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An eMail Question

Feb14
eMail Notification Support

eMail Notification Support

Undelivered

I received an email this past week asking a question. When I replied the response bounced back with an eMail address error. I can’t respond to your questions if you don’t give me a valid email address. In these cases I try to respond here on the blog in hopes the sender will see an answer to their question.

Here’s the question:
My question is it possible to do my own rituals without all of the ingredients required in some spells. The reason why i ask is because i am afraid to follow certain ways because on sites and forums i run into people that want to give advice but expect trust from the beginning and can be disrespectful.

I was also wondering how to be able to tell if a spell will cause harm because i dont want to cause harm in any way and it feels like all of the spells i come across as they will harm. Continue reading →

2015 In Review

Jan20

I LOVE the Annual Blog In Review Report

Here’s an excerpt:

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 110,000 times in 2015. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 5 days for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

In 2014 the annual report said this:
The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 80,000 times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 3 days for that many people to see it.

It’s so kewl to see how your blog grows. And I owe it all to you guys. Thanks for helping to make Springwolf Reflections a roaring success. I deeply appreciate it!

© Springwolfs Hanko

© 2016 Springwolf, D.D., Ph.D. Springwolf Reflections / Springs Haven, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Merry Yule

Dec24

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From our family to yours, we wish you a very merry holiday season and a happy New Year.

Here in our house we begin our celebration on December 24th. We have a simple family dinner and open presents. We honor the rebirth of the God in the form of Holly King. And then we fade off to dreams while Santa comes to visit, we hope to leave us a few more presents.

The 25th is our day for fixing a big family meal. For us that’s honey baked ham, scalloped potatoes, corn on the cob, fried okra, country green beans, brown sugar BBQ beans, geenbean/mushroom caserole and homemade baked dinner rolls. Garrett is a fantastic baker! Oh and of course dessert, chocolate silk pie and strawberry cheesecake.

What ever you do during this time of year, we hope it’s a happy and joyous time. And that you find yourself in a healthy and prosperous New Year.

Happy Holidays!
And Many Blessings,

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© 2015 Springwolf, D.D., Ph.D. Springwolf Reflections / Springs Haven, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Lughnasadh / Imbolg And The Blue Moon

Jul31
Lammas Blue Moon

Lammas Blue Moon

The Celtic Holiday Of Lugh Under The Blue Moon

Tonight in the Northern Hemisphere many Pagans will be celebrating the 1st harvest festival of the season, Lughnasadh, also known as Lammas. In the Southern Hemisphere Pagans are celebrating Imbog.

This is an exciting time for Pagans. As the sun sets on July 31st Northern Pagans will honor the Sun and his blessings upon the gardens and fields.  Lughnasadh is known as a Fire Festival and celebrates the Celtic hero Lugh as the Sun God who saved Ireland from its oppressors. Freeing the people from slavery and ensuring the land would always be fertile and abundant.

In the Southern Hemisphere, Imbolg can be seen as a celebration of the return of the Sun or “the return of the light from the dark of winter”. It is also associated with the slow return of spring (in this case early spring), when new life is formed. This makes the holiday one of the Fertility festivals for the new season.

But tonight we complement these observances under a special event, the arrival of a Blue Moon!

A Blue Moon occurs when a full moon falls within a single month twice. For July 2015, the first full moon fell on July 1st. Today on July 31st, we’ll once again see the full moon in the evening sky. Technically the Moon hit its full phase at 6:46am eastern U.S. time. In the world of energy, the moon’s effects can be felt 3 days prior to its official phase and 3 days after. And of course the closer you are to the ‘official’ phase time, the stronger the energy will be.

Keep in mind however, that the ancients who lived by the moon didn’t have the luxury of Naval Observatory and precision clocks the way we do today. For them, the official time was sunset when Grandmother Moon bathed Mother Earth with her loving glow.

In some pagan traditions the phases of the moon represent the transition of knowledge within the Triple Goddess. The quarter moons representing the Maiden Goddess, the New Moon the Mother Goddess, the Full Moon the Grand Mother Goddess (which maybe one reason we refer to the moon as “Grandmother Moon”). The Blue Moon then is seen as the transition of the Grandmother or Crone to the Divine level of existence. She becomes an expression of the evolution of wisdom, as well as an example of the circle of life. She moves from a tangible wise old Crone to a spiritual energy within the Divine force of the universe. Continue reading →

Faeries, Pixies and Sprites

Jul18
Giggle Goddess Art

Giggle Goddess Art

From time to time, I’m asked to write a guest article for someone else’s blog or website. Last week I met Rhiannon, a lovely artist of faeries, mermaids and beautiful things. She wanted to inform readers about the fairies, mermaids and other magical beings that she often paints. I love doing things like this for other bloggers. I hope you’ll visit her site and bookmark her page.


The Magikal Faery Spirits Of Nature
by Springwolf D.D., Ph.D. for Rhiannon at Giggle Goddess Art

Pixie, leprechaun, faerie, brownie, sprite are all terms for mystical supernatural beings, thought to be helpful or harmful to people. These variations in name are often attributed to different cultures of the world using different languages to describe the same thing or similar mystical beings. From the Huldufólk in Iceland to the Tuatha Dé Danann in Ireland, and the Manitou of Native Americans, these are apparently intelligent entities that live unseen beside us. Faeries, Pixies and Sprites are generally small magikal beings that live amongst nature and are considered helpful when treated with respect. Brownies, Elves, and Leprechauns are larger beings that live in their own villages or mystical communities away from humans populations. They are known to play tricks on anyone outside their community, especially big people like you and me. Continue reading →

A Unique Milestone For Reflections

Jun30
Post #1404

Post #1404

Post 1404

If you’ve followed my blog here for any length of time, you may know that Four has meaning to me. It’s my favorite number, my lucky number and it always catches my attention.

Tonight I posted a new article, “The Traditions Of The Tarot” and WordPress let me know this was the 1404th post on my blog. So I decided to mark the occasion with a little numerological insight.

Numerological Insight:
If you’ve seen my number insights before you know that Mathematics is the only language shared by all humans regardless of culture, religion, or gender. Numerology is the study of the divine or mystical relationship between a count or measurement and life. It has many systems, traditions and beliefs. Continue reading →

The Traditions Of The Tarot

Jun30
Wizards Tarot by John J. Blumen - The High Priestess

Wizards Tarot by John J. Blumen

New And Old Tarot Traditions

Today I saw an interesting picture on Facebook and it got me thinking about traditions. When it comes to the Tarot, there is a wide range of old traditions for how to keep the cards, how to use them, and who’s permitted to touch them. Added to those old “rules” are new concepts that have become common place and considered to be new traditions. But there’s no one single definitive or authoritative list of these ‘rules’. And some of these existing concepts even contradict each other. Here’s a short list from around the world as an example.

  • Keep your cards in a pine box.
  • Wrap your cards in silk or cotton.
  • Sleep with your cards under your pillow.
  • Never let anyone else touch your cards.
  • Only the querent should touch your cards at the time of their reading.
  • Always purify your deck in sunlight.
  • Only purify your deck in moonlight.
  • Sit the deck in a plate of sea salt to purify it.
  • Light a candle or incense before a reading.
  • Lay all your readings out on a pine board.
  • Always face east when doing a reading.
  • Always face your querent.
  • Shuffle and cut the deck three times to the left.
  • Don’t shuffle, cut once to the right.
  • Have only the querent shuffle.
  • Have only the reader shuffle.
  • Your cards must be gifted to you or stolen.
  • Never use a used deck.
  • If your cards are lost, they needed a new owner.

Continue reading →

Merry Mid-Year Solstice

Jun19

WinterSolsticeHappy Solstice Celebration

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we celebrate the Summer Solstice on June 21st or 22nd. The Summer Solstice rings in the waning year and begins the slow good-bye of the sun as the days become shorter and the darkness returns to the land.

In the Southern Hemisphere the mid-year solstice it falls on December 21st or 22nd. Which rings in the slow hello to the Sun as the days become longer and the darkness becomes shorter.

In both cases, the Sun is honored with bonfires and celebrations of the Holly and Oak Kings. But this year coincides with the celestial conjunction of Venus, Jupiter, and the crescent Moon. Making this a very special holiday to honor and celebrate.

Everyone here at Springwolf Reflections and Spring’s Haven
wish you and yours a very Merry and Joyful holiday celebration.
May the Faeries in your home and garden
bless your evening and all the days of your life.

 

You can learn more about the Summer Solstice through these articles here on Reflections:

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© Springwolfs Hanko

© 2015 Springwolf, D.D., Ph.D. Springwolf Reflections / Springs Haven, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

A Solstice Conjunction for 2015

Jun19

An Amazing Summer Solstice Event A sparkling triangle of Venus, Jupiter, and the crescent Moon will grace our night sky this Saturday June 20th. This spectacular conjunction will be visible from the later dusk hours to the first hours of full darkness. For Pagans, this is an extra special event, because it coincides with our Summer Solstice celebration.

Conjunction from February, 2015. Credit: NASA

Conjunction from February, 2015. Credit: NASA

The Summer Solstice The solstice itself has remained a special moment of the annual cycle of the year since Neolithic times. In Anglo-Saxon form, the holiday is known as Litha. A Germanic word for June and meaning mid-summer. In Irish form Meitheam. (From Old Irish mithem (“midsummer, June”), from Proto-Celtic *medjo-samīno- (compare Welsh Mehefin)). ~ From Celebrating the Summer Solstice  Continue reading →

Remembering To Be Mindful

Apr16

mindfulbell-appPut Being Mindful Into Daily Practice

Mindfulness is a state of being where balance and peace within the moment, within the self and being are the center of all things. It’s not just looking at your thoughts, but your present state of attitude and how that translates into the manifestation of actions and reactions. (Read more about Mindfulness – Being Aware Of Your Spiritual Manifestation).

Today there are many ways to help you remember to take a moment and be aware of your thoughts and actions. Put a poster up in your office, put an image on your screen saver or something I’ve found that has been better than all those combined… There’s an app for that!

Put your smart phone or tablet to work for you and your spiritual awareness. There are many apps that provide Mindful reminders. The one I found works on Android, it’s free and it has no special permission requirements to work. That means it’s not phoning home every 10seconds.

It’s called the Mindfulness Bell. Let me give you some basic functions of this app so you can find one that works for you. Continue reading →