Learning Patience by Writing My Grimoire

So, as part of my air body practice I need to do something creative everyday to tap into my creative energy/use and improve my imagination. Today, I decided to put another page into my Grimoire as my “creative activity”. Past BoS/Grimoire’s I’ve had have been in 3 ring binders since it was easier to store and organize, but I’ve always desired a “real” witchy looking book to keep my correspondences, tarot readings, meditations, etc. and so I finally bought a leather, hand bound, unlined journal. It’s white with rough paper (kind of parchment looking) and thick so my pens don’t bleed through. I love it and felt connected to it from the moment I saw it.

My perfectionist (at times, not always!) nature is probably not the best combo with this type of book, so I’ve been very slow to add to it. I’ve only done my dedication page and Wheel of the Year, so today I decided to add my Moon Phases page. I mixed up my Crescent and Balsamic Moons and accidentally called my Gibbous a Crescent; ugh! It was so frustrating to cross out and rewrite those names, so I’m trying to avoid getting too stressed over it. It makes the book more authentic I suppose. Life is not perfection, so a handwritten book of any kind will not (and probably should not) be without a mistake or typo here and there. If anything it makes it more personal. More my own. So to relieve my anxiety and accept the mess up, I’m taking a page from Bob Ross’s book and changing my outlook on it. I should really practice this more often with other things in my life, because this has helped me get over this small thing.

Otherwise, this week of practice has been going very well and I’ve also been listening to a new (to me, not “new”) podcast called New World Witchery with hosts Cory and Laine. It’s really well done Pagan podcast that goes over folklore (primarily American-based or American, but with other influences) and covers different Pagan beliefs and even Catholic/Abrahamic beliefs and lore. I highly recommend checking them out.

That’s all for this update! Blessed be!

Lark

Building My Fire Body

I cleaned our house today and did a cleansing ritual while I swept to get rid of negative energy and I suddenly felt a spark of motivation to continue my education on my path. I’ve been very hot and cold with it, life keeps getting in the way what with home improvement projects, work getting busier, and lots of camping on the weekends…not that I’m complaining! I love getting away, but I’ve neglected other duties now that Summer Brain is kicking in.

Anyway, this burst of motivation helped me commit back to my spiritual education and I am finally at a place where I can start the next lesson from the podcast “A Witch’s Primer” and it is Lesson 6: Building Your Power Base – The Fire Body I do recommend that, if you want to check out this podcast class, you should start from the beginning. This is the same podcast that I did the meditation to find my spirit guide with which I blogged about a few posts back. I really like Ariel’s style of teaching and his explanations, his voice is also very soothing which helps with the meditations.

This next phase of the class is basically a 5 week process with each week focusing on building your power base with a different element and it’s corresponding section of the Witches Pyramid. The first week focuses on Fire and the “To Will” part of the pyramid. I think this practice would be helpful for anyone looking to improve their intentions and motivations regardless if they believe in magic or not. It is set up in a very…I guess I would call it therapeutic manner? Kind of a self-help thing.

So, my tasks for this week are to make a list of seven things I’ve been meaning to do, but have been either lazy/forgetful towards or just keep consciously putting off, and assigning them to be completed in one day over the next seven days. I have my list finished and completed my first task today (I started out simple), but I’m very excited and even nervous for the next few days. It’s funny because looking at the list, the tasks I set for myself are stupidly simple, basic adulting things, but I just can’t bring myself to do them! I feel like this practice will be really good for me and maybe help me adjust some habits. I also have to be clear with my intentions, doing certain practices daily to focus my attention better, exercise daily, etc.

I’m starting with a positive attitude and good intentions; it’s going to be a very busy week, so I will have to work hard to stay the course and not get derailed by stress or anything. I have faith I can do it though and then once I’m done it will be onto the next week of lessons! Wish me luck and blessed be!

Lark

Quick Pagan Podcast Plug!

Merry Meet!

I wanted to do a very quick post to talk about and recommend two Pagan Podcasts I’ve recently been listening to and am absolutely loving. Seriously, for those who have not yet gotten into podcasts, I strongly suggest you give them a try. Even if you don’t care to listen to a Pagan one there are some really great pods out there (e.g. This American Life, My Favorite Murder, Sword and Scale, Myths and Legends, Tell Me Something I Don’t Know, The Babysitter’s Club Club, etc.) I’ve actually learned a lot from following many of these podcasts and others allow for just good entertainment when the day is slow or there’s nothing on TV, which is most of the time since I don’t really watch cable and am basically Netflix only these days.

Anyway, back to my point: Pagan podcasts!

The first I want to recommend is Inciting A Riot hosted by Fire Lyte. It is a very well done podcast and is currently still putting out episodes (the last one was about the Women’s March in January), so they don’t come out as frequently as they did in the past, but he’s still around. Fire Lyte is also a co-host of the podcast Inciting A Brewhaha with Velma Nightshade, which I’ve mentioned in a previous post before (also very entertaining and the episodes are long). Fire Lyte is very opinionated, but I kind of love him for it. Plus he is a big supporter of science and looks at magic and witchcraft in a more “real world” manner rather than this fantastical idea with sparkles and fairies and three-fold law (which I LOVE and agree with). He also does a great 10 episode segment on the 10 largest religions and it’s a quick, but informative look at other beliefs around the world and it’s really great. I enjoy learning about other beliefs, it helps me understand the followers better as well as commiserate with them on similar beliefs I have and, well, knowledge is power and I enjoy learning new things about other people. Avoid the bubble effect basically.

Speaking of Velma Nightshade, I also finally started listening to her podcast Witches Brewhaha which is no longer being updated (hasn’t been since 2013). However, I still find it to be an informative and very well done podcast, so if you don’t mind listening to a podcast that essentially no longer exists, I do recommend it. She has mentioned on Inciting A Brewhaha that she may consider bringing it back to life, but time will tell if she is able to or not.

That’s all for my Pagan podcast promotions, I have checked a couple of others out, but barely made it through one episode so didn’t feel it was even worth mentioning. Check these out if you like and have a safe week!

Blessed be!

Lark

Witchy Wednesday!

Sorry for the corny title, it was all I could come up with. This is basically an update/miscellaneous post.
One of my resolutions was to really start practicing now that my studies have been steady and become habit. I’ve mentioned before how exercise is a way I’ve been building energy and I enjoy yoga after to focus the energy on whatever intention I have or for simply working on inner peace, motivation, etc. Today, I did my first guided meditation that was ran by one of the podcasts I’ve mentioned before; A Witch’s Primer. It was the “Elemental Meditation” that I followed. I really enjoyed it and felt much more charged afterwards. I had been hoping to do more energy work, but wasn’t sure where to start and I felt this meditation really helped me to feel “magical” to be super cheesy about it.

I’ve also subscribed to two new Pagan podcasts…well, they’re new to me, but they’re not NEW. The first is Inciting A Brewhaha: a podcast ran by Fire Lyte and Velma Nightshade who are Pagan podcasters who collaborated for this one. It’s really great! Lots of comic relief and it’s mostly an opinion based podcast, but does have some great tips and you learn quite a bit, too. The episodes are long (up to 2hrs), but I listen to them while I work so for me they go by pretty quickly. The second is The Witches View: this podcast also has two hosts and was recently brought back to life last year after a hiatus. I’m not caught up yet, but so far I’ve really enjoyed it. It reminds me of the other one a bit in that these two hosts offer a lot of personal insight to the craft, can be funny, and they’ve done a couple interviews. Both are very entertaining.

Another cool thing, that I don’t think I mentioned before, was that I received a charm for a necklace for Christmas and I noticed something funny about it. It’s really pretty and has a design in the center that I realized looks like a five pointed star and the charm itself is round. So, I was essentially gifted a pentacle! I don’t think the person realized it and just thought it was pretty, but I was super excited once I noticed it. I wasn’t planning on wearing a pentacle, but this one is so pretty and inconspicuous that I will definitely be wearing it. I know I could possibly just be doing the human thing and simply finding patterns wherever I can, but it felt like it was meant to be. I know I have mentioned how I’m hoping for most of my tools to call to me/find me in some way and I really feel that this one did just that.

That’s all for this update. Hope everyone has had a good first week of 2017!

Blessed be!

Lark

Exploring Pagan and Witchcraft Podcasts

As I mentioned in my first post, I’ve been using podcasts as one of my tools of research and education. It’s been rather hit and miss, so far though the small amount of podcasts that I have given a chance to have been decent. Those I have unsubscribed to were simply due to me not feeling the format or host.
I listen to the podcasts on my phone during my commute to and from work, also at work, and sometimes while I’m doing chores around the house. So for me the formatting and personality of the podcast producer is important. I don’t want it to be boring, but I also don’t want it to be distracting. I like thought provoking content and a personable host, basically.

So what have I sampled so far?

• The Wigglian Way : This podcast was my first venture into the many, many Pagan podcast options. This is their main website, but you can find them on iTunes and I think another podcast site (which escapes me at the moment). I cannot give them a true review as I have only listened to one episode. I subscribed to them and multiple others as sort of taste testers and some of the others peaked my interest a bit more so I haven’t had a chance yet to continue listening. I did enjoy their first episode though, they play music which is neat, but since I’m listening more for perspective and education, it’s not my favorite thing. The hosts (Sparrow and Mojo) are very personable and well spoken, so I will definitely continue to listen and maybe give a more insightful review in the future. As far as recommendation; I would say check them out. They have really good reviews on iTunes and from what I’ve sampled, I think they’re worth a listen.
• Pagan Spirituality Today : This podcast is really interesting and I am completely caught up with all of the episodes available (they’re also on iTunes). It is ran primarily by Kveldrida (the more recent episodes he involves his wife, Oni, and the other member of their coven, Erin, as well). It’s a podcast surrounding his personal journey and beliefs and I found it very interesting. While I don’t share the same beliefs/path, I enjoy hearing his opinions and perspectives; it’s thought provoking. It’s not updated super often (it started in 2008 and some years have one to two episodes due to life, some of which he delves into and you can hear things hadn’t been going smoothly unfortunately), but they’re trying to focus on getting episodes out more often it sounds like. If anything, I’d recommend giving the Yule 2009 episode a listen; it was very well done and I loved the background music. It made me feel very “at home” I guess and, to be honest, I’ll probably listen to it again in December 🙂
• Devin Hunter’s- The Modern Witch : This podcast was probably my least favorite of the handful I’ve tried so far. It sounds like it would be very informative, but I didn’t last more than 3 episodes before I felt it just wasn’t for me. Of course, this is simply a matter of personal opinion, but it just had too much of a radio talk show feel for me; almost like a bit goofy and what not. That and the host, for me, came off as having a sort of negative energy (in the form of anger and passive aggressiveness, mostly). So I just wasn’t feeling it and had to unsubscribe. However, like I said, there were a few episodes that looked like they could be educational and interesting, so I’d give it shot if you were interested.
• The iPod Witch : Some of you may already be familiar with Brook since she has a website here on WordPress. I’ve just started her podcast and have listened to about 4 episodes now and so far I’m really enjoying it. Brook is very sweet and happy sounding and comes off quite personable. She answers listener questions and reads off their feedback. She has a tendency to ramble, which she completely admits to, but I don’t find it to be distracting or anything. It’s almost like hearing someone speak candidly in person vs reading a script. There are commercial breaks where some type of academy is advertised (obviously I zone out during this time since the name escapes me lol), but it’s a decent/easy podcast to listen to so I plan on continuing catching up through her old stuff.
• A Witch’s Primer : This podcast I’ve found to be most helpful as far as education goes. It is a lecture series run by Ariel and he does it in a nondenominational format. I’ve found it to be helpful and one worthy of actually keeping notes. He also provides guided meditations for purification and elemental work which is pretty much right up my alley. I would most definitely recommend this to any beginner or someone like myself who’s trying to reconnect after a very long hiatus.

So that’s all I’ve experienced and am currently following so far. If you have any suggestions, favorites, or comments on Pagan podcasts do let me know. Blessed be!