Happy day of balance you lovely people! 

We will be celebrating with a potato and cashew nut curry using our homegrown potatoes.

Let me know what your harvest meals are going to be.

What did I do today to celebrate, heal and elevate someone else?

This is traditionally a time of balance when the night and day is of equal length.  Because this is a time of year when the energy is in such balanced harmony it is also a good time to take stock.  Going into the dark period of the year, what did you achieve and what have you yet to accomplish.  Thanks to some inspiration from Crafting the Sacred I was looking at the Equinox as a time to balance the books of my life.  I had a whole post in my mind on that theme ready to go.  The Equinox is not traditionally a time for Pagans to get fired up and go out and do something - that is for the fire festivals....or is it?

Then on Wednesday night (UK time) the US executed a prisoner on death row. Thanks to T.Thorn Coyle here I found myself thinking that going into the Equinox there was a great deal of injustice and imbalance in the world right now.

So instead of this being a post about balancing my life I am going to pledge to do one thing this Equinox to bring some balance, some equality and something which celebrates and elevates humanity.  It doesn't have to be big, it might just be donating to charity but let's make the Equinox a time to act, a time to balance the scales in the world.

If we all took one step at the same time the tremors could be felt around the world.

Heavy theoretical stuff coming up...you have been warned.

About two years ago in November 2009 I was undergoing a sort of magickal crisis, which shifted to a head around Samhain.  The conflict and crisis period co-incided with a huge period of personal enlightenment in my work with my patron.  Insights started coming thick and fast which helped me to see a silver lining in an otherwise pretty grim situation.  Much of the insights came in the form of a completely new way of looking at Rune working which I suddenly thought I should jot down here.  The Runescape is still a work in progress but I am writing it down here in the hope the that process of writing it allows it to further evolve and develop. I don’t believe this is the one true way the Universe works, I think this is a really useful tool and way of looking at the Universe which is going to help me in my practice.  If it is useful or sparks any interesting ideas in anyone else then I was right to post it up here.

It started with a vision…I never though I would ever see myself writing that, and I sort of cringe a bit inside as I am typing it but that was definitely how it started.  I was in the middle of the crisis, doing a series of meditations and rune magicks and suddenly Odin appeared to pull back the mask of the Universe and instead of seeing my working space, trees outside the windows and my physical body I saw nothing but strings of power all vibrating at different frequencies.  When I say strings it seemed like the strings you find in stringed instruments such as violins, cellos and harps. Everything was made up of these strings and there were 24 types of vibration – the 24 Elder Futhark Runes. 

The vision was clear, whatever human explanation I put on the Runes, however I draw them, speak them, whatever associations I give to them these are just a reflection of their true nature.  Their true nature is the 24 immense and mind blowing expressions of power which make up the Universe.  This includes my own body and soul.  Using the runes for divination suddenly seemed like the least important way of trying to connect/use the runes. To a greater or lesser extent the 24 vibrations of power are within everything, they are the building blocks of the Universe and by resonating in harmony with them or bringing those resonations into different situations we can alter or emphasis different elements and affect the Universe.  This is how I see Rune Magick working.

Then I hit a bit of a brick wall.  This was amazing, the idea was powerful and has stuck with me and filtered into my practice, but it was too big – and I got a bit frozen.  I couldn’t even get my mind around how to try and use this in my practice.  I managed a few small breakthroughs particularly in protective magick but until recently it was a great vision and nothing more.  I think I have finally started to work through that but that is for another posting!

I would love to hear other views on this metaphysical interpretation.

Ok - there is a big wide world web out there and it is time to launch words on the wind as well as in the hearth of the Witches Table.

Taking off today is my new twitter account: @AntaraVox

http://twitter.com/#!/AntaraVox

I'll be posting an Autumnal thought for the day, each day, leading up to the Equinox.  This is a short series of musings to help me align with the changing energies of the season and if you want to join me then I am tagging all my tweets with the following:
#Equinoxiscoming

Come and join me get ready for the Autumn Equinox.

I absolutely love meditating to music.  Silence might work well for some folks but not me, I need something soothing and ambient to help me escape from the daily worries.  If I am doing a particular magical working I may even want something which stirs a particular feeling in me - whilst at the same time keeping that same steady ambient, background noise.  So I thought I'd share a few of my favourite artists and composers below.

Please do tell me in the comments who you love to listen to since I am always on the look out for more fantastic music!

1. Alan Stivell  - the man responsible for the renaissance of the Celtic Harp for which I am very grateful and Celtic Breton music generally.  This is really magical stuff, evocative of a very spiritual landscape and his website has some streaming samples you can listen to.

2. Claire Fitch - I stumbled upon Claire Fitch's music when I received a free sample from the Magnatune website and I was instantly hooked.  She is an amazing cellist and I love the way her music (the Ambiencellist album in particular) just sounds like an Arctic vista or underwater adventure.

3. Suzanne Teng - Another Magnatune find, Suzanne Teng plays the flute and creates very soothing and yet deep soundscapes with her work.  Magnatune allows you to listen to all the songs before you buy them (the whole thing, not just a sample) so have a good rummage around for free!

4. Tim Wheater - another fabulous flutist with a huge back catalogue and a really soulful approach to his work.  I think my favourite album of his would be the Soul Medicine Man but Golden Light is also excellent.  His website can be found here and don't forget that Amazon Downloads lets you listen to sample of the songs before you buy.

5. Chris Kimber - Another UK based New Age Composer.  He has a diverse set of albums taking inspiration from a eclectic range of places from elements to reiki, chakras and the I Ching all for relaxation and mediatio

I think that the take away message here might be the strings and flutes really rock my meditating world.

Phil H of the Ritual and Chaos Magic Blog has an interview up today;  an interview with me!

Please go and take a look at the interview and the rest of his very interesting blog here.

When I set out in Spring consciously trying to move all parts of myself into one whole I didn't even think about exercise.  Big mistake. My relationship with exercise has deteriorated since doing my Masters as I feel I barely have enough time in the day to eat and breathe.  Exercise is something which it is easy for me to drop, despite the fact that intellectually I know it is as vital, in many ways, as eating and breathing.  Now I am in the process of ramping up my daily practice I suddenly realised a connection with magick and exercise.  Not that simply doing exercise regularly is better for my magick (which it is!) but that I could be doing magick whilst I exercise.

This though came to me whilst I was in the middle of a rune working meditation on Uruz, the rune of the Auroch, of strength, vitality and courage.  I just couldn't quite get the working right and was thinking about why that might be.  Then it came to me.  In order to absorb and resonate in harmony with this rune I need to be in my body feeding my own vitality.  My practice over the last few months has moved very much into my head (something I will have to watch in future) but in order to fully integrate I need to be really present in my body.  In particular it felt like I wasn't going to get my work with Uruz without bringing it into a very physical place.

So I got up early and prepared my space with fresh water for drinking and an Aerobic Pilates DVD.  I wanted to start with a form of exercise which would allow me to work magick and get a good work out at the same time, Pilates has a great emphasis on core strength and breathing both of which felt very supportive of the magickal working.  The aerobic aspect would give me a great work out but without the ultra complicated steps of some of my other routines.  Then down to business, but only for a short work out - I wanted this to be a test run.

It was a challenge keeping the rune resonation going throughout the whole 15 minutes and I came and went with my concentration.  I sure that this will improve in time.  The session was hard work but focussing on Uruz definitely helped out with some of the postures and I felt a definite uniting of body, mind and spirit during some of the exercise. The best aspect was the 15 minutes of meditation I did straight afterwards - that was some of the most powerful meditation I have ever done. I am going to try and keep up something similar for the next month and move into a more physical realm again whilst bringing that magickal headspace with me.  If I can crack this then I will feel like I have been able to take a big step forwards.  I'll be logging some of my experiences as I try new ways of combining the two.  Hopefully next I'll be combining it with some wild dancing!

Treadwells runs a fantastic rolling programme of speakers and workshops throughout the year and I don’t get to go to anywhere near as many as I would like. 

Recently though I saw that T.Thorn Coyle was speaking and since I had just  started listening to her podcast and reading her blog it seemed like an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.  T.Thorn Coyle is one of those rare practitioners who is out there, practising, building on what knowledge we have and taking it a step further. I have really enjoyed her no-nonsense approach to magick and witchcraft and was really keen to listen to what she had to say.

The reason I have titled this post “Spending an Evening with” rather than “Attending a Talk”, is that, in line with her practical approach there were several exercises which she led us through during the evening as well as the talk and Q&A.  I was over the moon that she took this approach and found that all the techniques were simple and yet powerful.  In fact they have provided me with an interesting new way of framing and structuring my own personal practice which is very exciting (I was up at 6.25am trying this out I was so energised by the evening).  I hope to start seeing some great new results from that shortly. I also really liked the fact that the emphasis was on technique and practice which meant it was very easy to use in any personal tradition in which you work. Thorn was exceptionally knowledgeable about a variety of different traditions and paths which meant she was able to give examples in numerous different paradigms this made the talk very rich but also gave me immense confidence – this is someone who has studied extensively and clearly sees where the different traditions converge and overlap.  This is an approach I have advocated (hence my own eclectic bookshelf) because many paths are using the very similar basic frameworks just with different icing on the top.

The core of the talk was Self-Possession as “integration”.  Thorn advocates that we should be integrating the higher self with the body, not attempting to transcend the body to inhabit only the higher self.  As I was listening to the talk it did open up a whole new aspect of the classic phrase “As above so below” which, when you think about it in this way is clearly about integration not transcendence.  This is the other reason I went along as integration is currently something I am working very hard on, trying to expand the person I am when I am working magic into the rest of my life until there are no divisions.  So Thorn’s exercise on the Crown Chakra was particularly good for me here – if you want to know what the exercises are then you’d better buy the books! 

In my experience as a witch and as someone who tries to attend various talks and workshops you get a sense of who has “got it” and who hasn’t.  There are plenty of people on the “talks circuit” generally (not necessarily Treadwells who have very high quality speakers)  who are not walking the walk.  Then there are other people who radiate with energy, who are so utterly real and present and who fill the room you can feel how powerful they are in their tradition. Funnily enough these are also the people who practise... a lot... and have total confidence in their work because they are living it. Whenever I come across one of these people I always sit up and listen because I can tell that they really “know” what they are talking about.  Thorn Coyle is one of those people – if you get the chance to hear her speak then I would snap it up!

I have added both of Thorn’s books to my wishlist and once I have finished the current pile of books I have on the go I hope to be buying them.  I’ll certainly reporting back on them and letting you know my results.

Disclaimer: This isn’t a “how-to” blog post.  This is a message to hang on in there.

Just a short post today after my mammoth exploration into AltarWork.  I wanted to recount some of my personal experiences with both being and not-being psychic.  When I first started out in Paganism over 10 years ago I didn’t think or feel like I had a psychic bone in me.  I freely admit to feeling very jealous of those for whom psychic experiences came so easily. 

When I did start to have pagan spiritual experiences they seemed to be “all in my own mind” and I constantly questioned whether they were real, whether or not they felt real or whether I had made them up.

But I kept going, I kept trying, I kept reading books and getting advice and doing exercises and trying to let it all just flow.

Many years down the line and psychic work still doesn’t come easily (it probably never will and I am o.k. with that) but it does come.  I still have days of extreme doubt but I can shrug that off and concentrate on what is important and hear the messages the Universe is trying to tell me.  Sometimes the messages are images in my mind, sometimes I just feel energy moving in different areas of my body, rarely I hear things and rarer still I see things with my eyes. But I did it and from a standing start.   There was no big bang.  I didn’t read the one perfect book and wake up seeing ghosts round every corner, but I did get here.   So can you if you want to.

Just hang on in there.

Some of our Ladies recently went on a fabulous trip to the Crop Circle Convention earlier this Summer.  Crop Circles are a fascinating puzzle in the UK which never gets solved, are they a hoax, created by aliens or sacred, natural temples.  Whatever your view they are getting more beautiful and more intricate with every passing year!

Amalthea took some photographs from the helicopter ride and there is a fabulous new page for those pictures here.

I'll just put a little teaser in the post as well to entice you to check the page out...