Owner: 2 Witches Blog - Pagan Family Life URL:http://2witchesblog.wordpress.com Join Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 18:51:12 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Witchcraft Wit and Wisdom - stop and sit a spell with 2 women, 2 mothers, 2 friends, 2 witches. Read as they share their daily lives as well as a wealth of information related to modern Paganism Site statistics:Click here
Positive Thinking (alone) Doesn’t Work 2007-04-25 16:14:49 This essay was written October 28, 2003, way before I knew about computers or blogs (found it in my old word doc files). It was written as I was beginning to recover from several years of extreme stress and life changing and often painful events that had happened. Reading it over - I still agree with it, in essence thoughts alone
will do nothing, its positive thinking combined with positive action that will make changes - which for me is the basis for all magic (a.k.a. prayer; focused thought-emotion-intent). I am sharing it here (and tsard blog where we are guest writers) with very little editing, as an historical record of who I was back then and how I was thinking, and because I feel it is still relevant
**********************
No amount of positive thinking is going to change your life or the world. I am sure that many believers in “positive thinking” are shocked and perhaps even horrified by this statement.
I agree that our thoughts have a great impact on who we are, what we be Read more:Positive
, Positive Thinking
Content Page Added 2007-04-25 03:16:55 A page was added today under the “Kids” tab, a few links to activities and coloring pages related to Beltane.
Read more:Content
VA Approves Pentacle - Veterans Administration Allows Wiccan Pagan Symbol for memorials markers and headstones 2007-04-24 13:02:28 The pentacle has been added to a list of 38 emblems allowed in national cemeteries and on government-issued headstones of fallen soldiers, according to a settlement announced Monday.
While the first applications for the symbol were sent to the VA a decade ago, it wasn’t until the death of Patrick D. Stewart, 113th Aviation, D company, Mustangs, of the Nevada National Guard, that the story drew national attention. He was killed in action in Operation Enduring Freedom and his widow was denied the right to have the symbol of her and her husband’s faith applied to his memorial marker.
Finally 21 months later approval has finally been won.
You can see the updated list of emblems at the VA web site.
Missed all the fuss?
Decade of Disregard, Delay, & Discrimination by the VA:
Summary Reports by Rev. Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary
The Story of the Veteran Pentacle Quest: July 1997- August 2006
The Veteran Pentacle Quest Continues: August 2006 - March 2007
All I can say is :
Read more:Administration
, markers
, Symbol
, Veterans
, Wiccan
Anxiety - Panic Attacks - School - Report Cards 2007-04-23 01:33:19 I woke up about 30 minutes ago in the throes of an anxiety riddled dream. I’ve been dreaming about car crashes, missing children, and the like the past few nights. So, I woke up (yet again) gasping for breath, heart racing, the whole nine yards. There’s many reasons, but let’s leave it as I have too much on my plate, and too many worries pressing on my mind.
I tried to just “let it go” and go back to sleep but it was a no go. Which is a shame as I have to work today and probably won’t be home till 8pm. A little extra sleep would’ve been nice.
We got the kids’ report cards. PrincessNibbles’s was nearly perfect. The only areas she needs to work on are: handwriting, neatness, and sentence structure (remembering capitalization and punctuation, etc). MissAngst’s was …. not as terrible as we had feared. While 1 grade went down … she brought 3 grades back up. In short it shows effort. So we took them out for ice cream after dinner to “celebrat Read more:Cards
, Panic
, School
Why I Chose a Path to Hell by Lady Rose 2007-04-21 13:54:08 Reprinted from: to slam a revoling door (a collection of writing on a variety of spiritual topics by several very interesting guest writers)
Well, at least that is what some folks would say. I don’t think I’m going to Hell, but then again I don’t have all the answers either. The reasons I chose my spiritual path (wicca) are many but for the purpose of this post I am focusing on just a few aspects of how my choice came about. I chose to be a wiccanpagan because it was the path that resonated with my soul from a very young age (I read my first book by Gardner, Witchcraft Today at age 13).
My father was Seventh Day Adventist (a bit of a zealot) and my mom a protestant (but rarely went to church). My father would tell me often that I was going to hell for wearing makeup, smoking, and various other minor teenage acts of rebellion. At about age 12, I began searching for a spiritual path that made sense to me because the Christian paths I had seen so far were too cruel and peculiar for
The Visit With Loreena McKennitt - Concert - First US Tour Date in Nearly a Decade 2007-04-21 02:34:18 So last night was the concert .
First
and foremost let me restate my heartfelt thanks to Lady Rose and TeacherMan for my early birthday present!!!!
There was much silliness before and after the show - put Lady Rose and I together for any length of time and it is bound to happen. I laughed a lot, which given my mood upon arriving at Lady Rose’s door is nothing short of a miracle. I met “the other Kelly”, who needs a better blogonym, and who is a co-worker and friend of Lady Rose’s and enjoyed making her aquaintance. I look forward to seeing her again at Lady Rose’s Harry Potter Party Pallooza in late May. She seems very sweet and has the same quirky sense of humor as the rest of us and by the night’s end it felt like I’d known her longer than just the couple of hours in reality.
But the reason you’re here reading this is to hear about Ms. McKennitt’s performance. I was enthralled, I was enraptured … It was quite simply put one of the most memorable an Read more:Concert
, Nearly
Pagan Ritual Thursday - Self Dedication - Solitary Rite 2007-04-20 02:39:27 http://www.celticcrow.com/ncraft/dedication.html
“You will need to decide on a place where you will not be disturbed. It is best to come to this place after a purification bath and a time of silent contemplation. This will release incorrect energies and set up the correct ritual attitude.”
Read more:Dedication
, Ritual
, Thursday
Harry Potter Party, Updates & Hogwarts in matchsticks! 2007-04-29 21:51:47 All I can say is WOW! Hogwarts
photos here.
I spent a lot of time this weekend doing HarryPotter
party stuff - I can’t believe it’s only a month away!!!!! Some how I’m sure it will all get done - but there are moments when I do panic, just a little. At this point we have 23 kids coming, and about 20 adult volunteers. Not all the parents have gotten back to me yet, so it is possible there will be more adults then kids at my daughter’s 11th HUGE Harry Potter Birthday Bash. LOL
I had my one year anniversary weigh in, total lost for the past year 75.5 lbs. (only 78 more to go). It’s exciting, and yet a little stressful too — cause I know it will take at least two years to lose the next 75 (metabolism only gets slower). But I’m keeping positive, sticking to my healthy plans, and after all this is a lifetime total lifestyle change - so it’s not like after I lose the rest of it I will ever go back to eating Read more:Party
I have an ache in my ear and an ache in my heart - stress - anxiety - depression 2007-04-29 16:44:01 Its been a rough couple of weeks and I have been lax about blogging as a result. When I have gotten online I have primarily spent my time doing work “behind the scenes”. Tweaking post titles, submitting to search engines and blog directories, etc. eat up a great deal of time. Plus, my depression
has been in another spike and I was in a “if I can’t say anything nice why say anything at all” kind of place.
Anyhow, I finished up my antibiotics and while I feel much much better I still have an earache. So it looks like I will have to go back to the doctor on Monday.
MissAngst has been a bit better in terms of homework. We went to her psychologist on Thursday who reiterated that even if he and I agree with her that an assignment is “stupid”, that she still has to do it. Additionally, he is less concerned about depression which was ouor primary reason for starting therapy in the first place and we go back in 4 weeks instead of 2.
Both gi Read more:anxiety
, stress
New Tarot Deck Review - added under links 2007-04-28 23:19:35 Mama Kelly reviews The Star That Never Walks Around: Let the North Star Be Your Guiding Light, a round tarot deck with imagery inspired by Native American myths and legends.
Read more:links
, Tarot
Ghostly Encounters - Part 1 - First Encounter 2007-05-02 20:25:08 Reprinted on tsard
The question of life after death is one I enjoy delving into from time to time. All my life I have been fascinated by the possibility that ghosts do exist and through the years I have had enough personal experiences that I believe something does exist after death and it may be possible to communicate with it - maybe. The belief in ghosts for me is closely linked to believing in heaven - because if there are ghosts, then is there a heaven? What makes a ghost stick around or go on to heaven (if heaven does exist)?
For this post I thought I’d tell the story of my first ghostly encounter.
From 8th grade through 12th, I was in an all girls’ state run Catholic School where about 60 girls lived, attended school, etc. Like most teen girls back then we ended up holding séance’s (in secrete of course after the nuns had gone to bed) but nothing ever happened while we did them. We used to go hang out at the cemetery on the grounds where the family that had left the pr Read more:Encounter
, Encounters
, First
Taking Back a Hymn - Crowning the Goddess as Queen of the May 2007-05-02 01:20:52
from CatholicCulture.org
One of my fond memories of attending Catholic School was the annual crowning we did of Mary when I was in junior high. I always wanted to be chosen as the one who would do the actual crowning, but never got picked.
Anyway … in the spirit of Beltane, I have made subtle changes to the Catholic hymn that I sang in my teens when we would do the May Crowning in order that it may suit the purposes of Pagan or Wiccan ritual.
If you choose to make use of this song think about purifying any Goddess
statues/icons in your home with the elements (fire/air=incense; earth/water=salt water).
And be sure to lay, if not a crown, a blossom upon it when you are done.
Refrain:
O Lady we crown thee with blossoms today!
Queen
of all nature and Queen of the May.
O Lady we crown thee with blossoms today,
Queen of all nature and Queen of the May.
Bring flowers of the rarest
bring blossoms the fairest,
from garden and woodland and hillside and dale;
our full hearts Read more:Taking
Joyous Beltane - An Anniversary - Memories of Meeting My Husband for the Second Time 2007-05-01 22:35:51 First and foremost Blessed Beltane
and Happy Mayday to our readers. Most people, regardless of faith have a favorite holiday and I have to admit that Beltane has a special meaning to me beyond the Pagan connotations.
I met my husband in Staten Island, NY during the mid 1980’s and we dated on and off for about a year and a half before our relationship ended in part due to us each moving to out of state locations. At the time of our parting he was the first and only boy with whom I had done more than kiss.
While we saw each other briefly during June of 1991, we were not living in the same state again until he appeared on my doorstep a few days prior to Beltane of 1993.
The 2 years in between those meeting were rough for me in many ways. It saw the ending of a relationship with a man I had planned to marry. It also saw the ending of the relationship I found myself in directly afterwards. The second relationship ended finally when I came home one night to hear the loud a Read more:Anniversary
, Husband
, Second
Pagan Video Tuesday - Beltane - Beltaine - Maypole 2007-05-01 06:01:04 Beltane
celebration, Handfasting of Leigh Dupee and Cynthia Stebbins, and May Pole dance. Sponsored by the Temple of Astral Light and held at Trinity Temple. April 29, 2006
a slideshow
Maypole song from the original movie The Wicker Man
Read more:Tuesday
Blogging Burnout - Website Editing - Webpage Designing - Fresh Content 2007-05-01 02:35:59 As I have stated before, I have been attempting to clean up the appearance and function of the blog. Part of the motivation behind our domain switch was to make our site bigger and better than ever before.
The problem is I have a touch of ADD and no sooner do I start tweaking one thing than I get distracted by a thought and set off on another direction entirely.
I have managed in the past week or so to :
Delete the “Pagan News” page and to decide that it will no longer be a regular feature. I will of course still keep my eyes open for news items that are particularly worthy of note.
Decide instead to develop regular features for every day of the week so that there is always fresh content here at 2Witches, even if it is only Pagan Video Tuesday or Pagan Ritual Thursday. These features will not replace our posts, but hopefully only supplement them.
Start working on a Pagan “store” which is really just a collection of affiliate links via amazon (but yes Read more:Blogging
, Burnout
, Content
, Designing
Positive Affirmations - Free Online Source 2007-04-30 20:17:15 I found this very nice online source for a free affirmation — click shuffle, and then click on a card -
PositiveAffirmations
We can all use a little positive pick me up, especially on a Monday.
Bright Blessings,
Lady Rose
Read more:Source
Site Appearance 2007-05-04 12:51:24 You may notice that we returned to our original look whereby our front page reflected, not a static page but, the most recent blog posts. You can still view our front page comment via the 2Witches tag at the top of the page. However, it came to my attention that our traffic was not what it should be and I am hoping that going back to a more obvious blog format will help fix that.
Mama Kelly
Finding a Personal Creed - The Witch Within - The Magic in You 2007-05-04 12:48:02 The syncronicity of the way Lady Rose’s and my mind work sometimes really makes me chuckle. On the same day she posted about her “Witch
in You” project I had added 2 pages to our online Book of Shadows which are personal belief statements writen by Selena Fox. Each touches on “religious doctrine” as well as morality.
Both pieces of prose certainly touch on the concepts that Lady Rose posted about yesterday … “magic, love, thoughts, spiritual energy” and how “we are all offspring of Nature”.
Each of these writings serve as inspiration for one to create their own personal creed. To, if nothing else, reflect for a few moments on what beliefs they hold as true.
I am eternally grateful for the friendship and bond I share with Lady Rose. We understand and often share in each others moments of clarity (and sanity). I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Blessings
Mama Kelly
Read more:Creed
, Magic
, Personal
The Witch In You project 2007-05-03 13:36:35 This is my latest “inspiration” from the muse (as I like to think of it, my Beltane gift from Goddess). At this point it is still just a lot of thoughts colliding in my brain all at one trying to get my attention — and since I also have two other BIG projects going right now my brain is getting a bit crowded. (The other two projects are the Harry Pottery HUGE birthday bash for my daughter’s birthday, party date May 27 and my work on The Diet Pulpit (and through that I have just been asked to co-author a book with someone who already has a book published - so I’m excited to hear more about the offer and perhaps get to work on it).
However, The Witch
In You project is also something I want explore, if for no other reason then I know it will be a personal growing and learning experience.
In a nutshell I have been for several years now questioning what it means to be a witch for me personally, looking deep inside for what I believe in and how I want to l
Pagan Ritual Thursday - Goddess Oriented - Pagan Ritual for General Use - Ed Fitch 2007-05-03 06:01:06
This is a simple ritual, the invocations, etc. are easy to learn and memorize and can be done as a solitary rite.
My experience with it is as a group ritual. One option is to assign different directions to each member of the coven or to allow someone to choose a direction to invoke based on a need they feel that night.
As a goddess centered ritual it is fitting for an esbat.
Just Click
Read more:Fitch
, General
, Goddess
, Oriented
, Ritual
, Thursday
One Class Down - Many Yet to Go - Mama Kelly is Training to be a Teacher 2007-05-03 01:57:05
Well its official, my first semester back at college is over. I had my final tonight and found it challenging (10 essay questions with option for “extra credit”) but not difficult. I am confident that I did well enough to hold on to my “A”.
I should be receiving my final by mail within the next 2 weeks and I will share with you my grade on my other (and all too infrequently updated) blog Training
to be a Teacher
.
Additionally my teacher loaned me a text-book for one of my summer classes which saved me about $100. Yea him!
I am so grateful to be one small step closer to my goal. I am at once dreading and looking forward to my summer courses.
Wishing each of you progress toward your dreams.
Mama Kelly
Monday Melee - #1 - May 07 2007 - Mama Kelly 2007-05-07 13:02:41
From fracas.wordpress.com
According to Roget’s Thesauraus, a melee is anything from a fight or a brawl (or hmm.. a fracas) to a list of odds and ends, a potpourri or assortment of something, a mixture, a variety… even a salad.
So each Monday
, I and those participating, will use the following and appropriately assorted prompts, to create a post of interest.
1. The Misanthtropic: Name something (about humanity) you absolutely hate.
I hate how people are so often neglect common courtesy. This weekend the family and I went to New Hope, PA for a couple of hours to break up the monotony and seemingly everywhere we went we ran into people who were completely oblivious to anything other than themselves. Twice I ran into blatant rudeness. Both times it was when I paused on the sidewalk and was nearly run over by foot traffic. In one instance I had paused to allow a heavily pregnant teen the opportunity to pass in front of me and in the other I paused to allow a family to take a ph Read more:Melee
A Silly Blog 2007-05-06 04:14:22 I Am Blog - This is the silliest blog I have ever seen, and yet I can’t stop reading it. LOL A good example of what can happen if you blog way too much andor don’t get enough sleep.
It is either insanity or totally brilliant. What do you think?
Lady Rose
Read more:Silly
Tarot Prediction 2007 Report - March and April 2007-05-05 16:01:05 Back in January I did a 13 card Tarot
Spread as a means of predicting what 2007 held in store for me. It was SkyWindows who got me started on writing once a month reviewing how accurate the reading had been, although I totally missed last month’s post. So here is a review of the past 2 months:
March
- Death (reversed) - fear of change; if fear, rather than truth and joy, rules your life fatigue and depression can result; feeling stuck in your life; “old habits die hard” - hmm do you see a trend here? I sure do … if nothing else the cards are telling me that I am as stuck as I feel I am, that the change I feel its time for is probably instead long overdue and that I need to learn to trust the process
April
- Prince of Cups (reversed) - what are you hiding? from yourself? from others? is it time to “come out of the closet?”; pay attention to your dreams, you may be at an important stage in your spiritual journey; listen to your inspiration, even if it disturbs you at fi Read more:Prediction
Pagan Ritual Thursday - Dark Moon Rite - Goddess Hecate 2007-05-10 06:01:37 This ritual is written as a group rite. It requires a little bit of preperation as it includes an incense recipe.
Bear in mind that this rite invokes the Goddess
as Hecate. Be certain that whatever you cast into the fire to release that you are truly ready to let go of it.
Additionally some things aren’t clear:
indicates a need for “letting go” - with no other guidelines I suggest sage which is an excecllent purifier
doesn’t indicate when the circle members get their bags of incense I suggest after cirlce is opened to burn at home as a way to reinforce the spell
indicates a need for “banishing powder” - with no other guidelines I suggest salt which will also serve to curb the flames
As with any ritual be careful of open flames.
See the ritual
Read more:Ritual
, Thursday
Tarot Reading - Opening Myself to the Goddess - part 2 2007-05-10 06:01:30 Back on New Year’s Day I did a tarot spread as a means to get an overview of the year ahead.  My most recent revisiting of that spread reminded me that the card for May 2007 advised me to "open myself up to the refining and deepening powers of the Goddess
" and to "trust in the innate goodness of life". In order to explore this in more depth, I decided to make use of a multi-part exercise in Tarot
for Your Self : A Workbook for Personal Transformation which walks you through looking at a reading from various angles by rearranging the cards into various spread patterns.Â
You can read part 1, if you wish before continuing.
Permutation #2 takes all 10 cards from the Celtic Cross spread and rearranges them into a “past, present, future” spread.
Past:
King of Wands (rev) - Ok this is my father - "arrogant, self-righteous, domineering" "difficulty with retirement"
Page of Wands - seeking new directions for self-growth and development
2 of Swords - bloc Read more:Reading
Thirteen Magickal Uses For Common Herbs Available in the Supermarket 2007-05-10 03:00:17 Thirteen
Magickal Uses For CommonHerbs
Anise Seeds - make a small pillow filled with these seeds and place under (or inside) of your sleeping pillow to keep away nightmares.
Basil - fill a muslin bag with the herb and toss in the water of any purification bath, alternately make “basil tea” and add this to your bathwater
Chamomile - fill a small pouch with the blossoms and keep in your wallet or change purse to attract money, add to the money drawer of your business, keep a dish of chamomile where you write your monthly bills
Cinnamon - used to “excite the passions of the male”, add to recipes and serve to your romantic partner … cinnamon can find its way into cookies, pies, even chili
Cloves - string them on a red thread and hang them out of reach in a new baby’s room as a protection charm
Garlic - hang a rope of garlic in the kitchen to protect the hearth of the modern home
Marjoram - place a small pouch filled with marjoram in every room in the Read more:Supermarket
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