Find Religion

The first place to start is to create a sacred space. Find a place in your yard that you can devote making a Medicine Wheel upon the ground. It can be under a tree, in a field or even among a garden or lawn. The first stones you will want to start out with are the sacred 4 directions, North, South, East & West. Using a compass find due North and work from there placing South next, then West then East. Getting to know the different elements of each direction helps give balance & focus for each season. Honoring the cycles of the earth, life and the seasons is a way for us to find continuity and touchstones of connectedness and familiarity that bring comfort and delight.

Use this space to come to to pour out your heart, ask for guidance, give thanks for your many blessings and to open, ask & listen. Making an external symbol of inner sacred workings is a powerful way to raise consciousness and connect with the earth around you.

One of the great ways to connect with nature is to watch & hear the wind. We live in a valley and everyday like clockwork around 3 p.m. the wind starts up. Not only can I stand outside and hear the wind coming before it gets here but sometimes the wind is so high that it’s only in the treetops and not touching the ground. I have several wind chimes hanging on the porch that signal the wind or a sudden, unexpected storm.

Spiritually or energetically, I love to send heartfelt wishes to my loved ones far away. And I love to send random love & compassion on the wind to find an aching heart of someone in need. Wishing on the wind is a lot like praying but instead of sending it up you send it forward to be caught by an open soul, like an unexpected smile, heart to heart. Try to hear if the wind has a song,  memory,  wish or dream upon it for you. Don’t feel silly doing this. If you do feel silly, so what? Do it anyways! We have more to learn from the foolish than the wise! Emotions are energy in motion and even though they are intangibles, they are very real energies. Use them kindly, use them often and use them compassionately. Like a boomerang, they will find their way back to you.

Preserving nature is an integral part of being a spiritual person. Nature has so much to share and gifts to teach us if we will only take the time to stop, look and listen (or ask the right questions!) Be it as simple as letting a daddy long legs spider live in the corner of your laundry room, to feeding and watering the birds, your service to animals will bring you joy. One year we made a Christmas tree for the birds from a tree in our landscaping. We hung pine cones smeared with peanut butter and rolled in wild bird seed. We strung popcorn, suet blocks and apple cores. It was a thrill to see the birds all come and feast in the cold of the season. We felt peace knowing that they would be sustained throughout the cold winter. Not that nature can’t provide, but if we can supplement nature then wildlife can really thrive and do well amid the stresses of modern life.

To nurture nature is sacred. To stop and reflect upon nature is truly divine.

Using your care of nature as sacred ritual is important. Caring for nature puts one in the role of responsibility, which simply means; the ability to respond. To respond to nature’s specific needs is essentially service. And to serve is to find your greatest joy. Find your joy in feeding the birds seeds & millet or nectar for the hummingbirds. You can make butterfly gardens and feeders too. I have a birdbath that at night also serves the nocturnal frogs, lizards and the occasional snake. I feed the wild birds seed and grain that I give to my chickens-cracked corn and wheat. We have a couple of doves who came the 1st year we began feeding the birds and they would always join in right next to the chickens to get their daily grains. The next year they came as a trio, bringing a new little fledgling to feast. We are blessed to live in the forest. This means also we have a forest full of animals & insects. Caring for their needs and fostering an environment for them to thrive in is a great joy and privilege. Caring for nature puts many important things into a perspective that fosters a greater awareness of the world around. There is magic in nature. From the tiny seed that grows into a towering tree to the beauty and form of a spider’s intricate web. Nature has so much to teach us, if we will only stop to notice.

One of the first sacred practices of the Native American Indians that I utilized was making a medicine wheel. A medicine wheel can be as small as some stones in sand on a desk top or larger stones in a garden, lawn or secluded area of the yard. Bring a compass and put marker stones at North, South, East & West. Some traditions acknowledge above & below without a stone marker. Each direction has it’s own character. Four is a sacred number representing complexities we find in nature & being. The Four Aspects of Human Personality-the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual; The Seasons-fall, winter, spring and summer; The Four Stages of Life-childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and elders; The Races-red, white, black and yellow; The Four Elements-earth, air, fire & water.

I will be posting more about making your own medicine wheel and the symbolism therein. It can be as simple or elaborate as you’d like. It’s a great way to acknowledge and build community with Spirit. Please join me!

All the seasons have important lessons to teach us. One of the main lessons in Autumn is that our abundance is here! It’s a time to harvest and gather. Time to bundle up, hunker down and keep warm. It’s a time to share. It’s a time to let go of what isn’t useful anymore. Like the trees do with their leaves; let all the old, withering stuff fall to our feet to fertilize, mulch and protect us thru the winter’s bitter cold & wind. Take stock of the harvest this season. Do you have enough to share or is it going to be bare bones? Native American Indians use to gauge the intensity of the winter by the size of the acorns on the oak trees. It’s time to shelter those less fortunate and more fragile then ourselves. We fortify the chicken coop with straw for warmth & comfort. We put draft stops at the base of the door to keep the chilly fingers of jack frost from nipping our nose & toes. We make hearty pots of thick soups full of nature’s bounty to sustain us. We burn wood for warmth. The glow mesmerizes and comforts us.

Fall is a time to let go of what isn’t working for us anymore. Whether it’s a job, a relationship,  or an attitude or outlook we no longer have a use for, or a unwelcome memory. Spread your limbs and let that which no longer actively serves you to fall away and serve you as fertilizer & mulch for what the new seasons brings. It’s not a time of loss. It’s a time of separating out that which works and that which no longer works for us anymore. Let the inner warmth and abundance of the season nourish & sustain us, heart, mind, body & soul.

Autumn is not the time to hang on to baggage. Though it is a time to go thru and find the slippers, sweaters, wool socks & jackets that we put away so many months ago. It’s the time to protect and hold, to keep safe that which will keep us best thru the winter so we can be again renewed in the spring.

1 tsp of rose water (optional)
3 T. sea or Kosher salt
1 small bowl of spring or rainwater
1 clean glass container
a hand mirror
a small bell to ring in ceremony
1 storage bottle
Cleanse and sterilize the bowl and decanting bottle.
Insure that you have privacy.
Time: Night, during a Full Moon phase.
Place: Outside under the moon, or near a window that shines the light of the moon.
Set up your sacred work space with all the ingredients.
Take as many deep breaths you need to relieve the stress of the day.
Cast your sacred circle. Hold your arms outstretched in the Goddess position, arms out at the sides like you are cradling the Universe, palms up. Ring the bell 3 times saying:
Bathed in the cloak of the shine of the moon
At this timely full moon hour
I call upon the Ancient Power
I seek the presence of the Lady and Lord
To bless this water and make it holy.
You can substitute any words you prefer. The idea is to acknowledge the power of the universe as creative and holy.

Feel the energy move through you. Feel your own energy expand around you, uniting you with Divinity. Acknowledge the power the moon has on water through the tides and know that you are infusing the energy of life & healing into the water under the gaze of Her by the light of the moon. Take your time.

Add the rose water, if desired, to the spring water. Pick up the bowl of water, hold it toward the moon, and say:
In my hands I hold the essence of the Goddess, and all the abundance She gives in life. I cleanse and consecrate this water to Divinity that it may aid me in my sacred work.

Feel the energy of the Moon Goddess draw down into the water. You may feel a sensation. Honor sacred mystery through joyous prayer and uplift your heart, mind and soul into the bathing light.
Sit the water down and pick up the salt. Feel the power moving in your arms as you raise the salt toward the moon. Say: In my hands I hold the essence of Earth Mother, She whose abundance sustains all living creatures. I consecrate this salt to Divinity that it may aid me in my sacred work.

As with the water, imagine the energy of the Moon Goddess infusing Her energy in the salt.
Pour a little salt into the bowl of water and stirring, say: Ancient ocean, river, rain waters, that feed all life, our ancestors and been our very tears. Cleanse us as you have before.
Repeat this process twice more.
With the bowl in your left hand, receiving and the mirror in your right, sending, reflect the light of the moon off the mirror and into the bowl. After a few moments say: This liquid is now sacred and pure and dedicated to the Lord and Lady. It is full of healing, inspiration and beauty.

Sit the bowl and mirror down and hold out both of your hands, palms down, over the bowl above the water.
Let the vibrations of your body come alive. Open your third eye chakra and imagine a glowing purple flame surrounding the sacred circle. Form an open triangle with your hands over the water and feel the sacred energy flow through you into the holy water. Feel the energy flow from your head down through your arms and up from your feet and out from your arms. When you feel complete, slowly lower your hands and say:

So mote it be
With the free will of all
And harm to none
The healing of this sacred water has begun

Ground your energy by placing your hands upon the earth.

In making your Holy water you can be as discreet or ceremonious as you are inspired to. Bring a friend or 2 or more to share the joy of gathering the healing energy. Even if this is new territory for you be inspired and do the process to your comfort level of participation. You will be so pleased with the results!

After decanting your holy water use it as desired. Some suggestions-put in an atomizer or spray bottle and use on yourself and your space. You can use it to seal letters or postage stamps on letters to loved ones. You can spray a handkerchief or cloth and let dry and use yourself or send to a loved one. Add a few drops to lotions, creams or aromatherapy sprays. Pour some in a favorite dish or vase to put on your altar or shelf. Apply to pulse points: ankles, wrists, neck, temples. Use a dab to genuflect or even anoint your rosary as you pray. Add a few drops to a tub or foot bath for bathing in. If you like to explore your creativity, use the holy water to make rose petal beads. And if you are really inspired, you can make a rosary from your beads.

The idea is to infuse the sacred into everyday life and acknowledge our own individual divinity and ability to create healing.

When a man and a woman become one,
that “one” is You.
And when that one is obliterated, there You are.

Where is this “we” and this “I”?
By the side of the Beloved.
You made this “we” and this “I”
in order that you might play
this game of courtship with Yourself,
that all “you’s” and “I’s” might become one soul
and finally drown in the Beloved…

Rumi | Jalaluddin Rumi, Mathnawi

This sort of blissful oneness that Rumi writes of is reminiscent of the sacred sex we see in some religions. Japanese & East Indian cultures acknowledge sexual power as sacred. It is called Kundalini in India and is part of the life force energy that it represented as a snake that lay coiled at the base of the spine. Like a snake the sexual energy uncoils with arousal & climbs up thru all the chakras until oneness with creator & universe is attained. There is also belief that as spirit we are no longer male and female separate but that we are whole within our selves as a balance of each. Sexual bliss is one way on earth that we can achieve the feeling of not being separate from each other, not only in body but in spirit. This is why some people feel like there is a soulmate out there for them. Because they are remembering being whole in spirit and know that finding someone to love and love them back is part of a satisfying life, in fact as close to nirvana as we can get without mind altering drugs or being skilled as a yogi or monk.
As an armchair philosopher, I think it holds some truth. Look at the polarities we have on earth; we have day & night, good & bad, happy & sad, yin & yang, sweet & sour, north & south. All the balance of heaven is divided when manifest. It’s as if we are light shot thru a prism that is formed in each unique expression but all from one direct source.

Goddess religion is not based on belief, or based on history, in archeology, in any Great Goddess past or present. Our spirituality is based on experience, on a direct relationship with the cycles of birth, growth, death and regeneration in nature and in human lives. We see the complex interwoven web of life as sacred, which is to say, real and important, worth protecting, worth taking a stand for. At a time when every major ecosystem on the planet is under assault, calling nature sacred is a radical act because it threatens the overriding value of profit that allows us to despoil the basic life support systems of the earth. And at a time when women still live with the daily threat of violence and the realities of inequality and abuse, it is an equally radical act to envision deity as female and assert the sacred nature of female (and male) sexuality and bodies.

These wise words above are from Starhawk, one of the essential leaders of the Goddess movement.

Our experience is a reclaiming of the power of the feminine forces. All humankind comes from woman. It’s not that far of a stretch of the imagination to think our Creator is actually a Creatress. When I first realized I was seeing God’s face, I didn’t recognize Him because it was Her. Now that I have Her in my gaze, I realize I am looking at Me. She is no further than my own heart. This gives me great comfort. Find her in your heart of hearts. Just ask and then listen. Sometimes all we need is the right question. Sometimes we need to find the right key to unlock ourselves. What opens your heart of hearts? And what lay within the depths? These are important question we all can be asking ourselves as we come closer to self-realization, which can be your own personal rapture!