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...  :-)



http://www.vanessadecort.net/

My first personal ritual, sort of...

This my seem kinda strange and it's a bit embarassing. I have been learning about, studying, and practing Paganism for nearly 7 years now and I haven't really done any rituals myself. I've participated in a few over the years with varying degrees of success. I have just never felt very comfortable with the eclectic Wicca types of rituals. The ones I have participated in felt strange and awkward for me. I felt a lot like when I was nearing the end of going to Church. It felt awkward and strange and like I was going through the motions in a fake sort of way. I just didn't feel a spiritual connection. I did enjoy the few shamanic rituals that I participated in with my shamanic journeying group. Those felt really meaningful and spiritually connected for me. But they aren't quiet right for me for a regular practice.

I have long felt a yearning, a pull towards doing something more with my personal practice. I've spent a LOT of time studying and learning and not a lot of time DOING. But that's me though, a big part of my spiritual practice is the learning and studying and reading. But I've felt a strong pull towards a more active personal practice, especially lately. I just wasn't finding stuff that felt right. The eclectic Wicca type rituals just haven't felt right. The Full Moon and New Moon ritual stuff I've found just hasn't seemed quite right either. I know it doesn't have to be perfect, but I have to feel SOME kind of connection with what I'm doing or it just makes no sense to do it, especially if it feels weird and awkward.

Lately I've been looking into Druidry. I've looked at what seems to be the three main Druid organizations that I can find, ADF, OBOD, and AODA. I'm sure there's others, but those seem to be the largest and most well known. Each has varying perspectives on Druidry and their own takes on it. There's a LOT of excellent information available through each organization. However, I have found that I really seem to resonate with the ADF style rituals. I've read a bunch online at their website and I have also read a few books that had information based on the ADF, written by current or former members. I really feel a connection to their ritual format.

Today I decided to kinda give a ritual a try, loosely based on the ADF format. It was more just kinda pulling things together for setup to see how I'd arrange the altar setup and how the flow might go, to see if it's something I might actually feel comfortable doing. I didn't quite do the ritual, though I did light a candle once the setup was all done. It felt very nice. I think with a little adaptation for my own personal practice it will be a nice ritual format for me to use. I'm actually looking forward to giving a full ritual a try.

For now, here's a couple pictures of how I had some things set up to try today. There are representations of Earth, Sea, and Sky as well as the Sacred Well, Sacred Tree, Sacred Fire. There's a circle created by 4 Citrines to represent the Solstices and Equinoxes and Quartz points to represent the 12-13 Full Moons of a year. There's also stones for grounding and shielding (black tourmaline, smokey quartz, amazonite, fluorite, selenite) as well as stones to support me energetically as I usually get very fatigued after rituals (ametrine and red apophylite).

Portable Version

Full Altar Version

The portable version isn't quite complete, but I was just trying some things while resting in bed. I decided to give a full altar setup a try after working with the portable setup for a while, just to see what would work. I still have a little adapting to do, but I'm looking forward to giving this ritual format a try on the Full Moon on Friday. I'll be sure to post about how it goes.


https://www.adf.org/about
http://aoda.org/index.html
http://www.druidry.org/

I had it all backwards...

Well, I'm trying something new this week. It seems to be working out well so far, though it's the opposite of what I've been doing up until now. I had been choosing an Oracle deck to work with for the week. I was drawing a daily Oracle card and then using my Tarot apps to draw a daily Tarot card to relate to the message of the Oracle card. That was working okay, but sometimes there just wasn't a correlation that made sense. This week I decided to do the daily Tarot card on my Tarot apps FIRST, then do a 1-3 card Oracle card draw in regards to what I need to know about the Tarot card. It's working REALLY well that way. So I'm thinking I'll stick with doing that for a while and seeing how it goes.

I also got two new Tarot apps by The Fool's Dog, The Animals Divine Tarot and the Revelations Tarot. That brings my Tarot apps total to 18, plus two Oracle apps, a Runes app, and one Lenormand app. I'm really enjoying working with the apps. There's no substitute for real, printed decks though. I'm really liking the apps for ease of comparison. I like to draw a daily card and then compare that same card amongst the different apps. I feel it helps give a more detailed and well rounded study of the individual cards.

I've been working with the Oracle of Visions by Ciro Marchetti for the past 2 weeks. I'm really enjoying working with this deck. I'm able to use it relatively intuitively, though I still refer to the book after my initial impressions. I'm hoping to be able to offer Oracle deck readings in the future, in addition to Tarot readings. Some people aren't as comfortable with Tarot, so I'd like to be able to offer them an option. As of right now, I'm thinking I'll be able to offer Oracle readings from two decks, The Oracle of Visions and the Nature Speak Oracle. Those are the two Oracle decks I feel most comfortable working with at the moment. So many Oracle decks have such unique meanings that you need to utilize the accompanying books frequently in order to get the full meanings from the cards. With the Oracle of Visions and the Nature Speak Oracle, I feel relatively comfortable using those decks intuitively and not having to rely so heavily on their books for interpretation.

The past 2 weeks have been hectic with having out of town visitors. My best friend and her cousin came to visit for a week. We had a great time,  but I did a LOT while they were here. I seem to be coping ok with that though, which is excellent. It means I'm having some improvements. Then after they left we had a heat wave that caused my chronic illness issues to flare. Boy am I grateful we bought the air conditioning units. I would have been in serious trouble without them with this latest heat wave. We don't need to use them often, but when we do need them they're worth their weight in gold. I'm finally trying to get back to my normal routine, and it's a bit of a struggle. I'm still looking into Druidry, though I haven't felt up to reading any of my Druidry books lately. The brain fog that's a part of my illness has trashed my comprehension and retention when it comes to reading and it's very frustrating. Some days I'm just not able to read at all, which is quite devastating to me. I LOVE reading, so to not be able to read some days just frustrates me. I'm also still working on incorporating daily movement (incredibly light exercise), but it's a struggle. Though I know it likely won't, I still worry about the exertion triggering a flare/crash. But I'll never know if I don't try... I'm trying to figure out a good time of day for me to do it. The day to day fluctuations of my chronic illness symptoms makes creating habits and changes very difficult. I had found a meditation class at a community center not too far from me. When I went to go see about registering it was no longer on the website, so it appears to no longer be available. I'm incredibly disappointed as it was so close to the house. I'm hoping I can find something similar nearby and soon. I'd like to figure out something that will get me out of the house a bit more often. So kinda a lot and nothing going on all at the same time. Hopefully I can get settled back into my daily routine soon.


http://www.ciromarchetti.com/

Oracle of Visions Deck Interview Spread

The Oracle of Visions was created by Ciro Marchetti. He decided to create an Oracle deck after creating several Tarot decks. While he appreciated the structure of Tarot, he wanted to create something that didn't have to stick to a rigid structure, where the images would speak for themselves and not require a supporting text that had to be read in order to interpret the images, as so many other Oracle decks require. This deck includes an accompanying book with suggestions for possible card readings. However, the images are such that you don't NEED to read the book in order to interpret and understand the cards. The images of the Oracle of Visions are loosely broken into the categories of Situations, Emotions, Actions, and Behavior, while still allowing each card to serve in many roles. Keywords and titles are specifically omitted from the cards so that the cards can be interpreted in a wide variety of ways. The images are also generally "neutral" so as not to portray only positive happy outcomes that may be unrealistic and give false hope, since not everything can be resolved with just positive thinking. I personally really appreciate these perspectives. Not everything can be solved with a positive attitude or "thinking positive." I've seen victim blaming occur when people take that perspective too far and blame a person's difficulties on them, saying they must not be thinking positive, that you get what you put out so they must be putting out too much negativity. Such a perspective is unrealistic and harmful and I appreciate a divination tool created to help prevent that.

Here is a picture of the deck interview spread for the Oracle of Visions.

My deck interview spread is fairly simple. I ask four questions. What should I know about your personality and characteristics as a deck? What are your strengths as a deck? What are your weaknesses as a deck? What types of readings do you prefer to do/answer?

What should I know about your personality and characteristics as a deck?

22-Reflections, Looking Back, Hindsight
     This is a deck that helps us reflect on the past as it projects into our present and future. It helps us to assess the past and how it is currently influencing.

What are your strengths as a deck?

27-Attraction, Magnetism, Infatuation
     I had to laugh out loud a little when this card came up for this question. This deck is pretty! :-) The artwork draws you in and makes you pay attention and want to work with this deck. The artwork is such that we can develop our own interpretations and not have to rely on "book meanings."

What are your weaknesses as a deck?

48-Choices, Risks, Consequences
     This deck often shows you the "what if's", opening up a can of worms metaphorically speaking. We may not always want to know, even if we think we do. Once we know, we can't un-know...

What types of readings do you prefer to do/answer?

51-Messages, Deadlines, Anticipation
     This deck likes to give you the message you've been searching for, needing, and anxiously awaiting.

I hope you enjoyed this deck interview spread with the Oracle of Visions. Please join me for more deck interview spreads in the future.


http://www.ciromarchetti.com/

The Wheel of the Year?

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/allergicpagan/2015/07/31/why-im-boycotting-lughnasadh/

I read this blog post this morning and almost yelled "EXACTLY!!!!" Ever since I started studying Paganism, the Wheel of the Year has been an interesting concept, but one I just couldn't get with the program with. It made absolutely NO sense to me to celebrate themes at a certain time when they didn't even come close to reflecting what was happening in the real world of my local area. Take for example, my hometown in the Midwest, Chicago. Imbolc in Chicago is likely still having snow and sometimes even sub-zero temperatures. NOTHING around that time makes me think of the coming of spring. Or how about when we lived in Kodiak, Alaska? Yeah, around Beltane we were lucky if the thaws were in process and it was just starting to feel like spring.

For several years now I have been pretty adamant about celebrating a LOCAL Wheel of the Year based on the local climate and local seasonal observations. I also, for the most part, focus on the solstices and equinoxes as those are actual astronomical occurrences. On those days I go out into nature and see what's happening where I'm at. With a husband in the military, where we live changes fairly frequently. So it's important for me to check in with nature to find out what's going on where I'm actually living.

I read a very interesting article in the 2014 Witches Companion book related to this subject. In essence it talked about ritual and celebrations and how we shouldn't try to lie to ourselves in ritual. Our brains know when we're lying and automatically reject it and it throws things out of whack for participating in the ritual. So if you're doing a Solstice ritual the Saturday before the actual Solstice, don't say "Tonight we celebrate this eve of the Solstice." Your brain knows it's not the Solstice. Same for all these Wheel of the Year themes. If it doesn't match what's locally happening, you're not going to get the full effect of your ritual or celebration because your brain knows it. Makes me wonder about the whole thing with affirmations...

Anyway, use the Wheel of the Year as you see fit. I use the Solstices and Equinoxes to check in with what Nature is doing where I'm actually living. I try to be aware of local planting and harvests and any local and regional observances or significant events and celebrate accordingly.


Lipp, Deborah. Everybody's Working for the Weekend. 109-120. Llewellyn's 2014 Witches' Companion.