So, it's been a long time since I've blogged anything. And my life has changed a lot since then. I've moved, made a lot a wonderful new friends, found a community that accepts me and although my life is far from Utopian perfection, I am in general a much, much happier person now. And I owe all of it for finding the right spiritual path for me - Wicca. A wise person, whom I love to the moon and back suggested that I create a blog to journal about my spiritual experiences & ideas. And I'm finally taking that suggestion to heart. Many Witches keep what they call a Book of Shadows (BOS for short), that they keep all their notes in. These notes can be about spells or recipes, uses for herbs essential oils, experiences they've had in dreams or meditations and so on. So, I have decided to take the traditional BOS idea and turn it into a Blog. Mostly for self preservation. It'll be much easier for me to search for a tag in my blog posts than trying to read my chicken scratch if I can't remember what else goes in that Basil Healing Tincture. I am aware that this is not a new concept, that other Wiccans and Pagans have done this too.
That being said, I have decided that rather than starting completely over from scratch, I have redesigned my blog for this singular purpose. That being said if the topics of Wicca, Paganism, Spell Craft and other Metaphysical subjects are offensive to you, you may want to stop following. I am welcome to answer any questions that you might have as long I have the proper knowledge to answer them or I will direct to you a good source of information. But I will not tolerate any insults or rudeness. Basically, stay if you will, go if you must, Blessed Be.
Briefly, Wicca is an earth based spiritual tradition. We honor and live by the many cycles of nature. I believe nature is the ultimate state of balance. I believe that there is both a Goddess and God. Natures shows us all the time that it takes both Male & Female energies to create & sustain life. We follow the Cycles of the Moon and use those cycles to help us determine the right time to take action on projects or to let go of things that no longer are serving our lives in a positive manner. Our "holidays" are called Sabbats. There are eight of them together, they form what we call the Wheel of the year. Each Sabbat represents a step in the constant cycle of nature from birth to death to rebirth and all the steps in between. Another major piece of the Wicca puzzle is everyone has an inherent ability to physically, emotionally and spiritually heal ourselves and others and the world at large using our own inner power, and energy. We all do this this in different ways, spell work, herbs, aromatherapy, crystals, Reiki, Feung Shui, etc . . . And I'm sure I'll blog about that in more detail in the future.
There are many sects of Wicca, just as there is in Christianity. Christianity has Methodists, Lutherns, Presbyterians, Catholics etc . . . Wicca has was we call "traditions" Gardenarians, Alexandrians, Faery, Aquarian Tabernacle along with many others. They all have the same basic belief systems for the most part, but variations on how they actually practice their craft. The Tradition I've chosen to follow & study is the Temple of Witchcraft, which was founded in the late 1990's by Christopher Penczak.
The Temple has a five year program for becoming an ordained Priest or Priestess. I have finished my first year and a day course called The Inner Temple of Witchcraft and have been initiated as First Degree Priestess and an official member of the Temple of Witchcraft Church. Which probably doesn't meal a lot to most people. But I'm so proud of myself. I came from a place of deep dark depression and self-loathing and am now in a place of enlightenment and emotional healing. This first year truly changed my life, by giving me the tools to empower myself. I am currently half way through my second year of training, called The Outer Temple of Witchcraft and will be using this blog to records my experiences as I complete the coursework and exercises necessary to be initiated into the second degree. I will also be going back and recounting experiences from my first year and re-doing some of the exercises to master them for my own posterity. I am excited about what I've already accomplished and about my future and look forward to the rest of my journal. I welcome all who want to come along for the ride.
Brightest Blessings to all,
Sunshine
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