I have been hearing bird song around my house over the last week. Strange in winter, although our winters have been rather warm the last few years.
Last week, I noticed this bird’s nest in the crape myrtle just outside my front door. Surely, it’s been there a while. I am hoping that it will be inhabited this spring.
An email I received from this blog has sparked my thinking. A young person asks about the significance of signs found in the natural world.
I was looking out from a bedroom window and saw some ravens. For some reason, I counted them, and there were nine. Again for some reason, I felt that this was
significant. I have just googled nine Ravens and found myself here. Is it
significant?
From my perspective, the significance of anything in our lives lies in what it inspires or motivates us to do, be, or think. If seeing nine ravens inspired someone to google and that person found inspiration in reading my web site, then it was significant for that person in that moment, and sparked me to think about this topic more and now write about it. So, now it has some impact on my life as well.
Many of us are constantly asking for a “sign.” How many times have I stood at the metaphysical crossroads and begged for a sign from the gods! Just give me a sign that which way to go. Give me a sign that the world is a beautiful and good place. Give me a sign that there is hope in the darkness.
These signs or messages are all around us, if you are in the right frame of mind and spirit, if we are open, if we really need a sign. Synchronicities do happen. For example, lately orange cats have been on my mind, or I should say I’ve been obsessed with them. The other night I was driving down a dark road and thought that I should turn my high beams on. Seconds later, an orange cat streaked across the road. I was able to see it in time to brake and avoid hitting it because I had my high beam lights on. Does this mean anything beyond I was able to save a kitty’s life? I don’t know, but I do know that I would have felt devastated to hit an orange kitty (or for that matter, any cat).
As the saying goes, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. But at other times, it can be a symbol for a penis, a token of respect, an offering to the orishas, a reminder of some long forgotten experience, or all of the above. Paying attention to the world around us allows messages from the Deeper Self (the divine part of our self) and Younger Self (the unconscious) to get through to our Talking Self (our conscious, waking self). Deeper self and Younger self take advantage of the synchronicities in the world around us and the mental and emotional connections that we already have built up to make themselves heard by Talking Self. A chance encounter with a stranger. Seeing different books about the same topic repeatedly in very different contexts. Noticing something odd in nature and googling it because it piqued your interest.
Sounds like a sign to me. But I have no idea what it means…
For my husband’s birthday, I made him a “universal manifestation box.”
The outside is painted in six colors representing the four classical elements of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, and the energies of the starry Heavens and deep Chaos. Each side has a sigil painted in gold. The interior of the box is painted black with the symbols for the Sun, Earth, the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in silver.
The “universal manifestation box” is a representational model of the universe in microcosm. The exterior elements and internal planets are paired as polarizing opposites:
The box is magically charged in circle with all the energies of the universe brought to bear and set into the box. When not “active,” the box contains a piece of hematite to ground it. To use the box, one merely needs to place a symbol, picture, or written intention in the box, and activate it.
Woo-woo? Sure. But these kinds of things seem to work for me. So what could I do but offer the universe to the one I love?
The other night I had a lot on my mind as I tried to figure out how to react to a stressful situation in my life. I was trying to figure out what I should do, what was my responsibility, what was the right way for me to act in the world, how to best respond, what my goals were in the situation, etc. After several restless hours, I finally drifted to sleep.
In the morning, I awoke with a dream image — a handheld chalk slate that had been written and erased before the word TRUTH was scribed. I had to act as the truth of my core prompted, which for me is one of listening, witnessing, asking questions in such a way to make people reflect, connecting, and expressing what is of value of the heart of a situation.
Mine is not always the most active role, and it is often not a role of telling, but of listening and reflecting back to others, and of finding the places where extremes can find their balance, hopefully harmoniously. Sometimes I am successful; sometimes not.
On a side note: I’ve been very “Hod”ish in my studies recently. “Truth” on a chalk board seemed a fitting message.
I have put together a sponsorship form and sent it to Stepping Stones Nigeria for review. It included a picture by Robin Hammond at the UK Guardian/Observer, so I need to ask permission to use it. Cross your fingers!
I am also asking a local group if it would be willing to act as financial agent for the project by depositing all donations in their bank account and sending one/two lump donations to Stepping Stones Nigeria.
Once I get those things in order, I need to write up some directions to help other knitters get involved without having to do all this foot work. I want to make a handy package of resources that others can use easily.
Some months back, a good friend Hecate posted about personal responsibility.
How do you live as a woman of integrity in these times? Where’s the balance between private action and civil action? To what extent is it going to be OK with my ancestors if I show up in the Summerlands and say, well, hell, I was doing the best that I could, given how little impact one woman was likely to make in any event? I planted herbs and spread poems and was kind to everyone I encountered? I spent a long time earning that law degree and getting that job and why should I have had to give all that up just because other people were evil?
A witch takes responsibility. What is my responsibility in these times? It’s not that difficult to take responsibility. It’s more difficult to figure out what responsibility to take.
This, along with stories coming out about the “witch” children of Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, has me wanting to do something. I took the first steps this week– beginning to think about my intent in this blog and emailing the folks at Stepping Stones Nigeria.
I have gotten some supportive responses from friends here and elsewhere, and I received a wonderful email from Gary Foxcroft, the founder of Stepping Stones Nigeria, in which he wrote: Having read about your group [Becoming] and beliefs it is especially interesting for us to hear from members of different spiritual communities….Ultimately we believe in the power of intention and of serving humanity, which is what took us to Nigeria in the first place.
Rather than feeling helpless, I am beginning to feel hopeful. I am setting my personal goal of service: knitting 10 bears and raising $5000. That would be $500 per bear. I would need 25 people to pledge $20 per bear or 50 people to pledge $10 per bear. Of course, if someone could only pledge a few dollars per bear, or a set amount for just one bear, that would be okay too.
I’m still working out the details for myself, then I will post the information for other knitters to use to do the same.
I had an idea last night that I would like to get some feedback on.
I would like to organize a fundraising effort for Stepping Stones Nigeria and the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network (CRARN). These two groups that work directly with sheltering, feeding, and educating street children in Nigeria who have been accused of witchcraft and beaten, tortured, killed, and/or abandoned by their families and neighbors.
Child ‘witches’ in Africa
African Crucible: Cast as Witches, Then Cast Out
Children are targets of Nigerian witch-hunt
What I would like to do is call upon the knitters in the neo-Pagan community (starting locally and with my on-line circles) to knit stuffed bears and/or children’s clothes for the children. Each person doing the knitting would get other people to pledge to sponsor them at either $5, $10, or $20 per bear/item of clothing. The knitters would also be working a spell of love and healing into the hand-made items.
For example: I get five people to pledge $10 per bear that I knit, and then I make 5 bears. That’s a toy of love and healing for 5 kids, plus 5 sponsors times $10 times 5 bears equalling $250. If I can find 10 knitters to do the same thing, that would be 50 bears and $2500.
I have sent an email of inquiry to Stepping Stones Nigeria (which has a 1% overhead, so most of the money goes directly to the children’s shelter) about the logistics and legality of collecting the money centrally here and sending it in one lump sum to them. Obviously there would be logistics to work out as well.
So, what do you think? If you knit, sew, crochet, whatever, would you be willing to make some bears/items of clothing and get sponsors? If you don’t do hand-crafts, would you be willing to be a sponsor for something like this?
I know this is a band-aid compared to the poverty and health crises in Africa, but this issue has touched my heart and I can’t just do nothing. This is something I think I can do.
I keep reading the stories about children in the Congo and Nigeria who are abandoned, beaten, and killed after being accused of being witches. It breaks my heart every time — to the point where I am shaking. I finally found an organization that is specifically working to help these kids. I am going to donate, and I hope you will too.
Just not necessarily in the way you thought you would.
Last night I asked Simbi Dlo for help in understanding the patterns beneath the surface, the patterns within the strange and wonderful things that tend to happen in life when you are paying attention. For the last week, I have been trying to do what my teacher has told me — to look at my life through my dreamtime lens, to interpret happenings around me shamanically, rather than literally or dismissively.
So, I asked for Simbi to guide my journey in not only noticing the signs and patterns but understanding them as well.
This morning I decided to wear a blown glass pendant I was recently given. This pendant reminds me of a water snake, and I have placed it on my altar next to the glass of water and blue candle I have for Simbi. I have only worn this pendant two other times, and I love it. At the metro station where I transfer trains (a transitional place, perhaps?), the necklace came apart and the pendant fell to the ground, breaking. I was stunned and spent a few minutes trying to determine if the two pieces I found easily could be fit together and glued.
No. They didn’t fit. I took a deep breath and really looked at the pieces and remembered the flowing form of the pendant before it broke. I understood that there should be a large U-shaped piece. So, I began looking at the train platform — very carefully. I’m sure I looked like a crazy person just staring at the ground and walking in tight circles around where the pendant landed.
After about 15 minutes of quietly freaking out, I decided to get on the train but keep my eyes peeled on the platform. Maybe by walking away and releasing, I would find it. Sure enough, just as the train pulled away I spied a largish glint about 15 feet away from where I had been standing. But was it the missing piece? I couldn’t rationally tell.
And I was now 30 minutes late for work.
Naturally, I went to the next station, waited for the next train going the opposite direction, and went back. I told Simbi that if the piece was still there, if indeed that was the missing piece, I would officially dedicate the pendant to him and wear it during his work — going into the unconscious depths, looking for the patterns under the surface, and bringing them up again. I stepped off the train, walked right up to where I saw the glint, bent over, and picked up the missing piece. Without missing a beat, I continued across the platform to the waiting train going in my original direction.
At work, I checked the three pieces to see if they fit. They do, with only one chip missing from the back. I have wrapped them in tissue and will glue them together tonight at home. This pendent is now dedicated to Simbi Dlo, and I am only wearing it with intent when I am working with him directly.
Yeah, I get it. Quite effective, really, Simbi Dlo. Ashe and blessed be.
The meaning of the Hebrew word Hod is Glory, and this suggests at once to the mind that in this, the first Sphere in which forms are definitely organized, the radiance of the Primordial is shown forth to human consciousness. Physicists tell us that light is only rendered visible as blue sky owing to its reflection from the particles of dust in the atmosphere. Absolutely dustless atmosphere is absolutely dark atmosphere. And so it is in the metaphysics of the Tree. The glory of God can only shine forth in manifestation when there are forms to manifest it.*
I stood at the train station in the early morning. Looking up into the formless gray sky, I saw nothing. As I lowered my gaze to the horizon, the trees, and the people around me, I could clearly see the snow falling around me. Against the backdrop of nothing, I see nothing. The forms of the world around me provided the necessary background against which I could see this glorious dance of whiteness and air.
I am saturated in Hod right now. I am reviewing concepts initially encountered and not quite understood years ago. I am delving into Hermetic qabalah, symbology, and what I consider “geek” astrology. My personal practice is taking on ceremonial overtones. As my teacher tells me, I am building the necessary vocabulary for the experiences I will have on the next sphere of Netzach, the sphere of raw potential and creativity.
I am building cognitive networks and nets of symbols and correspondences. Disparate things that I am reading or snatches of conversation heard are beginning to click in new ways, as I see for the first time for myself what certain symbols stand for certain concepts. The lightbulbs are turning on. And I am excited.
And then there is the challenge of defining my terms and explaining what I am doing and why, so that people without the shorthand references will understand as much as possible. We are doing a working at Becoming’s monthly circle this Sunday which rests on some “geek” astrological references that I didn’t get without a few hours of research. But once I did, WOW! So, I need to find the forms — the words and ritual actions — that will allow the emotion to easily flow through into the working and make it strong.
The energy around me is almost crackling. Can you hear it?
*From Dion Fortune’s Mystical Qabalah
