The seed and the fruit.

What did we plant at Imbolc? As the wheel turns and the year moves past the height of summer we begin our journey towards the time of death and rest. Nature is our constant reminder of the way things are.

Its easy to take to the garden and look at the fruit you need to collect, as it grew you watched it and nurtured it until it become ripe, ready to be harvested. This time of year has us looking at our lives in a similar fashion, but trying to figure out exactly what needs harvesting can be difficult when it isn’t a thing that we can pick up and hold in our palm. Our lives aren’t so simple and are much bigger than that. But I dunno......... maybe harvest is the wrong word to use.

I wonder if winnowing might be a better way to look at it. Grain for example, gets harvested and is then processed (by winnowing) so the individual grains are separated from the rest of the plant  ready to be used. It’s all about removing the husks or useless things to expose the grain or useful things, getting the rubbish out of the way.

Ohh well it’s all wonderful when you use an analogy but how the hell does this bloody process of winnowing help me with my job, or my debt, or my millions of other worldly responsibilities?!?!........... To be completely honest applying this to a life isn’t that hard. When we have problems or issues the best way to get past them is to remove as many complications as possible, once the problem is made simpler a solution can be found faster.

Lughnasadh is the first harvest of the year, it is predominantly a grain harvest and is about exposing the truth of what you have so you can begin to reap the rewards that you have worked towards all year. It’s also about preparing for the winter by saving that which you will need for the spring, how much of this harvest's reward can cover next seasons cost? It’s the celebration of hard work and achievement but a reminder of what follows a harvest............ We all need time to recover before planting again.

Lughnasadh is a festival of harvest. A time of separating the wheat from the chaff, but we do this all year round in our lives. When we celebrate the esbat or when we cleanse our tools for Magick. We look to our cards and our runes to show the way through the chaff of life to the truth of a matter. But you must always remember to leave a little bit, just a little bit for planting next time.


*Words of Expression*
If your looking for ideas of what you can do to honour Lughnasadh I would suggest baking something to share with others, clearing away any of your old unused tools or herbs and resins to make way for new ........... if your anything like me, more in date ones hahaha. You could also make corn dollies as poppets for further magick later on(just make sure you can find a grain to use and that you aren't stealing from a farmer). Take the time to tie up loose ends on projects before it is too late to reap the rewards. Or for a much simpler act to acknowledge the season why not have a ritual candle lit bath, remove all of the chaff from your body so that you can step forward refreshed and ready for the coming Autumn.

Have a wonderful Lughnasadh blessed by your gods and the spirits and guided by your ancestors.

Rain and shine

So summer is here in the UK and is its usual mix of sunny baking hot days and dull drizzly showers, but if I'm honest with you |I love it. Its an opportunity to go somewhere and experience the great outdoors or to crawl up and shelter with friends and family in familiar surroundings watching the water hit the windows.

This weekend just past saw a ritual and picnic on the northern beaches of Norfolk in a place called Heacham. A wonderful day spent with my friends (and grove family) enjoying the wonderful beach and (when we arrived, very very distant) sea. We visited for a ritual on the sands with papers and props at the ready but as England does......the heavens opened and we were doused in a perpetual drizzle. So as you do we just....................sat there!! We sat in the rain and had a very enjoyable picnic. I must admit it was probably one of the best ones that we have ever managed to fumble together. There was everything you could think of and it was marvellous.

When we arrived we strode out on to a beach that seemed to go on for days, the sea was at low tide and was miles out. It took us a good half an hour to walk out and meet it but in good grovie fashion we decided that we would continue to walk for another 20 minutes. As the sea stretched out further and further it never reached higher than any of our knees and it was silent and still, almost eerie in its own way. There was a sense that no matter how confident we felt about our safety, we were in a place that we didn't truly belong. This was a realm with a power that we weren't accustomed to and that power sank in to every pore.

However it wasn't long before we realised we had gone out maybe too far and headed back, quickly re-joining our party on the drizzly beach. I must have eaten my weight in junk food sat there laughing and joking. Making innuendo after innuendo and waiting for the sea to meet us a bit further up the beach.

It took a while but surely enough the water was lapping closer and closer to the dry (well dryish) sand. We took our items, our offerings, and our papers and drew a circle in the sand to mark out the boundary. The quarters were called and the herald declared our purpose, then it was time for the Priest and Priestess to commune with the water of the sea and ask for the blessings of the Lord and Lady.

Me and my companion strode in to the water and offered up a posy of flowers to the sea..........Quickly they were strewn from the glass vase and swallowed by the water, the priestess dipped her large shell in to the sea and prayed for blessings before we turned to beckon forth our comrades to the water.

I was pleasantly surprised (not in a bad way mind you)..........you just get a sense sometimes that we treat the gods and the world like a supernatural vending machine. It's easy to get trapped in this mind set of only asking for things from your gods and never sharing it.......but on this occasion. I am so glad this wasn't the case. These wonderful people who travelled all the way to the beach, packed food and drink to share, simply held out their hands to receive the waters blessing, a blessing that by all intent and purpose had been paid for and all of them had others on their mind.

They decided to share this moment across the ether to the people they love, to transfer this blessing, paid for with offerings and effort to people that they deemed worthy of the seas power. This is the blessing that I received.....I was blessed by being humbled, I stood waiting (with no expectation other than an acknowledged trend) and was greeted by people who wanted better.........better for others in their lives. Better for family, for friends, for a shared happiness in those that they cared for.

In the end our tummy's were full, the waters were warm and the blessings were received. But when all was done we left without a trace. Nothing but the flowers of our offering bobbing in the water as a sign that the gods had come to the sea and given their gifts to those that sang their song of praise.

I hope that the blessings we asked for are paid to those who deserve them in full. That we continue to look at our craft and magick as a way of improving this world we live in. I know I need to look at how I perceive those around me, kindness and generosity they say is its own reward and that's where I was blessed.

The Spirit Familiar

So here we are, looking at a title and thinking...."oooo this looks like fun" and you know what, it is!

I have been a practitioner of magick for over 15 years and in that time I have found a real affinity for working with the spirits of the natural and other world. In that I mean those spirits that are inherent in the world around and also apart from us, from simple elementals to faerie nobles. Now I'm not saying that I have always been a whiz at this or that I am an expert but with that said. Experience I think speaks to its self............

So lets talk about it shall we hehehe.

The spirit familiar by its definition (which you can easily find online) is a spirit that works to aid or complete tasks that are set by the witch (magickal practitioner). A spirit familiar is denoted by the fact that it is exactly that..........a spirit. It may appear in many forms, most often it will be that of an animal but it can also be more sinister of benevolent looking depending on the spirit or the person with whom it has its relationship.

Witches particularly were thought to commune with their familiars and gain their aid through bargains with demons or the devil himself, however..........I myself know that this is certainly not your only choice in contacting a familiar haha. The spirits of the elemental plane for example can make amazing and perfectly helpful spiritual familiars. The key of course to all of this is the word FAMILIAR!!!! Now if you look at entities like guardian spirits, ancestors, or spirit guides its important to note their familiarity with us, for our ancestors it is our shared bond of blood or society that bridges the gap and makes us familiar with them. If you look at spirit guides or guardian spirits it is the bonds of guardianship or contractual/magickal agreements that bridges the gap of familiarity.

However for a bog standard familiar spirit  like again an elemental or the faerie who visits me frequently during meditations (often to my own frustrations as he seldom arrives for any other reason than to scold me although, we have had the occasional dance on the grass) the familiarity and relationship must be created and worked on. You wont be able to have automatic access to any familiar you choose, it takes work and effort! Work and effort that yields reward based on the amount of effort and work that you put in to the relationship.

For example in my astral grove (a place that I visit and maintain in meditation frequently) a boar spirit visits and guides me during meditations and journeys through the astral. He has been my animal spirit familiar for a long time and I have created a relationship with him that I nurture every time I visit my grove. He however stays in my astral workings and rarely if ever works with me on the physical realm. This is because I have not created a conduit or portal for him to work through..............So yes I said conduit!

So putting it bluntly a spirit familiar needs a place to live, whether that be a piece of magickal jewellery, special shrine, or an animal skull. From this conduit/portal it will work with you and you can develop a relationship wit it. The conduit/portal should be what you use to build your relationship, it will be where or what you make your libations (offerings) to and you will use it  to instruct your familiar. For example in the Boscastle Museum of Witchcraft and Magick there is a toad called Fred which was a spirit familiar for a witch in the 1920s. Fred resided in the body of this toad and was much like my boar, an animal spirit and familiar of that witch who worked with him (I say him.....but familiars choose odd names and there is no guarantee Fred was a bloke).

The idea over all is that spirit comes to the totem, shrine, or amulet you have made in to a conduit to be communed and worked with, but is then free to move about and complete the task that it has been asked to. For example a dried toad may be kept to hold the spirit (called Fred for example) and in times of action the spirit is invoked to go about its masters bidding and complete its given task. Returning to the dried remains when its task is complete. Working with a spirit familiar is not for the light hearted or the inexperienced.

This magick which has very deep roots in folk lore, and folk magick is full of room for experimentation and of course error. but bear in mind when I say error, I mean to advise that with all the best intentions this sort of magick yields very varied results. Its power is certain and effective and when applied properly you can gain allies in every world out there. But be warned that all spirits have a personality just like you and me so you can never escape the reality that............... Even spirits can be arseholes and wont always do as they are asked.

Adorations

Daily adorations are one of the few constants outside of the seasonal and lunar cycles that I commit to doing regularly. Some days it is harder than others and some days it truly feels like a chore but its always worth it when I do it.

I worship 2 gods upon my altar who are Elen and Herne, They have been my patrons ever since I began to really take my druidry seriously. They are deeply tied to the powers of the land and I really love the tales that are told of both of them. Although their origins aren't like those of the ancient Greek or Egyptian deities there is no reason for me to doubt them or the blessings they bestow upon my life and the lives of those around me.

So every single day I open the powers of my shrine with the lighting of a candle and I evoke the awen, I address the spirit of that light and then I pray..............for everything.......for anything.........and sometimes for nothing. At times all I want to do is tell the god and goddess that I love them and want them to be with me. I then offer to my ancestors and the gods before completing the adoration. Every time I perform this ritual of adoration I find a moment of peace, of solace, of clarity, and it pulls me closer to the gods (or them closer to me, I'm not sure which)......The point is, although some days I can't wait to get to the end of the day and commune with my lord and lady and other days I have to drag myself from my bed with heavy limbs, it's positives far outweigh the negatives.

I have been sharing this dedication with a friend of mine who of course has her own set of magickal needs and expectations. For example she performs hers every morning as a pose to me doing it in the evening, she lights 3 candles on her altar to represent each ray of the awen, where I only use the one. I also pray to deities that she doesn't, but the same rings true for her as it does for me.......Every single day there is a moment that is hers, that is based on her own terms which rewards her in a way that only that moment can. We take that moment every day as sacred and to acknowledge the divine in the world, in the other world, or in the cosmos..........then in that exact same moment it acknowledges us.

Something amazing I heard on a documentary that I watched about astronomy and stars says much the same thing about how amazing it feels to connect with things that are so much bigger than you are.........."Stars are millions, billions, or trillions of light years away and we will never be able to go to those starts in our lifetimes to ever touch them, but every night when you go out under the night sky you are caressed by the very light of those same stars that are so far away. You may not be able to touch them but from so far away, a beautiful powerful vibrant and immense force is in that moment.......touching you.

That is how I feel when I do my adoration every evening, in that moment when I sit in front of my shrine the gods look back at me in love and smile back. No matter how you do it or who its too I urge you to try something.....anything.....every day. Who knows, you might feel the light of the gods shine on you too.

My home shrine that I use for my daily adorations.

Cauldron of warming.

I have begun to see a theme recently within my Druidry and occult practices. I follow the work of an artist that has been producing some amazing art with the male figure and the ideas of occultism...... http://allanspiers.com/sabbath ( follow this link to take a look, be warned that it is a wee bit rude :P). This work is a demonstration of the strength you need in magick, both as physical and as spiritual. In Magick you need to be strong, you need to be able to put enough effort in to your will to be able to have that return from your Magick. Bear in mind this isn't to say that unless you are buff you can't do Magick. No it is to say that no occultist worth their salt could be described as weak of mind, conviction, or faith there is a strength in Magick that is needed for success.

Anyway the point I was making and how it is tied in to my practice is that recently I have been going to the gym and following a diet plan. This isn't strict but it's also a work in progress, much like everything we do I suppose. Anyway, the reason for going to the gym and following this diet is simple. The more powerful my body is then the more I can put in to my Magick therefore increasing my success and the extent of my magickal will. This is also a practice that will help other areas of my life too. Work, love and family life will be easier and healthier if I have the strength and vitality to handle it all.

So today whilst I was going hell for leather on the rowing machine I was bored senseless due to the lack of music so I decided to just row, shut my eyes, and see what would happen. Inspiration struck as I began to row harder and harder and without the visual input I could feel the heat of my body rising and getting hotter and hotter. I was totally focused on my body and its movements. Before long I began to imagine a cauldron before me and a great fire beneath it (it just apeared, right there in my mind.....pop!!!!). Just like Cerridwen's cauldron which was used to brew the elixir of Awen for her ugly son. I could see clearly the fire in my body fuelling the inspiration inside and growing giving it strength. Every pull on the machine was like a breath of life to the fire and it made my vision heave with strength. It was a great visualisation and worked to keep me entertained during my workout hahaha.

So all this stuff has been going on, checking out some awesome artwork that's been inspiring me to get fit and connect to deity through my body, then working on my Druidry and the different cauldrons of the three worlds and of the body. All this stuff being done but I'm still surprised to find that during my study time I open up a book and read a translation of Irish works that talks about the cauldron of warming........ :-o ....... This caldrons is used to fuel creativity and the more you use it and the stronger it gets the more powerful your creativity.............. Well it took me by surprise and I couldn't help but think I needed to write this down and remember that we can only realise our potential if we work to unlock and release it :D.

At last I think the message has sunk in and I can't wait to work with these principals and see what new revelations occur. :D

Swimming through the sunlight

There was an amazing opportunity on Tuesday to do some outdoor ritual. It's really cold and mostly miserable right now but on Tuesday there was a break in the cloud and the sun shone down on the shire with almost if not definite magickal effect. I took this chance to invite my friend Rhiannon to come and collect some sacred well water with me. I mean why the hell not, it's not very often we have a pleasant day in Feb haha.

So traveling to the shire we visited a sacred spring that sits under the ruins of an old church. It was stunning as the ground and graves were littered with snowdrops and the air although crisp from the cold was softened with the warmth of the low early spring sun. It was an opportunity to flex my Druid ritualist muscles and whilst collecting the water pay homage to the ancestors and the kindred of the three realms of land, sea, and sky. Something that has been a research focus this past few months.

As we were there collecting water it seemed obvious to offer the spirits hazel nuts (well maybe it's not that obvious but being a Druid has its qwerks). These were to symbolise the great hazel trees that feed the salmon of wisdom. So we made three offering before collecting the water, first to the realm of  Abred 1 nut was placed upon the land, second to the realm of Gwynvyd 1 nut was placed upon the charcoal, then third to the realm of Annwn 1 nut was dropped in to the water. With that we gave our blessings and collected the water from the spring and asked the spirits to share the powers of the spring with our brothers and sisters who would join in the waters we had collected.

With the collection made we decided to spend the rest of our nuts on the local spirits. We offered nuts to the ancestors at the graves, to the kindred in the trees and snowdrops of the land and then to the great stones of the ruins and the memory of the sacred spirituality that without whom we wouldn't know of this place. There was Magick in the air at every moment that seemed to to move about us like mist through strands of sunlight.

It was simplicity but it was magick. The time me and my sister in the craft spent there was truly enchanting and the spirits certainly accepted our offerings. When the time came to work with the waters we had collected for ritual, our Augur Cerridwen read the tarot. The spirits were pleased and although they gave poignant advice and hard truth through the cards the overall message was clear. Our offerings and the work we had done at the well had been (just as I had hoped) right and worthily accepted.

This is a whole new chapter, a great new beginning and I hope others that share this journey with me can hear the whispers of the kindred spirits.

Kai :D xxxx

Circles circles everywhere and never a corner to call

Circles can be found everywhere you look, look up and you will see the sun or the moon. The motion of our horizon and our sky is circular so it's no wonder that the ancients of our land built roundhouses and stone CIRCLES all around them selves. They made circles something mirrored in their lives from what they found in nature. 

The craft that I follow also works in circles, the druidry I do and the magickal practices that I have they all work with circles. Most notably within magickal practice is the casting of a circle, this is a spell to begin all spells that works as a ritual to bring the power of sacredness and creation in to the material world. I love circle castings and know about 4 off by heart that I use interchangeably depending on the work that is going to follow it. To be fair most circle castings are in them selves spells that can be used intercahngably, they can either be used to protect you or they can be cast after a circle to do other things like invoke, evoke, enchant or to summon. Circles have an uncanny ability of bringing what is scattered in to one defined place, giving focus to the mind and giving unity to the spirit and soul.

Mostly however when you use the power of the circle casting you use it to go around yourself,or another and or even a place, you encircle things with a protective veil. Whatever your reasons for using the circle, the defining quality of a circle is that there is always something within it and something outside of it. An example of this is from a recent trip I took to Glastonbury.

This August me and my grove went to Glastonbury to perform a weekend of ritual at popular pilgrimage sights like the tor and the chalice well gardens and so on. Either way, the grove did some initiation rituals at the base of the tor where I myself was initiated in to the grove of my brothers and sisters. It was an amazing place to perform these rituals and to perform them in public too was very brave in my opinion. I was proven right too when as we were setting up a local gent (who could have been easily described as drunk haha) decided to take interest and stand in the centre of our group and wind everyone up. Myself and a few of the seasoned witches and Druids weren't really fazed and just got on with it but some of the others were a little put off by him. Some of our brothers and sisters were gearing up for an initiation which meant so much to them. Quite rightly so they didn't want it ruined by a stranger but it was too late for changes at the last minute we needed to get set up.

Now this man was really trying my patience even if I was confident in our power he was starting to get on my nerves. I had to remind myself frequently to not say anything and to just focus on getting started. I needed to make sure that when we began he wouldn't be in the way and I began to focus on getting everyone else organised and in position. It probably helped that everyone was trying to push him away with their energy and were equally focused on getting set up but it wasn't until we had finished the circle casting that I noticed the man had gone............completely gone. I realised later that our circle casting was performing a great deal of magick  before we had even begun saying the words or giving the gestures.

My sister Rae who was helping people with their initiations said she noticed the same but unlike when you practice alone she pointed out that "when we were divided he was in our way, but as soon as we united in the circle casting he vanished". I thought about what she said, thought hard about it and she was right. Even when we are alone and preparing for ritual our thoughts and our focus is not defined or concentrated and distractions abound until we are organised in to casting the circle. We define our focus and unite our mind with body and spirit. Much like within our group we were scattered thoughts and divided opinions getting ready to find our place within the whole trying desperately to deal with a distraction. But when we had finally lit the lantern and set off the charcoal our unity of purpose empowered that circle with a sacred thought in a timeless moment. The circle did more than surround us, it also focused us, gave us a point to concentrate on, and unified our thoughts. The protection came not only from just the etherial line that we drew in the air but the unified power that we wielded when the circle was cast.

I am always going to remember this and hold on to it whenever I cast a circle. That magick comes from when you stand firm in your power, when you focus your power in to a single point, when you point the wand unwavering and say the words with conviction. When you unite with the power of your gods, the power of the land you know it will fill up your circle and you will feel and see what it is to really cast a circle and why.

A spell a day keeps the faerie's away................ish

TSo familiar spirits are the theme of my post today. What they appear as when we see them and how we interact with them. So by definition what is a familiar or familiar spirit? According to google (a most reliable source :P) a familiar spirit is a spirit that assists and interacts with a witch or person practicing Magick to help them in their Magickal endeavours. Sound about right? A spirit familiar is often deacribed as a animalistic creature that appears with the witch but can also appear as a human or humanoid in shape, but often they are described as completely corporeal and in no way ethereal like ghosts. I think these definitions can be down to interpretation or the type of familiar you have cos my familiar is nothing like that haha.

I love the idea of spirit familiars in much the same way as I like the idea of spirit guides. I think they are there to help, guide and assist you when your in need of a bit of companionship within the craft (well, companionship that doesn't require a human). There are lots of people out there who are scared of said familiars and would describe them as demonic or parasitic but this raises the question with me. If there is such thing as parasites within Magick then which way is it.........are they being parasitic or in fact is it us? Are we infact the parasites that entice spirits to aid us and then call upon them willy nilly expecting the same level of assistance from a spiritual entity when infact they probably have issues of their own. Again this probably depends entirely on you and your relationship with said familiar :D.

For example an elementary created by you to aid you in your work would not have anything better to do and that is simply because you are all it knows, and quite rightly so :/ . Imagine if all of a sudden all the elementaries in the world took an instant attraction to sausages......... Funny image maybe but it could prove problematic if you replace the word sausage with something more sinister. Elementaries are created for 1 purpose so that this CA'NT happen (although........ You may wanna watch out for sausages hahahahahahaha).

Familiar spirits however are more intuative and intelligent than something that has been created for a single purpose. More often than not they will come to you, or be with your from birth, but some of us are in positions in life where we come in to contact with a different spirit and become connected with them. This exact thing happened to me just over a year ago when I was experimenting with and studying faery Magick. However that's a different story that will come up sooner or later I'm sure :P.

I think the key to working with a familiar spirit is to focus on your ability to listen and understand each other, the more connect you are to the world around you and the more in tune you are the easier it will be to have that connection with a familiar.

What do you c in the craft.

So it's been a long time since I posted on here about my a-z. I hadn't forgotten about it, I just needed more time to get my material out of my head and in to the world. Thinking about the craft and what it is to so many of us made me think of the next letter in the alphabet.......... So yeah anyway I'm gonna let you try and guess what C is going to be while I rabbit on like and old man :D haha.

I'm always writing about my grove family and the differences that we all have in Magick, how amazing I think that is AND.........well....... how much I love it. But I never discuss what or why those differences come together, let alone how they work or why they are so positive. So I suppose I should probably start with myself and go from there. When I started out with the craft it was journey to discover myself and the strength I needed within to deal with the world around me. With no luck gaining what I needed from the faith surrounding me I turned to other places and other people.

The first ingredient in my Magickal life came in the form of a book called Practical Magick by Marian Green. It was a great book for a beginner and described a lot of the concepts expressed by Wicca. Then there was a little orange book of spells for happiness followed by The Tower of Alchemy (a book I eventually gave away because it was WAY tooooooo complicated for my tiny mind hahahaha). So my first steps in to a spiritual life where therefore based in the working of the great Wiccan teachers like Gerald Gardener and so on. In the years to come I added more and more ingredients to my pot and that included the tarot, reiki, a brief study of shamanism, buhdist meditations, sound therapy and earth healing. But soon I found myself at a dead end and needed to find some training in the craft that didn't come from just books and blogs. I wanted a teacher to show me which ingredients could help with my journey.

There was also the desire for community, a group of strangers that I could turn to and make friends with, where the bond we had was based on something we shared in our craft. That's when I turned to the practice of Druidry and The Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. I worked with the bardic course for about 18 months and passed the grade, which added a massive chunk of knoweledge and what I consider the foundation to my own craft in to the already interesting mix. The Druidry also gave me an outlet for what I was constantly learning and developing through my craft, my grove :D.

It was becoming more and more apparent to me that I wasn't just finding the strength I wanted within but creating it and brewing it for myself too. I was brewing strength, compassion and understanding within myself. I was using the different disciplines and ways of thinking to create, in myself, what I wanted to achieve in the outer world. I wanted to show, power in times of conflict, courage in times of trouble, compassion in times of heartbreak and understanding in times of confusion. But you can only do that by fostering those qualities inside yourself.

Now I'm coming back to the point I wanted to get to at the start of this post, like myself the grove/family I am proud to be a part of is a big hodgepodge of different things that make up the whole. We are members that study druidry, Wicca, hoodoo, Strega, ceremonial Magick, shamanism and just simple mindfulness. It is that combination that creates strength, all added together with tolerance, understanding and compassion so that the ingredients can interact and work together.

So have you guessed what I'm getting at? A magickal tool that begins with C that you can put lots of different things in and mix them together to create Magick?................................C is for Cauldron :D. That Magick pot that you put everything in, the pot that holds the ashes of your Magick Fire, the pot that has your water in for concecration of the circle or the candle that sits in the southern corner. It's the go to tool when you need to fill something with offerings to the gods. All in all the cauldron is the thing we use to hold everything and make things manifest through magickal practice.

But the couldron can be found in us, the places we live and the people we love. The whole world is a cauldron of Magick that is being constantly added to and stirred up creating massive changes in us and the rest of the world around us. Never underestimate the power of a container, least of all the container that is mostly associated with the power of the goddess and especially if you aren't ready to let out, whatever it is that you have put inside.

Blessed be lovelies xx

Finding the goddess.

Hey my lovelies, this post is about........you guessed it.....the goddess :D (que trumpets and confetti). I have been researching the feri or faery tradition of witchcraft that was developed by Victor and Cora Anderson in the US. It's really interesting and I am just doing some light reading before I begin to practice some of what they teach and perform. I like it because it mentions themes that work in contrast and compliment my druid practice.

One of the things I came across a couple of days ago was the concept of the star goddess and divine mother. Now....... I know there are star goddesses and divine mothers all over the show and you don't have to research for long to find one, even in Druidry we have Cerridwen who stirs the cauldron but it wasn't until I found the goddess in the feri tradition that I really gelled with an idea of her. I think that it gelled with me because I see divine as everywhere and in everything. Stars to me are the beacons in the night that formed from the same dust that formed our world and us aswell. So when the idea that the love of the goddess living in the light of the stars began to form in my mind it stayed with me and the more I read about feri the more it developed in my mind aswell as my heart. My understanding of the feminine divine in Druidry is based in the earth mother, which has been difficult for me to come to grips with. However seeing her from on high as universal rather than earthly has opened me up to seeing her in more colour and splendour.

Either way this is supposed to be about finding the goddes so here goes.....I don't.........didn't really know her very well. I have spoken to a few of her faces and seen her miracles in my life but until now I have never felt her staying power inside my heart...... well until a few days ago that is.

The goddesses I have worked with in the past have been Aphrodite, Hecate and more recently Isis. All of which have done amazing things in my life and filled it with so much Magick. But this new idea of the goddess in the stars and the night sky has filled my heart and mind with a sense of wonder that I have really missed for such a long time.

This morning I woke up to my beautiful man and looked around the room, he went to have a shower and I just floated in the stillness of the morning air just being me and feeling the world...... truly in the moment. I looked over at the smiling statue of the White Goddess from my druid grove and I just thought to myself, that feeling you get........you know the one.....that one that when you get it makes you breath in deep and go "ahhhhhhhhhhh" out loud. So I jumped up, went and got showered, brushed my teeth, got dressed, light some candles on the alta, sat in front of the White lady of my grove, of the stars, and prayed..................................

Now that's never happened before. Never in my life have I just looked within to find the divine without, I found the power of my goddess in the silent stillness of my mind pondering on stars and wishing for happiness. It's also funny how not a fortnight ago (2 weeks ago) I was looking at facebook, and posted about wishing on a star. Looking back I notice how images of stars and most of all Pinocchio (the little liar) have followed me around. 

I think it's time to act on my feelings and continue my prayers, things are moving and I'm not gonna stand around and let them move past me now that my divine mother has given me the nod of approval so to speak. :D Wish me luck my beauties, I'm off to catch my starlight and shine out to the world with the goddess in my heart once and for all. After searching high and low for my goddess, my mother, I think she has found me.

Barding :D what's that then :P

So I have been thinking about people and how they practice their craft. Maybe it's funny that I should be thinking about it because......well..........I suppose it's just that there are lots of different ways to practice and in my last post I spoke about my grove family. I just love and admire the way we are celebrating our differences, giving each individual a chance to have their say and contribute something to the group. Yesterday I had a party to celebrate my completion of the bardic grade within The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids (OBOD). It was a celebration from a combined group of very very magickal people, all of which wanted to share the day talking about and celebrating our craft. I decided to call it a Barding after the name of the grade I had just completed and the very first part of the order, the Bards.

It really fascinates me how the craft or our craft can be anything from grey Magick to demon worship hahaha, and yet we all get on and celebrate each other's strengths and personal triumphs. It's a testament to how diversity can give strength to others if understanding is made our foundation. With understanding we can appreciate the strengths that each different way of practicing can give to our own way of doing things, expanding our boundaries and increasing our knoweledge.

Anyway at this party we worked with the bardic circle casting and the prayer of our grove which is part of the bardic course and the practices that make up OBOD (it was MY party after all hahaha). I was so thankful to the people that came and I was so blessed with what they said and did for me that day, even though not all of them practice the same faith or craft as me, they do however recognise the importance of it to my life and the power it has to change, grow and empower the people performing it.

My grove family have shown me and taught me so much over the past year and a half. Lessons of tolerance, faith, love and compassion have all come from the fact that everyone in my little family has something different to contribute, and every contribution is considered with understanding, where the value of everything is accepted based on how it affects us all in different ways.

I couldn't have asked to be part of a family like this, I am so lucky that they found me and that they offer me understanding.

A new kind of family

I know I bang on a bout this stuff a lot but the thing is, you only really bang on about the stuff that really matters to you.............I am a member of something amazing and it's my grove hehehe. The grove of the white goddess :D.

Recently loosing my father and with the rest of my family either very far away or just plain not interested, I have found support from the people that others would assume don't have much to do with me. Of course it's only once a month and involves sacrificing goats to an imaginary host of spirits that want to use me and my friends to take over the world hahahahahahaha. But that's wrong, dead wrong.

Over the past 18 months I have met a lot of different people. People who come from almost every walk of life, who in their own way all love and practice Magick. In that time I have made friends, lost friends and become part of something that we have all affectionately named..........our pagan family.

Some people may feel a little out of their depth at times when they come to the grove ,and though being confronted with this massive gaggle of pagan geese may seem intimidating. Let me tell you that through my hardships I have never felt more love, compassion or support. 

From a group of seemingly random and beautiful people I have been given time to cry, laugh (like I have never laughed before), grow and learn new skills. All of us have this one thing in common.......Magick!!............ That special kind of connection that means no matter how far or how lost you may become you always get a hug from everyone when you walk in to the hall just once a month, goats and all.

I used to think that being alone with my thoughts was how I best processed them or that only blood relatives could offer me the support that I needed. But I have learned that if I don't share my life with others then I will never be able to share others lives with them and that in it's self makes for a lonely existence indeed. My Magick and my heart has grown because I have learned to accept others in to my life and my Magick. It's been a hard journey but now I am enjoying having more than just friends.......I have a family...........and I am part of a growing community ( that loves hugs..........and goats hahahahaha :D).

Time to get back on the rails.

Hey my beautiful lot of beauties haha. It's been a while Ennit :D.

Anyway, things are as they seem to be but I'm here and I'm happy so it's time to write to you all and let you all know the new stuff that is going on in my life :D. I have finally finished my bardic grade within OBOD and am now working towards the ovate grade of the course :D...........gimme another 2 years and I will be an all powerful DRUID!!!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Plus I have finally finished a college course in beauty so now it's job search time.........hmmmm that sound like fun (sarcasm is great). 

Cough!!

Anyway :D I have decided that with the end of my bardic grade (which was far more fun) that maybe I should do something. I'm not going to get a certificate or letter of commendation or anything like that so I have taken it upon myself to have a Barding :P.............let's be clear about this........a Barding is a party where I get celebrated as being awesome :D .......simply because my ego is just simply not big enough already hahahahahaha.

So anyway I have taken it upon myself to have this party of Clinton is awesome and invite lots of people to come and give me compliments on my awesomeness. However I am vexed..........simply.... vexed. I have never heard of a Barding before and have no idea what one would include let alone who came up with the idea (I'm betting it's me :P). Would there be ritual? Would there be prayer? Is it just going to end up being a booze up with disco music? I have no idea.

If I'm really honest with you I may just take everyone for a great big picnic with a bottle of champers to celebrate the move up to the next grade :D that sounds quite nice actually now I think about it :D.

I'm so exited to have a party and just piss about with my friends and family but I'm also concerned because my path in Druidry and the craft has created complications in my relationships with family. My faith is a massive part of my life and all in all they have kinda sworn off having anything to do with that part of me (which if I'm honest makes conversations difficult as it's all I want to talk about hahahaha). So what do I do about including family in my life when they seem to not want any part of it. Do I invite them anyway and just expect the declines or should I just ignore them al together and just not invite them and get a back log of complaints from those members who would have actually enjoyed the opertunity to come along. Ahhhhh........vexed again!!!!!!

I'm meeting up with my grandma tomorrow morning to have a catch up since my dad's passing and I'm gonna talk to her about it, which I'm sure will be really awkward but mehh. The thing I want the most is to know my family and be confident that they also know me.......all of me.......warts and all.

Anyway wish me luck, I miss posting on here and I need to start doing it again as you all seemed so interested in my rantings and ravings hahahahahaha. Cya laters my beauties and wish me luck.

BLESSED BE!!!!!

KAI

My religion not real.......hmmmm well poo poo to you.

I have been working through the elements now for the past 9 months of my bardic training and last night was a ritual that united all the individual blessings I had done in the previous months. 

The ritual took me a record breaking 20 minutes haha. I know there are people out there who are gonna say it should have taken an hour or more and those that will say that I obviously did it wrong and should have taken more time over it..............well poo poo to you. I realised during the meditation at the end that the ritual was only the beginning and that it didn't matter how long it took me to do the actual ritual. The real point of the exercise is to give me something to live, that it's not the 5 minute meditation that is important but infact the realisation that I need to take what I have learned during the ritual and apply it to more than just this 20 minutes but the rest of my life. To truly live with the elements in my body mind and spirit and remember the balance that comes from the unity of all things. 

That balance is what gives me faith and strength, when I feel balanced I really truly feel the Magick all around me, the connection to the fae and the spirits of the land. It is an empowering feeling that makes me wonder how far I could go. I feel like nothing could stand in my way. 

The ritual yesterday came after a bout of bad news and shitty happenings, for example having a car is just not as much fun as people lead you to believe hahahaha. But anyway, life has been a challenge and I found myself feeling cut off and disconnected from the truth of my own power. The elements of the world seemed a far cry from the balance I had spent the last 9 months trying to achieve. But then something happened and I made a conscious decision to change my circumstances and stop worrying about what I couldn't change. Instead I decided to resort to my faith, my belief in Magick and my connection to the spirits. 

To my great relief my connection had remained strong and with the quietest of calls the spirits answered, I  was reminded of my old habits of drawing symbols on things to cheer myself up. I remembered a sigil that I created when I was but a wee lamb hahaha. It wasn't 10 minutes before I had a pen and I was drawing the symbol on the back of my hand hahaha. It made me feel safe and strong again.

The symbol was one I had always loved to draw, a pentagram with 5 orbs that sat between each point to represent the elements. The pentagram represented me and the orbs represented my connection to the elementals and the protection they offered me. It is a symbol that always makes me feel invincible, like it could do anything. It isn't much really is it? Just a symbol. 

But what it means to me is more than just a star and a few blobs. It's my seal, my security blanket, my spiritual mark of power and my personal rune. It is something that holds me to the beliefs that I cherish and the memory of it keeps me from forgetting how I came to use it to protect myself in the past when things would go wrong. The elements are with me now and they have always and will always be with me. From now until forever and back again.

Spring is on the breeze.

It is Ostara and after reading lots of things online and looking through my books I have come up with nothing.......zilch........bump kiss hahaha. So I have decided to look at what I know in my heart, what I feel in my bones and what I taste on the breeze.

It is spring, the time of growth, birth and renewal. I am reminded of the gods and how they had disputes and growth during the first eons of creation. 

This in turn has me drawn to the story of Persephone and how she was taken by Hades to be his bride in the underworld. This act put her mother Demeter in to a despair and she no longer gave her gifts to the world. As she searched for her daughter the world became starved of fertility and began to wither away and sleep.

After three months and a plan from hades to make sure his bride returned to him, the beautiful Persephone was released from hades and returned to her mother. This act of reunion ends the very first winter and brings about the very first spring as Demeter's powers are returned to the world.

This is where I feel I am now. My spirit returned to my body as I was searching for something I felt I had lost. The love of a mother and her child is brought forth by this story and this reunion speaks of a fundamental love and care. As it is a goddess's love that is brought back in to life it spills out in to the world. Demeter the goddess of the harvest and fertility through the reunion of the one thing that makes her whole breathes life in to the wind, the warm breath takes the chill out of the air and summons the spirits of spring to begin their work. 

Cefiro is FIT!!!!! Hehehehehehe

Cefiro spirit of the spring breeze carries the goddess's breath to all the land. He spreads the message of care and love for one another. He brings the element of romance to the people so that they may again feel at one with each other and spread that love which from the goddess brings life to everything it touches. 

Demeter gives life and Cefiro transports it, may we be blessed by the breath of the goddess and the council of its courier. The power that gives fertility, growth, birth and renewal. Take it in people with your very lungs and use it wisely.

How to B the next letter in the alphabet

So after A were gonna have B........naturally haha. I was thinking about the letters in the alphabet and what each one would be about, actually forgot to think about B. I was far too concerned with the hard ones like Q and X haha. But anyway here it is, the second letter of the A-Z pagan journey. 

B is for Blessings.

In Druidry we mention it a fair bit and the same in Wicca too. Blessings are a big part of performing Magick. During a circle casting we bless and cleanse the area we are in, we ask for the gods to bless us during our rite's and we bestowed blessings on others in the form of charms spells or kind gestures. 

Blessings, I think are really important to a magickal practice as it gives you the chance to receive and give what I think of as a magickal gift or dose of good luck hahaha. 

Probably the most common and frequent blessings used are those involved in creating sacred space, for me at least the act of creating sacred space is great fun and full of Magick. The very best bit for me being when the circle is blessed with the elements of fire and or water. This is the act of giving the space you have created the relevant reverence to be sacred on this occasion (also done when asking for the blessings of the divine to watch over that sacred space). It is such a simple gesture that has such a big effect on the space it is enacted in and really speaks to emphasise the fact that you are creating something magickal within and out of the world of the mundane. 

Besides using a blessing on space you can ask for them from sources of Magick or divinity, you hear of people being blessed all the time and we even do it without thinking (the response to a sneeze comes to mind haha). But simply asking for a blessing can be enough to turn what seems like a very uncontrollable day in to one that becomes easier to manage. When we ask the gods to bestow us with blessings we are asking for help from a source of power, Magick, divinity or whatever you like to aid us in our struggles. It never hurts to ask right??

In my magickal practice I have also given blessings to people. For example, In a handfasting you are the mediator between the couple and the divine and acting as the high priest you bestow a blessing upon the couple with the aid of the gods, in order that their union may be one that is happy and peaceful. With the addition of the gods, some gestures and some words. A simple act of well wishing is given power to remain a reminding force of good in a couples life. A force that is remembered so as to aid with fights and keep the couple true to the meaning of the event where they were blessed.

Blessings can be simple acts or they can elaborate rituals that stay with you for a lifetime but at the end of the day a blessing to me is the truest form of Magick as it needs no jewels or fancy props to be performed. It is a simple act of lasting love that stays with a person or place for as long as it is needed.

A-Z A pagan journey.

It has been a long time since my last post and I have missed writing on here. It's been a long time because, well, I have been busy haha. 

Lots going on and little time to sit and think. But today I got the chance and while I was thinking I noticed something online that caught my eye, so here it is. 

MY PAGAN A-Z. :D

So the first letter is A obviously and of course the first word that comes to mind with me concerning the craft is the word Altar.

An altar is a place set aside for worship, somewhere that you decide to make sacred while you work on prayer, worship, spells or simple meditation. It is a place of your choosing or somewhere that is selected for the reason of spiritual expression. 

I love Altars and have 3 in my room :D, one to Apollo another to Aphrodite and a third one is for Magick of any kind. They are pretty much just places to put things. Apollo's altar is on a shelf Aphrodite's is on top of a piece of furniture and my Magick altar is on top of my chest of drawers haha. Nothing special to anyone else but to me they are focus points for worship, prayer and spells. 

When I do Magick I go to an altar that I have set up in my room, but what about when I am in a hotel for the night or if I am out in the woods, then what? The best thing about altars is that they can be anywhere and made of anything. I have made an altar out of a tree stump, stone and pine cone before.

All I needed was a focus for my Magick and the altar that I made was just perfect for that. When creating an altar I have always tried to think of a couple of things. How do I feel when I place my hands on it? Do I feel connected to my self and the Magick around me and am I picking fault with how I have arranged things. In other words Do I need all this stuff? Does it serve a purpose?

At the end of the day altars are anywhere you want them to be and if you need one it can be everywhere you find yourself. Be open to the world and just look for a place that suits you and your magickal needs and above all, keep it as simple as you need it to be.

One last thing I will say about making an altar is don't be worried about shifting it all round from time to time and try something different, some of us try and use seasonal colours to match the festivals but it's all up to you. Just have fun with your little place of Magick. The more you use it the more power it will generate. 

Have fun people and blessed be :D

Yule.....to understand each other we must share.

I am still dealing with an interfaith issue with my family and have come to a point where my beliefs are being pitted against another's. I'm kinda proud that I haven't retaliated the way I would like too hahaha but still, life is always a work in progress aye.

Any who this is my video about how I am feeling about it and how it is making me evaluate how it means to me to celebrate Alban Arthuan (Yule) I am so proud to be me and part of this tribe.

Blessed Be guys

Kai

I am me and who are you??

Just to clarify some thing and make a point I think. We need to be compassionate and let love transcend ignorance. I have done loads of magick lately, I have been working on doing my Druid training since I came back from Glastonbury and then after spending a few days in the real world haha. I got drained from all the mundane an bit and now it has left me reeling so to speak. Anyway here is video about how my embracing my faith to regain my strength has been labelled as wrong.

Hope you like guys :D

PS sorry for the rustling haha I must remember not to move the screen while I am recording haha

The mash up

After an adventure I wanted to talk to you guys. :D

I have been to Glastonbury for a meeting of the Order of Bards Ovates and Druids. They all made me feel so welcome and although I didn't agree with some of the things said and at times the information went a bit over my head, the points to the talks didn't. We need to embrace what we have around us, our lives or our hearts and we need to love it.

I hope you understood what I was meant to say haha. I did kinda deviate a bit before I actually made my point. I hope that with the experience I get from doing these videos I can actually get in to talking about some good ole magickal practise with you guys.

Lots of love always
Kai (Clinton)