Well my friends, life has finally settled back into some semblance of normalcy. As normal as my life can get anyway. Obviously, our circles have continued and classes have continued, but this blog it seems was sadly neglected. I promise that it won't continue. I know a lot of you look to this blog for information and I'll keep it up again. We have an initiate's history class tomorrow evening. Please come prepared, you all remember the pages I gave you to read? Please read them. Otherwise you'll be lost and I don't want to spend half our time getting everyone caught up. Haven is taking 2nd degree theory this Thursday, I'm sure he'll be posting the lesson up sometime after that. As will I, probably on Tuesday or Thursday.
Also, don't forget, this is a busy month for us. We have not only our full moon circle, but we have a Wiccaning next Friday. As well as a handfasting on the 26th. Not everyone is required to attend the Wiccaning or handfasting, but attendance is encouraged if you have the time.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Busy busy
Things have been incredibly busy the last week or two. Unfortunately it seems that this blog was put on the back burner for a little while. Demeter has asked me to apologize to everyone for not answering your emails, and taking so long to return phone calls. She has been exceptionally busy with work, the coven, the novel. She's doing her best, but wants to apologize for neglecting some things a little.
Because she's so busy, I'll be taking her class this weekend. I'm not aware (at this point) what the topic is, all I know is that it's you Fourth Degrees. I'm getting all class notes and such tonight, so I promise I'll be prepared.
Because she's so busy, I'll be taking her class this weekend. I'm not aware (at this point) what the topic is, all I know is that it's you Fourth Degrees. I'm getting all class notes and such tonight, so I promise I'll be prepared.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Saturday's lesson
Well Saturday's lesson went extremely well. Thank you all for being so prepared. Here, as promised, is the additional information I promised and a reminder on the homework. Also, some of the first degrees have mentioned that they're having a hard time getting ahold of their mentors. So please, if you don't have the time to devote to a first degree, please let me or Haven know. We won't hold it against you in the slightest, but our first degrees deserve someone who can be available as often as possible. Now, on to sigils.
The word sigil is from the Lain sigillum, which means seal. Although magickal people differ on the meanings of these sigils, all agree thay they won't work for you in magick unless they are activated. The instructions for use are as follows:
~ All sigils require research. No symbol should be used unless you thoroughly understand it's meaning, history, how it is used, and in what kind of enviroment it works best.
~ All sigils require activiation to work well. Yes, the history around a symbol can impart some energy, but unless you tap into that energy, they symbol either won't work, or won't work well.
~ It's better to make, carve, sew, or draw any sigil yourself than buying a premande one.
~ Sigils are the keys to the subconscious and are used in magick to assist in creating your desire on the astral plane.
And your assignment is as follows: Think on the one thing you desire in your life right now. Design and create a sigil that represents that desire. Working with the elements and deities, design a ritual which will activate that sigil. Be prepared to demonstrate in two weeks. And, write 2,000 words on the history and use of the above pictured sigil, refered to as Lamen Sigil 741.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Happy Samhain!
First, short coven business. The new class time was posted a couple of days ago by Haven....so please refer to that before asking. Samhain ritual tonight.....it is closed to the public (members only)....and we're starting promptly at 10pm. So please be on time...and if you've forgotten what you're supposed to bring feel free to call me. Now, in honor of the biggest holiday of the year, I've written a brief history of Samhain just for you guys.
Samhain marks one of the two great doorways of the Celtic year, for the Celts divided the year into two seasons: the light and the dark, at Beltane on May 1st and Samhain on November 1st. Some believe that Samhain was the more important festival, marking the beginning of a whole new cycle, just as the Celtic day began at night. For it was understood that in dark silence comes whisperings of new beginnings, the stirring of the seed below the ground. Whereas Beltane welcomes in the summer with joyous celebrations at dawn, the most magically potent time of this festival is November Eve, the night of October 31st, known today of course, as Halloween.
Samhain (Scots Gaelic: Samhuinn) literally means “summer's end.” In Scotland and Ireland, Halloween is known as Oíche Shamhna, while in Wales it is Nos Calan Gaeaf, the eve of the winter's calend, or first. With the rise of Christianity, Samhain was changed to Hallowmas, or All Saints' Day, to commemorate the souls of the blessed dead who had been canonized that year, so the night before became popularly known as Halloween, All Hallows Eve, or Hollantide. November 2nd became All Souls Day, when prayers were to be offered to the souls of all who the departed and those who were waiting in Purgatory for entry into Heaven. Throughout the centuries, pagan and Christian beliefs intertwine in a gallimaufry of celebrations from Oct 31st through November 5th, all of which appear both to challenge the ascendancy of the dark and to revel in its mystery.
In the country year, Samhain marked the first day of winter, when the herders led the cattle and sheep down from their summer hillside pastures to the shelter of stable and byre. The hay that would feed them during the winter must be stored in sturdy thatched ricks, tied down securely against storms. Those destined for the table were slaughtered, after being ritually devoted to the gods in pagan times. All the harvest must be gathered in -- barley, oats, wheat, turnips, and apples -- for come November, the faeries would blast every growing plant with their breath, blighting any nuts and berries remaining on the hedgerows. Peat and wood for winter fires were stacked high by the hearth. It was a joyous time of family reunion, when all members of the household worked together baking, salting meat, and making preserves for the winter feasts to come. The endless horizons of summer gave way to a warm, dim and often smoky room; the symphony of summer sounds was replaced by a counterpoint of voices, young and old, human and animal.
In early Ireland, people gathered at the ritual centers of the tribes, for Samhain was the principal calendar feast of the year. The greatest assembly was the 'Feast of Tara,' focusing on the royal seat of the High King as the heart of the sacred land, the point of conception for the new year. In every household throughout the country, hearth-fires were extinguished. All waited for the Druids to light the new fire of the year -- not at Tara, but at Tlachtga, a hill twelve miles to the north-west. It marked the burial-place of Tlachtga, daughter of the great druid Mogh Ruith, who may once have been a goddess in her own right in a former age.
At all the turning points of the Celtic year, the gods drew near to Earth at Samhain, so many sacrifices and gifts were offered up in thanksgiving for the harvest. Personal prayers in the form of objects symbolizing the wishes of supplicants or ailments to be healed were cast into the fire, and at the end of the ceremonies, brands were lit from the great fire of Tara to re-kindle all the home fires of the tribe, as at Beltane. As they received the flame that marked this time of beginnings, people surely felt a sense of the kindling of new dreams, projects and hopes for the year to come.
The Samhain fires continued to blaze down the centuries. In the 1860s the Halloween bonfires were still so popular in Scotland that one traveler reported seeing thirty fires lighting up the hillsides all on one night, each surrounded by rings of dancing figures, a practice which continued up to the first World War. Young people and servants lit brands from the fire and ran around the fields and hedges of house and farm, while community leaders surrounded parish boundaries with a magic circle of light. Afterwards, ashes from the fires were sprinkled over the fields to protect them during the winter months -- and of course, they also improved the soil. The bonfire provided an island of light within the oncoming tide of winter darkness, keeping away cold, discomfort, and evil spirits long before electricity illumined our nights. When the last flame sank down, it was time to run as fast as you could for home, raising the cry, “The black sow without a tail take the hindmost!”
Even today, bonfires light up the skies in many parts of the British Isles and Ireland at this season, although in many areas of Britain their significance has been co-opted by Guy Fawkes Day, which falls on November 5th, and commemorates an unsuccessful attempt to blow up the English Houses of Parliament in the 17th century. In one Devonshire village, the extraordinary sight of both men and women running through the streets with blazing tar barrels on their backs can still be seen! Whatever the reason, there will probably always be a human need to make fires against the winter’s dark.
Samhain marks one of the two great doorways of the Celtic year, for the Celts divided the year into two seasons: the light and the dark, at Beltane on May 1st and Samhain on November 1st. Some believe that Samhain was the more important festival, marking the beginning of a whole new cycle, just as the Celtic day began at night. For it was understood that in dark silence comes whisperings of new beginnings, the stirring of the seed below the ground. Whereas Beltane welcomes in the summer with joyous celebrations at dawn, the most magically potent time of this festival is November Eve, the night of October 31st, known today of course, as Halloween.
Samhain (Scots Gaelic: Samhuinn) literally means “summer's end.” In Scotland and Ireland, Halloween is known as Oíche Shamhna, while in Wales it is Nos Calan Gaeaf, the eve of the winter's calend, or first. With the rise of Christianity, Samhain was changed to Hallowmas, or All Saints' Day, to commemorate the souls of the blessed dead who had been canonized that year, so the night before became popularly known as Halloween, All Hallows Eve, or Hollantide. November 2nd became All Souls Day, when prayers were to be offered to the souls of all who the departed and those who were waiting in Purgatory for entry into Heaven. Throughout the centuries, pagan and Christian beliefs intertwine in a gallimaufry of celebrations from Oct 31st through November 5th, all of which appear both to challenge the ascendancy of the dark and to revel in its mystery.
In the country year, Samhain marked the first day of winter, when the herders led the cattle and sheep down from their summer hillside pastures to the shelter of stable and byre. The hay that would feed them during the winter must be stored in sturdy thatched ricks, tied down securely against storms. Those destined for the table were slaughtered, after being ritually devoted to the gods in pagan times. All the harvest must be gathered in -- barley, oats, wheat, turnips, and apples -- for come November, the faeries would blast every growing plant with their breath, blighting any nuts and berries remaining on the hedgerows. Peat and wood for winter fires were stacked high by the hearth. It was a joyous time of family reunion, when all members of the household worked together baking, salting meat, and making preserves for the winter feasts to come. The endless horizons of summer gave way to a warm, dim and often smoky room; the symphony of summer sounds was replaced by a counterpoint of voices, young and old, human and animal.
In early Ireland, people gathered at the ritual centers of the tribes, for Samhain was the principal calendar feast of the year. The greatest assembly was the 'Feast of Tara,' focusing on the royal seat of the High King as the heart of the sacred land, the point of conception for the new year. In every household throughout the country, hearth-fires were extinguished. All waited for the Druids to light the new fire of the year -- not at Tara, but at Tlachtga, a hill twelve miles to the north-west. It marked the burial-place of Tlachtga, daughter of the great druid Mogh Ruith, who may once have been a goddess in her own right in a former age.
At all the turning points of the Celtic year, the gods drew near to Earth at Samhain, so many sacrifices and gifts were offered up in thanksgiving for the harvest. Personal prayers in the form of objects symbolizing the wishes of supplicants or ailments to be healed were cast into the fire, and at the end of the ceremonies, brands were lit from the great fire of Tara to re-kindle all the home fires of the tribe, as at Beltane. As they received the flame that marked this time of beginnings, people surely felt a sense of the kindling of new dreams, projects and hopes for the year to come.
The Samhain fires continued to blaze down the centuries. In the 1860s the Halloween bonfires were still so popular in Scotland that one traveler reported seeing thirty fires lighting up the hillsides all on one night, each surrounded by rings of dancing figures, a practice which continued up to the first World War. Young people and servants lit brands from the fire and ran around the fields and hedges of house and farm, while community leaders surrounded parish boundaries with a magic circle of light. Afterwards, ashes from the fires were sprinkled over the fields to protect them during the winter months -- and of course, they also improved the soil. The bonfire provided an island of light within the oncoming tide of winter darkness, keeping away cold, discomfort, and evil spirits long before electricity illumined our nights. When the last flame sank down, it was time to run as fast as you could for home, raising the cry, “The black sow without a tail take the hindmost!”
Even today, bonfires light up the skies in many parts of the British Isles and Ireland at this season, although in many areas of Britain their significance has been co-opted by Guy Fawkes Day, which falls on November 5th, and commemorates an unsuccessful attempt to blow up the English Houses of Parliament in the 17th century. In one Devonshire village, the extraordinary sight of both men and women running through the streets with blazing tar barrels on their backs can still be seen! Whatever the reason, there will probably always be a human need to make fires against the winter’s dark.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Merry Meet! I'm not sure where the communication issue was, but I wasn't aware I was posting anything following circle. So I apologize for all those that were confused. But here's a little recap of what went on.
We successfully initiated one more First Degree....please let's all welcome Thorne. After that the ritual was opened to the public and we had a very nice turnout. The ritual went splendidly, even though my notes blew away lol. The hazards of working outside! And I propose that we start the group howl at the moon, and do this at all our circles. Demeter and I will discuss it, but it will probably be a regular thing. So let's all howl our hearts out and make the neighbors worry, they already think we're strange.
I've received all assignments from the last First Degree class, I'll be grading and handing them back next week. Also, please remember Third Degrees, your class on sigils with Demeter was rescheduled to be this Saturday at 9pm at the covenstead.
Well, I believe that about wraps things up. Blessed be and happy Samhain!
We successfully initiated one more First Degree....please let's all welcome Thorne. After that the ritual was opened to the public and we had a very nice turnout. The ritual went splendidly, even though my notes blew away lol. The hazards of working outside! And I propose that we start the group howl at the moon, and do this at all our circles. Demeter and I will discuss it, but it will probably be a regular thing. So let's all howl our hearts out and make the neighbors worry, they already think we're strange.
I've received all assignments from the last First Degree class, I'll be grading and handing them back next week. Also, please remember Third Degrees, your class on sigils with Demeter was rescheduled to be this Saturday at 9pm at the covenstead.
Well, I believe that about wraps things up. Blessed be and happy Samhain!
Thursday, October 25, 2007
Question and update
I am getting into the holiday season my darling coven-mates. It is almost Samhain, which as we know, is the new year-and the biggest holiday of the whole pagan year. Updates: Haven is hosting the full moon circle tonight. Only the moon ritual will be open to the public, the initiation we're doing tonight will be done before the public ceremony. So please be there early. Haven is posting something about the ritual here tomorrow, but I'm not sure what. Also, as many of you know, I'm participating in NaNoWriMo this year. This will be a lot of work and Haven will be picking up a lot of the slack. I'm certainly not abandoning you guys, and will still maintain my HPS duties as normal, but I'm going to be busier than usual in November-so be prepared. Now on to the question.
The pentagram is simply a five-pointed star. It symbolizes the five elements (clockwise from the top point: Spirit, Water, Fire, Earth, and Air). The pentagram dates back thousands of years and is the strongest protective symbol ever "designed." The pentacle is the five-pointed star with a circle containing it. The circle represents enternity, unity. It represents the five elements working together in harmony for a common good. The pentacle is seen as a symbol of unity among modern pagans and is generally used more than the pentagram.
The pentagram is simply a five-pointed star. It symbolizes the five elements (clockwise from the top point: Spirit, Water, Fire, Earth, and Air). The pentagram dates back thousands of years and is the strongest protective symbol ever "designed." The pentacle is the five-pointed star with a circle containing it. The circle represents enternity, unity. It represents the five elements working together in harmony for a common good. The pentacle is seen as a symbol of unity among modern pagans and is generally used more than the pentagram.
Monday, October 22, 2007
First question
Well, so far the response to this blog has been tremendous. So many of you expressed positive feelings about it at the last circle. A few coven reminders, then I'll get to the question we got via comment last week. First, all new First Degree dedicants NEED to study! Some of you have been slacking, and while I understand this, your initiation is this week at the Full Moon Circle. And if Haven and I do not feel that you're ready, or that you're not serious, we will postpone your initiate. Also, remember, I'm not in charge of the full moon circle this month....so Haven is making the assignments. I am, however, in charge of the Samhain circle this month. Details to follow later this week. Oh, and practical testing for the two fourth degree dedicants will take place this weekend.....I'll talk to you two personally to set up a time that works for all of us.
Now, in response to Anthony. First, thank you for taking the time to attend our open circle, and we're certainly glad that you're interested. We offer somewhat eclectic training, we draw from many traditions.....however we do place a very heavy emphasis on Celtic and Egyptian traditions. New initiates are taken on an as-needed basis, currently we have two open spots in the coven, so are accepting new members. We do ask that you come to open circle, with the understanding that you wish to dedicate, and check us out (and we'll be checking your out). All of our energies and personalities must mesh, and we need time to determine if you would fit well within the group. During this observation period, you may leave at any time, and we may ask you to leave at any time. After this observation period, we do follow a Four-Degree program. All degrees last a minimum of a year and a day, or longer depending on is Haven and I feel you are ready to progress. You will be assigned a mentor, because while our training is done by Haven and myself, this mentor will help you understand and apply what we teach you. You are only a full coven member after completing your First Degree. At that point you receive all ritual robes and a copy of the coven Book of Shadows.....this is also the time when you would choose your craft name. The second and third degree are focused on practical knowledge and learning the coven procedures and rituals. When you achieve the Third Degree you can host rituals and take on the task of mentoring new members. The fourth degree is the longest and hardest....after completed you are considered a High Priest or Priestess. Then you have the option of leaving the coven and forming your own, or staying on as an Elder. Also, we only accept training that was received as a member of the Sacred Deava Covens....they are our mother coven and our training is similar. Any training you may have received elsewhere, does not count with us. So let us know if you are still interested in dedicating, and any other questions you may have. This full moon circle will be partially open to the public, so come by and say hello.
Merry meet and merry part, til we merry meet again.
Demeter Jade
Now, in response to Anthony. First, thank you for taking the time to attend our open circle, and we're certainly glad that you're interested. We offer somewhat eclectic training, we draw from many traditions.....however we do place a very heavy emphasis on Celtic and Egyptian traditions. New initiates are taken on an as-needed basis, currently we have two open spots in the coven, so are accepting new members. We do ask that you come to open circle, with the understanding that you wish to dedicate, and check us out (and we'll be checking your out). All of our energies and personalities must mesh, and we need time to determine if you would fit well within the group. During this observation period, you may leave at any time, and we may ask you to leave at any time. After this observation period, we do follow a Four-Degree program. All degrees last a minimum of a year and a day, or longer depending on is Haven and I feel you are ready to progress. You will be assigned a mentor, because while our training is done by Haven and myself, this mentor will help you understand and apply what we teach you. You are only a full coven member after completing your First Degree. At that point you receive all ritual robes and a copy of the coven Book of Shadows.....this is also the time when you would choose your craft name. The second and third degree are focused on practical knowledge and learning the coven procedures and rituals. When you achieve the Third Degree you can host rituals and take on the task of mentoring new members. The fourth degree is the longest and hardest....after completed you are considered a High Priest or Priestess. Then you have the option of leaving the coven and forming your own, or staying on as an Elder. Also, we only accept training that was received as a member of the Sacred Deava Covens....they are our mother coven and our training is similar. Any training you may have received elsewhere, does not count with us. So let us know if you are still interested in dedicating, and any other questions you may have. This full moon circle will be partially open to the public, so come by and say hello.
Merry meet and merry part, til we merry meet again.
Demeter Jade
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