Yay! Excited for this. I have been way busy with Imbolc I havenāt had time for much else. I could really use a catch up week. This is great.
@BrightBear Hooray! Iām looking forward to seeing which challenges youāll choose- have fun!
@MeganB Awesome, Megan- canāt wait to see what youāll come up with! Enjoy!
@Kasandra You can absolutely pursue From Seed to Sprout and Of Candles and Flames! However, each challenge will require its own entry (or one spell/ritual that has multiple parts, with each part focused on the challenge it is related to), Iām afraid I canāt allow double-dipping! I feel like it would defeat the purpose of setting clear intentions for each theme. That being said, challenges are left very open and there is no way a proper entry can āfailā a challenge. As long as you have two distinct spells or parts, then that is totally fine
I love the idea of a spring/winter spell and I wish you all the best with it- good luck, Kasandra! (And a shame about Phil- oh well, maybe the six more weeks of winter will fly by )
@Christine13 It sounds like you found a theme that really resonates with you, Christine- and how fun to be in the process of building up your witchās apothecary! Canāt wait to see what youāll do- enjoy!
@Torista Beautiful work, Torista! The knot chant and spellwork counts towards Of Spells and String, and your tea spell and meditation is lovely for Holistic Magick . Knot magick and tea meditations seem to go very well together- Iāll have to give them a combined try at some point! Great job and thanks for sharing!
@Amethyst Congrats, Amethyst- that is an amazing accomplishment! Enjoy a week off, or perhaps pursue a theme of your own choice this week!
@Janis Lovely choices, Janis- Iām wishing you all the best with your circle casting! Enjoy and blessed work this week!
@Susurrus Congrats, Siofra- that is really impressive! Choice, choices for what to do Whatever you decide, enjoy!
@Garnet Bravo, Garnet- thatās a lovely chant to share. I donāt think I read it in school myself, and I probably wouldnāt have appreciated it as much as I do now! Itās beautiful and perfect for the water theme. Thank you for sharing! As for the second entry, itās listed as Catch-Up, but I believe youāre going for Earth, yes? And one of your own genius creation! Beautiful work, Garnet- thank you for sharing!
@Mistella I completely understand your fascination with the Moon- she is enchanting, isnāt she? Oh my goodness, Mistella, that graduation came is amazing- your nephew is very blessed to have you (and your talents!). Seriously, a piece like that is something you could sell- itās stunning! Thank you so much for sharing!
@LadyAuld.ofChico I hope you enjoyed your Imbolc celebrations, Lady Auld- sounds like this Catch-Up came at a great time for you! Whatever theme(s) you choose, I hope you have fun!
I had a feeling I couldnāt combine them, but didnāt think it would hurt to ask.
I still plan to do some candle divination for From Seed to Sprout.
For the Of Candles and Flamesš„, Iāve decided to do a pink candle meditation with Aphrodite. She was the first goddess I worked with before I began my path down Draconic Wicca and I feel her calling to me, again.
As soon as I saw āCollector of Crystalsā I knew that I could do that one easy. Lol. My name is Jess and I have a problem.
Challange Entry: Collector of Crystals - Jessā Collection
Not too sure what other challenge I would like to try. So many amazing options to choose from.
Yes Maāam.
Garnet
I am so glad to have a catch-up challenge! I really wanted to do last weekās challenge but ran out of time with my trip to Minnesota to visit family. Looking forward to doing šÆ Weekly Witchy CHALLENGE - The Lunisolar Calendar and Chinese Zodiac for this challenge.
Oh and I still need to finish my wand and consecrate it for the š³ Weekly Witchy CHALLENGE - Sacred Trees and Wood as well. Hmmmm letās see if I can finish one of them tomorrow and do the other over the weekend!
Kat
For this challenge, I wanted to share the little witch that set me on the path, oh, 50 years ago? LOL Maybe some of you read the āDorrieā books by Patricia Coombs. I used to check them out again and again from the school library. Dorrie was a little witch who had a black cat named Gink (her Mom was Big Witch). Dorrie always wore striped, mismatched socks and I used to wear striped socks to be like herā¦what am I saying, I STILL wear striped socks to be like her! The books are out of print and out of my budget, but I found my favorite, Dorrie and the Weather Box, in a collection of stories for children. Dorrie wants to go on a picnic but it is raining. Her mom is away so she decides to make a weather spell. But she ends up making it rain inside. I thought that was hilarious when I was 7 Maybe some of you read these books long agoā¦Here are two pictures from the book
[Mistella],
Oh girl! that Cap is like, way-cool! Youāre an amazing Aunt and you have a brave and wonderful nephew!
Sorry, I had a little brain fart there. LOL!
I see that youāre a newbie, Welcome and much love.
Garnet
@Kasandra Youāre absolutely right- it never hurts to ask! I think the divination and meditation both sound lovely, Kasandra, and I wish you all the best with your exciting spellwork this week! Good luck and may Aphrodite give you Her blessing
@Jessica72 Great job once again on your entry in the other thread, Jessica- I am still in awe of your stunning crystal collection!
@Garnet Thank you for clarifying, Garnet!
@Artemisia I hope you had a lovely trip to visit your family, Kat! Enjoy your work with the Zodiac this week and have fun finishing/consecrating your new wand. Iām so excited to hear about it! Please show pictures of the final look (if you can)- Iām sure itās going to be amazing!
@Mary25 The āDorrieā books are so sweet, Mary- I can tell by how you write about them that are a real treasure for you! Seeing the cute pictures and hearing about your favorite picnic story made me smile, they really are adorable books Thank you so much for sharing!
Weekly Witchy Challenge-Freedom in Forgiveness entry
Weekly Witchy Challenge-From the Shadows
I feel like these work together well what do you think? <3 thanks for listening allā¦
When I was sitting in my Imbolc ritual speaking with Brighid I was washed with emotion. Details left for the personal she guided me to go back into Shadow work. Wasnāt fun the first time, Iām not exactly thrilled. But I answered yes maāam and away we go.
I have tossed Shadow work around in my head since the other night. Trying to just let her lead me to what exactly needs to be released. I came upon a Tarot Reading to help pull out what exactly is being blocked from transforming.
Oh Tarot - How honest you are.
Itās shadow work so I want to keep some of my most shadowy things to my own, but I will share with you that I am an alcoholic. I have been in sobriety for five years. I am proud of that, not so proud of the actions that brought me to that moment. In short, the tarot brought up those situations and labeled them as āheartbreakā.
At first I did not understand, but now I realize I had broken my own heart. In comes the forgiveness. I am grateful every day I did not hurt someone physically with my drinking. I know that decisions I made did weigh heavy on my family emotionally which is just as traumatic. My children were very young, my daughter old enough to remember. I will hold onto those years foreverā¦ I have to forgive me. We did those things, but without them I would not have grown into the mother wife human person I am today.
Not something I can crank out in an afternoon and feel total forgiveness. I feel like I am at the start of a journey. How do I begin to love us for making those choices?
I am attaching the awesome Tarot Shadow Worksheet I used. I believe I found the link through our forums. It is deep and time consuming, I am making this a multi-day experience. The intro describes it to be a 1-2 hour worksheet, not in my Traumatic Case
benebell-wen-workbook-independent-shadow-work-cartomancy-session-v2.pdf (1.2 MB)
Weekly Witchy Challenge - Catch up - Inviting Abundance
I decided to do the Road Opener Spell by Spells8, with feeling stuck and having a hard time with a specific situation.
I also did the Enabler Chant for Good Luck & Prosperity, from Spells8
I can, I want, and I deserve to Thrive
I was happy when I could do a Catch Up Challenge
Blessed be
*Weekly Catch Up Challenge Entry
As many know, I have had quite the last year & a half & this is not the first time that I have confronted my shadow. Since my birth motherās passing, a lot has come up that I was resisting, however that turned out not to be in my favor.
I started feeling compelled to do shadow work but was procrastinating then came the pull from the Morrigan to do it & get it done. Still resisting. Sheās letting me know that she means business.
So, itās been a while since I last saw my local witchy friend, Samhain to be exact. I went to coffee with her & in an unconventional way I basically yelled, everything I was angry about from birth until my birth mother passed away. So thereās some complex & delayed grief going on because there were also unresolved issues with my mom (stepmother) that are also conflicting feelings. They were in the yelling process too. Really no one was spared, in my friendās words, I was raging out. So lots of tears, hugs.
Then I went to my psychiatrist, told her about the last few weeks & things happening & I showed up to her office crying. The first time in the 15 years that I have been seeing her, I was not even close to fine. She also does psychotherapy. So we did a guided energy release moving up through my body. I left no longer crying & feeling better. That was 2 Fridays ago.
All week, I felt the pull & finally gave in & did some exercises in a workbook that I purchased from LonerWolf - Luna & Sol. It works with their books they have & 1 of them being the Awakened Empath, itās about how to know if you are an empath or highly sensitive in any way, what types there are, your dominant empathic gift, & the shadow self of the empath & how to work with it & protect yourself to separate what emotions belong where or to who.
I got a lot up & out. I stopped at writing a love letter to myself. I had never heard of that before, but itās harder than it sounds when youāve had some things happen over the years. I still couldnāt sleep & wanted to acknowledge my place in that shadow & what I had on my mind. So I wrote an email to literally no one, it was just the first place open that I could just type. It took me 2 hours. Thereās a lot that comes up, a lot that I acknowledged, a lot that I proved wrong.
I went out to the living room & was talking to my husband about the types of shows that I watch & why & out came everything that happened to me & why I do some of the things I have done & why I feel the way I do & that I am getting help & Iām trying so hard to be the best mother I can be because I didnāt really have a healthy mother/daughter relationship with either mother. Then my daughter came into the room.
I cried, I didnāt want her to know. I acknowledged she was there, she laid across my lap & told me she loved me. She said I am a great mom & she knows that I could never do those things.
(She heard the end, this was like the part where I need a paper towel & a hug & just to say that I love her & I will do anything I can for her always & another hug wasnāt refused. She just knows that my mothers didnāt say very nice things to me when I was growing up)
So, Iām in it. Iāve gone through the deepest part. Now itās the residual & off-shoots that I am working on. Itās been a process since last month.
It dawned on me that itās the New (Dark) Moon, so the Morrigan would want me to do this work now because she is the Goddess of the Dark Moon, Shadow Work, Slaying your Demons & taking your power back. But also, itās time for it to be done for me to move forward in any way, & baby steps forward are still forward. & Brighid is always there during my rest days to help connect with myself & healing & self-care for a couple of days well, a week.
@Susurrus I felt privileged reading and experiencing that as an empath, there were tears. Good, cathartic, cleansing tears. You really have a special relationship with your daughter, and reading about the two of you always makes me smile. Much love and respect to you, and with the Morrigan on your side too those demons really better watch out!
Heed the Call of Crystals - Crystal Collector
- For this challenge I collected all my smaller crystals (about 20 of them) that I had dotted around my home that didnāt make it back to the drawers.
- Resorted them by colour and type.
- Updated the identify tags the crystals as best I could.
- Cleansed them all with Pablo santo smoke and thanked them for sharing their energy.
Iāve wanted to pour some love into my crystal collection for some time now and after seeing @jessica72ās beautiful collection and it being a catch-up week and all, I had the inspiration I needed.
I started collecting crystals a number of years ago after discovering a metaphysical shop while vacationing in Maui with a dear friend. It was the first time that I actually felt energy from them and I was hooked.
My initial collection was small till I was generously gifted dozens of various crystals and stones from a friend when she found out that I was taking a Crystal Healers Course.
I so appreciated her generous gift but found that I was way too overwhelmed with having them all out on display.
I first tried sorting them alphabetically and discovered I was always rearranging them when I added a new one to the family. After a few difference systems I landed on the one I use currently for my art supplies where I sort based on colour.
The crystals are stored in a set of Alex drawers from Ikea that have wheels on the bottom which make is super easy to move them all around the house. I wheel them into the living room when Iām working on a grid or outside on a sunny day for quick charge and to marvel at their beauty.
I like being able to have them all in one place as I can get side-tracked really easy looking for things and this helps me with keeping my focus and still have the flexibility of changing my environment.
Thank you for the opportunity to share these special souls with you all.
Cheers,
Janis
What an amazing idea for portability. Awesome way to store your crystals. They look good!
From Seed to Sprout
Bad newsā¦ My interpretation of my candle wax reading is weāll have six more weeks of winter.
I invoked Brigid, lit a yellow candle (for Imbolc), and let the wax drip onto the water in my cauldron. The wax looked a lot like a tadpole and frog eggs. At first, I thought, āTadpoles hatching? Spring!ā
But I think it means six more weeks of winter.
I remember a Christmas when my sister gave me a frog terrarium where I could order some tadpoles from a farm and watch them grow into frogs. SpongeBob and Patrick (yes, this was in 1999 when SpongeBob first aired) arrived in February, but the mail carrier left them in the mail box, even though the package clearly said, āLive tadpoles. Front door delivery only!ā The poor things were half frozen. Luckily, we were able to save them and they lived to the ripe old age of five.
same here
I love the storage and how you combined them through color. I need a stand like yours!! Maybe a couple I started putting a lot away in boxes. And I have different storage containers everywhere ugh I feel so bad because at this point I donāt use them all.
Boo for 6 more weeks of winter, but Yay for strong tadpoles & living to 5 years old! Great job there!
I canāt help with the wax reading at all. I have never tried it either. Great Entry for the challenge!