Booklist for 'Interesting Times'

Remember that apocryphal Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times"? Well we certainly seem to be living in interesting times at the moment.

In such times, we all need a source of comfort. Some of us take comfort in music, or by spending time in nature. Some of us comfort eat - yes I am prone to this but trying to resist the urge to bury myself in a trough of pasta. Some dance, or go for a run, or snuggle up with a pet or a plush toy.

I could be persuaded to try any of the above, but I've been realising recently that one of my preferred sources of comfort is books. When T and I moved to Australia for 18 months (due to his job), he was horrified by the fact that I felt it necessary to bring a box of books with me. I was equally horrified by the idea of leaving them behind (there were numerous crates of books which were left behind, the ones I brought with us were the ones it was unthinkable to be separated from).

The photo above shows my current book pile, and I think it's quite telling. 'Truth or Dare' and 'The Fifth Sacred Thing' both by Starhawk are old, well-thumbed favourites. 'Truth or Dare' is an illuminating study of power structures and full of helpful strategies to move from a model of 'power over' to one of 'power from within' and 'power with'. 'The Fifth Sacred Thing' is a novel examining the culture clash between a dystopian and a utopian society. It provides such an alluring vision of the reality we could have I find it a great source of inspiration and comfort. This of all these books is the one I'm clinging to like a security blanket, and not only reading but also listening to on Audiobook when I'm driving.

Joanna Powell Colbert's 'Journey Through the Gaian Tarot' is there because in times of stress I not only read  but also hit the Tarot cards. The Gaian Tarot is hands down my favourite deck and my go-to whenever I need to read for myself. Apparently there's a new edition of it being published in April - I'm pretty sure I'm going to order one as a back up deck because I love it so much.

Michael Hughes' 'Magic for the Resistance' and Laura Tempest Zakroff's 'The New Aradia, a Witch's Handbook to Magical Resistance' are both excellent guides to -well, magical resistance.

Finally, Rebecca Solnit's wonderful 'Hope in the Dark' is another old favourite telling of all the many victories and steps of progress that we've already made and reminding us that we can always do things differently, better and that there are so many reasons to have hope. And of course, hope is so, so necessary. 

What is your favourite form of comfort in 'interesting times'? And do you have any 'security blanket' book recommendations? I'd love to hear them.

 v

Precious

'The Wheel of Fortune' Tarot card from (L-R) 

The Gaian Tarot by Joanna Powell Colbert,

The Witches' Wisdom Tarot by Phyllis Curott and Danielle Barlow,

The Mood Tarot by Natalie Meraki

 

Yesterday, 

I watched the livestream of my beloved friend's funeral

While a dear one held me as I cried

Then fed me,

And we talked and mourned and laughed together.

Sometimes,

I wonder about this Wheel of Fortune we're all on.

Where is the up?

And when is the down?

Or is it all 

Just up and down,

All at once

And all the time?

Perhaps,

There is no Wheel of Fortune,

No up then down.

There is just life:

Grief and love and laughter and tears

All at once

And all of the time.

Which is why - while it lasts -

It is all so damned precious.

Winter Blessings and Beauties, Day 64: Tarot Year Card

 

The beginning of a new year is an obvious time for divination. If you use the tarot, you have very likely already read your cards for the year ahead. But there's another way the tarot can guide you through the next 12 months: your tarot year card. This method uses a kind of numerology based on your birth date to pick a card which indicates the issues and lessons to be learned during the course of the year. Even if you're not familiar with the tarot and don't own a tarot deck, you can still work out your year card (and it's easy to find the meanings for the card you've picked online).

Winter Blessings and Beauties: Day 64

Tarot Year Card

To work out your Tarot Year Card, add together your birth day and month with the digits of the year ahead to get a 4-digit number. So for example, if you were born on 17th May, your calculation would look like this: 

    17

    05

2021

2043

When you have found your 4-digit number, add the 4 digits together. In our example you would therefore add together 2 + 0 + 4 + 3 = 9

If your answer is a number between 1-21 then that is the number of your Tarot Year Card. If the calculation gives an answer higher than 21 (e.g. 25), add the digits together to get a number within the range 1-21 (e.g. 2 + 5 = 7). 

The number you end up with should correspond with one of the Major Arcana Tarot Cards, as listed below:

1. Magician
2. High Priestess
3. Empress
4. Emperor
5. The Lovers
6. The Hierophant/Pope
7. The Chariot
8. Strength
9. The Hermit
10. The Wheel of Fortune
11. Justice
12. The Hanged Man
13. Death
14. Temperance
15. The Devil
16. The Tower
17. The Star
18. The Moon
19. The Sun
20. Judgement
21. The World

If you're not familiar with the meanings of the cards, there are plenty of online sites (such as this one) which can help you interpret your card.  

.     

Winter Blessings and Beauties, Day 56: The Twelve Days of Christmas

Most people know about The Twelve Days of Christmas via the traditional song listing an array of strange gifts - including 'A Partridge in a Pear Tree' - that 'My True Love Sent to Me'. I had always assumed that the gifts were sent in the run-up to Christmas, but actually the Twelve Days of Christmas commence on 26th December, the day after Christmas. 

According to Caitlin Matthews, the Twelve Days of Christmas are called 'Omen Days' in Wales and Brittany (click through to the link for her full explanation of this). Each of the twelve days corresponds to a month in the coming year - the first day (today, 26th December) corresponds to January, the second day - 27th December - to February, and so on. The idea is that on each day you look out for an oracle which forecasts what you can expect for the corresponding month of the year ahead. You can either take note of events or occurrences during each day, or you can use a divinatory system such as the runes or tarot for your predictions. 

Winter Blessings and Beauties: Day 56

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Starting from today, until Twelfth Night (6th January) keep alert for oracles forecasting the months of the year ahead. Or do daily divinations using the method of your choice to get your forecast.      

Celebrating Lammas During the Pandemic

Although restrictions have eased since I wrote about celebrating Beltane and Summer Solstice in lockdown - and most places in the UK are not actually in lockdown any more - the ongoing pandemic means full scale gatherings for  Lammas rituals and celebrations aren't possible. Up to date guidelines for your area may be found on this Government website - please check and ensure you are adhering to the rules.

Nevertheless, as with the previous two festivals with a bit of imagination it's possible to celebrate Lammas in memorable style. As before I have suggestions for a variety of situations - even though many of us are now able to resume a kind of normality in our lives, there are still people who need to protect themselves by shielding, so there are suggestions for those who are able to get out and those who are not.

Ideas for celebrating Lammas in the countryside or at the beach/park

• If the weather is fine, this would be a great opportunity to visit a local sacred site, stone circle, megalith or holy well. The big famous sites will probably be awash with visitors, but smaller more obscure sites need love too, and the lack of crowds often makes them far more atmospheric, and allows the space and time to really connect on a deeper level. Take a small posy of flowers from your garden as an offering (not cellophane wrapped ones from the local supermarket or garage!) for the genius loci.
• If you are able to visit a beach, trace a spiral large enough to walk in and out of in the sand. Walk it slowly and mindfully. On the inward journey concentrate on all the plans and projects you have put energy into in the last year. What seeds have you sown and how have they grown? When you reach the centre pause and survey your harvest. What has come to fruition? What still needs more work? Give thanks for all that you have achieved. As you slowly walk back out of the spiral, concentrate on where you will concentrate your energy for the next year. What will you hope to be harvesting by this time next year? 
• If you enjoy foraging for wild foods, take a walk and gather some ingredients for a Lammas feast. Wild plants to look for at this time of year include bilberries, the first blackberries, wild strawberries, chickweed, fat hen, mallow, rowan berries and sea beet.
• If you are visiting a beach with your family, why not have a beach-art competition? You can sculpt sand, pile rocks, and beach-comb for shells, driftwood, seaweed and other shoreline treasures to use in your creation. Here's some inspiration for you...

Ideas for celebrating in your garden

• If you've been growing your own fruit and veggies, Lammas is the perfect time to celebrate with a harvest feast, preferably al fresco.
• Lammas is traditionally a time to get together with your community and share the harvest. That's not so easy at the moment - and really, I'm of the mind that it's better to be cautious and limit social contact in order to stay safe and beat back the virus. But with a bit of common sense and appropriate hygiene/social distancing measures it should still be possible to share any excess home-grown fruit, veggies and herbs with your neighbours. If you don't grow vegetables you could gift them with a bunch of flowers. Or how about baking a batch of cupcakes, brownies or muffins and leaving little anonymous gift-wrapped parcels of yumminess on your neighbours' doorsteps?
• Traditionally corn dollies were made at this time of year. The spirit of the corn was thought to reside safely in them through the cold winter months. In spring, the corn dolly would be planted along with the new seeds and the cycle would begin anew. Make your own corn dolly using wheat straw (you can buy it online from craft suppliers) or even long stems of  dried grass. There are instructions for making simple corn dollies here, or look online for video tutorials if you would like to try something more elaborate! If you would like to keep the spirit of your garden safe indoors through the winter you could use flowers or herbs with long stems as a stand in for the wheat. Hang the finished garden spirit dolly up to dry somewhere cool and dry with good air circulation, and then keep it safe all winter on your altar before returning it to the soil in the spring. 
• Make a mandala of food stuffs which you can leave out as an offering to the local wildlife. You could make the centre a bowl of water (but put a few rocks in it so that any insects or small creatures that fall in can climb out again).

Ideas for celebrating in your home

• Get baking! Lammas literally means 'Loaf Mass', i.e. the celebration of the first loaf baked from the new grain harvest. There are hundreds of bread recipes to be found online, and you can also experiment with your bread by adding ingredients like chopped herbs, olives, cheese, spices, or chilli. If you don't have any yeast you can make soda bread, using bicarbonate of soda as the raising agent. Any flour-based baked goods are appropriate at this festival, so as well as making bread - make a cake, or biscuits, brownies, cookies, crumble or a pie.  If you have a gluten intolerance, there are gluten-free flours available and plenty of gluten free recipes online to inspire you.
• Make a small harvest altar to give thanks for your personal harvest this year. This may be a literal harvest of home-grown fruit and vegetables or it may be the things you have achieved such as a new skill, a job, promotion, qualification, initiation etc. It could also be the new friendship(s) you have made, the poem you wrote, the happy times you have shared with your children. What have you achieved, made, learned or gained this year? What are you grateful for? What would you like to give thanks for? Find items which literally or symbolically show your harvest for this year. Say a few words of gratitude, to the Universe, to your Gods/Goddesses, to your magical allies - and to yourself, for all you have worked for and achieved this year. Blessed Be!
• As always there are online Pagan celebrations that you can join. The Glastonbury Goddess Conference is online this year and runs over the Lammas period. There is an online Lammas Full Moon Shamanic Journey Circle here. If you're on Facebook, this is a useful group to keep tabs on Pagan events both online and off. 
• Trance into the Empress card of a tarot deck. The Empress is the Mother Earth archetype, all about abundance. Create sacred space in your preferred way, ground and centre yourself. Sit looking at the card, allowing your gaze to become soft and unfocused. Imagine yourself walking into the card and approaching The Empress. What will you say to her? Do you have questions to ask her? Does she have a message or a gift for you? Who or what else do you find within the card? When you are ready, thank The Empress - and any other beings you may have interacted with - and exit the landscape of the card coming back to yourself where you sit. Take a few moments to write down your impressions of the card and any messages or gifts you may have received. Make sure you are fully back and grounded - eat something if necessary (food is very grounding). Open your sacred space.

May we all have a sweet and blessed Lammas, and may your harvest be bountiful. Blessed be. 

New Moon Musings

Cards from my favourite decks

Top row: The Gaian Tarot by Joanna Powell Colbert

Bottom row: The Green Wheel Oracle by Danielle Barlow

The fierce, stormy weather today has me feeling not much inclined to leave the house. Instead I have a strong introspective urge. I decided to simply sit with this feeling and let it instruct me. This is the upside of lockdown. I don't have to be anywhere or do anything in particular, even if I had plans for today I can be flexible and change them on a whim. The 'normality' that we are all saying we want to get back to really doesn't allow this most of the time. We have work schedules - and chore rotas to fit round our work schedules - and obligations and social calendars and set routines. We put ourselves under pressure to be busy and productive at all times, and beat ourselves up if we fall short. How lovely to be able to take this time out of time and sit with ourselves and listen - really listen - to that quiet inner voice which is too often drowned out by the everyday clamour. 

My inner voice says it's OK to pause and cocoon for a little while. To just be with my thoughts. I intuitively felt the need to take some time out, do some serious cleansing (both of myself and the house!) and perhaps a little divination - I feel that itch to get out my tarot and oracle cards and see what they have to tell me.

Then I realised that there is a new moon this evening, at 6.38pm. So as I write, we are in the last phase of the old moon. What an appropriate time to pause for a breather, to clear away any stagnant energies, to look ahead to what the next instalment may be! 

This is my plan for the rest of the day:

• Make and use a home-made salt body scrub for myself
• Use incense and singing bowl to clear the energy of the house
• Check in with my divining tools 
• Finish clearing out and filing my messy paperwork drawer (a job I started a few days ago and have yet to complete).

If you would like to do some deep cleansing, here is my recipe for a salt body scrub to use in the shower or bath.

Salt Body Scrub Recipe

Ingredients*

Salt

Grapeseed Oil

Essential oils of your choice

Method

Put a couple of handfuls of salt (preferably seasalt, but you can use good old fashioned table or kitchen salt if that's all you have) into a bowl. Pour over just enough grapeseed oil to coat the salt, but not so much that it's swimming in oil. Add a few drops of essential oil and stir the mixture well. 

To use, take a little on your fingertips and rub in gentle circular motions into damp skin whilst in the shower or bath, then rinse off. The salt will exfoliate any dead skin cells and the oil will moisturise. Don't use it on sore or broken skin.

* Note on ingredients: 

• You can use any kind of salt, but the coarser it is the harsher it will be on your skin. Really coarse salt is best reserved for a foot scrub. I like to use salt because of it's purifying qualities, but if you have scratches on your skin, the salt will sting - so you could consider using sugar instead which will have the same exfoliating qualities but won't sting. For a facial scrub, substitute a softer substance like ground almonds or oatmeal for the salt. 
• You can use any kind of liquid vegetable oil. I like grapeseed because it's quite light and also inexpensive (it's my choice of carrier oil when I'm doing aromatherapy massage) but any oil you have to hand will do. You could even make a blend of different oils. 
• Don't be tempted to put in too many drops of essential oil. Remember they are very concentrated and too much could irritate your skin. I would use a maximum of 3-4 drops for the quantity given in this recipe. 
• I find it easiest to just make as much as I need each time, but if you want to you can scale up the quantities and make a jarful. The salt and essential oils are both great preservatives, so it won't go off quickly. But bear in mind that the oil will eventually go rancid (you can preserve it a bit longer by adding wheatgerm oil or a few drops of vitamin E oil), though this is unlikely to happen before you've used it all up!   

Change

I've been musing on the subject of change this morning, since reading Deborah Oak's post.

There is change in the air, I can feel it. Of course, one doesn't have to be particularly tuned in to recognise that big change is afoot, what with the world's economic upheaveals and tomorrow's inauguration of the next President of the USA. And in my own little microcosm change is obvious too: divorce, new car, new kitchen, new life...

But this morning as I went out to feed the animals the air was positively sparkling with anticipation. Perhaps it is just spring around the corner, but I don't think so. The air felt charged with a positive expectancy. And it struck me as odd. So often change is something we have to be dragged into, kicking and screaming (usually metaphorically, but not always!). Change - the unknown - is often far scarier than staying put, no matter how uncomfortable 'put' may be. Yet I feel an eagerness for change, in myself, in the people around me, in the air.

Years ago, during a trance journey to 'examine and overcome our fears' I had the startling revelation that actually, I wasn't sure I wanted to overcome my fears. After all, my fears gave me an excuse to maintain the status quo, an excuse not to act and therefore not have to take responsibilty for myself, my actions and my circumstances. Fear is not a pleasant emotion to experience, yet I realised I was more comfortable with my known fears than with the unknown.

On the other hand there have been times I have felt an impatience, a keenness to just jump into the unknown; to embrace change just for its own sake. Looking back I have to be honest and say the results were mixed: some of what transpired from those blind leaps of faith was wonderful, some was unbelievably painful, in ways I couldn't have imagined. Yet I also have to be honest and say that those were the times when I learned the most, both about myself and about the world. Those changes in my life changed me, deeply, irrevocably.

The weather is mirroring my train of thought: Blue skies and sunshine with puffy white clouds suddenly give way to vicious squally showers that lash rain against the windows. Then just as suddenly the leaden grey clears from the sky and the sun shines tranquilly again. Change is constant, whether we want it or not. Whether we even notice it or not.

I am eager for a new start - in my personal life, in the world. Yet I know that change will not necessarily be positive, things will not always turn out as I imagine, plans will have to be adapted as the journey unfolds. But it is time. Like the Fool in the Tarot, I am jumping, and hoping for the best - as we all must.

Simply Divine!

I have read tarot cards for many years now. My first deck, bought impulsively as I was just stepping onto the Pagan path (about 20 years ago now), was the Tarot of the Witches. It sounded impressively mysterious and magical, and I couldn't wait to start working with it. Unfortunately, I hated it from the minute I got the cards out of the box. I hated the artwork for a start, and then found they were hard for a beginner to learn as the Minor Arcana cards were just 'pip' cards rather than the type which have pictorial representations of the meanings (so much easier to learn!). The final straw came when I discovered the deck had been designed for use in a James Bond film - I loathe James Bond films! I quickly gave them away. Good lesson in buying any magical tool: shop around and check how it 'feels' before taking the plunge.

Luckily, I had a friend who read tarot cards so I was aware that there were pictorial decks out there. Next time around I was more picky, and looked at lots and lots of decks before I chose again. This time it was the 'Morgan Greer', based on the classic 'Rider Waite' (which I believe was the original pictorial tarot). The 'Morgan Greer' is clear, and I find it easy to use. It gives me great readings for others, though I've never been able to read well for myself.

I've also had other decks over the years, the 'Rider Waite Tarot', 'The Tarot of the Old Path', Kris Waldherr's 'Goddess Tarot', and non-tarot decks like 'The Druid Animal Oracle' and 'The Green Man Tree Oracle', to name a few (yes, I'm a bit of a card junkie!). Some of them I still have, and some I've passed on to new homes.

This last week at the Summer Gathering I attended two tarot workshops and had my tarot read by the wonderfully talented Diego. I think it's true to say I'm feeling more enthused than ever by tarot right now, and there's another reason too.

These are my new tarot cards. It's a deck called 'Songs for the Journey Home' that T bought for my birthday in July. And I am just in love with them! (if you click on the photo you should get a bigger image to study)

I love the artwork for a start. The arrangement I've laid out here is a selection of my favourite images from the deck. I actually had a hard time choosing! I find the artwork deceptively naive in style. The images look fairly simple, but the more I study them, the more I see. I also like that they're round - having never been a fan of reverse meanings for cards (too complicated!), it's great to have some that can't really be reversed.


The deck seems to be pretty earth-centred too, which of course appeals to me! And the little booklet that comes with the cards, whilst not shying away from the fact that Shit Happens, does somehow manage to mostly find a constructive message within the Shit. As a glass-half-full kinda gal, this echoes my preferred world-view.
And these cards seem to really know what is going on with me - leading up to the Summer Gathering I often pulled a card, asking 'What do I need to know about this situation?'. Though I shuffled the cards well each time, still I pulled the same card over and over - the 'Sixth Wind Song'. Look at the photo - it really expresses how I felt! Yet notice that as well as the clear image of feeling distinctly pressured, it also has a flock of birds flying freely above. The booklet says, '[this card] depicts the experience of being under a tremendous amount of pressure. If you are able to focus on trust, rather than on fear, you will rise above the turmoil of the mind. This is a time to rise above the gentle winds of change.' How on the nail is that?! Even more amazingly, since returning home I haven't pulled the card once, and actually had to look quite hard for it in order to take a photo.

Having never been able to read the cards accurately for myself before, I am very happy with the way these seem to work with me. I used to think there was something wanting in my card-reading skills, perhaps a lack of objectivity that stopped me being able to read my own cards. Now I think perhaps I just hadn't met the right deck yet!

It's still early days in our relationship, but I feel like these cards and I are currently having a great conversation, getting to know each other. I think we will be good friends.