Work

From May 2018

One black candle lit, one white candle lit. Palo Santo, sage, and lavender smolder, sandalwood incense smokes. Taking a moment to speak directly to the ones who listen and the ones who mutter and whisper at my ear.

"Yes, Papa, I know. Things to do. Decisions to make. Yes, things to make for others for you, you greedy bastard. Always looking for another and another, you are."

"S, if you can hear me, I still miss you so deeply. You are welcome here. I promise I will add a photo of you soon. Come anyway."

Hecate asks for more too, in her way. "Yes queens of fate, I hear you. I will do it."

And always buzzing, buzzing, buzzing, my muse, that faceless bitch, "Yes, yes, yes. Let me serve you by serving them. If I do, can I paint again? I miss it. It's been over a year. You send the images and refuse to guide my hands and it hurts. I will follow your call, I always do, what more CAN I do?"

------------------

The way of the witch is not always fluffy, painless, trendy or cute. it's pain and work and and allowing deity to come in to your life in a very personal way. Sure my altar may be pretty and smell nice, and it's filled with objects of beauty, but I promise it will never always be sunshine and roses. Or moonlight and jimsonweed.

Listen, children, listen keenly. If you do not they will shout until you hear them, and sometimes that shout is more than just sound. Sometimes it is filled with consequence.

They will strip you of everything and make you beg. This path, this craft, will carve you up, leave you raw, and come back with lemon and salt and ashes to rub in the wounds. But man...the resulting scars? Beautiful.

Aesthetics are nice but this is real WORK. Patience and perseverance will get us everywhere in this.

my altar in May 2018

Note: Papa referenced above is Papa Legba, a voodoo deity, an orisha/iwa/loa. S is my older brother, Simon, who died in March of 2017.

"Vampires'

From June 2018

From time to time, we have talked here about people in our lives, in our communities, that we label as 'vampires' often, specifically, psychic vampires. We talk about recognizing them, the feelings you might feel after dealing with one, how you will feel emotionally and physically drained. We have spoken about carefully warding yourself against them, setting mental blocks and other things that one might do when looking at this issue from a craft or path point of view, but i thought I would also share this article from Psychology Today that touches on the subject as well.

All of us have interacted with someone who walks through life with the basic skill set of manipulating others to their own benefit. people often label them narcissistic or self centered, or try to diagnose other mental disorders to explain the behaviors, but sometimes it is simply that someone learned at a young age that manipulating others to get their way is easier than doing things for themselves. Or that manipulating others to set themselves up as a victim gives them the positive attention they crave.

It often all just boils down to a power play of one kind or another - and if we are all honest with ourselves, we are likely all guilty of having exhibited some of those behaviors a time or two in our lives.

I feel that it is important not just to identify the people in your life that are your 'vampires' but also to identify when YOU are being one yourself, and eliminate those habits in yourself. Spiritual and emotional growth is something we are all capable of, some of us may just struggle to abandon the 'easy' manipulative methods we may have employed in our lives. But abandon them we must, if we wish to grow into healthy, enlightened human beings. So read this article, which sadly has a bit of click-baity title, and recognize not just these things in others, but in yourself. learn to how to handle the behaviors in others, but also consider how to change the behaviors on your end.

A Binding Spell

From May 2018

Many of us have known the touch of a narcissist. Many of us have met our personal vampire, the soul sucking, life damaging, heart breaking entities that draw on our energy and power to feed their own egos and power. They are our monsters under the bed, our closet ghouls, and sometimes the ones we love dearly.

Mine groomed me for years, wearing a mask of friendship and tempting me with desire and promises of something better than what I had. The promises were empty, the heart he gave was a cold vessel I could not fill.

This is a binding spell for your personal demon, the monkey on your back that strings you along with false love and promises in one hand, and a needle drawing your life's blood away in the other.

Ethics and Pathwork

From this point onwards, the Twilight posts are ones I posted but never recorded the ORDER i posted them in , so I'm just adding them here as I dig them out of my group's archives.

#TWILIGHT

Twilight’s Insights - A Very Randomly Posted Kaleidoscope Post by Rachel Dayton

So, Ethics. 

Ethics and Pathwork.

One of the things a lot of people seem to not realize as they start out on their fluffy, happy, freeing spiritual journey to find the Path they are meant to tread is that it does not matter that we are a community and something of a minority, spiritually speaking  - we still have bad actors. We still have people whose ethical and moral maps are skewed, or downright crooked. There are people in the Pagan/Occult/Voodoo/Hoodoo.Rootwork/ATR/Heathen/Druid/Shaman/Native communities who are there for little more than to fill their pockets with gold earned from YOUR naivete’. 

There are people who say all the right things and will sell you dirty water but call it a potion. 

There are people we in this group like to call vampires, who will feed on your attention, but will sell themselves to you as leaders or mentors or guides.

There are people who will attach  themselves to you like a leech - claiming they want to learn from you or support you - and will turn around and try to profit from your hard earned Path knowledge.

There are sexual predators in our communities. 

There are bad actors in EVERY community - be it that Instant Pot recipe group you joined last week or the Spirituality forum you have been in for years - there are always bad actors. We can’t police them all the time, and we all want to believe the best of other people. 

The reason I am saying all of this is not to scare you or badmouth our communities - as I said, this is something that exists in every community because our communities are filled with  humans - but because I keep seeing the effects of the bad actors. And the worst thing is that the bad actors are almost always people the community at large ALREADY KNEW WERE BAD ACTORS.

This is a problem I have seen in other communities - in the kink community, for instance, a known sexual predator will be protected by their peers, despite accusations of rape or consent violations, because they are members of the community, and because they provide something to the community they feel they maybe cannot get from anyone else. People who are the victims of the bad actor will be ostracized for speaking out against their abuser, and the community will rally around the bad actor instead of caring for and protecting the victim. I’ve seen it over and over in many different forms in many different communities. 

Personally, I choose to speak out, and if I get shunned, I honestly do not care. If anyone asks, I will tell the truth as I know it or experienced it. 

It is my opinion that this is something that should be broken. If someone hurts you, tell someone. If someone steals from you, tell someone. If you see someone stealing or hurting, tell someone. Stop the cycle of protecting the bad actors, stop creating bad actors out of those who were victims.

I’m not talking about  going out of your way to make everyone you meet know that so-and-so is a bad person, or a thief, or a whatever - but I am saying that  there are ways to make sure other people do not become a victim in the way you did.

We do not need to be silent because it makes us complicit in the protection of our abusers. 

See something, say something.

Context in Tarot Reading

NOTE: I am pretty sure this is also a post on my tarot blog, but since it was a Twilight post I am including it for continuity's sake.

#TWILIGHT

So, I just got home from the tarot class/group I lead most Saturday mornings. and a small point I made as we were going through our readings today using the layout pictured below was about how we read/interpret the card positions themselves, not just how we interpret the cards. So I'm gonna go over one of the readings, the cards that were laid out and the positions the were in, and how there are a couple different ways to understand the card based on the context AND interpretation of the position it is in, in the layout.

So - the layout was a 6 card spread, with the following contextual meanings for each position:

What I want.
What is motivating me.
What I need to release.
Universal guidance.
Universal goal.
Changes for success.

Now, to most people using a layout, these contextual meanings are locked in at face value. And before you lay any cards out, they are, for the most part, right. These are the ‘rules’ for this particular game of cards. However, as soon as you lay out the cards and begin your interpretation of THEIR meanings within the context of the ‘rules’ of the layout, those  contextual meaning can begin to not make any sense at all. 

For instance, in today’s group, one of the readers drew the following cards for this spread:

10 of Wands (oppression, burden, trial, ruin, disruption, failure, limitations, restrictions, and holding back)
King of Cups, in Reverse (violence, scandal, injustice, and weakness)
The Mage (will, communication, inherent ability, memory, clarity of thought and feeling, organization, invention, and originality)
Knight of Swords, in Reverse (extravagance, braggadocio, and romance)
9 of Coins (gain, prudence, benefit, balance, order, organization, and unification)
2 of Wands (virtue, cooperation, partnership, integrity, consistency, and congruency)

So, when reading those cards and their meanings within the context of the layout, it may not make sense; especially if you read the ‘rules’ very literally. A good example here is the 3rd rule, “What I need to release.” Nearly every person in my group today read that as “What I need to let go of/get rid of,”and to be quite honest when you see that the spread itself is titled “Doubts and Fears” it goes to reason that the 3rd card is meant to, most likely, represent the fears or doubts one is meant to let go of. But when you look at the cards laid out, it doesn't make sense to let go of what the Mage symbolizes. 

In fact, for this person in particular, these are things they need to express more fully. At roadblocks like these, it is good to revisit the ‘rule’ and read it less literally. Consider that ‘release’ might not mean ‘to let go of’, here, for this person, but actually ‘to let out’. When you read that card from the perspective that this person needs to express these things, to assert their will, to be more communicative, to use their inherent abilities, be more organized, more inventive, have better clarity of thought, feeling,and memory, then the reading as a whole becomes clear. All of the cards in a layout create a context of their own, and demand interpretation  using that as well as the ‘rules’ context. We must not, when using spreads and layouts like these, become slave to the literal or more obvious meaning of the ‘rules’, or our readings can become disjointed quite quickly.

Serendipity

#TWILIGHT

Twilight’s Insights, a ‘whenever Rachel is inspired to write’ Kaleidoscope post. :P


So, the other day a friend and I got a strange reminder from the Universe, and I thought I would share it with you. 

It began like this: I woke up yesterday morning to a message from a friend on my phone, giving me some really good news regarding a custody battle. I replied to congratulate him, and we promised to get back in touch after all the kids get settled into their school schedules, to plan an outing of some kind.

Later, I was on Facebook and a different friend posted a status about having had a dream about a person she was no longer friends with. The dream was surreal, and in it someone showed her a photo of the person who she isn’t friends with anymore, and in the photo she saw that not only was the ex-friend dead, but that their body had been made into come kind of art installation. Her head, arms and legs had been removed, and the dreamer only recognized her by her tattoos on her back. 

As I read her post, I became convinced I knew who it was about, and so I commented saying I thought I might know who it was. 

A little bit later, I got a message confirming my suspicion, so I told my friend about how I had been reminded of that person only that morning  - she was the other side of the custody battle I was messaged about. 

As we talked about it, and how though we are not friends with her anymore we would NEVER wish harm to her like that seen in the dream, I remembered that in my Facebook memories yesterday I was ALSO reminded of that person, because it was a year ago to the day that our mutual ex-friend had decided we were no longer friends. 

I feel as if there is a message in this for each of us. I am not yet sure what that message may be, but this is beyond coincidence to me, and my friend agrees. Have you ever had an experience like this? Did you ever discover the message? Please share your stories and experiences in the comments; I’d love to hear them!

A Pagan PSA

Twilight’s Insights - A Peek Into the Brain of a Common Sense Witch

A post a little while ago asking where to find the tiny crystal phalluses led me on a google search that took me to some interesting places. And some of those places were, well, unsafe! Just in case any of you have seen or have considered this practice, please let me give you this PSA:

DON’T PUT CRYSTALS AND STONES IN YOUR HOO-HAS!

While I fully acknowledge that it is very tempting to put crystals in your vagina (or, ladies and gentlemen, in your hind end) based on their healing properties (or because it seems new-agey and cute and well, sometimes they are shaped *just* right) I have to tell you that it is REALLY not a good idea.

Here’s why: Crystalline structure is delicate, and can fracture easily. They can harbor bacteria or eventually weaken enough that the crystal breaks (or both!) They contain small fracture lines naturally, and it is along these fractures that the stone is both weak and a great place for bacteria to hide. Porousness is another factor, as porosity equals extra bacteria storage!

I don’t think I should have to tell you that bacteria is bad. I don’t think I should have to tell you that bacteria plus your delicate mucous membranes is EXTRA bad. Yeast infections, anyone? Urinary tract infections? Worse?

“But Twilight,” you say, “Can’t I just clean it with toy cleaner, like I would my other toys made of silicone or rubber?” 

NO. Cleaning products can damage the stone, and the porousness can hold the cleaning products which in turn are bad for you.

“Well, then can’t I just boil the thing, like I do my silicone and rubber toys?”

NO, that will change the crystal - heat treating is a thing, to change the color of a stone, and also to change its makeup. Don’t boil your stones. It especially could lead to cracking and breakage, and we certainly wouldn’t want that to happen while you’re, uh...blessing yourself down there.

Yes, there are sites out there touting the joys of crystalline sex, and some site especially recommend particular stones, like Jade, but it is in your best interest to avoid this practice.

You wan’t to put a crystal phallus where the sun don’t shine? Be smart - get a Pyrex glass toy from your local shop, or even a ‘melt’ or ‘smelt’ glass that has been carved. There are much safer, although still potentially porous and breakable, they CAN be cleaned using toy cleaner and CAN be boiled for sanitation.

Safety first, folks.

ADDED NOTE: This also applies to 'yoni eggs' made of stone and crystal. If you want to strengthen your pelvic muscles, get stainless steel or pyrex, there's many SAFE options for you online!