Busy October

Hey guys!

Busy October for me this year! I will be working two jobs, so pulling 55 hour weeks! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay. My house is going to be such a mess. haha

But I just wanted to let you know I will take a temporary hiatus for October. Not only work life but domestic life will keep me busy.

Thank you for understanding. :D

Skill set 1, Part 1: Grounding

So focusing on Skill set 1, which was Energy work. Grounding, centering and shielding. First part, grounding. Which is pretty easy but necessary.  Grounding is for clearing away excess energy and emotions. You would use it most commonly before/after a spell/ritual. Grounding can also be helpful for anxiety, or empaths.


Most common grounding technique is the Tree method. However it can be physical too. When you are stressed out or feeling down what do people most commonly do? Walk or eat right? People exercise to rid ourselves of excess energy and/or emotions. I know in times of stress or depression, taking a nice walk helps me feel grounded. Eating foods rich in carbohydrates after a ritual is another grounding method. So when should you ground yourself?

• Before meditation
• When you are angry, upset, or sick
• After any spell casting or ritual (when you have that energy high) 
• When you have excess energy or emotions. i.e having an anxiety attack or after being in a room full of people (empath) 

Grounding Techniques

Most common is the tree method. What is that all about? I will explain the process I do for the tree method. Most say imagine a tendril of energy but I usually visualize a tree root. There are many different ways to do this. 

1. For indoors you can stand or sit in a chair. As long as your feet are touching the ground. For outside you can sit on the ground with your knees up, so your feet are touching the ground.  Consciously slow your breathing down.
2. Then visualize tree roots coming out of your feet. If you are indoors imagine them like vines. Running down the sides of the building until they reach under the concrete. 
3. Once you feel your "roots" are sturdy, begin to visual that excess energy or emotion run down your roots into the ground. 
4. Do this for as long as you need to. Only YOU will know when it is enough. This is one of those things that yes it really is up to you. I cannot tell you how you will know. Sometimes it can just be feeling like you have emptied yourself out. Like after a good cry. 
5. When you feel it is time, become aware of any physical sensations. Like breezes or your cat rubbing on you. Or your dog bugging you to play, like mine currently is! 
6. Return your breathing to normal. Sit for a few seconds and just enjoy what is around you. 

I mentioned also physical grounding. Here are some ideas:

• Taking a shower: A good way to be physically and mentally clean. A common idea is when taking a shower imagine the mental "dirt" (stress, excess energy) running down the drain when washing yourself. 
• Eating: Carbohydrates or veggies preferred but if you are like me, you want the sweet stuff too. Balance it out! Have some bread with honey! Or some dark chocolate with strawberries. Celery and peanut butter. 
• Exercise: Simply walking the dog will do. Jogging, yoga, moving the furniture around, the possibilities for this one are endless. 

A nice walk in nature with your dog! 

The basic goal of grounding is to make sure that you are calm, focused and stable so that you feel more in control (particularly for stress-related problems) and that you are not carrying around excess energy from ritual which can be problematic! Ground before and after ritual, when you're stressed out, after visualisation, and whenever you feel it's necessary! You can do the physical exercises whenever you want to, and if you try and do them once a day you will notice a difference in your general well-being. (check footnotes)

Footnotes:

Here are my sources on grounding and I would suggest to check them out. They have some great information and different techniques. This blog was based on personal experience/opinion and sources.

Seeking First Pagan Steps and Tools: Grounding

Wildspeak: The basics of Grounding 

(on this I will make a note. I did completely copy the last paragraph. I felt they explained it best)

Where did I get my pictures?? Click on words for a link. Picture One Picture Two

Basic Skill Sets of Witches.

Hey there! So this post is going to include a basic skill set of being a witch. The list is generalize. After asking Elders and wading through information I came up with these basic skills. Meaning that every witch should practice and be able to do those things listed. Of course my list may not be for everyone, but remember it is in a general direction of trying to include every type of witch.

Basic skill sets of a Witch

1. Energy work- Grounding, centering, and shielding are all energy work. Also psy balls. 
2. Basic divination work- To be able to divine if there are any influences that may make your spell go wrong. Think of it this way, you check the weather before you plan a picnic right? Same concept.
3. Protection- To be able to sufficiently protect yourself, home, family, etc. 
4. Binding-  The basics of binding are to stop someone from hurting you or themselves. However I have heard there are other uses. 
5. Ability to look at things, as one person put it, "sideways". Meaning that you are able to see things as they truly are, instead of what it is packaged as. 
6. Willpower- If you do not have a willpower than nothing will be done. 
7. A sense of humor! Witchcraft is serious but also light hearted.

Click to enlarge!

 Also I would suggest getting a small note pad that you can take with you to most places. If you are like me or any busy human being, you have AWESOME ideas but then forget them 11 minutes later. I bought these at the dollar store in a 3 pack for 1 dollar. Not too shabby. As you can see one is for "Journal notes" for my BOS (when I start it), "Blog notes" well for this blog, and "Random tidbits" because sometimes the elders talk about things that I haven't learned yet and its nice to write it down some where permanent to look at again. Or even quite literally, random tidbits that help me out. 

So first on the list is Energy work. That is what I will be focusing the next couple of blog posts about.

See you soon!

New look, new direction.

The reason why I wanted to do a major redo was because the blog was kind of stagnat. I realized I was using the blog as more of a journal. Some post were, in my opinion, good for others to read. (Like the one about trolls)  But mainly it was all about Whitney! haha

 

So the direction I want to take with this blog is kind of a mix. I realized that there are gaps in my knowledge of the Craft. So I made the decision to just start over. I hate trying to fill in the gaps. Then it just confuses me. So the blog will now be about beginner basics in the craft (and as I move on it will be higher),  sharing some awesome recipes, general life updates occasionally, any arts & crafts, etc. See? A mix. This blog will help me as it might help others.

 

At least two posts a month. One at the beginning and one at the end.  Its going to be random as so far as I can plan. I haven't sat down totally yet and planned an outline. I should though.

 

As for the decoration of this blog, it is still coming along. I'm working on, tweaking it here and there.

Stay tuned for new posts!

Major Redo!

This blog is a little out of date, and not really how I want it to be. So for the next two weeks I will be redoing the blog!


Check back for updates!

Coming out of the Dark Ages.

*blows breath out* Wow...I made one, ONE post since 2013. I really did forget about this blog for awhile.

I had to change my template to some generic one they have on Blogger.com. For some reason even with the generics, some backround photos were not showing up. Which bugged me. This one is nice though.

So I went through a dark period. Depression, hated my job, was busy with a Pagan group that I started. Which I apparently started at a bad time. Almost all of the original members have moved away. And then I made the worst move of my life! (In 2014) A couple, their daughter, Jake and I decided it would be a great idea to find a place together since we were both financially strapped. Yea good going me! I will admit I did have some misgivings. But as per usual I ignored it. Even if I went back, I would of had to go through with it. There was no way we could afford more than 350 for rent. The places that you can rent for that amount here by yourself, well its not pretty. Maybe it was just to make me appreciate having our own apartment.

So after 3 weeks it became apparent that these people were okay as friends, not roommates. There are just sooo many stories that I could share why they were not. But to make this a some what shorter story just trust me on it, kay? :) I can now tell you with confidence, I know what mold looks like after 2 months in a crockpot with food in it. Yea, they were disgusting pigs. I tried, trust me I tried to keep up. But when you work 40 hours, and then clean all day, it wears ya out. They were literal pigs too. It was great that they cooked at home alot but that really made it hard for them to keep up on their MOUND of dishes. I have a picture still. Anywho you get the general idea I think. Jake and I stayed in our room anytime we were home.

So everything (almost anyway, Pagan group was still going. Which I conveniently left out that this couple I met from the group) stopped. I didn't do my blog, my pagan FB page, any kind of hobbies. Because I felt like.....blah. I couldn't do it all in one room with all the clutter (because everything was shoved in one room.) Pure torture to live with them.

But now Jake and I have our own apartment! We now have another dog, named Zeus. He is a lab/White Siberian husky/mix. Cute little fucker, but desperately needs manners. Zeus is the grandchild of Jacob's childhood dog, Zeus! lol But seriously manners! He should be around 8 months now. We have had him for about 3 or 4 months. My training isnt working....probably because of that cuteness.

We both have better jobs. Which is great because now we can afford our own place, my new car (had to get it), four animals, AND some left over for fun! My job is better in pay and how I am treated at work. It will do for now.

Everything else that has happen is small, and not really worth detailing. Just the normal bumps on the road of living.

Opinions, trolls, and negativity.

So....

I wanted to discuss something that has been bugging me a lot lately. And is a big part of why I and many others do not comment anymore on anything. For me its more specifically pagan related topics I wont. Usually because it goes something like this:


Miss SunshineRainbows:  Oh my Goddess there are tons of feathers in my yard! What does this mean?
Miss. SanePants: Do you feed birds?
Mr. WolfBlood: It means there are a ton of angels watching over you, feel blessed! Blessed Be
Miss. SunshineRainbows: Really?! I had a feeling that was why! Thank you so much! Love and light <3 And yes Sanepants I do feed birds.
Miss. Sanepants: Well that could be a big reason why, I mean did these feathers suddenly show up?
Miss. SunshineRainbows: No they didnt. But that doesnt mean anything. The angels could of just left them there and it just took me awhile to pick up on their message.
Miss. Sanepants: Im pretty sure its just all the birds in your yard.


At this point, a conversation that had only included 3 people suddenly increases to more because people then start attacking "Miss Sanepants" for being a troll, negative, not being a true pagan and whatever other insults or passive aggressive insults you have encountered in similar situations.

Miss Sanepants had not been rude or abrasive. She has simply suggested it was in fact the birds. But Miss Sunshine Rainbows didnt want to hear it, in fact she latched on to the first magical answer that she was looking for. She wanted to feel special and wanted others to validate that specialness. And then others joined in trying to be White Knights for no reason.

This is what we face. Simply suggesting a mundane reason for something instead of a special magical answer that the OP wants, will make people aggressive and defensive towards you. You will be pegged as nothing but a troll looking to start up trouble. And I am heartily sick of it.

One of the biggest reasons, in my opinion, why Pagans (as a general term) are not taken seriously by others is because we cannot get our heads out of the magical unicorns ass long enough to see that magic is not the answer, that feathers in your yard doesn't mean that there is a magical reason for it. They cannot see reality or the mundanes of reality.

I mean ya I can understand saying "Life is magical" Or something along those lines. Life is magical, its a miracle on how we survive, how our bodies work,, how the Earth works!

And my rant is pretty much done. :D