Totally skipping last week. J is for Jacuzzi Magick!!

Seriously. Who doesn't love jacuzzis??!

It is a pure crying shame that there is a jacuzzi in my own bathroom and yet I rarely use it, mostly because of the sheer amount of water required to fill it up. And I was brushing my teeth this morning, thinking these thoughts along with the fact that I hadn't done a PBP post for the past two weeks (oops) and I suddenly realized, I'd never really heard anything about jacuzzi magick or lore or anything.

A jacuzzi is basically a modernized version of a hot springs with lots of mini geysers. Most people would automatically tag an elemental association as water, however, the jacuzzi is uniquely poised to be associated with all elements: water fills it, air bubbles flow through it to make it jacuzzi-y and awesome, heat is applied (fire?) and of course, the jacuzzi itself is the vessel that holds it all together. So if you're doing any sort of elemental workings, it would suit particularly for water, or for a balance of all four elements.

I'm not big on spell-writing, nor too good at ritual writing, but I am decent at offering suggestions on what to do with things! So here are some ideas for using a jacuzzi in your magickal workings:
--Cleansing energy work, since jacuzzis are essentially a bath and baths are for cleaning
--Relaxation, meditation
--Beauty energy work, particularly if you also indulge in a facial and hair mask, and really let the steam set in and open everything up :)
--For energy working that may involve a hot spring of any sort, a jacuzzi is a more accessible (and sometimes safer) way of working with these energies.
--Love and sex energy work, to heat things up a little ;D
--Releasing and banishing. If you sit in the water and meditate upon shedding all of your cares into the water, then pull the plug, everything will release down the drain.

Pretty much any bath magick can be performed in a jacuzzi, except for one warning: any herbs, spicies, oils, or any form of additive to the water might gunk up or harm the motors in your jacuzzi. Don't ruin your jacuzzi. It's probably super expensive.

Love,

<3 Sapphire Orchid <3

Pagan Blog Project: I is for Imagination!

This was my most fun post to do so far. :)

When my friends and I were about middle school age, we discovered Wicca. This led us into a whole slew of experimental things: spells, rituals, scrying, meditation, but the most vivid, fond memory I have of this point in our lives was past life regressions.

We would sit there in the dark at sleepovers, bathed in candlelight, and Person A would lay her head on a pillow, Person B would sit and stroke the forehead of Person A, and Person C would hold her hand, helping to ground Person A. B would then talk A down into a trance, open doors, and ask questions about who the person is, what's going on around them, etc.

The friends who thought it would be dumb were always the ones who got really into it, and pulled past lives out of their psyche that they simply could not have made up. They always wowed themselves. Others would be skeptical, and say, "Well, how do you know I'm not just making this up?"

This is where the notion of imagination comes in. When you are past-life regressing, scrying, divining, astral-projecting, are you just making it up, even if you think or worry that you might just be making it up? I know I have a hard time quelling the skeptic in me. You may just think you're imagining things and that what you're experiencing isn't truly real.

I have two approaches to answer this issue, based on the same principle, however, to bridge the gap between imagination and reality. First: are they so different? If you are imagining something, who is to say that the thing you are "imagining" is not real? Define real. Define imagination. You probably said something like, well, real things are tangible things you can feel. Desks are real because you can feel them. Smells are real because you can smell them. The problem with this is that reality doesn't equal tangible, necessarily. Emotions aren't primary physical (even though they induce physical responses) but they are real. Ideals are real, such as beauty, justice, truth, even though the definition thereof may vary from person to person. Just because something isn't tangible doesn't mean it isn't real.

Everything that happens to you happens in your mind. Tangible things are really inside your head: your hand physically touches the desk, but your mind is what feels the desk, through the conduit of your brain. Shoot some Novocaine into your hand, and you can touch the desk all you want, but you can't feel it because it's not making its way to your mind.

Therefore: what is in your mind is real to you. Your mind defines your own reality. Some realities are shared: you can touch a desk together with someone else. Other realities aren't shared: perhaps you don't like desks and the other person loves desks; how you feel about things is a part of what defines reality. This is a different reality for you, but each reality is equally valid.

Therefore, again: anything you imagine is real... possibly only to you, albeit, but still real.

Second argument: Let's say you spend some time on the Astral plane and hanging out with some faeries, and you come back to the physical plane and disbelieve the entire thing, dismissing it as, "Oh, that wasn't real, I just must have made it all up inside my head."

BUT who is to say that reality does not impress itself upon your memory and imagination? Who is to say that you have that much control to make up such a rich environment yourself? Is your imagination really yours? Or do you draw the things you imagine from things that already exist, that already happened? Is it even possible to imagine something that doesn't exist? Imagine a color that doesn't exist. Imagine a shape that doesn't exist. It's almost like you can't imagine something without it existing, or at least with the idea of it existing.

So next time you're imagining something wishing it were real, who knows? Maybe it is, somewhere.

Love,

<3 Sapphire Orchid <3

Reading Challenge and Elemental Magick

Tim had two books on Elemental Magick lying around, so I thought I'd give them a peek. They are as follows:

Elemental Magick by DJ Conway aaaaaaaaaaand...

Elemental Witch by Tammy Sullivan.

I quite fancied both of them. I had done a post on air magick previously, even though I'd never really personally worked with air magick too much, I really just thought of various items and practices that rely on the use of air, and thought, wouldn't it be neat to work this into a practice?

Each chapter in both books focuses on one of the elements, with DJ including Spirit, which I also found helpful. Tammy's setup is as follows: each chapter gives an explanation on what kind of personality traits, interests, skills, and positive and negative attributes a Water Witch/Fire Witch etc might have. She then continues with elemental lore, including aspects of nature and creatures that align with each element (i.e. Crossroads for Earth, Birds/Bees/Butterflies for Air, etc.), including explanations and myths. The next section for the same element includes practical uses, using the element in different states of being (i.e. sea, snow, ice, rain, wells, etc for water), some useful items and recipes associated with the element, and finally, correspondences.

DJ structures her chapters slightly differently. She begins each elemental chapter detailing how the element relates to us, and a little bit of lore. She briefly touches on correspondences, and then transitions right into a detailed list of elementals, spiritual beings and mystical creatures associated with the element. The final part of each chapter consists of a guided meditation (that you can record onto a CD if you wish) and spell recipes.

If I had to compare the two, I have to say, I really truly enjoyed Tammy's book. DJ's was good, and I liked all the detailed exploration of a wide range of different elemental beings, but I felt like Tammy's writing offered more varied information, instead of just focusing on beings and spells. Tammy gave more imagery that gives you an aesthetic sense of the element, while still touching on a practical side. I really enjoyed her writing and insight.

For future reading, Sullivan's Pagan Anger Magick: Positive Transformations from Negative Energies looks particularly interesting. Not many Pagans would want to come close to exploring that area, since anger is so unpredictable.

There are most certainly some books by DJ Conway that I very much want to read.  I've read By Oak and Ash and Thorn, and Celtic Magick. I'd like to read Moon Magick, Norse Magick, Magickal Mermaids and Water Creatures, the Ancient Art of Faery Magick, A Witch's Travel Guide to Astral Realms, and a whole bunch of others.

Anyway. READ THESE BOOKS! They're awesome. (I actually paused writing this and started reading a Witch's Travel Guide to Astral Realms already on Google Books! It's neat. Read it.)

<3 Sapphire Orchid <3

Pagan Blog Project Week 3 - B is for Beauty

I'm gonna try to make this one kinda short today, since I'm writing two posts today for the past few weeks in order to catch up to 'C' for tomorrow.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. There's a lot of different definitions, opinions, and ideas about beauty, but there has to be some way that we can relate beauty to the spiritual, right?

Beauty is flowers.

Absolutely. Even from a metaphysical perspective, beauty is important. The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer has done extensive writing supporting his concept of the Will, which he considers to be an underlying existence that moves everything that we do, in cycles of desire and obtainment, desire and obtainment. Aesthetic contemplation, he says, quells the Will for the moment, allows us to be free of desire, and puts us at temporary peace. This is because art is our way of attempting to make pure concepts into a material form of understanding, and thus it soothes us.

 Beauty is simplicity.

We actively seek out beautiful things. We strive to look beautiful ourselves, wear beautiful clothes, make our hair beautiful, fill our homes and altars with beautiful things, treasure beautiful works of art, and listen to beautiful works of music.

 Beauty is an old photograph of siblings.

There are several theories for why we do this. The first is that we wish to give pleasure to ourselves or to others, and beautiful things give us pleasure. That's a simple explanation.

 Beauty is juicy and tasty.

Another reason, and my favorite one so far, is that we may seek out beauty is because beautiful things inspire us to make other beautiful things, in a cycle of creation that makes us feel like we are touching the divine, touching our ancestors, touching the world, touching all of these things that led to our own existence and creation. Beautiful things inspire us to the creativity process. Creativity is divine in and of itself. Creation of beautiful things celebrates the universe, god, goddess, and oneness within ourselves.

 My dog doesn't actually meditate. I just like this picture.

Some modern religions try to quell the beautiful things in life. Muslims (and technically Christians too, with the 2nd Commandment) are forbidden from outright creating art, and so they (cleverly) use their aesthetically-pleasing Arabic script to create beautiful works of art. While they find the way around this, it still is a philosophical advising against attachment to art and beauty.

 Sometimes, beauty is desolate.

Christians are often encouraged to not be too attached to earthly, beautiful things, as they will not last. I find that delicateness, the ability to be destroyed, and the idea that beauty will not last forever is exactly a reason to treasure it while it lasts. Even if you create the most beautiful artwork in all of the world and burn it, then perhaps its purpose was to only be enjoyed by you. Perhaps it is the more beautiful in that you alone have experienced it. (Just -- don't burn or destroy other people's artwork unless you've asked them first, cause that's kind of mean.)

 Most of all, Beauty is Nature.

Enjoy beauty everywhere. Here are some suggestions to add beauty to your circles:
--Artwork Meditation. You can use someone else's artwork or your own as a meditative tool. Stare at the artwork from several distances. What do you see? Are you looking at the whole picture, or zooming into details, or switching back and forth? What can you learn from this artwork, and from its beauty? What does it make you feel?
--Music. Incorporate recorded music into your ritual, if you haven't already. There's a LOT you can do with this.
--Create your own artwork. Who says you can't sculpt, paint, watercolour, sing, play instruments, collage, or even randomly sling paint onto a canvas in circle? Create art with the deity.
--Bodypaints. Naked. It's a lot of fun, and you can put a lot of temporary beautiful things on your beautiful body! Especially fun when done with your partner.
--Physical Objects. Sure, you've used flowers, gemstones, beautiful statues or figurines, foods, beads, feathers, and other such objects ritually before. Why not create a ritual still life with them? Pop out your camera, and take some shots, or just take a mental picture.
--Gingerbread Yule House? That sounds pretty awesome to me. Pretty looking, AND pretty tasting. And, yes, flavors and scents are beautiful too.

I'm sure that there's more things you could think of, or more things you already do, so go do something beauteous today! Celebrate your divineness with beauty. DO IT NAOO!!!

Love,

<3 Sapphirescent <3

Pagan Blog Project Week 2 - A is for Air

This is my week two for the wonderful Pagan Blog Project, and I have chosen to do a brief rambling on Air, and then suggest some creative ways to celebrate air in ritual, spellwork, circle, or even just everyday life!

So air. It's pretty awesome. The funny thing about air is, it's invisible, you wouldn't know it was there unless you really paid attention, and yet it's the most immediate need we have. When you're underwater about to drown, all you think about is air. If you hold your breath for a few minutes, you'll pass out. Sure, after you get your air, you'll need all of the other things in some order, but air, breath is the first giver of life, the first thing we look for to make sure someone's still alive. (Unless you check the pulse first, shup.)

And you know what's funny? The first thing I think of when I think of air is Libras. You'd think that my first thought would be something romantic like the breeze, or something. Not that Libras aren't romantic, of course. I'm just saying. Air is the Libra's sign, after all, and it generally manifests itself in Libras, Geminis and Aquariuses as a sense of charm, wit, and intelligence, all of which lead to a talkativeness, which kind of makes sense because we use air to talk.

Air is light, air is free, air is constantly moving. You can't hold it down, you can't tie it to anything, and yet it's all around you, cradling your body and warming itself in your lungs, bringing you delicious smells of whatever is cooking near you, providing the basis for your speech and laughter, and playing gently with your hair when it whooshes on by. It's almost got a certain innocence, and a certain playful knowing about it. If your rituals are always too solemn for whatever reason, try incorporating some air symbols into it.

And you know what? Smoke from incense isn't the only way to invite the element of air into your circle or into your life. Try some of these:
--Fans. Flick fans around, maybe even ones that have been dabbed with (hopefully naturally) scented oils to stir up air energy. Use essential oils that were diluted into a carrier oil for best effect. (Synthetic fragrance oils are not as awesome.)
--Blow. Not like that. Literally, blow air out of your mouth. Cleanse your house by blowing in the corners of each room (watch out if it's dusty, lol), or infuse something with your own energy by blowing air on it. (Just don't 'infuse' any*one* with your air energy unless you have permission AND your breath smells awesome.)
--Blow Bubbles! Seriously, who doesn't love bubbles? Blow some bubbles around the circle. Be a kid!
--Balloons! In the same light, balloons are pretty awesome air tools, even just as decorations. Just don't inhale TOO much of the helium, k?
--Silky BellyDance Scarves. Flutter a few of these around in the air; they're so pretty, so much fun, and so... airy!
--An electric fan with Silky Streamers or Ribbons tied onto it. If you have electricity near your circle, you could just set up a few of these with streamers tied onto the cage thingy around the blades. Just be VERY careful that the streamers don't get caught up in the blades, cause that might start a fire. And you're wanting to add air into your circle, not an electrical fire. Seriously.
--Paper planes. I know, we're getting a little corny now, but honestly, it's fun if you've got a few people in a circle and you're just having a massive all-out paper plane war. Giggles galore.
--Singing, speaking, chanting, or even just conscious breathing are all air-oriented and ways to celebrate the existence of air in your life.
--If you're feeling adventurous, you can totally honor air by riding a roller coaster, bungee jumping, or skydiving. Seriously, breeze blowing in your face, free-falling through the air, it's TOTALLY a study in air-full existence. Yeah, it's not in a circle, but screw it, man! Isn't that one of the fun things about being Pagan? Discover the divine and spiritual in everything, even the mundane, supposedly un-spiritual, and 'strictly' recreational. Make your life spiritual, but also make it fun!!
--Use one of those wine aerator machines? Alright, alright, now we're stretching a bit. :P

I hope this has been kind of fun for you to read. Stay airy.

<3 Sapphirescent <3

ZOMG PAGAN BLOG PROJECTTTT!!!!!!! January 6th - A is for Afterlife.

As stated last time, I'm very interested in becoming part of the Pagan Blog Project! A lot of times, I feel like I could be more connected to my spirituality by writing about it, which I almost never do. So, bombs away! Let's see if it works, and what I learn! Wahey.

OK for my first blog post, I wanna run some ideas by you about the Afterlife, since this particular thing came up in conversation with some of my co-workers, and I love thinking and speculating on things that I can never know until I experience them.

Most modern religions (Christianity, Judaism, Islam, etc) feature the afterlife as a prime goal, and according to their philosophy, there is actually a pretty good reason for this: modern religions feature a Deity from whom we are 'separated' and must get back to through actions, belief, etc. Thus, the afterlife for them is framed as this state of being 'reunited' with Deity and finding a place of pleasure, peace, and probably rest. (Unless you're Muslim, and then you're probably not resting at all with those hundred virgins around! ;) srsly.)

I reject this specific notion of afterlife for two reasons: 

1. My personal beliefs as a Pagan are such that Deity is not separate from us, but is constructed of the Universe, of which we are all a part. So technically, you are a piece of Deity, and that which we refer to as "Gods" or "Goddesses" are simply symbolic manifestations that represent part of our experience in the Universe. (Note to any non-Pagans reading: This does not mean that all Pagans believe what I believe. Pagan is a very wide umbrella, and includes people of many belief systems.)

2. The second reason, is that as a part of the Universe, we are both individuals, and we are not, and this affects what happens to our spirit/soul energy when we move on from this world.

Let me explain that last bit. As far as we can tell, both scientifically and spiritually, the Universe runs in cycles. We see this manifested from the tiniest cell to the largest of galaxies. So let's talk death from a physical, natural perspective for a moment. When you die in a natural environment, what happens? Your body breaks down from causes such as bacteria, weather conditions, or even animals that might rip your arm off to carry it away and eat it. All the atoms and molecules in your body are recycled, and used by other organisms. That arm goes to feed a tiger, and so contributes to its molecular structure. Maybe another part of you is munched on by bacteria, and then the leftovers become soil, which nurtures a tree. Your body essentially becomes other bodies, and does not remain whole.

I am of a mind that soul energy does the same thing: when you die, it returns to the Universal 'collective' (for lack of a better word) of soul energy, and as new living beings are born, then random pieces of soul energy are used from the 'collective' to fulfill the life requirement. Thus, you are reincarnated, but your entire soul probably will not be reincarnated wholly into another being. Part of you might be mixed with other soul parts to become this living thing, another part might go towards this other living thing, etc.

This may be why people have flashes and sections of past life memories, without having entire lifetimes of previous existences floating around in their psyche. (Not that this can't happen -- it's just rarer.) It also would explain why you wouldn't have past life experiences from every being that's ever contributed to your soul: maybe some parts of your soul were sitting around longer than the fresher, newer parts. It also would explain why, if you were reincarnated, why do you not have all similar personality traits, necessarily? (Barring the nurture part of Nature vs Nurture, anyway.)

So that's my first blog post! Yay! This is exciting. Tune in (tomorrow?) for the 1/13 Other "A" blog post before we move on to B!!!!!!!

Love, Dreams and Steampunk,

<3 Sapphirescent <3

(No, I haven't worked any on that awesome sexy signature graphic yet. Sue me :P lol)