Full Moon Tomorrow

Tomorrow is the first full moon of the year and I'm planning a small ritual to mark it and help get back into following the natural rhythms of nature.

I have my altar mostly set up - I'll post some pictures tomorrow. I cleaned up the room a bit over the weekend getting it ready. I am planning to do the ritual before I go to bed tomorrow since I can see the moon from my altar room (hopefully it won't be overcast!) and set some items out to charge by it's light.

I have a silver gazing ball in a crystal vase I've used for many years to represent the moon on my altar. It sits on my window sill in my altar room now. I used to cover it during the new moon but haven't done that in a long time - mainly just because I haven't been in touch with the moon cycles in a while.  I used to always know when the full moon was coming as my monthly cycle was nearly always in sync with it. But since going thru menopause and no longer having a period for the last 2 years, I usually have no idea when the full moon is.

I would love to hear how you celebrate the phases of the moon. Do you honor each phase, just the full moon, or none at all? What ritual or objects do you set aside for the occasion?

Back into a daily meditation practice! Finally!

I've been struggling for a while trying to get back into doing a regular meditation schedule and I am happy to say, I finally have done it!

For a full month I've been going into my Temple in the mornings. My Temple is my 4th and smallest unused bedroom - which currently holds only my great, grandmother's table which I use for my altar, my great aunt's table that I use for an ancestor altar, a bookshelf, and a small stool to use during meditation. (I am working on a tile pattern for the floor to cover the bare subfloor left after yanking out all the horrible carpet in my house and have plans to really dress it up eventually.) It is right at the top of the stairs so I have to pass it to go down each morning - a great reminder to go in and medtitate!

I was afraid my dogs would drive me nuts trying to get in making it hard for me to focus, but after the first few days, they have learned to sit outside the door and just wait for me along with the cats.

I go in, settle on the stool, light incense and my God candle on my altar, and use my tablet to either set a meditation timer for 20 minutes (I love the Insight Timer app!) or listen to a guided meditation such as Deepak Chopra's 21 day programs.  I also did a small ritual for The Harvest the other day and found this is the perfect time to do so.

I've also started pulling my Daily Tarot reading after the meditation - and realized today that since I have my tablet with me, I can post the cards pulled with photos even right away! (Love tech!)

Then I can blow out my candle and head downstairs to let the dogs out and enjoy the rest of my day.

I do want to try to incorporate a small nightly ritual too, but haven't started that one yet. I have started a prayer ritual in the mornings when I first awaken before I go into the Temple, and still try to take a few moments in the mid-afternoons to go outside with the dogs and just be still in nature.

I feel a LOT more centered and focused than I have in a long time so am really, really glad I have gotten back into this wonderful habit.

Thinking about the Sabbats

I've been re-reading some of my Wiccan books lately and part of the chapter on Sabbats in one of them says you should think beyond the traditional Sabbats and think about what that time of the year means to you and adjust them accordingly, even skipping those that don't have meaning to you or substitute other celebrations.

This is one of those things I haven't really thought about but I've had problems resonating with some of the traditional Wiccan sabbats as most books portray them. Part of that is my desire to work with the Egyptian Pantheon and part of it is living in Florida with less dramatic seasonal changes than in other parts of the country.

So today I am thinking about the Sabbats, pardon the rambling. I'll probably expand more on each when the wheel comes to it.

What is Wicca?

Wicca is a spiritual practice which believes everything in nature is connected by energy - some think of that energy as God or various Gods and Goddesses, others as a universal force similar to the force in Star Wars.

Whatever you call it, it is created by and connects every living thing on the Earth and the Earth itself. That force is within us all so we are all part of it (I'll refer to it in the rest of this article as God for convenience) and we all have God within us.

Is Wicca a Religion?

An amulet is just a hunk of metal...unless you empower it

Owning a spiritual/witchcraft shop means I get a lot of questions - some of them very interesting ones (like the customer in my last post that asked about disposing of a sacred object). Well, actually, most of them are very interesting.

One of the most common questions I get is "What amulet will do x for me?".

From the response to my answer, I can always tell how experienced in The Craft the questioner is. My answer? "Any amulet is just a hunk of metal...it depends on what it means to you and what you empower it to do".

It's true that a certain design, pattern or materials of a piece can aid in a particular function - but really the humblest hunk of stone from the street can work just as well as the most expensive amulet or talisman (not that I don't want you to buy one of course!)...if you put the time, energy and programming into it.

Any mention of what a particular piece is useful for on my or any other site is really just a guide - what it means to you is the first important thing. The second is what energy you put into in to empower it's function (I'll get into that in a later post).

When you are considering something to empower (or enchant if you want to use a more magical sounding term), consider what you want it to do..and look at the design to see what it says to you. Just as dreams are best interpreted by the dreamer as they draw on your unique symbolism, so do the symbols on a piece of jewelry or other object. A tree is generally thought to embody growth, renewing opportunity, and abundance - but it could also be seen as longevity, Earth, and a lot more. So think about what the design means to you. You might need to meditate on it a bit to know, but patterns speak to our subconscious far better than words. Just seeing a design that to you symbolizes courage can give you a lot of courage when you need it - even if you don't empower it!

Of course, jewelry is the most common thing to empower as a talisman (something that draws something to you) or amulet (something that deflects something away from you or protects you), but anything can become your personal magical tool. This is especially useful for situations where you want to keep your Craft work secret - such as at school or work or from family members that don't agree with your beliefs.

Have a co-worker that is always causing issues for you? Try a pretty crystal on your desk empowered to deflect that person's negative energy. Plants are other great absorbers of negativity. Need some help with a project or test? How about setting aside a special pen or other mundane tool empowering it for creativity or memory and only using it when you are in need of it's help (a "thinking cap" would be another great object for this). The ring you wear every day - even your wedding ring - can be empowered for anything you need on a daily basis. Seeing or touching that object will bring your goal to mind helping you keep it energized and working its magic for you.

Some ideas? Tuck a Tarot card or other symbolic art into your text book as a book mark or a rune stone in your pocket. Design a sigil (more about that another time) and draw it on your notebook or scrap paper when you need to release it's power. Put a pretty statue on your desk - just as decoration, of course ;-). Tie a cord or ribbon of a meaningful color around your wrist as a bracelet to remind you of whatever it is you need that day. Even wearing clothing of that color will give you a boost!

Sure a piece with those fancy symbols or made of a specific metal or set with that certain stone can help give your magic an extra boost, but don't rule out the simple things that you use every day as your own personal amulets or talismans. Give the humblest of objects power, and you have an object of great magic. Only you have to know.

Disposing of Sacred Objects

One of my best customers on Egyptian Marketplace asked me something the other day that got me thinking - which of course means I had to write about it :-) He had accidentally broken one of the statues in his temple - a statue of Osiris he had knocked over and unfortunately the head broke off. He called me to get a replacement for it, but then asked what to do with the broken one. He didn't feel comfortable just throwing away something that had been used for some time in his temple, so what should he do.

This is a very good question. A piece you have used for a while in your spiritual practice picks up your energies as well as the energies of the Gods or any spells you have used it with. So if that piece is no longer needed or becomes damaged, should you just throw it away?

After some discussion with my customer, he decided the best thing to do was to bury it (appropriate too since this particular case was Osiris, Lord of the Underworld). Wrap it in clean linen or other natural fibers and bury it with reverence.

At the very least I think you should cleanse the piece of any residual energies - something you should also do if you give away or sell a piece you have used. You can do this by several methods such as burying it using the Earth to ground it. You could also hold it under running water (a natural source such as a stream would be best, but a faucet would do too) visualizing the water washing away all energies.

You could also get a little more formal and do a cleansing ritual - many spell books have rituals on cleansing and consecrating a piece before you use it on your altar. You could do the same ritual stopping after the cleansing part.

The other question is of course, if it is a broken piece, can you repair it and continue to use it? This is another tricky issue - many people feel that anything dedicated to the Gods should be perfect and once broken, it loses any power or significance it had. You could certainly repair it and use it after as just an art object instead of in ritual, but can you use a repaired piece in ritual - especially if it was an expensive piece, one you cannot replace, or you just don't have the budget to replace?

After having had my cats knock over more than one of my statues, I thought a lot about it and personally came to the conclusion that I would still use them. My personal path is Egyptian based and I feel that even the fragments of ancient Egyptian artifacts and temples have power - the chips and cracks and wearing they have experienced do not destroy their power, so why should a bit of super glue destroy the power of my pieces?

In the end, you must decide what feels right to you. Meditation, intuition, prayer and asking your spiritual guides is always a great way to determine the best path in any situation - this one included.