The Magic Pumpkin

Once upon a time there was a garden. In the growing warmth of spring a woman and her friends turned the soil, fertilized it and added love to the rich earth, then the woman planted vegetables and watched them grow as the days became brighter and warmer. She delighted in witnessing the small shoots of green mature and come to life as they bore fruit.

The garden was used and visited daily, the woman began to learn about the processes of life and gained knowledge about her connection with the universe just from the relationship she developed with this garden. But too soon the days grew colder, the rain came in and along with it the slugs and snails. These little creatures were part of the earth and so the woman did not want to kill them, especially not with poisons or toxins, as she wanted the products of the garden to provide sustenance for herself and her family.

So when she started to plant winter vegetables they were quickly eaten and disappeared completely. The woman tried not to begrudge the gardens insects there meal and as it became harder for the woman to venture out into the cold and the events of her life caused her to visit the garden less and less the vegetables in that garden stopped growing and the plants that bore fruit in the warmer months died or became wild or barren.

On an unexpectedly warm day in the middle of Autumn the woman visited her neglected friend and found a vine had started growing, she was not certain of the nature of this vine but noted its resemblance to the cucumber and zucchini, and wondered if perhaps it was a plant that would grow vegetables, and as she was not actively growing vegetables at the time, the woman decided to see what would become of this plant that had spontaneously sprouted in her absence.

It was not long before it became apparent that a pumpkin vine had appeared without any effort or intention. The woman watched as a single pumpkin started to grow from the vine that had crawled up a lattice. The pumpkin that grew was raised off the ground and nestled in a patch of wild parsley. It grew bigger and bigger and the woman watched with hope as time passed. The woman left to visit a friend, she was away for two weeks, and had decided that since the pumpkin had grown without her help she should let it continue to do so for the time she was away.

Upon her return the pumpkin was a wonderful size and completely ripe. It was the only pumpkin in the patch and the rest of the vine had died back, unable to compete with the chill in the air. The woman recognized that this was a special pumpkin, a gift and a lesson, to remind her that the earth will give her sustenance and that she should trust this wisdom. She picked the pumpkin, but it was picked with reverence and respect, the earth was thanked and the pumpkin was cherished. The woman knew that she could not simply use the pumpkin in the usual manner and so she lovingly cut up the pumpkin, delighting in the contrast of its green skin and vibrant orange flesh. She added a little cumin to the chunks and roasted it, with the skin on and took it as an offering to her tribe, so that they might share in this wonderful gift and take into themselves the wisdom the earth had provided for her.

It was her Magic Pumpkin and the tribe ate together, and delighted in their ritual. They shared their love as they shared the pumpkin and the woman was happy, the garden was happy and the seeds were deposited in the compost, in the hopes that the woman would experience the pleasures of such a wonderful gift in the next year.

Anger and Acceptance

Tonight as I write this blog I am angry, filled with a seething indignation that I believe to be completely justified. As a result I cannot think of the wonderful uplifting subjects I might have written a blog about and have therefor decided to write about the relevance of such a stirring emotion.When I first recognised my own emotional climate my response was shame. I immediately tried to rid myself of the anger I felt, but I decided that in doing this I was not honouring myself and as a part of the development of self love, I decided, instead to explore this topic.

As a witch I believe that everything in nature is neither god nor bad, it is all part of an universal balance and as such anger has its place and when used in a healthy way it can be a constructive emotion. Anger can ignite a need for action, it can be a catalyst for change, it can even be as simple as helping someone become aware of there own core values and their expectations in life. Anger is a gift from the realms of fire , and in direct association with this element it is an emotion connected to passion and creation. I recognise that it can be an immensely effective tool.

Of course I agree that anger can be unhealthy, like all emotions stagnant or obsessive anger can be completely destructive, but if I follow the all important rule of 'harm none' and if I acknowledge my anger instead of ignoring it in response to the automatic shame I felt, I don't think it will have the power to become unhealthy. As a practitioner of magic I recognise that it is not healthy to enter a spiritual space while holding onto anger and this is another reason why I believe I should address my feelings in order to move forward and return to my more natural state of compassion and love.

My anger will pass, I will rant to loved ones and decide whether to address the cause or accept the experience as something that has given me a new insight into myself. Even just writing this blog has made me feel lighter and I am glad I have done so - I am sure I will be back to my happier self in my next blog.

Wisdom on the Wind

Today has been one of those wonderfully windy days, the days when you are constantly reminded of the wind, regardless of whether you are inside or outside, even while I type I can hear it beating on the windows and moving through the trees.This morning, as I was walking with Violet, we were swept up in a particularly large gust of wind; big, dry, brown leaves swirled around us and up, high into the sky.

That is, by far, my favourite thing about Autumn and it is sad that it has taken me until this far into the season to experience it. Those wonderful gusts of wind make me feel weightless, as though I too could be carried away to some unknown place. I have experienced gusts of wind like this every Autumn since I can remember and they always fill me with such joy and optimism. I believe they are full of energy and remind me that change is coming and inevitable. It's exciting.

So what changes are coming my way? What secrets are whispered, or howled upon the wind? Tonight I shall take time to sit and listen to the knowledge brought to me on the wind. I will ask the questions that arise in my mind and I will attempt to gain clarity and calm in regards to the changes taking place around me. I am feeling a little lost at this exact point in time - I am adrift without much to anchor me, and so  tuning into the magic of the universe and, more specifically, the knowledgeable element of air is exactly what I need.

Motivation, Affirmations and Flowers

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.

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.

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.

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.