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That’s how I spent much of the last few days. After a couple months of tediously ripping out the weeds that had become half of our front lawn, my husband and I spent Friday night under the almost full moon leveling the earth, adding top soil, planting, and getting really really dirty! There was something truly magical and reconnecting about doing this work in the cool evening beneath the silver light of the moon. Watching our subtle moon shadows move together felt like a dance of sorts, one that felt familiar in that ancient kind of way. For me, moonlight has always had the mystical, ancient, yet timeless quality to it. Things illuminated by that sacred lunar glow hold a different sort of “sight” to them. Moonlight offers a different perspective. One that casts familiar, mundane objects and spaces into a more magical view. The moon vibes continued as I chaos planted the back garden beds under the lunar eclipse last night. (Chaos planting = planting random seeds to see what happens) Did you see that Full Blood Moon in Scorpio? Perhaps more importantly, did you feel it? What did you notice? Eclipses offer insight for me into the way the hidden becomes visible, the unseen seen. They are a revealing, usually of something that has always been there but that we perhaps hid away or have been avoiding. Once that veil is pulled back we can not forget what has been revealed. Working with the Diving Deeper community yesterday for our full moon ritual, we explored what shadows inside of ourselves were being illuminated by this full moon. What shadows are you “seeing”? Re-Story Your Life begins this Thursday May 19th! Are you feeling stuck or off track? Having a hard time hearing your inner wisdom? Or perhaps you can hear your intuition clearly but what to do with that information is confusing? This five lesson course is made up of exercises and prompts to help you not only tune into your intuitive Self, but to also create a plan to get you out of your stuck spots, and back on the course your Soul is here to walk. This course is available to you anytime, but if you want to move through the five lessons live with me we will be gathering each day Thursday-Monday for a meditation or exercise, and check in. Replays will be available if you can’t make the lives. Divination is at the heart of this class and I look forward to sharing some really fun activities and tools with you! You can find the schedule of livestreams and registration here. Gotta Get Away The Summer Solstice Retreat is just weeks away! Gather Witches, around the fire, beneath the sky, surrounded by Oaks and Bay. The beautiful landscape of Sonoma County welcomes you to the Summer Solstice Retreat June 19-21st. We will spend our time together,
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Green witch? Kitchen witch? Weather Witch? Elemental Witch? Or perhaps you follow a specific tradition (ex: Dianic Witch, Gardnerian Witch). Or maybe like me, you have drawn from a variety of traditions and sources as you have grown your path and consider yourself more of an Eclectic Witch. This week on the Witch Next Door podcast, Veronica and I discuss this idea of defining your witchery with a label. Listen In! Whatever type of witchery you practice, I bet you use divination in one form or another. The tools of divination are an excellent way to dig a little deeper into the unconscious, to unlock the power of your intuition and to gain insight by illuminating places that seemed to dark or congested to understand. This is why I placed divining tools and practices at the center of the course Re-Story Your Life. Through five lessons we explore the life you are currently living, look at where it is you want to go and craft a map of action steps to get you headed in the right direction. Using divination as our guide we unstick the stuck spots, quiet our noisy brains and listen to the wisdom within. We begin together May 19th. Over five days we will move through each lesson. I will be going live each day to add more experiential practices and create a space for you to check in about your journey if you desire. The schedule and sign up page can be found here. If you want to join us but can't make the livestreams, these will be recorded and posted the same day so you can stay in sync with the journey or revisit at your own pace. Retreat registration is OPEN! If you are ready to make some magic in the great outdoors now is the time! We gather June 19th-21st to celebrate the Summer Solstice amongst the oaks in community. Our time together will be crafting spells, creating ritual, honing our intuition and connecting with nature as well as each other. You can click here for all the details, then email me to reserve your space.  I have been thinking a lot about ritual. About how we humans have crafted rituals and ceremonies to help us make sense of the world around us. Rituals happen across cultures and have existed for as long as humans have been around. Some are known by most: things like weddings or funerals, graduations or birthday parties. Others are less known, less discussed. The rituals of morning pages or leaving offerings for our animal friends or spirits of the land for example. Some are even less seen, more private: grief rituals of keening in solitude, silent prayers sent up as a plane is boarded. Rituals can be as simple as stirring an intention into your morning tea, or as complex as casting a circle, invoking deities, and dancing prayers into being. This morning as I walked with a dear friend, we revisited the idea of being witnessed. Of the many thresholds we cross in life, the milestones and markers that are never spoken of or are cast to the side. The things we do not take the time to name and acknowledge that might require just that, a naming, an acknowledgement, an honoring and perhaps a witness. Being held in ceremony or ritual is one of the beautiful things about community. It is one of the gifts we give each other. Before my wedding my Circle held a ceremony for me. A marking of moving from single to married. It was elaborate and there was a blindfold and gates to cross and surrender in trusting these women to guide me as I moved blindly through the portals. It was powerful and moving and consisted of deep magic and love. This was not the ceremony of marriage but a ceremony acknowledging my own shift, my own claiming of a new role and an honoring of who I had been before. It was as much a celebration of something new as it was an honoring of a letting go. What rituals do you participate in? What are the daily practices or prayers that hold space in your life? In what ways do you long to be held by community in ritual? In what ways are you already? I’d love to hear from you if you want to share. You can reply to this email. Just a reminder, that if you are longing to gather in community and share in ritual and magic, the Summer Solstice retreat is being held here, in Sonoma County June 19th-21st. Details can be found here.  Wise Ones, today in the US we celebrate Mother’s Day. A day to honor Mama’s.
. This day is a tricky one for many. There are those sometimes complicated mother-child relationships, the grief that exists for those who might have lost a child, or those who have lost a mother. There are those people who longed for motherhood but, for whatever reason, have not been able to bring this longing into being. And of course so many more ways we relate to the idea and concept of mother that muddy the waters of this day. I am not a mother to a human. I have not given birth. I have not adopted a child. In the past there have been times that have felt a deep sadness on this day, not having a child of my own, not feeling a part of the “mom” club that so so many of my friends have joined over the years. The flip side of this is that I am blessed to have amazing women in my life (my own Mother top of this list), who have gifted me with love and care and guidance and support. And even at times when I felt sad, I have been most fortunate to feel such gratitude for these women that celebrating them has been easy. Whether you are a mother or not, if we look at Mother as an archetype, as an energy, we might begin to explore the ways that the Mother lives inside us all. In the Tarot, The Empress is often considered to be the personification of mothering energy. The divine feminie, fertile and bursting forth with creation. Yet creation and nurturing is not only found in the parenting of a child. It is found in the ways we care for and nurture others in our lives (human and animal), it is also found in the way we care for and nurture ourselves. Creation comes in many forms, and creativity is bursting forth from the Empress, creativity is part of the heartbeat of the mother. Motherhood is not all sunshine and rainbows. There is a fierceness is mothering too! There are limits to set and boundaries to hold. There is protection to provide and sacrifices made. Looking at all the facets of mothering is crucial in understanding how this energy flows through the world. So on this day where we celebrate and honor Mothers. How are you celebrating and honoring the mother that resides within you? I invite you to nourish yourself, to fuel the seeds of creativity, of creation of care. Part of tending your magical self, is in fact a mothering of yourself, physically, emotionally and of your craft, through practice and continued learning and growth. In my own spiritual path I lean into the energy of the earth as the Mother, this vast intricately woven world we live in. This world that is governed by cycles and the circle of life. And I often picture Mother Nature as her own entity, holding the energies of birth and death, creation and destruction inside of her. The earth holds us, feeds us, nourishes us and provides for us so much. This planet is something we are intrinsically bound to. How are we caring for and connecting with her? Taking the idea of Mothering one step further, perhaps today is also a day to reconnect with nature. To let yourself be held by her and in turn to offer her care and tenderness as well. As we honor the Mother, let us honor the many forms this energy takes, within ourselves and outside of ourselves. Let us celebrate the gifts of creation and nurturing, the gifts given in the form of boundaries set, and limits tested that held. May we all revel in the power and beauty, the mess and upheaval that mothering brings with it in all of its forms. A Blessed and Joyous Beltane Wise Ones! The new moon in Taurus and solar eclipse are bringing their energies to us from above today and tomorrow we celebrate Beltane, the fertility of the earth. Here in the Northern Hemisphere we are halfway between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice. The Earth is alive with growth and we celebrate this abundance. We sluff off the remnants of winter with purifying fires and baths of morning dew. We don flower crowns to honor the divine feminine and we drive poles into the ground and dance about them to celebrate the coming together of masculine and feminine energies and the blossoming this union creates. This festival is full of symbolism and tradition. There are many ways you might celebrate Beltane, from the weaving of ribbons into spells, to dancing barefoot on the budding earth. From the honoring of the Fae Folk, to the baking of bannocks and oat cakes. Or perhaps you are attending or participating in a handfasting or Maypole dance. For many more detailed celebration ideas and some history of the symbolism alive at Beltane, visit my blogs from 2019 and 2020 If you would like to join in the community ritual I host for the Diving Deeper Circle, I am opening the doors to you all on a donation basis. We will be coming together tomorrow, Sunday, May 1st at 9am PT to celebrate and work with weaving of masculine and feminine energies within ourselves. This is donation based, pay what feels right (no one will be turned away for lack of funds) Just click HERE to donate and I will send you the link Sunday morning and details of what to bring. (Be sure that the email you use for Pay Pal is the one you check as this is where the link will be sent) You must sign up before 8 am PT Sunday. However you choose to celebrate this festive holiday, may your Beltane be Blessed and Bright!  I learned so much from our fabulous teachers! As always it was a pleasure to gather in virtual community with those that attended. The next conference will be hosted in October (The Season of the Witch 3) and I am always working to tune into what the community wants to learn and know. If you have any thoughts or ideas for presentations or things you would like to learn more about let me know. Just reply to this email. In addition this gathering has reminded me of how many amazing readers (Tarot, Astrology, Psychic’s etc.) I know and trust. In the coming weeks I’ll be adding a page to my website with the contact info for these folks so when you are seeking this type of information you can connect with someone who is reputable. I’ll let you know as soon as that is up and running. A neckalce of stars… This is what Stargazer Li referred to the current planetary alignment as. And when I caught sight of it Saturday morning I discovered that this term was in fact fitting. There in the east before the sun arose, the last quarter moon hung at the far right of a series of planets, with Venus shining the brightest, but the others clearly visible to the naked eye. Much to my husband’s dismay, such events bring me much joy. So much joy in fact I want to share it with him. So at 5:30 Saturday morning I drug him from our cozy bed to come and see the necklace of planetary sparkles. (this joy has also led me to haul him out of bed at 1 or 2 or 3 am to witness and eclipse or try to chase a never found comet.) The cosmos mesmerize me (and terrify me a bit too). The vastness. The sheer size and distance. The connection we have with things that have happened before we were ever here visible from our planet only now. It is awe inspiring. And it makes me feel both simultaneously connected to everything and also tiny and insignificant. Yet Saturday morning as I stood on my front lawn and looked up at the sky, I found myself feeling like I had just won the lottery. To catch this moment, without fog or clouds, to see the planets aligned…it felt sacred and I felt like the simple act of seeing it allowed me to be a part of this sacredness. Have you ever felt this way? As you gaze at the stars do you feel the alluring nature of the cosmos? The sacredness of the quilted universe of stars and planets above us? Or do you want to close your eyes and pretend that vastness is not reaching out all around as we spin through the air on this blue globe? On my spiritual path, the Earth is the place I root myself too, the seasons, the story and rhythm, I honor, and yet the elements are all around and within, and the cosmos, works with the planet to co-create this symphony of being. My devotion is to the natural world, below and above. I ask myself each day, what steps I am taking to care for this planet we call home. I ask myself how I am caring for her waters, her soil, the creatures I share this space with, the air we all breathe. Sometimes the answer is clear. Sometimes I recognize I have to try harder. On the heels of Earth Day, I find myself pondering more than usual, how the ways that we care for the planet, the ways we honor the earth and the cosmos, are all acts of devotion. The simple practice of choosing organic food, or buying something in bulk, or using our own reusable shopping bags. The simple act of planting trees, or flowers or herbs. Of random acts of kindness toward humans and animals, of allowing ourselves to feel the wonder and awe that are everywhere, in the wind in the leaves, a child’s laughter, the brilliant colors of flowers and sunsets, or the song of a brook or bird. Choice, presence and awareness are all acts of devotion to mother nature. What one small act will you do today? Announcement! As some of you know, back in early 2020 I planned and began to share about two in person retreats I had crafted up for that year. These were of course cancelled due to the pandemic. Well this is the year we try again! I am please to announce the 1st Wise Woman Witchery Summer Solstice Retreat. This event will be held here in Santa Rosa California. We will be completely outdoors at a local campground. Camping is optional (there are plenty of hotels and air B n B’s available nearby) and the heart of our time together will all be contained during waking hours so you won’t miss anything. We will gather from Sunday June 19th-Tuesday June 21st and will explore our magic through exercises, rituals, divination and spell work. We will also celebrate the Summer Solstice together.  In the stack of first books I read when coming to witchcraft, was one called Book of Shadows by Phyllis Currott. The book is about her own journey into witchcraft and it was really inspiring for me. This was before I ever had my own Book of Shadows and before I truly understood what role one of these would play in my spiritual path. Do you journal? Do you have those journals that you look back on and revisit your past self? Perhaps they are from childhood or adolescence (my 9 year old diary tells the story of my brief stint with Christianity, with many entries that begin “Dear God”). Or maybe they are full of stories and feelings and poems from that rather angsty self from your early 20’s. (or maybe that’s just me). What’s true is that I have been journaling for as long as I can remember and these stacks of notebooks and scraps of paper and half filled tomes, tell the story of my past self in a way that my present self can not. They are first person accounts of a moment. Of memories. Of hopes. Of goals. Of visions. My Books of Shadows (Also lovingly referred to as my BOS’s) tell another story. They tell the story of my witchcraft journey. They are full of spells, notes from books I’ve read, rituals I’ve created and co-created, reflections on divination practices, notes I’ve taken from witchy workshops, rough sketches (and I do mean rough!), songs, chants and more. They are the way my past witch self communicates with my current witch self. They are a way to time travel. To remember. This is my own library of both a journey and knowledge. You might have your own BOS, or maybe you have yet to start one. What you need to know is that it doesn’t have to be fancy. It just has to have pages to write in and a place you come back to again and again. I want to help you fill your book! Through these emails, through classes and workshops, our membership group and the Priestess Path, I am always striving to give you touchpoints and exercises for reflection and experience. The Cauldron of Wisdom 2 is no different! This virtual conference of Witchery is host to classes on the following topics: Numerology Palmistry Crystal Magic Tea Spells the Tarot Cards that Scare Us the Maiden Goddess Oshun Mediumship Devotional Poetry and a yoga and tarot collab class Embodying the Fools Journey Plus two full days of community and lots of information and reflection to add to your own library. Grab your Book of Shadows or start one today by grabbing a notebook and beginning to tell your witchcraft story. Then join me and 9 other Wise One’s as we guide you through two days of witchery! We begin Friday.  We create rituals and traditions to make meaning out of this weird and wild life. Some of these are simple routines and practices, like saying I love you to your family or friends before hanging up the phone. Or sitting in the quiet and journaling into waking. Today is Easter. It is a day that has never held a religious or spiritual meaning for me, but it is one that has been celebrated with rituals and traditions throughout my life. During my early childhood Easter was all about the candy, easter egg hunts and camping! When I was a little older Easter meant family gatherings, fancy brunch, dresses and of course egg hunts at my Grandparent’s. There was always ham and hot cross buns and cousins to play with. When we moved away from my grandparents and I grew to be a teen, Easter lost meaning. No more gatherings. No more dresses. Yet my Dad, ever the keeper of holiday traditions, would always make sure we had Easter baskets of some sort. Once I met my husband, I discovered a whole new realm of Easter celebrations. These included big gatherings with friends, chosen as family, bbq’d turkey sausages and bloody marys.. As the generation above us has become grandparents, and some have passed away, we find ourselves untethered. The holiday has taken new forms each year, from brunches with our families, to chocolate comas on the couch. For me, Easter has been about a feeling of family, community, the smells of spring, green grass, blooming trees and flowers and nourishment. Even without moving through the rituals of the past, there is still a ghost of these feelings drifting through this day. Today as I watched my 16 month old great nephew find a few eggs and empty his Easter basket, I reflected on the meaning we give to days. The way each holiday marks the passing of time. The power that ritual and tradition hold in our lives and the way we make sense of and give meaning to the world around us. Easter may not fall of the wheel of the year, yet its roots lie in the theme of rebirth and resurrection. As we sit here less than a month into Spring, the earth still thawing in some places (and sometimes freezing anew), and in others growing and bursting new life forth with abandon, how are these themes living in you? What traditions do you hold? How do you honor or celebrate the earth’s awakening? What does this season, this holiday, this time mean to you? Witch School This week I have had the pleasure of connecting more in depth with the teachers for the upcoming Cauldron of Wisdom 2 virtual conference. I am so excited! I love learning, and I am always awestruck and amazed by how much there is to know and explore. How each new thing I learn branches and tendrils. This is the 6th conference I’ve hosted and each time I walk away brimming with inspiration and wonder fueled both by the information shared and the connection of this community we are all a part of. (You all are some pretty fabulous humans!) The Cauldron of Wisdom 2 begins this Friday April 22nd and runs through Saturday april 23rd. We will move through 9 classes/workshops together via a livestream in a private Facebook group. All participants will also have access to the entire conference in the conference site. So if you can’t make some, or even all of the classes live, you can check them out at a time that works for you. Register today and join me Friday around the virtual cauldron for all kinds of witchery, magic, wisdom and fun! (As always there will be giveaways too!)  As someone who likes to play dress up, I find a great deal of value and power in the ability to shift my thoughts with the change of an outfit or the addition of an accessory. When we change our outward appearance it can help us shift our inner realms as well. Is it necessary? No. But it is one of the tools we all have on hand to work with the energy within and with out. When we feel our magic and embody it our confidence soars and the way we feel and think shifts. Plus people see us differently too! We notice when someone who is feeling confident and grounded enters a room. The energy changes. Heads often turn. When we recognize that working with magic is really just working with energy, we begin to discover the vast world of tools we have to explore these realms. Music is another key tool in shifting energy. Choose some songs. Find ones that are upbeat, then ones that are a little more mellow. As you listen notice the shifts that happen in your body. In your energy. Notice the way you feel. Music is strong medicine and a very helpful tool in our day to day and the magical realms. Like dressing up. it can shift your perspective, your emotions, your confidence. I love making playlists. Lately I've been adding and listening to this one a lot and it has been rooting me more deeply to the Earth and to myself. It's called Feel the Magic and I hope it helps you tap in too! I invite you to make your own playlists. Ones that make you feel powerful. ones that bring you more in touch with your witchy Self. ones that help you move your body, or cry or boost your confidence. (And maybe you will discover some outfits that match those playlists too). What other tools have you got in that apothecary of witchery? I want to give you a few more! The Cauldron of Wisdom 2 is a collection of 9 workshops loaded with all kinds of practices and exercises. Together we will dive into Numerology, Mediumship, Tea Spells, Devotional Poetry, Palmistry, Tarot Cards that Scare Us, Working with Crystals And some yoga and tarot action in Embodying the Fools Journey. The entire event is livestreamed to a private Facebook group and the replays of the workshops are available to you forever, so you can always come back and revisit topics that intrigued you or watch the ones you might have missed live. You get over 11 hours of content during this conference, a wonderful community of folks to share the time with plus, as always there will be giveaways too! (Full schedule and lineup is on registration page) Register today and I'll see you around the cauldron!  I am watching the waves crash in and out Fierce and bubbling with strength and fury Thunder rolling down the shore An echo over miles An echo over centuries It calls me home To myself In this strange town Where I am a stranger And the land does not know the tread of my feet Or the cadence of my breath But welcomes me anyway I am watching the waves crash in and out And finding my rhythm once more If I'm honest, I began my vacation two weeks ago, burnt out, and exhausted and ready for a break. Then, as I shared with you all, the first day my dog, my friend, my companion of 12 years died. I was grateful for the time to grieve. And admittedly feeling a little lost. How does one relax and rejuvinate while grieving at the same time? I went to nature. Already my husband and I had plans to get away and so we went to Mount Shasta and I walked and listened to the river and waterfalls and made mandalas and altars along our path from the pieces of earth and stone and trees I found. I let the experience wash over me. A few days later, home once again, I still felt raw and unrooted but a little more me. After a couple of days, I was off again. This time with my mom. We stayed away from the mountains and went to the Ocean and Redwoods. I made more mandalas and listened and felt and sang to the wind and the waves and found my way back to myself. The earth heals me. It is the place I find my center again and again. Somewhere in the rhythmic heart beat of waves and the whispers of the trees, somewhere in the stones and waterfalls, the pinecones and soft soil of forest floors, I rediscover all the pieces of my Self that get lost in my day to day, that get left behind in the responsibilities and the “to do’s”, and I find salve for the tender parts of my grieving heart. I reconnect to the threads that weave us all together. Simple Practice The making of nature altars and mandalas is a practice that allows for a creation of sacred space, an honoring of a moment, a feeling, an intention. It is a way to give tangible life to these things and simultaneously surrender them to the universe. In the picture above you see a mandala my mom and I made at the beach. The next morning this creation had been washed into a pile of stones and sticks and sand, with no semblance of the story it had held less than 12 hours before. These offerings are an acknowledgement of the ever changing nature of the world around us and the ever transforming nature of ourselves. They also create a release, a focusing of energy that is then dispersed by natural forces. They are sacred spaces, rituals and a cast spell all in one. *Where will you create your next nature altar? *What will you release and transform in the process? Witch School Want to add some more practices to your magical tool box? The Cauldron of Wisdom 2 is like a two day intensive school for Witches. As we gather together and for 9 workshops we open ourselves to new skills and experiences, we often discover the practices we already know look a little different when offered by new teachers and we open the door to a deepening of our Magic! The Cauldron of Wisdom 2, virtual conference of Witchery is less than two weeks away. Join us for over 11 hours of workshops and a fabulous community of Wise Ones. Plus, as always, there will be giveaways as well. The full lineup and schedule can be found on the Registration Page. Grab your space around the cauldron and get ready to stir up some magic!  |
Emily Morrison MA, MFTArchives
June 2022
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