Tag Archive | blessings

Merry Samhain and Happy Halloween – 2019

Image from: Megan Granata

Samhain and All Hallows Eve

Samhain
~ by Annie Finch
In the season leaves should love,
since it gives them leave to move through the wind, towards the ground they were watching while they hung, legend says there is a seam stitching darkness like a name.

Now when dying grasses veil earth from the sky in one last pale wave, as autumn dies to bring winter back, and then the spring, we who die ourselves can peel back another kind of veil that hangs among us like thick smoke.

Tonight at last I feel it shake. I feel the nights stretching away thousands long behind the days till they reach the darkness where all of me is ancestor.

I move my hand and feel a touch move with me, and when I brush my own mind across another,
I am with my mother’s mother. Sure as footsteps in my waiting self, I find her, and she brings arms that carry answers for me, intimate, a waiting bounty.

“Carry me.” She leaves this trail through a shudder of the veil, and leaves, like amber where she stays, a gift for her perpetual gaze.
~

It’s that time of year again. The End of Summer and final Harvest Festival of Fall. For those on a Celtic Path, it’s the Celtic New Year. And for those follow Christian Wicca (yes, that’s a thing), it’s the celebration of the Dead. Here on Reflections we’ve shared information and news about our spiritual observations within Pagan Metaphysics. Take some time and look back over the years.

Hoping you have a fantastic evening of Trick-or-Treating,
with lots of fun, frights and genuine laughter!
and
May you and yours have a wonderfully blessed and exciting Samhain!

Many Blessings,
Spring

Merry Samhain and Happy Halloween – 2018

Oct31

Celebrating The Holidays

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the caldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn and caldron bubble.
Cool it with a baboon’s blood,
Then the charm is firm and good.
~ William Shakespeare’s Macbeth

Hoping you have a fantastic evening of Trick-or-Treating,
with lots of fun, frights and genuine laughter!
and
May you and yours have a wonderfully blessed and exciting Samhain!

Many Blessings,
Spring

Meditation Prayers

Nov15

Prayers For Opening, Healing, Blessing, Divination and Closing

The following are just a few examples of the prayers you can incorporate into your visualized meditations. As with any spiritual dogma, the recital of a prayer should feel comfortable to the speaker. It should be spoken with meaning and not just as a group of words that come before or after a spiritual event. Your intent is what gives a prayer power, so keep a positive outlook and a loving thought in your heart as you recite the prayer.

To some people how they address the prayer is the most important part of expressing their values and beliefs. Some prefer God, others Goddess, some use specific names of a Deity. Others like inclusive labels like Great Spirits, Divine Universe and so on. Choose what fits the Divine presence in your life. Continue reading →

Sunday Homily: Count Your Blessings

Feb16

Not Everyone Is As Fortunate As You

We all go through our days taking little things for granted. It’s not unusual, it’s not selfish, it’s not necessarily a bad thing either.

Most people don’t notice how fortunate they are until something breaks or needs to be replaced. If you’re blessed, you simply add an errand to your week and go pick up whatever it was that broke. But not everyone has that luxury. And it’s when you take that for granted, that you may need to be reminded of how blessed you really are.

For some people the toaster that broke yesterday can’t be replaced. There’s no such thing as having an extra $20 to pick up a new cheap toaster at the local discount store. Even that $5 toaster at the local Good Will store is out of reach. That $5 maybe all they have in the world right now, and it’s needed for milk and bread to feed their child. There is no such thing as an “extra” anything to waste on something they don’t absolutely need.

It’s amazing how many times I hear about conversations like this text message on the right. It seems when someone is struggling through every day life, even those around them don’t truly understand what they’re going through. Until they talk about little things that they take for granted. Continue reading →

Mother Nature’s Waters

Oct2

Collecting & Using Water For Rituals

Practitioners of pagan paths have long been associated with and connected to nature and all its elements. Using natures energy to empower workings and promote their connection to spirit, can be found on every continent throughout history.

When the world relied heavily on the swing of Nature’s spirit, rain and snow were honored components of every day life. Crops needed the right amount of rain to flourish. Winter needed the right amount of snow to maintain water supply. That hasn’t changed over the ages. But as societies became more urban, the focus on Nature’s energy and our connection to it has faded.

Today people notice the extremes of weather and pay little attention to its every day impacts. Unless you’re a farmer, or have your own garden in your backyard, you may not give the rain a second thought. But if you’re pagan and look for the energy in Nature’s movements through our world, you know it can be both an omen and a blessing. Continue reading →

Today’s Tarot Meditation Drawing: Nine of Cups

May14

Mystic Faery Tarot by Linda Ravenscroft

A simple hug can go a long way to showing someone you care about their struggles. Whither its emotional conflict, or stress and anxiety from work or daily life, we all could use a little hug now and then. Just remember, when you give a hug, you’re getting a hug too. It’s going to be ok. Share the positive and watch how it spreads through the day.

Additional Insight:

Remember there’s always someone who has it worse than you do. Be it more stress and anxiety, or more struggle in their relationships or home life. Be thankful for the blessings you have in your life. At least your cups are facing in the right direction to receive more bounty. So share some of that positive energy with those around you. That hug maybe just what they needed to get through this day and carry them into tomorrow where their own blessings will be turned around.

Sunday’s Homily: Happy Mothers Day

May13

Or “Hail To The Domestic Goddess!”

Once a year here in the west we honor our Mothers and celebrate the sacrifices they have made for us. Many say this is a modern holiday designed by greeting card, flower and chocolate manufacturing companies for the purpose of greed and commerce. I say so what; does that mean we shouldn’t honor the Domestic Goddess in our own homes?

Pagan Metaphysics has long been associated with Goddess ‘worship’ mainly because early pagans celebrated the feminine in matriarchal societies. Figurines such as the ‘Venus of Willendor’ are a perfect example of the early reverence for fertility of a woman and her ability to give new life. This miracle of life was seen just as that, a miracle given to a woman by a deity, or a Goddess specifically. If a woman was extremely fertile she was considered to be favored by the Goddess of the people and her position was elevated within her tribal structure. Often being designated as the priestess or high chieftain of that tribal society.

When the priestess grew older and less fertile, she often chose her successor. But her singular power shifted to that of a wise woman who was always consulted when it came to decisions. Her power never fell out of favor and her contribution was never dismissed. Continue reading →

Today’s Tarot Meditation Drawing: Six of Swords – Inverted

May10

Mystic Faery Tarot by Linda Ravenscroft

Every rose has its thorns. Every choice, good, bad or indifferent has its consequences. Before you start making decisions, make sure you’re seriously thinking things through. Understand all the potential outcomes and decide what might need to be altered or adjusted to keep your plans moving in the right direction and for the best result.

Additional Insight:

Even the blessings and welcomed opportunities in life have their drawbacks. Life is filled with give and take, making sacrifices and dealing with the consequences of your actions and choices. Even the good things that land on your path will have issues that you really need to think through before you jump on the bandwagon.

Make sure you read the fine print. Understand everything that goes along with the decisions you make today. There maybe a few things you don’t want to give up, or will have to contend with in order to achieve what you want. Are you truly ready for them and willing to accept what you may have to give up?

Today’s Tarot Meditation Drawing: Nine of Pentacles – Inverted

Apr3

Mystic Faery Tarot by Linda Ravenscroft

Sometimes you have to turn things upside down and view them from a different perspective in order to see what’s really going on. You might even notice the abundance falling from above and prepare to catch them as they fall. Not everything is as it seems on the surface, so take the time to look beyond your normal vision. Stand on your head once in a while, shake things up, and you just might find some ‘loving’ care and kindness coming your way too!

Additional Insight:

Often times our physical eyes and emotions get in the way of seeing what’s really going on around us. Our fears and personal desires can cloud our judgement causing us to see through rose colored glasses, or through fear and trepidation. Because of this we can get ourselves into trouble, missing the signs that are clearly visible. Or we can miss opportunities that are being sent our way and only realize what we lost after it’s gone.

Stop for a moment and turn things upside down and you will have a totally different perspective today on what’s really happening around you. You’ll be able to see people and situations for what they truly are today. You’ll avoid the manipulations, and free your hands to catch the gifts from above that are coming YOUR way. Escaping the attempts of someone else who’s trying to cause you to miss the opportunity for their own selfish means, or take it from you for their own gratification.

"Believe In Yourself, Even When No One Else Does."
~ Harvey McKay ~
~~~~~~~~
“Take a chance on faith. Not religion, but faith.
Not hope, but faith.
I don’t believe in hope. Hope is a beggar.
Hope walks through the fire and Faith leaps over it.”
~ Jim Carrey ☆ 2014
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“I describe myself as a simple Buddhist monk. No more, no less. And I am one of the seven billion human being. Basically we are the same… your emotion, my emotion, your mind, my mind.., same physical. So I always look [at it] that way. We are the same.”
~ Dalai Lama 2012 ~
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"Empty your mind, be formless. Shapeless, like water. If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle and it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”
~ Bruce Lee 1971