For centuries, the history of the Craft has been tied to the healers in their respective communities. Their generational knowledge of herbs (medical and magickal) have kept people healthy and balanced. As people become educated in the Craft, as expected, they tend to move towards a healthier lifestyle. Some people remove meat and dairy from their diets, some choose only organic meats and vegetables or start gardens where they have an even greater control over their food sources.
The same thing is happening with regard towards medical care as well. If there is a flower, plant or tree that can be used to removed disease from our bodies or to complement traditional western medicine, we try and use it. We understand that our body reacts much better to herbal medicines than to western medicine and, when used under the skilled hands of a trained practitioner, the results are just as good with less damage to our bodies on the cellular level.
The key to using any type of herbal remedy is to ensure that you are using it under the care of a trained herbalist, naturopath, Chinese, Ayurvedic or other such trained practitioners. People who practice herbal healing arts have been trained in how to carefully gather the necessary herbs and prepare them for use within the human body. They are also trained in how to determine which herbs may work best for any western medication that you may be on. They can also work with your current physician and create complementary treatments to treat any damage done by the western medicine.
Many people in the Craft like to work with herbs of any kind and create their own personal herbal remedies for a wide variety or reasons. I'm a big fan of honey (having a couple of friends who are beekeepers helps!) and use raw honey for minor wound care and I enjoy a hand lotion that contains propolis, an anti-bacterial, anti-viral substance bees make to seal their honeycombs and cracks within the hive . The anti-viral part thrills me to no end since I can use a hand cream to soften my hands and during cold an flu season when you are touching phones and doorknobs, the anti-viral part keeps the nasties at bay. I use several types of herbal teas and I use an herb to help stabilize my mood as I suffer from mild but chronic depression. Lastly, I use a tea tree oil rinse for my scalp because it has a tendency to get very dry and itchy. Tea tree oil is a great multi-purpose oil to keep on hand for all kinds of minor medical emergencies like cuts and scratches.
Having said all that...it is the wise herbal remedy enthusiast that only practices on themselves and declines to offer herbal remedy advice to others. I'm sure some of you are saying "Boooo! quit spoiling our fun with herbs!" I promise I have a good reason for doing so. Herbal remedies in most states are considered "medicines" and treating the aches and pains of friends and families may be considered practicing medicine under the laws of the state you live in. Remember two paragraphs ago when I said that the key to using herbal remedies is using them under the guidance of a trained practitioner? That is the reason why. Trained practitioners are skilled and knowledgeable (and licensed within your state) about your body systems and can make accurate diagnoses about what exactly is ailing you. Intestinal upset could be the result of something you ate that didn't agree with you or it could be a loss of beneficial flora within your intestinal tract or something worse yet. Only a trained person can make that call, not your witchy friend (unless they too, happen to be a trained practitioner) You have the right to choose (or decline) your own medical care but unless you are properly licensed, you don't have the right to practice on others.
More and more medical insurance companies are offering to pay alternative medicine caregivers if they are used in conjunction with traditional care. Alternative medicine practitioners have shown great value in not only lowering medical costs for the patient but their ability to work with traditional medicine can get the patient back on their feet in a shorter time span while enhancing the bodies own ability to fight off diseases.
The Wise Woman or the Cunning Man have used herbal remedies for centuries to help keep the people around them healthy and balanced. Today's practitioners of the herbal healing arts are no less valuable than those who practiced them centuries ago. We also have the added luxury of knowing exactly what certain herbs accomplish in our bodies due to massive amounts of testing conducted on a wide variety of plant life. Used wisely, herbs can have a tremendous impact on your health. Used in ignorance, can harm or even cease life.
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Sunday, August 25, 2013
When the student is ready, the teacher will come...Part 3
Well we've discussed the role of the teacher, the role of the student and now I would like to delve in to the role of the student-teacher relationship.
As long as there have been cunning men, wise women, witches, etc., there have been people who taught them their skills. This relationship was usually oral by tradition and the reason why was made very clear during the Burning Times.
Many of the student-teacher relationships were usually one of voluntary servitude (If you want to learn this stuff, you come live with me and do EXACTLY as I tell you) and once one started down this path, there was no getting off. This was not unlike many of the apprenticeships that children went in to at a young age.
But today that dynamic isn't really functional and in many cases, can be traumatizing for the student. Today the dynamic is (or should be) one of mutual respect for the skills that the teacher brings to the table and respect for the individuality that the student brings to the table. Gone are the days where the teacher had absolute control over the student and now we see relationships that are mutually beneficial to the teacher and the student.
Now, that is not to say that the student gets a pass on not doing the work. Doing the work that the teacher gives to the student is vital in the development of the students spiritual character. It has been my experience that many students, when they first start on this path, are arrogant and self absorbed. They have read a few books, done a few spells, cast a couple of circles and viola! they are smarter than everyone. It behooves a teacher to teach some humility to students like this. The student does not realize that all their arrogance is a huge impediment to their learning true spirituality. Trust me when I say this, the teacher gets no joy out of watching you stumble around like a person with their eyes closed. However, they will let you do that (all the while bumping into walls and getting some bruises) because they know that at some point your eyes will open and you will understand that you don't know everything and that humility will cause you to stand in front of your teacher and say "I don't know everything" and THAT is when your training will begin.
For the teacher's part, it is our job to teach you what we know. Not only from a technical standpoint (the craft part of the Craft) but also from an emotional and psychological perspective as well. A good teacher will be involved in their students life to a degree. They will know what is going on in most aspects of your life and the relationship should be one that is similar to that of a priest/penitent. It should be open, honest and there is very little that a teacher shouldn't know about their student. This is not because teachers enjoy drama in their life (we really don't) but unless we know the details of past experiences, we are not able to give you wise counsel. Let me give you an example of why this is critical. Part of every path is a segment called Shadow Work. As Pagans we understand that dark balances light. We know that we must embrace the darkness within ourselves in order to remain in balance in our lives. There are many dark things in the Shadow self and if the teacher doesn't know about them, they are unable to properly address them with you. You may even have such traumatic things in your Shadow self that the teacher may not be qualified to address. It's dangerous to the student to withhold critical information.
The student-teacher relationship really is a sacred trust on both parts. A trust that both the student and teacher will give 100% of themselves in teaching and learning the Craft. I am always humbled when a person consents to be my student. I understand how great an impact my words and actions will have on them for the rest of their lives.
When the time comes for students and teachers to part it should be done respectfully, no matter the reason for the parting. Either the student or the teacher can decide that neither is the right fit for the other. This is not a bad thing. Take what you have learned from that teacher and add it to your personal wisdom. When teachers feel that their time is ending with a student, it too should be done respectfully. After all, at some point you saw something in that person that compelled you to take them on as a student. Never end a relationship on a negative note. You want the student to continue their studies, even if it's not with you. In the end, it is about doing what is best for the student, not your ego.
As long as there have been cunning men, wise women, witches, etc., there have been people who taught them their skills. This relationship was usually oral by tradition and the reason why was made very clear during the Burning Times.
Many of the student-teacher relationships were usually one of voluntary servitude (If you want to learn this stuff, you come live with me and do EXACTLY as I tell you) and once one started down this path, there was no getting off. This was not unlike many of the apprenticeships that children went in to at a young age.
But today that dynamic isn't really functional and in many cases, can be traumatizing for the student. Today the dynamic is (or should be) one of mutual respect for the skills that the teacher brings to the table and respect for the individuality that the student brings to the table. Gone are the days where the teacher had absolute control over the student and now we see relationships that are mutually beneficial to the teacher and the student.
Now, that is not to say that the student gets a pass on not doing the work. Doing the work that the teacher gives to the student is vital in the development of the students spiritual character. It has been my experience that many students, when they first start on this path, are arrogant and self absorbed. They have read a few books, done a few spells, cast a couple of circles and viola! they are smarter than everyone. It behooves a teacher to teach some humility to students like this. The student does not realize that all their arrogance is a huge impediment to their learning true spirituality. Trust me when I say this, the teacher gets no joy out of watching you stumble around like a person with their eyes closed. However, they will let you do that (all the while bumping into walls and getting some bruises) because they know that at some point your eyes will open and you will understand that you don't know everything and that humility will cause you to stand in front of your teacher and say "I don't know everything" and THAT is when your training will begin.
For the teacher's part, it is our job to teach you what we know. Not only from a technical standpoint (the craft part of the Craft) but also from an emotional and psychological perspective as well. A good teacher will be involved in their students life to a degree. They will know what is going on in most aspects of your life and the relationship should be one that is similar to that of a priest/penitent. It should be open, honest and there is very little that a teacher shouldn't know about their student. This is not because teachers enjoy drama in their life (we really don't) but unless we know the details of past experiences, we are not able to give you wise counsel. Let me give you an example of why this is critical. Part of every path is a segment called Shadow Work. As Pagans we understand that dark balances light. We know that we must embrace the darkness within ourselves in order to remain in balance in our lives. There are many dark things in the Shadow self and if the teacher doesn't know about them, they are unable to properly address them with you. You may even have such traumatic things in your Shadow self that the teacher may not be qualified to address. It's dangerous to the student to withhold critical information.
The student-teacher relationship really is a sacred trust on both parts. A trust that both the student and teacher will give 100% of themselves in teaching and learning the Craft. I am always humbled when a person consents to be my student. I understand how great an impact my words and actions will have on them for the rest of their lives.
When the time comes for students and teachers to part it should be done respectfully, no matter the reason for the parting. Either the student or the teacher can decide that neither is the right fit for the other. This is not a bad thing. Take what you have learned from that teacher and add it to your personal wisdom. When teachers feel that their time is ending with a student, it too should be done respectfully. After all, at some point you saw something in that person that compelled you to take them on as a student. Never end a relationship on a negative note. You want the student to continue their studies, even if it's not with you. In the end, it is about doing what is best for the student, not your ego.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
When the student is ready, the teacher will come...Part 2
In Part 1 we discussed what typical expectations were on a teacher who chose to teach the Craft. In this part, I'd like to touch on the role of the student in this equation.
"When the student is ready,..." There is quite a mystical, magickal match-up system that is undergone in the Universe when a student is matched with a teacher. It really is all based upon the readiness of the student too. Most people, when they start on this path, become voracious readers. They will read everything and anything that is related to their path with little thought to the quality of the content that they are ingesting. There are a few things that you the student can do in order to prepare yourself for the teacher to come and come to you quicker!
Read whatever you can get your hands on is a good start but this should contain a caveat...not everything you read is good information. In any given year approximately 230,000 books are published. Llewellyn, a major pagan publisher, will publish thousands of these books around subject matter that is of interest to earth based practitioners. With the rise of self-publishing, add a couple thousand more to that list. One good way to spend your money wisely is to talk to the people around you. Chances are you didn't come to this path without running in to some Pagan folks, perhaps at a bookstore, metaphysical store or some other place. Ask them what books they would recommend for a beginner in this field of study. If you are lucky, they will steer you towards books that have exercises for you to do while you are reading the book. If you get a book like that, DO THE EXERCISES! And don't do them just once either, do them over and over again until you get the desired results. It is seldom that a new student will get the desired result right off the bat so its important that you continue practicing.
Meditate everyday and start keeping a meditation journal. Meditation isn't all that hard to do but it is something that must be done every day. Even a 15 minute meditation is going to benefit you. If you want to meet totem animals or spirit guides, it is during your meditations that they will make an appearance. So why the big deal about meditation? Well first and foremost, it quiets your mind so that you can hear the messages from the Divine. People are VERY anxious to talk but they don't like to be quiet and listen. Secondly, there are very real physical reactions that take place within your body when you meditate. Blood pressure drops, stress and anxiety level off and best of all, you get a chance to hear the divine speak.. Lastly, you are developing places in your mind that you can retreat to when the going gets rough in your life...your "Happy place" as it were.
Determine how you like to learn (do you like handouts and lectures? do you prefer hands on experiences?) How you like to learn will help you determine the type of teacher that will help you along this path in the way that is best for you. Trust me when I say that there are a TON of bad teachers out there and it will sometimes feel like they all live in your town but they don't. The axiom holds true and stands the test of time which is why you hear it repeated so often.
Just a couple of really important things left to address and we will be through! First, there are unscrupulous teachers out there that are nothing more than predators. Predators prey on people who are vulnerable because they are easy targets. Many people come to the Craft because they are broken in some way. If you come upon an instructor that requires money or sex in exchange for teaching you, run the other way as fast as you can. No legitimate teacher of the Craft will require either one of these things. Having said that, you will find covens that practice sacred sexuality (The Great Rite) but I have only seen it done by committed couples (married, handfasted, etc.) within the group and always in their private space, never in view of the public. Sexuality is an important aspect of the Craft but it is something that is always consensual, respectful and private. With regard to money, some traditions teach that no money shall cross the palm of the instructor less the power of the magick be lost. More and more you are seeing teachers request small donations to help cover the cost of the materials they are using to teach you. $5 to $10 a month for these expenses are not unreasonable and if you can't afford that, consider bartering something with your teacher. They may want their lawn mowed once a month or may need help putting up herbs they have dried.
After having done all these things, now you must sit and wait for your perfect teacher to show up. Don't worry...they will appear. When they do make sure that you ask yourself if they are the right teacher for you. If you don't feel that they are the right one, it's ok to say "thank you for your time but I don't think you are the right one for me". A good teacher will not take it personally and a great teacher will even help you find someone who works with your learning style.
"When the student is ready,..." There is quite a mystical, magickal match-up system that is undergone in the Universe when a student is matched with a teacher. It really is all based upon the readiness of the student too. Most people, when they start on this path, become voracious readers. They will read everything and anything that is related to their path with little thought to the quality of the content that they are ingesting. There are a few things that you the student can do in order to prepare yourself for the teacher to come and come to you quicker!
Read whatever you can get your hands on is a good start but this should contain a caveat...not everything you read is good information. In any given year approximately 230,000 books are published. Llewellyn, a major pagan publisher, will publish thousands of these books around subject matter that is of interest to earth based practitioners. With the rise of self-publishing, add a couple thousand more to that list. One good way to spend your money wisely is to talk to the people around you. Chances are you didn't come to this path without running in to some Pagan folks, perhaps at a bookstore, metaphysical store or some other place. Ask them what books they would recommend for a beginner in this field of study. If you are lucky, they will steer you towards books that have exercises for you to do while you are reading the book. If you get a book like that, DO THE EXERCISES! And don't do them just once either, do them over and over again until you get the desired results. It is seldom that a new student will get the desired result right off the bat so its important that you continue practicing.
Meditate everyday and start keeping a meditation journal. Meditation isn't all that hard to do but it is something that must be done every day. Even a 15 minute meditation is going to benefit you. If you want to meet totem animals or spirit guides, it is during your meditations that they will make an appearance. So why the big deal about meditation? Well first and foremost, it quiets your mind so that you can hear the messages from the Divine. People are VERY anxious to talk but they don't like to be quiet and listen. Secondly, there are very real physical reactions that take place within your body when you meditate. Blood pressure drops, stress and anxiety level off and best of all, you get a chance to hear the divine speak.. Lastly, you are developing places in your mind that you can retreat to when the going gets rough in your life...your "Happy place" as it were.
Determine how you like to learn (do you like handouts and lectures? do you prefer hands on experiences?) How you like to learn will help you determine the type of teacher that will help you along this path in the way that is best for you. Trust me when I say that there are a TON of bad teachers out there and it will sometimes feel like they all live in your town but they don't. The axiom holds true and stands the test of time which is why you hear it repeated so often.
Just a couple of really important things left to address and we will be through! First, there are unscrupulous teachers out there that are nothing more than predators. Predators prey on people who are vulnerable because they are easy targets. Many people come to the Craft because they are broken in some way. If you come upon an instructor that requires money or sex in exchange for teaching you, run the other way as fast as you can. No legitimate teacher of the Craft will require either one of these things. Having said that, you will find covens that practice sacred sexuality (The Great Rite) but I have only seen it done by committed couples (married, handfasted, etc.) within the group and always in their private space, never in view of the public. Sexuality is an important aspect of the Craft but it is something that is always consensual, respectful and private. With regard to money, some traditions teach that no money shall cross the palm of the instructor less the power of the magick be lost. More and more you are seeing teachers request small donations to help cover the cost of the materials they are using to teach you. $5 to $10 a month for these expenses are not unreasonable and if you can't afford that, consider bartering something with your teacher. They may want their lawn mowed once a month or may need help putting up herbs they have dried.
After having done all these things, now you must sit and wait for your perfect teacher to show up. Don't worry...they will appear. When they do make sure that you ask yourself if they are the right teacher for you. If you don't feel that they are the right one, it's ok to say "thank you for your time but I don't think you are the right one for me". A good teacher will not take it personally and a great teacher will even help you find someone who works with your learning style.
Monday, August 19, 2013
When the student is ready, the teacher will come...(Part 1)
There is much to be said about the student-teacher relationships that are built within the Pagan community. The title of this blog is an axiom that has been around forever, (I think that it is a Buddhist precept) and widely known in the Pagan community.
Being a teacher within the Craft community is not unlike teaching anywhere else. It's a pretty thankless job at times where you feel more like a babysitter than a teacher who is instilling religious values in someone. Just as there is really no paid Pagan clergy, there are no paid Pagan teachers. Trust me when I say that there is a wide variety of teachers out there, good and bad, who are willing to teach. But just because they are willing to teach doesn't mean that they should be teaching. Some don't have the aptitude for it, some lack the patience for it and some should never be allowed to set foot in a teaching environment. Just because you know a subject matter six ways to Sunday, (or at its most basic level, transferring information to another) doesn't mean that you are capable of teaching it . It is my professional opinion that before ANY tradition allows someone to teach, they should go through classes that teach them not only how to TEACH, (developing goals, objectives, lesson plans, etc) but to teach them how adults LEARN (andragogy) as well. Two days of classes, eight hours each, should be more than enough to cover these subjects. When the tradition does this, they get a consistent end result all the time, i.e. high functioning students who represent their tradition well to the public.
I am different than most Craft teachers in that I actually have a masters degree in adult education and I structure my Craft curriculum just like a school teacher would. By doing so I am able to answer critical questions the adult learner may have like "What's in it for me?" or "How is this relevant to my life? job?" or to give students problems to work through so that they can make those connections to their life, their job and in the case of being a Craft teacher, the Divine as well. Accountability is another hallmark of the adult learner. Adults need to be held accountable just like their younger student counterparts. The desire for feedback is just as strong (if not stronger since they understand the larger picture of the connections they are making) in an adult learner as it is for a child.
Probably one of the best books I have read for teaching the Pagan path is called "A Teaching Handbook for Wiccans and Pagan" by Thea Sabin. It goes into detail about how to set up group, how to find students and once you find them, how do they learn and also gives great advice on how to design and implement your curriculum. If you have no teaching experience then this book is a must read for you!
As teachers in this community, we owe it to our students to give them the best possible experience while under our tutelage. As teachers of the Craft we are unique in that not only are we teaching religious values but in everything we do, we must show the Divine to the student so that the student can make that crucial connection as well. Doing so will help them develop their own relationship not only with the Divine within them but the external Divine as well.
Being a teacher within the Craft community is not unlike teaching anywhere else. It's a pretty thankless job at times where you feel more like a babysitter than a teacher who is instilling religious values in someone. Just as there is really no paid Pagan clergy, there are no paid Pagan teachers. Trust me when I say that there is a wide variety of teachers out there, good and bad, who are willing to teach. But just because they are willing to teach doesn't mean that they should be teaching. Some don't have the aptitude for it, some lack the patience for it and some should never be allowed to set foot in a teaching environment. Just because you know a subject matter six ways to Sunday, (or at its most basic level, transferring information to another) doesn't mean that you are capable of teaching it . It is my professional opinion that before ANY tradition allows someone to teach, they should go through classes that teach them not only how to TEACH, (developing goals, objectives, lesson plans, etc) but to teach them how adults LEARN (andragogy) as well. Two days of classes, eight hours each, should be more than enough to cover these subjects. When the tradition does this, they get a consistent end result all the time, i.e. high functioning students who represent their tradition well to the public.
I am different than most Craft teachers in that I actually have a masters degree in adult education and I structure my Craft curriculum just like a school teacher would. By doing so I am able to answer critical questions the adult learner may have like "What's in it for me?" or "How is this relevant to my life? job?" or to give students problems to work through so that they can make those connections to their life, their job and in the case of being a Craft teacher, the Divine as well. Accountability is another hallmark of the adult learner. Adults need to be held accountable just like their younger student counterparts. The desire for feedback is just as strong (if not stronger since they understand the larger picture of the connections they are making) in an adult learner as it is for a child.
Probably one of the best books I have read for teaching the Pagan path is called "A Teaching Handbook for Wiccans and Pagan" by Thea Sabin. It goes into detail about how to set up group, how to find students and once you find them, how do they learn and also gives great advice on how to design and implement your curriculum. If you have no teaching experience then this book is a must read for you!
As teachers in this community, we owe it to our students to give them the best possible experience while under our tutelage. As teachers of the Craft we are unique in that not only are we teaching religious values but in everything we do, we must show the Divine to the student so that the student can make that crucial connection as well. Doing so will help them develop their own relationship not only with the Divine within them but the external Divine as well.
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Joseph Campbell and the monomyth
Early on in my metaphysical path I stumbled across a set of DVDs at the library I worked at called "The Power of Myth". It was done by the highly respected journalist and minister Bill Moyers. It was a series of six-1 hour sessions with a man named Joseph Campbell. Having always loved myths of just about any kind, these DVDs became a weekly gift for myself. And what a gift too!
I think everyone struggles with having a sense of belonging in the world. When you start the study of Paganism, you are told about the interconnectedness of yourself to the world. Admittedly it is a pretty abstract concept, how could I possibly be connected to someone who lives in India or Japan? Or even someone who lived so long ago? or to someone in the distant future.
Enter Joseph Campbell. If you want a brief biography of him you can see one here. The biggest impact he had on my philosophical was through that video series and two of his books; The Hero with a Thousand Faces and The Hero's Journey.
Joseph Campbell connects the dots for us. Through his work we discover why so many stories sound familiar and in turn, why they are familiar to us. They are familiar to us because they are OUR stories too. Especially on this pagan path, who else can understand the calling to this path that befalls us, the teachers that come to us, the changes that overcome us as we walk this path. Most importantly, we understand that we are a part of the monomyth, a part of the consciousness of the Universe and that we play a role in it.
Being on this path means that we are walking our own "Hero's Journey" and it will provide guidelines to us along that path to show us all the twists and turns that we can take. Some we will take, some we won't take. Learning which choices to make is part of the journey too. But its' greatest strength is in showing us that people are the same no matter where they are. Thousands of miles can separate two men yet they will go through and endure similar processes and feelings. That is the magick in all this...realizing that we are all connected if not physically, then psychically.
Don't you feel a little less alone now?
I think everyone struggles with having a sense of belonging in the world. When you start the study of Paganism, you are told about the interconnectedness of yourself to the world. Admittedly it is a pretty abstract concept, how could I possibly be connected to someone who lives in India or Japan? Or even someone who lived so long ago? or to someone in the distant future.
Enter Joseph Campbell. If you want a brief biography of him you can see one here. The biggest impact he had on my philosophical was through that video series and two of his books; The Hero with a Thousand Faces and The Hero's Journey.
Joseph Campbell's monomyth, or the hero's journey, is a basic pattern that its proponents argue is found in many narratives from around the world. This widely distributed pattern was described by Campbell in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). An enthusiast of novelist James Joyce, Campbell borrowed the term monomyth from Joyce's Finnegans Wake.
Campbell held that numerous myths from disparate times and regions share fundamental structures and stages, which he summarized in The Hero with a Thousand Faces:
A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
Campbell and other scholars, such as Erich Neumann, describe narratives of Gautama Buddha, Moses, and Christ in terms of the monomyth and Campbell argues that classic myths from many cultures follow this basic pattern. (Resource)
Of course, Joseph Campbell probably wasn't the first person to ask the question "Why does that sound familiar?" but he was probably the first person to actively explore and postulate on the reasons why myths from around the world sounded so familiar. One of the reasons that I enjoy reading his work is that it is extremely easy to read. His videos with Bill Moyers are easy to sit and listen to and really get lost in the information. His style of teaching is very casual and he sounds more like a storyteller than a professor.
Joseph Campbell connects the dots for us. Through his work we discover why so many stories sound familiar and in turn, why they are familiar to us. They are familiar to us because they are OUR stories too. Especially on this pagan path, who else can understand the calling to this path that befalls us, the teachers that come to us, the changes that overcome us as we walk this path. Most importantly, we understand that we are a part of the monomyth, a part of the consciousness of the Universe and that we play a role in it.
Being on this path means that we are walking our own "Hero's Journey" and it will provide guidelines to us along that path to show us all the twists and turns that we can take. Some we will take, some we won't take. Learning which choices to make is part of the journey too. But its' greatest strength is in showing us that people are the same no matter where they are. Thousands of miles can separate two men yet they will go through and endure similar processes and feelings. That is the magick in all this...realizing that we are all connected if not physically, then psychically.
Don't you feel a little less alone now?
Tuesday, August 6, 2013
It's not just about the bread: Hospitality and the Sabbats
It's been a long time since I made a loaf of bread, but for some reason this Lammas I was feeling the need to do so. So I did. It wasn't anything special, a simple loaf of white bread that I practiced long rusty bread braiding skills on. You can see a pic of it below.
As I said, nothing special to look at, it had a pretty good taste but Tim and I both felt that it could be a bit sweeter and I wonder if that doesn't come from our years of eating processed bread, which is sweeter to the taste. I think that I will sweeten it up the next time around but just a tad bit.
But I digress...while I worked out the mechanics of making a loaf of bread again I discovered just how relaxing it was to have to take a moment and actually bake something of substance. I love to bake and it was something that my grandmother encouraged because, as she said, when she was gone, someone needed to be able to bake a decent apple pie for the holidays. Mission accomplished gram!
Whenever those special times of year come around you know that food always plays a HUGE part of it. Each and every sabbat Pagans celebrate have a food component to it, either formally or informally. For example, the current sabbat, Lammas, celebrates the first harvest. If we were still an agrarian society, we would start bringing in our bounty from the fields, slaughtering the first bunch of animals to get us through the soon to be, fall and winter and some of the spring. We are entering the dark of the year and we have to make sure that there were sufficient stores to get us through. If we didn't have enough put up in stores, we starved...never a good thing.
More importantly is the sense of community and home one gets from these particular tasks. If you have ever been in a house where someone has baked a loaf of bread or fresh cookies you know EXACTLY what I'm talking about. How can you be pissed off when you walk in to a house that has those scents lingering in the air? you can't! You walk in and BAM! those scents hit you and bring a smile to your face...instantly. Scents also trigger memory centers in our brain as well. I can't make an apple pie without thinking of my grandmother and all the wonderful times I spent helping her bake stuff for a family event.
Harvest festivals create a sense of community as well. It was hard work bringing in the harvest and communities banded together in order to get the grains from the field to the barn as quickly as possible since the slightest delay could ruin an entire crop or leave it exposed to the elements, ruining it and leaving a family to starve. It was also no easy thing to gather the animals and bring them from their summer forage areas and make ready for slaughtering and preserving them. In case you didn't know...cows are HUGE! and given that our ancestors wasted no part of an animal either. To do so dishonored the spirit of the animal who had just given its life so that you could continue yours.
Each and every sabbat in the wheel of the year has a food component to it but its more important to see that each sabbat has a hospitality component to it as well. The sabbats were not only meant to be celebrated but they were meant to be celebrated as a family and as a community. It was some of the few times that the opening of the household stores were to be done with a sense of graciousness and unselfishness towards your neighbors. Everyone brought something, in accordance with their ability to do so and if they couldn't, it didn't matter because there was always enough to go around.
It would do us well to remember that the holidays we celebrate aren't just about what we can put on the altar as offerings but what we can offer our families and neighbors in terms of gracious hospitality and unselfish giving to those in need.
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Daily Meditations and Journeys
These are probably some of the hardest disciplines for people new to the Craft to get started on. I believe that a lot of that is because many of us have very inaccurate beliefs about what meditation and journeying are, how to do it and how it can help us in our magickal practices.
Meditation, as most pagans practice it, is not the complete stillness of the body, mind or spirit that one sees in many of the Eastern religious traditions. For pagans, meditation can, and usually is, something totally different. It can be simply staring at a sunrise or sunset and marveling at the universe and your role in it. It could be working in a garden and becoming part of the earth and truly grasping the cycle of life, death and re-birth. It could be ecstatic dancing where your feet feel like they have a mind of their own and you dance to the music playing in your head.
The idea of a daily meditation practice is to move your mind from the mundane world to magickal world; To be able to think magickal thoughts and bring them back into your mundane world and implement the magick in to the mundane. Meditation requires you to slow your mind down so that you can process and analyze any given situation and determine your next steps.
There is a huge difference between the meditation and journeying although you will see those terms used interchangeably by the uninformed. Let's see if this analogy works out to describe the difference. Let's say that I am feeling compelled of late to learn more about rocks, crystals, etc. It's a feeling you have in the back of your mind that "hey this would be cool to learn more about that" During a daily meditation, I would run through my mind all the thoughts that wanted to run through it and only keep the ones that were pertinent to the subject I was considering, working with crystals. (The thought that tells me I have laundry to do or the one that wants to create a grocery list, all go through my mind. Kind of like going in one ear and out the other.) I may envision the reasons I want to do it, I may think about the challenges I would face in doing it, I would consider all kinds of things related to just this issue. The meditation is designed to give one clarity regarding a situation and hopefully after you have run through the questions and given yourself the answers, you will come to a decision about what you want or need to do.
Journeys are very different. When one takes journeys, they have a specific goal in mind. For example, if one wants to meet a particular deity or meet a totem or power animal. Let's say, like in the above example, you have decided to take up the study of crystals. In order to understand a particular crystal, it's energy and how it works, you would take a journey with that specific crystal and interact with it. As we learned in the energy working segment of this blog, we know that everything has a specific energy signature and being able to work with an object successfully is totally dependent upon how we understand the energy of that object to function. To learn that, we journey with it. We interact with the object/deity in a deeply personal way and get to know it so much better. In short, journeys are a more complex form of meditation that give you deeper insight into a specific thing as opposed to an overall situation.
Both have a purpose in the life of a Witch. Daily meditations can help us slow things down, sort things out and determine a path of action. Journeying can give us deeper meaning and insight to a specific thing or issue. If you say that you can't meditate or journey, then you are doing something that is blocking your from being successful. I find the below tips help immensely:
1. Make it a habit. Doesn't matter when you do it...just do it and do it regularly.
2. Start with your breath. Focusing on your breathing will slow down your heart rate and allow your body time to relax fully.
3. Understand that meditation is an active thing, not passive. Determine ahead of time what you want to think about and let all other thoughts fall away. Acknowledge them and shoo them away for another time. Don't dwell on the fact that your mind is throwing these random thoughts at you...embrace them and tuck them away for later.
4. Try using guided meditations to start with. Being forced to focus on someone speaking will help your mind develop the ability to focus on a specific purpose.
5. Don't let yourself be disturbed. Even in today's busy lives we need down time to decompress and get away. Ensure that everyone in the house knows you are not to be disturbed and that phones and other electronic devices are turned off. If you still have a noisy house, invest in a good pair of earbuds to shut out the excess noise.
People only get good at meditation and journeying if they do them on a regular basis. This isn't a one shot and done thing...its the development of a key lifetime practice for you and your walk in this path.
Meditation, as most pagans practice it, is not the complete stillness of the body, mind or spirit that one sees in many of the Eastern religious traditions. For pagans, meditation can, and usually is, something totally different. It can be simply staring at a sunrise or sunset and marveling at the universe and your role in it. It could be working in a garden and becoming part of the earth and truly grasping the cycle of life, death and re-birth. It could be ecstatic dancing where your feet feel like they have a mind of their own and you dance to the music playing in your head.
The idea of a daily meditation practice is to move your mind from the mundane world to magickal world; To be able to think magickal thoughts and bring them back into your mundane world and implement the magick in to the mundane. Meditation requires you to slow your mind down so that you can process and analyze any given situation and determine your next steps.
There is a huge difference between the meditation and journeying although you will see those terms used interchangeably by the uninformed. Let's see if this analogy works out to describe the difference. Let's say that I am feeling compelled of late to learn more about rocks, crystals, etc. It's a feeling you have in the back of your mind that "hey this would be cool to learn more about that" During a daily meditation, I would run through my mind all the thoughts that wanted to run through it and only keep the ones that were pertinent to the subject I was considering, working with crystals. (The thought that tells me I have laundry to do or the one that wants to create a grocery list, all go through my mind. Kind of like going in one ear and out the other.) I may envision the reasons I want to do it, I may think about the challenges I would face in doing it, I would consider all kinds of things related to just this issue. The meditation is designed to give one clarity regarding a situation and hopefully after you have run through the questions and given yourself the answers, you will come to a decision about what you want or need to do.
Journeys are very different. When one takes journeys, they have a specific goal in mind. For example, if one wants to meet a particular deity or meet a totem or power animal. Let's say, like in the above example, you have decided to take up the study of crystals. In order to understand a particular crystal, it's energy and how it works, you would take a journey with that specific crystal and interact with it. As we learned in the energy working segment of this blog, we know that everything has a specific energy signature and being able to work with an object successfully is totally dependent upon how we understand the energy of that object to function. To learn that, we journey with it. We interact with the object/deity in a deeply personal way and get to know it so much better. In short, journeys are a more complex form of meditation that give you deeper insight into a specific thing as opposed to an overall situation.
Both have a purpose in the life of a Witch. Daily meditations can help us slow things down, sort things out and determine a path of action. Journeying can give us deeper meaning and insight to a specific thing or issue. If you say that you can't meditate or journey, then you are doing something that is blocking your from being successful. I find the below tips help immensely:
1. Make it a habit. Doesn't matter when you do it...just do it and do it regularly.
2. Start with your breath. Focusing on your breathing will slow down your heart rate and allow your body time to relax fully.
3. Understand that meditation is an active thing, not passive. Determine ahead of time what you want to think about and let all other thoughts fall away. Acknowledge them and shoo them away for another time. Don't dwell on the fact that your mind is throwing these random thoughts at you...embrace them and tuck them away for later.
4. Try using guided meditations to start with. Being forced to focus on someone speaking will help your mind develop the ability to focus on a specific purpose.
5. Don't let yourself be disturbed. Even in today's busy lives we need down time to decompress and get away. Ensure that everyone in the house knows you are not to be disturbed and that phones and other electronic devices are turned off. If you still have a noisy house, invest in a good pair of earbuds to shut out the excess noise.
People only get good at meditation and journeying if they do them on a regular basis. This isn't a one shot and done thing...its the development of a key lifetime practice for you and your walk in this path.
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