Evolutionary Witchcraft
I've joined a book club that is studying Evolutionary Witchcraft by Thorne Coyle. I'm really seeing why people told me I needed to read it. There's quite alot in there that speaks to me. I actually went through and highlighted parts. It's the first time I've really felt the need to do that with a book, but there were parts I wanted to be able to find easily and highlighting is the way to make that so. It's actually a little shocking how much Feri tradition stuff resounds with me. I remember reading Spiral Dance and beeing all impressed by the stuff that followed the words "Victor Anderson said," and often ambivalent towards the rest of the book. So basically I'm going to go through and post the highlighted stuff and why it speaks to me in case I need to look it up later.
My own suffering certainly brought me to Witchcraft and seeing to find the sources of my strength and kept me there. . In Witchcraft, I found my place in Nature, and in Nature, I found my connection to all things.
This reminds me of the more depressed days of my life when I would go find solice next to a tree. I didn't realize it then but connecting with those trees was me connecting to a place where everything could come out and be expressed. It was my connection to all things. I didn't know it then, but that's when I became pagan.
Were these [fey] ethereal magical beings that lived in interstices of space and time ore were the actual humans, like Picts and Aboriginals? Perhaps they were one or the other or perhaps they were both. Thus begins the poetry and paradox of my tradition. Within that paradox lies that promise that we, too, can become fey--seekers of magic, holders of mystery, and communicators of the unspoken. Much of the tradition comes from a contact with spirit, which gives a freedom to Feri Tradition, a sponeaneity and joy held in all acts of creation.
I find paradoxes, contradictions, and oxymorons to be very sacrid. The answer both is true is usually the right one if you can wrap your mind around the concept. Anything that strenthens the ability to communicate these things is worth doing. The sacridness and joy of creation is also something that just needed to be remembered. All acts of creation are acts of God.
Feri myth tells us of the Star Goddess catching her reflection in the curved black mirror of space. Responding to the beauty of this image, she began to make love to herself. From her joy, the Gods were born and from the joy of the Gods, the worlds were born. The work in this book can help us catch sight of ourselves, fall in love, and spiral out into our true lives, shimmering with starlight and grounded on the sacred earth. We walk into our souls and are changed.
Seeing the beauty in the world is something that my work with Hathor, the Alexandrians, and my Diva work has really stressed for me. There is beauty to be found in everything, especially us, and there is joy in that beauty.
Ther is a sense of walking the edges and in-between spaces, of being all genders and holding all possibilities within oneself. In looking upone our multiplicity we find wholeness.
This something I could have written. It's something I've always felt really strongly about and just keep agreeing with more as time goes on.
perfection is wholeness, not the eradication of percieved flaw
This is just an awesome quote and something we all need to be reminded of from time to time. Taken to heart it means that we are all capable of pefection. We are in fact all perfect, we just like to forget.
I was connecting to spirit, building a foundation, and my teacher was within. My teacher was daily practice and self-examination. My teacher was in my encounters with other humans: on the bus, at work, at home.
This is almost a mission statement at the moment. I am building a foundation. I am teaching myself. I refered back to last imbolc (it's really hard to believe that was less than a year ago) and according to what I was told this is where I'm supposed to be.
I believe that the witch could use a little more science and the discipline that goes with it, and the Magician could use a little more art and spontaneity.
We actually ended up talking about this at the meeting tonight. Alot of people are intrigued by this sentance. The others seemed to focus on the science/art end of it, but that's not really what I'm feeling when I read it. I'm sure that's just because my background has put me in the mix of that where I'm comfortable. The balance between discipline and spontaneity is a very tricky one and it's way too easy to have too much of one or the other. It's really nice to see that I'm not the only one that feels this way.
Goddess, whom Victor and Cora call God Herself.
I love the gender neutralness of this sentance. It's wonderful to see the meaning in the simple paradox of the phrase, the reminder that divinity is not what you expect.
Each teacher uses her own methods, and flovors the work with her own flashes of poetry and insight. Thus does the tradition ever change
This is incredibly importaint to me. It means that here is the possibility for me to find an actual tradition that could be what I need it to be. I'm not expecting anything and I'm certainly not holding my breath. I've pretty much been told that I don't get a pre-made path, but this is just off enough that there could actually be something there. It's a dream I've pretty much given up on having a possibility of exhisting. If not it's simply reassurance that I can take whatever I learn and make it my own and do what I need to with it at this point. I don't have to worry about stepping on people's toes or oaths or that sort of thing. What I need to do with what I learn is not only encouraged, it's expected.
Feri fills a real need in the spiritual landscape: the need to uncover the divinity of our own souls and to walk conected with the natural world and the realms seen and unseen. Feri Tradition encourages us to embrace the whole of ourselves and see what emerges, new, from that crucible of contradictions.
This is again a need and a goal. The embracing of he whole of ourselves is importaint for me to note. There isn't a bad side, there's just sides. There is contradictions and that is expected. Hell, I'd go so far to say that that's divine. Sure this is scary. From what talk there was from the people who have done some of the exercises at the meeting tonight I know this isn't an easy thing. There will be difficult areas to work through and times where things are really hard. That does scare me. I'm not someone who likes change. I'm liking the place where I'm at. I like who I am. But then I remind myself that the person I am is not the person I was less than a year ago and more change will likely be for the better. Furthermore, I'm not allowing myself to make these decisions based on my fears. I also need to remember that this is embrasing and connection with myself, and only good can come of that.
My own suffering certainly brought me to Witchcraft and seeing to find the sources of my strength and kept me there. . In Witchcraft, I found my place in Nature, and in Nature, I found my connection to all things.
This reminds me of the more depressed days of my life when I would go find solice next to a tree. I didn't realize it then but connecting with those trees was me connecting to a place where everything could come out and be expressed. It was my connection to all things. I didn't know it then, but that's when I became pagan.
Were these [fey] ethereal magical beings that lived in interstices of space and time ore were the actual humans, like Picts and Aboriginals? Perhaps they were one or the other or perhaps they were both. Thus begins the poetry and paradox of my tradition. Within that paradox lies that promise that we, too, can become fey--seekers of magic, holders of mystery, and communicators of the unspoken. Much of the tradition comes from a contact with spirit, which gives a freedom to Feri Tradition, a sponeaneity and joy held in all acts of creation.
I find paradoxes, contradictions, and oxymorons to be very sacrid. The answer both is true is usually the right one if you can wrap your mind around the concept. Anything that strenthens the ability to communicate these things is worth doing. The sacridness and joy of creation is also something that just needed to be remembered. All acts of creation are acts of God.
Feri myth tells us of the Star Goddess catching her reflection in the curved black mirror of space. Responding to the beauty of this image, she began to make love to herself. From her joy, the Gods were born and from the joy of the Gods, the worlds were born. The work in this book can help us catch sight of ourselves, fall in love, and spiral out into our true lives, shimmering with starlight and grounded on the sacred earth. We walk into our souls and are changed.
Seeing the beauty in the world is something that my work with Hathor, the Alexandrians, and my Diva work has really stressed for me. There is beauty to be found in everything, especially us, and there is joy in that beauty.
Ther is a sense of walking the edges and in-between spaces, of being all genders and holding all possibilities within oneself. In looking upone our multiplicity we find wholeness.
This something I could have written. It's something I've always felt really strongly about and just keep agreeing with more as time goes on.
perfection is wholeness, not the eradication of percieved flaw
This is just an awesome quote and something we all need to be reminded of from time to time. Taken to heart it means that we are all capable of pefection. We are in fact all perfect, we just like to forget.
I was connecting to spirit, building a foundation, and my teacher was within. My teacher was daily practice and self-examination. My teacher was in my encounters with other humans: on the bus, at work, at home.
This is almost a mission statement at the moment. I am building a foundation. I am teaching myself. I refered back to last imbolc (it's really hard to believe that was less than a year ago) and according to what I was told this is where I'm supposed to be.
I believe that the witch could use a little more science and the discipline that goes with it, and the Magician could use a little more art and spontaneity.
We actually ended up talking about this at the meeting tonight. Alot of people are intrigued by this sentance. The others seemed to focus on the science/art end of it, but that's not really what I'm feeling when I read it. I'm sure that's just because my background has put me in the mix of that where I'm comfortable. The balance between discipline and spontaneity is a very tricky one and it's way too easy to have too much of one or the other. It's really nice to see that I'm not the only one that feels this way.
Goddess, whom Victor and Cora call God Herself.
I love the gender neutralness of this sentance. It's wonderful to see the meaning in the simple paradox of the phrase, the reminder that divinity is not what you expect.
Each teacher uses her own methods, and flovors the work with her own flashes of poetry and insight. Thus does the tradition ever change
This is incredibly importaint to me. It means that here is the possibility for me to find an actual tradition that could be what I need it to be. I'm not expecting anything and I'm certainly not holding my breath. I've pretty much been told that I don't get a pre-made path, but this is just off enough that there could actually be something there. It's a dream I've pretty much given up on having a possibility of exhisting. If not it's simply reassurance that I can take whatever I learn and make it my own and do what I need to with it at this point. I don't have to worry about stepping on people's toes or oaths or that sort of thing. What I need to do with what I learn is not only encouraged, it's expected.
Feri fills a real need in the spiritual landscape: the need to uncover the divinity of our own souls and to walk conected with the natural world and the realms seen and unseen. Feri Tradition encourages us to embrace the whole of ourselves and see what emerges, new, from that crucible of contradictions.
This is again a need and a goal. The embracing of he whole of ourselves is importaint for me to note. There isn't a bad side, there's just sides. There is contradictions and that is expected. Hell, I'd go so far to say that that's divine. Sure this is scary. From what talk there was from the people who have done some of the exercises at the meeting tonight I know this isn't an easy thing. There will be difficult areas to work through and times where things are really hard. That does scare me. I'm not someone who likes change. I'm liking the place where I'm at. I like who I am. But then I remind myself that the person I am is not the person I was less than a year ago and more change will likely be for the better. Furthermore, I'm not allowing myself to make these decisions based on my fears. I also need to remember that this is embrasing and connection with myself, and only good can come of that.