Renewal has been a major theme for me lately. New year. New starts. New opportunities. Among the many harbingers of change and signs of transformation that have appeared to me over the past few months, Robins have played a significant role. A robin came to me in a soul renewal shamanic journey and even in the cold of winter I've seen several robins in my neighborhood. As someone who doesn't believe in coincidences, I knew enough to recognize synchronicity at work.

Robin © 2006-2007 by Saktoth at deviantART

As shamanic spirits, robins are symbols of growth and renewal. The robin's red breast symbolizes the activation of creative energy, a stimulus to growth. They are traditionally considered a symbol of spring, which is a season of renewal. When we let go of the past we are renewed and free to nurture and serve both ourselves and others. Like many birds, robins are good parents, and one aspect of this animal power is the ability to nurture oneself into true adulthood.

Where food supplies are sufficient robins will live year-round. This is one of Robin's lessons: during times when our hearts and spirits feel bleak and cold we can flourish if we have sufficient inner strength, courage and faith. For this reason, the Robin Essence is a particularly good one to take during the winter months.

When male robins have territorial disputes they sing to each other. This behavior reminds us that part of growth is learning how to handle conflict in an adult manner and it reinforces the creative aspect of this bird's energy. To become truly mature, we must trust our own intuition - our own unique creative expression.

As an important symbol for me during a period of rich personal and spiritual growth, it seemed fitting that the Robin would inspire the creative expression of a new design for Blogickal. Indeed, just in time for Imbolc.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 11:16 PM | Comments (3)

My card for today:

The Lovers

The Lovers from the Etteilla deck

Although it has taken on a strictly romantic revision of meaning in some modern decks, traditionally the Lovers card of Tarot reflected the challenges of choosing a partner. At a crossroads, one cannot take both paths. The images on this card in different decks have varied more than most, because we have had so many ways of looking at sex and relationships across cultures and centuries.

Classically, the energy of this card reminded us of the real challenges posed by romantic relationships, with the protagonist often shown in the act of making an either-or choice. To partake of a higher ideal often requires sacrificing the lesser option. The path of pleasure eventually leads to distraction from spiritual growth. The gratification of the personality eventually gives way to a call from spirit as the soul matures.

Modern decks tend to portray the feeling of romantic love with this card, showing Adam and Eve at the gates of Eden when everything was still perfect. This interpretation portrays humanity before the Fall, and can be thought to imply a different sort of choice -- the choice of evolution over perfection, or the choice of personal growth through relationship -- instead of a fantasy where everything falls into place perfectly and is taken care of without effort.)

For reasons I won't share right now for fear of jinxing something promising, lets just say it was very interesting, after the morning I've had, to discover that my Card of the Day at Tarot.com was The Lovers.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 6:57 PM | Comments (0)

So, for the past week I have been following a cleanse diet, designed by an herbalist friend of mine, which requires me to stop eating things like sugar, caffeine, alcohol, etc. What's left, right? The idea is that by eating lots of good-for-you organic veggies and things and cutting out all of the bad-for-you stuff, the body will be cleansed, healed and healthy. Following this regimen is a bit tough for me because I DO NOT cook and it's not as though I have any experience whipping up a healthy vegetarian dinner using alternative grains and ingredients. Um, yea.

Well, I have managed for the past week to stick to this diet reasonably well and I'm not starving. I can tell that something is happening because my face looks thinner and, although I don't feel any significant changes otherwise yet, I certainly am eating healthier than usual. Frankly, I can see following the basic principles of this diet for general day-to-day eating forever, allowing myself to add a few of my old favorites back in every once in a while, because, well life is too short not to enjoy SOME of the stuff that is bad for you.

Which brings me to last night's slippage from the regimen. I'd had a bad day and was feeling sad. I went to my favorite neighborhood restaurant because they know me there and I can sit at the bar to have something to eat and talk to the waitstaff and usually see at least one other neighborhood regular. I started out not half bad with some white bean soup. Yes, I had some red wine. But then. But then ...

Coconut Bread Pudding

This stuff was made with brioche, topped with cinnamon crème fraiche, sitting on a pool of warm chocolate ganache. Simply orgasmic. With some crunchy chocolate cookie crumbs on the top it had the perfect combination of flavor and texture. It was better than ambrosia. Cleanse be damned, because I was in heaven.

(I am happy to report that today I am feeling much better, no worse for the fall off the wagon, and am back to being a good girl. Sort of.)

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 5:04 PM | Comments (2)

Devotion
by Robert Frost

The heart can think of no devotion
Greater than being shore to the ocean -
Holding the curve of one position,
Counting an endless repetition.

from the collection West-Running Brook, 1928

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 8:43 PM | Comments (0)

While most people generally accept that the meaning of the Death card in tarot is not actual death but a symbolic death - an ending - that precedes transformation, the way the Death card is depicted in most decks still makes it unnerving to see in a reading. Death is usually a skeletal being, sometimes riding a horse, sometimes holding a sword, always a little bit creepy. Not only does this imagery make the Death card difficult for many to accept in a reading, but Death is often frightening to those who are afraid to face their shadow selves and have distanced themselves from it. The transformation that Death offers is therefore often elusive.

Death, The Fey Tarot

Lately I've been using the Fey Tarot to do readings for myself. The primary way to read with these cards is a triple-card spread with a card each for Desire, Joy and Magic. Desire represents that which we want or hope for, Joy represents what it is that we have to be happy for, and Magic represents the work we need to do. This morning the Death card turned up in the Joy position. One might think that Death is hardly a joyful card, but if you consider the card's meaning, especially the meaning of the Fey Death, it's not so farfetched to accept Death as something to be happy about.

When we reach this Death, she has a kind face, welcoming us. She has eyes of two different colors. One indicates hope, and shines with light, where any other kind of light would not show. The other shines with a more ominous light, because she is the great consoler from whom you cannot flee. She gazes at us with a friendly smile, patient and at the same time sad because of the fear she knows she inspires. She rests her head in her hand, waiting for the last move to be made.

In death there is a passage from one place in life to another. It is the end of a moment, now past, that has become the beginning of a future moment, now our present. Death gives us the chance for metamorphosis and for many this can be a welcome and wondrous thing.

The Fey Death wears around her neck a medal that represents an eclipse. As an eclipse hides the Sun's light, Death describes all the times in which we emerge from the dark only to be immersed in another light. It is not an end, but a beginning. In the world of the Fey nothing can really die because the spirit is immortal. Yet even for us humans, Death doesn't have to be an end. It can be an opportunity, fixed as we are to that idea of opportunity being the thing that brings something new and worthy into our lives.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 7:09 PM | Comments (2)

Since I start my new job today and it is a New Moon, I thought I'd check out my Tarot Card of the Day at Tarot.com to see if it offered any clues for what my day might hold.

My card for today:

Temperance

Temperance from the Golden Tarot

What is traditionally known as the Temperance card is a reference to the Soul. Classically female, she is mixing up a blend of subtle energies for the evolution of the personality. One key to interpreting this card can be found in its title, a play on the process of tempering metals in a forge.

Metals must undergo extremes of temperature, folding and pounding, but the end product is infinitely superior to impure ore mined from the earth. In this image, the soul volunteers the ego for a cleansing and healing experience which may turn the personality inside-out, but which brings out the gold hidden within the heart. (This card is entitled "Art" in the Crowley deck.)

I think this card is appropriate for me right now for a variety of reasons. Firstly, it follows all of the work that I have been doing recently and to know that my soul will be stronger for all of the cleansing and healing it has been subjected to lately is reassuring and happy making. Secondly, I have given lots of thought to the personal growth involved in stepping outside my comfort zone to try something new. This new job may not quite turn my personality "inside-out" but it does represent a newfound willingness on my part to try things that before I wouldn't have considered. Is there gold in my heart that has been hiding? Perhaps we're about to find out.

Wish me luck!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 11:22 AM | Comments (2)

Tomorrow we will have a New Moon in Capricorn, which is generally a time of material ambition, work and duty. What a good day for starting a new job! Tomorrow I begin to work part-time at a wonderful stationery and gift shop in my neighborhood - the perfect place for this sheepy gal and a great way to add some fun to my usually solitary freelance practice.

The last New Moon, which was in optimistic Sagittarius right before Winter Solstice, was all about banishing the last vestiges of things lingering from the old year that might no longer be serving us to make room for good things in the new year. I wrote about this bringing opportunities for growth and how the Waxing Capricorn Moon that followed the last New Moon, with its focus on material ambition and work, could be auspicious for new job magick. I was right! Within that same lunar cycle I got a new job.

Tomorrow's New Moon in Capricorn offers us another excellent opportunity to work new job magick, or to manifest anything new in our lives that has to do with Capricorn's earthly realm. We are ambitious, conscientious, reliable, prudent and patient when the Moon is in Capricorn. We focus on traditions, responsibilities and obligations and search for status and financial security. Spiritual and intellectual pursuits may tend to fall away. It is important to be careful not to be so focused on our ambitions that we behave insensitively or without empathy.

Cafe Astrology has more on the New Moon in Capricorn in This Week in Astrology

Spell Work

As with last month, the exact timing of the New Moon falls just as the Moon turns void-of-course - tomorrow's New Moon is at 11:01 pm EST. Most witches agree that a void-of-course Moon is not optimum for spell work, which makes New Moon spells tricky to time this month too. Generally, I advise using the Dark Moon - the last hours before the New Moon, particular the Midnight before - to work banishing or releasing spells and to wait until the Moon enters its Waxing phase to work any spells intended to manifest anything new. Are you in a job you hate? Now is a good time to work on moving it out of your life. However, given the potential a Capricorn New Moon represents for finding a new job, I think a spell timed precisely for 11:01 pm EST (or even just a hair past), would still have the power you need if finding a new job is what you are asking for.

On Friday at 1:16 am EST, the Moon moves into brainy Aquarius. Although we like to exhibit an independent streak when the Moon is in Aquarius, its energy does make us intellectual and inventive. If you prefer to wait until the Moon is Waxing to work any magick for manifestation and a new job is the thing on the top of your magickal to-do list, the Aquarius energy could give you the ingenuity to think of a job you hadn't considered before.

Correspondences for spell crafting are listed below:

Color correspondences for a New Moon are silver or white. Goddesses with particular New Moon associations are Artemis and Nimue.

Capricorn correspondences:

Ruler: Saturn
Element: Earth
Colors: black, brown, grey, violet, red
Stones: garnet, jet, onyx
Metal: lead, pewter
Herbs: aconite (monkshood), belladonna, bindweed, bistort, bluebell, boneset, buckthorn, comfrey, cornflower, cramp bark, elder, elm, fern, fleabane, garlic, heart's-ease, horsetail, Irish moss, ivy, knotweed, laurel, lobelia, mandrake, mastic, myrrh, nightshade, patchouli, poke, rowan, rue, shepherd's purse, snowdrop, Solomon's seal, vetch, witch hazel, yew
Trees: pine, cypress, yew, spruce
Birds: owl, falcon
Animals: dog, elephant, goat

Aquarius correspondences:

Ruler: Uranus
Element: Air
Colors: white, lavender, electric blue, magenta
Stones: opal, aquamarine, zircon, amber, malachite
Metal: uranium, aluminum
Herbs: allspice, angelica, anise seed, chicory, clove, coffee, copal, curry, elecampane (elfwort), foxglove, kola nut, lady's slipper, nutmeg, pimpernel, purple loosestrife, Queen Anne's lace, sage, sesame, snowdrop, spikenard, unicorn root, valerian, walnut, wisteria
Trees: pine
Birds: cuckoo, albatross, phoenix
Animals: dog, otter

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 6:15 PM | Comments (3)

The color of happiness is yellow. I dreamt it.

Many psychologists believe that dreams are the brain's way of dealing with the subconscious without the restrictions the Ego and Super Ego impose on our waking thought. Shamans and other spiritual people say that we can actually travel in our dreams to other realms of time and space, visiting spirits as well as places. During the last several weeks my dream life has been extremely active and often very vivid, although, as is typical, once I wake up and start my day the details tend to fade rather quickly. My witchcraft teacher has always encouraged his students to keep a dream diary and I'm trying to get better at remembering to do this. I was determined to record the odd dream wherein this important information was revealed.

Bougainvillea ©2005-2007 spinDASH at deviantART

On the surface, learning that the color of happiness is yellow seems simple enough. Yellow is a cheerful color; any number of people might offer yellow as the answer to the question "what color is happiness?" But as a magickal person being trained to seek and heed the counsel of spirit guides, when someone comes to me in a dream and asks me to answer this question, my instinct tells me that my answer holds the key to something significant.

As I mentioned in my post about the shamanic work I've been doing, I had a powerfully cathartic experience at the end of our class that has brought me to the other side of a pretty dark place. After months of feeling a sense of divine disillusionment - when the spirit feels empty and wherever it is that we have been putting our energy hasn't been working for us - I suddenly feel full of anticipation and promise. I am ready to focus on the upper world and its spirits now, ready to be in the light. However, this feels a bit like being in a foreign country and not yet speaking the language. I'm excited to be here and looking forward to all sorts of wonderful experiences, but I'm not quite sure how to communicate with the natives or what the customs in this new place are. I need to figure out where to direct my energy now and I think that working with the color yellow will lead me to some insight.

Yellow is associated with the element of air and is the color of charm, wisdom, intellect, thought, analysis, mental clarity, reason, communication, persuasion, optimism, movement, confidence, power of thought, logic, memory, creativity, imagination, sunlight, spiritual progress, faith and constancy. Yellow's uses in magic include movement, aid in astral projection, increasing knowledge and understanding, breaking mental blocks, easy exchange of thoughts, harmonizing of will and emotions, telepathy, psychic powers, direct contact with spirits, and protection. I couldn't think of a better color to be working with right now!

A friend of mine who is a master with oils and herbs is going to help me develop a special "yellow" oil that I can use for aromatherapy, meditation and other things that will help me to bring yellow energy into my life. After the New Moon I am going to do something that I've been meaning to since I moved into my apartment: paint my bathroom yellow. The bathroom is in the power area of my apartment and I've used red and other bright colors to counterbalance the effect that water has in this important area of the home. A bit of yellow to bring in some happiness will be good too, and an excellent further step toward the transformation that I've been undergoing in this new year. I'll also be paying particular attention to the correspondences listed below to see how they may be appearing and/or manifesting in my life.

Some important correspondences for the color yellow:

Direction: East

Chakra: Third, Solar Plexus Chakra

Planet: Sun

Day: Sunday- Mental Action; Wednesday - Physical Action

Number: 3

Scent/Oil: Lemon, Frankincense, Bay, Patchouli, Marigold, Lavender, Laurel, Cinnamon Orange Blossoms, Musk, Vanilla, Cloves.

Plant/Herb: Laurel, Vine, Ash, Rue Marigold, St. Johns Wort, Centaury, Chamomile, Mistletoe, Saffron, Begonia, Geranium, Morning Glory, Snapdragon, Daffodil, Rosemary, Sunflower and Daisy.

Animal: Phoenix, Snake, Beetle, Dragonfly, Meadowlark, Chameleon, Antelope, Snake, Crow, Bobcat, Goat, Lion, Mouse, Gull, Sea Lion, Parrot and Oriole.

Stone: Topaz, Yellow Diamond, Pyrite Yellow Jacinth, Rutilated Quartz, Clear Quartz, Chrysolite, Goldstone, Citrine, some Tiger Eye, Carnelian and Amber.

Tarot: the four Knights and the four Sixes.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 7:00 PM | Comments (3)

The principle of core shamanism says that there is a universal set of techniques people use to interface with the spirit world that are common to and a basis for all magickal traditions. The archetypal image of the witch is closely connected to that of the shaman. Witches and shamans were the healers and wise ones of their communities and their ability to connect to the spirit world allowed them to serve their communities in a variety of other ways. Things you can read in medieval manuscripts suggest that traditional witchcraft shared much with certain shamanic practices, among other reasonable evidence that ancient witches and shamans share common roots.

Most magickal people believe in the existence of both a physical world and non-physical, spirit worlds. Shamans work with the concept that actions in one realm have consequences in the other and that information obtained in the spirit world can be used to create tangible effects in the actual world. They act as messengers, traveling from one world to the other to communicate directly with spirit guides and to bring necessary medicine and information from the spirits to their people. While different cultures have different ways of representing these different worlds, most accept the basic concept of an underworld, a middle world and an upperworld. Traditional witches ended up focusing their magick in the middle world, on the healing arts and manifesting earthly abundance through healthy crops and farming in the agrarian societies in which they lived. Part of the reason for this might have been because Christianity came along and co-opted "heaven" and "hell," effectively removing the role of spiritual communicator from the witch's repertoire. By working with shamanic concepts and techniques, modern witches can expand their abilities to work in all worlds once again.

In the third level of training with Christopher Penczak, and his corresponding book The Temple of Shamanic Witchcraft, we learn the ways of the shaman and how to integrate them within our practice of the craft. The practice of core shamanism, and how it relates to the traditions of witchcraft, is a primary focus of Christopher's own work, as well as being an important area of study within his teaching.

By looking to the surviving native traditions, we can find many missing elements of European mysticism to restore shamanic practices to witchcraft. We are expanding beyond folk magick and circle ritual to truly become walkers in both worlds, and learn to be a bridge, a partner between the realm of spirit and the realm of form.

In the beginning, studying Shamanic Witchcraft was an interesting intellectual exercise but I didn't feel any particular spiritual connection to or affinity for shamanic practice. I learned much about the various cultures from which our modern understanding of shamanism comes and I had some interesting journeying experiences, but nothing resonated particularly strongly for me. Perhaps, I thought, shamanic techniques were not for me - not all witches are necessarily masters of every aspect of the craft. Along the way, however, something shifted.

After spending a few weeks journeying to meet our own spirit guides and to practice traveling to the realms of the underworld and upperworld, in one class we actually made a shamanic journey to retrieve medicine (the shaman's magick) for a classmate. It was a particularly powerful experience and one of those moments that reaffirmed the correctness of my pursuit of this particular spiritual path. I made a successful shamanic journey on behalf of my "client." Without knowing anything about them ahead of time, I reached her personal spirit guides and brought back the animal medicine they instructed me was necessary for her - this is a basic element of the shaman's service. The medicines that my partner brought to me when our roles were reversed have proven to be most beneficial over the past several weeks; I really needed them to help me manage some deeply personal challenges and changes. We were, as it turns out, good shamans!

One of the most important things we did in this class was shadow work. The belief is that before a shaman can be of service to others, she must make a personal journey of discovery and healing. Most people are familiar with the concept of "the dark night of the soul." This is what this work is about - descending into the darkness to find out what dwells there, make peace with it, and incorporate it as part of our magickal self. The shadow represents the parts of ourselves that we hide from, that we are too afraid to face. It is only by welcoming these banished parts of ourselves back into our consciousness that we can heal them and thus be ready to perform healing work for others. It is the magickal equivalent to "physician, heal thyself." Christopher calls the process of this shadow work "distilling the shadow." This helps us to identify our shadow self and know what we're looking for when we journey into the dark.

Throughout the class we kept a shadow journal. In it we recorded the things that we associate with fear, anger, resentment, guilt - trigger words that represent the ways that the shadow tends to manifests. Over time, patterns become clear and the shadow begins to reveal itself. On the last night of class we performed a ritual wherein we burned our shadow journals and then made a journey to the underworld to find our shadow self. It was an intense and often difficult process for everyone, myself included. It also culminated in one of the most transcendent experiences I have yet experienced on my path as a witch. I came away from that evening a changed person. A stronger woman, a better witch.

This class included other lessons and other magickal work, including dream work, but for me these were the two experiences that affected me the most. I realize that even if I am not destined to become a shaman I am better than I expected at using shamanic techniques. In the end, my work in this class yielded some profound personal experiences as well as some valuable new tools.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 5:00 PM | Comments (4)

Afterflakes
by Robert Frost

In the thick of a teeming snowfall
I saw my shadow on snow.
I turned and looked back up at the sky,
Where we still look to ask the why
Of everything below.

If I shed such a darkness,
If the reason was in me,
That shadow of mine would show in form
Against the shapeless shadow of storm,
How swarthy I must be.

I turned and looked back upward.
The whole sky was blue;
And the thick flakes floating at a pause
Were but frost knots on a airy gauze,
With the sun shining through.

from the collection A Further Range, 1936

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 1:13 AM | Comments (0)

Recently asked the question "How has your religion changed your daily, everyday life?" my answer was: a heightened perception of my own abilities to affect the things around me and a greater awareness of energy. Wicca has changed my life in other ways too, but these are the things that truly affect me every day in a way that they didn't before I began to study witchcraft.

Every thought you think is magick.

This one quote from Christopher Penczak's book Instant Magick sums up for me the most profound way that witchcraft has changed my everyday life. After I began my formal study I learned how powerful not just spoken words but thoughts and feelings could be in manifesting things in our lives.

As I have followed the way of the witch there have been a few "a-ha" moments when certain principles and beliefs from the craft have suddenly become startlingly clear on a very personal level. I remember talking with a classmate from my Witchcraft 1 class about how much I disliked someone I was working for and how unhappy I was in that job. I realized that I had a habit of complaining and being very vocal about my unhappiness when it related to work. We had just been learning about thought forms in class, so suddenly, in that one conversation I got it. By thinking and talking about how miserable I was, that was the energy that I drew to myself as a result and misery was what I was using my power to manifest. This may seem obvious to some but that's only because magick truly is all around us and we all have more power than we think. Once I realized the power that words and even thoughts have, I appreciated the neutralization technique we had learned, wherein you perform some action - be it a spoken word or a gesture - to neutralize the energy of something you didn't mean to say or don't really want to send out to the universe. A magickal "do-over" if you will.

As a witch, I've become much more aware of how my thoughts affect me and those around me and certainly more vigilant against unintentional manifestation of things that run counter to what I really intend. I've also come to recognize the periods in my life when I was manifesting good things by the sheer power of my force of will. Before I began to study witchcraft I didn't realize what I was doing. Now I know. I was working magick.

Just as I learned early on how my words and thoughts had power, I also began to learn about energy. This work is at the core of witchcraft - you need to be able to work with energy to be an effective witch - and no matter how advanced a witch becomes, she will always return to these basic lessons again and again because they are at the heart of magick.

Have you ever walked by something and gotten a shiver - we used to call it the "heebie jeebies" - or met someone who just rubbed you the wrong way? We all have. Every day we come in contact with the energy that is all around us and sometimes feel it enough for it to affect us. As witches, we are trained not only to sense those energies but to recognize them, protect ourselves from them if necessary, harness them if they can help us, and heal them when called upon. As many people have, I sure that I have always been aware of energies I experience on some level. Now, with the training I've done, I'm much more sensitive to their existence and have a greater capacity for knowing what they are and what to do with them.

This doesn't always mean we have to act upon energy we encounter; sometimes it just gives us deeper understanding or appreciation. For example, the other day I bumped into someone I worked with a long time ago and hadn't seen in many years. Just like that, out of the blue. Seeing him was enough of a pleasant surprise but I was struck by how strongly he was emanating the most energized, upbeat aura. I remembered how I had always thought he had such sparkly eyes. He still does. But now I know that those sparkly eyes are but a hint of how sparkly his personal energy is. As a witch I could experience that energy in a way that I never had before.

Energy, just like thought, has tremendous power to transform us. Witches are taught to respect this power and to use it to serve our highest will - the expression of our divine selves - making sure that it harms no one, including ourselves. That is what the phrase "An in harm none, do what thou will" means. This is one of the guiding principles of Wicca. Anyone can call themselves a witch and practice magick. But to be Wiccan means to take personal responsibility for our magick and to exercise the power that we have in an ethical way.

This essay was cross-posted at A Pagan Sojourn.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)

The sky is a very odd shade of grey this afternoon. Usually Boston's grey sky has a bluish cast but this one appears to be a warmer shade, tinged with brown or yellow. It's the color of what, in Southern California, we referred to as "smaze," the combination of smog and haze that would sit on the horizon above the Pacific.

And that's the other weird thing about it. The color has descended and is tingeing everything with same unfamiliar hue. Not the fog, just the color. The clouds remain in the sky looking ominous. It's like when the sky turns green just before a tornado strikes. What is going to strike after the sky turns a peculiar shade of grey?

Where's that giant Crayola box when you need it?

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 3:12 PM | Comments (1)

Steph at The Witch Within always manages to find pagany online quizzes. When I need a little bit of a brain break, I like to take these just for fun and sometimes they even yield surprisingly interesting answers.

What Celtic Tree am I? Well, according to Quizfarm, it seems I'm tied between Willow and Reed:

My Celtic sign actually is The Willow.

The Willow, by Margaret Walty, from The Celtic Lunar Zodiac by Helena Patterson

In Celtic astrology, essentially a Druid Zodiac, the symbols to represent each "sign" are all "trees," some actually being tree-related plants or plants that grow where trees do not and take the place of trees in the sacred Celtic landscape. Like the more recognized form of Western astrology, and Chinese astrology, what Celtic tree you are is determined by your birthday.

I have a wonderful oracle deck called Ogham: The Celtic Oracle that depicts the Celtic trees in association with Ogham, the ancient Celtic alphabet used for magick, divination, secret communication and on memorial and other stones found throughout the Celtic world. I don't have an image of the Willow card from this deck, but here is Rowan, a tree particularly important in Scotland, the land of my ancestors:

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 10:44 AM | Comments (1)

As someone who is relatively new to the craft, I am constantly made aware of people who have been present and active in our Pagan community as a sage, teacher, elder and it is sad when I learn of someone's existence on the occasion of his death.

Robert Anton Wilson died today. The Wild Hunt and Hecate have accounts.

I'm inspired to read this man's work and appreciate him posthumously for the contributions he has made. I particularly love this quote from him:

The web of life is a beautiful and meaningless dance. The web of life is a process with a moving goal. The web of life is a perfectly finished work of art right where I am sitting now.

Safe passage, oh wise one. May you find peace in the Summerlands.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 6:53 PM | Comments (3)

READ THIS

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 12:28 AM | Comments (2)

Few words evoke the kind of visceral and immediate loathing and fear as the word witch. All of Glenda's pink, glittery sweetness aside, most people still see the ugly green version, replete with evil animal companions and maleficent deeds. We only have to look to the countless depictions of witches as icons of ill throughout the creative imagination expressed in our culture to know how pervasive that childhood fear of the cackling hag actually is. With all of the misconception, bad press and hysteria that witches have endured for centuries, is it any wonder that many of us prefer to stay in the broom closet?

Wicca is one of the fastest growing religions in the world. If you've ever browsed the children's section of a book store you will see that fantasy and magic make up the theme of a vast majority of new literature. Almost as if in rebuttal to negative press, large numbers of articles have appeared in the media recently about Wicca and Neo-Paganism that present an honest attempt to discuss our beliefs in an accurate and respectful way. All of this suggests that there is a certain positive interest in Wicca, witchcraft and Pagan forms of spiritual practice that is tempting to view as a budding acceptance of alternative religious beliefs. Nevertheless, there are enough documented cases of people losing their children, being driven out of their homes, and losing their jobs because they were Wiccan that it gives a Wiccan pause, whether she lives in a progressive environment or not, to be completely open about her religious affiliation. Cases like Laura Mallory's charging that Harry Potter books promote Wicca, however false, still sensationalize Wicca and put it into the spotlight, where it becomes an easy target for those who may not be as open-minded and accepting as we might like to believe people have become.

Witches don't proselytize and we don't stand on street corners handing out leaflets printed with the Wiccan Rede, but wearing a pentacle raises eyebrows that crosses don't. Your Christian friend who enjoys wearing the gold cross she received as a first communion gift doesn't have to think twice about wearing it to work; most witches I know do, however, tend to leave the pentacle they received upon their initiation into the craft in the jewelry box before they go into the office.

I have long been aware that I live in a rarified world. Between Boston and San Francisco I've lived in places where people espouse progressive ideals and are culturally both diverse and accepting. Not only has it been easy for me to find practitioners, teachers, resources and like-minded friends as I have pursued my spiritual path, but even those outside the Pagan community have approached my Wiccan-ness with more interest and respect than hostility or derision. When people find out I read tarot, they enthusiastically ask for a reading. People admire the beautiful pentacle ring I had made and ask me about it. Still, I'm not entirely out of the broom closet and I choose very carefully in whom I confide that I am a witch.

About a year ago, I wrote on the subject of coming out of the broom closet. Even after maturing in my faith and my practice, and after coming closer to merging my Wiccan self with my public self, I'm not sure yet how truly open I want to be. My most recent boyfriend made jokes about me turning him into a frog and I know it was because he was a bit uncomfortable with me being a witch, but he seemed to accept it well enough for it not to be a major issue between us even if it never was an open topic for dinner conversation. Would I mention that I'm a witch on a first date? No. Thankfully, most of my friends are not very religious themselves - the subject of religion rarely comes up and I simply choose to be discreet about my practice and the other religious parts of my life. I'm not certain that some of my friends would understand my choice; I worry that as an out witch that makes me too weird for them. At this point though, there aren't many of my close friends who don't know, and I think that speaks to my level of trust in them as much as it does in my confidence in myself as a witch. However, if I were just starting a new job I wouldn't tell anyone I was a witch. How would I know how safe I truly was? Is my environment really that progressive or have I just been lucky?

Religion in this country has become a political pawn as the "Religious Right" loudly proclaims its persecution at the hands of anyone who doesn't share their beliefs in an effort to parlay post-9/11 fear into motivation for people to vote for the Republican party. What do they care if a side effect of their vote mongering whips up a little regressive hate and discrimination? The unfortunate results are examples of how powerfully those childhood beliefs about witches manifest in very devastatingly real and grown-up ways. In the era of the Patriot Act and the Bush administration's destruction of constitutional protections, is it so difficult to imagine what a modern-day witch hunt might look like?

I'm grateful every day that I'm fortunate to live in a place where I don't have to live in fear for my religious beliefs. But for now, I'm still going to err on the side of caution.

This essay was cross-posted at A Pagan Sojourn.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 12:09 AM | Comments (1)

A few months ago I met an online colleague who was writing for Tarot.com and suggested I check it out. It is an interesting site, mostly for fun, but I was trying to reconnect with tarot and thought it might be a good tool to use in that endeavor. So I registered. Another online blog friend uses Tarot.com for the numerology section, so I went on the site the other day to find out about my personal number for the year 2007. One thing I discovered upon this visit was that all this time the site had been generating a personalized Card of the Day for me. How intriguing!

My card for today:

The Star

The Star from the Celestial Tarot

What has traditionally been known as the Star card is about reconnecting one's Soul with the Divine -- the transcending of personality, family, community and reputation. It has to do ultimately with the freedom to be one's Self. The Soul is responding to celestial influences -- forces that can provide the personality with a stronger sense of purpose. The Star card helps us to remember our exalted origins and our attraction to a Higher Union.

This card could also be called the "Celestial Mandate" -- that which refers us back to our reason for being, our mission in this lifetime. The Star reminds us that, in a sense, we are agents of Divine Will in our day-to-day lives. If we let go of the idea that we are supposed to be in control, we can more easily notice and appreciate the synchronicities that are nudging us along. In this way, we become more conscious of the invisible Helping Hand, and we better understand our place within -- and value to -- the larger Cosmos.

After all of the work that I've been doing lately that points to some real change in this new year, and with my psych final - the final remaining remnant from last year - now behind me, this sounds right on.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 9:02 PM | Comments (0)

Nancy Pelosi, our history-making new Speaker of the House, is hoping to start off big with her "100 Hours Agenda." The agenda includes a number of important progressive proposals, including cutting oil subsidies to invest in clean energy, getting cheaper prescription drugs for seniors, and raising the minimum wage.

Some of the specifics:

• Good Government: Cutting off lobbyist gifts and restoring fairness and transparency in the way laws are passed
  
• Fiscal Responsibility: No more recklessly driving up the national debt
  
• National Security: Implement all of the 9/11 commission security recommendations
  
• Fighting Poverty: Increase minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, helping 15 million working families
  
• Health Research: Increased funding and availability for stem cell research
  
• Access to Education: Cut interest on federal student loans in half
  
• Clean Energy: Cut oil company subsidies and invest in safe alternatives
  

Naturally, the big drug companies, oil companies, and business lobbies are fighting hard to stop her.

MoveOn has started a petition to Congress so we can show our representatives we're ready for some real progress, and they should act quickly to pass the 100 Hours Agenda. Isaac Bonewits, Pagan community leader, author and founder of Spells for Democracy, has sent an appeal to our group asking that we support the effort.

The total signature count and some of our comments will be read aloud on the floor of Congress during the upcoming debate on the Agenda, so the more signatures the petition gets, the louder our voice will be. When I signed the petition, they were getting very close to achieving the goal of 175,000. Let's put them over the top!

Join me in supporting the 100 Hours Agenda by signing the petition today!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 11:25 AM | Comments (1)

Steph at The Witch Within has been doing some interesting divination for the new year using numerology and tarot. I thought it would be fun to give her methods a try.

The first thing is to find your personal year number for 2007 by adding your birthday to the year, like this: 4 + 29 + 2007 = 2040; 2 + 4 = 6. So my personal number for 2007 is 6. (This works on a 12-year cycle, so if you get a number higher than 12, you continue to add the single digits of your number until you end up with a number between 1 and 12.)

Once you know your personal year number, there are many resources that can give you predictions for what 2007 has in store for you. I used the one that Steph recommended at Tarot.com. Here is their forecast for number 6:

This is a year of progress and financial advancement. Major career opportunities present themselves. It is a challenging year in which personal growth is joined with new responsibilities and challenges.

This is a year of domestic responsibility and attention to the needs of family and friends. It is a time of heart felt emotions and some sacrifice. It is a time for comforting and caring.

You realize the importance of your place within your community. You will be called upon to help others bear their burdens. You are the proverbial friend in need.

You must work to create an atmosphere of harmony and balance. It is often a time when marital issues surface and need attention. However, you possess the understanding to deal with such issues effectively if you apply yourself with love and flexibility.

These deep feelings bring renewal to relationships and often a birth in the family.

May is an emotional month filled with the promise and the stress of imminent changes. June is a breakthrough and a relief. September brings advancement, October self- reflection and readjustments, and December brings a sense of completion and fulfillment.

Then, using her personal year number, Steph chose a tarot card of the year. For me, with the number 6, my tarot card for the year is the 6th card in the Major Arcana: The Lovers.

The Lovers is a complex and often misunderstood card. On the surface, it is about Love and finding the ultimate partner. While that can be true as a basic reading, this card carries much more nuance and depth than that. It is also about choice, communication and connecting with your higher self.

Of course, nothing can replace your own wisdom and insight working with the tarot, but again turning to Tarot.com, here is one interpretation of The Lovers:

Classically, the energy of this card reminded us of the real challenges posed by romantic relationships, with the protagonist often shown in the act of making an either-or choice. To partake of a higher ideal often requires sacrificing the lesser option. The path of pleasure eventually leads to distraction from spiritual growth. The gratification of the personality eventually gives way to a call from spirit as the soul matures.

Aecletic Tarot has this to say about The Lovers:

LOVE is a force that makes you choose and decide for reasons you often can't understand; it makes you surrender control to a higher power. And that is what this card is all about. Finding something or someone who is so much a part of yourself, so perfectly attuned to you and you to them, that you cannot, dare not resist. In interpetation, the card indicates that the querent has come across, or will come across a person, career, challenge or thing that they will fall in love with. They will know instinctively that they must have this, even if it means diverging from their chosen path. No matter the difficulties, without it they will never be complete.

Ruled not by an emotional water sign, The Lovers is actually ruled by Gemini, an air sign. Gemini is the communications sign; it's all about messages and making contact. Also, as it is represented by the twins, Gemini is about finding your other self.

The Lovers, The Fey Tarot

Finally, I offer you some insight into The Lovers from The Fey Tarot:

To meet, even in diversity; to choose, even in doubt; to love, abandoning oneself to the heart and to life. The present moment is not the past and not the future, yet it embraces them both. Man does not come from the Earth nor from the Sky, yet his spirit is attracted and composed of both. There is no need to be afraid of the differences or to choose between them, but to perceive how each thing is completed by the other.

This card is first a card of love, either toward a partner, a child, or a friend, but its significance is deeper. Often each one of us is torn by conflicts between contrasting sentiments and sensations, very often between the needs of our spiritual nature and the contingencies and necessities of material life. The card of The Lovers once indicated the need to choose. However at times there is no need to choose but to conserve both opposites, in peace.

I have been reading with this deck almost exclusively for the past few months and am enjoying the Fey approach to interpreting the cards. I love this deck's beautiful Lovers card; it's very different from the way most Lovers are depicted.

In conclusion, I'd say I have lots of food for thought here. Much opportunity for positive change and abundance in the new year, combined with the promise of happiness and love. With my Venus in Gemini, perhaps this card portends a new love for me in 2007 after all! Though ultimately the most spiritually fulfilling love of all is to discover, finally, that we love ourselves.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 4:49 AM | Comments (1)

Sojourner at A Pagan Sojourn once again has asked me to participate as a guest blogger - this time while she is away in New Orleans next week helping to build new houses for Habitat for Humanity. There will be four of us holding down the fort while Sojourner is away, representing Wiccan, Buddhist, Druid and Heathen faith traditions.

My fellow guest bloggers are:

Bernulf at A Heathen Blog - Expanding Inward

Jeff at Druid Journal

Mike at Unknowing Mind

On Monday, Wednesday and Friday of next week we'll each be posting on a particular topic, which should present a unique opportunity to see how members of these different faiths view the same subject. I'll be cross-posting my entries here, but I hope that everyone will visit A Pagan Sojourn and the other blogs to read what the other participants are writing.

Thanks, Sojourner! I'm happy to be invited back as a guest on one of my favorite pagan blogs and wish you the best of luck in New Orleans!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 3:29 AM | Comments (4)

One Art
by Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

-- Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

From The Complete Poems 1927-1979 by Elizabeth Bishop

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 9:27 PM | Comments (0)

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 2:14 PM | Comments (1)

2007 was ushered in by a Waxing Moon in Gemini. Tomorrow, we'll have the first Full Moon of the new year in the emotional sign of Cancer.

Cancer - The 4th © 2006-2007 The Zodiac Club at deviantART

When the Moon is in Cancer it is a time of intense emotions and great sensitivity, with people responding to life through emotions rather than reason. During this very vulnerable period be cautious not to emotionally wound others or allow yourself to be wounded. The holidays can be an emotional and stressful time for people, for a multitude of reasons. This week, as all of that holiday excitement winds down, be gentle with yourself and those around you. Use Cancer's nurturing influence to do something nice for yourself or for someone for whom the holidays may have been a difficult rather than a happy time.

I'm growing increasingly fond of the way that Cafe Astrology shows us how to balance the energies of the Full Moon with those of the Sun:

On Wednesday morning, the Moon is full, as the Cancer Moon exactly opposes the Capricorn Sun. The Cancer-Capricorn polarity deals with the balance between the private life, domesticity, the need for a home base, and nurturance (represented by Cancer) versus the public life, career, reputation, and accountability (represented by Capricorn). Attachments and love are ruled by Cancer, while achievements and rewards/punishments are ruled by Capricorn. In some ways, this polarity deals with the balance between unconditional love and conditional love. The Cancer Moon encourages us to value our home base and our roots, while Capricorn persuades us to consider our sense of duty and responsibility along public lines. While Cancer may be content to be dependent, Capricorn urges us to be grown-up and responsible. Neglecting either end of the 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 balancing our commitment to our career and families. Something has been building inside of us, 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 means for us. For now, we can't sit on our feelings. We need to express them.

For many people I know, something indeed has been building, glimpsed at Samhain and percolating and taking form during Scorpio's influence over the darkness between Samhain and Yule, intense and frightening at times but pointing to some major changes to come in the new year. We've been waiting for this chance to express our feelings; the energy of the first Full Moon of the year can help us to manifest the change we've been making ourselves ready for.

The January Full Moon is known as the Moon After Yule, Old Moon, and Wolf Moon. The Celts saw the January Full Moon as the Moon of Inception; the Moon of Beginning. They associated this moon with the Birch tree and used its energy for purification and protection of children.

Spellwork

The Full Moon is one of the most powerful times for magickal work. While the Moon is still in its Waxing phase, moving toward the moment of complete fullness at 8:57 am EST, it is an ideal time for magick designed for increase, calling something to you, or creating something new in your life. Any spells worked between now and tomorrow morning will enjoy particularly strong support from this Cancer Full Moon energy; the closer you get to 8:57 am the stronger the energy will be. One thing to keep in mind is that at the moment the Moon reaches its fullest point, it will turn void-of-course until it moves into Leo at 4:14 pm EST on Thursday, at which point it will be in a Waxing phase. Many witches believe that you shouldn't perform any magick while the moon is void-of-course. If you want to use the strength of the Full Moon to work decrease or banishing spells, you may want to wait until Thursday afternoon to do your work. The energy of the Full Moon will still be strong enough to aid you at that time.

With the Moon in Cancer, its ruler, lunar influences are at their strongest and are easily expressed when focused through Cancer. The Moon greatly influences the personality, the subconscious, emotions and instinctual behavior. The Moon in Cancer pinpoints need, supports growth and nurturance. Trying to find a way to word your spells in the context of Cancer's influence will help to make them stronger. One thing is certain, using Cancer's energy is an excellent way to help you intuit what it is that you truly need and to ensure that what you are working to manifest at this time is for your highest good.

Correspondences

Some common correspondences with Cancer and the January Full Moon are listed below.

For Cancer:

Ruler: Moon
Colors: silver, lavendar
Stones: beryl, moonstone, pearl

For the January Full Moon:

The energy of the January Full Moon may feel sluggish and below the surface. It is a time of beginning and conceiving. It is a good time for protection or reversing spells. Use it to conserve your own energy by working on personal problems that involve no one else. It is a good time to get the various parts of yourself to work smoothly together for the same goals.

The Full Moon is symbolized by The Mother, growth, fulfillment, sexuality, maturation, nurturing, love.

Deities: Freya, Inanna, Sarasvati, Hera, Ch'ang-O, Sinn
Nature Spirits: gnomes, brownies
Herbs: marjoram, holy thistle, nuts and cones
Colors: brilliant white, blue-violet, black
Flowers: snowdrop, crocus
Scents: musk, mimosa
Stones: garnet, onyx, jet, chrysoprase
Trees: birch
Animals: fox, coyote
Birds: pheasant, blue jay

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 12:21 PM | Comments (1)

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 10:53 AM | Comments (0)