Sekhmet – Maman Brighid’s MySpace Blog | My Blog of Shadows
Sekhmet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z83IMj_uI4Y
This is such a beautiful video about a visit to one of Sekhmet’s temples! Enjoy! Em hotep, Brighid
via Sekhmet – Maman Brighid’s MySpace Blog | My Blog of Shadows .
Settling In
I’m not sure if it’s the cold in the air or that stage of my pregnancy, but I find myself more and more just wanting to settle down into the house and hibernate. This time of year is a time of retreat for me, and I began that process when I took maternity leave from Stellaluna.
Unfortunately, it seems that I will not be able to settle down for a nice winter’s nap this go-round. Two foster children have surprised us with their presence and they have brought a lot of activity into what I was hoping would be the last few sleepy months of my gestation. We were not planning on taking any more placements until after Persephone got here, but it was an emergency, and plans have changed.
So, instead of sleeping away the afternoons and dreaming of things inward, I find myself doing lots of laundry, helping with schoolwork, and teaching the basics of how to be a good citizen of the world (first rule–Good citizens wipe their hineys when they use the restroom).
I keep thinking of Hestia, Hearth Goddess and a wonderful manager of time and resources. I hope that I can live up to her example at a time when I am exhausted constantly by the demands on my time by others and the demands on my body by the work that it’s doing.
Tonight, I plan on meditating, taking some time for a hot cup of tea, and asking Hestia for the assistance that I need to get through this hectic time of shuffling, readjusting, and reprioritizing.
In the Dark of the Moon…. – Maman Brighid’s MySpace Blog | My Blog of Shadows
In the Dark of the Moon….
Current mood: adventurous
Well, the events of the couple of weeks have been fairly interesting. I have been finishing up master attunements for several Reiki traditions and am looking forward to beginning my work in Ka Shen which is a very powerful and interesting Seichim system. I finished my master attunements in Tibetan Reiki, Kundalini Reiki, and Maha Kali Seichim. All have been very interesting and have been beneficial to both myself and people that I work on. I have been taking on clients at the shop and have been busier than ever. I have also been working on my Hoodoo and Rootwork class with Catherine Yronwode through Lucky Mojo. If you haven’t been over there, you must check her site out! The oils are awesome and I love, love, love her glass cased petition candles. I am fairly picky in my supplies and have been stuck with some duds in my time. However, I have gotten some cool and awesome stuff from her.
This is the time of year when I take my hoodoo and witchcraft on interesting adventures. I usually tour local graveyards in search of grave yard dirt for healings, spellwork, spirit work, my spirit and ancestor altar, etc. I also do more graveyard spells for healings and spiritwork and seem to burn up a hole in my tarot bag. : ) I have mojos to be made, dumb suppers to hold and Ouija boards to make. Just like Santa’s elves, but different. I am also bribing a local carpenter with baked goods for the express purpose of building me a hoodoo altar/central. Yippee! It will have different shelves for different work. Money, love, protection, occult work/mastery, etc. Setting lights will be much easier and I can get my various projects in order. I have been getting my herbs together for the month ahead and setting stuff up. Hooray for October!
via In the Dark of the Moon…. – Maman Brighid’s MySpace Blog | My Blog of Shadows .
Big Mama Gator Mojo Part Deux – Maman Brighid’s MySpace Blog | My Blog of Shadows
Big Mama Gator Mojo Part Deux
Here are some more ideas for mojo sacks for the home:
Here is another variation on my favorite “Big Momma Gator” mojo for people who have fitful sleep as well:
-Star Anise pod to bring good luck in love, money and health matters through powerful visions or lucky hunches
-Tobacco Snuff to control people and situations
-High John the Conqueror Root for commanding power, personal mastery, strengthen nature, and attract luck
-Solomon’s Seal Root to ward off evil, increase wisdom, break jinxes
-Black Snake Root for it’s highly lucky and highly protective qualities
-Alligator foot holding a silver dime and saffafras chip, held together by red string, for luck, attracting money, and making it go farther.
-Alligator tooth for even more luck in money and games of chance
-Master Root- A power enhancing herb used for protection, psychism, luck, and to command respect from others
-Sampson Root- a root of power and strength, very protective
-Five fingered Grass- For success in all the things that five fingers can do, to get others to do you favours.
-Angelica Root- Enhances female magical power and strength, protects children.
-Elecampane- A famous magical love herb; one of the three ingredients in Medieval True Love Powder.
-Grains of Paradise (guinea grains)- For good luck, protection of the house, to get a job, and to make wishes come true.
- Blue Cohosh Root-Used to protect people and places from evil; used by Native Americans to protect children.
-Chamomile flowers-for peace and tranquility
- Holly Leaves-For protection of the home, to invite helpful spirits into the household.
-Hops flowers-An aid to peaceful sleep when placed in the pillow; ends nightmares, brings beneficial dreams.
-Hyssop-A purification herb, for home cleansing, to put an end to crossed conditions, to take off a jinx
-Lavender flowers-To promote passion, romance, harmony, friendship, and cooperation with a lover.
-Lemon Grass-For protection and to increase the power of all amulets; also for a good sexual time.
Fixed in a white flannel(or if I can get it, alligator skin) bag with an alligator icon sewn onto the bag(if I go with the flannel).
Fed with whiskey and VanVan oil weekly.
via Big Mama Gator Mojo Part Deux – Maman Brighid’s MySpace Blog | My Blog of Shadows .
Is That a Goddess?
I am a Pagan and have been for six years at least. I am out to my family, and for the most part this isn’t a problem even though my parents are Pentacostals. They don’t outrightly try to convert me and once in a while when I’m visiting home I humor them by going to church with them. It’s predictably not my scene. I don’t care for the occasional jabs thrown during sermons at Pagans, the LGBTQ community, or women who have to seek certain medical services. It affirms for me, unfortunately, why I never felt an affinity for the church.
The last time I went to church with them, however, even though the experience was mostly boring, yielded one really cool moment I want to share. While the choir was singing at one point, they had a slide show with religious pictures playing at the front. One of the pictures was a painting of Jesus with Mary. All of the sudden, I heard the little girl behind me–who couldn’t have been more than seven or eight years old–ask very loudly, “Is that a Goddess?”
I beamed a smile at her. Even in the midst of that kind of location, in the heart of the patriarchal Christian power base, the Goddess can and does speak to us. Right on.
Night of Hecate Decisions
Our night of Hecate slumber party went really well. We had wonderful chips and dips, cake, pie, and plenty of personal epiphanies and personal transformation!
From our Night of Hecate, we decided to expand the scope of our June Women’s Retreat to include not only vendors, but a separate area where those who would rather meditate can go and have a guided meditation instead of going to the workshops. With workshops and meditations running simultaneously, our retreat goers will have more of an option on what they would like to attend.
We will have aura photography at the Retreat, Reiki practitioners, tarot readers, nature walks, meditation, workshops, ritual, and a plethora of goods and services that can be purchased on site.
In years past, we’ve kept our retreat very on task with the workshops, and I think that diversifying our efforts will help to allow those coming to the retreat more choice in how they reconnect with the feminine divinity at our core.
Printing and Preparing
Getting ready for tomorrow’s Reiki Retreat in Makanda. I will be reading tarot there along with another Stellaloon to raise money for our upcoming retreat. I am also bringing pamphlets with me to hand out for both the retreat and for our group in general. I think that there are still a lot of people who don’t know us very well and would really enjoy being a part of the group, whether as an official member or as an outer court member.
Printing off the pamphlets hasn’t been an easy task. My printer has been temperamental, I’ve used up all of the ink cartridges I had, and finally went to a copy place. For $7 I found out that not only do they NOT have colored paper, but apparently they cannot print in color either. Those copies look like crap. Actually it is worse, they look like BORING crap. So, I printed some copies off on the home printer, finishing up my printer cartridges and only managed to get a measly 30 pamphlets. Before I go tot he movies tonight, I think I am going to go by and see if Mail Boxes, Etc. can make some color copies on a bright yellow or pink paper.
The retreat pamphlets are going to be on white paper, but that is mainly because they wouldn’t look very good on colored paper. We have a beautiful Mother Earth picture there that really needed to be in color. Here is a picture and I think it really captures the heart of what the retreat is aiming to achieve.
I think tomorrow is going to be a lot of fun and I really hope that we garner some interest from people for the retreat. The retreats are always so much fun and I really think that people would love attending them. I think that having the retreat at Green Retreat where people can sleep in beds instead of camping and where locals can come and go freely will help make this year a greater success than previous years.
Stellaluna’s Goddess Process
As a women’s spirituality group, Stellaluna works with Goddess in all her many glorious facets. As our patron, all of us feel a deep connection with Hecate, a goddess who has many layers. Hecate is maiden, mother, and crone, but she is also a guide and guardian, not to mention Queen of the Witches and magic. However, we all have Goddesses that speak to us, but the only way to discover those Goddesses is through working with different ones.
Once a month, we have a full moon ritual with a Goddess we choose, sometimes as a group, or sometimes the woman running the ritual picks out the Goddess. We have worked with Hecate, Bast, Isis, Arianrhod, Pele, Sekhmet, Kali, Blodewuedd, Quan Yin, Athena, Innana, Shapash, Cerridwen, and many, many more. Of course, since I am the one writing this missive, the Goddesses that I like or that stick out in my memory are the ones I listed. I imagine the other women would have different Goddesses that spring to mind.
Sometimes, one of our members has something going on in their life that we decide to focus on for a ritual – oftentimes, our lives overlap and multiple people experience the same kind of thing. There was one month where a couple of us felt that everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. It wasn’t anything more than just a run of bad luck, so we designated Fortuna as our goddess of the month to turn our luck around. Other times, we see something in nature that draws our attention, such as seeing the same type of animal over and over and over again. I had a two month period where I saw bats everywhere. In those cases, we try to find a goddess who corresponds with the animal in question.
One of the things I like about Stellaluna’s rituals is much of the ritual is about connecting with the goddess we have chosen. Often there are meditations where we meet and greet the goddess. Connecting with the goddess in this manner provides quite a bit of information, as we then share the experiences of our meditation with each other. When first working with a goddess, the interaction in mediation is pretty fun as many of us have similar interactions – such as Blodeweudd being very brusque and to the point, what I call a Stop Wasting My Time With Bullshit and Pleasantries Goddess – and these interactions help us get a clearer picture of who she is, what her energies are like and how to deal with her in the future.
Other times there are stories or myths told about the goddess. Deconstructing myths is an important part of any form of ritual or worship, as there are lessons to be learned from the stories of the goddesses. Stellaluna’s lack of dogma (we have a witch, a Wiccan, and a Hoodoo practitioner among our ranks) helps us to keep an open mind when talking about the myths of various goddesses.
As for choosing goddesses, there are a lot of good resources out there. I usually prefer books to the internet for much of my religious study, but there are definite sites out there that can help pick a goddess to work with. However, I use 365 Goddesses by Patricia Telesco as a starting point. She has a goddess listed for every single date in the calendar, and a little bit about them and how to celebrate them. This is a good place to look for a goddess that you are not familiar with, as many learning experiences come from the unfamiliar. I recently purchased another book that is a tremendous and wonderful resource called Goddess Guide. This book has correspondences, for example, if you want to work on dreams in the next ritual, you can look up “dreams” and find a listing of goddesses.
Again, like with the Telesco book, this is a jumping off point, not the beginning and the end. In order to effectively work with any goddess, you should spend time researching her. After all, you are going to be calling this goddess to circle so you should know who you are calling, and how to do it, not to mention you need to know what type of system you should use to honor the goddess. Is cakes and ale enough of an offering or should you find something specific? Should you leave an offering in your backyard or at a crossroads? Does this goddess complement the work you are doing or is she antithetical to the work you wish to accomplish? Etc., etc. Point being, picking a goddess from a book with a blurb is great as long as you perform additional research.
I know that one book I am not terribly impressed with is The Witches Goddess. When I was but a newb, this book was a great way to introduce goddesses and archetypes. However, their descriptions of goddesses are facile and topical at best, and can be inaccurate at worst. For example, they describe Bast as being “an orgiastic goddess” of pleasure. If you were to call on Bast with only this description, you would be unpleasantly surprised as she is also a fierce guardian and can be very demanding, albeit in a good way. This book does talk of archetypes and other things, but the information in the goddess index really shouldn’t be trusted – however, any book that gives you two sentences on any goddess cannot be the only source you check prior to ritual as massive amounts of information will be missing.
For example, we once worked with Oya during a ritual where we visited a cemetery to collect some graveyard dirt and honor the dead. Not having a hoodoo practitioner with us at the time, we researched the best way to connect with Oya. With Oya, you ask permission to enter the graveyard and it is preferable to have red wine and 9 copper pennies (and copper pennies are not the new pennies they make now, for copper you have to have pennies from 1982 or earlier, otherwise you are dealing with zinc pennies with a copper coating – not a good offering) with you as an offering. You then wait for a sign to enter the graveyard. When taking the graveyard dirt, you leave nine silver dimes as not only a thanks to the honored dead, but also to sever any connection. You also thank Oya profusely after leaving the graveyard.
Working with goddesses is rewarding, fun, and educational – the should be a School House Rock devoted to it. I think that if you work with the goddesses from a certain point of view, you can actually learn quite a lot about yourself and the goddess and even human experience. Being open to study and new names that you are unfamiliar with is a bonus. The very first goddess we worked with in Stellaluna was Istustaya – a goddess none of us had ever heard of before. It was a phenomenal experience.
Florida Water is your Friend…
Current mood: 
adventurous
Well, I am in my new apartment! The cats are settled down and I am in the process of cleaning and organizing stuff. I am getting all of my magical supplies and herbs organized and getting new altar spaces set up. The day before I moved in ( and that was an epic undertaking!) I went in, cleansed and warded the new place. I also did a first round house blessing with another planned for the full moon in June. I found several railroad spikes on one of my walking breaks and be all set to get really settled in this month.
I really loved getting the new place together. I got out my favorite Chinese wash to wash the walls, woodwork, and doorways down from top to bottom and back to front. “Chinese Wash was a standard commercial product that acquired an occult and magical reputation among African-American root workers. Chinese Wash is used in rites of protection; in spiritual house-cleansings; to clean away messes left by enemy root workers; to open the way for new beginnings; and to purify the home in the interests of maintaining marital fidelity and a peaceful home, keeping rooms rented, or attracting customers to a bawdy-house or private gambling den,”(www.luckymojo.com) I always keep a stock of two bottles in the house and am a frequent buyer of it from Lucky Mojo.
I always dilute my wash by putting three teaspoons of the wash in a pail of warm water while reciting the appropiate Psalm from the book of Psalms. I then add a dash of ammonia to help drive out any stale energy and then add several drops of fiery wall of protection oil. This does a bang up job of cleansing the apartment. Then, I make up a house blessing spray. I get an empty spray bottle and fill it about 3/4 with water from a living source (not tap water! Tap water is pretty much dead and overly processed from the chlorine.) I get my water from my parent’s well which has its water source from an underground river and is filter through limestone. Look for spring water or clean running water from a wild source. Then, I add (after I have cleansed and charged them) Florida water and several drops of a house blessing oil and a whole Master Root and a broom straw. The Master Root is A power enhancing herb used for protection, psychism, luck, and to command respect from others and the broom straw is to drive away unwanted visitors and malevolent person and for magical protection from evil. I use this spray to spray out closets, drawers, and cabinets and use it as a general house clearing spray as I recharge my wards and protective spells each month.
I then take the left over water and take it out the front door and to the front of the apartment building and toss it out on the ground towards the east (usually during the early hours so I won’t draw a crowd or stares.) When I come back in, I mix up a small amount of water and several drops of oil (Usually a money type oil and the fiery wall of protection oil) and clean my front entry way to draw in prosperity and to ward my front. I keep a house hold mojo bag hidden around the front of my house as well. A good mojo bag for protection and prosperity contains a good mix of herbs, charms, sachet powder, and animal curios. I usually keep it dressed and fed in Lucky 13 oil.
I have my working Hoodoo/Candle altar set up and have my fixed House Blessing, Peaceful Home, and Fiery Wall of Protection candles set up to burn to help fix the work that I have done in the house. I light them to the appropriate Psalms and prayers and prep the incense. A potent blend is the House blessing incense from Lucky Mojo. I then continue throughout the house and pray in each room to totally clear the air. Then, I sat down with a wonderful pot of tea and enjoyed watching the candles burn.
I am currently getting some mojo back materials together for pet protection and getting my anchors moved for the protective spirits and totems that reside in my home. Everyone was a little cranky around here during the old Retrograde ( I have been lighting VanVan candles everyday to clean out the funk and to sooth everyone here. Vanvan oil, candles etc. is the shiznet. No witch should be without it.)
Here are some ideas for mojo sacks for the home:
My favorite “Big Momma Gator” mojo:
-Star Anise pod to bring good luck in love, money and health matters through powerful visions or lucky hunches
-Tobacco Snuff to control people and situations
-High John the Conqueror Root for commanding power, personal mastery, strengthen nature, and attract luck
-Solomon’s Seal Root to ward off evil, increase wisdom, break jinxes
-Black Snake Root for it’s highly lucky and highly protective qualities
-Alligator foot holding a silver dime and saffafras chip, held together by red string, for luck, attracting money, and making it go farther.
-Alligator tooth for even more luck in money and games of chance
-Master Root- A power enhancing herb used for protection, psychism, luck, and to command respect from others
-Sampson Root- a root of power and strength, very protective
-Five fingered Grass- For success in all the things that five fingers can do, to get others to do you favours.
-Angelica Root- Enhances female magical power and strength, protects children.
-Elecampane- A famous magical love herb; one of the three ingredients in Medieval True Love Powder.
-Grains of Paradise (guinea grains)- For good luck, protection of the house, to get a job, and to make wishes come true.
Fixed in a green flannel(or if I can get it, alligator skin) bag with an alligator icon sewn onto the bag(if I go with the flannel).
Fed with whiskey and Double Luck Perfume oil weekly.
UNDERSTANDING KALI MAA: WHO IS KALI? WHAT DOES SHE STAND FOR?… – Maman Brighid’s MySpace Blog | My Blog of Shadows
UNDERSTANDING KALI MAA: WHO IS KALI? WHAT DOES SHE STAND FOR?…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnDB31O7-fg
Jai Kali Maa
