… have hearts that beat and eyes that blink.
They have big impact on lots of people without meaning to or knowing how.
They could pour out their deepest, darkest secrets and still maintain a type of effortless innocence that can’t be learned.
They can make you breathe a little faster because something in you knows they have a purpose and that they mean something.
Bearing in mind that I am only one witch and do not speak for all witches, here’s what I think.
I believe that the Bible is an interesting historical reference and a wonderful book of wisdom that can be applied in ways different than most Christians apply it. For instance, I don’t believe that the Father, the son and the holy ghost actually portray separate entities (and Christianity also teaches the paradox that they are the same being, depending upon the church you go to). Rather, I believe that those are our parts of self - id, ego, super ego - or fetch, talker, high self.
I also believe that there are quite a few reasons not to depend upon the Bible for day to day decisions:
Pope Damascus I was the pope who gathered the Council or Rome to decide which books were to be included in the Bible. Books that didn’t make the cut are now called apocrypha which are not ‘false’ books - but rather ‘hidden’ books. One group of (human) men decided what would be included in the Bible for all time. Hm. Aren’t I also human and able to decide what I think is worthy?
However, text originally translated by Erasmus remains under criticism for the many typographical errors (that were only partially fixed later), the inconsistent source of translation between the first and last parts of Revelation and their limited scope of being translated from only six Greek variants originating as late as the 12th century despite the numerous variants world wide.
His text was later translated again by 47 different different scholars to be included, in part, in the New Testament. Did you know that there are over 4 ancient greek dialects? Who knows what the education level of these scholars are or what angle they took in learning these languages. Their instructions from King James was to write the new version to conform to the Church of England’s beliefs. It is this King James version which was eventually accepted by Protestants and Catholics alike as the ‘official’ English translation of the Bible.
Whew! That is a lot of translators with their hands in the pot! One known to have created a horribly shaky version, 47 who modified their assigned portion of the text to conform to King James’ wishes and 3 version that were translated by numerous people to and from numerous languages.
Have you ever tried to translate something from English into Spanish and there just weren’t the equivalent words to do so? So now imagine having over 55 different translators working in over five languages over hundreds of years and societal changes creating ONE single book that the entire world has adopted. Doesn’t seem like something I want to trust as ‘The Word of God’.
If you didn’t know any of that, why on EARTH would you live your ENTIRE life by it? Research, man!
Aside from all of that, I have a hard time believing that before Jesus was born, there were old men writing books that were from divine sources - but suddenly, no one is capable of talking directly to god and writing scriptures. The Bible just… stops.
According to Christianity, talking to God happens all the time. Speaking in tongues is the holy spirit, supposedly, right? So why would it not be possible for someone to be another prophet, writing books that are similar in content to, but different than the Bible and qualified to be included? And I know, I know.. the Bible has an answer for that. But referring to a definitive source rather than giving proof is a logical fallacy and I prefer to use the ability to apply logic that I evolved with.
I believe that the Creation story in the Bible is a myth just like the creation stories of other cultures. There are many parallels ie: A serpent wisdom bringer (the snake in the garden, lung dragon, Quetzalcoatl), the angels that were cast out (fallen angels, nephilim or watchers) but all in all, it is a myth that has no basis in the reality of evolution.
I grew up not knowing about the 15 billion years that preceded Adam and Eve. When school taught evolution, I was given a note from home saying I was not to participate and the school complied because this was fairly common. I was literally raised and educated as if the years before Adam and Eve never existed and I was nineteen before I learned otherwise.
These aren’t 15 billion years that didn’t exist. They are real, provable 15 billion years. It defies common sense to say they didn’t exist. It seems a sin (no pun intended) to raise a child truly believing that they should defy common sense and what’s right there in front of our faces in order to believe something with no factual basis other than a book which has dubious sources.
Here is a great story by Oberon Zell debunking the creation myth.
If the Christian story of creation is myth… then where does that put the rest of the Bible? And if it’s not a myth… well, the serpent never lied… Yahweh did. What does that say about Yahweh and the other things he tells man?
I believe that Jesus was a real person that actually lived and taught. I believe that he was deified in much the same way as Buddha (Siddhattha Gotama) was. In fact, he was officially deified in the church by First Council of Nicaea. A group of human men declared him a deity. Could they not have made a mistake in the meaning of the texts that they used to make this declaration?
I believe that he was no more or no less than you or I or any of the other big spiritual teachers of our age. He just had a grasp on esoteric reasoning and said things about humans in general being ’sons of god’ that could be interpreted as he being the son of god. .
I believe, at it’s heart, Christianity is a generally good set of practices. I consider a ‘true Christian’ a person who follows the love and goodness meant by the core of Christianity and have a lot of respect for those folks.
However, organized Christianity is quite another thing, altogether. Organized Christianity discourages logical thought on the part of it’s followers, has a long history of being used to constrain it’s followers to the end of political agendas, seeks monetary support in shady ways and encourages hypocrisy, prejudice, substance abuse and other forms of avoidance by demonizing the reality of societal situations.
I guess, in summary, I think that there are valid and invalid points about Christianity. I don’t think it should be thrown out with the bath water but I think it’s ridiculous to follow the Bible or the organized form without question.
If in fact, you were created by a god that also gave you common sense and logical faculties, shouldn’t you use them? Why would it be considered sinful to think outside your religion with these faculties, punishable by an eternity in fire and brimstone?
I came to a point in my life, not too long ago, when I gave up panic, in the moment. There is no reason for overwhelming emotion in that moment, there is no reason to push up against something I don’t know how to handle, in that moment. There is no reason for instant reactions. It simply does no good. It’s not productive.
I admit, that I reached that conclusion only after having been pushed into the panic corner so much that I finally gave up. And low and behold, the sky didn’t fall if I didn’t hold it up with my panic! I learned that if there is nothing that can be done right then, in that moment, there is simply nothing that can be done. It’s like living moment to moment, I suppose.
I might panic, in general when too much is laying on me and I certainly do cry and get angry and frustrated - but I don’t have to do it right that moment. In the moment, it’s a time to absorb and listen and comprehend and respond to the best of my ability. There will be plenty of time to sort through the feelings of it and to formulate a better response. So, I answer plainly, honestly and just simply to the point. If I don’t know the answer, I say so. If I am not sure what to think about something, I say so.
What I’ve noticed is that people often don’t like that. When they present someone with a question or statement in a certain way, and they expect a high level of emotion, when it’s not forthcoming, they absolutely cannot stand it. They increase their attempts. Even when the information they asked for is given to them, if the response is not appropriately seeped in intense emotion, they become more demanding, more insistent.
I wonder at how often people simply respond with their emotional selves rather than using logical thought. When we have issues and complexes that cloud our emotional selves, I think sometimes, the emotional self is mistaken in believing it should come to the forefront. That it’s unresolved needs are more pressing than logic and critical thought.
And I wonder at how often people attempt to pull the reactions they intend from others without consciously realizing they do it. Having had unconscious needs of an emotional nature before, I know how truly unconscious the fulfillment of those needs can be. No one ever says “I want everyone around me to be miserable” but the saying “misery loves company” didn’t happen for no reason. People who are miserable seek to illicit similar responses from those around them.
In psychology, it is known that we choose people to interact with who have the interaction patterns that we are comfortable with… like attracts like. In alternative medicine, this interaction is summed up as cords or energy ties. Whatever way you look at it, take some time today to look at your interactions with others - what are your patterns and what reactions are others taking from you without your conscious consent?
Every day, I get an email in my mailbox from google alerts. It includes all blog entries and news stories from that 24 hour period with the word ‘witchcraft’ in it. Aside from the blog posts with the occasional spell, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in the news. All over the world, innocent people are being stoned, burned and otherwise murdered for witchcraft.
All over the continents of Africa and Asia, in Saudi Arabia, India and in Papua New Guinea, people are still persecuted with a death sentence for practicing witchcraft and the terror and craze that comes over people at the mention of witchcraft still causes innocents to be murdered.
Only this month, a child was accused of witchcraft in the Central African Republic because she had nightmares and walked in her sleep, something that is known as a sleep disorder.
This WEEK alone, A story appeared of two children forced to go through exorcisms because they were accused of being witches. In India, an elderly lady was stripped naked and paraded through the streets in a demonstration against witchcraft. An elderly lady was beaten by a neighbor for supposed witchcraft in Nepal.
I’ve heard witckin often throwing around the phrase “Never again the burning times” but rarely do we ever acknowledge that the burning times are still happening all over the world. These are real life witch hunts that plague parts of the world in which citizens do not have basic human rights.
I call upon my fellow witches - and even concerned individuals who cherish our religious freedom that we use the Power that is ours as witches or even simply human beings to pray, chant, dance, cast spells, raise power and protect these innocents and even true witches who have been prosecuted by the people of their nations. Use the witchcraft, the power of spirit, the religion that is ours by right to protect those who have been accused as if we would protect our own.
Dear gods, cast your web of vibrant power around these precious souls to protect them against the vengeance of hate. Use my tears and my prayers on their behalf to fuel your own vengeance. I offer this energy, this power I raise to fuel the power of these innocents to persevere, survive and to heal.
excerpted form a larger piece
The benefit of being able to tell this story in retrospect is that everything unfolds reasonably, in order and foreshadowing can occur. If only there had been a narrator present at the moment I decided to go to the beach. He would have leaned in in his movie traitor voice and said something like “A girl, The Gods, A beach. A life at the brink of destruction. Who knew that five simple minutes and a scream to the goddess of destruction and recreation could destroy everything.”
But nay. At the time, I had no idea and it wasn’t until a few days later, sitting on a bench at the courthouse that I would comment on how horribly serendipitously everything unfolded and realize that truly there was a divine hand involved.
So it was entirely obliviously and unthinking that one fateful Monday evening, I went to the ocean. He was going on a date with Mistress and I needed to escape from the week of arguing and the idea of sitting at home alone while my husband was with Mistress.
I sat in the sand and stared at the waves. They lapped at the shore predictably one after the other. Comforting predictability. I sat there and it welled up… the anger, the frustration, the pain. I wanted to scream at the waves… and so I did.
Technically, she was there before I called her. But I screamed it into the waves “Tiamat!”. Only moments later, I saw her almost as clearly as if she were standing right there a massive black form bobbing just barely beneath the waves, hissing and undulating, towering into the sky, obscuring the stars.
I remember testing my sanity. She wasn’t there. Physically. But She was. I knew that no one else was seeing this. Maybe they saw a cloud. And when her voice boomed loud in my ears as clearly as if she stood next to me, I knew that anyone else would hear the crashing of the waves against the pier.
I poured it out and she absorbed it. The most primal of ways of being. In that moment, I simply expressed raw emotion. Not with tears or motions or words… but just let it pour out. She slurped it up. And then I talked. I told her what I wanted. What I couldn’t live with anymore. I told her that I wanted the relationship stuff resolved once and for all. I couldn’t deal with this any more. I told her that I wanted my career to take off so that I could be financially independent again. She listened and then pointed out that my career would never be successful while he was around. She asked me which I wanted first. Which was more important right now, if the other had to give. I thought for only a moment before I answered back, “my career”. “Write me an invocation and it’s done.”, she answered.
I remember the walk back to the car muttering lines and words to myself , devising a partial invocation. And then I remember my mind puttering off into other things that had nothing to do with dragons, goddesses or invocations. I remember specifically thinking something to the tune of “eh… back to the reality of what’s really going to happen.”
Theme music of doom.
The next night was Tuesday. We had a fight again over how things had been going. He was disregarding and neglecting me and was unable or unwilling to make decisions on behalf of our relationship that inconvenienced him. I was hurt, angry, frustrated and backed into every emotional corner he could put me in.
We stopped arguing and I went off to do my own thing. I sat down to do my daily exercises and decided to get down to the business of writing that invocation. I lit my working candle, did a brief rendition of my daily exercises and began to write.
“Terrible beauty of the depths cresting in foam against the night sky
Solidity and silence of being, of life it’s self
The spark before there is life … “
And I’ll not put the rest in these pages. There is something a bit inconvenient about a dragon landing in one’s living room whilst they are trying to enjoy a good book. Suffice it to say that even writing the words was a chills down the spine experience.
Kala, as I am discussing it, is a Feri tradition witchcraft practice of purification (getting the gunk out) and transformation (turning the gunk into gold) so that the three selves can work more seamlessly together. If the three selves are working seamlessly together, god self is talking to fetch, is talking to talker and v/v and we are closer to moving within the Black Heart of innocence. And I get that that sounds like gobbeldy gook to non-Feris. Onward.
“I’ve sat with it and I am kala with it.” “I have done kala on it.”, both followed by the equivalent of “so I’m sure you are wrong”.
Now, I’m not talking I killed your momma and you hadda do kala with it. I’m talking we just had a disagreement on principal. We had an emailed disagreement and you had to run do kala over it. Really? And not only did you have to do kala on it because apparently you never picked up on “I’m ok, you’re ok, we can have differing opinions without our mere existences being threatened”, somehow your brand of kala gives you some form of perfect insight that shows you the flaws in mine.
AND THEN, you did kala SO well that you had to RUN BACK and make sure that EVERYONE knew that YOU DID KALA and they are wrong. Because nah nah nah nah boo boo, I’m pure and you’re not.
Personally, I think that we should have the equivalent of Godwin’s Law with kala. Because once you’ve invoked the fact that you’ve done kala on an argument, you’re out of reasons, cohesive sentences, independent thought. You should lose the debate or conversation immediately, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
I was ‘raised’ in Feri without kala. It wasn’t until our advanced stuff that we even got Kala and that was entirely an afterthought. We were doing essentially the same thing in other ways. So the word ‘kala’ did not enter our vocabulary. I’m still a good little Feri student. AND?!?! I’m capable of allowing differing opinions into my sphere of influence without self destructing or running off to breathe in a paper bag (or a kala cup) and allowing them to pass over and through and moving on with life. It’s POSSIBLE! I am even capable of remaining within my differing opinion without doubting the purity of my decision. Doh… I said it!
I’m not saying kala is a bad thing. I do kala. I like it, it feels good, it has use. But ANYTHING can become a crutch and kala has become that crutch for lots of folks. Use kala. Do it weekly, daily, hourly if you have to. But have an opinion on your own. Think for yourself.
And don’t even try to respond because I’ve done kala on it and I’m sure that I am right.
excerpted from a larger piece
Tiamat is a personification of the abyss. She is primordial chaos. In the Babylonian creation myth, the Enûma Elish, she is ‘the beginning’ and from her spring the first of the gods representing land, water and other basic elements of our physical world.
Although her origins are debated, in every culture that is put forth as her possible birth place, the story is the same. She is without human form. She is as massive as the seas and very probably the essence of the sea. She churns and rushes and from her depths belches new life.
Although not a dragon, as we think of dragons today, she has always appeared serpentine to me. Pieces of being slithering, rolling over other pieces of being. When she ‘speaks’, it’s not words, it’s feelings, impressions that roll over you and engulf your entire being and quite possible two city blocks around you.
I do not, under any circumstances recommend that anyone work with her, really. Although mighty and catastrophically powerful, she has very little patience or consideration for humans and their lives are tedious and insignificant to her. The changes she brings are thunderous and as devastating as the entire being of her sea rushing upon the land.
When we speak, it is like the tiny whisper of an ant that she may not even hear. She gives her attention to humans on a whim that can change with the next tide that rolls away. One’s path must be a path that is significant to her, the liquid half of the planet, in order to even warrant a side glance. That makes me, on one hand afraid and on another, fool heartedly proud. And, perhaps because I am sometimes also a fearless glutton for punishment, I began working with her in 2006, a little bit here and a little bit there.
Last year, one of my students who’d been with me for a couple of years gave me a plant as a gift. It started to die eventually and I dejectedly told her that I couldn’t make anything stay alive. She assured me I could. We figured out that the pot didn’t have any drainage so the water was never being used and the plant was getting over watered. We put it in new soil and a new pot and within a week, it had new buds and was coming back to life.
I asked her to show me her plant magick. “How do you keep something alive?!” She told me it was easy and there really is no magick to it. “It’s just about listening to the plants.” “Great”, I though. “I have to be a Plant Lady who can talk to my plants to get it.”
So she brought me some clippings of plants that she said would be really easy to take care of. Heirloom geraniums and wild orchids. I stuck them in a pot of dirt and watered them when they got dry and sure enough, they took hold! So I planted some of the spider plant babies my momma plant had and low and behold, they took hold too!
Her only advice was to only water them when the wanted water… and that I could tell that by touching the soil. If it was dry, they had drunk all of their water and needed more. If it was damp, they had enough.
I’ve spent the last six months growing things. I’ve taken clippings and rooted them, transplanted my babies into adult homes, shifted plants into better areas, brought dead ones to life, killed a few live ones and all in all, figured out how to “listen” to them. If their leaves turn colors or textures, it’s a signal. If their soil does something wierd, it’s a signal. If they just ‘arent thriving’, it’s a signal.
When I transplant them, they go through shock, just like a person. When they are sick or stressed, they need more food and water, just like a person. Sometimes they like lots of water and sometimes not so much. They like to be near other plants of the same type. They like to be near plants that are thriving. Just like people.
It’s one thing for me to know logically that I need more water and better food when I’m stressed or that something I just need a new environment or that I like to be near people who make me feel good but somehow, seeing in a completely natural, non subconscious demons kinda way, makes it more clear that it’s just a natural process. It’s something we naturally crave and need.
I must say that after relating the experience to several Feri family members and hearing that it was uncharacteristic, I was a bit confused about the whole thing and didn’t post the entry that was written almost two years ago.
However, I finally posted my experience with luckymojo.com, the hoodoo store, after receiving an email that my student status was going to become ‘inactive’, well over a year after the fact.
Although I did have a negative experience with luckymojo.com, I am glad to have a positive update. The emails that I received over the past few days from Cat’s (the owner) partner, as a result of the ‘phantom’ student status, have been nothing but kind and accommodating and have made the experience much more pleasant.
Turns out, after emailing back and forth with Cat’s partner, who takes an active role in the business, that the experience that I had doesn’t seem characteristic of the shop at all. As you can see from Cat’s comment on the last post, there isn’t really a trace of the nastiness that was inferred by Ernie. In fact, she seems very straightforward and matter of fact with a hint of kindness.
It also appears that Ernie is no longer with the shop. Maybe this is something that should be on his ‘record of service’ rather than the shop’s. I think that with a better customer service person on the case, the shop’s concerns about the pain in the arse it was for them to cancel the first order (see Cat’s previous comment) would have been voiced and I would have understood and not canceled.
I think, in a business, recovering gracefully from a mishap goes a long way in customer service and in the reputation of a business and I think that, even if late, the shop has recovered extraordinarily gracefully and that isn’t always easy to do.
UPDATE : I placed a new order with the shop and the new shopping cart was much easier! My order arrived quickly and it was a great shopping experience!
I had a peculiar, bizzare and otherwise absurd experience with luckymojo.com. luckymojo.com is a website based upon an in person shop which specializes in hoodoo related merchandise. They sell powders, candles etc and the site has a wealth of hoodoo information on it.
However, although the information on hoodoo on the site is great, the shop really isn’t that great, it turns out. The following is my personal experience. Take it or leave it. Your mileage may vary.
When I was doing resale, I decided to place a wholesale order for them because I wanted their stuff in the shop. The entire ordering experience was a nightmare. Even worse was the particularly unpleasant demeanor of the employee, Ernie and the owner, Cat.
None of the order process is automated. I had to email to get a copy of the wholesale catalog, which is a text list. You read the text list and put together a list of everything you want and then email that to the shop. Then they have to CALL you to get your credit card number. And forget emailing a copy of your sellers permit… no.. it has to be faxed or mailed because ‘their system doesn’t allow attachments’.
After the pain in the butt of ordering, I had three seperate issues with my order. I finally canceled the order, intending to deal with it when I had the time and energy to deal with it - and according o Cat (or Ernie, who knows) that made me an unsuitable student for the class and the store cancelled that order as well.
The following is an email that I set to Cat, the owner, that explained the situation after the fact. It went unanswered.
