You Have the Right

Published by Mistic under Personal, Spirituality, Wicca on February 18, 2007

I have friends that send me the emails that circulate the net and most are pretty silly, fake, or useless. They end up in my trash. But every once in a while you get something cute, fun, or interesting. Today a friend sent me something thought provoking and I liked it so much that I decided to copy it here.

1. You have the right to put yourself first sometimes.
2. You have the right to make mistakes.
3. You have the right to be the final judge of your feelings.
4. You have the right to have your own convictions.and opinions.
5. You have the right to change your mind or decide on a different course of action.
6. You have the right to protest unfair treatment or criticism.
7. You have the right to negotiate for change
8. You have the right to ask for emotional support or help
9. You have the right not to take other people’s advise.
10. You have the right to say, “No.”
11. And you have the right not to take responsibility for anyone else’s problems or bad behavior.

Whats a Pagan Recon

Published by Mistic under Spirituality, Wicca on February 14, 2007

Pagan Reconstructionists, or more commonly referred to in the Pagan Community simply as Recons, is a fast growing movement within Paganism. For the past ten years really, the Recons have been steadily growing as the undercurrent in popular Paganism. While the status of the Pagan Community continues to evolve here in America, it is the Recons who will become the balance point for the popularity of the Wiccan movement.

So, what is a Pagan Recon? Well, Pagan Recons are those who strive to practice their faith as closely as possible to the original way in which their chosen pre-Christian faith Pagan culture practiced. They study all there is to know about their chosen path from historical documents to archeological evidence. Recons go beyond what is touched upon by Pagan Eclectics and search for the actual facts of what is known about their chosen faith. Some Recons only establish the historical evidence for their religious practices while other Recons chose to live their daily lives as closely as they can to the way in which their chosen pre-Christian people lived. Recons do not believe or follow any practice unless there is historical or archeological evidence to support it.

The largest group within the Pagan Recon faiths is that of the Celtic Reconstrictionists. What is interesting to note is that while Celtic Recons maybe the largest and fastest growing chapter of the Recons it is also one of the hardest ones to reconstruct. Some believe that the popularity of the Celtic Recons is due to the borrowing of many Celtic concepts within various other Pagan faiths. Many Pagan faiths have Celtic elements to them but to the Celtic Recon that does not make it a Celtic faith; the same can be said for other Recons as well. It is often a sore spot with Recons, who strive academically to be accurate with their faith to have another Pagan faith borrow only a few elements and give it the title of one tradition or another. The various types of Recons that exist today grow mainly, but not always, out of the inclusiveness of other Pagan faiths.

The following is a list of the most popular Reconstructionist religions:
Hellenic-Greek Recons
Roma Nova-Roman Recons
Romuva-Slavic Recons
Kemetic-Egyptian Recons
Celtic Recons
Germanic Recons
Norse Recons
Sumerian Recons

Pagan Reconstructionism isn’t for everyone but if you feel that becoming a Recon is the right path for you then there are some things you will have to take into consideration. Like many Pagan paths, you have to be prepared to devote a certain amount of time study and research. Being a Recon takes a commitment to the pursuit of knowledge and you have to be willing to do the work. Calling yourself a Recon and being a Recon are two different things and if you don’t do the work you will quickly be found out by those in Pagan Recon Community who do. That being said there are plenty of Recons who are willing to share their knowledge and discuss their chosen paths with those who are new to the Pagan Reconstructionist way of life.

If you would like to learn more in general about the Pagan Reconstructionist faiths a good starting point would be to visit your local library to bone up on history and then check out The Witches Voice at www.witchvox.com to find Recon groups or individuals in your area.

This article is © Laura Jean Karr 2005

Knowing Your History

Published by Mistic under Personal, Spirituality, Stregheria, Wicca on February 6, 2007

I love the Daily OM, I got this one today…. perfect for me, it hit home.

Today’s DailyOM brought to you by:
http://www.dailyom.com/cgi-bin/display/adspolink.cgi?iid=63&aid=2008

February 5, 2007

Unearthing Your Roots
Knowing Your History

Each of us is a piece of a larger puzzle. We are all born into the unique and complex network of individuals, settings, and circumstances that constitute our heritage. Whether or not you are aware of your ancestors, you family’s country of origin, the cultural history of your people, or the trials faced by the people responsible for bringing you into the world, these forces have had a hand in shaping your values. Knowing your family history and reflecting often upon your own personal history as it relates to your heritage empowers you to look at your life in a larger historical context and to understand that you are a vital part of an ongoing drama greater than yourself.

Researching your heritage can prepare you to meet the future. The traits of your ancestors can give you insight into how your character has developed and the beliefs that form the foundation of your worldview. The knowledge you gain can help you appreciate your values and your character, giving you the confidence to be more expressive where both are concerned. At a cellular level, you carry a genetic code from your family determining things like how you age, your blood type, and personality traits. But as a spiritual being you bring in what you chose to do with that genetic coding, your free will. Unearthing your heritage is not simply about uncovering who did what when or reconnecting with long-lost relatives. Rather, it is a method of building self-awareness and bridging the gulf that divides your past from your future.

In researching our individual histories, however, we may encounter relatives who made interesting choices or were involved in traumatic events. It’s easy to overestimate the importance of these pieces of our past and to cling to them. Balance is key. While your heritage has influenced the development of the person you are today, you are more than an ethnicity, a culture, or a family name. You should not feel driven to alter your likes and dislikes, dreams, preferences, or values because you feel your heritage demands it. Knowing your history is about loving who you are, understanding where you’ve come from, and preparing for your future.

DailyOM Website: http://www.dailyom.com/

Words of Wisdom

Published by Mistic under Personal, Spirituality, Stregheria, Wicca on February 2, 2007

Over the years I’ve collected an extensive handwritten diary just putting in it Words of Wisdom that I felt a particular connection to. If I have a bad day, or a troublesome problem I go to that book its near me on my desk. It almost always helps me to re-focus my attitude. Just sharing as much as I could type up today before I have to get back to work LOL. All of these came from some source, some of which I no longer recall. Some sources are cited. The photo above I took with my crappy cell phone so the quality isn’t so good. It was from one of my vacations this past summer.

We must constantly seek to improve ourselves, because we create our own realities. We must out “expectations” on ourselves instead of other people.

Listen twice as much as you speak. You have two ears but only one mouth.

Allow yourself to be as you are. Allow other to be who they are.

We aren’t born with knowledge, we have to attain it. But it is the only thing we can take with us when we die.

All of our ancestors practiced religion without prophets or holy books.

Guilt is destructive instead of useful.

Spirituality is what you are, not what you do.

No one has ever promised you that you’ll get a “tomorrow” so we must accept each day as a gift.

If you persist at doing something, it will become easier.

Feel no need to defend your point of view.

When a person shows you who they really ARE, believe them the first time.

Repeating the same behavior will bring the same result.

You can’t bring home a dog and expect it to purr. We cannot change anyone else.

When you truly decide on anything, on any choice, then everything will fall into place.

If you aim at nothing then you will get it every time.

Either you control your own attitude, or it will control you.

What has happened to you in the past does not matter; only what you have done about it that counts.

It takes years to build trust, and only a few seconds to destroy it.

Sometimes we do not have to change friends, if we understand that friends just change.

Work SMARTER not HARDER.

A friend to all is a friend to none

Not every question deserves an answer.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Never explain: Your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it. - Victor Grayson

Without involvement, there is no commitment. Mark it down, asterisk it, circle it, underline it. No involvement, no commitment. –Stephen R. Covey

I am for freedom of religion, & against all maneuvers to bring about a legal ascendancy of one sect over another.” –Thomas Jefferson 1799

Effective communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know. - Jim Rohn

The world is full of willing people; some willing to work, the rest willing to let them. - Robert Frost

It takes humility to seek feedback. It takes wisdom to understand it, analyze it, and appropriately act on it. — Stephen R. Covey

If you really want to do something, you’ll find a way; if you don’t, then you’ll find an excuse. - Anonymous

People of mediocre ability sometimes achieve outstanding success because they don’t know when to quit. Most men succeed because they are determined to. - George Allen

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. - Walt Disney

I like thinking big. If you’re going to be thinking anything, you might as well think big. - Donald Trump

I have made the tough decisions, always with an eye toward the bottom line. Perhaps it’s time America was run like a business. - Donald Trump

Talk of nothing but business, and dispatch that business quickly. - Aldus Manutius

I mean, there’s no arguing. There is no anything. There is no beating around the bush. “You’re fired” is a very strong term.- Donald Trump

Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out. - Stephen R. Covey

People spend money when and where they feel good. - Walt Disney

Most people struggle with life balance simply because they haven’t paid the price to decide what is really important to them. - Stephen R. Covey

One worthwhile task carried to a successful conclusion is worth half-a-hundred half-finished tasks.- Malcom S. Forbes

We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be. And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of these assumptions. - Stephen R.

Marketing is not an event, but a process . . . It has a beginning, a middle, but never an end, for it is a process. You improve it, perfect it, change it, even pause it. But you never stop it completely. - Jay Conrad Levinson Covey

Don’t argue for other people’s weaknesses. Don’t argue for your own. When you make a mistake, admit it, correct it, and learn from it–immediately. - Stephen R. Covey

All things are created twice. There’s a mental or first creation, and a physical or second creation of all things. You have to make sure that the blueprint, the first creation, is really what you want, that you’ve thought everything through. Then you put it into bricks and mortar. Each day you go to the construction shed and pull out the blueprint to get marching orders for the day. You begin with the end in mind. - Stephen R. Covey

Effective people are not problem-minded; they’re opportunity-minded. They feed opportunities and starve problems. - Stephen R. Covey

Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing. - Abraham Lincoln

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. - Abraham Lincoln

It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues. - Abraham Lincoln

No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent. - Abraham Lincoln

You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today. - Abraham Lincoln

Ignorance, the root and the stem of every evil. - Plato

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something. - Plato

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. - Oscar Wilde

Illusion is the first of all pleasures. - Oscar Wilde

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. - Oscar Wilde

One is tempted to define man as a rational animal who always loses his temper when he is called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason. - Oscar WIlde

The basis of optimism is sheer terror. - Oscar Wilde

Spiritual Advancement Part 2

Published by Mistic under Spirituality, Wicca on February 1, 2007

This whole topic and original post I wrote came up as a discussion with a pagan friend of mine through email again this week. I am a deep creative thinker and very verbal by nature. (You should see my aura lol) Sometimes I need to write these things down and sort them through. My friend and I will agree and sometimes disagree (we have slightly different paths) but we’re open minded too so it can be fun to debate one another’s theories. We play the devil’s advocate route with each other, and ultimately it’s just babble, but it keeps us thinking. In the end it is just thoughts and ideas.

We’ve been talking now about what exactly spiritual advancement means, feels like, and how you can see evidence of it in your life. We created some interesting theories. So I am going to present here what we decided (at least as of late yesterday and we could change our minds as soon as we find a flaw in the theory again hehe) The example we set is of course based on our own experiences, but also what we have seen from other people in our lives. Ultimately it’s just opinions.

The Signs of Spiritual Advancement are simple (in our possibly brilliant minds)

Advancement shows itself to you in the mundane world. It’s the whole point, in essence, of healing and growing the spirit as well as magic for a Wiccan. Spirituality comforts the soul, but magic makes things happen. – that’s a basic principle in Wicca. You can notice the manifestations in your life and growth is always the key. It may seem vague but the basic premise is: Lesson, Growth, Advance, and Result. Perhaps we just get stuck on the lesson part and we never grow, and that’s maybe where we repeat the same mistakes etc. Advancement does show up in the little things too, the things sometimes you aren’t supposed to value first such as “money”.

If you want money out of greed to attain “status” then you won’t have it. If you want money too desperately you won’t have it. If you try to convince yourself too much that you “don’t need it” to be happy, then you still won’t have it. The truth is you have to earn it and work for it by doing both something you have a talent for and love. That’s the magic part. You must nurture your work and it can’t really be there to satisfy a dream or the ego. Sometimes we do work that doesn’t appear to have a “spiritual” value, but it is still something we enjoy or perform well at, which actually IS good for your own spirit. In your work you should see personal growth from it as each year passes… meaning that there is a lesson for you/your spirit in what you do. It’s how you know you are on the right path. Each year you should be able to look back and see what you have learned basically. By doing so, your income should increase from the growth. Maybe it happens differently for each type of job/career, but the result is some level of advancement and gain each year as you accept what you were supposed to. Spiritual advancement doesn’t make you “rich” financially, but being on the right path gives you what you NEED and makes sure you are comfortable monetarily by obtaining what you really earned to get what you WANT. Money CAN be a spiritual thing when you use it to help yourself, your family, and hopefully even others in some small way. Mundane work that challenges you is still spiritual.

Relationships are a sign of our spiritual advancement. Again we decided to look for the: Lesson, Growth, Advance, and Result. Sometimes you have to cut negative people out of your life, but you also have to remember that you have made some contribution to that negativity too so you must look back to grow forward. When you find yourself constantly changing friends and altering relationships with family then you have to look at yourself first to see why YOU aren’t really advancing. Your circle of people/relationships/friends should grow each year in some small way. It may result with literally new people or with stronger bonds to them.

Giving your children better then what you had is also a way of spiritual advancement. While finances play a certain part (mainly because as you advance, so do your comforts) they are surely not the only factor. Being a good parent means knowing when to yes, when to say no, when to make things easy, and when your child needs to have some adversity in their life to learn something. In the Tarot the Empress and the Emperor represent in a general sense, the parents. They aren’t pals or friends; they are serious about the job they do. Both are certain and in control of who THEY are – leaders. The Emperor in general is authority, and the Empress in general is nurturing. Spiritual Advancement as a parent means watching your child sometimes from a distance and seeing them become their own spirit.

Less equals more is also a sign of Spiritual Advancement. The example my friend and I used was within Wicca itself, but it could be any spiritual path most likely. We looked back to our beginnings in our chosen religion. We had to follow structured ritual, we had to get our hands on every Wiccan book seeking more, and we had to make every moment mean something. We were in essence TOO spiritual by always blaming Mercury Retrogrades on computer failures, always saying the moon was in the wrong phase, always reworking spells, and always buying new tools to represent what we sought. But spiritual advancements suddenly occur when you see the difference between what happens in the mundane world and what happens within the spiritual one. Living every moment too focused on the other worlds means you aren’t living in the mundane one, which is where you are supposed to be to obtain your lessons. One of the purposes of ritual is to remove yourself from the mundane world, that’s why you need the tools, the altar, the meditation, etc – it mentally focuses you into spiritual realms. But all ritual ends or should so, with some level of grounding work which means even the Goddess knows you have to get back to everyday living. Sometimes you just have to wash the dishes, fold towels, and have adult conversations that do not revolve around deep meaning, astrology, or the spiritual realm. Growth happens when you can also learn to let the spiritual world go and to do its thing without you over analyzing it. Simple acceptance is internal, not external.

Understanding the difference between your impulses and your instincts is also a major advancement. Both are very similar and often mistaken to be the same thing, which is our human flaw. But there is a major difference. An impulse is a feeling that causes us to make an action without forethought or evidence to support the feeling. Usually it is to satisfy an emotion rather than spirit. But an Instinct is a little like a sudden moment of enlightenment that is based upon “signs” or “evidence” that you experience. Instincts are a knowing rather than an “emotional” reaction. How to be sure? With instinct comes constant success, with impulse you get lucky….. sometimes. Instincts make situations BETTER while impulses do not, or do so only temporarily. Insticts help you grow, impulses are more like a quick fix.

Spiritually advancing (in our opinion) means never taking steps backwards in any area of your life because it means you aren’t growing. There is also a difference between “intention” and “action”, even in magic you need more then just an intention to make it work – spirit expects “action” too. One of my favorite old adages is “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” because intending to do good without actually doing it has literally no value to anyone, including ourselves. Intention alone is a backwards step in our spiritual progression. To me, it means we KNOW the right answer but we stubbornly refuse to DO what we know…. because of the ego, pride, or our own emotions. Intention is a very small part of our lives, our actions and reactions are of much greater value because you cannot succeed or fail on intention alone. Intentions are supposed to influence your decisions to make things happen, but they are just the spark. Good intentions do not create good things or good karma, unless they are followed through to a finale.

There are many more things I could add from my pondering with my friend and our interesting conversations. Today, this is what I had the time to write. I guess these are things everyone ponders when we look below the surface. The challenge to humans no matter what our path or religion is….. is when we ask ourselves; are we committed to “spiritual growth” or just to the behaviors of spirituality. Are we going through the motions or really seeing results?