Daily Prompt Response: Mentor Me

Have you ever had a mentor? What was the greatest lesson you learned from him or her?

Calypso receiving Telemachus and Mentor in the Grotto (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yes; I’ve had a Mentor. If I had to be honest with myself I’ve had two major mentors in my life who have profoundly affected my understanding of Magick and being a Pagan. However, I’ve also had other very important Mentors or Teachers come into my life since then. At least six I can think of I met down in Florida when I lived there for two years.

My very first true Mentor that I remember is the reason I finally got down on my knees and swore an oath, dedicating myself to my God and Goddess as I finally accepted the path I had always been born to, just had not yet figured things out on my own and fully come to terms with accepting the path I was meant for.

In a single day, my 1st Mentor shared with me as much as he could before we had to part ways. I have not seen him since that day and I have no idea if he knew what kind of impression he’d leave upon me, but I can’t help but wonder if he had not already seen the Priestess within me waiting to come out when we met. He had that all-knowing twinkle in his eye which told me he was privy to much more than meets the eye.

When Do Tools Become Moot?

magia/magic (Photo credit: SIRHENRYB.is ****the dreamer****)

I asked my “Man-Friend” the other day if he had any ideas for me about a topic he’d like to see me cover that I possibly haven’t already. And he gave me an excellent idea for a topic to discuss (among other ideas for things to keep me writing *facepalm, head shake, smile*).  For those who are of the “Magickally Inclined” nature, you’ll probably enjoy this. For those who are curious about Magick and its practice, you might find this interesting. And for those who don’t care for Magick nor its use and think it’s  a joke – I’m sure there is something else more entertaining out there to read than my blog.

Without further adieu, let’s get on with the show. By the way, for future reference – my readers are “Open” to making topic suggestions. You just need to leave a comment on the latest topic you’ve read and I’ll let you know if I can do it or not. I’d really like to see my readers get more proactive with me and ask me about this stuff or make suggestions, please!

So the topic for suggestion was, “When do Tools in Magick become cumbersome or impractical”? From personal experience as a Magickal Practitioner for a good decade or so, Tools to me become impractical when you can visualize clearly what it is you want done, focus your intention and you realize you have everything you need for your spellwork inside of you. That or you feel tools are slowing you down or holding you back from your truest potential.

Daily Prompt Response to “Faith”

Halo Solar (Photo credit: Alexandre Janini)

“What is the Role Faith plays in your life – or doesn’t.“
I know Faith plays a very big role in my life. For as long as I’ve been consciously aware of the world around me Faith has been a big defining factor in it. Faith to me is like the “Magick” I practice. It is a very important and integral “brick” in the foundation of my character. If I may quote something from one of my favorite comics Dawn – Lucifer’s Halo – “Trust is like a form of Faith, right? A Faith is a form of trust. But without it what do you have? A broken heart? A broken sword? And things just have the power that you give them.“

Faith is power and power is Faith that is part of what this quote is talking about, if you take that away – what do you have left? “Banality is stronger than Belief – yet Faith is stronger still“. That’s another important thread  in the fabric of my being. Because without Faith, belief, Trust or Hope – what are we? What do we have left to believe in? If we don’t trust ourselves or have Faith in ourselves, much less something greater than ourselves. I’m not trying to infer anything about anyone else or their beliefs, simply this is how my mind works and how I work.

What Pagan Means to Me

Wheel of the Year (Photo credit: nearlywildlife)

So I have a funny yet kind of “sad” story regarding my trip up to Vancouver that I can and will share with you. On my way up, we had to obviously stop at the border for them to check the passengers, luggage and other stuff. When the Border Guard got to me, oh boy, I sure did not see what was coming next – I visualized it entirely different. He asked me the standard, “What’s your business in Canada?” and I was honest and said, “I’m here visiting a friend“.

Then he asks how we met, how long we knew each other, wanted to know my friends full name and unfortunately I had a brain-fart on his surname and “Oh boy!” did I get a little flack for that. I didn’t find him intimating or anything and he was just doing his job; I can’t fault him for that – but when my religious orientation came up that got really awkward for me. I really didn’t want to tell him but after being badgered so long I just said what I was and he said, “Oh! Yeah? I know what those are. I’m a history buff,” as if that should have been a comfort.

What I Know About Halloween and What it Means to Me

Image via Wikipedia

Some people know this day as Halloween, “All Saints Day“, or Samhain. Some people know the history of this day while others do not. In later years, we do know that the holiday ultimately lost its true meaning. Originally this day was a Pagan celebrated holiday. Samhain actually means “Summer’s End” which meant of course the end of summer and the beginning of the long winter months. This is the time when people who were affected by this change prepared by drying or smoking meat, hanging herbs in their rafters, where they should have gathered as much of their crops up, well before hand, for the winter months and stored them appropriately since everything has long died off now.

This is also the time when we “Honor our Ancestors” or “Honor the Dead” those who have come before us by spinning tales by hearth or bonfire (maybe a fake electric fireplace) of these “Ancestors” in order to give them life and to perhaps teach our children lessons of character, valor, honor, integrity, or whatever it is we wish them to learn.

A Thankless Job – Or Maybe Not?

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This is a VERY special story near and dear to my heart, for it is NOT something someone like myself sees everyday, but when it happens people like myself are filled with a VERY warm feeling inside and a gladness that cannot possibly described adequately in words. Firstly, some brief re-cap for those of us just joining in on the L.G. train. For those of you out there who don’t know, I’m a Priestess. Don’t ask what Tradition, you won’t get an answer for personal reasons.

In my personal experience and field, the job of the Priest/ess can be and largely is lots of hard work, dedication, long hours, often doesn’t pay (monetarily) for a VERY long time, and more often than not is a THANKLESS job but someone has to do it and we know that. We do this job regardless because we understand sometimes seeing a “Shrink” isn’t the first option people want to think of when it simply comes to “needing someone to talk to you can trust”.

In our field, I’ve come across two types of “Thanks yous” in my life thus far. The ones that are out of obligation and the ones that are given out of PURE and HONEST gratitude. The latter is the one I would LOVE to hear the most – but often we as Priest/esses don’t hear these types of “Thanks Yous“. We often have to convince ourselves that what we do is for the highest and greatest good of those who come to us and it doesn’t matter if they return to give that heartfelt “Thank you” we have to learn to accept not everyone WILL return to do just that. So we must be satisfied by the fact we “tried” to help the individual whether they take our advice or no, it is their free-will, and it’s in Spirits hands after we have done our job.

Banish Hate, Invoke Love

Image via Wikipedia

Initially to start I was going to do a completely different topic. Something a little light-hearted and perhaps even funny, but with all the hubbub going on in California concerning religious minority groups such as Wiccan, Neo-pagans, Heathens, or just flat-out Pagans in general-I feel I need to speak my peace since I am a Pagan myself.

There’s a great deal of misconceptions about the minority religions out there and Hollywood has done VERY little to help the image among a few other zealous religious nuts. I’m here to tell you now, that whatever you may have read out of the history books, comics, video games, or whatever it may be we aren’t all weird “We’ll sacrifice you to our Pagan God” kinds of people. That’s a practice that many of us consider LONG outdated and is easily substituted for things such as “Wine” like at the “Last Supper” reenactment that many Christian Churches do to represent the Blood of Christ. Maybe there are a few “Rotten Eggs” out there who DO but that’s DEFINITELY not myself or the grand majority of us even out there.