Pagan

[aldebaran]

Originally Posted by Bit

It's that transitioning time of year again. The fruits and vegetables are changing; squash comes into season, melons go out of season, apples and pears replace berries, sweet potatoes replace tomatoes. The leaves have started turning on the Virginia creeper along my back fence and my neighbors' trees are starting to show soft yellows and oranges. Music comes up from the depths of my soul, channeled through childhood memories and recent discoveries alike. The Gardener in me simmers down, and the Baker wakes up: tis Autumn time.

In my yard, the barren heat of the Summer drought has ended. The dandelions and plantains are green and growing, leaves tender, succulent. The violets which barely survived the summer are strengthening. Ragweed is blooming enthusiastically. Who knew it was such a mimic? The sassafrass-mimicking giant ragweed is gone now... but the "pigweed" has just shown itself to also be a ragweed and must come out as well. The beggars' ticks have gone to seed, all sticky with tiny hairs, long seeds barbed like harpoons. I pull them whenever I find them and the yard is free of them for the winter, but they'll be back again come spring, just like the poison ivy. The grass is frantically blooming and setting seed. Vines and trees all over the neighborhood have blazed forth with red berries. The Autumn Leaf Show has not truly begun yet, but it's coming... it is coming. The world beneath the surface growth is slowing down, taking a breath; tree roots are preparing for the long sleep. Earth is awake and content, just a little drowsy around the edges as sleep time comes closer.

Samhain is just around the corner. It seems to be coming unusually fast this year, but I know tis only because Summer held on through what should have been the first month of Autumn. Only two weeks now, and we will be in the U.S. Holiday Season: Samhain/Halloween, Thanksgiving, Solstice/Yule/Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day. Tis the inner Baker's dream season, time to set butter-and-flour magic into motion, time to create breads and cakes, muffins and cookies, brownies and gingerbreads. Tis time to stock the larder; grocery store sales on the staples of a Baker's kitchen are just around the corner. Time to slow roast squashes and root vegetables, time to create stews and roasts, time to cook to my heart's content.

I find myself feeling connected to generation upon generation of cooks and bakers. An image persists in my heart's eye, a cook in a huge stone kitchen, feeding a small army's worth of children and adults all through the winter, secure in the knowledge her larder is full. How many hundreds of years does this image go back, its cauldrons and kettles and bake ovens steaming? It lives in me like an archetype and I am happy to be inspired through the long Autumn and Winter months by the Cook's happiness, by her need to feed the multitude of those she cares for, by her great satisfaction in practicing the arts of Kitchen Alchemy.

The Gardener, though, has not entirely let go. Autumn is a slow time but still a growing time, and this year the Gardener in me is determined to save some of these plants and bring them inside. It means finding a way to keep cats and dogs out of the containers, finding space for them all, obtaining lights to keep them growing and happy. The bell and banana peppers, the mint, the geraniums will all winter over nicely if protected from freezing. Tis time to think about starting herbs for wintering over, as well, and choosing a place within the house for a garden area, which leads to thoughts of preparing the house for the coming Winter, sealing the windows and doors against drafts, checking the furnace over, moving the furniture to take best advantage of heat vents--and back to plants we come, for those which must go dormant will need to be in a room which has no heat vent, and those which will continue growing will need to be in warm rooms.

The Singer in my soul has taken note of the direction of my thoughts, these changes, preparations, anticipations, transitions: chants and carols come bubbling to the surface, invoking the falling Autumn leaves, the Soul Cake traditions, the remains of Pagan music hidden in holiday songs. "A Soalin'" winds through my heart and soul like a thread weaving the traditions together, half-remembered childhood folk music favorites bound into recreated Medieval custom, "God Rest Ye Merry" trailing through "Soul Cake" on bright ribbons of brass and love. Red leaves fall through the newer "Autumn Time" chant, and the Beloved Dead speak through the Souling Song. The Singer does not care if the message fits her tradition or not, for the old music is Pagan to its bones and the spirit of Autumn reaches even through others' words. She sings, and cries for the magnifence of the gift resurrecting itself down through all the generations, and sings again--and the Horned God, the Green Man hear: the songs are once again Pagan in her mouth.

Life is full and overflowing in this most beautiful and magical season of change. Bright Blessings for the deep roots of Love to us all,
Cath

Soul cake recipes:
http://www99.epinions.com/content_4439384196 Montrose Family Tradition, 5th generation, gingerbread
http://www.food.com/recipe/soul-cakes-143070 cookies (source not specified), spicy but not gingerbread

Autumn music:
YouTube - Peter Paul and Mary, A Soalin Peter Paul and Mary, A Soalin
YouTube - NEAL WOODALL A Soulin' Neal Woodall, A Soulin' (A Soalin)
YouTube - A-Soalin' - Loraine Washburn a Peter Paul and Mary Cover song Lorraine Washburn, A Soalin
YouTube - A 'Soalin' (BYU?) Choral Christmas Version, A Soalin--just beautiful, medley with A Wassailing and God Rest Ye Merry
YouTube - Sting, Soul Cake. Sting, Soul Cake--photos from Gotland, Sweden--utterly gorgeous and IMPOSSIBLE to sit through without dancing
YouTube - Libana- Autumn Time Libana, Autumn Time
YouTube - Halloween Music - "Souling Song - Samhain Version" - Kristen Lawrence Kristen Lawrence, Souling Song, Samhain version
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=21280497&b logId=516025050 Kristen's lyrics

Bit,,, thank you for the beautiful, soulful welcoming of the season and Samhain.
I am new to BFP but feel so welcome especially reading all of your posts on this thread.

[Bit]

Hello aldebaran, it's nice to meet you! Welcome to the Planet and to Pagan!

[IrishGrrl]

I'm looking forward to attending next weekends Samhain fest. Hopefully I will be able to go up on thursday for the sweat lodge. I will also be working on my alter this week.

For the last couple of years I got so busy with life in general, that I havent taken the time to nurture my spirit. I havent taken the time to process in the way that is healing for me. For at least the last year, things have gotten to a very stressful, unhealthy point spiritually. When I get stressed it's much easier for other energy to influence my own , and I dont like that, it's very uncomfortable. Time to redirect and meditate. Back to my journey..the one I have neglected for far too long.

Irish

[Bit]

{{{{{{{{{{{{Irish}}}}}}}}}}}} I think we all have times when we realize we have to put spirituality back into the center of our lives.... it seems to slip away unnoticed during times of deep stress.

[oblivia]

[Soft*Silver]

well I for one am eating some soup tonight if I can get any trick or treaters to come to my door.......

[Corkey]

Happy Samhain!

[foxyshaman]

Hail & Hello Everyone...

I have been away for a few months and wanted to check in and say well what is says above!!

I had a fantastic Samhain, I went to my daughters house we gave out Candy, I was dressed as a freaky spider woman, and scared a few little ones. Oh the joys of being me!!

Is anyone doing anything for Winter solstice?? I have planned a ritual for it. We have a full moon lunar eclipse on the 21st (albeit just into the 21st) which I felt was really special. I then had the opportunity to meet and do a San Pedro ceremony with a shaman from Machu Picchu here in freezing cold Alberta in November...oohh and it was cold. We had a 4 hour drive on hockey rink ice roads in -30C weather... the car was slipping EVERYWHERE. Anyway, I digress... I was planning a ritual and then the shaman spoke of the celestial importance of this winter solstice. So, he explained what his people had handed down through the years regarding this particular solstice.

In honor of that I meditated for a long time and Spirit showed me a ritual I could do with others that would enable us to gather in the special energy and bring it into ourselves and our community.

So... anyone else have plans??

All in all I just wanted to pop in and wave hello to everyone here.

[Bit]

{{{{{{{{{{{{foxyshaman}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Hey there! Hello!!

It's a funny thing, I'm all about Thanksgiving--you know, First Nations Day, when we celebrate the gifts of Native American farmers and plant breeders with that famous dinner--but even though Christmas was always THE most important holiday in the year to me, it just didn't transfer to Yule/Solstice. Most years my acknowledgment of Solstice is nothing more than that, an acknowledgment. We have chosen family here in Wichita who make a big deal out of Christmas and we'll probably do the family thing.

Spiritual energy wise, we have a friend at death's doorstep, fighting very hard to come off the medical machinery, and we're pouring so much energy into her that I can't really imagine being in any kind of good shape by Solstice (let alone by Christmas). It isn't that I expect her to recover, but the community has made a commitment to support her through this and bring her whatever healing we can to make this easier for her and for her sons.

[foxyshaman]

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{BIT}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

I fully understand what it is like to keep vigil for someone you care about. I have never been a fan of Christmas, for various reasons, not all pagan related !!

I love celebrating solstice and think it is a wonderful time to welcome the sun back from its long journeys through the underworld. This is going to be exciting.... compared to some gatherings I know this will seem small, but we will have @ 40ppl... we are going to build an entrance for the gatekeeper,and each person offers a gift for the gatekeeper... not the person performing the sacred role, but the energetic being... then each person in the process goes to the elemental stations to receive a blessing from the elemental beings... fire earth air water. Then we start with our usual breath work, with some additions since we are working with the Rainbow Serpent (Earth Kundalini energy) and then we move into our roles... joikers, drummers or aspectors. I don't know how many hours we will be in ritual space, but I feel very excited...

I have kept up with you and Gryph's comings and goings and you two have been having quite the time. I just want you to know that even tho' I fell off the face of BFP I have been thinking about you two and keeping you very close to my heart.

It is with absolute love and warmth that I say hello again my friend and thanks for saying hi!!

Foxy

[Bit]

{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}} Ah darlin, I always watch for your posts! And you did fall off the face of the Planet, lol... well, I've been fairly quiet here myself.

Your rituals sound so intense; I can't imagine attending one and NOT coming away fundamentally changed. I'll tell ya true, Foxy, sometimes I think I'm missing such a bet by not seeking out formal ritual.... I make my own way but sometimes it would be really nice to get that jumpstart on the path. I think if I lived near you I would have to find a way to attend at least one of your rituals!

I suppose that one reason yours seem so appealing to me is that your description of them seems to leave so much room for the spirits to express themselves, and for people to connect in their own ways. I don't exactly know what it is about attending rituals from specific traditions that bothers me so... not the different Goddesses/Beings, but I suppose the dogma that so often accompanies other people's beliefs, maybe. I find myself bridling whenever anyone of any belief starts telling me How Things Are And Must Be. I used to have more patience. *sheepish look*

Anyhow, I do seem to be making some progress on my path. I remember you and I talked a while back about my being stuck, and not being able to meditate. I finally went and found a link to one of the Silva Exercises, the Long Relax. Again, I resist doing it like I want to--they tell me How It Must Be and I get tired of it--but it got me through a bad patch when I was so knotted up in pain that I couldn't function, and it seems to have started my own energy flowing again. Not that I am meditating, lol, but it helped me to see that my path doesn't require meditating right now.

Lately, people are starting to tell me that I move a lot of energy. I hadn't realized that. I was judging by the need, yanno? And so what I have been doing seems so small because the need is so overwhelming. It spurs me to keep on reaching, keep on trying, keep on doing just a little more each time. I'm trying to build up my stamina as well as my capacity. If it weren't for my Allies, though, I'd be toast at this point! They handle most of the work, sending the energy on when I run out of steam.

The biggest change in our lives the past two months has been Lady's diabetes. After that heart-stopping discovery, I thought we had gotten it under control... but over the past month she has grown two pearly-white cataracts that almost completely cover her eyes, and two days ago she woke up truly blind. She falls on the steps now, and is VERY reluctant to go outside. I spread lavendar essential oil along the edges of all the steps in the front to be an "edge marker" so to speak, but it kinda didn't work; she ignores it and doesn't seem to understand what it means. I think she's having some trouble adjusting in practical ways.

My only comfort is that dogs seem to live completely in the present moment and to accept whatever the day brings as "just the way things are," so emotionally, she doesn't seem to be in a lot of distress...... although she is milking my attempts to comfort her for EVERYTHING they're worth. Still my same ol' Ladybug, after all.

So how are you doing lately? I remember you had some sadness about leaving a group you had been part of for years and years. Did you replace it with another group or maybe take some time for yourself? And you had started exploring a new form of healing work, too.

Gryph says hi, and sends you love!

You're always in our hearts, too, yanno!
Cath

[foxyshaman]

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{BIT}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} :g immehug:

I was very fortunate a number of years ago (I won't say how many a girl has to keep some secrets) and I feel in love with the energy. I have attended a LOT of rituals over the years that, IMHO have fallen, well, flat. And they often came tied to gods and goddesses that I had no association with or relationship with. But I do love going to others rituals, not so much anymore, but it is important to me to support my community. And I do enjoy the social aspect of it afterwards... snacky pot luck... but why oh why does everyone think EVERYONE can eat chocolate.

Anyway, I digress....

The rituals are ways for spirit to express themselves and for people to experiece something. However I have long sinced stopped caring whether or not someone gets something from one of the gatherings. I used to care ALOT. Like ALOT. And then spirit gently reminded me that we are all at the exact place we are supposed to be at, doing exactly what we are all supposed to be doing and it was THEIR experience and not mine. It took a few times to hear that before I actually HEARD it. And it releases me from pressure, self imposed pressure, but pressure nonetheless.

One of the great (and not so great) parts of being raised in a culture that is not tribal with assigned roles and cosmology is that I can incorporate who or what speaks to me. I am free to experience my spiritual connection without the dogma of a religion, practice or deep rooted cosmology. I think, shamanically speaking, that has its good points and its bad points. I love to research myths, legends, customs and practices. I used to feel like "less then" because I did not have a tribe or an elder to teach me. That took quite some time to let go of, and accept that spirit is the best teacher. But still when I am telling a story (and I love to be a storyteller... shocking but true) I would love to know the roots in the culture that created that story.

Anyway... I digress.

I was very sorry to hear about Lady and her diabetes, and I am even more sorry to hear that she went blind. That is alot for you two and her to deal with. However, I really do love your attitude and the reminder that dogs live in the present. She will figure it out, all three of you will figure it out. And you will do it with love and grace.

I have no problem believing that you push a big energy. No problem with that at all. And I am glad to hear that you are moving through your pain, meditating and finding some of your energy coming back. Keep working on it. I have a daily practice that takes 5 minutes that keeps me grounded and focused and energetically prepared for my day. Keep going, you my sweet friend are worth every breath spirit breathes.

How am I?? This has been a heck of a roller coaster. I am very glad that I have stepped aside and retired from leading the drumming community. Two other women have stepped forward and are keeping it going. I have attended some of the circles, but they are not the same for me. I like to go because I have ZERO responsibilty <insert evil grinz> which is nice nice nice... and I get to do my own work, which is also good.

I have been working on a new website www.shamansway.net - I honestly don't know how to make that a link, but if you are interested please give it a whirl. It is a subscription site, but there are lots of free bits. It is all about... wait for it... shamanism... yup that is what it is about... ha ha. Shocking but true... I even have five hours of voice recordings for it. We are also going to voice record the ENTIRE solstice ritual, funky eh... If I can would you like a copy?? I would happily send it to you. It will be the joiking and the drumming.

My spirit work has grown leaps and leaps and bounds. I am doing so many compassionate depossessions that it just boggles my mind. After I took the training I wondered how it would keep going. Well no worries there. OMG. Word of mouth just keeps it growing and growing and growing. I am working on this one case right now, which I will tell you about in another note, but it really is stretching the boundaries of what I believe, and what I thought I believed and was all right with. I never stop getting my head shook!! Like seriously what is up with that??

Anyway, I have written a tome. I look foward to hearing back from you. And anyone else who is reading this. We all have beautiful voices and I would love to hear as many as possible.

Uddles of Love

Foxy

[Bit]

She's awake!! Our friend is awake!!! She talked on the phone!!!

I have to take the dog out but I'll be back to answer your wonderful post, Foxy. I subscribed to your website, too.

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

[foxyshaman]

YYYYYEEEEAAAAHHHHH!!!! The amazing and wonderful power of prayer and healing...

Most wonder filled news!!

[Bit]

Grrr! I hate it when the dog lies to me. He didn't have to go out, he was just bored. It's way too cold out to alleviate boredom that way! Sheesh, we're at the point in the weather where I don't think my hands will be all the way warm again until July... grumble, grumble, eh? *sheepish smile*

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Foxy}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} *uploads gingerbread*

What a lovely long post! Lots to think about.

For me, ritual (whether my own or someone else's that I'm attending) is about connecting to the Source. I usually say Goddess, but it doesn't matter to me what the name is; I crave that connection, and it's the only thing which justifies for me the time and trouble in doing ritual. Not that other people don't have pefectly good reasons for doing ritual, mind you, just that I get my other spiritual needs met in other ways; so for me it's all about connecting with Spirit/Goddess/WhateverTheHeckYouAre. *cheeky grin*

That means if someone insists on defining things, insists on setting rules, insists on set formulas, I'm going to have trouble getting through it all to make the connection. If the ritual is all about bringing Spirit in, whatever way Spirit chooses to come, then I'm good to go... but if anyone gets in the way of that I get pretty impatient and I sure won't waste my time going back again. Get to the point, says my impatience; if you cannot call down the God or Goddess at least do some serious energy sending! Whatever others may need to get from a ritual, I need to feel like I haven't wasted my energy or my time, and only feeling powerfully connected allows me to feel that way.

I suppose it might be very different for me if I weren't disabled. I've learned over the decades that all my activities have to have the kind of pay-off that makes me feel like I haven't wasted my energy or time... because yanno, I'm going to be crippled up and/or exhausted for days afterward. It has to be worth it.

You mentioned the pot luck afterward; we have the potlucks and skip the rituals, lol... there's a small group of us who get together every couple of weeks to have a potluck and discuss everything under the sun, from what kind of Pagans we are to how to get off the energy grid, and always--our perennial favorite topic--gardening.

You said, "One of the great (and not so great) parts of being raised in a culture that is not tribal with assigned roles and cosmology is that I can incorporate who or what speaks to me. ....... I used to feel like "less then" because I did not have a tribe or an elder to teach me. That took quite some time to let go of, and accept that spirit is the best teacher."

I think if I had been raised in a tribal culture and the shamanism worked, I would be perfectly happy with it. I was happy with Catholicism as long as I thought it worked. But I was thrust willy-nilly into a very nearly trackless wilderness and told to find my own way, and now I cannot bring myself to be happy with any kind of "received" spirituality. I've had the experience of living it. I cannot settle for less now. BUT like you, for years and years I thought I also was "less than" for not having a human teacher. Oh how I chafed at the idea that I had to teach myself! But in the end, the entire Universe became my teacher.

I've learned much from Gryph, too, just as I did from the one Teacher who was finally sent my way several years ago... but I learned it through observation. I saw what they did and I copied it. Neither of them ever said, "here is your lesson, here is your homework." They just did what they did--healing people, protecting them, sending energy, working with Others, shapeshifting--and I paid attention to how they did it; they told me what they believed, shared their philosophies, and I researched to learn more.

These days, if someone sets themselves up as my teacher, I get... well *sheepish smile* I get impatient. I want to see them in action before I accept them as any kind of authority in my life, yanno? And even if I can learn from them, I want it to be like it has been. Don't TELL me what to do... just do what you do, and let me watch.... can you tell I just ran into that? Made the mistake of looking for a sympathetic "that's a rough way to go" or the equivalent, and got "do this, and this, and this, and..."

I suppose I would be more patient if I had been allowed to say, "I already know these things; this and that one worked, the others didn't." But I wasn't listened to, and for me that is the death knell of any student/teacher relationship. If people cannot listen long enough to figure out that a student is not a neophyte, then they're not the teacher for me....

What a sweet thing to say, that I'm worth the breath of spirit!

Morning practice.... I don't have a specific one. I'm practicing all day long--the luxury of not having to concentrate on a job--but I think I've pared it down to the essentials: ground, send energy, again and again. Maybe that's the lesson of this part of my life? Because it is practice, and the more I do it the better I become. Maybe there will come a change in the cycle and I'll focus on something else. Right now though, the need is immense and so I keep on , ground, send, ground, send.

I am so glad you can do your own work in the drum circles now! I wondered if you might need to grieve the change. It sounds like you've come through it with flying colors!

I like your Shamans Way website! Thank you so much! The link works fine, btw. And I did subscribe. Took a look at your blog (haven't read it all yet) and so far I really like it! I would LOVE a copy of the Solstice Ritual if that works out!

Compassionate depossession--that's what I was trying to remember! Glad to hear it's going so well. Now you have me all curious about anything which stretches the boundaries of your belief. My own boundaries have been stretched again and again the past three years--I was just telling someone yesterday that a couple of my Allies had to wait for me to grow up enough to believe in them again before they could work with me. I hope you will share what you've found and what you're doing (or what it's doing to you, lol); it's so fascinating! I like it that I finally came to a part of the wilderness where many paths are converging, and I like it that yours is one of them. Thanks for holding up a beacon so the rest of us can see more clearly as we walk!

Much love back to you!
Cath

[Nat]

Winter solstice tonight - full lunar eclipse starting in about two hours y'all. Happy Yule!

The last time winter solstice and a full lunar eclipse happened was during the first year of bloody mary's reign. Princess Elizabeth was locked up in the tower of London at the time, and Protestants were being burned at the stake in England by early the next year.

[Turtle]

Ahhhh, it's amazing out tonight. It is crisp and clear and the moon is beautiful Enjoy y'all....

[Mitmo01]

a beauttiful event and now im watching the sunrise and glad to be alive....feelin it in my bones today

I have had some bad insomnia the last couple of nights and my kitties have also been restless and i think this is why so its interesting to actually understand why....

hope everyone is safe and well

[foxyshaman]

Hello everyone...

I just wanted to pop in to say hello!!

Hellllooooo...

I just wanted to post an excerpt of a handout I wrote for a workshop I did recently called "Curse Unravelling". I have been reworking it and adding to it but for now... I know many people do not believe in curses, and I certainly did not... well until I kept running into them in my healing work. Then I started to do some investigations and then I set about learning how to unravel one, or many as in some cases.

So... if anyone objects to irregular postings on odd things I am working on please feel free to say so. I won't even curse you


There is a nature to curses, a pattern or life of their very own. Tonite we are learning how to safely unravel the energetic pattern of a curse. We will be exploring through journey work, in partners how to recognize a curse, chart its course and resolve it without harm to the curse originator, the curse creator, the object of the curse, or the person unraveling the curse.

How to recognize a curse, the energy around it and learning how to energetically unravel it, is important information for the Shaman. In our diagnosis and treatment our partners, we need to assess the nature of our visions and what treatment to use. Shamans must contextualize the origin of the patient's disease within his or her own family and cultural history, as well as within the context of the patient's past lives. Essentially, it is necessary to understand the kind of negativity that has taken over the patient's life (a curse, an invasion, an attack, and so forth), its origin, and its history.

Soul Retrievals are never boring and certainly no two are ever similar. Negotiation is a primary component to soul retrieval work. If & when you are performing a soul retrieval or an extraction you must have an understanding of how the deeds of the present generation will affect the next seven generations. There has been some work with ancestral wounds that requires going back to the point of the original misdeed to affect a healing. I use this approach to uncover the ancestral fear and shame that can be a cause to illness, disease or general spiritual malaise. I have experienced the effect of deeds and misdeeds on a person, indeed an entire family. The Elders tell you the energetic trace stays in the field of the family for at least seven generations.

Adam Crabtree author of “Multiple Man” has written about this phenomenon in terms of a family or “group” mind. He describes how Shamus, the spirit of one member of a Celtic family, carried the family misdeed from generation to generation. As his host died, he would join another family member (much like the Spirit of Addiction) until his or her death, and so on. The family did not remember the misdeed, but it was commonly known that the family had been cursed for centuries. When Shamus was brought out of the spirit world (family field or group mind), he told the story of the misdeed. Once told, Shamus mourned the pain and suffering caused by the misdeed, at which point the curse was lifted and the family healing began. I am reminded of the name it to claim it part of our healing work.

I believe that many families suffer from some type of ancestral malady, as do many countries. I believe that we have ultimately five levels of soul, personal, familial, community, city, country; at some level, the atrocities committed by this country in trying to exterminate the native peoples are trapped in a large spirit wound, or, if you prefer, the collective unconscious. Within this collective unconscious or national spirit wound, are hundreds, possibly thousands, of families who have been plagued with this wound as part of the family field. Assuming this to be true, it seems that finding this wound and releasing it would initiate a new way of being in the world for these families. Furthermore, instead of committing ecological suicide as a nation, we might become conscious of the consequences of our actions and reverse the deleterious direction we have set for ourselves.

When we work with curses and unraveling curses the act of calling out the spirit of these wounds could lead to a tremendous healing.

Curses… I curse the very day you were born…. or some such curse… In North America we don’t place a great deal of energy or even thought to curses or hexes. Our Ancestors did, our great grandparents probably did. What we have forgotten is that words spoken create an energetic pattern that manifests into reality… whether that reality is apparent to you or not, does not make any less valid. In other countries a curse is still very powerful, the effects of the curse is still very palpable. Why… because words are power, which in turn create a manifestation. I can’t really explain it in practical terms, but I have seen enough curses and bad wishes on each person I have worked with to come to realize that there is some validity to this.

[Bit]

Originally Posted by foxyshaman

I just wanted to post an excerpt of a handout I wrote for a workshop I did recently called "Curse Unravelling".

Ah, Foxy, I love your latest post!! Thank you for sharing this with us!

I myself never believed in curses until I got spiritually self-confident enough to take another look at all the things which have been belittled as "superstition" and pay attention to what I was really seeing--without that skeptical voice chiding me in the background about people thinking I'm crazy.

That ghost story is scarily familiar--I know someone who had the same sort of thing (not exactly the same; more malicious and directed outwards, rather than at family), and I became a victim of the malice. The situation lasted for months and the effects spilled over onto everyone in my family and onto our house, as well. Once that sort of thing happens to you, it's really hard to endure plain old bad luck after that without freaking out a little and wondering if you're being attacked again, yanno?

It's popular in some circles of thought to say that there is no such thing as a curse, that a curse cannot hurt you if you don't believe in it, that people draw their own bad luck to them by expecting bad things, that if you talk about it you have created it yourself. None of that kind of thought allows for the fact that just as people naturally have varying abilities at sports or art or finances, so they also have varying psychic abilities... and just as some people are willing to use, say, their financial abilities to hurt others, some people are willing to use their psychic abilities to hurt others.

Curses, like prayers, do not depend on the belief of the receiver, but on the belief (and skill) of the sender.

I will never take curses or hexes lightly again, never write them off as "too outlandish to be true" again, never dismiss them as "a figment of (whoever's) imagination" again... I have learned to look and see what might be going on before I rush to judgment on these things.