The Summer Solstice and Herne

          Wiccan practice says that for Litha the Oak King dies and the Holly King takes

up his crown. I am not Wiccan so I don’t really follow that tradition specifically but I do believe that the Summer Solstice has everything to do with the Lord of the Forest and King of Witches, my Patron deity Herne. The summer solstice is one of the Lesser Four Sabbats of the Witches Year. It marks the time when the sun is closest to the earth and enters the sign of Cancer. Aside from the astrological significances of Cancer the time of the Summer Solstice is a time for new beginnings not unlike the spring equinox.

         It is the time when Herne as the Lord of the Hunt is ripe with power and strength because he draws his power from the sun. The sheer energy of the Summer Solstice can be used to break through barriers in your life and burst in a ray of light through the darkness that you may find yourself in. Herne as King of the Witches offers to his children his power and strength and you may come to him during this time of the summer and pledge yourself to him. However, you have to remember that Herne is the representation of the Divine male. His energy is raw, powerful and very sexual. Often times his ritual’s either include sex or masturbation of some form. If you do a ritual for Herne you can definitely expect that you lower bits will definitely feel the tingle of his raw masculinity, whether men are your thing or not. The Herne consciousness is very sexually orientated but instead of using this energy for literal sexual act you can use it to *take* what you want.

         This energy of taking what you want and leaving no qualms is exactly what the Summer Solstice is all about. It was especially powerful for me this time. That energy was only amplified by the Solstice happening at the end of the Dark Moon as the New moon began. Mixing those two energies amplified the experience of both and I literally felt the whole world around me break down and change. I cried for several hours during that night.

         Unfortunately that night I was not able to do ritual. A friend of mine that I hadn’t seen in a long time came over for a visit and I was busy for most of the day and night with her and the rest of my group of friends most of which I hadn’t seen in a long while. Overall it wasn’t a bad way to spend the Solstice. However, the next night was my ritual night. Around midnight I dressed in my ritual garb, painted my blue crescent moon on my face, grabbed my Grimore, and headed out to the backyard. I am extremely lucky that my back yard is mostly private with a lot of trees and an open space for a fire pit and circle. That night I used the Dragons for my elemental guardians because I knew that I was going to need that extra power for everything I was feeling.
         I won’t go into extreme detail, but most of all my ritual involves songs and dancing. It’s how I raise and direct energy. I love to do both and the Pagan community has so many good songs that I use in almost all of my rituals. Very rarely do I ever use legitimate spells or invocations. I do use affirmations and sometimes spells if I am feeling extremely up to it. I called Herne and I gave him everything I had. I danced for him, I sang to him, and I offered him up my self. It was one of the truly most powerful nights of my life. Even though it was after the initial solstice.
         Even though, I did call on the goddess, I felt that in that night that I was the goddess. It was a really powerful experience that I know that I am truly blessed to have gone through. There is a tremendous amount of things going on in my life and before that night I wasn’t really sure if I could actually handle them. Herne reassured me that I could handle it and when the time was right he would deliver to me a Hunter of his to share in my life journey with. To be comforted by the sheer energy that was manifested is not something that every witch gets to feel during every ritual. Do I attribute this to solely the energy of the solstice and New moon? Not entirely.

         I am a firm believer that the divine exists within ourselves, and that we hold the power to make things happen and call on certain universal energies to help us in our time of need. This is what being a Witch is about to me. I have met the gods face to face and I know that they exist though I believe that it is within my own personal reality. The power to change your life is given to us as a divine birth rights. We are wholly apart of the gods, because it is the gods that created us. There are certain times when different energies are converging and amplify one another. Such as the Solstice and the New Moon opening up a powerful amount of new and fresh energy that we, as witches, can harness and direct. This was made such an emotional and powerful night for me because I was in a very emotional and powerful place. As Sully Erna writes “That which is like, unto itself is drawn”. I was so open and willing for something powerful and in such an open state I drew in this energy of Herne and brought it to reality.  

         The Summer Solstice may be one of the lesser Sabbats, but it can be as powerful as Beltane or Samhain if you open up yourself to the power that is Herne.

Blessed Be

Faewynn Lunaise Evenstar
)O(

Personal Power

I think that this is relevant for other women as it is for me. We all have to come to terms with a few serious issues as we grow into adult hood. The main issue being what exactly do we want out of life? I know that this is something men do too, but some woman have the habit of being incredibly giving to other people. I just finished a two year relationship. While I cherished and loved the time that was spent together when it was over the dust settled I was left feeling like I had just crawled out of the long dark of Moria. Who was I? Or better yet, who did I want to be? My life had become all about him and in that I completely lost myself.
            One of the things, that a lot of Goddess’s whom represent change and personal power tell us is that before anything new can happen the old has to come to an end. That to become ourselves we must travel through the dark of the forest to come back into the light of the day. This is something that I have always preached but I don’t think I had much self-practice. The forest can be a dark and scary place if we look at everything as a challenge. Yet instead of seeing it as a challenge we can look at it as an opportunity to find out new things about ourselves.
            Putting our ideals into alignment with this train of thought can yield tremendous results. Even at the utter and complete end of something you can come out feeling new and refreshed knowing that you have taken a step for yourself. All too often women and healers get wrapped up in taking steps for other people. We forget to love ourselves and to take care of our needs. We so often put the needs of others before our own. Is this a bad thing? No. One of the good qualities of the feminine is its devotion and loyalty to others. I believe that this is part of the great divinity of the feminine. By nature people who are feminine love to give their energy and love to other people. This is an exceedingly necessary part of the cycle of life. However, if this is also not tempered with self-reliance and concern for ones own self we can give to much of ourselves away. Sometimes that is not a problem but what happens when the people or person that we have given ourselves to is no longer in our lives? Now we’re trapped in the dark with no idea what to do.
            The practice of personal power is a relatively new idea, but at the same time an ancient concept. The huge spiritual wave of enlightenment in the early 1900’s brought with it women’s rights. Yet, in ancient times these things were commonplace. Married women in Rome had rights to everything the husband owned and could sue him for it in court if he divorced her. The Priestess’s of Ancient times were often held in high regards. In some places they even consulted in politics and held council positions to men in power. Wise women around the world were revered over the male chieftains or tribal leaders. The power of the women in these places was not feared or restricted but revered. With time and change the personal power of women was taken away until at one point they were no more than property of men.
            As I come into adulthood I am faced with the real world. A place where personal power is thought little of and where men and women alike are simply told what is expected of them.  That doesn’t make it any more important, in fact I think it should make it more. When we loose ourselves in what other people expect when those people move on (as people do) we are left not knowing what it is we should be doing. The answer to this question is “What do YOU want to be doing?”. When I came out of the forest, there was only one thing I had in my head that I wanted to do. Write. Write so much and bleed my heart and soul out onto paper. I know that not only will it help me find myself but it will give me a chance to do something I love more than anything.
            For myself personal power is about know and not being afraid of the real things in life you want. Simply knowing who you are and what you want gives you a firm sense of solidity in your life. I don’t think you will ever know exactly everything about yourself because our realities are so vast and different from one another we are always learning and changing. Though you should at least try to know enough about yourself where you can be comfortable within your own skin. Know what you want to expect from people, know how you’d like to be treated and don’t take any other treatment besides that. Know what makes you happy, and then see yourself making positive strides towards it.

Personal Power: Pages from a Witches Cabinet
Correspondences: Red, Orange, Gold, Black
Number: 1 (your OWN power)
Astrology: Aries is a deity of Power, any days or associations to Mars, During the Waxing/Full Moon
Hera, Hecate, Maeve, and other goddess of power can all be used for Personal Power invocations.
Daily affirmations are a good way to declare Personal Power: “I AM!!” is a good simple affirmation
Make lists or journal about the things that you want out of your life, write or about the things that make you happy or sad if you want to find out who you are. Actively see yourself taking steps to better your life and put yourself in a position that makes you happy.

Back into the Swing of things. Hecates Lesson

Back into the swing of things

            After all the holiday rush, and the busyness of life in general, I find my way back into the swing of things. As a witch and a woman I find that I have become increasingly able to flow with the waves of life. It may or may not have something to do with being a Pisces as well. I try to allow life to happen, and take me where I am needed. It is sometimes not ALWAYS where I would like to be, but much like the Doctors Tardis I have found that is always where I need to be. Life is one giant lesson, and we are all its students. So, I go where I am taken I stay there for however long I am needed then when the lesson is learned I come back on to the main path. That is exactly how I have felt the last two months. I will try my best to return to a regular swing.

            Today, I want to talk about some of the lessons that Hecate’s temple teaches. In the temple of the Dark Goddess Hecate we learn of what many people call our shadow selves. Hecate is the Goddess of the passage into the underworld, of death, of change, and of our shadows. She stands at the Crossroads of life’s journey and holds a torch (or lantern) and provides for us some understanding of the road ahead. She is often depicted as a bent over hag cloaked in black and hooded. One of her methods of teaching is she removes her hood and reveals to you your own true shadow. This is not meant to frighten or scare you but only so that you may be aware of it and overcome its hideousness. She does this because she knows that only once you have released your shadow and your fear you are then able to move on past her into change. Effectively dying, or leaving your old self behind and immerging transformed into the light. She is not necessarily the goddess of the underworld, but rather the Goddess of slef-transformation.

            To apply or acknowledge Hecates lesson we must first identify our shadow selves. We bring back the symbolism of Hecate’s veil. When she lifts her veil what you are seeing is not her but rather your true self. No matter how horrifying it seems. To identify our shadow selves look for what annoys you in other people. What is it that you get so negative about? What about that certain somebody can you completely not stand? This is our shadow selves. From personal experience one of the things I couldn’t stand was certain friends being to controlling. It seemed like no matter what someone did they would always get annoyed. The lesson I learned from this is simple. I was really being to controlling. I was really passing judgment of people that did not deserve it. In truth, we were both being far too judgmental and negative of issues than was necessary. I know now that one of my personal issues that I work to overcome is to not be so judgmental of people.

            Don’t get the lesson wrong. I’m not saying that the people who don’t annoy you aren’t the problem, because the qualities that annoy you are still present in them. Hecate’s temple teaches that these qualities are not only in them but in you as well. So yes, that one person on your mind right now is exactly what you are thinking they are, but have you ever stopped to say “Hey, maybe I’m to blame as well”. Accepting the fact that we are not all perfect people and we do make mistakes and have flaws is not only necessary to Hecate’s teachings but also essential. Acceptance and acknowledgement is what Hecate truly teaches at the fundamental core of her lessons.  The power to over come our fears and shadows is a spiritually profound phenomenon. However the power to accept ourselves in EVERY aspect of who we are, be it light, dark or in between is where the true enlightenment comes from. Hecate’s lantern is just that, one of enlightenment. The road that she travels on with you may be dark, but she teaches us that from this darkness we learn acceptance and we turn it into enlightenment.

            To bring the energy of Hecate’s Lantern into your life, I would suggest several things. Keep a journal someplace where you can write and learn about yourself. Make notes of traits in people that annoy you and see if you can find that issue and flaw within yourself. Every once and a while, sit in a dark room with nothing but a single candle or lantern lighting the room and meditate on the dark side of yourself and thing about how you can acknowledge, accept, and move past it into enlightenment. Learning about the Darkness of ourselves is how we find within us the true light. 

Day five: A Favourite Goddess

Day five: A Favourite Goddess

One of my favourite goddesses is Hecate. Especially currently in my life, when I’m standing on the crossroads, and working on getting rid of a way of life that I wasn’t proud of. Hecate is the form of the goddess as crone. She stands at the crossroads of mysteries and guides us from one parts of our life to another. She has been know by many other names, Sekmet, Morrigan, Arianrhod, and so much more. Her mysteries are of the cycle of life, she teaches of not only ending But of gracious and new beginnings.
  Worshipping in Hecate’s temple, is the worship of the unknown, the acceptance of the shadow within, and the very essence of magick that we all live in. Do no approach Hecate with fear, for if you have fear, then her mystery is not for you for she is that which is attained when the last of your fears are released. She is power, ecstasy, the Sacred Woman, the weaver of Time and keeper of Secrets.
All wisdom was taught by Hecate, for she has lived, died, and lived again, hundreds of times. She passed her mysteries onto the witches, and taught them their inner strength and power for she is the Queen of Magick,.
The symbols of Hecate are Owls, bats, scorpions, and snakes. She wears the black veil of night to represent the shadow of the dark moon. She is often depicted standing at a Crossroad, or in front of a dark mysterious gateway to represent not only her mystery, but also her jobs as both Gatekeeper and Passageway.