Ostara 2013

Amidst yet another long and heavy snowfall came the Spring Equinox to Montreal. I wasn't the least bit surprised.

Now that the most recent snow piles have begun to melt under the strong sunlight of the longer days, things feel a bit lighter than they were during the winter months. Energies are rising and harkening life back to earth, and people are starting to put away their sweaters in favour of t-shirts. Flip-flop season is coming, my friends, and I can't wait. As a hater of boots and shoes in general, I can't wait to get my feet out in the sunshine and oxygen of the outdoors again. Better yet, I can't wait to be out on a beach somewhere with the soft grains of sand between my toes....but soon summer too will be upon us here in the northern hemisphere.

I'm working in more topics for my YouTube channel, and on actually donating the clothes, objects, and goods that I have which no longer serve me. It's something I've been meaning to do for some time, but as always, things get in the way and make it easier for me to forget. A few boxes of donations would free up a lot of space both in my personal space and in my mind, because then I wouldn't have to worry about the clutter anymore. Spring is really a great time to simplify life and I intend to do just that for the next few months until preparations for the summer begin.
I'm off to fill a few more boxes now, wish me luck!

Happy Ostara everyone!

Patrick's Prayer

I've always liked certain catholic prayers, and this one is begins with one if my favorite verses. Despite being Christian in origin, this is a very powerful prayer that can be easily adapted to a more pagan flavour. I've done that myself on many occasions, but I wanted to put the original here in honor of Saint Patrick's day today.

Emerald blessings everyone, and I wish you all the luck in Ireland, be you Irish or not.

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The Prayer of St. Patrick

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me;
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's hosts to save me
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a mulitude.

Christ shield me today
Against wounding
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through the mighty strength
Of the Lord of creation.

Fierce Creatures

Lately I've been thinking about men. Not in the obvious way (okay, maybe that way too) but mostly about how the reality of the male mind can really contradict the traditional image our North American society bestows upon the male contingency. I knew this partly to be true, but sometimes it takes experience to really believe these things. Now I've always thought very highly of men in general. They have a lot to bear emotionally, just as women have, but they display their emotions so differently than women do. It's not wrong to me, just very different, and of course I respect that. I've always believed in equality, so I've always been respectfully intrigued by men's responses to certain things, emotional situations being the most intriguing of all.
Even in some (most?) branches of Paganism, the male is seen as an impervious pillar of strength, sexuality, and wise know-all of manhood. The hunter/father/king complexity of characteristics all put together so as to personify male-dom. But sometimes in life you get close to a man and see the more hidden side, and most men I've known seem to prefer it that way. At times they do 'sweat the small stuff' as it were, despite their amazing resilience.
It's difficult to see men you admire for their unstoppable imperviousness get things under their skin while you watch helplessly in the background. As a woman, I want to talk things out and improve things through my gift of extended speech, but guys mostly just want to retreat into the impenetrable fortress of their minds and go into lockdown mode. To me this is both alarming and confusing as hell, but what is a female to do in these situations? Not much really. I'm finding out that the less you say, the faster man-wounds heal. I wish I had learned this sooner in life, but alas, we can only learn once we make mistakes I suppose.
To all those men out there I say to you- don't lose patience with women that need words to figure things out. If anything, your silence is just making us freak out more. We can't help it. I'm a culprit of this myself, and thankfully I now know better. Life lesson learned. Perhaps I need to learn more about men than I considered?

Mad As A March Hare ( And Other Rabbits)

I feel like the current mercury retrograde has caused me to lapse into a bout of laziness since the beginning of March, but that's not exactly a solid excuse for not posting for so long despite wanting to. I should probably blame the crazy schedule I've been on, and an 11 day bout of bronchitis that drove me nuts, but I won't. In fact, I'm not blaming anyone but my self for being lazy right now. Yes, I'm blaming myself, people, it's not the first time. But today I broke the cycle, so I feel good about that.
This month of March has been full of up and downs- crazy things just seem to appear out if nowhere once the winter thaw sets in. People start getting stir-crazy and hungry for action. I'm not going to go into more detail, but I'm feeling quite cabin-feverish myself right now. Planting some herbs and working on tarot should help my rut, though I think self-love and acceptance is the order of the week. We'll see.