Yule Ritual (2012)

I have to be honest here and say that I procrastinated on writing this ritual until two days before Yule. With the holidays coming in and between making plans and present shopping, I sort of put writing the Yule ritual for my group on the back burner. This isn’t to say I didn’t have time, but it’s more to say that I knew the activities we wanted to do, but not what the ritual was or how it was going to go.

So, during my procrastination, I came up with the idea to go caroling on Yule eve. I searched for lyrics to carols and then decided to look for pagan carols. I found a perfect site that had the tunes of commonly known carols, but had put different lyrics to them. I printed off my favorites and made sure I had enough for everyone who could possibly come that night. (The link to the site is here, if you’re interested: http://www.ladybridget.com/mp/wiccar.html)

In my procrastination also, I found a festive hat and invited everyone to find festive clothing who would be going as well. I even took the time to find a matching scarf. But when that was done, all I had left to do was go collect pinecones for the ritual. I knew two things about this ritual I was to write. One, we were going to do it at sunrise, and two, we wanted to decorate the tree in front of the host’s house. So, I collected my pinecones and then found some ribbons in my room that I also wanted to decorate the tree with.

Finally, I knew I could no longer ignore the ritual that needed to be written. I awoke at sunrise to do a meditation and asked the God and Goddess to help me come up with some sort of idea for the ritual. Soon after finishing my meditation, I sat at my computer and wrote out the ritual. The idea struck me that this was a time of giving, and so I decided to make that the central idea of our ritual. The words came easily and I finished it within a few minutes. After looking at how simple it was, I wondered if I should put more into it, but then I remembered that part of the ritual was to decorate the tree, and that was going to take up a lot of time. With the weather being so cold, I decided that simple was better.

After writing the ritual, I became very excited and could not sit still for more than a few minutes. I told our group about it and practiced the carols and tried to come up with more ideas for decorations. I couldn’t wait for the big day, and my expectations were not disappointed. Caroling was the best idea ever, and I’d never done it before. I want to do it every year though, that’s how much fun it was. The tree also turned out beautifully, and one of our members got some great pictures.

So, today, I’m writing a special Yule post, instead of putting it off till next week. I hope all of your days are getting brighter with the season.

Blessed Be

Yule Ritual:

1) Cast circle

2) Call Quarters

3) Say:

Good morning God, so new and bright,

And Good Morning Goddess who watched us through the night.

We call and hail you on this Yule morn,

When unto us a new light is born.

Spirit unite us all in this hour,

As with these gifts we shower.

4) Hold gifts in hands or hold hands over gifts for the tree. Say:

We bless these gifts for this tree,

With peace, good tidings, and harmony.

As we give each gift anew,

May we and others take up our cue.

Let this be a season of giving great and small,

With joy and love for one and all.

5) Bestow gifts on the tree and decorate it, offering extra personal blessings if you feel the need.

6) Join hands (around the tree if you have enough people) and say:

God and Goddess keep us all these winter days,

Let joy and love be forever ablaze.

So mote it be.

7) Close quarters

8) Release circle   

Ideas for gifts for the tree: Ribbons, peanut butter pine cones with seeds, bells, orange slices, apple slices, and popcorn (plain) garland with cranberries  

Balance

I have to say that it feels great to be home and done with finals. I don’t think I could have gotten through it alone though. As finals week was rolling around, I tried not to stress too much. I tried to keep level, but once stop day hit and I began to study for my biggest finals, I realized that asking for extra help would be a good idea.

So, I decided to do two rituals on the Sunday before my finals started. Why two? In working with the sun, I noticed a dramatic change in my mood. While working with the sun, I was very happy and energized, but with the days being so short this time of year, I began to notice that when the sun went down, I became aggressive and moody, as well as exhausted. I wasn’t sure exactly why it was happening, but after talking to my girlfriend about it, she suggested that I start to work on balancing solar and lunar energies.

So, I decided to give that a try with this spell. I looked up the moon’s phase and saw that on that Sunday, it was going to be a Balsamic waning moon. On the website I looked at, I noticed that the key words for this phase were transition, release, transformation, renewal, and purity. Since the moon was also waning, I decided to try and connect with the crone aspect of the goddess. I don’t do that a lot, but I felt like I needed guidance and wisdom. I wanted this half of the spell to help me relax during my finals week, and help me to realize my reasonable limits.

For the solar part of this spell, I decided to do it at noon, since I wanted this part to strengthen my mental abilities while studying, and give me the energy to get through my toughest finals and not give up.

So, for the ritual, I cast my circle, called my quarters, and drew down the sun energy. I then recited this incantation:

Father Sun, oh so bright,

Aid me please in this fight.

Lead me through this five day charge,

Let no obstacle be too large.

With my pencil as my sword,

My eraser as my shield,

Help me conquer this paper battlefield.

Give me the strength to ace every exam,

And end my finals week with a grand slam!

I then wrote on a piece of paper each class that I had a final in. I put the letter grade “A” next to each one for the final grade, and decorated the paper with suns, swords, cool lightning bolts, and a shield. I wrote out sound effects that one might see in a comic book. I folded this paper up and kept it with me while I studied and brought it to my exams to boost my confidence.

For the lunar part of my ritual, I cast my circle, called my quarters, and drew down the moon. I focused on the crone and connected with her before reciting this incantation:

Wise crone, with your waning light,

Give me peace this night.

Relieve stress for me this week,

And let my wisdom peak.

Keep me of sound mind and contented heart,

With my health needs, let me be smart.

Help me to feel refreshed and renewed,

With feelings of serenity forever imbued.

I also decorated a piece of paper for this spell. I started by writing out positive affirmations for peace on the paper. I had a lot more than I expected, it turned out. I then decorated it with stars, moons, and flowing water. For this piece of paper, I just kept it around me, and when I felt really stressed out and like I could not go on, I read the affirmations to myself and grounded. This worked really well for me a couple of times when I thought I could not handle the stress.

And so, now I have my break, and my finals went really well. I’ve gone into recovery, but it’s been pleasant so far. I feel more balanced, and think most of the aggressive moodiness is gone. Working with solar energy so far has taught me one thing: when working with any new energy, if you aren’t used to it, try to balance it out with something more familiar. Any new energy can have a number of positive and possible negative effects. The goal is to harness the energy and learn what it feels like, to recognize how it moves within you and to learn how to work with it. I had to go through this process when working with lunar energy and healing. Working with the sun is no different. I think I’m getting better at working with it everyday though, and it makes me happy to experience this learning process.

Happy almost winter everyone!

Blessed Be

Sun Bracelet

Goodness, the time seems to fly too quickly as I am approaching the end of the school year. So many projects to get done and finals to study for, and I almost thought I would not have time for magick today.

Of course, my time worked out differently, and I did have time which was a huge blessing. As some of you may know from my previous blog posts, I’ve been dabbling Sun magicks. Last week I had the idea to make a sun bracelet I could wear to help me in my studies of the sun and also to carry a little bit of sunshine around with me. This idea sprang forth when I was visiting friends over turkey break. One of my friends likes to craft items using beads, and he had an assortment of stones that he said we were welcome to use to make jewelry if we so desired. Trusting my friend’s studies on stones, I asked him what stones were most likely absorb and hold sun energy. He directed me to a few different bead sets, but it was the yellow tigers eye that caught my attention the most.

So, using wooden spacers, I made a simple hemp bracelet with yellow tigers eye. I wore it for this entire week, unsure of what way I wanted to bless it. I knew I wanted to charge it with the sun, but I wasn’t sure exactly how I wanted to do that. The sun moves through many phases of the day, and I wasn’t sure which phase I wanted to catch in my bracelet. I started looking up sun times on the internet: sunrise, sunset, solar noon, twilight, dawn. I knew I wanted to empower the bracelet on Sunday, and when considering my schedule today, I figured that solar noon would be the best time. I wanted the sun high in the sky and at its peak.

So, I looked up the time of Solar noon and packed my stuff up to go to my favorite magick spot outside. The day was bright and warm, a lot warmer than I expected for December. I cast my circle and then waited for Solar noon to strike. When the time came, I held the bracelet in my hands, letting no shadow fall on it, and said the following:

Sun and God so mighty and strong,

Empower these stones with your strength all the days long.

Let them become a reminder for me

Of your loving power and harmony.

Imbue them with sunshine and make them my own,

So that I for others can let my light be shown.

I do this work with harm to none,

Including me,

By Spirit’s will,

So mote it be.

The beads in my hands grew hot and warm and I closed my circle with a new energy. I felt cleansed and happy, and not sleepy, which is different for me. I know people aren’t supposed to be tired after ritual, but sometimes that happens to me. With the sun magicks I’ve been doing, it hasn’t happened so far. It’s really exciting, and I am really excited to see where this investigation will take me. I hope you all are having a good day and are looking forward to the holidays. I hope you all can find something new to explore and learn this season.

Blessed Be

Sunbathing

So, this weekend, I decided to start my sun studying. I feel like I’ve been putting it off for too long, and while thinking about it this week, I realized that the hours of daylight are very little because of winter’s approach. So, with my busy days, I was having a hard time finding the hours in the day to do sun magick.
But I planned on it this weekend and it turned out spectacular. First, I started by doing some research. When thinking about moon magick and how the moon moves through several signs in a month, it hit me that our sun moves in different signs as well, hence our sun signs that we are born under. But being born under a cusp sign myself, I also understand that there are times when the sun is transitioning into another sign and that can last for a few days. So here is the chart I made, using a couple of helpful websites:

Aries: March 27--April 18
Aries-Taurus cusp: April 19--April 24
Taurus: April 25--May 18
Taurus-Gemini cusp: May 19--May 24
Gemini: May 25--June 18
Gemini-Cancer cusp: June 19--June 24
Cancer: June 25--July 18
Cancer-Leo cusp: July 19--July 24
Leo: July 25--August 18
Leo-Virgo cusp: August 19--August 24
Virgo: August 25--September 18
Virgo-Libra cusp: September 19--September 24
Libra: September 25--October 18
Libra-Scorpio cusp: October 19--October 24
Scorpio: October 25--November 18
Scorpio-Sagittarius cusp: November 19--November 24
Sagittarius: November 25--December 18
Sagittarius-Capricorn cusp: December 19--December 24
Capricorn: December 25--January 14
Capricorn-Aquarius cusp: January 15--January 22
Aquarius: January 23--February 17
Aquarius-Pisces cusp: February 18--February 22
Pisces: February 23--March 18
Pisces-Aries cusp: March 19--March 26

Using this knowledge and helpful information provided to me in a book about new moons being the the same sign as the sun, I found a basic idea of what types of magick worked really well for these times. Also, doing some work with sun signs and people helps when deciding what type of magick is best suited for the sun sign, and I’ve dabbled a bit in that as well in the past.

So, today is the 18th of November, which means the sun is in Scorpio, but tomorrow it will be in transitioning into Sagittarius. So, for part of my ritual today, I focused on meditating on past lives. Scorpio is a water sign whose ruling planet is Pluto. Pluto is associated with the underworld, and so meditating on past lives was one of the magicks recommended to me by my book.

The main purpose of my first ritual with the sun as my focus, however, was just to connect and cleanse. I did a little “Sunbathing,” and felt my mood lift almost instantly. I asked to connect with the God, and interestingly enough, it wasn’t quite what I expected. I expected to feel a connection to the heat and fire of the sun, but instead, I felt a connection to the God of the beasts and the forest. I felt an almost instant connection with the trees, birds, and the earth around me. I have to say the experience was very eye-opening. Perhaps I felt this connection because I tend to be an earthy person, but nonetheless, it was really exciting and I felt refreshed after my meditation.

I hope you all find this information useful and consider dabbling in sun magicks of your own. Happy casting!

Blessed Be  

Halloween Festivities

Can I just say that I love autumn? It’s strange, because never before would I have considered it my favorite season until now. I’ve missed it, but I didn’t understand how much I missed it until it came back around. There are many great things about fall, from the food to the pretty colors of the leaves to the fun activities.

So, for this blog post, I’m going to talk about fun ideas I’ve brainstormed and some other ideas that my friends have mentioned to shake things up this fall, but particularly, this Halloween.

1) Jack-o-lanterns: Carving pumpkins has always been a fun part of this holiday for me. They always look really cool on Halloween night and making pumpkin pie out of the carvings and eating the seeds is always fun. This year, why not try to empower the pumpkins with protective energy? Try putting dried herbs in them like rosemary. Also, you could empower the pumpkins to provide welcome vibes to your home for all those who bring good energy that come by.

2) Scarecrows: I’ve never made one before, but I can imagine this would be a fun activity, as I saw many people around my college campus making them today. You could also empower these for protective energy or use them as giant poppets. Stuffing them with straw and herbs for your purpose could also help the process along.

3) Apples: These fruit are harvested in this season and are perfect for a lot of magickal work. The apple has a lot of representations, some being love, health, and temptation. This weekend, my girlfriend and I made apple cider cupcakes and empowered them with love and cozy warmth. We shared them with our friends and everyone really liked them.

Those are the few things I thought of and I hope you find them useful. I also wanted to mention a really cool book I found in the discount bookstore in my college town. It is called Everyday Sun Magic by Dorothy Morrison. I didn’t end up buying it, since I didn’t have the funds to do so, but I did look through it and hope I can save up enough to buy it. It’s a book all about the sun and the God and has some great spells to do with the sun. If you’re interested in learning more about sun magic, that book may be a good option. It inspired me and I hope to be performing magick with the sun as well as the moon. Maybe I can connect on both levels instead of only one. I know when to work with the moon, but now I want to know more about working with the sun. I’ll probably keep my findings posted here when I discover something I’d like to share, be it a spell or information.

For those of you who know about my playdough runes that I made, they still have yet to turn completely dry. I’m not sure what’s taking so long, but I know they’re getting there. I think it’s because I made really thick runes and now the moisture is taking longer to escape. Oh well, they’re almost there! So for those of you making amulets and talismans or anything else with your magickal playdough, keep in mind it may take awhile to dry out!

Blessed be.  

The Magick of Playdough

So, these past few days have found me running around like a chicken with its head cut off. After being smacked in the face with a few holds on my enrollment, everything else sort of disappeared. My mind went into overdrive trying to accomplish everything at once and the time whizzed by at the speed of light. Only after getting a hold on my life did I realize that my college Wiccan club was going to make runes for Monday night. We were asked to bring items to make runes with, rocks, bottle caps, whatever suited our fancy. I had this grand adventure planned out to go search for the right rocks, but as it turned out, daylight was scarce, and my recuperation time took the form of sleeping and being in the company of friends.

Monday morning rolled around and I didn’t have anything to make runes with and did not have time to go rock hunting as I had planned. So, feeling a little distraught and looking for sympathy, I talked to my girlfriend about the issue. She said I should use playdough.

I have to say, I didn’t expect this answer, but it was a stroke of genius. She told me I could make playdough really easily and so I looked up a couple recipes online. I used the one that I had time for and went about making my playdough. It was a very pleasant experience and brought me back to childhood in a way. Did you know there is a lot of salt in homemade playdough? You could dehydrate a cow with how much salt is in it.

Still, the playdough worked to make my runes, though I made them thicker so that when they dry and turn a bit brittle, they won’t break too easily. Right now I’m waiting for them to dry and I am very excited to use them. Making these runes also has led me to think of the other magickal things one can do with playdough. One can make amulets and talismans, goddess and god figures, one can even use playdough as a stress reliever, and also to represent the changing of a situation. One can scent playdough for different purposes by using different extracts and oils, and one can also dye the playdough colors using food dye. It was amazing to discover all of these possibilities and I am looking forward to using the rest of my playdough in my magickal endeavors.

So, if you ever find yourself in need of clay, but cannot make the trip to the store, try using a homemade playdough recipe instead. Enjoy and happy crafting!

Blessed Be

Potato Healing Spell

When stress and sickness hits your home in the second month of school, you have to figure there’s a problem. In my dorm this month, everyone was stressing themselves out so much that it started to get them sick. I myself haven’t been feeling on top of my game as of late either. So, that’s why, for this past full moon, I decided to write a healing spell.
When I was writing it, I wanted to keep it simple, and for some reason I felt the need to bury a potato for it. Now, I have looked up spells before that involved burying potatoes before, so this wasn't a stroke of intuition. I just remembered reading about it before and decided to look it up to see if I got my facts straight.

The idea of burying a potato is an old one. I couldn’t tell how old though. The idea behind it is you take a potato and imagine the potato symbolizing something you wish to get rid of. Then, you bury the potato in the ground and ask the earth to help you with your problem. As the potato decays, so the negativity (put in the potato) will as well. I’d never tried this kind of sympathetic magick before and decided to give it a try. I do hope it works out for the better for my dorm and I hope everyone is less stressed and sick. Below, I include the spell if you ever find any need for it. Happy casting, and happy Autumn also!

Blessed Be

Potato Healing Spell:

Supplies: Quarter representations, potato, something to dig with

1. Cast circle, call quarters.
2. Look up at moon and say:

Mother full and Mother bright

I sit in your loving light

Sickness and stress have struck my house

And sucked all happiness and health like a louse.

I ask you Mother, please hear my plea,

Please take this negativity away from all those in my home and me.

3. Hold potato in your hand and say:

I hold this potato in my hand

And with this spell, sickness ban.

In the ground this potato will go,

And sickness and stress will no longer grow.

As in the Earth this potato will decay,

May the sickness and stress also decay and go away.

4. Bury potato in the ground. Thank the Earth for its help. Thank the Lady in your own way, or by saying:

Thank you mother for hearing my plea.

With harm to none I cast this spell,

So mote it be.

5. Dismiss quarters and dismiss the circle.

P.S. The last two lines in the thanking section belong to Silver Ravenwolf. I did not write them. I take no credit.    

Ritual For Mabon

I’ve done it. I’ve finished my first written ritual and I’m very excited to share it. This ritual, as some of you may recall, is for Mabon, and I found myself needing to do some research before writing this ritual.
From my research, I found out that Mabon is the second harvest and celebrates the harvest of apples and grains. It also focuses on thanksgiving and honoring trees. I decided to try to incorporate all these elements in my written ritual.
As some of you may recall, Kansas spent most of the summer in a drought this year. This affected the growth of crops, and while we had a harvest, it was not the best it could have been. Still, I am thankful for the harvest that did occur and still think it is important to thank Spirit for this. Another idea of Mabon that I tried to incorporate was the idea of asking for the harvest to be strong next year. I felt like this was necessary, so I made it a big part of this ritual. I hope you all enjoy reading this and I hope it is helpful to those who are looking for ideas for their own Mabon rituals, or those who may like to practice the ritual I have written.

Blessed Be

Mabon Ritual

Items: one corn dolly for each person, corn bread for liberation/communion, Apple cider for liberation/communion, quarter representations, bowl

Location: Anywhere, but after ritual, you will need to find a garden to place the blessed corn dollies in. This can be a personal garden, or a community one. One that grew food to be consumed is preferable.

1. Cast circle and call quarters.

2. Have each person hold their corn dolly in their hands. Imagine the strength of the harvest as a bronze light and put that light into the dolly. Imagine the bounty of this year’s harvest, and all the food it has produced. Imagine then, the bounty of next year’s harvest. Have one person say the following blessing, or take turns saying it in a group line by line:

Spirit of the great harvest, we thank you,

Many blessings you have bestowed in view.

Our crops that have grown great and mighty tall,

We now take joy in harvest for the fall.

We ask blessings upon this our off’ring,

So our next harvest will new bounty bring.

May this blessing bring crops that are so strong,

That we may take part in them all year long.

3. Hold hands over the pitcher of apple cider and say:

With this drink from the apples of the Earth,

May we never thirst and all have great mirth.

Pour apple cider into cups and pass them to each member. Have each drink some, but leave some in the bottom of their cup. Pour the extra into the bowl.

4. Hold hands over the corn bread and say:

With this bread from the strong grains of the Earth,

May we never hunger and have great mirth.

Pass the bread to each of the members, and put some into the bowl.

5. Close quarters and close circle.

6. Pour the contents of the libation bowl by a tree. Take blessed corn dollies and put them in a garden.  

Inspiration

So, perhaps it is too early to be thinking about Mabon. This year it is on the 22nd of September, and while some may think this is early, I’m a bit of a planner. Not to mention, I was asked to help write the ritual for my pagan club on campus. In truth, I probably won’t be attending this ritual, since I might be going back home that weekend to see my friends, since the holiday falls on a weekend. But I offered to write a ritual and give it to one of the other members so that she can modify it as she sees fit. I mainly decided to do this because I haven’t written a full ritual for a group and I figured this is the best way to expand my writing skills along with my spiritual ones. Maybe it won’t be the best ritual I’ve ever written, but it will be a start, and we all have to start somewhere when we begin new tasks.

So, for the blue moon that occurred on the thirty-first of August, I made a bottle for inspiration to help spark some ideas and hopefully give me a little help. In this bottle I put the following ingredients:

Lavender and chamomile, ground with mortar and pestle (scents that inspire me)
Metal clock gears (for the working and turning of imagination)
Rose perfume (another inspiring scent)
Light of a flashlight (which I shined to illuminate the bottle)
Green ribbon tied around the top (Green for the growth of ideas)
Parchment scroll, with the spell written on it

At first, I thought I would write some lines of inspiring writing from writers on the parchment, but then I decided against it. I decided my spell needed to be something I wrote, and that I needed to find the words to kickstart my own writing and imagination. This bottle, I think, has already had some effect on me. My use of words in my writing has excelled, and I am very excited to do some research and write my very first group ritual.

Maybe, in a couple of weeks, I will be able to share it here. If not in full, I’m sure I’ll share its progress. Till then, my readers.

Blessed Be

Love in a Bottle

So, it’s official. Classes will begin tomorrow at my university and I’ve been moved in and gone to countless events already to kickstart the year, including convocation. Needless to say, I’m super excited for classes to start. Oddly enough, my move-in day started on the new moon and classes will start during the waxing of the moon. Coincidence? I’ll leave that for you to decide.

Last week I talked about finding a space to do ritual. I think I’ve found one that’s secluded enough, but not an unsafe place. I’m very excited to try this space out. Also, I found a space for my altar in my room above my bed like last year. My living arrangements are wonderful, as always, and made even better by these few things. I’m looking forward to a great year.

At first though, I have to admit I was anxious. I was enjoying summer and enjoying seeing my friends from highschool. I was really nervous about leaving, but I knew that a lot of them were going to university too, some for the first time. Now that I’m here, I realize why I like university, and that, as always, it isn’t the end of the world to move. I’ll see my friends again, and our reunion will be awesome.

There is one person I really didn’t want to leave behind however. This person is very dear to me, and I still miss her. So, before I left, I decided to give her something. I wanted to make her something she could remember me by. I decided to give her some of my love contained inside a bottle.

I thought of all the things that made me think of love and went on a hunt to find them. I put in dried white rose petals, dried carnations that she gave me in the past (including the blue ribbon tied to them), a little bit of my Taurus oil (not only my zodiac sign, but also ruled by Venus), some rose perfume, lavender, a metal heart charm, wheat thresh (it makes me think of home and of a comfortable love), two marbles (one blue like water, one green like earth), rose quartz, a blue butterfly that makes me think of her, a piece of parchment with quotes from Shakespeare, and words I whispered into the bottle before I closed it.

When I gave it to her, I told her she could open it and read the note when she missed me the most. I know it might not be the same as having me there, but I wanted to give her something to remember me by and remember how much I care for her.

This bottle creation led me to think of other things I could bottle as well, and how I could use my bottle collection for my magick. Now, a friend of mine has been making magick bottles herself for a while now, and they are charms one would wear as jewelry. I have one from her, in fact, and I have to give her some credit for putting the idea in the back of my mind. In truth, glass bottles are appealing to me, hence why I collect them, and I’m realizing now that I can use them beyond the basic witch’s bottle for protection.

I’ve already bottled some of the beach from the Gulf coast. Now, I think I will work on bottling other things. On my list currently are theses:

Autumn Air

Ocean Air

Field Air

Fire

Earth

Inspiration

Home

Freedom (a little ironic, I know)

These are just a few, and my list grows longer each time I think about it. I’m very excited to give these a try, though bottling ocean air when I’m landlocked will take some planning.

I hope I’ve inspired you to look around your house at your collections and see how to make them into a magickal endeavour, a spiritual endeavour, or just a fun craft. Also, one  last note, now that I am at University, I may not be writing in this blog every week. I will try to go for every other week, since my studies should come first. Happy new school year!

Blessed Be  

Back to School

Oh my goodness... where did my summer vacation go? Okay, move-in day for university is creeping up on me, so I thought for this week I’d discuss being at college and keeping up with my spiritual studies as well as my academic ones.

Last year, I struggled with feeling connected to my faith. I kept it a secret most of the time, and didn’t practice a lot of magick. Second semester was a little better than the first, since I joined the pagan group on campus and got to know a few people who share my faith. I learned many things and shared some of my knowledge. My personal development struggled a little bit though. This year, I want things to be different.

So, for this year, I plan to find a space that is secluded, but safe enough to practice ritual. This ritual space hunt might be difficult. I went around campus looking for spaces last semester with my club and couldn’t really find the perfect spot that felt safe enough. But, I will look again this year in hopes to find a spot.

Secondly, I will need to find a good space for my altar. Since I share a space with three other women in my room, it will have to be somewhere special and I will have to make sure my altar doesn’t draw unwanted attention. Last year, the room I was in had a shelf above the bed. This was perfect for my altar and my magickal supplies, since I was on the top bunk and it was a space that was really my own. I’m in a new room this year though, so I’m not sure if there will be a shelf in that spot. I hope so, but if not, I may put my altar in a drawer and pull out the drawer when I want to use my altar.

Thirdly, I will continue to meet at the pagan club meetings so I can continue my studies and keep learning. My club also meets for holidays too, so I will probably be doing some ritual in that way.

I don’t have many ideas beyond these for now, but I will continue to think on them. I want this year to be different. A book was recommended to me by a friend of mine. I’ve seen this book before, but have never picked it up to read it cover to cover. It’s called Rocking the Goddess by Anthony Paige. It’s a book that focuses on wicca for the university student and seems to be a good read for those going to university. This book has now made it to my priority list and I hope to learn from it. I hope it is helpful to others too.

If you have any suggestions for a witch going to college, feel free to leave comments below. I know I’m not the only one, and I’m certain we could all learn from each other.

Blessed Be

Elements

Learning about different cultures, I have found, always makes me question my own. My most recent question: Why is North earth, East air, South fire, and West water? Each of these four elements has a direction associated with it, but who came up with these? Has the creator of this phenomenon been gone for so long we don’t remember why these elements are important to their respective directions?

This question hit me as I was studying a book on Feng Shui. The book is an excellent book and I am learning much about the ideas of Feng Shui and some of the ideas of eastern society. In the ideas of Feng Shui, there are five elements. They are fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. Not only is air not an element, spirit not mentioned as one, and metal added to the list, Feng Shui also focuses on eight directions, the four cardinal directions and the four directions between the cardinal directions. South is represented by fire, Southwest by earth, West by metal, Northwest by metal, North by water, Northeast by earth, East by wood, and Southeast by wood.

Interestingly enough, I found this so strange that I wondered why Feng Shui has these elements in these directions. Then I paused, and wondered why I had not asked the same for wicca? I had accepted that North was earth, that East was air, that South was fire, that West was water, and that the center was spirit. I never questioned such a thing before.

I found myself questioning now though. So, I decided to look online to see if anyone had an answer. Many didn’t seem to talk about why the elements were placed as they are. I then came across a website that talked about the elements and directions in relation to where you live. They insisted that this was what mattered, along with how one felt about where each element should be placed. If it felt wrong to put water to the West, then put it where it felt right. For people who live in the Northern hemisphere, the weather becomes warmer as we travel towards the equator, and this may be why the element of fire was put in the South. But, for people who live in the Southern hemisphere, the opposite is true. When you travel North, the weather warms.

Now, I have no qualms with the elemental placements. In fact, the traditional placements feel very natural to me. But what surprises me is that I did not question this before. I accepted, and thinking about it now, if I were to align myself with the land around me, the oceans are to the East and West of me, the land rises to the East (since in Kansas, the land goes down in elevation when you travel West) but the fertile farm land is in the West, air flows in all directions because I live in the Midwest, and the warmth comes from the South and the bright sun that moves East to West. The elements are all around me and they more surround me than are placed in only one quarter. This feeling of being enveloped and surrounded brings me comfort.

Now, does this mean I won’t cast my circle with the traditional elemental directions? No, but it does mean that I feel I have a deeper understanding of what it means to be connected to all the elements and to have them in all places. This also means that if someone were to put an element in a different location, I probably wouldn’t blink twice. What I love about my faith is that it is my own, and what I love about faith is that everyone else has their own too. It’s okay to believe something different, to think for yourself, and to have the grace to understand that others have the same right. Our differences make us unique, and they bring us together in new ways of understanding one another, not in ways that separate or break us apart.

So, wherever your elements are, whatever they may be, they are special to you, and that’s all that matters.

Blessed Be