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Philosophy/religion

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Any Witches Here?- Part 17.

1000 replies

speakout · 26/07/2022 16:37

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..
This is the 17th thread- anyone looking for a deep dive into juicy magical topics may like to browse previous threads.....

It is a long list!!

Part 1 //www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/3241689-Any-witches-here?pg=1
Part 2
//www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/3338025-Any-Witches-Here-Part-2?pg=1
Part 3
//www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/3366411-Any-Witches-Here-Part-3?pg=1
Part 4
//www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/3404406-Any-Witches-Here-Part-4-Edited-by-MNHQ?pg=1
Part5
//www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/3437092-Any-Witches-Here-Part-5?pg=1
Part 6 //www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/3482023-Any-Witches-Here-Part-6?pg=1
Part 7 //www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/3520269-Any-Witches-Here-Part-7?pg=1
Part 8 //www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/a3568622-Any-Witches-Here-Part-8?pg=1
Part 9 //www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/3637696-Any-Witches-Here-Part-9?pg=1
Part 10
//www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/3726266-Any-Witches-Here-Part-10
Part 11
//www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/3850635-Any-Witches-Here-Part-11
Part 12
//www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/3997761-Any-Witches-Here-Part-12
Part 13 //www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/4116107-Any-Witches-here-Part-13
Part 14www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/4213962-Any-Witches-Here-Part-14
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/4328830-Any-Witches-Here-Part-15?msgid=113505801
www.mumsnet.com/talk/philosophy_religion_spirituality/4435233-Any-Witches-Here-Part-16?page=40&reply=118807589

OP posts:
Thread gallery
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Elasticatedwaist · 13/12/2022 09:08

@HillsBesideTheSea i just wanted to send you a big hug and say that I absolutely hear you. I too have spent years caring for an SN kid , I am perimenopausal , the people I thought had my back dont. I now have a chronic condition myself and I don’t have any really close friends anymore. I’ve moved to a small village and I don’t know anyone. My MIL died last week and it’s made me realise how shaky and insecure my life is and made me feel scared of the future. I am tired of being the scapegoat for everyone else’s upset too.
i don’t mean this to be a selfish off load, only to tell you that I really relate and send you my very best wishes.

speakout · 13/12/2022 09:26

Elasticatedwaist I am sorry for your loss.
Especially at a time when there is expectation of christmas fun and joy, and we can't feel it inside.
Life throws very difficult things our way, I am no stranger to challenges, in the present moment and events over my life.
I hope you find healing. X

OP posts:
Elasticatedwaist · 13/12/2022 13:02

Thankyou @speakout as others have said , this is a lovely place to share our grief and joy. I’ve found lots of the suggestions here helpful and the caring , lovely energy that radiates from this group I am very grateful for.

takemetomars · 13/12/2022 17:33

Just coming in to say what a wonderful group of women you all are. @HillsBesideTheSea : I'm thinking of you. The burden of relatives is rarely talked about, this is a safe place to do it. No judgement here

My sister died 2 weeks ago and I am struggling. Half of my immediate family is gone and my mother is, well, no support. My DH has been a rock and my enthusiasm for Wicca/paganism has been a good distraction

speakout · 13/12/2022 17:48

takemetomars I amm so sorry to hear of your loss.

Please do take comfort here, we are real women behind this keyboard, many of us have experienced loss and challenge and know how hard it is to be a carer.
Just take a comfy chair beside our fire, someone will make you tea. No pressure- just know we are here.

OP posts:
barefootnomadmam · 13/12/2022 22:50

It’s frozen over here! I’ll post a photo, we’re lucky that we’ve stocked up and we filled our water up in advance so we don’t have to try and break through the ice. We’re looking into buying another boat, possibly an older one, for the kids to have when they’re older. Although our boat is big enough for them to share a room until they decide they don’t want to, it’ll be nice for them to have a choice of having their own room/space when they’re in their teens. We don’t plan on moving onto land in the future, so I suppose this is our version of upsizing.

@speakout boat life is lovely thank you😊. It’s really lovely that so many of you think that because we have had lots of judgement for it. Especially since having kids. I love the sound of the tea advent calendar. The poem you shared upthread is so beautiful. Enjoy your time off from working, and as you say, only stick to nurturing activities.

@MarieIVanArkleStinks I’m sorry to hear about your further surgery, although it sounds like it is something that must be done. I hope it all goes smoothly for you.

@VioletCharlotte your description of how you’d like to be spending this time of year is so beautiful. It’s so sad how many are so focused on exchanging gifts although we don’t really need anything. I’ve tried to only buy things that are useful or thoughtful this year, and most has been sourced through small business or second hand, which has made a difference in how I feel.

@queenrollo your childhood memories of Christmas are really beautiful. I hope you manage to make some more wonderful memories. I’m sorry to hear of your anxiety, I too suffer from a range of mental health issues but I find anxiety the body debilitating as it seems to affect every aspect of my life. I hope you’re able to pin point what’s causing you the anxiety, and find a sense of calmness.

@GenExer The way you describe the stillness and being cuddled in bed with your animals is so calming. You’ve had a really busy year, but I hope the next is smoother for you.

@HillsBesideTheSea I have no practical advice to offer you, but I want you to know that I hear you. Please let us be here for you, for you to vent if you need to. I second @VioletCharlotte’s post, which has put what I feel much more eloquently than I could.

@Elasticatedwaist and @takemetomars I’m so sorry to hear of your losses. I hope that you are able to find some comfort in this lovely thread.

I know a few have talked about it, but especially following on with the Poem @speakout shared, it is truly worrying to be a woman in this climate. I feel ashamed to admit but when I found out DD was a girl, I was scared. I had always wanted boys because I’m terrified or raising a daughter in this world. That has changed now, and having a daughter has really been a blessing. But it has also made me even more determined to fight for our rights, so that my beautiful, incredible, strong and hilarious little girl can grow up in a world where she feels safe. I don’t want to detract from the thread, but I know many of you are involved in women’s rights and if you have any tips/petitions for me to sign etc then please PM me and let me know what I can do to help.

Any Witches Here?- Part 17.
speakout · 14/12/2022 07:23

barefootnomadmam what a lovely post.
I love the sound of your boat christmas, trying to keep things simple is a great way to view things.
I hear your concerns about women in this world.
I know this isn't a feminism thread- there are some great threads for that on this site- but for me my spirituality is very tied up with my feminist views too.
It is frightning when we are mothers, and it makes me afraid that many think the need for women's rights movement is over.
We have come a long way, but not far enough, and hardly any progress in many countries.
We even seem to be slipping backwards in the USA and other "developed" countries.

It hasn't always been this way- many neolithic cultures were egalatarian, where women shared power, status and wealth with men.
The advent of a different dogma put men in top positions. Women always resigned to second class because they engineered man's fall. And so society became modelled on the idea of men as controllers, women as reproducers and servants, and 2000 years later we still struggle with this patriarchy which has burned women at the stake.
Abrahamic religious systems give men authority, have influenced all kinds of social structures, businesses, education, politics which favour men.
I put the blame of disparity and unfairness solidly at the feet of the church.
I am heartened to see church attendance dropping, several century old churches in my town have closed because congregations are dwindling.
Politics begins at home.
If we model a family system that gives daughters and sons equal rights and voice then that can go a long way to raising adults who treat each other and expect to be treated fairly.
There are many books on the subject I love Starhawk as a starting point.
Raising the divine feminine is very healing- for she is the earth.
All that is resigned to the "darkness" as an insult - fertlity, fecundity, nature raw, digging the earth,blood and breastmilk, is the power of the goddess.
And the holy tell us these are the dangers, wearing the cloth, aiming for the godhead unfettered by menstruation, or placentas, but all the while so fucking confused that their own sexual expression is malformed, misplaced, wrapped up in guilt.

It's a whopping minus 10 here today, hoping to get to yoga for 9am, my car is a little reluctant to start on these cold mornings. The Caillaich is whipping up a storm!

Any Witches Here?- Part 17.
OP posts:
speakout · 14/12/2022 07:52

barefootnomadmam a beautiful photo of your boat, how lovely to live with an ever changing view from your window.

OP posts:
MarieIVanArkleStinks · 14/12/2022 10:38

My spirituality is also very much tied up with my feminism. In the wake of 'For Women Scotland' having lost the Judicial Review yesterday, and the absolutely mangled, tangled web of the law on which the ruling was based, I've been posting on this thread in FWR, which has links to related petitions. The saddest thing of all is that the fight here is merely to allow ourselves to be called 'women'.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4671123-for-women-scotland-judicial-review-2?page=17&reply=122263071

Thankfully, the nuanced implications of this are being unpicked piecemeal on Twitter. You'll find these if you run a search for 'For Women Scotland' - not necessarily their page, but search for mentions of them. There are a few lawyers approaching this topic, too.

I agree about Starhawk, and about the monotheistic religions viewing women's bodies as dirty and offensive. The 'churching' of women is a practice I find particularly repulsive; that and the unpleasant rhetoric surrounding our menstruation. Oddly enough, this is not dissimilar discourse to that mentioned in the judgement above. It feels, of late, as though women have come full circle. Paganism allows us to re-embrace the power of our femininity, and for that reason it's unsurprising this form of spirituality is on the rise whilst the more patriarchal systems are finding less appeal.

Although this isn't a path I personally follow, I'm interested in Dianic Wicca. I've recently read and enjoyed Diane Ahlquist's 'Casting the Circle: A Woman's Book of Ritual'.

I'd really like to find a circle of women at some stage. I already consider that I've found one here. Brightest blessings.

MarieIVanArkleStinks · 14/12/2022 10:38

PS. LOVE the boat!

MarieIVanArkleStinks · 14/12/2022 10:39

@takemetomars I am so, so sorry to hear about your sister. Sending love and light.

MarieIVanArkleStinks · 14/12/2022 11:08

Further PPPS. - I got the name of the author of Casting the Circle wrong. Her name is actually Diane Stein.

Trenzalor · 14/12/2022 11:53

Sending love and light to all my sisters in need.

speakout · 14/12/2022 16:06

MarieIVanArkleStinks yes- I follow the happenings in Scotland too.
This is not a move towards a more equitable society- this is the further erosion of women's power.
I know many are interested in the feminist and political angle, but not in a spiritual perspective. Others immerse in spirituality without any feminist agenda.
For me the spiritual is the feminist- too intertwined to separate.
The scales have been tipped for far too long, and as civilisation starts to implode the feminine energy is hopefully what will pull us back from the brink.
It is a struggle though- I just hope we wake up in time.

I have been having a fun day. DD arrived this morning just as I arrived home from yoga.
She took me into the city ( only a 20minute drive) and we went to a Thai restaurant for lunch. The food was incredible, and I polished off every scrap!
We had a look in a popular herbalist shop, who make many preparations themselves, the shop was established in 1874, and still occupies the same premises. So a wonderful place to browse for a while, and sip the winter herb tea- which was free.
We then spent some time in The National Museum, looking around the many exhibits and enjoying the warmth. I had forgotten how uplifting the grand gallery is there, always flooded with light, even on the darkest winter day.
Now I am home, putting up a few more decorations after a very enjoyable day with my DD.

Any Witches Here?- Part 17.
OP posts:
takemetomars · 14/12/2022 18:33

MarieIVanArkleStinks · 14/12/2022 10:39

@takemetomars I am so, so sorry to hear about your sister. Sending love and light.

Thank you so much x

667TheNeighbourOfTheBeast · 14/12/2022 19:53

I’ve not been on here for a while so am catching up, I just wanted to say thank you all of you for this lovely space on the internet. I’ve been lurking on mumsnet for years on and off but I don’t post lots of stuff. Not everywhere on MN is as friendly and accepting, you lovely ladies have completely changed my mind about it!
@HillsBesideTheSea I just want to say how sorry I am that you’re struggling so much, it must be very very hard being a carer, it is such a shame there is not more support out there for you. I don’t have any experience of caring but I do have experience of peri menopause and I have to say this was a nightmare for me in a mental health way and I had no idea what was going on. If I had known I would have got help sooner as I felt like a completely different person and just couldn’t cope with anything. I finally spoke to my doctor aged 50(it had been going on for years but I thought it was depression or an existing illness I have ) I was very lucky that my GP was sympathetic and gave me HRT patches. I get that not everyone wants to take it but my own experience has been it gave me my life back. I didn’t drink, I ate healthily I didn’t drink caffeine etc, I meditated, all the things they advise but I was still suffering terribly with low mood and crying at the drop of a hat plus irritability and terrible anger and for the first time in my life anxiety that came out of nowhere. I wasn’t me anymore. It’s taken a few years and a lot of adjustments to dosage etc to get things right but it’s helped enormously. I felt ashamed that I had had to resort to medication to deal with menopause, as I feel there is a feeling of it’s natural you should just tough it out, but not everyone is affected in the same way. I’m pretty sure that misogyny is at the root of this as if men went through the same thing they would get free meds and days off work! I think things are getting better but it’s still got a long way to go before menopause symptoms are taken seriously. More women aged around 50 commit suicide than any other age group. I really hope things get better for you soon.
@Elasticatedwaist i just want to say I’m so sorry for your loss things sound very tough for you at the moment and I hope this thread and everyone on here can give you some comfort

667TheNeighbourOfTheBeast · 14/12/2022 20:02

@takemetomars so sorry to hear of the loss of your sister, I can’t imagine how hard that must be and especially at this time of year.

takemetomars · 14/12/2022 20:28

667TheNeighbourOfTheBeast · 14/12/2022 20:02

@takemetomars so sorry to hear of the loss of your sister, I can’t imagine how hard that must be and especially at this time of year.

Thank you. I appreciate the messages of support

667TheNeighbourOfTheBeast · 14/12/2022 21:39

Also wanted to say that I agree it’s very worrying what is going on in Scotland regarding women’s rights.

speakout · 15/12/2022 07:32

I agree about menopause 667TheNeighbourOfTheBeast, challenges specific to women are not taken seriously enough, comes from a long legacy of women being thought of as " hysterical" ( quite literally) delicate, prone to fainting fits.
I hope you no longer feel shame at having to take HTR.
Women's bodies are amazing, in constant flux, able to grow, deliver and feed a baby.
But that often comes at a cost. Having children can damage us, menstruation can be difficult and painful, menopause can cause havoc with our body and mind.
But we need to ignore all that, being a woman is a choice after all.

I am braving some shops this morning- hoping to get there as soon as they open, and back by 10.30- I a not a fan of busy shops with queues at the checkout. I get frazzled easily!
Hopefully I can get what I plan and be back in my burrow by late morning.

OP posts:
dementedma · 15/12/2022 14:53

Just checking in connect with the sisterhood. So sorry for those suffering loss or great unhappiness just now. On women's rights I will be demonstrating at the Scottish Parliament next week with the spirits of witches burnt for challenging the patriarchy all around me.

WiccanWonderer · 15/12/2022 17:23

Hello, I'm new 👋I'm a long time MN lurker but have never posted before as I didn't feel as though I belonged anywhere. A few days ago I discovered this thread and I'm mighty glad that I did. It's so comforting to know there are other people out there who are similar to me, it's renewed my spirit just in time for the winter solstice. I hope it's ok to join you all.

667TheNeighbourOfTheBeast · 15/12/2022 18:01

@WiccanWonderer 👋 Hi and welcome. I have only just found this thread myself a few weeks ago.

EmmaAgain22 · 15/12/2022 18:24

Saying hi to all, but wanted to say hello particularly to Hills and Elasticated as I can relate. Flowers

I always hate December but the prolonged cold and ice is scary and depressing for me so this is a rough week. I am just trying to make it go faster.

EmmaAgain22 · 15/12/2022 18:25

Oh demented I nearly didn't see that - good for you, and thank you.

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