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Gift is for every man / a pride and a praise / help and worthiness / and of every homeless adventurer / it is the estate and substance / for those who have nothing else. - Anglo-Saxon Rune Poem

In today's Faithful Friday post of the PaganNewsBeagle, we have Voudou mental health in Haiti; Siberian shamans; the "Better News Club"; boom in online ordinations; is religion a force for good?

In Haiti, Vodou priest/esses are now delivering mental health services (in coordination with international health NGOs).

Sacrifices are made every day.  Some are greater than others.  Some are just things that are put off until a time when they can be brought back out and looked at again.  Some are given up together.  These sacrifices bring on change.  Sometimes we see them as just sacrifices, but if you look deeper, they may be signs of a change in your life, a change in the way you eat, a change in what you have learned, or even a change in how you react throughout your day.

They say that we are in a constant state of learning, a constant state of sacrifice, and a constant state of change.  I believe this is true.  I know when I am preparing for one of my belly dance classes, I may decide to teach the students a new move.  Even if I have performed this move many times in the past, I will research and study to make sure that I am teaching how to do the movements as accurately and physically proper as I can.  When I personally do the movements within a dance, I am not thinking about how to explain them to someone else.  During this time, I may learn something new about the movement that I never knew before.  Or I may learn that I have changed the proper way to perform this movement and have gotten lazy with my movements and find that in my laziness and may be hurting my body by not performing the movement correctly.  I try to remind myself that I need to be open and accepting and willing to give up the bad habit.  Ultimately, this excites me and encourages me to continue on. 

It should be a very interesting month ahead. This month’s New Moon falls on January 20th at 8:14 am, just inside of the sign of Aquarius, the sign of freedom and equality. Just hours later, Mercury turns retrograde. In the chart cast for Washington, DC (and so predictive for the country), the conjunction of Sun and Moon falls in the twelfth house of hidden things. The sensitive Ascendant, plus two other planets, Venus and Mercury, are also in Aquarius. That’s a lot of focus on freedom (or its lack) and on the vagaries of equality in these transformative times.

There is also a major emphasis on the first house in this chart — the house of the people of a nation. Venus and Mercury in Aquarius are joined by Neptune, Mars and Chiron in Pisces all in the first. The combination could promise well-thought-out, heart-centered plans for improving the lives of ordinary citizens — and we all could benefit from that kind of planning in our own lives, in our own communities. But — particularly given some of the aspects — it could also promise attempts to deceive and control that are actively opposed by some -- and studiously ignored by others. There are opportunities for spiritual awakening — and religious oppression. For expressing empathy, and for cold-hearted manipulation. You’ll be watching these decisions made on the world stage, but you are also likely to see them in your personal life. Nourish your spiritual life, and be honest with yourself — and others.

This post is for Week 2 of The Pagan Experience, on Personal Practice: “Share your favorite spiritual/magickal practices."

On the Vanic side of my spiritual life, one of the most meaningful and nourishing things I do is also one of the most simple, something that may not look outwardly like a spiritual practice: going for walks.

One of the pop culture magic systems I work with is Dehara, based off the Wraeththu series by Storm Constantine. We're currently doing some work on the next grimoire and as part of that work I've been immersing myself in reading the Wraeththu series, as well as fan fiction set in that universe. By immersing myself in the pop culture artifacts I attune myself to that system of magic, as well as to the characters that may show up as a result. Scientists call this type of immersion experience taking. I get caught up in the pop culture world and change my behavior and thoughts to match that of the characters. Personally I think the concept of experience taking sounds a lot like invocation.

I've been integrating my work with Dehara into my daily work, doing path workings with the various beings I'm contacting as I help to flesh out this system of magic. What's been most fascinating for me though is that my work has shown up in my dreams. I've dreamed of myself as a hara having adventures in the Wraeththu universe. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I'm doing this magical work and also re-reading the series at the same time, creating this immersive experience that effects my imagination and makes my dreams more receptive to continued interactions and work on this system of magic. In both my meditations and dreams the experiences have been lucid. In one case, in the meditation the Hara version of myself experienced a burn on his hand, and my physical hand had a similar reaction, though there was no burn on it.