Archive for the ‘Meditation and Visualization’ Category

  I’ve been unpacking my suitcases the last few days and am bemused by how many plastic shopping bags I acquired over the past three months of excavation out in the deserts of the Middle East. And while the plastic bags from the cities of Jordan do often follow the same Safeway, Target, boutique store X model; the bags from the smaller stores, and especially the stores out in the boondocks middle of nowhere (like where the dig I work with is based): are all black. No logo, no design, no nothing. Just black. Initially I had thought this was a question of economy. That some black bag producing mini-wonder had cornered the Middle Eastern bag market. But actually, it turns out, it is mostly a question of superstition and folk magick.

  The black bags of Jordan are not simply bags. They are a practical device which also wards off evil spirits and bad intentions. They are modern pieces of protection magick practiced by a living culture.

  Local superstition holds that if someone were to see what you had purchased (i.e. if you were just carrying it around or used a more see-through type of bag), their envious Evil Eye could curse your purchase. And so when you went to drink your soda or use your shampoo, the bad luck cast upon the item would transfer onto you for having utilized it. The black bag keeps your purchases secret, safe from the nefarious Evil Eye which so haunts the Eastern Mediterranean imagination and customs.

  It’s bad enough when You use the cursed object, but its deemed particularly bad form in Jordanian culture to pass on any jinxed purchases. And thus, when you present a gift to your friends, neighbors, or in the case of this past season: your local awesome Department of Antiquities representative; you promptly hand over your gift still in its black bag, and just after you enter their home but before you are introduced to the rest of the household in the ubiquitous social room of their house. The black bag keeps the evil energy of onlookers at bay while outside, but once inside, a quick opening of the present at the doorway is still necessary, lest other guests watch you unwrap the gift and curse it in the tiny window remaining before ownership is firmly transferred.

  The formality of the black bag social customs initially struck me as quite a deliciously bizarre facet of modern Jordanian culture. But then it occurred to me that really, western culture is no different. We just wrap our presents in much more expense, even more highly stylized formats. Birthdays and the long list of fabulous winter holidays up for celebration (we do them all in my family) are not complete without some well-wrapped presents. And while much of the importance of the wrapping is placed on the idea of keeping the gift a surprise, realistically: the tradition of and psychology behind wrapping gifts is literally all wrapped up (pardon the pun) in that same idea of controlling the kinds of thought focused onto the gift. Once its unwrapped, the gift is open to all kinds of judgment: from the recipient and from those at the unwrapping. Let’s face it, it’s hard not to immediately judge a gift once given: Was it the right gift for that person? Did the recipient give an equally appropriate gift back to the giver or did they spend more or less money on their gift? Isn’t that just like what so and so got for such and such? All of these swarms of thoughts are out there, presumably affecting the now naked gift. It makes sense to keep it under wraps for as long as possible, just to keep all the potentially negative energies at bay.

  It is almost conceivable that the brightly colored, intricate wrapping paper which is used for gifts in the western world adds some good energy to the gift. In such situations where ‘it’s the thought that counts,’ surely a thought that comes with spangly, glittering wrapping paper and bows counts a bit more. Be it stupidly expensive designer wrapping paper or cleverly done up comic books (hipster style!): that bit of extra energy that goes into a lovely wrapping job, that extra dollop of creative good will may well be a form of psychological magick in and of itself. Not only does it feel good to give beautifully looking gifts, it feels good to get them. If the energy of the gift can be altered by the wrapping, it makes sense that the joy of a well-wrapped, well intentioned gift would invoke good energy just as much as it protects against the envious Evil Eye.

  So ladies and gentleman, bust out your mini-baubles, your ribbon fringers, your fancy labels, and colored tape. And send out positive energy as you wrap your presents this holiday season. It adds a little bit more magick to every gift you give!

P.S. It’s good to be back in the states (and with working internet!) More blogs on the past few months of archaeology and anthropology-tastic travel, as well as a slew of holiday topics and History of Witches in the Western World promos coming soon! So watch this space! xxx

  Somebody happened to call me a “mythic creature” on Friday; and it has stuck with me all weekend.

  In context, it was a rather mundane and flippant figure of speech. One of the engineers in the digital archaeology lab I’ve just started at was merely elaborating on how rare it was to have one of the researchers in the lab for the full creative process. As a user of the technology verses a creator of it, he was basically saying that it was a novel concept to have my input at this stage of development. Really, it was a compliment of sorts (I hope). But it was more his turn of phrase that caught my attention. And rapidly pulled me from my everyday work, into the magickal realm I share here with all of you at Sacred Mists. Down the rabbit hole, as it were.

  My initial visualization of my possession of the label ‘mythic creature’ had much to do with the addition of faerie wings trying to fit round my desk chair and a unicorn’s horn sprouting from my forehead. Eventually, however, my meandering daydreams wandered away from the specific image of me as a mythic creature in the engineering lab; and more to do with just the idea of the mythic creature in the lab or office: Pegasus flying past the window, sprites floating in the water cooler, satyrs bounding off the elevator, and the like. The magick seeping through the mundane.

  Really, however, if one has been paying close attention to the faerie tales of childhood and, indeed, of world mythology: that is exactly how these mythic creatures present themselves. Out of the corner of your eye, there is a little something extra that you can spot for an instant and then is gone. In faerie tales: it may be a meeting with an elderly woman in the woods who you politely shared your bread with (thus earning the power to spit up jewels) or the spider you carried outside instead of smashing (and who later helped you succeed at a seemingly futile task). In faerie tales, and indeed perhaps in real life, the true encounters with mythic creatures are not ones you really pay that much attention to as a special encounter of any kind. The effects of the meeting may be felt; blessings given or mischief enacted (depending on the type of mythic creature), and one is left pondering the encounter, identifying what one can about what you saw, and extemporizing the rest to make sense of it ~ often fitting it into the known order of things in order to make it fit into one’s view of the world. More often than not, one might not realize that they’ve had such an encounter because they were not aware of what they were looking for and even if they saw something had no subconscious archetype against which to compare it. The Platonic archetypes extolled by the likes of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung can often seem like vague generalizations, but they are worth knowing as reference points. It is, after all, easier to put together the jigsaw puzzle if one knows what the general picture is meant to be of. The meeting of the mythic with the mundane is where magick translates outside of anthropology and becomes a part of one’s life experience.

  I admit, that when not working on a project for the Sacred Mists, I often forget to look around me and see the magick in the world: the beauty and power that vibrates through everything; the wonder that I know I experienced as a child looking out at the world and knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that magickal things could happen. The seemingly innocuous phrase ‘mythic creature’ woke me up. It made me LOOK. It made me SEE. It made me aware and appreciative. For this past weekend, at least.

  And while no, I have not spotted any landvaettir around my apartment, fey lurking in the shrubbery, or trolls under the freeway bridge: the part of me that steadfastly believes in the anthropological power of faerie tales maintains that they are there. They have just gotten very, very good at blending in. So much so, that when we see them or meet them, we probably don’t even realize what they really might be.

  The power of seeing the mythic creature in the modern world can lead to marvelous things. Ever heard of a little place called Narnia? Narnia is a magickal realm full of myth and wonder that has provided children and adults alike with a refuge, despite its ultimately fictional nature. Its author C. S. Lewis reputedly first began creating the back-story for Narnia whilst riding on a train one snowy evening. Looking out at the town, a man carrying his shopping and an umbrella appeared to have the legs of a faun instead of those of a human. And thus Mr. Tumnus, the first Narnian was born. If you take nothing else away from C.S. Lewis’s masterpiece series the Chronicles of Narnia, take away the idea that great things come from using your imagination and seeing the magick in the mundane. From seeing the mythic creature in the modern world.

  Have you had any recent encounters you’ve realized were less than mundane? Are your bumblebees secretly faeries or your pool overrun with lorelei? Or did you open the door for a stranger or give a lost tourist directions and feel inexplicably blessed the rest of the day? Mythic creatures come in all shapes and forms. Let us know about your recent run-ins!

  And if you haven’t had any recent encounters with mythic creatures: go seek them out. Attempt an anthropological cum psychological experiment into your own awareness and find them in unlikely places. Find them at your office, in your home, or in the pages of a fairy tale you’ve long since given up~ those archetyes still speak to you, if you’re willing to listen, so give them another chance. And then report back here and share your experience with everyone else!

Image Credit: At the top is Mary Gow’s Fairy Tales.

I decided to create an exercise that was a bit of a mundane-to-magickal wordplay. I began by considering the word reflect as well as it’s other iterations. I began by looking initially what their meaning was from the viewpoint of everyday usage in our spoken or written expression.

Reflect: to consider, to look back
Reflection: mirror, a result (ie: “this is a reflection of her work as a…”)
Reflecting: to turn or look back, remembering, impacting

Next I considered the words and then began to shape them into power words that hold meaning for me magickally and could aid me in impacting the world around me through my intention.

In my mind the word “reflect” in magickal terms is one of mirroring.

From that perspective, “reflect” also brings up the word “deflect” in my mind. When we deflect, we are placing a guard up that deflects all manner of responsibility, fault, or blame away from us. This can be both self-defeating as well as harmful to those around us. It could also be considered a powerful tool for protective shielding, however for me I find it a less empowered way for me to control exactly what I want and what I don’t want to come inside.

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Let’s take a look at today’s tarot card-The Tower. I am using the Rider-Waite/Smith deck today. There is a tower that is being struck by lightning from above. Flames are shooting out from the top of the tower as well as coming out from it’s windows. There are two people falling down from the tower with a look of fright on their faces. At the very top of this card, there is a crown that looks as if the lightning bolt knocked it off the tower and is in the process of falling down.

How does this card apply to me today? What can I learn from it’s messages?

I look at the bolt of lightning, and I think “ego”. Sometimes ones ego needs to be knocked down a notch or two. Lets look at the fire that is so prevalent in this card. Fire is about transformation and cleansing. When a forest burns down, the growth is cleared away for new growth! What needs to cleared out of your life? What changes do you need to make now, not later?

Maybe your in a relationship that really needs to end now. Is it really fulfilling to you?  Do you find that you or your partner tend to be volatile?  Do you tend to argue all the time?

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What is intuition? How can I develop my own intuition and how can it help me with reading the tarot?

I wanted to start this article on something that might surprise you! YOU can learn to read the tarot, both for yourself and for others! If you learn to open up your 3rd eye/Brow chakra and learn to trust your own intuition, then YOU will be a good tarot reader! It’s a matter of learning how to pay attention to your feelings and how to interpret the symbols that are in the cards!
 

Let’s take a look at this particular card.  It’s the Temperance card from the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. This might be the most known tarot deck that there is out there.  The imagery is clean and easy to interpret.  Here we see and Angel pouring water from one cup to the other.  Both the cups and water represent emotions.  Think of this, when we are emotional, we tend to cry, whether or not we are happy or sad.

Temperance is almost invariably depicted as a person pouring liquid from one receptacle into another. Historically, this was a standard symbol of the virtue temperance, one of the cardinal virtues, representing the dilution of wine with water. In many decks, the person is a winged person/angel, usually female or androgynous, and stands with one foot on water and one foot on land.

I look at this card and the advice that I see that is this:  Everything in moderation.  The angel that is depicted here is pouring wine into a cup or chalice of water, thereby diluting it.  Learn to temper your emotions.  Maybe you have a tendency to overdue things.  If there is an emotional issue here, learn to cool it!  Take a step back and think before you react.  Notice that the angel has one foot on land and the other foot on the water.  This indicates a need for balance.  Maybe there is a need for you to ground yourself. Take notice of other aspects of this card.  There are a lot of “opposites” to be seen here.  We already mentioned that there is one foot on the water and the other on land, but look deeper and you will see more.  There is a Sun in the background which represents life, but there are also lilies which represent death.  The symbol of an Angel is of a being/deity that can transcend death, rise above death.

Take a peek at the colors of this card.  Do the colors excite you or do they seem to calm you down?  What about the imagery?  Does the angel seem to comfort you or does the angel seem intimidating to you?   This where intuition comes in. One way to describe intuition is “the knowing without a particular reason why.”  Every like or dislike someone right away?   Trust any feelings that you get when you look at this card.  Jot everything down in a journal that you have set aside for just your tarot readings.  Do not second guess anything!  When you have done this, come up with your own description of this card.  There are NO wrong answers for this exercise!

I would LOVE to see what you have come up with!  Contact me here at Sacred Mists and let me know what your results are!

Staring straight into the face of opportunity seems like it would be an exciting thing, right? Not always! For some, the unknown can be frightening. Many of us are filled with the ever-present “what if?” that seems to come from all directions, making us wonder if we will be doing the right thing by moving out of our comfort zone. For some people, the fear of making a mistake or doing something wrong can be paralyzing, and it is here that we must learn to make sound decisions for ourselves by trusting our instincts and our inner voice.

We all have an inner voice, deep within that guides us. How many times have you said, “If only I had listened to my gut….”? When faced with a decision, we feel the answer within the very core of our being. We hear the voice that tells us whether we are moving in the right or the wrong direction. Just listen to that voice and all will be well, right? Sadly, it’s not that easy. That voice, that feeling, is often in direct opposition with our minds and hearts. Our minds can think of a myriad of reasons why we should or shouldn’t do something, rationalizing away our inner voice and silencing it. Our hearts can override both in an intense wave of emotion-driven reaction, pushing aside everything to achieve fulfillment. How can we possibly know what is the right or wrong way to go with such conflict going on within us? The answer is simple: Self-empowerment and self-trust.

Self-empowerment provides us the strength to move forward in our lives with the ability to know, deep within, that we are able to accomplish what we set out to do because we are capable of doing so. We provide ourselves the tools to be accomplished, and take every opportunity presented to us and achieve success each and every step of the way. When we misstep, we pick ourselves up and look deep within to see where we made the mistake, and, most importantly, did we listen to the inner voice that will guide us like a homing beacon toward the best outcome. Each time we do this, we build our feeling of self-empowerment and soon we will start truly believing in and trusting ourselves to be able to make sound decisions and step forward in our lives with great success.

Self-trust is a learned ability that comes to us over time. Each opportunity we are given provides us a moment to listen to our inner guiding voice and to make sound decisions. Each time we are successful in our endeavors, we prove to ourselves that we are trustworthy and can guide ourselves in the best way possible. When we make mistakes and then look within to determine how better to achieve our goals in the future, we prove to ourselves that we will do whatever is necessary to take care of ourselves.

Self-empowerment and self-trust are two of the most important keys in magickal work as they remove the presence of doubt. Ultimately our doubt is the very thing that can hinder success in our practice. Have you heard the old adage, “We are our own worst enemy”? Doubting ourselves, thus hindering our own empowerment and trust, is a perfect example.

Listen to your inner voice. Develop a relationship with it. Learn to know it intimately and to be able to discern between your true core voice and the conflicting messages coming from your mind and heart. Trust it to guide you in the right direction. Looking back at choices we have made in the past, almost every action we have taken in life that we consider to be a mistake can be directly correlated to not listening to that voice.

Know this… your inner voice will never steer you wrong and will guide you toward manifesting the successful outcome of every opportunity you are ever presented with!