Stalling and Crafting

So this week has been a bit of a shit show for me, and as a result my IDGAF stuff has been suffering quite a bit. I've been wanting to come on here and give a bit of a life update for a while though, and I find myself in possession of some spare time, so now seems like a great time to do that. I warn you now, this post will not be overly IDGAF related.

The past several days have been great for me, but busy. On Monday night, I went to a Feist concert. It was the first date and only Canadian stop on her Mettle solo tour, with Kevin Drew opening for her (he's from Broken Social Scene). It was an amazing concert. I find myself saying "this is one of the best concert's I've seen" to nearly every concert I've been to lately (the past two were Tegan and Sara last summer, and Serena Ryder last March), but when I say that about this one, I truly mean it. It's a privilege to be able to see a fairly famous singer without a backing band at this stage in her career, and I have to say, I almost prefer listening to her songs stripped down they way they were on this tour. She also played a really long show - went on around 9:20 and didn't finish until about 11:10 or so. She also brought out Gordon Downy as a surprise guest, and he sang Flamenco with her. I was so surprised to see him when Kevin Drew invited him on stage for a song...I kind of lost it a little. I'm not a huge Tragically Hip fan, but I do enjoy some of their stuff, and it was really cool to get to see Gordon Downy. So anyway, it was a really great concert, but I left the house around 6:40 in the morning that day and didn't get home until after midnight. 

Tuesday was really rainy and gross here, so thankfully I didn't have to go anywhere but home after work, so I was able to get some IDGAF reading done that day.

Yesterday after work, Heather and I went to the Clay Cafe so that I could finish painting something I started on Sunday when I was there with my in-laws. The Clay Cafe is a "paint your own pottery studio", which is actually really fun! It was only the second time I was there, and I could have spent so much money on altar decorations! As it is I got two on Sunday, and then Heather and I went splits on one last night. (I'll post a picture of my "before" items in a bit) There's just so many different things that would be neat to have/paint. I'd love to go back there for more stuff soon! Here's the "before" photo of my stuff (which should be ready for pick-up next week):

The colours you see here will change quite a bit once these get fired, so stay tuned for an update on the finished products. I also painted a cherry blossom pattern on the other side of the antler, but I'm not overly talented in the free-handing department, so I'm kind of worried it's going to suck once it comes out of the kiln. 

Anyway, I guess that's pretty much it for this update. I've been wanting to do some more reading, and also to make a video, but as you can tell, it just wasn't in the cards this week. (Today was also a bit of a write-off as we had some cat-issues to deal with after work.) I'm really hoping to get back on track with everything next week. I haven't even found time for a "weekly practice" this week, which is terrible. Thankfully there are still 2 days left.  Anyway, I should be off. Hope all is well with everyone that might be reading this out there. Caio for now! 

Weekly IDGAF Blog Prompt

This week, our question was: What drew you into the occult, and how has that viewpoint changed/been reinforced?

Well, to be really honest, I was "drawn to the occult" because I thought it was cool. I was about 12 when I stumbled across Wicca. It was 1999 and I was in my first year of junior high. I had moved to a new school so I didn't know anyone at first. Over the first few months I became really good friends with two people, one of whom ended up telling me that her sister was a witch. I outright laughed at this. I thought that witches were found in movies or cartoons, with green, warty skin and long, crooked noses, wearing pointed black hats and black robes, riding brooms. Yep. I had no idea real witches existed. I'd never heard of the Salem Witch Trials or the Witch-hunts during the Reformation. So, you can well imagine my surprise when I found out there were actual witches - people that looked like you and me. I was fascinated, and naturally, wanted to learn everything I could. I scoured the internet, discovered the local "witch" shop, and spent some time in the library looking for books. Remember though, I was 12. So essentially, I found a handful of websites that didn't really have a whole lot of information on them, went in the shop a few times and didn't really buy much beyond some jewellery and incense, and took out one book from the library. 

At that time, I was most intrigued by spells. I was a 12 year-old pre-teen girl, so of course that's what I'd be drawn to most. After doing that initial "research", I decided that I would try a spell to help my Dad's computer stop crashing. What harm could it do? It was an inanimate object and I wasn't hurting anyone, so it should be fine, right? Well...about a week after my "spell" the computer ended up messing up so badly we had to get a new one. Was it my spell, or did it need to be replaced anyway? Whatever the case, it freaked me out enough to put a stopper in my wonderment with Wicca for a year or two.

In my last year of junior high, we had an orientation at the library one day. The librarian was telling/showing us some new books they'd gotten in, when she came to a book called Blood Witch, which was the third book in a new series called Sweep. It sounded neat to me, so I decided to give it a go, and as a result of reading that book my interest in Wicca was sparked again. This time though, I was in it for the "right" reasons. Everything I was reading now seemed to click. The holidays, the duality of the divine, the elements - everything seemed right to me. 

So to get to the question at hand - I guess you could say that spells drew me to the occult. Where as when I first discovered things I just thought it was "cool", now I understand the purpose of spell craft and it means a lot more to me now than it did back then. It was just something fun to try and dabble in at first, but now I see spells as prayers rather than something to try out for fun. Through my own self-discovery and learning, my view point changed dramatically. I also think that 14 years of "growing" might have something to do with it too. 

Good Times on The Witching Hour

So myself, Renee, and Heather were on a radio show earlier tonight talking about IDGAF. Overall, I think it went well. While I don't think we were a train wreck, I also think it could have been a bit better...then again, I'm usually pretty harsh on myself and I can see room for improvement in just about anything I do. That's beside the point, though. 

I know I was pretty darn nervous. I really don't like to be the centre of attention or feel like there's a spotlight on me somehow, and that's kind of how I felt during the show. Despite that, I was mostly able to overcome nerves and talk like a normal human being, I think. I froze a bit, but it could have been worse I guess. It's my hope that we were able to dispel a lot of the negativity and rumours I feel like our local community had (and the larger pagan community for that matter). I somehow felt like we had to prove ourselves, and I think that we at least won the respect of our interviewer. Maybe this isn't the case, but she seemed very "prickly" at first.

Anyway, I'm really glad I got the opportunity to go on the show and talk about stuff, and I would definitely go on again in the future. I'm not coming on here to gloat or rant about my experience, but to say "Hey! I did this thing I'm usually really uncomfortable doing, and it didn't suck!" 

I also wanted to come on here to clear a few things up, seeing as how we've already had a comment about the show saying that we were essentially bashing wiccans. That is totally not the case. I guess I can sort of see how you might misconstrue that out of a few things that were said, but we also repeatedly mentioned how we didn't think wicca was stupid or a silly path, and that we welcome people from any path. I know I said I would never call myself a wiccan. I stand by this. I wouldn't call myself a wiccan because I do too many other non-wiccan things to be able to call myself that. Sure, that's where my roots are. It's where I came from, and I owe wicca a lot . But it's not really where I am now. 

The fact of the matter is this: no matter what we say, someone somewhere is going to take something the wrong way and go spurting falsehoods. It happens. Haters gonna hate. All we can do is let our own words and actions speak louder than that, and essentially, not give a fuck. 

So, if anyone is interested in listening to the archived radio broadcast, you can find the link here. It was on a local university station called CKDU, on a show called The Witching Hour. That link will take you to the website, where you will find "program archives" in the left-hand side bar, in rather small font, under the "Donate" button, and wedged between the "Listen On-Line" and "Community Services" links. Then you'll see some drop-down menus in the main part of the page where you have to put in the date, time, and length of the clip you'd like to listen to. Start date is April 4, and the start time 19:30. It ran for 1 hour and 30 minutes. 

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.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.