Category Archives: Esoterica

Ogham: Divination

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One area of the craft that arouses much interest among ‘normal’ people is the telling of fortunes. Now divination is much more than simply attempting to predict the future. It is equally used to seek answers to current questions or even to understand the past.
Just as there are many uses to which we might put divination there are equally many methods. We have Tarot, Runes, crystal ball and even reading the tea leaves. One method that is less often seen used and one that, perhaps can claim to be a little more ‘native’ is that of reading Ogham sticks.

So what exactly is Ogham?

The Ogham alphabet consists of letters made from short tally-marks on a straight line. One mark for B, two marks for L, three for F
Each tally is called a “few” and each group of five is an “aicme.” The line that they’re written on is called the Druim.
Dots are frequently used between words, spaces between letters. The first aicme is for the Labials, the next for Dental and Aspirant letters, then the Gutteral sounds, and finally the Vowels.

For Example

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Posted in Esoterica, Theology

5 pillars to gain and retain balance

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On one of our csaqt Twitterchats the idea that to maintain balance in all aspects of our lives we need to base it on solid underpinning. Ideally more than one thing to allow for one or more of the things that under pin the balance to be attacked or weaken.

The idea of 5 pillars was born, so what might mine be? As anybody who knows me will understand mine are, indeed have to be, based on the 5 elements. The 5 points of the pentagram.

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Posted in Esoterica, Life, Personal Thoughts, Theology

Is Neo-Paganism Cultural Appropriation?

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There is, and has been, a lively discussion about the appropriateness of appropriating, the taking and using, elements of another culture’. While this question applies to the whole of that culture I am interested for the purposes of this essay in the faith and beliefs of the culture.  

This taking on of a cultures faith and beliefs can be either wholesale or the taking of elements of that faith structure and incorporating it into your own.  

So why is this important? Well there are two aspects for me. The first is that members of the culture being appropriated may well feel marginalised and disempowered where, as is almost always the case, they are a minority population. There is also the question of authenticity. Can a person really be true to themselves if the faith structure they are practicing are not part of their culture and history? 

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Posted in Esoterica, Personal Thoughts, Theology

Summer Solstice & St John’s Eve. A coincidence of timing?

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The summer solstice seems generally to be rather understated, apart from the annual bun fight at Stonehenge that is, which seems strange given that like Christmas it is celebrated by both Christians and Pagans.The summer solstice seems generally to be rather understated, apart from the annual bun fight at Stonehenge that is, which seems strange given that like Christmas it is celebrated by both Christians and Pagans.

Pagans of course see Midsummer as the time when we are expecting the harvest, the time of abundance and reward for the hard work put in throughout the year. Indeed in Wiccan traditions the summer solstice is a time to celebrate the joining of the God and the Goddess and see their union and the force that drives, creates, the harvest fruits.

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Posted in Esoterica, Personal Thoughts, Theology

Coincidence or portents

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Humans have a perhaps unique ability to see patterns. We see the world as a series of patterns, both visual and sequential.
This was a vital survival technique in years gone by, being able to rapidly identify a threat, often before we were even consciously aware of it, ensures our safety.

Becomes able to recognise patterns allows us to infer the presence of that threat before it becomes obvious.
As Witches we believe that we can sense the shadows of the future, that the echoes of things to be can be seen in events today.

But there is always a nagging doubt, is what we, I, see in the worlds around me at this time portents? The shadows of what may be? Or are they just my mind driven by wishes and desires, hopes of what once was but was lost?

A “normal” person would see them as coincidences, as simply our mind creating patterns out of random events.
As a Witch? I can but hope

 

Posted in Esoterica, Personal Thoughts

Unintentional Path-working

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For most practitioners path-working requires quite a bit of setting up, creating the conditions where you can move your consciousness to another place, or allow it to be moved. When working with a partner this can require a period of alignment or synchronising, but in either case it almost always isn’t something that just happens.

But recent experience has shown me that this isn’t always the case.

To set the scene a little as a Pagan I have used and practiced path-working for quite a few years both singly and with a working partner, so I sort of know what’s required to get into the right state and more importantly how it feels when you begin to move from this experience to the Otherland.

I also like to take baths rather than showers, they are so much more relaxing J, and on occasion I have been known to add a little something to the bath.

Recently I added some Himalayan salt to a bath and proceeded to lie there and try to relax not something I find easy in the last 5 or 6 years. As I was starting to ‘Zone out’ I heard a voice calling I couldn’t make it out but it was definitely calling me and from some distance. I also started t feel that slightly unworldly feeling of both being separate from the ‘normal’ world but also aware of it fully.

Now I hadn’t planned this, and wasn’t in any sort of mood to undertake a path-working, in fact I had avoided it as, as anybody who has experienced it will know, they can be rather challenging. Sometimes the message the Goddess has isn’t one you want to hear!

I felt pulled into that Otherworld place, a hyper-reality, where we share experience with beings long gone from the ‘normal’ world. The details of the experience isn’t important here, though it involved re-evaluating something I thought had been forever denied me because of things that have happened in the past, what’s interesting is the fact that this wasn’t something I was looking for. Indeed it was, is, something I feel a difficult prospect.

Path-working is usually seen as a way for us to make contact with that otherworld when and as we wish. This experience has shown me that sometimes that Otherworld will take the initiative and reach out to us whether or not we are ready for it.

A thing to remember perhaps, The powers in that Otherworld are not simply there for our bidding

Posted in Esoterica, Personal Thoughts, Theology

Forgiveness?

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For a number of reasons, linked to the same underlying issue – that of historic abuse it has to be said, I have been asked to think about what forgiveness means to me.

It has been suggested that part of recovering from the harm that was caused to me as a child, and has blighted my adult life, would be to forgive the person who abused me.

The whole concept of forgiveness seems to be rather stretched our of shape in this context, it isnt  for example suggested that forgiving actually has anything much to do with saying what was done was OK or that the abuser doesn’t bare the responsibility. It seems more about accepting that focusing on the abuser rather than on your own needs is counter productive.

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Posted in Esoterica, Life, Personal Thoughts

Imbolc: A time to grow!

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Imbolc

The first of February sees the celebration of Imbolc, a Gaelic traditional festival marking the beginning of spring. It is seen as a positive time with thoughts turning towards the return of the sun to the land after its long sleep during the winter. We see the days becoming longer and the long nights, slowly at first, starting to shorten.
We look out for the first signs of spring, the snow drops in the woods, the shoots of the daffodils fighting their way through the soil to break into the pale morning spring light
Traditionally it is a time when new initiates were welcomed into a coven, again in a symbolic reference to the new life they are starting.
It is also the traditional time for us to celebrate new beginnings, to see the first indications of growth and development from the seeds and hard work of the previous year.
But sometimes we are confronted with the fact that not all of the seeds we planted, either actual real seeds, or more likely metaphorical seeds, have germinated. We look to the last year, all the hard work we have put in to change our situations, our lives for the better. Or Look at the foundations we have put in place and yet there seems no sign of growth, no sign that the desired outcome is beginning to take shape.
So why is it that all the work, the decisions we took and the sacrifices we made in the last year, seem to have come to nothing? Why are we as unhappy with our life as we were this time last year despite making commitments?

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Posted in Esoterica, Personal Thoughts, Wheel of the Year

Thoughts on Midwinter solstice

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Mid winter is a difficult time for many, for many different reasons. For me if I put aside the never-ending reminders that it has become a time for families to be together, something impossible for me in the circumstances, I think the difficulty is in what the midwinter solstice represents, how it allows us to interpret the shortest day and longest night and of course the change in direction towards more light and warmer days.

The two solstices have a feeling about them, a sort of stillness where the universe, having come to the end of range, holds it breath, hesitates before moving back in the opposing direction. Now yes, I know at the solstice is a local phenomenon, earth bound and experienced differently in the two hemispheres but we are not considering cosmology here but how this local turning of the wheel expresses its self to our limited senses and intuition. And remember everything is connected, everything impacts and guides the path of everything else, so a local phenomenon, a local point of inflection can, and does have universal impacts.
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Posted in Esoterica, Personal Thoughts
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