The Magickal Cottage

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Some deities are very appealing to the general pagan population. I have always thought of Brigit as being very approachable. She seems like she would be the perfect counselor and all round best friend, as far as goddesses go.   My friend, Blaze, comments frequently of how she has been drawn to Brigit for as long as she can remember. I agree. I like Brigit, too.

That’s why I was surprised when I felt I was being approached by a goddess that I never thought of working with before. This was not really a goddess that gave me the warm fuzzies. I had a bad impression of her, through no fault of her own…..probably. She seemed kind of scary, in fact. Her name is Hecate. I was well into my “cronehood” when she started making her presence known. I started “seeing” symbols that made no sense to me. For instance, I would envision keys, and keys would appear everywhere in my physical environment as well. Most of these visions would appear as I was drifting off to sleep at night.  One night I saw a woman holding up a torch as I drifted off. Finally, I did what I often do: I “Googled” those symbols and found they were connected to Hecate.

So why was a goddess of the underworld calling me? Wasn’t I about healing and angels and light? I decided to research Hecate more. I found that she was a strong protector and even though she is a triple goddess she is often thought of in her crone aspect. Maybe she just likes that I’m “old”, I thought, or that I own a black dog (another of her symbols). Neither of those facts seemed reason enough for her to be contacting me. Then I had a friend tell me of how Hecate had actually healed him in a very powerful experience he would never forget. He was so moved by the experience that it was absolutely life changing.

OK, so that made sense. I am a healer. Hecate is a healer. Things were starting to come together. As I read more and more about Hecate, I realized that even though she was not a goddess that you wanted to mess with, she was interested in interacting with us. I was starting to get to know the other side of Hecate that was more like a wise and caring guardian – a protector of witches.

The first time I worked with Hecate magickally was when I had a friend who needed some major protection from two other “witches” who were persecuting her in a big way. I was outdoors when I cast the circle and started the protection spell. I was pretty pissed at the two evil women in question, but I tried to work from a place of neutrality. I calmly explained to Hecate the situation and asked for her protection of my friend, a fellow crone. As I finished speaking the verse I had written and began to raise power, ( I kid you not) there was a sudden gust of wind and a thunder clap! The weather had been relatively calm when I cast the circle, but the timing was almost too perfect! “Hey, that was cool”, I thought to myself. Needless to say, the spell got results.

Hecate is a lovely, wise goddess who stands by and listens to what you are telling her. If you ask something of her, she smiles, nods her head as if to say, “Is that what you really want?“ She makes you think things through and is a wonderful teacher. I still read about other gods and goddesses: Airmed for my herbal practice, Aine for the fairies, etc.. But I guess Hecate is my go-to lady when I need some powerful action. Hail Hecate! Blessed be!

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Last week our dog, Zoe, became very ill. We spared no expense to have her tested and treated with medicines, but it was her time to move on. She was 11 years old and she just couldn’t fight off her illness.

I gave Zoe a lot of reiki this past week and it really seemed to help her. She liked it, too. She never really liked it when she was well, unlike Tex and Frisco our other shepherds now in Spirit, who were reiki junkies! Reiki made Zoe nervous. It seemed weird and she was a dog that did not appreciate anything that was out of the ordinary….a lot like some people, I guess.

Tex used to come stop by my chair at the breakfast table each morning and I would place a hand on his back. He would stay for a minute or two and when he had gotten his “reiki fix” he would just quietly move on without any kind of acknowledgement.

Yesterday afternoon I had Zoe on the couch and I knew she was dying. I was very upset but knew it was time to take her to the vet. During all this, my phone rang and it was a former client. I declined the call and saw a moment later that he had left a message. I didn’t listen to the message until we were on our way home from the vet and Zoe was at peace. He was actually asking if I knew anyone who did animal reiki because someone had an elderly dog who needed it. I knew I couldn’t hold a conversation with anyone at that moment, so about an hour later I decided to text him. I said I would do the reiki for the dog at no charge.

As it turned out, when he texted me back, he and the dog and the owners were at the vet and the dog was about to be euthanized. He asked if I was an animal communicator, and I just asked where they were and the dog’s name. I said I would send the dog reiki. As soon as I started to send it, I could feel it going very strongly. Then a few moments later I felt a kind of release. My client texted me back thanking me. He said the dog had regained consciousness long enough for the owners to say their good-byes.

My client and the owners were very grateful, but ending a trying day in this way inspired a feeling of gratitude in me as well. I am suddenly feeling grateful for a lot of things: all the great times we have had with our pets, our family and friends and even all the material things we have that our ancestors never would have dreamed of. Talking with my sister yesterday, she was telling me about a new book that she felt was very powerful. The book points out that the key to a magical life is to cultivate a feeling of gratitude. Whatever comes along, whether it may seem good or bad, if we can say, “thank you,” we will have made some profound progress along our paths in this life.

Every night as I lay my head on my pillow I will repeat the phrase, “thank you, thank you, thank you!” My animals have all taught me some very powerful lessons about living in the moment, and for this I am very, very grateful.

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The Fairy Garden

Fairies, or nature elementals, are everywhere in the natural world. There are tree spirits called dryads, air sprites, undines of the water elements, gnomes of the earth…fae of many different varieties. Some fairies are reported to be helpful, if a bit fun loving, and others are not really good sorts for most of us to have hanging around.  It’s probably a good idea not to invite the fae indoors unless you have certain ones in mind and you have a positive relationship with them. Brownies are reported to be great house elementals to have indoors, but when in doubt about whether to invite an elemental indoors, don’t.

If you like keeping a garden, as I do, then encouraging the fairies to live in your garden is a great idea. They will lend their energy to the plants and create an amazing energy for you to enjoy all year round. You can do certain things to encourage fairies to live on your property, but most important to laying out the fairy welcome mat is your intention! You can make up a simple rhyme and walk around the yard repeating your charm over and over. I like to say a little fairy blessing whenever I plant something here at Angels Grove.  Even apartment dwellers can usually find a window sill or balcony on which to create a fairy garden. So don’t let lack of space stop you!

There are certain trees and flowers that are favored by the fae. Even planting a few of them will encourage the fairies to stay. Probably the tree that fairies are most crazy about is the oak. Some old oaks have hundreds of fairies living in them. Other trees sacred to fairies are the hawthorn, ash and elder. Holly protects your home and willows are sacred to the goddess. Fruit trees and especially apple trees are preferred. Roses are high on the list as well. I am a passionate rose grower and I feel the fairies’ energy very strongly each April when the roses start to bloom. Fox gloves are a traditional fairy flower, as are violets, primroses and lilacs. I planted a lilac bush a few years back and it just sat there for the longest time. Lilacs aren’t supposed to grow where I live in Texas so I knew there was a chance it wouldn’t do well. I watched and waited hoping that someday I would get at least one fragrant bloom, and this year it happened! I had been going through a very rough time emotionally and was talking to my son outside when I suddenly caught sight of a small purple bloom on the bush. I rushed over to take in its delicious fragrance! I knew that bloom was a sign from the fairies that things were going to get better in my life. I had been faithful to one of their sacred plants and they were telling me that they were looking out for me.

Some herbs worth mentioning for a fairy garden are rosemary and thyme. It is said that fairies like to use rosemary bushes to hide in. Thyme is intoxicating for fairies. Plant it liberally around your garden. There is even a variety of thyme with tiny leaves called Elfin Thyme. In fact, any plant with “fairy”, “elfin” or “sprite” in the name is worth considering for your garden. When you harvest plants from your garden be sure to ask permission from the plant or its elemental beforehand, and then be sure to give thanks.  Aine is a great goddess to get to know if you are planting a magickal garden. Gaia or any other earth or mother goddess would be excellent as well.

Need I say it? But don’t use a bunch of chemicals on your plants – especially poisons. That will indeed piss the fairies off! It is also a good idea to leave at least a small (or large) patch of your yard a little bit wild looking. Don’t be too obsessive about the weeds…not usually a problem for me! A fairy garden is a relaxed and joyous garden. Cottage gardens are ideal. Versailles would probably not be the fairy residence of choice.

With the popularity of fairies at the present time, there is a wide selection of fairy garden flags and statues. Placing a few fairies in the yard lets the fairies know that you recognize their presence. Whether or not they actually look like the beings portrayed by the garden artwork really isn’t important. They will read your intention and feel welcomed. You might even find some tiny fairies to place in your apartment window boxes.

Most pagans interact with elementals on some level due to the fact that paganism is usually Earth centered. Growing your own herbs and flowers for spells is so much better than buying them from an apothecary or on the internet. Gardens usually fail because the gardener fails to learn what they need to know about the needs of the plants they are trying to grow. Interested in learning more? Ellen Dugan has written some great books on the topic of magickal gardening. Check out Garden Witchery and Garden Witch’s Herbal.  Ellen is one of my favorite authors and writes a great blog! So do your homework, buy some flowers or seeds, and dig your hands into that beautiful soil around your house. And don’t forget to invite the fairies to help you!

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Finding the Elements That Will Enhance Your Life

The elements make up our world. We rely on them for staying alive and for working with energy in whatever way we choose. In western paganism there are four elements: earth, air, fire and water. In the Chinese system there are five elements: earth, wood, fire, water and metal. If you have studied Chinese astrology, feng shuy or Chinese health and nutrition you will have heard of their five element system.  I don’t really see any real conflict between the western system and the Chinese system. Both systems are valid and even complement each other in some instances.

The Chinese believe you should find those elements and their associations that will enhance your life based on your date and time of birth as well as your gender. I am inclined to believe that working with certain elements is a really great way to benefit your health as well as the energy work you do. For the longest time, however, I struggled with what the different systems told me I should have as a “lucky element”. I have always loved the ocean. I have a thing about mermaids and sea animals and since we moved to Texas from California I have missed the ocean so much. I love lakes and ponds and even impulsively dug a pond in my backyard one day just to be able to be near water. So why did all the different systems tell me I needed earth as my lucky element??? I decided to dig deeper to see what the deal was. I am a double fire sign with the sun and moon both in fire signs (I like fire..lots of candles in my home…fire pit in the yard…like the color red) so fire seemed to fit ok. But water…hmmm…one planet in a water sign. Very low on water in my horoscope except  that my sun and moon were in water houses (the 8^th and the 12^th). OK, so that might explain it somewhat. I still wanted to know more about why I had this strong connection with water.

Yesterday I remembered that there can be different ways of figuring out the Chinese lucky elements depending on who you are talking to so I decided to visit my friend Google and see what I could find out. I found a website that not only told how they figured the beneficial elements, but I finally found out why I was so drawn to water and fire. Yep, both of those elements are lucky for me. The website explained that I am, indeed, a metal person (which I knew) but I am a STRONG metal person. Since I am strong in that element I need elements that will reduce my metal or I’ll overdose on metal…who knew? Water and fire reduce metal. Yay! Now I know that my surrounding myself with candles and mermaids is a good thing! I knew it was, but wanted to know why. That’s how I am. You can be a weak metal person and then your lucky elements would indeed be earth and metal.

Want to find out your lucky element? Here is the link to that free website I mentioned:  http://www.geomancy.net/reports/free-report/freerpt-element.htm

The elements affect us whether we like it or not, so finding the colors and even the occupations and foods that will make us healthy and happy is worth looking into. Your best element could even tell you what kind of energy or even dieties you should work with in the most beneficial way and start you down a whole new path of study.

Blessings,

Sarina

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I have often said that I think I could be quite content to live in a hobbit hole. When thinking about the topic of this blog post, I decided to go back to Tolkien’s  book and reread his description of the Baggins’ abode:

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.

“It had a perfectly round door like a porthole, painted green, with a shiny yellow brass knob in the exact middle. The door opened on to a tube-shaped hall like a tunnel: a very comfortable tunnel without smoke, with panelled walls and floors tiled and carpeted, provided with polished chairs, and lots and lots of pegs for hats and coats–the hobbit was fond of visitors. The tunnel wound on and on, going fairly but not quite straight into the side of the hill–The Hill, as all the people for many miles round called it–and many little round doors opened out of it, first on one side and then on another. No going upstairs for the hobbit: bedrooms, bathrooms, cellars, pantries (lots of these), wardrobes (he had whole rooms devoted to clothes), kitchens, dining-rooms, all were on the same floor, and indeed on the same passage. The best rooms were all on the lefthand side (going in), for these were the only ones to have windows, deep-set round windows looking over his garden and meadows beyond, sloping down to the river.”

Hobbits are such nesters, and I consider myself to be a kindred spirit in that respect. I think I am a little more adventurous that most hobbits, but my home has always been my spiritual refuge just as the hobbit hole is to a hobbit.

Right now I am reading a book by Arin Murphy-Hiscock called The Way of the Hedge Witch: Rituals and Spells for Hearth and Home. This is one of those books that I occasionally find that has something on every page that resonates with my own beliefs. I love it when that happens. I am finding that so many things I have done instinctually are in alignment with the ways of the author’s definition of a hedge witch. I have always set up little altars in different rooms and recognized the sacredness of the heart of the home. What has struck me as enlightening about this book is that Arin brings up the fact that we don’t really need to make our homes sacred because they already are sacred. What we need to do is recognize them as being sacred spaces where we can go to recharge our spiritual batteries. And, indeed, the home has a kind of energy that we can draw upon to help us in all of our undertakings. There is a lot more to this book than just recognizing the sacredness of the hearth. I hope you will read the book, especially if you are a nester like me.

What I am in the process of doing right now is setting up an organized plan for my daily devotions. I have so many good intentions, but my days get overcrowded with things that come up to distract me from doing what I feel to be most important. I have a healing altar, a kitchen altar, an ancestor altar, a garden altar, a meditation altar….so many altars! But do I use them consistently? I would love to adhere to a pattern of using my altars even if it’s just for a few minutes at a time. I think the secret may lie in establishing more of a flow to my home life. I need to stay in the moment and regard all of my so called chores as magickal actions that continue to recognize and reinforce the sacredness of the hearth.

My ancestor altar is located in my bedroom. I have set up a table where I sit and do divination such as tarot and scrying. Often I will sit and talk to those in spirit while I do this. In the kitchen I light a candle on my kitchen altar before cleaning or cooking (both magickal acts). I am getting better at going to my healing altar and lighting a candle before sending Reiki to those in need, and I even spend a few minutes most days sending healing energy to the planet.  Sabbats and full moons I love to spend outdoors in my garden. I feel like the whole yard just glows at times. The garden is an extension of the sacred space that is my home. My most recent altar I set up around my bathtub. The tub may seem like an unlikely place for an altar, but with candles lit all around and essential oils in the water it is a perfect spot for meditating and unwinding. I collect mermaids so they decorate my tub area and acknowledge the ocean goddess.

Little by little I am making progress on cleaning up the small piles of clutter here and there. How does it happen? I clean up one pile just to have another one grow someplace else! I truly believe in the precepts of Feng Shuy and struggle to clean up sources of negative energy (clutter!). I guess my house is just trying to keep me on my toes! It wants me to continue to monitor its energy on a regular basis. Just yesterday our water heater broke. This morning the filthy garage floor got a good washing with my sweeping away the water. We will also need to clear away some of the “stuff” in the garage for a new pipe to be installed. Just another way for the house to say, “hey, pay attention here!”.

Do you dislike your home? Maybe you just need to recognize its sacredness. The hearth and home has always been a special place to connect with the divine. I think the cliché, “your home is where your heart is”, could be reversed in this instance to, “your heart is where your home is.” Go to the different areas of your home and listen to the energy there. What does it say to you? “Fix me?, clean me?, use me?, recognize me?” By listening to your home you will discover secrets you perhaps never knew existed. May you be blessed to discover the sacredness of your hearth and home!

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Powerful beings of the astral realm, dragons occupy a soft spot in my heart. I don’t regard them as fearsome creatures spewing fire and wreaking havoc as they are often portrayed doing in popular fiction. They are quite powerful and are capable of destruction if they feel it necessary, but there is so much more to dragons than most people know.

Call me odd, but each night I visualize a huge dragon perched atop my house, guarding my property and all the inhabitants sleeping there (or prowling around, in the case of the cats). Yes, I call in angels and guides and Spirit as well, but there is something very comforting about that mellow dragon stationed confidently on the roof. That particular dragon is a golden color and seems very grounded: a house guardian dragon.

Once when a friend needed protection from some people who were tormenting her, a blue dragon appeared as I asked for help. I know, the fiercer protection dragons are red or even black (chaos), but this one was blue.  I think it would take a lot for me to call in one of the fierce kind. All I wanted was for the trouble makers to leave my friend alone. I was willing to be quite peaceful about the whole thing, as long as they left. My friend reported afterwards that her tormenters immediately left her alone and she didn’t even see them for a very long time afterward. When she did see them, they had changed their whole attitude, and even regarded her with a certain amount of respect. That blue dragon occasionally comes back for a visit just to say hello.

Being a practitioner who works with angels, I hate it that Archangel Michael is often depicted slaying a dragon.  The poor dragon has been demonized over the ages in western society to represent evil. Far from being evil, dragons can be wonderful guardians who will protect fearlessly when treated with respect and generosity. They can also be playful and even teasing, and will teach you valuable lessons by showing you how to laugh at yourself.

In my bedroom I have a sitting area with my modest, yet ever growing, collection of dragons in the form of figurines and stuffed animals. One way to coax dragons to hang out with you is to collect dragon items. They view such collections as a welcome mat stating they will be accepted in the household. I also have a large, stuffed, blue (of course!) chinese dragon on my bed. What better place to have a guardian dragon than in a place where you spend 1/3 of your life?

I read something fascinating that I had not heard about before (or I heard it and I forgot it-that happens with me a lot!). The time of a woman’s PMS and also during her menses was called her “dragontime”. The following is taken from the website moondragon.org:

A woman’s menstrual period is often referred to as her “Dragontime”. It is often associated with many of the pre-menstrual symptoms women experience just prior to her menses as well as the menses itself. Menstrual blood has been seen as powerful but feared (by men throughout history of humankind). Dragontime – This comes from “Dragontime: Magic and Mystery of Menstruation,” a book by Luisa Francia. Witching Time: Many witches believe very strongly in the power of menstrual blood and use it for their magical workings. Moon cycle: This term gives acknowledgement to the similarity of the lunar cycle to a woman’s menstrual cycle.”

The author, MoonDragon goes on to say:

Even the name of this website – MoonDragon – refers to the cyclic feminine creative forces of the Moon controlling a woman’s “Dragontime” (referring to her menses) and her powers of procreation, literally by having her children and also creatively, in thought, ideas, and her deeds. Since I have gone through menopause and have reached the crone phase of my human life, I am now holding all my dragon-energy within me as I also hold onto my blood. This phase of a woman’s life is a very powerful time for women and has been honored as a very spiritual phase of our lives. We become elders in our community and teachers of younger women and girls.

I like that, especially since I, too, am well into my cronehood!

If you would like to read more about dragons and how to call upon them in magick you might like to read Dancing With Dragons by DJ Conway.

I have enjoyed exploring the webpage: http://www.moondragon.org/pagan/animalguides/animalguidedragon.html

If you have other sites, books, or dragon knowledge to share, please feel free to do so.

Dragon Blessings,

Sarina

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