Re-Altar Your Mind

Alright guys, I'm back again.

This time I've come to post an update about my altar.

Through a series of events, I've inherited a new altar, so naturally, I had to set it up. It's really a two-tier coffee table type piece, but I decided to put it on top of what I was using for my existing altar, so I now have a 3-tier altar. I'm pretty pumped about that. Here's what it looked like after I cleared off my old altar and started to set this one up.

I was a bit worried it might be too tall, or that one of our cats might get on it and then knock stuff over either by jumping down or by being a little shit, but I did a shake test and I think it should hold up ok. Here's what I've done:

 

So I know it's a bit difficult to see everything from those photos, so I might eventually do a video run down, but for now I'll just explain it here. 

My over-all inspiration was to do a kind of upper, middle, and underworld type-theme, while keeping the bottom tier a kind of meditation altar, and the upper portion a sort of working altar, with a bit of an overflow section in the middle tier. 

On the bottom, I've got several Ganesh statues. Since he's the ruler of the base or root chakra, I felt that it would be appropriate to have him sitting down there. I've also got my sandalwood mala beads around that wonderful sage candle I talked about it my first altar post. I put the lighter there because I figured that's where I'd be using it the most. I also have my covered incense burner down there, along with a small clear quartz sphere, a small silver-sheen obsidian "letter opener" I got from Mexico that's got something carved into the handle (I can't remember who it is, though I know its Mayan), as well as a small stone bowl (I intend to fill it with sand so I can burn Japanese-style incense in it), and the bottle with the crushed up flowers I mentioned in my previous post as well. I also hung the sugar skull on the wall for this section. 

The middle section has my athame (mostly because it's at a great height when you're standing), the other stone bowl for burning Japanese-style incense or resin incense on a charcoal disk, a purple goddess statue I've had for a long time, a small paper fan with an image of "the great wave off kanagawa" on it, my collection of small Buddha statues, a statue of the sleeping Buddha, and it's got a goddess print from a local artist hanging on the wall. 

The top tier has two white mini candles in blue star-shaped holders, a small silver chalice with a pentacle etched in it, that wonderful smelling candle I recently bought sitting on a piece of slate, a small stone offering bowl, tingshaws, a small glass bottle with a pewter floral design on it, the Invocation smudge spray, a clear quartz point with small pyrite inclusions, and some sand dollars I picked up from a local beach last summer. Hanging on the wall above this section I have a framed atlas moth, and a leather luna moth art piece (it's hand-worked hand-painted leather on a section of some kind of tree bark). 

Compared to my last altar, there's a lot of stuff on it. I'm sure I'll re-work it again at some point, as I pick up new things and whatnot. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, considering I wasn't expecting to get a new "coffee table". 

Sorry for the wall of text, but it gives you a least a bit of an idea of what I've got. I might make a video about it sometime soon, though, to give you a better idea of how it all works. Ciao for now!

Month One, and Blog Prompt Sunday

Ahoy!

Just dropping in with an update.

Firstly I want to apologize for the lack of interesting things on my blog, visually. I used to blog regularly using Live Journal "back in the day", and it has been a looong time since I've done anything in this regard. Since the "blogosphere" has taken off so much (is that even the right word? Sometimes I feel so old), I'm sure there's new ways of doing things and lots of new fancy images I can put in my posts to spruce them up a bit, so just bear with me as I fumble my way around to figure things out. While I'm not exactly a luddite, I'm also not the most tech-savvy person either. I also still haven't quite figured out Facebook...I just don't use it much...that's probably my issue.

Anyway, here I am.

It's been almost a month to the day since I started my IDGAF initiation studies. Pretty crazy, huh? So far it's been going really well. I've got 2 books read (well, nearly - I'm hoping to finish my second book by tomorrow night), I've got an altar again (there will be an upcoming post about this), I've gotten some new witch-y accoutrements, and I've also started a very loose weekly practice. I really need to "tighten my belt" so-to-speak, on that weekly practice though. The first two weeks were great, then I kind of slacked off. Sort of. I had a day set aside where I did stuff and then I "fell of the wagon" when something interrupted that, so I need to make sure I actually set aside some time where if I don't get the chance any other night of the week, I know I'll have time on this day at this time.

I have to say, I'm really excited about IDGAF and what I'm doing with it. This is the first time in a very long time that I've actually been interested in doing something spiritual. It's a great feeling. Prior to 6 or 7 months ago, it was the last thing on my mind, and now I'm trying to find ways that I can nourish that part of myself. I find myself looking to see if there any upcoming classes I can take in my area. Just last week I was actually looking at upcoming classes and retreats in the local Buddhist community. I feel like I'm finally coming out of my internal hibernation. I'm starting to "think outside the box". Heck, maybe you'll even see a video update from me at some point!

I kind of feel like I'm back in school, but instead of trying to impress my professors I'm trying to impress myself.

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So today Renee posted a "Sunday blog prompt", and I thought that I'd answer it. I already had a post in mind for today, but I figured I'd also answer her question since I'm around. She asked: "How do you define your spirituality?"

Well, to me, spirituality is kind of like a verb - "the act of being spiritual". Having a belief in some kind of higher power is great, but belief without action is just religion. To me, anyway. You can think certain things and believe in "god" without really being spiritual, but I don't think you can be a spiritual person without having a belief in something.

So, I define my spirituality in terms of what I do - how I practice. I'm religious in that I have a belief system (that I can firmly define) and a certain set of values which I hold dear, but I'm also a spiritual person because I do something about those beliefs.

To specifically answer the question: My spirituality is the set practices I have that relate to the belief system I follow.

Retail Therapy

Hey guys!

I've been wanting to write this post since last weekend, but I got a bit side-tracked. Anyway, here I am now.

Last weekend I got money from the "tax man", so I was able to pick up the layaway I had at our local pagan shop. I was oddly excited about it, despite there really isn't anything groundbreaking in it. Here's a quick photo I snapped as I unpacked it...

So as you can see, nothing overly exciting, but it excites me. I picked up a "mobile meditator", which is the large blue thing in the back. It's a faux-suede/plastic-y (?) inflatable meditation cushion that's shaped like a crescent moon. It's supposed to help your posture as you meditate, which I think will be very helpful for me. I'm also hoping it will help keep my feet/legs from falling asleep during meditation...because we all know how fun it is to nearly fall over after trying to stand up not realizing your legs have fallen asleep.

I also bought a wonderfully smelling "100% soy, plant and beeswax" candle made with a blend of "100% pure essential oils, consciously sourced from all over the world"from a company called Rare Earth Naturals. It's scented with Cassia, Cedarwood, and Cardamom. It smells wonderful and I can't wait to burn it.

I also bought 3 essential oils: Lavender, Peppermint, and Tea Tree. I'm not all that into aromatherapy right now, but I'm looking to get into it a bit more, and I wanted oils that were going to be useful for everyday stuff, not so much oils that smell pretty, so that's why I went with those ones (not saying that those ones don't smell pretty, but I'm looking to get in to it for healing purposes - things like burns, sore muscles, acne, etc).

I also bought some more Gardner's Dream Cream, because the bottle I have kicking around now is really old, and I didn't realize until I tried some newer stuff just how off the texture is in my current bottle.

What I'm most excited about is the Invocation Smudge Spray. It's the in the square box between the essential oils and the dream cream. It smells fantastic! I can't tell you how refreshing this stuff is, energetically and physically. One spray goes a long way, and really helps to clear a room (in a good way). It's made to take the place of actually burring sage, because there are some situations where you just can't burn sage but want the cleansing effects of it. I have 3 snakes and a gecko (and 2 cats), so I don't always want to go around burning stuff in every room of my apartment (because they have more fragile respiratory systems), so now that I have this spray, I feel much safer doing some house "cleansing.

I also bought some picasso stone, as well as some honey calcite. Those are the four small stones you see in the picture. I'll give you three guesses as to which stone is which. I didn't buy them for a specific purpose - I just really liked the look of them.

So yeah, yay for new witch-y things!

Planting the Seeds of Inspiration at Ostara

Hi all!

Just a bit of an update since I haven't been around much in the past week.

I hope everyone had a lovely Ostara (or Mabon for those in the Southern hemisphere) last week. I didn't do a whole lot on the actual holiday, only because we had plans for a ritual on Sunday (which was yesterday)...

I had the thought that it might be a nice idea to plant some seeds (in a pot), and burry a piece of paper with some kind of intent on it, in hopes that when the plant grows and flowers, whatever intent was put into it would also come to fruition. So, we essentially did that...but instead of burying the paper, we burned it, crushed up the ashes, and mixed it in with the potting soil.

Since it was so nice, we ended up going to our spot in the woods to do the "meat" part of the ritual, and then came back inside to plan the seeds.

We put our seeds in the orange so that as the orange peel breaks down it adds nitrogen to the soil to help things along a bit.  

So hopefully the seeds will take root and grow up to give us some wonderful herbs. I planted lavender because I figured it might come in handy down the road, and Heather, Renee, and Drew planted Mint, Anise, and Thyme.

Sorry for the kind of short update, but it's all I have time for at the moment.

IDGAF Goes Live

Hi everyone!

Today is the day I get to tell you about the "IDGAF Project" I've been working on as of late.

IDGAF is a new eclectic (witchcraft) tradition that I co-founded with 3 friends. This is my take on it:

IDGAF is a free non-hierarchal initiatory tradition that focuses on being an active participant in your spirituality, with continual learning at its core. Land stewardship also plays an important role. It is accessible and inclusionary, open to anyone of any background, regardless of what traditions you're currently a part of or what deities you associate with. We only ask that you be an active participant in your spirituality - you won't find any "Sunday Pagans" here.

Sound interesting? I'm sure you're wondering about something...

Yes IDGAF stands for "I Don't Give A Fuck".

We were/are tired with the rigid structures and inaccessibility of many modern Witchcraft traditions, and felt like there was too much pressure on what you should and shouldn't do, or what other people are or aren't doing...so we decided that in an expression of empowerment and celebrating the freedom to do what you want, we named our tradition the "I Don't Give A Fuck" tradition, or IDGAF for short. It's not meant to be flippant, but more tongue-in-cheek. To quote our site "It's throwing off the expectations of others, it's bypassing the drama and infighting and coming to a place where we can all just celebrate what it means to be spiritual, whatever colour we choose to call it".

I realize that we will likely loose the interest of some people because of the name, because people may not take us seriously when they find out what IDGAF stands for. In fact, we've already had a bit of backlash because of the name. Don't judge a book by its cover.

Heather, a co-founder, actually put it perfectly in her blog post today:

"IDGAF is not about being flippant. We aren't joking. It's also not about being callous, uncaring towards others, or negative towards the community. You can care about others, be kind, considerate, and polite, but not care what others think about you. 

We saw a void and we filled it. 

There is a considerable push and expectation towards being "initiated" - it gives you "street cred", it gives you belonging. But so many initiatory traditions are closed; or they are for followers of a certain path only; or they are expensive, costing a lot of actual money or amounts of time and dedication that some people just can't manage. This doesn't make them bad. If you can afford the money, are willing and able to dedicate the time, if you walk that path or know the right people; may you find learning and fulfillment  there. These traditions are not for everyone. Neither is ours. 

We wanted to create something accessible. It's free, it's eclectic, and it's tongue-in-cheek. We don't give a fuck what specific spirituality you practice, as long as you Practice. We don't care what gods you work with, so long as you work with them and don't leave them gathering dust. We don't care what learning interests you, so long as you learn. We're after your dedication, not your dogma.

"I don't give a fuck" is meant otbe a statement of personal power, presented in a friendly, saucy, informal way.

I don't five a fuck. I am who I am. What calls to me, calls. I walk my own path. 

That's what we mean.

There will always be those who tell you "you can't". IDGAF is your statement, your declaration, your affirmation: "FUCK YOU". Yes I can!"

I'm excited to see who chooses to walk with us, who can look past our silly saucy name and see our intention. In intention and purpose is our power."

And so, here I am. This blog will serve as a place where I can post about my initiation process, hence the "Book" pages you'll see on the right. It's a place where I can come to vent about issues I might be having, or to share something I've experienced, or to just share my views on something in general. So today, I leave you with that.

Oh! Happy Ostara (spring)!

Here's the link to our site, just in case you're interested: IDGAF

Sacred Smoke

Happy Daylight Savings Time day guys! /sarcasm 

I'm not sure about anyone else, but when the time "springs ahead", I always miss that precious extra hour of sleep that gets lost somewhere in translation. It's kind of nice to get up for work when it's actually light outside, but I think I'd like that extra hour back a bit more. 

Anyway...

I'm don't know about anyone else, but I absolutely love burning incense. (maybe I'm also a bit of a pyro, but that's beside the point) I'm not exactly sure what draws me to it, but aside from the wonderful scents, I essentially get transfixed watching the smoke from the incense swirl up around me in neat shapes or patterns, or sometimes, no shapes at all. I also think it's really neat that you can sort of "see" the smell of the incense. 

I've recently come to think of burning incense as a type of offering. I'm not 100% sure on this, but I think that in some Eastern traditions, doing just that is actually a type of offering. I look at it like this: You can do candle spells and imbue the candle with your intentions, so why can't you do the same thing with a stick of incense? The biggest difference between the two for me, is that incense seems somehow a more pure form than a candle, so that when I burn incense I may not actually use it the same way I would in an everyday spell. I feel like the smoke sends a more direct message deity, and so I tend to burn incense with the intent of it being an offering (of thanks) rather than asking for something when I burn it. I feel like the smoke can reach the heavens (so to speak) a bit faster than a candle, and so in that way it's more direct. I haven't used incense as a type of spell yet, but I think that in future I might if the circumstances warrant it - like, if I'm really in need of something, I'd burn a stick of incense and "pray" over it (spells are a form of prayer, in my mind at least). I also can't see why you couldn't combine candles and incense to create a more powerful message. 

I'm not sure what makes me feel like incense is more "pure" than a candle, but I do. I guess it could be that candles can get really messy when you burn them, and that sometimes the flame doesn't burn clean (if you know what I mean), but at the same time you're left with a pile of ash when you're done burning a stick of incense, so in that way it's not exactly clean either. I'm also an air sign, so it could just be that I'm connecting more with that element when I burn incense, and so that why I feel this way, I'm not sure. 

I also tend to use a lot of sage and smudge in my practice, but I think it's for different reasons than incense. I look at sage as being more sacred and cleansing, and so I only use sage to clear a space that feels gummed up energetically, or before rituals, or even just to freshen up a space's energy if the place feels stagnant. 

So yeah, burning incense...it's kinda my thing. 

Just a Quickie

I'm off to work very soon, but I figured I'd come back to update you on the altar situation.

I moved it to its permeant home after work yesterday, and at first I was so frustrated I was ready for a break down. After tweaking it this morning, and doing a little somthin' somthin', I feel a lot better about where it is.

Normally I don't like to have my altar in the bedroom if I can help it, but I like to burn incense and we have snakes and a gecko, so I couldn't do that where it was before, thusly, I moved it into a space where I could burn incense. Unfortunately it's really close to some wall outlets, and is in a spot that's prone to getting a bit messy from time to time. The mess-prone area I can work with to keep clean, but the wall outlets I can't get around. Like I said before though, I feel better about where it is now that I've put myself into it a bit.

Here's a few updated photos for your enjoyment...or not. Maybe you don't like photos. Maybe you don't like altars...I dunno. Anyway, here they are.

Still similar to what I had before, but I added a bit more me to it. The two statues on the top corners are of Ganesh (or Ganesha depending on who you ask), a popular Hindu deity said to be the remover of obstacles. I also have a small collection of Buddha statues that you'll see around my wooden incense burner. There's also a bottle of really old dried and crushed up flowers on there, I can't get into the story behind that right now because I really should get by butt off to work. 

Anyway, I'll hopefully be back tonight to add to this, or make a new post. Bye for now!

Altar Your Mind

I think it's important to have an altar set up to focus your practice. Many other non-pagan traditions use altars as well, so it's not just pagans that tend to keep them. They're great daily reminders and serve as a place where you can go to connect with the spiritual or divine. They can be really elaborate with lots of statues and tools, or they can be very simple and sparse depending on your situation. If you're in a place where you're uncomfortable letting on that you're pagan or, if you know it would be unwelcome knowledge, you can always make a shoebox altar. It's literally a shoe box filled with your stuff that you keep in your closet or under your bed, so that you can take it out and use it when you need it. Shoebox altars are also great because they're portable.

That being said, my altar needs some work. I've only recently just set it back up after not having had one in a few years. I think I'll end up moving it from its current spot, so I'm not going to get too involved with its layout until I know exactly where I'm keeping it. So far it's pretty simple. I tend to keep my working altar pretty simple anyway, because I feel like I can always dress it up more if the occasion calls for it. 

I'm also a fan of having one main altar where you do the majority of your workings, but also having multiple other mini altars set-up around your place. Maybe it's just a piece of your bathroom counter that's got a few sea shells and a candle, or maybe you've got a collection of statues arranged on a shelf somewhere. Those can be altars too, if the intent is there. 

So, as a part of that IDGAF thing I mentioned, here's a photo of what my altar looks like right now. 

Like I said, it's nothing spectacular, but it's something. I'll explain to you what I've got going on. On the floor is a small wooden sugar skull wall hanging I got last weekend (well, I guess it's been two weekends ago now). In the middle I have a rhodonite sphere, sitting on top of a slate pentacle. Directly above that is a bowl of sand for burning Japanese-style incense or resin incense on a charcoal, or small candles I don't have a holder for. Above that is a covered incense burner I use for burning traditional incense sticks. I have a framed print of a painting done by a local artist (and shaman) above that. To the right is a small metal chalice with a pentacle etched in it. Below the rhodonite sphere is a sweet grass soy candle, and below that is my athame. I've got a pinecone, tingshaws, a lighter, and a small glass bottle representing the four elements surrounding the stuff in the middle. 

This is what a typical everyday altar looks like for me - representation of the four elements, some candles, my athame, an incense burner, and some form of representation of deity. I'll usually switch it up if I'm doing something more specific or add more stuff when it's close to a holiday. 

Anyway, that's it from me for now. I'll probably check back with an altar update when I move my altar to it's more permanent home. 

A New Direction

So over the next 6 months I will be reading at least 6 pagan-esque books, and I will be using this space to talk about what I'm reading and my thoughts on those books. I will also be using this space to blog about stuff I'm doing for that IDGAF project I mentioned last night. I can't say much about it just yet, but hang tight and then I'll explain what I'm doing a bit more. For now though, things may seem kind of random and out of the blue, so just bare with me.

I'd just like to put it out there that, because I didn't start this until right now, it doesn't mean that today was my first day starting things, but just that it wast the first day of me realizing that I could use this space for this purpose.

I started reading my first book last Friday (Feb 28), and what I've read so far I've really enjoyed. I'll see what I can do to set up a page for that specific book, and the subsequent books I read, just so stuff isn't quite as all over the place on this "main page". I've gotta run for now!

The Winds of Change

I am writing this post to let you know that my blog will be taking a different direction from here on out.

Instead of a place to come and write the random musings I have from time to time, I'm starting a new project called IDGAF, and I will be using this space to blog about it. I may write random stuff from time to time, but by and large, my blog will now consist of personal views and thoughts about this IDGAF project, which is still pagan-y related. You may notice a tonal shift and a shift in the way I write, but that comes along with the territory. I hope you've enjoyed what I've had to say thus far, and I hope you are able to continue along if you're still interested.