Seven Chakra Dreamcatcher

This is a special Seven Chakra Dreamcatcher I made for my significant other to help inspire positive healing energy.

 

The Tower

This is my representation of the Tarot card The Tower. The Tower card is a card which often is associated with great power. It also often indicates a need for change, and the destroying of old ideas of which are no longer true, or were found to be false. It is a card to give strength balanced between dark and light.

Ouroboros Yin/Ynag

I first got this idea watching a show called Forged in Fire, which is a competition of modern blade smiths. In one of the challenges they had to make a chakram. Many of you probably know the weapon from Xena but it is based upon a real historical weapon.  I was thinking it would be cool to make a chakram with an ouroboros design upon it, and that train of thought led me to combining Ouroboros with Yin & Yang.

For me it represents the eternity of duality. And the snake itself is an animal of a very dual nature. In some cultures the serpent is revered as sacred and seen as an animal of good fortune, and in other cultures it is shunned as something sinister. The serpent possesses both evil and good, light and dark. It can also be associated with both masculine and feminine.

 

Christian Friendly Yoga

As I have perviously mentioned when I first my beginning into Yoga, one of the things which I really enjoy about doing Yoga is that it is a very spritual experience as well as a physical one. I got the idea that it would be cool to find poses that represent some of the animals that have particular spritual significance for me. I found a crocodile pose which is a very relaxing pose which is good to use as a transition between more intense sets. I found a spider pose which is challenging but looks wicked awesome, and though I already do cobra pose I wondered if there was a more general snake pose and as it happens there is.

Because I do Goddess pose I was currious if there was a God pose because I wanted to have that balance and duality, as it turns out there is a God pose but it is basically the same as Goddess pose. 

While I was looking up God pose (which is called Sun God pose) I happened upon this article on a blog called Women of Grace or something like that, which made me suspect it was probably religious and some woman asked the question “Why can’t Yoga just be exercise and not worship to Hindu gods?” And the article proceeded to explain the dangers of Christians doing Yoga.

To start with in the modern Westren world Yoga pretty much has been made into a mainstream exorcise that has lost its connections and intentions to the Hindu spirituality for most people. You don’t have to attend a Hindu temple to learn Yoga, you can find Yoga classes in most gyms and odds are your Yoga instructor is not going to be a Hindi guru but someone who looks like a surfer form Californina.

But it is true all the different poses in Yoga where originally created as a veneration to various Hindu dieties, but when have Christians ever let a little thing like that stop them? Come on Christianity be honest, virtually your entire religion is made of things stolen from other religions, including all your major holidays. 

You want the health benifits of Yoga but find it a bit too heathenish? Do what you always do give it a shinny new name and repackage it. I am feeling extra generous so I am going to help you out here and make a few basic Yoga poses more Christian friendly and you can take it from there.

I will start with an easy one 

Goddess Pose (or Sun God Pose) becomes Son of God Pose

Snake Pose (I know snakes are scary for you) can be St. Patrick Pose (you know the dude who chased all the snakes out of Ireland)

Tree Pose (should be innocuous enough but you don’t want to think you are venerating nature) so Crucifix Pose

Warrior Pose becomes Priest Pose 

Pigeon Pose obviously Dove Pose 

Downward Dog (this was a tough one but it is one of most commanly known pose. Many poses are named because the resembles its namesake, down dog looks a bit like a mountain) so I give you Surmon on the Mount Pose 

Boat Pose can be Noah’s Ark Pose 

Triangle Pose becomes Trinity Pose 

Garland Pose can be Rosary Pose      

You get the gist. There is a good starting point for you Christians who want the health benifits of Yoga without fearing the damnation of your soul. 

 

The Hanged-Man

I am working on a series of myself posed as each of the Major Arcana in a Tarot deck. Thus far this is one of my favorite images from the series. I really like how it turned out so I thought I would share it here.

For those who are not very familiar with Tarot think of a deck of playing cards in which you have numbered cards and face cards. Tarot is set up in a very similar way. It is broken up into what is called Minor Arcana and Major Arcana. Minor Arcana are essentially the number cards and Major Arcana are like the face cards.

The Major Arcana are the most familiar and well known because of their usage in movies and TV shows and such of the like. Some of the most well known being The Fool, Death, the Devil, etc.. so you get the gist.

 

Ritual Sage Cleansing

I happen to own a few different sage bundles most of which were given to me as gifts but of which I have never before actually put to use, having not felt a need to do so. But recent events lead me to the choice to preform a ritual cleansing.

Upon returning from my trip that I took to Southern California to visit my sister for Samhain (the time in which the veil between the living world and the dead is thinnest) I have felt things have been rather off-kilter here, and I could feel a negative presence/energy lingering around the air which was having an adverse and malevolent affect upon the household. My cats had been acting rather strangely lately, and my mouse died shortly after my returning from my trip as well it seems my Lucky Bamboo plant (perhaps ironically named here) which I have had for many years started dying. And I have been feeling this oppressive force.

While I was on my visit I did happen to go on a little ghost hunting adventure. I took a walk across a bridge which is alleged to be haunted and has a tragic and morbid history. It is nicknamed the suicide bridge as it is one of those locations which had become popular for jumpers. There is in fact a sign at the start of the bridge that has a suicide hotline number on it.

I did not really have any actual ghostly encounters, I didn’t see any apparitions, or have any significant notable experiences, but during the time I was on the bridge I did have a general sensation that there was some other presence there, following me. So it is possible, leading up to this night in which the spirits can most easily cross over, while I was open and susceptible to spiritual energy, in my quest to actually seek out the paranormal something attached itself to me.

So I prepared to preform my cleansing ritual.

The tools of the trade:

A sage bundle: Traditionally white sage is used but you can use other types of sage as well. One of my own sage bundles happens to be white sage, and the other two are a mixed variety of different types of sage. For this occasion I did choose to use my white sage.

Heat/Fire resistant bowl: Traditionally an abalone shell is used, though any dish which meats the necessary requirement can be used, I prefer to try and use something natural. Lacking an abalone shell I choose this large clam shell I happened to have.

Lighter or Matches: I went with the more convenient route in using a lighter.

Feather which is used to help fan the smoke throughput the rooms of the house. I choose to use a hawk feather of which I found myself.

A traditional cleansing ritual begins at the East end of the house and works its way clockwise to the north side of the house, but I choose to simply follow my instinct and intuition as I make my way through the house. It is a good idea to have doors and windows within the house open, both for practical and spiritual reasons. It helps the smoke dissipate out of the house (obviously) and it also helps negative energy exit the house while welcoming positive energy to enter.

I choose to preform my cleansing ritual in the natural state (that is unclad). And I said a prayer to the Goddess Brigid, who is the goddess of healing, positive and creative energy, and the guardian of the sacred divine fire. I asked for her healing positive energy to enter, and to help dispels all the negative energy. I preformed a cleanse upon myself to start with. I did this by wave the sage bundle in front of me and then stepping through the smoke, while visualizing myself inhaling positive energy and exhaling negative energy. After doing this a few times I began to cleanse my room. Wafting the sage bundle around and using the feather to help fan out the smoke, while visualizing negative energy leaving and positive energy coming in.

I went through the house repeating this process and periodically chanting prayers to the goddess to ask for her help in dispelling the negative and filling the house with her good, positive energy. It is important to go through every room, so that negative energy cannot find anywhere in which to hide, but I focused most prevalently upon the places of which my own energy would be most strongly attacked and also places where I most strongly felt the presence of the negative energy.

Once I finished walking from room to room inside the house I did a cleansing around the outer perimeter of the front and back yard of the house. Then I did one more walk through of the inside of the house. Once I felt sissified with the cleanse, I did a final cleansing upon myself and put out my sage bundle by filling my shell bowl with a little bit of water and putting the sage out in that and I gave my thanks to the Goddess Brigid.

 

An Animal-Rights Activist and Pagan’s Defense for Eating Meat

This is a topic that I have been wanting to address for a while now, and so well now that I have this shiny (or not so shiny) new blog it seemed the best time to finally get the thoughts down and a good way to start this blog off, even though I know it is officially not the first post.

Before I delve into the discussion to much there are some things that perhaps should be explained first of which I think will be relevant to what I have to say here and might better help explain where I am coming from. As you have inferred already no doubt from the title of this post. I a am Pagan.

That is a very broad term of which includes a great many different spiritual paths, so I will give a general idea of what being a Pagan means to me, as such that I think will be important to this discussion. For starters I think it is important to clarify I am not a Wiccan (nothing wrong with those who chose the Wiccan path) but so many people make the automatic assumption that because I am a Pagan than I am a Wicca, but that is not the case. I am a Traditional Pagan. Basically that means that as much as his possible within the modern world (and with what information we have on Pre-Chrsiaitain beliefs as many where oral cultured without written language) I try and follow the traditional Pagan beliefs as closely as possible.

The idea of balance is very important to me within my spirituality. This means balance in all things in life. Recognizing the importance of both dark and light, life and death, god and goddess (and as such also male and female, masculine and feminine). Living in harmony with nature as much as possible in the world of today is also very important to me. I also accept and embrace the fact that humans are still just animals and I do not believe in the idea of humans being superior to any other life form or the idea that human live is inherently more valuable the life of any other living creature. All living things have souls, and all life is of equal worth.

Needless to say because Paganism is a very nature-based religion and believes in honoring and respecting all of Mother Earth’s creatures it is common that mot Pagans are also active animal rights activists and environmentalists.  I do not believe in the unnecessary taking of life, or cruelty to animals. I don’t believe in using pesticides, or herbicides, I live in what is known as a No Kill Zone critters who find their way in the house are humanely caught and released back outside.

But I am not against killing for sustainability (which predominately means killing for food or other reasons directly linked to ones survival) is morally wrong, and I am not against the eating of meat, as I myself am not a vegetarian.  One of the things which prompted me to want to address this topic is the fact that I have been accused of being a hypocrite before on account of this, and while generally I do not care of what others think of me and my personal choices I thought I would explain my point of view on this.

Here are the reasons why my choice to eat meat is not contradictory to my beliefs.

To start with, as  I said I am a traditional Pagan, and my Pagan ancestors did in fact eat meat. They had great reverence and respect for the life that they killed, and they acknowledged the sacrifice that animal was giving so they may continue to live. They prayed to the souls of the animal which they killed and it did not bring them pleasure to take the life, but they acknowledged the necessity of doing so.

I do think the biggest travesty of today’s world (in regards to animals and the eating of meat) is the way in which we treat the animals that we eat. Most people who eat meat while obviously they know it comes from a an animal they don’t want to truly acknowledge the life that was taken and of course with supermarkets and fast food and the fact that most people don’t hunt for their own food they are distanced from the truth of the death of the animal that is giving them the meat. They have become desensitized to  the life that is lost. There is also this idea that since the animals are being raised as food anyway means they do not need/deserve a good quality of life.

The second point in my argument is the fact that I believe in living in harmony with nature. It was by Mother Nature’s own design that humans are omnivores. It was nature’s intention for human beings to feast upon meat. Thus by eating of meat I am acting according to my natural state as intended by Mother Nature herself. The world is made up of predators and prey, and all life feeds upon life. To live in harmony with nature it is my role to act within my proper place within the food chain. The animals that are intended to eat meat know they are meant to eat meat, and the animals of which are the ones to be eaten known they are to be eaten in the wild.  There is nothing wrong with people who make the choice to be vegetarians, I respect that personal choice, but if Mother Nature did not desire us to feed upon the flesh of animals, than our bodies would not be deigned with the ability to process meat (nor created with the need of proteins which we get from meat.)

In addition there is the fact that I do view ALL life as being equal and I do not believe that any one living thing inherently is of more value or more worth than any other living thing.  Even herbivores and vegetarians are responsible for taking the life of another living thing in order to sustain their own life. To make the judgement that eating meat is morally wrong, and choose to be a vegetarian is also making the determination that the life of the cow, or chicken or pig (or whatever) is than of more worth than the life of the plants which are being consumed.  I personally do not feel it is my place to determine that one life form has more value than another.  So if I am going to accept the idea of the killing and eating of plants than it would be hypocritical of not to also accept the eating of animals.

I value all life equally but I also understand that as part of the balance of life in order for my body to continue to life life must be sacrificed to it, and such is true for all other living things. It is not my place to determine what life is more or less deserving of this sacrifice but to accept and trust in nature’s design for me and her creatures.

As an animal Rights Activist I do not demand nor ask anyone to give up eating meat, nor do I judge anyone for doing so, but I would implore you to eat least consider the value of the life that was sacrificed on your behalf and consider how humanely that animal lived and died for your sake, and not to take that life for granted.