Pagan

[foxyshaman]

{{{{{{{{{{Sunshine}}}}}}}}}

I am glad I do not live in a dessert zone. We do get 100 degrees here, and even sometimes hotter. But not often and certainly not for many days in a row. Thankfully!!! I am not antiheat, but sometimes the house just gets too hot to do anything...

Drumming with carpal tunnel can't be fun. I used to get bursitis in my shoulder that held the drum and oooyyy vvveeeyyyyy that hurt. Then I had this journey where I was practicing fighting with a sword.... cause really every shaman has to know how to weild a sword cause you never know what is coming your way... and I am only 1/2 joking. Anyway.... the spirit I was sparring with sliced the shoulder with bursitis. In the journey I looked down saw the flap of skin where my shoulder was, flipped it back up, tapped on it (futile in hope that it would stay that way... I just needed a good sewing kit) and kept on fighting. Not without pain the Spirit World, but not enough to yell "uncle"!!! Well when I got out of the journey the arm I could not lift higher than my breasts because of the bursitis had 0 pain... nada... and it never came back...

Now I did re-injure it while holding onto the head board... but that is a WHOLE OTHER story (insert rascally grin)...

We do need to Dream. We do need to accept that we are POWER-FULL and stop buying the package of powerlessness that we are sold by the sandman of our generation. WAKE UP our spiritual powers and reconnect with the POWERS that are and be. We have all tapped into the Dreaming. How many of us have manifested what we needed. Sunshine I know this has happened for you, I have read that in your posts. And I know that whoever reads this will be nodding their head because they too have manifested. That is the Dream Stream... if we can dream it...

It is difficult to create a space ~ or find a language where others will see this as well, or know it anyway. During the Peace March... which I quite loved... there were a lot of "WTF" looks and some unkind words spoken, but most people watched this silent parade for peace dumbstruck. Argh... it just gets the Aries in me all Fired Up. And then the Pisces in me just wants us all to get together and create a beautiful world. Good thing I accept my split personality!!! The other thing which I found surprising, well I always find this surprising, is that besides the people who came with me, all the participants were young, many much younger than my 44 years. I am always perplexed by that. I have been an activist for many years and my peers just keep getting younger. That is a tangent and not really relevant to this post, but what the hell!!!

Story of dreaming... I did a journey where the Spirit of the Wheel showed me how to build a Medicine Wheel for healing a specific problem one of my patients had. Well I was short three stones and they had to be fist sized. When I realized this I just simply said out loud "okay I am all here to build it and you said I had enough stones. Where are my three stones?" I went about my business and thought I would find the stones I needed next time I was out walking or something. That night I put the kids to bed and I was walking past my daughters door and in the corner between her doorway and my doorway were... yup you guessed it... three fist sized stones. So, if dreaming and open honest communication did not work I would not have those stones. It is one of my favorite stories for the simple reason that you can't make up stones. They are either solidly there, or they are not. And they were solidly there!! LOL.

Are there gatherings in anyone's areas for spiritual leaders/practioners for the oil spill? There is another gathering of the practioners in my area for spiritual relief for the Diva of the water. And the Divas of the animals. I journeyed the other night I saw Mother writhing in pain. The Spirit of Oil was PISSED. The council I meet with simply said this is a human issue and you need to deal with it. It is overwhelming... and the # of spills that occur each year... I had no idea until i started doing some research into this.

Shamanically I am doing all I can do. I try to get people excited or at least driven to do something to change. When I journey I just keep getting the message to keep the prayers coming. Keep the Reiki coming (I don't do Reiki so this must be a message for others). I am doing journey work to the mechanism for the pipes and the systems that have failed. I am just at a heart broken loss as to how to make a tangible difference. I know that spirit work is rarely tangible, but this is a tangible devastating issue.

What are others doing? Anyone want to share prayers or ceremonies that I can pass onto others?

[Bit]

I must say this first.

Originally Posted by foxyshaman

I am doing journey work to the mechanism for the pipes and the systems that have failed. I am just at a heart broken loss as to how to make a tangible difference. I know that spirit work is rarely tangible, but this is a tangible devastating issue.

Stones, my dear, are utterly tangible.

So... how do you know you aren't making a tangible difference? None of us actually know what difference we might make, so why assume it is no difference?

Maybe your energy is keeping some research team going night after day after night when all they have is not enough food or sleep and too much coffee, eh?

Maybe your energy is guiding some sea creatures to swim in a different direction.

Maybe your energy is adding to the movement for safe and sane energy sources.

Maybe your energy is helping to keep the earth stable, so that the ocean floor doesn't collapse into a sinkhole from hell. That would be my guess, btw... but then, maybe your energy is keeping the pipes from further collapse.

Why assume you are ineffective? Why assume there is no tangible result from your work, when by a simple request you are given stones?

{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}} When you are most discouraged and at a loss, you and your efforts are most crucial. Think about this: you are highly sophisticated and aware, spiritually. If you allow yourself to get discouraged, to give in, to feel despair--to falsely assume your efforts have no results--then what happens to those who are not as far along the path as you are?

Believe, oh Warrior, that you are winning this battle. Believe that you are not working alone. Believe that everything you do makes a difference.

I believe. I believe in you, in us, in all the love and outrage and care and heartbreak and worry that are pouring into the Gulf in the wake of the oil. Take hold of that energy, oh Shaman, and direct it to do the good those who send it want it to do. We are not all as skilled as you are--help us, please; help us to do what we wish to do. Help us to heal the Gulf.

I believe.

[Nat]

Hello

I was wondering about y'all's thoughts and experiences with money magic? Do you or have you done it, has it worked, what are your feelings about it?

Also, because I have seen the two correlated, do you tithe to anybody?

[Bit]

Ooops, edited to say I'm replying to Nat's questions about money magic--didn't quote her cuz I forgot to check on whether the page would turn...


No, I don't tithe, although if I could, I would GLADY spend 10% of our income at the local pagan store!!

Yes, I have done money magic. Yes it works. YES you need to be careful and set parameters.... Early on, my money magic resulted in car accidents--you know, people rear ended us, and then we got settlements--NOT what I had in mind.

So now my main parameter when I do money magic is that it MUST be completely positive means that brings me money, and nothing painful or bad may happen to bring me this money--"bad" in my judgment, not in the universe's judgment, which is way more impersonal than mine. Sometimes the money shows up as a $20 bill in a parking lot (although the last one was counterfeit, dang), sometimes as a rebate of a utility company deposit, sometimes as an outright gift, sometimes as a contest or lottery win (small so far, no jackpots). I'm sure it will show up in other ways, too... heck, every once in a while, the grocery store sends me coupons for free stuff and that counts, too!

How I feel about it is frustrated that I haven't yet won the big money, and frustrated that I evidently still have some sort of "I don't deserve anything" mental block going on. At the same time I feel grateful, grateful, grateful for all the times that money has shown up just in time.

I try to live in the cycle of abundance, rather than in scarcity mode. I try to be like water, always flowing, always more where that came from.

But that does remind me, you cannot escape the limits of bad parameters by saying "abundance" instead of money. The first time I tried THAT, I gained twenty pounds.

[Nat]

thanks bit - your post was both informative and cute (the abundance comment - ha!)

I think I have a lot of ambivalence about money. I can't seem to work it out inside my own head and heart, and I feel like my intention is too muddy.

[Bit]

Originally Posted by Nat

thanks bit - your post was both informative and cute (the abundance comment - ha!)

It's funny today. It wasn't funny when I had to go buy new pants back then! But yeah... I do laugh about it now.

Originally Posted by Nat

I think I have a lot of ambivalence about money. I can't seem to work it out inside my own head and heart, and I feel like my intention is too muddy.

Are you a writer? I worked at least part of it out by journaling. I wrote about what money means to me, why I want it, why I need it, why I deserve it... oh that one was HARD hard hard!!! I wrote about cycles and abundances and scarcity and fear.... and yanno, at the bottom of it all--at least so far--is fear. I'm afraid, on a deep deep level, that I'm going to be badly punished if I have money... it's the religious brainwashing I was subjected to and I haven't yet gotten rid of all of it. *sigh* But I work on it all that I can, and it is getting better. I've released a LOT of the fear just by using the mantra "may we prosper in all things, especially financially" on a regular basis.

Uh oh, big thunder--better disconnect computers until tomorrow!

[Nat]

Originally Posted by Bit

It's funny today. It wasn't funny when I had to go buy new pants back then! But yeah... I do laugh about it now.



Are you a writer? I worked at least part of it out by journaling. I wrote about what money means to me, why I want it, why I need it, why I deserve it... oh that one was HARD hard hard!!! I wrote about cycles and abundances and scarcity and fear.... and yanno, at the bottom of it all--at least so far--is fear. I'm afraid, on a deep deep level, that I'm going to be badly punished if I have money... it's the religious brainwashing I was subjected to and I haven't yet gotten rid of all of it. *sigh* But I work on it all that I can, and it is getting better. I've released a LOT of the fear just by using the mantra "may we prosper in all things, especially financially" on a regular basis.

Uh oh, big thunder--better disconnect computers until tomorrow!

Bit - I'm sorry I missed this. I do write in a journal but not nearly enough to have clear thoughts. I think I'll take your recommendation with that.

[Bit]

Originally Posted by foxyshaman

Now I did re-injure it while holding onto the head board... but that is a WHOLE OTHER story (insert rascally grin)...

Lord love a goose, you are a HOOT!!! We both laughed hard at that--thanks for ending our day with grins.

I'll come back and answer the rest of your post soon.

{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}} To know you is to love you, darlin, and I think we're getting to know you, you racy thing, you! lol!

[foxyshaman]

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{SUNSHINE}}}}}}}}} }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

You made me !!!

[Bit]

{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Sometimes I do my job right. *cheesy grin and a big wink*


Seriously, this problem with the Gulf, with the contaminated water and the dying wildlife--it's going to go on for a long, long time. We who are the healers of this world, and that includes vast numbers of people who are not awake to that role yet, are going to be called on for a sustained effort. That means we have to do three things:

• Believe in ourselves
• Hold on to hope
• Take occasional breaks

We do no good if we use ourselves up and wear ourselves out, spending everything we have trying to "get 'er done quick!" yanno? We cannot afford to forget the Gulf, but we also cannot afford to forget the rest of our lives and those who also need us.

At the same time, there are energy resources which are going unused, precisely because the vast majority of us are unaware and unskilled; they are swirling around the Gulf just as the oil is. Do not let them aimlessly go, oh Warrior! Harness them to the use they were intended for, and remember, As Above, So Below. Contain and guide that energy in order to contain and guide the oil. Use it to bring healing and justice for the Gulf and for the Earth, as those who have sent it, aware or unaware that they are sending, would wish.

There is enough energy there for all who are willing and able to do the job.

Mama Tigre

[Bit]

http://www.witchvox.com/va/dt_va.htm...words&id=13897

This article is amazingly well-reasoned and well-written, although there are several typos near the end (the kind of typo which makes the word different, for example, "ass" for "as"). The author makes a very convincing argument that Christianity is a polytheistic religion, detours into mysticism, and then brings the article full circle back to the nature of Christianity. It's fascinating and thought-provoking! I enjoyed it.

Cath

[Venus007]

I have been a solitary pagan for about 20 years, I am thinking about finding a group to share the celebrations with. I am afraid since last time I did this (about 10 years ago) it turned out to be an adventure in drama and weirdness with a dash of tedium and megalomania thrown in for good measure.

Do y'all practice as solitaries or in a group and can you give any advice for finding a good, sane, well grounded group of people to share with?

[foxyshaman]

Venus007;

I can certainly identify with what you said, I have practiced in groups and led groups for many years. I think the key to joining a group is to go more than once. I am not sure how long you were with a group, but it takes a bit to get into the groove.

The other option is starting your own. I did and it lasted for 14 years I stepped down this year and two other members stepped up to lead. It takes a lot of dedication and time, but it was a very fruitful experience.

What type of paganism do you practice??

[Soft*Silver]

Omg...amen...same experience!

Originally Posted by Venus007

I have been a solitary pagan for about 20 years, I am thinking about finding a group to share the celebrations with. I am afraid since last time I did this (about 10 years ago) it turned out to be an adventure in drama and weirdness with a dash of tedium and megalomania thrown in for good measure.
Do y'all practice as solitaries or in a group and can you give any advice for finding a good, sane, well grounded group of people to share with?