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Feb. 27th, 2012 05:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sasha_featherDoes anyone know anything about Mars retrograde, which is happening now until April something?
twistdfateangel Right, so, tonight's the solstice, as well as a full moon and a total eclipse. Just my luck, I have a lulu of a head cold to get over. So, rather than hoof it out into the snow in the middle of Children of the Corn country (no, seriously, it was filmed right down the highway from here, if I'm lying, I'm flying), I decided to sit inside with the live streaming video and contemplate the moon and its darkest moment.
Now, in my personal traditions, there are four standard phases of the moon, maiden, warrior/temptress, mother, crone. And then, there's the eclipse, which to me, is the prophetess. I don't have a dark bone in my body, metaphysically speaking. Most of my patrons (saints, angels and deity faces) are fairly bright, or so I thought.
While I was watching the feed, I suddenly felt this tingling pressure in my head, one that comes and goes now. It doesn't feel sinus related. It's at the top and forward of my skull. I swore that, for a second I heard someone talking to me. I can't tell you what was really said, but it amounted to "the few who remember my name have forgotten that even gods can cast a shadow."
I'm a little confused by what it might mean. I'm not a prophet or an oracle, I'm pretty sure. My gifts seem to want to be healing and cleansing, but am I missing something? Does anybody have any ideas? Or am I just addled by a stuffed nose?
Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I'm running on a lack of sleep at the moment.
Now, in my personal traditions, there are four standard phases of the moon, maiden, warrior/temptress, mother, crone. And then, there's the eclipse, which to me, is the prophetess. I don't have a dark bone in my body, metaphysically speaking. Most of my patrons (saints, angels and deity faces) are fairly bright, or so I thought.
While I was watching the feed, I suddenly felt this tingling pressure in my head, one that comes and goes now. It doesn't feel sinus related. It's at the top and forward of my skull. I swore that, for a second I heard someone talking to me. I can't tell you what was really said, but it amounted to "the few who remember my name have forgotten that even gods can cast a shadow."
I'm a little confused by what it might mean. I'm not a prophet or an oracle, I'm pretty sure. My gifts seem to want to be healing and cleansing, but am I missing something? Does anybody have any ideas? Or am I just addled by a stuffed nose?
Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I'm running on a lack of sleep at the moment.
sasha_featherYou know when you've been hella tired for two weeks, and your mouth and shoulder hurt very badly, sometimes you need to just go buy some jewelry, even if you are trying not to spend money. I went down to the Woo-woo stone shop and talked to the spiritual woo-woo stone lady. She told me to "open the bottoms of my feet, like the shutter of a camera, and connect down to Mother Earth." And then just let the toxins just flow on down to Mother Earth. And breathe in light.
I bought some Carnelian from her, a deep red stone that is new to me, but it's nearly the same shade as a lot of the clothes in my closet, and my bed sheets. She used the word "grounding" a lot, remember to connect to the ground. I told her I've been working on throat chakra and throat/mouth things; she said something about my lower chakras not being open, and all the energy was being caught in my throat. I liked her, and I like the stones a lot.
I bought some Carnelian from her, a deep red stone that is new to me, but it's nearly the same shade as a lot of the clothes in my closet, and my bed sheets. She used the word "grounding" a lot, remember to connect to the ground. I told her I've been working on throat chakra and throat/mouth things; she said something about my lower chakras not being open, and all the energy was being caught in my throat. I liked her, and I like the stones a lot.
September Horoscopes
Aug. 31st, 2010 04:00 pmdianagarlandHey all. Just put up fresh horoscopes for September. Videos and written. Here they each are:
Monthly Aries Horoscope
Monthly Taurus Horoscope
Monthly Gemini Horoscope
Monthly Cancer Horoscope
Monthly Leo Horoscope
Monthly Virgo Horoscope
Monthly Libra Horoscope
Monthly Scorpio Horoscope
Monthly Sagittarius Horoscope
Monthly Capricorn Horoscope
Monthly Aquarius Horoscope
Monthly Pisces Horoscope
Add me to get these automatically. Lots of love!
(x-post. Sorry to anyone effected).
Monthly Aries Horoscope
Monthly Taurus Horoscope
Monthly Gemini Horoscope
Monthly Cancer Horoscope
Monthly Leo Horoscope
Monthly Virgo Horoscope
Monthly Libra Horoscope
Monthly Scorpio Horoscope
Monthly Sagittarius Horoscope
Monthly Capricorn Horoscope
Monthly Aquarius Horoscope
Monthly Pisces Horoscope
Add me to get these automatically. Lots of love!
(x-post. Sorry to anyone effected).
relevant to this community's interests
Dec. 1st, 2009 09:12 pmbohemianeditorThis Witchvox article has been making the rounds:
The Pagan Secret
... it has been bothering me for a long time that pagans have this idea that nearly anything you can conceive of as being a pseudo-religious experience is real and irrefutable as long as the person claims they believe it happened.
[...]
I'm talking about the New Age, fantastical world in which every animal, rock, dragon, Otherkin, and anything else JRR Tolkien could come up with lives on some astral plane and they've all got super magical secrets to tell you and treasures to share. It's not true, and it's time we called people on it.
Me, I like some woo in my spirituality and some spirituality in my woo, but it does help to keep them separate. One doesn't necessarily follow the other.
I also think it's helpful to look critically at the woo-woo bits, rather than do what this writer is railing aganst: uncritically accepting the least sparkly thing as a Profound Religious Experience.
What do y'all think about the intersection of woo and [your spiritual path here]?
The Pagan Secret
... it has been bothering me for a long time that pagans have this idea that nearly anything you can conceive of as being a pseudo-religious experience is real and irrefutable as long as the person claims they believe it happened.
[...]
I'm talking about the New Age, fantastical world in which every animal, rock, dragon, Otherkin, and anything else JRR Tolkien could come up with lives on some astral plane and they've all got super magical secrets to tell you and treasures to share. It's not true, and it's time we called people on it.
Me, I like some woo in my spirituality and some spirituality in my woo, but it does help to keep them separate. One doesn't necessarily follow the other.
I also think it's helpful to look critically at the woo-woo bits, rather than do what this writer is railing aganst: uncritically accepting the least sparkly thing as a Profound Religious Experience.
What do y'all think about the intersection of woo and [your spiritual path here]?
bohemianeditorIn about 1995 there was a project that aimed to do a census of the entire Pagan population. It was pretty comprehensive (and resulted in the 2003 book Voices from the Pagan Census), but after 20 years, looks like it's about time for another go.
The new Pagan Census is here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=WYCq4kaxG_2bYrJ8xnemeR3A_3d_3d
Some of the questions are the same as the earlier version, to see how answers change. Others, mostly questions about the Internet, are new. It can take as little time as 20 minutes, depending on the depth of your answers to questions ranging from multiple choice/tickybox questions to open-ended questions that ask you to describe your views on a topic. [ETA: It took me more than an hour, and the open-ended questions ask how you got involved in Paganism. You may want to read the questions through, decide how you want to answer them, maybe even draft some short answers, then come back to the survey.]
There were more than 2,000 respondents to the original survey, and there may now be as many as 1.5 million Pagans in the United States now (extrapolated from results of last year's American Religious Identification Survey -- read more at The Wild Hunt). I'm curious to hear how many respondents there are this time!
[x-posted to my journal]
The new Pagan Census is here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=WYCq4kaxG_2bYrJ8xnemeR3A_3d_3d
Some of the questions are the same as the earlier version, to see how answers change. Others, mostly questions about the Internet, are new. It can take as little time as 20 minutes, depending on the depth of your answers to questions ranging from multiple choice/tickybox questions to open-ended questions that ask you to describe your views on a topic. [ETA: It took me more than an hour, and the open-ended questions ask how you got involved in Paganism. You may want to read the questions through, decide how you want to answer them, maybe even draft some short answers, then come back to the survey.]
There were more than 2,000 respondents to the original survey, and there may now be as many as 1.5 million Pagans in the United States now (extrapolated from results of last year's American Religious Identification Survey -- read more at The Wild Hunt). I'm curious to hear how many respondents there are this time!
[x-posted to my journal]
Advice on food and correspondences
Aug. 24th, 2009 11:17 amtwistdfateangelThis has been a whirlwind morning. A dear friend was lost and found and is in the hospital, with me praying the whole while. He's not out of the woods, yet, but he's alive as of our last alert. The man is like a brother to me and I'm just relieved he's been found.
This past Pennsic, I came up with the idea of altering the old Thanksgiving feast for my purposes and saying thank you to both the Sun (symbolic of God) and the Moon (symbolic of Goddess). Okay, it's not original to me, but I was reluctant to use a Communion or Cakes and Ale rite, being neither a priest in my birth faith or a Wiccan or a Pagan. So, for the Sun Feast, I ate cornbread and drank lemonade and, for the Moon, I had milk and donut holes (what? they were round and white and easily obtained at the camp store!). Now, however, I'm home, low on money, and still want to say thank you.
Do you guys have any ideas for what might be suitable?
This past Pennsic, I came up with the idea of altering the old Thanksgiving feast for my purposes and saying thank you to both the Sun (symbolic of God) and the Moon (symbolic of Goddess). Okay, it's not original to me, but I was reluctant to use a Communion or Cakes and Ale rite, being neither a priest in my birth faith or a Wiccan or a Pagan. So, for the Sun Feast, I ate cornbread and drank lemonade and, for the Moon, I had milk and donut holes (what? they were round and white and easily obtained at the camp store!). Now, however, I'm home, low on money, and still want to say thank you.
Do you guys have any ideas for what might be suitable?
Spiritual growth
Aug. 15th, 2009 08:18 amelfNot my spiritual growth; ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
icarusancalion's.
My way: by Michelle Grissom, formerly ani Dechen Drolma
"My real name is Michelle Grissom, formerly Ani Dechen Drolma. I wish that I could reach every person who has read or heard of The Buddha From Brooklyn, or who has heard the slander I've spread through blogs and as Longchenpa on Wikipedia -- now being helplessly replicated everywhere against my will -- because I lied."
and
"If you would like to help -- PLEASE DO LINK TO THIS POST.
There are people who are using my past words and my RL name to continue to lambast Jetsunma. If this post is linked to and has hits, it will show up in the search and mitigate what I've done."
( Commentary goes behind a cut-tag )
icarusancalion's.My way: by Michelle Grissom, formerly ani Dechen Drolma
"My real name is Michelle Grissom, formerly Ani Dechen Drolma. I wish that I could reach every person who has read or heard of The Buddha From Brooklyn, or who has heard the slander I've spread through blogs and as Longchenpa on Wikipedia -- now being helplessly replicated everywhere against my will -- because I lied."
and
"If you would like to help -- PLEASE DO LINK TO THIS POST.
There are people who are using my past words and my RL name to continue to lambast Jetsunma. If this post is linked to and has hits, it will show up in the search and mitigate what I've done."
( Commentary goes behind a cut-tag )
Travel Altars
Jul. 18th, 2009 10:02 pmtwistdfateangelMods, feel free to get rid of this if it doesn't fit or gets too preachy.
-----------------
( An Essay on Building Travel Altars and the Beauty of Mobility )
-----------------
( An Essay on Building Travel Altars and the Beauty of Mobility )
Chris Penczak Study Group?
Jun. 12th, 2009 10:46 pmakatonboWould anyone have an interest in a study group (on its own community, so as not to clutter this or any other) working through Christopher Penczak's Temple series? It's pretty good for 101 stuff, something I've long been meaning to go through as a part refresher course, part remedy for the fact that my actual 101 days were as a teenager in the early 1990s and various factors conspired to prevent me from getting much structure or true practice back then, and I think I'd be more successful at it with not only a place to report on my progress, but other interested parties to discuss it with.
Eclecticism vs. Traditionalism
Jun. 12th, 2009 08:51 pmzombiI saw this question on a message board, and it caused a lot of debate -- I'd like to ask it here, too, to see what all of you have to say.
In your opinion, is it wrong to stray from specified guidelines within a path? Will doing so tarnish a given practice? Will doing so show disrespect to those that have "done the work"? Should we adhere to the rules?
Conversely, does holding onto the traditions from maybe thousands of years in the past keep us from moving forward? Should we take what we like, what is of use, and discard the rest?
To answer my own question, I think that if you don't follow tenets within a Tradition, then you are not of that Tradition. If you take parts of it and parts of another -- then you are following a completely different path. When you take parts from one and then another and combine them, you have something new, and in my opinion, you should name it something entirely different so as not to be confused with either original. But I don't think it's "wrong".
In your opinion, is it wrong to stray from specified guidelines within a path? Will doing so tarnish a given practice? Will doing so show disrespect to those that have "done the work"? Should we adhere to the rules?
Conversely, does holding onto the traditions from maybe thousands of years in the past keep us from moving forward? Should we take what we like, what is of use, and discard the rest?
To answer my own question, I think that if you don't follow tenets within a Tradition, then you are not of that Tradition. If you take parts of it and parts of another -- then you are following a completely different path. When you take parts from one and then another and combine them, you have something new, and in my opinion, you should name it something entirely different so as not to be confused with either original. But I don't think it's "wrong".
Hallo Pagan-ish [new] friends!
May. 29th, 2009 11:39 pmofmonstrouswordsHi there! I found this community by perusing my friend jenett 's communities list. (Hi Jenett!)
My name in the pagan world is Morag. Screen name is Honeyfeather because it's the best Mary Sue name used in a fanfic ever. My everyday name is Katje, which is Dutch for "kitten". You may call me either, or honeyfeather.
( rambling about my spiritual path )
My icon says "urban pagan" and that would be because I live in a city and looooove city life as much as I love nature. If I could live in a city where the buildings were grown organically and the night lights were bioluminescient (sp?) organisms, I'd be an incredibly happy camper.
I live in Nanaimo BC and attend Vancouver Island University. I'm a Creative Writing and Theatre double-minor, almost 23, in a happy, life-long loving relationship with myself, and absolutely in love with life right now. I'm a geek and a gamer and a fangirl; I like shiny things and glitter; and I love to garden and work with my hands in other capacities.
Going to try to be as active a member of this comm as possible, with school and everything else. I like my posts to have content to them and it takes me a while to formulate my thoughts and write them out (yay neurodiversity!), so a lot of times I eschew quantity in favor of quality. :)
-Morag
jenett 's communities list. (Hi Jenett!)My name in the pagan world is Morag. Screen name is Honeyfeather because it's the best Mary Sue name used in a fanfic ever. My everyday name is Katje, which is Dutch for "kitten". You may call me either, or honeyfeather.
( rambling about my spiritual path )
My icon says "urban pagan" and that would be because I live in a city and looooove city life as much as I love nature. If I could live in a city where the buildings were grown organically and the night lights were bioluminescient (sp?) organisms, I'd be an incredibly happy camper.
I live in Nanaimo BC and attend Vancouver Island University. I'm a Creative Writing and Theatre double-minor, almost 23, in a happy, life-long loving relationship with myself, and absolutely in love with life right now. I'm a geek and a gamer and a fangirl; I like shiny things and glitter; and I love to garden and work with my hands in other capacities.
Going to try to be as active a member of this comm as possible, with school and everything else. I like my posts to have content to them and it takes me a while to formulate my thoughts and write them out (yay neurodiversity!), so a lot of times I eschew quantity in favor of quality. :)
-Morag
Intro - akatonbo
May. 22nd, 2009 10:25 pmakatonboI tend to just describe myself as Unitarian Universalist, as it is both accurate and umbrella, but the long version is sort of Pagan-Buddhist-UU, although since the 'practice' aspect of spiritual practice is an area where I have a lot of room to improve, I'm not sure how much I can count myself as a Buddhist. (Being UU I am way on the 'works' side of the old 'faith vs. works' debate already, but of all the various pieces of my spiritual pie, Buddhism is the one that is, in my book, the most solidly something that one does, not something that one believes.)
I'm in my early 30s and have been at "this" for 20-25 years depending on exactly how you count "this". (I was a teenage witch in the early 1990s, before Buffy and Sabrina, and a would-be magickian in the mid-1980s, which was exactly as successful as you would expect it to be based on the immediately preceding information. I usually count back to junior high, since the shift from childhood games that were half made up from whole cloth to actual spiritual inquiry started about 7th grade, with either Scott Cunningham's crystal book, or possibly a couple of other crystal books that I might have acquired earlier.)
The idea of a Pagan-leaning interfaith community for "spiritual woo-woo" in particular really appeals to me, since that's one aspect of my spiritual life that doesn't get so much attention at church (UUs tend to skew a little skeptical), though I do have other outlets for it.
I was born on the cusp of Aquarius and Pisces, and boy, does it ever show. I'm pretty eclectic as a Pagan -- heavily influenced by Wicca and similar practices, since that's usually what you get in books and public/semi-public groups, but I don't really consider myself Wiccan, it's just a little bit... off. (More on that below.) I don't use the word 'witch' to describe myself much, haven't since college; some of the other words I have used instead by preference are starting to have the same problem now, in that they can mean so many things that you simply cannot count on anyone to understand what you actually mean to say about yourself by them. That'd be another reason why I so often just say I'm UU. As you might guess from the Pagan-Buddhist-UU part, or even just the UU part, I am equally eclectic in the parts of my spiritual life that are not of Pagan/neo-Pagan origin. I'm interested in learning about what other people believe and do whether it's something that speaks to me or not.
(The biggest area of not-quite-right-for-me with Wicca is probably the fact that Wicca proper -- and some but not all of the various things that are often called Wicca but probably shouldn't be -- often has a strong focus on gender polarity (and with it sexuality and fertility), and while those things are obviously an important part of a spiritual path that celebrates the cycles of the seasons and the cycles of life, they're not as central to my happily celibate daily life with my same-gendered partner as they are to so much Wiccan practice.)
Particular areas of long-term interest and/or current investigation include crystal healing, Reiki, the goddess Athena, modern Pagan practice that is well-informed by historical scholarship but is not Reconstructionist (I'm just too darn eclectic), the intersection of mindfulness practice with acceptance and commitment therapy, modern gods in the vein of Roman household gods and other gods of mundane life (I swear I do not only mean 'the baseball gods' but I admit they're in there), progressive Christianity of several flavors, and, well, a lot of things.
(I'd like to think it's already obvious, but I mean no slight to either Wicca, or to any of the things that others might call Wicca that I don't, by making such a distinction. Wicca is just one of several strands of modern neo-Pagan practice that have a number of surface similarities to one another but have some notable differences in belief/practice or history, and which are done a disservice by lumping everything that looks a little bit like a duck under one name.)
I'm in my early 30s and have been at "this" for 20-25 years depending on exactly how you count "this". (I was a teenage witch in the early 1990s, before Buffy and Sabrina, and a would-be magickian in the mid-1980s, which was exactly as successful as you would expect it to be based on the immediately preceding information. I usually count back to junior high, since the shift from childhood games that were half made up from whole cloth to actual spiritual inquiry started about 7th grade, with either Scott Cunningham's crystal book, or possibly a couple of other crystal books that I might have acquired earlier.)
The idea of a Pagan-leaning interfaith community for "spiritual woo-woo" in particular really appeals to me, since that's one aspect of my spiritual life that doesn't get so much attention at church (UUs tend to skew a little skeptical), though I do have other outlets for it.
I was born on the cusp of Aquarius and Pisces, and boy, does it ever show. I'm pretty eclectic as a Pagan -- heavily influenced by Wicca and similar practices, since that's usually what you get in books and public/semi-public groups, but I don't really consider myself Wiccan, it's just a little bit... off. (More on that below.) I don't use the word 'witch' to describe myself much, haven't since college; some of the other words I have used instead by preference are starting to have the same problem now, in that they can mean so many things that you simply cannot count on anyone to understand what you actually mean to say about yourself by them. That'd be another reason why I so often just say I'm UU. As you might guess from the Pagan-Buddhist-UU part, or even just the UU part, I am equally eclectic in the parts of my spiritual life that are not of Pagan/neo-Pagan origin. I'm interested in learning about what other people believe and do whether it's something that speaks to me or not.
(The biggest area of not-quite-right-for-me with Wicca is probably the fact that Wicca proper -- and some but not all of the various things that are often called Wicca but probably shouldn't be -- often has a strong focus on gender polarity (and with it sexuality and fertility), and while those things are obviously an important part of a spiritual path that celebrates the cycles of the seasons and the cycles of life, they're not as central to my happily celibate daily life with my same-gendered partner as they are to so much Wiccan practice.)
Particular areas of long-term interest and/or current investigation include crystal healing, Reiki, the goddess Athena, modern Pagan practice that is well-informed by historical scholarship but is not Reconstructionist (I'm just too darn eclectic), the intersection of mindfulness practice with acceptance and commitment therapy, modern gods in the vein of Roman household gods and other gods of mundane life (I swear I do not only mean 'the baseball gods' but I admit they're in there), progressive Christianity of several flavors, and, well, a lot of things.
(I'd like to think it's already obvious, but I mean no slight to either Wicca, or to any of the things that others might call Wicca that I don't, by making such a distinction. Wicca is just one of several strands of modern neo-Pagan practice that have a number of surface similarities to one another but have some notable differences in belief/practice or history, and which are done a disservice by lumping everything that looks a little bit like a duck under one name.)
Introductions
May. 22nd, 2009 06:15 pmtwistdfateangelWho I am: Brenna, also called Twisty
Where I am: Richmond VA, pining for my beloved Loudoun Co.
What I am: A hopeful writer, a hopeless romantic, a shameless redhead (at least, when my summer sunstreaks hit), a knitter, a newlywed, a Liberal, a bookworm, a fangirl (Hufflepuff Pride! Go Badgers!), an amature singer, a roleplayer and an armchair historian, with re-enacting leanings
Why I'm here: I've always been a spiritual oddball, but Christianity always "felt right". Some of the dogma never sat well, but I found what worked and forged my own path the older I got. Last year, I was flipping through a book on Paganism and stumbled upon a brief passage on the idea of Christian Witchcraft. Some people have called it crazy or blasphemy, others want to know why I feel the need to blend the two, and still others tell me not try and to just pick a side and stay there. I wish I could.
In my mind, Witchcraft is a "science", Wicca is a faith. It's like saying I'm an astrophysicist. My eyes are still focused on the skies, but I'm looking for the physics side of things. Also, I see a lot of parallels between the two faiths and that has helped.
What I'm up to: Lately, I've been attracted to animal magic, especially Raven, Lioness, Owl, Bee, Mouse, and Swan, as well as felt the pull of the goddess Hestia, oddly enough, in addition to Salome, Mary Magdalene, the Virgin of Guadalupe, St. Brigid of Kildare, and Eve. I should probably slow down on that, but I can't seem to stop myself. I've been practicing cartomancy for a few years, energy healing for a bit more time, and kitchen magic for a bit less. Also, recently, I've been exploring the concept of magic and divinity as it might tie in with old fairy tales and folklore.
What I'm hoping for: A few revelations, some advice, a miracle or five, and just some good, clever people to chat with.
...I swear, I'm not usually this much of a motormouth--er, hand.
Where I am: Richmond VA, pining for my beloved Loudoun Co.
What I am: A hopeful writer, a hopeless romantic, a shameless redhead (at least, when my summer sunstreaks hit), a knitter, a newlywed, a Liberal, a bookworm, a fangirl (Hufflepuff Pride! Go Badgers!), an amature singer, a roleplayer and an armchair historian, with re-enacting leanings
Why I'm here: I've always been a spiritual oddball, but Christianity always "felt right". Some of the dogma never sat well, but I found what worked and forged my own path the older I got. Last year, I was flipping through a book on Paganism and stumbled upon a brief passage on the idea of Christian Witchcraft. Some people have called it crazy or blasphemy, others want to know why I feel the need to blend the two, and still others tell me not try and to just pick a side and stay there. I wish I could.
In my mind, Witchcraft is a "science", Wicca is a faith. It's like saying I'm an astrophysicist. My eyes are still focused on the skies, but I'm looking for the physics side of things. Also, I see a lot of parallels between the two faiths and that has helped.
What I'm up to: Lately, I've been attracted to animal magic, especially Raven, Lioness, Owl, Bee, Mouse, and Swan, as well as felt the pull of the goddess Hestia, oddly enough, in addition to Salome, Mary Magdalene, the Virgin of Guadalupe, St. Brigid of Kildare, and Eve. I should probably slow down on that, but I can't seem to stop myself. I've been practicing cartomancy for a few years, energy healing for a bit more time, and kitchen magic for a bit less. Also, recently, I've been exploring the concept of magic and divinity as it might tie in with old fairy tales and folklore.
What I'm hoping for: A few revelations, some advice, a miracle or five, and just some good, clever people to chat with.
...I swear, I'm not usually this much of a motormouth--er, hand.
divination accuracy?
May. 15th, 2009 10:34 pmbohemianeditorIn a post I read recently, the poster mentioned that when sie began reading Tarot, hir readings weren't very accurate. Which is a much different perspective than I had when I began reading Tarot -- I assumed that the cards were accurate, I just didn't know how to read them yet.
What's your perspective? Is your divination method of choice always accurate? If not, do you think the fault is mostly in how you read it, or mostly in what the cards/runes/[ your method here ] had to say?
(I admit I don't keep track of whether or how often my Tarot readings are inaccurate; I also tend to ask more about forces behind a given situation than concrete, verifiable kinds of questions.)
What's your perspective? Is your divination method of choice always accurate? If not, do you think the fault is mostly in how you read it, or mostly in what the cards/runes/[ your method here ] had to say?
(I admit I don't keep track of whether or how often my Tarot readings are inaccurate; I also tend to ask more about forces behind a given situation than concrete, verifiable kinds of questions.)
Introduction and all that jazz
May. 8th, 2009 11:19 pmwickedwitchI've been known by many names over the years and any of them do just as well as the next. Currently Will suffices. As for the username, it relates to my path and it relates to my belief in music to transform. It's also because I so could get the name on this blog service!
I'm a thirty-something single mother on an eclectic witchcraft-flavoured path. I was raised in a very lax catholic home with one catholic parent and an agnostic. As a teenager I was taken in by a friend of the family who taught me a much more shamanistic path. My roots still lie there despite time's changes. Wicca came to me in my early twenties.
Sometime around thirty my beliefs merged even as I became less frightened of what there truly was. I'm a big subscriber to the term witch as I'm not wiccan, and pagan when in mixed company. I am a devotee of Hecate and tend to look to the cthonic deities, as well as those with high feminine energies. I read cards, toss stones, speak to spirits and believe that chaos should be as embraced as the shadows and darkness.
Fear comes from lack of knowledge and so I seek to learn as much as I can.
I'm a thirty-something single mother on an eclectic witchcraft-flavoured path. I was raised in a very lax catholic home with one catholic parent and an agnostic. As a teenager I was taken in by a friend of the family who taught me a much more shamanistic path. My roots still lie there despite time's changes. Wicca came to me in my early twenties.
Sometime around thirty my beliefs merged even as I became less frightened of what there truly was. I'm a big subscriber to the term witch as I'm not wiccan, and pagan when in mixed company. I am a devotee of Hecate and tend to look to the cthonic deities, as well as those with high feminine energies. I read cards, toss stones, speak to spirits and believe that chaos should be as embraced as the shadows and darkness.
Fear comes from lack of knowledge and so I seek to learn as much as I can.
Yet Another Intro post
Apr. 29th, 2009 10:09 pmwhite_asterHello all! I'm Aster, recently moving from InsaneJournal, where I mostly do fannish things of the anime/manga variety (no no wait, don't run away, I'm not That Kind of Fangirl, I promise!) I found this community through ye olde DW interests search, and from looking at other folks' intros, this looks to be a comfy place to settle!
This is pretty much the first time I've joined a pagany sort of community. So I've never really had to do this intro post thing before. Let's see how it goes!
I am, in no particular order: an analytical scientist, a worldbuildy writer, a lazy pagan, an inveterate introvert, a shoestring budget sensualist, and an all-around geek. \o/ On the spiritual side, I was raised Protestant, but college and the internet introduced me to paganism, and it just resonated more than the "unknowable God and sinful humans" archetype. I've dabbled in Wicca for a good ten years or more, but right now I don't really consider myself Wiccan, though the Rede and the Rule of Three are still pretty front-and-center in my beliefs. I'm sure that by a lot of definitions I'm a solitary, eclectic Wiccan with an Egyptian bent, but really I'm more comfortable just saying I'm a pagan. Less baggage that way. Also less nature (I'm not an outdoorsy person. I always felt that as a non-outdoorsy Wiccan I was kinda getting "ur doin it rong" messages from my subconscious.)
( Read more... )
This is pretty much the first time I've joined a pagany sort of community. So I've never really had to do this intro post thing before. Let's see how it goes!
I am, in no particular order: an analytical scientist, a worldbuildy writer, a lazy pagan, an inveterate introvert, a shoestring budget sensualist, and an all-around geek. \o/ On the spiritual side, I was raised Protestant, but college and the internet introduced me to paganism, and it just resonated more than the "unknowable God and sinful humans" archetype. I've dabbled in Wicca for a good ten years or more, but right now I don't really consider myself Wiccan, though the Rede and the Rule of Three are still pretty front-and-center in my beliefs. I'm sure that by a lot of definitions I'm a solitary, eclectic Wiccan with an Egyptian bent, but really I'm more comfortable just saying I'm a pagan. Less baggage that way. Also less nature (I'm not an outdoorsy person. I always felt that as a non-outdoorsy Wiccan I was kinda getting "ur doin it rong" messages from my subconscious.)
( Read more... )
Intro Post
Apr. 18th, 2009 05:33 pmpeskipiksiMy real name is Dani; my unhusband calls me Pixie, which he derived from my username, which I stole from Harry Potter. That is the worst introduction ever.
I have no faith. Sometimes I blame it on my lifelong battle with chronic pain. Everywhere I turned, growing up, the story about God and the story about my condition were the same: "you just need to hang in there and have FAITH, it will all WORK OUT/you will BE CURED!" I no longer believe either one. Whether I "have faith," in a Divine being or in an eventual cure, there is Stuff To Be Done and I have a deep-seated need to Do It. My thumb-twiddling faith-having does not Do Anything.
I grew up with a mother who had left Catholicism because she wanted something more experiential and Goddess-centered and a father whose religion was "I'm going to the woods by myself, see you later." What we actually practiced was a sort of neo-Wiccan mostly-intuitive hodgepodge with a healthy dose of "I wonder what happens when we...." I still recommend this approach to folk who, like me, find they have all the magical ability of a Frigidaire.
I'm practical to the point of pedantry (alliteration, whee!), and can often use a smack upside the head to remind me that ritual and mystery have their place in human experience - including MY human experience. I do zazen. I never remember holidays. I live in a hundred-year-old boarding house on the shore of Lake Michigan with a deaf odd-eyed Turkish Angora, a Rottweiler with no "mean" setting, a German Shepherd, and two aging hippies. My car is old enough to vote.
I have no faith. Sometimes I blame it on my lifelong battle with chronic pain. Everywhere I turned, growing up, the story about God and the story about my condition were the same: "you just need to hang in there and have FAITH, it will all WORK OUT/you will BE CURED!" I no longer believe either one. Whether I "have faith," in a Divine being or in an eventual cure, there is Stuff To Be Done and I have a deep-seated need to Do It. My thumb-twiddling faith-having does not Do Anything.
I grew up with a mother who had left Catholicism because she wanted something more experiential and Goddess-centered and a father whose religion was "I'm going to the woods by myself, see you later." What we actually practiced was a sort of neo-Wiccan mostly-intuitive hodgepodge with a healthy dose of "I wonder what happens when we...." I still recommend this approach to folk who, like me, find they have all the magical ability of a Frigidaire.
I'm practical to the point of pedantry (alliteration, whee!), and can often use a smack upside the head to remind me that ritual and mystery have their place in human experience - including MY human experience. I do zazen. I never remember holidays. I live in a hundred-year-old boarding house on the shore of Lake Michigan with a deaf odd-eyed Turkish Angora, a Rottweiler with no "mean" setting, a German Shepherd, and two aging hippies. My car is old enough to vote.
Mod note: Tags
Apr. 17th, 2009 10:07 pmbohemianeditorAny member of the community can now create tags and add them to entries. I've added the tag intro to the recent intro posts; if you'd like to add other simple, descriptive tags, please do so.
