A Wiccan Journey: Moon Water.

If you saw my IG post about the last full, super moon, you know that I created moon water. The energy from the last full, blue, super moon of the year was powerful, and now I have just under a quart of magical water that will be the base of some spells I want to do.

Moon water is a great resource for cleansing rituals. I can add it to your bath water, drink it (apparently, but I’m not going to), and use it as a base for a spritz or spray. I can infuse the water with different herbs or crystals depending on what I wish to accomplish with the water and it’s so east to create. Just pour rain water, spring water, or distilled water into a glass jar and set it out to capture the full moon’s energy. I don’t recommend tap water because of the chemicals that are put into it, unless you have a water purifier. I used water that I rinse through my Britta, but I think next time I’ll boil it as well.

Because I wanted to use my water for different things, I didn’t put anything into the water before I set it outside. When I need to create something with it, I’ll take a small amount and infuse that with herbs or crystals and let it sit for a few days, and then pour it into a spray bottle and I’ll have it ready whenever I need it.

I’ve made moon water before during the full moon because that’s when the energy is the strongest, but I’ve recently discovered that you can make moon water at any of the eight points of the moon’s cycle, from full to new. Each has a different intent, so if I wanted to make banishing water, I would set out your jar during the Waning Gibbous or 3^rd Quarter. If you’re interested, you can find more information on the different quarters HERE.

The first magical water I want to make is a cleansing one that I can spray around the apartment to clear out the stagnant energy from the previous tenants. I need some herbs as well and as I used up all the ones I had I’ll have to purchase fresh. Sage is one, eucalyptus, clove, maybe some pine. Because it’s for the apartment I want relaxation so I’ll add some crystals to the water too. I think rose quartz would be nice for that feeling of peace and love, and this is a nice and easy way to incorporate magic into my everyday life.

A Wiccan Journey: Sensing the Unseen.

One of the first things I noted, when I began following my path was how much more I noticed spiritual things. They aren’t world-shattering or frightening, just the opposite, and after reading and listening to videos from well-known mediums, these occurrences became less scary and more informative. I began to connect small signs to things, for instance, finding dimes in places that I knew for a fact wasn’t there before or discovering my toaster unplugged several minutes after using it. These were all small signs, to me, that someone or something was watching over me, and they were never frightening.

That’s not to say that I haven’t felt uncomfortable sometimes. My husband and I lived in an old horse barn converted into two apartments, and I never felt at ease there. I still remember rolling over one night, half asleep, and seeing someone standing at the end of the bed. It didn’t register with me until the next morning, and the far right corner of the room never felt good. At night I would never look in that direction when I had to get up. It was also the first time I heard ‘people’ talking through the floor vents. It sounded like a tv on, and I could never hear what was being said, but it was just loud enough that it registered as talking. That apartment was highly energized. I know the history of the property. Some bad things went on in the main house, and I truly believe that bad things took place in the structure that would later be my home. We lived there for several years, and in that time, we had four tenants in the bottom apartment. Every one of them broke up and moved out, only to get back together AFTER they left. When the second couple broke up and left, I cast a protection spell on our apartment. Whatever was interfering downstairs could stay downstairs.

At my mother’s house, I hated going into the basement at night. That was hard for me because to save on hydro, I would only do my laundry at night. I always felt like something was watching me, and when I’d go up to the bed, the stairs creaked in such a way that it would sound like I wasn’t the only one going up them. I knew the layout of the upstairs well enough that I could navigate it with my eyes closed, which I did a lot because I couldn’t shake that feeling. I chalked all this up to being afraid of the dark, except that when I was out visiting my husband, It didn’t bother me to walk around in the dark, but I didn’t like the cellar there either.

Staying with my inlaws, it’s a different energy than at my mother’s place, and not once have I felt uncomfortable walking around in the dark. I have had one encounter with spirit energy. It was quick but definitely something. I turned on the kitchen light, and for a flash of a moment, something white stood at the entrance of the living room. It had no real shape, but there was a head, arms and legs. I don’t discount it as a trick of the light, either. This was VERY solid. I immediately got the feeling that it WAS something, but nothing evil. I’m not sure what it was, but I like to think it was either Hubby’s grandmother or grandfather, still hanging around and checking the place out.

I will be VERY curious to see what our new place will hold.

  

A Wiccan Journey: Phone apps for the busy Wiccan.

I am a somewhat unorganized person. I become so wrapped up in a project that sometimes I forget about other things going on in my life. That’s why I am so glad that there are phone apps that help me along my spiritual path.

Apart from these apps being incredibly interesting and providing information whenever I need it, many of them are free, and I have all I need right at my fingertips. From phases of the moon, tarot cards, calendars and an online BOS, my apps keep me informed and alert me when a special date is coming.

I like the idea of having my information on me all the time. I’m still looking for a good crystal app for information. I find a lot of sites on my computer about crystals, but I’d like one for my phone, in case I find myself someplace that sells crystals. I dislike going online with my phone because of all those damn pop-ups; more than once, I’ve accidentally tapped one and ended up on some stupid site.

I took a screen shot of the apps. You can find it HERE. 

I researched many before downloading the ones I have. The free apps are good, and many of the paid ones offer a free trial, but there are so many of them that finding the right ones was a matter of trial and error. The best app I have is Sky Map and Phases of the Moon. With Sky Map, once it’s calibrated to your phone, you can find the positions of all the stars, constellations, and galaxies, and there’s a line to indicate the horizon. You hold up your phone in any direction, and it will show you the universe, and it’s really cool when a few of the planets are close together. Phases of the Moon is literally just that. You’ve got the time and date when the moon rises and sets, the current phase, how far away it is, and what constellation it’s in.

I never thought a phone would be so useful.

A Wiccan Journey: New Mabon Ritual – Reflecting on the past year.

Autumn begins in a week, and I can’t be more excited. Not only for the end of the heat and humidity, but because of what the new season brings; cooler weather, heavier clothing (all black, of course), and COMFORT FOOD! Seriously, I’ve been waiting all summer to make comfort food.

I’m creating new rituals to celebrate each changing of the Wheel. Most of it will deal with food (because food, duh), but I want to connect more with my spirituality and focusing on the Solstices to start off will do that. Hell, I’m even booking time off from work to do this.

Traditionally, Mabon is about the second harvest, a time when the daylight and night-time are equal, so it’s a good time to reflect on all that’s happened in the last year and note the balance I’ve brought to my life (or tried), and letting go of things that did not work in the past, like unhealthy habits or self-destructive mindset. I want this to be an all-day thing, but it’ll mostly happen at night as the time for the official start is 9 pm. I made my own incense from a recipe I found online too. It’s pretty simple, and I had most of the ingredients already.

Most of what I note when I look back was my procrastination. I did get a lot done; raised gardens, one book out, basement cleaned, but I think I could have done more had I not been so distracted. Lack of focus is my downfall. If I know I have to do something (whether or not I want to do it), all it takes is one stray thought, and it’s not done. Exercise and other creative endeavours fell by the wayside this year because I just lacked the focus. My Mabon ritual this year will force me to look at that and hopefully banish the habit once and for all.

For this ritual, I will need two candles (orange and brown) and two cauldrons to burn my incense. I will stand facing West, the direction associated with the Autumn Solstice (according to several beliefs), with the candles in front and behind me (West and East). I will put the cauldrons to the North and South. While I burn the incense and candles, I will say a little prayer and then meditate on my accomplishments of the last year. I will meditate on my success and visualize myself forming new habits.

As I will, so it shall be.

A Wiccan Journey: Onto a new year!

Over the last few months, I’ve worked on reiterating my beliefs back into my life. It’s been difficult. With stress from work and the holiday season, the last thing I wanted to do was come home and do anything ‘witchy’, and once again I’ve lapsed into not doing anything at all. I started doing three card tarot spreads every day for myself, but once the holidays season really ramped up, I forgot, or was too distracted to do one.

I liked doing these little readings every day because it helped me to mindful on the moment and they would show me what I had to focus on for the day. It was a simple three card spread; what the day would bring, what I need to focus on, and what I need to let go of. I used both the normal and reverse interpretations as well. It’ll take me longer to learn them all, but the cards mean things when they’re reversed, and I don’t want to miss out on that knowledge.

The easiest part for me to remember of the Tarot is the four aspects of the Minor Arcana. Spades-mental, Cups-emotions, Wands-physical, and Pentacles-energy, but I tend to get confused when it comes to the Court cards. I know they can represent a real person and represent that part of our personality us as well, only I keep thinking it’s about a person and the few times I’ve had one come up, I sat there and tried to figure out who this person could be.

I have several Tarot decks, but I like the Ryder-Waite deck the most. Maybe because it’s the traditional deck and I want to learn that first before venturing on to the others. I have one deck, it’s very nice, but the interpretation of the cards is much different than a traditional and I need to have a good understand what the original represents before I venture into new representations.

I think this, along with using more crystals, will help me ease back into my practicing my spiritual side again.

A Wiccan Journey: Soween

The moment October started; it became Spooky Season. There’s something about this month, and maybe it’s because Halloween is at the end of the month, or maybe it’s because Halloween is at the end of the month, but everything feels different. Like we’re descending into some unknown place, and we have to be ready.

Soween ( saw-win, saw-vane, or sahven, and not pronounced sam-hayne) or Halloween is one of two points in the year when the veil between this world and the next is at it’s thinnest. Think of it as the waxing and waning of spiritual energy, but the atmosphere this time of year drips of spookiness. Maybe it’s the longer nights, the cooler evenings, the sight of colourful leaves and the expectation of winter, that lends itself to this interpretation. I know I am always grateful when October arrives. I am, and always will be an autumn person.

Traditionally, Soween marked the end of growing season and the festivals and celebrations reflected that. HERE is a great article written by Selena Fox on the subject. There are websites dedicated to all the different celebrations and how they were done, but for me, because I am a solitary, I like to do a simple celebration.

Two things about this time of year stand out for me: food and reflection. I love cooking for this season with so many simple comfort foods I’m surprised if I don’t gain weight. The other part is more personal; reflecting not only on the past year but remembering friends and family that are no longer with us. These last few years has been hard on the CatPack, and I miss them dearly. When I set up my altar this year, I think I’ll have pictures of them and remember the fun times.

When remembering those who have crossed over, it’s hard not to be sad, but remember that they can see us, and do visit us. You can feel their presence if you are open to them. It can be a very spiritual time, personally, but that doesn’t mean it has to be somber. I love the decorations and seeing kids dressed up, not to mention the candy, and I think that it’s a wonderful tradition to keep going.

In recent years, there’s been controversy about holding Halloween celebrations on a Sunday. Which, ironically enough, happens to be this year. Keep in mind that those of us who celebrate Soween see it as a completely different event from Halloween, so cancelling Halloween has nothing to do with our celebrations, and they’re just stripping a night of fun from kids, and who wants to be that person?

So, when the end of October finally arrives, remember to honour the dead, reflect on the past year, have some candy, and keep an eye on the shadows. After all the veil between this world and the spirit world is at it’s thinnest, and you never know who or what might cross your path.

A Wiccan Journey: Mabon Ritual.

It’s been almost ten years since I posted anything about Mabon. There are so many other sites that have much more detail information that I haven’t bothered. Not to mention that in the last few years, between work, school, and the stress from the pandemic, I haven’t done very many rites, and I want to change that.

Mabon ( Autumn Equinox) is September 22, a week from tomorrow, and I’ve put together a whole day of doing things. I asked for the day off too. I’ll start in the morning and hopefully, go all day, culminating in a Mabon dinner and maybe meditation outside afterward as the sun sets.

[NOTE: this is what I have planned. Whether or not I end up doing everything is a whole other matter.]

So, first thing in the morning, I’ll have my tea outside (weather permitting). I’ll have breakfast of ginger pancakes and fried apples. Recipe found HERE.

During the morning, I plan on smudging several rooms in the house. I asked a Native friend of mine for permission to use her custom, as smudging DID NOT originate from any Pagan tradition. I’d like to do the whole house, because it’s never been done, but we’ll see. I may even smudge the property. I had planned on doing a crystal protection spell on the house and property, but I may leave that for another time.

After lunch I will start putting together a Mabon meal for the evening. I’m having chicken and corn chowder with corn bread. I’ll set up my altar to be ready for 3:21. That is the official time Autumn will arrive.

After supper, I will sit and meditate outside, in front of my small cauldron with a fire going and listen to the crickets, burn some incense and just take in the night. I created this poem to say as well.

The night draws near,

The land begins it’s yearly rest,

I honour the balance of night and day,

and cherish the memories of the long summer

The earth grows cooler.
Gardens and fields are plowed.
The leaves of orange, gold and brown

nourishing the land for the coming spring
From this day on, the darkness grows,

I bid farewell to summer, and welcome Mabon.

It’s a work in progress.

Most of this is weather depending, and they are predicting rain for that day, but it’s still a way off and that might change. I have the day off too, but I’m wondering if I’ve planned too much and won’t have time to do everything. Some things I want to do I’ve decided against so I could have a full Samhain ritual.

Bring on the pumpkin spice!

A Wiccan Journey: Stress, the Pandemic, and new beginnings.

The last year has been hard on everyone, myself included. At first I thought I was doing really great, and all the time off I had, I thought to myself, this would be a great time to focus on my beliefs and strengthen my practice.

I wish I could say that really happened.

Stress, it seems, was affecting me in ways I didn’t realize. All those months that I had to do full moon, or dark moon rites, I didn’t. The solstices came and went and I think I might have done one or two celembrations. Even at the holidays, when I had a good week and a half off PRIOR to the Winter Solstice, I didn’t. I was too tired, or not in the mood or whatever other excuse i came up with to validate not doing them. Even now, when things are slowly going back to the new normal, I didn’t plan anything for the first of August, and as I sit here writing this, it occurs to me that this Sunday is a dark moon. I wrote out a rite for this moon phase, wrote it out exactly one year ago, but as of yet, I still haven’t performed it.

I don’t want to use the pandemic as an excuse, and that’s what I feel I’m doing, but how do I push past the rut I’ve fallen into? Everone says small steps, I get that, but some days doing even the smallest of things is difficult. I don’t want my practice to feel like a chore, and I’m at a loss where to begin. My husband (a practising Catholic) hasn’t been to service in over a year, and even now he’s very hesitant about going anywher near large gatherings.

Maybe I’m overthinking this. Maybe instead of jumping in all at once again, I need to start small. Maybe do one little thing today, like stand outside in the morning and meditate for five minutes, or read one of the new pagan books I bought last year. Yeah, that might be the answer to overcoming this stress. Funny, you don’t realize you’re stressed until you see how it’s affecting your life.

I will keep you updated.

A Wiccan Journey: Harnessing Planetary Energy.

Depending on what you want to create, harnessing the energy of the planets can enhance the power of your spell. I’ve written several blog posts on how to align with this energy, but knowledge of the energy and how they interact within our lives is a great way to enhance any spell.

Planetary hours is not a knew concept and is though to have been developed in Hellenistic astrology, and may have roots in the older Babylonian astrology. If you create your spell around a certain hour, you can harness that planets energy. The trick is figuring out what hour you need.

Below is a link to help explain more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_hours#:~:text=As%20each%20day%20is%20divided,Moon%20(%22Monday%22)%2C

At the bottom of the page is the formula to calculate the planetary hour. Personally, I have an app for that.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.technologies.mobile.astroclock

This app is very convient and allows you to set alarms for certain times. Whether or not you want to utilize planetary hours into your spell work is up to you, but I find it exciting to create spells around these hours. It helps me to focus on what I want to accomplish.

One thing I do want to mention; the influence of the inner and outer planets. For those of you who are familiar with astrology, you know the inner planets (Mercury, Venus, and Mars) are known as Personal, with the Impersonal planets being Jupiter and Saturn. Transpersonal are the outer planets (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto), and because their rotation around the sun takes much longer, the manifestation of your spell should you chose to utilize, may take much longer.

Bright Blessings and take care.

A Wiccan Journey: Outdoor Ritual vs. Indoor Ritual.

The title is a bit misleading. I’m not going to compare to see which is better, rather the opposite. I want to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each, and ways to overcome the disadvantages (if possible).

It only makes sense that outdoor rites be the norm, but if you live in a northern countries where there’s extreme weather during the winter, that might be easier said than done. In Canada, our cold weather (that includes snow) usually starts in December, and doesn’t really let up until April. Sometimes March if I’m lucky. That’s not too bad. It means I have seven months of possible outside rituals, weather permitting, of course.

I love outside rituals. There’s something calming about being outside at night. When we lived in the country, it was perfect. The only thing I heard were the wonderful sounds of night; leaves in the trees, the occasion animal, and maybe a stray car off in the distance. It has to be the most peaceful setting to conduct a ritual. Outdoor rites are simple to set up and require no cleansing of the space beforehand. This is the biggest advantage I can think of with outdoor rites. I have four stones that I’ve painted and have symbols of the elements on them. I place them on the ground facing the right direction, have a candle for each, some incense, earth, water, and a flame and that’s it. Once, I got really creative and gathered up sticks from around the house and placed them as the circle.

Now I live in the city, so the noise from traffic can interfere, which is why I tend to do them later on in the evening or closer to midnight. Being in the city also means your neighbours are closer. During the warmer weather, a few of our neighbours stay out longer, and more than once I’ve done ritual with them still messing around in their backyards. It’s difficult to focus when they’re playing music, laughing and talking, not to mention I’m keenly aware that they are there so it’s not as private as I’d like it to be. I had to really concentrate to keep my focus as I keep thinking they were watching me through their privacy fencing.

Indoor rites allows me to burn more candles and not have to worry about them blowing out or being knocked over. A room full of candle light sets an incredibly calm atmosphere and helps me to focus. I can also play music at a soothing level to add to the rite. It also gives me the privacy and quiet that I want. Well, until I’m visited by a cat. Once, my son came downstairs to get something to drink and interrupt. I let him know ahead of time now.

During the colder months, I go out and chant to the full moon, and then go back inside and do ritual. It’s a nice way to still connect with the outdoors without freezing. Inside, I use my altar and I set up a sacred circle. The rite takes a little longer because of the circle casting, but as I’m inside, I don’t have the elements to contend with. They’re also the task of cleansing a head of time. This can be as time consuming as you want. I’ve scrubbed down my whole work area with water that’s had vervain soaking in it. Now I just smudge.

Whether you prefer indoor or outdoor rites, the most important thing is to make it fun and personal to you. Sometimes, when I’ve had a busy day, I just stand outside with a white candle, chant for a few verses, say a prayer and that’s it. There are a lot of guides as to how you can do a ritual, and you don’t have to do exactly how they instruct. Pick and choose what you like. Make it as easy or complex as you wish.

Blessed Be, and stay safe.