Sun Sets on the Oak King \u2013 Photo by S. Sadovsky<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nMidsummer is a good time for solving riddles.\u00a0 As the Light side of the year fades, the Oak King retires. The Dark side of the year begins.\u00a0 The Holly King gains strength, and my thoughts turn to the task of turning inward.\u00a0 Clearing memories that have haunted me, and leaving behind that which is no longer useful.\u00a0 This is a constant challenge, but the shift from Light into Dark is helpful. I find myself less concerned with making sense by conventional standards, and more interested in translating my personal mysteries.\u00a0 I find that my truth is often stranger than fiction, and offer these revelations to assist others who also struggle assigning meaning to the beautiful horrorshow of daily life.<\/p>\n
This is the reason that I use poetry and metaphor, as some concepts shrivel when examined in a headlight.\u00a0 They require veils to maintain authenticity, which is frustrating when one is searching for truth.\u00a0 However, this is where the magic lives, in between the lines.\u00a0 I have found that the strongest power comes from the tension between the sacred and the profane.\u00a0 In paradox.\u00a0 It creates a battery, a charge.\u00a0 Yet that energy must be directed to be actualized.\u00a0 It must be fired, released, to gain ultimate expression.\u00a0 The quickest, and most seasonably appropriate method I have found to accomplish this goal is through fire.\u00a0 (One might also suggest that the answer to most Pagan questions\/problems is fire, and all I can say to that is: YES.)<\/p>\n
People often ask me for magical advice.\u00a0 What spells to employ, what herbs to use?\u00a0 Which correspondences are most useful?\u00a0 I can go there, have years of training, experience, and all the bells and whistles to create a convoluted answer that would work.\u00a0 Yet I prefer to offer simple solutions to complex problems. Most people who ask me these questions have little to no magical experience, and the detailed answers only create more questions.\u00a0 My contemporaries have their own practices and orientations, so when we speak of these matters the conversation includes a lot of assumptions and jargon that is rather obscure.\u00a0 Again, less useful without context.<\/p>\n
For beginners and those interested to more magic into their lives, my advice is to go with your gut.\u00a0 What is simple is not always easy, but in my experience magic is only as complicated as we want it to be.\u00a0 Magic is a life hack.\u00a0 A cheat code.\u00a0 Complexity presents more options, but the most effective technique is the one that calls to you.\u00a0 The one that works.\u00a0 What moves you? Is it sex? Is it ritual? Is it art?\u00a0 Action?\u00a0 Start with the thing that lights your circuits, and go from there.\u00a0 For me, burning things is always fun. Kind of a go to, useful for many applications.<\/p>\n
Rather than give a lot of directions and instructions for Midsummer Magic, I will offer a personal anecdote.\u00a0 Context, riddle, answer, solution.\u00a0 This is the method I employed this year, and it seems to be working.\u00a0 I hope you find it useful, or at least entertaining.<\/p>\n
Context:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nI have been having serious challenges overcoming unresolved feelings and negative energy towards my ex.\u00a0 My efforts seem to be progressing, then derail.\u00a0 Had my friend read Tarot for me (as I do when needing guidance on emotionally charged issues so as not to distort the reading with my own perceptions or wishes) and she was informed that I need to \u201cBurn out my love\u201d for this individual, as it was no longer serving me.\u00a0 Instead it was hampering me from moving forward, as there is a part of me that is still in mourning and carrying guilt and shame.\u00a0 These patterns are no longer useful to my personal growth.\u00a0 These feelings will not have any positive effect on anything, so must be abolished.<\/p>\n
Her advice was to get rid of letters, momentos, anything that was a reminder and burn it. There would be something that definitely needed to go. Find it, then bury the ashes.\u00a0 Anything else gets dumped in running water.\u00a0 Strong stuff.\u00a0 I was reluctant to do these things, but saw the wisdom in her words.\u00a0 It is not in my nature to destroy useful objects, but sacrifice is necessary for change.\u00a0\u00a0 The small stuff was easy, but I was unsure of what the correct item would be, the larger sacrifice.\u00a0 So I waited.<\/p>\n
Riddle:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nMy last blog contained a poem that haunted me for several days.\u00a0 Sometimes the stuff that I write is a riddle that has to work itself out. This piece rang in my mind, and I wondered what it meant. \u00a0 A couple days after I published it, I was reunited with my step-daughter.\u00a0 It had been years since we had really talked, as my split with her father was unfriendly.\u00a0 We met on the beach, and talked for hours.\u00a0 It was good, healing for us both. We had been very close years before.<\/p>\n
Comparing experiences we both realized that what we thought was truth was in fact distorted perception.\u00a0 Why had we ever fallen out of contact? How come it took so long to simply speak freely? What are we to each other now?\u00a0 What is our dynamic? This question had haunted both of us for years. We chatted about many things, and I mentioned I was doing a spell to let go of old expectations.\u00a0 Burning things.\u00a0 She expressed an interest to participate.\u00a0 She had some old baggage to get rid of as well.\u00a0 The date was set.<\/p>\n
Answer:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nShe came by on Saturday, and we went through my closet.\u00a0 Pictures, cards, items grew into a sizable pile on my dresser.\u00a0 I gave her whatever pictures and albums she wished to preserve, as this was her history too. Years of her life, the wisdom of her people I had saved from the madness of last year.\u00a0 Then I found it, the symbol that needed to go, and the answer to my riddles became apparent.\u00a0 I pulled out a garment bag.\u00a0 It contained my wedding dress, and two veils.\u00a0 She had been a bridesmaid at my handfasting, and remembered these objects.<\/p>\n
Inspired, I told her that I may not be her step-mother anymore, but I could be her Fairy Godmother.\u00a0 She could be my Changeling, or the one I Sponsor.\u00a0 The one I bless, and help in times of need.\u00a0 Making family is often a hard and bloody process, but at the end of the day it is the love that counts.\u00a0 Family of choice is real, and so necessary.\u00a0 We resolved to no longer allow the perceptions of other parties to dictate our relationship.\u00a0 At the end of the day everyone\u2019s personal relationships are an autonomous choice.\u00a0 This is the only way to live authentically.\u00a0 To love without fear is the only way forward.<\/p>\n
Solution:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\nMy Changeling was delighted to accept a veil.\u00a0 She is in a relationship which seems on track to result in a wedding sooner than later.\u00a0 We resolved to set the other veil aside for her sister for future use, and added the dress to the pile of kindling.\u00a0 I was satisfied that some good from all of this mess had been preserved, and was ready to let the rest burn. We went outside in the 95 degree weather to start a fire with wet wood, as it had been raining for days.\u00a0 Undaunted, I stacked the driest logs and draped the dress over top of them in the fire pit.\u00a0 I am Southern, and know that the answer to making anything burn is more fuel.\u00a0 I soaked the dress in rum and vodka.<\/p>\n
I said some spiffy words, and we lit the fire with these red candles we had dipped together almost a decade ago.\u00a0 Whoosh!\u00a0 We circled the fire, tossing in pictures of who we used to be.\u00a0 Words we had written in anger, sigils of things we needed to be rid of, we let it all go.\u00a0 Who we had been.\u00a0 All of the failed expectations.\u00a0 All of the broken promises and lies.\u00a0 The smoke spiraled up next to the highway that runs alongside my yard, and we both mentioned how much lighter we felt.\u00a0 The weight of the past was no longer between us.\u00a0 We are free to become whatever we wish.\u00a0 The ashes were still smoking when we buried them, but once the dirt was turned over all was still and it was done.\u00a0 So mote it be.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Magic is a life hack. A cheat code. Complexity presents more options, but the most effective technique is the one that calls to you. The one that works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2580,"featured_media":315,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[107,108,45,110,106,57,109],"class_list":["post-314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-changeling","tag-fairy","tag-fire","tag-holly-king","tag-magic","tag-midsummer","tag-oak-king"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Oak](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/630\/2017\/06\/IMG_6228.jpg\")
<\/a>