| Know. | Will. | Dare. | Be Silent. |
Witchcraft and Magic (60)
I make these wick holders out of chopsticks and hair bands. The chopsticks I get from a local Chinese grocery, and the hair bands are the small kind, used for holding braids in place. Simply band the two chopsticks together, and slide the wick between them. This will allow you to straighten out the wick and keep it centered in your candle mold.
With the people in my outer court, coven and some good friends, we plan to use part of the day on Imbolc to make candles for the upcoming year. At Imbolc, we honor Bride, who is the goddess who puts the fire in our heads. She inspires our souls to create and become. The creation of tools that bring light seems absolutely perfect to do at this time of year. We made a big order of candle-making supplies and we'll get my kitchen messy as we make candles to light our way through the year. It's all very worthwhile, though, when we get to take home a bunch of beautiful, hand-candles, custom crafted with love and care.
I use the words, "the Craft" to describe my practice more than anything else. Part of my love for the term is the implicit implication of a hands-on element. The Craft of the witches is not just head-in-the-clouds mysticism nor is it hands-clasped-in-prayer religion, but a hands-on approach that blends both of the above with motion to manifest what we have discovered in our mysticism and prayer into our physical reality.
The act of creating magical items like candles reinforces this "Craft" angle. As above, so below - as we create the item in our hands, we create the reality on earth of the desired effect. There are as many ways to do this as there are people on this earth, but one way many have found to be universally powerful is through the simple, magical act of burning a candle.
As I create the candles, I imbue them with my will. I often make candles with specific magical intentions, which as I burn transform that intention into reality. After doing my initial divinations and solidifying the goal in my mind, I take time to meditate upon the desired outcome, creating a mental scene of the goal achieved. Once the scene is built, I will move around in the scene, observing the reality I am creating as I let my heart swell with joy at the knowledge of the outcome.
Hail Hecate, Queen of all witchery! Mistress of the moonlit night and keeper of those keys which open all doors! At the crossing of the roads we seek you, where your torch illuminates the darkness.
This is a doll I made to give Hecate a place of honor on my personal altar. I started with a posable artist's mannequin, which I painted black. Then I created her clothes. I used hand-dyed silk for her skirt, veil and blouse and velvet for her bustier. On top of that, I added a black cloak to drape over her shoulders. Her hair is made from feathers which I painted black. The flame on the torch is also made from hand-dyed silk, which I attached to a piece of wood. Finally, I gave her jewels to wear. She has beaded charms with a sun and a star at her hip and a chainmaille belt around her waist. I then adorned her with three coins hanging from one tie of her cloak, a skeleton key from the other. She wears a necklace with three more skeleton keys around her neck. Finally, perched on her brow is a crescent moon with a single sparkling crystal in the center.
This is the second such doll I made. I also made one honoring Legba using an artist's mannequin and paint, cloth, and treasures. I find that such an activity of planning, creating, and crafting such dolls helps me to more deeply appreciate my subject matter - and they give my altars a wonderful divine presence.
I enjoy making these dolls because they give me a chance to get to know and connect with the spirit of the one I am crafting in to the doll. I spent time researching and reading, learning all I can so that I may choose the best colors, materials, and symbols to use in my work. In doing so, the act of creating becomes an act of devotion.
Every year, right around New Years' Day, I like to do a comprehensive Tarot reading for the forthcoming year. This is the spread that I developed for this purpose. It's a hefty one, weighing in at 26 cards, so I definitely need to set aside a good chunk of time to really let them all settle in. I record these results and pin them to my calendar, to use as a guide throughout the year.
The first thirteen cards represent the thirteen full moons in 2012, and what influences will be coming in to play during that lunar cycle. Each card can represent a theme for that cycle, warn me of challenges ahead, or introduce a bit of fortune into my path. (This number will change to 12 depending on how many full moons there are in that year. In that case turn a card face down in its place.)
Cards 14, 15, and 16 represent what influences are being carried over from the previous year – what I am holding on to from the year past. Sometimes we hold on to things we need to, other times its wise to let them go. These cards can help you make that decision.
Cards 17, 18, and 19 indicate what I will be carrying over into the next year – what I will be taking out of this current year and will be influencing the future beyond it.
Cards 20 and 21 represent what will be crossing me this year. As there are only two cards in these positions, they carry a lot of weight. They are the over-arching challenges, situations, or ideas that will be crossing my path, for better or worse.
Cards 22, 23, 24 and 25 represent the themes of each season – Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas, and Samhain, respectively, and what each quarter-turn of the wheel will bring.
The final card, 26, is a keyword to carry with me throughout the year, advice or insight for the coming year.
I hope your new year is full of health, wealth, brilliance and inspiration, and that it blesses you with new adventures and dreams realized.
The four powers of the sphinx - to know, to will, to dare, and to be silent - are what many occultists consider to be a roadmap for making effective magic happen. I already explored the virtue of silence in a previous blog post, and in future blogs, I'll explore the virtues to will and to dare. First, before anything happens, we must know what we're doing.
The virtue of knowledge is associated with the east, the place of the rising sun, the new day, the freshness of springtime, and the beginning of any new endeavor. Knowledge is the blade that cuts through ignorance. When I cast a circle, I start in the east, again reinforcing that knowledge, like the dawn of a new day, is always the first thing to happen once we come out of the darkness of night.
Onix and I have been working on some new code projects as of late, and one thing I've observed from his fantastic skill as a programmer is the importance of knowing what you're doing before you do it. I've always been more artistic and intuitive in my approach to things - watery qualities that work well for some endeavors, but definitely not computer programming. Programming most certainly requires the powers of air.
Onix and I were at the Dollar Tree in Memphis, and we made a most interesting discovery. There, in the back of the kids' section, were two pegs of these funny little Tarot decks in blister packs. For a buck, how could I resist?
I was quite delighted with what I found. First of all, I love the art. It's a little Carnivale-esque, and I like that. They definitely have a "Gypsy Fortune Teller Deck" kind of feel. The imagery is bold and sharp, all in reds and golds, blacks and whites; With no blue tones in the deck, it's cheaper on printing, to be sure. Personally, I think the style is lovely.
Video games, astral projection, and mind magic hacks.
Written by Naya AerodiodeVideo games have got to be one of my favorite magical tools. I think they have incredible potential in a variety of ways that they can be implemented for one's magical practice and development. I wrote an article some time ago about some video games I was playing at the time, decribing Dance Dance Revolution as a method for developing one's mind-body connection, raising energy, and so on. I also wrote an article some time ago decribing how Starcraft is a great way to train your brain's flexibility, ability to manage many situations at once, and increase one's spatial thinking abilities. In the same article, I extolled the virtues of Mario Kart and explained how it can train the mind to work quickly and make smart split-second decisions. Working with the technology to immerse myself in a mental training playground is a wonderful way to develop some of those abilities I use as a practicer of magical arts.
Recently, Onix and I have been into playing the new Legend of Zelda release, Skyward Sword. The Wii's heavy use of its motion controllers puts your body into the action, with sword swings and careful physical maneuvers. The virtual world the character runs around in is immersive and expansive, and pure visual delight. The entire time I have been playing this, I have been thinking, "There is no better way to learn the techniques of entering and maneuvering through the astral realm than to practice it here. I've also been enjoying a lot of Skyrim lately; again, it's a game with an expansive, highly detailed and beautifully rendered world. Likewise in Skyrim, I have been bettering my techniques in astral projection.
In these games, I'm projecting my consciousness into the character I'm playing. I see through their eyes and manipulate with their hands, move with their feet and listen with their ears. I learn how to move my consciousness to a locale outside my own body by doing this.
Much like any craft, working in the astral becomes easier the more you practice it. Many guided meditations exist to help people access alternate planes of reality. Making those guided meditations happen requires a creation of the text read to you in your mind. Smell the air around you. Feel your arm as it moves back and forth, touching the items in your environment. Feel the cool of the metal, the smoothness of the leaf, the silkiness of the sand. See everything in brilliant colors and crisp details. Let the soundscape around you be full of intricate sounds. As you pick things up, feel their weight, their density, their temperture and texture. Let your tastebuds tingle when you bite into a piece of fruit on the astral plane.
Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
The earth is tucking itself in under a blanket of leaves for the forthcoming winter. The chilly winds from the north bringing ice and snow are knocking at our door. We have gathered our harvest and now it's time to wait while the earth prepares to be reborn. In this time of stillness, I take these moments to be grateful for the silence.
For human beings, communication has always been essential. Language is the basis of society. Though the origins of language are obscure, and highly debated by scholars, it is evident that without the ability to communicate, humans would not have been able to thrive as they have. Communication allowed humans to be able to identify predators, warn each other of dangers, and help find food. Communication is human nature.
According to this article, a woman can only keep a secret, on average, for 32 minutes. It is unnerving to think that we are so inclined to share information that after only half an hour, many of us are ready to break promises to do otherwise. Communication is such an important part of the human experience that we'll even go against our word to do so.
Suns are for boys and moons are for girls
Written by Naya Aerodiode
Dress a baby up in blue, and everyone assumes that it's a boy. Family and friends buy dolls for girls and trucks for boys. The examples throughout our culture are rampant. You need but take a stroll through the aisles at a toy store to see that gender roles begin to get enforced at a very early age.
I was appalled a year or so ago when I saw at a local bookstore a series of classes for boys and girls. The girls classes: making lip gloss and scrapbooking. The boys classes: dinosaurs and chemistry. I reflected back to when I was a child and asked myself - which classes would I rather attend? Dinosaurs or lip-gloss? Dinosaurs, of course!
Later in life, women are supposed to act and think like this, men are supposed to act and think like this. Women are from Venus and men are from Mars. There are ads for make up in women's magazines, and technology ads in the men's magazines. It's everywhere you look - a subtle enforcement of what men and women are supposed to do and think. As an adult, I find myself reading Wired far more often than Cosmo, and again find myself outside of society's expectations.
I was recently interviewed along with two other cartomancers for an article by Rev. James Bulls. It was very interesting to see three different perspectives. Take a read over the article, it's full of insightful outlooks on the Tarot.
Comparative Tarot and the Celtic Cross
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thesilverspiral
I weave the forces of nature. I speak to the spirits. I enchant the future and divine the unknown. I dance in the moonlight and sing to the stars. I am a witch.
http://www.silverspiral.org
thesilverspiral: @Sunfell @fraterfrabato I want some tech like they have in Portal. Open up holes to anywhere I want to go.
thesilverspiral: @TeoBishop Overactive brain can't wait for spring so I can go outside and play, perhaps? Not sure.
thesilverspiral: @TeoBishop I have been having night after night of intense, plot-thick dreams for about 2 weeks. Vivid stuff. It's kind of tiring me out!
thesilverspiral: http://t.co/ZLPqolvz Dogs on subways, cats on buses, tigers on ferries, and other clever animals figuring their way through human society.
thesilverspiral: @Blueflamemagick WHoa. That sounds like a good way to spend an afternoon!
thesilverspiral: @yesherabbit All Hail, Witch Queen Cottontail! :) Glad to find I'm not alone in this sentiment.
thesilverspiral: I feel better. Thank you, Twitter friends, for letting me rant a bit. :)
thesilverspiral: @EdwardStGrey23 LOL. Sometimes, "Slow down and let it sink in some" is the best answer to that.
thesilverspiral: @PPOFTC Exactly. Teaching new people how we do things gives me a chance to go over and revisit things I've taken for granted for years.
thesilverspiral: @PPOFTC How quickly we forget that we were all new once! I think some people just can't wait to become old farts, though.
thesilverspiral: @EdwardStGrey23 That's what I'm sayin. Being hateful doesn't do anything but turn people off.
thesilverspiral: @Cigfran_Lwyd I don't doubt it. Such mighty people, flexing their finger muscles so proudly on their keyboards!
thesilverspiral: @Sunfell Exactly, just don't forget how much fun it is to ride a broom anyhow.