Shaman Pathways: The Celtic Chakras

Shaman Pathways: The Celtic Chakras
by Elen Sentier

Here is the official blurb:

We've largely forgotten our ancient Celtic chakra heritage, indeed some people think there is no concept of chakras in the western tradition but this is not the case. The chakras are found throughout the mystery traditions all over the world, well known to our hunter-gather ancestors and the spirit keepers who led them. They are hidden deep in the ancient stories and myths of Britain. This book leads you through the lore of Arianrhod and her Spinning Towers, the riddling Gaelic poem The Cauldrons of Poesy, the rainbow bridge of Brighid and the ways and caers of the ancient British reindeer goddess, Elen of the Ways. There are journeys, meditations and exercises to help you get the feel of the Celtic chakra system into your bones.

And my own review:

What an inspiring and interesting book!  Opening us to the knowledge and wisdom found in the chakras within Celtic history, using such wonderful Goddesses as Elen of the Ways, Arianrhod and Ceridwen to discover your own energy centres.  I love the way that the Celtic chakra system uses a spiral rather than the usual straight line of chakra centres - makes perfect sense.  If you have ever worked with your chakras or thought about doing so - I encourage you to purchase this book, you will have your eyes, heart, soul and energy centres opened and you won't look back.

Published by Moon Books in January 2013.

Elen has a website www.elensentier.co.uk

Tansy (Rachel)

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A Deed Without a Name

I had the pleasure of reviewing today a wonderful book:

A Deed Without a Name – Unearthing the Legacy of Traditional Witchcraft 

By Lee Morgan

The official blurb: 

The field of witchcraft studies is continually over-turning new information and research about traditional witchcraft practices and their meanings. A Deed Without a Name seeks to weave together some of this cutting-edge research with insider information and practical know-how. Utilising her own decades of experience in witchcraft and core-shamanism Lee Morgan pulls together information from trial records, folklore and modern testimonials to deepen our understanding of the ecstatic and visionary substrata of Traditional Witchcraft. Those who identify themselves as 'Traditional' tend to read a lot of scholarly texts on the subject and yet still there remains a vast gulf between this information and knowledgeably applying it in practice; this book aims to close that gap.

My review:

This is a fascinating book digging into the history and fact behind the different myths and legends that make up the legacy of Witchcraft. 

Giving insight and interesting details on many of the facets of the Craft that we use now such as hedge crossing, fetch beasts and familiars and hag riding. 

I found myself nodding as I read this book, agreeing with so many of the statements and also learning some history along the way. 

To be honest the author had me hooked with one line in the first few pages 

“Those who consult scholarship too often err on the side of the arm-chair occultist, reading tomes upon tomes of books and journal articles, practicing ‘witchcraft in the head’ without finding a way to bridge the gap between scholarship and practice”. 

I knew it was going to be my kind of book! 

This book not only includes lots of research and history it also includes ideas and exercises to work through. 

It should definitely be on your bookshelf. 

Released in January 2013 for more details see Moon Books

Tansy 

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Let's Talk about Pagan Festivals

Let's Talk About Pagan Festivals by Siusaidh Ceanadach.

This lovely little book for children will be published in December by Moon Books

It covers all eight of the Sabbats with an introduction on each one for adults/teachers then a beautiful story for each celebration for the children to read to help them understand just what each one is all about.  In addition there is also a chapter on the Moon with a beautiful story and ideas on how to celebrate each phase.

Followed by suggestions of activities for the children to undertake, a recipe to make and little prayers to say for each Sabbat too.

Delightful!

Siusaidh Ceanadach has been Pagan for over twenty-five years. She is co-organiser of the Druidcraft Groven 'Tuatha de Bridget' and a Celebrant
www.paganhandfastingscotland.co.uk

This book also had a facebook page LetsTalkAboutPaganFestivals

You can pre-order via Amazon.co.uk 

and Amazon.com

Tansy

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The artwork for the cover is by Nina Falaise

Moon Phases and Sabbat Dates 2013

We have uploaded some fabulous moon phase and Sabbat date sheets for 2013 (in pdf format) to our blog and our forum/school website.  They can also be found on our facebook page in jpg format.

If you scroll down the page - on the right hand side of your screen you will see a box entitled 'Moon Phases and Sabbat Dates' in there you will find 2012 calendars for the Northern and Southern Hemisphere but we have recently added date sheets for 2013 again for both hemispheres.

Please feel free to download them.

Tansy
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Kitchen Ancestors by Nimue Brown

We are very pleased to welcome our guest blogger today - Nimue Brown.

Kitchen Ancestors

By Nimue Brown

My great grandmother used to boil her Christmas puddings in the copper – a tub-fire arrangement more normally used for washing clothes. I think of her a lot when I’m able to make the seasonal puddings. My paternal grandmother had very cold hands, and like me she was a pastry maker. Drawing on a Japanese tradition, I like to call this having ‘hands of the moon’. Folk with hands of the sun, are good bread makers, yeast likes warm fingers! I make a good pastry but my breads cannot be relied upon to rise. I learned wine making from my father, and he got into it via his father. There are stories about the used rice and raisons being fed to chickens… And of course there’s marmalade, that great, seasonal ritual of mass orange dissection.

I cook almost every day, and I cook from scratch. I used to make food offerings for rituals, as well. Every act of cooking is an act of intent, sharing love of family and community, expressing care, working a domestic magic that nurtures the body. You probably know this stuff already. For me, it’s also an act of communion with my ancestors, especially where I’m using recipes or ideas that have come down to me through my family.

Bringing food-lineage together is also a way of meshing stories and a sense of heritage. My husband’s family have traditions around the consumption of globe artichokes, that have now become part of my family way of doing things, too.

Food often comes with stories, my father’s infamously bland marrow jam that combined with the over-hot chutney to stunning effect. My grandmother’s goo-cakes that were a staple of every childhood birthday. Stories about how great grandparents cooked during the rationing period of the Second World War, tales of my Nan in service. There are the tales of where a technique was learned, where an idea came from. I learned a different way of thinking about food from vegan cooks at Druid events. Every plate has a story to tell. In fact, the kitchen equipment too can become a thing of heritage and connection. I have plates and saucepans that belonged to my grandmother, and I remember her every time I use them.

Cooking is such an everyday art that it is easily overlooked. There’s a long and ancient tradition of cooking as women’s work, though, and the history of food is also the history of our connection with the land, and with many other species. Bread and beer take us right back to the roots of settled human culture. Culture and agriculture are closely related words, and with good reason! Companions are literally people who share bread (from the French) and most of our Pagan, seasonal celebrations, when you look at them, have everything to do with food and farming.

The kitchen is a place of magic, and also a place of inheritance and ancestral power.

When we empty packets into dishes and throw those into a microwave, there isn’t much time to contemplate our relationship with the food, the land or the ancestors. We won’t, generally speaking, pause to contemplate where the recipe came from – because we won’t know unless the packaging has some grinning celebrity chef on it. Food without stories is not so good for the soul. Traditionally, food was a focal point for family and wider community as well, intrinsic to our spiritual lives (The church had a bread based calendar too, once) and part of what connected us to the great web of existence. We’ve devalued food in so many ways, but reclaiming it is a powerful business and well worth making the time for.

Anyone curious about the Druid perspective on things, especially with regard to history and ancestry, is invited to have a look at  

Druidry & The Ancestors

and I also blog most days at www.druidlife.wordpress.com about things Druidic.

Eyes of the Wild

Eyes of the Wild - Journeys of Transformation with the Animal Powers by Eleanor O'Hanlon:

My review:

This is a truly beautiful book that will touch your heart and your soul.

Eleanor O’Hanlon has captured the inner spirit of the whale, the bear, the wolf and the horse. Her stories are so wonderfully descriptive that you believe you are right there with these amazing creatures whether it is on a boat beside a mother and baby whale or face to face with a polar bear.

Beautifully written, this book will give you insight into how these wonderful creatures live but also transport you across the globe to connect with their true spiritual inner energies.

On reading this book I defy you not to shed a tear or feel the spirit in your heart.

The official blurb:

From the Arctic pack ice to the gray whale birthing lagoons of Baja California, Eyes of the Wild takes the reader on an epic, personal journey to meet whales and wolves, bears and wild horses. The journey is guided by outstanding biologists and other observers, men and women who are renewing an ancient way of relationship with the wild. Their scientific research meets the indigenous wisdom and storytelling from the shamanic, Native American and Celtic Christian spiritual traditions, which understands the animals as guides to deeper relationship with life.

Eleanor O’Hanlon is an Irish-born writer who has carried out field research for leading international conservation groups. Her articles on wildlife and wilderness have appeared in magazines in Europe and the US. www.eyesofthewild.org

Published by Earth Books (an imprint of John Hunt Publishing) www.earth-books.net

Available to pre-order Amazon.co.uk
Available to pre-order Amazon.com

Tansy (Rachel Patterson)
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A Healer of Souls

I have just had the pleasure of reviewing a new book, due to be released in December - A Healer of Souls by Dawn Paul:

The official blurb:


After twenty fruitless years on a frustrating spiritual search, Dawn Paul was faced with no other option but to give up. Disheartened and exhausted, she went on holiday to Peru and this changed her life forever. During a visit to Machu Picchu she received a mystical experience, a vision of the Inca, who instructed her to follow the path of the shaman. Feeling she had finally been given the direction she had been looking for all her life, Dawn promptly resigned from her six figure career in a bank and stepped onto the shamanic path. Over the following years Dawn worked worldwide as a shamanic healer and spiritual teacher, assisting many people of all ages, from all races and religions. A Healer of Souls is Dawn’s gift to the general public, and to the wider community without which a shaman cannot exist.

My review:

Extremely interesting and informative book, Dawn Paul shares her experiences of life and her Shamanic healing work along with case studies so that we may understand how the soul retrieval and indeed the whole journey of the soul works.

Definitely makes you stop and think about your own life and how it has unfolded and what decisions and choices you have made that have been good or bad ones and what you can do to look at your life from a different perspective.

This book will help you see the truth in your life, heal yourself and help guide you to inner peace and understanding.  It will make you look hard at yourself, it will make you work for it, but it will be so worth it in the end.

You can pre-order from Amazon (they have a discount deal a the moment on pre-orders):

Amazon.co.uk

barnesandnoble.com also have it available for pre-order

www.mightyape.co.nz also has it available for pre-order

Dawn Paul's website is Liberate-Online

Tansy

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Samhain Ritual

Samhain Ritual

Queen Elizabeth Country Park, Horndean, PO8 0QE, Hampshire.

Saturday 3rd November 2012

2.00pm start

Come and join us to celebrate, everyone is welcome, even if you haven't attended a ritual before come along and see what it is all about.

The Country Park has ample car park space (although they do charge £2 but that covers you for the whole day so you could go for a walk through the forest afterwards).

It also has a very nice cafe and toilet facilities.

Hosted by the Kitchen Witch School of Natural Witchery

Our ritual will be held in the BOTTOM FIELD event area of the country park. Park in the first car park by the visitor centre, walk through the centre and out past the cafe, keep walking past the pond, we aren't the first field you get to we are the next one (it sounds like a long walk but it isn't!). The Visitor Centre reception can also help with directions. Or you can park in the second Meadow field car park.

If you would like to - BRING A CARVED PUMPKIN with you :-)

Journal of a Novice Witch - part 2

Journal of a Novice Witch – part 2

Well this month has been very busy and has gone by very quickly.  Since my last blog we’ve had a Blue Moon and the Autumn Equinox.  It’s turned from summer to autumn (and at times winter!!).  The turning of the year has been very noticeable, and this has been apt because my studies have been about the wheel of the year.

For my studies I had to think about each Sabbat and what is happening at the time of year it takes place.  Then I had to bring together my own list of correspondences for each Sabbat based on my experiences, observations and knowledge, rather than to simply research from books etc. 

I have to admit that some of it was harder than I thought it would be, as I found it hard to think of an herb or tree for some Sabbats without looking up what the generally accepted ones would be.  Trees were particularly difficult despite the fact that I walk in the woods often and interact with the trees regularly, whether this is simply saying ‘hello’, or energy sharing, or removing debris and broken branches that have got wedged in them etc. 

Trees are also always there no matter what time of year it is, they are there in all their majesty, bare in the winter, growing shoots in early spring, leafing in later spring, their leaves turning darker as the summer progresses until they change into their autumnal glory before floating to the ground.  So I found it very hard to choose one for each Sabbat.

But, I did eventually decide which ones would represent my Sabbats, and after a lot of thought and reflection I draw up my list of correspondences, although I am sure these will change as I work more fully and more spiritually with the wheel of the year.

I didn’t have problems with all the correspondences though, particularly with the  colours and crystals; colours because I spend a lot of time out in nature, even on days when I could happily stay indoors, you know those days when it is lashing down with rain and blowing a hooley.  But, you can’t be a fair whether witch when you have three dogs that don’t care what the weather is like!  So, I am out every day, come rain or shine, and I have my favourite walks, the woods obviously, but also Maiden Castle, an Iron Age Hillfort, a stone’s throw away from me.   Now, Maiden Castle is in the middle of farming land, and there are many hedgerows separating the fields and footpaths, so anyone that walks here, or in the woods, cannot help but notice the turning of the seasons: the colours of the trees, the colour of the land as it is ploughed, sown and harvested, and colours of the hedgerows that bud, leaf, flower and fruit.  So, this put me in good stead for drawing up my colour correspondences.

And as for Crystals, well they are one of my passions and I work with them a lot, so I need say no more…

And, talking of Sabbats, there was of course the Autumn Equinox/Mabon on the 22^nd of this month.  I made my first ‘proper’ Sabbat altar and made some candles to burn on the night. 

I also attended the Dorset Grove ritual on the 15^th, it was a beautiful ritual, the weather was wonderful, the lovely Kitchen Witch team were there, including Arthur bear, and I attended my first handfasting (of Rita and Dennis) that took place during the ritual.  The whole experience was very special and something I will remember for a very long time (pics can be seen at www.dorsetgrove.co.uk/gallery.htm).

I have to say that with each ritual I attend I feel more and more rooted within my pagan path.  It feels so right, like a coming home, and I away feel so positive and full of energy afterwards.  If you haven’t been to a ritual before I would recommend it if you have a great Grove near you, or can get to the Kitchen Witch rituals in Queen Elizabeth Park.

Sadly though, I didn’t get to the Kitchen Witch Mabon Ritual on the 22^nd (or the Stonehenge one), but I have seen the pictures and the blogs, and it seems I missed two special events (pics and blog can be seen on the Kitchen Witch Facebook page - www.facebook.com/kitchenwitchuk).

I am still doing my branch studies in runes, tarot and magical herbs, there’s so much I want to learn, I could do with that time machine thingy that Hermione Granger had in Harry Potter, but in reality, I just need to learn patience and work diligently at my studies, and enjoy the experience however long it takes me.  Patience is a virtue; unfortunately it’s one I don’t have……

So, here we are at the end of September (already - eeek).  The nights are drawing in, the mornings and evenings are cooler, and the dark mornings are noticeable too, especially when the alarm goes off and it’s dark and feels like the middle of the night! 

But round the corner is Samhain, and I get the impression the Kitchen Witch team are very fond of this particular Sabbat!  My open fire will soon be going, and the cosy dark evenings will be perfect for catching up on the numerous books I have to read and for my studies and practice. 

So next month I will be chatting about Samhain, and my next study subject – Esbats – this is going to be another great study time as I am a moon girl at heart, strongly influenced by the moon’s power.  In fact as I have been writing this it has got dark and I will soon be able to see the moon in all her fullness - time to select some crystals to go out and bath in her energy I think. 

Til next time.

Love and blessings. 

Earthshine. xx