Tuesday 9 September 2014

Raven Bran

Week 36



Raven Bran

Bran was a young man that found the early Warband in the 1990's. I met him in Arthur's book and grew to admire this wild youth who was very much part of Arthur's quest to find who he was. Sadly Bran (aka Andrew) took his own life in 2007 and his mum Maggie came on to the old forum to let us all know.  We were invited to his passing over ceremony at the Sanctuary in Avebury.  We left the Red Lion and walked up the Avenue to the Sanctuary and then gave him to the winds on top of that hill, over looking his favourite sacred places.  This is the poem I wrote at the time.

Hail and farewell Bran /|\

*********

Talisman found and interred for King and Land
Raven found and set free. Bringer of magic
Left us to re-enter the Great Mystery.
May he return to us carrying messages
Courier of intention, healing energy and thought
Messenger of these things on the Blue Road of spirit

I felt your presence on the cool northern winds

I felt your presence in the hearts around me
I felt your body, cupped in my hands
I felt you connect within 
I wanted to hold you a bit longer but had to let you go
I wished I had met you then and not now

We released you to the winds of the land

We stood united in circle and cried
We felt the pain in the hearts of those around us
We felt the cool northern winds in our hair, in our faces
We turned to the hills and let you go
We wanted to hold onto you a bit longer but had to let you go.



The Avenue, Avebury


Cliff passing over Bran with Terry Dobney, Ghyll (RIP), Susanna

My lovely friend John Coyler, our long walk back down the Avenue


Maggie being raised Summer Solstice 2007

Monday 8 September 2014

(be) Real

Week 35

Respect, Responsibility, Reality Check

Oh look it's 5am again.. sheesh, why can't my inspiration come during the day? Maybe it's the super full moon out... but unlikely, I'm always like this.

So then.... let's get to it.



Respect
Have some. People may not share the same views as you and even if you now dislike that person, have some respect and don't do magic against them. That's just not on, it's bad manners, it's bad practice and it's disrespectful to attack someone because you don't like them anymore. You're not respecting the Laws of magic, the Universe and you're abusing it.

Respect other people's views. You don't like it when the Jehovah's Witnesses knock on your door and preach to you, so don't force your version of what you believe in, down others throats. It is quite possible for there to be more than one way to do things.  Slagging off and pouring poison in to other people's ears because you've had a fall out is wrong. You are putting dis-harmony out in to the universe, you are affecting others with your negative energies and that stems from a lack of respect for those you are attempting to influence/glamour.

People say respect has to be earned... yes and no. Each person has a level of respect and they can either do things that increase or decrease that respect. Demanding that people have to earn it, is just a big fat ego at work and lets face it, you're kidding yourself if you think you can demand it.  Doesn't work that way.  You don't have to like someone, to respect what they do.



Responsibility
Take some.  Everything we do, we are responsible for. We make choices and those choices have consequences.  Being responsible for something doesn't mean you are to blame. It means you are owning your actions and mistakes. It takes a big person to admit when they are wrong... eating humble pie can be very filling too.

Magical responsibility. As I've previously blogged, you don't need to do magic at the drop of a hat. Someone pisses you off? Hexing them isn't the answer. It's a stupid misuse of energies, directed at someone in anger/spite/vindictiveness/revenge and those energies are not good to put out to the Universe. It's irresponsible, disrespectful and bang out of order.  For every action, there is a reaction... be prepared to take responsibility for your magical actions. They have a habit of biting you in the arse when you least expect it. Karma... nah, it's the Universe batting it right back at you for being stupid. You want to raise some demons - you better know how to put them away afterwards. Oh, I've heard some stories about that! Dickhead...


Be Real
This ain't Charmed. Or any of those other witchy shows/films. Those are FICTION and FANTASY. It is NOT real. Hey, I enjoy watching it as much as the next person but not for one minute did I think it was real magic.  It's ENTERTAINMENT.

You are you, that's pretty awesome already. You don't need to model yourself on some fictional character, you don't need all the Boffo. You don't need to buy spell books. You are not a sheep. Be real, be YOU.




More on Magic and Responsibility

" MAGIC. TIME. BEAUTY

All are held in the eyes of the beholder and all are, and mean, different things to different peoples.

High Magic, Ritual Magic, Kitchen Witch'in, Earth Magic, The Power of Prayer, Belief, Meditation, Concentration of Will, call it what you like.  It is the ability to influence the material world by the intervention of powers or forces not of this realm or not yet fully understood and catalogued by the Science of the day.

Coincidence, and a chain of events leading to a certain conclusion, may just as easily be thought of as Magic, where there was clearly the intent, as any other of a Supernatural appearance. It is worth noting here that many Practising Magicians, principally those involved in Earth Magic and Mysteries, would not view things as or of a Supernatural nature, more of a very Natural, and as yet unexplained nature.

The very nature of Magic is that it is a way in which we the Practitioner can influence the turn of events. With this must come a certain responsibility, and poses many questions of Ethics and Morality. These questions are best, and can in any event only be answered by the practitioner in question.

Do What thou Wilt, Be it in love and harm none. This is in fact little better than Hitler's justification for the Holocaust, and I'm afraid sorry is not good enough!

Each and every one of us has a responsibility for our actions. It's the price we pay for freedom of will and yes, call it Karma or whatever, someone must pay the piper at the end of the day.

We, each and every one of us, must justify our actions - in the first instance to ourselves and in the same instance to our God/dess.

All we do, we do in their Name/s also, I don't Know about you or the Christian God, but I for one wouldn't wish my name to be taken in vain.

Live and let Live is all well and good as far as it goes.

You have been gifted Freedom of will, use it wisely.

Arthur Pendragon /|\       "





More Quartz

Week 34

More Quartz

Phantom quartz

I said I couldn't think of any Q's.... so here are more pictures of my quartz collection.


Rose Quartz
I love this stuff. I use it for healing, house clearance (spirit moving on) and is prominent on my altar. When my dad was really poorly, I charged up a palm stone and gave it to him to hold. He's not a believer but he said this: 'the human body is a certain temperature, so this stone shouldn't be hotter than body temperature, yet it is, a lot hotter'.
















Smokey Rutilated Quartz
A wonderful piece. The rutiles are like needles, you can feel the edges of them on the smooth surface. I love working with smokey quartz and this particular piece is very buzzy. I use it during mediation, spirit work and when I'm doing tarot readings. You don't see many examples of smokey quartz with rutiles in.




Smokey Quartz
Candice made this. I spotted it on her stall and was instantly drawn to it. I didn't buy it though, not for three weeks. One day, I couldn't resist it anymore and bought it, put it on and was drunk within five minutes!  I was actually slurring my words... insane energies working through me, I tend to only wear this necklace when I am working with spirit or doing tarot, it really opens me up. Holding it doesn't have the same effect as wearing it around my neck.




Quartz... lots of quartz!



Crystal Ball
Crystal balls do not have to be clear, although traditionally they are. Mind you, some of those you see are actually glass.  This one is about the size of a grapefruit and has wonderful ice landscape inclusions through the middle. Lots of rainbows and shapes too... great for scrying and using during meditation.






Dragon?

Glacier landscape

Aqua Aura Quartz
This is normal quartz that has been electronically heat treated and charged in a precious metal. Different metals produce different colours - this one is coated with gold. Not cheap to buy.




Quartz

Week 33

Quartz egg selfie
QUARTZ

Ok, I admit it, I had a real job trying to figure out what I was going to write for the Q blogs. I didn't want to be that obvious and just do quartz but after spending a few hours trying to think of something else, I just kept coming back to quartz and my love of them.

I don't want to do a crystal guide. I don't want to tell you about what they are for and what they can be used for. Instead, I have photographed my own collection of quartz and will create this as a picture blog.  There are many varieties of quartz, too many to list here but I can recommend Melody's book 'Love is in the earth'.  There's no pictures but the book is a good 2 inches thick and packed full of crystal information, including ones you've never heard of before.  Click any of the images to see full size.

This piece stand at approx 6 inches and is a big lump of awesome. Cloudy at the bottom and clear at the top, it really feels lovely to hold.





Lithium quartz, a strange milky reddy-brown

Double terminated at both ends, approx 7-8 inches long. More pics below.

 



Green phantom quartz
















Tuesday 2 September 2014

Past Lives

week 32

Past Lives

I've touched on this in my other blogs..... and I've done my usual by starting a blog and then not going back to it for three weeks.  Then *POW* I have to start writing... so here goes.



I speak as someone who believes in past lives, I was part of the spiritualist church years ago and I have been to development circle to learn how to attune myself and decipher spirit's communication.  So being a clairvoyant, I believe and know that the energy that is our 'soul' goes on after our mortal body has perished.  This is the place that I am writing from.

It's always been trendy to make claims of being some big shot in your past life. I think that when you have learnt what your past lives were, that they are highly personal to YOU.  They shouldn't be worn as a badge and they don't give you any special powers. If anything, bleating about them, makes you look silly.  Our spiritual path is a personal one and one we should share with trusted people only. Otherwise, those people you share with, can use that information against you... and they do.  Sadly, that is the world we live in. It gives me no pleasure telling you that. I have told people about my spiritual path, people I thought I could trust and when they fell out with me, they then told everyone, like it's some kind of trophy to wave about. Hive minds of resentment and jealousy..... so please take care with whom you share your soul with.

OK, so back to past lives. There are going to be readers who tell you that you were some important person, they may be correct but take into consideration that many are charlatans, charging you for the privilege of making up stories about your former selves.  There is no way of proving what they are telling you is true or not because effectively, it's made up.  How you 'know' is by gut feeling, if what they tell you feels true, you will feel it, maybe all your hairs will stand on end, or you'll get a shiver or whatever your spirit trigger is. Ideally, you need to learn how to find for yourself, what you were and when.  There are books and Cd's you can read and listen too.  Some are bollox, some are good. Go on recommendations.  Mainly it is done by meditation, opening yourself and looking in to a mirror (not an actual mirror but visualise it in your meditation) and seeing your other lives reflect back at you.  You will feel akin to certain things.  You will go to places you have never been to but it feels like you know the place.  You will be drawn to certain people.

One day (15 years ago) I was lying on the bed talking to my friend Lorna (RIP) on the phone. I had a crystal on my forehead and we was nattering away. I became aware of a spirit guide in my room. I couldn't physically see him but I could SEE him in my mind.  He told me his name and that we'd walked the Songlines in a past life. I had carried on being reborn but he stayed behind.  Clear as day. I have no way of checking whether if any of it's true and yet, I know, in my bones, that it is.

Try explaining this to a non-spiritual person and they look at you funny. I've known a High Priestess argue with me about spirits existing at all, and yet she worked with energies.  Everyone has their own beliefs, everyone has a reason for those beliefs.  Everyone has to come to this on their own wind, it cannot be forced and some will never 'get it'.

What does it mean? 
I always say, it's not what you were in a past life, it's what you are in THIS life.  Past life knowledge will leak into your life now, you may find yourself knowing things you've not been taught or seen done before.  Whilst it's great knowing some of the types of people I have been over the millenia, it doesn't really give me any clout in this current existence.  I understand myself a bit better too.  It's personal for each person.

Not knowing your past lives, doesn't make you a lesser pagan/spiritual person. Don't force it. Your spirit guides can help you find those old paths, that lead to the one your soul walks now.  You aren't a failure if you don't know... so enjoy the walk and remember that most people who brag about their past lives, are bellends.  If you really want to know and you cannot find the answers yourself, find a good medium, one that's recommended by friends. Before you sit there and open yourself up to that stranger, ask questions, find out what they can do and whether they are the right person to help you on that journey.

Wash, rinse and repeat
I will add this though. You do carry luggage through the lives.  A few years ago I was having a clairvoyant reading with Richard Twiceborn (RIP), who told me that I was carrying a great deal of anger and my soul wanted vengeance for what had happened to me. I had been a cunning man and the church was pissed off that the people came to me for healing and guidance and not the clergy. So they had me killed. For 1500 years my soul was seeking vengeance on these soldiers who'd killed me. I was told that they had long gone and it was something that would eat me up if I didn't shed it. It wasn't mine (from this life) and it needed to go.  I asked how to do this and he kindly offered to clear it for me. He said that it would hurt me more than him.... every hair stood up on my body, shivers down my back, warmth and the sensation of being lifted inside.  At this precise moment, my son who'd been playing outside with my friend, fell off a wall and cut his head open, blood everywhere.  What hurts me, hurts him... have you seen the Bruce Lee story? Bruce carries his dad's 'demons' with him as his dad failed to deal with them, Bruce passed them on to his son Brandon.  We all know how that ended.. Bruce died very young and Brandon was killed on the set of The Crow.  This is an old Chinese ideology and one I feel is true.  So when that thing left me, it left my son too. My friend ran up and told me my son was hurt and I ended up going to the hospital in an ambulance and getting his head glued. He now has a great Harry Potter like scar, which he thought was great at the time cos he loved Harry Potter and used to run around the Halloweenfest (London) with a cloak and wand.  Feels like forever ago now..

Lessons
It is said that you are given the same lesson in each lifetime to learn, once you have learnt it, you are given another. Some live a whole lifetime not learning that lesson and go on to repeat it in the next life. If you are delving into your past lives, it's more than finding out who you were, it's what you were and finding patterns and picking up the thread and unravelling that lesson.  Do you have the courage to look in to that mirror and see, really see what is there?

And this is without even going into reincarnation and karma! Tread carefully on this path. Be well /|\