Value and worth.

Value and worth.

We have been busy here at LucyDrake&Co. On Friday we had a big photo shoot of some of our products and yesterday E. mini witch and I blended ground, tweaked, tested and tweaked some more a large batch of incense for Lughnasadh and another batch for Blessing. This took hours. It took hours because I haven't made incense on this scale before. It took hours because I was also teaching. It took hours because hand grinding, cutting and shaving tiny curls of wood takes time and effort (especially rose wood and juniper berries!) It took hours because scaling it up from the small batch recipe didn't make it smell like the small batch at all! It took hours because every time an other ingredint went into the cauldron we chanted. It was fun, but it was very hard work. I was surprised these last few days at some people's ideas about the value of things and the worth of people.Whether it was someone charging a 10p for a tarot reading (ooh that will come back to haunt you and no mistake) or how much art, artist and handmade products are not always seen as the more than the sum cost of the parts. It is the time, the research, the years of honing your craft, the practice, the mistakes, the energy and of course, the love. You are not buying something that is a piece of pressed plastic, you are buying someone's time and creative love. It isn't the fabric, wood or stone it is the power and passion of that person. It is their magick that you are buying and that can never be cheapened. It reminded me of that phrase, knowing the cost of everything, the value of nothing.When you buy something made in a sweat shop by kids who can not afford to go to school, THAT is the energy in your things. When you buy things that are made with love, whether it is the paintings of your young child, the skilled work of a craftsman (or woman) or something you make your self that is the energy that radiates into your life. 
The runes above are TK's creation. Within those coins of holly wood are not only the markings of an ancient language, but his years of research, his time, his love and appreciation for the Norse culture and his magick.

When I make a Dancing Goddess Fertility charm, I not only make the pattern, fill with stuffing and herbs, and sew it shut. Every stitch is a prayer, every row is a blessing. I put my time care and love into each part. It is not a toy or a joke. I had a fair few more of these but I gifted them to friends struggling with conception, pregnacy and birth. They have work for these lovely families. It isn't a sure thing, I don't have the power of life and death, but they don't hurt a drop! Many ladies have them with them in the birthing room as a focus as they are soft and sweetly scented. They say that they had that feeling of connectedness to something bigger, something ancient.
How do I put a price on that? Yet I live in the real world and to have a shop I must. 

So as I stitched a sweet sleep candle pillow last night and watch E make a clay Goddess I knew the value of friendship, time, and love. The value of magick. These items are not just acts of creation. They are acts of love.
Bright blessings xxx    

What are Demons and are they real?

What are Demons and are they real?

 

Right! I work with spirit and non physical, quasi-physical and multi dimension beings. I work with energy and thought and have created thought-forms, house guardians and fetches. This energy being that has a little life span, and is of a place and time, like a willow the whisp, a cat of shadow, it is well documented thing in many practices. In Janet and Stuart Farrar's a Witches Bible they talk about. Louis Bourne too. 
So are demons "real"?
Well I have encountered "demonic" and inhuman entities. For the most part they just feel and look weird. They are not great house guest but I have not encountered a single one that wasn't man-made. Either on purpose, or through mental illness. Where someone who is mentally ill has taken their life there is this "personification" of their illness that is sometimes hanging around. This is not the same as a persons spirit that hasn't crossed over. They can be dark sometimes (people get cranky when ignored or there are people in their house).
Daemons or "Lords of Fire" or fire beings are different again. This being of light and fire sometimes manifest through an actual fire or flame. They see to belong to the Fire Fey realms and through fire can connect to this realm. Most of them are (like most fey) ambivalent to human for the most part, but not unkind. They think their own thoughts, can travel and do what they like. They do not think like humans or have the same sensibilities. I haven't met one that I didn't get on with, I like fire spirits.
When someone tells me they "summon demons" I have to work hard not to roll my eyes. I figure they are either making it up, making them into existence, or some spirits are having a good old laugh at their expense.
The thing is if you spend all your time and energy making "dark" and "negative" things take actual form in the Veil that isn't going to make your life good of happy. Also these creations don't leave when you leave and if you are not powering them they will feed on anyone who is there. This means that Muggin's aka me, or someone, has to disperse them from whence they came. These kinds of spirits don't like loud noises, salt, bright lights, or sage. This is because these things are usually seen as "demon bane". A quick smudge, a run through with a witchblade and they return to smoke and bad attitude.
Much easier than having to spend hours and talk sweetly, kindly and lovingly to coax someone to cross over.
So yes. Demons are real, but only because people make them, but intention or by illness. They are not big or clever. They are not funny or cool. They are not like working with spirits of a place, or the dead, or the fey.

Have a lovely day. Bright Blessings xx

Good things

Good things

So I am sat listening to the wonderful Gayla Drake's music. All is right with the world. I have a lovely glow and energy all around me. Today we will be shooting pictures for goods to go into the Etsy store. I am excited. I am also happy that the plumber will around a little later to fix the (nearly new) loo they put in. Some kind of valve problem. 
I am just so grateful and happy this morning. I can feel that "thing" that was stuck, that block is now gone and everything is flowing, exactly as it should.
Tomorrow I will be making that hand blended herbal incense (no fillers, no synthetics, just herbs, resins and essential oils) with E. I do like making days. I could even make some more charms. I feel like I could do anything today.
All the right people are almost in place for another something I am working on. I call it The Healer Guild. I am drawing local healers of all kinds together to heal each other and learn from each other too. Healers give great advice but rarely take their own so having folks there to take care of each other as well as be around like minded folk of all paths and so on can be nothing but good.

What tools do I need as a beginner in the Craft?

What tools do I need as a beginner in the Craft?

The most important magickal tool you will ever own is you (and that is a loaner). If you learn to focus your mind, work with not against your body, infuse your life with your own unique spirit, you will always have magick. Always. If you want to know your own knowing it will take time and effort, and those are the only tools you need. Oh except a pocket knife those things are handy!

 In terms of what to read it depends on what "speaks" to you. If you are academic then the older more difficult books are a good place to start. Those would include The Golden Bough, the White Goddess, and Gardener's Book of Shadows. If native traditions speak to you read folklore and stories by medicine men and women, like Entering the Circle, or Black Elk Speaks. Rad Culpepper or Hoffman about herbs. Read old books about palmistry or ghost stories, spirit stories. 

Take a dance class (belly-dance is especially good) and feel the rhythm move you. Enjoy your body. Swim. Take up fire-walking or fire poi. Be in the world but not of it. Make music. Scuba dive. Fly kites. Feed birds. Dig a garden. These are all deeply, soulfully connective spiritual practice.

At the beginning of your path there is little point buying or making ritual tools if you do not know what you will need. If you are going into the wilds you will need different things than if you are heading to the library. That is not to say you can not be both or do both. I am a bibliophile who loves camping so it is not either or.

Practically, a decent pocket knife, a weather proof coat (preferably with deep pockets), walking boots, a notebook and pencil/pen, are my MUST HAVE'S. Barefoot sounds wonderful until you turn your ankle on tree root. Naked sounds great (it is great) but there is always "man with dog" and in some cases "owl watching group". Deep pockets can collect all kinds of treasures you find, horse hair, lambs wool, thorns, a pretty rock, a small guide book (flowers, birds, rocks).  If you need to poke something, move something, cut something, leave a mark for some reason, a knife is essential. You can even use it as a temporary athame if you needed to. 

 

New Adventures

New Adventures

It has been a bit of a mad time around here, what the the Solstice and helping out in D's garden (yes I know I had a lumbar puncture, no it wasn't clever). For a little while I have been thinking of making and selling charms and incense, TK has been making sets of runes (ooh they really POP) and collecting wood to make more. I also have some very talent students who could use my knowledge and skill to learn and also make some money.

In short. I am opening a Etsy shop called 

LucyDradeandCo  

(it would have been LucyDrake&Co but the thing wouldn't let me.) I don't have the best pictures at the moment but I will soon!
I have all kinds of ideas for spells and charms.TK reads and writes Egyptian hieroglyphics, and could make written personalized spells and charms, cuts a pretty good bind rune, makes gorgeous wand and staffs.

 I am not too shabby at sewn charms, balms, oils *I am a qualified V.T.C.T aromatherapist* and I hand grind herbal incenses. We can both make spells, charms and ritual objects including sacred art for ritual rooms. 

I am teaching E my herb craft and we will be making Lammas/Lughnasa incense this weekend (she has a pretty good head start). E also is a fabulous artist, so personalized pages for Books of Shadows or Grimoires, altar pieces, hand written prayers or poems from my book can all be ordered.

 D will be taking photographs and adding them to the shop. D is a good reader, his tarot work is coming on leaps and bounds. He also a wonderful artist. 

So get your orders in! I imagine we will be furiously busy. This shop comes about for quite a few reasons. One of them being that I am on several on-line market boards and the utter flat, lifeless, cheap junk being sold breaks my damn heart! Not all, some really has the passion and fire. The spark of something sacred, but many just add beads to a stick and charge a FORTUNE. I do have to say it was D's idea though. I was grinding real ritual incense and I was explain what not to buy and where not to buy it from, when he suggested I sold mine. I honestly hadn't thought about that before. I had thought of a little shop, almost like an old fashioned sweet shop, with many jars and bottles and a high counter (this works in my brain but not in life, I am tiny). Selling runes, and herbs, natural feathers, incense, wands and the like. So until such time as I have a little shop I will have the on-line version. 
 Blessed Be you lovely people!



:)

To Love

To Love

 

Loving openly, honestly is the bravest and most courageous thing we do. Not loving someone FOR something. Not loving them because of what they do, or could give us, but because this person simply sparks delight. This love can be friendship, sisterhood, maternal, or something undefined. It is pure because there are no desires. It is pure because it is not based on an action, but on beingness. Accepting this love fully into whole being is a skill to learn. Loving this way can take much time too.

Eros, Philia, Ludus, Agape, Pragma, Philautia.

Our Western culture seems to place much more value on sexual love than say Agape, the generous universal love. We dismiss all love and loving relationships that are not with Eros. It is possible to love someone in all of these ways, at different times of our lives. 

You can not possess and ocean or a breeze, yet there is often a violent desire to possess a person and we call this love?  

I want this person to make me feel...?

 I want this person to...?

I want this person and then everything will be...?

None of these are loving. Loving is about the desire to wrap your arms around someone and make them feel safe, cared for, loved. We get so wrapped up in our feeling we almost do not need another person at all. Maybe this kind of love is our misguided way to have Philautia, self love. For loving our self kindly, honestly open the door to loving others.

When we do not require someone else to fill our cup, our hearts, our worthiness, then we able to full pour or affection towards others.

I try and spend a few moments every day dwelling in a state of love. For myself and for all those who I open my heart to. For those who can be anywhere, do anything and still I love them. For they are like stars, mururations, fireflies, a newly blooming flower, like sisters, mother's, brother's, children, lovers, and they are a delight.

Accidental Magick

Accidental Magick 

The Two Laws of Magick state that "like attracts like", that "you are connected by D.N.A." .

To do magick requires will, energy and focus. This doesn't mean you willingness to do the magick it means your desire for something. Our desires are not always nice, they are not always understood and they at odds with our emotions.

A good example.

I really want that job. Yet I feel unworthy, fearful, distrustful.

These two feelings are at odds with each other. The desire is not as strong as the fear. There is no belief, no light. In this space the feelings we radiate spoil the desire. We will attract magickally the thing we fear not what we want

I really want to smack that person up the side of the head. I shouldn't think nasty thoughts. I should be kinder.

In this situation the desire is stronger than the feelings of what is "appropriate". The negative desired affect (whether perceived or not) is radiated. The desire is very strong it overwhelms everything else. Magickally this is what we are pushing towards that person.

I am want success. I feel really good about myself and trust good is coming.

In this situation the desire and the feeling are in harmony.The feelings and the will are in balance and what we desire manifests easily.

This is why meditation of both thought and emotion is important. It is choosing to radiate harmoniously. All people think do this tp themselves and other. All people do this kind of magick.

My week

My week

So I have a had a weird few days. On Sunday last week, I got struck by a "Thunderclap" headache (the worst pain I have ever been in) and I retreated to my bed growling (as only a dragon can) for a couple of days. Then I was still fragile but puttering around. On Wednesday I was still feeling crappy and TK put my symptoms into the NHS checker. It said CALL AN AMBULANCE and I was like "pfft".

So we did it again. Then we called the NHS helpline thing and they were like, "go to hospital NOW". I agreed that after he had done what needed to be done I would go to the emergency room, by taxi. Anyway we checked in with the nurse then we waited. And waited. and oh waited. Hours and hours pass and I am like "I can't be dying THAT much."

So finally, like 5 hours later I see a doctor who is really good. They do a C.A.T. scan to check for bleeding in my brain ( but as I waited so long it could have long since stopped.) So then the neurologist turns up. He doesn't look impressed. (At this point I am expected to get sent home.)

He admits me because they need to give me a lumbar puncture. I nod and smile okay. What ever they think is best.

I get whipped up to the neurology ward and spend the night being woken by either the other patients or the loud nurses and ward staff just talking really loudly. They wake you up at 7.30am. It takes about an hour for me to start to panic. After an awful breakfast and a cup of "tea" (hot milk someone has waved a teabag at) that was so awful I could't drink it) I decided I need to get a grip.

I spent the next couple of hours (until TK came in with my meds) meditating and healing with spirit myself in 15 minute blocks.

When I wasn't doing that I was researching or writing notes for another book (The Witches book of Baking <working title)

This spirit healing was not only welcome but it made me feel calm and confident, and let go of a lot of the panic.

So I had the procedure and though it took a long time it was not that painful. (I am bruised and a bit sore now mind you.) and then I had to wait for the results (which were fine).

So I rest. Then I remembered my plans to go camping for the Litha weekend. Nobody thinks this is a great idea. In the end on the Friday we have a simple barbecue in the garden with music and then shoot some arrows. TK and D, myself and mini witch have a lovely evening. I then decide to be adventurous and go to a stone circle I haven't been to before.

So we all pile in the car. The weather is great PAGAN ROAD TRIP, we get a little lost, have some great stops on the way. We arrive at nine ladies stone circle. Then we get there and walk through a beautiful forest. There are a lot of people, way more than I expected. It was a long walk and I am walking with 2 sticks/ walking staffs to support my back. All of the people we pass are hippy/alt. However all of them that pass us reek, and I do me reek, of beer. I used to live and work in a pub with TK and no matter how well you clean when you walk downstairs in the morning and open the door the smell of stale beer and sweat hits you. THAT is how they smelled.

I thought it was odd but we kept walking. Now we are all hungry. I am getting tired. So we stop and have a little picnic. Some bread, some nice sliced meats, some salad. We sit under a really, really old and huge beech tree. It is idyllic. Yet more people, some with very large dogs go passed, either carrying fire wood or carrying water up or empty containers down. I am think "Wow" this must be some rite!"

Anyway I am starting to get a very bad feeling.

We finish up and start heading the last leg. About 30 feet up the path I see a pile of toilet paper, and human shit. I mention it to TK and he saw it. We keep walking. There is more. There is garbage and more human feces and on either side of the path. We can now see tents. We can now hear music. There are fires and evidence of fire on the ground everywhere. There is rubbish and junk everywhere. There is a massive sound system set up. For a moment we wander around until we realize WE ARE AT THE STONES. We all look at each other. At the offering we had brought. TK takes a flower from the bunch we brought and places it on the historic place information maker. We turn around and start to head back. The sound of people ripping limbs of trees and being gross ringing in our ears. I had spotted a short cut back to the road on the way up and we took it on the way back. Mini witch did fall of the edge of the road into a ditch of nettles on the way back to the car. (This is where we lost our flowers). I pick some dock, and them some cleaves (which I chewed and spat onto the worst part of her wounds). We got back to the car all feeling sad and angry and hurt.

We head back to Bakewell and grab some water and pop into the little crystal shop. We get hydrated, wash a little mud and slush off us and feel a bit better. (I pick up some Preseli blue stone.)

We get back into the car and head towards Arbor Low. I am feeling a bit grumpy. As we arrive I can see a few cars and my heart sinks but I walk but through the farm and all the stress falls away. The peace of the place washes over me. I walk through the opening in the ring ditch and I feel it tingling tang of magick. The signs of a ritual are still there. There are bells and flowers on the central stones and symbols drawn in flour on the inward banks. We all split up and move through the space. I find a stone and try and lie down on it. It hurts like hell. I sit for a while and then take off my shoes and socks. I place the Preseli stone into one of the many divits in the rock and I can feel this sudden surge. I carefully go and lie down on the central stone feel the pain and grief and anger washing out of me. More folks arrive and I respectfully move from the central stone, though I could have stayed there all day and I make my back to to stone I started at. I put on my shoes again. I tried to organize everyone into chanting or something but Mini witch wasn't feeling it and so we just drifted. I went and sat at the mound opposite the circle opening. I sat and just surrendered. I cried a little. I let go. I don't know how long I was like that. Mini witch was walking around and around widdershins along the bank. TK sat behind me.

After a while everyone gravitated back towards us and then TK decided it was time for cake and we went back to the car. We began our drive back. I still sat with mini witch in the back and we stopped for a lovely pub dinner, though mini witch was asleep and wasn't pleased about getting out of the car. The food was really good, though not cheap! The building was lovely and had a great vibe.

When we got back D fell fast asleep on the sofa. I didn't have the heart to wake him! TK was ranting on Facebook about Nines Ladies stone circle and I know why. Rocks are his friends. To see them degraded in such an awful way was heart breaking. Why anyone, there where family bringing their children there to camp and pregnant women, to such a place and then shit on it, literally was just shameful. Utterly shameful. The idea that the mess they were leaving was "someone else's problem" and to be unable to understand that shitting upstream from the water you were DRINKING was both dangerous and disgusting.     

What is a spirit guide?

What is a spirit guide?

And so the cry went out. 

What is a spirit guide? 

Well in short the answer is in the title. It is a spirit that guides you. It is a spirit who has crossed over (not a ghost that haunts you or bugs you) that has chosen to guide you for a set time, lesson, or part of your life.

This spirit may not be human (we are not the only life forms with spirits). You might have an animal guide. This is not the same as a totem or familiar (that is a whole other blog, or better yet read my book)*. The animal spirit (or person) might look like a swan, otter or dog, but that doesn't mean they are or were. Nor should they be revered too highly or dismissed too quickly. 

I told someone their spirit guide was a swan and they were mortified. (Clearly it wasn't cool enough/sexy enough/spiritual enough).

As a child my spirit guide (one of) was a large white horse that would gallop towards me. There are two interesting facts about this. I happen to be born in the Chinese year of the horse (not something I knew in rural Wales at the time). As my Grandmother was dying she keep saying she was seeing (she was blind most of her life) white horses running. So much so that a white horse was made of flowers for her funeral.

Now to work with your guide you need to be in touch with Spirit. If you don't do spirit work, your guide will still be their moving things unseen, helping meet the right people at the right time, and so on.

Working with spirit is not glamorous or spooky. It takes time, effort and practice. (Okay I think we lost a lot of folks right there).

That is the truth though. Working with spirit is about inviting Spirit into your life and practice. Spirit guides are not perfect, they are often just good people. My guide when I first started working with spirit my guide was an artist (a French guy). I wanted to channel using a paintbrush, so that is what I did. It was odd thinking in french sometimes. During this time I meditated daily, sat with other mediums up to three times a week and learned my ass off. While my friends were getting high and getting laid, this was what I was doing.

When I left my body and journeyed to spirit/astral/Veil as an (nearly) adult for the first time I was greeted by many spirits. Nearly all of them were animals. I didn't feel upset or disappointed by this. I cried with overwhelming joy. I tranced out of my body after a meditation in the farm's kitchen. (no glamorous ritual required). This reunion was brief and it was mostly human guides I had from that time on.

I have two spirit guides at the moment. One I have always had (lets just call her the Blue Lady) and the cheerful Druid. Sometimes when I heal with spirit I get "the doctor" (a small tubby American gent with round glasses and very little hair).

My spirit guides don't move things, knock stuff over or "haunt" me. My fey are another matter entirely. They do love to take things. Eat things. Move them, then sometimes put them back.

If you want to work with your spirit guide you do actually need to work with spirit. It sounds trite but I mean it. You can try and pick and chose but either it is your path or not. This might meaning dealing with folks who are stuck and need crossing over. You have to be able to touch both sides gently to make a door for spirit to pass through. If it not your path, don't worry, it isn't your path! To be a medium is to dwell in that place between. It is not an easy path. Your guides will guide in in dreams and gently all of your life. They will watch over you and try and keep you on the best path.Sometimes they will whisper, sometimes they will roar, depends on the person (and the spirit). Spirit guides watch and protect over people and places, no matter what you do. It is far better if it is not your path to speak to a professional medium and then allow the subtle nudge of spirit in your day to day life.

*A familiar is a very, very, very rare thing. I have seen true familiars twice in my life. It is not unlike the daemons in His Dark Material/Golden Compass. As though half a soul is outside their body. It is amazing to watch. This is not a pet. Not even one you love very much. It is your soul-mate in animal form.

An animal totem. 

It is a symbolic form to guide and teach you. It is not a bear. It is BEAR, all bearness, the essence of bear, or sparrow or snail. It is a teacher trying to get your attention. Listen to it. Over a life time you may have many teachers. Maybe you need salmon, hawk, dove. For each lesson is unique. They will manifest in dreams, but also in your life. Horses, cats or bears will appear where you are, in pictures and on objects. Your relationship with this totem will change and grow.

Bright Blessings xx

More Not-so-imaginary friends

Not-so-imaginary Friends

As a child I always saw spirit of all kinds. Sometimes that feeling prickling of being watched made me scared. I couldn't find the words to the grown ups, most of whom didn't want to listen anyway. My families view on the supernatural was one of irritation or silence. All of my family has some degree of sight or knowing (which sounds delightful) in reality it wasn’t. As I aged my mother’s silence, her tight lipped glare at me, was enough for me to know that this was not a topic for discussion, especially around people.
I learned to watch and listen, ignore and fear, both my own mind (was I mad?) as well as spirit in general. After meeting a group of spiritualist mediums at the tender age of 18, I was surprised and elated to know, to speak, and to learn I was not mad and I was not alone. I have been walking with spirit ever since.
 Time after time, on Facebook groups and other pages the heartfelt plea goes out.
 “Help! My child sees…”
“Help there are spirits in my daughter’s room.”
“Help! My granddaughter is seeing things.”
As a mother myself of a mini witch and a medium if you have a child bothered by the things they see, feel or know I would gently suggest some simple things. I would also like to say that spirit are for the most part not evil, dark or nasty. Some spirits get lost, or stuck. Most cross over peacefully into a place of light so bright you cannot see into it. Spirits are most often people. Some are good, some are bad. Sometimes you might get faeries or “monsters”. Yet the level of understanding, internal fears, shape how they are seen and understood by children (and adults alike).

Talk about it. 

Children are far smarter than we give them credit for. If you can, make it a story or a game. This is especially so of bedtime stories.
"Once upon a time there was a boy/girl who was magickal, and they could do anything in their dreams..."
This allows children the power and understanding of that dreaming space. Listen to them. Not every closet monster is a spirit, but that doesn’t make them any less real for a child. It is far easier to externalize, and fantasize the fear, the shameful, the rage, than to accept those “dangerous” emotions as part of the self. They can also represent someone, or part of someone who frightens them when awake. Then there the giant lava penguins, just random nightmares kids get from time to time!


Songs and Games

Chants have power. In a ritual circle we can feel it bouncing back as the words spin round and round. You can use one of those chants (there are plenty of beautiful chants, especially on YouTube. Or you can write your own together. Kids won't always remember, especially when scared complicated protection spells. Here are some examples of simple sing-song rhymes.
"Circle, circle, round and bright, keeps me safe day and night."
"Shoo, Shoo, go away, I am busy! I cannot play." 
"In my dreams, I did see [what they saw] I don't mind they can't hurt me."
"In the candle, I can see [what they see] looking at me. They say [what they say] and now I say I am done!" (blow out candle.)


Kids smell fear.

My Mum was a music and supply teacher. Any teacher will tell you that kids can smell fear. In a school setting this can be anarchy. At home, if you are scared children will also be frightened. Accepting that these little ones are seeing things that are beyond their years can be overwhelmed enough for many adults! Letting go of your own fear is the easiest way to instill calm and confidence in a child. A child with this gift needs to be taught that it is a gift. If they are not, if they are taught that not only what they are seeing is “wrong” or “evil” but that they “wrong” or “evil” are for even seeing it, can change their whole relationship with spirit and themselves. My sister saw too. Yet she spoke out at school and some very unpleasant “Christian” children made her life hell. She was evil. She was unclean. She began to have nightmare and wake up screaming to be baptized. She was no older than 8. She never forgot that fear, especially of herself and refuses to even speak about spirit anymore.  If your child or grandchild has this gift, accept and love them for who they are.

Sleeping space.

   Making a child’s room a haven of peace and sleep and an established bedtime routine can help those with night terrors. I am a fan of soft soothing music that plays all night. Chamomile hot chocolate (you make up the chamomile tea then use it to make the instant hot chocolate) can also help children settle and find their sleep pattern. Even the regular kind from the supermarket is enough. My daughter was always a fan of a lavender foot rubs too and an empowering bedtime story. If she can ride dragons and climb mountains then she drifted off feeling positive about herself.
 I would often cast a circle around my daughter’s room if I was going to being doing a big ritual that night. Especially if there was going to be a lot of us. I just wanted her to have a nice bubble of peace and sleep around her, so our ruckus wouldn't wake her.


Make a protection charm

If making a charm it is important you don't just give it to them and that they help make it. This is about the child feeling helpless, which is frightening. Allowing them to feel that this is something they can control, gives them back the power.
They can chose something sparkly with lots of glitter and sweet herbs, or something ugly to scare stuff away. This isn’t a gender thing, my daughter loves gruesome! A pinch of dried basil and some rowan berries in either wouldn’t hurt.
You can use felt or fabric and they can make the pretty fairy, or gruesome goblin (or monster) and stuff it with glitter hearts for love, written "happy thoughts" (or awful thoughts like homework, sprouts and snot) you can add sweet herbs like rose petals (or St John’s Wort which is "pongy"). Then you sew it all up and then get them to hang it in their room where it will only allow good to come in or where they will scare the bad things away. They will know "where the bad stuff comes in". Don’t forget to leave a loop so you can hang it up!

Sweep the room.
Picking up a broom and cleaning and cleansing the space together is both helpful and therapeutic. Sweeping the floor, and even walls, can remove left over emotions and even memories in a space. If the place needs a super clean you can wash and scrub with soapy water with salt and basil and lavender essential oil in it. You can add a little of this mix to the laundry when washing the bedding too. You could smudge the space with cedarwood or sage, though I am not a fan of using smoke in young children’s rooms. If I do I make sure that the windows are wide open and it gets a good airing afterwards.


Keep talking
When things settle down grown ups tend to forget that kids will still need to talk about their dreams and their experiences. It is a good time to talk about, ask questions, or just connect. Asking who they see, what they see can be both beautiful and profound. I am lucky that when mini witch used to stand and babble in her cot, and I heard someone speaking back I knew that it was her great-grandmother watching over and I was delighted not afraid. I was surprised still how strongly she got her great grandmother’s accent as she did when she first started talking! It is also common for children to play with siblings that they are going to have or who passed before they were born. It is love that keeps us together. Love knows no death. Most spirit is not malicious or evil. Most spirit, even if it is only strong enough to manifest as a shadow, do no harm. If something happens you are unhappy or scared of and these measures have not worked, see a good professional medium. If you had problems with the pipes you would call a plumber right?
If your child or grandchild sees things, is often away, dancing with the fairies, do remember they are in the very best company.

I hope some of this helps. Blessings Lucy Drake.

The Laws of Magick

 The Laws of Magick

There are two basic magickal laws. I don't mean poems, tropes, commandments, guidelines, moral judgements I mean two truths about how magick works.

The first sounds easy. Sympathetic.
Like attracts like.
In magick we often substitute one thing for another. The symbolic for the "real". We use these symbols, ingredients, energies to align, radiate, create the outcome desired. The interesting thing is this does not only work during a spell, ritual, prayer or rite. It works all the time. Who we are, what we think, what we radiantly give to the Universe, Goddesses and Gods, comes to us. Changing our perception of this fundamental magickal law can have profound effects, changing your thoughts always does, it also shifts how you see the world. It changes the responsibility.

"Why is life so hard? Why doesn't anyone love me? Why don't I get attention?"

 Changes to...

"Why am I making this hard? Why do I not feel worthy of love? Why do I need attention from others?"

This world is beautiful, amazing and full of wonderful people and places. Are you adding to that? Are you taking? Are you accepting the GOOD that comes to you or focusing on the "bad"?

The second law, sounds difficult but is easier.
The law of Contagion.
Your blood, sweat and tears, hair, nails and even shadow contain a fragment of your whole self, your spirit, your D.N.A. This ties people together. It connects people over long distances. An intimate connection. 

The combination of both of these laws is woven into every kind of magick. A lock of hair, an image of a person, honey and herbs, a fire, some water, are all basic parts of spell craft.
This weaving of Laws doesn't only work when we say it should, or when we are paying attention. It works all the time.
Magick isn't just something that "happens" when we say it should. It is all around us all the time. So what are you thinking about? Who are you thinking about and holding onto? What accidental magick are you doing in your life? 
Find your Joy, your peace, your love for the world and those in it, be a it a dog or yourself. Think better thoughts. Not because I say so, I do but because you deserve to be happy and only you can make that happen.

Blooming In June

Blooming In June

 

Sometimes teaching can feel like a slog. You work and work and can't tell what is sticking. Teaching meditations and the Craft mean that while you can ask questions you can never really tell what is happening and what is not. So those lovely moments when you *wells up* see a blossoming really lift you. This weekend both students blossomed. D seemed tired and struggled with his focus during some guided meditations and I couldn't tell where his head was at. Then Sunday we went on a drive and he seemed clearer. Then we (myself, TK and D) worked on his wand. We cut and sanded, and set a couple of crystals in it. Something beautiful and powerful emerged from the wood and from himself. I could see he got it. It was a good moment.

E had her own blooming marvelous moment too. We messaged each other backwards and forwards about her personal journey, who she saw herself as and the people around her that "didn't get her". This moment where she could see that there was not something wrong with her, only that she had yet to find her own space to grow and be loved by those around her. What happened next blew me away. I knew she was a talented artist but she drew on the candle and joy meditations and in her journal created a piece of stunning art from it. It radiated a joy, and a deep unspoken understanding.

I even had folks from The Key Facebook group who thought they were struggling and after having a brief chat I could see they were getting it really well. Using the practice IN their lives. Adapting it to their needs and pace. Blooming seems to happen all at once, but the truth is it takes time and space and light. Slowly, slowly the flower buds and then there is a slight pause, a holding of breath, an unsureness. Then it can not be contained and bursts forth.

This seasonality sometimes stumps people. They do not understand why they do not bloom all the time. Yet there is a time for roots. A time to dig deeply into the dirt. A time to grow. A time to let go of the seeds and see what grows. A time of frost. A time of dying back, a seasonal death. Yet the cycle continues either in seed or from roots deep in the ground. 

Today I feel less the like a teacher and more like a gardener. My garden looks beautiful to me!

The Key.

My Poems.

The Goddess of Blood and Thunder

The Goddess of Blood and Thunder

I awoke this morning to lightening and storm, practically on top of the house. I also woke to my moon bleed. It felt good. I don't know if I have a lack of shame because I refused to be shamed by such a vital, healthy part of my being. I don't know why my mother's shame and hatred, though confusing never stuck properly. Or if something happened at the farm in the middle of all those animals, birthing and nursing, living and dying, that shifted something in me. 

I was sure when my moon bleed began something vital, spiritual and important had happened, but my um-mothered mother greeted my bleed with rage and contempt. I was confused and I felt vulnerable. Yet when everyone around me "went on the pill" I refused (GP seemed to think at 15 years of age every girl should if only for her own benefit to keep her regular) I believed that this was a powerful force that should not be messed with lightly, if at all. I know women who have never had a natural cycle in their whole lives. Friends and girls and women got pregnant even if they were taking the pill. When (at 18, positively ancient where I am from) I did lose my virginity and from that point on I used condoms as my preferred contraceptive. I have had incidents and accidents and used the morning after pill twice. The pill changes women. As do implant coils. Something happens. While I understand and believe in birth control, sexual choice and the autonomy of the body, this sort of birth control often seems to have the opposite, or negative effect. Women tend to put on weight, carry extra water, feel depressed and strange. Their sexual appetites fall away into nothingness. Worse still it sets up this idea that the female body is "unhealthy" and "wrong" and needs "controlling". As someone who really never has"controlled" I tend to be regular as clockwork (or the moon) when I remember to mark it in my diary correctly! I have little to minimal pain. I am more sensitive (I am pretty sensitive the rest of the time) to smell, sound, light and touch. While usually I crave company when I bleed I crave silence, peaceful setting and rest. I take it slower. I have often thought that if I could re-order the world how I wished I would remove weekends. I would stack days off so we worked for three weeks and rested for a week. The way my body naturally seems to want to.

There is still a huge shame given to women and girls, still a huge discomfort about the fact that we bleed at all.

"Take a pill, stop bleeding, reproducing and being female."

This glaring bloody red SHAME that we are not men, that somehow being vulnerable, sensitive and female is still criminal, or threatening and must be erased. 

Make yourself so thin you won't bleed. Make yourself meditated so you won't bleed. If you do bleed, never speak of it. Never accept it. Never embrace your body. Wear shoes that cripple you and stop your feet touching the earth. Wear long nails so you can not touch others. Look like a prepubescent girl, one that doesn't bleed or have body hair.

Is this all fear of menses? Is how the Western culture tells women to live, look and be, part of that?

For me my moon is needed rain. The cleansing storm. Natural and healthy. Even beautiful. 

It isn't "a thing" that "gets rid" of waste. It is a process of renewal. Of awakening and dreaming. Of seeing the and feeling the world differently. That is why I loved the storm, and my womanly body, in all it's curvy bloody glory.

Radio Ga Ga

Radio Ga Ga

So I was on the radio! Prairieland pagan radio to be precise! It was a blast with Lyn and Gayla, I had such a good time and yesterday though I allocated it as a rest day, I was still wired! I seemed to send all day trying to sleep and failing. Today I am a rather foggy wisp of a thing, not unlike the weather (the dog is snuggled up next to me sharing my wool blanket). I enjoyed it so much I toyed with a new microphone I saw today.

In the last few days I have done some lovely meditations and spoken to such wonderful people.  I feel very blessed. 

The interest in the book (regular and Kindle) is kind of blowing my mind! The positive response from those reading it that was exactly what they were looking for makes me a bit teary. Then I even had someone ask me to become a moderator for a facebook group (I looked over the application and figured I am already avoiding writing too much as it is!) This BIG LOVE and RESPECT thing coming at me is just great!

My meditations (think I will add them to the next book) are about radiating loving emotion (the beginning of a traditional Buddhist meditation) but rather than expand we simply dwell in a loving space with the breath. It is of course simple and difficult in the way that dwelling with the self can be.

I am hoping to run circle tomorrow night (though I am betting TK would prefer Friday the 13th, it is a thing, he finds them lucky) but I still don't know if I should invite both my students (the couple, that are no longer, a couple). On the one hand I am still their teacher. On the other there is no bullshiting energy, it is what it is. Any negative feelings (regardless of what they say) will spill out and I really don't think that would help anyone least of them.

I think this has been bothering more than I realised.

Still silly to worry.

All will be good. I hope that when the brain fog and rain lifts I will jump back into writing the next book with gusto. I will allocate myself a good week of writing (no cooking or cleaning) and see how far I get! I have written around 6 weekly assignments and exercises as well as questions and explanations on how to use the book. I don't think it helps I am working in Microsoftword and it is slow and glitchy, I much prefer my pencil and note book. Still I know that when it comes to publishing it won't be such a giant pain to format! Small pain now, verses large pain later! 

I do love sitting and writing, just me and the dog, soft music, blanket across my knee, maybe the sound of the washing machine or mini witch doing her thing.

In the doing and the dancing

Doing and dancing.

 Today has been sponsored by bees and frogs. Now the sun has come out, the garden is in bloom (front and back) and there are hundreds of bees. Now granted our street is a gravel graveyard of non flowers, still the quantity and size of the bees (big fat bubbles) is lovely. I imaging as the big brair rose (white) is just coming into flower they are going to really enjoy that. Now bees are important (and awesome) and endangered so anything that helps bees is good. I even rescued one from a cauldron of rain water while doing a bit of spell work. (Come on people BUY MY BOOKS)  
Then there is Senor Froggetote who seems to live in my raised bed. He always stops, as if to just say, "Hey!" but hops off before I can pet him (no, I am not squeamish, and this guy eats things that eat my FOOD!) Anyway I had to move the lovage from the bed, because even with cutting it back three times it was just frickin enormous and I got TK (see trying not to over do it) dig me a big hole and I transplanted it about 3 feet away into the actual soil of the garden (mostly clay and misery). I did give it lots of compost and water and it still looks fine. My aim is to plant plants I like and are useful, but grow like weeds in my garden (self seed away!) Partially because I can not physically keep up with it to be neat, but messy and useful seems like the general theme of our house anyway!This "technique" means that I get lots of birds and bees and frog (and slugs and snails and ants) and plants and food. In my front garden the flowers rule. The peony, the roses, yellow iris, the St Johns Wort, the stuff I have yet to find the name for that has pink flowers, and the Melissa (lemon balm) all compete furiously with one another. Other than having to cut back all the time to get up the path, it works well (this maybe because this garden has soil, rather than just clay and misery).

Spuds

I have also be sorting and drying a load of Angelica seeds (Blessing seeds) kindly donated by my green fingered witch friend.

This is after it was dried in a low temperature oven for a couple of hours and before and hand rubbed it and picked out the stems. (I used those in my spell work, the sweet smell of success..) They are sitting in a jar waiting for the next batch to join them before I do so sieving and putting them in their final large jar.

So the spell work was to take a key and wrap a cheque made out to me for a certain amount of money, to me. I then made a pile of success and money herbs and on a patch of bare earth set fire to it, the key and cheque with the pile. When it was burnt, I quenched it with rain water.Then I scrubbed my key clean and tied it to by diary.

It has been a good day. I am sure I could potter about a bit more, but I want to make sure I don't over do it. Stupid IgA Nepoopithy.