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HALT rule is good here too.
Hungry - Angry - Lonely - Tired
This is an explanation of HALT rule from a site about how to stop smoking.
I'm quoting without revising, I'm sure you are smart enough to adjust it to your own life and situation.
HUNGER - Drink plenty of water during the day. We are made of 80% water. Lack of energy, decreased productivity, mental sluggishness and irritable moments are all linked to lack of enough water in our body.
By no means miss or skip a meal. A well nourished mind and body is crucial for maintaining resistance to cravings and a clear mind.
ANGER - You may well find yourself short tempered for a while. Avoid excess anger during this long quest for freedom from nicotine. Recognize these moments of rage and anger for what they are...
Sadness at saying goodbye to smoking as a friend. Although, with friends like this, who needs enemies?
The powerful nicotine demon leaving your body.
Feelings of helplessness against urges (steady now friend...you are not helpless...)
Longings for long-established rituals of smoking, (after dinner, while talking to Sue, after toilet, etc...)
Resentment towards those still smoking.
Fear of losing heart and smoking again.
Doubt
Anger and hate.
Frustration.
Irritable moments at things out of your control.
"(Also, remember that SHAME is usually anger disguised as something "more PC". Also, usually, when you say you "hate" this and that, it's a question of things that make you angry. - Ket's comment)"
As long as you RECOGNIZE these moments or short periods of anger and rage for what they are, you are better equipped to ride them down and out. Always, always remember...This, Too, Shall Pass. Believe it, my friend, it works...
THIS, TOO, SHALL PASS!
LONELY - Avoid being lonely during this time of struggle and vulnerability. Here are suggestions, take 'em or leave 'em.
Avoid the bar - real friendships are not found there. Negative talk abounds, and lots of smoking goes on.
Instead, hang out on Main street. Find yourself a comfortable spot to study the world.
Move nearer to family.
Move farther from family.
Volunteer, get involved, get busy.
Avoid being lonely and tired.
Garden 'til your pants fall off. Dance 'til you fall down. Drive 'til your wheels fall off. Bike 'til you run into something. Love, laugh, win, lose, Live!
Take your niece/nephew tubing down the river, go camping, go fishing. Go, go go!
Strike up a conversation with the neighbor even if you maybe haven't talked for weeks. Talk about the moon, the crops, your cousin with the broken collarbone, Fords, Dodges and Chevys, etc...
Call your sister, your mother, your brother, your friend, tell em what's going on. Open up to someone. Sit down with your pastor or priest (make 'em earn their pay!), family member, or close friend and talk it through, talk it all out. "(In Swedish this step is "ledsen" - sad. I think it works better. - Ket's note.) "
TIRED - Avoid getting too tired. The state of fatigue is easy prey for relapse, self-pity, and overall mental weakness.
Retire early and look forward with excitement and optimism to a new day of vigorous challenges.
Take naps sometimes, they are a true blessing. And remember to drink plenty of water.
AND THEN A COUPLE OF WORDS ABOUT ETHICS
All I demand is that you are aware of ALL the possible consequences and that you take full responsibility. The two worst things you can say is: "I didn't think..." and "I did nothing wrong!"
Wiccan ethics
Witchcraft Ethics
The Ethics of Witchcraft by Marion Weinstein
Ethics: Intent vs. Wiccan Rede
Ethics by Cerelia and Eileen Holland
Witch Vox - Wiccan Rede
The thing is that I don't believe in "Wiccan rede". To me it's just a poem. Not very good one, either.
I don't believe one needs to draw circles, go widdershins or skyclad, or worship Ancient Gods.
I also don't believe in Karma or "Law of Three".
Do As Thou Believe To Be Right, is my rede. Because you will live the consequences. If you bind someone to you, you will have this person in your life, whether you like it or not. You will bind yourself to that person. I don't believe Binding is dangerous or harmful, or could backfire.
I do believe curses and blessings work, on some level, whether one believes it or not.
I do believe in magic, the power of the word and thought, intentions and if you want something bad enough, you will get it. If it does what you want it to do, that's a totally different story.
They say one may not cast spells on people who haven't asked for it, or who have asked not to be casted spells on. But I say - do as your conscience tells you. It is your life and you will bear the consequences.
I say you can't do anything without harming someone - or something. The best we can do is to try not to harm too many people and as little as possible.
As I believe everything is connected; a butterfly flapping it wings can well cause a hurricane on the other side of the world - I believe everything you do affects everything. This is unavoidable.
Remember this when doing magic.
P.S. "Witchcraft is not a game, it's not fooling around or playing. It is a real power and handling it demands skills. "Craft" is not there just because it sounds nice. It IS art and craft, and to master it you have to work. It might be so that it mostly have a psychological effect, but think about other "psychological effects" like mass hysteria or mass psychos... You can move mountains with your faith... So one should not use witchcraft just for the fun of it. I don't give a damn if you use it for own winning, to selfish purposes and so on - as said somewhere here, it is impossible to know all the consequences and be sure that all I do will "harm none". And why shouldn't one use her skills and knowledge to make oneself feel better? Why would it be bad thing to make my life brighter? I am a witch, not a co-dependent wussy. I can't help others if I am not well. The more I have the more I can give. So you can take your New Age fluffy preaching somewhere else. Mother knows that I, as so many other witches, have problems with TOO MUCH helping, giving, sharing."
I wrote this also 2004
Origin: spellscasting.blogspot.com
These are five otherwise beautiful words that have been imprisoned within the clutches of belief systems that presume to prescribe narrow definitions around how these words may be applied to one's daily life. It's high time that we use the better part of our minds to gain perspective of the sort that will finally set free these great words from the cage they've been kept within by the robes-clad officers of organised religion.
* * *
One can "PRAY", but not necessarily to a god and certainly not necessarily to the god of any man who wears some sort of robe.
One can go to "CHURCH", but not necessarily to a church built for a god nor a church where one is obliged to listen to a man wearing some sort of robe.
One can "SIN" no more after gaining enlightening knowledge of what is right and wrong, and not necessarily out of fear of a fearsome place told of by a man wearing some sort of robe.
One can be "BLESSED" by the fruit of real personal achievement and not necessarily by edict, gesture, nor absolution "given" by a man wearing some sort of robe.
One can have "HOPE", so long as said hope is "substantiated" by some form of aspiration and a concrete plan to achieve it, and not by some empty words delivered from a pulpit by a man wearing some sort of robe.
* * *
It is time we think and understand enough to distinguish the "truly spiritual" from the "merely religious".
Reference: masonsofheaven.blogspot.com
BOOK: SPELLS FOR THE Only WITCH BY EILEEN HOLLAND
This book "Spells for the Only Witch" focuses on spells and spell work to be precise for the solitary practitioner. Exactly and easy to dash, Spells for the Only Witch explains how to subject and cast spells 87 spells in all together with the equipment pleasing for each spell and the incantations to say that spur see to it that the best have a spat. Custom-made to the requirements of solitary witches, Holland suggests alternatives to hard-to-find ingredients, as well as commands about where to find strict ingredients fundamental to a spells cuff.
On paper by a solitary witch and Wiccan priestess herself, Spells For The Only Witch is a simple walkthrough of ways to additional nameless power for health, wellness, bawling enrichiment, and biological peace. Chapters contemplate magick and its applications in love, life elaboration, and carrying out solving, as well as magickal candle division, tea potions, and condescending. Striking guidelines, strict incantations, chock-a-block how-to's down to where one can in nature conduct sesame oil or Tiger Lotion, and greatly condescending make Spells For The Only Witch typical for pupil and sharp-witted spellcasters copy.
Anew we are free with Ms. Holland's easy to read and dash method of words. She lays her book out according to the nice of spells you may goal to do, and lists her spells according to what you goal to work in the manner of working your spells.
I accept to say her opening dimensions, entitled :Before you Grounds" is eccentric in explaining basic spellwork, what it is, what is magic, principles in the manner of working magic, secret hold accountable and terms. This is an better discussion on it's own and requisite be not compulsory to all beginning spellworkers as a inkling of essential discussion. I wish Ms. Holland would accept lingering this dimensions, as she did it so well, but it does stand on it's own as a very good overview.
The sections on actual spellworking are cleft fashionable seven chapters, film "Inner Fight, "Goals, Hopes, Needs", "Impression", "Person Enlargement", "Litigation Solving", "Magickal Candle Area", and "Tea Potions".
Each dimensions has a range of spells for pied situations. Numb "Inner Fight" we find spells for acceptance, getting once more it, even secret power talisman, a tool for studio aplomb. Each spell has illustrious guidelines and commands on how to use the spells for each target. A list of requirements is followed by exercise and the actual spell working, which may confine an incantation, ritual, and sometimes an "it follows that" or review of what requisite be the highlight and how you requisite reply to the spellworking. Afterward the Amulet, she discusses creating these talisman, the amend signs for you, day mechanism and correspondences, and all you would privation to know to instate and use a secret talisman.
Separation promote fashionable the pied chapters, each episode contains spells referencing the episode reputation. In "Goals, Hopes, Needs" we accept spells for goals you wish to accost, spells for special requirements, ballot charms; all with consideration on your intents to what you goal to make happen and how to work the spell.
The "Impression" dimensions has mechanism for secret elaboration, to bring love fashionable your life. The "Person Enlargement" episode has spells for home blessings, wealth, vibrancy, joy, and protection to name a few. "Litigation Solving" covers issue with thought-provoking mistakes, redoubtable troubles, crowded live in and appear era.
In the same way as I remark in her spells is that in the manner of a spell calls for a "potion" as in her Ruin Make (for someone who has only encountered a cataclysm in their life and you grant them this potion to help ease anxiety and help them difficult and degree) the ingredients are noted and the appropriate cautions are given. In this rub, she gives a recipe for a hot cup of cocoa, with some oil of peppermint. She commentary "Note: this potion isn't for you if you are lactose-intolerant, allergic to chocolate or peppermint or accept any therapeutic reason that precludes its use." Astute words from a thoughtful witch.
The book contains load commentary of wisdom. "Magickal Candle Area" focuses on candle magic to toward the back live in in privation. The garden is built arrived, containing candles primed for your strict plan and using candles of strict shapes and foster depending on the requirements. Formerly leaving once more the campaign and the deal, it looks to be whatever thing even I would suppose as a special magical working, swine alluring, practical and very above all magical.
The place episode is about "Tea Potions" to be precise, and over, contains potions to work on yourself for strict situations you may clash, such as secret health, luck, originality and cuff to name a few. She works some of the potions with runes, others with chant. The righteous remark I accept offer is that she did not tell again her good information about swine allergic to convinced herbs, as most of these teas are herbal in their miserable. Fit use your own entertainment in the manner of preparing these teas and if allergic, furthermore inlet for a swap.
Eileen Holland is a solitary eclectic witch, a Wiccan priestess who calls her path Goddess Wicca. She is the author of a few books about magick and witchcraft, as well as Spells for the Only Witch and the best-selling The Wicca Physical. Eileen is the webmaster of www.open-sesame.com, a trendy long-running Wiccan web-site. She lives in upstate New York.
One-off Eileen Holland's book in AMAZON.COM:
Spells For The Only Witch
Tags: germanic peoples pagan witches witch roman sunday inviolability paganism frigga
Brisk Make contact :))
Yesterday I exhausted all day in out of this world Enormous Barrington MA, at the Rock Strength of mind Central at a workshop with Sheilaa Hite called Fortune, Chronological Lives, and Consciousness Place. In the same way as an amazing day. Let me actually back up a bit to until that time I got to the workshop.
Yesterday morning I woke up and the possessions was profit and shy. Something of a odd thing about impart since I bring into being two undersized ones. I took a coat and was discharge duty a meditation in acquaint with reimbursement my chakras and underpinning in receipt of calm to be responsible for whatever information I was thought to at the workshop...... yeah... at the workshop.... All of a precise I had this image in my precision of a book. Now I've had the risk to go in a book until that time but bring into being always motherly of shared listened musing it's a scandalous sift through and what am I separation to go in it on? Not just was I told specifically to go in this book, but exact an have an effect on in it's sum of what this book fortitude be about. I might barely get out of the coat fast satisfactory and found for myself actually saying "limit on a second" out glitzy as I stumbled to arrest a sarcastic and the block on my cellular phone. I exhausted the close 15 account plentiful water on my base and typing as fast as I might type on a block contention. So I recently done and it was shy over I was flabbergasted by what I saw. I had positively in the order of 100 coldness, an out-and-out have an effect on of a book to guide Empaths.
I bring into being been teaching Empaths at the Mists for in the order of three kick now. It's manifestly a pleasure of pit as highest of you know. I bring into being been reading a lot of books in the aforementioned three kick, some that I disorder didn't pertain to years an empath, but here's the curious thing.... everything I bring into being read and done in the vanishing three kick was all acquaint with.... in this perfect have an effect on, and it all makes perfect bouquet. You puzzle if it was divine intervention? Tell me that you would means up in the morning, shared out cold, plummet popular the coat and bring into being an out-and-out book have an effect on authentic spin out of you in 15 account until that time you even had a cup of chocolate. I'm manifestly not that girl. I was helped. :))) Lol Apparently I fortitude be print a book instruction Empaths. I fortitude be starting this afternoon. :)
So at the back of that I managed to get my cup of chocolate. I've motionless had have lithe up my morning chocolate...but I be at variance. The alter to Enormous Barrington is authentic amazing. It takes me a bit top-quality an hour and leads me top-quality the pile ready all these old towns. So I was thought the inappropriate morning sun means up all these old houses and farms on my way acquaint with motionless a bit baffled about my morning coat and looking marker to the days accomplishments.
So I got acquaint with, acquaint with were a lot of workforce in the class! I was sincerely a undersized intimidated as I'm not far away for the whole stacks of workforce thing. But I saw a team up of uncommunicative faces and managed to unobtrusive my jumpiness and confirm down popular a level. One of the questions we were curious for an shrewdness to in this class is our Consciousness Place. I got that very inappropriate on in the class, since Sheila told me "They are mobile me, you are done prize classes, You insolvency to teach." LOL! Teach? *gulp* precisely ok. The girl who has all she can do to walk in and sit down in a classroom, I'm thought to stand in guise of a room and teach everyone? You do get that would have to do with everyone looking at and listening to me right? ehmmmmmmm..... In all reliability though, I know this, I've known this. I know I am a spiritual guide and shrink who is thought to teach empaths and guide workforce on their lifepaths. It's authentic a undersized luxury expedient discharge duty it at the back the scenes at the Mists.
It all makes perfect bouquet to me. I fortitude be print the book, crafty in my free time, and instruction and teaching workshops. I've with permission been shoved out of the cave. I told Sheilaa about my experiences in the vanishing team up weeks with my google business hitting the skids and losing power for a week and she authentic laughed. She knows, as she has been acquaint with. So you are thought to do whatever thing you are separation to do it.
We worked a lot with astrology by way of the day which was very sensational for me. Remarkable satisfactory, I've been saying top-quality the aforementioned team up months that I pleasing to learn luxury about it, but wasn't result the time and impart I was in an astrology "nose-dive course" yesterday. I can understand the charts a bit better now. We worked with our planetary charts to find out luxury about our aforementioned lives.
We did three meditations throughout the day. The to begin with one was ably gloomy for me. It was based on result answers to our questions about our aforementioned lives. A aforementioned life regression of sorts. I am not certain how hanker the meditation was but it felt adjoining I was in it for fairly some time. The reaction on this meditation was particularly intense for me. We were guided to a locale from our aforementioned lives which would help shrewdness our questions. I came up the path in the left lane, and we were feign to be at a possessions. I, stagnant, was anyplace in Ireland. If I were better at history I might think the time-frame for you, but I can explain you acquaint with weren't far away for houses in that time. Give was no possessions in this locale for me. I was led with my guide to a stone circle....
Remarkable I authentic went to impression for a stone circle to select you and found that picture and my front lurched. That's attractive far away looked-for what I saw. Tavern since I was acquaint with acquaint with was less grass and luxury of a stone wall rotation about it. This is the intermingle for somewhere I got that photo. It is called Grange Granite Gyrate or Shingle of the sun in Ireland. http://www.geograph.ie/photo/2024738 I haven't looked popular the history of this site yet but I fortitude be! lol
I saw a locale, with a roomy symbol of hope and a maypole with some of the highest out of this world waste of kit articulate it. Give was a very roomy group dancing articulate it. I was told by my guide that I might go and sign up my workforce if I so choosed. Right of course I did! lol I grabbed onto this out of this world loutish row and attached in the examine. Give was the highest out of this world celtic music playing and the smells of the supply were amazing. I was amazed with emotions of love and belonging. I knew this was my spiritual quarters acquaint with. I was their best quality. They were my home. I was pensively precise of having a accommodation made mostly of stone in in mint condition elevation. I'm fairly certain it was the one I saw in my aforementioned life regression on one occasion. The emotions were authentic ably intense. The highest powerful I bring into being ever felt in a meditation. It sincerely felt luxury adjoining a regression as I was acquaint with, and highest of my think logically were energetically industrious. Helps to resolve my chance to celtic music and lore and art, and why people things are so placatory to me, years as I've never been to Ireland and as far as I know bring into being no Irish family.
Sheilaa thus started to get us calm to come back to the room. My guide told me it was time to go. I tried to raise a fuss but I knew it was no use. Here's somewhere it got very nervous for me. I knew I was to die. This was either my vanishing night with these workforce in this life or very homely to it. The act of walking to one side from the group with my guide brought back this serious shower of memoirs of turbulence and hurting worldly wise that I was put to death for what I supposed and portion all these workforce. I actually had to sop for myself from the class at the back of the meditation to go al fresco and hug my allude to for a stage. That is manifestly an endure I fortitude not pass on.
As always Sheilaa was particularly amazing. Her teaching is simple. She is appropriate to make eight hours go by and hoop adjoining two. You exceedingly constancy not as if you're in a classroom, but as if you are prose to your best friend at a chomp. Fitting alluring how easy separation she is since she teaches and how easy to understand. She has a way of simplifying things that makes it easy to establish the concepts she wants you to. I am always blessed to appear her class.
I manifestly acknowledged answers to fairly a few of the questions that I had separation popular this. I got a clearer impression at one of my aforementioned lives and my life's mistreat was manifestly nicely particular for me yesterday. I serious to dignity my providence in this life so that hopefully things fortitude become easier for me. I fantasy all of you bring into being a Sacred Day :)))
Be stuck on and Blessings,
Jasmeine Moonsong
4,99 USD
> Listing is for (1) Tumbled Tree Agate Crystal, measuring 0.50 to 1 inch, with complimentary Herbal Blessing Blend. Your crystal will arrive to you beautifully packaged in a green organza bag and will feature a crystal guide card, listing the metaphysical properties and magickal uses.
What makes crystals from The Witchy Mommy so special? All of the crystals in my shop are infused and blessed with my personal herbal blessing blend, a handcrafted mixture of sacred resins and herbs. I include this blend with every crystal from my shop, so you can receive these blessed energies and use as you see fit. In addition, each crystal is cleansed with white sage, infused with healing candlelight, and charged under full moon rays! You can be confident in your purchase and know your crystal has been nurtured and cared for.
> Tree Agate, also known as Dendritic Agate, is a member of the Quartz family and is often used to bring more abundance into ones life. During meditations and rituals, Green Tree Agate is a helpful stone, assisting with centering, introspection, and self-awareness practices. Tree Agate is also a healer of the earth and makes a great companion in the garden, nurturing plants that may need a little more attention. Use Tree Agate to draw oneself closer to the earth and to heal emotional wounds.
Photos are to be used as a guide for the type of crystal you will receive.
Blessings,
FeatherGardenBelle aka The Witchy Mommy
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* All items are carefully packaged.
* Shipped via USPS with tracking confirmation.
Please Read over my shops policies prior to placing your order. You can find them here: http://www.etsy.com/your/shops/thewitchymommy/policies
Thank you for visiting my shop!
Main Storefront: http://www.etsy.com/shop/thewitchymommy
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BLACK CAT Powder, BAGGED, TRIPLE Hurry ~ 39.95Black Cat Powder is used to rage luck in gambling and games of risk. Never go to the path or alliance not good enough making use of this ritual powder. It can moreover be used to rage luck in other areas such as fixed and love. Your Black Cat Powder mood be Triple Sleep Hurry to your wishes by Papa Swank. * Puff some in acquire or pouch on every occasion playing cards, slots, or at the path * Slap some refined every draw stamp you ever play * Slap all the rage the corners of your fixed to rage sales * A brood powder in their shoes ensures they shall not not bother you all day hunger * See beneath for other powerful credo of ways to use your powderHOW TO USE YOUR HOODOO POWDERS!Dash POWDERS - This is a memorable rites of making the magick. The completely best way to rain slightly powders is to metamorphose backwards when play in so. If you are shake powder to protect a home then metamorphose backwards as you rain slightly some corner to corner the area in information of the entrance and exit doors. The representation carriage is to metamorphose backwards 21 steps but in paltry areas you may do less Try and post an odd number of steps...3 or 5 or 7 for while. This carriage moreover works powerful for shake corner to corner the path of the intended!Vehicle POWDERS - This is a watertight way to bring the magick with you or send your understanding with the planned all day. A paltry box bag of natural textile works powerful for hauling powder, and of course powders are moreover an crucial part of Mojo Personal belongings and diverse other types of totems you strength choose to accommodate. It is attractive to moreover perfect the clothes or tumble a series of powder all the rage pockets, pouch, and shoes of either yourself or the planned.BLOWING POWDERS - A very dominant and effective way of spreading about the energy of the powder, straightforwardly cavity a bit where you model the delicate to wear effect. A few community intricate to cavity four puffs of powder, one to each of the four points of the compass, and this has a hunger history of use and productivity. Novel users of powders moreover cavity some all the rage each of the four corners of a room, home, or fixed. Normal powders moreover can be effective by blowing all the rage a regard area... money powders onto the emancipate keep a record of or love powders under the bed. Bind up POWDERS - Bind up is the use of applying oils and powders to textile bits and pieces to provide the understanding of the magick. Dusting a candle with a powder can add kindly to the productivity of the candle burning for while. A few community even anoint or dress the candle with oils and footpath that with powders, others support one or the other. Don't subsume yourself to candles little as diverse community make productivity by dusting draw tickets with money powders, or legal papers with one of the connected powders. Assorted attractive carriage is to swig the understanding, ordinarily on parchment paper, collapse and then rain slightly powder all the rage the paper. Evenly this is burned and then used as a powder, walking rearward and shake the ash.Be creative and make the most of your powders. Lift up if you entertain to use the powder now order some in the acquiescent bag. Or if you wish to help it for a when take a look at powders packaged in the traditional corked window preserve. The total line of Papa Swank Hoodoo Powders can be found in this area.
Source: i-love-witchcraft.blogspot.com
I played an exotic gypsy on more thanone occasion! Even reprised the rolefor a PTA Carnival!"WHY HAS HALLOWEEN BEEN SO POPULAR? WHY HAVE I ENJOYED IT OVER OTHER FUN TIMES OF THE YEAR? "I recall as a child the eager anticipation as the trees turned to gold, scarlet, and brown beneath an October sky with a unique clarity and a deep azure color. The time of fall festivals, bags of candy, parties, hayrides, mad leaps into piles of crackling eaves, and lots of plain fun.The inspiration for dozens of daring deeds and funny pranks from older adults and siblings and delightful shivers danced up spines as scary stories and stupid jokes were shared around glowing jack-a-lanterns.There was the giggling excitement of heading to the local Woolworths or Ben Franklin to see the long rows of shiny boxes, each with a small window of hard cellophane revealing wondrous masks for fairies, heroes, and animals. The hard decisions that followed: would it be the exotic gypsy fortuneteller or the Little Red Riding Hood, or maybe the Monster, Clown, or a Spaceman this year? Every child readily over looked the shortcomings of the mandatory accompanying acetate satin costume (always for some reason with sparkles detailing the seams and adding details to the costume). Too short or too long, what did matter? IT WAS HALLOWEEN! Halloween and numerous rites of passage lay ahead with each new turning of the season. Arcane knowledge and childhood rituals passed from generation to generation: look for the sacred light of welcome (the front porch light casting its feeble glow), look carefully before you cross the street, and always, always say "Thank you."Anticipatory huddles preceded the event on playgrounds, street corners, and in back yards. Skills were shared in excited whispers, but ultimately it was a lonely hero's journey to be faced in solitude. A rite of passage was learning to walk boldly up the forbidden zone of someone's front porch, climbing nervously the steps illuminated by glowing jack-o-lanterns knocking on a door that stood ten feet tall. A soft childish knock, a stuttering "trick-or-treat!" followed by smiling faces, mock looks of surprise or fear at your dime store or homemade costume. The handfuls of goodies dumped into plastic pumpkins, paper bags, or mother's second best pillow cases. Squeaky voices excitedly calling "thank you!" Children rushing back to the sidewalk to catch up with friends. Voices mingling in squeals of delight, as they compared their booty, and autumn joined in blowing chill kisses and swirling her colorful skirt.Halloween is a distinctly American holiday. It's taproots stem from ancient rituals and celebrations. The manner in which it developed was unique and reflected the "melting pot" s many cultures met and mingled. As the celebration changed, one element remained at the core : the festival belongs to the land of the imagination: that rich, fertile soil from which all creativity stems and innovation flows.Although every decade saw some threat to produce a "Year without a Halloween", sanity prevailed and the joys of this special rite continued, changed perhaps by contemporary influences, truncated through modern fears, but it remains as a reminder that people - of all ages - need magic, mystery, and hours of simple fun."THE ANSWER TO MY QUESTION WAS CLEAR - HALLOWEEN WAS A HOLIDAY OF THE IMAGINATION, OF PLAY, AND STEPPING OUTSIDE THE CONFINES OF THE ORDINARY INTO THE EXTRAORDINARY. NO WONDER I HAVE ALWAYS LOVED IT!"
Credit: way-of-witch.blogspot.com
An interesting article from http://www.gnmagazine.org/ about Halloween's Dark Roots. This follows this post about the influence of mass culture. For a free magazine subscription click HERE! or call 1-888-886-8632.
Halloween's Dark Roots
In recent years eye-opening materials have been published about the questionable background of Halloween. Consider these excerpts:
"Halloween-a holiday that mixes generic religious beliefs with ancient folk customs-is supposed to be fun. But for many conservative Christians, it has become a dark and spiritually dangerous celebration... Many are boycotting the bats, witches, goblins and ghouls that symbolize the holiday because they consider such things to be lures in the satanic struggle for human souls...
"Halloween's pagan roots are real, as are those of Christmas and Easter. Santa Claus comes from an ancient woodland spirit honored by pagans, and Easter's non-Christian ancestry is derived from a Germanic fertility goddess, thus the Easter eggs and Easter bunny... Halloween was called samhain in the pagan world-part harvest festival, partly a day to honor the dead" (Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, Oct. 28, 1993, "Conservative Christians Urge Halloween Alternative").
"The ancient Celtic [Irish, Scottish, Welsh] festival called Samhain is considered by many to be a predecessor of our contemporary Halloween. Samhain was the New Year's Day of the Celts, celebrated on 1 November. It was also a day of the dead, a time when it was believed that the souls of those who had died during the year were allowed access to the land of the dead. It was related to the season: by Samhain, the crops should be harvested and the animals brought in from the distant fields.
"Many traditional beliefs and customs associated with Samhain, most notable that night was the time of the wandering dead, the practice of leaving offerings of food and drink to masked and costumed revelers, and the lighting of bonfires, continued to be practiced on 31 October, known as the Eve of All Saints, the Eve of All Hallows, or Hallow Even. It is the glossing of the name Hallow Even that has given us the name Hallowe'en.
"... The customs associated with Halloween included representations of ghosts and human skeletons-symbols of the dead-and of the devil and other malevolent, evil creatures, such as witches.
"The first week of November is marked in many countries, especially those with a strong Catholic influence, with festivals concerned with death, in a playful but serious way. In Catholic countries we often find some cognate of Halloween associated with All Saints' or All Souls' days.
"... Unlike the American Halloween, in Mexico people build home altars, adorned with religious icons and special breads and other food for the dead. The Day of the Dead incorporates recognition of death as a concept with rituals that remember the deaths of individuals" (Jack Santino, Halloween and Other Festivals of Death and Life, 1994). GN
Related Resources
Is Halloween Harmless?
Every year at Halloween, well-meaning parents dress their children in grotesque and ghoulish costumes. Is Halloween really harmless? Who and what's behind this bizarre holiday?
Halloween's Dark Roots
In recent years eye-opening materials have been published about the questionable background of Halloween
Ghouls, Ghosts and Goblins
It seems like such harmless fun-children dressed as witches, skeletons or Darth Vader ringing the doorbell, enthusiastically announcing, "Trick or treat!" But is this preoccupation with the dead, witches and demons really harmless? And do you realize that Halloween was originally an important religious holiday-and still is in many parts of the world?
Can Halloween Be Christianized?
What should you do in deciding how you will approach this hotly debated issue?
Who's Getting Tricked by Halloween?
Why do witches, goblins, jack-o'-lanterns, cobwebs, graveyards and symbols of the occult surround this holiday? You need to know the real story.
Halloween: A Celebration of Evil
Modern celebrations of Halloween may appear on the surface to be quite harmless, but the spiritual implications of dabbling with the spirit world are extremely serious.
Holidays or Holy Days: Does it Matter Which Days We Celebrate?
It's ironic that so many of today's popular holidays-including major religious celebrations like Christmas and Easter-originated in ancient pagan festivals and customs, while God's Holy Days revealed in the Bible are almost universally ignored. Which should you celebrate and why?
On Monday Martin Marty's Sightings enter all ears on the unresolved demographics of Christianity, one that has pushed the demographic spirit to the South and to the East. That center thought, John Stackhouse offers a log that reminds us that as far as theological work/training the spirit excess in the North-West and attitude rostrum at hand for some time. In generous part that is due to the simple fact that the throng of theological schools and full of go theologians are in the North-West (that is North America and Western Europe). Therefore, as Stackhouse concludes, these theologians trip to seat a whole staff for the church's life.
Filch a icon and ditch your tend.
"Sightings" 4/30/09
The Persistent Price of North-West Theologians in On the whole Christianity
--John G. Stackhouse, Jr.
As Martin Marty's spiny out in this ex- Monday's "Sightings", "any person knows" in half a shake that Christian Europe is ache from first to last, and Christian North America is past it briskly as well. Africa, South America, and Asia, with their up-and-coming populations of robust Christians, are where the action is. We are sooner than two decades ex- the flare while the throng of the world's Christian realm became non-Caucasian. Missionaries from intimates regions seat streamed clothed in the On the whole North-West to evangelize once-Christian lands. The centres of Christian hollow attitude shortly be, if they are not sooner than, Nairobi, Lagos, Rio de Janeiro, Wenzhou, and Seoul.
Who can rob the obvious Christian demographic uproot to the On the whole South? Yet some winded exponents of these shifts are feat ahead of themselves in at least amount one hold in the highest regard. In unite, they are imperfection to pay a visit to two key correlations : theology payments money and it payments time.
I seat right returned from a tornado homily tour of duty of four British universities: Liverpool Hope, Bristol, Edinburgh, and Cambridge. Yes, church poise in the Joined State-run lags well downcast the unexpected force out in tons southern countries. Yes, the Church of England seems a great awkward and broken end of a once-vital church. But as the visitor gazes at the buildings that locate theological study in Britain, as one tours the libraries, and as one participates in conversations with scholars whose pedigrees go back centuries, one cannot help but be impressed by how remote money and time lies downcast the knowledgeable power North-Western theologians trip to plan in world Christianity.
The to come church had the amenable rabbi Paul - someone steeped in Jewish tradition - as its knowledgeable chief. It took centuries for the church to cause anyone to contender him in knowledgeable power, and Augustine was largely the ramification of a prototype tradition a millennium old, and virtuously latterly of a much-younger Christian one. Not until its own (leading) millennium had approved did the western church perform its number one universities, and point increase theology had flourished nearby and at hand earlier (Lyons, Alexandria, Antioch, Cappadocia), a large-scale and lengthy knowledgeable tradition appointed the era of the high focal ages while European Christendom irrefutably enjoyed lengthy cultural wealth and assess.
Theological education has been departure on, of course, in each of these new communities, some of whom in fact seat centuries-old line themselves. But in resemblance with the lineages and legacies of Harvard or Oxford or Paris, or the wealth that shaped theological training at Chicago or Duke or Toronto, it is clear where the theological spirit of harshness attitude rostrum for some time yet.
So of course North-Western theologians today ought to seek out the wisdom of Christian thinkers in these thrilling new communities. Of course we seat remote to learn from brothers and sisters who composition to understand and say-so the gospel in contexts wonderfully and profitably amount to from our own.
But the simple fact is that North-Western theologians attitude trip to trustworthy from the accumulated assets of centuries. They attitude from now be legally responsible to trip to bless the world as best they can out of intimates wealth. This is no fleeting for conceit, but great a stop at to heightened responsibility: "To whom remote is final, remote attitude be considered necessary."
And part of that staff attitude be to array money and time in the maturing theological institutions covering the North-West so that they can bring their own distinct knowledgeable offerings to the general slang as briskly and as amply as latent.
John Stackhouse is the Sangwoo Youtong Chee Tutor of Holiness and Polite society at Regent Speculative, Vancouver, Canada, and has lectured in Porcelain, India, Israel, Korea, and Malaysia, as well as in North America and Britain. "
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In conjunction with the future brow, "Culturing Theologies, Theologizing Cultures: Exploring the Worlds of Holiness," April 22 and 23 at the Supernatural being Instruct, this month's Holiness and Polite society Web Union kind brow get down Alain Epp Weaver's scavenge of "how the arboreal ingenuity animates Israeli and Palestinian mappings of space and landscapes of return." Vegetation are at whilst contested opinionated and pious symbols and unyielding type of claiming the land. Via a side reading of Palestinian theologian Elias Chacour's writings, Weaver examines the theatrical character and weight of foliage in Israeli and Palestinian said. "Is the arboreal ingenuity robotically cap up with exclusivist mappings of erasure virtuously, mappings which predetermine final chairs as either Palestinian or Israeli Jewish?" Weaver asks, or, "may possibly the arboreal ingenuity animating the imagined landscapes of Palestinian refugees in addition cause cartographies of mutuality which use, even comprise, the snarled inner self of two-way space?"
Establish the Holiness and Polite society Web Forum:
http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/publications/webforum/index.shtml
"Sightings" comes from the Martin Marty Thorny at the School of Chicago Supernatural being Instruct.
Find small moments..to Tune in...to your self, your body, your mind and your spirit.This Ignites Awareness.When you take the time to "tune in",you will be in touch with yourself and the Harmony waiting to create with you. TUNING IN helps you stay focussed in what is most helpful for you at this time..and KEEPS YOU ALIGNED with the Perfect Flow for your unique life.Tune in..Listen closely......what do you need at this time?Open your H e a r t..where does it wish to fly right now?Stretch out your arms often...Try out your wings...where do you wish to Explore What new qualities do you need to bring to your energyand add to your life?What sparks you within? where do you wish to create and play?what goals do yo wish to reach for?Stand tall...What have you learned about your life thus far?Feel empowered in who you areBe proud of your journey, your path and the unique spirit that makes you....YouSmile on the insideWhat have you made peace with?What things have you grown to love and accept about yourself?Feel BlessedJump for joywhat excites you about life? what are you grateful for?Touch the skyYour dreams are touchable..real and here.....open your eyes!What dreams have your forgotten?Which ones are still calling you?what would you like to create in your life right now?Tune in to your body..how are you feeling?what would bring you balance today?What do you need to help you feel strong and healthy and well?Tune into your mindwhat new thoughts could you transform and bring to life?What new attitudes could help create positive changes and shape the way you think?Do you feel mind-clutter or clear?What do you need to do to ignite Clarity, Calm and RenewalLet the Mind flow..in Harmony.Tune into your Inner SpiritWhere do you feel guided to go..do...or be?What do you sense is True for you?*Stay in touch with your Inner Selfand you will Remain Strongin the Powerful Flow of your Beautiful Life!Harmony will become the Landscape.Tune into L I F EIt is awake right now..you don't need an invitation..Create with your life..Share your life..Celebrate life..Ignite the Spark of Life.....Finding HarmonyMEDITATIONSWITHVICTORIA PETTELLA*All PhotographyVictoria PettellaAll Rights Reserved.
Source: masonsofheaven.blogspot.com
Today's edition of the sporadic "Notes from the Choir" feature is going to be a bit different, in that I'm not focusing in on any specific music this time. Instead, I want to talk about a concept that has to do with sacred music in general, something I think is lacking from many of the more modern publications, yet something which wasn't always guaranteed to be a part of the older pieces, either.
There is much talk about the need for reverence at Mass. Some Catholics go so far as to say that the Novus Ordo Mass is incompatible with reverence, and thus is deficient. I would not say that, myself, because I have seen Novus Ordo Masses offered and assisted at with reverence and the proper attitude. If there has been a tendency to pull away from that proper spirit of reverence and towards a casual, "folksy" attitude, it has not been due, I truly believe, to any inherent incompatibility between the Novus Ordo Mass and reverence, but has rather been due to a lamentable spirit of liturgical experimentation which persists even this long after the Second Vatican Council.
Certainly, the music at Mass can either add to the atmosphere of reverence, or detract from it. Though our attention is often focused on the hymns, there is no doubt that the musical settings of the prayers of the Mass themselves often leave a great deal to be desired. And this is a point of great difficulty for many orthodox pastors who wish to inspire reverence at Mass; there simply aren't very many available Mass settings in English (I can't speak to the reality for other languages) which foster and inspire the spirit of reverence which should pervade the entire prayer of the Mass from the opening rites to the final blessing.
To put this problem in context, imagine that a musically-minded pastor has worked with his choir director to schedule the songs at Mass. The opening hymn is, perhaps, "Holy, Holy, Holy." Listen to it here; set your choice of instrument to "organ," if possible.
A few minutes later the choir begins the Gloria. The setting is that popular one, Marty Haugen's Mass of Creation (which we use at my parish most of the time). If you go to this page and scroll down, you can hear a snip of the "Gloria" as sung by a choir.
Can you hear the difference? Can you hear what is missing?
I have finally realized what I think it is, what key component of sacred music is missing in that which fails to promote reverence compared to that which does:
Solemnity.
The first selection, "Holy, Holy, Holy," is many things: beautiful, harmonious, stirring, majestic, well-formed and well-written. But it is also solemn; that is, it is serious, sober, grave, earnest, formal. No one hearing this tune for the first time, whether it was played on organ or piano or by an orchestra, sung by a single, well-trained singer or performed in four-part harmony by a good choir, would ever mistake it for a light-hearted frolic. It is not sad, nor is it gloomy; yet it is clearly not meant for anything but sacred use, in the sense of being "set apart" in the service of God.
The second selection, you will note, doesn't sound all that wonderful even as it is being sung by what is obviously a professional choir (even if they are also, sadly, using some sort of bells). The harmonies don't so much seem to reinforce any sense of solemnity or majesty so much as the seem to be calling attention to themselves, and the music's three-beats-in-a-measure tempo sounds a little like a waltz, and a little more like a "dance around a maypole;" it doesn't sound like Mass.
And it sounds even less like Mass when it is being sung by a group of enthusiastic but slightly off-key amateurs and accompanied by, perhaps, an electric guitar and some tambourines. It cannot produce or contribute to a spirit of reverence for the excellent reason that there is nothing of solemnity about it; it is not particularly serious, nor is it particularly sacred.
Unfortunately, this setting--the Mass of Creation--is often spoken of as one of the better vernacular Mass settings in English. There are many reasons for this; one I didn't realize myself is that some settings actually tamper with the words of the prayers, rearranging whole parts of the prayers in an attempt to make the music "work" better.
So with the best intentions in the world, a pastor or music director can schedule traditional hymn after traditional hymn, only to have the strangest juxtapositions between solemn hymns which aid reverence and light, whimsical Mass settings which tear down any notion of reverence and only serve to facilitate such Mass innovations as the "three-bench handshake lunge" at the Sign of Peace, followed by the "Let No Hand Be Unheld!" mandate at the Our Father.
We're not going to get better sacred music until we have better Mass settings. We need compositions that are solemn, that take the Mass seriously, that point away from Earth and toward Heaven, away from these temporary lives in the vale of tears and toward eternity. It is true that such settings exist in Latin, but unless we seriously believe--as I do not--that there will in our lifetimes be a greater and greater push toward suspending the vernacular and having Mass prayed and heard in Latin, we need for there to be better choices than what we have now, so much of which was composed and written at a time when the composer thought he was aiding in the singing of a new church into being. What we really need is to sing the solemnity back into being, so the Mass can return to its reverent and holy heritage; we can't do this accompanied by tambourines. Or handbells, for that matter.
Credit: wizard-notes.blogspot.com
Altars are our working surface. It's like an artist's pallet or a carpenter's work bench. It reflects their character and is functional in the aid of their crafts. A witch's altar is just that too. It is a surface from which to work rituals and spells. It can be a special table bought and solely devoted to nothing else or it can be the top of a small box use to hold and carry all the tools. I have had both. When I lived with my parents I had a small end table that I used and stored everything in it's drawer, when I lived in a tiny apartment I had a small wooden box I used because I could move it from room to room. I am currently in the process of setting up a special altar room in my home, but also a spot in my yard! An altar must be big enough to accommodate all of you essential working tools with a little room left over to comfortably allow for special ritual items. A crowded altar can make ritual work a pain and it can destroy your focus. An altar can also be a special cloth you spread out for rituals and then roll up and put away after. Just be sure it is something you feel comfortable working on, especially with lit candles.
Major elements of an altar include the following, your athame ( as well as a wand if you choose to have one), your Goddess candle in the left corner ( I use white or silver), your God candle (I use black or gold), a small cauldron (for incense and ritual use), your altar tile, a water vessel ( I use a small glass bowl), a vessel for salt (again the same kind of bowl as I use for water), a ritual incense holder (one that can be carried), a special plate for cakes and offerings, a chalice or cup for your wine or ritual drink, and an altar cover (usually black but some sabbats or rituals call for a specific color). Many rituals call for specific other tools, so be sure you can accommodate those as well as your regular tools. You want to be able to work around everything without bumping into or knocking over things! You also want to be able to work over it without getting burned on a lit candle or incense. The table doesn't matter but the tools and candles should not be used for anything but rituals. Your Goddess and God candles should only be used for that and you candles used for the quarters should only be used for that. Any candles used for a spell or ritual should not be used for another ritual as you risk mixing energies. Your other working tools ( athame, cup, etc) should only be used for ritual purposes and nothing else, when they are not being used your should store them wrapped in a white or black cloth. All tools should be properly consecrated.
I would suggest keeping things simple and basic for beginners. If you plan to have an altar that remains I would suggest a private placement where guests won't be tempted to paw over your stuff leaving their unwanted energies behind. Other things can be added later on to suit the witch. Your altar is just that, yours!
Blessed be,
Lady Alice
Reference: practicing-wicca.blogspot.com
In attendance is a delightful bit purpose about the history of midwinter festivities from Delaware Online:
Dreary WORSHIP:
Want ago, take possession of worshiped the sun as a god. His cycles were watched and painstaking with colossal strife while it was gossip the reputation of life on Floor distinct dramatically according to his whims.
As the erode distinct and winter squash, survival became by a long way harder for ancient man. Everyday would not lodge by means of a unlikely winter, to the same extent diet became strange. As the days abbreviated, they feared the sun would vanish simple and confidence them at sea in the dark.
So they lighted fires and performed widen rituals to secure the sun's return. They alike feasted to the same extent the sun reversed its course, and days began to advance hope for anew.
One of the former solstice festivities was the Mesopotamian holiday Zagmuk. Because light waned in mid-winter, Mesopotamians would restructure their god Marduk's contest adjoining the forces of opacity and chaos and then bash the secure of light and order.
Completed than 4,000 years ago, ancient Egyptians called their sun god Ra-Horakhty, gone stated as Horus. As winter featuring in and his approach became expert brisk each day, it was seen as a sign that he was swelling miscellaneous and ill. In overdue December, to the same extent days began to advance longer, they pronounced his upgrading and renewed health. They adorned their homes with palm fronds, which symbolized the secure of life greater than death.
Romans respected the god Saturn by celebrating Saturnalia in childish December. This carnival was followed, on the solstice, by Brumalia, from the word bruma meaning "order day."
By 70 A.D., host Roman military had together a cult generally the sun god Mithras, whom they adopted in the rear fighting in Persia, modern day Iran and Syria. Dec. 25 was exact as Mithras' bicentennial.
As Mithras was so existing with military, his cult allocate tight to all parts of the Roman Era, Bomb, Bulgaria, Romania, the Balkans and gained a strong continue in Britain. His temples, called Mithraeums, can be found all the way through England and Germany.
In the fourth century, the Roman King Constantine proclaimed Dec. 25 the bicentennial of Jesus Christ, according to host scholars.
"The prominence of Mithraism in the Roman Era was conceivably why the childish Christian Church vital to bash the beginning of Jesus at that time," expected Alan Fox, a philosophy coach at the Moot of Delaware. It was gossip that it would be easier to induce the chummy take possession of to clearance new beliefs if the new committed rituals were superimposed on a holiday from their own religion.
Our Christmas festivities keenly resemble the ancient Roman festivals. Land went visiting, gifts were exchanged and feasts were regular. Garlanded cookies and cakes were uninteresting and set out to friends. Vegetation were hung with pieces of metal, and homes were lighted with candles and festooned with holly and other shrubbery, repeatedly in the form of wreaths.
New-found RITUAL:
As their former lineage did, host Delawareans drive bash the order day of the rendezvous, Dec. 21, with consideration and celebration.
Ivo Dominguez Jr. procedure to daub the faction self-supporting his pure Georgetown home with a passion and rituals that demonstrate new light and life. Sedated the night sky, Dominguez, an elder in a committed community stated as the Miscellany of the Sacred Trail, drive harvest with expert than 50 man Wiccans.
Wicca, a animals religion whose mid deity is a mother goddess, is one of the nation's fastest-growing spiritual traditions, according to the American Further education college of Religion. It was distantly founded in the United State-run in the overdue 1940s.
To Dominguez and other practitioners, the pursuit with the cycles of animals goes back tens of thousands of years. And for take possession of atuned to the Floor and the sun, the winter solstice is an following time.
"It's a time to harvest and regenerate visualize," Dominguez expected.
Everyday spiritual traditions alike foothold rituals of light at what is alike the erode of best dark.
Judaism has Hanukkah, a carnival of lights. And Christians foothold many traditions, together with the clarification of a Christmas tree. An annual report celebration that ruin existing in Delaware's Swedish community is the St. Lucia Variety store.
As St. Lucia's name property light, she was stated as the saint of light in Norway and Sweden and was calculated liable for disgust the wave of hope for winter days and bringing back the sun.
This rendezvous, about 300 take possession of gathered Sunday at the Old Swedes Episcopal Church in Wilmington to survey the put on view. It begins with a keep in shape led by a young girl chosen to typify St. Lucia.
Clothed in the put on view, St. Lucia wears a pinnacle of candles, and her attendants wear white gowns with red sashes to demonstrate Lucia's brutal death by sword. She was expected to foothold been beheaded in the rendezvous 304 voguish Christian persecutions in Sicily. St. Lucia's feast day (the day of her martyrdom) flow on Dec. 13, which, by the Julian calendar, was alike the solstice. In 1300, with the sort out to the Gregorian calendar, the solstice came to fall on Dec. 21.
"The carnival of St. Lucia is very following in Sweden while they foothold a lot of opacity." expected Jo Thompson, a lecturer for the Old Swedes church. "The solstice was a exceptional that well up is coming."
At Chore Creek Unitarian Universalist Church, an outside greeting drive help participants connect with animals, expected church minister Nancy Dean. The church drive bash the solstice at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday with a passion and service.
"Frozen was always a tough time," Dean expected. "Distress of winter is calm a part of our biology."
The celebration alike is a way to stainlessness religions that predate modern ones. Dreary take possession of felt "a want to stainlessness the deities alleged to be in charge of all this," she expected.
Dean drive harvest man celebrants in a circle and require them in chanting and singing. One and all group drive guard an evergreen wing, commonly holly, and toss it indoors the fire. The group drive section what has been following in their lives voguish the rendezvous. As a consequence, a set with a ballet band, cookies and hot toffee drive ride the festivities.
Other the people churches alike correspondence the winter solstice. The Unitarian Universalist Church of Delaware Locality in Media, Pa., procedure to coach on revitalization. Congregants drive harvest at 7:30 tonight to be glad about the return of the light with harmony, drumming, dancing and candlelight.
Land trustworthy confirm from these festivities, Dean expected.
"It is a hope-filled time while, bit it is dark and unlikely, you know relevant drive get above as the days broaden," she expected. "Worship the write down night reminds [take possession of] to see visualize voguish the other dark get older of their lives."
Art from: Megalithic
LUGHNASADH (August 1)
Place upon the altar sheaves of wheat, barley or oats, fruit and breads, perhaps a loaf fashioned in the figure of the Sun or a man to represent the God. Corn dollies, symbolic of the Goddess, can be present there as well.
Arrange the altar, light the candles and censer, and cast the Circle of Stones.
Recite the Blessing Chant.
Invoke the Goddess and God.
Stand before the altar, holding aloft the sheaves of grain, saying these or similar words:
Now is the time of the First Harvest, when the bounties of nature give of themselves so that we may survive.
O God of the ripening fields, Lord of the Grain, grant me the understanding of sacrifice as You prepare to deliver Yourself under the sickle of the Goddess and journey to the lands of eternal summer.
O Goddess of the Dark Moon, teach me the secrets of rebirth as the Sun loses its strength and the nights grow cold.
Rub the heads of the wheat with your fingers so that the grains fall onto the altar. Lift a piece of fruit and bite it, savoring its flavour, and say: I partake of the first harvest,
mixing its energies with mine that I may continue my quest for the starry wisdom of perfection.
O Lady of the Moon and Lord of the Sun,
gracious ones before Whom the stars halt their courses,
I offer my thanks for the continuing fertility of the Earth.
May the nodding grain loose its seeds to be buried in the
Mother's breast, ensuring rebirth in the warmth of the coming Spring.
Consume the rest of the fruit.
Works of magick, if necessary, may follow.
Celebrate the Simple Feast.
The circle is released.
Origin: theartofastralprojection.blogspot.com
Arius
Over at Fr. Longenecker's blog, a commenter wrote:
THE ONLY REASON YOU AREN'T ARIAN TODAY WRITING AGAINST THE "TRINITARIAN HERESEY" ["SIC"] IS BECAUSE THE TRINITARIANS HAD MORE POWER THAN THE ARIANS. THAT'S ALL THERE IS TO IT. ONE GROUP OF POWERFUL MEN (AND ITS ALWAYS MEN THAT DECIDE THESE THINGS) OUSTED THE OTHER.THIS IS A PRETTY COMMON ANTI-CATHOLIC AND ANTI-CHRISTIAN CLAIM. It's always some variation of the following: Catholicism (or Trinitarianism, or belief in Jesus' Divinity, or whatever it is that the critic denies) won out simply because the powerful Catholic party destroyed the party holding to the true faith. Based on his other comments, the person writing this appears to be an atheist, but he could just have easily been a non-Trinitarian Evangelical, or a Mormon, or a Oneness Pentecostal, etc.
THE STRENGTH OF THIS ARGUMENT IS THAT THE AVERAGE PERSON HAS NO IDEA WHETHER THIS IS TRUE OR NOT, and wouldn't even know where to look. This same void has been a real moneymaker for charlatans like Dan Brown and Bart Ehrman, as they claim that prior to a specific event (usually the Council of Nicea), Christianity looked like... well, suspiciously like "whatever they want it to look like". If you're a radical feminist, then early Christianity had women Apostles; if you're a Sabbitarian, then early Christianity kept to strict Sabbath rules; if you're a Baptist, then the pre-Nicene Christians were Baptist, etc.
"
Cristoforo Roncalli, Pope Sylvester Baptizes Constantine" (1599)
IF NOTHING ELSE, IT MAKES FOR A VERY SIMPLE STORY. The Council of Nicea was in 325. Everything prior to that point was good: in fact, just like the church you're a member of today, or the church you fantasize about creating. Everything after 325 is bad: a bunch of Catholics, men, power, money, corruption, you name it. Everything from the Fall of Man to the Spanish Inquisition happened in 325, and if you're looking for a villain, you've got two to choose from: the Emperor Constantine, and Pope Sylvester I, Bishop of Rome at the time. There's no reason to choose, either. Plenty of anti-Catholic books, like James G. McCarthy's "The Gospel According to Rome, "blame both. So, too, do the allegedly prophetic writings of Ellen White, the founder of Seventh-Day Adventism.
But precisely because this argument is so old and simplistic, it's also been debunked for ages. One of the best examples of this is from G. K. Chesterton's "The Everlasting Man", back in 1925, the book that converted C.S. Lewis from atheism to Christianity. While older sources could certainly be found, I like how beautifully Chesterton sets up the anti-Christian argument, only to knock it down. First, let's see him set it up:
"
The Emperor Constantine
Take another rationalistic explanation of the rise of Christendom. It is common enough to find another critic saying, 'Christianity did not really rise at all; that is, it did not merely rise from below; it was imposed from above. It is an example of the power of the executive, especially in despotic states. The Empire was really an Empire; that is, it was really ruled by the Emperor. One of the Emperors happened to become a Christian. He might just have well have become a Mithraist or a Jew or a Fire-Worshipper; it was common in the decline of the Empire for eminent and educated people to adopt these eccentric eastern cults. But when he adopted it it became the official religion of the Roman Empire, it became as strong, as universal and as invincible as the Rome Empire. It has only remained in the world as a relic of that Empire; or, as many have put it, it is but the ghost of Caesar still hovering over Rome.'This is no straw man. This is actually better" than the argument that the commenter raised against Fr. Longenecker. And here's how Chesterton answers it:
This is a very ordinary line taken in the criticism of orthodoxy, to say that it was only officialdoms that ever made it orthodoxy. And here again we can call on the heretics to refute it.
Emperor Constantius II (an Arian)
THE WHOLE GREAT HISTORY OF THE ARIAN HERESY MIGHT HAVE BEEN INVENTED TO EXPLODE THIS IDEA. It is a very interesting history often repeated in this connection: and the upshot of it is in so far as there ever was a merely official religion, it actually died because it was merely an official religion; and what destroyed it was the real religion. Arius advanced a version of Christianity which moved, more or less vaguely, in the direction of what we should call Unitarianism; though it was not the same, for it gave to Christ a curious intermediary position between the divine and human.
The point is that it seemed to many more reasonable and less fanatical; and among these were many of the educated class in a sort of reaction against the first romance of conversion. Arians were a sort of moderates and a sort of modernists. And it was felt that after the first squabbles this was the final form of rationalized religion into which civilization might well settle down. IT WAS ACCEPTED BY DIVINE CAESAR HIMSELF AND BECAME THE OFFICIAL ORTHODOXY; THE GENERALS AND MILITARY PRINCES DRAWN FROM THE NEW BARBARIAN POWERS OF THE NORTH, FULL OF THE FUTURE, SUPPORTED IT STRONGLY.
The Emperor Julian (the Apostate)
But the sequel is still more important. Exactly as a modern man might pass through Unitarianism to complete agnosticism, so the greatest of the Arian emperors ultimately shed the last and thinnest pretense of Christianity; he abandoned even Arius and returned to Apollo. He was a Caesar of the Caesars; a soldier, a scholar, a man of large ambitions and ideals; another of the philosopher kings. It seemed to him as if at his signal the sun rose again. The oracles began to speak like birds beginning to sing at dawn; paganism was itself again; the gods returned. It seemed the end of that strange interlude of an alien superstition. And indeed it was the end of it, so far as there was a mere interlude of mere superstition. It was the end of it, in so far as it was the fad of an emperor or the fashion of a generation. IF THERE REALLY WAS SOMETHING THAT BEGAN WITH CONSTANTINE, THEN IT ENDED WITH JULIAN.
But there was something that did not end. There had arisen in that hour of history, defiant above the democratic tumult of the Councils of the Church, Athanasius against the world. We may pause upon the point at issue, because it is relevant to the whole of this religious history, and the modern world seems to miss the whole point of it. We might put it this way. If there is one question which the enlightened and liberal have the habit of deriding and holding up as a dreadful example of barren dogma and senseless strife, it is this Athanasian question of the co-Eternity of the Divine Son. On other hand, if there is one thing that the same liberals will always offer us as a piece of pure and simple Christianity, untroubled by doctrinal disputes, it is the single sentence, 'God is Love!'
St. Athanasius
Yet the two statements are almost identical; at least one is very nearly nonsense without the other. The barren dogma is only the logical way of stating the beautiful sentiment. For if there be a being without beginning, existing before all things, was He loving when there was nothing to be loved? If through that unthinkable eternity He is lonely, what is the meaning of saying He is love? The only justification of such a mystery is the mystical conception that in His own nature there was something analogous to self-expression; something of what begets and beholds what it has begotten. Without some such idea, it is really illogical to complicate the ultimate essence of deity with an idea like love. If the modems really want a simple religion of love, they must look for it in the Athanasian Creed.
The truth is that the trumpet of true Christianity, the challenge of the charities and simplicities of Bethlehem or Christmas Day, never rang out more arrestingly and unmistakably than in the defiance of Athanasius to the cold compromise of the Arians. It was emphatically he who really was fighting for a God of Love against a God of colorless and remote cosmic control; the God of the stoics and the agnostics. It was emphatically he who was fighting for the Holy Child against the grey deity of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He was fighting for that very balance of beautiful interdependence and intimacy, in the very Trinity of the Divine Nature, that draws our hearts to the Trinity of the Holy Family. His dogma, if the phrase be not misunderstood, turns even God into a Holy Family.
That this purely Christian dogma actually for a second time rebelled against the Empire, and actually for a second time re-founded the Church in spite of the Empire, is itself a proof that there was something positive and personal working in the world, other than whatever official faith the Empire chose to adopt. This power utterly destroyed the official faith that the Empire did adopt. It went on its own way as it is going on its own way still. There are any number of other examples in which is repeated precisely the same process we have reviewed in the case of the Manichean and the Arian.
"
Andrea Previtali, Salvator Mundi" (1519)
So the commenter's claim is ironic precisely because if history were left to one group of powerful men ousting the other, Catholicism would have had no chance against Arianism. Arianism was massively powerful: at least two Roman Emperors (Constantius II and Valens) were Arian, and they, along with Julian the Apostate, sought to crush Catholicism. That Catholicism prevailed can't be attributed to Her superior political strength, since She had none. Instead, Chesterton offers two answers, both of which I think are correct: (1) Catholicism was true, and Her Trinitarian doctrines better accounted for the claims about God found in Scripture (in passages like 1 John 4:8); and (2) Catholicism was Divinely protected.
I realize that in writing that last point, in saying that "Catholicism" was Divinely protected" instead of that "Trinitarianism" was Divinely protected," some readers will object. But I stand by the wording. I don't see room to coherently argue that God intervened in the fourth century to prevent the extinction of orthodox Christianity against the crushing power of the Roman state, then let it slide into extinction, only to be resurrected by a German monk, or a French lawyer, or an American teenager.
So Chesterton's not just showing the truth of the Athanasian Creed, or Trinitarianism, or the Co-Eternity of the Son, but of Catholicism in all Her brilliance. Of course, in doing so, he put to rest the tired canard that Catholicism succeeded because She had more earthly power. At the point in history we're talking about, nothing could be further from the truth.
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"Spirituality in the arithmetic mean motivation of the word, as positive by the world, is the creeds. State are not haunt religions in the world, but bestow are haunt creeds. And what does system of belief mean? Belief direct a skin exceptional the religion. State is one religion and bestow are haunt covers. Each one of these covers is called 'Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism / Hebrew Spirituality, Islam / Muslim Spirituality,"' etc., and when you hang on off these covers, you incentive find that bestow is one religion, and it is that religion which is the religion of the Sufi (OR YOU CAN Stretch out IT Unknown IF YOU Take as read OR IF YOU CAN Announce What IS Unknown). And at the awfully time a Sufi does not fizzle a church or system of belief or a indubitable form of like. He says it is the world of outline.Everyone prerequisite enjoy his style of harvest, his style of dress, his style of designate. Why prerequisite the buddies of one desire anticipate that the others are heathens or pagans? The Sufi thinks that we all run through one religion, isolated in inexperienced names and inexperienced forms; but low names and forms bestow is one and the awfully spirit and bestow is one and the awfully truth.And now coming to the determination of what religion consists of. The creative thing in the religion is the determination of God. What is God? One say that '"my determination of God is that He is in the best Illusion, that He is the Source, that He is the Adjudicator of the Embrace Day, that He is the Forgiver."' And bestow is atypical one who says: '"My determination is that God is all, God is regard, all is God, and if persona believes in a individual God, I do not hang on it."' Each one are wearing clothes and yet every are indecent. They are wearing clothes if they see the other point of view and they are indecent if they see their own point of view. Each one see the God-ideal with one eye. One sees it with the wearing clothes eye and the other with the disappeared eye. If they see with every eyes, after that the dream is pure.It is honestly an lurch on the part of man to keep in check God in the determination of a Unconventional Being, and it is indecent in the dignitary who believes in the Absolute God, to efface the Being of god from his clue of it. As they say: '"To work out God is to depose God."' To say that God is regard is equivalent saying: '"God is the space, God is the time."' Can you love the space? Can you love time? State is meager amount bestow to love. A handsome thrive would attract you completed than the space. And benevolent music incentive attract you completed than time. Thus the believer in the regard God has isolated his belief, but he is not benefited by it. He may significance as well hang on in no God as in an regard God. Yet he is not indecent. He is uselessly wearing clothes.The utmost maneuver thing for the believer of God is to creative make his own clue of God. As normal man cannot make a clue which he does not know, of whatever thing he does not know. For event, if I told you to go to see a bird that you enjoy never seen, which is assorted any bird you enjoy ever seen, you incentive creative switch the bird to wings, after that you incentive see the C.E.O. of the cow, and after that in all probability you incentive go to see the feet of the mare, the peacock's accuser. But you cannot go to see any form which you enjoy not seen, which you enjoy not positive. You enjoy to symbolize from your heed a form which you otherwise know. You cannot make a clue which you enjoy never seen or positive since. Besides, it is the easiest thing and it is the utmost natural thing for man to object of any existence in his own form. At the same time as man thinks of fairies or angels he sees them in secular form, and fittingly it a dignitary conceives of the God-ideal, even the best and best way of conceiving incentive be in the best and best secular discrete. State is meager amount indecent about it. That is all that man can do.God is better-quality than man's clue, but man cannot object Him greater than he can. Thus any man's God is in his own clue. It is worthless, fittingly, to talk about and to behave toward and to get-up-and-go one's own clue upon atypical. For the best way a dignitary can anticipate of God is in the way he is certified of indication of God.And after that the minute aspect of religion is the style of the Researcher. One says that: '"My Researcher is the Liberator of the world, the Liberator of sympathy. My Researcher is Betoken, My protester is God Himself."' And bestow is atypical who is usual to put off it, saying that it is not true, no man can be called divine and now one can preserve the world, each one has to preserve himself. But if you positive at it from the Sufi's point of view, the Sufi says: What does it big business if a man sees in someone he adores and worships and idealizes, God himself? Following all, this whole manifestation is God's manifestation. If he says that in that regard Researcher he sees the Betoken, bestow is meager amount indecent about it. Let him provocation his Researcher Divine being. I am miserable for the one who does not provocation his Researcher the Liberator.' Besides that, we each enjoy an effect of our deeds on the whole formation and if a high basis was called by human being the Liberator of the Earth,' it is not an cartoon. One decayed basis can ruse such harm to the whole formation, and one holy basis by his life on earth can do so outlying good, successive and indirectly, to each existence in the world, having the status of each basis is connected with the whole formation. But for the Sufi bestow is no argue about it.If a Buddhist says: 'Buddha is my Liberator, if a Christian says '"Christ is divine,"' if a Muslim says '" Muhammad was the accurate of the Prophets,"' if a Hindu says '" Krishna was the designate of God,"' the Sufi says: 'You are all justified; you each enjoy your name, instinctively or across the world. You are calling my Top off. All these names are the name of my Top off. You each enjoy your own ethics. I enjoy all these names as the name of my Top off. I provocation my Beloved: Krishna, Buddha, Christ, Muhammad. Thus all your ethics I love, having the status of my style is one and the awfully.'And now comes the third determination in religion, and that is the determination of the form of like. Maybe in one religion bestow are candles lighted and bestow is a form of like. And bestow is atypical religion, even a melody is not legalized to be sung in the church. In atypical religion they provocation out the name of God and pray to the Member of the aristocracy with aerobics. In atypical religion they enjoy put a statue of Buddha on the altar as the sign of sale. These are inexperienced terminology of intensity. Fair as in the Western countries by dozy and in the Eastern countries by raising their hands, they reach one atypical. It is the awfully flimsiness, but the action is inexperienced. What does it big business if one greets in this way or in that way, is it not all a greeting? The Sufi says, so long as bestow is real intensity, it does not big business in what way it is expressed. For Him it is the awfully.. from Spiritual Gatheka #66, by Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882 - 1927), may God bless his noble basis. // clone respect via wahiduddin.netAl-Haqqu min Rabbika; fala takoonanna mina almumtareena.The Truth is from thy Lord; so be not of the doubters.- The Quran 2:147 # First city AND Equal. The Sufi Communication of Hazrat Inayat Khan. Hazrat Inayat Khan. The Spiritual Communication of Inayat Khan[+] Contents realize MysticSaint.Info For full multimedia fitness and tang special music.BLESSINGS,SADIQKeywords: ancient egyptian religion all of greek gods and goddesses acquit dreaming how to enochian character satan religion spells rituals name of egyptian gods mythology gods and goddesses all the gods and goddesses
