Time for a Change...a return to primal knowledge

Photo: Feet Over the Abyss by Marco Verch on flickr.

The change is coming.

It is a time for deep change. We stand at the cliff's edge right now, our toes over the edge above the abyss. Behind us is a world of greed, of suffering, a world out of balance with the natural forces around us/ In front of us...well, that remains to be seen.

Right now a dark stormy fog lies before us. Occasionally the fog shifts and we get a glimpse of what lies beyond. Sometimes that future seems to be a good one, of balance and healing of the Earth, and other times it appears to be dark and forbidding.

There are two futures before us. Right now we still have a choice of which future we pull towards us, but the window for that choice is narrowing.

The Earth will survive, as she has for millennia. She has enormous capacity for healing herself. The real question is...will we? As a society, as a race, will we step forward into the future or step off into the abyss of destruction?

The answer to that question lies within us. As pagans, as witches, as people of the Earth, we have more power than most to to effect change. And yet, for the most part, we haven't. We have been content to live our lives like the rest of the herd, stepping forward only to circle on the holidays, practicing quietly in the safety of our apartments. We have taken the watered-down witchcraft they offered us, tried the badly-rhymed spells and incomprehensible rituals, and then wondered if we were doing it wrong when we didn't feel anything. When it didn't work. And maybe then you felt, somehow, a need for more, a way to go deeper.

It's time for a change.

It's time to find a way to go deeper. It's time to shake off our complacency and find time to play, to heal, to fight, to howl at the moon. It's time to break the chains and connect with the deep primal forces within ourselves and within the Earth.

You don't have to wait until you join a coven or find a teacher or find other people like yourself. You don't need to attend a weekend workshop that costs more than your rent or mortgage payment. All you need is yourself and the world around you. The First Knowledge, the knowledge of your primal self and the deep pagan ways of our ancestors is available to anyone who seeks them. You just need to learn to listen...and be willing to unlearn the lies that society has taught us.

Folk Magic to Attract Money

Photo Credit: Biosynthesis 24 on flickr

Simple folk magic for attracting money to you: Stand on a bridge over a swiftly-running creek or river, facing upstream so the water is rushing towards you. Toss a coin in the water (the higher denomination the better) and ask the spirits of the water and the land to send more money your way. Picture the abundance flowing over you and into you as you absorb the energy of the rushing water headed towards you. 

Don't forget to leave an offering for the spirits of the place in thanks! This will work better if it is an area where you have already cultivated relationship with the land spirits by regularly leaving offerings and being a steward of the land.

Thoughts on Animism

Photo by Jack Wolf

I got a question the other day about animism...especially how we view animism in the Thornish ways. I thought I would share that discussion here.

When I look at animism, I'm basically using the definition here from Dictionary.com:

animism (noun)

1.the belief that natural objects, natural phenomena, and the universe itself possess souls.

Here's my take on animism. Everything has a spirit. You can use the word soul but I don't...I guess because the word "soul" has too many Abrahamic connotations for me. So everything has a spirit within, natural or manufactured. It just does. They are all a part of the Great Essence, the Great Mystery...which Thornish people like to explain as the "operating system" of the universe.

Animism is a concept I didn't really have explained to me until later in life. It's just something that if you are sensitive, you know. It's why some people (like me) talk to everything around them. Trees, rocks, cars, computers, the kitchen stove, animals...you name it.

Yes, it goes against what we are taught. Welcome to the Unlearning.

Kids have a special connection to the Otherworlds, before they are told that they don't and it's hard to try to preserve that and fight against the propaganda from the mundane world. The next generation can be so much better than we are, if we work at it...because they don't have to do all that backtracking and unlearning to get back to where we started.

As for whether the Great Mystery gave everything a spirit...I don't get too hung up on who created who or that whole chicken and the egg thing. I think the Great Essence or Great Mystery is so far beyond our understanding that we are kinda chasing our nonexistent tails trying to figure it out. I know what I know. I know the spirit is in all things because I see it...hear it...feel it. Some people can't feel it anymore--or don't want to--and I don't spend too much time trying to convince those kind of folks that it's there. If they go out in the woods for a day and a night, open themselves up, and see what happens...they might be surprised.

Does it have to be alive to have a spirit ? No. But if it's dead (here in this world) its spirit may not be here in this dimension, this realm of the multiverse. We're basically all spirits riding around in a physical body conveyance of some kind...be it a person, an animal, or a tree suit. Your body dies in this 'verse and your spirit often goes off to your ancestors or somewhere else. Or hangs around and bugs your family still here. 

Does this makes you feel insignificant? Like you are not really the top of the food chain? Or the dominant life form on this world? Good! It's supposed to! That is why Thornish people often do a Hollowing...to remind themselves of their tiny place in a web of spirits and creatures in the multiverse...and the vast number of them are far more advanced than we are.

Should you ask permission then, if you are interacting with these other spirits? It's a polite thing to do before walking in the woods...crossing a river...picking up a stone to move it...gathering flowers. Sometimes it's not so much "Can I?" but just an honoring of the spirits there. Showing respect.

I leave offerings all the time, especially when I am in the green spaces. Sometimes the only offering you have to leave are your words, your intent, your respect. The spirits understand. Believe me, if you start leaving offerings or even speaking the words (aloud or in your head) you will feel the response of the spirits around you. They might be surprised at first and angry because most people don't bother. But you will develop, over time, a relationship with the spirits around you and they will start to recognize you and welcome you (as long as you don't make promises you can't keep.)

My standard "sacred mix" for offerings is a small ziploc bag I always carry with me. Usually it is a mix of birdseed, nuts, peanuts, trail mix, sage, mugwort, tobacco, dried flowers...it changes with whatever I have on hand at the time and the season. In the spring I like to add wildflower seeds. Depending on where you are going you might supplement it with tiny rocks, crystals, copper pennies, alcohol...you get a feel for what the spirits around you like after a while. Added to this is your intent, your honor, your respect when you leave it. If I'm in a crowdy place I will usually just send up a mental or whispered offering but in more secluded places I'll leave a handful of sacred mix and some words.

The point here is not to take the spirits around us for granted. It's to acknowledge that you know your place in the multiverse is tiny but that you can and should live in Balance with everything around you. And once you begin to acknowledge and honor all those other spirits...it opens up the worlds around you in ways many have never even imagined.

Be The One You Needed

They say
that you should become
the person that you needed
as a child.

And so I try to think
who would that person be?

She would be someone who was
quiet and gentle
a good listener
who did not judge
who knew what it felt like
to be strange
to see things
to know things
to be misunderstood
and ridiculed
someone who understands.
Who knows.
Who weaves
who sees through the walls that I built
who draws me out
knowing that I want to talk about it
even though I say I don't.
Someone who understands fear
desperate fear
worry
and anxiety
someone who has hidden
for far too long
afraid
and yet

has pushed past the fear
broken down the walls
gained the strength
and the courage
to step forward
and own it all
ALL
every
last
tricky dirty secret
someone who has shone a light
into every dark corner
and swept all the cobwebs up
to knit a comforter
to wrap around
the next generatiom
of weird and wonderful
scared and tired
those who are afraid
to close their eyes at night
and equally loathe
to open them again in the morning
onto a world
that does not understand
or accept them.

Someone who can teach
all those things that have gone
unlearned
for generations.
Someone who speaks
to the wind and the water
the stones and the trees
the spirits and the creatures
who sings to the moon
and dances with the unknown
wild and primal
where she used to be caged
strong
where she used to be weak
bold
where she used to be quiet
who draws things forth
from the otherworlds
and translates them into this one.

Someone who
makes
crafts
cooks
talks with her hands
and her art
as well as her
words
and finally
someone who is not afraid
to stand up
to push back
to protect those she loves
guardian
and goddes
dreamwalker
sage
spider
and
hawk
scrythe and seer
dancer and weaver
death and rebirth
like the Dark Mother
THIS is who I needed
SHE is who I need to be
who I will be
who I am
becoming

© 2016 Cassandra Wolf

 

Conversation with an Awakening Seer

Photo Credit: Misty Woods by Barry Chignell via Flickr

 

Come. Sit by me on this mossy log. and let us talk. No, not about me--this time I want to talk about you, about the way you see things, things that most other people cannot see.

Do you see things happen, in dreams or in visions, that later unfold in this world, this reality that we all share?

Do you look at people and just know things about them? Can you hear their thoughts or feel their emotions? Is this world sometimes so noisy with other people's thoughts you can hardly stand it? Or so full of the feelings of other people you find it hard to maintain your own peace and happiness?

Do you see things other people do not seem to see? Other creatures, people, and colors? Do you hear haunting music that seems to have no source? Or do you see landscapes, entire worlds and other realities, sometimes on the edges of your vision or overlapping this reality, this world? Or are there other worlds that you can lose yourself in, complete with people and creatures or plants and rocks you can have long conversations with, by speaking or simply by thinking?

You are not crazy. And you are not alone.

You are a seer, my friend. Oh, there are many other words you can choose to call yourself, and if you find one that you like more than seer then by all means claim it for your own. Find a word that describes you and keep it, hold it, identify with it, and when you are ready, use it to describe yourself to others.

Be aware that what you are will make many people uncomfortable. Some people will ridicule you and laugh at you. You may be told you are crazy or that you are "making it up." You may be called a liar, a pretender, or other things far worse.

And it is here that I want to hug you, my friend, for I have been there and experienced all these things. And I want to tell you to be strong. You have a wonderful talent that not many people have, although more are born with it each day. You shouldn't have to deny it or hide it. You should be proud to be a seer.

But you may wish to choose the people you tell very carefully. You may wish to keep it to yourself, confiding in only a few that are close to you. Or you may want to tell many people, broadcasting your abilities widely. Again, the choice is yours. Do not be ashamed of what you are, and do not make claims that are beyond your abilities.

Most of all, learn to trust your talents. And use them! This is your gift and if it helps you to find friends or avoid danger, comfort people or find a better job, then by all means use it. You weren't given this gift to ignore it or deny it. Use your abilities to enhance your life and make it better.

 But be aware, my friend, that being a seer does not make you a witch, a shaman, a dreamwalker, or a Farer, as we call them in my tradition. There is much work and training to become one of these. Does being a seer make it easier to be a Farer or a witch? Oh, yes. It can make your training much easier. Or it can make it far more difficult, if you choose to mistake instinct and gifts for training and knowledge.

Take time to learn how to shield yourself so that other people's thoughts and emotions do not disturb your own. Learn to guard your energy so it is not drained away by others. Learn to recognize when your energy is getting low, when you have given too much to others, and retreat. Learn what replenishes your energy, what fills you up, and do it often. And learn to recognize false teachers who empty your pockets or your energy reserves and give nothing in return, and avoid them.

You are beautiful, my seer, young or old. You are amazing and gifted beyond most of your peers.You can see magical things that are hidden from those around you. You, and those like you, are the ones who can rise above the mundane and build bridges between the worlds.

You have a marvelous adventure ahead of you, if you choose to embrace it.

Committing

Like Popeye, I am what I am. I am what I have always been and always will be. I am a dreamwalker, a diviner, a walker-between-worlds.

I have traveled many orbits around this star, and for most of those I have denied what I am, tried to hide the gifts I have been given. I have tried to pass for "normal," tried to fit in with society's expectations while always questioning them, or not understanding them.

I didn't understand, as a teenager, how everyone around me could be so wrapped up in dating and football games and the internecine clique-wars in high school. How could they ignore the worlds that danced at the corners of their vision, the strange and beautiful ones who beckoned from beyond? How could they be so focused on such mundane things? I felt like a failure, like an alien in their midst. I could not ignore the Otherworlds, could not escape their draw.

I was well into my 20's before I realized the truth - that they weren't ignoring these things, that other people weren't so much better than I was at dealing with these intrusions.

They didn't see them. They couldn't see the Otherworlds shimmering so tantalizingly close.

Now I wasn't a failure, unable to cope. I was crazy...or so I thought.

But now I know that I am not crazy. It is the way I was born, perhaps the way I chose to be before I was born. It is a gift, not a curse. It is something I must face, something I must commit to being, to living, to doing. It is not enough to live in an uneasy tension with what I am. It is time for me to embrace that which I am, to begin to live fully in this body I inhabit, and to begin the work I came here to do.