I have always struggled with motivation and discipline when it comes to my study. I find it really hard to focus on the end result and the bigger picture and I am amazingly proficient when it comes to procrastination. I have improved since becoming a mother and also as a result of becoming more mature. I am so determined to become a naturopath and also to just have some kind of qualification but I still struggle to sit down and study.
This semester I am studying Flower Essences as one of my units and I am amazed by this modality. It is such a wonderful and magical form of healing and I believe that magic comes through in more than just taking these remedies. Last week I studied several lectures before taking the quiz that was part of the assessment for this unit. Those lectures were amazingly relevant for the issues that I am going through and referred mainly to motivation and self love. I was completely amazed at this subject matter and it spurred me on to learn about this subject and provided me with startlingly relevant affirmations that I needed to be taking this course and that I am on the right track in terms of a profession. Then today, when studying the next lecture, my sister walked in the room to overhear the information on just one flower and she gasped and exclaimed "that's me!". Not only are these flower essences amazing and effective when taking the remedies but I believe that their power translates into something much greater.
It is completely encouraging for me, as a person who has chosen to incorporate my spiritual practices with what I want to do professionally, to see how these things can work on a much higher level than the physical. Before I started this unit I knew very little about flower essences, except for the copious amounts of rescue remedy I borrowed from other students before exams, and now I can't believe I haven't looked into it before now.
It is a beautiful thing for me to be able to incorporate what I know to be true in a spiritual sense into what I am learning intellectually. What a gift this is to be reminded of why I am studying this course at a time when my determination was flagging.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Cycles and Traditions
Something that has been on my mind lately is the lack of seasonal events in the course of my year. I recently watched a television show called Victorian Farm, where three historians chose to live on and run a farm using Victorian technologies for one year. It was so beautiful to see how their lives were completely ruled by the seasonal changes, as were their celebrations. In that setting you can really see the wheel of the year come to life and understand why it was such an important thing.
We, however, are no longer Victorian farmers. How many of us begin six weeks of gruelling work to harvest our wheat crop after Laghnasadh, and end in a celebration feast at Mabon? In a modern society most fruit and vegetables are available to us all year round, we easily adjust the climate in our houses to suit our needs and we can easily become disconnected from natural cycles. The changing of the seasons can become a nonevent due to the way we live our lives and so I have been thinking about how to incorporate teaching my daughter the importance of cycles into family traditions and yearly events.
In spring I began planting vegetables in my back yard. Growing my own food has been a great way for me to get back in touch with natural rhythms and I think it is something I will encourage Violet to participate in. I have also been thinking about rituals and habits that were key parts of the a farmers year and how they can still be relevant to our house hold. Spring cleaning is a great one, I have decided to bring in the practice of intentionally and consciously cleansing the house room by room each spring, if I dedicate a week to do this and involve everyone in the family we could end in a big celebration and invite friends and family to welcome in the warmer months. I also love the idea of picking fruits to make into jam at the end of summer, and even use some of these jams in a feast at Yule. This was a wonderful suggestion from a beautiful witch friend of mine.
I think these will be great ways to teach Violet and will pass on the greater understanding of cycles and our connections to the natural world. It is no longer satisfying to simply celebrate a sabbat because it's a sabbat and so these are the plans I have for my family, and if you know of any other seasonal activities I could incorporate into our yearly calendar I would greatly appreciate the suggestions.
We, however, are no longer Victorian farmers. How many of us begin six weeks of gruelling work to harvest our wheat crop after Laghnasadh, and end in a celebration feast at Mabon? In a modern society most fruit and vegetables are available to us all year round, we easily adjust the climate in our houses to suit our needs and we can easily become disconnected from natural cycles. The changing of the seasons can become a nonevent due to the way we live our lives and so I have been thinking about how to incorporate teaching my daughter the importance of cycles into family traditions and yearly events.
In spring I began planting vegetables in my back yard. Growing my own food has been a great way for me to get back in touch with natural rhythms and I think it is something I will encourage Violet to participate in. I have also been thinking about rituals and habits that were key parts of the a farmers year and how they can still be relevant to our house hold. Spring cleaning is a great one, I have decided to bring in the practice of intentionally and consciously cleansing the house room by room each spring, if I dedicate a week to do this and involve everyone in the family we could end in a big celebration and invite friends and family to welcome in the warmer months. I also love the idea of picking fruits to make into jam at the end of summer, and even use some of these jams in a feast at Yule. This was a wonderful suggestion from a beautiful witch friend of mine.
I think these will be great ways to teach Violet and will pass on the greater understanding of cycles and our connections to the natural world. It is no longer satisfying to simply celebrate a sabbat because it's a sabbat and so these are the plans I have for my family, and if you know of any other seasonal activities I could incorporate into our yearly calendar I would greatly appreciate the suggestions.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Self Love
On Saturday night my sisiter and I performed a beautiful full moon ritual. It was dedicated to self love, something I have always struggled with and my lack of which has been brought to my attention in a number of situations over the past month. It is not an easy thing to confront, mainly because a lack of self love means that you don't feel like you deserve to love yourself more. But I was recently reminded that as pagans we believe that divinity is in everything of the earth and we are all of the earth, therefore I have divinty in myself, so to not love myself is to not love the Goddess in some aspect. Having said that, if part of my spiritual practice is to love the earth and all beings within it, it makes sense that I begin with myself.
As we created our ritual the sky was brilliantly clear so we could look upon the Moon with awe, it began behind the trees and while we weaved our magic She rose up into the sky to shine, uniteruptedly, down on us. We did a guided meditation to meet the Goddess in all her radiance, and she embraced us and gave us the messages that we all both needed to hear. After the meditation we washed our hands in a bowl of water infused with white and pink rose petals while we described what we experienced in our meditations. We then wrote affirmations on a piece of green paper (to represent the heart charkra) and raised energy to put into a piece of jewelry that we wear all the time, to remind us to love ourselves. We then did or usual ritual elements of reading our cards and talking about our desires for the next month. It was an amazingly powerful ritual that left me feeling peaceful and relaxed, if a little depleated of energy.
I learnt that I am a daughter of the Goddess and that I, like all of us, am worthy of great love- most importantly from myself. I have had difficulty in writting a blog since it was pointed out to me that my writing skills are less than perfect. I think I was disheartened, because in writing this blog I am showing people a part of myself that is flawed. When I was younger I used to write stories; I have wanted to be a writer, a journoulist, a poet. I read alot, it is one of my dearest hobbies and yet I am a terrible speller and don't know an adjective from a noun, but I love myself and I think I have something that is worth saying. I will continue to write and someday i will improve my English skills, although right now it is not on the top of my list of priorities and that is fine. I am perfect just as I am.
As we created our ritual the sky was brilliantly clear so we could look upon the Moon with awe, it began behind the trees and while we weaved our magic She rose up into the sky to shine, uniteruptedly, down on us. We did a guided meditation to meet the Goddess in all her radiance, and she embraced us and gave us the messages that we all both needed to hear. After the meditation we washed our hands in a bowl of water infused with white and pink rose petals while we described what we experienced in our meditations. We then wrote affirmations on a piece of green paper (to represent the heart charkra) and raised energy to put into a piece of jewelry that we wear all the time, to remind us to love ourselves. We then did or usual ritual elements of reading our cards and talking about our desires for the next month. It was an amazingly powerful ritual that left me feeling peaceful and relaxed, if a little depleated of energy.
Friday, March 4, 2011
Giving Thanks
Spell work and manifestation are constantly spoken about and expected when practicing magic. We are always reading or learning about ways to call in our desires, how to direct energies to work in a beneficial way in our lives. There are countless books dedicated to teaching us how best to change our perceptions and utilize our personal power in order to achieve our own purposes, but what about when those goals have been realized?
Mabon is fast approaching, it will soon be the autumn equinox in the southern hemisphere, when we have truly left summer behind and the days are more dark than they are light. The lack of sunlight and the lack of warmth creates a mood of self reflection in me. I have always found it to be a time of taking stock of the things in my life, but I like to look at all the positive things - it makes complete sense to me, in terms of this seasonal change, to use this time for giving thanks, for realizing just what I have to uplift my soul and bring light back to the darkening days.
Six months ago, not long before the spring equinox, I participated in a ritual to sow the seeds of what I wanted to grow in the coming months. We spoke of what we wanted to call in and raised energy in order to manifest these things with the added hope of the returning summer, that joyous anticipatory energy when you know good things are soon to come. Now, looking back, I feel lighter and joyous again with the echo of that hope because I can see how that seed has grown and taken root in my life.
This is why, in my practice, giving thanks is as much a part of spell work as calling in or letting go. In giving thanks I show my gratitude and make myself humble, but I am also filled with awe and wonder at how amazing the universe and my life really is. Giving thanks is an empowering act that I recommend everyone do especially when it feels like a difficult task.
Mabon is fast approaching, it will soon be the autumn equinox in the southern hemisphere, when we have truly left summer behind and the days are more dark than they are light. The lack of sunlight and the lack of warmth creates a mood of self reflection in me. I have always found it to be a time of taking stock of the things in my life, but I like to look at all the positive things - it makes complete sense to me, in terms of this seasonal change, to use this time for giving thanks, for realizing just what I have to uplift my soul and bring light back to the darkening days.
This is why, in my practice, giving thanks is as much a part of spell work as calling in or letting go. In giving thanks I show my gratitude and make myself humble, but I am also filled with awe and wonder at how amazing the universe and my life really is. Giving thanks is an empowering act that I recommend everyone do especially when it feels like a difficult task.
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