Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Magical tools...

So, I've spent many hours over the last few days dealing with all that lavender I showed you last post. Seriously, my 4-year-old and I spent hours yesterday knocking the spent flowers off of the lavender "pods" and getting the pods off of the stem, removing extra leaves from the stalk, and putting the stalks aside to try out as incense.

We're half way done.

That made me think (as hours of meticulous labor tends to) about the purpose behind what I was doing. It turns out that I intend to use some of this for making Christmas/Yule gifts for some friends and family, but I had also intended some of this lavender to go into a decorative glass jar that would become part of my magical-stash-of-plant-material-for-spells-and-rituals.

And here is where all this dreaming fell apart. I'm just not feeling the assemble-a-bunch-of-stuff-that-some-book-deems-appropriate-for-this-intent kind of stuff. I'm also feeling like a bit of a bad pagan for that... I mean, isn't this what I'm supposed to do?

I've just started to realize that candle spells have not worked well for me, I just don't feel connected to it, despite how much I love candles. There has never been a correlation between how much effort I've put into setting up my rituals with what I've gotten out of it. In fact, it's entirely possible that the less I've put into setting up and getting ready, the more I've enjoyed what I've done and the more I've gotten from it. I like meditation rituals... especially spontaneous ones... and I always feel like I learn something about the earth or myself when I do them.

Some part of me really wants to collect stuff and use herbs in ritual... but now I'm not sure how that will look. I hope that at some point I will find that there are little simple preparations, not formal, that I will use for my meditations... but for now I'm honestly a little disappointed that I don't love all the "stuff" and "doing"... that I'm feeling simpler than that. Isn't that silly?

2 comments:

  1. :-) It is all a process of finding what works well for one. Just because you find it in a book and it says one "must" do this and that in order for it to be "perfect" is simple hogwash. Magic is found within as is ones spiritual journey.

    Do what feels natural and what comes to you not what someone necessarily tells you to.. In the end you will be a much happier person. blessings to you and yours and good luck with your lavendar...

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  2. Hello :)
    ... in a completely unrelated vein...
    I think a year and half is enough. time is unimportant surely?
    I don't know if I have much to offer either but mabye that's what it's all about - parents like ourselves who can't find the support they're after. Why not do it ourselves. I think if enough people are interested then the sum of the whole is greater than its parts.I think working together and bouncing ideas around produces wonderful and unforseen results.
    I have NO IDEA how to even go about this lol - but i'm determind to try. If people don't respond to my request i'll justsearch them out and hassle them lol! (actually i already have!) so if you would like to be involved I would love to have you on board! Have a think and let me know if I can count you in! If you decide you'd like to be part of it maybe let me know what sort of things you're interested etc - it'd just be nice to know what people's skills and interests are to try to cover a broad range of things. Your thought on why you're considering homeschooling might be a good starting point to think about the type of things you'd like to write about do you think?
    Anyway, I hope I'll hear from you about this again, and indeed am looking forward to it!
    Nellie x

    Oh and SPREAD THE WORD ;)

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