Reincarnation

Reincarnation

The idea that souls and spirits continue beyond death and can be reborn in a living form was present in many Indo-European religious ideas across Asia and Europe and was the basis of many teaching and faiths including Hinduism and Buddhism.
Judeo-Christian ideas almost wiped this idea out of Europe but when the British colonised India (and did some terrible, terrible things) the pollination of ideas began to trickle back to Europe. The ideas of karma and dharma (though misunderstood) slowly creep into Western thought again.
It was however the !960's when Western culture began to re-examine yogic teachings and Buddhist ideas that it gained much ground.
Most people's idea about karma is it is a tit-for-tat. "Do bad and bad will happen."
This is not how karma was ever supposed to work. Dharma has many meanings but to the best of my understanding it is our soul contract with the Universe. It is how you live your life from the inside out (it is no good going good while being "impure of heart".) It is living with a clean soul.
Karma is what happens during and after your life. It is the cosmic soul account. Are you in credit or debt? Every kind act, ever cruel word, large and small.
It is also my understanding that this debt is not only on the individual but within soul families and groups. So your "bad deeds" may appear to go unpunished this life but you may pay in the pain or suffering of those you love.
While some of this was and is used to explain and demonise those who suffer or are abused in life and give credence to strict and unfair hierarchies the complex soul and spirit balances does seem to have something to it.

I would as a child "just know" how to do things. As a teen I was regressed and this opened a floodgate for me of memories. It can be complicated and have seen people mirror or fall back into old patterns from other lives. Sometimes the intense bond or feeling I had for someone is there and they don't remember or don't care. Or care too much. Confusing old feelings for ones this life.In terms of dharma I feel am doing pretty well and I have untangled many knots this time around from many many old lives.
Most people who don't believe in reincarnation either like the idea of heaven or hell (the wicked should be punished?) or think everyone says they were "someone important."
As I started regressing folks myself at about 17, the opposite is often true. From children dying in Victoria gutters to Roman soldiers standing in the rain, eating the same crap every day.
Brand new human souls tend to have a totally different energy.
Old souls are easier to spot. Most folks are somewhere in the middle.
My daughter vividly remembers dying in hospital with blood pouring from her nose. She had a Dad called Danny and played the drums. She was about four or five when she told me that.
The first time I made bread I was weirder out making it on a table rather than on the floor. Most ancient breads are made that way.

I don't know all the answers to reincarnation. I know that there or "other" places through the Veil. Ones of spirit, of those learning there. Yet neither can I ignore my own memories or those I have seen other people experience.

I still make pretty good bread.

Bright Blessings xxx

Dabbling with Spirit

Dabbling with Spirit

For inspiration about what to write I have been trawling Twitter and BOY am I inspired...to smack folks up the back of the head Gibbs style.
I don't quite know what is worse the questions or the replies.

"There's a spirit and I don't know what it is. How do I find out?"

"Poke it with a stick!"

"Make yourself open, use a Ouija board, then poke it with a stick."

After a moment of composure, let me begin. I have worked with spirit on and off all my life and had some serious training because for your safety and the safety of other require it. You should know when to open up, when not to, how to keep yourself safe, how to identify what is what and work with guides.
What I do can be beautiful and unbelievably moving. It is a privilege, but not one I wear lightly. I am quite rare in terms of mediums because my witchcraft training means I give short thrift to bad attitudes (violence especially).
Side effects from dabbling without a good teacher and many hours of training can range from physical illnesses, violent spirit attacks, aura's of death (killing plants and small animals by just being around them) and mental break downs.
Dabbling can ruin not only your life but that of those around you.

When you dabble you are giving attention, and therefore energy to something, something unknown. Something that might have once belonged here or was never supposed to be here at all. It is opening a door, or tearing a hole and all kinds of things can bleed through. If you have "the gift" but are not trained YOU become the tear.
Let me repeat that.
You become the tear, bleeding all kinds of anything where ever you go.
If this happens for long enough it can effect the person so badly that just binding and closing it shut is the safest bet.
This why I would train for hours both by meditating daily since I was 9 years of age to working in circles since I was 18. At 18 I was sitting 3 or more times a week, learning, observing finding where and what the limits were. I learned how to read the energy, how to sense what was good and what wasn't. I built up my team of guides and guardians. I also learned how to ward myself, when to be cautious and when to react quickly.

If you have a spirit problem, speak to a good professional.

If you want to learn or have "the gift" then find a circle, or even a spiritualist church (some are more Christian than other, some are not Christainy at all).

I do not believe you can learn this from a book because much of it is feeling. A sensation, the smell of something rotten even if it looks fine. You will not know how sideways it can go until it does.
A good group can help you be protected and help you learn more in 6 months than reading books about it for 10 years.

Learning from spirit is an amazing experience, one I struggle to put into words. One touch, one moment with your guides or teachers  can change you deeply and profoundly. From art to languages, from deep spiritual knowledge to the trust to have a bit more fun in life.

You can not just jump into this ocean and just swim, and even if you do it doesn't make it less dangerous. Practising, knowledge and training in your local "pool" help a lot.

Bright Blessings xxx

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Book Of Shadows

Book Of Shadows

I started my first BoS or Book of Shadows in 1998.Yet I have always been a notebook scribbler, and a bad diary keeper, and now binge blogger.
My first Book of Shadows is now kept inside a plastic folder as it is falling apart. I got another one, a smart one to look more professional during public rites (it has couple of different Handfastings in it) and a coven/family one that is huge. I also have an original typed Alexandrian BoS as well. That is not counting all my notebooks from teaching Craft for years or my full Dropbox of manuscripts.
A BoS can be many things to many people and back in the day it was all handmade and hand drawn, full of the rituals and prayers. It might have some recipes in the back but correspondences and such were not often put in your BoS but in your diary or journal instead.
A grimoire is a spell book, like a family cook book which is what most people think a BoS is now.
I prefer to try and keep it all separate now. I write my own written Goddess and God charges and prayers in the BIG BoS along with hand drawn and painted artwork.
It amazes me in both a good and slightly sad way that you could just google and print out your BoS these days. I don't begrudge it and calligraphy and cursive script in time consuming and very hard work but there is something meditative and prayer like in the process.
The idea of typing it up on a type writer would have been outrageous in the past but it made a crisp clean copy and is now considered old fashioned and quaint.
There is no right way to have a BoS but I do feel a certain opinion that it is a sacred book, or a enough of a book about the sacred that it should be treated with respect.
If you intend to keep all your magick work together I would suggest either folder or even buying multiple of the same kinds of large notebook that you could get re-bound together at some point.
Try and keep a journal of your magickal work separate because it can be a much more honest form if you do not think anyone will ever read it and that has a power of it's own.
There is a power in ink and paper. A kind of magick all of it's own. Making our mark in your own hand in your own voice is beautiful.

Bright Blessings xxx

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Familars

Familiars

I have written about this briefly before. However maybe I can try and be clearer.
A Familiar is not your pet. You can not turn your pet into your familiar.* This is because much like love magick forcing a sentient creature into a bond is just not okay.
A familiar is a very very rare thing one I have seen twice my whole life.
It is essentially part of your soul in animal form. The best example of this was Bow. Now my friend is a faery, dipping in and out of magick through instinct and will.She was a dog person and trained dogs for years. Then came Bow. He was a rescue dog and something happened. He was a gentle giant of a dog, a white German Sheppard. Now my friend is great at training dogs but this was different.They were inseparable. They went almost everywhere together. It was a partnership, it was like he was her twin in dog form. Now I was raised around working dogs both on the farm and my grandparents guide dogs. This wasn't "training" this was something else.
My friend was training to become a midwife ( which is what we call Obstetric nurses ) when part of her spine started to collapse. She was in agony and had to give up the last year of training. It was stopping her walking.
Bow would just lie his head on her or his back to hers as often as he could. Then something magickal happened. She got better. Much better. Her spine healed in ways it wasn't supposed to. My friend found it easier to walk. Then Bow collapsed suddenly one day. After being rushed to the vet he had a collapsed spine. Bow had taken it from her. He died shortly after.
She has had dogs since, though it took about four years to get over Bows death enough to even try. She trained dogs for disabled people for a while. Yet no matter how much she adores her dog, it is not anything like Bow.
*Nor should you try. It is a disservice to a true familial bond. It is not something you seek out, it is something that finds you. You could not go to a bar, pick someone and say "soul-mate". Well you could but it wouldn't make it true. Forcing that relationship because you "want" it stops you from finding your true familiar. Even if the other person consented "yeah, I'll be your soul-mate" it STILL wouldn't make it true.
That doesn't mean there isn't love there or that it is a bad relationship it just isn't your soul-mate.
It doesn't mean your pets won't help you do magick either (the only time my cat wasn't crazy was when she was in circle before she died).
Caring for and loving an animal makes you a better human being. Caring for the neglected and those who have known only pain is a beautiful and amazing thing. Giving shelter to the cold and voice to the voiceless is the most noble thing you could do.
Don't sully that by trying to force a different kind of bond than one that occurs naturally.

Bright Blessings xxx

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Quick Fixes.

Quick Fixes

"I was spiritual and it didn't fix anything."

"I lost 10 pounds, grew my hair, did yoga, became vegan, joined a coven, meditated everyday, got the guy, got the job and I am still broken."

I figured out today why people who go through a spiritual phase or try constant new fads do it. You see all of this, these things make you feel better for a bit. They lift you for a little while but at some point you get mad, or cranky, let things slide and for a brief moment have the opportunity and obstacle of dealing with yourself.
At which point most folks just run to the next thing that will make them feel better for a little while.
At some point though all that always runs out and something happens you dismiss the thing you are trying as rubbish because you stopped feeling good.
You actually have to deal with your garbage at some point and looking at it can be hard but you have to do it. You have to look at yourself and accept the whole of who you are.
All of your crazy, dark, ugly stuff.
You have to look at all the bones and dirt and death. Lay out the bones. Mourn yourself and others.
Turn the dirt over, fill it with seeds.
Burning incense and throwing a yoga mat over your dead hopes and dreams, is never going to end well. No amount of meditation is going to change you into the unbroken person.
That doesn't mean that there is something wrong with meditation. It is not at fault. You have to stop running.
You have to look at the pain and anger and disappointment. You have to deal with your shame and blame. 
You have to accept that this is who you are. Then you have to let it go.
Let go of the idea of who you should be and cultivate instead who you are.
Quick fixes don't work because they are never going make you different. You can not work from the outside in.
You have to work from the inside out.
You have to accept the fragile vulnerability to connection, love and being loved.
You are never going to be Jesus, Buddha, or a Mother Goddess.
You are going to be you. You might be more polished. You might grow into something different than you ever imagined but you can not paint wings on a caterpillar and call it a butterfly.  You have to instead become caterpillar soup for a while inside that process.
It is weird and messy and can feel like dying but it is real change.
Most people do not "have the time" for this process. As though it wasn't life or important.
It doesn't matter if you are a caterpillar or a gosling it is not an easy process and it looks weird and ugly from the outside, and healing and good from the inside.
We must listen to this calling.
We must follow it deep into ourselves.
You already know who you are. 
You already know who you are and you need to sit down and look at that. Embrace that you kindly.

Bright Blessings xxx

Types of "Wicca"?

Types of "Wicca"?

At some point or other some sweet soul will ask you about your path. This means this label-less connection to what is Divine to you will be judged on the words that next come out of your mouth.

I'd like to say that pagans are less judgey than other faith but that just isn't true. 

The thing is before the internet (was there such a primitive time?), exploring this meant finding a teacher, a pagan book shop, or a moot.

You would chat over tea, coffee or beer, explore some open circles and decide from there what felt right. 

You might work with a group or even a coven with slightly different beliefs because they were the only people practicing in your area.

It wasn't perfect or ideal. It was no less judgmental, I can promise you that! However it gave seekers something invaluable.

Experience.

You can not simply say "I don't like people so I can't be a Gardnerian or Alexandrian."

For a start most folks of these two branches of the Wiccan tree are not people people either. Secondly you can not get your brain around what a circle or coven is like, especially an Alexandrian one, if you have never been in one.

In my experience (and I walked a Gardnerian path first) I found that it is very inclusive and works very well. It works with the idea of balance, seasonality and has a broad and inclusive acceptance of personal Divinity. I have known Gardnerians who were hard polytheists, soft polytheists, an even atheists (who believed that the circle, Goddess and God were internal psychological constructs) working well and friends together.

Alexandrians are also a mixed bag. Again they are quite happy to work with folks who might be Fae, Hecitite or any other "faith" so long as the codes and rules of a circle are adhered to. 

This sounds restrictive, and it is.

However it is restrictive the same way a martial art is. The rituals are like patterns, or kata practiced over again. Knowing the steps of the dance perfectly allows something to happen, something that doesn't happen often. Something transcendent and Divine happens.

Some paths are like dancing in a club or bar. Some are like a jazz solo. Some are like contemporary dance companies. Alexandrian is like ballet.

While the idea of meeting people, in the flesh, can be terrifying you simply can not learn the steps by reading about it in your armchair. I am aware that Gardnerian and Alexandrian currently are "not cool". The idea of having something formal and communal is seen as stuffy or difficult. It is difficult but that doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. Even if it is terrible. Even if you find it really isn't your thing, then at least you know. Magick and faith are especially quite a physical as well as a spiritual experience. To smell the incense. To feel the world and circle spin as you dance. The energy of people open-heartedly working together. 

To say a path "isn't for you" when you have never experienced it is like people who do eat certain foods. 

"Oh  I'd hate it."

How can you never know if you don't taste it?

Or even if you only try it once?

My husband had a long list of "food he hated". I and do mean long. 11 years into the marriage ( we will have been married 15 years this May) and I finally got him to try my scrambled eggs.

"Oh, these are great! Oh I don't like shit eggs!" 

So sometimes it's not the path, but those who were there, or even who you were at the time.

Humans are social animals and group ritual work is important.

There are lots of good resources for people exploring their paths now. A Witches Bible by Janet and Stewart Farrar is a good and intelligent place to learn about the Gardnerian path, but you could also read books by Gerald Gardner himself. Anything by Louis Borne is pretty good too.

I am blessed enough to have a full Alexandrian book of Shadows. Typed in the sixties I think. My teacher passed it down to me and I will pass it on too. 

These are precious links now. To things and a past that seem dated but are valuable. I also have my teachers, mentor and teacher's ring. 

You can't get that from a book.

You can only join the dance.

Bright Blessings xxx

Ouija Boards

Ouija Boards

"I messed around with a Ouija board and weird/bad/scary thing happened and...."

Talking or Spirit boards

Talking or spirit boards have been around in some form for many years but the recognisable board first became popular with mediums and seances in the late 1800's. As a medium I have never needed to use a Ouija board, however I can see it's benefits over something like a pendulum or tarot cards for poorer or amateur mediums. It is simple to use for clients who might find other kinds of divination or just "raw" spirit talk too much.

The thing is in skilled hands it is a reasonable safe tool, especially if wrapped in cloth or placed in a box after use. The thing is because it seems easy to use it is often the first thing teens use or are drawn to. Teens have a lot of psychic energy, especially teenage girls. They tend to sit with candles, often somewhere "spooky". This thrilling and fear energy is what they are asking for, it is what they radiate. They have no clear idea of someone to speak to or how to protect themselves with spirit guides or guardians. They just tear a whole through the Veil and call something or someone through.

When something starts to happen (as it usually does) they usually freak out and just leg it. Leaving a tear in the Veil and the board somewhere. I have seen attachments by spirit being (they look like ticks or cockroaches to me) some thirty years after messing around with a Ouija board. Closing a tear is more difficult to do but can be done.

Fear, anxiety, ignorance and stupidity do not make a safe spell or ritual environment. I have closed doorways which should never have been opened. Yet I am not bitter at the board. It isn't it's fault. 

Things like smudging the board with sage or frankincense, writing a blessing on the back, working in a properly cast circle and asking protection from (an angel, spirit guide or God/dess) and closing down the board safely will help.

It takes years of training to work with spirit safely and competently, and even then scary or unpleasant things can still happen. Spirit is. It is both glorious white light and all the icky sludge of everything that ever existed.   

Ouija boards are a tool.

If you don't know what you are doing you probably shouldn't use it.

If you do use it, don't do so high or drunk.

If you are high or drunk and something upsetting happens don't just run.

If you do freak out, don't just leave the board.

If you do just leave the board ask a professional medium for help.

If you don't ask a local professional for help and it gets bad, don't come crying to me!

Bright Blessings xxx

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