Thursday 23 May 2013

Star Trek, harmony, vision


Today all I can think of is Star Trek (yep that's how random my thoughts are) - not any one of the TV programme/films specifically (although we do own all of them on DVD..) but the vision that Gene Roddenberry had for the world:

He saw a world where everyone lived in peace and harmony.  No money problems, every one on equal standing, no crime, no war, no disease,  no egos or power struggles.  Beings of all religions, races, colours, shapes, sizes and creeds living together.

During each and every Star Trek episode there were of course races that attacked and caused havoc, and I am pretty sure Captain Kirk kissed most of them ;-) but the underlying message of all the programmes was the same - the idea that we could live together as a multicultural, multi religion, multi coloured race side by side.

One day maybe...

Tuesday 21 May 2013

Elen, light bulb moments and Muses

Myself and the Kitchen Witch team spent last weekend at an Elen of the Ways retreat - log cabins, woodland, Bell tent sacred space, food, cake, friendships, meditation, drumming, fires and sacred foot prints...it was all interesting in one way or another and probably meant completely different things to each and every lady that attended.

For those of you that know me, you will know that I have a patron Goddess, the Cailleach, she has been with me for several years now and although I work with other deities on occasion, she is always with me.  So investigating the illusive Elen of Ways was interesting but it also led me to several 'light bulb' moments regarding not only my relationship with my own Goddess but also that of my life long totem, the wild boar.

What I really got from the weekend was a more solid and deep emotional and heartfelt connection to my two dear Sisters in the Craft - although we chat every day via email or text, although we meet for rituals and workshops we are usually together because we are running or organising something (don't get me wrong we love to do all those things!) but the weekend gave us a chance to relax and just enjoy our company...possibly the bottles of wine helped slightly ;-)  including deep and meaningful conversations started at about 1am whilst sitting on the veranda (me already in my PJ's) - we saw sides of each other we had not seen before (including them seeing me with no makeup on eeeep!).

Several of the other ladies on the retreat remarked at how wonderful our energy was together, we were even dubbed 'The Three Muses' (Greek Goddesses of song, music, dance, knowledge and the past) which we took as a huge compliment.   Although I am not so sure about my new nickname of 'Captain Cake Arms'...but I guess you can't have everything ;-)

On the last day of the retreat we received the sad news that one of our beloved Coven had passed to the Summerlands and I think that just reiterated to us how precious life, time and friendships are - he made the most of life, was a beautiful spirit and we shall miss him.

I am still processing a lot of the information and clarity with regard to my own journey, but am truly thankful for being gifted the time to spend with my Sisters ♥ even if one of them wears crocs and the other wears her slippers outside ;-)...

Sunday 12 May 2013

faeries, harem pants and more busy, busy...

Had a wonderful day yesterday with the Kitchen Witch girls at The Magical Faerie Festival (run by The Magical Times magazine), made a few especially nice purchases at the stalls - I am now the proud owner of my first ever pair of harem pants...bizarre but extremely comfortable!

We also enjoyed an enlightening workshop with the fabulous Laura Daligan on Faerie Queens who took us on a meditation to meet our own Faerie Queen and a shamanic journey to meet our faerie guide.

The day was rounded off with much needed cake and lattes at Chi Coffee :-)

Today is a family day and we will be doing very little, maybe a game of cards, listen to some music that kind of thing, in preparation for what is shaping up to be a completely manic week ahead!

Next week holds such wonderful things as date day with hubby, development class, day out with my mum and brother, tarot/coffee morning at Chi Coffee and off to the Elen of Ways retreat, in amongst all that I have to fit work, school runs, writing, house work, cooking and anything else that needs to be done...think I will be very much in need of a retreat by the end of the week!

But let's face it if I didn't have all of that stuff going on I would get bored wouldn't I?


Wednesday 8 May 2013

Busy, hectic, manic but happy :-)

Life is extremely busy at the moment, May is just totally manic but it's all good stuff (including a family holiday sneaked in)  :-)

Attended the second lesson of the development class yesterday where the guided meditation gifted me with a snail totem.  Never worked with snail energies before and it's never appeared in any meditations for me so it was interesting.  I have posted all the snail medicine over on the Kitchen Witch blog but it was all pretty relevant to me at the moment, still amazes me how these magical things work LOL

Sales figures from April are in for Pagan Portals Kitchen Witchcraft and I am truly humbled, the paper back is still selling well but the ebook figures doubled last month wow!   It also got a good review in the current edition of the Pagan Dawn magazine :-)

The workshops I am running with Paul Cissell in June have now completely sold out (Witchcraft Within, three workshops covering magical plants, hoodoo and elementals).

The next two Kitchen Witchcraft workshops are also nearly fully booked and they aren't until July and August! (Details can be found on the Coven website).

Grimoire of a Kitchen Witch is currently at the printers and will be released end of next month which is very exciting, got a fabulous book launch party at Chi Coffee organised for that - everyone welcome!  Details can be found my website or facebook page.

Pagan Portals Hoodoo is set to be released at the end of August.

I have been asked to write another article for the next edition of the Magical Times which is wonderful as we will also be attending their Faerie Festival at the weekend.

May also has myself and the Kitchen Witch team off on an Elen of the Ways retreat which should be super fun and hopefully very enlightening.

Our Kitchen Witch ritual in June at the Queen Elizabeth Country Park is all about faeries which should be a blast!

And July sees not one but two talks for local pagan groups :-)

Now all I need to do is focus and finish writing book four! (Pagan Portals Moon Magic).

Saturday 4 May 2013

Fantabulous day, homemade incense and Ganesha

Well today was indeed fantabulous :-)

We (as in the Kitchen Witch team) have an extremely hectic May and June is starting to look pretty much the same so we decided on our one free Saturday this month that we would just have a girly shopping day...so that is exactly what we did.

Yup there were chai tea lattes, hot chocolate and cake...definitely cake involved and an extremely nice lunch in The George in Petersfield Square.

We also discovered a lovely shop called Rainbows in The Folly market, beautiful clothes and lovely hippy/spiritual items :-)

The intention was to just relax and chill without thinking or talking about Kitchen Witch but of course we did and once we get started the ideas flow...we have some amazing ones to put together now!

And all day I kept seeing images of Ganesha and elephants as I have done for several weeks now, add that to the Bollywood dancing that keeps appearing in my meditations I finally did something about it.  This evening I made up a Ganesha inspired incense:

Cloves, cinnamon stick, cardamon, curry leaves, cumin seeds, a dried chilli and benzoin resin.

I burnt the incense, set up a picture of Ganesha and selected a crystal to represent him.  Somewhile later...

It seems Ganesha is with me to work on my intuition and psychic abilities  - to release the blocks I have in place and allow them to function properly.  He also requested that I make a witch bag/medicine bag to help me - so a leather pouch has been unearthed and I have already put one or two items into it...other bits and pieces will appear along my journey I am sure.


Wednesday 1 May 2013

intuition, empathy and exciting things

It has been an interesting few days...and it's only Wednesday!

My second book Grimoire of a Kitchen Witch went to print today...whoohoooo! (for more details see www.rachelpatterson.co.uk)

We (as in Kitchen Witch) have lots of things going on in May - festivals to visit, retreats to go on and planning for lots of lovely workshops and rituals (for more details see www.kitchenwitchhearth.wix.com/coven)

Yesterday I joined an intuitive development class which was extremely interesting, gave me lots to think about.   When I said I was starting the course my lovely sisters in the Craft said things like "why? you are already very intuitive and a tad empathic (which by that they mean I cry at Star Trek...), along with the clairaudience" ... well yes I am but... somehow I seem to forget or block my intuition on a day to day basis.

If I have a question or a problem then I meditate, I ask the Goddess, I ask for guidance, I go on a journey and ask my spirit guides and totems - no problem...but when it comes to every day stuff I seem to have a bit of a block.

Again my sisters in the Craft step in...the suggestion being that over the past few years I have had a few 'situations' (as we all do) where I have opened up to new friends and experiences only to find my trust misplaced and have ended up hurt, thus causing me to shut down the intuitive side of me - time to open up that can of worms me thinks!

We also had a discussion this morning (my sisters and I) about the difference between intuition and empathy - I will use the lovely Raven's description as it is worded beautifully:

Intuition is where you have a hunch or a feeling that something is happening but you don't know what, when, how or who unless you are with that person - I may have a hunch that 'x' has the hump about something, I may know she's about to phone me but I don't know what it's for ... when the Empathy kicks in - it's like I feel the information, I can hear all the nuances, I can taste the anger and I feel the pain - I don't think there is a HUGE amount of difference - I don't think you can be an Empath without being intuitive - but not every intuitive person is an Empath ...

all interesting stuff, and I have lots of homework to be going on with before next week's lesson!

Samhain blessings to all my SH friends and Beltane blessings to all my friends in the NH, looks like Spring has finally sprung here in my little part of the UK :-)