Friends,

Since last I wrote here it has been a busy and somewhat eventful Yuletide and we have slid into the New Year.  Not, sadly, without some fresh outrages and alarming events here in the US.  There is a lot to discuss and or unpack recently, so I will be doing a separate post about the events of January 6th 2021 at the US Capitol and it’s ongoing aftermath. So general notes on the Journey…

I last sent word to you here on the …wow… 8th of December?! 

Fair warning, I have a tendency to turn inward this time of year around the Winter Solstice.  Understandable given I spent the first thirty something years in my home state of Alaska… four hours daylight on the Winter Solstice… well its definitely added some personal interpretations to my spiritual and religious journey.  I know that for many Samhain is a spiritual New Year, but for me the Winter Solstice has always been the turning of the year.

On the more personal level I’ve slacked off terribly from regular journaling and writing here and elsewhere in favor of a lot of me time and some Instagraming, and giving some serious thought about what I want for myself, my family (including the extended and sometimes far flung group of people I think of as members of my personal tribe or family of choice), and for my home.  Housework and a bunch of magick and magickal experimentation mixed in with it as well. A good part of what I have been doing is looking at my practice and Craft and the ways I am relating to my self and my needs, rereading the lore and how I relate to it.

Brooms and cords and measures were a piece of my Yuletide and New Years Full Moon work. Now, for me, a broom should be both a practical tool for cleaning, and a magickal tool for works of magick and spirit.  On a practical cleaning level with a tile floor and a concrete patio a couple or more brooms are a necessary thing to have around the house to clean dirt and outdoor debris.  On a magickal level going between the worlds and clearing the way for blessings and cleaning up the spiritual debris of any household strife of the past.

Now I know that the widespread introductory lore is that if it is a magickal tool you should not use it for mundane purposes lest you profane it, or in order to emphasize to the deepest parts of mind and soul that said tool is for such-and-such and to help empower the tool and your magick and to keep it from the hands and energies of others.

For some tools this makes a tremendous amount of sense, at the same time there is a bunch of magickal lore that came into contemporary Witchcraft from the Ceremonial Magick crowd.  Not a bad thing, but a thing worth acknowledging and thinking about.  The archetypes are similar after all, but when we look at the Magician and at Ceremonial Magick one of the things that tends to stand out is that Magicians had money or sponsors. Witches were often doing what they could with what they had available. Then too, one sees a tremendous amount of witch-tips in social media and books about how ‘in a pinch’ one can use a pen as a wand, or that blessing water in a random cup is still blessed water, or to cut ties with someone who is toxic in the workplace one can hold a pair of scissors and symbolically ‘cut the cords’ that tie them to you. Preferably discretely and symbolically after they’ve walked away…. cutting the air between oneself and ones malefactor in the moment could end up involving HR after all!

With this in mind, there are some items that it makes sense to have multiple blessed and consecrated versions of AND some of the tools that it makes sense to use in matters both mundane and magickal. So far this has worked well for me.

I even crafted a Broom Oil for blessing!

So having crafted this oil, I anointed a small cinnamon broom, and the well worn household broom of straw, and did some house cleaning. Moving first widdershins around the space, I swept up the dirt and dust and assorted stuff off the tile floors, I also sort of reeled in the energy of every disappointment, every resentment, every insecurity, every self-doubt, every instance of self-trash talk, and basically every ounce of drama and any and all forms of negativity that I or anyone else may have left behind as I swept up the dirt. Sweeping it out the back door. I rested for a moment, having done my utmost to reclaim all of that energy, and clean the heck out of my place.

Then I took up my Chalice (the personal fancy Witches one, cause sometimes one needs to bring out the formal tools after all) and having filled it with some cool filtered water from the fridge, I blessed it and cleansed it. Then I took several deep breaths and willed all the ‘negative’ energy I had cleaned/pulled in from my space into the water in the chalice. I thought about so many things from the last year or two as I let the energy flow from me into the water, arguments, periods of depression, the occasional fight or drama… everything associated with all of the incidents that I put that energy into over the last couple of years.

Once I felt as if I had emptied myself of it all I took another breath or two, and then raised it high, cleansing and consecrating and blessing the water and the energy within of all impurities that I might work wonders, and then I drank it down; reclaiming a bunch of energy I had essentially wasted on stupid things as well as trying to heal myself of some of my past pains and struggles and hydrating cause that too is important!

All of the above was then followed by moving deosil around the space with some incense to bless and cleanse things further, and then deosil again trying to get things organized and decluttered. Or noting where else I need to do that sort of work, because I am still tiring easily some times after my hospitalization.

……..

So in addition to contemplation and Craft, some of my absence has been due to some changes in my job life, transferred to a new location that is closer to home and has a different regular schedule so there has been a period of adjustment.  Things seem to be going well so far and I am looking forward to the reduced commute time. At the same time the last time I was at this work location it was an incredibly stressful and difficult place to be and to work, and I sometimes find myself reacting to the memories of the past their as much as I am to the present moment.

Don’t worry, I am also working on that!

Overall, I am looking forward to a New Year with it’s own opportunities and challenges.

May it be so for each of you as well.

Peace,

Pax / Geoffrey