Only Endless Memory

Monday, August 11, 2008

So Much on my Mind

Wow, what a day. I am not even sure what I have been doing most of the day. I got up and did laundry, and I did all the phone calls needed to for gas, power, internet, and phone for the new apartment. My friend Michelle called and we talked about computers as she plans to get a new one, so I looked up stuff online to build her a new computer.

I packed a couple boxes and cleaned up a little more for people coming over for the Pagan Circle meeting tomorrow. I just feel like my concentration has been completely gone and I have been sort of flitting from one thing to another and not quite focused on anything fully today. When I woke up I was having an anxiety attack. It was not a horrible one, not bad enough to a full blown panic attack, but I think it set the day up to leave me off balance.

I actually had read something on another person's blog that mention some specific questions about ritual and paganism. It is a subject that has come up several times in one way or another over the past couple years. Basically, the person was discussing the use and placement of candles and which color they should be and the correct time for the ritual.

While I do think that there are times that a ritual can have more strength to it due to the phase of the moon or the time of the year or other such things, overall I believe that most workings can be done pretty much any time. We use certain times of day or certain phases of the moon to help us with our focus, but when it comes down to it, it is based on intent.

This also goes into things such as candles or other items used for spellcrafting or for ritual purposes. A spell can be cast with nothing other then your mind and your will and your thoughts, then rest is just there to help you focus and direct your intent. They are symbols we use for sympathetic magics. High Magics that such as those in the Qabalah use various symbols for similar effect. The simple idea of "wishing on a star" is a very basic form of magic. The childhood poem, "Starlight, Starbright, Firt star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish, Get the wish I wish tonight," is a very basic spell.

As for setting up an altar, it can be done as simply or elaborately as money, time and space allows. Also, it can be done to your or your groups own tastes. I had a fellow pagan come into my house and she mentioned I didn't have an altar set up. I then proceeded to point out the altar that I had set up that was done almost entirely with crystals, then the one that was done with a mixture of stone and pewter figures of animals and mythical creatures, then one that was a mix of crystals and creatures that represented the elements and she started realizing that most of my apartment was set up as an altar of one type or another.

There was a time when I was very depressed that I spent a fair amount of time in psychiatric hospitals, and I was not allowed to bring in things one would normally have on an altar. This taught me to improvise a great deal, and I actually had a mini-altar that I packed for times that I went into hospitals. I had different colored stones for each element, a feather, and a couple of pictures. That was my altar, and there was no object in it that was a problem to bring into the hospital, so I could have it with me.



It is nice to be able to have things that are meaningful to you on an altar or in your rituals, but when it comes down to it, it really can be done inexpensively and easily. A wand can be a simple branch that you pick up on a walk in the woods, there is no real need to buy something elaborate and expensive. A figure of the Goddess or God can be a picture that you print on the computer or simply a candle. I use various stones for the elements all the time. Our Pagan group is talking about using a red dragon figure to represent the south on our altar because having a candle burning in the south where we reach across it makes some people nervous.

The limits of magic are our imaginations.

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