Hey, there!
As you probably know if you watch my videos or follow me on other social media, or especially if you sponsor my videos on Patreon, I learned about the concept of Tarot Year Cards using numerology only a couple years ago, and since then have really enjoyed getting into it! I have done two Patrons-only videos on the subject for those who sponsor my videos, which are private videos, for my Patrons exclusively.
But something I've loved doing ever since I learned about this system is figuring out my friends' cards and walking them through what that means for them. Many of my friends IRL are interested when I bring such things up, but are not the type who want to go out and learn tarot and numerology for themselves--and why? I mean, that's what they have me for! Haha. So, the other day I was doing this casually for a friend, as it just happened to come up in conversation, and I decided,
Why not make this into an offering to my friends/viewers/followers online, just as I do for my personal friends?
So that's what I've done! It's not really a specific laid out SPREAD so much as a grouping of your Year Cards/other major influential cards (along the lines of the system Mary K. Greer discusses in her book Tarot for Your Self). This "spread", or group, consists of anywhere from 3-7 cards, depending on YOUR personal numbers, but consists of 7 separate "positions" that we'll look into.
Showing posts with label offerings. Show all posts
Showing posts with label offerings. Show all posts
14 March, 2017
26 June, 2013
Post-Solstice
Hey, Readers,
Once again, there are several things I want to talk about, and they keep piling up before I decide what to talk about and when. So I'll start with the first one I can think of and move on from there. Sometimes, it is best to begin at the beginning.
An obligatory post-solstice note. On the eve of the solstice, I spent hours of the day divining with my oracle cards. I wore a "witchy" outfit to rehearsal and got back to the house around 10pm. Grams asked me to fetch the mail, so I used that as an excuse to spend a few extra minutes outside in the dark--after which I composed this Tweet:
On Solstice Day/Litha/Midsummer, I spent most of the day on the warm, sunny porch, again working with my cards and generally soaking up the sun (not physically--wear sunblock!). On Sunday I had a Circle meeting where we were scheduled to watch a documentary about mythology and perform a Solstice celebration ritual. (I Tweeted a photo of my gold toned attire.) We ended up spending the first hour and a half of our meeting playing with the adorable foster kittens my friend is caring for, and then finally getting to the documentary a while later after some snacks. It was a History channel Clash of the Gods episode about Medusa, which certainly makes you view the gods in a different way. But after that, no one else seemed interested in doing a solstice ritual. Nothing formal was planned but I don't mind spontaneity, so I was hoping to get to do something. However, everyone else was content to just eat and chat for the next couple hours. So I'm very glad that before going to Circle, I went to a local park/nature reserve by myself, found a secluded spot in the woods off the main trail, and did a short devotion there. Otherwise, I wouldn't have gotten to do anything for the sabbat at all.
Oh, and afterwards it was still light out at 6:30pm, so I went to the lake by my old house where I had celebrated Litha last year at dawn, and where Willow resides. The beach has been grown over a lot by grass, and algae creeped along the water line so that I had to search for a section of water I could wade into. I shared freshly picked strawberries and blueberries with the fish, and left some for Willow, as well. It all made me think of the song we had listened to in church that morning--"Canned Goods" by folk singer, Greg Brown. This is the video of it that we watched during service.
Fast forward to Monday evening at rehearsal, and the director and I were walking toward the back door to get something from her car when we passed by the tech director. The director asked of him, "How was your Solstice soirée?" He proceeded to describe how he and his kids (two of my cast members) went to a show reunion party and then to the Observatory Park for the solstice event. Then he asked me how my solstice was. Mind you, I have not told anyone there that I'm pagan, though I do wear pagan jewelry every day, so if they know what it is, it's visible. No one's ever said anything, though. So I told him, I was supposed to go to a group celebration but we just watched a documentary instead and no one wanted to do a celebration, to which he responded, "Oh, TELL ME they didn't blow off an esbat for a documentary!" Not just everyone in the world knows the word "esbat." All in all, this summer working with the show has been a lot better than last year when the young kids always managed to work the topic of dying into the conversation, which was followed up by going to Hell, the devil, Satan, and so on. This year, I've received multiple compliments on my pentacles (I wore a few different ones over the past three weeks), heard about a cast member's love of Greek mythology and who her divine parents would be if she were a demi-god, and had a short conversation about everyone's solstice/esbat plans. The director has always randomly talked about solstices and full moons, all the years I've known her, and she wears a lot of crystal jewelry. But I never let myself assume that meant she was pagan/a witch/anything similar, whatever the term. And I was never aware if she knew that I was. But it certainly is an interesting feeling to have someone whose religious affiliation you don't know, ask you casually about your sabbat. Through years of being met with strange reactions, I got used to editing my statements so as not to startle people. I even said "celebration" instead of "ritual" when I described what I did, just to feel it out and see what was really going on. Might I live in a world where finally, a question like "How did ritual go?" is as commonplace as "What did you learn in school today?"
Blessings, and I hope you had a Happy Solstice~
-C-
Once again, there are several things I want to talk about, and they keep piling up before I decide what to talk about and when. So I'll start with the first one I can think of and move on from there. Sometimes, it is best to begin at the beginning.
An obligatory post-solstice note. On the eve of the solstice, I spent hours of the day divining with my oracle cards. I wore a "witchy" outfit to rehearsal and got back to the house around 10pm. Grams asked me to fetch the mail, so I used that as an excuse to spend a few extra minutes outside in the dark--after which I composed this Tweet:
 |
| Click to view on Twitter |
Oh, and afterwards it was still light out at 6:30pm, so I went to the lake by my old house where I had celebrated Litha last year at dawn, and where Willow resides. The beach has been grown over a lot by grass, and algae creeped along the water line so that I had to search for a section of water I could wade into. I shared freshly picked strawberries and blueberries with the fish, and left some for Willow, as well. It all made me think of the song we had listened to in church that morning--"Canned Goods" by folk singer, Greg Brown. This is the video of it that we watched during service.
~
Fast forward to Monday evening at rehearsal, and the director and I were walking toward the back door to get something from her car when we passed by the tech director. The director asked of him, "How was your Solstice soirée?" He proceeded to describe how he and his kids (two of my cast members) went to a show reunion party and then to the Observatory Park for the solstice event. Then he asked me how my solstice was. Mind you, I have not told anyone there that I'm pagan, though I do wear pagan jewelry every day, so if they know what it is, it's visible. No one's ever said anything, though. So I told him, I was supposed to go to a group celebration but we just watched a documentary instead and no one wanted to do a celebration, to which he responded, "Oh, TELL ME they didn't blow off an esbat for a documentary!" Not just everyone in the world knows the word "esbat." All in all, this summer working with the show has been a lot better than last year when the young kids always managed to work the topic of dying into the conversation, which was followed up by going to Hell, the devil, Satan, and so on. This year, I've received multiple compliments on my pentacles (I wore a few different ones over the past three weeks), heard about a cast member's love of Greek mythology and who her divine parents would be if she were a demi-god, and had a short conversation about everyone's solstice/esbat plans. The director has always randomly talked about solstices and full moons, all the years I've known her, and she wears a lot of crystal jewelry. But I never let myself assume that meant she was pagan/a witch/anything similar, whatever the term. And I was never aware if she knew that I was. But it certainly is an interesting feeling to have someone whose religious affiliation you don't know, ask you casually about your sabbat. Through years of being met with strange reactions, I got used to editing my statements so as not to startle people. I even said "celebration" instead of "ritual" when I described what I did, just to feel it out and see what was really going on. Might I live in a world where finally, a question like "How did ritual go?" is as commonplace as "What did you learn in school today?"
 |
| Click to view on Twitter |
Blessings, and I hope you had a Happy Solstice~
-C-
15 January, 2013
Offerings (What, and How)
Hey, Readers!
This week on The Pagan Perspective, we got two questions (the text of which will follow) asking about offerings--how we make them, and how to pick flowers/plants to use for offerings. I wrote out notes for this before I recorded the video, so you can read the notes here instead of watching, or as a supplement to watching the video. As you'll notice (from the title and the questions themselves), this covers WHAT I offer and HOW I do offerings. Perhaps another time I will talk about when or why, if there's interest.
The questions were as follows:
And now, the response, which varies slightly from the video due to improvisations while speaking, but is otherwise very close.
The first question asks about offerings to gods, spirits, ancestors, etc. but I don't have any major distinctions between them as far as how I make offerings to different energies. My offerings are basically the same for ancestors or for Deity--the variations depend only on what the celebration/working/ritual is for, where I am, and what I have to offer.
Things I've offered:
--Food (fruits, nuts, baked goods, any appropriate food for the ritual)
--Drink (water, wine, milk, juice, again whatever is appropriate)
--Flowers
--Art
--Burning incense
--Burning candles
--Reading of a poem
--Singing of a song
--Dance
--Thoughts/meditation time
--Heartfelt thanks
Giving the offering:
If it's food/drink, I partake of it myself and then set an equal portion aside for the offering. In most cases it's a simple, take a bite of the apple or sip of the wine, and then leave the rest of it for the offering. If it's something like flowers, I present it and leave it. If song, dance, poetry, etc. or something else non-physical, it just happens and then it's done with. Incense or candles, I just burn throughout my working and state that it's for an offering, and then I dispose of the incense ashes like I would any other offering, which I will get to. Or for candles, if it's a tall candle that doesn't burn down all the way, I will save it for the next time and use the same candle for the same type of offering, like the one candle I always use to represent the Universe, or the two candles for God/Goddess. I don't personally like the idea of burying a candle after you've used it once, I would just use it over and over for the same use, to keep up that energy, until it's gone.
Offering Disposal:
If I'm indoors, I leave the offerings on the altar until I'm done and bring them outside later. I usually just leave them somewhere in the woods for nature to consume, as Rich said he does with his. For Samhain 2011, which I celebrated with a group, we buried the ancestors' portion of the food offerings so it would go back to the earth directly, and we tossed extra apples into the woods for the animal parts of nature.
If I'm already outside, I immediately set the food in an offering place on the ground or in tree branches or on a stone (wherever I'm working, it depends), pour the drink on the ground, or place the flowers. If it's something like a physical object or piece of art, not perishable, I would leave it on my altar indefinitely or otherwise keep it for use. If it's something I did on paper, I would treat it like any other petition spell and burn or bury it, depending. (In the case of the Hecate ritual that I did with my friend's women's pagan study group, we made offerings to Hecate by writing it down, reading it out loud to the group, and burning it in the cauldron.)
-----
On collecting flowers:
When I collect flowers for offerings, I just say thank you as I'm picking them. Sometimes I just say thank you, other times I will offer some water if I have my water bottle with me. Sometimes I go back and leave an offering stone if it's in one specific location, or a single plant that I go back to a lot. Other times I will pick up litter from the area as a thank you to the Earth for its gifts.
In the above picture from my Litha/Midsummer ritual last year, you can see my natural offering bowl. I built up a bowl shape out of sand to hold the flowers and plants I had collected. It's very near the water, so that after I left, the water would eventually break down the bowl and pull the flowers into the lake.
-----
Bonus Question!
On waste:
Someone commented on Rich's video asking what he thinks about wasting things used for offerings, and as we both said, we put food outdoors for nature so it's not sitting around, but an offering is never waste because it has a purpose. If I ever do feel like "oh I don't want to waste that by offering it to the energies I hold dear" then I'm not really offering it if I feel it's waste. Some people offer jewelry by burying it, for example, and I feel weird about that because I know it won't really go back to the Earth and I think it's impractical for me to buy an object just to bury it or something, which is another reason I tend to use food or other things that break down. What I do think is wasteful is like I said with the candles--I think it's wasteful to burn a candle for an hour and throw the rest away, only to burn another one the next time and throw that out, too. So in that case, I reuse it until it's done so I don't feel like I'm wasting resources. So if you feel like anything IS being wasted, you can probably come up with a way to do it so that you feel like you're using your resources well. Or you can opt to offer things you don't need to dispose of, like your words or actions, song and dance, music, etc.
-----
That's it for me until next week, so let us know in the comments what you like to offer or how you go about it. If you have any new ideas for people to try, we'd all be glad to hear! Thank you very much for watching (or reading, if you're reading this on my blog), and until next time, Blessed Be, and goodbye!
Blessings~
-C-
This week on The Pagan Perspective, we got two questions (the text of which will follow) asking about offerings--how we make them, and how to pick flowers/plants to use for offerings. I wrote out notes for this before I recorded the video, so you can read the notes here instead of watching, or as a supplement to watching the video. As you'll notice (from the title and the questions themselves), this covers WHAT I offer and HOW I do offerings. Perhaps another time I will talk about when or why, if there's interest.
The questions were as follows:
herkles1
--How do you handle and do offerings to the gods, spirits, ancenstors and so forth? furthermore how do you properly handle disposing of offerings in a proper and respectful manner? p.s: this channel has helped me a good bit, in my own spiritual path and growth. :)
LynnifferLeDoppel
--Hi everyone, Im back with another question lol. This may be silly but i was wondering if you could explain to me how to properly pick a flower (or other kind of plant). i feel so apprehensive when i see a clover or a flower and go to pick it. Do you need to use offering stones? Im making offering stones, but what should you do in the mean time or what should you do if you dont have anything to offer? Thank you so much, you have all been such a great help ^_^ ~ Love and Light!
And now, the response, which varies slightly from the video due to improvisations while speaking, but is otherwise very close.
The first question asks about offerings to gods, spirits, ancestors, etc. but I don't have any major distinctions between them as far as how I make offerings to different energies. My offerings are basically the same for ancestors or for Deity--the variations depend only on what the celebration/working/ritual is for, where I am, and what I have to offer.
Things I've offered:
--Food (fruits, nuts, baked goods, any appropriate food for the ritual)
--Drink (water, wine, milk, juice, again whatever is appropriate)
--Flowers
--Art
--Burning incense
--Burning candles
--Reading of a poem
--Singing of a song
--Dance
--Thoughts/meditation time
--Heartfelt thanks
Giving the offering:
If it's food/drink, I partake of it myself and then set an equal portion aside for the offering. In most cases it's a simple, take a bite of the apple or sip of the wine, and then leave the rest of it for the offering. If it's something like flowers, I present it and leave it. If song, dance, poetry, etc. or something else non-physical, it just happens and then it's done with. Incense or candles, I just burn throughout my working and state that it's for an offering, and then I dispose of the incense ashes like I would any other offering, which I will get to. Or for candles, if it's a tall candle that doesn't burn down all the way, I will save it for the next time and use the same candle for the same type of offering, like the one candle I always use to represent the Universe, or the two candles for God/Goddess. I don't personally like the idea of burying a candle after you've used it once, I would just use it over and over for the same use, to keep up that energy, until it's gone.
Offering Disposal:
If I'm indoors, I leave the offerings on the altar until I'm done and bring them outside later. I usually just leave them somewhere in the woods for nature to consume, as Rich said he does with his. For Samhain 2011, which I celebrated with a group, we buried the ancestors' portion of the food offerings so it would go back to the earth directly, and we tossed extra apples into the woods for the animal parts of nature.
If I'm already outside, I immediately set the food in an offering place on the ground or in tree branches or on a stone (wherever I'm working, it depends), pour the drink on the ground, or place the flowers. If it's something like a physical object or piece of art, not perishable, I would leave it on my altar indefinitely or otherwise keep it for use. If it's something I did on paper, I would treat it like any other petition spell and burn or bury it, depending. (In the case of the Hecate ritual that I did with my friend's women's pagan study group, we made offerings to Hecate by writing it down, reading it out loud to the group, and burning it in the cauldron.)
-----
On collecting flowers:
When I collect flowers for offerings, I just say thank you as I'm picking them. Sometimes I just say thank you, other times I will offer some water if I have my water bottle with me. Sometimes I go back and leave an offering stone if it's in one specific location, or a single plant that I go back to a lot. Other times I will pick up litter from the area as a thank you to the Earth for its gifts.
 |
| Litha 2012 |
-----
Bonus Question!
On waste:
Someone commented on Rich's video asking what he thinks about wasting things used for offerings, and as we both said, we put food outdoors for nature so it's not sitting around, but an offering is never waste because it has a purpose. If I ever do feel like "oh I don't want to waste that by offering it to the energies I hold dear" then I'm not really offering it if I feel it's waste. Some people offer jewelry by burying it, for example, and I feel weird about that because I know it won't really go back to the Earth and I think it's impractical for me to buy an object just to bury it or something, which is another reason I tend to use food or other things that break down. What I do think is wasteful is like I said with the candles--I think it's wasteful to burn a candle for an hour and throw the rest away, only to burn another one the next time and throw that out, too. So in that case, I reuse it until it's done so I don't feel like I'm wasting resources. So if you feel like anything IS being wasted, you can probably come up with a way to do it so that you feel like you're using your resources well. Or you can opt to offer things you don't need to dispose of, like your words or actions, song and dance, music, etc.
-----
That's it for me until next week, so let us know in the comments what you like to offer or how you go about it. If you have any new ideas for people to try, we'd all be glad to hear! Thank you very much for watching (or reading, if you're reading this on my blog), and until next time, Blessed Be, and goodbye!
Blessings~
-C-
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