Hope everyone has a Happy Litha. Don’t forget to greet the sun and gather herbs at this time.
For more about the seasons and cycles of Wicca, get your copy of my book The Hidden Children of the Goddess. Here is an excerpt about Litha from the book:
The Summer Solstice, Litha, also known as Midsummer, represents when the God is at the height of his power and fertility. The sun now takes its longest path across the sky, and we experience the longest day of the year. This completes the sun’s waxing cycle and marks the beginning of the waning part of the solar year. The days become increasingly shorter until the Wheel of the Year returns to Yule when the days once again wax with the sun.
Wiccans enjoy collecting and drying herbs during Litha. Many take nice walks out in nature to harvest these herbs. Herbs harvested during this period have greater magickal powers than herbs gathered at other times of the year. Herbs reach their peak of strength and potency during Litha.
Once again, the bonfire holds a prominent place. The God rises to his peak as his power and strength expand at Litha.
Not all covens have access to open places that permit bonfires, but that doesn’t mean these groups can’t celebrate the summer Sabbats. They just need to develop their own symbolic representations. For example, when my coven meets for Litha, we do a barbeque. Meat and fire form a good combo for this Sabbat! Yum!
Blessings,
Moonwater SilverClaw
The Hidden Children of the Goddess Book
Happy Imbolc to everyone. Hope you enjoy the post.
Have you heard in some form that “money is not spiritual”?
Some of us have heard a misquote that goes “Money is the root of all evil.”
(Actually, the correct quote is: “The love of money is the root of all evil.”)
There’s a real problem: ignoring money or actually looking down on having money causes unhappiness. Some say that having denial about money issues causes many people to end up poor and unable to take care of their own basic needs.
In Wicca we know our Gods want us to be happy. With this as true, does it make sense that our lacking money is what they want? No. Now I’m not saying you need to be making buckets of money or that it’s necessary to have a whole lot more than you need.
But for many in our community money is elusive. Why?
For a number of individuals, Wicca was not their first taste of spirituality. They may come from different faiths that look down upon having money. The horrible part is that debilitating beliefs about money often stick in a person’s subconscious mind. And these sick beliefs push us to be unhappy.
Let’s go back to the misquote that goes “Money is the root of all evil.”
Is it money? No, fear is the root of all evil.
Think of it. Fear pushes us toward greed. Fear of never having enough. I remember the famous line from Gone With The Wind: “I will never be hungry again!” In that film, Scarlett O’Hara does extreme things because of her huge fear of being hungry or losing her property.
Is it possible that having money can frighten us? Yes, that can be a problem. Some of us have been conditioned to think that rich people are money-obsessed and that they do bad things. So on a subconscious level, some people are afraid of losing themselves and actually avoid opportunities to become rich and successful. Again, I call these sick beliefs.
Some of us are really afraid of having money. It continues to come from subconscious beliefs drilled into our heads that money was not spiritual.
Instead, I suggest that money is spiritual. Money creates opportunities for us to be happy. It creates safety for us and our families. The Gods want us to feel this way.
If we’re doing well with our personal money situation, we walk around with an air of positive energy. We can be compassionate to others. Expressing compassion is an important part of one’s spiritual path.
We have many ways of creating prosperity. I think just doing money spells is not the full answer.
Ideally, we would use magick to get to an inner state where we can work out problems that prevent us from enjoying financial abundance. We can do meditations and inner work to change the limiting thought patterns and beliefs we have about money. (For more about this, see a free chapter from my book The Hidden Children of the Goddess. CLICK HERE.
Some Wiccans may default to doing prosperity spells to gain money. However, it may help more for you to do a healing spell so that any blocks dissolve to learning how to earn more money, save money and improve spending habits.
Let’s start with new and empowering thoughts about money. Look at holding empowering definitions of words related to money. For example, author Jason Miller talks about the difference between rich and wealth. I think he says it well:
A rich person has a high income, which is a stream that can feed being wealthy or being in debt, depending on how that money is used. There is no shortage of people with high incomes but no real wealth. . . . Wealth is not a flow of income; it is a state of positive finances.
What is a state of positive finances? Such a state includes enough money for bills, some money for entertainment, savings for tough situations in life, some money to be kind to others, and savings towards one’s retirement. Positive finances is not about having just enough to barely get by. It is really about having some amount of financial abundance (more than enough).
To live in lack (including difficulties about money) really isn’t the Gods’ and Goddesses’ plan for us. They invite us to grow, learn and adapt. They invite us to learn something about creating financial abundance.
Let’s begin today.
Blessings,
Moonwater
Candle
Are you less than jolly this time of year? Tired of hearing how happy you’re supposed to be during the holidays? Do you just want more peace during this stressful time?
Some of us find it a hardship to see relatives who don’t share our spiritual beliefs.
Many Wiccans and Pagans stay in the broom closet (in hiding) from family and friends. Why? Rejection. Some families even banish pagan relatives. This banishment would result if they discovered our hearts and minds are with the Gods. It’s just too much of a risk of loss for many to bear. In some communities, one may even fear retaliation by one’s own family.
I know some pagans who don’t face such consequences and who practice freely. These fortunate pagans told me that the others are “cowards” for hiding. It bothers me to witness such lack of compassion for others’ pain and problems.
How do we cope with such adversity?
Being in the broom closet is not a bad thing. For some, it is a necessity for keeping their job and family.
So how do we keep the peace in our own hearts this holiday season while in the closet? How do we still honor the Gods during the holidays with family? Here are a few suggestions:
These actions can be done in the broom closet and need not require permission from any unsympathetic family members.
And for that extra touch of magick here is a simple blessing you can say for yourself for holiday gatherings.
By the Gods and the four quarters might,
May this blessing be just right.
May the Gods love be in my heart,
May my heart be the center for my kindness,
May my kindness be a guide for my compassion,
May my compassion be an action of love in this world,
And may my action of love in this world bring peace to all at this time.
So mote it be.
How do you plan to celebrate this Yule Sabbat? Are there any ideas you would like to share? Let me know by using the comments box.
Blessings,
Moonwater
Patrick leads march for preserving the Ganges and the Planet. 5000 children participated
Have a happy Samhain! May your family, from now to past, be blessed on this Sabbat.
Blessings,
Moonwater
It’s that time of season.
Happy Mabon Everyone!
I have a treat for you. My friend Heather Greene is guest blogging today. She will tell her story about how she found the Craft.
But first I want to share a few thoughts and a recipe of mine.
This is one of my favorite times of the year. During this harvest time we celebrate ripening of our labors. Now we reap the benefits.
One of the best things is how spiced foods start to appear during this season. And with that thought in mind, I’m sharing one of my favorite recipes with you. It’s my pumpkin bread recipe.
Makes 2 loaves.
Preheat oven to 325 F. Combine flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar in large mixing bowl. Add eggs, water, oil and pumpkin. Stir until blended. Add nuts. Mix well. Pour into two 9×5″ loaf pans. Bake 1 hour 30 mins. Cool slightly and take out of pans to let cool on a rack. This tastes best if you wrap, refrigerate and wait a day to eat it. It keeps well in the refrigerator and can be frozen.
I love this bread. It’s great for parties or have a slice for dissert. One of the coolest things is it can be put in the freezer to be stored for a future date. This is wonderful if you have lots to prepare for a party and need the time for other things.
I hope you enjoy it, and if you have any recipes to share I would love to see them, and try them! Please use the comment box below to share.
And now for the main event Heather Greene’s post!
Heather Greene
“The reaches opened before us and closed behind, as if the forest had stepped leisurely across the water to bar the way for our return. We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness.” – Joseph Conrad, The Heart of Darkness
Spiritual awakenings are funny in that they can happen at any given moment – in church, in the car, in the plumbing section of Home Depot. They sneak up on us and seize our minds, bodies and hearts. Then they send us soaring at lightening-speed into another time and space where everything is suddenly crystal clear – for only one moment. When we return an instant later, we are more confused than before but forever changed in some indeterminable way.
My spiritual awakening happened in high school after reading The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad. The novella blew my mind and kept me in philosophical ecstasy for weeks. I jumped at any and all opportunities to discuss the story’s deeper meanings. In hindsight, I probably lost a few friends that year and it was no coincidence that was the same year I earned my reputation. From that point forward, I was known as the enigmatic, artsy girl who was unofficially voted most-likely-to-be-a-poet. Not a bad reputation by high school standards.
To this day, The Heart of Darkness stills sends my heart a-flutter. The book essentially deconstructs human society. It not only challenges the morality of European Imperialism, it also breaks down deeply rooted Western cultural constructs such as good and evil. It posits that our values and ethics are social impositions rather than anything signed, sealed and delivered by an absolute natural order of existence or some supreme being with a playbook. We, humans, have determined what is good and what is evil. We have constructed our reality.
See, it blows the mind.
Shortly after reading the book, I started my writing career. I wrote fictional tales about horribly impossible and depressing situations that ended with twist of hope. Most of that work was ignored; up until I wrote a suicide story. That one landed me in the counselor’s office where I yelled, “No I’m not going to commit suicide already! Have you not read The Heart of Darkness?” There was an implied teenage “duh!” in that outburst.
So there I was, an enigmatic future poet and angst ridden teen, feeling totally ready to birth my spiritual life. Considering my ethical world had been created solely by art, literature, philosophy and science, I had nothing to go on except a secular world view. In many ways, I was lucky. Unlike many Pagans, I didn’t have to shed a religious belief system before entering into a new one. I just had to step in and see how the water felt.
Not long after the “Suicide Story” incident, I began to journey through the thick forest of the Occult. First I dabbled in Astrology. I can remember working through what seemed like endless hours of painful mathematics to produce one single birth chart. When I had enough money, I finally bought an Astrology program and a computer to go with it. After awhile I expanded to Tarot, Palmistry, scrying, astral projection and crystals. The world was my magical oyster and I was willing to entertain all it had to offer.
By that point I was well into college. During one summer break, I took a weekend house sitting job for a New York City lawyer. While staying in her Upper East Side apartment, I discovered some funny little herbs in tiny plastic bags. A neighbor, who had stopped by, said very casually, “She’s a witch.” I was struck. What?! A Witch? My mind was blown yet again! I should really consider myself lucky to have anything left at this point.
At the very next opportunity, I rushed into a Barnes & Noble and went straight to the Occult section. After careful consideration, I purchased Raymond Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft. Sitting there on the muggy A-Train packed in with all the other tired commuters, I clung to my new book as if I was harboring the last Golden Ticket to the Wonka factory. This witch book was sacred, somehow, and filled with all the answers.
Unfortunately the book didn’t have any answers. At least not to the questions that I had yet to really ask. What it did have was a key to a door that led to a pathway of spiritual growth using the language of Witchcraft.
Not long after, I began to practice in earnest. Over the following year, I bought more books: Cunningham, Starhawk, Margot Adler and Silver Ravenwolf, for example. I organized my very first solitary Samhain ritual. When not attending to my film student duties, I dabbled in spell craft. Then, on one faithful day, I bought myself a silver pentacle and began calling myself a Witch.
It wasn’t until then that I realized the depth of what I was doing. This was more than just carnival games and Halloween hocus pocus. It was more than counter-culture and The Wizard of Oz. I found something powerful; something that I now defined as good even if the world defined it as evil.
After several years of solitary practice, I decided to join a Wiccan coven. It seemed the next appropriate step. I’ve been with that same group now for sixteen years. The communal experience strengthened me, gave me tools that I could never have found alone and, most importantly, offered me a community of like-minds who were on a similar path. Many of those people have become treasured friends and family.
But the journey is not over. It is never over.
What I can say now, in clarity, is that it all started with that book – The Heart of Darkness. There in that place, where all the social constructs are gone, there is nothing but raw, unbridled, animalistic humanity – body and blood, love and lust, hate and rapture, and spirit. It is the elemental point of beginnings. It is only from that point that we can see the world for what it is – a stack of cards. It is only from that point we can see ourselves, explore our past and find our motivation. It is honesty at a critical level. Deep within the Heart of Darkness, we are pure. Coming out from that space is the journey of a lifetime – and it just may blow your mind.
Heather Greene is a freelance writer living in the South. She has a masters degree in Film Theory and History with a background in commercial media and technology. She spent the first part of her career working at a major Madison Avenue Ad agency and its production subsidiaries, as well as an systems engineer at a Fortune 100 company. In 2001, she left it all behind to become a independent writer and has been doing that ever since.
– See more at: http://wildhunt.org/about/heather-greene#sthash.mwzYAeWA.dpuf
I’m glad I had the chance to share Heather’s story.
Until next week,
Blessed Be,
Moonwater
P.S.
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The First Grains
Lammas
On August 1st, Lammas, also called Lughnasadh (the Celtic first day of autumn), starts the first of the three Wiccan harvest festivals. Known as the time when the God starts to wane in his power, Lammas, or “loaf-mass,” celebrates the first grains harvested that season. During the Lammas Sabbat, Wiccans offer up the first sheaf of the harvest to the God and Goddess to thank them for their blessing of the harvest yield.
Wiccans love to feast, and this is the best time of year to do it! Since grains are a prominent part of the Lammas Sabbat, we celebrate by making breads and other baked goods from the first wheat or corn produced. The different breads, beers, and other foods produced and consumed at this time remind us of the bounty that the Gods have given us.
Here’s wishing you the best on this Sabbat.
Moonwater SilverClaw
Bee
The Summer Solstice Litha, also known as Midsummer, represents when the God is at his height in power and fertility. The sun now takes its longest path across the sky and we experience the longest day of the year. This completes the sun’s waxing cycle and begins the waning part of the solar year. The days become increasingly shorter until the Wheel of the Year returns to Yule when the days once again wax with the sun. The days grow longer.
Wiccans enjoy collecting and drying of herbs during Litha. Many of them take nice walks out in nature to harvest herbs. Herbs harvested during this period have greater magickal powers than herbs gathered at other times of the year. Herbs reach their peak of strength and potency during Litha.
Once again, the bonfire holds a prominent place. The God rises to his peak as his power and strength expands at Litha.
Along the line of a bonfire, when my coven meets for Litha, we do a barbeque. Meat and fire form a good combo for this Sabbat! Yum!
Blessings,
Moonwater SilverClaw
The Herb Catnip
Many Wiccans enjoy harvesting and drying herbs at Midsummer, also known as Litha. At its annual height of power, the Sun (representing the God) makes the herbs quite powerful at this time. Wiccans recognize that herbs, so empowered, are best harvested during the Litha Sabbat.
We harvest flowers and plants and hang them to dry during Litha.
Warning: Never use plants that have had pesticides and other chemicals sprayed upon them in your practice.
To collect herbs, you will use a boline, a knife with a curved blade and a white handle. Wiccans use this tool for all of their cutting, from harvesting herbs to carving symbols in candles.
To harvest a herb, cut the plant while leaving a long enough stem so you can tie it in a bundle. Then, hang the bundle upside down. In this way, the plant’s energies will be concentrated at the head of the plant, the part you are going to use.
Hang your herbs in a dry place where there is no direct sunlight—to avoid the sun leaching out the essences you’re trying to capture. Use an attic or if none is available just be sure the area you choose is dry.
Once you’re certain that the herbs are thoroughly dried you can take one of two steps. Either grind them with a mortar and pestle or package the whole leaves of the herb. Be sure to use air tight containers, made of either glass or ceramic. These materials will not contaminate your herbs with chemicals like plastic tends to.
Wiccans enjoy using the energies of herbs in their magic.
Consider expanding your use of herbs, too.
Blessed be,
GoddessHasYourBack.com 