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Subscribe to this list via RSS Blog posts tagged in signs

Posted by on in Paths Blogs

When I perceive the gods' presence in nature, sometimes I feel that it is a sign as in an omen and sometimes it's just a sign of their presence as in a way that one detects them. When we talk about whether something is a sign, I think a lot of us talk past each other because someone will call something a sign and mean it as in the signs and symptoms of the presence of x thing, and other people will think they are talking about being the chosen one of a novel.

I've heard people say not every thunderstorm is Thor, but to me, every thunderstorm is definitely Thor. Sometimes he's showing up for me and sometimes he's just doing his thing. And either way, thunder is a sign-- of his presence. It's how we detect him. It doesn't necessarily mean anything else, unless there is some context in which his presence would be the answer to a question, but that would be highly unusual to the point of nearly unheard-of. Which is why I think people misunderstand when I say he's in every thunder roll. They misunderstand when I say he will sometimes show up for me. And sometimes he would show up for my mom, even though she was an atheist. 

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
Raven Caw During Ritual

It was a warm, clear afternoon in the desert. The children had just hunted eggs and were now happily consuming their candies, busy and out of the way. It was time.

We were gathered around the altar, passing the drinking horn in a sumbel ritual. In sumbel, we pass the horn from person to person. Whoever has the horn makes a toast and then passes the horn. Holding the horn indicates whose turn it is to speak, even when people are actually drinking from individual cups. 

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Posted by on in Paths Blogs
A Gift from Freya

Pictured here is the most recent addition to my spiritual souvenirs shrine. This is the story of how it appeared in my life and what it means to me.

Cats. To understand this story, one must know that among other things, Freya is a goddess of cats. Also, love and sex, and that is why the heart symbol is one of her symbols. She is also a goddess of war, but that's not relevant to this tale.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Erin Lale
    Erin Lale says #
    That's a nice saying, I like it.
  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    In "The Three 'Only' Things" Robert Moss says that: "a coincidence is a meaningful convergence of inner and outer experience." Th

Posted by on in SageWoman Blogs

It has been a while since I have had a chance to sit down and write.  Too long in fact.  I have left yet another job and started another, more learning of things that in some ways just do not make sense.  Another job where I am the oldest and am teased about my "ways" of doing things.  Just today I was teased about how I always look at the good side of things.  Well, I'm a Reiki Master/Teacher, there's a reason why I am this way.  But I have had time to reflect.  I find that I am still trying to find the job that I am comfortable in, one that I feel comfortable in my own skin.  On June 30 I turned another year older (49), way too old and starting to sense the Wise Woman in me.  

One new aspect is that my middle daughter, Marie, has opened up to let me know that she is seeing and sensing spirits as well as energy from people around her.  My husband has recently asked me to cleanse our house (teenagers create and attract a lot of various types of energies).  Marie is going to learn this process.  I am going to take her under my wings and teach her.  This gives me two benefits.  First I know what she is learning and I can guide her towards more material.  She is curious and I want to encourage this curiosity.  Secondly, this gives me a chance to dust off my course books and various other books and binders and relearn some aspects of healing modalities that I have neglected.  I have a student!  But I need to remember that I live with this student and to not overwhelm her with information all the time.

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Posted by on in Culture Blogs
In the Name of the Horns

Horns ward.

The Sign of the Horns has been a sign of power since long before it became a Heavy Metal cliché.

Because horns aren't just for beauty or display.

They're weapons. They ward because they warn. Theirs is the power of protection.

You could call the Horns a mudra. (In Witch we usually just say: hand-sign.) You could call them an invocation. (You know Who I mean.) In Anthropologist, you could call them an apotropaic: a turning away, an averting.

The Horns have been warding off the hostile, the unchancy, the ill-favored, for centuries, if not millennia.

You can mutter “Horns ward [me]” or “Horns protect [me]” if you like. It certainly won't hurt.

But only make the Sign and the Horns will do their work, seen or unseen, spoken or unspoken.

Some might call this a fire-fight-fire scenario: like warding like, the unchancy against the unchancy.

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Tony Lima
    Tony Lima says #
    Yeah, yeah, horns symbolize mostly good things, one of which is feared by many is in super-sexual capabilities that may even survi
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Ever a good averter, to be sure. And it does make the grass grow.
  • Thor Halvorsen
    Thor Halvorsen says #
    As a Deaf Pagan, I have to add that not only do they represent the pagan horns, Heavy Metal horns, but in the language of the Amer

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
The Sign of the Hoof

A mudra that links Star Trek, Orthodox Jewish liturgy, and the god of witches.

Fascinating.

The “Vulcan salute” premiered in 1967 during Star Trek's second season. Series creator Gene Roddenberry felt that the words of the newly-invented Vulcan greeting needed some sort of physical gesture to go with them. Actor Leonard Nimoy held up his hand, palm facing out, thumb extended, fingers divided between the second and third fingers. In that moment, a pop-culture icon was born. Live long and prosper, folks.

Nimoy knew the gesture from his childhood. Six times a year in the Orthodox synagogue that his grandfather took him to, the kohanim—men from priestly families—would face the congregation, raise both hands before their faces making the same hand-sign, and pronounce the ancient Threefold Blessing:

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Deus eduxit eum de Aegypto cuius fortitude similis est rincerotis. So, a god whose strength is like unto a rhino's. Well.
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    Yikes. My first thought was, "they must have been working from a different underlying Hebrew text," which, given the difficulties
  • Steven Posch
    Steven Posch says #
    I would agree that your reading makes sense of 24:8 with its singular object, Brian, and would add that some MSS. read motsi'o for
  • Brian Niskala
    Brian Niskala says #
    One thing I find funny is the Septuagint's translation here: ὡς δόξα μονοκέρωτος αὐτῷ, taking the Hebrew's תוֹעֲפֹת רְאֵם as 'glo
  • Brian Niskala
    Brian Niskala says #
    I would question that translation of Number 23:20/24:8. That reading of 'lo' לוֹ as a possessive here doesn't quite work; I read i

Posted by on in Culture Blogs
How I became a Pagan #1 - Signs

 

It's been a year and a half since I began my journey into Paganism and almost a full year (Imbolc) since I chose a tradition (Reclaiming). I was the model Jesus Freak, the one my Christian community was sure about, the one who would never leave the fold. So how did I end up choosing a Pagan path?

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Recent Comments - Show all comments
  • sarel
    sarel says #
    Thanks for sharing your story didn't know there is so many pagans that comes from a pentecostal background.
  • Kevin Thomas
    Kevin Thomas says #
    I too came from a strong Pentecostal/Evangelical background, which is very common among African-Americans. Now, ordained metaphysi
  • Jeanine Byers
    Jeanine Byers says #
    That's great, Kevin! And LOL about embracing "everything you were taught to hate." I know what you mean!
  • Cynthia Savage
    Cynthia Savage says #
    So, really, you are still Christian....
  • Lizann Bassham
    Lizann Bassham says #
    Thanks for sharing your story. I am both a Reclaiming witch and a Christian minister (in the United Church of Christ a Progressiv

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