spiritwolf...

Tending the hearth...domestics....

For someone who cleaned other peoples houses for some ten years I am a grot in my own space, maybe because of cleaning other peoples houses for some ten years. When I cleaned with cloth, sponge and detergent, I also cleared space with smudging, incense and candles, so it was a bit of a double whammy, and no-one spoke up to say they were unhappy with the results. For myself though its a discipline, I procrastinate and dither about domestics. Once I actually start, then I go into a body state of just doing it and it becomes quite enjoyable. If the stereos cranked it helps.

The odd thing is I do love an ordered space, so whats the deal with avoidance of those dishes until they look like they might bite back, or crawl away. I believe its a phenomena known as 'put it off for a long time cos then when u do it, its a real transformation' and we all love transformation.  Thats why people pay other people to clean and clear for them. Its a version of backyard blitz, domestic blitz. You leave your home kinda at the point where u just dont have the energy to deal with it and call in someone else. Damn, wish I could do it every now and then.

I also did gardening jobs for a few people, just kind of organically happened from cleaning. One lady I worked for, Olive, was a classic. In her heyday having a gardener was for the fancy folk, so to her having me weeding away was an absolute luxury and when I was working in the front yard she took visible joy in introducing me, to as many people as possible, as 'her gardener'. Hilarious, but I digress....

Yesterday I whipper snipped all the lawns, which Ive nurtured by picking up leaves and storm blown stuff that would otherwise have smothered it fr months. Felt very suburban, but you know what, they looked better, clearer, like the ol place was loved. Bingo, thats what its about for me, an energy of lovin your space. Acknowledging the roof over my head, which is something not all folks have.

Home and hearth is virtually a mood ring for me. Ive had this theory verified by memebers of community mental health teams. They can get some insight into how someones going by visiting them in their own homes and observing what they see. Which i suppose is why it can be a form of  practice, to keep your space reasonably clear. Of course the version of 'reasonable' varies.

I love creative chaos, when your in deep midproject nothing else matters and this process is so full of life! Oh the joy of having my own space where I can leave a project half done and spend some time on another without having someone else say those words, 'put that away', 'have you finished with that?', 'tidy up after yourself'. To leave possibly inspiring texts and  materials strewn about in my visual space nurtures my makings, you never know where that'll lead. When I spent 6 weeks camping with my brother, we function in exactly the same way, what some would call chaos made sense to me. Lay it all out where you can see what you might need, makes it easy to find things.

Again its a juggle as to how much chaos or clean space is functional for how long. I know after I left a space clean and clear for someone, they'd walk straight back in and start making life mess. That's how come I'd be called back in a week or two to do it all again. Life is messy, on so many levels and to some degree we have to embrace it as such. Sometimes, infact I find that I overembrace...

The ritual act...

Ive been doing rather a lot of reading of late, as Ive been wanting to clarify my beliefs, and hence taking a look at how others approach both the many streams of witchcraft, and shamanism, as these are the practices Im interested in and feel drawn to. Exactly where one ends and the other begins could easily fill a book, probably has. So the learning is great, except that sometimes my head feels like its going to implode and I forget my own name. There's a reason certain paths have 'practices', because you need the doing to balance the theory, and the doing needs to be repeated.

Today I performed a consecrating ritual. It felt good to be in sacred space and connecting to some of the sources that inspire me, the shifted state. But it was a bit fumbled and made me realise I need to be doing it more often, to offer a chance for it to flow. I did however get half way through and realise I was speaking quite loud, rather than whispering, which was refreshing. Whats that about? I feel comfortable to fart or belch loudly, why not to speak words i hold to my heart? Old fears...

Like a Buddhist takes to the 'one seat', for me, a Witch works with ritual to connect to wisdom and honour its sources. The ability to still the mind and visualise are also crucial. A Green Witch, has another realm aswell, and that's nature. Sitting infront of a computer screen can be enlightening, but unless I'm absorbing nutrients from the world 'out there', like anything green, my roots get starved and I get a bit dead around the edges. Vague and ungrounded, which is not a state conducive to anything except losing leaves or new growth. Ritual requires focused intent. Focused intent creates more of the same. Not that Im a perfectionist or anything, but its a balance to be struck.

Im blessed with where I live. I can access the ocean beach in an easy stroll, there's bush close at hand and I have a garden that surrounds my home on all sides. Nature abounds, yet I have limited access to many of the herbs and wild foragings that form the basis of most literature, I'm having to create that from the ground up in my garden. This can be frustrating at times, but when I'm walking for an hour along the beach and seeing only a handfull of folks, I know Ive got it pretty damn good. Now that Ive started my perrenial herbs growing I'm a happier camper, and these are starting to blend nicely with local native vegetation planted out too. To learn the magic and medicine of indigenous plants, their lore, energy and uses can be tricky.

Im struck, the more I learn, by how many magical herbs reside in our kitchens. Kitchen Witch practices make good sturdy sense to me because of this. To make the preparation of food the centre of ones magic has been part of how the women in my family have nourished people for generations, they didn't call it that, but plain and simple lived it. My mum has it down. She can 'whip up' a feast in no time at all with no recipe required, infact I aint too bad meself, if a bit out of PRACTICE, being a solo dweller. My cats food prep is buy tin, open tin and feed, although she is partial to roo meat every now and then. Buy packet, open packet etc, no roo hunting allowed round these parts.

Alas it seems my reading has not wisened me by much, I suppose only the passing of time does that, but todays EXPERIENCE in sacred space has reminded me that gathering information and others stories is only part of the circle. The ritual act is where I connect with the reasons I began the journey in the first place. It is my prayer. It will be shifting and evolving till I die. Maybe even more so afterwards.....
 

The wheel turns...

Cailleach bheur....

It isnt her time of year on this side of the planet, yet, but the Cailleach Bheur is a winter being who will be in her element in the northern hemisphere.She comes to the fore as the days shorten and the sun sits low in the sky. This Irish and Scottish goddess will be carrying her staff with which to call in the frosts and snow, whilst keeping a watchfull eye over the wild animals. Perhaps its the 36 degree heat, she whispered in my ear and led my fingers today, whilst I researched her trail through tales told of megaliths and cairns built from stones fallen from her apron, tempests caused by the washing of her plaid. For me she is the wise untamed crone that asks us to stop, turn within, slow down and tend our metaphorical hearth fires.

Australian animals....

Making my book.....

Ive been writing herbal, mythology, magical researching type tangents and notes to self on bits and pieces of paper but wanted to unify them somewhere so I can have a record all together. Something special I can bless and consecrate. So yesterday i gathered the materials and instuctions to make myself a book of shadows or grimoire.  As people have done since clay tablets and bone carvings were the page.

Its a 'post bound' type which is kind of like a fancy folder, in that you can add, remove and rearrange pages no worries. Ive tried using bought sketchbooks and journals but ended up tearing pages out with the inevitable stuff ups, and changes in ideas. With this kind of book I can write, draw and paint out of the book on a flat surface and then hole punch it up and add it. The cover is burgundy leather that I scored for free at a garage sale because the 'good' side was all marked, I simply turned it over and used the 'back' of the leather which has a lovely soft texture. The design I drew a while back with laundry markers onto another piece of leather

thats been looking for a home and now found it on the cover. 
The book will take about 300 pages, so I bought 100 parchement type A4 pages and figure that should keep me off the streets for a fair while. Now I'm looking at my reading lists, for me I have to take notes for information to sink in and now i have somewhere to put them.
 The things a girl finally gets up to when she's 2 weeks off the cigarettes....

Some ponderings on Earthwitchery....

Earthwitchery, for me, evokes a practising of magic not of a high nature, but down and dirty, literally. Some may call it the Wise Woman Way, or being a Green Witch. An appreciation of the magics of compost, of gathering and growing things, of divination in the form of animals who cross our paths, of trance journeying, of brewing and ointments, crafting with intention, simple ritual, direct participation with nature, and learning to relate to the spirit in all things. Ways to nurture the Earth, and honour deity, acknowledging the aliveness, intelligence and wisdom of the green.

There is a kind of deeper quiet stillness that comes from being present with nature that poets and bards immortalise. Not that she is still herself, in fact her motions, seasons and tides are guaranteed to change and shift beneath our feet and around us. No stasis there...

Her body is my body is her body is my body as she heals I heal as I heal she heals her body is my body is her body is my body as she heals I heal as I heal she heals

Compost that’s going to break down without smelling baaad is a bit of an artform. It depends what goes into it, but if it’s going well, it smells sweet like leaf litter on forest floor and evokes all sorts of primeval ancestral recall. Earthwitchery is a bit the same for me, it feels like remembering. It’s a sensual bodily engaged experience. Give me scents, sounds and visuals through which to enhance relating to the world. The symbology of plants, animals and stones....

Plants have been with us for hundreds of thousands of years, feeding us, altering consciousness, healing and giving solace to the soul. Placed in Neanderthal graves have been found herbs still in use today, like yarrow. Every place on the Earth has its own knowledge and stories of local plant use. These, blended with personal experience offer a rich tapestry from which to draw. Much as some forces have tried to destroy such information, it persists. The earth witch works to stitch such pieces together, in her own unique way.

Wild crafting, and general scavenging for supplies, rock my world. My favourite medicines have been made from wild crafted herbs. Where I can approach a plant personally ask its permission to harvest, leave an offering as thanks, and know the place it’s come from. Although, I just brewed up an experimental batch of dandelion beer from store bought dried herbs, and that was also pretty satisfying. Any work, or play, with plants where you add energy into the mix creates feelings of integration. Through processing herbs into infusions, teas, tinctures, oils, incense, vinegars, beers or wines, we bring out their strengths and learn their talents.

“One great bonus of hedgerow cookery for me is the excuse to walk through peacefull, unspoiled countryside at my own pace, in my own time, exploring and discovering food plants in their natural habitat: what a world away from the bustle of shopping – and it has given a goal to a country walk. The sense of triumphant achievement as I come home laden with my unusual harvest of new fruits or vegetables to try out is unmatched- and season after season I still find it so.”

Rosamond Richardson in Hedgerow Cookery

“In the early days in this big wide open country, there was always healing cures here on the Land – the healing songs, fat, paintings and the healers- and its still the same now, even after all the old-time elders have passed on. The Land still has that power. The healing belongs to the country where it originated from, and belongs to the people of that country.”

    Veronica Perrurle Dobson in Arrente Traditional Healing

Even traditional hunter gatherers encourage the growth of favoured plants through practices such as fire regimes and spreading seed. It’s in our genes, and there’s something about tending to a garden, or wild place, that joins us when we caretake a plot, creating sanctuary for nature spirits and recognising sacred places. We become observant of change, and encouraging of growth, although decay will follow. Tis the way of life. Such things are marked, and given their honouring times, shadows not denied, but included as allies. Seasonal festivals and celebrations echo the cycles of life, death and rebirth that every life contains.

“What is needed, once you know about the timing, is to prepare a space for your own reception of the energies that are available. Give yourself time to dream and remember, allow some space for reflection and observation, stay awake! Whatever happens in your life at these particular times is oracular- it tells or shows you something. It presents you with messages, signs, and omens about your life.. Big dreams are likely to occur now, as well as other unusual psychic events. Synchronistic and magical happenings are possible, meetings with important others in your life, and so on”

                  Vicki Noble

I don’t partake internally of entheogens. I do try to grow and am fascinated by some of the source plants, especially the Solanaceae, or Banes, and I am partial to a beverage, or three. I choose repetitive rhythm to shift into trance in circle. This is the landscape where deity comes alive for me, becoming three dimensional, and the direct experience of information helps practices evolve and touch base. In such states, receiving nonlinear clues that broaden horizons becomes possible, often practically applicable, and connected by a sturdy thread to daily reality and life. 

“Among the living today, we stand towards trance much as we stood in relation to electricity more than ninety years ago before Edison invented the electric light bulb. Just as it might have been thought ‘imaginative’ in those days to speculate on the possible uses to which electricity might be put in our lifetime, so it will be thought ‘imaginative’ if we now speculate on the potential uses of trance to mankind....”

                         ‘Trances’ by Stewart Wavell, Audrey Butt and Nina Epton.

 “In the beginning of all things, wisdom and knowledge were with the animals for the Creator, the one above, did not speak directly to man.”

                                                      Chief Letakots-Lesa (Pawnee)

The symbology of animals connects us to their traits and habits. Observing what animals are present in our surroundings can be like a form of divination, a message to translate in discovering what the teachings of a given species are. A certain animal may be present so much in your journey that they become totemic. You may find your path crossed by a dead animal, or part of an animal, which hold its messages and reflects them back to you. Coming upon feathers, claws, wings, bones, skulls, fur and such can be seen as a call from the animal.

“All of the animals I have artifacts of are animals who have taught me something- through observation of their behaviour and spending time being close to their DNA. I certainly find that wearing feathers, holding bones, meditating with bones and things like that, helps me to gain more insight. I feel that at some level an animal’s DNA has its vibratory rate, like everything else in the universe, and by holding that artefact you can actually tune into that vibratory rate and see things from the animal’s perspective.”

                                               Andy Baggot

All cultures and all people make, including materials that have personal significance enhances these processes. Crafting with intention is a beauty filled thing, in fact, to some degree the one can not exist without the other. Simply in deciding to make something, a certain amount of directed focus is born. Getting lost in the process of creating a piece by hand is quite trancelike or meditational, and very satisfying. To make and decorate tools to be used in ritual, or everyday objects that remind us of our paths, gives them a feel that store bought just can’t compare to, although there are craftspeople selling their own work too.

Ritual practice is a crafted way to connect with the realms beyond daily living, yet behind and part of it at all times. Although, as a solitary, it’s been a steep learning curve to find some direction, keeping it simple helps. An altar is an important centrepiece, often containing natural forms and found objects displayed for the pleasure of deity and spirit. It can give visual triggers and associations to aid shifting into sacred space... reminders and cues. As in other areas, I love to work with what I’ve managed to gather, or draw in, organically and that tends to require making do, or ad libbing.

There is much to be learned for this apprentice to Earth Witchery, but the journey has definitely begun....    

Some Resources:

‘The Secret Teachings of Plants: The Intelligence of The Heart in The Direct Perception of Nature’ and ‘Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers’ by Stephen Harrod Buhner

‘Healing Wise: A Wise Woman Herbal’ by  Susun Weed

‘Animal Speak: The Spiritual and Magical Powers of Creatures Great and Small’ by Ted Andrews

‘Animal Dreaming: The Symbolic and Spiritual Language of the Australasian Animals’ by Scott Alexander King

‘Voices from the Earth: Practical Shamanism’ by Nicholas Wood

‘Shamanic Voices: A Survey of Visionary Narratives’ collated by Joan Halifax PhD

Creating altars...some musings...

Altars are important to me, aside from being one of the few non-messy places in my home, I love beauty, often in natural forms and found objects. Displaying such things for the pleasure of deity and spirit rocks my world.  However, once you start, they do have the tendency to overflow into other areas of the house. Loose altars pop up in odd places, next to the kitchen sink, on the stand in the bathroom, on top of cupboards. Basically any flat surface is open slather, so be warned you may gather around yourself symbolic and significant items that reflect your soul.

So what’s the difference between a flat surface covered in books, remote controls, ex cuppas, red poppy seeds, a pincushion, mobile phone, and an altar? Well the aforementioned chaos, sitting next to me as I type is a shrine to what’s been going on today, but its formed organically rather than been arranged for beauty and to focus intention. Altars are generally put together with a specific purpose or occasion, perhaps to share with others, or just to get one’s self into a shifted state.

 My brain is a chaotic place sometimes and structure helps keep it on target, whilst flexability can allow its creative side to flourish. I find this combo works for me in my altars too. I’m trying to have a regular altar practice where I change flowers, clean, light incense, candles, but also just spend  time hanging out and keeping the energy flowing by appreciating what’s there by simply gazing.

It’s all pretty meditational and I imagine that at some point your life could morph into an altar. Everything in it treated with respect, soul, appreciative type energy. Sounds good, but for now, especially as a creative project type, the tidyness aspect just happens in pockets.

Beltane birdy...

I had set up my altar for Beltane while on the other side of the
 planet, and around the streets, Samhain, or Halloween was in full swing Never seen so many witches out and about in Suffolk twas warming to the cockles of me heart! Ive had chinese rice wine for tinctures,  and a stash of quartz crystals charging a way, as well as some seeds, mandrake and black viola, hoping for a better strike rate than my last attempt.

Then there was a bird like distress call in the garden and whom should I meet, flying down to my shoulder with a little coaxing but this cockatiel wolf whistling her way into our home for safe keeping. Two days later and she's still with me and nomad-cat. Infact she's now worked out due to gaps in carpentry that she can fly all over the house no probs. Nomad is fascinated aka pondering her flavour but rapidly losing interest aka life goes on and she can fly. We've put signs up but no calls as yet. Can a bird and a cat cohabitate, it appears we're learning the answer to that question I just hope it doesnt all end in tears. If I release her again big birds like currawongs will bully her or worse. I do have a contact for a woman whos happy to take her, already owning one cockateil but I would like to find her person, she's such a character I'm sure someone is missing her....

Brigid...

 

To my understanding, when springs tendrils and shoots arrive Cailleach morphs into Brigid, a maiden aspect. Some say Cailleach lays down her staff and turns to stone as the years wheel turns to spring, others that she fights Brigid for domination of the seasons, still others that the one becomes the other. Im sticking with the latter for now, or the stone theory, and its helping my connection to Brigid, to see her as a rebirthing of Cailleach.
There's some varying of opinion as to exactly which parts of the year bears each goddess mark but it makes sense for me that Cailleach rules from Lughnasadh (Autumn) to Imbolg (Spring), and Brigid the other half of the year, appearing as the plants and lambs are getting happy. Gradually, I'm learning Brigid carries the muse like qualities of spring energy, inspiration for poets, smithys and crafters, she's sometimes depicted with flames of inspiration, exuding from her hands.

Lizard dreamings...

 I don't know what it is with me n reptiles at the moment, but this well camoflaged fellow was very cooperative when I came across him, sitting still for his portrait. Lizard is associated with being a messenger of dreams, day and night. Those moments when you find yourself gazing at a scene mind far away in potentials and possabilities your concious mind might ignore. Daydreams are a way to connect with spirit and see opportunities. At night as we sleep the mind again is free to roam and explore, working its way through material in a different manner to when we are awake. Lizard calls us to retrieve messages from these liminal times and awaken to paths that may well offer a new direction.

A shaman and a schizophrenic were walking down the road....some ponderings...

“Strange, but there was a space between the feeling I had when inspiration burned and my physical body. If only the two could walk together they would touch the Earth gently like dew on parched skinks tongue. The memory of a time they were united calls to me with whisperings of potential, but my fingers are unsure of the precise stitch to use to reweave the frayed umbilical threads. Still, I begin like a spider to work my web for catching a future of rainbow hue, trusting that sustenance will follow my hours at the loom. Sometimes cramps, discomfort, settle in my bones. I rise, stretch, return to my work. Only I see the loom and it's fabric emerging but others see a subtle change in me and wonder at it's source. For though we are all weaving, each of us use different tools and materials. Wood, bone, others blood, barbed wire, paper money, silk in the raw, river washed stones, garlands of flowers, concrete, glass, the wind, sound, fur, hair, silver, wolves claws, spirit, waves, negativity, pain, love, tears of salt, peace...........”

Generally when folks debate what the difference is between a shaman and a schizophrenic,  whats really being talked about is can what we learn from one be used to help the other? That’s what brings me back to it, for someone else what they return to might take other forms. Schizophrenia is often portrayed as a one way street, and it generally doesn’t involve going back towards Kansas. As for shamans, they visit a version of Oz pretty regularly themselves. 

Perhaps it’s this commonality of experiencing realities other than the everyday one, combined with then integrating what one finds there, that I’m both fascinated and inspired by. They are swimming in the same waters. Both want to retrieve soul, including their own. One once aware through conscious journeying, the other often dragged kicking and screaming by their own consciousness. Both experience altered states of reality. If both had the relief and support needed, without stigma, would their behaviour be more alike in terms of integration?

“I was a stricken deer, that left the herd

 Long since; with many an arrow deep infixt

My panting side was charg’d, when I withdrew

To seek a tranquil death in distant shades.

There was I found by another who had himself

Been hurt by th’ archers. In his side he bore,

And in his hands and feet, the cruel scars.

With gentle force soliciting the darts,

He drew them forth, and heal’d, and bade me live.

Since then, with few associates, in remote

And silent woods I wander, far from those

My former partners of the peopled scene;

With few associates, and not wishing more.

Here much I ruminate, as much I may,

With other views of men and manners now

Than once.....

William Cowper, 'I was a Stricken Deer' in ' The Other Within' p7

 Many people are experiencing psychological distress with the earth changes and natural disasters going down, giving  a broader range of folks a taste of mental disorder or dis-ease. The varying degrees of pain, and insight,  are coming to the surface.  Chironic healing is coming to us all. How will we deal with our wounds? Where in the amazing labyrinth of human consciousness do we source our answers? The individual doesn’t exist in a vacuum, such processes are a response to an world in need of nourishment.

“Especially in Siberia and Mongolia, the first approach by the spirits takes the form of a violent onslaught which leads to what seems like a complete destruction of the future shamans personality. This is followed by a rebuilding of the shaman, whose new powers are not simply an external adjunct or tool, but amount to a form of insight, a perspective on the nature of the world, and especially on the particular forms of human suffering which he or she has just undergone so intensely. The internalisation of all these experiences will lead to the emergence of a new personality, and it is this which is expressed through the destruction of the shamans previous nature.” P39 "The Shaman" by Piers Vitebsky

Yet without the luminal experiences of those who hit extremes, we would have no spirituality, psychology, science, art or music, some of the peak systems and ways to improve life for all.

Mental breakdowns occur across all cultures, it’s a global phenomena, with similar themes but different content. In schizophrenia ‘delusions’ tend to be of a nasty, nasty slant. The format is persecutory, based on conspiracy, but the script is lustrously individualised to culture. Even when we are unaware of our indoctrination into its stories and myths, or wouldn’t consider ourselves active participants or practitioners.

Society’s can, and do, contain both schizophrenics and shamans at any given point in time. In fact, many shamans begin their initiatory times in realms that some would define as delusional or ‘psychotic’, a word which comes from the greek for soul/ mind and break. Such initiatory descents can last for years before someone learns to shamanise.

I acknowledge that schizophrenia has episodic immersion in uncontrolable seas, but that it need not be as permanent as some would have us believe. We can be diagnosed yet also integrated individuals, much of the time, some of who may work in shamanic ways.?

If we look at the life of The Sagay shaman Kyzlasov, he suffered illness for 7 years before becoming a shaman, and the becoming happened only after extensive self-reflection and training with elder shamans. He underwent the trials stipulated by his particular shamanic community. 

P173 "The Shaman: Patterns of Religous Healing among the Ojibway Indians" by John A Grim

His wife speaks “ How did he become a shaman? Sickness seized him when he was 23 years old and he became a shaman when at the age of thirty. That was how he became a shaman, after the sickness, after the torture. He had been ill for seven years. While he was ailing he had dreams: he was beaten up several times, sometimes he was taken to strange places. He has been around quite a lot in his dreams and he has seen many things.”

 It is a crisis of the soul that can be labelled in different contexts as different things, but what if we allow that mental disorder may be part of a process towards integration rather than an end point or an either / or dicotomy.

Who's to say how long a healing journey should take? Its both rare, and consumerist, to expect for it to happen in say one session. It may be triggered by one intense session, but ask a herbalist, a masseuse. It could be a brief period, or lifelong, the time it takes in regathering to decipher what message ones bringing back, and in what form it can eloquently be expressed. Perhaps the only way is to do so is in 

non-ordinary reality on a journey no one else can share.

In breakdown our mind is opening us up, cracking us apart to put us back together again, in a surge towards eventual growth, or death, whatever we ‘call’ the pathway that leads there.

“The crisis of a powerfull illness can also be the central experience of the shaman’s initiation. It involves an encounter with forces that decay and destroy. The shaman not only survives the ordeal of a debilitating sickness or accident but is healed in the process. Illness thus becomes the vehicle to a higher plane of consciousness. The evolution from a state of psychic and physical disintegration to shamanising is effected through the experience of self cure. The shaman - and only the shaman – is a healer who has healed himself or herself; and as a healed healer, only he or she can truley know the territory of disease and death.”  Joan Halifax pp10-11 egs

“There is a great beauty up here

Wild flowers, small creatures

Live and grow togther

All except for me, in perfect harmony”

Grahame Doyle, quoted in "For Mathew and Others" p50

Depression and other mind dis-eases are signs of imbalance in a person, but are not the person, any more than cancer is the whole of the person. Yet, often there is fear around people who are experiencing chronic, or life threatening symptoms, which mental illness can be, even though neither is contagious. In fact, such a potent illness pattern can, potentially, create insights into life.

It seems at this time, the two labels, which is what both schizophrenia and shamanism are, are on a sliding scale of groovyness, and schizophrenia isnt at the higher end. How many folks say in conversation “Id love to be crazy! Maybe I could study how to with someone?.  Experience so much internal pain I disassociate, no thanks, but hallucinate, and there it is. The latter is desirable.

In controlled doses, humans have longed for shifts in consciousness as long as we’ve been bipeds, but what we want is the ecstasy. What we don’t want is the messy, chaotic, difficult parts.

Who can blame us, they can hurt and bewilder.

I don’t know how many times (actually I do, too many) I took some form of manufactured pharmaceutical waiting for the blissful colours, sensual beauty and etheric floating beings that others seemed to enjoy, with rather messy brain scrambling results. I know some of the fascinating lights, I saw them in my bedroom as a young girl, and called them faeries. No offence to any fey, but apparently  they don’t exist. To put it all in perspective, I think maybe faeries walk around going, humans naaah impossible, how could anything that weirdo exist.

“Like the giraffe and the duck billed platypus, the creatures inhabiting these remoter regions of the mind are exceedingly improbable. Nevertheless, they exist, they are facts of observation; and as such, they cannot be ignored by anyone trying to understand the world in which he lives.”

* Aldous Huxley,  Heaven and Hell

Shamans, as walkers between the worlds, journey for both individuals, and their communitys. Its hard to bring back information from other realms, and have it heard, when the diagnosis of a mental illness has been given. There is a tendency to create a blanket of ‘delusion’ for spiritual or symbolic experiences.  This can be confusing, especially when there is valid material going on. In trying to piece peoples fragmented lives back together after an episode, perhaps material is dismissed that could be useful for reintegration.

“Imagination is a modern Western concept that is outside the realm of shamanism. ‘Imagination’ already prejudices what is happening. I don’t think it is imagination as we ordinarily understand it. I think we are entering something which, surprisingly, is universal - regardless of culture. Certainly people are influenced by their own history, their cultural and individual history. But we are beginning to discover a map of the upper and lower world, regardless of culture. For the shaman, what one sees – thats real. What one reads out of a book is secondhand information. But just like the scientist, the shaman depends upon first – hand observation to decide whats real. If you cant trust what you see yourself, then what can you trust?”

Michael Harner interviewed by Neville Drury in November 1984

“Most people equate the imagination with unreality. Nothing could be further from the truth. The imagination is a power of the mind to create and work with images. It is this ability which can open us to other realms, assist us in healing, help us to discover lost knowledge and to open to higher vision and even prophecy.”p8 "Animal Speak" by Ted Andrews

I understand analysing  painful, or loaded, material can bring it back to the surface and if unguided, or not grounded, symptoms can flare up or be reexperienced. Its a responsibility to reopen someones wounds, as these are usually what originally caused a fracture, that becomes a diagnosis.  For suffering individuals, they may not want to go near this stuff, but at times its overflowing into their reality without permission screaming for reintegration. Which is also as I believe, one of the reasons people with a mental illness are ostracised, bullied and feared. We reflect back difficult emotions that others may not want to look at, shadow material that’s kept at a distance by placing on ‘other’, and then avoided like the plague.

“I see people with schizophrenia are being like the canary down the mine. When the gas comes they sing first. And in a sense often peoples delusions when they’re not well, and even their sensitivies when they are well, are attuned to currents in society that are threatening.”

 Simon champ p29 in "For Matthew and Others"

"The inward journey of the

mythological hero, the shaman, the mystic and the schizophrenic are in principle the

same; and when the return or remission occurs, it is experienced as a rebirth."

We all have our limits and boundaries around avoiding suffering and difficulty, in self but also in those we allow close to us. If someone’s gone off the deep end, social isolation and rejection serve to compound it, but ironically in such sensitive states solitude can have healing potentials by reducing stimulus input. Calm, peaceful, natural environments can ease symptoms barrage or perhaps its more that high density, overly busy and intense ones can exacerbate them.

I do believe sensitivity to trauma plays a large role in psychotic suffering, be that the end of a relationship, the loss of a loved one, childhood abuse, bullying or violence. It’s like the emotional pain overflows into the brain and puts it on overload, nightmare materials, and hauntings are its response. But I do also believe when you keep fragmenting, each time  a little more information gets through before its overwhelming. Pain full and torturous, but eventually you begin to connect with a large part of the story of your life so far. Abuse and or/trauma clarifies and distils, till here I have some of my personal wounding truths, that we all possess. This is what therapy is meant to bypass, but knowing something intellectually is one thing, connecting to it in our body and emotions can be another. 

In schizophrenia the voices heard may become enemies, demons, abusers or perpetrators . But there’s a thread of truth, a story, that runs through such experiences that may well be asking for the voicing of the unspeakable. That comes through in the hardest of tales to bear listening, or witnessing. Psychosis, and disassociation, may infact be asking just this, that someone bears witness. This can mean a lot when your experience has largely been dismissed or your opinions ignored. Is it this that often leads people to seek help, or avoid it?

If there’s illness what is its teaching? What’s going on there? Pain is a call to draw some lovin’ attention to an area, preferably before it gets worse but also, it might need to get louder to be heard.

Too much pain and an organism shuts down, into catatonia, coma, fainting, yet even there the body is protecting herself. We love and care for our health even when we don’t know it.

The brain, and nervous system, in part could actually be seen as a protective and eliminatory filtering system, to keep us from being overwhelmed by sensory input. They take the mass of abounding input, and reduce it down. Sorting, filing it away to make sense of it, making piles to look at later and allowing for daily  functioning, an ability to focus on the practical task at hand.

The human brain is so complex that we have only minute understandings of it and need to acknowledge this. The Desana people of Columbia have a detailed language around the structure of the human brain that matches what science has discovered through catscans and other imaging techniques. It was put well when a Desana shaman said “It contains colours that we don’t even know the names of.” Knudson + Suzuki in "Wisdom of the Elders" p75

However, in a simplified version of the chemistry of  serotonin, the neurotransmitter targeted by modern anti psychotic medications (SSRIs). Increased seratonin levels reduce the amount of input the brain is taking in. The uncontrolled sensory input of reduced seratonin is felt as the brain coexhisting with internal/ external input, unwilling to select which is the one truth to focus on, but experiencing many at the same level.  Much like a hearing aid, where many voices are heard at the same volume, as there is no way for the gadget to discern which voice you are listening to.  A common example, coffee increases seratonin levels, blocking out environmental/internal stimulus, to focus on task orientation.

Artists at work drop seratonin levels and are ok with the process, or to see it another way those with dropped seratonin levels can use creativity to learn to be ok with that, or be drawn to meditative states of being.

 “Psychiatric clinicians are learning to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem, as we increasingly try to give up our controlling interest over mentally ill people and stop pronouncing that “we know what’s best for you “. We are just beginning to acknowledge our past complicity and are now trying harder to provide such individuals with a foundation for recovery in their own terms. The recovery journey may include discovering art as a medium for self expression, or sometimes as a promising career.”

Alan Rosen in essay in "For Mathew and Others" p19

 Most people who take neuroleptics, or ‘anti-psychotics’ dislike doing so. Its an interesting phenomena that these medications have no place on the black market, unlike most mind altering drugs (Gosden163). Neuroleptics reduce the circulation of dopamine. Dopamine is called the ‘reward’ transmitter, because when we accomplish something our brain triggers its release, be that running a marathon, or making love. It is also involved, as seen in Merzenichs work, in plastic change in the brain. The same surge of dopamine that thrills us also consolidates the neuronal connections responsible for the behaviour that led us to accomplish our goal. (Doidge 107?)

To give an idea of the intensity some folks experience psycho active plants tend to drop seratonin levels. As you can imagine such intensity of imagery and altered sensory activity in a busy environment gets pretty full on, quietude and calm surroundings can help life be a better trip.

"The typical schizophrenic lives in a world of twilight imagining, marginal to his society, incapable of holding a regular job, these people live on the fringes, content to drift in their own self created value system..."

Terrence McKenna, you could do way worse eh.

Another factor is that external noise, like conversations, or music, can trigger voice hearing and thereby create confusion but also at low levels help to distract from voices. If there’s an audible conversation going on and you’re hearing folks talking about you, it’s pretty human to listen.  At the same time it can be painful and frightening to attempt to reality check abusive or hostile voices threatening insults, and it doesn’t necessarily clear them. You begin to see why many folk with a diagnosis, or experiencing voices, can become isolated, in their search for peace. Also how direct experiences with nature can heal the soul.

If I look to plants, they can be growing between a rock and a hard place, yet still the energy of growth exists. It looks different for each plant, but the direction is towards growth. Illness can ‘shape’ our limitations, but also our unique pattern of growth that can lead to creative ways of dealing with and adapting to circumstance. Plants take their circumstances and make medicine. Infact among the vegetalistas – plant inspired shamans of Peru- there is a belief  that shamans can be taught by the plants themselves.

“  The vegatalistas also believe that painters and musicians can be taught their skills by plants.”

Those who ingest ayahuasca, the sacred plant of the vegalistas do so with the knowledge that they may well face spirits of terror, suffering before, if any, exctasy. This is no trip to take lightly or irrevelantly but if one survives the experience there can be a healing.

Psychotherapy could be said to play a similar role dealing with the subconscious matter we carry.    

As Susun Weed teaches, the wisewoman doesn’t ask why do i have this problem? The answer to that question is always blame and guilt, she asks instead, what part of myself does this problem show me? How can I nourish that part of me so it is less needy and has less control over me?

Life is a series of changes in the bodys ecosystem. It becomes a battlefield if each one must be ‘cured’, as a disturbance to some image of ‘pure’ health. One can have a disability and still be healthy. Curing a disease sounds so disempowering, like the ad with some animated nasty attacking an internal shot of someone’s body until ta da here comes product a, b or c. Its giving the focus to the disease rather than the human being, who’s left on the sidelines going um hello, over here, my brain, my body anyone interested in what i feel, how Id like to be treated.

When someone is in crisis, usually they still carry a desire for both independence, and the support to follow their own path. The strength that can come from appropriate assistance exists for all of us. Allys serve to enhance the shamans ability and skills, hopefully the same can be said of the people anyone chooses to include in their healing journey, but not always.

“The path towards the forest that contained the trees of sadness was a well worn one.  Many bare footfalls had indented it into the earth exposing roots that could trip one if unaware.  A hollow wind moved between branches carrying memories that haunted tear stained eyes, drying the salty wetness.  Autumn had left the trees exposed, their tortured limbs twisted with grief.  An empty place one might think, and yet where the trees touched each other there was a smoothness to their trunks as if a warm energy had been exchanged, massaging the wrinkles of worry away from them, and on the ground below this smoothness small sproutlets of greenery were appearing, unfurling fern fronds, orchid stems flourishing in the humid moisture the shared tears of branches created.

If a traveller was to lift their head for a moment and reach out to touch the smoothness the whole forest would shiver in gratitude and empathy, and a whisper of music would echo through the space, the loneliness of the trees speaking through instruments no human hand had created, for who wants to wander long in the forest of sadness?  Yet so many find themselves there, some becoming lost and never finding their way from amongst its arms.  For the ways to and from there are as many and varied as there are creatures who walk, swim or fly on the globe that its roots reach into, and for each person the way out is different.  Some in a daze of forgetfulness remember no other landscape and become rooted to the spot, paralysed.  In time they grow roots and wooden limbs and find themselves one of the very trees they once wandered amongst.  So it is also the forest of compassion for it feels with the journeyers who pass its way and it is this compassion that fertilises a small field of white roses in the very heart of the woods, where the paths are softened by silk-like petals and the air is perfumed.  If one finds her feet walking this path she is changed forever.  It is here that friends sit quietly waiting to gently offer a way home."

Calling in the Elements

Its taken a while for me to get reasonably happy with my calling in of the elements when casting a circle, or preparing for spirit journeys, but Im finally getting there. My correspondances relate to the southern hemisphere and my own inclinations. I painted the images on small canvas that I can place at the directions to evoke my imagination and remind. When closing down Welcome becomes Farewell...


Welcome to East, Welcome to Air,
Like a breath or a thoughtform,
Ungraspable yet there....


Welcome to North, Welcome to Fire,
Like passion, or flame,
Warming hearth, lighting desire...


Welcome  to the West, Welcome to Earth,
Compostuous green cycles,
Of death and rebirth...

Welcome to South, Welcome to Water,
Ocean, river, blood within me,
As moons daughter....

Welcome Above,
Where spirit dwells...

Welcome Below,
Home of Ancestors of yore...

Gargoyle...

I was at one of those $2 bargain basement type shops looking for candles when i met him. Now Im not usually your garden ornament type o gal but this particular gargoyle caught my eye, he has such a nice face, despite the fangs and protruding tongue. So for six bucks I bought him home. Im tempted to have him inside cos he's so cool but his energy is definitely garden orientated, so for now he's under a lilly pilly tree amidst the straplike leaves of grasses.

Gargoyles are traditionally functionality merged with imagination. When we see them on church rofftops they generally have a hollow inside that channels water away from the mortar of the stonework hence preventing its erosion over time. Usually the water comes out of the creatures  mouth but I did see one gargoyle who was mooning the world and the water came out his arse.

It has been said they were used to scare common folk into church showing that such beings couldnt get inside churches but I have a feeling that pagan stonemasons were having fun with it whatever their officially stated purpose. Their creatures hark back to gods and godesses of old such as the sheela ne gig figures, the depiction of a woman with an exaggerated vulva perhaps a fertility goddess or simply a lustfull hag.

Spring altar...

The night before last was the new moon, the perfect time to plant seeds and reassess what you are wanting to create in your life as the moon waxes towards full once more. I used a piece of the hand made paper my granma Alice left me, to write a list on. She made paper from nigh on every kind of plant material she could get her hands on, this was a piece embedded with petals and was lovely to use. I had wanted to use an atmospheric feather quill to write it, and so tried to make one from an eagles feather, but it made my writing splattery rather than calligraphic, so in the end I simply dipped a wooden shish kebab stick into the ink and wrote, which worked.

I set up a spring altar and have been picking fresh flowers for it, as I try to connect with the spirit of Brigid, as the spring maiden. After the strong connection I felt to Cailleach Bhur, the croney winter goddess,  Ive found it hard to let her go and connect to more of a youthfull maiden energy. I love the growth in the garden, its busting its seams and Ive been harvesting greens almost daily, but I have been feeling disconnected from the maiden at this time said to belong to her...

Some say Cailleach and Brigid fight it out at winters end, or that Cailleach either turns to stone, or morphs form becoming Brigid. Im sticking to the latter theory, but the years wheel turns either way. In a journey i was shown the aspects of enthusiasm, innovation and passion of the maiden, she creates the forms and focus for her time. The outward manifestations of a muse Brigid is sometimes depicted with a crown of inspirational flame emerging from her head.

Maybe Ive just been doing too much crochet and missing Alice.... 

Snake visitations continue...

This mama was easily 3 metres long, seriously big. The neighbours called the local snake expert. He said just to leave her be, that she'll not only keep down rats n mice, but brown snakes aswell, which are far more aggressive and gnarly. So i looked her up in my snakey book and diamond pythons mostly live in trees, sometimes crossing the ground between. Its breeding season for these babies and this one could lay some 40 eggs to hatch. Looks like nomadcat and I will just have to get used to diamond pythons being around! They are definitely shy and avoid humans where possible. Except when in ones bedroom!! Reckon I'll be closing the doors at night from now on....

Im pretty sure these guys are living in the jungle that exists between our shed and the neighbours garage, its undisturbed territory and shall remain so.

They truley are amazing creatures, mesmerising motion and markings. Australia is known by some Tribal Elders as 'Snake island' in reference to the Rainbow serpent of Dreamtime creation stories. Because it sheds its skin the snake has long been a symbol of death and rebirth. Symbolised also by the ouroborus, an ancient image of a snake swallowing its own tail and in the double snakes on a sword used by medicine as a symbol for healing. Transfiguration and the shedding of the old for healing and to make space for the new are snakes calling card. Perfect for spring time cleaning out of cobwebs, refocusing intention on new tangents and recreating old projects in new ways....

Mr Toad....

This morning when I got up i was greeted by this fine gentleman, who'd hopped into  a bucket and couldnt un-hop out. He is a 'cane toad' ( Bufo marinus) so named because he was introduced into Queensland to get rid of the 'cane beetle'. The thing is hes quite the tadpole breeder, can live in any habitat ranging from suburbia to sand dunes, is highly venomous with few predators and lives for about twenty years, hence the cure has done more damage than the symptom. That'll teach us to mess with nature, again. 

The word amphibian comes from two word "amphi" meaning double and "bios" life. Amphibians divide their lives between land and water, beginning as tadpoles and then usually spending the second half of their lives more on land, a characteristic that reflects an ability to metamorphosise and shapeshift.

Toads have featured strongly in fairytales, mythology and are well known as a potential witches familiar. With their warty exteriors they speak of beauty beyond the surface, buried treasure even, and all it takes is a kiss. Yes i did think about it, for half a second, until i realised itd probably just result in a reeeaaally bad trip.

Many would say i should have squished Mr Toad, and I acknowledge that cane toads have devastating effects on places like Kakadu national park, but when it comes down to it, who's the most devastating creature of all?

The one holding the camera.....

candle gazing...

Snake blessing....

Last night I decided enough was enough, its time to give my altars (in our bedroom) a good cleaning and sorting. Ive been neglectfull of my practices. I swept, burned incense and wrapped items for other times of the year and sorted them into a stash of wooden boxes. It was exciting, kind of like opening a present in reverse as I imagined rediscovering things at a later date.

The first odd thing that happened was that my Druids Plant Oracle deck (which Im on my l plates with) somehow leapt out of a set of drawers, and every last card was on the ground spread nicely about. Perhaps my cat somehow pulled it off. She has been a little odd today, I told myself, meditating cautiously on a mouse (or so I thought) under the bed. But saw it as a push along to get to know the deck either way.

So merrily I kept packing. Then went into the kitchen to give my cauldron a bath. When I came back there gliding across my spring altar was a python. Amazing creature, just a baby with fresh skin but still a good metre n a bit long! Ive been here 3 months or so and never seen her before. She moved slowly exploring crevices, and gliding between statues and stones.

I gotta tell you she gave me a fright at first, but its highly likely it was a two way street. There was no aggression and once Id worked out she was not a venomous snake, and got over my fear, to watch the way she moved was awesome. Literally climbing up brick walls with the muscles in her underbelly. No wonder they are sacred to so many cultures, she was mesmerising especially in candlelight.

So Nomadcat and I slept in the study with the door shut to let her find her way outside in peace. She was trying to get out the window but the security grill was stopping her. This morning she seems to have left the building, but what a generous blessing of our refreshed altars!

growing herbs, magical....

Ive got a bit more serious about wanting to grow herbs. My usual technique has been to sprinkle numerous seeds into potting mix (fancy) in a pot or directly into the ground, add water and wait. Ive had some success but buying specially selected seeds does make one rather protective.My volunteering stint at the herb nursery gave me some insight into how they grow them from seed with funky results. They use a special 'seedling raising' mix, that is finer and lighter, and generally plant one seed in each tubestock type pot.,which then stay 'protected' in a greenhouse till they sprout and get a bit bigger. Then they are repotted into a bigger pot with a bulkier soil containing slow release fertilisers ( like osmocote) and are gradually 'hardened off' , which translates to getting them tough enough for the big wide world by gradual exposure to natural light and conditions.

Herbs are trixier than vegies, often the seeds are smaller and they may need extra treatments to break their dormancy, which is an added challenge. My usual techniques have had low gernination results so Ive bought a commercial seed raising mix, and am recycling trays and pots that Ive bought babies in, with just one or two seeds per cell, or pot. Ive discovered with my Henbane, Belladonna and Echinacea augustifolia that they naturally sprout after snowmelt, and the best way I can duplicate this by popping em in the fridge for a spell. A wise gardener recommended putting them in a jar of water, changing the water daily and doing it for two weeks. Guess what? IVE GOT 2 SPROUTLETS OF HENBANE!! They are meant to be tougher than some but still its tres excitement for this experimenter.You can bet baby photos will follow...


The other adjustment I made is to stop using a watering can and shift down a gear to a mister bottle which doesnt disturb wee developing rootsystems,but is enough to keep them moist. 'Dampening off' can happen when they are too wet, interfering with germination and it seems so far that a gentle misting helps filter out this problem too. Although Im yet to have success with tiny seeds like Pennyroyal or those precious Lobelia inflata seeds, my adaptations may give me some confidence to try again. Motherhood is a steep learning curve.....

Animal medicine...

"When the kunkis (tame elephants) are sick, the mahouts take them to the forest where the elephants pick the herbs or plants they need. Somehow they're able to prescribe their own medicine."
                      Dinesh Choudhury, Indian elephant hunter 2000

"The secrets of Nature are known to all wild creatures and on these they thrive."
                       Juliette de baricli Levy

Since ancient times, we have learned about potential plant medicines by observing wild animals. In records through to the modern day we watch and wonder as Juliette did.

"When i see my Afghan hounds in my gardens, or in the fields, or along the river-sides or sea-shores of the many lands where we have been together, I am always amazed at the way they have selected medicinal plants, shrubs and tress, and know where to find them an dhow to use them. By use. i mean the amount eaten to serve its purpose. Mostly their uses is as a laxative or to promote vomiting, and they know exactly how much to achieve one or the other effect."
                                             
I have watched my cat choose one type of grass over the other, tending towards soft weedy grasses rather than the drier native grasses, eating them and then vomiting. Whether because she has a funny belly or a stubborn furball Im unsure, but it is definitely a concious action to me.One related to her not feeling well or more importantly trying to heal better.

Scientists have previously thought such observations romanticised, however as sciences rigidity of old is being blown apart by discoveries and work in the field, 'zoopharmacognosy' is now a recognised area of research into the behavioural practices of animals to stay healthy. Also including the eating of soil to gain minerals missing in the diet, old bones to gain calcium and clay to counter, and bind, dietry toxins by animals.

When preparing their nests, male European starlings weave fresh green herbs in amongst them. In north America they preferentially choose wild carrot ( Daucus carota), yarrow (Achillea millefolia), elm-leaved and rough goldenrod (Soldaigo sp.) and fleabane ( Erigeron sp.) even when they are not the most common plants close by. Hows that for specific! Interestingly enough old herbals refer to wild carrot as 'bird's nest root' which suggests this plant has been used in nesting for some time. The common denominator with these plants is they smell, are aromatic. When researchers removed the fresh plants from nests, the amount of mites in the chicks rose. More specifically, chicks in nests containing wild carrot had higher haemoglobin levels, suggesting they were losing less to mites. Not only that but the plants chosen are effective against Streptococcus and Staphylococcus bacteria. Some serious fumigation going down there. In addition to this the plants starlings choose are commonly used by herbalists for skin problems such as excma, ulcers and sores. Thus they may also help with the symptoms of parasitic infestation.


So it seems the animals were simply ahead of the research.....

heart meanderings

Meandered along the beach this moring looking for heart shaped stones. Which got me wondering about the symbology of the heart, which a friend suggested actually bears a closer resemblance to a lower down organ in the chicks of the species..Which is interesting to bear in  mind when reading the following..
Ab was the Egyptian word for heart-soul, most important of the seven souls bestowed by the seven birth godesses (Hathors). The 'ab' was the soul weighed in the balances of Maat after death, to see how it stood up to weighing with her Feather of Truth. The ab was the central blood-soul emanating from the blood essence of the mother which lead to the saying that a pregnant woman carries her child 'under her heart' and why a mother called her child 'hearts blood'.
Significantly, the meaning of the Egyptian word for the mother given heart was reversed in Hebrew where 'ab' was redefined as 'father'.
The Egyptian heiroglyphic for ab was a dancing figure referring to the mystic dance of life going on in the body-the heartbeat. The same mystic symbol in India was the Dance of Shiva, who was supposed to dwell at the beating heart of the cosmos within the world body of Kali.Shiva went through periodic deaths until resurrected by his mother as did Osiris in Egypt.
Early Christian Gnosticsequated Jesus to the dancing god within.
Although the Christian church outlawed ecclesiatical dancing early on, the theme of the God within the dancing heart was not forgotten and was translated into the Sacred Heart symbol.
So you can see the spiritual valuing of the heart that underpins its use as such a strong emblem, although these days its more likeli to be referred to on a valentines day card or in a deck of cards than in practices of sacrifice, death and rebirth.

Info taken from the wonderfull "Womans Book of Myths and Secrets" by Barabara  G.Walker.

Garden update...

Like a little lavendar bush surrounded by protective stones our garden is moving towards becoming a food and herbs oasis. Ok so it aint there yet, but Im learning to work with the sandy soil, grow in pots mostly and the sunshine is shifting higher to its spring position. That combined with tropical rain, and green folks are picking up there heads and putting on a growth spurt. Yesterday I planted my black henbane and belladonna seeds into trays, after 2 weeks in the fridge, imitating the snow melt in their home environment. Gathering pots and plant stands anyways I can.

Lady with a pipe...n tatus...

Amulets n talismans...

The tale of amulets is one ranging from waaay back in prehistoric times upto the now. Amulets are among the most common objects found by excavators at archaelogical sites, not confined to any time or place in the story of peoples. An amulet is a device, the purpose of which is to bring luck and protect, but by magical means rather than practical. A lump of meteorite worn against gunfire is an amulet, a bullet proof  vest aint. One type of amulet are those protecting against the evil eye, often made from blue glass and circular with concentric circles in the form of an eyeball....

Often used interchangably with the word talisman, there is some confusion about the boundaries between the two. But a talisman tends to be made specifically with intent for a certain person, or for the self. often used in ritual.

In my understanding, and practices, both can also be an epitomy of a certain element, deity or totem designed to amplify their energy and draw it into your environment
 

The substance and form of both deeply symbolic. Each material used has some inherant quality that empowers the whole. Most are of universal application, such as owl claws for wisdom, insight and seeing in the dark, but some are culture and locale specific such as the feathers of a particular species of owl with particular talents beyond the general. Gemstones, in general, are magical with correspondances but there may be a stone found in a small area that might have a individual relevance to folks from that area, like an ochre found by a river on traditional homelands. Infact it can be a joy to make an amulet to travel with that bears materials from home and may be valued because of its limited range like sea shells. Making a talisman for yourself can be a funky way to acknowledge what you value and carry a little of that with you wherever u may go, kind a a porta altar.....

Resources: Amulets: A World of Secret Powers, Charms and Magic by Sheila Paine
                  The Complete Book of Amulets and Talismans by Migene Gonzalez-Wippler
                  Cunninghams Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem and Metal Magic by Scott Cunningham

Some of the amulets available at noo 'made it' store

Just pop on over to www.madeit.com/Opalessence to have a peek...