This is another maxim where I felt the need to look up the words. If anyone has clarification around what the original Greek intended, I’m wide open for schooling. (Cara Schulz, I’m looking at you.) According to basic dictionary definitions, providence is the protective care of God/Deity/nature/the gods. I can’t see how this would be different from honoring the gods in any other way, except for the nuance of gratitude. Honor (respect, be grateful for) the forces that help sustain... Read more
Young adult and children’s books are a font of magical storytelling. Much of the stories are based on myth or made up worlds. There may be similarities to magical practices or beliefs in our ‘real’ world, but usually most of the story is a fantasy, pure and simple. And yet, when I read The Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer I was astounded at the depiction of magic. The Sea of Trolls is set in the 8th century in Saxon... Read more
Who’s Prudence? And why isn’t she getting any exercise? Ahem. In all seriousness prudence is one of those words that I recognize and know what it means without being able to actually define it. So I looked it up: Prudence is the quality of caution or discretion in everyday matters. This maxim seems to contain many of other maxims within it: Controlling oneself, helping your friends, obeying the laws, controlling anger, all of these might be considered parts of prudence.... Read more
One of the things that I love about keeping this blog is that it helps me think about how and what I want to observe in my spiritual practice. So I plan ahead and write posts for holidays that then go up right before or as they are beginning. Then the actual observance occurs – and sometimes things don’t go according to plan. This is what it’s like being a householder, trying to create my own ashram in the midst... Read more
The Equinox is coming. It occurs on March and September 21, midpoints between the Summer and Winter Solstices. This year it occurs on Saturday, the 22, but I’m be observing it today, Friday, the 21st. The Equinox is when the days and nights are of equal length; light is balanced. For several years now I’ve used it as a day of fasting and deep cleaning my house. I don’t fast when pregnant or nursing, but this year, as the baby... Read more
It’s Maxim Monday! And today’s is: control anger. On the surface, I think, yes, we absolutely need to control our anger. I’m raising small children. How many times a day can I say the following? Keep your hands to yourself. Use your words. How are you feeling? We don’t hit people. If you hit anybody in any way with that, I will take it away for the rest of the day. Please be in control of all your parts. You... Read more
Inspired by The Spell of the Sensuous I want to explore more personally what Land and Place mean to me. David Abram talks about geography as a container. More than just mountains that enclose or fields that spread out, land shapes our views of the world, our experiences with future places, how we perceive time and seasons, how communities function, and how we relate the non-human world. I see this so clearly from my own upbringing in Juneau, Alaska. It has... Read more
I have decided to jump on the blog themed day bandwagon and use Monday for the Delphic Maxims. Here’s today’s: Help your friends. This doesn’t sound like spiritual advice to me. It sounds like standard human behaviour. Help your friends. Of course. But at its core this is what community is about, and community, in my mind, is a spiritual value. As the parent of two young children (4 and 19 months) and as a stay at home mom, I... Read more
I’ve got a guest post up at Project Conversion today! It’s a little bit about how this blog came to be and how I’ve benefitted from the ‘immersionist’ experience. Read more
My two most favorite books about magic aren’t explicitly about magic at all. One is a philosophical work in the ‘deep ecology’ vein, the other is a young adult book about Vikings and Saxons. In this post I’ll review (oh, who am I kidding? I’ll praise) David Abram’s The Spell of the Sensuous. I first learned of this book three years ago, during my first autumn in Wales. My friend, Haloquin, loaned it to me. I was thick into my... Read more
A Witch's Ashram
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