Walking Along

Often blogs are all about huge and major topics. From pagan people especially as there is a LOT to be said, to be shared, to fight for and against. So very many people are just stepping onto their paths, fresh and new and so many questions. Full of hope and wonder that the potential for magic is real and there is more out there than they ever dreamed possible. The rituals they find to attend at the High Holidays are so very powerful and spiritual.

But what about the next day? That return to mundania as so many like to put it. Here is where so many become lost. The everyday, the work week, the chores at home. Where is the spirituality? Where the magic? And people begin to live for those Holidays, for Festival or their favorite event. In the case of yearly events, these are people that become near family that you see once a year. And leaving is a sorrow filled thing as you have to return to everyday life, interact with the normal world and regular people.

Many of us have altars in our homes, and that is grand if you do. I do. My wife does. These are wonderful focal points for the spirit in the home. Yet not everyone can have one. The soldier on the move. The single parent trying to make it in a one bedroom and living paycheck to paycheck. The homeless wanderer that carries their life on their back. What of them? What of the teenager that feels the call of Wicca in a Catholic home?

That’s the rub. All these things, from prayers to spells to altars are all just tools. Do they make things easier to do? Yes. But whose hands arrange the altar and imbue it with power? Whose lips speak the prayers that reach Divine ears, and what empowers those words? We do. Faith, belief, and will send these things into the universe and ties them as bridges between us and all else.

There is absolutely NO REASON you cannot have that everyday, even for a few moments. We decide our closeness to the divine everyday. We each decide our path and how to walk upon it. The real spiritual Truth? That is the greatest secret of all. Each person’s Truth is their own. And it can be malleable! It is capable of changing and growing as new information, new experiences are introduced into our lives. Your way may not be My way and that is perfectly fine.

We carry with us the divines in our hearts, in our actions, in our deeds. Everyday may not be a High Holiday, a Festival, or a Gathering and it doesn’t have to. Take a moment just for yourself and MAKE that moment sacred. Even if it is just a moment, it can be all it takes. Even if all you do is think of your path and say “Thank You”. And remember those times, those gatherings, in that moment and let those feelings wash over you.

We walk along our respective paths everyday. How we do it is up to us.

Observations (Or Rambling the Second)

It is just after 5 a.m. on the 23rd of December. I’ve been awake since 4:30 and have no real idea as to why. Lately this is the time I’ve been waking, just BOOM you’re awake, get your butt up. So I rise at this evil hour, and have actually been doing this often enough that I am beginning to like it. The world is quieter. My family is sound asleep, slumbering in peace. Local don’t start leaving for work until nearer to six a.m., and the sun still has yet to rise. I can see a few stars even due to the lights of the town I live in.

Also, it gives me time to write. I’m able to get words out without distraction or the wants/needs of others. Truly it is some “me” time. There a magic to this hour as my personal issues don’t happen due to the knowledge that most of the area is also sleeping (don’t ask, I’ll just sound crazier than I already am). I listen to various playlists with headphones and can actually enjoy music while I write. It’s… nice.

I know normally I post only ever couple of days, I don’t want to overwhelm people because for some reason this blog seems to be being enjoyed by more people than I ever thought and that makes me ecstatic and terrified. But over the next few days I will most likely be posting regularly.

See, later this morning I will be going with some one I trust to do the first Rite in following up the Breakening and continue the journey that it started. I foolishly thought that, “Ok, I’ll do this, let Papa break the chains, and I’ll be good”. Well, nope. Not so much. I have work to do and that ritual was only the gateway for me to step through. It unlocked not just a journey but a process for me to continue, with spiritual and personal work interspersed between smaller, personal rites to help refine me into someone closer to whom I am meant to be.

The rite I face later this morning, while no where close to the power of the Breakening, it will still be potent and painful. You see, these rites will be UPG, given to me through thoughts, dreams, and feelings from Flamehair. This one in particular scares the piss out of me due to the nature of the location and the memories associated with it.

Shall I tell you why? Sure, what the Hel. I’m going back to the home I was raised in, where I grew up. The rite is one of Severing due to the ties to that house. You see, my mother was abusive mentally, emotionally, and physically. From around the age of 3 to my 20’s I was beaten every day, berated for being an idiot and stupid. Told how I was an ugly worthless mistake. How I was just meant to do what I was told, treated more servant than child more often than not. Now, I know there was a reason for this. It was much later she had been suffering from early onset Dementia and it made her mean and violent, I just happened to be the easiest target. I don’t need to go into details, but it has made me terrified of that house ever since and the things I endured have been part of the things holding me back.

If I am to refine myself as Loki has asked I must be able to let go of these things, this part of my past, that house. There are spirits of a sort there that haunt me still, and have effects into the present. That still hold power over me. And it is long overdue that I cut the ties and leave it behind. The ritual that is planned will allow that process to be done.

Rituals are potent things as we call upon our Gods and various spirits to help us. The invocation of powers greater than ourselves to embolden and fortify ourselves to tasks that must be done. Now, I fully believe in the power and magic of such things. To me it’s so very much more than words and motions. Many of the Rites I perform now no longer come from books or from others. No, these are MY rituals and they work. They really work, at least for me. The magic is real, the effects are real, and they are lasting to me.

Through Ritual I commune with my Gods/Goddesses give them offerings and receive blessings and if I am REALLY lucky an occasional message (doesn’t mean I will understand it, sigh). But everytime we sit before an altar, everytime we speak aloud to our Patrons/Patronesses this to me is Ritual. Every thank you, every “you glorious bastard”, every time we acknowledge Them, it’s a touch of ritual a touch of magic. It connects us to the higher powers and gives us strength.

My friends, do not hesitate to say a simple thank you when something positive happens, or to ask for strength when needed. Our Norse path says essentially that we fend for ourselves, the Divine won’t do for us. But they will give us all the tools we need to do the task at hand.

Today I will ask my Patron, Loki, to walk with me. Will you ask yours?