Outlining Your Intentions
Making A List Of What You Want
The universe is aware of both the concrete goals we actively pursue and the nebulous dreams we have not yet begun to refine. Neither our struggles nor the daydreams that inspire us are beyond the range of universal perception. Yet to manifest our aspirations, we not only need to know what it is we generally wish to achieve; we also need to clearly articulate these aims to ourselves and the universe. When we create a list of what we want, citing each item in as much detail as possible, our aspirations take on new substance. What was once a mere wish becomes real and achievable when put into words. As you pour the contents of your heart and soul into your list, your well-defined ambitions become a part of you, and the universe responds to your new determination by placing opportunities related to your objectives in your path.
Whatever the nature of your desires, your list can help you channel your intellectual and emotional power into your efforts to realize them. The list you create should not simply be a record of your individual goals. Rather, it should be a comprehensive, exhaustive catalog of each target you want to reach and your reasons for aiming for them. This may mean that your list will encompass many pages of text, since when you write down and review your ambitions, you empower yourself to more accurately direct your goal-realization efforts. You then also have a framework in place that helps you distinguish success from setbacks. If you keep your list in a convenient spot and review it daily, you will inadvertently reaffirm your conviction to your aspirations, demonstrating to the universe that you are truly devoted to your chosen path while keeping your objectives fresh in your mind. If you have an altar, this would be a great place to keep your list.
As you compose your list, try not to edit or judge what you have written. Some of what you want may seem outlandish when considered in the context of your current circumstances. Whether you are destined to fulfill the items on the unique long-term agenda you create in a year, 10 years, or 20 years, if you are free with your ideas and understand that you may not bring these dreams into the realm of reality for some time, your list will attract the universe's benevolence even as it energizes and inspires you.
MysteryMystic
Using Your Power
Self-Determination
Our lives are defined by the decisions we make each day. When we choose one option over another, whether we are selecting a restaurant or considering a cross-country move, we shape our lives. The decision-making process can be empowering, allowing us to enjoy the benefits of self-determination. Yet it can also be a source of anxiety because decisions force us to face the possibility of dissatisfaction and inner conflict. As a result, many of us opt to avoid making decisions by allowing others to make them for us. We consequently turn our power over to spouses, relatives, friends, and colleagues, granting them the stewardship of our lives that is ours by right. Though the decisions we must make are often difficult, we grow more self-sufficient and secure each time we trust ourselves enough to choose.
Ultimately, only you can know how the options before you will impact your daily life and your long-term well-being. Within you lies the power to competently weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each selection. Even if you feel incapable of making a decision, your inner wisdom and your intuitive mind will give you sound counsel if you have faith in yourself. Try to come to your own conclusions before seeking the guidance of others, and even then, treat their suggestions as supplementary information rather than votes to be tallied. Before making your choice, release your fear of wrong decisions. Perceived mistakes can lead you down wonderful and unexpected paths that expose you to life-changing insights. If you can let go of the notion that certain choices are utterly right while others are entirely wrong, you will be less tempted to invite others to take the reigns of your destiny.
When your choices are your own, you will be more likely to accept and be satisfied with the outcome of those choices. Your decisions will be a pure reflection of your desires, your creativity, your awareness, and your power. Since you understand that you must live with and take responsibility for your decisions, you will likely exercise great care when coming to conclusions. As you learn to make informed and autonomous choices, you will gain the freedom to consciously direct the flow of your life without interference.
Source: Daily OM
Ritual is Essential
Seeing ritual and ceremony as
sophisticated social and spiritual technology
by Dolores LaChapelle
Dolores LaChapelle was one of the early voices for "deep ecology," the idea that in order to established a truly sustainable relationship with the natural environment it would take more than laws and appropriate technology. We need a deeper and more personal sense of connection - the kind that so far human beings have only found through ritual and ceremony. She is the author of EARTH FESTIVALS (with Janet Bourque) and EARTH WISDOM, as well as numerous articles on ritual and deep ecology. These books are available from her via Finn Hill Arts, P. O. Box 542, Silverton, CO 81433
But there's more than just solving the how-to problems. I've often said that if we're going to have a real rural renaissance I'd just take the solving of the how-to problems for granted. The first thing I'd provide would be festivals. Ralph Borsodi
I will say leave a good quarter of the time for feast and celebration or your soul will die. Francois Monnet, IN CONTEXT, No. 1
MOST NATIVE SOCIETIES around the world had three common characteristics: they had an intimate, conscious relationship with their place; they were stable "sustainable" cultures, often lasting for thousands of years; and they had a rich ceremonial and ritual life. They saw these three as intimately connected. Out of the hundreds of examples of this, consider the following:
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The Tukano Indians of the Northwest Amazon River basin, guided by their shamans who are conscious ecologists, make use of various myths and rituals that prevent over-hunting or over-fishing. They view their universe as a circuit of energy in which the entire cosmos participates. The basic circuit of energy consists of "a limited quantity of procreative energy that flows continually between man and animals, between society and nature." Reichel-Dolmatoff, the Colombian anthropologist notes that the Tukano have very little interest in exploiting natural resources more effectively but are greatly interested in "accumulating more factual knowledge about biological reality and, above all, about knowing what the physical world requires from men." |
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The Kung people of the Kalahari desert have been living in exactly the same place for 11,000 years! They have very few material belongings but their ritual life is one of the most sophisticated of any group. |
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Roy Rappaport has shown that the rituals of the Tsembaga of New Guinea allocate scarce protein for the humans who need it without causing irreversible damage to the land. |
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The longest inhabited place in the United States is the Hopi village of Oraibi. At certain times of the year they may spend up to half their time in ritual activity. |
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Upon the death of their old cacique, Santa Ana Pueblo in New Mexico recently elected a young man to take over as the new cacique. For the rest of his life he will do nothing else whatsoever but take care of the ritual life of the Pueblo. All his personal needs will be taken care of by the tribe. But he cannot travel any further than sixty miles or one hour distance. The distance has grown further with the use of cars but the time remains the same - one hour away from the Pueblo - his presence is that important to the ongoing life of the Pueblo. They know that it is ritual which embodies the people. |
Our Western European industrial culture provides a striking contrast to all these examples. We have idolized ideals, rationality and a limited kind of "practicality," and have regarded the conscious rituals of these other cultures as at best frivolous curiosities. The results are all too evident. We've only been here a few hundred years and already we have done irreparable damage to vast areas of this country now called the U.S. As Gregory Bateson notes, "mere purposive rationality is necessarily pathogenic and destructive of life."
We have tried to relate to the world around us through only the left side of our brain, and we are clearly failing. If we are to re-establish a viable relationship, we will need to rediscover the wisdom of these other cultures who knew that their relationship to the land and to the natural world required the whole of their being. What we call their "ritual and ceremony" was a sophisticated social and spiritual technology, refined through many thousands of years of experience, that maintained their relationship much more successfully than we are.
The human race has forgotten so much in the last 200 years that we hardly know where to begin. But it helps to begin remembering. In the first place all traditional cultures, even our own long-ago Western European cultural ancestors, had seasonal festivals and rituals.
The true origin of most of our modern major holidays dates back to these seasonal festivals. There are four major festivals: winter and summer solstice (when the sun reverses its travels) and spring and autumn equinox (when night and day are equal). But in between each of these major holidays are the "cross quarter days." For example, spring equinox comes around March 21 or 22 but spring is only barely beginning at that time in Europe. True spring - warm reliable spring doesn't come until later. This is the cross quarter day - May 1 - which Europe celebrated with maypoles, gathering flowers, and fertility rites. May became the month of Mary after the Christian church took over and May crownings and processions were devoted to Mary instead of the old "earth goddesses." Summer solstice comes on June 21. The next cross quarter day is Lammas Day in early August. This is the only festival that our country does not celebrate in any way. The Church put the Feast of the Assumption on this day to honor Mary. Fall equinox comes on Sept. 21 - the cross quarter day is Hallowe'en, the ancient Samhain of the Celts. Then comes winter solstice - the sun's turn around point from darkness to light. The cross quarter day between the solstice and spring equinox is in early February - now celebrated in the church as Candlemas.
The purpose of seasonal festivals is periodically to revive the topocosm. Gaster coined this word from the Greek - topo for place and cosmos for world order. Topocosm means "the world order of a particular place." The topocosm is the entire complex of any given locality conceived as a living organism - not just the human community but the total community - the plants, animals and soils of the place. The topocosm is not only the actual and present living community but also that continuous entity of which the present community is but the current manifestation.
Seasonal festivals make use of myths, art, dance and games. All of these aspects of ritual serve to connect - to keep open the essential connections within ourselves. Festivals connect the conscious with the unconscious, the right and left hemispheres of the brain, the cortex with the older three brains (this includes the Oriental tan tien four fingers below the navel), as well as connecting the human with the non-human - the earth, the sky, the animals and plants.
The next step after seasonal rituals is to acknowledge the non-human co-inhabitants of your place. You can begin by looking into the records of the tribes of Indians who lived there and see what their totem was. Look into the accounts of the early explorers and very early settlers. Barry Lopez relates that the Eskimo told him that their totem animal was always the one who could teach them something they needed to learn.
Beginning in the Northwest, because In Context is published in the Northwest, it is fitting that we talk of Salmon. Salmon is the totem animal for the North Pacific Rim. "Only Salmon, as a species, informs us humans, as a species, of the vastness and unity of the North Pacific Ocean and its rim . . . Totemism is a method of perceiving power, goodness and mutuality in locale through the recognition of and respect for the vitality, spirit and interdependence of other species," as Linn House explains. For at least 20,000 years the Yurok, Chinook, Salish, Kwakiutl, Haida, and Aleut on this side of the rim and on the other rim of the Pacific, the Ainu (the primitives of Japan) ordered their daily lives according to the timing of the Salmon population.
Several years ago I did some in-depth study of Celtic myth and discovered that Salmon was the totem animal for the Celts, too. According to their myth, there was a sacred well situated under the sea where the sacred Salmon acquired their supernatural wisdom. The famous Celtic hero, Finn, traditionally obtained his wisdom when he sucked on the thumb he had just burnt when picking up the Salmon he cooked. It is not surprising that Salmon links all these areas. The North Pacific Rim and the British Isles are maritime climates in the northern half of the earth. Here is the perfect way to ritualize the link between planetary villagers around the earth - through their totem animal.
How can we learn from Salmon? One specific way is to reclaim our water-ways so that Salmon can again flourish. If we reclaim the water so that Salmon can flourish we have reclaimed the soil, the plants and the other species of the ecosystem - restored them to aboriginal health. In so doing we would be restoring full health to our children as well.
Linn House feels that the people who live in or near the spawning ground of Salmon should form associations, not as law enforcement agencies such as the State Fish and Game Department, but as educational groups and providers of ritual and ceremony which would celebrate the interdependence of species. Linn was a Salmon fisherman on Guemes Island; he now lives in Northern California where he is restocking Salmon rivers.
What relevance does this kind of ritual have for people who live in the city? All of us need seasonal and nature rituals wherever we live, but let me give you a specifically urban example.
Siena, Italy, with a population of about 59,000, has the lowest crime rate of any Western city of a comparable size. Delinquency, drug-addiction and violence are virtually unknown. Class is not pitted against class nor young against old.
Why? Because it is a tribal, ritualized city organized around the contrada (clans) - with names such as Chiocciola, the Snail, Tartule, the Turtle, etc. - and the Palio (the annual horse race). The contrada function as independent city states. Each has its own flag, its own territorial boundaries, its own discrete identity, church songs, patron saint and rituals. Particular topographical features of each contrada's area are ritualized and mythologized. The ritualized city customs extend clear back to the worship of Diana, the Roman goddess of the moon. Her attributes were taken over by the worship of Mary when Christianity came in.
Many famous writers such as Henry James, Ezra Pound and Aldous Huxley sensed the energy of the city and its events and tried to write about it but none of them even faintly grasped the yearlong ritualized life behind it. About one week before the day of the Palio race, workmen from the city of Siena begin to bring yellow earth (/a terra from the fields outside Siena) and spread it over the great central square, the Campo, thus linking the city with its origins in the earth of its place. In fact, anytime during the course of the year when someone needs to be cheered up, the sad person is told not to worry because soon there will be "la terra in piazza" (soon there will be earth in the square).
The horse race serves two main purposes. In the intense rivalry surrounding the race, each contrada "rekindles its own sense of identity." The Palio also provide the Sienese with an outlet for their aggression and as such is a ritual war. The horse race grew out of games which were actually mimic battles and were used to mark the ends of religious festivals.
The Palio is truly a religious event. On this one day of the year the contrada's horse is brought into the church of its patron saint. In the act of blessing the horse, the contrada itself is blessed. This horse race is the community's greatest rite. "In the
Palio, all the flames of Hell are transformed into the lights of Paradise," according to a local priest, Don Vittorio.
If we want to build a sustainable culture, it is not enough to "go back to the land." That's exactly where our pioneering ancestors lived and, as the famous Western painter Charles Russell said, "A pioneer is a man who comes to virgin country, traps off all the fur, kills off the wild meat, plows the roots up. . . A pioneer destroys things and calls it civilization."
If we are to truly re-connect with the land, we need to change our perceptions and approach more than our location. As long as we limit ourselves to rationality and its limited sense of "practicality," we will be disconnected from the "deep ecology" of our place. As Heidegger explains: "Dwelling is not primarily inhabiting but taking care of and creating that space within which something comes into its own and flourishes." It takes both time and ritual for real dwelling. Likewise, as Roy Rappaport observes, "knowledge will never replace respect in man's dealings with ecological systems, for the ecological systems in which man participates are likely to be so complex that he may never have sufficient comprehension of their content and structure to permit him to predict the outcome of many of his own acts." Ritual is the focused way in which we both experience and express that respect.
Ritual is essential because it is truly the pattern that connects. It provides communication at all levels - communication among all the systems within the individual human organism; between people within groups; between one group and another in a city and throughout all these levels between the human and the non-human in the natural environment. Ritual provides us with a tool for learning to think logically, analogically and ecologically as we move toward a sustainable culture. Most important of all, perhaps, during rituals we have the experience, unique in our culture, of neither opposing nature or trying to be in communion with nature; but of finding ourselves within nature, and that is the key to sustainable culture.
AUSTRALIAN PERSPECTIVE ON THE WHEEL OF THE YEAR
As Australian is a land of extremes, some people may find that in working with the more traditional story of the Goddess and God, the one found in most books written for the Northern Hemisphere, can be a little out of place. The following version of the dance between the Goddess and God is found in Lynne Hume's "Witchcraft and Paganism in Australia" and is added as an extra thought when attuning to the seasonal changes.
November is the time when the Goddess leads the young God into sexual initiation. The young God then grows and becomes, in the scorching heat of December, the Summer King and She becomes the Red Queen, both beautiful and terrible. They dance the land-marriage and in a powerful rite are transformed; the God self-immolates but His ashes fall onto the ground, creating bushfires. Thus, He is flame and ash, and She, as Earth, becomes scorched and parched, and takes on the Crone aspect.
In January the Goddess is the Dark Goddess and the God is the Lord of Shadows. She is the death bringer through heat. In February, flash floods are added to the violent of the drought. The God grows while waiting for the rain. In March, the Goddess reaches a transition and here She looks to new beginnings. The Maiden emerges from the shadow of the Crone, bringing healing rains which nurture the Earth and engender potential for life. Seeds germinate. She flirts with the life spirit who is the God locked in the Underworld. He captures Her and takes Her into His realm of dreams. This Lord of Shadows initiates Her into the Mysteries and in May she begins to learn the power of self-knowledge.
From May to June She becomes the Queen of the Underworld and they are in balance and harmony and release creative energy into the world. Unfurling leaves of new plants are enriched by the now fertile Earth.
In July and August She teaches the young God the mysteries of the world and in September they play in the green woods. She assumes the cloak of the Earth Mother, He is the young Forest Lord. In October, Spring is in full bloom and they explore their sexuality. In November they come together in the Great Rite (sexual union), and the circle continues.
AUSTRALIAN GREATER SABBATS
The following information has adapted from Caer Australis, an Australian site with an Brythonic approach to Paganism.
Imbolg (1 August) - Imbolg marks the "dawn" of the year with the forests being bright with the colour yellow as the Acacia trees coming into full flower. Until recently, 1 August was known as "Wattle Day". (This has now been moved to 1 September.) Nature celebrates the new year with a mantle of yellow.
Bealtaine (31 October) - This is the time when the brilliant red free-covering bell-flowers of the Flame Trees highlight our forests and gardens. The Melbourne Cup horse race is happily coincident with the Australian Bealtaine, being run on the second Tuesday in November, a day declared as a public holiday, even Parliament. In Australia, you might be told: "One thing you must remember, 'tis the merry month of November".
Lughnasadh (1 February) - February marks the Australian Mid Summer, being the hottest month and the time of bushfires. Much festivity is coincident with the Australian Lughnasadh, with Australia Day being held on 26 January. On this day in 1788 Europeans, including the convicts, first came ashore to establish the colony of New South Wales, and is seen as antecedent to the formation of Australia as a nation in the modern Western world. Today Australia Day sees a wide range of festivities including cultural celebrations of indigenous Aboriginals, as well as many of the immigrant cultures which make up this multi-cultural country.
Samhain (30 April) - This is the time of cool blue autumn skies, the end of the heat and the appearance of the silver Winter Sun. It is a poignant co-incidence that Australia and New Zealand's day of remembrance for their fallen in war, known as ANZAC Day, is on 25 April, should be so close to the Southern Hallowtide.
ABORIGINAL SEASONS
Australia is rather a unique country where the number of distinct seasons differs from two, six, eight to even more depending on the area. For example, as the Temple of the Dark Moon is based in South Australia, there are basically four seasons, so therefore the Temple observes the four Greater and four Lesser Sabbats according to their seasonal significance to this part of Australia. In other parts of the country, particularly in the Northern Territory, following the four seasons is almost impossible.
The year in the top end of Australia is basically divided into two parts - the Wet (from November to April) and the Dry (from May to October). The local Aboriginal people, however, divided the year into six seasons ...
Gunumeleng (pre-monsoon storm season) = October to December.
This is the pre-monsoon season of hot weather which becomes more and more humid. As this season progresses, thunderstorms build in the afternoons and scattered showers bring a tinge of green to the parched Earth. As the streams begin to run, "old water" washes into the billabongs from stagnating pools, causing localised fish kills. Waterbirds disperse as surface water and new growth becomes more widespread. Barramundi move out of the waterholes and downstream to the estuaries. This is the time for people to move camp from the floodplain, to shelter from the violent storms of the Wet Season.
Gudjewk (monsoon season) = January to February
The time of violent thunderstorms, heavy rain, and flooding. Heat and humidity generates an explosion of plant and animal life. Magpie geese nest among the sedgelands. It is egg gathering time. Flooding may cause goannas, snakes and possums to seek refuge in the trees where they are easily caught.
Bang-Gereng (knock 'em down storm season) = March
Most plants are fruiting and animals are caring for their young. Expanses of water recede and streams run clear. Violent storms flatten the 2 metre high spear grass.
Yekke (cooler but still humid season) = April to May
Early morning mists hang low over the plains and waterholes. The shallow wetlands and billabongs are carpeted with waterlillies. Drying winds signal it is time to commence burning the bush in patches to "clean" the country and to encourage new growth. Early season fires are insurance against destructive fires in the hotter, drier months. The woollybutt Eucalyptus miniata begins to flower and when the flowering ceases in early August, the fires are usually no longer lit.
Wurrgeng (cold weather season) = June to July
The "cold weather" time with low humidity, days of 30C and nights as low as 17C. Creeks cease to flow and floodplains quickly dry out. Magpie geese, fat and heavy after weeks of abundant food, crowd the diminishing billabongs with a myriad other waterbirds. Burning continues, dampened by the dew at night. By day the birds of prey patrol the firelines as insects and other small animals escape the flames.
Gurrung (hot dry weather season) = August to September.
Windless and hot, the land seemingly lies dormant. It is still "goose time" but also a time to hunt file snakes and long necked turtles. Sea turtles lay their eggs on the sandy beach of Field Island where goannas rob the occasional nest. White breasted woodswallows arrive as the thunderheads build again with the return of Gunumeleng.
And the cycle repeats ....
Magickal Names
| As you surf the web and get acquantainted with Wicca and Paganism, you may have noticed some of the names by which many of us go by. These are called magickal names. Those who enter the Craft prefer to choose a new name for themselves. One that has no connection with their old selves. In this way they are separating their magickal selves from the mundane ones. Many wiccan and pagans choose a secret name for themselves that it is used only during rituals. The use of a magickal name helps you to separate your mind from the everyday world and prepares you for the supernatural work. Sometimes a magickal name can be everything to a pagan. It means the difference between coming out of the broom closet or remaining there. Some pagans choose to go by their given names. Yet these are few. They are lucky to be able to be open about their religion without worrying how it will affect their families, relations with other people, and jobs. Many witches have two names; one for correspondence and writing, and another for their private rituals. If you are thinking in acquiring a magickal name, I suggest you start using one name first. You need time to get to know your "new" you. Once you feel comfortable with yourself as a pagan, then you might want another one. There may be a time when you may feel that you have "outgrown" your magickal name and it is time to change it. Who Chooses Your Magickal Name The answer to this question depends greatly upon the situation the witch or pagan is in. Solitary witches, like me, choose their own magickal names by themselves. By this, I mean that there is no other person involved in the process (except the Goddess if the witch does a ritual for . The solitary witch uses one or several methods to choose his/her magickal name. (See How to Choose a Magickal Name). They might change their magickal names accordingly to their needs as they grow in the Craft. In coven enviroment, it varies by coven and tradition. In many covens the initiate acquires a magickal name through a vision quest. Yet it will change as he/she raises within the ranks of the coven. There are covens in which your magickal name is given by your mentor/teacher; or sometimes your mentor/teacher adds another part to the magickal name you have already chosen. Some covens allow you to have two names; a ceremonial one used within the coven, and another known only to the Goddess/God, your mentor/teacher, and you. Spell Your Magickal Name Okay, you may have chosen a magickal name already. Now, you have noticed that many magickal names are spelled as one word. Examples: SilverHawk, CrystalWater, NightOwl, FreeEagle. But, is this really necessary? Personally I do not think there is a rule in any book that states magickal names must be written as one word. I have always written Raven Dance (my magickal name on the web) as two separate words. Come to think of it, I spell all my magickal names as two words. So I leave this up to you to write your magickal name as one or two words. |