{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxyshaman}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Gryph sends his hellos and hug back to you from the middle of typing up the minutes for the last Neighborhood Association meeting!

I would LOVE to hear what you might find re: Raziel and Azriel! And um, *admiration* what clean floors you have! Am I right that this is one way to clean the greeblies out of one's space?

I love the term "greeblies" and I think your bracelets of protection are an all-around good idea! I used to wear necklaces for protection--tis a Marian thing, to wear a medallion with Mary's image for protection--but I suppose they were more than that, because routinely they would get "fully charged" and then ask to be passed onto someone who needed them.

Lately I am wearing a pentacle that is less about protection and more about accessing. It seems to be a good trigger, helps me to work better.

I've been dealing with a lot of fear lately. I finally realized that no matter WHAT I happen to wish to do, if I think--just think--about working any kind of magic, I am automatically deflected into something mindless, usually a computer game, and it seems to grab hold of my mind and keep me there until I am utterly exhausted and have fallen asleep in the chair.

I have in the past been a victim of a pretty serious "Do Not" spell and it took me a LOT of effort just to identify it and then to deal with it, so of course that's the first thing on my mind, "omigawds, am I hemmed in by that spell again?!" BUT *sigh* I am also cognizant that it ain't necessarily so... this could be my own fears holding me back. In that case, I dunno what to do. (You cannot imagine how much I want to delete this post and go play Solitaire at this moment! OY!) I don't like feeling out of control; I especially don't like not knowing what's IN control of me. Damn.

Since what I want is to have access to my own power and abilities again, and since the necklace I wear seems to be helping, I think maybe I need to do as you do, and start using more of what works.

About stories, well, I'm a Solitairy [EDITED to correct lol, Solitary, Solitary!!] so I don't really know. Back when I was a newbie witchlet, the Women's Spirituality group I attended was big on stories, though.

Wishing you the very best on your drumming circle,
Sunshine

3 questions - spirit animals, other-worldly beings, trees
 

I was wondering if any of y'all have a spirit animal that you know of?

Also, do you find yourself connected to any other-worldly beings/elementals?

And, do you find yourself connected to certain trees or types of trees?

-------------

my answers:

I feel especially connected to both cats and spiders. My mom has a thing with turtles, my dad has a thing with owls, and one of my aunts has a thing with fish.

I'm also very drawn to mermaids, I have a friend who's very drawn to faeries, an aunt who's drawn to pixies and another aunt who's drawn to gnomes and trolls. My mom tends to be drawn to dragons and other monsters, and my gf is also drawn to dragons.

I love trees - all trees - but especially sycamores, redbuds and mimosas.

Dear Sycamore Girl,

{{{{{{{{{{{{Nat}}}}}}}}}} *utterly delighted!* How cool to run into someone else who is connected to them! How I love them! Sycamore branches were gifted to me (by the trees themselves) a little over two years ago and they've guarded our home ever since!

I've considered myself a Daughter of the Trees for most of my life, and I cherish the redbuds, hackberries, maples and oak that we're blessed with here in That House. In Phoenix, I adored mulberries and pines.

The trees that are the most special to me, although not in the spirit connection way, are fruit trees, apple, peach, plum, cherry, orange, date palm, etc, and my favorite, the fig tree. I suppose it's like the difference between my teachers and my little sisters (to put the difference in the ways I relate to them into human terms).

Animal connections, there are so many... they come and they go, depending on what I need and also on what the people I am with need. (You might remember I used to post as Mama Tigre--the tiger.) It's the same with beings on other planes. I'm not close to the fae, but I'm comfortable with many creatures better known through mythology, like gryphons.

Cath

Bit - how awesome is that? :)

I have sycamore seed-balls at home and work. My grandfather used to write me letters on sycamore bark and sign them "A. Troll" or "D. Troll" and tell me that he "found" them.

There is a young sycamore tree at my work, and there were a few times I went out there and hung out next to it, and the trunk was covered in flies and the leaves were wilty. I was out there to meditate, so I suggested to the tree that we ground and center together. I held onto one of its leaves, and imagined both of use extending our roots down toward the center of the earth and bringing up that earth energy together. What surprised me, is that it seemed to me that the tree had an easier time with this than I did, and that the energy not only came up through it faster but that it sort of spilled over onto me. Since then, when I can, I go out there and listen to podcasts or meditate or check bfp under the tree on my breaks, and I always tell the tree hi and often sit in the grass and lean against the trunk. No more flies, btw.

SWEEET!!! You healed that tree, Nat! *huge beaming grin at ya* Gryph says, "Good work!" and so do I!

Isn't it amazingly cool to have a tree for a spiritual partner?

I don't hang on to the sycamore seedballs because I have those huge long twisty branches. My favorite tree dropped them the first fall and winter I was in this neighborhood; one is twelve feet long! They're generally a couple/three inches in diameter at the base. I originally was going to make walking sticks from them and it confused me that each time I thought of it, they seemed to say no... I finally realized they were already doing what they wanted to be doing, by protecting us and adding tree energy to our home.

heh well thanks, but i think the tree healed itself possibly. it was more proficient than I was anyway. :) I bet the long twisty branches are great. :)

Don't discount the energy you put out to help the young tree. Just because someone or something is proficient in something doesn't mean they can always get through to the right energy to help heal, clean or what ever is needed to not only survive, but to fully live.

Grins
Gryph

What a wonderful conversation! I'm so glad you started it, Nat!
I also hesitate to share too much, but for a different reason; I used to be hounded by someone on another site. Anything I posted was turned against me; the better I got at shielding, the more skillful my assailant got at breaking through my shields. This happened consistently for many years, until I finally got so cautious that I just stopped talking about anything Pagan for a long time.

I still have that second-nature impulse that says, "watch it! anything you talk about will backfire!"

What I can say is that I work with all kinds of animals--whomever comes to my mind in a moment of need--and also with several different kinds of entities. I've worked with the animals ever since I first discovered formal paganism. The other entities are much more recent, and working with beings from other planes has really stretched my limits and helped me grow.

IS TOO. :hrmph: Is too.

How interesting that our trees are different! I didn't expect that; guess I thought that oaks and maples were ubiquitous once a person was north of the desert... silly of me, because I remember the Douglas fir/cedar/alder forests of the PNW!

For me, like for Blue, the trees are part of an urban forest, planted by people. I don't think of them in the same way I think of an indigenous forest... heck, all over the PNW oaks and maples are planted in people's yards. Maybe that's why I didn't think about the forests being different.

I think all our elms are probably Chinese elms at this point, because of Dutch elm disease. Some are very old but I suspect most are less than 100 years. A really massive elm that I thought had to be quite old is only about 60 years, so I guess I have to allow for the large yearly rainfall here having MUCH more of an effect on the trees than I expected it to.

Rolling Thunder for Pagan Elder in Need!
 

Hey y'all, Isaac Bonewits has cancer and is asking for help! He and his wife Phaedra have a facebook page and a website--here are the addies.

Here's their fb addy.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/isaac.phaedra.bonewits

Here is their website. http://www.neopagan.net/

Here is the call to action, from the House of Danu:

Isaac Bonewits defines what it is to be a Druid in our time and place. A great friend to the House of Danu, he was the founder of Ár nDraíocht Féin and leader within many Pagan traditions. Isaac has been struggling with colon cancer (root chakra) and it has reached a point where he needs a miracle.

Phaedra Bonewits has put out a call for our greatest magik: A ROLLING THUNDER. The House of Danu asks that you rise to the call and participate in this event which is unprecedented in our history. From Europe moving West at 9:00P.M. in each time zone, the energies will rise and our will shall become manifest.

WHEN: On the night of the full moon, May 27, 2010, at 9:00P.M. in your time zone

HOW: Create a healing ritual within your tradition and that is joined with the rising energies with this chant:
"Isaac's tumors fade away. Thirty more years with Phae."

THEN: It will comfort Isaac and Phaedra to know when your ritual is done. Let them know. Their email adress is at their website, neopagan.net.

The Rolling Thunder has already begun in Europe and is moving across the face of the Earth. Please join in, and bring healing to one of the Pagan community's most beloved authors!


ps-I edited the email addy out of this post, as they are already swamped by over 1000 spam messages a day; no sense taking chances a bot would find the address here and add more.

A new set of questions for us!

Do you prefer to make your own tools (wands, athames, cards, cups, etc) or buy them already made?

If you make them yourself, do you prefer to find the makings as you walk through an area, or to buy unadorned items and personalize them?
~~~~~~

My answers: I've done all of the above at various times. Sometimes I have found absolutely wonderful items in the shops, especially jewelry and cards--certainly, making one's own tarot cards is QUITE the daunting challenge for me, lol--and sometimes items have presented themselves to me completely unexpectedly.

My favorite example of the unexpected tool is a small geode I found once (now moved on to another owner, nonconsensually) that was naturally opened and bent back. It looked like a tiny shrine of the Mother from one angle and like a fish with its mouth open from another, and it served me well for several years.

Once in a while I make something just for the sake of creating, and then discover afterwards that it's become a tool. My favorite example of that is a small gourd I painted once to look like a curled up fox. It became my guardian while I worked in a haunted building by myself, until it broke in my pocket one day.

I find myself thinking that I *should* make all my own tools, mostly because lots of people have *said* so... but yanno what, if we all made all of our own tools, the Pagan artists among us would have to go out of business. So I think I like having a balance of both kinds of tools.

How about you?

Most of my main items have been store/internet-bought, but I don't have a good connection to most of them (yet).

I am happiest with my pentacle (which I made myself out of self-hardening clay. it was at christmas time, and my mom asked if it meant that I danced naked in the woods. I told her, "not yet!")

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2550/...8c8e99f1_m.jpg

I am also very happy with my chalice, which is actually a glass compote that I picked up from Goodwill. In that case, I knew what I wanted before I went into the store, and sure enough, I found exactly what I wanted and it felt right.

This was my altar on New Year's day - it was a bit crowded - but you can see the chalice back there on the right.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2803/...b2ec80ff_m.jpg

My wand is a plain willow wand, and I haven't really made friends with it yet, and my athame is a letter-opener. Unfortunately, I dropped it and broke a stone off of it, and I'm not sure how best to re-attach it. I also feel kinda bad that I dropped it in the first place. Somewhere I have a beautiful mermaid dagger but it's buried in my stuff. If I ever find it, I will probably make that into my athame.

I'm very new to the witchy and pagan worlds, so these are things I'm still in the process of feeling out. I do tend to collect things for my altar and also for my workspace. Acorns, fallen leaves, interesting sticks, seashells, ribbons, just stuff. I also have fantasies of creating little miniature altar kits. I love the idea of a tiny altar kit with a needle for the athame, a thimble for the chalice, a toothpick for the wand, birthday candles with spindles to hold them, a pack of match incense, a handkerchief for an altar cloth - but I never can think what to use for the thurible.

& one more thing....
 

I just saw these and think they are cute. They are three little beeswax candles.

http://desmitten.files.wordpress.com...wax-candle.jpg

I have read it and I recommend it to anyone who has not. It is a wonderful book!