I am so done with winter.
Usually February comes around and I'm excited. It's a short month, March is right around the corner, and sure we always get snow in March but we always get melting too and after that it's all downhill from there.
I don't know what it is about this February, but I am done. I feel not-good. Not sick, but not thriving. I've had a mild headache all week. I'm freezing all the time, and if I'm not cold I'm tired. Often, I'm both. I don't feel like eating. I mean, I never really feel like eating, but it's worse than normal. I don't know if it's because this is the first winter in awhile I've been stuck taking public transit, if it's winter cabin fever (even though it's brighter longer, I find myself craving sunlight), if it's my regular eating/energy issues piled with a side of an arse of a boss who's been worse than usual lately, or a combination of all of those things but I am blaming winter.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not sitting on my ass about this. I need to feel better in my body. The meal plan this coming week is for some dinners and work lunches that I actually enjoy rather than just eat, I want to try a new method of cooking salmon (which I used to love, but which has been downgraded to simply 'enjoy' of late), and I'm going to do my damndest to move my body this weekend.
But while I had a wonderful Imbolc with wonderful women who I am excited to be working and practicing with this year... I'm ready for it to be Ostara already.
Thursday 7 February 2013
Saturday 26 January 2013
Popping In
Just a quick post tonight! Thankfully my house has survived the cold snap and I have survived the commute. I am very glad that we are almost out of January though.
I didn't have time to write up an entry earlier in the week, but I have finally managed to procure what I need for my new prayer beads and what better time to string them up than a full moon? I should have a post later on next week with the beads and how I'm working with them.
For now, since I'm on the subject of devotionals, I will point you over to Dver for That Thing I Need to be Reminded Of (often.......)
I didn't have time to write up an entry earlier in the week, but I have finally managed to procure what I need for my new prayer beads and what better time to string them up than a full moon? I should have a post later on next week with the beads and how I'm working with them.
For now, since I'm on the subject of devotionals, I will point you over to Dver for That Thing I Need to be Reminded Of (often.......)
Friday 4 January 2013
In Endless Search of Prayer Beads
I have loved prayer beads for years. I love their beauty, the feel of them beneath my fingers, the comfort and power they accumulate through repeated use. Despite this, I have yet to create a set that has 'stuck'.
It's no secret that my practice has been in flux for some time. For years I struggled to find a balance in my solitary practice between diving into my tradition's pathworking and what my practice had been before.
It was my teacher who first introduced me to prayer beads. I created a lovely set as one of my first tasks as a dedicant. To this day they sit in the right pocket of my winter coat and I rub my thumb over them as I wait for the bus in the cold. But the gods they are dedicated to are not gods I work with any longer (or ever really did in my solitary work).
I've experimented a few different times since then. I made a set dedicated to Brighid for an e-course I was doing that had different beads for Her flame, Her well, Her forge, and a single large one for Her mantle. But while I have great affection for Brighid, she does not have a consistent place in my practice and attempting to add the prayer beads actually served to disrupt the flow of the devotions I was already performing for her.
I was also inspired by someone somewhere in the depths of the internet to create a set with one bead to each deity that I honour in my path. I eagerly started to collect them. Black for Hekate, wood for Demeter, blue glass for Poseidon, a key for Persephone, a shell for Aphrodite, a bear for my power animal, a quartz for the sibyls, bone for the ancestors, etc. But I realized before I even finished the set (let alone strung them) that it didn't feel like me.
And now I am in search again. An article on Witches' Voice turned me on to the idea of prayer beads as a reflection of ritual. A bead for purifying and grounding, one for each element, one for the God, one for the Goddess, etc. Through all my searching for a consistent spiritual home practice, my love of ritual has always held true. So today I think I will pull out my unfinished collection, see what beads can be repurposed for this new idea, and make a list of what I'm missing.
We'll see how it goes!
(The article that inspired this new attempt, by the way, can be found here. I'm not big on the whole ritual 'cheat sheet' thing, but the idea of prayer bead devotions as a microcosm of ritual is something I can get on board with.)
It's no secret that my practice has been in flux for some time. For years I struggled to find a balance in my solitary practice between diving into my tradition's pathworking and what my practice had been before.
It was my teacher who first introduced me to prayer beads. I created a lovely set as one of my first tasks as a dedicant. To this day they sit in the right pocket of my winter coat and I rub my thumb over them as I wait for the bus in the cold. But the gods they are dedicated to are not gods I work with any longer (or ever really did in my solitary work).
I've experimented a few different times since then. I made a set dedicated to Brighid for an e-course I was doing that had different beads for Her flame, Her well, Her forge, and a single large one for Her mantle. But while I have great affection for Brighid, she does not have a consistent place in my practice and attempting to add the prayer beads actually served to disrupt the flow of the devotions I was already performing for her.
I was also inspired by someone somewhere in the depths of the internet to create a set with one bead to each deity that I honour in my path. I eagerly started to collect them. Black for Hekate, wood for Demeter, blue glass for Poseidon, a key for Persephone, a shell for Aphrodite, a bear for my power animal, a quartz for the sibyls, bone for the ancestors, etc. But I realized before I even finished the set (let alone strung them) that it didn't feel like me.
And now I am in search again. An article on Witches' Voice turned me on to the idea of prayer beads as a reflection of ritual. A bead for purifying and grounding, one for each element, one for the God, one for the Goddess, etc. Through all my searching for a consistent spiritual home practice, my love of ritual has always held true. So today I think I will pull out my unfinished collection, see what beads can be repurposed for this new idea, and make a list of what I'm missing.
We'll see how it goes!
(The article that inspired this new attempt, by the way, can be found here. I'm not big on the whole ritual 'cheat sheet' thing, but the idea of prayer bead devotions as a microcosm of ritual is something I can get on board with.)
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