branches up, roots down

I’ve been sleeping soundly for the past week, dreaming the kind of dreams that only can be described as sweet. My rhythm seems to be congruent with the season, and the movement of planets. Fern tells me that Mars went direct last week, and things that have felt stuck, will begin to move. For me, that move was immediate, and my mood found its mirror in the brilliant spring days. It’s nice to have a good friend who is an astrologer, who tells you when planets go direct, and who also gives you the heads up when a new moon is a particularly auspicious time for making wishes, Fern told me to do things yesterday that I wanted to bring into or maintain in my life. Check. And then some. Over coffee and with the magic of skype, I talked to a dear friend in England and we did some planning of Avalonspring . My son had the day off from school and we worked happily together on some details around next year's college. My son helped me garden, and I mindfully plant...

"We cannot change anything until we accept it.” Carl Jung I come from a spiritual tradition that believes that magic is the art of changing consciousness at will and that practicing this magic is our sacred duty. I have been in large groups of people more times than I can count, holding hands and doing a spiral dance, chanting “She changes everything she touches, and everything she touches, changes”. She, of course, is the Goddess. She is paradoxical gal, and she knows that the only constant is, yep, change. In the past months, I’ve been going through changes. Big Ones. And, oh, how I want to use my will to change this!!!! I’ve done countless cleansings, purifications, furniture has been moved, and every closet and drawer organized. I’m that kind of magician. I know how to cast a circle and wave around my athame and/or wand with charged gusto, but I find cleaning my refrigerator just as effective. Incantations, of course, are involved in both. So, I’ve ...

I've just come back from driving my son and his best friend to South San Francisco to go to a party. All the way there the full moon held our attention, big and brilliant in the sky. We all longed to capture the moment, all wishing we had a camera. For teenagers, they were suitably awed and amazed. It's a spectacular moon on a spectacular night. It's exactly one moon cycle since I came home from the hospital. I am settling into acceptance of the diagnosis of diabetes. There has been grief for my old self and my old ways. I miss potatoes. I miss margaritas. There also has been gratitude for the healthy changes the diagnosis has wrought. Would I ever have changed my eating habits in such a dramatic way or stepped up the exercise to such a degree? Probably not. I am proud that I am managing the disease without medication and that my blood sugar is now on the low side of the completely normal range. Eating a low glycemic diet - which means eating only foods which slow...

The Spring Equinox is drawing near, that one day when light and dark, night and day hang in perfect balance. It’s been warm here in San Francisco , one of those glorious weeks of clear skies. The tulips on my deck burst open yesterday, and this afternoon I’m writing on said deck, with some bird twittering away in a nearby tree and the rumble of freeway off in the distance. All week I’ve been ruminating on listening and silence and been thinking about the witch’s pyramid ; to know, to dare, to will, and to keep silent. This is said to be the building blocks of creating magic. But what does this mean? The longer I’m a witch, the less I ascribe or am drawn to magic that involves a high level of secrecy, a feeling that what is being worked with is so powerful it would be dangerous in the wrong hands. I know the power of casting a circle and using the secret names I was given at initiation, but frankly, I’ve found that cleaning my house with intention is more often than not just as ...