Weekly Oracle

Aura - Observation

from Divination of the Ancients

by Barbara Meiklejohn-Free and Flavia Kate Peters

Time to take a good look around, feel from your innermost self to the outermost. What is there? What is around you? What is it you are seeing and feeling, what are various omens telling you?

There are people, energies, spirits, or a combination of the three, that may be telling you a good story, making you feel that they have your best interests at heart. Right now, this is not the case. Allow those feelings from the gut that you have been dismissing to come to the surface. What is truly behind them? At this time, it is important to do this. 

Investigate, cogitate, meditate, especially about those things you have skimmed over, shook your head at and said it is your imagination. Look into your energy bodies, feel and see them. Are there hooks from anyone? Look at the energy bodies of others, notice all the details, in both their mannerisms and how their energy feels. Observe and the truth will be there... and that is what is in your best interest.

Daily centering, grounding, and shielding should become like breathing, absolutely necessary and done without having to think about it, an involuntary response of your energy system. Observing signs, omens, gut feelings, should also be as natural as breathing too. See the good in others, but be aware. Always ask if this is truly in your best interest, your highest good. Let Spirit guide you.and trust yourself.

Incantation

As I take a look around,

Things aren't quite what I once found.

The veil has lifted, eyes are bright,

Observing all with my new sight.

Blessings nine! 

Affirmation for the Weekend

Magick brews within me.

Magick flows through me.

I make my desires so!

c 2016 E A Kaufman

Repeat 9 times, 3 times a day.

Blessings nine!

Witchy Wordless Wednesday

Blessings nine!

Weekly Oracle, Summer Solstice and Full Moon Blessings!

Carpo - Summer Fruits

from Ancient Feminine Wisdom 

of Goddesses and Heroines

by Kay Stevenson and Brian Clark

I am always, no matter how many times it happens, amazed by the appropriateness of the oracle or tarot card that presents itself for a particular day. Today is no exception with this card, Carpo - Summer Fruits.

The fiery colors of summer surround Carpo who holds Her offering of fruit to us, Her gift of plenty and richness. The summer's heat is upon us and the land, we revel in it and accept that fiery energy. The seed has burst forth, first into flower, then to fruit. And this is so in our lives. That which we have worked to accomplish comes to fruition. The wheel turns and the season of fullness comes into being. It brings a time of abundant fertility and prosperity, completion and its rewards.

Look now at what you have achieved so far, focus on these good things and more to come, for it will come. Give thanks and keep to your devotions, for this is a time of wealth and plenty in all areas of our lives, we must show gratitude for that which we have been given.

Carpo is a meteorological  goddess who provides all the elements that nature needs to flourish. And so She does for us as well. Hail and thanks to Carpo!

Summer Solstice and Full Moon blessings to all at this most perfect turning of time, when the waxing time becomes the waning. May your lives be filled with all that you need and desire.

Blessings nine!

Witchy Wordless Wednesday

Blessings nine!

Weekly Oracle

XI Sacred Fire - White Buffalo Calf Woman

Mythical Goddess Tarot

Sage Holloway - author, Katherine Skaggs - artist

White Buffalo Calf Woman presents Herself as our weekly message. She is the Holy One who teaches us to revere Spirit by honoring our Mother Earth. She is the passionate Sacred Fire and came to us in a pillar of light. White Buffalo Calf Woman carries our prayers and hopes into the Spirit World through the smoke of Her peace pipe and Her medallion of the Four Directions. She brings peace, She brings justice, She brings hope.  

This card, XI, is the Justice card in a standard tarot. Most appropriate and comforting considering what has been going on in our world recently. We truly need justice. But it is more than that too, it is hope, it is fiery energy, it is light in the darkness. You can pray or be part of the many workings for justice. White Buffalo Calf Woman's purifying fire consumes evil until it is nothing but ash and is blown away on the winds. So here, we are given hope, right will be done.

However passionate and intense your prayers and workings are, it is alright, it is just, it is as it should be. Do what you will for you have the abilities to do what is necessary, those abilities give you the responsibility to do that which is required of you. Do not be afraid of the naysayers, do not listen to them. Ultimately, the warriors carry flaming swords, torches, the light in the dark, and become the saviors. Not everyone will agree with this, so be it. Do as you must.

Blessings nine!

The Birth of the Muses

The Nine Muses by Emily Balivet

https://www.etsy.com/listing/125709167/nine-muses-greek-goddess-art-deco?ref=shop_home_active_65

Tuesday, June 14th is the day celebrated as The Birth of the Muses. I do not know the origin for this, be it modern or ancient. No matter which, celebrate Them!


The Muses preside over the arts and sciences, giving inspiration to all artists, particularly poets, painters, dancers, musicians, philosophers, and astronomers.


There were nine Muses according to Hesiod, presiding over a different art, each symbolized with a different item. On the other hand, Varro mentions that only three Muses exist: Melete (practice), Mneme (memory) and Aoide (song). My own expeience of Them (UPG) is that there are nine. They have, in some way or another, directed my life since I was a child and continue to this day.

Here is some information compiled from various sources over the years.

Names and symbols:
• Aoide (song) one of the original Muses, no symbols associated with her
• Caliope (fair-voiced), considered the noblest of the Muses, presides over epic song, and was pictured with a wax tablet and pen.
• Clio (she that extols) is the Muse of history, and has a scroll.
• Erato (the lovely one), is the Muse of erotic poetry, with a smaller lyre.
• Euterpe (she that gladdens) is the Muse of lyric song, and has a double flute that was known as an aulos.
• Hypate one of the original Muses, no symbols associated with her
• Melete (meditation) one of the original Muses, no symbols associated with her
• Melpomene (she that sings) is the Muse of tragedy, and has a tragic mask, ivy wreath, and attributes of hero she is inspiring a song about e.g. the club for Herakles or sword for Perseus.
• Meses one of the original Muses, no symbols associated with her
• Mneme (remembrance) one of the original Muses, no symbols associated with her
• Nete one of the original Muses, no symbols associated with her
• Polymnia (rich in hymns), is the Muse of serious sacred songs, usually represented as veiled and pensive.
• Terpsichore (she that rejoices in the dance), is the Muse of dancing, with a lyre.
• Thalia (she that flourishes) is the Muse of comedy and bucolic poetry, with the comic mask, the ivy wreath, and the shepherd's staff.
• Urania (the heavenly), the Muse of astronomy, with the celestial globe.

Animal(s):
none


Sacrifices:
frankincense


Primary Cult Center(s):
Helicon, Pieria, Castalia, Aganippe, Sparta


Festivals:
Museia every five years in Thespiae; Current - The Birth of the Muses, June 14th


Ways to honor:
 Create! Learn some art-form you have not experienced before.  Go to museums, theaters, dance recitals, and other places of culture. Dance, sing, play music, study history, study the stars and planets in the night sky, write and/or recite appropriate poetry in honor of the Muses  
Support artists. Give money to street musicians or painters. 



Other information:

http://www.theoi.com/Ouranios/Mousai.html
http://www.theoi.com/Titan/Mousai.html
https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=partner-pub-3887923691185452%3A4lilh6jpty1&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=muses&sa=Search#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=muses&gsc.page=1 - a list of links at Theoi.com for the above links as well as those to each individual Muse.
Apollodorus' Library 1.3.1-4, 3.5.8

Hesiod's Theogony 36-115

Homer's Iliad 2.594-600

Homer's Odyssey 8.63-64, 8.479-481, 24.60-61

Homeric Hymn to Apollo and the Muses 25

Ovid's Metamorphoses 5.273-340, 5.662-678

Pausanias' Description of Greece 9.24.3, 9.29.1-6

A Hymn To the Muses
 

Daughters of Mnemosyne, 

The Nine who inspire and empower creativity.

Beloved are You all, 

Calliope, Clio, Erato, 

Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, 

Terpsechore, Thaleia and Urania.
You birth the thoughts that stir my soul,
You nourish my soul and kindle the flame within,

You tend the flame that brings my art.

You touch me and I forget that which is not needed.

Instead, I create, I dance, I sing, I remember, I laugh,

I see the stars and gain wisdom and contentment.  

You have given sacred and mystic rites;

With these, I make magic.
Do come, Lovely and Blessed Muses,

Kiss the brow of this Daughter of the Artes,

Bless the hand that holds needle and thread, pen and brush.

Bless the voice that sings and the hands that strum the strings,

Bless the breathe that carries wind through wood.  

Come to one who is Your initiate, O Goddesses, 

For Your brilliant light of inspiration draws and holds me,

My soul longs for the touch of The Nine.

copyright Elizabeth A Kaufman 2010

I will post the Weekly Oracle tomorrow. I wanted to be sure to give all of you the information about The Birth of the Muses at least a bit in advance should anyone wish to make arrangements to celebrate.

Blessings Nine!

Weekly Oracle

Peacemaking

from The Gospel of Aradia oracle by Stacy DeMarco

This is Stacy's new oracle deck and I am finding it very interesting not just as an oracle tool, but also in teaching Aradia's stories.

Peacemaking... ultimately it is a choice and comes from within us. We need to rely only upon ourselves in choosing to be peaceful, to make peace with a person or situation. Choosing peace is about accepting, forgiving, going with the flow, deciding what is best for us. Staying angry or holding on to some other negative emotion, does not serve us. I am not saying that you must never be angry or feel a negative emotion. We are human and it is part of our nature to experience a broad range of feelings both positive and negative. Feeling those negative emotions is healthy, holding onto them is not. That initial anger must be released appropriately, by stepping out of it, working it off, letting it go.  Being angry all the time will take its toll on our health on all levels, spiritual, emotional, physical. We forgive to help ourselves, it is not about the other person. There are situations we must walk away from, difficult but not impossible. There is always a way. It is always your choice. Seek the answers. 

Nor can we make peace for others, they must do that themselves. We can bring the energy of peace to others so that it touches them, influences, and possibly assists in healing them, but the choice to be in peace is up to them. Don't get caught up in others' negativity in the name of trying to help. Set your boundaries and keep them.

Surrounding ourselves with, breathing in peace is healing and soothing. Grounding and shielding is an effective practice to keep peace in our lives; it is a basic skill for the witch and priestess. It gives us a stable and strong platform from which to live, work, heal. Being in nature, working with the Elements, connecting to Mother Earth, will assist us in weaving peace into our lives while opening ourselves and allowing its grounding energies in. Then... we can be in peace.

A daily practice of grounding and shielding, bringing in peaceful energies, will sustain us and we will be able to better accomplish the tasks we take on, manifest that which we desire, and stay in a highly spiritual place. 

Blessings nine!

Witchy Wordless Wednesday

Blessings nine!