Full Moon Eclipse and New Sparklies

Last night was a Full Moon Eclipse. I think it was also a Super moon and a Blood moon. I was incredibly lucky to be able to see it. For many places clouds blocked the view. It was so interesting to watch the moon rise over the distant mountains, be eclipsed, and see it return back to full light. It always amazes me how bright the Full Moon really is, especially considering it's a reflection of our Sun.

Interestingly enough I had absolutely no desire to do a ritual or anything last night. Often on the Full Moon I feel drawn to doing something. Last night I didn't feel drawn to do anything. I'm wondering if that had to do with the energy of the Eclipse.

I still need to do my Fall Equinox ritual and seasonal Tarot reading. I'm working on getting over a cold and now some weird stomach bug thing. Getting "regular" sick on top of having chronic illness tends to complicate things. I'm VERY grateful that I seem to be recovering from the cold without a chronic illness flare up. The last cold I got made my chronic stuff flare up for months.

This week has been a week of new sparklies! Eliud of Brazil made his semi-annual visit to Mystic Moon of Norfolk. Eliud and his family own several stone mines in Brazil. He visits the USA several times a year and makes a point to stop in at Mystic Moon whenever he can. He has AMAZING stones at excellent prices due to his family owning the mines. As I no longer live in the area, my friend Shaman graciously helped me choose stones to purchase and shipped them to me. Thanks Shaman for choosing such excellent stones for me!  :-)

This time I chose to purchase 2 Vogel wands in addition to a few other stones. I haven't felt drawn to Vogels before now. What was excellent was that when I was given the choice between the two Vogels and priced it out, both together, with the other stones, was just $0.11 over my total budget limit. I took that as a sign that I was supposed to get both. Shaman picked out two incredible Vogels for me. One is a lovely Smokey Quartz wand with a rich brown-gray color that fades to almost clear at the smaller point. The other is an incredible amethyst Vogel. It has a wonderful, rich lilac color with subtle undertones of smokey quartz brown-gray and rose quartz pink, depending on the light. Pictures just simply do not do the colors of these wands justice, though I really tried. I also got a lovely piece of black tourmaline. Unfortunately one end crumbled a bit during shipping. I will absolutely be able to use the crumbled pieces, so no big deal. I also got a piece of ametrine, aquamarine, green tourmaline, red tourmaline, and 4 small pieces of brown zircon. I had been hoping to get more tourmaline this time, but there wasn't much selection. It's all luck of the draw for what is mined and available at the time.

Absolutely does NOT do the lovely colors justice...

Clockwise starting at 12 o'clock: Brown Zircon, Red Touraline, Smokey Quartz Vogel, Black Tourmaline, Amethyst Vogel, Green Tourmaline
Center: Aquamarine, Ametrine

Same as above but out in sunlight

The Black Tourmaline and how the end crumbled in shipping. Those pieces will be put to good use, eventually.

I also got some lovely stones from my husband. He had a work trip to Traverse City, MI. He found some great local stones. One is a Petoskey Stone. It's a variety of calcite formed by the fossilization of an ancient coral called Hexagonaria. These stones are found on the beaches of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron and in regional rock quarries in Michigan. Another stone he got me that is unique to the region is called Leland Blue. It's antique foundry glass, circa 1875-1900. It's a byproduct of smelting iron ore in Northwestern Michigan. He also brought me a fossilized clamshell and fossilized mudcrack.

Top, left to right: Petoskey Stone, Leland Blue Antique Foundry Glass
Bottom, left to right: fossilized mudcrack, fossilized clamshell

I found it interesting that my husband chose me several water based stones and one fire based stone. This makes me think of water and fire, energetic balance, balancing emotional energies, energetic dichotomy.

So that was my sparklies filled week. :-)  I'm looking forward to the start of October in just a few days. I consider October 1 to be the start of Halloween season for me. I'll be pulling out my Halloween themed decks to work with and interview here. I hope you'll join me for this fun season!

I'm a "squishy" polytheist...

I just read a great blog post by Ian Corrigan about polytheism. In it he talks about "squishy" polytheism. Squishy polytheism takes a varied perspective on polytheism, sticking neither to hard or soft polytheism exclusively. You can read this excellent post here:  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/intothemound/2015/09/152.html

I have been considering my perspective on polytheism recently. I find myself resonating with this "squishy" polytheism perspective. I recognize that many, if not most, deities are individual unto themselves. But I also recognize the validity of archetypal energies as well. I believe that deities can and do change as the times change. While it may sound funny, I think there's something to the perspective of the Gods laid out in Neil Gaiman's book American Gods. I think there is something to the belief that the Gods need us, to a point, as much as we need them. They can benefit from the energies put forth by our worship, attention, offerings, and rituals. I think that they may fade or perhaps even disappear as their followers disappear. I think they can change as cultures and times change. It may seem silly to utilize a perspective from a work of fiction, but I find this perspective resonates very strongly with me.

I also recognize archetypal energies. Take for example the archetype of the Warrior, an energy that can be called upon, I believe. How exactly that's going to manifest is going to vary from culture to culture, pantheon to pantheon, perhaps even individual to individual. But energetically Warrior can assist with strength and courage, etc. So you don't necessarily have to call on a specific deity, but the energy of the Warrior to assist you.

The debate (argument) over the differing perspectives of which type of polytheism is the "right" one and how to worship the Gods in the "right" way has become fairly intense, at least online. I don't think there is only one "right" way to worship or work with the Gods, spirits, energies, etc. I think we all find our own way and that way is right for us as individuals. We may come together as groups also, but our private practice is our own.

Chronic Illness and Balance vs. Distortion

This week has been a challenging week both physically and emotionally. I have been having some chronic illness flares caused by several different factors. The past few days have been very eye opening in a series of "coincidences" that aren't really coincidences. I went to my second meeting of the meditation group I'm going to on Wednesday nights. It was a very nice meditation and the lady who facilitates it is very nice. We talked for quite a while after the meditation, chit chatting. I was talking about wanting to get going with my Tarot business and my dog training business but am having some mental blocks about getting going. She suggested making up some simple fliers and business cards to have on hand, available to pass out should the opportunity arise. One thing she said really stuck with me. She talked about how having those simple things sets out the energy of intention for getting started and meeting people who we are supposed to meet. That really resonated with me, basically reaffirming my thoughts on what you focus your energy on is what will likely be the type of energy you attract. This is very much NOT any sort of victim blaming for bad circumstances or anything like that. But where you put your focus is where your energies will be drawn and what types of energies that you will likely draw in. I want to get started with my businesses. Having a few simple tools to facilitate that will be sending out the intention of getting started, which is what I want. So that's the first "ping" for the week.

Then, I started re-reading the book "I'm Spiritual, dammit" by Jenniffer Weigel. It's an excellent book about her journey through spiritual seeking. One of the subjects that came up was gratitude in advance. She talks about giving thanks in advance for the things we want and need. Her big example is parking spots. As she is driving she thanks the Universe for an excellent parking spot just where she needs it. It works and she stopped counting her successes after over 200 in a row. So this pinged with me too. This resonated with the energetic focus I'd already been thinking of.

I have been deteriorating physically and emotionally for several weeks now. I realized that I have been incredibly focused on my difficulties with my physical energy and lack of energy. My Tarot card of the day yesterday was the 5 of cups. This card made me realize that I was focusing so much on what I lost, what I don't have, that I wasn't focusing on what I actually do have, which was some improvement, at least before all this. So I was focusing on LACK, so that's the type of energy that was continuing to surround me, LACK. Lack of energy, lack of motivation, lack, lack, lack. I'd become so paranoid about doing anything that might use up too much of my precious energy that I became basically paralyzed about doing ANYTHING. This is completely out of balance and is completely distorted thinking. Yes, with my chronic illness I do have limitations and I should do my best to respect those. But in all actuality, it doesn't matter that much! If I do too much and crash, what's the big deal? I'm so incredibly lucky that I don't have a job to worry about or anything like that. My husband works and provides well for us both. So if I overdo it a bit and crash for a day or two, WHO CARES?!?!?! I do too much, crash, learn my lesson, and try to be more careful next time.

from the Sun and Moon Tarot

My Tarot card today was the 4 of Pentacles. This is a card about miserliness and hoarding and lack of generosity. Pentacles is about our daily life and many take this card to be about money and not being generous. But for me, this card was about my daily life in general, my hoarding my "precious" energy and not "bestowing" it upon anything I didn't think worthy of such a valuable and limited resource. Yet in doing that, I was blocking off the benefits of utilizing my energy, leading to stagnation and LACK of energy. Specifically in the Sun and Moon Tarot this card is often about limitation and boundaries, in this case self imposed. And I have to admit that I haven't before noticed the 4 glowing pentacles the figure is holding. This card today serves as a reinforcement and reminder of the valuable lessons I'm learning and working on this week. It's about balance, a balance between appropriate conservation and generosity in utilizing ALL of my resources, including my physical energy.

from the Sun and Moon Tarot

So I decided to try to work on changing my focus, in part by using gratitude in advance. I'm doing a little gratitude in advance for restful and rejuvenating sleep and feeling better tomorrow than I did today. So far, it's helping. I emotionally feel better and I also feel a bit better physically. This is helped by my increasing my supplements temporarily. I realized that part of this crash was likely due to my inadvertently running out of my lysine supplement last week, for a few days. I now know just how much the lysine is helping me and will be making every effort to NOT run out of it again in the future. But my frame of mind was also crippling me both physically and emotionally. I'm grateful I realized that was going on so I could work on resolving it.

I'm also realizing that I'm limiting myself by trying to plan things out too much. I get too stuck on the big picture and it overwhelms me. I need to work on small steps and everything doesn't need to be perfect. If it doesn't work I can change it or do it differently. Nothing needs to be set in stone.

I also don't NEED to have a set or fixed schedule or routine. I think I've been banging my head against a brick wall with trying to set a fixed schedule/routine. I don't NEED to do the same thing every day. Maybe trying to do so just goes against my self and I'm trying to force myself into something that just isn't me. So I'm trying to go with the flow more, do things as and when I feel drawn to do them, not just because it's time that I feel like I "should" do them. If I feel like reading, great, I'll pick up a book. If I feel like meditating or working with my crystals/stones then I'll do that. Doesn't matter what time it is or whatever. I feel much freer and less stressed already...

On a side note, I've been feeling drawn towards possibly doing some creative writing. I'm looking at trying using Tarot to give me some ideas/prompts for doing some simple creative writing. Again, trying to go with the flow. We'll see what happens with that...

I'm also still exploring Druidry. I'm still working my way through several books. I also joined a few Druidry books and groups on Facebook. I didn't end up having the energy to do the ADF style ritual on the Full Moon (yeah, that whole LACK issue...). I'm looking forward to giving it a try in the future.

Thanks for reading as my journey continues...  :-)



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