New Userpic and YouTube channel
I am up at 2:45am blogging because I can't sleep for some reason. I made a new userpic from a photo I took a couple of months ago. My hair is now slightly longer/shaggier, as I am trying to grow it out now that the weather is getting cooler.
I don't think I have mentioned on here that I've started putting videos of myself on YouTube talking about my crystal grids, card deck reviews and other stuff related to my spiritual path. The reason I have been doing it is to connect with other witches and Pagans who put up YouTube videos about their Pagan and occult-related interests. I feel comfortable with having that level of online visibility at this stage in my life, especially since I only have 17 subscribers to date! You can find my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Gemmagic84 I hope to make more videos and get better at it and connect with more like-minded people.
I have still been working through the Fiona books I've been reading for IDGAF. I am up to the bit about Sabbats, which is very beautiful and evocative. It has me thinking about what I will do for Samhain this year (which is in just under a month now, sah exited!). I wrote a blog post about Samhain last year, which you can find here: http://gemmagic.livejournal.com/51876.html I may have been slightly hypomanic when I wrote it (and I might be right now, hence the lack of shuteye), but hey.
When I was emailing Amy she got me talking about what it's like practicing in Australia. Here's what I wrote:
A lot of books talk about things from an American/British perspective in terms of the wheel of the year and plants that don't grow here (such as oak trees and holly), but I have a fair few books that were written in Australia, so I don't feel that left out. The weirdest thing is following the celtic wheel of the year... a lot of books mention that you spin the wheel 180 degrees (or 6 months), but since we have our own seasons and weather patterns (not just the 4 seasons of Celtic Britain and many other places) it's a bit more complicated than that. For example, we have a dry season, a wet season etc. and in most parts of Australia it doesn't snow or get really cold. The best information I've seen on Australian seasons and how it fits into the pagan wheel of the year was on a website that I can no longer find, LOL! Apart from that, I don't think it's that different. I have a herb garden and I can get a fair few "traditional" witchy herbs growing in my garden, like my mugwort, which is growing like crazy right now.
Another thing is the disorganisation of a lot of our Pagan traditions. For example, the closest formal Pagan tradition that I know of is Gede Parma's Wildwood tradition of witchcraft, which is based in Brisbane and on the Gold coast, about 1000 kilometers away from where I live. The only way I could get involved would be to move there, or do Gede Parma's shamanic craft apprenticeship, which I don't have the money for right now. I do know other Pagans and witches, like the ladies I've recently started meeting with, but organised traditional groups are mainly based in the big cities. It's not altogether a bad thing. I haven't been too worried about it for the most part. When I was a young teen I used to do rituals with a friend of mine who is now my sister-in-law because we ended up marrying brothers. Just recently I've started practicing with a group of other women living in my local area, which is cool. They're not as into ritual as I am though, I love doing ritual when I get a chance and it's something I want to get better at.
I also read the chapters about Fiona's suggestions for basic spell crafting and the basic staples that you can use. I remember being a teenager reading it for the first time and really wanting to buy some spell ingredients as soon as possible, but I used to get by with what was available to me at the time... whatever we had growing in the garden, mum's herbs from the kitchen, olive oil to dress candles from the dollar store etc. Now that I've been on the path for several years I have a stash of quite a few different exotic herbs, and I grow some in my garden. However, I have been thinking about paring it back to a few basic staples. When you craft your own spells, which I do most of the time, you only need a few things to get by. Of course, your intent is the most important thing anyway (everyone knows that, so why oh why do we buy so much stuff? In my case it's probably retail therapy more than anything).
As for regular updatey life stuff, Jonah is going really well. He's 18 months old now. He's trying to talk more and more every day and he's really active, loves getting into everything and not toys. We just started getting him to sleep in his own toddler bed. I'm not going back to work any time soon. The pharmacy doesn't have the work for me and apparently Australia's government is screwing pharmacy so there are less jobs because they aren't allowed to charge more for certain prescriptions anymore. D'oh! So embarrassed that Australia voted in the mad monk, but that's a whole other rant.
Thanks for reading and I'll talk again soon. Ciao!
I don't think I have mentioned on here that I've started putting videos of myself on YouTube talking about my crystal grids, card deck reviews and other stuff related to my spiritual path. The reason I have been doing it is to connect with other witches and Pagans who put up YouTube videos about their Pagan and occult-related interests. I feel comfortable with having that level of online visibility at this stage in my life, especially since I only have 17 subscribers to date! You can find my channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Gemmagic84 I hope to make more videos and get better at it and connect with more like-minded people.
I have still been working through the Fiona books I've been reading for IDGAF. I am up to the bit about Sabbats, which is very beautiful and evocative. It has me thinking about what I will do for Samhain this year (which is in just under a month now, sah exited!). I wrote a blog post about Samhain last year, which you can find here: http://gemmagic.livejournal.com/51876.html I may have been slightly hypomanic when I wrote it (and I might be right now, hence the lack of shuteye), but hey.
When I was emailing Amy she got me talking about what it's like practicing in Australia. Here's what I wrote:
A lot of books talk about things from an American/British perspective in terms of the wheel of the year and plants that don't grow here (such as oak trees and holly), but I have a fair few books that were written in Australia, so I don't feel that left out. The weirdest thing is following the celtic wheel of the year... a lot of books mention that you spin the wheel 180 degrees (or 6 months), but since we have our own seasons and weather patterns (not just the 4 seasons of Celtic Britain and many other places) it's a bit more complicated than that. For example, we have a dry season, a wet season etc. and in most parts of Australia it doesn't snow or get really cold. The best information I've seen on Australian seasons and how it fits into the pagan wheel of the year was on a website that I can no longer find, LOL! Apart from that, I don't think it's that different. I have a herb garden and I can get a fair few "traditional" witchy herbs growing in my garden, like my mugwort, which is growing like crazy right now.
Another thing is the disorganisation of a lot of our Pagan traditions. For example, the closest formal Pagan tradition that I know of is Gede Parma's Wildwood tradition of witchcraft, which is based in Brisbane and on the Gold coast, about 1000 kilometers away from where I live. The only way I could get involved would be to move there, or do Gede Parma's shamanic craft apprenticeship, which I don't have the money for right now. I do know other Pagans and witches, like the ladies I've recently started meeting with, but organised traditional groups are mainly based in the big cities. It's not altogether a bad thing. I haven't been too worried about it for the most part. When I was a young teen I used to do rituals with a friend of mine who is now my sister-in-law because we ended up marrying brothers. Just recently I've started practicing with a group of other women living in my local area, which is cool. They're not as into ritual as I am though, I love doing ritual when I get a chance and it's something I want to get better at.
I also read the chapters about Fiona's suggestions for basic spell crafting and the basic staples that you can use. I remember being a teenager reading it for the first time and really wanting to buy some spell ingredients as soon as possible, but I used to get by with what was available to me at the time... whatever we had growing in the garden, mum's herbs from the kitchen, olive oil to dress candles from the dollar store etc. Now that I've been on the path for several years I have a stash of quite a few different exotic herbs, and I grow some in my garden. However, I have been thinking about paring it back to a few basic staples. When you craft your own spells, which I do most of the time, you only need a few things to get by. Of course, your intent is the most important thing anyway (everyone knows that, so why oh why do we buy so much stuff? In my case it's probably retail therapy more than anything).
As for regular updatey life stuff, Jonah is going really well. He's 18 months old now. He's trying to talk more and more every day and he's really active, loves getting into everything and not toys. We just started getting him to sleep in his own toddler bed. I'm not going back to work any time soon. The pharmacy doesn't have the work for me and apparently Australia's government is screwing pharmacy so there are less jobs because they aren't allowed to charge more for certain prescriptions anymore. D'oh! So embarrassed that Australia voted in the mad monk, but that's a whole other rant.
Thanks for reading and I'll talk again soon. Ciao!