Finding and Working with Ancestral Traditions

Grandpa's field Grandpa’s field

When I was a child, my grandfather took my cousins and I to a wild area we later called “Grandpa’s field.” It was a field on the edge of the forest below our houses, the edges rich with crab apples, hawthorns, beeches, and maples. Grandpa had a rusty red tractor, and we’d go into the forest riding on his lap. When we got to his field, we would park the tractor and look for wild mushrooms, wild ginseng, and other wild edibles. He would point out plants and animal tracks and teach us about the forest. After that, we would lay in the field and watch butterflies. When I was only 8 years old, Grandpa died after a hard life in the steel mills. In time, these memories faded and I didn’t remember where Grandpa’s field was. Later in my 20’s, some of my cousins came to…

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Gandalf Frees Theoden – secretsoftheserpent

By gserpent

Source: Gandalf Frees Theoden – secretsoftheserpent

Gandalf freeing Theoden from the grasp of Saruman is an awesome representation of just how much the deceit in this world has a hold of people’s minds. I have said in previous writings that Saruman represented religion, but this Grima character represents the archetypal sycophant, liar, flatterer, and manipulator. So Grima represents religion, politics, media, corporations or any other inauthentic person.

Grima means mask and all of people in the categories I just mentioned wear masks to deceive. The inauthentic person is the worst because they really believe the lies they have been told. That is what the Mardi Gras type masks that are used in plays, operas and worn at celebrations symbolize. The unauthentic person hiding behind their unknown mask. The scene with Gandalf freeing the mind of Theoden is a representation of what happens when someone who wants a free mind is finally shown the truth. I will use religion in this example. Tolkien used the name Saruman because it was very close to Solomon. Keep in mind that religion isn’t the only thing that has a vice on the mind of the masses.

The scene actually starts with the guards taking the weapons of Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. Gandalf talks them into letting him keep his walking stick. As they walk toward Theoden, Grima is telling Theoden what he should think. A perfect analogy of how we are brought up in this world. We are told how we should think and act, mainly from religion, most of our life. Then we parrot what we have been taught without even thinking twice. Religion will call you evil, satan or conjurer if you do not go along. Gandalf stands up to Grima and tells him “I have not passed through fire and death to bandy crooked words with a witless worm”. Remember that fire is the element of intellect or knowledge. Death is referring to the enlightenment process(see Gandalf and Balrog). Being enlightened he has no more patience for the lies of this world. Calling him a worm means he is no serpent.

Gandalf goes up to Theoden and tries to release him from the spell. Theoden says “You have no power here Gandalf the Grey”. Gandalf rips his robe off and shows everyone he is Gandalf the White. This is a very important part of the story. On your journey it is said that you meet “The White Goddess of Truth” when you become enlightened. Once you have become enlightened, it’s up to you whether you use it for good or bad. Most truly enlighten people in this world have used it to control others. You can think I am exaggerating about this, but the people you call elites know the true history I revel in my work. Have you heard one word of truth out of any of them? NO!!!! Instead they spew lies and spend millions, if not billions, of dollars looking for some football player’s shirt! Brag about it on the media and the masses are so relieved that this football player got his shirt back. And I’m the crazy one. Saruman tries to tell Gandalf that if he goes Theoden dies. Gandalf went through the wake up process and knows that it feels like you are going to die, but strong minds will make it through. To show that this whole scene is about the mind, Gandalf hits him in the forehead to free him from the poison.

Theoden is released from the spell and he regains his strength. Gandalf tells him to “Breathe the free air again my friend”. This part is playing on what Sigmund Freud said about religion. Religion is the reason why people have the poor little me mindset. People give their power away and believe that some bearded man will take care of them. They rot in the misery of the man-made guilt. Guilt is the worst thing ever invented by religions. It literally cripples people mentally and physically. What is good and bad is not for some bearded man to decide. Good and bad, right and wrong are only in the mind. What one person thinks is good or right, another person thinks is wrong or bad. Theoden is the person that went searching for answers and like most people fell into the trap of religion. His mind was poisoned with lies and guilt. Gandalf frees his mind and he finds his power.
Gandalf giving Theoden his sword is symbolizing he has found the sacred masculine, but to have found the sacred masculine he had to have found the sacred feminine. Eowyn represents the sacred feminine and this is why she was able to kill Sauron(see Rings and Aragorn). In case someone didn’t get that Theoden had found the goddess, the next scene shows him putting Grima on a horse and sending him back to Saruman. The horse has always symbolized the Goddess. They were sending a message to Saruman that the Goddess was now here. This is why Saruman tells Grima “You stink of horse”. Patriarchs do not like the Goddess(horse).

I love Lord of the Rings for so many reasons, but the main one is that Tolkien was trying to show you how powerful you really are. That is what Frodo and the hobbits represent. No matter how small you think you are, you can achieve anything. We have to start realizing that no one is going to save us. No bearded man, no extra-terrestrial, no politician or any other infantile ideology. This mentality of a savior only encourages ignorance, complacency and weakness. It is the reason the world is in the shape its in. Everyone is waiting for someone to come along and fix everything. This will NEVER happen. The outside savior is a sham on so many levels. It is time to grow up. We are who we have been waiting for.

Happy Eostre – secretsoftheserpent

Source: Happy Eostre – secretsoftheserpent

Eostre(Ostara) is a time to celebrate the vernal equinox. A time when both day and night are equal. A time to celebrate the goddess giving birth. The Holly King is reborn; when Eostre, the Goddess of spring appears in the vines as the ultimate representative of fertility, to present the Eostre egg. It is said that her symbol is a rabbit, an image perceived from the moon and it is the Eostre bunny. It is thought that our Easter celebration comes from Eostre, but she like all goddess come from one special lady in Egypt.

Pagans are right when they say that everything in Christianity was stolen from them, but it was pagan Egypt. What most pagans don’t realize is most of their customs come from Egypt too. If you have followed my work, you know that Egypt was the beginning of it all after the war of the gods. When people left Egypt, whether they were forced out or just left freely, they took all the customs with them. Everything came out of Egypt.

Eostre is a version of Isis. Isis is where we get Easter. In Egyptian Isis is Ast or Est, from which we get Ester or Easter and it refers to the stars or heaven. The hieroglyph for Isis has an egg in it. This is where we get the Easter egg. Isis was a fertility goddess and she was the Queen of Heaven. Where does the easter bunny fit in to all this? Besides being an obvious symbol of fertility the hare was a big symbol in Egypt too. Our ol buddy Osiris, husband of Isis, was sometimes called Un-nefer, and portrayed with the head of a hare. Un-nefer is translated as “the good being” or “beautiful renewl”. The hare in Egypt had to do with Lunar worship, so we are taken back to Thoth once more(See God(s) post). One thing I found very interesting is that Thoth is the god of writing in Egypt. In the Mayan belief it was a hare deity that was the god of writing. The hare in Egypt also had to do with creative energy. If you have read my Magic post, you know sexual and creative energy or the same. That is what the hare is pointing to in certain texts.

Now that you know where this pagan holiday comes from, celebrate Eostre with an abundant array of spring flowers. In the pagan tradition colored eggs, charged as talismans, are given as presents; curative fires are lit at dawn; seeds are planted for new crops, and homes are spring cleaned. Hot cross buns are baked which tells me this pagan celebration is about 2000 years old or is a Pisces custom. Hot crossed buns is purely a Virgo celebration and Virgo is the opposite sign of Pisces. The opposite sign was just as important to the ancients. Baskets are woven to celebrate birds making their nests. On a side note, Eostre(Ostara) is where we get the name for the female hormone oestrogen or estrogen.

Happy Eostre/Isis day!

LISTEN UP WITCHES, THIS IS A CRYSTAL PSA ~ The Helpful Ghost

https://kingfridaythewitch.tumblr.com/post/156146456206/listen-up-witches-this-is-a-crystal-psa

Crystal of the Week: Rutilated Quartz – Holistic Experiment

Rutilated Quartz, also known as Angel’s Hair, is a type of quartz with needle-like rutile in it; they can be reddish, golden, silver, or greenish. It’s known to be a powerful protector against psychic attacks and helps soothe dark moods and acts as a natural antidepressant.

This stone can be used to break down the barriers to spiritual progress, and to help let go of the past and to forgive on all levels. It’s an energizing stone that helps get energy moving on all levels and can attract love and stabilize relationships.

Rutilated Quartz can help slowed chakras return to normal spin and balanced. It’s often used for meditation, spiritual communications, and dream work. It’s good for seeking higher spiritual experiences and meditation on feminine ideas.

Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Purposes […]

Read the entire post at its Source: Crystal of the Week: Rutilated Quartz – Holistic Experiment

Goddess Maat – secretsoftheserpent

By gserpent

Source: Goddess Maat – secretoftheserpent

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Mainstream references will tell you that Maat was the ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Maat is a perfect example of how much knowledge we have lost about the ancients. Just like Osiris, Maat had nothing to do with death. She had to do with the underworld. Everything we know about Maat has come from the patriarch minds of Lower Egypt. Her true symbolism is way more interesting.

First off you need to know that all the Princesses and Queens in Egypt held the title of Maakare. Even Hatshepsut held this title. When you break this down it becomes Maat, Ka, Ra. These women were very important priestess. The role of the priestess is said to be the Divine Adoratrice. Patriarchs will tell you that her role was to worship or adore the deity. They are simply being selective with the truth. The word they are using is ‘djuat’ and it can mean worship, adore or star. The truth is that she was the Star of the Gods. Out goes the image of a groveling woman on her knees and incomes the image of a woman who is so important to the gods that she is the star! Maakare literally means “Maat is the soul of Ra”. They try to cover this up by saying “Truth and Justice is the soul of Ra”. The truth and justice they are referring to are man-made laws. As you will see, they don’t know the true meaning of Maat.

Maat is sometimes portrayed with wings. In Egypt winged gods and goddess always represent non physical, abstract dynamics – Intellect, spiritual, imagination, psychic. You can’t mention Maat without the feather. The feather was actually the symbol for Maat. She was supposed to measure the feather of knowledge against the heart. What is going on here? What is actually being weighed? Maat is the goddess of truth, justice, balance and harmony, but not in the way you think. Maat is a goddess and goddesses could care less about man-made laws and order. Maat is about nature or the Laws of Nature. So the feather represents the laws of nature. Imagination is the knowledge of the heart. Weighing the feather against the heart is measuring purity, innocents, and harmony of Universe. Thoth weighing the soul is the knowledge of nature. The scales are weighing mind, body and spirit, matter.

This weighing did not happen after someone died. It happens when you enter the underworld or subconscious. In other words, she is there during the wake up process. Most people, if not all, fear the sacred feminine. They don’t understand it. All humans are in the masculine, but females are closer to the sacred feminine. They are the sacred feminine expressed in physical form, so of course they are closer to the sacred feminine. Our minds are 10% conscious and 90% unconscious. We are in the conscious mind all the time. This is what is meant by we only use 10% of our brains.

The patriarch Hyksos hijacked Maat and either out of ignorance or greed they said she measured your soul to get into paradise. It is written in the Papyrus of Ani that when people died they had to recite 42 negative confessions. The Papyrus of Ani was written by the scribe Ani, a Hyksos sympathizer. He wrote these about the time they were kicked out of Egypt for the first time. They got the 10 commandments from these negative confessions, but instead of saying “I have not” they combined them and put “Thou shalt not”. In another text by Ani, called the Maxims of Ani, they got Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the Lord’s Prayer. To all you mainstream historians, theologians and researchers, your silence is deafening on this!

In truth Maat herself is the scales. She is bringing the ego to atonement. She is not crushing the ego. Once you find the goddess, the ego becomes an agent for her. Other cultures used the tip toeing goddess to symbolize walking the line of balance. This was not to make sure chaos never happened. The Upper Egyptians saw chaos as necessary because it started the wake up process. Chaos keeps you from becoming static. They did not see chaos as evil. Pain and struggle creates life. All you have to do is look at the birth of a child. Nature gives us the answers. The Lower Egyptians are the ones that made chaos evil. They are also the ones that created all the patriarch religions of today. Religions were created to keep you from meeting your higher self. Maat shows up at the beginning of the wake up process to see if a person is balanced enough to truly “wake up”. The goddess(sacred feminine) and self-love is the key to making it through the underworld. Maat is showing there is a need for order and balance, but everyone is different and needs to find their own individual balance. There is a need for moral law, but moral law should help people see the universal will and prevent people from dominating others. The moral laws we have today ensure that people are dominated and controlled.

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I know there will be questions about Ammit. Ammit is supposed to be a female demon. She had a body that was part lion, hippopotamus and crocodile. Ammit lived near Maat’s scales. Supposedly if someone’s heart wasn’t pure, Ammit would devour it and the person could not go forward on their voyage. Once she swallowed the heart the person became restless forever. They were said to die a second death. I have shown before that the ancient Egyptians said the soul died when it entered a body or fleshy existence. Your soul died when you were born. This was considered the first death. When a person enters the wake up process, Maat weighs their heart with the feather of knowledge. If they have the sacred feminine or nature in their heart they could proceed. If the sacred feminine did not balance with the masculine, they don’t wake up and are restless. Because the person does not wake up they were considered to have died a second death. It is said that sometimes Ammit would stand by the lake of fire and she would cast the unworthy hearts in and destroy them. This has to be a later interpolation by christians because it is being compared to hell. In truth, fire is one of the four elements of consciousness. Fire is intellect. If Ammit is casting hearts in to the lake of fire, it is to get intellect or knowledge. The ancients thought ignorance was the greatest evil and there was nothing more precious than knowledge.

I’m not saying that people who don’t wake up are restless, but just look at the world. We live in a restless world by design. A racing mind is because our world is traumatic. If your mind is restless you can’t hear your higher self. I know my mind was pretty damn restless before I woke up. If you have truly ‘woken up’, for the most part your mind is at ease. It is what happens when you find your power. We all fall off the horse sometimes, but knowing your true power makes it easier to get back on. You have to conquer the masculine for the feminine to rise. Once you do, find your own balance. Get out in nature. She will help you find that balance. Nature is the living subconscious and nature is balanced. Maat is showing you to find the feminine principal in yourself. The sacred feminine is the forbidden fruit. Balance the scales by eating the forbidden fruit. Balance is the key to everything.

Slowing Down the Druid Way, Part IV: Slow Movements and Slow Spirituality | The Druid’s Garden

When I lived in Michigan, each Christmas, a local church just down the road from me put on a drive-by nativity scene. Cars full of people would line up for over half a mile and drive around this circular loop surrounding the church, where church members dressed up and enacted various kinds of nativity scenes. I’m sure from the perspective of the church (who, clearly, invested a lot of time and resources, taking weeks to build the sets in the bitter cold in the time leading up to the event), it was a way to reach people who might otherwise not come through the church doors. This same church also offered “speedy sermons” and other “quick” ways of getting busy people in the door. The idea behind these different initiatives was reaching out to people who were otherwise too busy to come to church–a reasonable and rather creative thing to do, given the time crunch everyone seems to be in these days. But for all that was gained (new members, new donations, etc) what was lost in the process of converting religion into a drive-through experience? Of course, just like the burger at McDonald’s vs. the burger you grill at home with time and care, there are likely some big differences not only in taste but also in presentation, nutrition, and energy.

In my last three posts in “Slowing Down the Druid Way”, we explored the history of time and our relationship to our working hours, and how we might begin to honor our time more fully. This directly leads me to the topic of my final post on time and work: looking at the slow movements as a way of slowing down, making slowing down a conscious choice, and embracing leisure time.

The “Slow” Movements

The term “slow” has been increasingly used to describe many of the movements connected to sustainable living: you might have heard of slow food (as opposed to fast food or industrialized food) or slow money (in terms of investing, saving, and spending and in opposition to current derivatives/investment market). We now also have slow schools, slow books, and even (in my own field) discussion of slow writing! The slow movement has, in fact, been around since the 1980’s; it was started by Carlo Petrini, who protested the opening of the “fast” food joint, McDonalds, in Rome, Italy. Since then, the movement has spread and deepened, connecting now to all aspects of life: travel, food, parenting, education, working, gardening, and more. Of course, you won’t see any discussion of this movement in mainstream culture–mainstream culture, here in the US, is focused on the idea that more and faster is better, and that kind of thinking takes some time to overcome.

A good slowing down spot!

The slow movements suggest that we are all the victims of “time poverty” and the slow movements are deliberate attempts by people to live at a reasonable pace (rather than a frantic one). But these movements are more than just about slowing down–they recognize inherently that the faster we move, the fewer connections we make: with ourselves, with each other, with our creative gifts, and with the world as a whole. So let’s now explore some of these slow movements and what they provide.

Nature Spirituality and Slow Spirituality

I’m going to start by introducing my own kind of “slow” movement: slow spirituality. Cultivating a deeper relationship with time is certainly a principle that seems inherent in the druid traditions and in related nature-spiritual traditions. Anyone following the wheel of the year is certainly concerned a tremendous amount with time: the eight holidays on the wheel of the year are all about timing and the sun and it’s slow movement across the sky. The phases of the moon reflect this on a monthly cycle. We focus on the interplay of light and dark, the slow changing of the seasons, the minute changes from day to day of weather patterns. All of this takes observation and interaction with nature and a lot of time dedicated to understanding this larger cycle of the seasons. Sure, there are ways of going about these practices that are “fast”, but moving fast means you miss most of the important pieces. In the AODA, for example, we ask that all members spend weekly time in nature, daily time in meditation, and time just observing and interacting with the world. This time is critical–and it is through these activities that deepest understandings are often cultivated.

In fact, I think part of the reason that so many people are drawn to meditation, ritual and other druid practices is that it offers a way to slow down and change pace. The more time you spend with these practices, the deeper they will go and the richer the rewards will be. There is much room for exploration in linking the slow movements to the druid tradition and key practices within it. […]

Rest of the story at its Source: Slowing Down the Druid Way, Part IV: Slow Movements and Slow Spirituality | The Druid’s Garden

Healing & Balancing Your Chakras – Good Witches Homestead

As a herbalist, I prescribe herbal potions and essential oils to my clients as a complement to our healing sessions and an alternative to medication. Over the years, I’ve watched herbs help treat everything from PTSD to depression, anxiety, chronic pain, migraines, obesity, rage, and more.

After about five years of experience with prescribing herbs, I started learning about medicinal-grade essential oils—what a game changer. I now use essential oils in every acupuncture session, and regularly prescribe them for home care. They’re like topical herbs—distilled from the same plants I’ve been studying and prescribing as herbal remedy tinctures for years. The skin is our largest organ, and our body literally ingests much of what we douse it with. Essential oils work with our fascia (which lies just beneath the skin), so the healing properties of the plants are transmitted throughout our entire body. It’s such a sensual, luxurious way to ingest medicine.

Essential oils are particularly great for treating common chakra imbalances—more below, along with the most effective oils that I frequently rely on:

FIRST CHAKRA: ROOT — “I AM” — RED

Our first chakra is our most primal energy vortex of psychic information. It’s the foundation of our chakra system. This red spinning disc resides at the base of our spine and manages our most basic needs: safety, security, trust, fear, pooping, survival, procreation. Located on our lower backs, it governs this area, the large intestine, urinary bladder, and kidneys. […]

Read about all your Chakras at the Source: Healing & Balancing Your Chakras – Good Witches Homestead

Ouroboros ~ secretsoftheserpent

serpent-eats-own-tail

The Ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a serpent or dragon eating it’s own tail. It is usually in a circle or lemniscate. I love this symbol. It is my favorite symbol. The Ouroboros can be found in just about every ancient civilization. The word ouroboros is greek and it means ‘tail eater’ or ‘tail devourer’. This symbol shows just how much knowledge has been lost about the ancients. This symbol is basically showing you the secret to your world.

There are several guesses as to the meaning of the Ouroboros, but there is only one meaning to this symbol. I’ve seen that it symbolizes death and rebirth, creation from destruction, life out of death, infinity, circle of life, the milky way, the sun and the alchemical symbol of mercury. I can understand why all these have been given for the meaning of the Ouroboros, but just like so many other things these are only a small piece of the truth.

To really understand the Ouroboros you have to know the true meaning of the serpent or dragon. Most people believe the serpent or snake is a symbol of evil. This may come as a surprise to some of you, but the serpent means wisdom or a wise person. If the serpent was wise, who was Eve talking to in the garden? For the answer to that see Lemurian Magic. In many cultures the snake was feminine. This was not the actual female. This was the feminine side of the mind or the subconscious. The subconscious is where the true wisdom comes from. The dragon symbolizes someone who has mastered all four elements of consciousness(see Dragon). So the first keys to solving this puzzle is that the Ouroboros has to do with wisdom and consciousness. […]

Read the entirety of “Ouroboros at the Source: secretsoftheserpent, Myths and Magic, Ouroboros