Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for...

1. Autumn/Fall - oh how I love this time of year
2. Geeking out with tabletop gaming
3. Tea
4. my curiosity and intellectually inclined mind
5. naps.

Musing Monday

CHANGING SEASONS

Maybe it has something to do with the type of people I'm attracted to, maybe it is a common thread among witches because Samhain is just around the corner and so many of us love this time of year, but I've been amazed how with the turning of the wheel and the movement beyond Mabon how many people I associate with are suddenly feeling a greater connection to everything, myself included.  Now for me I know that a big part of it is that this is, and always has been, my favorite time of year.  I love the seasons from Autumn through to Spring, I'm actually far more active at this time of year.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not out partying and socializing, lets face it I'm an introvert and always will be, but I find myself wanting to craft more, to get outside and be with nature, to visit friends, to spend time with loved ones, to play and to love.  For a lot of people this is a time of quite introspection coming upon us, and that is definitely true also, but for me that reflection comes through expressive means and I have more energy to partake in those actions as the weather cools than I do in the blast furnace of summer.

Now not surprisingly the change of the season is also bringing about a great deal of peoples focus to shadow work.  My feeling is that perhaps this goes beyond the season and there is a gentle shift happening towards embracing a more balanced life - maybe that's just my wishful thinking.  I am quite pleasantly surprised at how many people I know currently who are beginning to work with their shadow, including myself and it buoys me to know that I will have others who can be their for me on this journey.

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for...

1. The love and support from friends and family during a time of grief
2. The ability to laugh at life
3. Hugs
4. The cooling weather
5. Events that make you look at life through a different perspective.

Correspondences

Regarding Correspondences

I was recently researching different deities and one of the items I've looked up is the various correspondences that are said to be associated with a particular deity.  As usual most sites on the internet regurgitate the same information over and over again, many simply a copy/paste of work found elsewhere with a different background and some pretty pictures added.  In this particular instance I was looking up an Egyptian deity and one of the correspondences claimed to be associated with him regarding crystals and gemstones was Opal.  This threw me because despite a couple of brief references to opals in Greek and Roman literature I can find no evidence of opals existing in Ancient Egypt.  Even the references I've tracked down could relate to fluorite as much as opal.  I could be completely wrong but it definitely got me thinking about the correspondences that we accept as assigned to particular deities and where this information came from.

Some correspondences are easy, mythology and pictorial representations give us the various colors, animals, symbols etc that we assign to certain deities.  But then we seem to need to give flowers and fragrances and foods and days of the week etc and I start wondering where all this comes from.  I'm sorry the historian in me just finds it hard to believe that we can say that all these deities have these correspondences.  The best we can do is say, okay - this deity is a moon deity, associations with the moon also include x, x and x so we could essentially associate this with said deity in theory.  Which is fine, but specify that, I think a lot of people are under some illusion that this information exists for each and every deity and it doesn't, plus there is just a significant lack of resource acknowledgement in these areas to begin with.

Musing Monday

Today my mind is on friends, family and loved ones.  With the sad and completely unnecessary death of a friend over the weekend I have been pondering a lot about several issues.  The obvious is of course keeping those you love close, making sure you connect and just being thankful for all the people in your life.  I'm a crappy friend when it comes to keeping in touch regularly but I often think of those people who have touched my life and I know I should be working harder at staying in touch.  Secondly, I've been wondering if it is a cultural/generational thing that could possibly have someone believe at the age of 19 that since life is awesome right now it should be ended so you never experience when it might get worse.  Maybe it is just that one person.  I can't wrap my head around it.  I've always believed that life is to be lived.  Don't get me wrong I've had some very low moments when suicide seemed like the only option but something inside me always spoke up at just the right time telling me that doing so was letting the bad things win.  I can't imagine waking up one morning and thinking life is great so lets stop now.

Of course a focus on death over the weekend has driven home what I've known for a while in that I need to live my life more.  Now that school is done and I have spare time I should be doing more, not necessarily out and about (I'm an introvert) but even just doing those things I love, being crafty, reading, writing, exploring nature etc.  Ironically this weekend hubby had actually arranged Friday and Saturday off so that we could do just that when we got the news Friday early afternoon all those plans went out the window.

Full Moon

Full Moon

(Source: http://paradelle.wordpress.com/tag/native-american/)

On silvery beams I float above

beyond what others think they see

all is laid out before me

A small spark catches my eye

as I look upon a face turned up to the sky

and arms held wide she calls to me

In wonder she bathes within my light

and dances beneath the starry sky

and all around me other sparks

begin to stir within the dark

to dance and call upon my names

and I shine my light upon them all

and I lift their spirits and let them soar

and as I wrap them up in love

I let them know that I am in them 

and they are in me.

All original content copyright Julie Grucza, 2012-2013

Musing Monday

This is something I need to work on, something that I think many of us need to work on and it isn't just the aspects of seeing ourselves as repulsive, shameful and unforgivable, it is also about seeing ourselves as being unworthy.  Unworthy of our own time, unworthy of our own love, unworthy of being put first, being treated right, being able to have your dreams, the list goes on.  We really have so many demons to fight in today's society, all of us, no matter how adjusted we may think someone is, are fighting these demons.  We're fighting against our own dialogue of self hate, we're fighting against societal pressure or perceived societal pressure, we're fighting against the demands on our body, on our time, on our souls that are unreasonable and unhealthy.  So many of us feel unfulfilled in our lives, that there is something just beyond our grasp that we don't seem to be able to obtain and we have to realize that the only thing that is holding us back is ourselves and our own fears.

Now I'm not talking extreme lifestyles changes here, lets face it that really isn't a realistic opportunity for many of us as we have people other than ourselves in our lives that we also have to accommodate.  However, we can each of us take steps every day to address those things that are holding us back from being our authentic selves.  We can chip away at the negative thinking and the robotic trundle we each do daily through life and we can work towards making our own dance.  That is my goal.