Solitary: A Self-Directed Spiritual Life

Let's talk. Come sit with me under a tree or by a lake while we chat about being alone in our practice and our beliefs. Solitary practitioners choose this path for many reasons and have a unique perspective. As a solitary witch, I want to share how I keep true to my beliefs and practices whether I'm working on my own, in a small group or attending a large group gathering. Author of Moon Affirmations, meditations based on the phase of the moon.

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Eileen Troemel

Eileen Troemel

As a solitary, I consider myself a pagan witch who is seeking. Residing in rural Wisconsin, by day I work as a clerical worker and at night I spend my spare time writing. Writing is my way of expressing my feelings about my world and life. Raised on a farm, I have a love for nature and am inspired by the beauty and power I find there. I've been married for 33 years and have three adult daughters. Some of my other interests include cooking, genealogy, reading and crocheting.  

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Rising in the morning and stumbling through the normal routine, shower, dress, prep for work.  So much of our lives are lived on automatic, drop the kids at school, drive to work, work all day long and reverse, to pick up the kids, run errands, run kids around, make (or pick up) supper and so on until you fall into bed exhausted.  Does this sound like your life?  It is how most of us live. 

You can’t experience every moment of your life, you’d never get through the day.  You can, however, try to be mindful of those moments.  One Sunday morning, I got up to find my husband and daughters lounging in the living room reading the paper.  Now my kids have since all moved out as they are adults and living their own lives.  In that moment, I just watched and listened to them.  Took in the moment, which sounds really silly but see at that point I knew my daughters would soon be leaving us. 

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Lines in the Sand

Lines drawn in the sand, or in my case on the road.  There is a place on my drive to work where the road is wide enough for two lanes though it isn’t marked that way.  At one point, there are yellow lines on the road to mark the beginning of a left turn lane.  Even though there is nothing in the road to stop it, people change over to the right lane, then move back into the left lane to make their turn. 

This always makes me chuckle.  You can clearly see there is nothing in the road, if you just keep moving forward over the top of those yellow lines, you would be in the left turn lane.  Yet daily, people follow the lines that push them into the right lane before they switch back to make their left turn.

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In my last post, I talked about going to the John Edward show and getting a metaphorical smack.  Since then I’ve had some interesting things happen.  I read tarot.  I love the tarot and feel very connected to certain decks.  I have one I use for me every time no matter what.  I’ve tried doing readings for myself with other decks and they just don’t resonate like this one deck.  I use the deck for other people as well and always have the best readings with this one deck.  I’ve stopped buying other decks.  I like other decks but they don’t work as well as this one deck I use.

My daughter’s friend called me out of the blue and asked if I would do a reading for her.  I’ve not read for her in probably ten years or more.  She believes but has not come back to me for a reading since I did one which told her a male energy was going to come into her life and have a significant influence on her.  (Shortly after, the reading she got pregnant with her first son.)

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John Edward is a medium of some renown.  I used to watch him on Crossing Over and have always wanted to meet him.  He recently was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin which is near my home.  I splurged and bought a ticket.

I hoped for a reading.  I talked to my people who have passed and told them about it and asked them to come through.  I went with a friend and hoped for a reading.  All the while in my head I said to the people who I connect with they should come through.  

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There are countless books which will tell you the right way to do your initiation.  I’ve read a number of them, both for covens and for solitary.  None of them spoke to me. 

Normally I’m a simple, as little fuss as possible, type of person.  Once I felt I was ready to declare my beliefs, I decided to do a ritual – full out, go for broke ritual.  I had it typed up, planned out, everything was going to go PERFECT. 

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Eileen Troemel
    Eileen Troemel says #
    Thank you... it was a great experience
  • David LeBarron
    David LeBarron says #
    How lovely for you!

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
Spring - a renewal

Spring!  A relief from the winter cold, snow, and the introspective time of assessing where I am and what I need to do next.  It’s about new beginnings and a fresh start.  I’m sitting here laughing about this because here in Wisconsin we have four inches (more in some places) of snow on the ground.  It is still snowing and they said it was supposed to stop by 8 this morning.  We’re two hours past that. 

Spring equinox is all about renewal, rebirth, coming alive again after the winter.  The Persephone / Demeter story is one of the myths which is prominent for this time of year.  Persephone returns to her mother and Demeter comes back to life with the return of her daughter. 

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All my life I went to church for others.  My mother made me go when I was a child.  I would sit in the church and argue with the minister in my head.  I’d ask questions the Sunday school teacher didn’t want to answer.  When my mother finally stopped making me go, I stopped until my children came along.  My oldest daughter loved to sing, loved music.  When my mother took her to church she fell in love with the children’s choir.  For my daughters, I went back to church.  I sat in the pews arguing with the minister in my head being more and more annoyed.  However, my kids wanted to be part of the choir and the pageant, so I went.  I volunteered to work in the kitchen for the youth group’s Wednesday night program because my kids wanted to be in the group.  One day when the youth minister asked if my husband and I were members, I said no.  He asked if we’d like to join and I laughed.  It was a good conversation when I explained to him I considered myself agnostic (at the time). 

When my kids stopped wanting to be in the church choir, the church group, I stopped going with great relief.  After they stopped, I did nothing when it came to spiritual or religious beliefs.  I didn’t believe the way my mother believed.  I didn’t experience faith in the same way she did.  I decided religion wasn’t for me. 

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