Sturgeon Moon

I’m waiting for that moon, tonight.

The full moon. The lunar eclipse riding in the Aquarius constellation. The autumn’s change moon that is supposed to shake things up, change my world, and rattle all the cages, freeing beasts and beauties alike.

I’m waiting for this fiery moon to rise.

Something has to change.

I’ve told friends that I’m tired of being single, that I’d like to have a “special someone” again. That I want a relationship with someone that I know is headed toward commitment, eventually.

That, someday, I want to get married again.

And they tell me to “be patient”, that love will find me when I least expect it.

But how does that happen when you don’t ever go out, meet new people, try new things & new places?

And no, I’m not going on the dating apps again. I’ve gotten into enough trouble for myself there.

But, you ask, to rely on the moon to change this…isn’t that stretching credulity a bit?

Not in my faith, it’s not.

Being Pagan, I look to the universe to hand me my cues, and yes, that means the moon’s cycles, the stars in the heavens, the ebb and flow of the seasons & the tides.  The energies that I receive from contact with nature help me in more ways than one, and often.  

Sometimes, I forget that.

So, tonight, I’m drawing in the moon, calling her light into myself, and bathing in the changes she is going to bring.

Because I am a child of that moon, those stars, this earth.  

And I will honor and remember…

And try to be patient.

Come Along With Me – finished!

I’ve finished uploading the story on the page called “Come Along With Me”, for those who’d like to read it in its entirety.

I hope you enjoy it, as it was one of those odd-ball little stories that simply – Wouldn’t. Leave. Me. Alone.  Words, phrases, whole paragraphs would bang about in my brain throughout the day, until I could get home and write them down.  It burned through my head and out my fingers like acid until I finished it.

And now, it’s complete, and home.

Thank you for playing, we have some lovely parting gifts for you!

Come Along With Me

I’ve added the third and, probably, final page.  This one’s a doozy… trust me.

The story is somewhat of a departure for me, as I don’t write in this style, usually… but this story just pummeled me until I wrote it down.  I’ve only posted half, so far, as it’s long.

This is why, I’ve also gone ahead and numbered the separate pieces, so if you want to read a little, and come back to it later, you’ll be able to find your place easier.

It’s a new twist on an old myth… those who get into mythology might recognize it, or not. But, really, it’s a fairy tale-type story based loosely on the story of Persephone, Hades, her mother, Demeter, and her grandmother, Hecate.

I’ll post the other half as soon as I can get back on my laptop.

 

Tabletop Gods

​”This was a lot easier when we could actually do real shit, you know,”

“Yeah, yeah, I know… quit bitching and get over here.”

“Fine. I’m just saying,”

“Well, quit ‘just saying’ and start doing,”

“God, you can’t catch a break anywhere, anymore,”

“Stop with the flattery, neither of us fits that moniker anymore, Zeus, and we need to remember that.”

“Hmpfh, whatever. So, Minnie? What’s the job today?”

“Call me Minnie again, Thunder Jaws, and I’ll have you busted down to de-staticking the cat. My name’s still Minerva. Use it.”

The statuesque brunette glared at Zeus over the top of her clipboard and pointed to the next item on the checklist.

“WHAT? NO! You’ve got to be kidding, right?”

“Nope. It’s your turn, Lightning Boy. Now get to work.”

“Ah, shit. I wish I’d gone fishing with Poseidon and Loki today. At least they can take a joke. But noooo… I’m on ‘Birthday Party Magician’ duty… dammit. What I wouldn’t give for a good old-fashioned virgin sacrifice right about now.” Zeus snapped his fingers and vanished in a flash of static displacement.

Disgusted and fed up with self-important, devolved deities, Minerva, former goddess of wisdom… now approximately 5 inches tall, and still smarter than the rest of those idiots in the display cabinet… whistled the triple-tone signal and waited for Pegasus to pick her up for her lift back to the counter over the kitchen window.

The boss would be home for lunch, soon, and it wouldn’t do to be out of place when she got there

-Jan. 12, 2014

Just a Prayer

Goddess gracious,  good and wise
Grant me farseeing and open eyes
Grant my ears the truth to hear
And a strong back to face my fears

Give me wisdom,
And a loving heart
And the courage to let go
When it’s time to depart

All these things I ask of thee
So I may serve others
As your nature’s child
So mote it be.

A Murder of Crows

Standing outside my office building yesterday, I watched in wonder as a murder of crows gathered, swooping and gliding, over my head.  20-25 of them – black slashes drawn boldly against the sky – they cawed raucously to one another as they danced overhead.  Spiralling acrobatics punctuated their flight, as they would come together, screaming and diving, then splitting into smaller groups that would spin around one another, only to meet up again with the others, and circle back to the spot directly over where I stood.

We have crows in our city, they’re everywhere.  But this is the first time I can ever remember seeing the aerial display that I saw yesterday.  It was almost as though they were trying to tell me something, since they would swirl out and away, disappearing from view for a few seconds, but would always return to the same place – over my head.

So, I searched my memory for meanings behind the crows… but all I came up with were the battle crows and the Morrighan.  Not comforting images, to be sure, with all the imagery of battles and death.  I knew, too, that there were different meanings between seeing 1 or 2 crows, to seeing a whole murder of them.

And the fact that they kept coming back to me, had me just a little uneasy… so I went searching for deeper interpretations.  And found this:

*”Ravens and Crows represent magick, mystery, and sacred law as well as battle, and the mysteries of the Crone and Matron (warrior goddess). A gathering of ravens is called an “unkindness”while a group of crows is a “murder”. They are highly intelligent birds, and have been known to follow armies for many miles. In Native American Myth, Raven is a Creator/Trickster god. In Celtic lore, the raven is sacred to Badb (whose name means “Battle Crow”and the Morrigan as well as Bran and Lugh. In Greek lore it is sacred to Hecate, and Apollo among others. In Norse tradition, the two ravens that sit on the shoulders of Odin are called Huginn and Muninn (Mind and Memory). As guardians through the cycle of death and rebirth, the scintillating rainbow colors in their dark wings remind us that even in the midst of darkness we have the power to touch the light.” *

I know that I’m reaching a new place in my life.  I’m a grandmother now.  I’m finished with the “having children” part, and have moved into the “almost done raising them” phase.  YoungerDaughter is graduating from high school this year, and OnlySon is, of course, now a teenager.  Pretty soon, they’ll all be off on their own adventures – and I’m fine with that.  Truly.

There are still struggles, and I’m going through some of them now, having changed last year from being “Married – with children” to “Single Mom, single income”.  It hasn’t been easy, but we’ve managed.  And now, with the addition of 3 more people to the household, it’s become a whole new type of struggle.  We’ll get through this, too, I know – but it won’t be easy.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s the message that the crows were trying to impart with their aerial dance and mock battle yesterday. 

“Join with those around you, for if you fly alone… there is no dance, no glorious battle to make life better… Dance, fly, dive and soar… chase the dream of something better – and make it yours.”

The Vortex

So, a couple of friends suggested to me that I set up a magickal “sink hole” or “vortex of doom” to help keep negativity out of my house during the baby shower I’ll be throwing for EldestDaughter in a couple of weeks.

I’ve actually done this before, for a friend who had someone negative coming to their house on a regular basis.  It worked, sometimes a little too well, so I’ve decided to post the process I used here, for those of you who are of a mind to try something like this!

First, clean the area that you are going to be using to set this up.  A dirty space doesn’t work well for magick.  You have to do the physical work, to help the visualisation manifest in reality.

I’ll use my front door as the example, since that’s where this is going.

Step 1:  Sweep, clean up underneath the step too, if you can get to that area.

Step 2:  Center yourself.  Place your feet about shoulder-width apart, and close your eyes.  Hold your hands out, palms down over the area (you don’t have to put your hands on it, just hold them above the space), and visualise a white light/water/wind/etc. (whatever you use for cleansing) cleansing the area.  You can also use salt water, incense, a candle flame, or a stone, if you prefer.  It’s up to you how you get rid of any “leftover static”.

Step 3:  With eyes closed, visualise a pentagram, made out of your favorite element (earth, wind, fire, water), and see it right where you want the sink hole/drain/vortex to be.  Once you have the pentagram clear in your mind, see it begin to spin, slowly, counterclockwise.  You can, if you so choose, have a chant you speak at this point, such as “No negativity shall enter here,” or “No harm brought in, let happiness win”.  Again, your choice.

Imagine that this spinning pentagram will pull any negative energy from anyone who steps on or over it.  It will drain the negativity out of them, and send it into the ground, where it can be changed to natural, non-specific, energy again.  Neither negative nor positive, simply neutral. 

Just remember, you want to have your intent clear when you set this up.  There can’t be any harmful thoughts going into the setup, or you risk having it backfire on you.  Karma will get her way.

I’ve got some work to do before I can set this up at my house.  My intentions, right now?  Not so pure.  But I’ll get there.

It’s the Holiday season – and Whoopty Doo!

Happy Yule to all my Pagan readers out there!

Today is the shortest day of the year, and the longest night.

Up here in the Northern plains, we’ve been having some unseasonably warm weather, with temps running from the high 20s to the low 40s (meaning snow melting!)  I’m tickled about this fact, but my kids would rather have the whole “White Christmas” thing.  I told them we have the movie, we can pretend.  (They didn’t go for that very well, ingrates!  Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye should mean something, danggit!)

I’m still working on crafts for holiday presents… and yes, we will be going to my parents’ house for Christmas get-together.  Most of the rest of my family is Christian, so we celebrate with them, and I celebrate on my own (or with chosen pagan family) for Yule.

May your days be bright and warm, may your nights be full of wonderful dreams, and may your holidays be filled with laughter, love and light!

Blessed BE!

On All Hallows Eve

Twas on All Hallows Eve
By the dark of the moon
The witches did gather
To draw out the runes.

Fortunes to tell
They danced ’round the fire
Reading the smoke
As it swirled ever higher

Beloved, the dead,
did cling close this night
As Seers conversed with them
No fear held, no fright.

Then feasting and laughter
Did fill the full dark
As witches and spirits both
This hallowed eve did they mark.

For the veil thinned as clouds
Twixt this world and that
To allow the spirits their crossing
Swift as the flight of a bat.

Honored ancestors,
We welcome you here.
On this sacred ‘Eve
We bid you draw near.

Come sup with us, share with us,
We lend you our light,
As we honor the love still felt
On this Hallowed Samhain night.

D.F.W.M.

I’m usually a pretty easy going person.

I try to get along, not cause drama, and if there is drama, not make it worse.

Of course, I have drama in my life sometimes, you can’t totally get away from it.  And when this happens, I normally will hole up till it’s over, or try to work around it, mediate it, or….

I simply put on my alter-ego… Tawanda…

And shut it the hell down.

I had a moment like that yesterday.  And Tawanda was only too happy to make an appearance.

You see, a few years ago, a friend (name withheld because of privacy) and I started a group.  It was a Pagan group, designed to allow people in my area to have a place to meet, greet and get together, without being afraid to talk about things that many non-Pagans wouldn’t necessarily understand, or would think were just downright “weird”.  It wasn’t meant to be a “coven” of any sort, no real structure, and no real rules other than “Play nice”. 

The word “Independent” is stated very clearly, right in the middle of the group’s name, to let people know that this wasn’t just for people looking to belong to a coven, but to those who choose to also celebrate, practice, and simply live, in their own particular way.  No obligations to attend any meetings or functions, no dues, no feelings of guilt if you couldn’t make it, or just plain didn’t want to.  It was meant to be friendly get-togethers and sharing things that  we have in common.  Or learning about how people do things differently.  Whatever.

Just this last year, when Facebook introduced the idea of “Groups” on their site, I figured that this was a good way to allow our bunch of rebels and rabble-rousers a place on the social network to meet and hang out.  So I set one up for this particular and peculiar band of “Independent Pagans”.

Basically meant to be an internet “cork board”, I wanted to give the community a place to hang their conical hats, meet others who hadn’t been able to come to the picnics and get-togethers we’d had in the past, post new get-togethers for all to see, and just generally hang out with like-minded people.  It was never intended to be anything more than that.

Until yesterday, when someone decided that the group needed a “mission statement”.

Well, I thought I’d spelled it out pretty clearly, right in the description of the group:

“A place for pagans in the area to network, post events, chat with other pagans, and have fun!”

Simple, to the point.  Just the way I wanted to get started.  Then, this person decided that they were going to not only put forth this mission statement… they were going to tack the name of MY group on it.  Rather like ripping my baby from my arms and calling it theirs, telling everyone that it was going to grow up to be just like them.

Ahem.

Remember me?

The person who created the group in the first place?

Yeah. 

When I read the initial posting, I had to hold myself back from immediately ripping this person a new orifice.  I was on my lunch break, and knew that, for as mad as I was at the time, it wouldn’t be pretty, or polite.  It would be downright nasty.

So I kept mum until after work.  In the meantime, the friend who helped me start this group went on and posted a query as to the other person’s intent.  And got a snarky remark back.

Game on.

I was polite.

I was tactful.

And I was also very, very…. honest.

Some might call it  – blunt.

I saved the actually angry stuff for my own personal page.  Basically saying “Don’t F*** With Me”.  I have a reputation, you see, that when someone pushes me?  I push back.  And I don’t back down.

A brief apologetic post followed a couple of hours later from this person.

Nuff said.

Play nice, kiddies…

Tawanda out.