Witchcraft shouldn't be a sales funnel trapping stupid people.

 Blessings Darlings!

I'm not a nightmare person.  I virtually never get them anymore, since I'm old and I just face and deal with problems in my life.  That said, I certainly get dreams full of frustration, or things that anger me.  THAT is the type of dream I had last night.

The Chubby Hubby and I were at some big hotel.  I assume that we were there because he had a conference there, since we have a long history of staying at big hotels for that.  We spouses (almost all women, since these are high tech conferences, and women are still ... ahem ... sidelined as much as possible in tech) are encouraged to 'enjoy the amenities'.  So in the dream, I tried to.

What I discovered was that while their 'self care' center said that services came with your stay, the services were stupidly minimal.  Skin care!  Only of your hands.  Sitting thru' videos of what they offer ... for pay ... was one of their 'free services.'  

Fundamentally, all of the 'free amenities' were ads.  I walked out - so angry that I changed from my 'draping' for all the services (like in a spa) where everyone could see my fat pasty white ass, rather than in a dressing room.  Then thought about dinner.  I looked at the big posted menus, and got even more pissed that all the options for food there were over $50. 

Now, I totally know what triggered this dream.  Yesterday I watched the first 'educational unit' in the FB group of the woman who made the meme I trashed all last week.  It's a fucking sales video, not an 'educational unit', for her $900+ course.  On having a daily practice.  Bitch, I don't need a course on getting up, drinking some water, brushing my teeth, meditating, moving a little, and eating a healthy breakfast that costs over $900.  For that price, you'd best be here pouring me the water, cooking me the breakfast, and bringing the ingredients for that breakfast.  And she's calling this witchcraft.  I'm calling it a sales funnel aimed at stupid people.

Putting on my marketing hat (and I actually do have quite a lot of training and experience at marketing) it's really clear that this is yet another person who is working the Clickpages model.  If you ever get a chance to watch one of Mike Filsaime's rants about Clickpages (and I like Mike's stuff on marketing, but don't 'love' his stuff) check it out.   And for best digital marketing ... go with Ryan Diess and his DigitalMarketer.com (I get no $ from referrals, just from using the system).

Frondly, Fern

You and Me, Baby, Ain't Nothing But Mammals

Blessings Darlings!

In a conversation with the Chubby Hubby, I was again decrying folks looking to 'consume' spirituality - buying lots of items, saving lots of shared 'information' on someone's ideas of what each days correspondences are, short meanings of symbols, short info on herbs, memes, etc. The CH, being wonderful and brilliant (why else would I marry and have children with him?) pointed out that 'consumption' is a very basic animal survival skill.  He pointed to the cattle in the fields around the house - and that they spend darn near the entire day eating/chewing their cuds.  They, literally consume ALL DAY LONG.  He's certainly right about that!

OTOH - they eat grass.  Grass is very low in nutritional value.  They have to consume all day to get what they need, BECAUSE WHAT THEY EAT IS OF LOW VALUE.

We're mammals, yes - but we aren't cattle or sheep, right?

We humans are omnivores.  Our systems are able to handle food with higher nutritional (and caloric) density.  Eating a pound of meat will give us way more calories (the macroelement that powers our larger brains!) and still leave us more leisure time to focus on other things than eating enough raw spinach to provide us with the same amount of calories.  Even cooking the spinach - putting some effort in early on - provides us with the vitamins and minerals that are more abundant in spinach, and makes it faster to eat it.

Now, apply that knowledge to our minds.  You can try to fill up your mind using ... generic stuff shared on Facebook, from unknown and unvetted sources (even if you know the person sharing the printable cliff notes on herbs or crystals or whatever).  Feeding your mind well on that stuff is going to take ingesting that all day every day.  And not leave you time to do other things, whether than be your family, your job, cleaning house, overthrowing patriarchy - whatever.

Now, apply that knowledge to our spirits. Action (like at least cooking the spinach) helps you feed yourself better.  There is a difference in the 'nutritional density' between active an passive spirituality.  Passive spirituality would be things like consuming a public ritual done by others, where you are rather like an audience member at a performance, passively letting the actors move you 'between the worlds' and them doing all the work vs you being there and actively sending energy to everything from the casting of sacred space to the magical working (you've now cooked the spinach!) and doing ritual/magic yourself.  There is a difference between lying out in the grass 'open for the Divine to fill you' vs making offerings to a specific God or Goddess, or writing poetry for/about that Divinity.  There is a difference between gathering what you find from whatever unvetted source online and saving it on your hard drive vs getting stuff from vetted sources online vs taking classes from vetted sources vs putting what you learn into action.

You might just want to actively think about this.

Frondly, Fern

That OTHER "10 daily things witches do list"

Blessings Darlings!

It occurred to me that I should really do a blog on what was in that OTHER 'what witches do' list. The items and my brilliant (why doesn't this have comic sans as a font option) commentary.

Here goes - starting with the original post:

"10 Daily Witchy Things

1 - Cleanse your bed in the morning when you make it - to remove the stress and negativity of the previous night and have a peaceful sleep the next night.
2 - Make a cup of tea and charge it with positive energy to get you through the day.
3 - Clean your desk/workspace/wherever you do creative things and draw productivity sigils on it in cleaner or keep a clear quartz nearby to focus energy.
4 - Bless your car keys before you get in your car for protection on the road
5 - Use a special scrub or face ask in the shower for a glamour spell.
6 - Spend time outside or keep your blinds open to allow sunlight in.
7 - Take a walk outside, if you can and ground yourself with each step.
8 - Use wax melters, incense or other scented items to fill your space with an intended scent.
9 - Clense your phone/other electronic devices - clean out the old apps and photos, clean out the negative people from your contact list, and reset your ringtone and wallpaper to increase positive energy.
10 - Before you go to bed, take 10 minutes and thank your deities (if you have any) and reflect on your day.  Before you fall asleep, think of one thing that was good about the day, no matter how small, and be grateful."

Item #1 - If you're having stress and negativity in your bed at night ... what the hell have you invited   into your bed each night?  Look at THAT, not 'cleansing the bed'.  The BED isn't the problem!
Item #2 - Obviously I find 'positive energy' too vague, and would be far more specific.  The  last         clause is a bit worrisome, tho'.  I'm not sure if the writer meant "To last the full day" which is a useful affirmation, or if the "Get you through the day" is a sign that the writer feels that her days suck and she needs to be dragged thru' them almost against her will.
Item #3 - Of course a clean desk is nice, and some of my creative time is spent at a desk.  What bothers me is reliance on external things like a sigil or crystal.  Reliance on those things (as well as working at your desk) doesn't prepare you to work elsewhere.  I can be creative in the library, at a coffee shop, etc, in part because I don't rely on things like that.  Learn to focus your energy without props.
Item #4 -  At the very least - let's make that more general.  Not everyone drives, not everyone has a car, etc.  You CAN enchant your house keys for protection when you leave your house.  That would cover it all.  Or you can ... wait for it ... wait for it ... have personal shields like I keep harping about.
Item #5 - No special products needed.  Charge your soap.  Yes, I can see doing a glamour daily for a while. such as when starting a new job.  "Image" of competence until you actually have competence at the job.
Item #6 - Just a quibble.  It's summer and I'm NOT letting sunlight in that will heat the house.
Item #7 - Taking a walk is a nice idea.  Being able to ground anywhere is also a good idea.  Don't get tied to only one way to ground.
Item #8 - Just not my style.  Just like I don't have music/tv on in the background all the time.  For me - I often get 'messages' thru' scents that pop up out of nowhere.  AND many scents bother my son's asthma.
Item #9 - I guess I just don't have problems from 'negative people'.  OTOH, I'm the type who - while I don't worry about 'Mercury Retrograde' use all the posts about upcoming ones as a cue to back up my devices.  Backing up my devices is more important to me than 'clearing' them.  Devices can crash and 'clear' themselves just bloody fine, damn it!
Item #10 - Not a bad suggestion - but also make your 'to do' list for the next day, so you can put that list aside and out of your mind.  That might even help the issue cited in Item #1!

Work smarter, not harder, Darlings.

Frondly, Fern

10 Daily Things Witches Might Just Consider Doing.

Blessings Darlings!

I just read a really masturbatory and inefficient list of 'What Witches Do'.  It was immediately obvious to me that I had to create my own list!  Really, almost all of them come down to either "Work to bring down the Patriarchy" or "Do your craft more efficiently"

1 - Read the local paper, so they are informed local citizens. 

2 - Read a good 'National/world' paper, so they are an informed world citizens (New York Times, Washington Post, London Times, whatever).  Witches should never be ignorant twats.

3 - Ground and center where you are.  No need to go somewhere else to do it.  And "Long Walks in Nature" may not be available in your area nor safe to do.

4 - Charge all the food you buy with 'health and power' as you bring it into the house after shopping.
Sure, you can charge individual foods when you cook or eat them for specific purposes too.  But this way EVERYTHING has at least some charge.  And if you're bringing in some food that you know is going to NOT work for 'health and power' ... you need to face that.

5 -  Charge your vacuum cleaner (or broom, or carpet sweeper, or whatever) to deal with 'negative energy' as well as dirt/dust/etc.  And did you notice the word 'Daily' in the title of this post?  Use it/them!

6 - Charge all your cleaning products for the same purposes as in #5.  Again, note the 'daily use' clause. 

BECAUSE CLEANING DAILY WILL SOLVE A WHOLE LOT OF WITCHY PROBLEMS.  DUST BUNNIES AND PILED UP DISHES ARE EVIDENCE OF 'NEGATIVE ENERGY' THAT ***YOU*** ARE ENCOURAGING.

7 - Charge your bath soap for some purpose.  No need for a different product than what you're going to use daily.

8.  Fight for justice.

9.  Support your communities.

10 - Do what self-care you can.  Eat as well as your finances allow, and learn what your body works well with.  I can do neither Keto nor heavily starch/grain/bean based eating, and we are poor (I work two jobs. And I'm in my 60's).  Turnips are cheap. Cabbage is cheap.  Eggs are cheap.  Well, they are cheap if they agree with your body.  Otherwise they are expensive.  Try to get enough sleep.  Have that bed time routine that eases you into the arms of Morpheus.  If your body allows it, get some daily exercise.  Clean your body daily - even if it's a sponge bath -  you'll feel better. 






Frondly, Fern

Types of Magic

Blessings Darlings!

Let's settle in with a summer drink for a discussion of 'types of magic', and try to get this done before my husband drags me off to practice holding webinars using Webinar Jam (*I* am not looking to do webinars, but an organization we're involved in is, and the Chubby Hubby offered to do the tech stuff so ...)

Now I'm not going to talk about Green magic vs hedge witchery vs water witches vs whatthefuckever.  Personally I see those divisions as micromanaging.  YMMV.  Instead, I'm going to start with what are to me the Two Big Divisions, and then look at a hierarchy of approaches to magic.

The Big Two: Theurgy vs Thaumaturgy  

THEURGY:  "Theurgy describes the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magical in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action or evoking the presence of one or more gods, especially with the goal of achieving henosis and perfecting oneself."  (Wikipedia)  And henosis fundamentally means union with the Divine or Ultimate Reality.  Which is, really, what 'religion' means at its roots, that is re = again and lignon = uniting.  In short - Theurgy is magic for spiritual progress.  It's hard to measure results, as they don't easily translate into direct changes here in lovely Malkuth/earth/manifest reality.

[Side note - if you feel you're becoming perfected and other folks find that you've becoming a pretentious prat - go with THEIR feelings.  IJS.]

THAUMATURGY; This here is miracle working.  Measurable changes on Earth/shared reality from magical actions.  More money. New relationships. Measurable reduction in violence.  Healing/reduction of physical ailments (debate on whether 'feeling better' is theurgy or thaumaturgy is something I'm not going to cover here.)

 Those two categories are the Big Two.  I'm not usually into dualities, so savor the moment.   

A Brief Hierarchy of Magic

This hierarchy is about power, pure and simple.  

Basic Bitch Level Magics include chants and herbal/oil/etc mixes.  Making a potpourri to cleanse or bless your house.  Doing a chant for some purpose (didn't we ALL start off as kids doing the 'rain, rain go away" chant?)  Amulets. Sachets. Soaps. Washes.  Most crystal use. Herb use in food - heck, everything in the proposed "First you take a dead chicken" cook/spellbook.  I'd even add doing magic by planetary hours here.   Any time you are taking some item that is associated with your purpose and putting it together with other items associated with your purposed and that is the bulk of the spell.  Certainly these things can be layered like flavors, so you take your herbs and oils and do a chant over them.  That can help.  But it's still Basic Witch Level.

Intermediate Bitch Level Magics start when you consciously start raising/tapping, shaping, and sending energy.  You're not just doing a chant over that amulet - you tapped energy and charged that amulet.  You threw the ingredients for an herbal salve into the Instant Pot to slow cook ... but also charged a candle to power a specific magic into that salve while it cooks.  You 'woke' the Florida Water so it could do its thing. 

It can also include involving magical helpers with your magic.  Having spirits that you have alliances with help power the spellwork or the promise of offerings to the spirits involved if the spell works.

Badass Bitch Level Magics and you're going what you want, when you want, and only use herbs/other tools when you want to for the pleasure of using them. n You can do magic stark naked in Times Square with no tools while walking to an appointment and avoiding the police bothering you for indecent exposure.  OTOH, you might still choose to do 3 hour deeply ceremonial ritual timed to start in a 8 minute window between the end of a retrograde and the start of a full moon if that is what you choose to do another time for some specific reason.

 I am NOT Badass enough to do successful magic naked in Times Square, that's for sure.

Frondly, Fern

Personal Responsibility

Blessings Darlings!

Today's installment in my series on 'oft bandied about Wiccan/Neopagan sayings' is "Wicca/witchcraft/paganism is a path of personal responsibility."  Oh, you'll find that all sorts of folks mention that it's part of the path, investing one line or two - maybe even one paragraph! - to the concept, but then you look at what happens in almost every online esoteric group ... and you see them violate it.  And calling them out on it can easily make you a pariah in online groups and gets you booted and banned. I touched on this a LITTLE in an earlier post about how most online Pagan groups are dysfunctional.

Short definition of personal responsibility is that you are responsible for your actions and inactions.  That you do the best you can with what you have to grow and mature.  That when you fuck up (and you will) you admit you did and try to remedy the situation.  Most folks try to do that ... to some extent.  But we all have serious blind spots here (and in most areas of our lives.  And, yes, I do too.)

The biggest blind spot about personal responsibility that I see in others (because seeing things in others is WAY easier than seeing them in myself, sort of by definition) is that people take a lot of actions to DISable other folks' personal responsibility.

When a person asks a question in a group instead of taking the responsibility of Googling it - you do them no favor by NOT pointing that out.  By not pointing that out, you are enabling their lack of responsibility and initiative.  To put it Kabalistically - you are pushing them into the Vice of Malkuth.  Telling them to Google and read, and then when they see that sources disagree on something to come back and ask about the disagreement ... that is promoting responsibility.

When a person in a group complains about a situation (assuming it's a support group and that them posting that is appropriate there), you validate their experience and then help them go on to find solutions THEY can do.  And hold them responsible for taking those actions.  BY THE WAY - I've run real support groups.  The point of the groups is support in changing their situation, not in keeping them in that situation but letting them vent about it. 

Yeah.  Me.  I ran support groups.  Stop giggling.

Ain't nobody out there has infinite time to do anything, and most of us don't have unlimited money to buy supplies/get medical care/afford the best foods/whatever.  This is the reason that you should ask that folks stop saying that 'all books have at least one thing that is useful in them'.  Respect yourself enough to insist that folks respect your time/money/etc, by allowing folks to challenge the books/authors they recommend.  Because that info help you have responsibility for your choices.

And respect yourself enough to present yourself as ... a functional adult.  I don't mean LIE about your life.  I mean, be a functional adult.  You want to know about, say, 'how to cast a circle'?  GOOGLE IT BEFORE ASKING IN A GROUP.  Google it, read about it, think about it, TRY one of the ways - and then ask fucking INFORMED questions in a group.  We all feel isolated/alone at times.  We all ask for attention at time.  Try to not ask for attention by presenting yourself as someone too lazy to do any work on your own.  The only supportive attention that you will get from such an approach is by folks who will enable your laziness.  Is that what you want?  (BTW, if that's what you want, then why haven't you figured out that this blog is NOT a good place for that?)

You're not going to get replies to PMs or tagging most Pagan authors on Facebook ... because they take personal responsibility for their use of their time.  If they are participating in an online group on a topic, and your question is on that topic, they are likely to chime in ... because they have chosen to participate AND because it reaches more than one person.  Respect that in yourself as well.  Set clear and enforced boundaries.

You're going to find some group leaders want to hoard information, only giving out what they agree with.  They are trying to keep you a spiritual/magical child.  They are taking away discussion of their recommendations and limit your access to discussion of other sources.

There are lots of folks out there trying to limit your control and responsibility for your life and choices.  Be aware.  Be very aware.

Frondly, Fern

This 'n' that.

Blessings Darlings!

Maybe I should blog on some of these, maybe not.  So I'm just giving short work on these topics right now:

1 - I hate pretty much all Pagan/witch memes/pics with 'what witches are/what pagans are not/etc'.  They are either too simplistic to be true, or they don't actually apply to all of every group.  In other words - they are stupid.  And when shared in pagan groups, if you try to discuss them and your issues with them, you  - okay *I* - get called 'negative' and that I should leave.  If I don't leave I get booted. 

2 - or they will tell you to lighten up, they are just jokes/funny/inspiring.  You just fucking 'othered' me, but I should lighten up? Your meme left no room for me as a witch/pagan/whatever.  Maybe it's you that needs to be more inclusive and less insulting.

3 - What started this was that damn meme "We don't kneel before our Gods ....".  There have ABSOLUTELY been times I've become too weak at the knees to stand before some Gods/Goddesses.  Therer have been times when I feel lucky I've not shat my pants.  Maybe everyone else is meeting Quan Yin ... but I'm sure not.

4 - I wish someone would do a study on those who see the Morrigan as "The Phantom Queen pushing us to be her bitchslapping hands on Earth" vs "Sweet Mother Morrigan".  I really would.  Someone needs to do their PhD thesis on this.

5 - Having a flashlight as part of my EDC (every day carry) is only useful if the batteries don't die at a critical moment.  Luckily I was able to get more at a convenience store minutes before the store closed.  Lesson: add spare batteries to EDC. 

6 - during the episode where we needed the flashlight, I made my son do the lecture on why he needs to get some stuff together so HE has an EDC supply.  Because that's how I roll ... I don't lecture a lot, so he doesn't tune me out.

Well, that's enough randomness for now.  Next scheduled blog post - in the 'oft bandied phrases' series, is scheduled for Tuesday.  Carry on!

Frondly, Fern

Perfect Love and Perfect Trust.

Blessings Darlings!

The oft-bandied about Wiccan phrase we're looking at today is "Perfect Love and Perfect Trust". 

Can imperfect people do anything perfectly?  And ... love and trust in who or what?

Let's start with an easier part of this.  WHERE and WHEN do you need to have perfect love and perfect trust?  Well, the only time that the phrase is used (and I'm talking about in the 'general Pagan community - I'm not talking about what is oathbound and/or in hand-copied lineaged BOS's) is when entering a circle.  Even then the only time I've seen that challenge given (that I recall) is to an initiate/member when they are undergoing initiation/membership ritual.  Again - that is MY experience.  Other than at that time, I've not seen a knife at anyone's chest.  Your mileage may vary. 

I've certainly not seen it at open rituals anywhere.  Have you?  The logistics of challenging everyone in at ritual with 150 people boggles the mind.  [Okay, I just ended up distracted by figuring out the logistics.  Many folks handling the challenge, but you'd still need either a HUGE opening in a pre-cast circle (making the work of the folks casting and holding the circle in place EXTREMELY difficult if not impossible, or you'd cast the circle after folks entered, making the challenge not actually about entering the circle making it just odd.  But I digress.]

That said, in any group work, you  need some serious trust.  First, do you trust the work about to be done?  Is it in line with your view of what should be done?  Is it being done in a way that does not clash badly with your approach?  If it's not well aligned with your approach, can you suspend your approach for the time?  Do you trust the people who have organized the working, so you can work with their system when it is different than yours?  If it's large public ritual - do you feel that they can control the energy of 150+ sources and knit it into a coherent whole?    Heck, with 150 + people, what are you going to do about your personal shields?  Not all those folks in an open ritual are going to have focused energy.  Some of them might be energetic predators.  Again - what's your real trust level of the folks running the show?  

Next let's look at perfect love and perfect trust in terms of a coven or other small working group of magic users.  Say from 3 up to 25 people that you know well.  Because for ME perfect love and perfect trust has to be based on actually knowing the people involved, or at least knowing the people who vouch for anyone you don't know.

I'm going to digress here a bit.  Loving humanity in general is easy.  Loving individuals is more problematic.  If you know folks well, you're going to know their weaknesses.  Their faults.  Their capacity to focus.  Their capacity to do magic.  Some of these things are going to matter when in a circle.  Some of these things won't matter in a circle.

Most of all - you should be aware of your own weaknesses, faults, capacity to focus, capacity to do magic, etc.  Can you put aside your self-doubt in any areas during your pre-ritual purification to do the work ahead?  If you do your preps, and still find yourself too whatever to do the work - can you trust yourself to keep yourself out of the ritual?  I've been at rituals where folks have done that.  They stayed outside the circle because they could still be supportive even if they felt they couldn't actively contribute to the working.  Sometimes they could go so far as to help with drumming from outside the circle.  But they understood that their energy would not mesh with the purpose so stayed out of the circle themselves.

Do you trust and love the purpose of the ritual?  Can you at least put aside your doubts about it working for the time of the ritual?  I've been involved in World Peace rituals that I felt were considerably too ambitious, but I did a fine job of putting that aside and giving it my all. 

Do you trust the Gods involved, or whatever Spirits you might be working with?  In some rituals coughGoetiacough you might not trust the spirits, but you could have full trust in the system that allows you to work with them safely. 

And now, finally - do you love and trust the members of the group?  Love them as they are.  Trust that they will be who and what they are.  And can you handle that?  At the very least, you have to trust and love them to do the work you are entering.  You  might now trust them enough to do a business deal with them out in the mundane world.  What matters here is that you trust that they will be in the right mindset and put their energy to the working you're going to do.  Are they taking the drugs they should be - I'm almost certainly addicted to the SSRI I take, and it would be totally reasonable for any magical group I'm in to make continued taking it a condition of my working with them.  Are they not taking 'inappropriate' drugs prior to the working?  Or will they show up stoned or high?  If they are -  what does your perfect love and perfect trust ask you to do about that?  If one of the members has 'trouble handing energy' and falls out during EVERY SINGLE INTENSE WORKING - do you stop having them at such workings?  You trust them to be themselves, and you love them.  What's the intersection of things like not handling energy or addiction or whatever and perfect love and perfect trust when what you trust is that they will break down at a crucial point of ritual?

There have been times when my purifications leave me able to focus on the ritual and do my part fully, but the best I can do on 'perfect love and perfect trust' is suspension of non-love.  Since I trust folks to be themselves, and 'themselves' are no more perfect than I am, perfecting that type of trust is something I can do pretty easily.   Love may not be harder to feel - but figuring out the proper loving action sometimes is a challenge.

Even more of a challenge than a knife at my chest.

Frondly, Fern

Mind The Three Fold Laws Ye Should.

Blessings Darlings!

Alternative title:  Have you paid your debts?

Today I'm looking at another phrase commonly quoted at folks in the NeoPagan community.  "The Three Fold Law."  Which folks tend to think of as a bean counter computer in the sky that automatically returns to you what you send back, three times over.  In fact, tho', that's NOT what the 'three fold law' is in Wicca.  And, yes, as always, by 'Wicca' I mean lineaged Wicca with all the bells and whistles and oral teachings and initiation and the original Egregore. 

"Mind the Three-fold Laws ye should three times bad and three times good." I copied that from  http://rialian.com/wiccrede.htm  and it was written by Lady Gwen Thompson.  As you can see, in Lady Gwynne's poem it doesn't get into what the law is - it's just a reference to something outside of her poem.  So ... what is the three fold law in Wicca?
 
Some say that it has to do with the scourging that is done during one level of Wiccan initiation.  That the scourged initiatee gets to scourge the initiator three times as much/hard as the initiatee was scourged.  And that may or may not be true (I'm not going to confirm or deny that, it's not my place to do so.)

Whether it occurs in that setting or not - it would be a reflection of the larger application of the concept of three fold return.  Which is that it's something that the individual Wiccan is supposed to ACTIVELY do, not wait for the westernized Kalifornia Karma (props to Catherine for the term) or to some bean counter in the sky to do for them.  

It . Is . Not . A . Passive . Thing.

If you are being affected by someone else's spell - a spell for good or not for good (and let's not get into how spells someone thinks are for you own good can really be controlling and/or not in fact for your good) - YOU are to take action and return magical working on them three times over.    "Good" spells done for you create a debt for you to pay.  SO DO 'BAD' SPELLS.  A debt - for YOU to actively pay back.  As always in magic - ain't no one going to do your work for you.

Yes, I blogged a bit about this before, over at http://fernsfronds.blogspot.com/2012/03/threefold-bitchslap.html.  

What do you think about THEM apples?

Frondly, Fern

My Worship Is In The Heart That Rejoices.

Blessings Darlings!

This is the first in what will be (I hope) a multi-post series on phrases from Wicca bandied about in the neopagan community. 

While Wicca is primarily an orthopraxic mystery religion, it has a few phrases that are quoted y some as orthodoxy.  One of them all y'all have almost certainly heard/read the phrase: "My Worship is in the heart which rejoices.  For behold - all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals."  It's towards the end of Doreen Valiente's "Charge of the Goddess".

Unlike some other sound bites often quoted most folks agree that this is not the whole of the story.  The heart that rejoices is not the ONLY place that the Goddess' worship exists, right?  Folks accept that Her worship is often in the heart that aches or despairs.

No one (I hope!) would be crass enough to tell someone in the midst of crippling depression, or hospitalized with some other disease, or with heart-rending bereavement, etc. to rejoice or they are failing to properly worship the Goddess or are otherwise 'not a true Wiccan or Pagan'

So too, while 'all acts of love and pleasure" are Her rituals, Her rituals and worship is not LIMITED to such acts.  For example, honoring a loved one's  end of life directive - as a friend of mine recent had to do for a loved one - and removing a breathing tube was clearly an act of love but NOT an act of pleasure.  And yet it was certainly one of the Goddess' rituals.

Are you with me so far?

Any questions?  More parts coming, and I hope I have the energy to write them soon ...

Frondly, Fern.

Sensing Energy 101

Blessings, Darlings!

Mostly - sensing energy just takes practice. But setting up an A/B test (or A/B/C test, in this case) helps by setting up a setting where you have clearly different energies.

I'm going to assume that you have a kitchen floor that is not carpeted. If it is - I'll have ideas for you to use to modify this after the main article.*

Sweep your entire floor. Wash half of it in your usual way, with whatever products you usually use. Let it dry (wipe it dry if you're in a hurry!) Compare what you feel, standing on the washed vs unwashed parts. Use all your senses - you might be best as visual energetic cues, audible ones, scents, etc. Touch might work, but might not be the best sense for this, because clean surely feels different that a floor that might be sticky! Still, holding your hand just over each side might have you feel different things on each side - different temperature/pressure/other sensations (this is why a dry floor is best for this, being wet alone would give some false positives) And while you might sense a different taste on both sides, obviously don't go licking the floor.

Feel a difference? Wonderful! THAT is just from a basic cleaning.

Now, wash the rest of the floor, just like before.

That done? Great! Now charge some spiritual/magical cleanser, and add it to a new batch of wash water, along with your usual cleaning products. Salt, hoodoo floor washes, Florida water, a little lemon extract/oil/juice, all are good for this. To charge whatever you're using, put it in a small bowl, hold it in both hands, announce to it what you're charging it for (all these things can be used in several different ways, after all). Then - I'm really being basic here for charging, since I've not covered that in this series yet - do what you can to 'push' that flavor of energy into it. All of the products I named (save for the floor washes, which vary by purpose) easily pick up 'spiritual cleansing' vibes.

Now wash half of your floor with THAT mix, and dry the floor.

Repeat the 'sensing' part. Notice what you feel, in all your senses.

Write all results down in your lab notebook/journal/whatever.

* Carpet modification. Use Vacuum/don't vacuum and spread charged salt on half of it for 15 minutes before vacuuming all of it.

Frondly, Fern

Clean Your Damn House, Witchiepoo!

Blessings Darlings! 

Troubled by bad finances? Drama? Chaos? "Negative Energy"?

All spells for changing one's life/luck start with the same thing: you need to totally clean your house. Totally. All rooms, all closets, under all furniture, at least sweep all the walls and ceiling (if you don't wash them), etc. BTW - You'll need to keep the house this clean. 

Organize your finances, too.  Sort them by year, month, etc.
Did you just ask 'why'? 

Because you are getting rid of chaos. You do this mundanely FIRST. Otherwise you're going to have all that mundane crap get in the way.  If you have to spend hours finding your tools, then cleaning your altar - oh, please, tell you you were going to work on a clean altar, right?  - you're going to be taking away from your focus and energy for the workingS.

Did you notice the capital S at the end of 'workings'?

Then you take a white bath - you can get info on that from Houngan Matt's blog post here http://blog.vodouboston.com/2011/10/bath-magic/

THEN you can start more 'overt' magic.

But you have to keep in mind that this type of magic takes a lot of time. What you are aiming to do is akin to changing direction of a huge ship - you are fighting 'momentum', both in your thought process AND still going to have to handle the results of your previous decisions (and none of us have made 100% great decisions).  This type of magic is not a 'do one spell and everything will be wonderful'.  You're overcoming habits YOU put in place, situations YOU let continue to this stage, etc.

You're going to be repeating the rituals for rather a while.

Get to it!

Frondly, Fern

You're a Witch, Darling - act like it!

Blessings Darlings!

There has been quite a spate of "OMGs, there are spirits in my new house!  I must banish them all!" posts in Facebook groups recently.

In Witch/pagan/occult Facebook groups. 

Therefore, in groups where folks should fucking EXPECT TO BE INTERACTING WITH FUCKING SPIRITS FUCKING REGULARLY.

Seriously?  You've trained to be able to see/notice spirits, and NOW you're freaking out that ... you see them?  Really?  REALLY?  You want them to all go away?

What, exactly, did you expect your training to lead to? 

Chat with them, like any OTHER roomie that you have/have had.  Set up ground rules, IF they are being a problem.  Do divination if you need some help.

But, really, you've been TRAINING for this.  You've INVITED this type of thing.

Stop whining that you got results.

Frondly (?), Fern

It Happened Again

Blessings Darlings!

As y'all already know, I make a lot of things from scratch, or almost-scratch.  Like - my husband LOVES having Kahlua in his coffee in the evening.  He does this three or so times a week.  Kahlua is a pricy bitch, so I make my own.

And when we moved I lost my usual recipe.

No problem, go online and find another (the original was pulled from being online, because it was shared from a book without the author's permission, and the author or publisher said "Oh, HELL no!")

Since I've made stuff several times, it wasn't hard finding a recipe that I could tell had about the right proportions of coffee to sugar.  But in looking over the recipe, I could tell that the person who POSTED it (to Wikihow, which my protection software identified as a 'malicious' site) clearly had never made it. 

The first clue was that s/he said it would make about a quart of Kahlua-substitute.  Well, yes, the recipe called for 4 cups of liquid.  But the 4 1/2 cups of solids added, which dissolved into the liquids, DO TAKE UP SPACE.  Not one cup of space per cup of sugar/instant coffee, but enough space that the recipe made 6 cups, not 'about a quart'.

The second clue was that, since the mix was 50% higher in volume that was presented, the proof (alcohol content) of the finished product was going to be WAY too low given the relative volume of alcohol the recipe called form. 

To get around these problems, I used nice high-proof Everclear instead of most of the rum that was called for, and used brown sugar instead of white sugar to replace some of the flavor the rum would have brought to the recipe.  I could wing it, because I have experience and mad math skillz.

This isn't only a problem in online recipes, BTW.

And, for you Pagans/witches/wiccans out there - it's not only a problem in cooking.

But more on THAT in a future post!

Frondly, Fern

Before First Aid

Blessings Darlings!

Today I saw a FaceBook post from a friend.  He's teaching first aid, and wanted to know what to teach along with that.  This is my reply ....

About a decade ago, my boss collapsed - Atrial Fibrillation. It took 18 minutes for the EMTs to arrive (that's a story for a different time). One of my coworkers was a volunteer firefighter, had spent the past year and a half I'd worked with her claiming how ready she was to deal with anything.

That coworker froze. I, along with a woman from the loan office housed next to ours, did CPR and kept the boss going until the EMTs got there and defib'd her.

Why did the 'trained' person fail, while I could function (even tho' my CPR training had been two decades earlier)? Because in ALL things I didn't procrastinate, instead my habit was to deal with problems as them came up (and try to head them off, of course, but that, too, is a story for a different day. OTOH, my coworker was the youngest child of many, and her siblings would usually step in to 'help' her if she was slow in doing things, or her boyfriend would handle unpleasant things, etc.

Cultivating the habit of handling problems (that you failed to prevent) as they happen, so you don't freeze and act out the habit of putting things off and having others handle them, is to me the most important thing to learn along with the skills involved in first aid.

Frondly, Fern

Hard Won Gifts

Blessings Darlings!

As I noted a few days ago, we have a bit of a heat wave here.  Today will be another hot humid day, and we MAY have air pollution warnings - DC has warnings, but I don't know about the Blue Ridge.  But I digress ...

As a result of the heat wave, I was out working in the garden very early today, while the temperature was in the lower 70's.  Oh my goodness, it was sweet outside then.  The birds were chirping, no tractors were running yet (either mowing lawns of my neighbors or cutting hay), the breeze was NOT from the cattle barns, etc. 

I, of course, was sweating exactly the way a pig doesn't.  This is because to be more intimate with my immediate land base I work my garden by hand.  I worked the bean bed again today, with the days work being taking a spade (and not a shovel) and turning what would be topsoil (if I was still in Illinois).  Here in my little corner of Appalachia it is NOT topsoil - it is clay.  Heavy red clay.  I need to do another round with that now broken bed, and work compost into it so it is ready for the seeds.

Heavy Red Clay.  I looked at those first spadefuls, and a soft voice said, "You know those runes you want to make? They can be made of clay."  I went back to the garage and got a bucket.  And a lid.  By the time I had the bed turned I had 4 gallons of great red clay, 13 pieces of quartz .... and a blister.

Because the real gifts of the Gods are their quiet voices.  Not in them doing the work for us.

Frondly, Fern

Calling a Spade a Spade.

Blessings Darling!

Let us all say this in unison - Fern is not everyone's cuppa.  Did I hear all my Mountain Sisters (and I don't just mean Owl Mt, I mean all the Delicate Flowers of Appalachian Womanhood) snickering? 

I am an opinionated, wordy, judgmental, and precise bitch.  The same in person as I am online. Did I just hear an "AMEN" and "Preach it, sister" from Asheville?

I'm not the person who uses a lot of exclamation points, even tho' I have strong opinions.  Instead, as you may have noticed in the previous two paragraphs, I ask a lot of questions. I am not just interested in your conclusions, the 'what' you do, I am also interested in the 'why you do it part'. 

Some people seem to think that the 'why' part is an attack.  I find that view odd, to say the least (see, I CAN be diplomatic).  I assume that you have good reasons, even if I can't see them, and want to know what they are.  Because magical and life-skills THEORY matters and informs what we all do.

Yes, I think that what words you use matter, too.  If you make up your own definitions to words rather than using the meanings used in normative English and in the dictionary - then you are NOT actually seeking to communicate but to hide things or sound like you know more than you do. 

Did you notice above that I did NOT say that I was "not everyone's cup of tea", even tho' that is a commonly used phrase?  I'll tell you why - tea is a precise word, referring to a precise family of shrubs.

I'm not everyone's tisane, either, which is what you get when you made an infusion of other herbs.

So if you are easily offended, this is not the blog you should follow.  You probably shouldn't follow me on Twitter, or friend me on Facebook, either.

Because I'm going to continue to call a spade a spade.  And not a shovel.

Frondly, Fern

The Witching Hour

Blessings Darlings!

There's a lot of references to "The Witching Hour" in popular culture.  Mundanely, it can refer to the time of day when things are at their worst - the rush time a job, the time of day when the newborn is ALWAYS cranky (that was 5:30 pm for the Spawn), that type of thing.  Sort of the inverse of Happy Hour, both in tenor and in the ability to have a drink during it.

The basic premise behind 'the witching hour' is that witches, ogres, demons, and all sorts of 'nasties' come out and play when all the adults circadian rhythms say 'sleep'.  And by 'adult', I really mean adult.  As in 27 or older, when the brain is fully developed. 

Here's what the adult body circadian rhythms are doing during the day

http://publications.nigms.nih.gov/insidelifescience/images/biological_clock_human.jpg

But, as you might guess, this post is going to look at that from the perspective of an adult Pagan/witch.  And when most folks talk about the witching hour for witches, they most often mean midnight (with a small number of people saying 3 am) being the 'best time' to do magic/rituals/whatever.

That's a nice theory.  It fits in very well with the lives of teens, who don't have the same circadian rhythms as adults, and usually feel the need to hide their witchcraft from their parents.

But the times that matter to most witchcraft are liminal times.  Liminal times are the 'times between'. The best known liminal time for most witches and pagans is Samhain - the Celtic 'New Year' that is celebrated on a day after the end of the old year and before the beginning of the new year.  Lliminal times go together with the liminal spaces we make when we cast a circle, as in the line so often used as part of circle casting "A place that is not a place, a time that is not a time, between the worlds and beyond".  A three-fold liminality!

What does liminality bring to the table?
What do you want it to bring to the table?  For me, in my worldview, it is a time when it is easier to manipulate energy.  Energy in these times is more fluid, not yet one thing or the next.  

These are the times I like to play.  

Everyday liminality
Every person has their liminal times. Your personal ones are the times each day when you are falling asleep and when you are waking up - you are in two worlds, and neither, at once.  We've all been there, probably within the past 12 - 24 hours.

Every day has it's liminal times.  Midnight is a modern version of a liminal time - until there were clocks, no one knew when it was midnight (at least without referencing the Big Dipper, humor me here).  More traditionally, the liminal times were and are the grey time before dawn and twilight.  Not yet the one state of night, nor the other state of day.  These are the times when traditional Witching was done.  

Every month liminality

The month, okay the LUNAR month has it's own liminality.  That occurs on the Dark Moon, the time after the moon has waned all the way, and before that first thin crescent of the Waxing/New Moon.  Just like Samhain is a day between the years, the Dark Moon is a few hours between the months.  For me, I use the 13 hours (one hour for the 13 lunar months of the year) before the astronomical New Moon.  

 Don't get me wrong
I don't limit my magic/ritual to liminal times.  For example, I cook at all times of day - I'm going to do my food magic every time I cook and not try to only cook at liminal times.  And as noted earlier, I create my own liminal time and space when I cast a circle.  But Ii don't blow off the every day or every month liminal times when I have some workings that I can do that don't have a set time frame.  Because I'm one of them Practical Pagans.

Frondly, Fern  

Who Controls You?

Blessings Darlings!

So you say that you are a Witch, or Wiccan, or some other form of Magic User.  You Create Change in Conformity to Will (a phrase that goes back to, gasp, Aleister Crowley).  Or so you say .....

If you and your Will are so tight, then why can perfect strangers push your buttons and get reactions from you that cause the clerk in the store you're in to have to try to calm you down?  If you can't control yourself, and be in charge of your anger/reactions so you can choose how you act, how do you expect to control the Universe, or even do a working to help you in some smaller way?

Get it together.

Frondly, Fern

Omen or not?

Blessings Darlings!

Neatly bucketed black walnuts, now scattered over the deck.
Very cute garter snake sunning itself on the back step.
Dreams for a week all about the same area of Chicago.
Barking foxes every night at 11. 

Are any of them omens?  How would you know?

None of them are actually 'magically significant' for my life, as it turns out. Black walnuts scattered? Squirrel! Garter snake sunning? It's fall, but that was before the first frost - they are sunning themselves EVERYWHERE, lots of them run over on the roads. Barking foxes? they have a den in the larger copse by the house, and there's another under the big altar in the wooded area on the East of the house. Dreams about Chicago? That's my guilty conscience telling me to call my Mother more often.

Know what's normal for your area, and what's not.  Only the unusual should be looked at as an omen at all.  Certainly that the daughter of a Jewish mother is feeling guilty is NOT unusual. 

Frondly, Fern