by

Inanna’s Return and Bread and Waters of Life

Most of us know the story of Inanna’s descent into the Underworld to visit with her sister Erishkigal. The reason for her visit is that Erishkigal’s husband has died and Inanna was a childhood friend of his and she will visit to pay her respects.  As she travels to meet her sister, Inanna must pass through seven gates where they ask her to remove and part with aspects of herself so when she approaches Ereshkigal.

Upon arrival, her sister, who is angry because she believes that her husband loved Inanna, hangs Inanna from a meat hook to die.

While Inanna was in the Underworld, Ninshubur waited three days for Her to return, and when she did not she thought all was lost and began to mourn for her. She visited the temple of Enki who agreed to help her. Enki knows the nature of the underworld and its rule by a jealous, anguished Erishkigal.  As a god he has the power to create and ease hardship. From the dirt under his fingernails, he creates the kurgarra and galatur, instinctual, asexual creatures endowed with the artistic and empathic talent of being professional mourners, capable of mirroring the lonely queen’s emotions.  These little asexual creatures represent the attitude necessary to draw a blessing from the dark goddess. He commanded them to go to the Underworld where they found Erishkigal in the throes of agony and reeling from the misery she has caused. When she moans, they moan with her, appeasing her anguish by the echo of their concern, affirming her in her suffering.  Enki has understood that complaining is one voice of the dark goddess, a way of expressing life, valid and deep in the feminine soul.

When she sees their sympathy she offers them a gift. They are to ask only for the corpse of Inanna and, having received it, are to resurrect her with the bread and water of life.  They perform the task of bringing Inanna back to life, reviving Her with the gift of the bread and water of life. But as they prepare to leave but Anunna stops them and tells them she may not leave unless someone comes in her place.  Inanna agrees to find someone and is allowed to leave.

She returns to Demuzi, her new husband, only to find him enjoying himself, drinking, feasting and making music while she was suffering. Enraged, Inanna decides Dumuzi should be the one to take her place in the Underworld.  She directs the Anunna to seize him, which they do. Dumuzi desperately pleads with Inanna to relent, but she turns her back on him. He then appeals to Utu, but he too forsakes him. The Anunna carry Dumuzi away.

Inanna’s descent into the Underworld is the Sumerian mythology to explain the Dark Times and the absence of the Goddess.  It is at Imbolc (the beginning of Spring – our Ground Hog Day) that Inanna is given the bread and water of life.  This is the promise of returning life, the first stirring of the Bright Goddess’s return to us. She has not yet returned to her Temple, nor has she chosen Demuzi to be Her replacement.   She is alive – and returning.  It will be at the coming Spring Equinox that Demuzi will be taken to the Underworld.

Hail Inanna!  Blessed Be the Gift of the Bread and Waters of Life!

Retrieved at Inanna, an Opera of Ancient Sumer http://www.craton.net/inanna/main.php?action=synopsis

Retrieved at Library of Halexandria http://www.halexandria.org/dward385.htm

Perera, Sylvia Brinton, Descent to the Goddess, Inner City Books, Toronto, Canada 1981

by

Difficult Conversations

If words that we speak misfire and cause pain.
Please ask us to clarify and fully explain.
For often it is our limitations at play
For choosing our words and what to say.
Please make no assumptions but give others a chance.
Don’t judge them without asking, please allow them to enhance.
Hold back in assuming, don’t jump at a thought
Be open and ask or all is for naught.
When caught up in emotion we can travel two ways.
We either shut down completely or fail to convey.
Don’t jump to conclusions but rather choose trust
And ask what is meant  and not assume we’re unjust.
Let us choose love and expect the best
And question our reactions, that is our test.|
For love is the answer and a willingness to forgive.
It will strengthen our friendships and bring peace as we live.
by

Tailtiu, Primal Earth Goddess for this Season

We are in the season of Lughnasadh, also known as Lammas.  This is the first of three harvest festivals.  This one focuses on what we call the “first fruits”, those fruits, vegetables and grains ripening early in the season. The other two are Mabon and Samhain, one celebrating the harvest of the last crops and the next that of the herd animals sacrificed to feed the tribes.

In the many myths about this festival there is a consistent theme, that of sacrifice. To see the abundance of our harvest, it is important that we also honor the sacrifice made to assure it.  Typically, the stories are of the great feats of Lugh is association with this special season. Lugh, the great hero of the Celts, was the child of Cian of the Tuatha Dé Danann and Ethniu of the Fomorians. The union of these two forged an alliance of two tribes.  He was given in fosterage to Tailtiu, Queen of the Fir Bolg, wife of Eochaid mac Eirc, the last of the Fir Bolg Kings, further deepening this alliance. Lugh’s story is about birth and transformation.  He is a powerful archetype who achieves his greatest gifts through adversity.

There is some confusion in these Celtic stories for we find different versions that often conflict with each other. One version is that Eochaid, King of the Fir Bolg created a great festival in honor of his queen, Tailtiu.  Other stories say that Lugh created the festival in her honor of his foster mother when she died.  However, it began, this festival has been celebrated for a very long time and still is, in many places.

“Lammas” by Wendy Andrews

“Lammas” by Wendy Andrews”

So, who was Tailtiu?  Tailtiu, the last queen of the Fir Bolg, died from exhaustion after clearing a great forest so that the land could be cultivated. Without land on which to grow food, her people would perish. When all gathered at her death-bed, she told them to hold funeral games in her honor.  She prophesied that for as long as they celebrated in this way, Ireland would not be without song.  Her name comes from the old Celtic Talantiu, “The Great One of the Earth.”  From this we believe she may originally have been a personification of the Land itself.  There was a time when Lughnasadh had an older name, Brón Trogain, which refers to the painful labor of childbirth. From this we might see that at this time of year, the Earth births her First Fruits in order for us to live.

The people of early Ireland held the festival at Teltown in County Meath (its name derived from Tailtiu). Over time it became a great tribal assembly conducting all the business of the tribe. There they made legal agreements and had discussions about political issues.  It was also a time for handfastings, as well as large sporting events with races of all kinds.  As with all “faires”, many kinds of things were bought and sold. There was storytelling, music, and much revelry.

This festival seems to have two origins. The first is Tailtiu who died from exhaustion after clearing a great forest so that the land could be cultivated and second, we have Brón Trogain, which refers to the painful labor of childbirth; both great sacrifices. Sacrifice does not come without pain. Brón Trogain was also the name for the month of August and means, the “month of sorrow.” We can associate this sorrow with the death or subduing of the land-spirits and the sadness felt by tribe over the fact that the plants they have birthed and nourished must now be cut down. All must die for the harvest to be won. This was a gift freely given. She cleared the land for the crops and gifted them to her foster son and the tribe. In either case, the origins point to the sacrifice of mothers – the laboring and birthing as well as the nurturing.

As women we are aware of the meaning of sacrifice.  Those desires and dreams we release in order to birth and raise our children; personal sacrifices we give to another for love; the time spent working while raising a family; the work and sacrifice necessary for maintaining a home as keepers of the hearth; the pain and sorrow of our progeny’s (all of our creative endeavors) failures and losses, not our own, but felt through our connections as creators.

It is also the great festival of Lugh, or Lug, the great Celtic Sun King and God of Light. August is His sacred month when He initiated great festivities in honour of His mother, Tailtiu. Feasting, market fairs, games and bonfire celebrations were the order of the day. Circle dancing, reflecting the movement of the sun in sympathetic magic, was popular, as were all community gatherings. August was considered an auspicious month for handfastings and weddings.

But underlying this is the knowledge that the bounty and energy of Lugh, of the Sun, is now beginning to wane. It is a time of change and shift. Active growth is slowing down and the darker days of winter and reflection are beckoning…

The Sun God, Lugh, as John Barleycorn, is the living Spirit of the corn, or grain. As the corn is cut so John Barleycorn is cut down also. He surrenders his life so that others may be sustained by the grain, so that the life of the community can continue. He is both eaten as the bread and is then reborn as the seed returns to the earth. The first sheaf of corn is supremely important, produces the first (and best) seed and assurance of future harvest. Death and rebirth. Everything dies in its season. Everything is reborn. This is our whisper of immortality. And the wonderful bittersweet of Lammas.

Many years ago, a group invited me to priestess for a rite at Lughnasadh. I felt ill prepared as I had not yet found a way to identify with this festival, so often masculine in nature. I decided to take myself into a trance and see if I could journey to an earlier time when this festival was honored.  I don’t know where I went.  Where is much less important that what I saw and felt.

I was standing next to a large field of golden grain which was moving in waves at the urging of the wind.  I was holding a tall scythe in my right hand, and I was gazing out over this field.  I could feel the hot sun behind me and an equal warmth in my heart as it filled with pride at the beauty of this fine harvest before me.  I was proud of the work I had done and yet felt even more was the gratitude for the rich soil, the frequency of rain and the energy of the glorious sun shining down, the energy of the Mother, giving life to this crop which I am about to sacrifice, in all its bounty, so that I might live yet another year.

Let us enjoy and celebrate our early harvest, the bounteous gifts we have received, for the sacrifices we and others have made.  Let us give thanks for this bounty.  Let us dance and make merry that the fruits of our labor have manifested in this joy.  Let us offer grateful hearts for all the sacrifices made each day.  Let us honor those we have made, those of our mothers, fathers, friends, and family and finally, by our plant and animal kin who have given us the gift of life. Let us honor all those who clear the fields from which our crops are harvested.

Deanne Quarrie 2013

by

Friendship

Many years ago, I read the book, Soul Mates, Honoring the Mystery of Love and Relationship, by Thomas Moore. I was incredibly impacted by what Thomas More discussed in this book.  Prior to reading it I knew that for relationships to remain healthy they required attention paid to them, but I had never seen it described as he did in this book.  He says that all our relationships have a “soul” and that the soul of every relationship requires nurturing for the relationship to remain healthy.  Understanding this is an absolute requirement if we want the relationships, we must be healthy.

I have come to realize, in my old age, that I am not an expert on relationships.  Sadly, it is not one of my strong suits. There are some who would so lovingly disagree with my statement but then there are those who would jump on it vigorously in their agreement!  Mostly I believe that long lasting, quality relationships have been elusive for me because of the nomadic life I lead.  Also, I tend to see potential in people – I see possibility but sadly, quite often fail to see what is “real” and enter relationships with unhealthy people.  To be honest, I haven’t quite figured it all out yet! The result is, however, that the relationships I do have are precious to me.

I have often found myself in one-sided relationships. I am talking about friendships here – not romance. Somehow, I invested far more than the other person or cared more or needed it more and therefore “fed” the relationship more.  I found that if we connected at all, it was always me that called, me that wanted to make plans.  There comes a point when that is happening and it has been happening for a long time, it becomes painful to be in the relationship. When I did see it happening, I would always try to discuss it but somehow never found understanding with the other person or a way to change the dynamics.  At that point, the relationship would change, and I stopped feeding it.  Without my continued support the friendship faded away. We see it in romantic relationships, and we chalk it up to one loving more than the other and that too, is painful.  After I became aware of the pattern in how I formed friendships, I slowed down the process, trying to take note of the give and take and if balance were present before diving headlong into what would once more turn out one-sided.

So, what does Thomas Moore mean when he says that the soul of a relationship must be nurtured? What are the things we do when we care about someone?  We check in on them on a regular basis.  We try to get together when time permits.  We let them know how we value our relationship with words and actions.  We let them know on a regular basis, that we care.  We do wonderful things for them and accept wonderful things from them.  Our actions, our words, our behaviors all say, “I care about you.”

In a romantic relationship, when these things stop, we feel taken advantage of but how do we deal with it when it as a sibling, a child, a parent, or friend?  Do these too, not need nurturing to stay healthy? Absolutely!  This is where the phrase, “love is an action verb” comes in.  If we do not say, do not behave toward another in ways that say, “You matter to me” how is that relationship going to survive?  I found this quote in my email today, “Love is not just a feeling, but a verb. It’s something we do, a bit of spiritual theater we enact through actions large and small.” (Mooncircles)

Most people, when something like this is called to their attention, will say it is all from being too busy, that there simply is no time in their lives.  There may be truth in that, but I also see it as a matter of priorities.  If a friend is at the bottom of our “to do” list – just how important is that friend?  If an aging parent never hears from her grown children, or if one never gets a phone call from a sibling, I must ask, does love even exist? It is only a sense of obligation and not love at all. I don’t know.

I do know that when I have loved, it has been fiercely.  When I find a friend, they really matter to me.  If I still had a sibling to stay connected to, I would be thrilled. How blessed I would feel to have had the privilege of seeing my parents grow old.  What a sense of loss I feel when I think about not having had that experience – losing them when they were still young.  When I don’t hear from my own children for months on end or when they fail to display loving behavior, I have been known to say, “whose children are these?”

I often wonder if it isn’t this new social media experience we are involved in when friendships are made which a click of the mouse, where details of private lives are posted, mean and ugly comments and when people convolute what others say.  It is so easy because hey, who will bother to scroll down to see what was really said, anyway? Are these “friends” taking the place of real friendships? And if we are simply too busy to keep up with our friends, why have we let that happen, and when did we stop needing friends?

The only thing I do know for certain is that I need my friends.  Family matters to me and I am sad when I don’t hear from them, but I cannot live without friends. I cannot live without the deep connection that true friendship brings to my life. My friends are my chosen family. The love that comes from a good friend supports me emotionally and brings immense value to my life. I hope I am the kind of friend who gives that as well. In the end – what we share with those we care about is really all that matters in life – all that matters in the end.

by

Aine and the Giant Leap

Summer Solstice is a traditional time to honor Aine, Goddess of Love, Light, and Fertility who is also Queen of the Faeries. Aine’s name means “Bright” and She is typically honored when the sun is at its peak of power.  The Solstice is associated with abundance, beauty and bounty.  It is not necessarily about the harvest season, as that is yet to come.  However, everywhere we look we can see the abundance of the Mother and so it is when we first acknowledge, with joy, what is before us.

In my Tradition, the Summer Solstice falls within the Oak Moon, the Moon in which we “court the lightning bolt.”  What that means to us is that with our roots planted firmly in the ground, as does the Oak tree, now is the time to take all of our plans and put them into action.  “Go for it” is what we are saying to ourselves and to the world.

We call on Aine for aide in love, fertility and prosperity. We ask for Her help in claiming our own power and in experiencing true joy in life.

In this rite our work will involve taking a look at the preparations we made earlier in the year and then looking at all the work we have done leading up to this moment. In order to bring in the last of our bounty, those dreams not yet manifest, now is the time for us to take a “leap of faith.” Aine is calling to us saying, “Take a risk, and put your heart’s true desire into action!” It is time to “Court the Lightning Bolt.”

If we have been procrastinating – that has to stop. Indecision – putting off – all of that has to go away.  We need to understand that now is the time for decision making.  We must trust that the Universe will support our decisions.  This is our magic!  For once we make a decision – once we decide to act – doors open!  Once our intention is made known. We will be supported and what we need will fall into place.

Aine is asking us to take a leap of faith and jump wholeheartedly into putting the dream into play!

With our work done in the discovery process of what is already done, as well as what still needs to be done, we call upon Aine. We say to Her, to the Universe and to any there who listen, “I now take the Leap. With your help, Aine, I am ready! This is my Will. So Mote It Be!”

One other little part of Aine’s story is of particular interest to me.  My tradition, The Apple Branch has its roots in the Faerie Faith Tradition

Aine is known for teaching human children about love, both by taking human men as lovers and also by teaching humans how to share and express love in sacred ways. She gave birth to many children, some of them with mortal men and with those unions, created a magical Faerie-Human race.

Throughout time, we humans have inquired about our origins.  Where did we come from?  Are we star seeds?  A mix between gods and human animal forms? Did we breed with aliens?

We of the Faerie Faith, know that our origins began with the Fey. We love to think that we are those Faerie-Human Children of Aine, and hence our connection to the Gods of Old.  Perhaps you as well?

Anyway, returning to our original story… Are you ready to reach for the stars?  Are you ready to leave that place of indecision and with gusto, take a giant leap to claim what is yours? Take the power of the Sun from Summer Solstice and with the Full Moon coming up, call on Aine to guide and protect you in your own Giant Leap!  She may come to you as Lair Derg, a red mare that no one can outrun or She may be Beautiful Aine with long red hair, held by a headband of fallen stars. Either way, She walks among us, offering aide where She is needed.

May the Goddess of Light, Love and Fertility, bring us the sun’s power and life force and the moon’s mystery of intuition and regeneration. May She be with you and protect you as you move through these glorious days of Summer.

by

A New Year is Here!!!

logoAwaken Women! A New Year is arriving!! Have you dreamed of finding a mentor, a woman who will take you by the hand and gently guide you on your path? Do you yearn for a Sisterhood, where you can truly be who you are?

The Apple Branch – A Dianic Tradition extends an invitation to come explore fully how to be the priestess that you are! We have an online classroom with over 60 classes (always growing) where you can move at your own pace, and where you can share what you are learning with others, as well as beautiful rituals to inspire you on your path through the Wheel of the Year – the Goddess Cycles of Moon and Sun.

We offer three programs. First, our most comprehensive, Dianic FaerieCraft that is Dianic Wicca with added European/Celtic Craft. Second, Feminist Dianic Wicca as it has come through Z Budapest, and lastly, our path for our Crones, the Wisdom Path.  When you are at the website, please be sure to read See What Women Say and the Comments About the Ogham

Women! Explore – Choose – and Join!!

Download the Application
Many blessings,
Bendis    click for email

by

A New High Priest in the Apple Branch

Claudiney PrietoI am so very pleased to announce the ordination of Claudiney Prieto of São Paulo, Brazil as a high priest in the Apple Branch – A Dianic Tradition. I met Claudiney via the Internet. Our relationship deepens each time we have the opportunity to visit. I am so very proud to call him “Brother.” As a high priest in the Apple Branch, this also makes him a high priest in the Old Dianic, out of Morgan McFarland and Mark Roberts as well as in the Faerie Faith out of Mark Roberts and Morgana.

Claudiney Prieto is a pioneer of Wicca in Brazil and is considered one of the most respected and well-known authors in Brazil who placed more than one book in the Brazilian ranking of best-sellers.

His most famous book, Wicca – The Goddess Religion, sold more than 200 000 (two hundred thousand) copies in Brazil. He also wrote the books, ABC of Witchcraft, All Goddesses of the World, Rites and Mysteries of Modern Witchcraft, Coven- Creating and Organizing Your Own Group, Wicca for Solitary Witches, Rites of Passage- Celebrating Birth, Life and Death in Wicca, The Arts of Invocation and Wicca for All.

Claudiney Prieto is the founder of Dianic Nemorensis Tradition (http://www.nemorensis.com.br) and a third degree High Priest in the Gardnerian Tradition via Long Island Line. He is also an ArchPriest in the Fellowship of Isis, member of the Fellowship of Isis ArchmPriesthood Union and recently became the first man ordained by Zsuzsanna Budapest, receiving the title of Kourete in her Tradition.

He was the creator and founder of ABRAWICCA, the first Brazilian Pagan organization, and currently coordinates the Conference & Wicca Goddess Spirituality in Brazil (http://www.conferenciadewicca.com.br), the largest Pagan event in Latin America with national and international scope, where presenters share theories, thesis, views and discussions on the transformative experiences in Paganism and with the Goddess in her many manifestations.

He is founder and coordinator of the Free University of Pagan Studies (UNILEP), the first online school in Brazil dedicated exclusively to the study of Paganism and Thealogy by distance learning system.

In 2014, Claudiney created the World Goddess Day Project (http://www.worldgoddesday.com/), whose objective is reunite many people around the planet to afford the Great Mother of the world one day of visibility to share her many myths, stories and diversity forms of worship.

He is also the creator and a Trainer in Goddess Blessing and Goddess Healing, systems of blessing and healing centered in the Sacred Feminine.

Currently, Claudiney devotes most of his time to the organization of MYSTIC FAIR BRAZIL (http://www.mysticfair.com.br/), the world’s largest mystical fair and esoteric fair, held annually in São Paulo, Brazil.

by

Do You Believe in Magic?

I went online to dictionary.com and pulled three definitions for the word “magic.”

The art of producing illusions as entertainment by the use of sleight of hand, deceptive devices, etc., conjuring.

To pull a rabbit out of a hat by magic.

The art of producing a desired effect or result through the use of incantation or various other techniques that presumably assure human control of supernatural agencies or the forces of nature.

Any extraordinary or mystical influence, charm, power, etc.

The magic in a great name; the magic of music; the magic of spring.

The first definition is the one that most people think of when the word is used. The second is what people think storybook witches and wizards do and the third, a great way of using the word when talking about marvelous things in life.

I am going to toss out definition number one because, while valid, it just isn’t the kind of magic I want to discuss.

Let’s look at the second one. Any good witch can tell you, it isn’t the incantation of other techniques that assure the desired outcome, that’s all for effect. It might even be called “fluff.” What does create the desired results is what is happening in the mind as well as the energy applied and even then, controlling the forces of nature is no easy feat! And my magic is never about contolling supernatural agencies. I am not even sure what they mean by that. Is it our goddesses, spirits, our ancestors? I am not sure, but attempting control is not a good idea in any case!

My favorite definition is the last one, not the definition itself, but the actual joy of experiencing magic.

When I was a little girl, I was fascinated by snakes and lizards and yes, even bugs. The idea that a snake sheds its skin was an amazing thing. I would often find those skins after the snake shed it. That was magic in my little girl mind.

When I would come home from playing in the mountains, which I was forbidden to do, it was magic to me that my mother always seemed to know I had been there. In reality she could smell the sagebrush on me but I didn’t know that!

When I was a the beach, the sand crabs I could scoop up in my hands were magic to me. How could they possibly live under that sand in the water as well? I would scoop them up and then watch them bury themselves back where they came from. Amazing! Magic!

Even as a child I found the sun setting over the Pacific a most magical happening. This giant red ball, so brilliant the whole sky would follow suit and turn red as it lowered itself into the far distant water. That surely is where my child mind thought it was going. Magic!

As a teenager I would drive into town on Sunday mornings to go to church. I would always go early so that I could sit on the boulders overlooking the ocean far below me the waves would crash at the base of those boulders sending spray all the way to the top, the smell, salty and fresh. Magic!

My first child was born when I was twenty, after an easy labor. When I looked into his eyes for the first time, this beautiful little boy, all his fingers and toes perfect. Magic!

All my life I have loved trees. It amazes me how a tree can move through the seasons, knowing just what to do! Magic!

Here is a poem I wrote about that one year.

Bare TreeBare Tree, here in the cold of winter,
I stand here and gaze at your branches.
You are so adaptable to the changing seasons.
Each year, as the days begin to shorten,
you prepare yourself for the coming cold,
your leaves turning color and then dropping to the ground.
Those leaves, so full of moisture
would freeze with the cold
and cause you grievous harm.
Your branches would grow heavy with ice and snow.
In your bareness, Tree, you show us your wisdom.
In this time of cold,
You are preparing for future growth.
You are readying yourself for spring
When you will send out new leaves and flowers
and begin the growth cycle again.
Would that I could feel this cycle more within my own core
and know when it is time to be still and to rest,
when to pull back and listen,
when to be still and stand, rooted in the ground,
when to drop what could harm me
and when to go within to ready myself for the new.
Thank you, Bare Tree, for showing me this lesson
Thank you for the gift of your knowledge.

There are so many other things I could share here about my experiences with magic. Lately I have been having many synchronous events. People met, connections made. Magic!

Here’s my point …. Don’t ever let anyone ever tell you there is no such thing as magic!

by

The Promise of Ananke

I have recently been looking at the Goddess Ananke. Ananke and Her consort Khronos, were primal energies emerging from chaos, producing the world egg and then wrapping themselves around it causing it to burst. Out of that egg came the world and all that it contains. Just imagine, the world being formed by two energies – those of Inevitability or Necessity and by Time. How simple and yet how complex.

The story of Ananke and Khronos is large. Those ancients who held onto this story were not speaking of small things. This is the creation of a Universe. And yet, in the theory of “as above – so below”, we can look and see Ananke and Khronos at work in our lives all the time.

Time and Inevitability – perhaps everything can be broken down into these two principles. With Time and Inevitability, we are born, we age and we die. A life is led, perhaps filled with love, perhaps many things. As children we play and learn and eventually become adults. We marry. We have children. Some step into careers and choose not to procreate, rather putting their energies into work and other kinds of relationships, still creating, just not procreating. Also, it is possible that some of those lives will follow a darker path into poverty, criminality, envy and greed. It is hard to know at birth, the path that will be followed by a child. And yet there is a certain amount of inevitability that when a child is born into a life containing a dark poverty of spirit, that the child may not thrive in healthy wholesome ways in adulthood.

Time and Inevitability – since we are coming out of the traditional Thanksgiving Day, we can use it as one example. Many large families get together with turkey and all the trimmings and football on the TV. We all know that in this large family, there are many opinions, with diversity at play in every way possible. The potential for argument is all there and even happens. It is contained by one thing – love. Love that holds gratitude, that time has brought them together, still alive yet all moving toward the inevitable.

Time and Inevitability – our days leading to night, our summers leading to winter. Here we are, now facing winter. Our summer has long ended, our winter is beginning, the Inevitability of Time brings change. There is hope in that because not only does summer end and winter begin – summer returns. It is Inevitable!

That is the promise of Ananke. That while we may experience Darkness, the Light will return.

Ananke and Khronos were the parents of the Moirae (or the Three Fates). Moirae means “parts” or “shares.” It was believed that the Moirae assigned each person their “fate” or their share in life. These Three Fates were, Klotho, meaning Spinner – the one who spins the threads of life, Lakhesis which means “apportioner of lots” (one who measured the thread) and Atropos, meaning “she who cannot be turned”or she who cut the thread. It was said that at the birth of each man they appeared spinning, measuring, and cutting the thread of life. Life was hard then, the gods of man were stern and inflexible. Life was stern and inflexible.

We know now that life offers choice in how we fill it. We live with Time. It is a constant. We live with one certain Inevitability. In all of that lies choice in how we live while we have life. We will have days of joy and days of sorrow. We will have times to play and times, so filled with stress, we will wonder why we continue. In those days of darkness and even as we face the changing season and move into winter, we know that summer returns. So too, will the light and a return of love. That is the promise of Ananke.

by

Becoming

The Year 2015 is coming to a close. It is a time of endings and a time of beginnings. That is the wonderful thing about our cycles. We all have the opportunity to end and begin – over and over. Each day, each month and each year. We all scurry about making resolutions for the new year only to see them fail almost immediately.

This is where a good basic magical practice can lend a hand with our resolutions. In every magical act we must first know what it is we wish to manifest. I am not talking some empty wish here but a real look at what we want – really want – for the new year to bring.

If there were one thing I would say needs to be given the most attention in one’s magical practice is the Art of Becoming.

When we cast our Circle and invite the Elements, in truth, they are already there. It is within ourselves that we must become those Elements in order to feel their presence in our Circle. This is why we need to spend so much time studying them for when the studies are finished, we then must learn to feel them, embody them and finally, to project them out to others.

It is the same when aspecting a Goddess – we must become Her. The only way to do that is to first know Her, not just from books and other references, but from our own personal experience as we embody Her.

In my healing method which I call Annym Billagh (the spirit of trees), one learns the healing energies of trees by becoming those trees, by feeling them within and projecting their healing energies onto someone else.

When a member of a Native American tribe dances an animal, he is not just imitating that animal he is becoming the animal in the dance.

When a dancer wishes to portray an image in her dance, she must become that image. When an artist paints, he first learns what it is he wishes to paint. He learns so well that what he wants to paint becomes a part of him and then it is moved onto the paper. When an actor portrays a character on the stage or on film, she must first become that character. When we have a desire, when we wish something to be in our lives, we have to feel and be in that state in order to manifest it in the world of form. We must become our desire.

So it is if we wish to bring in something real with the New Year, becoming takes on vital importance. This year is coming to a close. As with all endings, it is a beginning.

This year, my Circle is honoring Frigga. The Goddess Frigga sits within Her hall and spins thread for the Norns to weave into the great tapestry of all life. She never reveals what is in the thread She spins, but we can tell Her of our dreams and ask Her to spin them into the thread of our life, if She will.

Frigga’s thread is the substance of becoming. We can ask for Her thread and once we have it, we can take it, and shape it, and manifest what is to come in our lives. What will you do with the thread Frigga gives you?

What do you need to know to become your desire in the coming year? Do you have a clear image of what it is you wish to become? Do you have a plan for becoming your desires? Will you be able to take the thread that Frigga has given you, and with your own full embodiment of that desire, manifest your dreams in the New Year?

May it be so! May all Blessings be yours in 2016 and may it be a year of “becoming” all that you can be.