D is for the Dagda

Ready for another Celtic deity? I know I am!! :) While I would love nothing better than to devote all of my honour to the Scottish deities (yes, I'm Scottish & more), I just don't find a whole lot of them on the internet :( 

The Dagda (DOY-dah)

Old Irish: Dag Dia; Modern Irish: Daghdha, name means Good God

The Dagda is the chief father God (also called Allfather) and spouse of Morrigan (Celtic triple aspect Goddess) and leader of the Tuatha de Danaan. He carried a club that could kill 9 men with one swipe and restore them with the handle of the same. The Dagda dispensed bounty from an enormous cauldron (similar to Zeus’ horn of plenty). He also had a harp that could extend seasons, as well as play music that would put people to sleep, make them grieve or laugh.

The Dagda was revered by Druid priests because he bestowed wisdom on those who wished to learn.

There doesn’t seem to be an awful lot of information on this father God. Being as how the Celts were worshiping these deities way before there was a written language, it’s really not all that surprising! 

I keep thinking these will get longer and more in depth. I always laugh at myself when I look at how short my "great ideas for the blog" end up being!! :)

C is for Cupid

Yep, I went there!! I am so not a fan of Valentine's Day (like since I was in middle school), but since it's the season, I thought I would take a look at the man with the wings and bow and arrow!
Cupid is the Roman God of desire (Cupido: Latin for desire), affection and erotic love. In legend Cupid is the son of Venus (goddess of hope) and Mars (god of war).
The story of  Cupid and Psyche: When Venus became jealous of the princess, Psyche, because Psyche was so loved by her subjects that they forgot to worship Venus, she ordered Cupid to shoot Psyche and make her fall in love with the most horrid thing possible. While he was sneaking into Psyche's room to shoot her, he accidentally scratched himself with the golden arrow and fell in love with her.
Cupid visited Psyche every night, but told her never to try to see him. She, in curiosity and spurred on by her sisters, who told her he was a monster, tried to look at him angering him so that he left.
Psyche looked all over the world for him, until Jupiter the leader of the gods, gave her the gift of immortality so that she could be with her beloved Cupid. Together they had a daughter. The name Psyche means "soul".

Well, I really don't have anything to say or add after that!

C is for Crystals

I started to type, C is for cookie LOL!!!
Crystals are something I have always been attracted to, without really knowing why. Because I am an Earth worshiper, I decided to take Geology when I started college in January! It is proving to be the most difficult class I have, yet is the one I love the most! We just studied minerals in class and our labs have been centred around minerals, touching, playing with and getting to know the minerals and their habits and forms is a lot of good education and just plain, old FUN!!!
I've never really worked magick with crystals before, but I would like to learn! So, I am hoping that this blog educates, at the very least, me!
Quartz is the most abundant, silicate in our Earth's crust. It is composed of just 2 elements...Silica and Oxygen. That is all. To me that says a lot about why it is used in magick. It's a very simple straight forward mineral (not a rock...never a rock!), that comes in many colours, yet at it's core, it is still just silica and oxygen! Sounds like humans, eh?
Things I have learnt from the web on crystals and their uses in magick:
Cleansing, use in wands for directing power, to use when divining, to define a sacred space.
I even read that crystals can be steeped in water, like a tea. One charges the crystal with intention, places in a glass of pure spring water, and set it out in the sunlight, or moonlight (depending on the purpose). Give the 'tea' the full day or night, then remove the crystal and drink the water.

I really love this one and am going to give it a go (assuming I can find a crystal)!! Crystals have the ability to communicate with you and with other stones. Carry one with you when you attend a lecture or class; it will absorb the information and help you to remember what was discussed.

I know there is a lot more to discuss on crystals and I welcome your thoughts, experiences and guidance on using crystals in my magick!! I have another blog to post (bad witch, skipping a week) and homework to do!!

Brightest blessings :) 

B is for Belief

So after all my noise about treating the blog like homework, I managed to get all my school homework done, and getting this written on paper (I think better writing on paper first!). I failed to upload it :( It's short, but speaks volumes to me!!

What is belief? The dictionary describes it like this: confidence, trust and faith.
Belief, in my opinion is the MOST important thing in magick. Without belief in yourself, in your spells or in your rituals, they will be naught but empty words. You might as well just pack up your wand and go home. At best you will get nothing, at worst, you may get what you really don't want.

Empty words manifest empty results.

Meditation and positive affirmations are great ways to build up belief in yourself. We also need to have faith, trust and complete confidence in what we are doing as well as in the deities we believe in!

"All it takes is faith and trust" -Peter Pan

Brighid

Irish goddess, whose name comes from the Celtic word, 'brig', meaning 'Exaulted One'. Brighid, along with her 2 sisters, also named Brighid, are a triple aspect goddess.
Brighid is the patron of bards and poets, as well as healers and magicians. She is also known as the keeper of the hearth. She was especially honoured when it came to divination and prophesy.
Her sanctuary in Kildare, Ireland, was maintained by priestesses who kept Her sacred flame alive. later her sanctuary became the home of St Brigid of Kildare, the Christian variant of Brighid. Today it is not an uncommon sight to see ribbons and other offerings tied to trees near wells as a petition to this healing goddess.
Similar to Brighid are the Roman goddess Minerva and the Greek goddess Athena. Brighid's counterpoint is Brigantia, a war-like figure from near Yorkshire, England.
It is said that to repeat the genealogy of Brighid, one will always be protected.


This is the genealogy of the holy maiden Bride,
Radiant flame of gold, noble foster mother of Christ,
Bride, daughter of Dugall the Brown,
Son of Aodh, son of Art, son of Conn,
Son of Crear, son of Cis, son of Carmac,
Son of Carruin.
Everyday and every night
That I say the genealogy of Bride,
I shall not be killed, I shall not be harried,
I shall not be put in a cell, I shall not be wounded,
Neither shall Christ leave me in unforgettfulness,
No fire, no sun, no moon shall burn me,
No lake, no water, nor sea shall drown me,
No arrow of faery, nor dart of fey shall wound me.
And I under the protection of my Holy Mary
And my gentle foster-mother is my beloved Bride.

Awen

After scrapping my first attempt at this week's letter I was frustrated, fuming and stomping around the orange grove. In my frustration I was ranting, "Oh come on, that was good stuff, I learnt so much from it. Why won't it work into a blog?" I finally calmed down and started making dinner. An errant thought flitted through my head, "Awen" ( I heard Ah-when). I dismissed it, never heard of it before. It kept on, louder and louder. I don't even know this word, amen? Arwen? it just kept bugging. Then this morning I made time to go through my emails. In there, waiting patiently, was the weekly thoughts email for our Pagan Blog Project. Imagine my surprise when I found the word Awen! I'm not crazy...ok maybe I am, but I am learning, sometimes the hard way, how to learn to listen to that inner voice!




The symbol for Awen is /|\ it represents the 3 foundations of Awen: To understand truth. To love truth. To maintain truth.

To me, working with Awen is something I strive to do at all times! Truth. An easy concept by definition, hard to do in action. Sometimes truth is the hardest thing to give, harder still to accept. But to live in truth is of utmost importance. But what IS truth? This is something that we must all learn for ourselves. My idea of truth may be someone else's idea of falseness and vice versa. I must follow what I believe is truth and be accepting of those who don't see my way as they should be of me. Awen is knowing, sensing and feeling it in your essence and true being, it is the freedom to accept one's nature.




As an aspiring musician I like that Awen is also a source of poetic inspiration! The story is told of Gwion Bach, tender of Cerridwen's cauldron for a year and a day whilst it was brewing. On the last day, 3 drops burnt his finger. Doing what we all do when we get burnt, he put his fingers in his mouth. He was instantly bestowed with the 3 gifts of; poetic inspiration, prophesy and shape-shifting. Cerridwen killed him (the contents of the cauldron were meant for her son) by turning into a black hen and eating Gwion as he shape-shifted into a grain of wheat. From Cerridwen's womb Gwion was reborn as Taliesin, with the ability to compose perfect impromptu verse. (cool!)




It is said that we may be contacted by the cauldron of Cerridwen by singing or chanting. Awen manifests differently to each individual who seeks it. I don't know how Awen will manifest for me, but I will look for it in my daily life and know the truth of it, to the best of my ability!




I welcome your thoughts on this blog! Hopefully it makes sense to you and it's not all rambly (as I have a tendency to do!) and you are able to get something out of it for yourself! Blessed be ♥

A

The letter for this week is "A" and after spending a few days stressing over what to do for this letter, I was meditating and the word "Air" was practically screamed in my brain! So, I'm blogging about air!
Without Air (oxygen) Fire cannot live, Water would stagnate and die, and Earth would cease to exist. It is the first thing we need when we are born and the last to leave us when we die. It makes perfect sense, to me, when we create our sacred circles, that we call Air to us first.
I most closely identify with Air, being a Gemini, and it's really funny because Air is associated with East and Dawn and I am really NOT a morning person! As an aspiring musician I like that flutes, clarinets, bassoons, and bagpipes, to name a few of my favourites, are associated with Air!
I found this invocation on Tumblr last month and really like it:


Here and now I invoke the elemental force of Air
The winds of intellect and imagination
Swirling source of flight, breath and life
I seek the open sky within myself, that I might breathe deeply of
Freedom, ideas, sounds and space
I call you forth to sweep away all that accumulates in the unseen places
And sing beauty into the world
                        Wing and Feather
                        Storm and Leaf
                        Air, I call thee hence!




Archangel: Raphael
Magickal phrase: To know
Season: Spring
Magickal tool: athame, sword, censer
Hour of day: Dawn
Symbolic creatures: eagle, butterfly


Air, a truly wonderful and often playful, element!!