Any Witches Here? Part 6

[speakout]

Or Wiccans. or Pagans? Or anyone who is interested in a magical path or feels some magical stirrings.

A place for support, learning, swapping ideas and magical inspiration

All welcome.

Good morning all. Speakout sounds lovely to have everyone off together, minestrone is lovely so nourishing!

Queenrollo a self care day sounds lovely enjoy!

Elphame how unusual, lots of possibilities with that rock!

I have some work to do today still and Dh working for a few hours then into town to buy some tights for Dd1 and something for ndn who passed her AQE with flying colours. What do you buy for that? Also trying to work out how to work round a collapsed flight of concrete stairs in the middle of the yard until they can be fixed and removed next week.

Elphame we once found a similar coloured ovoid when the coal had burnt down. My youngest son was absolutely convinced it was a dragons egg. So he now has a dragon's egg in his nature collection! He likes to move it to my altar occasionally.

Morning all. I'm enjoying catching up on all your posts this morning. I've had such a busy week, I've not had time to read this thread properly.

I've done some yoga this morning so feeling much calmer. Thankfully this weekend is a quiet one. Tomorrow I'm going to a yoga workshop, so looking forward to that.

Elphame I like that rock, I would keep it if you feel it has a good energy.

Queenrollo you sound much happier, hope you enjoy your afternoon. Your friend sounds lovely

Mama beautiful photos

Loyaul you had quite a night! Hope you managed to get some sleep.

Yashmis your week sounds like mine. Hope you have a peaceful weekend.

Speakout your post about dealing with trauma was really interesting and got me thinking. I may post more later.

Morning everyone, what an eventful time you are all having.

I'm as usual in a rush, but thought I'd nip in and say if anyone wants any salt, Westlabs have a great selection and good offer, 20% off if you use the code JANSALE during what's left of January.
westlabsalts.co.uk/

Catch up later, have a great day!

Good morning,

Just having a coffee by the aga and catching up a bit. I love to hear of everyone’s plans.

Lapetus I did some quite big ‘clearing’ work in my life last year in terms of relationship dynamics that weren’t serving me. I found that I’d do some work, feel the benefits and then there’d be some residual energy or connection that would rise to the surface, so I’d do some work on that etc. I quite like staged work in this way, if feels thorough. The last work I did of this was to knot the residual energy into some embroidery thread and dispose of it. Seems to have done the trick for now!

queenrollo ‘jarring shifts of light and dark’ describes the week I’ve had too. It’s felt productive overall though I think. I am loving your energy today

sockportal your post put a big smile on my face, I love the hope and positivity of it and your snow rose sounds wonderful

speakout thank you for your wise words re trauma. Your analogies always speak to me on such a deep level. Both insightful and soothing. I haven’t read it myself but a colleague I have a lot of respect for with more knowledge than me in this area always recommends this book www.goodreads.com/book/show/384924.Waking_the_Tiger
It seems to suggest the body having innate abilities to process trauma and give techniques to deal with it that way rather than the psychological unpicking approach.

mamuciama I love your posts about the landscape and wildlife where you are, such a beautiful world, it lifts me to hear about it.

Elphame wow to your pyramid hiding in coal! What a lovely find.

Loya what a night you had! I hope you were able to wind down and find some calm after that.

Violet glad to hear you have some yoga booked in. Sounds like just the thing that’s needed right now!

BlankTimes fab! Thank you for the link

I’ve been having a messenger conversation with DS this morning- he sent pictures of him and his GF at Mount Taranaki and described camping by the beach and the magic of the best view of the Milky Way he’s seen, the moon appearing yellow in the sky and the reflection of the stars in the wet sand. He’s in awe and full of joy. I love it that when he feels this way he wants to share it with me. It makes my heart sing.

I’ve said before that I can be quite hard on myself in terms of parenting but today I’ve been shown that I’ve helped facilitate the growth of a young man who is an adventurer, a free spirit with a deep love of nature and a desire to drink in the beauty of our world. It’s not always been easy but today I’m reminded that I must have done something right. I’m going to enjoy that for now.

Tonight when I have quiet time I’m going to journey back to my unsure yet enthusiastic younger self- I’ll tell her of this moment and what a good job she’s done

I have family commitments to attend to today and plan to spend tomorrow entirely in mundane magic- clearing and blessing my space and stocking the freezer with nourishing food to see me through the week. I may even put up a psychic ‘do not disturb’ sign to give myself this space. I’m looking forward to it

Wishing everyone a magical weekend x

YashmisCrone

Mount Tarnaki- my DS was there last year too. He had a lot of adventures in New Zealand, it seems an amazing place.

How lovely that you are planning to visit your younger self and tell her she is doing a good job.
I am sure you did a wonderful job.
None of us get it "right" as a parent- nor is it desirable to make the right choices all the time.
Children need to see us as human, how we deal with mistakes, it teaches them how to make amends, to put things right, how we can learn and grow as people.

How we deal with our mistakes is more important than the poor choices we make.
It shows children there is always hope, even in bad situations , even when we have messed up, that we can take steps to put things right.
And that also leads them away from catastrophic thinking, and teaches them to trust themselves, to take some risks in order to fly.

It takes the fear away.
As long as we act with love then even if we get it wrong there are still a thousand more chances, more creative ways of doing things, opportunities to see things from a different perspective.

Your younger self made the very best choices she could in her circumstances, because she had a good heart.

Your son is proof of that.

Yashmis what a wonderful experience your DS is having. You must be so proud of him, and you should be proud of yourself too. It sounds like you've done a great job 😊

It's easy to beat ourselves up when we get things wrong as parents. Like you, I was a young mum, and I often look back and think I should have done things differently. But then I look at my DC and how they've turned out and realise I must have done something right! I love your idea of telling your younger self this.

Speakout your post is so interesting (and eloquent as always!) My parents were (and still are) very sensible, cautious people. Nothing wrong with that in itself, but growing up, I was always scared to make mistakes as everything I did, or wanted to do, was met with reasons why it wasn't a good idea. It meant I spent a lot of time feeling torn between following my gut and chasing my dreams, and keeping my parents happy. Inevitably this led me to rebel when I hit my late teens and make all sorts of bad decisions, the consequences of which I had to live with for a long time.

With my own children, I've always tried to show them it's ok to make mistakes and I hope they know they can tell me anything, however bad it is. I want them to be free to make their own decisions without fear of my disapproval.

Goodness, this is a long post and a real steam of consciousness. Thank you for making me think about this, as it's not something I've thought about properly before. That's really helped me actually 😊

Thank you so much for your loving acceptance and wise words speakout They’ve brought me tears of release.

You are right, for all the unconventional choices, skewed priorities, inconsistencies, lack of security and stability of circumstance, that young woman had love to give in bucketloads, strength and tenacity, a thirst for knowledge and a resilience that I admire. She knew how to stretch a small amount of food to be able to say yes to invitations to school friends who had never experienced wanting for anything, she practiced radical honesty and studied then worked hard to provide. She took opportunities, encouraged adventure and filled the flat with interesting books- always wanting to share what she’d learnt. No subject was out of bounds for discussion and she wasn’t afraid of showing herself to be human. I’m going to tell her I’m proud of her. Thank you for helping me see this x

YashmisCrone

I am glad you see your past self in such a positive way.
How wonderful that you feel proud.
She deserves to know how special she was/is!

Thank you for your stream of consciousness Violet it makes a lot of sense to me. It sounds like you’ve done a wonderful job, your DC are lucky to have you 😊 x

You’ve really helped me see this speakout. It’s not all about what convention sees as the correct way to do things is it. Your words gave me the perspective to see her this way. thank you 🙏

My teenager has the serious grumps this morning.
It is an odd feeling to the day. Probably because I need to deal with all the carcasses of plants that did not survive the insanity of December. When I get stressed and life gets insane I end up killing plants. I need to work on this.

That said the hyacinths that were put in the garden are starting to bloom in a most pleasant manner!

Guess today is focusing on some renewing work.

YashmisCrone Thank you.

VioletCharlotte I echo what YashmisCrone has said,.

You have broken the cycle of fear and have raied your children with a gift.

They are blessed to have you as a mother.

Yashmis and Speakout thank you so much 🙏When I was reading your posts and writing mine, I had a moment when all these things suddenly fell into place. I'm going through a bit of a process at the moment of looking at things from another perspective and finally being able to forgive myself for things that happened years ago.

Violet and Yasmin, what a lovely moment of crystalisation you have shared today.

Really beautiful and powerful. I’m moved and healed. Not what I was expecting today. Thank you 🙏

Speakout I'm blown away by how much yours and Yashmis posts have affected me. Thank you both so much 🙏

I feel the same Violet 😊🙏💜

THat is very wise YashmisCrone

Today has been.....mixed. Mainly the difficult bits have been for my DH but I have been able to support him. But I have stayed in the light today.

I just went out to shut the chickens up for the night and the most cacophanous sound erupted above me. It is dusk but I could just make out the v of not one but TWO sets of geese flying over. It felt exhilarating.

queenrollo

Glad you managed to stay afloat. today.

Geese flying overhead give me goose bumps!! I share your excitement!

What a wonderful realisation for you to have and a beautiful thing to share Violet and Yashmis
Queenrollo glad you stayed in the light. Geese give me a wonderful feeling of anticipation
Work over for the weekend, cooking a lovely meal then going to light the candles and enjoy a glass of wine and a long bath later.

Evening all! Been busy today sewing a spirit doll for Imbolc. I have included lots of elements like Brigid's cross, swan feathers and the moon. I am going to give the doll an intention hidden inside but am wondering what to stuff her with? I am thinking possibly some herbs?

Also I have been looking at lots of Pinterest posts recently and wondered why it is that nearly all the images of witches / pagan or alternative women seem to be young and beautiful and dressed very hippy/ alternative whereas my experience is that the majority of us are quite normal looking? What are your thoughts on this?

frosty what is a spirit doll?

Pinterest is propaganda and thus must be taken with a pinch of salt and a large dose of cynicism.

Morning friends.

I agree with HillsBesideTheSea - Pinterest is not eally an accurate portrayal of practicing witches.
It is a portrayal of witches ( althouighin reality they probably won't even be witches) who want their photo on the internet and specifically Pinterest.
Pinterest is not real lige- it's worth remembering.
Just like a copy of Vogue magazine is not an accurate representation of women's lives.
There is a huge imbalance of images of younger people on the internet anyway- far more interested in media image.selfies/ photographic portrayal than older people generally, so it it's all best taken with a pinch of salt.

The more serious witches online like Tylluan Penry
or Molly Roberts are not particularly young or glamorous.