Alexandra

Ogham Impressions: First Aicme

A couple of weeks ago (ah, how time flies) I commented on someone else's post about ogham that some of my understandings were similar, and it spawned a brief conversation about how my understanding came about, and then I promised to share some of my insights... and then, well. Life happened. Samhain happened. And now here I am in the second half of November, finally getting some of it down on paper and screen. I'll start with a little background, though, on my personal study of ogham.

I don't recall when I first heard of ogham, but I can be almost certain that it was in the sense of the "alphabet of trees" or "tree calendar", both of which are pretty misleading. My first real contact with ogham, besides lists of trees that had more new age material than Irish material, was probably in one of Raven Edgewalker's classes at Sacred Space. They do use the tree list pretty heavily (they're a plant witch after all) but, importantly, they explained that the tree list was only one list out of several, and that the ogham was, at its core, an alphabet of sounds, a framework from which to create poetry. That sounded much more interesting to me than just an oracle of trees, but it wasn't until I got my hands on a copy of Erryn Rowan Laurie's book Weaving Word Wisdom and found part of the Scholar's Primer (Auraicept na n-Éces) online that I started to truly understand what that meant. Even after I'd read both books and bought a set of staves and started trying to study them on my own, however, I was still finding them to be a bit difficult to connect with. So when I had the chance to go to a ritual on connecting to Ogma and the ogham, I went. Long story short, Ogma told me that he would not be teaching me the ogham "again", and that I'd have to put in the effort to really connect. I think it was his nudge or guidance that helped me discover the 6 month intensive I ended up taking through the Irish Pagan School, though, and I am very grateful for that little bit of help.

In the IPS intensive, there were three parts to the study of every letter (called a "fid"): first, we read the corresponding sections in both Laurie's book (which I mentioned above) and John-Paul Patton's The Poet's Ogham. Then, there was an hour or so of video lecture that went into the Briatharogham (also known as the "word ogham") in more depth, including some cultural nuances that might not be obvious to people who aren't immersed in Irish culture (that is to say: not the diaspora, those are two distinct cultures at this point). The third part was a guided meditation journey to connect with the spirit of that particular fid, and it was those exchanges in journey space that really helped my connection with ogham flourish to the point that I felt I understood it enough to include it in my practice. Each spirit helped me come up with a two-word kenning (in English, alas — perhaps in the future I'll have a good enough grasp of Irish), and gave me a staff in exchange for the gift I brought. Many also gave me insight into other lists on that first journey — lists of plants and birds and even types of magic, that I've been developing for my own practice with their help. I probably could have connected to the feda (plural of fid) if I had thought to try, but the curriculum developed by the IPS was really helpful for increasing my understanding of the historical materials, and actually managing to do the work in a timely manner! I highly recommend it to anyone interested in deepening their connection to the ogham.

Back to the present, I started typing out the kennings and the descriptions of how the spirits appeared to me, and even without sharing the lists of trees and herbs and birds and types of magic, it got pretty long, so for today I'll just give you the first Aicme, the first set of 5. If there's interest, I'm happy to share some of my personal lists later.

I associate Beithe with Imbolc personally, and from that association I associate the entire aicme with the Spring and the East, though as far as I know there is no direct historical support for that. I'm also adding in some keywords that come from my personal understanding of each fid that I've developed in my studies, but again, these are to be taken as one person's opinion, not fact.

Beithe - Beginning Healing

Spirit: humanoid, slightly femme-of center, looked like a common depiction of a birch dryad (birchbark patterned skin, “hair” that’s twigs and moss, etc)

Keywords: new beginnings and trailblazing; cleansing and purification (and those as sources of healing); herbal healing and herb lore; conception, pregnancy, and birth both physically and metaphorically; serenity and tranquility; hope for the future

Luis – Lush Vibrancy

Spirit: humanoid, androgynous, also dryad-like, but shifting shape between several trees/plants

Keywords: lush greenery, vivid greens (physical and metaphorical); vibrant flame, shining light (again, physical and metaphorical); life force; growth, mastery; enlightenment, inspiration; intense, splendid, excellent; power and therefore also sorcery/magic

Fearn – Fierce Protection

Spirit: humanoid, something like a satyr, but from the lower leg, not the waist. I’m unclear if the hooves are bovine or cervine or what. Masculine in appearance with a broad chest, chestnut colored hair and some facial hair, but body hair not obvious despite not wearing a shirt (yes wearing pants that stopped at the knee though). Horns also, but again unclear besides that they curled from the side of the head. Kind of a battle frenzy vibe.

Keywords: protection, defense, guarding; walls and shields (and metaphorically, boundaries and emotional walls and from there to stoicism and repression); necessary/unavoidable bloodshed or “egg cracking”; activism, reactive violence; the path of a warrior, first responders, vanguard; chivalry and also machismo in some cases.

Saille – Cyclical Currents

Spirit: humanoid, feminine – like a depiction of a “willowmaid”, so another more dryad-like spirit, drooping twig “hair”

Keywords: flowing water, tides, currents, eddies, the water cycle; rivers, underground springs, natural wells; repeated travel (esp in boats or across water, metaphorically repeated otherworldly travel); the underworld and grief; healing that happens slowly over time, grief fading in time, cycles of healing from trauma; clearing blockages and dams slowly (and metaphorically, emotional blockages); learning to let go, flexibility, lightness, unburdening your heart; emotional ebbs and flows, mood regulation and self regulation; subconscious mind; bodily cycles (such as menstruation or other hormonal cycles; also the ebbs and flows of chronic illnesses both physical and mental)

Nin – Knotted Weaving

Spirit: shifting through many forms at first, a commentary on my preconceived notions? Settled on something that reminded me a bit of a warrior queen, vaguely like the Wonder Woman movie (2017) but with bark armour and leaves in her short hair, carrying a knotted net, a spear, and a spool of twine and had me help fix a piece of weaving on a loom, untangling and reweaving.

Keywords: fiber arts as magical arts (spinning, weaving, knot tying, knitting etc); fate-weaving, creating better futures; planning for a common future and working towards a common goal; community weaving, social contracts, networking, social support systems; negotiation, mediation, cooperation, and diplomacy; group governance, lawmaking, society-shaping.

I hope this was interesting for some of you. Look for the next aicme next week!

Crow Folks: Things Needed in Darkness

November 12, 2023
by Alexandra

This dark moon, my journey led me back to the more usual place, where I met the Three Daughters of Ernmas outside a cottage, around a great cauldron. When I asked what message they had for me to bring back this time, they reminded me that this was the last moon cycle, dark to dark, before the light started coming back. After the next dark moon there will be a brief dark period, but the solstice falls near the first quarter, so the light of the moon will be growing at that time, at least. I asked what I was to do, and they showed me a candle flame lit in the darkness, and told me they would guide me in writing a triad. So that's what I have for you all, today.

The first element of the triad at first was really obvious — a candle — but then they showed me that it wasn't just a physical candle, but also a feeling. As they made the feeling swell in my chest, I recognized it: Hope. A light in dark places, indeed. And a tiny flicker of warmth, in the hand holding the candle, and the hope in my chest. The second one came as a visual, a map with lines and markings on it like a sports playbook or like many of us have no doubt seen in fantasy or historical movies. That made sense to me more as a thing that was needful in the metaphorical darkness of a difficult time — plans show us the way forward. The third item it took me a little while longer to understand, because I was shown a person sitting beside an extinguished cooking fire out in a field; it wasn't until I realized I was feeling a ruana around myself that I was not actually wearing that it became clear and I could feel their approval. A good cloak, I thought, but no, they wanted all three things to be the same format of three words, and for some reason the type of cloak felt very important, so: a cloak of wool. It's better than any other type of fabric for damp chill. And the last line ties them all together in a slightly different way than the first: all three will keep your blood warm. "Blood" was clear in the imagery they gave me. It was clear that the candle and the cloak both could literally keep your body warm, but also that hope and a battle plan were necessary to keep you alive, to keep your blood flowing through your veins and not cooling as it congealed. So not just the darkness our eyes see, then: also the darkness in our hearts, which affects many of us at this time of year.

Samhain Season Reflections

November 3, 2023
by Alexandra

I had vague plans for Oíche Shamhna — beyond the usual handing out candy as my husband took the kiddo trick or treating — but after an October where I was sick and then my husband got sick and stayed sick, and then I finally got the new covid vaccine (which, predictably, tanked me for a week), plans did not solidify and materialize beyond brief prayers.

Normally, that would have upset me, and I would have felt guilty for not being a better descendant to my ancestors and devotee to my deities, but instead I woke up on the first of November having had a profound dream, and very shortly after waking I was visited by a messenger from the High Court associated with the Chesapeake Bay watershed. I hadn't done work, but work had come to me. The dream featured Angrboda — a jotun goddess(1) who is perhaps best known as the other parent of Loki's most famous children: Hela, Fenris, and Jormungandr — teaching me to spin seidr with flax. I will need to go see her again to get the rest of it cemented in my mind, but the flax I bought online that day is coming in the mail. The messenger had news of a more personal nature for me (which is still something I haven't quite gotten used to), acknowledging the fulfillment of a contract.

If you had told me ten years ago that in ten years' time I would be up to my neck in Otherworldly conflict and politics, I wouldn't have believed you. Sure, I interacted with my Local Fair Folk then, but primarily the less powerful ones that wander about a bit, not the Gentry. But here I am and here I'll stay for good or ill. As John Beckett said recently: "sharpen the swords you have". This work is the sword I have, and I'll do it to the best of my ability, though I'll caution anyone else considering following this path that this is not a job you can just quit.(2)

In the intervening decade, I've interacted more and more with the Gentry — first those closest to my house wherever I was living, and then as time went on and I became more involved with the Court and Queen I serve in the Otherworlds, I was finding that I needed to "check in at the embassy" in every new territory before I did more than the smallest instinctive magics, which meant needing offerings for the local Gentry every time I went to any kind of pagan event, from a major conference like Mystic South or Sacred Space, to a small backyard holiday gathering at a friend's house.

And as I've done these check-ins, I've met more and more courts(3) who seem to be embroiled in the Otherworldly conflict that is part of The Great War, The Storm, Tower Time — whatever you'd like to call it. (I've taken to calling it the "Strife-Storm", recently, because it does seem to shift and build and release like weather. Although I was one of those who talked about it back in March under the term "Great War", that didn't fit as well once I took it out of Irene Glasse's metaphor and applied it to the Otherworldly conflicts I was seeing, but I didn't have better words back then! We'll see if "Strife-Storm" sticks, because I do really want a term to talk about the conflict itself, within the sort of larger context of Tower Time.) Part of my work for my Court is connecting with some of these courts I'm encountering, and doing some work to establish something like diplomatic ties that are grounded in this world, as well.

I've been tasked with keeping up these connections with semi-regular contact and offerings, and the picture on this blog is of my recently reorganized shrine, with most of the main courts I interact with all brought together. There are candles, and a few "tokens" (the pins and ring, all symbols of pledges made) and one little statuette of a husband and wife gnome kissing... That was a very specific request from the King and Queen of the High Court associated with the. I had asked how they wanted to be represented on my shrine; let it never be said that the fae don't have a sense of humor! The candle I used (and will continue using) for the Pleiades Cycle is on top of a box of trinkets and jewelry which has been the center point of my fairy shrine for most of the past decade. The rose candle is for the Queen of my immediate local area, and the two large candles are for the Monarchs of Spring and Autumn of the High Court associated with the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

In my last blog about the Strife-Storm, I mentioned battles, and those are ongoing but either less frequent, or I am less frequently aware of my part in them, which is more of a relief than anything else. Waking up feeling drained, tired, and sore with bruises I don't remember having is one thing; getting flashbacks of battlefield carnage I never saw with my physical eyes is quite another, and I'd very much prefer the first. But in general things seem to be more at an uneasy standstill by me. I heard reports of weirdness elsewhere during the last solar eclipse, which I suppose makes a certain amount of sense, as the forces my allies are fighting against seem to be held at bay by solar energy. I do not know what to expect in the coming dark season, but it's always best to be prepared. And that's really what this week ended up being, for me: a time to contemplate the work of the summer, and to prepare for the work of the winter.

Review of Outside the Charmed Circle

This book was the community pick for the Fellowship Beyond the Star book club for October, suggested by Ron Padrón (of White Rose Witching), and I'm super glad he suggested it (and that it got the second most votes and was therefore next) because I really enjoyed it! I shared one quote that really resonated with me on Facebook when I was partway through the book, and I didn't quite manage to finish the whole thing by the book club date, but I have now and I thought I'd review it for ya'll!

The book is a little under 300 pages, including the foreword by Michelle Belanger (but not including the appendices and the bibliography), written in a sort of lightly academic style that is still pretty accessible. Magdalene makes sure to define new terms for every chapter, and while some of it will be very familiar to those who've done some university-level gender studies, that kind of background isn't at all required to follow her arguments. Her writing is clear and concise, while still leaving room for it to be heartfelt and hilarious at turns.

The first two chapters set us up: introducing the author, the book, and the general terms that will provide the framework for everything else. Magdalene also explains what the "charmed circle" is, a term she borrowed from Gayle Rubin's 1984 essay "Thinking Sex": cultures attribute positive and negative values to sexual attributes, and those that are positively valued are said to be the "charmed circle" of sexuality in that culture, with their opposites, (ie, anything "queer" in our modern western society) falling outside that circle. The third chapter discusses embodiment, and both how magic is embodied (the body being our first magical tool) as well as how gender and sexuality are embodied, and how trauma and disability can disrupt and complicate things (plus some very good suggestions for grounding when they do). Chapter 4 rounds out the first section, with some more gender theory, and a section titled "Opening a Discourse About Gender Essentialism and Other Cans of Worms" that is just pure gold - and, alas, too long to reproduce here in total, but here's a snippet: "Let's talk about 'masculine' and 'feminine' energies, or perhaps we can call them 'active' and 'passive' energies, or positive and negative polarities. While we're at it, we can talk about the equation of masculinity with active, positive and projective qualities, and the consequent equation of femininity with passive, negative, and receptive qualities... but hey, that's not exist, right?" (p.105) Chapter 5, titled "Queerness and the Charmed Circle", returns to the definitions of both queerness and the charmed circle itself, concluding "to be queer is to be intrinsically Other, standing outside the charmed circle of societal approval for the sake of living an authentic life." (p.144)

Chapter 6 gets us into the meat of this and the practical applications, discussing sex magic, in the context of queer sex and embodied magic, and — importantly — consent. This chapter includes a ritual that's a bit longer than the exercises sprinkled throughout the other chapters, though honestly I felt like this chapter has the potential to be another entire book, should Magdalene wish to elaborate further! Continuing on, Chapter 7 is titled "Form Follows Function: Toward A Consent-Based Magical Praxis", and it's in this chapter that I found the quotation I just had to share on Facebook: "If those of us who work with gods, spirits, powers, and our fellow practitioners aren't basing our communities and our praxis in consent, we have no claim to any sort of spiritual advancement or wisdom. We're merely overgrown toddlers who haven't learned that other people, other beings - human or other, corporeal or not, living or dead or something else - don't exist for our convenience, to sate our desires. They have their own agency, just as we do, and understanding that agency should be the core of any interaction, magical or mundane." (pp.181-82) If you want my bare-bones honest opinion, this book is worth buying for that chapter alone. Chapter 8 discusses consent as it applies to our work and relationships with spirits and deities, and I think anyone who is thinking of entering into any kind of contract or devotional relationship with a deity should read it. I don't think enough of us stop to consider our own consent in these relationships, but it matters. Deeply. This chapter covers not only how and when to say no, but also what kind of responses you might get back, and what to do if things go sideways. It is another chapter that could easily be expanded into another entire book — one I would gladly buy for the Fellowship library so I could hand it off to new pagans! Chapter 9 gives several examples of ways to adjust your practice to be more consent-based, and the pros and cons of each, and includes a quick reminder of what cultural appropriation is and how to avoid it. Chapter 10, titled "Greater Than One: Thoughts on Politics, Power, and Community", explains why gender, sexuality, magic, witchcraft, and paganism are all political, and why we can't abstain from political discussions as we build and maintain our communities. It also tackles questions of diversity, inclusivity, the paradox of tolerance, and what it means to lead. The final chapter is short, and is both conclusion and a consideration of what else, what next. Because the work is never done.

I really enjoyed this book and I'm very glad it exists — so much of what I found within its pages was validating and inspiring. If I had to list drawbacks, I can think of only three, and all three make sense in the context of the author herself and that the material, by necessity, had to remain streamlined. First, the magic this book focuses on is predominantly ceremonial magic, which appears to be what Magdalene herself practices, but it is not the backbone of my own practice, so there were points at which I either had little interest in a suggestion or I agreed but while coming from a very different angle. Secondly, the lists of queer deities were very brief and not at all exhaustive (in fact, on of my favorite queer deities, Heimdall, was absent). Very few pantheons were included, but I imagine this was both an attempt to draw on her own experiences (instead of being encyclopedic) and also to give enough space to talk about why the deities included should be considered queer, instead of just giving a list with no justification or explanation. (Llewellyn, if you're reading this, I would LOVE an edited encyclopedia of queer deities, though. Just sayin'.) Thirdly, and this is the smallest of all, in the section on deity relationships and consent, Magdalene rightfully points out that pagans as a whole seem to accept more toxic behaviours from our deities than we would from our romantic partners, and while that is very true in my experience (and ought not to be), I think a little discussion of complicated familial relationships might round out that analogy, because there certainly are deities that I would walk away from if I could, but I can't completely avoid them because of a larger web of relationship — much more like a problematic uncle than a toxic boyfriend. Other than those three little nitpicks, I wholeheartedly recommend this book to any "p-word" community member (that is: Pagans, Polytheists, and magical/occult Practitioners) who is queer, who is trying to be a better queer ally, or who holds any kind of leadership role in their own community.

Crow Folks: Dreaming of Stars

October 19, 2023
by Alexandra

So. I did this journey originally last Friday, on the dark moon, and I expected I'd have something written up for y'all later that day or Saturday at the latest. But what I ended up with was just so different from everything I've gotten from Na Morrigna before that I took a few days to digest it and then asked for clarification and it took me another few days (of other magical work and mundane busyness) to understand the clarification, and then yesterday I started to draft this in my head but didn't have the time and spoons to type it out... So here I am, almost a week late, with an unusual offering for this moon's Crow Call: a journey script. I finally understood that I'm not supposed to answer all the questions or do all the homework, what I'm supposed to share is the quest itself. When you have time and space to do so, please try the journey below, and then let me know what your experience is like either in the comments here, or on FB, or send an email! I think we're all meant to do this work together.

Begin in stillness, and quiet, and darkness. Find your center, and align yourself with earth and sky. As you stare at the darkness behind your eyes, feel and see as mist swirls up from the ground, obscuring everything around you. After a moment, it begins to part, and you can see a path beneath your feet, and grass on either side. Continue forward as the mist evaporates, until you find yourself on a dirt path through a grassy field, in front of a large doorway made of two large standing stones covered by a lintel stone. The path continues through the doorway, but on the other side you see not a grassy field in the daylight, but a forest at night. As you look at it, feeling a cool breeze coming out through the doorway, a crow flies over your head and then ducks under the lintel and disappears through the door, cawing at your to follow. Circle the doorway to look at it from the side or the rear if you like, but when you are ready, come back to the side where you can see the forest, and go through.

Once you are through, give your eyes a moment to adjust, and use your other senses to observe your surroundings. You might notice that it's colder here, and that your steps crunch through dry leaves. What other sounds can you hear, as you continue down the path? What can you smell? And now that your eyes have adjusted to the dim light, what can you see?

The path ends at a wide circular clearing with a clear pool of water, rimmed in ice, in the center of a circle of oak trees. Some of the trees are a size you might once have thought of as "large" and others are so enormous you find yourself wondering if it might take five or even six tall adults holding hands to encircle them. As your eyes move up the trunk of the one across the clearing from you, you can see that they are taller than most of the trees you've seen, as well, but their great canopies part, leaving a circle of stars in the sky. And such stars! You can see the Milky Way to your left, at the edge, but the rest of these stars are more dense, more numerous, than you are used to seeing.

Quietly, from somewhere nearby, Na Morrigna emerge. "The star stories are no longer remembered, but they must be learned again." one sister says. You look towards her, but she directs your gaze back up. "There, these stars make the great silver tree, with the three golden apples." And there in the sky, you see lines connect the stars, to draw a great tree, and three bright stars become apples nestled in its branches.

"There are others." says another sister, as the lines fade. "The scald crow, look -" and again, lines form. Two Vs, one large for the wings, one smaller for the tail. A crow further to the right of the tree, and flying towards the Milky Way.

"And the cauldron," says the third sister, as the lines fade again. "It rises in the east, upright and full, and then pours out all its blessings upon the land, and sets in the west, inverted and empty, ready to be filled again beneath the earth." You look up, but not lines form; it seems this constellation is not currently in this patch of sky.

"Give what you brought into the water, to remember this place" they say together, and you find that you are holding an apple. Not a golden one, but a normal apple, like you might buy for a snack. You step forward towards the pool of water, and you notice the ice again, and how very clear and very deep it looks, with a small rippling current in the middle, like the water is constantly both bubbling up and draining down. You toss in the apple, and watch as it gets caught in what had been an invisible current, sucking it down and then through a hole somewhere on the left side, vanishing from your sight. It is the pool of an underground river, perhaps, bubbling up here as it makes its way through the stone below.

Na Morrigna leave as silently as they came, and when you next turn to look, what you see behind you instead is the doorway again. This time, a warm breeze blows through it, reminding you how very cold it is where you are. When you are? For you know somehow that this is Ireland, and yet it seems too cold for the time of year; there is frost and ice everywhere around you. And how long has it been since human eyes saw this many trees of such size in the same forest? This journey has given you more questions than answers.

With one back glance up to the stars, you turn to go back to where you came from, down the path filled with crunchy leaves and back to the door. Once again, a crow flies over your head as you approach the doorway, and calls to you as it flies through, and back into the daylight. You follow, stepping back onto the dirt path, and as you continue on, the mist returns, swirling up around you until it obscures everything but the way back to your body.

The above is, basically, a transcript of my own journey. The weather seemed too cold and the trees too big and the stars not quite right, so I don't know where in the sky these constellations might be, beyond what I've already told you. I'm no astronomer, but I am a historian, and my experience made me wonder if this wasn't just a journey to Ireland but also a journey back in time, perhaps to the early iron age, when there was a cold period in Western Europe c. 500 BCE. That would, of course, mean the stars would not be following quite the same paths through the sky as they do now. I think most pagans are at least passingly familiar with the precession of the equinoxes, and we'd have to do similar calculations to find our constellations of the tree, the crow, and the cauldron. I did look up the corona borealis, the northern crown constellation, and it rises in the opposite way as we were told the cauldron did, rising pouring out and setting full, instead.

Tempting as it is to dive into that, though, I think the stories themselves might be more important. They were very clear on the tree having three golden apples, which surprised me, because the only tree like that I can think of is Greek, not Irish or even Celtic. But they did say the stories were missing. So it's on us, I think, to find them again, or to find the constellations and channel their stories. It will all be UPG (unverified personal gnosis) of course, or it may become shared gnosis in time, but sometimes such things can be useful for filling in the gaps. We are missing so many pieces of Irish mythology: from a creation myth. to small tales only hinted at in other tales, to the stories of those Tuatha Dé whose names are all we know about them. If this is to continue being a religion with living traditions and not a fossil to be merely displayed, we'll need more stories.

Books for Beginners: Magic, not Gods

October 8, 2023
by Alexandra

So, yesterday someone asked me a question about what kind of books and resources I would recommend for getting started with magic. I inquired further, and they clarified that they had no interest in deities at this point, which narrowed down my potential list of recommendations. After a little poking through my shelves and some reviews for books I haven't gotten my hands on yet, I finally settled on these:

Psychic Witch: A Metaphysical Guide to Meditation, Magick, and Manifestation, by Mat Auryn
I haven't read this one yet, but I have leafed through it and it seemed like it was pretty solid on the basics: meditation, energy work, grounding and shielding, etc. And it got a pretty glowing review from John Beckett! There's also a sequel of sorts: Mastering Magick: A Course in Spellcasting for the Psychic Witch. And you can find out what else Mat Auryn has been up (or find podcast episodes where he had a guest appearance to talk about his books) to on his website.
Grovedaughter Witchery: Practical Spellcraft, by Bree NicGarran
This one I own, and I've followed the author on social media for a decade or longer, and her stuff is usually pretty clear, and almost always secular. Despite being a pagan, the gods don't really figure in her witchcraft; her focus is more on folkloric-flavored witchcraft, inspired by fairytales. Bree also has a podcast, Hex Positive, which has a lot of additional resources.
Evolutionary Witchcraft, by T. Thorn Coyle
I own this one, too, and read it for the book club run by the Fellowship Beyond the Star a few years back. It's from a Feri/Reclaiming perspective, and does include some deities but it also includes both the Iron and Pearl Pentacles, and a lot of movement exercises, which makes it a valuable addition to this list.
TrancePortation: Learning to Navigate the Inner World, by Diana L. Paxson
This one is very focused on trancework and remains one of the most comprehensive books I've ever read on that topic. It's heavy though, so it takes a while to get through, but all the exercises build on each other. If you're interested in trancework and journeying, I can't recommend it enough.
Six Ways: Approaches and Entries for Practical Magic, by Aidan Wachter
I haven't read this one, either, but I did just finish Weaving Fate: Hypersigils, Changeing the Past, and Telling True Lies, by the same author and that book moved this one into my Need category. Weaving Fate is a little more specific and a little more advanced, but a very engaging and straightforward read with good instructions; I can't imagine Six Ways being much different in that regard.
Sigil Witchery: A Witch's Guide to Crafting Magick Symbols, by Laura Tempest Zakroff
This is the first that was recommended by someone else as I was discussing this post, and I was really grateful for the suggestion because my own sigils are almost always bindrunes or ogham or some combination thereof, so I don't really own any books on sigilry. It's a powerful type of magic in its own right though, and though it doesn't really jive with my personal practice (I don't use other people's sigils, as a rule), I have long been impressed with Tempest's work. Plus, this book had a glowing review from another author whose work I admire, Misha Magdalene (author of Outside the Charmed Circle: Exploring Gender and Sexuality in Magical Practice, a must-read for any queer neopagans or group leaders)
The Elements of Spellcrafting: 21 Keys to Successful Sorcery, by Jason Miller
I've seen this one recommended a lot, too, though I've yet to get my hands on a copy of it to leaf through. Still, I've found many of Jason Miller's blogs very insightful, and this book has a great review by another blogger I've long admired, River Enodian.

I think I'll stop there, for now - I could recommend more blogs and online courses and youtube channels but for now I think I'll stick to a list of books! I'd love to hear other people's suggestions as well - if you feel like I made a mistake leaving out your favorite book, let me know! Feel free to talk about them in the comments here or on FB; I always love to start a conversation. (And who knows, if this really becomes a conversation maybe I'll curate a list of other types of resources: podcasts and classes and videos, oh my!)

Oracle Deck Review: Faery Forest Oracle

Cardstock: The cardstock is pretty standard — they'd be easier to riffle shuffle if they weren't quite so large! But they're a bit difficult for me to hold, measuring about 5.5″ tall and 3.75″ wide (or 14cm x 9.5 cm). I end up using a variety of shuffling methods to get them well-mixed. The deck box is a two part hard case, which so far is holding up well.

Artwork: The artwork is a variety of media — according to the booklet, the artist works in everything from from digital to oils — but the general style of the artwork is fairly consistent, and the themes of the deck are clear. The only drawback is that some of the images are less crisp than others, probably due to differences in the original media. These cards have pretty thick borders — thick enough that I'd be tempted to trim them down. And in addition to the card titles at the bottom, each card has three keywords.

Book: The booklet starts off with a few pages about the imagined Faery Forest, and how to use the cards. There are four provided spreads, including a past/present/future, a Celtic Cross, and two spreads for this specific deck. There is a small black-and-white image for each card before the meaning, and the meanings are not too sparing — most have three medium-sized paragraphs.

Likes: I like the general vibe of the deck, as I am more partial to fae being depicted in less twee ways. Also it does read fairly consistently well; there's a good mix of words used for the titles. The booklet meanings are all pretty clear, and give a good overview of each card.

Dislikes: I really do not vibe with the cards for Freyr and Frigga in this (there's no Freya or Odin), so... I pulled them out. I'm also not a huge fan of the differences in art media and especially in clarity — it feels a little bit like the artist went and pulled a bunch of their old work and put it all in one large binder, and didn't try very hard to make sure they all felt cohesive. And this deck, as with most fairy-themed decks, does have mainly depictions of conventionally pretty, thin, young-looking, light-skinned, feminine fairies (I would say "white" but even the ones that are too silver or blue or green to be human have very light skintones). There's not much diversity in body type and hardly any masculine fairies.

Overall Recommendation

If you like the dark faery aesthetic it's pretty solid as an additional deck, but I don't think I'd recommend it as a first deck or an only deck. I think I would love it more if the artwork was more consistent, but even as it is, it's a very visually appealing deck, and with the titles and keywords on the cards, it lends itself pretty well to off-the-cuff readings. As I said in my review for the Wild Wisdom of the Faery Oracle, that one and this work pretty well together, with that one offering a little more sugar-coating if that's what the situation calls for. But ultimately I think this is another deck I wouldn't bother replacing if it gets damaged or goes missing.

Ritual for the Way Opening – My Experience

This past week, I did one of the rituals from Morgan Daimler's fairy faith Pleiades Cycle - and I did the whole thing outside for the first time. It wasn't intense (though some other people have had intense experiences with this same ritual), but it felt right in a way that's a little hard to explain.

In preparation, I baked two loaves of spiced honey apple bread (which is basically a gf muffin mix with honey and buttermilk in it, and then previously prepared-and-frozen apple slices dredged in those same spices and honey put on top to bake; simple, but tasty); one for offering and one for my family. I made silvered water for my compass casting, and picked up a candle a friend made that has been sitting unused on a shelf, poured the last of my homemade violet liqueur into a smaller bottle, and got out my last stick of poppy-scented incense.

I set up my ritual space at my fire pit, including such mundane necessities as a chair, a lighter, and a bucket of water (fire safety, y'all!). I used a round log slice as my altar for the first part of the ritual, and then burned it during the second. The first part pretty much followed what is in Daimler's book, though I used the song I wrote last year instead of those prayers as written:

Anti-sunwise compass casting, beginning and ending in the East (where the Pleiades were to rise)
Lighting the candle and inviting the Gentry to join me (singing the first two stanzas of the song)
Singing the next three stanzas, which narrate the mythology of the holiday
Uncovering/pouring offerings and lighting the incense, moving these to the eastern side of the fire pit
Singing the last two stanzas, which invite the Fairy Rade to take refreshment and bless us in return

And then I lit the log and meditated on the flame and smoke as dusk became full dark. I did not stay until I saw the Pleiades, because between the clouds, the close treeline, and the light pollution in that direction it would have needed to be close to midnight before I would have seen them. But I did pull a card from my personal oracle deck to ask if the ritual had accomplished what it needed to, a little after the Pleiades could have been seen over a clear horizon, and got "The Sun", which is a resounding "yes", so at that point I took my omen for the night, then undid my circle and went inside.

Like I said at the beginning, it wasn't an intense experience, though at one point when the smoke blew an anticlockwise spiral in my face and parted around me I could briefly feel the reverberation of thundering hoofbeats going by at a fast pace. (I'm not a horse girl so I don't know canter or gallop or what, just fast.) Mostly it just felt... right. I sat out there, in my suburban backyard, and watched the light fade, heard the birdsong die out, the songs of the crickets and katydids rise and then settle. I watched the flames turn into strange striped flags of red and orange and blue, I watched the smoke continually spiral anticlockwise, and I leaned back and looked up at the few stars I could see. And it was peaceful. And I felt aligned in both myself and my spirituality. And I'm definitely going to do the next one outside, too.

I do have a couple of thoughts for next time, though - I think I'll start a little later than I did, which was only a few minutes after sunset, when there was still a lot of traffic and human noise. I also think I'll write a compass casting and uncasting charm also to the tune of the ballad of Thomas the Rhymer, to match. And I think I may want a set water-silvering prayer, and not do it extemporaneously like I did. But mostly I just want to do it again in November!

Crow Folks: Hold Fast

September 16, 2023
by Alexandra

During the dark moon this week, I went to visit Na Morrigna in my usual manner, and we again gathered outside around their large cauldron. I had pulled an ogham fid as an anchor before starting the journey — Dair, associated with the oak tree (among other things) — and when I arrived at the cauldron, I found myself holding the walking stick I had received from the spirit of Dair during my work with them and the rest of the spirits of the ogham feda. There was also a small stump I hadn't seen before, and I was instructed to stand on the stump — which was hardly big enough for both my feet — and to hold my walking stick parallel to the ground, for balance. "Hold fast", They told me, and I was given images and sensations of things flying at me, trying to make me move, but I resisted and kept my footing.

My personal kenning for Dair (which I developed in communion with the spirit of Dair as I came to understand them better), is "Dignified Steadyness" and that seems to be the lesson Na Morrigna were ingraining in me, this time, and the message they mean me to pass along to all of you. Hold your ground. Be immoveable. You are strong; they cannot harm you, and they cannot sway you.

While I wasn't expecting to basically have a martial arts lesson, I guess it makes sense after last month's message asking us to plan. We planned, and now its time to keep moving on those plans, to implement them and make sure the foundations are solid.

I expect we're at the beginning of another uptick already, though it may not be obvious until we get closer to the equinox. Make sure your agreements are honored and your wards are tight, and it might be time to reread my blog series about a Defensible Home (1, 2, 3) if you haven't, and the one about protection during otherworldly high tides.

Freyja’s Falcon Flight: Beneath the Tree

Late Late Late, but better late than never, Freyja assures me. This should have been posted more than a week ago, apologies, but, hey, the website is up again!

As before, this is based on my experience, and I’m offering it to the community in case it’s helpful or resonates with some of you. If you’re used to doing journeys from a script, great! Otherwise feel free to have some one read it to you, or record yourself reading it. Edit the intro and expand the outro if you need to, but please leave the middle intact, and don’t share the recording without telling them where to find my original post!

I recommend lighting a devotional candle and/or making a small offering to Freyja (perhaps a libation) and to the Norns before you begin. Prepare yourself however you normally would, to do work at an altar. For my part, that usually means wearing one of my devotional hair ribbons and perhaps donning magical jewelry, and acquiring something to go over my head while I journey.

Falcon Flight: Beneath the Tree

Begin in stillness, and quiet, and darkness. Find your center, and align yourself with earth and sky. As you stare at the darkness behind your eyes, feel and see as mist swirls up from the ground, obscuring everything around you. After a moment, it begins to part, leaving you standing in a flowery meadow.

When you arrive in the meadow, take a moment to observe around you, turning until you see a path. At the entrance to the path are two shrubs, and as you move on that direction, you see trees as well. Shrubs give way to trees and undergrowth on either side of the path, getting taller and denser as you move onward, until they join overhead into an arch, forming a tunnel of trees that slopes downward, getting denser and darker.

Eventually, you notice that the path has become flat, and then it begins to rise. Now the trees are thinning again, branches giving way to brightness, and as the trees again give way to shrubs, you see a gate in front of a wide plain and beyond it, the great world tree. If you have any guides or guardians you wish to accompany you, ones who can join you in flight, call to them now, before you step through the gate and make your way towards the tree.

As you approach the World Tree, prepared to circle around it clockwise as before, you instead see Freyja standing in front of you. She beckons you in the other direction, and before the entrance under another great root, she casts a cloak over you, turning you into a falcon, and as you fall to the ground, she changes herself and leaps into the air, giving you no choice but to follow her through the opening under the root, and into the gloom.

Within, she glows brightly enough that you can follow her easily: down and around the path spirals, over rivers and past mountains and forests - other worlds branch out from here. And then, in front of a large well, around which sit three ancient beings, Frejya throws back her cloak to regain her usual form, and reaches out an arm for you to land on. When you do, she changes you back as well, and holds you by the arm lest you stumble into the Well.

These are the Norns - Urd, Verdandi, and Skuld, who know the fate of all beings and can read all of time in the runes in the rime.

"Put your offering into the water," Freyja instructs you, "and then speak the question that weighs heavy on your heart."

Do so, and wait patiently for the answer.

[interlude]

When you are satisfied with the answer, or when they have no more to tell you this time, thank them for the wisdom you have received, and turn back to Frejya. She will turn you back into a falcon and then lead you on the return journey: up and around, up and around, back out the entrance you came through beneath the root.

Out in the open air again, she removes her cloak and yours, and at this time if you have anything you wish to tell her or ask her, you should do so, before departing.

When you are finished, return the way you came, across the plain, and back to the gate, through the tunnel of trees, and back to the meadow. Then the mist will swirl up again, and take you back to your body.

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Author: Alexandra