Pagan dance honors roots of Halloween, San Francisco Chronicle

A Blessed Samhain, The Wild Hunt

Making the Most of Samhain's Inner Voice, Witchvox

SAMHAIN 2006, The Gods Are Bored

The Real Origins of Halloween, Isaac Bonewits

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 2:53 PM | Comments (0)

Samhain (sow-ihn) is an Irish Gaelic word that means "summer's end." Today is the witches' new year, the most important of the eight Wiccan Sabbats, the final harvest festival in the Wheel of the Year, and a day to honor the dead. Those of us who are celebrating Samhain tonight still enjoy the festive atmosphere that comes with Halloween, but for us, this is a particularly holy day, when the veil between the worlds is thin and much magick is possible. Around the world tonight, witches will be meeting to communicate with their ancestors, to release the past year, to ask the ancestors for their guidance in the next, and to celebrate with seasonal food and drink, always leaving a place for the one who is no longer with us.

Celtic Spirit has a great overview of Samhain.

For me, tonight will be about connecting with ancient Scottish ancestors I've recently discovered and with the grandmother who is my namesake. The Scots refer to tonight as Samhuinn Oidhche Shamhna (sah-vin uh-ee-hyuh how-nuh), or Samhuinn Eve.

In an old book I found, Witchcraft and Second Sight in the Scottish Highlands by John Gregorson Campbell, 1902, Samhain, or Hallowmas, is described:

The coming of winter was hailed with more fun and merriment than any other season of the year. The cold was now fairly set in, the fruits of the summer, down to the very nuts, were gathered, and the young became desirous of learning their fate with regard to that subject of anxiety in every age, their future husbands and wives. This natural welcoming of winter explains the ceremonies of the day, and the games of the evening. Hardly any of them have reference to the practices or deities of the nations of antiquity or to Scripture, and this explanation must be sought for in Pagan times.

The Raven, © 2004-2006 Tattoed at deviantART

Campbell's obvious Greco-Roman bias regarding "deities of the nations of antiquity" is really rather amusing. There are a number of Celtic deities one can associate with Samhain, particularly The Mórrígan, a triple goddess represented by the Raven. While Mórrígan is a powerful warrior goddess, she is also regarded as a protector of her people and in one aspect is a goddess of the land and of fertility. One legend has Dagda, the Father God of ancient Celts, coming upon Mórrígan one Samhain, bathing herself in a stream. The two have sex, reminding us of the Samhain ritual marriage between the leader of the tribe and the goddess of the landd to ensure prosperity for the coming year. Mórrígan warns Dagda of an approaching enemy army and counsels him on how to defeat the enemy king, thus securing victory for the Tuatha Dé Danann, the race of divine beings who inhabited Ireland prior to the coming of the Celts.

But back to our dear Mr. Campbell. Despite some of his prejudice, his book is a wonderful accounting of Scottish traditions associated with the Wheel of the Year. It's interesting to note that for all of its Christian whitewashing, the book is largely a compendium of the very Pagan practices and origins that Campbell takes pains to dismiss. To continue with his description of the Samhain celebration:

On the last day of autumn children gathered ferns, tar-barrels, the long thin stalks called gàinisg, and everything suitable for a bonfire. These were placed in a heap on some eminence near the house, and in the evening set fire to. The fires were called Samhnagan. There was one for each house, and it was an object of ambition who should have the biggest. Whole districts were brilliant with bonfires, and their glare across a Highland loch, and from many eminences, formed an exceedingly picturesque scene. Some find in them traces of the worship of the invariable Baal, but there is no reason to look upon them otherwise than as the natural and defiant welcome of the season, in which fires are most required, when the heat of the year is departed, and cold and frost and rushing winds cover all things with gloom. Bonfires are kindled on all occasions of public rejoicing, or excitement, and Hallowmas fires are a natural extension of the change of the season. It is possible a deity was originally associated with the practice, but there is now no trace of him in name or practices of this day.

Deity indeed! As with other Pagan festivals and Wiccan Sabbats, the gods draw near to Earth at Samhain, so it is traditional for people both ancient and modern to make offerings to them in thanksgiving for the harvest and to take this opportunity to communicate with them for a variety of reasons. Campbell's reference to Baal as a particular god may be a misuse of the generic term baal, which is a semitic honorific title, like "lord," given to a variety of gods and spirits. The lighting of fires at Samhain, and at Beltane, is symbolic of the Druids' practice of lighting the fire for the new year, from which all members of the tribe would light their own hearth fires. Pagan spirituality, and Wicca in particular, is rooted in the cyclical movement of the seasons and following the Sun on its journey into the dark and back into light again; the Sun God dies, is born again and rises to glory. At Samhain, while the Sun is dark, there is a seed of hope that he will return again in the new year. As we light fires at Samhain, we feel a kindling of new dreams for the year to come. These fires are often used to send personal prayers, or petitions, to the gods and ancestors for the things we need or want in the new year or to help us banish bad habits that we don't wish to bring into the new year with us.

As the evening wore on, the young people gathered to one house, and an almost endless variety of games (cleasan) were resorted to, with the object in every case of divining the future lot of the company.

The Tarot Spread © 2006 amkfoto at deviantART

Divination is another important aspect to Samhain. Because the spirits are so close, it's the perfect time to ask for their guidance and wisdom. Campbell lists in his book a long and entertaining list of customary methods of divination from Scottish folklore, many of which center around questions of marriage. Surely, this would have been a natural source of curiosity for young people - and still is! I also think that Campbell thought that divination about marriage was inoffensive enough for what he considered to be his Christian audience. Most Pagan references to Samhain include divination methods particular to this holiday, like Apple Magic and Dreaming Stones, but tarot is also a typical and popular tool. SFGate had a great article on the subject of divination at Samhain: Finding My Religion: A pagan priestess talks about Halloween and the Tarot

Many of the practices and traditions associated with modern-day Halloween are stalwart Pagan hold-overs from ancient times, so important was this holiday to the people. Halloween was always my favorite holiday growing up. I'd like to think it was the Pagan in me instinctively celebrating when the veil was thin and the ancient ancestors and spirits were able to reach me. Tonight, I look forward to reaching out to them.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 12:32 PM | Comments (1)

Candlewood Sunset, 29 October 2006

Sometimes it all just comes together: scene, eye, camera. This is at one of my favorite spots, in the woods where the spirits and I have become kin, while the wind was blowing and the sun was at the end of its descent into night. Magickal.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 6:25 PM | Comments (1)

Mercury went Retrograde yesterday. Anyone who really cares already knows what the implications of that particular astrological happening are. If you need a gentle reminder, Hecate and Cafe Astrology offer two great articles on the subject. (And if you need any proof, just look at the flights from JFK that were cancelled yesterday - but I digress.) I thought that, rather than repeat or regurgitate other sources of information on Mercury Retrograde, I'd have a little bit of fun with it.

A basic explanation of what it means when Mercury is in a Retrograde phase is that for a few times during the year an optical illusion based on the relative speeds and orbits of the Earth and Mercury around the Sun makes it appear that Mercury turns around and goes backwards. Let's think about this for a minute. What would happen if Mercury really did go backwards?

Remember that scene from the first Christopher Reeve Superman movie when he found Lois Lane's lifeless body after the earthquake and he was so agonized and enraged that he flew around the Earth to turn its rotation backwards, causing time to reverse and allowing him an opportunity to save his lady love? Well, knowing that Mercury rules areas of communication, what communications that have happened lately would you be happy to see erased by winding back time to before they happened? If Mercury Retrograde meant that you could turn back the clock to take something back, or change something you said or wrote or emailed or text messaged, what would that something be? One of the concepts we learned in my beginning witchcraft class was neutralization, the practice of taking back a thought or utterance that you really didn't mean. There is some energy that we just don't want to put out there but sometimes a slip of the Id gets through our normally functioning editing process. Could we look at Mercury Retrograde as a three-week opportunity to neutralize on a grander scale?

We all know from studying mythology in, what, the 7th grade, that Mercury/Hermes is the messenger. What if the messenger stopped mid-way through his route and decided to retrace his steps? What do you think he would find? The aftermath of messages delivered perhaps? In this case, although much like the scenario painted above wherein we might be given an opportunity to make amends for messages that did some harm, we also might have opportunities to revisit happy deliveries, or to discover the outcomes of messages we were too much in a hurry to see through to their conclusion the first time around. A business proposal delivered that didn't come to fruition? Maybe knocking on the door on the way back through you might just get the deal. An indecisive sweetheart more ready to commit after some time to think about it? There are any number of ways we can imagine communications that came to naught, that given another chance, may produce a different result. Could it be that Mercury on his backwards route could help us to realize some missed opportunities?

A dear friend of mine used to refer to these times of the year as "Mercury Retrofuck" and believe me there have been moments when that couldn't have been more accurate for what I experienced. Yes, computers and other electronics go haywire (I moved into a new apartment during a Mercury Retrograde and the cable guy had to come three times to get my system working). Travel can be a mess - leave yourself plenty of time to get through insane security lines. But isn't it more productive to imagine Mercury Retrograde as a time of reclaiming than one when we should just hide in bed until it's over?

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 6:18 PM | Comments (1)

A vineyard near Ueberlingen, Germany. From SFGate.com's Day in Pictures.

This is one of the most magical photos I've seen lately. That is all.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 12:08 PM | Comments (1)

An impromptu invitation to a neighborhood Halloween party was cause for minor panic as I searched through my closet to find the makings of a costume. The obvious choice seemed, well, a bit of a cop out. A French spy perhaps, with a tight black skirt, stiletto heels, a trench coat and beret? I have a cute Pierrot cap, complete with pom-poms, but where was I going to get a billowing white jumpsuit at the last minute? Remembering the delightful atmosphere of Claire Garvey's workshop in Dublin, I decided I would wear the jacket I bought there and go as a fairy. I would need glitter - lots of glitter - and some cheap hairspray to give myself a proper fairy updo. I was off to CVS.

Unfortunately, the paucity in the glitter department was disappointing. Perusing the Halloween section for alternatives, I found something both hilarious and surprisingly inspiring: Halloween Hip Barbie. Thing is, I have the duds to pull this off, including a particularly witchy pair of pointy-toed suede boots and a baby doll t-shirt with a glow-in-the-dark pumpkin on the front. I picked up a pair of orange and black striped tights and various and sundry hair decorations et voila! A costume was born.

Okay, so I'm not blond, but yes folks, I am going to the party as a Barbie doll. Hahahahahahahahaha!

Interestingly enough, Halloween Hip Barbie isn't the first witchy Barbie to appear on toy store shelves everywhere. She has a predecessor: Secret Spells Barbie. Was she to be Barbie The Hot Pagan Witch, asked Mark Morford, my favorite columnist in the universe, about this time three years ago. He thought, alas, the answer was no. I'm not quite as offended by these pseudo-Wiccan dolls as Mark seemed to be at the time, but could it be that Halloween Hip Barbie confirms what Mark himself said then:

Hey, witches are cool. Everyone knows witches are cool. Way, way cool.

Yes we are Mark!

Every word of Mark Morford's column is brilliant - do read it. His closing question: "Oh, Barbie. When, oh when, will you strip down and writhe in the woods and howl at the moon?" My response: Tonight, baby, tonight!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 4:13 PM | Comments (2)

Wow - has it been nearly a week since my last post? My apologies to those of you who were expecting a post on Saturday's Dark Moon, Sunday's New Moon and Tuesday's Spell for Democracy. I missed them. Mea culpa.

This past weekend I took a much needed break from the oppressive noise of the city to spend some time in the country. I was finally in a place with both land and available gardening tools so that I could bury the remnants of a spell that I'd been saving (it's not so easy to bury stuff in the city!). On Saturday I went hiking in the Catskills. On Sunday I did honest-to-goodness yard work - clearing leaves from a half-mile driveway through the woods, raking the front lawn, helping to clean pine needles from the gutters - and it was fun! I certainly got plenty of exercise.

I did have another "Wiccan Don't" moment on Saturday night. I had spent considerable time and effort before I left preparing an unblocking petition spell to Hecate to be performed at a three-way intersection at night by the Dark Moon. My plan was to do this at midnight at the end of the aforementioned driveway and before going upstairs to watch TV in bed I set out all of my ingredients and tools (including flashlight, sweater and shoes). Well, I couldn't stay awake - all that fresh air and mountain hiking I suppose - and when I did wake up it was 1:18 am. The New Moon was at 1:14; the Dark Moon had past. I went down to the kitchen to clean up my spell and offering ingredients, put my things away and get a glass of water. I looked out to the yard. It was DARK. I wondered if I would have made it all the way down that driveway at midnight by myself with nothing but a little flashlight. On the way back up the stairs I encountered a very dark shadow spirit that scared the bejeezus out of me; I ran down the hall to the bedroom, slammed the door and performed an extempo protection spell.

A couple of days later when I'm back in the city, over delicious mujadarra at Algiers in Harvard Square, a friend of mine and I were talking about my failed spell. She thought that the shadow could have been Hecate wanting to know where her offering was. Hecate is not a goddess to trifle with! (I will bring an offering to her to the Samhain ritual to make it up to her for being a bad, sleepy witch.) We got a good chuckle at the thought of me carrying an offering of fish in honey and garlic through the woods late at night. I might as well have been calling "here kitty, kitty, kitty" to the mountain lion who lives there. I hadn't even thought of that! We don't have mountain lions in the city.

Monday I took the train into New York City for an interview for some possible contract work. On the train I had a very interesting conversation about religious observance being a corollatory factor in good work habits, the unfathomable nature of Catholic confession, and the difference between forgiveness and absolution. My interview was in the West Village (my favorite neighborhood in New York) just a block from Magnolia's (I resisted the temptation to buy cupcakes) and ended up being lunch at a fun little restaurant whose name I've forgotten. It was a lovely crisp Autumn day in New York. If every day were just like that, I'd move there in a heartbeat.

On the train ride back to where I'd left the car in Pawling, I started to think that I could get used to this. From the window of the train I think a saw a beaver in a pond. I saw another pond full of swans - I'd never seen wild swans before - a crane and numerous ducks and geese. Back at the house, I enjoyed a couple of hours of absolute peace and quiet. It was glorious. At one point I noticed a young buck standing in the front yard chewing away on grass. The does who usually come near the house are skittish and run away at the first movement from anyone inside. But not this guy. He just hung out for a while and when he was done he strolled up the driveway.

Tuesday morning was back to Boston. I felt refreshed and happy. But I had homework and class that night. My afternoon was busy. Then class, Algiers for dinner and conversation, and home to bed. Wednesday was a catch-up day, answering email and getting back into some work projects. Real life returns.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 7:58 AM | Comments (2)

Not living in the country or possessing a garden, I don't have much occasion to see snails. That's why when I saw one this morning crossing the sidewalk, still wet from the earlier rain, I was surprised. He was bright, shiny green with a yellow shell. I wished I'd brought a camera along on my morning coffee run.

Since his presence was so out of the ordinary, I felt compelled to learn what a snail represents as a spirit guide and what "medicine" and magickal correspondences they bring.

The snail's wisdom includes:

• Importance of keeping yourself mobile
  
• Understanding the value of leaving a trail
  
• Ability to use slow movement to one's advantage
  
• Defense through retreat
  
• Understanding the value of humor
  

The snail symbolizes not just the necessity but often the freedom to take things slow and steady. Consider, for example, the tarot's Nine of Pentacles I discussed in an earlier post. The Snail depicted in this card represents the ability this woman has to take her life at a snail's pace - slow and easy - because she has worked hard to achieve a level of success that affords her this luxury. Most people can't afford the luxury of time, spending much of the time they have working hard. When that hard work pays off, often after patient perseverance and dedication, then we have earned the luxury of spending our time as we please. Therefore, the snail becomes a reminder of success. Slow and steady wins the race.

Mathematically (and by extension, one could argue, spiritually) the snail is connected to everything in nature. What is the size difference between each spiral on a snail cross section? 1.618033963. This number is referred to as the "golden ratio," which repeats itself in all living things and has numerous associations within aesthetics, philosophy and spirituality.

The Manataka American Indian Council has a terrific reference on spirit guides. From them, I learned that my little snail friend is a "messenger guide."

A Messenger Guide quickly comes into your life and then leaves once a message is understood. The time a Message Guide stays in your psychic is relative to you seeing and accepting the message. The message itself can be spiritual in nature, or it can be a warning. The message may deal with a seemingly mundane aspect of your life or it may be a wake-up call for some important action you must make. Sometimes the animal messenger will come during an unusual event and make a powerful statement and others come on the wind as a whisper. A messenger guide can cause you delays or some unforeseen help in your life. They can be both negative and positive in nature for they are totally impartial.

On my way back I looked for the snail; he was gone. I guess he decided his work here was done!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 12:10 PM | Comments (3)

When I saw the headline Coffins to Bear Logos of Baseball Teams my first thought was: Why is it so hot in here and what am I doing in this handbasket? Seriously people, how low can American "culture" sink?

Starting next season, fans of the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Phillies, Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers will be able to have their ashes put in an urn or head six feet under in a casket emblazoned with their team colors and insignia.

MLB has entered a licensing agreement with Eternal Image, which hopes to eventually make urns and caskets for all 30 teams. The company also hopes to have similar agreements with NASCAR, the NHL and the NFL, but baseball was the first to sign on.

This sort of blatant commercialism is de rigueur for sports teams who use public funds to build huge stadiums, charge exorbitant prices for tickets to their games, and then get people to pay them to walk around with their company logos emblazoned on every article of clothing in sight. Not much marketing exposure where those coffins are going, but hey, a piece of that $11 billion dollars that the funeral industry makes each year ain't too shabby.

Not being a sports fan, I can't begin to fathom why someone would want to do this.

Kurt Soffe, a spokesman for the National Funeral Directors Association, said the baseball products are part of a trend of trying to capture "the life and the passions of the person that has passed away."

"More and more families are wanting to have something that respects the personalities," Soffe said.

In my opinion, respect has absolutely nothing to do with it. This society doesn't seem to respect much these days, least of all the dead. We can put a Yankees logo on a coffin, but heaven forbid the widow of a soldier who lost his life serving his country wants to put a pentacle on his grave marker.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 10:16 AM | Comments (5)

A dear friend of mine who is a wonderful writer and talented witch has launched a new blog called Stars for Eyes.

So far, she's written about a transcendent experience while hiking, introduced us to a fabulous ceramic artist who uses Eastern imagery and shamanic ideas to create works of incredible depth and beauty, brought a new and important viewpoint to the discussion about Britain's ancient burial sites, and shared the growing excitement for the upcoming film Pan's Labyrinth. All in the space of a week or so!

Congratulations, Luna, on a terrific new addition to the blogosphere. We'll be reading!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 9:19 AM | Comments (0)

One year ago today, Blogickal went live with this post. It's fun for me to look back through my posts from the past year to see where I've been and where I've am today, both as a blogger and as a witch.

In November of last year the site saw 618 unique visitors; so far this month we've had more than 4000! Not that it's about the hits, but I find it simultaneously gratifying, mystifying and humbling to think that Blogickal has touched that many people and has developed its own little following. I'm also very proud to have joined the group at The Daily Scribe this year.

So Happy Birthday Blogickal! Many thanks and blessings to the friends and readers who have been with us, offered their comments, encouraged us, and seen us to today!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 10:54 AM | Comments (7)

Little one, © 2005-2006 kiiisss at deviantART

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 9:26 AM | Comments (0)

When you've been studying and reading the tarot for a while, certain cards begin to resonate in a more personal way and for you, as a reader, forever after have deeper, more powerfully nuanced meanings. It's something akin to what Rachel Pollack refers to as "the Gates," certain minor arcana cards that open to hidden experiences in everyday things. For her, these cards "open a path from the ordinary world to the inner level of archetypal experiences" and they take on a "myth-like Strangeness which no allegorical interpretation can completely penetrate." For Pollack, the Gates contain layers of meaning that reveal greater significance upon further study and meditative contemplation. I believe that it is possible for all of us to develop our own Gate-like cards when the synchronicity between an experience in our lives and the appearance of a card within the context of a particular reading or spread suddenly clicks.

For me, one of those cards is the Nine of Pentacles.

Nine of Pentacles, Waite-Ryder Tarot

I learned to read tarot on the Waite-Ryder deck and anyone who is familiar with tarot has seen the image depicted on this card: a woman in a lovely dress, standing in a lavish garden with one hand on a pentacle and holding a falcon on the other. The simple interpretation of this card in a reading would be abundance, good management of material affairs, and success in the accumulation of wealth and comfort. On the surface, it's easy to see that in this card, and it does carry that meaning. However, if you consider what the card could represent on a deeper level, there is so much more to it than that.

In her book Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom, Rachel Pollack begins to explore some of what I mean:

As material cards Pentacles deal with success and what it means in a person's life. The woman depicted in the Nine of Pentacles is sharply aware of the good things in her life - her hand rests on the Pentacles, her thumb hooks on a grapevine. Awareness is one of the card's basic meanings, especially self-awareness and the ability to distinguish what matters in life, what goals truly demand our best efforts. The card signifies success - but not simply the material benefits; it means as well the sense of certainty that comes with knowing one has made the right choices and followed them with the necessary actions. The pentacles growing on the the bushes symbolize a life that is productive and alive.

Success here means not so much worldly achievement as success in "creating" ourselves out of the material given to us by the circumstances and conditions of our life. And certainty, in its strongest sense, means more than looking back and seeing that we have done the right thing. It also means the ability to know where others can only guess. The Nine of Pentacles stands as the emblem of this quality, the true mark of the evolved person.

For women, personal and professional success is often hard-won. While our feminist sisters and mothers who came before us paved the way for women of my generation to experience less of the sexual discrimination and inequality present in the workplace and in the world, for all of their hard work there are still cultural influences and institutionalized systems for keeping women not quite as equal as we should be. All one needs to do is to pay attention to the continual attacks on freedom of reproductive choice and to realize that women, on average, still only make seventy-seven cents to every dollar earned by men (Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, 2005 Annual Social and Economic Supplement.) to know that our society still considers women as less deserving.

Achieving success, however we choose to define that for ourselves, often comes at great personal expense. While it was largely accepted for a long time that women could "have it all" - a well-paying, powerful job as well as a family and a fulfilling home life - more recently women are coming to accept how difficult, stressful and often impossible that life is to achieve. On the other hand, women who choose to stay home to raise their children risk losing the respect of peers who define success as holding a powerful job and accumulation of wealth, and in the worst case scenario, their own self-respect and sense of self worth when they compare themselves to others, even to other mothers whom they view as being better than they are.

Trust me, as an alumna of a prestigious all-women's college, I understand the pressure exerted upon us to live up to the examples of those who have achieved great success in their chosen fields. There is no allowance for "small" successes. Just today, I received an email from my college recognizing a woman in my graduating class for being elected to the “Forty Under 40 class of 2006," a list of women and men who have demonstrated their ability to make a difference in their community. This woman was recently named president of a high-tech software company that serves Fortune 100 firms nationwide and she has had a leadership role in a project to develop improved mental health services for children in her city and to eliminate the stigma of mental illness. I applaud her efforts and celebrate the recognition she is receiving for them. But a tiny place inside me twists and it gives me pause to look at what I'm doing with my life. It's difficult not to find my life small and inconsequential in comparison.

Nine of Pentacles, The Fey Tarot

Looking at the reality of how we have come to define success in our culture, for someone who is striving to create broader-reaching qualifications for personal success that encompass a spiritual element and a certain level of intellectual enlightenment, Rachel Pollack's words serve as a powerful reminder that we women have the power within to create ourselves - to use what we've been given in life to carve a space from this world within which we can live and thrive and succeed - on our terms. Achieving success doesn't have to feel so hard or so bitter when we look at it this way.

In Rachel Pollack's discussion of the Nine of Pentacles, she goes on to make much of the fact that the woman stands alone in her garden. This, Pollack suggests, signifies that in order for this woman to achieve what she has, she as had to give up normal companionship. "In readings, this symbolism does not mean that the card inevitably advises giving up a relationship; but it does call for self-reliance and a certain loneliness in pursuit of goals." Here is where my views differ from Pollack's. I prefer to think not that the woman has had to give up companionship but that she has made choices in her life that were for her own best interest. She has refused to subjugate her will to that of a companion. Because it is only in the pursuit of her interests that she will she find the success that Pollack is describing. Many of us miss finding that success when we make choices based on what is better for someone else or what we think we have to do in order to stay in relationship. If that ultimately does not feed our soul's need then we do not achieve this success for ourselves.

How many women have stayed in a marriage or a relationship for the security it affords them, only to lose themselves in the process? Ironically, though the Nine of Pentacles is in the suit that represents the material realm, what this woman has achieved in her world is her self. It may not have been without personal sacrifice and loss along the way. However, she did what she had to do, she accomplished a lot, and now that she's there she stands strong and confident, feeling all the happier achieving her success because she knows that she's done it for herself. She's always aware of what it took to get there but she never looks back, she never apologizes, and she never again loses herself.

I took a tarot class not too long ago because, although I'd been reading the cards for a while, I thought it would be instructional to learn another approach to reading and interpretation. My teacher had an interesting approach to interpreting the Queen cards and it is that slight interpretive shift that was the most significant learning experience I took from his class. Essentially, he taught us that the Queens represent the mature embodiment of the essence of each of the suits. The mantra of the Queen is: "I'm old enough, I'm wise enough, and I owe it to myself." This expression of what the Queens represent I believe is also what the Nine of Pentacles, as a "gate," has to teach us. As we move through the suits, the lessons offered by each of the Queens build upon the others to bring us to a completion of sorts - to the success that the Nine of Pentacles enjoys.

The essence of the Queen of Wands is of being and of self-actualization. She says, "I now have the maturity, the integrity and the dignity to live my truth." As the Queen of Wands, you don't feel that you have to prove anything to anyone. If they don't "get it" that is not your problem. Others' reactions don't matter any more. What you are experiencing and how you are living your life is just a part of who you are. You are old enough, whole enough, and you owe it to yourself to just live the truth of who you are.

The essence of the Queen of Cups is about recognizing the virtue of healthy and compassionate boundaries within relationships (something we uncover within ourselves). This is difficult in our culture because as women we're taught that sacrificing ourselves and our needs for the good of others is the best, most noble, thing we can do. The Queen of Cups tells us that to constantly go out of our way to accommodate another person we are actually doing a disservice to both, because we are reinforcing the message that by sacrificing oneself we can complete another. As individuals we can complement each other, but we cannot complete each other. The Queen of Cups invites you as an individual to recognize your own wholeness and to understand that it doesn't help another person to lose yourself.

"Being" the Queen of Cups is a challenge for many women. When we care about someone we want them to be happy and we tend to want to do all we can for them. We have to be able to be in the relationship but at the same time require the other person to work by participating in the process of making themselves happy. This is difficult because societal influences often make us feel guilty if we don't do more. We're painted as selfish if we choose to protect the integrity of our selves. Knowing where the boundaries need to be in order to be healthy and compassionate, going beyond them doesn't benefit anyone, least of all yourself. You don't have to change; it's up to the other person to meet you half way.

Another aspect to the integrity of the Queen of Cups is letting go of the fantasy of how we wish a relationship (and life) could be and truly wanting to experience it for what it really is. It's the flip-side of requiring others to hold up their end of relationship responsibilities; it's being mature enough to recognize that we cannot expect others to be any more than themselves and, again, recognizing that a relationship is better when both people are free to be who they really are. In this way, we see the progression and incorporation of the lesson of the Queen of Wands with that of the Queen of Cups.

Nine of Pentacles, Blue Rose Tarot

The Queen of Swords embodies the virtue of discretion or discernment. She says, "I have the maturity, integrity and dignity to analyze the pros and cons and to make a wise choice." The issue isn't one of compromise; it's about balance. The Queen of Swords appreciates that balance is the better choice. Discretion allows us to be open to a variety of possibilities for thinking and being in the world and to be open to other points of view. What gives the Queen of Swords her power is her ability to weigh her options and to know how to make the best choice for herself. Discretion being the better part of valor, our Queen has grown through the lessons of the Wands and Cups to the point where she can now make decisions and act within a personal paradigm arrived at through self-acknowledgement and respect.

The Queen of Pentacles is the embodiment of the virtue of responsibility and accountability. Once we create an environment that can support us, patiently working through the process, we attain the ability to embrace these virtues. We have a unique ability to tend to our needs because we now know what they are. Easier said than done! Responsibility and accountability are separate things. By the time we have reached the lesson that the Queen of Pentacles has to teach us, we understand the difference and have the means to hold ourselves and others to account. Once we examine and recognize what we have, both in a material and in a psychological sense, we can better utilize our assets to live the life we want. The very definition of success.

I think the Nine of Pentacles is such an important card because it represents the process of achieving success through the lessons the Queens have to teach us. While technically speaking, the Queens "outrank" the Nine of Pentacles, that's not really the point here. The Nine of Pentacles represents the culmination of the work a woman has to do to succeed for herself - to become the embodiment of the virtues of the Queens. To become a Queen herself.

While I was looking for images of the Nine of Pentacles to illustrate this essay, I came across the beautiful card in the Blue Rose Tarot by Paula Gibby. Reading Paula's philosophy behind the picture she created was like reading a transcript of my own thoughts on the subject! I knew I was on to something about the iconic nature of the Nine of Pentacles when someone else had independently reached the same conclusion I had.

Here is Paula Gibby's description of her Nine of Pentacles:

I've read many descriptions of the Nine of Pentacles. We all have, so I don't need to reiterate them here.  However, one recurring comment pertaining to the Waite-Smith card raises a cautionary opinion that the woman has isolated herself (or can become isolated) from others. I don't look at it quite that way and I like to entertain the idea that perhaps Pamela Colman Smith didn't look at it that way either. I think people forget the times and circumstances in which she lived as well as her temperament. I would imagine that, to her, the ultimate expression of wealth would also translate to complete material independence from other people as well as control over one's own circumstances and environment. A figure standing alone in a pleasant or prosperous setting would portray this idea quite well, which is what Smith did.

However, she took it even further. There were plenty of independently wealthy men in that era, but very few women. Most wealthy women had attained their station through marital or extramarital alliances. But a woman who had her own money and property along with the power to administer both was a rare figure indeed. To Pamela, such an individual would be the personification of the Nine of Pentacles. Someone who had not only the material means but also the independence to thoroughly enjoy and control it. For me, the Nine of Pentacles is not just about one of these gifts, it is about both all three in harmonious concert with each other: wealth (prosperity), independence, control.

Now, let's take it a step further. "Wealth" is a relative term. I'm sure Bill Gates' idea of wealth is vastly different from my own. I don't know what Smith's idea of wealth was. But if we look at the Waite-Smith Nine of Pentacles, we can speculate a little.??The woman in the card is dressed well, but she isn't dripping with jewels, nor does she have servants trailing behind her. She is simply out in her garden, enjoying it and the day. And that's the key. It's not the amount of money she has that is the issue, rather, it is the fact that this woman has the luxury of time. Time to walk slowly and happily through her garden.  She has no dishes to wash, no job to go to, no errands to run. Daily toil and trial have not etched their signatures upon her face and hands. 
She has the ultimate gift that material prosperity means brings...time.  And, as is evident from the Smith card, she has the independence to control that priceless gift.??How much wealth, independence and control does she have? The answer is: she has enough. Enough to enjoy life at a more leisurely pace. Enough to bring that look of quiet contentment and fulfillment to her expression.

Personally, I've always thought assessments about the woman in the Waite-Smith deck having isolated herself from others was a rather stereotypical analysis. Were that a male figure in the same card, I don't think you would ever read such a comment. It is interesting to contemplate that, even in this day and age, some of us (men AND women) think that a woman alone is somehow incomplete. That she is isolated. Or in danger of becoming so. Considering that, all these decades later, we still cannot wholly accept that image/concept, Pamela Colman Smith's depiction becomes even more apparently masterful.

So masterful, that I, as a woman, couldn't bring myself to veer away from it by introducing a different set of images.

The woman in my Nine of Pentacles is wealthy. She is independent. And yes, she is totally in control. The material world has given these gifts to her and she handles them well. Look in her eyes. Look at that warm, self-assured expression. There is no sign of coldness in her. This is not woman unaccustomed to human interaction or who turns away from it. Do you see a woman who is lonely? I think not. If this woman is alone (and who says she is?), it is because she chooses to be so. The words "alone" and "lonely" have entirely different meanings.

Besides, I will not allow you to think of her as such, for I have placed her at the bottom of the grand staircase leading to her candlelit ballroom. Yes, "her" ballroom. The similarity of coloration between her beautiful dress and her elegant ballroom have been deliberately chosen to emphasize this point. See how perfectly she and her environment are matched and elegantly blended with each other. Note also that, even though the room is built upon a grand scale, the lady is neither dwarfed nor diminished by it. She is a perfect match for it, totally in command of it.

She stands in the center of her lovely dwelling waiting for her hundreds of guests to arrive. And when they enter her home, she will make them welcome...entertain them with beautiful music, food, wine and the company of others. She is, after all, a symbol of her suit - Pentacles, the material world. Just a few cards away from her stands her sister, the Queen of Pentacles, who is one manifestation of the archetypal Empress.

Such a positive card...which begs the question: what if it appears reversed in a reading? In that case, you would want to ask yourself (as Mary Greer has so excellently instructed): how is that energy being blocked? Again, like all the tarot cards, this card is about balance. It is not just about wealth, control or independence. It is about all three and how successfully (or not ) you handle them. Remembering this raises all kinds of interesting and possible permutations with regard to balance and energy.

The lady in the card has already successfully balanced all three. The question then becomes: can we?

So here she is. I hope you enjoy and admire her. I know I do.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 7:49 PM | Comments (2)

One of my fellow bloggers at The Daily Scribe wrote a terrific essay exploring the basis for the superstitions surrounding Friday the Thirteenth, which happens to fall this week. The essay is one of the most comprehensive looks at the subject I've read and I found it both fascinating and enjoyable. Reb Chaim HaQoton asked to hear my thoughts. Such is my interest in the topic and what turns out to be the extent of my answer to his question that I decided to formulate my response in a blog post of my own.

Friday the Thirteenth has always been a lucky day for me. This stems from a purely personal mythology: When I was in high school, the opening night of a play I was starring in was a tremendous success, and since that day good things have always happened to me on Friday the Thirteenth. The power of personal belief is a mighty thing!

Apparently, the Egyptians were the first to develop a superstition for the number thirteen, but for them it also brought good luck. They believed that there were twelve steps on the ladder to eternal life and knowledge and to take the thirteenth step meant going through death into everlasting life. Thirteen, for the Egyptians, was associated with immortality.

But back to Reb Chaim HaQoton's essay. I agree with his supposition that much of the demonization of the number thirteen (and Friday for that matter) was perpetrated by the Christian church, both for the many reasons he mentions that are particularly Christian in nature and as a result of the church's systematic efforts to wipe out native pagan religions. There are numerous examples across history and cultures to suggest that before Christianity's pervasive influence, the number thirteen was largely celebratory and even reverential. The website Pagan Astronomy offers a thorough discussion of some of the various cultural associations with thirteen on this page: The Numbers of Heaven: 13. This collection of stories, while covering some of the same topics as Reb Chaim HaQoton's essay, does provide a good overview of some of thirteen's more auspicious associations.

Ironically, there are plenty of modern "thirteens" that are perfectly respectable as well. In addition to the example from the Jewish faith that Reb Chaim HaQoton mentions, there are other more secular examples. There are thirteen players on a rugby team.

Since much of the fear surrounding Friday the Thirteenth seems to stem from a demonization of Pagan practices and a derogatory association with witchcraft, from a Wiccan and Pagan perspective I can shed some light on the significance the number thirteen holds in our belief system.

Triple Moon Stained Glass 1, © 2004-2006 copperphoenix at deviantART

Witches consider the number thirteen not only to be fortunate, but also to be magickal. This has to do with its strong connection to the Moon and lunar energy. The Moon is one of the most significant icons in Wiccan and Pagan spirituality. In fact, few religious symbols occur in such diverse contexts as symbols of the Moon. There are thirteen Moon cycles in a year. The thirteen Full Moons are celebrated by witches as holy days known as Esbats. Witches invoke the Goddess by "drawing down the Moon." Moon is referred to as Mother and she is the source of feminine energy, intuition and psychic ability. The triple Moon symbol stands for the Triple Goddess, consisting of maiden, mother and crone, which is a common theme throughout Wiccan and Pagan mythology and spiritual practice. There are many, many more examples of the Moon's sanctity among witches and other Pagans about which much could, and has, been written. Suffice it to say that the Moon's place within Wiccan and Pagan spirituality is the primary reason why the number thirteen has importance.

Thirteen also refers to the ancient lunar calendar, in which there were thirteen months of 28 days each plus one additional day. Although the lunar calendar eventually was given up in 1582 in favor of a solar calendar (Wikipedia has a very interesting historical account of how the Gregorian Calendar came to be), many modern Pagans still follow the old lunar system for the timing of rituals and other spiritual work. For example, the typical length of time for witches to undergo formal study or training is for "a year and a day," based on the ancient lunar year.

As Reb Chaim HaQoton mentions in his essay, thirteen is the traditional number for a coven of witches and it is generally accepted among Wiccans that the reason for this relates to the thirteen moon phases in a year. Interestingly enough, the Pagan Astronomy article mentioned above offered this tidbit of historical data on why covens have thirteen members:

In 1662 we find a record from the witch trial of Isobel Gowdie which states that she belonged to a coven of 13. Chaucer even uses the word "convent" in Canterbury Tales to refer to an "assembly of 13". Coven is a variation of the word convent, and by association, the words Covent, and Coventry. A poem from 14th century England mentions a "coveyne" as a gathering of 13 people.

Scott Cunningham, an American witch and much-respected author on Wicca and witchcraft, wrote in his book Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner a list of "Thirteen Goals for a Witch." These are believed to have been based on an older, British traditional source. The Thirteen Goals, along with the Wiccan Rede, constitute a set of guidelines for witches to live by. The fact that there are thirteen goals doubtless refers back to the significance of the number thirteen already discussed.

Addressing the issue of Friday's role in the superstition is much simpler. Aversions to Friday seem entirely based in Christianity, starting with the fact that Christ was crucified on that day and including other occurrences Reb Chaim HaQoton mentions in his essay, particularly the church's efforts to demonize anything associated with pagan religions and the vilification of anything that had to do with sex and feminine power. Witches and Pagans still acknowledge Friday's association with Venus (and Freya if one honors a Norse pantheon) and Friday is viewed as the best day to perform any magick relating to Venus' areas of expertise: love, fertility and beauty.

The numerous ways that people react to the Friday the Thirteenth superstition and the lengths that people will go to in order to avoid the number thirteen in particular, seem particularly hilarious to me, especially since most of them have nothing to do with the original reasons behind the superstition itself. I would have expected that by now the hysteria would be wearing off. But with so many centuries of belief and tradition behind it, I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised. As I said, the power of personal belief is a mighty thing indeed.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 4:19 PM | Comments (8)

Do you keep an equivalent of a book of shadows? What format do you keep it in? (digital, paper), how often do you use it, and is it categorized in any way?

When anyone mentions keeping a book of shadows, I have visions of a large, beautifully bound book containing handwritten notes and carefully pasted images, slips of paper and the occasional herbal charm bag stuck between the pages. Is this what my personal book of shadows looks like? (Please excuse me while I drag myself from the floor where I've fallen due to uncontrollable paroxysms of laughter.) No, my book of shadows isn't nearly as organized.

A bit of advice I read in one of the many "101" books suggested keeping your book of shadows in a 3-ring binder using loose-leaf paper. This would make it easy to add things and to change it over time - a practical and utilitarian approach. While that idea made sense to me, my artistic inclination wanted something more aesthetically pleasing. I found a binder covered in pretty green silk that was intended to be a photo album. It came with plain filler pages of thick cream paper and plastic sleeves designed to hold 4x6 photos. I decided I would use the pages to write and paste things on and would write spells on index cards that would fit in the photo sleeves. I designed section pages and printed them on my color printer. It is lovely. As far as using it is concerned, I have written spells on index cards but have been very bad about adding anything else to the empty pages. There are several pages of spells, written in a spiral-bound notebook, that I've torn out and crammed in among the index cards.

Thinking of the book of shadows as more than a place to record spells, but also to keep a record of meditations, impressions about experiences, meanings gleaned from tarot readings, dreams and other magick of the mind, I have been keeping this sort of a book of shadows in the form of journals. Daily journaling has been a required part of my formal training in the craft and I have filled numerous Moleskine notebooks with all of the items mentioned above. Mixed in you'll find the occasional phone number or book list written in and the journals are not organized in any way, simply flowing chronologically; a new one begins when the old one is filled.

Certainly, this blog itself is an adjunct book of shadows, a place where I have collected and recorded images and thoughts that have been important to me. I even created a Grimoire section where I intended to record spells to share with my readers. If you check out that section, you'll see that I've been just as bad about putting spells there as I have been with my index cards.

As with many ways that we all find to procrastinate in life, I keep thinking that some day, when I have the time, I will take all of the information I have amassed, organize it, and collect it together in one place to create a real book of shadows. Well, you know what they say about good intentions! For now I'll be satisfied with the fact that at least I'm producing the content, even if it isn't organized in a particularly cohesive way. In fact, I've discovered that when I'm poring through an old journal or looking through the archives of my site to find something that I wrote a while ago on some topic, I actually find other bits of information that I'd forgotten and am happy to be reminded of. If I had stored everything away in carefully cross-referenced sections, would they sit there untouched like old books on dusty library shelves?

Ideally, I do believe that a good book of shadows is a working thing, continually supplemented and annotated, referred to daily, lovingly worn. As a bibliophile and a lover of tactile things, I'm still drawn to the romantic notion of that big book. But I do think it would be really cool to have a digital document that could consist of textual documents and also links to blog entries and bookmarked web pages. When I end up at one place or the other, I'll be sure to let you know!

Thank you to Witches Weekly for the Q&A.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 3:24 PM | Comments (3)

Tonight's Full Moon, occurring at 11:13 pm EDT, is the annual event known in the northern hemisphere as the Harvest Moon. The Harvest Moon is the Full Moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox and was called this because, rising within a half hour of sunset, it allowed farmers extra time to bring in the harvest, working by the light of the moon. The Harvest Moon always hangs low in the sky. It seems to be larger and more beautiful than other Full Moons and often has an orange or pink cast. When you gaze at it, it looks very large and gives a lot of light throughout the entire night. No other lunar spectacle is as awesome as the Harvest Moon.

The Harvest Moon, when it falls in September, is also known as the Fruit Moon. When it falls in October, it is sometimes called the Hunter's Moon because October is the month when large animals, such as deer and moose, are hunted for the winter's meat supply.

In Celtic traditions, the October Full Moon is known as the Blood Moon, not from blood sacrifices, but from the old custom of killing and salting down livestock before the Winter months made it impossible to feed them. Only the choicest stock was kept through the cold season. It is the Moon of Celebration and is associated with courage, protection, prosperity, healing, inspiration, and spirituality. The Gaelic word for fortune comes from "that which denotes a Full Moon." The Druids believed that when the circle of the Moon was complete, good fortune was given to those who knew how to ask the gods for it.

Other names for the October Full Moon: Blood Moon, Shedding Moon, Winterfelleth (Winter Coming), Windermanoth (Vintage Month), Falling Leaf Moon, Ten Colds Moon, Moon of the Changing Season.

This year, the Harvest Moon falls in the passionate and bold sign of Aries -- inspiring us to take action and follow our desires. I think Cafe Astrology provides the best information on the implications and effects of tonight's Full Moon:

On Friday, October 6th, the Full Moon occurs when the Libra Sun opposes the Moon in Aries. The Full Moon is a time of culmination and the promise of fulfillment of that which was started at the New Moon. It is an emotional time—a time of romance, fertilization, and relationships.

The Aries-Libra polarity is a relationship axis, where Aries represents "self" and Libra represents "other". Where Aries is about self-assertion, Libra is about compromise. The energy of the Libra Sun is the awareness of the need for relationships and all that comes with maintaining them--compromising, negotiating, graciousness, and balancing. The Aries Moon, on the other hand, is self-assertive, leading, and personally courageous. This Full Moon urges us to strike a balance between meeting our personal needs and tending to the needs of a significant other, and between independence or autonomy and dependence or companionability.

The Libra Sun is diplomatic, equality-minded, and fair-minded. The Aries Moon, however, values authenticity over tact, and is energized by independent efforts. The Full Moon illuminates this conflict. This Full Moon is a creative one, with the Sun at the midpoint between Venus and Mars, and supported by both Neptune and Pluto, offering us the chance for creative revelations and solutions to the basic dilemma.

Neglecting either end of the Aries-Libra axis will surely backfire on us. Ideally, a balance should be found between the two energies, and this is what the Full Moon invites us to do. This Full Moon is about emotional declarations. Something has been building inside of us, likely of a personal nature, and now is the time when the energy of the cosmos fairly demands that we let it out. Over the next two weeks, we will discover what this declaration means for us. For now, we can't sit on our feelings. We need to express them.

The Full Moon illuminates the conflict between "me" and "you", and between autonomy and sharing. Its involvement with the Venus/Mars midpoint reinforces the "battle" between the need for companionship and the need for independence. Issues surrounding romantic and sexual needs also come up now.

With the Moon full and bright in the sky, symbolic "illumination" occurs in our own lives. However, these new feelings and revelations are emotional ones, as there is a sense of emotions bursting forth into our consciousness. It's time to express ourselves, and to let things out of our systems. Of course, we might want to exercise some care while doing so, knowing that what is coming out of us is new and not particularly rational as yet.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 8:35 PM | Comments (0)

Usually I add a section for spellwork at the end of my Full Moon posts. Today, however, there is so much happening energetically and so many opportunities to delve into the art of spell craft that I wanted to devote an entire post just to spellwork.

Since the Moon goes Full at 11:13 tonight (EDT), we have all day to use up the last of the Waxing Moon energy to work any magick for increase. In fact, it may be the most powerful time of the Waxing cycle. Magickal powers are said to be at their greatest during a Full Moon. Tonight, at 11:13 pm or even at midnight, will be the ideal time for spell work involving fertility, divinations and problem-solving magic. Given how today's Full Moon falls between Mabon and Samhain, it also feels to me like one of the most powerful times of the year. I think today and tonight will be particularly good times for spellwork. Today also represents a particularly powerful confluence of energy around passion, desire, love and action.

Usually referred to as the Harvest Moon, in Celtic traditions, the October Full Moon is also known as the Blood Moon. It is the Moon of Celebration and is associated with courage, protection, prosperity, healing, inspiration, and spirituality.

Friday is Venus' day - the ideal day for working love spells. The Goddess of love and fertility, Venus governs all aspects of love and relationships - romance, pleasure, sensuality, beauty, erotica and attraction. Venus has a very magnetic power and attracts all things of value. Anything you value can be drawn to you with Venus energy, from love and sex, to money, art and luxury.

The Moon is in Aries today - a period of ambition and energetic activity. It is a good time for beginning projects and instigating change. (Be aware that a desire for change will be based more upon impulse than reason, so take great care with how you word your spells to make sure that the outcome you get is the one you really desire.) Aries is ruled by Mars. The complement of Venus, Mars is the masculine yang, outgoing energy in nature. Mars is closely related to our physical energy and rules our more basic, animal essence, often expressed as courage, initiative, assertiveness, aggressiveness, impulsiveness, adventurousness, self-will, resistance, rashness, and strong sexual love.

We instinctively start a new cycle when the Moon enters Aries, the first sign of the zodiac. This gut instinct to start something new today is tempered by the Full Moon energy, which is a time of culmination and the fulfillment of that which was started at the New Moon. Because today is influenced by both Venus and Mars and the beginning of a new cycle and the culmination of one, we have a unique combination of energies at our disposal for spellwork.

Planetary Hours

When you really want to boost a spell with planetary energy, its advisable to choose the hour of the day based on its planetary correspondence. For example, if you are working a love spell but the ultimate goal is to improve the communication in your relationship, then you might choose to work the spell on Friday (Venus' day) in the hour of Mercury. Bewitching Ways has a great online planetary hours chart that you can reference to learn the planetary hours and to figure out the best time for your spellwork.

Using planetary hours can get tricky. The simplest way is to use modern clock hours - basically, the first hour of the day starts at midnight and lasts for 60 minutes and the first hour of night starts at noon. However, traditionally, day and night hours were calculated based on when the Sun rises and sets. The 12 "hours" of the day are calculated by figuring out how much time there is between sunrise and sunset and dividing that by 12. Hour One of the day begins at sunrise and lasts for the amount of time you calculated. The only time that "hours" will actually have a full 60 minutes is on the two equinoxes.

Today, in Boston, the Sun rose at 6:47 am and sunset is at 6:15 pm EDT. Each of the "hours" of the day are about 57 minutes long. So, Hour One started at 6:47 and lasted until 7:44 (give or take a few seconds). Mercury falls in Hour Two, so if you were working the love spell I mentioned above, you would want to begin your spell at 7:44 or after and make sure that you were finished by 8:42.

I was taught that using the traditional hours method will make my magick more effective and I have stuck to that principle. I don't always use planetary hours for spell working, but when I do, this is the method I use.

Pulling it all together

Below, I'll offer a personal example to illustrate how I am going to use today's energetic confluence for spellwork:

My ex-fiance and I are really still very much in love although we've had difficulties figuring out how to make a relationship between us work. While there have been some bad things happen between us (we have broken up, after all) there is still a powerful connection between us that neither of us can deny. Lately, we've been communicating a lot, have had some nice time together, and are sort of circling around each other trying to figure out what to do now. Our confidence and trust is shaken after recent events and it's difficult for us to find the right way to proceed. So, today I am going to work some candle magick to help us find our way back to each other; to help our love for each other guide us in the action we need to take to move our relationship where it needs to go.

I will focus on Venus - instinctively I know that love is the thing that I need to concentrate on right now, as a larger theme in my life, not just in this relationship - but certainly I will take advantage of the Mars energy to give both of us the courage and energy to act. For us, it will be something of a culmination, but also, I hope, a new beginning together.

While the Moon is still Waxing, to increase our ability to work through our issues and to increase our understanding of each other, I plan to work some fairly simple candle magick. I will use three candles: a pink one to represent Venus and true love; a sea blue candle to represent my partner, a Pisces, and also the element of water and its association with healing, sensitivity, intuition, and love; a green candle to represent me, a Taurus, and also the element of earth and its association with growth, nurturing, stability, luck, and fruition. I will carve my intent into the candles and write a simple spell to ask that my intent be sent into the universe, empowered by the energies of today. I will also write down some of my thoughts to say aloud to send out with the smoke of the candles. On my altar, in addition to the candles, I will place a picture of the two of us, some sea shells from a hotel in California where we have stayed together many times (which will also serve as a symbol of Venus), two pink roses in a green vase (the roses are symbols of love; a green vase filled with water is another symbol of Venus).

I decided that the best time for the work I want to do is in a Jupiter hour. Jupiter symbolizes expansion, the higher mind, wisdom, enthusiasm, optimism, spontaneity, benevolence, generosity, the desire to gain through experience, and the urge to improve the state of things. Jupiter represents increase, opportunity, rewards, abundance, tolerance, giving, ethics, faith, confidence, idealism, aspiration, justice, and joviality. Jupiter protects, assists, magnifies, inflates, gives, inspires, encourages, and counsels. It carries the ability to grow in physical, mental and moral directions. These are precisely the things that I want to bring into our relationship and the energy I want to influence us as we consider how to move forward.

Correspondences

Some other magickal correspondences with the October Full Moon:

Deities: Ishtar, Astarte, Demeter, Kore, Lakshmi, Horned God, Belili, Hathor

Nature Spirits: frost faeries, plant faeries

Colors: dark blue-green

Flowers: calendula, marigold, cosmos

Scents: strawberry, apple blossom, cherry

Stones: opal, tourmaline, beryl, turquoise

Trees: yew, cypress, acacia

Animals: stag, jackal, elephant, ram, scorpion

Birds: heron, crow, robin

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 12:13 PM | Comments (1)

Writing about spirituality, I spend a lot of time talking about paths. Choosing a path, progressing along a path, where a path might take me. As I was looking through the many photos I've taken over the past few years, I realized that a recurring theme among them is pathways. Subconsciously, I've had paths on the brain for a very long time!

UPDATE: I decided to try my hand at making an iMovie - alas, either my hand is horrible or iMovie is. I'm sorry. I tried to bring you interesting moving pictures with a lovely soundtrack. Here, instead, are a couple of my favorite photos. Still.

Noe

Yosemite

Beach Boards

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 1:46 PM | Comments (1)

I have always had an interest in comparative religion and have tried to educate myself as much as possible about other faiths and their observances. Joining the compendium of bloggers at The Daily Scribe has been a wonderful immersion into an ongoing multi-faith conversation. My fellow scribes are all talented writers who bring their unique perspective to the philosophy and practice of their religion and spirituality.

There are a number of Scribes who are Jewish and leading up to today they have been doing much writing, as you might expect, about Yom Kippur. Others in the group, while not Jewish, are following the spirit of this day to do some of their own "personal meditation, fasting, and reflection." I have other friends, outside the Scribe circle, who also take the opportunity during Ramadan, Yom Kippur and other holy days to attend to some of their own personal spiritual needs. It's not that these people don't have religious observances in their own faiths but that out of compassion, love and respect for those of other faiths they wish to observe on this day as well.

Witches know that the more people who are adding their energy to a particular working, the more powerful that working will become. Meditation done within the context of a group ritual is often much more powerful by virtue of the energy that the other participants are contributing. Is it any wonder, then, that many people are taking the opportunity today to dip into the collective spiritual energy being generated around the world for some spiritual work of their own? Not just to have a more powerful personal experience but to feel part of a universal collection of souls.

One of the posts on Yom Kippur that caught my attention was Simchas Yom Kippur at Reb Chaim HaQoton. It starts by saying that Yom Kippur is one of the happiest days of the year and goes on to explain why. This passage was particularly instructive:

...the repentance during the Ten Days of Repentance from Rosh HaShannah to Yom Kippur is a repentance out of fear (fear from Heavenly punishment and fear of the awesomeness of G-d), while the repentance during the holiday of Succos is a repentance from love. The difference between the two types of repentance is that repentance from fear only erases one's sins, while repentance from love transforms one's sins into fulfillments of positive commandments...

I am intrigued by the concept of two kinds of repentance, especially the idea that "repentance from love" can be a transformative power for good. Witches perform their work in a sacred circle of "perfect love and perfect trust." We too recognize love's power to transform.

While I don't prescribe to the idea of "sin" or that of a smiteful God who is going to be angry and do nasty things to you if you don't repent, I do embrace the practice of taking a day to look back over the past year, reflect upon things you've done that you regret or wish you had done differently, and make a plan for how to transform yourself, your attitude, your actions so that next year will be better. Yes, it's good to ask forgiveness from others, but it's just as important to forgive yourself. That is how I think atonement and forgiveness can make you happy.

In my recent post about the Wiccan Sabbat Mabon I wrote:

This is a time for spiritual reflection on the past year, what it has brought to us and what have we sown and harvested in our lives. It is a time to give thanks to the God and the Goddess for what we have been able to accomplish and it is an opportunity to cut away the chaff, the useless things and situations that are keeping us from realizing our truest potential and greatest happiness. How can we work to bring more balance to our lives? Since we are coming to the end of our Pagan year it also is a time to imagine what we hope and plan to accomplish next year. These things are our modern "harvest."

The spiritual work we are asked to do on Mabon is very similar to that asked of Jews at Yom Kippur. We do this now to prepare for the end of the year, the end of the harvest, the darkness of the winter to come, before Samhain, our New Year.

Another passage from Simchas Yom Kippur that I found intriguing was this:

On the day of Yom Kippur, every Jew's fate for the year is sealed, and it is one's final time to repent for sins.

A literal reading may suggest that this is your last chance to ask for forgiveness. From a larger, metaphorical position, I think it's possible to read this as meaning that as the end of the year approaches, these are the last days we have to wipe the slate clean to begin the new year clearer of spirit and of intent. In witchcraft, intent is the most powerful energy of all.

G'mar chatimah tovah (may you, finally, be sealed for good) and "May your observance bring you closer to the meaning that you seek." (The Velveteen Rabbi)

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 9:30 AM | Comments (4)

Witches hold great store in cleansing. We cleanse space of bad energy. We perform ritual cleansing before major workings. We focus on cleansing our lives of things that don't serve us when we feel it is necessary for personal growth. We even cleanse our homes with an eye toward the spiritual. The simple act of scrubbing the toilet can shift the energy in your apartment enough to affect change in your life. I'm not being intentionally cheeky (ok, maybe a little bit) but I'm highlighting an earnest belief that washing that man (or whatever) right out of your hair (or whatever) can have powerful personal meaning and effect.

For a while I have hired a cleaning service to clean my apartment. It was an indulgence I allowed myself on the basis that it reduced my stress level to be able to just arrive home and - voila - the place is clean. This week I asked my cleaning people not to come because I spent all of my extra cash (and some not-so-extra cash!) on a pair of boots that I decided I simply had to have. So today, in the absence of my regular service, I set upon my apartment with determination and spent several hours cleaning.

What shouldn't have surprised me at all, but did, was how incredibly cathartic and therapeutic it felt to cleanse my home. Putting all of the energy that I've been devoting to being in a funk into cleaning my apartment instead was enormously satisfying. Not only do I feel a great sense of satisfaction at having a very clean place to dwell (cleaner than when the service comes, if truth be told) but my psyche feels a sense of relief. The burdens of last week are gone, washed down the drains and whisked away with the dust.

There is a reason why so many witches are good housekeepers, cooks and craftswomen. It's because we can see the magick in every act we do and we can use each one to help us in our lives. The simple act of cleaning the bedroom becomes a prayer for creating a clearer path to fulfilling love. Baking a cake to take to a friend is a spell for bringing sweetness into someone's life. Making an autumn wreath for the door becomes an offering to the harvest gods and recognition of the abundance we have had the grace to harvest in our lives this year.

No one really likes to scrub the toilet, but maybe by letting someone else clean my home I have been missing out on a regular opportunity to spiritually cleanse my space. Part of that need to take the reigns of my Chariot back into hand may be in details as simple as this.

Interestingly enough, when I took one of those silly (albeit fun) online quizzes Which Domestic Goddess Are You?, I came out equal parts Artemis, Penelope, Kuan Yin, Aphrodite, and Hera!

You scored 18.2% Artemis

Ruler of the wilderness, Artemis is the free spirit of the domestic goddesses. If you are ruled by Artemis, you are unconventional and secure in your own likes and dislikes. You are your own interior decorator, a collector, eclectic in your tastes. Those mix-and-matched plates and napkins you've been using forever reflect your individuality perfectly. Bright colors (think pinks and greens) in patterns and stripes appeal to your inner goddess. Your favorite room is apt to be lightest, brightest room with the largest windows -- no fussy curtains for you, just bright sunlight, the perfect place for a spur-of-the moment gathering. Trust your own individual flair -- remember, you had animal prints before they were in -- and let your spontaneity shine. Maintaining any easygoing approach to housekeeping and sharing your home with plants and animals appeal to Artemis' love of the energy of the outdoors. Even if you live in a small apartment, let the Artemis in you blossom with a small container herb garden to awaken your senses. You may sometimes put other, more conventional types off with your individual style. And you may also find it hard to sustain a committed relationship because you are attracted to so many different types of people. Take inspiration from Hestia to calm your Artemis side down and become more grounded. Or listen to Kuan Yin to let a different kind of energy into your life.

You scored 18.2% Penelope

The "weaver" and the most creative of the goddesses, Penelope inspires us to express our personalities and tastes by making things and trying new crafts. She is the part of us that loves working with a glue gun, buying a piece of fabric, stenciling borders on walls and refinishing furniture. If you are ruled by Penelope, you are skilled with your hands and get great satisfaction making things for yourself and others. You are open and free with your gifts and have a large circle of friends and acquaintances. To express this inner goddess, decorate with soft, restful colors -- blues reminiscent of the skies and oceans, with a touch of green -- and focus on the handmade or rescued piece -- the homemade pillow, the updated flea market find. Penelope is unafraid to express her own tastes; don't be afraid to experiment with new ideas, new materials, new color combinations. To bring this goddess into your life, teach yourself a new skill or embark on a new project, such as making picture frames or starting a scrapbook. Be patient with yourself -- there's no particular rush to finish your project on a tight schedule. Sometimes, Penelope has us ignore our need for quiet; call on Kuan Yin to remind you of the simple pleasure of sitting alone, doing nothing. You may also become housebound if you're not careful -- working on something new -- so invite the spirit of Hera in and explore the outside world a bit. Your special talents will be well appreciated.

You scored 18.2% Kuan Yin

The domestic goddess of compassion and understanding, Kuan Yin is the necessary corrective to the busy and fast pace of everyday life. If you are ruled by Kuan Yin, you are introspective and spiritual by nature, focused on the essential things in life. You are the friend whom others turn to in times of turmoil and trouble. Simplicity is this goddess' hallmark, and your decorating style is open and uncluttered. Clean, classic lines appeal to you -- no ruffles or flounces. A single, beautiful object will give your eye a spot to linger, such as a tabletop fountain created in one of your favorite vases. Open up to this goddess's influence by choosing natural fabrics -- cottons and linens -- over synthetics and sticking with a color palette of wood tones, black and white, and the occasional jewel tone, such as amethyst or emerald. Set aside a place for meditation in your home -- it need only be a windowsill -- and choose objects with personal resonance, such as a beautiful seashell, a perfect flower or a candle to decorate it. Appealing to your inner goddess will awaken your spirit. Sometimes your need for perfection gets in your way and your unhurried nature has you running late or missing deadlines entirely. Quiet by temperament and inclination, you sometimes miss some of the opportunities afforded by the outside world. Call on adventurous Artemis or romantic Aphrodite to bring a little spice into your life.

You scored 18.2% Aphrodite

The goddess of love whose domain is the bedroom and garden, Aphrodite is the ultimate romantic spirit. If you are ruled by Aphrodite, you are energetic and spontaneous, emotional and romantic, a gifted decorator and a fine gardener. Small details and pretty touches are one of Aphrodite's trademarks -- scented soaps in the bathroom or a bowl of dried rose petals in the bedroom will bring your inner goddess to the fore. Rich floral prints, the look of layer upon layer in window treatments, the most delicate of laces, and soft velvets can make any room in your house or apartment a place of love and romance. Feel free to experiment with rich sensual colors -- the mossiest of greens, the deepest of pinks -- to bring a different kind of depth to your surroundings. (Aphrodite isn't shy about her wants.) Cut flowers or a small bowl filled with pebbles and a single daffodil bulb will bring the spirit of Aphrodite into the house, even in midwinter. Use candles, particularly scented ones, to let your inner Aphrodite free and follow your instincts. Keep in mind that your focus on love and romance might lead you to neglect some parts of your life that need tending. Take inspiration from Athena, and remember, being just a bit more organized will make your life that much easier.

You scored 18.2% Hera

The queen of the Greek goddess, the multitalented Hera is always on the run. If you are ruled by Hera, you are an assured multitasker who sees tending the home as just one part of a busy life. Decidedly down-to-earth, you're likely to be involved in lots of different activities -- anything from working, coaching a soccer team, tutoring or volunteering or pursuing your own interests -- and your decorating style is practical and low-maintenance. Easy-to-mop floors, washable fabrics and sturdy furniture help simplify your life, as does the latest in kitchen equipment. You favor darker colors that don't show wear and tear. Your favorite style of entertaining is a potluck dinner or a barbeque so that you can do what you like best: talking and listening to other people. Try a five-minute centerpiece to set a mood without a lot of fuss. Get in touch with your inner goddess by setting up a reading group or volunteering where you live. Sometimes, though, you spread yourself too thin and don't give yourself enough of the downtime you need and deserve. In moments like these, call on Kuan Yin for a bit of introspection or take a hint from Athena and do just one thing at a time.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 6:16 PM | Comments (0)