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This Tuesday Lughnasadh/Lammas, is sharing the day with the Full Super Moon!
This Sturgeon moon is the first of two full moons in the month of August and comes to us in the sign of Aquarius. It is illuminating the first harvest festival and amplifying the energies all around. I’ve written about Lughnasadh in the past and you can check out last years blog on the subject here. Just a few additional tidbits about this celebration as well as some reminders. Lughnasadh is a Celtic festival and specifically means Lugh’s Assembly. This is a time when many fairs and events occurred bringing communities together. Games played during these gatherings were often tests of strength and agility, bringing a warrior energy to the forefront of these gatherings. During this time Siruis, the dog star has risen and this change in the skies marked celebrations across many cultures outside of the Celtic realms, most tied to some type of harvest festival. It was traditional to bake bread from the grain of this first harvest and we sometimes hear this celebration called lammas or loaf mass. Another tradition includes crafting a corn dolly. It was believed that the spirit of the corn must be cared for and preserved until the next crop was planted. The last harvested corn husks were crafted into dollies and given a place to reside safely until the spring when they could be planted in the fields, bringing the energy of the corn back to life once more. Warrior magic can also be performed during this time. Consider calling on animal allies for strength and crafting symbols of them out of natural items, painting their images on stones, or creating a talisman to hold the energy of this animal and bring strength. You might also consider making a warrior mask. You can do this with paper mache or get a “blank” mask from the craft store. You could even use a white paper plate as your base for this project. Paint and decorate this mask imbuing it with warrior energy so that when you don this you become the warrior within. You can use the amplification of the full moon to charge up your warrior magic! Following the tradition of baking bread on this day, you might do just that and pair it with a soup or salad crafted with seasonal veggies and even edible flowers. However you choose to celebrate this holiday, be sure to take some time for considering what you are harvesting with this first gathering of crops. What have you been growing within your garden of Self? What has come to fruition? Honor the work you have done. For a little inspiration you might check out this Lughnasadh playlist (I did not make it but I am enjoying it) or create your own! I wish you all a blessed Lughnasadh! Community Playlist If you could pick one song that embodies you, one song that you feel in your bones whenever you hear it, what song would that be? I’d like to craft us a community playlist made up of these song essences. Reply to this email with an artist and song name and I’ll add it to the list, then share that list with you when it is complete. Daily Practice Are you going to be joining me for our August invitation? After crafting up the Inner Alchemy Journal I wanted to get a chance to use it with all of you! For the month of August I will be posting in the Facebook Group, Instagram and Facebook Stories and the Diving Deeper Community to share my own daily practices with this journal. If you are not already in the Facebook group, be sure to join in so you can share your own practice with all of us. Need the journal? You can get it here We begin Tuesday. See you then!
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the air is still warm from yesterday's heat. The crickets are chirping and the first of the birds is peeping it’s morning song. The sun hasn’t yet started it’s ascent and the Summer season is all encompassing.
Yet somewhere on that Summer scented air, I detect a hint of Autumn. Maybe it’s the ripening apples, or the windfall plums rotting on my lawn. Or perhaps it’s the breeze, with its constant shift from movement to stillness reminding us that change is always here. Even in those moments of feeling stuck, we are guaranteed that change will come. During this new moon in Cancer, you might consider using the following prompts pull cards and/or journal to work with this idea of change in the emotional body.
A companion exercise to these queries might look like this: Sometimes when we are feeling stuck or stagnant emotionally and/or energetically we need to see things from a different vantage point. Choose a space and cast a circle Stand at the Eastern quadrant of this circle facing outward and take three deep breaths while you take in your surroundings from this vantage point. Notice what you see, hear, smell, taste and feel (physically and emotionally) Step to your right to the Southern quadrant of your circle and repeat. Do this again in the West and North Repeat in the Center- perhaps even spinning slowly as you take your breaths to notice what this space looks like from all the directions. If your space and body allow lie on the floor looking up repeating these breaths and awareness Then roll over face down and take three breaths and notice what you notice. Sit in the center of your circle and reflect on what you discovered both from the outside (what you saw, heard etc.) and the inside (what you felt). Open your Circle When we look at situations from a different perspective we can often discover things we have not seen before, and in turn begin to change how we think and feel. Just in the time it has taken me to write this, the sun is lighting the overcast sky and more birds have added their voice to the morning chorus! Let the new moon remind you that we too move through phases and there is always an opportunity not just for change, but for beginning again. We are less than a week away from the Gift of the Labyrinth workshop . Perhaps you are familiar with the labyrinth. Or maybe you have never set foot upon one. Maybe you have experienced them in a way that has never led you to think of them beyond that moment. I want to invite you to explore this sacred tool with me. Together we will learn: About the history the labyrinth Discover the different types of labyrinths How to create your own Ways to work with this pattern And journey to the center and back out again. This class is offered live, July 22nd from 9-11 am PT. The replay is available to all who register. I look forward to walking this path with you! Register here! Wise Ones, have you noticed all of the in between times in our journey as a human?
Those liminal spaces between toddler and child, child and adolescent, young adult to adult and adult to elder? This week on the Witch Next Door Podcast we discussed one such space. That one defined by modern medicine as peri-menopause. That in between when hormones shift and the experience of being in one’s body is not quite as it was before. What does this have to do with magic? Listen in and find out! Wandering the streets of Guilford, CT this last week, my friend Sara and I stumbled upon a labyrinth. Even as a resident of this town for many years, Sara did not know this labyrinth resided there. It was a secret treasure discovered by accident, or fate (depending on the lens you see the world through). We walked the sacred geometry of the twists and turns, and as we did I felt my consciousness shift. My heart rate settled, my mind felt clearer. Into the center where I stood and let the air play with my hair, breathing in the moment. Then out again, reset, refocused regrounded. You are invited to make the acquaintance of this ancient path in the two hour workshop the Gift of the Labyrinth, Saturday July 22nd at 9 am PT. We will couple our book learning with experiential exercises to build a relationship with the labyrinth in both mind and body. Register here and I’ll see you there! Visiting my friend Sara of the Sisters Enchanted.
It is always a strange and unusual adjustment to time travel from one coast to the other. I feel slightly out of sorts and between worlds. As if I have portaled to some other realm where time no longer has the same meaning. And I think that’s the point. Stepping out of the normal day to day and into a different reality shifts the narrative. Inner rhythms are disrupted. There is a sense of being in time out of time. There is a world moving all around and yet my world is no longer on the same track. It is a place of surrender and of opening. I like my schedule and my rhythms. But I also really like adventure, seeing new places, being in new ways. The two can be hard to reconcile. They can create an unsettling sensation and even confusion. Yet the more I lean into presence, the more I am able to suspend the challenges of this and just “Be”. I can begin to take in what is all around and discover the magic and awe of whatever time and place I am in. This sounds simple but it is not always easy. Simple Practice: Look around yourself in the place you are at. Place your hands on your body. Perhaps one on your heart and one on your belly. Or perhaps place them somewhere else that feels comfortable to you. Close your eyes or soften your gaze. Take a big breath in and a slow breath out. Do this three times. Gently open your eyes and take a look around. How has the landscape changed? How has the way you see it shifted? What do you see? Feel? What stands out to you? Use this practice liberally and discover the way the world changes and the way you feel within the world with this new perspective. Interested in other ways of finding perspective? Gathering information? The Labyrinth is a helpful tool for both of these things. As we walk the path within, our perspective starts to change. As we make our way back out we integrate what we have discovered and learned. July 22nd at 9 am, we will journey into the Gift of the Labyrinth together. Regsiter here for this 2 hour workshop. This Week on the Witch Next Door Podcast we round out our origins of divination series with a look at the Runes.
Discover where and when they were brought into being and how they are used. Listen in! Did you ever watch the movie Labyrinth? It’s a classic. But it’s misleading. You see a labyrinth isn’t a maze. There are no dead ends. No tricky turns. There is just a path. One that leads to the center through the twists and turns of sacred geometry. Onc in the center the only way out is the way you have come. This design is both simple and complicated. It has been used for meditation and contemplation for a very long time, and can be found in community and retreat centers, churches, and natural spaces. You are invited to delve into the Gift of the Labyrinth with me on July 22nd at 9 am PT for a 2 hour workshop. You will learn and experience:
You can register here With Love and Blessings, Emily 7/3/23 I’ve been feeling a little quiet lately. You might have noticed a few less emails in your inbox. Social media posts that are few and far between. A skipped week of podcasting (or two). I’ve been feeling myself pulled to my writing, my imagination, painting story, crafting characters and unfurling a landscape in which it all unfolds. My creativity is a part of my magic. Perhaps it’s the biggest part even. It’s the place that I gather my tools and energetic connections and transform them into ritual and workshop, spell crafting and altar building, potion making and manifesting. And sometimes when my creativity and I are head over heels with each other the rest of the world fades a bit. It’s harder to do things like dishes and laundry and meal planning. It’s harder to reach out to community. Because creativity can be such a passionate lover. It sometimes makes the rest of the world disappear. But I want you to know I’m still here. Still making magic. Still crafting ritual. Still holding space. Just a little quieter on the outside. Because I’m having a Summer love affair with creativity. Are you? Simple practice: Write a love letter to creativity. Maybe you call this your creative self. Or perhaps you relate to this as the Muse. However you see this force in the world, write it a love letter and invite it in. Let the Summer energy fuel your own passionate relationship to creativity. Then sit beneath the full moon or the noon day sun and read it aloud, calling out to creativity to dance with you. Journey with Me Step into the magic of the labyrinth, a twisting turning journey to a center. Your center. The labyrinth is a single path that leads to the center of the structure and back out again. It offers us a place for meditation, ritual, and contemplation. July 22nd at 9 am PT, I am offering the Gift of the Labyrinth workshop. During this two hour experiential gathering we will,
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Emily Morrison MA, MFTArchives
February 2025
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