What Color is Magic?

Pagan Blog Prompts: Today's prompt is about the "color" of your magick. We have ALL heard the discussions...white magick vs. grey magick vs. black magick...does magick have a color? What do the colors mean? If white is "good" then is black "bad"? What constitutes "bad"? Is the whole argument invalid? Doesn't the practitioner determine if the magick being worked is good or bad? If so, then is magick "neutral"? So many angles. Today's prompt is a bit of a heavy one. Enjoy!

I don't like to label magic as white or black - good or bad. To me, all magic comes in shades of gray. Gray magic means that it is neither good nor bad but rather neutral. All spells have the potential to cause good things to happen or be to destructive. Even a spell that may seem to be completely good can cause harm.

I want to talk about other colors too. Many witches work with four elements - earth, water, fire and air - and these elements tend to be associated with colors. Earth is green, water is blue, fire is red and air is white or yellow. Often times we attach these colors to the elements and give them meanings so, for example, a blue candle would be used to represent the water element but not the fire element.

But really, all colors can be found in each element. Think about the earth. Flowers of all kinds of colors from bright pinks to deep purples grow from the earth and bloom. All colors can come to be associated with the earth element if we look at it this way.

In the end, I don't believe that color associations are really important. They act as a visual aid for the witch and nothing more. For me, your words and power you feed into the spell is what gives the spell its energy and "color".

Some Thoughts on Consuming Offerings

There is discussion (and drama) going around pagan blogs at the moment regarding food and beverage offerings and whether or  not it is appropriate to consume an offering after it has been presented to a deity. Can you do it or do you absolutely have to pour the offerings on the ground or bury them?

I think it is silly to expect everyone to be able to waste food by leaving it outside. Should someone who cannot afford separate food for just the gods not be allowed to practice a pagan faith? Of course not! The gods would not want us to starve so that they can "eat".

We have a lot of advantages that our ancient ancestors never had. We have supermarkets open 24/7 which pretty much gives us access to all different kinds of food any time we want it. However, we also have people who cannot afford to eat every day. There are people in the United States who go hungry at night. So, while many of us, myself included, can drive down to Price Chopper and grab pretty much anything we want, others cannot.

To bring this back to paganism, the gods know that not everyone can afford to leave food just for them out. During ancient times there were plenty of poor people who had to eat every bit of food they got. Did the gods abandon or curse them? Of course not. They gods did not suddenly change their attitudes just because we have supermarkets now.

Not only is leaving food out then throwing it away (or burying it or whatever) a waste of money but it can also be offensive. If you are a Kemetic then you are almost expected to share the offering with the gods. The Twisted Rope wrote a nice long and informative post about Kemetic offerings.

The Romans also ate at least part of the offerings most of the time. The only time when the whole animal was given to the gods and no part of it was eaten was during times of extreme circumstances.

Ceres is a goddess who is said to need very little in terms of offerings. She does not ask for excessive and fancy things which makes sense because she is a goddess of agriculture and farmers. She would much prefer a little bit of grain grown from the hard work and labor of farmers than an expensive and elaborate meal. And celebrations like the Cerelia which included a huge feast were pretty much always a town thing.

I personally consume almost everything I offer to the gods after letting it sit for a few minutes.

With all of this said, if you want to and can give an offering only to the gods then pour it out or bury it later, then go for it. The act of not consuming an offering but giving it back to the earth can be symbolic and spiritual for some people (just make sure the offering is safe for the ground and animals). But to say that one must not consume offerings when there is historical evidence of the opposite is just silly and incorrect. Consuming an offering can be a proper way of giving and deposing of an offering.

Remembering Loved Ones

November really is the month dedicated to the dead.

As many of you know, Halloween and Samhain was recently. Is it just me or was there a lot of energy that day? Something moved me and made me feel compelled to set up a shrine to my ancestors. This is something I have been wanting to do for a little while now but there was something about the night of Samhain that just felt right.

Personally, I do not celebrate the holiday because I do not follow the Wheel of the Year. I spend my Halloweens passing out candy to all the children though. That is always fun. The Romans did however have a day for the dead and ancestors just shortly after October 31st. On November the 8th, the lid to the mundus was opened which signified an opening to the underworld being opened. On this day, spirits form the underworld were able to freely travel about the living. There was a superstition involving spitting out beans to keep the spirits from attacking living family members.

With so many holidays around this time involving ancestors and spirits of the once living,  there has to be something special about this time of the year. It is no wonder that I was practically compelled to finally set up my ancestor shrine now.

I am glad I have this little space set up too. My mother's passing was a huge and emotional moment in my life. It affected my college to the point were I was depressed and my studies suffered. The story of my mother and my relationship with her is a long one involving her being addicted to drugs and a lot of emotions from both sides of things. I won't get in to that now though.

Setting up an ancestor shrine or altar can be a great way to not only remember a loved one but to also help with dealing with a passing.

After my mother passed, everyone stopped talking about her. I was expected to just move on. I felt like I could not say anything to anyone and I would never recommend anyone keeping these feelings to themselves. Even if you can't talk to family, find someone to share these feelings with because losing someone can be so difficult. Having a small space to remember that person has been a great help for me. Her photo is there so in a way, she is still there in memory. My mother cannot be there in person, but her image is there and visible for me and everyone to see. I can also talk to her through my shrine. I have no way of knowing if she can hear me or not, but it gives me some comfort even if I am just talking to myself.

Ancestor altars are also sometimes used in a religious and magical context. It is possible, in some religions, to work with the ancestors. The ways one can work with ancestors varies from them helping you with protection to life guidance and everything in between.

My ancestor shrine remains just a place for me to remember family members who have moved on though. I have only had the shrine up for a few days but already I am feeling better about things.

Not Every Dream is Significant

I have had a few dreams that were significant in that they guided me to the religious path that I am now following. I have also dreamed that I was Sailor Moon. Sadly, the later was completely untrue.
If you are like me than you get excited whenever you dream and immediately want it to be something special, something more than what it usually is. Truth be told, most dreams are just dreams and have no special meaning behind them. My last dream involved me dressed in sweet lolita (the Japanese fashion subculture) and doing spy like athletics as I jumped out a window. While that was an awesome dream, it was just a dream.

So, how can one tell if the dream they just had is significant in some way or just a weird dream?
Personally, I feel that the best way to check if your dream is significant is through divination.
Shortly after finding paganism and getting involved with the community, I asked someone for some guidance. They were offering free readings and I wanted to know if my current religious path was the right one. I was skeptical of pretty much everything. Here I was in a community were people were talking about talking to deities and performing magic. That's just not common tea and biscuit gossip.
I was told that yes, Ceres said I am on the right path. The next afternoon I took a nap in the middle of the day (I was almost compelled to take a nap) and dreamed of Ceres. I was in her fields of golden wheat and I knew she was there with me.

Another way to check your dreams, especially if you want to learn to interpret dreams yourself, is to keep a dream journal. Write down every dream you have. It is best to keep this journal right next to your bed so that you can write your dreams down right after you wake up. As you wake up and become more alter, you will remember less and less of your dream. If a deity or higher power is trying to send you a message, you will probably find that message strung through a series of dreams. Look for a patter between each dream. Unfortunately, this does take a long time but it is worth it if you want to learn to recognize and interpret dreams.

Also, if you have a dream then something happens in real life that you realize you were warned about in your dream, then that right there was probably a significant dream. This is why I also recommend that you write down your feelings about each dream as you record what the dream was about. There might be a difference in the feelings you have for significant dreams compared to just regular dreams.
Do not be discouraged if you seem to never have significant dreams. It is probably rarer to dream every night let alone have significant or future telling dreams practically all the time. There are some things you can do to increase your chances of dreaming such as taking a nap in the middle of the day but do not feel like you must have significant dreams. If you are looking to connect with a deity or just get more in tune with the spiritual realm, try another method like meditation along with or aside from dreaming. Dreams are really beyond our control while something like meditation is not.

Pop Culture Paganism: Using Yu-Gi-Oh and the Heart of the Cards in Tarot

For anyone who does not know what Yu-Gi-Oh is, it is an anime. I grew up watching the show and playing the card game with all the other kids in the neighborhood. Just recently I found my old Yu-Gi-Oh deck of cards. I'm amazed I still have them! As I was looking through the cards I had an idea. I can do tarot readings with these cards!

So I did just that. It was surprisingly accurate but then again, I was reading for myself. I know myself so it was easier to read the cards.

But holding and doing a tarot reading with the Yu-Gi-Oh cards got me thinking. These cards and elements from the anime would be perfect to use in divination.

The phrase "heart of the cards" is used a lot in the dub version of Yu-Gi-Oh. It is basically referring to some unseen energy that, when called upon sincerely, brings the card that the duelist (person playing the card game) desperately needs to the front of the deck. Whenever a good character from the show looked like he or she was about to lose, they would believe in the heart of the cards and all would end well (usually).

This concept of the heart of the cards would work perfectly with tarot readings. Before you begin to shuffle the deck, hold the deck in your hand, focus all of your energy into the deck and say something like "I believe in the heart of the cards." You'll get the cards you need after that. This probably is not a new or unique idea but I felt like making a post about it.

K is for Kitchen Witch

I've only started blogging about my experiences as a pagan recently. This blog was created this week but I've been on tumblr for a little longer and I've been practicing longer than I've been blogging. But even though this blog is still new, I want to jump right into making pagan blog project posts. This week is for the letter K.

When I tried to think of a topic for "K" the thing that kept popping into my head was kitchen witchcraft.

Cooking is a pretty big thing in my family. Growing up, my dad used to always say something like "The secret ingredient is love and that's why the food taste so good!" whenever he cooked. (Cheesy. I know.) My brother is studying to be a chef. And I just enjoy cooking as a hobby. I think that it would make sense that I would be drawn to kitchen witchcraft.

But what makes being a kitchen witch different from just someone who likes to cook? This is the question that I am always asking myself as I explore this form of witchcraft. I'm still new when it comes to trying to incorporate witchcraft or spirituality in my cooking so I am still figuring out what it means to me to be a kitchen witch. The rest of this blog post is going to be my own thoughts and experiences with kitchen witchery.

I think that being a kitchen witch requires a little more than just keeping a collection of recipes and cooking or using homemade cleaning supplies.

One way, and probably the most well known way, is to incorporate magic into the cooking process. Some people might say a spell out loud while they are cooking. Others might use special herbs that they've infused with magic. There are many different ways to do this. I don't usually like to say spells out loud when I'm cooking because there are usually other people around. People who would think I've gone off the deep end. But I have said spells in my head or to myself before. I have also tried to select certain herbs and spices for my food depending on what kind of magical affect I want the food to have.

Just the other day I was cooking some breaded chicken. While I was preparing the food I tried to select certain herbs that will protect not only the kitchen but my family (i.e. the people eating my food). I added a little rosemary and garlic to the breadcrumbs for this purpose and avoided things like chili powder.

One think I always keep in mind when doing this though is that one has to be careful about what they put in the food and never put something in without telling whoever is going to be eating the food what is in the food. You never know if someone is allergic to something.
Another way I've thought of incorporating spirituality into my cooking is by dedicating something I've made to a deity. I have not cooked anything in dedication to a deity yet but I am growing some herbs for Ceres and I plan on using those herbs for cooking and magic.

I think kitchen witchcraft goes beyond the food though. It is met to inspire good will in the kitchen and the hearth. The hearth is more than just the kitchen too. It represents the family.

Introduction

It seems only right for my first post on this blog to be an introduction post, doesn't it?
Well, I started off as a Catholic. My whole family is Catholic so there's really no mystery though. I begun to sort of drift away from that faith though when I was about 18 years old. I started looking at other faiths. When I was in college I kind of got into Buddhism. What drew me to Buddhism was some of the ideas, the meditation (which I found to be really relaxing) and the bodhisattvas. I also started exploring Catholicism more. Then I discovered paganism.

I had heard about paganism before but only in a wicca-worshipping-nature way. Don't get me wrong. I love nature. I just didn't want to worship it per se and def. not in a (neo)wiccan way. I also wanted some kind of holy figure(s) or a god(s). Then I found a youtube video of someone talking about worshiping the Egyptian gods and I was like "O.M.G. You can do this?" I started researching the ancient gods and mythology more.

The first candle I lit for a goddess was for Bast and the only reason I did it was because I had a statue of her in my room. It was a small black statue that I had gotten as a little girl during a trip to a museum one day because I like cats. I somehow still had it after all of these years. Maybe there's some special Bast-was-always-there-just-waiting-for-me significance behind it. Maybe not. But I lit a candle for her and talked to her. I felt a little silly but there was another feeling there too. It was Bast. Surprise!

Bast was there but I didn't just go "ok, I'm a kemetic pagan now!" I wanted to explore my new religion more. So, I decided to open myself up spiritually and learn more about the various pagan paths and pantheons. I tried contacting the Roman and Celtic gods next because that's my heritage. The Celtic gods never really responded but I found myself with Ceres. Since that day she has become an increasingly important goddess and force in my life.

But I want to backtrack for a minute. Before working with Ceres I was reading a lot about Religio Romana. I was reading about not just the gods but about other aspects of the religion too. I really liked a lot of what I was reading. So, before Ceres contacted me, I set up a make-shift lararium and welcomed the lares, di penates and the gods to my altar and home.

A little bit after the time that Ceres entered my life, I was going through a difficult time. I won't get into those details but Ceres helped me through it. This is one reason why I treat Ceres as more important and place her first in my spiritual path. She helped me and taught me some important things. During another difficult time she told me to speak to her daughter, Proserpina, and I'm grateful that I did. I've been working with Proserpina ever since then.

More recently I have started to describe my practices as Roman-Kemetic. I'm still figuring this out though. But I can say one thing for sure: After years of thinking about religion and figuring out what my beliefs are, I feel like I am in the right place now.