Happy New Year From an Unorganized Witch

I usually don't participate in the New Year Resolution craze. Normally, I set goals to get fit and give up drinking. It lasts for a month tops, before I finally realize that I'm only about ten pounds away from looking like I only eat bread crust and having to buy all new clothes that don't hang off of me. Screw that. And life isn't as fun without alcohol. So screw that, too.

After a while, I quit bothering. I got into the habit of living on a "here and now" basis. If I notice something that I think I can improve or I want to start doing something new, BAM. I make the change right then and there. This is an awesome habit to have, but I've been noticing in the last couple of months or so that my organization and record keeping are starting to suffer, especially where my craft is concerned!

It all started when I couldn't seem to find the notes I had taken for a spell I created last month. I have a BoS of course, but I don't usually add my spells to it until they've been tested and tweaked a few times, so they're perfect to my standards and I have a finalized draft. The problem is, my notes and research are all spread out. I have a mini BoS that I keep in my purse, a few notebooks laying around the house, some loose leaf sheets in a pile on my apothecary shelves, some random kitchen witchery stuffed into recipe books in my pantry, and several digital magic journals. Each time I want to review my notes, I first have to figure out where exactly those notes are located.

So this year, I decided it was appropriate to jump back on the New Years Resolution bandwagon with one very simple goal for the year:

WRITE SHIT DOWN IN AN ORGANIZED FASHION.

That's it. I went through all my notebooks and consolidated my notes into one binder that I keep right next to my BoS on a shelf. I also reorganized my online journals, tagged everything, and installed the app on my phone so I can access that from everywhere. Then, I vowed to write stuff down every single day. Dreams, tarot, scrying, spellwork, everything I do on a regular basis gets recorded and tagged so I can refer to it later. No more 'mental notes' that something happened. That's lazy witchery and doesn't make for a very learned witch. Believe me, I've learned the hard way!

And look here, on day four it's even spilling over into my blog that I've been neglecting for months! Sometimes a reset of the date and a 1/1/.. on the calendar really does make it easier to flip a switch and make a big change.

What about you? Did you make any witchy new year resolutions?

Witches Today and Mutual Respect

In this day and age, we pagans are incredibly lucky. We're free to practice without having to fear for our safety (at least in the more privileged countries, that is). We can be as open as we want about our practices and there are laws in place that protect us from loss of employment, violence, and any other kind of persecution based on religious beliefs. Yes, we still get judged by those who don't understand or agree. But You Guys: no one can drag us out in the street and beat us senseless because we're wearing a pentacle. It was NOT always like this, and it's currently not like this in other places in the world.

And of course, we have the internet now. We can post whatever we want on the internet. You know what that means? We all have access to each other. I can check the listings on WitchVox and find other witches in my area to hang out with. I can make a blog and post all of my opinions, knowledge, and spells for everyone else to borrow and use. If I'm at a loss for a spell or need a recipe for a tincture, all I have to do is hit up Pinterest and there are pages and pages of ideas. I can go to Amazon online and buy any book I want to on any single witchy subject I can possibly dream of. The entire world of witchcraft is right at our fingertips right now. Do you guys know how amazingly good we have it?

But what are we doing with this freedom? Lately, I see a lot of hate on the internet in the pagan community. Person One posts something that Person Two doesn't agree with, and Person Two just cannot refrain from commenting to "correct" Person One's obvious mistake. Person Two leaves a snippy, passive aggressive comment that is supposed to make Person One doubt himself. Person One then feels the need to defend why he practices the way he does, and now it's a full-blown argument.

It would be completely different if the commenter approached it in a way that is respectful and doesn't belittle Person One's beliefs, but that's not usually the case. I've seen it happen so often that I just can't take it any longer, I HAVE to say something!

We are taking what we have for granted. We can be out in the open with our practices, and we have all these different opinions and variations of practices to learn from, and we are taking this privilege and using it to belittle each other. Chew on it for a second. WE ARE BELITTLING EACH OTHER.

Maybe it's just that in this age of online interaction, we've all lost touch with our communication skills. Maybe we just forgot what the difference is between being respectful and polite, and being rude and condescending. Maybe we think it just all looks the same on the internet. Whatever the reason, we are handling our differences incorrectly. When we see something we disagree with, we get offended and angry. We get snippy and jump down each others throats about how that is NOT the way to do things. And when we respond like this, we come off as rude, judgmental, and stuck-up.

Consider things from the opposite point of view for a second. Maybe the person who dared to offend you is just starting out, and has gotten their information from questionable resources. What if they just really need to be taught and set straight? How does it make you look when you post a snarky passive-aggressive comment about their practices? That's not a very warm welcome. If this is the case and you just can't leave well enough alone, then jump in and help them. Suggest some resources that you deem credible. Just be kind. We all know it's not your responsibility to teach this person you don't even know. But if you're not going to help, then close the page and move on. Your comment is absolutely not necessary.

Or maybe this person isn't so new and impressionable at all. Maybe they just walk a different path than you. I see this one a lot, too. People make rude and snarky comments about other people's beliefs because they are different from what they, themselves believe.  If someone else's opinion offends you so much, stop what you're doing for a minute and think. Why are you so offended? Did this person say something rude about you or your beliefs? Is this person truly hurting you or someone else? If the answer to both of these questions is no, then check yourself! Is it really necessary for you to say something? If not, then close the damn window and go about your business.

What I'm trying to get at here, is that we are all sisters and brothers. We are all in this together, and we are all one in the grand scheme of things. If we don't have respect for each other, than what do we have, really? If we spend our time arguing and trying to prove one-another wrong, where do we end up in the end? We need to pull together and use our time and energy wisely. In this day and age, where we have such easy access to one-another, we need to take the opportunity to learn from each other! Don't judge, LEARN. It doesn't matter who you are or how long you've been practicing. There is something you can learn from everyone.

Imagine what we could all do if we stopped being so damn threatened by one another, started accepting one another unconditionally, and working together...

Totem Animals

I've been working my way through the book Animal Speak by Ted Andrews. This is the first time I've done any kind of research on totem animals, and this book is teaching me a lot so far!

As a little girl, I somehow developed the belief that my "spirit guide" would appear to me in the form of an animal. Don't ask me who taught me that, it was just one of those things I assumed.

Throughout my life I've had a few animals that could very well have been totem animals, but the hummingbird and the fox have been the most consistent.

Until I started reading this book, I thought they were just manifestations of whatever spirit was watching over me. I would see these animals everywhere I went. They appeared in recurring dreams, I would run into them in real-life in the most unlikely places, and other people would often give me gifts that had something to do with that animal (although I rarely talked about this with anyone). Now that I'm reading this book, I'm starting to learn a lot more about what I was missing about these occurrences.

Looking back, those animals were appearing to me so often because they represented something important in my life at the time. They were either trying to teach me a big lesson, or they were warning me about something that was coming. Of course, I had no idea at the time. I just thought there was something that was sending those animals to either be my friend or my protector (because those were two things I desperately needed at the time).

The fox, my most recent "totem animal" has been following me in my dreams for years. But I didn't know it had much significance until it appeared in the same dream that I got my magical name from (you can read about that dream here).  Since then, the fox has acted as an aid in my study of the craft in many ways. It's a clever, fast, and tricky creature that has been thought to live on the border between the two worlds. It brings me important messages in my dreams, helps guide me in meditations, and even greets me in person at the most unlikely times.

What's your totem animal? How has it helped you?

 

 

It's All In The Terminology (Aparently)

I was raised by my mom, who considers herself "not Christian, but spiritual." I grew up watching my mom explore the idea of a mother and a father god. She kept crystal geodes all over the house. She stressed the importance of candles and the meanings of their colors. She used a crystal pendulum and tarot deck to help her solve life's problems. She was a firm believer in herbalism and natural healing. She used salt to dispel negative energy. She was the one who taught me to use a tarot deck in the first place, and she strongly encouraged my highly intuitive abilities. All of this, while retaining a strong connection to the god of Christianity. My mom was, essentially, a Christian Witch (or christowitch).

The only thing is, she doesn't know this. She believes what she believes simply because it makes sense to her. That's it. Since before I can remember, she was always very involved in Christianity. She was outcast from her community, though when she expressed her interest in these non-traditional ideas that she believed in. So she continued her own path in solitude; continuing to believe in the Christian god while sticking to her guns about her non-traditional beliefs (like tarot, communicating with the dead, the power of candles and crystals, etc).

The only difference between her and I is that I decided to research these beliefs further. By pure accident, I discovered Wicca. From there, I learned about witchcraft. It was so eerie to read and hear how the beliefs of these "witches" lined up with my own beliefs so closely. I discovered that I had essentially been a witch my whole life, I just didn't know my practices by that name. My mom however, chooses to identify as "spiritual" because she has a very close relationship with her god and feels that is the best way she can disassociate herself with Christianity while still holding onto her relationship with her god.

Now, on to my point. She made a very disturbing comment to me on the phone today. She was checking out my shop (because she's always ordering tarot readings from me), and she apparently noticed for the first time that I refer to my practices as "witchcraft." She said "aren't you afraid you're going to attract the devil into your life by calling yourself a witch?"

I simply told her that I don't believe in the devil. The devil is an entity belonging to Christianity and I am not a Christan. I'm a Pagan, technically. This isn't news. This has been the case for years. I think she took that as a slight to her religion, though, because she got all snippy and said some more things about my practice being a potential magnet for evil and then abruptly ended the phone call.

Although it was rather short, this conversation has been bothering me a great deal ever since. First of all, I'm hurt. This comment came from my mom. This is the person who raised me and should know me better than anyone. She's the one who taught me many of the things I know now. She raised me to walk the path that I walk. I can't even kill a spider, and this woman thinks that I am dabbling in evil.

Secondly, I'm offended. We've had plenty of talks about religion before. She knows very well what I stand for, and I know what she stands for. We can easily find common ground among our (slightly) different religious/spiritual paths and respect each other when it comes to our differences. Or, so I thought. I had no idea that something as simple as terminology can make such a big difference in determining good from bad.

I see this as super hypocritical. Just five minutes earlier, she had been begging me for a tarot reading. I guess that's OK, as long as it's not called witchcraft. But as soon as it's witchcraft (which IT IS), then it's evil and the Christian devil will come find you even though you don't even subscribe to a religion that believes in the devil.

It's scary how deeply rooted religious ignorance can be. She doesn't even fully understand what witchcraft is. But because she was once told by someone (who also knows nothing of witchcraft) that witchcraft is associated with the devil, she believes it. So much so that she chose that idea (which is hearsay) over first-hand knowledge of who her own daughter is.

I'll be bothered by this for a while. I just had to get this off my chest since my mom pretty much hung up on me and didn't give me a chance to talk it out with her.

Thank goodness for blogs!