Full Moon and Health Ritual

Last weekend I performed a Full Moon/Health Ritual with my group. It was wonderful because the weather was just right and no wind to blow out our candles! I love the wind but sometimes it can get rather annoying relighting candles. I usually get my candle maiden to make sure all the candles remain lit so I don't have to deal with it while I'm speaking to the group, casting the Circle, or instructing everyone about the next part of the ritual.

I performed the ritual barefoot as well as one of my other students. I advise people to do this because you can use the Earth energy in your ritual and to heal yourself. It was perfect for our Health Ritual. When I'm outside and barefoot I tend to move differently. I tend to move softly and smoothly in a crouching almost animal-like way. You just get into the moment and lose yourself. You aren't a person standing on Earth anymore. You become a part of the Earth. You meld into it and you move with it.

Beltane is approaching and I'm hoping to make a very good ritual for it. I have an outline of the ritual from Dynion Mwyn but I'm going to altar it slightly to include some of my own vision. We will be having two visitors with us who are new to the Craft and I want it to be a fun time for them. Beltane is like the polar opposite of Samhain. The veil between the worlds is also at its thinnest. While Samhain celebrates death, Beltane promotes life.

We will be celebrating it around 4 in the afternoon and I'm hoping for it to last quite awhile. Beltane is more of a solar sabbat. It is the last of the fertility festivals. I'm hoping for their to be dancing, singing, and I would really like to have a drum circle, and Goddess willing a maypole. Well, hopefully it'll be everything I'm hoping it'll be!

World Music Festival

Last weekend was the World Music Festival that RISE hosted. It was wonderful! There were so many bands and performers there that were just an awesome sight to see. My favorite part of the whole experience was the African Tribal Dance Party. I rushed to my dorm to put on my beautiful skirt and danced barefoot all night long to Ogya and Miwasa. They were really awesome bands. What was really cool is that the setting was so intimate that I actually got to speak to the members of the bands and become friends with them.

It was such a spiritual experience. I just felt so primitive and connected to the Earth. I know we are a part of the Earth, that we came from the Earth, and yet I don't always feel as connected to Earth as I should. Dancing under the sun and the moonlight in the dark green grass surrounded by beautiful oak trees really helped me connect. It's wonderful when your body suddenly doesn't feel as though it belongs to you but you belong to something much bigger, to the universe.

Dancing really helps me open up. Now am I any good at dancing? I have no idea. It doesn't really matter to me if I am, but to others it's a big deal. I tried to get some of my friends to dance with me but they wouldn't because they thought they weren't good at it and just sat there and watched. I felt like they were missing out but I suppose one can have an experience by just listening to the music. I loved the energy that was around us. I was dancing with this man much older than I who was a Druid. He was really awesome and wearing a Green Man shirt. We became instant friends.

Next year I hope to make the Festival bigger and better. I hope to have more people come to share in the message of peace, love and unity. Our little Festival was being shadowed by the big name of Phillip Phillips who was doing a concert during our African Tribal Dance Party. I kind of feel like I'm one of the few people who takes spirituality seriously. What I mean by that is that I feel like I'm one of the few people that searches and keeps searching for spiritual experiences to enhance my wisdom.

I don't practice Wicca as a fad. I practice it everyday in my dance, my meditation, my yoga, my thoughts, in just everything that I do. I want to be enlightened like the Buddha or the Dali Lama. And I want to share these experiences with everyone and shake them and tell them they can feel this too! They can feel like they are a part of something huge.

 Saddle Mountain Bluegrass Boys

 Kirtan Bandits

Me and friends dancing. (I'm the one behind the guy in the light green shirt with the green and blue skirt on dancing with my friend in the black jacket)

Blue Spirit Wheel

The Golden Rule

You ever experience those days when you wonder "What's next?" Well, that's how I'm kind of feeling today. I have a plan for my life, for my future, but I kind of wonder if that's all there's going to be to my life. I'm going to work hard, achieve my goals, and then....what? Put my accomplishments under my belt and call it a good day? Is that really all there is to life?

I want to experience something amazing. Something that I won't easily forget and think back to it all the time and say "Wow, I can't believe I actually did that, but I did." I want to have an amazing, adventurous, beautiful, tragic, romantic, spiritual, inspiring story that I can pass on to my kids. Something that will make their jaw drop when they hear it and think dude, my mom was so cool. Something that I wouldn't mind them saying with the tagged on phrase "when she was younger."

I see these inspiring stories all the time in the news, on social sites, on inspirational websites, etc, about these heroic people that do something so selfless and fearless that it gives you goosebumps. I want to do that. I don't really care if I'm known for it but my future kids will definitely know about it. I mean, I could save a baby elephant from a tsunami or something. I could be a spokesperson and advocate for saving the rain forest and not only talk about it but actually go out to the Amazon and save it. I could research some highly infectious disease and find a cure for it. I just need the opportunity to present itself.

Right now, I'm looking for opportunities (that are a little more conventional) where I can make a big difference such as with RISE on campus. There is much more religious intolerance here than what I had originally expected. I've been the victim of it personally and I'm sure I'm not the only one. We have a Buddhist Study Group and a Muslim Study Group and a Universal Unitarians group that struggled endlessly to get approved to be recognized as an official group. There is also the Listen (LGBTQ) group that finally got approved last Fall after their 18 years of fighting for approval.

Groups like this shouldn't have to fight to be approved of. They should be approved of because it is displaying not only tolerance, but compassion for human beings. Just about every religion has something called "The Golden Rule." So let's start following it!

Busy Weekend Ahead

My henna tattoo has finally worn off, just in time to have a new one drawn on me next weekend at the arts and crafts fair on my campus. There is so many things happening next weekend like the World Music Festival, the arts and crafts fair of course, and a concert featuring Phillip Phillips. I didn't know who he was until someone explained it to me. I've heard one of his songs before and it's alright. I'll be at the Music Festival for the most part because it's being hosted by RISE which is the club I'm now the secretary of.

I was also invited to a birthday party by a friend. I may swing by there for a few if I'm not too worn out from all the activities going on. I'm hoping to get quite a bit of work done today with a little bit of studying. I'm not sure how that will all turn out for me. I'm kind of addicted to Farmville right now. I refused to play it and then once I did now I love it. However, I wish I could have a real farm and grow real food.

Next year I'll be living in a townhouse on campus and I'm hoping to get one of those planter boxes that you can hang outside your window so I can have space to plant something. I might have to plant some fall and winter plants or herbs. I just want to grow and care for something. My African violets and Golden Pothos are doing quite well. I think I should get a bigger pot for my violets. They're very big and the pot is just way too small to contain them.

Stars and Constellations

Well, I've just been a busy little bee! I've been buzzing around getting school work and homework out of the way and I've been doing all this planning for the clubs I've been in. I'm surprised that I've even had time for anyone or anything.

The other day I went to a "Star Party". Basically, it's these little gatherings at the observatory hosted by my college for people to view the stars through some high powered telescopes provided by the astronomy professor. It was actually really cool. We were out in the middle of one of the many fields here at my college near the horse barn and no the smell didn't travel to where we were. It was really quite nice out and very quiet and extremely dark. It was the perfect place to see all the stars!

Well, we were able to view Jupiter and it's four moons. We were even able to see its orange colored gas ring! The professor pointed out to us many other interesting features of the starry sky such as constellations and nebulas. I was able to view the Orion nebula located on the "sword" of the constellation Orion and also the Crab nebula. The Crab nebula wasn't as impressive; it looked more like a gray smudge. However, it's really interesting to know that if the stars hadn't exploded and formed these nebulas and things that we wouldn't be here today!

Some of the constellations that were pointed out to us were Orion, Leo, Cancer, the little dipper, big dipper which is apparently part of Ursa Major, Taurus, Canis Major, and Canis Minor. What I find to be the most interesting is the mythology behind these constellations. I have a book that had some of the stories in it. He also told us how to find Polaris, the North Star, which I had assumed was much brighter than what it actually was. He also pointed out Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.

It was all quite amazing.

Life Hits Hard

I'm very thrilled to see that my other blog is doing so well. I don't have any followers on it but I seem to be getting a lot of traffic. I hope the material that I post is helping someone somewhere. I recently became the secretary of RISE which is the interfaith group on campus. I feel like I can do some good there.

All my classes are finally set up how I want them. Unfortunately, I had to drop my Biochemistry major so I can add prerequisites for nursing school. I just hope I make it out of here with my degree in Animal Science and minor in Chemistry. My dad has recently hit a rough patch with his help. If it gets any worse I will be there for him even if that means dropping out of college to make that happen. If his health gets any worse with his diabetes then he'll lose his license to drive a truck and lose his job.

I'll have to go to work if that happens to help support him. There's no way he can keep up with his payments and still be able to live in the apartment and have food. I just hate that I'd have to drop out of college to do this and then all those loans he took out on me to go here would mean nothing. I hope it doesn't come to that.

My love life is still nonexistent. I just don't really have the time or the heart to be going back out into the field yet. I've been trying and I've met some really nice people. I just don't know if they're the right ones for me. I don't want to rush into anything either. My heart still hasn't healed from the last disaster.

I started my nature journal yesterday which I thought was very fitting considering that it was April Fool's Day. In ancient Rome, Pagans celebrated April 1st as the first day of the new year with merriment and pranks. Later on it became know as April Fool's day when Rome was ran by Julius Ceasar and it was primarily Christian. The new year was changed to January 1st and the Christians would call the Pagans fools and play jokes on them which were sometimes cruel. However, it was okay because that was a part of the day so the Pagan's didn't mind.