Happy 2014

Happy 2014. 

While 2013 was an interesting year of transition, I am not sad to see it go.  I am greatful for the new loves in my life and moving along with some dreams and visitons.

So what is in store for the post this next year?

I am choosing to focus 2014 on forgiveness and letting go of past resentments. I will be doing a tarot journey through all 78 cards and walking through some reiki attunements as things progress.

I will be righting some more orignal rituals and other inspirational text and exploring some of my favorite divination techniques.

I am also choosing to focus on celebrating my creativity this coming year.

I am also going to be going through the process of remodeling my wee trailer home this coming year as this seems like a good year to do it in.

I have a better camera phone so more original photos and artwork.

I hope everyone has a prosperous New Year.

Blessed Be!

Blessed Solstice

Happy Yule, Blessed Winter Solstice:

Today we celebrate the shortest day of the year and the longest night. In mythology terms, we honor the birth of the divine child to the goddess and her consort. As much as most Wiccan based mythology talks only of the divine son, I celebrate the birth of divine twins, male and female.

This season I am celebrating being in my new home and settling in with my beloveds.

I am excited that when we get to the spring solstice, I finally have space for an indoor and outdoor garden.

For the interim, I will be changing the focus of the blog slightly.  There will be more discussions of healing practices and more of a divination focus.  Specifically tarot and eventually the elder futhark. It is my hope to also start studying the Ogham as a divination system.

Daily Devotion, A Basic Ritual Format.

Earlier this week, I started talking about daily devotion and ways to include the God/dess as a part of your regular routine.  One of the rituals that is widely used in ceremonial circles is Liber Resh.  As you read through it notice a few things: Yes, it is invoking the Egyptian dieties. More importantly it is a way to take a few moments throughout the day to honor the cycles around us.

Liber Resh vel Helios
sub figurâ CC

Publication in class D

1. These are the adorations to be performed by aspirants to the A∴ A∴
2. Let him greet the Sun at dawn, facing East, giving the sign of his grade. And let him say in a loudvoice:
   Hail unto Thee who art Ra in Thy rising, even unto Thee who art Ra in Thy strength, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Uprising of the Sun.
   Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm.
   Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Night!
3. Also at Noon, let him greet the Sun, facing South, giving the sign of his grade. And let him say in a loud voice:
   Hail unto Thee who art Ahathoor in Thy triumphing, even unto Thee who art Ahathoor in Thy beauty, who travellest over the heavens in thy bark at the Mid-course of the Sun.
   Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm.
   Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Morning!
4. Also, at Sunset, let him greet the Sun, facing West, giving the sign of his grade. And let him say in a loud voice:
   Hail unto Thee who art Tum in Thy setting, even unto Thee who art Tum in Thy joy, who travellest over the Heavens in Thy bark at the Down-going of the Sun.
   Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm.
   Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Day!
5. Lastly, at Midnight, let him greet the Sun, facing North, giving the sign of his grade, and let him say in a loud voice:
   Hail unto thee who art Khephra in Thy hiding, even unto Thee who art Khephra in Thy silence, who travellest over the heavens in Thy bark at the Midnight Hour of the Sun.
   Tahuti standeth in His splendour at the prow, and Ra-Hoor abideth at the helm.
   Hail unto Thee from the Abodes of Evening.
6. And after each of these invocations thou shalt give the sign of silence, and afterward thou shalt perform the adoration that is taught thee by thy Superior. And then do thou compose Thyself to holy meditation.
7. Also it is better if in these adorations thou assume the God-form of Whom thou adorest, as if thou didst unite with Him in the adoration of That which is beyond Him.
8. Thus shalt thou ever be mindful of the Great Work which thou hast undertaken to perform, and thus shalt thou be strengthened to pursue it unto the attainment of the Stone of the Wise, the Summum Bonum, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness.

 

One of the things that I like about this ritual is that after you learn it, you can start to rework it either to different pantheons or to the elements. For example East as the place of the dawn, air, intellect, and inspirations as well as new beginning.  South for fire, the noon day Sun, courage and passion etc….

The point again, to take a few moments and deliberately honor the presence of the divine in your life.

 

Just for today, I will be greatful….  Blessed Be.

Daily Devotion The Short of It....

I wanted to take a few moments and talk about devotional practices. Getting in touch with the divine as a part of your daily practice.

There is a lot of information out there on rituals that are designed to help you connect with the Goddess and her consort and the elements. Some are incredibly elaborate while others are very basic and simplistic in their design.

One of my favorite books on spiritual devotion is Practicing The Presence of God by Brother Lawrence.  It is a very small book that breaks down devotion to a very basic, daily process.

Invite the gods into everything you do from washing dishes to peeling potatoes.

Sort of a zen approach to being mindful that each action matters. In this case, that the gods are a part of each action from our first sip of coffee in the morning, to typing on the computer, to the phone calls we make. The elements too, for that matter.

Blessed Be.

Shamanic Journeying 101

One of my facebook posts from last night talked about needing to journey between the worlds for a bit. I did and it was good, very good.

I wanted to share a bit from my book of shadows and my experience without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.

Cleaning the space is always a bit of the ritual for me. General organization along with making sure there is enough room to dance, do yoga, move in general and then lay or sit down with your drum or rattle. 

I then smudge the place and myself. Lately I have been using a combination of white sage, ground angelica root, and mugwort.

I ground and center. I raise energy.

Raising energy can be done in a variety of ways including the drumming/rattling being the raising of the energy itself.  However, raising energy can include anything from chanting, laughing, or movement. Whatever feels good or appropriate to the mood of the ritual do it. In my case, interpretive dance was needed last night.

If I am using physical movement like dance, I move counter clockwise if I am releasing things and clockwise if I am drawing things in.

When the energy feels right, I then ask a totem or spirit guide to assist me in the journey. Sometimes, you will already know that you need to work with a specific animal totem. More often than not, I will use an oracle deck and work with the symbolism that presents itself. Last night, for example I used the Fairy Oracle by Brian Froud other times I have used runes, or The Medicine Cards or tarot cards.

I started drumming to help assist in going into trance state and this is where you trust the imagery or words or music that you receive as the message.  There are several different methods for helping maintain trance state. Consistent sound patterns like drums or singing bowls are only a part of it but is most commonly used.

When you are done, you journal the information for future reference ground and center to return to reality.

On a more personal note, I find it rather interesting the messengers and the message the divine sends when you need it. 

Thank you…..

Blessed Be.

Personal Manifesto On Individual Ethics Make the Group...

I have a strong personal censor and critic on at the moment because of recent issues that are still in the process of resolving. It is hard to write blog posts and not be attacking to the intentional family and coven that I left. Read between the lines as you will. Essentially this is my manifesto that strong individual ethics makes a strong group.

I firmly believe that we as individuals have to be accountable to ourselves. Personal accountability and responsibility is the heart and center of good ethics. What I do and fail to do affect more than just myself. The Wiccan Rede is centered on And It Harm None Do As Thou Will….. Refusing to take accountability for your actions and how they are affecting your loved ones and the people around you constitutes as harm in my book. Forcing other people to be accountable for your own shortcomings also causes harm and is, quite frankly abusive.

There is a part in our existence where we have to be interdependent on others. We do not exist in a vacuum. I appreciate that Starhawk speaks a lot on the four laws of ecology being true for magic and living in true community.  For the sake of reference I repost Barry Commoner’s laws here:

1. Everything Is Connected to Everything Else. There is one ecosphere for all living organisms and what affects one, affects all.
2. Everything Must Go Somewhere. There is no "waste" in nature and there is no "away" to which things can be thrown.
3. Nature Knows Best. Humankind has fashioned technology to improve upon nature, but such change in a natural system is, says Commoner, "likely to be detrimental to that system"
4. There Is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch. Exploitation of nature will inevitably involve the conversion of resources from useful to useless forms.

When you live in intentional community or family you are choosing to be connected to that group. There has to be a balance between sharing of resources and talents. There has to be personal accountability for how you affect the group or coven as a whole. You can’t expect the universe to wait on you hand and foot because you have a title or previous experience. Even the Pope has to wipe his own ass.  If you choose to ignore how you impact your community, you are causing them harm either because there will be a lack of resources or you are harming them emotionally or spiritually because you are abusively controlling and manipulating the group.

Often in tarot readings, I will have people ask when their circumstances will change. If they will ever meet a different type of personality than the abusive so and so that they keep getting, when their finances will get better, etc etc… Essentially asking if the magic will support the change in their circumstances that they want.

Magic can only do so much at the end of the day. If you are not changing your spending habits to meet your budget, you will have financial problems. No amount of green or red candles and money drawing incense is going to change that. If you keep going after the same job type you will always be miserable in the job. If you don’t take steps to fix the issues you know are YOUR responsibility, no one will do it for you. If you don’t change you first, you will never see the change manifested outside of yourself.  The charge of the Goddess even states this. You will never find without what you don’t find within first. You can’t plant watermelon seed and expect basil to grow.  If you want basil you need to plant basil seeds. However, when there are enough individuals that change their internal process then the group changes as well.  The macrocosmic reflecting the microcosm and vice versa.  

The other issue being that there is no such thing as a free lunch.  Any type of exploitation will inevitably involve the conversion or resources from useful to useless forms. Exploitation causes physical, emotional, and spiritual harm. If you exploit your friends and family they will stop being your friends and family and refuse to share their resources (physical, emotional, or spiritual) with you.  The other piece to that is that if you keep telling them that their contribution is useless, they will take away their resources or go where they are seen as useful.  Most groups and covens fail ultimately because this point is forgotten not just in terms of spell work but group dynamic as well.

No man escapes his own wyrd. Karma is a bitch. Make sure you are being accountable and taking responsibility for your own shit first. The rest will take care of itself. Peace out.

Fall, Seasonal Depression, and Healing

The coffee priestess has been offline for a bit dealing with relationships and the usual fall depression that has hit like a maelstorm.

I think we do eachother a great disservice in our culture when we assume that depression is an unnatural state. That somehow being depressed is a sign of sin in our lives (I have heard this from well meaning pastors) or that if we are not prozac happy all the time we must somehow numb the pain to ignore it or hope it will go away without addressing things.

I would like to remind my gentle readers that depression, especially seasonal depression is a natural part of the ebb and flow or our lives. Much like with anger and jealousy it is how you deal with depression that makes or breaks you.

In my own life, I have a tendency to be more introspective about everything. When I am dealing with my depression in a healthy manner, it results in giving thanks for the many blessings that I have been given and when I take that hard look at what seems missing work on goals and steps towards healing the breech. I sleep a little less or a little more. I eat the occassional blizzard for supper and slog on.

If I am not being healthy, I allow myself to get stuck. I wallow in the misery. I only stay fixated on what is wrong and allow that I don't deserve bugaboo to take over. I isolate myself from family and friends until spring comes when I might be willing to poke my nose outside again. Yes, in the really bad times thoughts of suicide can and do occure.

On a practical level remember that when you can't walk, you crawl and when you can't crawl you ask for help. The slogans from the 12 steps play a huge role in my life. Reminding myself to never get to hungry, angry, lonely or tired. Remembering to be honest, open, and willing with the people around me. Remembering the Wiccan tenants that we are all interconnected. Choosing to reach out to other people and allow other people into my life.

On a magical level, I do rituals to help inspire balance. I burn a lot of white sage, cedar, and copal this time of year. Sage to purify. Cedar to invite in good spirits and copal to balance the energy from any power struggles occuring. From my Santeria and Spiritism teachers, I take a lot of white baths, use a lot of florida water and pray for support and clarity from my ancestors.

I invoke faith, hope and love to get me through and by Ostara, we are back in a better space again as the sunlight increases.

I pray that as we start going through the dark of the year, the love of the gods shine brightly in your life and bring you balance.

Blessed Be.

Process in Action or How to Succeed At Sucking Eggs.

 One of the broader approaches to cosmology is asking those sticky questions of who am I and sometime why me?

I find myself being both amused and annoyed at the universe for the moment. Remember a few posts back when I quoted a fellow priest that No man escapes from their wyrd? I could have also followed that with be careful what you wish for.

My wyrd at the moment seems to be struggling with codependency and worth issues. Specifically shame at my own happiness or that somehow my being happy isn't as important as the other people in my life and their happiness.  Confused? Its okay. I'll break it down.

A common statement in my house is "If it wasn't for you, I'd be able to do x" X could be anything from quitting a job thats being a problem to taking a longer shower because there's not enough hot water in the hot water heater.  I have heard rumors that for non-codependent people this is a pretty simple mathematical equation of boundaries and what resources are readily available. You deal with it, make compromises and move on.  I hear statements like that and I automatically assume that I have fucked something up and that I either need to immediately stop for the other person or somehow make sure that what resources I do have are completely used towards the other person and their happiness.

This being the season for balance between light and dark or balance in all things, the quandary for me becomes how to have self worth and good boundaries without being a total dick to those around you and how to have compassion without being perceived as too soft.

That process for me being a constant reminder to ground, center, shield and seek advice when needed and the reminder that this too shall pass.

Giving Thanks For Manifested Goals.

In Wicca, we can spend a lot of energy being focused on spells and workings without always stopping to give thanks for what has been manifested. As I stated in my post on Mabon, this is the time of year that is very beneficial for looking back and acknowledging the good that has manifested for us and through us. 

Last week on Facebook and Google+ I announced that I am receiving an award for my customer service at work. My coworker is also receiving the same award.  In the process of preparing to receive the award, I am noticing how much my view point has changed over the years mainly from the coworker's reaction compared to my own. My coworker is uncomfortable with being publicly acknowledged for her work. She doesn't want to be seen by anyone let alone have to thank the company for rewarding her. 

In Ifa, there is a saying that when you prosper I prosper. I do not like having to go up in front of people. However, there are times when the needs of the many out way the needs of the few or the one as a certain movie once pointed out. In this case, my clinic is one of the smaller clinic's and we are treated like the red-headed step child in a fairy tail meaning that are needs are put at the bottom of the pile. I view my accepting of the award and working hard to exceed company guidelines as ultimately beneficial not just for the patient who is receiving the customer service but for my clinic and company as well. The more my clinic being brought up in a positive light, the more the people in power will be willing to give us the funding we need. As much as I would like to say it is purely out of the kindness of my heart, there is a bit of a mercenary approach to it too.  

There is more than just the clinic stuff going on though that is positive. I use to never be very comfortable just sitting with myself. I always had to have some sort of distraction. I appreciate my own company a lot more. As I resolve some of those issues that I wanted to distract myself from I am doing less over eating. I am also being a lot more trustful of other people and allowing them more access to my interior. 

That is not to say that I am perfect in anyway but there is growth and it is exciting to have that growth be recognized on a larger scale. 

Blessed Be!

Mabon, Fall Equinox.

At our house we are gearing up for the upcoming celebration of Mabon or the Fall Equinox for the rest of the world.  Traditionally the Fall Equinox is celebrated on or Around September 21st. The equinoxes are focused on balance between physical light and darkness as well as spiritual light and darkness.  In my post on coven cosmology, we view Mabon as the 2nd Harvest or the height of the fall season, not the true start of  fall as in the meteorological system.

In
Wiccan tradition and goddess spirituality, Mabon is the time of year we celebrate the Goddess becoming the Crone and the God becoming the wise Sage. 

This is the time of year kids return to school or adults to college classes. Football season is firmly started, the farmers market in my area are brimming with zucchini, pumpkin, and other goodies. The coffee houses start carrying their pumpkin pie spiced lattes and we in the northern tundra have a few more weeks before the snow starts to fly.  I do like this time of year the best mainly because of the groups of Canadian geese  that appear in the area, the start of the football season (go Gophers and Vikings) and that I can turn off my air conditioner briefly before I have to turn on my heater. 

So how does our coven and household celebrate this time of year? Glad you asked that question. This is one of those times of year that I deep clean the house from top to bottom before we are holed up during the long Minnesota winter. I rent a rug doctor to shampoo the carpets and I have to leave the windows and the door open to get some good air flow through the house. I also follow the air cleansing with a sage smudging and salt water sprinkling. If its been a particularly bad year we switch out the white sage with asafoetida.
We feed our house spirits and land spirits by offering the best quality organic cream,eggs, honey, and whole grain bread we can afford ( We use a potato/onion loaf or a rye bread). We also offer mead, hard cider, or whiskey as well.Coffee is kept on the altar as well as whatever tea we are into.  We also usually have a pot luck for folks and play card games or watch whatever tv show we are into at the moment so this year it will either be Hell On Wheels or The Walking Dead. Those of us who like having discussions on the parable around that episode go outside and have discussions on how the show relates to themes of the season.

Mainly we honor the God/dess for the good harvest our labors have brought and our friends and family that have labored with us.

As we prepare to welcome in the Crone and the Sage, may you be blessed by your own harvests and their wisdom in your life.

Blessed Be!

Creating Change and Understanding Your Patterns.

Welcome back folks.

Once upon a time, I did a lot of sitting, drinking coffee, and listening to Orval LookingHorse speak to my class about genetic history. The stuff that is deeply embedded into our dna that can express itself as past life memory, collective subconscious, or just that thing that you KNOW happened or KNOW how to do because it is as natural to you as breathing.  One of the things that Mr LookingHorse and his wife spoke to us about was studies that were done on schools of small fish. An electrical current was passes through the water at one end of the tank. Four generations later, the offspring of that surviving school would not go to the end of the tank where the genocide occurred.

When we examine the motivation behind why we do things, sometimes it is as simple as that's the way its always been. Each spring and each fall, I NEED to have the windows and doors of my house open for a full 24 to 48 hours as a sort of wind cleansing.  The more blustery the day the better. It is not something I learned in a book. When my Grandma M first saw me do it and light incense afterwards she said, my mom use to do that all the time.  I would like to think that I open those doors and windows from genetic memory than anything I have observed. It is a tempting trap. But what about less benign behaviors like bullying, oppression, and dehumanization?

I remember that we use to visit a log cabin in Ponca State Park with my great grandpa. The cabin was the site of the first Indian massacre of white people. The acknowledge story being that Indians came one day and killed the women and children that were home and waited for the husband and men to return and killed them too.  Savage Indians brutally shedding innocent blood.  However, maybe they weren't so innocent.

I once asked great grandpa why this was of interest to him.  He liked history and collected bullets. He also liked collecting stories. He spoke to the old ones who remembered the events when he was much younger. He said what the state history left out was that the Old Man and his sons use to shoot the Indian women and children from across the riverbank like it was a game. The Indians were retaliating against the innocent slaughter of their people.

Something to contemplate.

We have a strong push in our society to stop bullying and senseless acts of violence. Being a survivor of bully's for most of my life and striving for a more compassionate society I totally support this cultural change.
Redemption then becomes not just  spiritual issue but fighting against the patterns that are hardwired into us. A sort of rewriting of the code for you software folks out there.  It does require choosing to be conscious about what you are doing and not just being reactive. Positive results are possible.

If you told me four years ago I would be fairly secure in a job I actually liked, even when I was stressed out I would tell you that you were wrong. However, I am. I made a choice to stop running from my own bad behaviors and be less reactionary. I hate to sit and think things through it does not come naturally but it is coming and it is producing results. True transformation can never be about wishful thinking. Our natural coding forbids it. However, it does happen when we surrender our ego and are willing to see what we want to be and forge ahead with those changes not matter how much it may not seem logical. We have to have patience. We have to have faith. We have to have the tenacity to never give up and to see it through to the end.

Blessed Be.

Behavioral Patterning vs clairvoyance Part II

I wanted to clarify something from my last post.

I do believe that total clairvoyance can be possible.  I know several talented clairvoyant folks who use their skills in everything from giving readings to other people, healing psychological and physical issues to finding answers to engineering and physics issues.  Clairvoyance for me meaning that there are people out there that are so connected to the divine that they have constant words of knowledge for folks.

Needless to say I have always considered myself to be a pattern reader more than a classic oracle. I do get visions, flashes of insight and words of knowledge around particular situations or people. However, most of the times when I sit down with someone, the more accurate readings come from a combination of understanding human behaviors as well as being open to spirit.

I can be accused of being mechanistic in regards to the Lady and her Consort and the mysteries of the universe. However, if we truly practice a nature based religion that is based on our interconnection then we still need to have a logical approach to how those connections are interwoven.

Even my spell work does tend to be a bit more practical/mechanistic when it comes to sympathetic magick. If I am looking for a job then I have not only my resume on my altar but I also have visualizations of the basic qualities of that work. At the moment, I am wanting to add a male lover for myself to our happy clan. As much as I would love a particular fantasy to happen, I am more focusing the spell on the qualities vs a particular person. Yes, there are days my younger self or lizard brain needs glittery wands and candles to connect to the magick and there are other day that I more want my army of orcs or litches to do my bidding than the lighter side (even if they are my War Hammer miniatures or miniatures from one of the many zombie games) . However, I fully acknowledge that unless I am willing to back up that wishful thinking with real world work towards the end results then all I am doing is wishing and mental masturbation.

Prediction Through Divination and Behavioral Observations

I love the art and science of divination. Sitting down with myself or with a client and throwing tarot is perhaps my absolute favorite form of divination even though I am fluent in several.

I have a confession to make though.  I find trying to have a reading as purely clairvoyent murky and more akin to storytelling than actually helping out a client. Its a fallback from my chemical dependency counseling days. I tend to rely on the story they are telling me on their behaviors and their desire to change a situation to actively and more accurately divine their future for lack of a better word.

Tarot cards are useful because they are a sort of universal language. Its a jumping board for a discussion on what is happening in the client's life or your own life. At any point in time you will experience any number of combination of the cards.

Behavioral prediction is more based off of the pattern that is actively developed by the person or group involved and what they are doing to support that change. As someone once said, "You have to plant watermelon seeds in order for watermelon to grow."

In a reading when someone asks about falling in love with Mr Right or Mr Right now, or finding that perfectly tailored job I go through what they cards show but I also follow that up with questions about what they are doing to support their desire.

No matter how much I may want that romantic date with Anson Mount, the reality is I do not run in the types of circles he runs in. I am not even sure he is polyamorus or would be open to such an arrangement. So realistic expectation? Not really, unless he starts working at the U of M or hanging out at CONvergence.  However, it is reasonable to expect to meet someone with similar qualities who is open to the arrangements our little happy crew has. Even with jobs, unless you are clear with yourself on what you want and are being open to possibilites, you won't get it. Very rarely do those types of wishes just land in  your lap.

Not to suck the mysticism out of divination or magick but the universe is still a very practical place based on action. 

With that, I will be writing about the upcoming holiday of Mabon and some deeper cosmology thoughts.

Blessed Be Gang.

So Just What Do We Expect?

Come gather around my witchy sisters and brothers and fellow seekers. Park your broomsticks for a while and settle in around Cerridwen's Cauldron with your favorite brew of choice. I am feeling a little wordy tonight.

I know my last few posts have been more centered around what we see missing from some of our fellow teachers and practitioners. It does occur to me that you have a right to know what we expect from our potential students and what you can expect from us. 

While our first handout has several pages dedicated to practical rules of engagement it really boils down to we expect you to be courteous, friendly, and accountable for your actions. We will provide you the same. 

Wicca is a mystery tradition that is a combination of magic, mysticism through ritual and ceremony, and spirituality. It is a tradition of experience. It is a process of learning how to actively change your consciousness. As much as we have very serious discussions about moral development and ethics the reality is magic is very individually focused. You and you alone are responsible for your magic both what you put into it and what you get out of it or as a fellow high priest reminded me recently: no man (or woman) escapes his own wyrd/destiny...

So what can you expect from me as a teacher and high priestess? The same. As a fellow seeker, I will listen to your questions and concerns and share my knowledge or how I would go about getting answers. I will respect your privacy and keep confidential information confidential. I will do my best to have good boundaries physically and emotionally with you. If you are not comfortable with something I am doing or teaching, I expect you to challenge me in a respectful manner so we can have a discussion about it and learn from each other. 

One of the larger issues that I personally strive for is to make sure that every participant in each ritual understands the process that is going on. I don't believe in using secret words in public ritual. I was at a very badly run public ritual where the hp began calling the directions in their own secret code. I don't care if you are a published writer, you can't expect everyone at the ritual to have read your book. You need to treat a public ritual as neutral territory and assume your participants don't know anything.  I have been at multiple rituals in other traditions (Wiccan and otherwise) where a different language was used and translations were made available or explanations were made as to what was happening. For example, when I have been at Ifa ceremonies much of it is said in Yoruba but English translations are provided before, during, or afterward. When I have been in Tibetan Buddhist ceremonies the ceremony is typed and said in Tibetan and in English and sometimes in Sanskrit depending on the ceremony. I have also been to Catholic masses that have been said in Latin, Spanish and English and sometimes German depending on the community. Don't make things more confusing for folks than they have to be. Keep the language clear. 

The other issue that I have and strive to make sure doesn't happen with our group is that if you are doing a group ritual that is aimed at uncovering deeper emotional issues (hidden fears, denial being broken off etc) make sure you are providing some sort of process afterwards for aftercare or a safe place to discuss whatever was brought up.  Again, we are a mystery tradition that is focused on personal transformation. Don't call up energy and issues that you aren't willing to help sort out and calm back down again. Again, I do place an expectation that if a student or participant is not okay with what is going on, that they speak up and get clarification. I would rather stop a ritual process to explain something than potentially harm someone emotionally. 

Some of this should be common sense but it isn't always practiced. This does lead to another concern I would like to leave people with. Teachers of spiritual traditions or otherwise are human. We all have good and bad days. We all have times were our consistency fails for a variety of reasons. We all come from a variety of background experiences that when shared, should make us stronger as a community. Remember to have patience. With that, I am outta here for the night. Time to enjoy the beautiful rain we are finally having. 

Blessed Be! 

Moral Development As A Community Issue

“The three core principles of Goddess religion are immanence, interconnection, and community. Immanence means that the Goddess, the Gods are embodied, that we are each a manifestation of the living being of the earth, that nature, culture, and life in all their diversity are sacred. Immanence calls us to live our spirituality here in the world, to take action to preserve the life of the earth, to live with integrity and responsibility….Interconnection is the understanding that all beings are interrelated, that we are linked with all of the cosmos as parts of one living organism…So interconnection demands from us compassion, the ability to feel with others so strongly that our passion for justice is itself aroused”…pg 22 Starhawk. Spiral Dance

The very first handout the coven gives our students for their book of shadows is largely about the rules of engagement we expect from them as students and what they can expect from us as coven leaders and teachers.  That handout also includes discussions on boundaries for ritual and codes of conduct in general both on a physical and metaphysical level.

When I posted the first post in this series, I postulated that perhaps we sometimes confuse ethics with moral development. I say this because there is a need to delineate between performance expectations within a group setting to maintain a healthy group and when, how and why to use witchcraft or considering the moral implications of using magic on/for yourself or others.

I get frustrated at the several different schools of Wicca out there that will teach you how to employ a candle to draw money to you before they teach the student how to reasonably connect with the natural power around them without hurting themselves or others in the process.  I understand the desire to practice witchcraft to meet a practical need but if you are destroying yourself physically and mentally in the process is meeting the other need going to do you any good?  Turning your boyfriend into a toad really isn’t going to do you any good if you aren’t addressing your own insecurities or emotional issues that led to the break up to begin with. Magic really does come down to transforming ourselves before we can transform the world around us. However, this is a slightly different issue than moral development. I don’t believe that moral development is just a spiritual issue. It is a community issue, a practical one.

Moral development is studied from a non religious standpoint in modern psychology. Jean Piaget and Lawrence Kohlberg are just two examples of psychologists who have written on the stage of moral development in children and adults. Piaget concluded that moral development is learned through social interactions and internalizing just behavior. Kohlberg further decided that moral development is more involved and evolutionary than just deciding what is right for the moment or group concession.

It is not to say that I expect my students to become immobilized with the fear that they might be doing something to harm someone inadvertently. Goodness no. However, I do expect my students to think through the full ramifications of their process. Are they doing something to bind someone’s will? That isn’t acting in unconditional love.  Do I want my neighbor who ran over my husband to move? Yes but instead of actively wishing him harm, I ask the gods to bless him with opportunity and fortune to either move him or move us away from him. I also pray and do spells to protect my physical property and members of my household and have followed every legal recourse to ensure we stay safe from harm.

I do understand that many people do not want the responsibility of ensuring standards for social norms and social responsibility. However, I see that one of the inherent issues in the dumbing down or our society is that we are also not expecting any level of personal accountability or standards of behavior either unless they are completely self serving. Yet we are bitterly disappointed when community does not meet our level of expectation. We can’t have it both ways. If we want our community to have accountability and responsibility than we have to be a part of that in both the creation of the standard that the holding others to the same standards. 

Wicca, Ethics, and Morality

I think I have started this article a dozen times or more.  It will be more than just one article and it really does include a broader scope than just Wicca in its content. In part, I must admit it is inspired by my favorite actor of the moment, Anson Mount, and some of his interviews on playing Cullen Bohanen on Hell On Wheels and moral development, ethics and redemption being more of a universal and psychological issue than purely religious in nature. It is also inspired by the potential of a new round of seeker classes at the house. As much as I want to focus on the more universal aspects of morals and ethics I am going to attempt to limit this article to just dealing with Wicca and the teaching of ethics and morals.

It is widely acknowledged that Wicca does not have a hard and fast code of ethics for its followers be they clergy or layperson. More often than not, we as clergy and teachers teach ethics from a standpoint of what you can and shouldn't do with the power that you are about to learn how to use. That we work and live in perfect love and perfect trust and honor the Wiccan Rede of "An it harm none, do as thou will." I begin to wonder if we as clergy and teachers are confusing ethics with expectations of moral development.

Wicca is centered on the beliefs that we are interconnected to the world around us. We also can achieve self actualization through understanding those connections and working in harmony with them. Through the traditional text of the Charge of the Goddess, we teach that we are to live in perfect love and perfect trust and to harm none.

It is my belief that we have to somewhere have a baseline understanding of what harming none constitutes. I know too many clergy and laypeople who choose those two guidelines as an excuse to be sexual predators, improperly use finances, and ignore the emotional and physical boundaries of others. Because we acknowledge that we do not exist in a vacuum, I believe that means we have a greater responsibility to promote basic human rights, compassion and a non-oppressive environment. If we expect other professionals to have bodies that govern their code of ethics, why aren't we demanding it from ourselves?

I hear too often that expecting Wiccan clergy to hold to a formalized ethical code is like herding cats. I also hear the same thing about expecting a more formalized curriculum and standards for moral development for students and potential clergy. I think we are selling ourselves and our students short by not expecting more from each other and them.  I also do not think we will ever be taken seriously as theologians and philosophers until we do start having higher standards of what we are teaching and how we are living our beliefs.

I do agree with the thinkers of my generation like Mount, that ideals of ethics, morals, and redemption (self actualization) are universal in their nature. I think that we Wiccans in particular need to start taking more accountability for our own actions and how we are interacting with others and impacting the world around us. As the chant goes, "she changes everything she touches and everything she touches changes."

Cosmic Belly Button Lint Revised or Why Spirituality Matters to Me? Semi Autobiographical...

Blogging in a format that is something other than a quick bitch about what is currently driving me nuts or what I am geeking out about is a new to me thing. Even when LiveJournal was all the rage, I did not use it as a more serious critique of my inner and outer world. I am still attempting to find my voice but there are some repeated themes you will come to find as you traverse these pages with me. Spirituality is a big deal for me. Understanding the underlying issues of cosmology and the expression of belief and faith are equally huge deals for me. My personal spirituality is based on the belief that there is divinity and that divinity loves us. Our power for transformation comes from our connection to divinity, our connection to our ancestors, and our connection to the natural world around us (nature spirits, ecology and humanity.) As much as I am writing about the ideals and beliefs of the Wiccan coven I am a part of, I am not purely Wiccan. I am not purely Christian or any one thing. However, I do have a very keen understanding of both theologies and some days I lean more to one side than the other. From 1973 to 1982 I grew up in a very traditional family structure in small communities where the ALC Lutheran Church was the primary expression of spirituality. My father wanted to be a missionary or pastor and took his role as a layman pastor seriously. (He has since achieved that vision and travels the four corners preaching the gospel.) My great great grandfather helped build the church that we worshiped in weekly and my extended paternal family was very stout in their belief system. So what happened? In 1981 or 82 one foggy morning 50 head of cattle showed up on the fields of the family homestead after my mother thought she had an agreement from my father that there was to be no cattle. I was too young to remember the exact day but I do remember the cattle fondly. My Mom, not so much. This was the straw that broke the camels back in a long line of issues that showed my Dad was more interested in what someone else thought than what Mom thought. She filed for separation and divorced him by the end of 1982. When my Mother stared moving around to finish her college education, we were introduced to other expressions Christianity than just Lutheran or Roman Catholic. Including my being introduced to the Assembly of God community through a friend who wanted me to go to a bible study class with her. I was assuming something more akin to Sunday Bible school of arts and crafts and coloring pages not an actual academic discussion of the book of John. My Mother was worried. She asked my Dad to attend a class with me and he bought into everything they were preaching for better or worse. My Dad remarried someone who was involved in the Pentecostal movement and both of them never settled on one community to practice with. Each weekend was a new church depending on what the sermon topic was about. My Mother did continue with the ELCA Lutheran Church in the variety of towns we lived in to give us some stability when we were with her. We had several odd discussions with my step mother on spirituality and pop psychology. When I was in high school, I went to a fairly large, progressive school that offered a comparative religion class and I was introduced to non-Christian expression’s of spirituality. Throughout my k-12 experience, I identified as a Pentecostal. I read every book and listened to every sermon tape I could to understand not only who God was but how to please Him as well. With puberty also came a nasty child custody battle and being incredibly unpopular with my peers, overweight, and into science fiction (thus a social outcast) I also was diagnosed with clinical depression. When I would talk to my pastor’s and bible teachers about my depression I was always told that if I was truly a child of God, I would be happy all the time. That if I wasn’t happy, I must be in a state of sin and separated from God. My question then and now is How the FUCK is a 10 or 13 year old sheltered child with no life experience in a state of sin AFTER they have become born again and repent on a daily basis? I don’t get that type of thinking. When I graduated from high school in 1991 I went to the University of South Dakota and met one my first non Christian spiritual teachers Robert Bungee. Dr. Bungee was a Rosebud Sioux half-breed linguistic and Sioux Tribal expert who had a difficult time believing I was not a half breed myself. We spent many hours talking over coffee and cigarettes at the Indian student center. He also brought in shaman and political activist Orval Lookinghorse and his lovely wife to explain larger concepts of the peace pipe and the 12 sacred traditions. When I left USD because of a nervous breakdown, I returned home to Minneapolis and started taking classes at the Minneapolis Community College. I studied Chemical Dependency Counseling because my mother was very entrenched in the adult children of alcoholics movement and I thought it might be a wise career move and a way to get on the reservations and be useful. While at MCC, I also worked with some folks who were interested in shamanism as a spiritual tradition and also hung out at the local women’s bookstore where I picked up my first book on Wicca Ffiona Morgan’s Wild Wymen Don’t Get the Blues and accompanying tarot deck, Daughter’s of the Moon. My love of Wicca was born. I love ceremony and ritual and spells. Oh the candle combinations and incense I could burn! Better yet, I didn’t need a pastor or priest to tell me the right way to please the goddess. I was whole. I practiced as a solitary but being bound by social convention still had to practice some form of Christianity to appease my parents and grandparents. I can honestly say I became Catholic to rebel and hide my witchy leanings. I love Roman Catholic Christianity because of the pomp and circumstance. I also appreciate that there is a female aspect of god, and that there are very alive and active schools of mysticism. I also really appreciate their social justice leanings even if I am more liberal in other areas. Mysticism and social justie being the most important because I do believe there is more out there in the universe than what we can see and touch with our regular senses and compassion for all people is kinda mandatory for me. It wasn’t until years later when I met my husband and non-legal sister wife (legal disclaimer: we are not bigots or polygamists we are polyamorous and while I am committed to both I am not legally married to either) that I practiced Wicca publically or with another teacher outside of what I was learning on my own through books and experience. Through my journey with my sister wife and high priestess we have studied the African Diaspora traditions of Ifa/Santeria. I have taken attunements for the Usui Reiki system of healing and have also studied with the local O.T.O lodge though I am not nor intend to be an initiate of that group. Not anything personal, just not my cuppa joe. All the while, my partner and I still run a small coven and take in seekers all the time refining our system as we increase our knowledge and understanding. My point being, as you have slogged through all this, I probably would not be as interested in spirituality and the expression of it if I hadn’t had the life experiences that I have had. Issues of faith, redemption, and morals matter but are not limited to a particular focus or ritual expression. Understanding, compassion and forgiveness do matter.

Motivational Psychology and Wicca

Motivational psychology is one of my favorite subsections of psychology. In 1996 I received an Associate’s Degree with honors in Chemical Dependency Counseling or Addiction Therapy as it is currently called. I worked for several years as a counselor for different agencies and continue to work on my bachelor’s degree as time and money allow. When Cat and I first started going through the coven book of shadows, I was surprised that she included a section on Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs as a part of understanding underlying issues of the need for ritual and spell work and why they sometimes bomb or hopefully succeed. In recovery we talk a lot about what is our motivation to change our life, transform it completely by not giving into our addiction and why we may need to change our inner world so that the outer changes can be made. My first mentor, June, focused equally on Maslow as she did on the twelve step program of AA to help folks make the connections they needed as a part of their recovery. Magic, as one definition states, is the art and science of creating change. Ritual workings and spells are some of the tools we use to help our lizard brain get over itself and grow into a new way of thinking, perceiving and doing things. For Maslow, the over arching goal is self actualization or the continual process of self fulfillment or the tendency for him to become actualized in what he is potentially. i.e. one person to express themselves athletically or another person to express themselves through art etc… The basic structure of the hierarchy of needs focuses on 1. Biological and physical needs for air, food, shelter, water, warmth, sex, sleep etc. 2. Safety Needs i.e protection from the elements, physical security and emotional security. 3. Social needs i.e sense of belonging and compassion. 4. Esteem needs; self esteem, mastery, etc.. 5. Self actualization. In Wicca we strive to live in harmony with the natural cycles around us each according to our abilities. The motivation for most types of spell work comes down to one of those needs not being met be it a search for a lover or turning the lover into a toad (social needs) to any of the number of prosperity spells for biological and physical needs to protection spells for safety needs. Earlier, I made the distinction between spell and ritual working. Spells to me mean that I am doing something that is affecting my outer circumstances like the ones mentioned in the last paragraph. Ritual workings then are about changing my inner thoughts and world to help manifest a better physical world. For example, I have a ritual from Family Spirit by Awo Folokun that is designed to change self esteem and inner tapes from negative to positive. I perform it at least once every 6 month cycle. When I am asking the universe for an additional boyfriend or more money coming in to pay off a bill that is a spell. Why most magic flops for people is that they are usually not clear within themselves what they really need to have happen (working or spell) and they are usually not having patience for their issue to manifest. Harkening back to the last post with clear intent you need faith and patience to manifest your desired vision. Unless of course you’re interfering in the free will of someone else but that is an entirely different conversation of morals and ethics in magic. With that, gentle readers, I have a pug that is napping next to me and I am sorely tempted to join her. I hope this was helpful in some way. Blessed Be!

Intent, Faith, and Patience...

I am writing more because I need to remind myself of what I know. Magic really boils down to the belief that we can change our circumstances and ourselves. Our coven focuses on being a transformation based coven. Meaning that while others may focus on healing, hexing etc... we are primarialy focused on changing ourselves before we expect to see changes in the outside world. With that, intent or focus on your desired change but must be followed up with real world work. You also have to have faith that the desired change will come about and patience knowing that the universe very rarely works on the instant oatmeal timing of this day and age. It is way too easy to get discouraged because something is moving slower than expected but that doesn't mean the universe isn't working in the background to bring about your dreams and visions. Have faith, and as my pastor father in law says, Patience, jack ass, patience.... Blessed Be and courage to all those waiting for their vision to manifest.

Raven's Gate Cosmology

Raven’s gate Tradition Cosmology

When I am not busy being a wife, customer service goddess in a healthcare setting, or a savage geek I think about how our universe is formed and how we are a part of that design. Cosmology and how it informs my world.

Raven’s Hearth Coven, as previously stated, is an eclectic tradition based off of the Celtic myth cycle. As such, we (like most wiccan covens) are an earth based expression of spirituality. In the simplest of words, we see the divine through the world around us and because or our Celtic/Germanic ancestry see it through the agricultural cycle beginning with winter and ending with fall or the death, birth, life, death and rebirth. It is also, once you contemplate it, the ebb and flow and the human life cycle, the lunar cycle, and the cycle of a basic day.

So we start, as most covens do, with Samhain or Halloween (October 31) Samhain is the culmination of fall and the start of winter. Traditional/historically that last sheaf is bound, the harvest is gathered. There is time to honor the spirits of the dead and the life of the previous cycle. What worked well and what didn’t work well.  It is the time we have to clear out the old and get ready for the new cycle ahead of us.

At Yule (December 21) we celebrate the height of winter with the celebration of the birth of the divine child. While traditionally the child has been focused on the Goddess giving birth to the God, I believe that the divine child can be both male and female essentially while traditional European models focus on a single male child being birthed, I believe that it is either twins or an hermaphrodite that is born.

The beginning of spring is celebrated at Imbolc or February 2. Imbolc represents the maturing of the divine child into a youth traditionally the time of the maiden.  In Celtic agricultural society the remaining candles were blessed as well as the fields and grain that would be planted once the weather was warm enough and the ground thawed.

The height of spring is then represented with Ostara or the Spring Solstice around March 21.  This is also the reflected in the maturity of the maiden and male youth.  The fields are usually able be plowed and planted. (Hey, I live in Minnesota so the chances of the ground being thawed are slim to none but I do understand you warmer climate people get to be outside in March without your parka.) This is also the time of year that if you have been able to plant, you are usually at a waiting time for the plants to be big enough to tell if it is what you want or if it is a week that will need pulling.  Daily life is like that too but that’s a different article.

The next season that is celebrated is the beginning of summer at Beltane or May 1^st. Beltane celebrates the sacred marriage of the Goddess and the God. Lots of sex happens at this time for humans and animals as well. Even in the land of the north, it is usually warm enough to be outside without several layers of clothes. The crops are planted unless it’s a really cold or wet year.

Litha is celebrated on June 21 and is the height of summer. By this point the Goddess is pregnant with the divine child/ren from all the sex at Beltane.

Lammas/Lughnasadh is the beginning of fall and is celebrated on August 2. It is the first of the harvest season. In traditional Irish culture this was also the time of the fairs that the grains and animals would be brought to. Contests of strength and skill would be had. It is not a whole lot different from modern times and the county and state fairs that happen locally. There is a lot of work preparing for the winter ahead and celebrating the good that has been manifesting.

Mabon is the autumnal equinox celebrated on September 21. The Mother starts going into her time of confinement while the Crone starts to become more active. The God starts to die at this time with his full decent being at Samhain.

Samhain again being a time of resting after the harvest and honoring what has passed on the last year.

So my observations from this is that our cycles are based off of this main one from the lunar cycle to the human to our daily cycle. The next few blog posts, as I get them written will be dissecting these cycles individually.

I am off to enjoy a cuppa and chill out with the family. I always welcome critiques of my writing and our thought process. I hope it blessed you in the process to read it as it has for me to get it written.

May the love of the goddess dwell in your heart and enlighten you!

Coffee of the Coffee Priestess

For something completely silly:

Dark Roast is my favorite roast.
My preference is for whole bean ground right before I brew it. I will do ground coffee on occasion but it is usually espresso.

My favorite summer drink is 2 parts cold pressed dark roast to 1 part very vanilla soy milk and the rest of the year just a classic latte.

I don't have any favorite brands. Dunn Brothers or Caribou is preferred name brand coffee shops to Starbucks but my preference is usually for local small businesses.

Anywho, that's it for now. The more serious cosmology post is coming up later this weekend.

Raven's Gate Coven is an eclectic Wiccan coven in Minneapolis run by Catherine Wagner and myself, Emily Wagner.  We are a transformation coven that focuses on understanding yourself and personal accountability through spiritual development.

My desire for a blog is to talk more publicly about my own growth process as a Wiccan priestess, polyamorus wive, and customer service professional.

My educational background includes a strong psychology background (I was a chemical dependency counselor for 7 years) and humanities. I grew up with part of my family being Pentecostal that valued constant study of the Bible and theology. I use these skills to study and evaluate mythology as a part of modern spirituality.

I struggle with depression and social anxiety. I do not claim to be an expert on resolving these issues but I am willing to share my experience in the hopes that it might help someone else along the way.

I hope as we journey together we will continue to bless each other with our wisdom and strength.




"We all come from the Goddess and to her we shall return. Like a drop of rain, flowing to the ocean."
                                                                                                               - Wiccan Chant