Tag Archives: magick

Moving on ~ Show me the Magick

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Yes. I haven’t updated since May. Why? Life changes. People change. Spiritual practices change – whether we are paying attention or not.

I discovered a thing. My personal patron gods? They don’t give a crap about devotion, altars or offerings.   What do they want? For me to do some goddamn magic

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And that’s pretty much how it happened. Once I stopped trying to be a witch/magician/whatever – and just did the damn thing? Well, life got interesting and I stopped posting. It’s kinda hard to write a slice of life piece when you have three major spiritual experiences in one day.

By the way, if the Goddess Bridget even talks to you, even if it’s snark? You are truly blessed.

I have to hand it to Taylor Ellwood, his book Pop Culture Magick and his Facebook group with the same name. Why? Because I struggled for years with self doubt. I thought I wasn’t a real “witch” unless I understood how things were done “back in the day.”

Not anymore.

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Yeah, that’s what it was like that first few weeks. Now I don’t pat myself on the back. I don’t look to get my photo taken. I don’t make the “Look at my magic work!” posts (Unless it’s for business). I’m too busy showing the gods that I am not wasting my talents.

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What about you? What magic are you making? What are you showing the gods? Me? I got work to do.

Celebrating Imbolc & Goddess Brigid ~ Pray ~ Love ~ Train ~ Create

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Celebrating Imbolc & Goddess Brigid

– this time? It’s personal

I’m sure you know of the Goddess known as Brigid.  She’s one of the most popular deities in the pagan spiritual movement.  Sometimes she’s seen as three sisters, other times as a triple deity. Some of Her domains are poetry, healing, and smithing (creation of tangible things).  While I have all of these things in my personal and spiritual life, that’s not why I honour Her.

Her followers are famous for flametending rituals or cills. They are famous for tending and caring for local public waterways.  They are famous for learning and speaking Gaelic. They are famous for weaving rushes for crosses to protect their homes. I don’t do any of those things. Goddess knows I’ve tried.

I honor Her for different reasons than most. The Goddess Brigid and I got personal. We got close.  We got “real” in a way I could finally understand.

She came to me in a dream, disguised as a waitress. She took away my food. She took away my seat at the table. She took away my husband’s food. She slacked at her own job in attending other patrons at restaurant.  A “snake oil” salesman came into the establishment and pestered the customers. She didn’t throw him out.

She made me so damn mad that I lost my temper.

For reference, I do my best not to lose my grip on my anger at any given point in time.  When angered, I’m not coherent – or nice. I scream. I yell. All the fires inside me roar – and burn everything in sight.  I am a dormant volcano. When I finally blow my top? I take an entire coastline of friendship and several hundred square miles of social niceties with me.

So there I am, no place at the table, starving and seeing that those around me are also not getting the nourishment they need. I knew that I was treated unjustly. I knew that the charlatan had fake magic potions. I knew that Table 9 needed more napkins and Table 19 needed more hot sauce.  So I lost my spiritual sh_t.

I let the fires inside me roar. I fed it the injustice given to me and the patrons of the restaurant. I fed it the anger that someone would willingly not care for those in their charge. I fed it a good dose of magical “b_tchslap” that I wanted to dole out to so many who take advantage of others in weaker states and positions.  Yes I got angry; then I got busy.

Instead of letting the rage boil me from the inside out, I stepped up and moved the “waitress” out of the way. As I yelled at Her (yes I know, just go with me on this), I did the job. I tossed out the snake oil salesman. I got Table 19 their hot sauce, fed my husband, got Table 9 more napkins and more. I took over and moved Her out of the way.

In my dream state, since She clearly wasn’t doing the job, someone had to step in to the role and take care of the people.  I did the job. I took care of the people and myself, all while yelling at Her from the top of my lungs.

Sigh. Yes this is where lucidity crept in to my dreaming mind.

The “waitress” just took it. She just stood there while I ripped Her apart. I stopped and realized that I couldn’t see her face. She was a glowing being of light that I could not focus on literally. That’s when I realized who She was – and panicked.

A little boy popped up at Her side. I’m sure that it was my patron god Lugh – goofy smile, mousy brown hair bleached blonde by the sun. He smiled and merely said “Sorry about that.”

This is where I woke up and had a spiritual meltdown.  This is also the reason why I honour Her. This is where Brigid and I got personal.

Brigid – the triple goddess, the lady of the hearth, the forge and the well deity of early spring, goddess of the sun, keeper of the flames – does not want me to be flametender. She doesn’t want me to tend the local waterways. She doesn’t want me to learn Gaelic or weave rushes. She doesn’t want me to solely write poetry or become and black, copper or silversmith.

She wants me to care for the people. She wants me to use my skills to make magic – to protect the people. She wants me to release the fires inside me, not just in anger, but in confidence that I can and I will do what needs be done.

In some ways I am Darlugdach, Her pupil. This was my dream of coal filled shoes.  Instead of intense desire for someone that would sway my faith, I had the intense desire not to be in the spotlight. I didn’t want to be the heavy in any situation where I had to make hard choices. I wanted all the magic, but was too afraid to do the work – in case I made a mistake.

This dream changed all of that.

I honour Brigid because it’s personal. She has shown me all of Her within myself.  To not take up Her mantle goes against everything I am.  Her flame burns within me. The lesson of the dream was to let it burn, bright and hot, to let the heat of the Fire work to help others.

Why do you honor Her?

Imbolc 2016

 

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Welcome to the Retrograde ~ Pray

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Welcome to the Retrograde

retrogradeThe first Mercury Retrograde for 2016 happens on January 5 at  8:05 am EST  and goes direct on January 25 at  4:50 pm EST.

Well this is a fine way to start the year. However, You can make it work for you.  While we often think that this is the time where communication goes wrong (and sometimes it does), we can take this time to set a NEW habit for the rest of the year.

Whether he said it or not, these words ring very true: (thank you Tiny Buddha)

If you propose to speak, always ask yourself, is it true, is it necessary, is it kind  ~ 

Well is it?  This is way to curb those knee jerk responses and make all your avenues of communication work for you.  If you need a bit more? Here’s what I suggest:

 

  1. Get every “lucky” item you have and take them with you. Seriously. These will be what are called  “Touch pieces.”  I myself have several Mercury dimes all of them from leap years, which makes them hard to find and especially lucky.  Why the leap year? For myself, I find the day lucky and, for the calendar’s sake, a way to use up all the extra “time” bits we lose in the earth’s orbit around the sun. It’s an excellent way to store up do overs!1943D_Mercury_Dime_obverse
  2.  Another touch piece I have is a $2 bill from the US. Why? While they went out of circulation in 1966, they were reissued in 1976 – a leap year. 800px-US_$2_obverse-high
  3. Burn a reversal candle. My good friends at Kellys Kandles make GREAT ones! This is mine after SEVERAL retrogrades.  As my patron god, Lugh, is a cognate of Mercury, I always include offerings 🙂 Reversalcandle
  4.  Lastly, when you find that you’re in a really terrible place where nothing is going right? Stop. BREATHE. Go.stopbreathego

Good Luck!

RvT <3

Durham Region Pagan Pride Day 2015 ~ Pray

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As we people gather ‘round, we mark this space our holy ground. East, South, West, North, and Spirits of place, we call you forth!

Gods, Goddesses and Deities, of earth air fire and sea; Grant blessings here, and harm to none and bless our work that will be done.

Well that was the way it was supposed to go!  I had the pleasure of leading the main ritual for this year’s Durham Pagan Pride Day. Usually the day has it’s challenges. Today was no exception. I completely forgot that I was vending, scrambled to make it all work and promptly realized that there was no way I’d be able to go home for my full ritual supplies and come back.

Thankfully MY community stepped up, stepped in and got everything going right for me.

While many are thanking me for main ritual, I wish to thank everyone who came out, supported the event, bought from vendors, helped set up and take down. My thanks to the local coordinator, Kat who made sure that I didn’t roast in the sun!  I also want to thank my sister in spirit Lady Charissa and the Pagan Business Network for their contributions, ideas, support and general cheerleading! See, that was the gist of what the main ritual was all about.

I had pretty words all set up for it, too! Here are all the pretty words. I said most of them! I swear!

(I had the wreath set up ahead of time:)

Many pagans believe that we are all connected to each other – by energy, by faith, by commonality, by the myriad of deities that we honor. This connection is like a spider’s web.  This connection is like fine embroidered stitching. This connection is like a network of nerves in our brains. This connection is like a map of veins in our bodies. And like veins we all go back to the source, back to one main energetic place. You can call it what you will: Heaven, The Summerlands, The land of the dead, another plane, another reincarnated life or back to the earth from which we came.

(This is where we strung three different lengths if ribbon around the participants. Some were looped. All were told to hang on to the ribbon.)

And yet, though we have this connection we are divided.

( Some were short, some long, some ended up with two or three pieces.)

We are divided by the different pantheons we honor. We are divided by the ways we honor Deity. We are divided by the songs we sing, the way we dance, and the magic we work. We are divided by the distances between us and our holy places, the distance be us and our chosen kindred and even by the festivals we can actually attend.  We are even divided by those who can proudly claim their faith in public and those cannot for fear of unwarranted persecution.

Look at your ribbon, a representation of your connection to your deity and your people.  Each of you honors Deity and your kindred a different way.  Each of you can feel cut off from the source, alone, dealing with things you believe that no one can even comprehend.  We all know this is far from the truth.

 

I have spoken to quite a few classes at Durham College about what it means to be pagan.  For me, at it’s roots it means to spiritually survive, to connect to Deity and community the best you know how.  To  know that when we feel divide, all we have to do is reach out and make a connection. No we don’t wait for things to happen to us. I don’t know about you but my deities remind me that faith without work is dead. I can lift my voice in prayer, then I lift my butt and get it in gear.

(I showed them the wreath.)

Plain Wreath

You’ve seen and worked on a wreath like this before.  However, this time, we will do something different. Look down at your ribbon, let a small amount your energy flow into it.  Let those who are able come forward, and tie their ribbon to the wreath and to each other, to make the connection again to Deity.  You can weave your ribbon through the vines making sure that your ribbon ties onto another one to be secure.  You can ask for help!  You can work  together!  You can tie your ribbon to only one or entwine it with others.  All that matters is that you know that you are not alone and your community stands with you. If you are unable, will bring the wreath to you.

(We made sure everyone  was included.)

Working Together

Folk of Durham Region Pagans. This has been a very different ritual for Pagan Pride Day.  We have celebrated the simplest and most holy of who and what we are – energetically connected to the Source, to Deity and to each other. That is truly magic.

 

 

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Gentle folk, this is your Community Wreath – a representation of all that we are and can be.  I will take this wreath with me to any pagan event I go to, to represent those who cannot be there  and that those who wish to add their energy may do so.

 

Gentle folk is this acceptable?

(Thank the gods they said yes!)

 And yet,  even I can’t be everywhere. I propose that should there be an event that I cannot attend, the organizer contact me to have the wreath present, tie on more ribbons, to make more energy connections and then return it to me.

Gentle folk is this acceptable?

(Another yes!)

This is where we all empowered the wreath with our energy. It was amazing, awe inspiring and fantastic. What can I say?

It’s different in Durham! We’re a community, maybe divided by our paths, yet we are all connected through community!

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The Good Kind of Lazy ~ Train

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My name is Terrie Brookins. I am what you would call an efficient and perfectionist witch. What does that mean in plain English? I’m lazy.
Enjoying The Sun
If I can do something right once and not have to worry about it again? You bet your broom I’m going to do it. What’s more? If you push energetically in just the right place, all that you need to happen will fall together on their own. That’s why I love the small works of magic.
Now when I say small, I mean in it in the context or complexity.  Candle magic is my favorite. One simple flame and a heartfelt prayer can work wonders. Stone and crystal work is great for me as well. Simple magickal support, even just a teeny push in small amounts, can bring about a mountains of change. It’s all about realizing exactly how magic works as a witch.
Let’s face it. This ain’t Hogwart’s. As much as I’d love to wave my wand and make feathers dance, it ain’t happening. The magick I wield is passive at most, and when overt? It usually moves by the path of least resistance and finding a way through all available paths.   That is to say, it finds the place to give the smallest push to enact the greatest change. One simple wish upon a star, offering to deity or salt over the left shoulder has the potential to work marvels. We all know that that’s the simple way of saying things. I have indeed done my homework on this.
To do these small works of magick requires a larger frame of thought. That frame of thought means looking at any situation in as many different ways as possible.  If I want to removed a dangerous building or structure, do I enchant bulldozers ? Glamour the construction workers?  Or can I plant the idea for a new building in mind of someone who works for the county or a building firm by talking about something new with anyone in their company?   Makes you think doesn’t it? For most people, it gives them a headache.
The headache comes from a high pitched whistling sound. That sound is the air escaping an inflated ego. Can’t have a big head, chip on your should OR let you greed or runaway emotions rule you. Just because you’re angry doesn’t mean you should perform that revenge or hex work.  Wait a day, or a week until you’ve got a clear head and clearer resolve. Sure make your plan, get your ingredients together. Then, in the morning? Decide if the work is really worth the work. Yes, even the small work. And let’s face it, us magic users have an arsenal of deliciously naughty curses for every occasion!
Yes, they are small work too 🙂
So ask you witches and magicians, light and shadow workers, what’s your small work?