Hunt, kill and eat. I know I wouldn’t be terribly disappointed if my cat brought me this little tidbit (long as it was fully dead). Mind you I have a lot of love for snakes, but it takes a lot of skill and cunning to take down something this dangerous and I’d feel just about as proud of my familiar as she would be of herself.