Season of Transitions.....

September 1, 2014

I am becoming painfully aware that despite my promises to myself, I am not doing a good job at keeping up on regular entries to this blog....I haven't been making good on most of the promises I make with myself, especially the promises that promote self-care, self-love, self-growth, basically anything to do with myself and my inner happiness. Not good.

Today is September 1st. Besides being the two year anniversary of moving into Blue Moon Cottage, it is also pretty much the kickoff day for Autumn. Normally I cannot wait for Autumn to get here. I love everything about Autumn, the color of the leaves, the change in the air, the smells, the anticipation for Halloween and Samhain (technically the same thing, but I've chosen to view them as two different celebrations.

Halloween = Muggle/pop culture holiday focused on candy, costumes, brash, bright, fun decorations (or gory, if that's your cup of tea....I refuse to decorate that way. To me, there is nothing FUN about blood, guts, gore or mutilation.)
Samhain = A sacred, holy day to honor my ancestors, my fellow witches. As well as a time to commune with all Spirits and Otherworldlies. It is also a time for intense, internal soul searching as to the "next step".

However this year I am not quite ready for Summer to be over. I am secretly not that excited for the start of Fall, and I am absolutely dreading the thought of Winter, (most likely because last winter lasted seven months!)

I turned 52 this past May and I think I am starting to go through what some might call my "mid-life crisis." I am definitely feeling Time speed up, feeling as if I have done nothing with my life. I am most definitely at a Crossroads and feel as if I have some major life-altering decisions to make.

Autumn is a season of transition, the year's final burst of glory before the symbolic "death" of Winter. A time to get your affairs in order, your house ready for winter, your inner House as well as your physical home.

I am feeling this very strongly this year, most probably because as I write this my next door neighbors are going into the 14th day of a death watch for the father of the house. He has ALS, and 14 days ago made the decision to meet his eminent death on his own terms. I support his courageous decision. Ever since we found out our attention, as we go about our day, is continuously focused on next door. It has been emotional eggshells waking up every morning wondering if he transitioned during the night. I cannot even begin to imagine how stressful and exhausting this has been for his family.
Every time we hear anything happening at their house we immediately look to see what is going on. We feel like such stalkers, but we're truly not.....we're trying really hard to respect their privacy at this time as we grieve with them. We have only had the chance to make their acquaintance in the last 5 months, but they are dear, sweet people and I am grieving the loss of a neighbor that I didn't get the chance to know better.

I grieve with his beautiful wife who has to watch her partner slip away. I grieve for his girls and his family, we barely know them, but they all seem to be such great people. I'm glad that they are tight knit and close. This would be a horrible circumstance to go through without support. I pray for him to have a peaceful transition and for his family to have utter peace at his passing.

I'm sure all of this is a direct influence on my reluctance to let go of Summer, of my "mid-life" crisis concerns, but they are all valid. I am a point in my life that, although it's far from over (hopefully), I still need to bring some points of my life into proper order before I start the next chapter of my journey. It is the right thing to do, not just for myself, but for my family. My greatest fear about dying is leaving any kind of "mess" for my kids to have to clean up, on any level. So the best way to bring myself inner peace and peace of mind is to take care of what needs to be done so that whenever it is my time to go I can go in peace and know that the legacy I left for my children are good memories, strong life lessons, and a solid belief in all things magickal, not some mess to clean up born of procrastination and irresponsibility on my part.

The other half of my "mid-life crisis" is this awful feeling of the clock ticking and all I can think about are all the amazing things I haven't done yet. All the places I haven't seen yet, all the experiences I haven't had yet. I finally get what all these "old" people have been saying: DON'T WAIT! There truly is no time like the present, there is no such thing as the right time. The time is NOW! All of this is true and I wish there was some way we could get our kids to see and understand this now, instead of later, at midlife.

I am grateful for this "mid-life crisis". I am grateful for this tap on the shoulder of my life. I have been living under the same delusion as everyone else that there is plenty of time....there is NEVER going to be enough time to do all the things you want to do in your life! The secret is to start going out and doing all those things you want to do, the very moment you realize you want it as a part of your life. Waiting for the "right" time, the right circumstance, the right partner, the right season to live your life to the fullest is the saddest delusion at all. The time is ALWAYS right now!

This is the Season of Transition. The season to blaze your own colors, burn brighter and more vibrant each day right up until it's time for you to transition into your next season.

This Samhain Season.....

Blessed Samhain and Happy New Year! Samhain, a.k.a. Halloween, is the most sacred holiday for most witches.

It is also known as the Witches New Year.

I love this time of year because it is so sacred to me. It is the time of year when the Veil between worlds is thinnest, when it is possible to journey between worlds easily, for our Ancestors to reach out and communicate with us, pass on their knowledge, their wisdom.

I love all the seasons, love embracing the turning Wheel but I really love the time of Samhain, because I love this time of darkness, this time of slowing down, time to rest, breathe and just listen. The growing season is over, the crops are in, the fields have been cleared for their winter's rest before the cycle starts again next spring. This is the time where we withdraw from the outside world and snuggle in for the Dark Time of the year.

A lot of people do not like this time of year because they feel like the everything is bare, dirty, empty, wet and dreary, like the party is over and in a way it is. Witches/pagans follow and celebrate the seasons of the year based on the growing seasons versus the calendar year, that is one of the reasons why Samhain/Halloween is our New Year, the growing season is done, the fields are empty. For us the end of the year is now, not on December 31st.

I see this time of year as the perfect time to take in some quality downtime, time spent going thru your Inner House, your mental/spiritual/emotional house. Clean out the clutter, the chatter, sweep out the cobwebs of the Soul, excise old ghosts, old grudges, old emotions, old attachments that are no longer serving you. Time to sit back and start planning, visualizing, dreaming about what new and beautiful changes you want to bring into your life over the next year.

Witches also honor and seek the Wisdom of our Ancestors during the Season of Samhain. We honor those we have lost during our life time as well as honoring those who have died for their beliefs through out the ages.

We promise to never forget those who were persecuted because they chose to live their Truth, chose to be strong against the Tide of conformity, chose to follow the Universal Laws of Nature versus the laws of men.

We set up altars with loving representations and remembrances of all of these loved ones, we offer incense to sweeten their memory, set a place for them at Dumb Supper, ask their hand in a Tarot spread to show us the way, invite them to join us in Sacred Space to share their wisdom with us so that we may seek to better ourselves, start on the next path, write the next chapter, plant the newest row in our personal Soul Garden.

May the Wisdom of your Ancestors bless you this Samhain Season.
So Mote It Be.
Blessed Be.

October Full Moon Blessings

5:30am...Full Moon shining on my face "get up, get up". The solitude I have been craving is mine for the taking. At this moment there is a fresh fire burning in the wood stove, candles lit on my altar/buffet, incense wafting through the house, a cup of coffee dark and sweet, the full moon setting amongst the trees. I am grateful. Last night as the Mother Goddess and I chatted with Sister Moon while She bathed the world with Her silvery glow I was gently reminded that yes, Life is (ever)changing, is always moving forward and my ever constant wish for a moment to be able to stop and collect my breath, my thoughts, my bearings is NEVER going to happen, at least not from without...only from within.....I have to make my own moments, my own "me" time...I have to stop waiting for the Universe to bring it to me on a silver platter....I have to pay more attention to the gifts illuminated for me within the silver glow of that Full Moon. So, with the wood fire warming my home, my coffee warming my being, the incense and sacred space warming my Soul I bid you Sweet Full Moon Blessings, may your day be full of peace, contentment and Love. With Knowledge, Truth, Wisdom, Grace....Blessed Be.

Virtual Reality vs Living an Authentic Life

Choosing to Live an Authentic Life: My family and I are as guilty as the rest of the modern world of the shame of watching WAY too much TV, and being addicted to one or another “reality shows", however one of those shows became the catalyst for the direction I’m choosing to take with my life…(The irony of all of this is sincerely comical as well as poignant). In said show one of the participants blurted out a line that simply pole axed me! As he was being filmed working his land he expressed a sadness at our “virtual world” and then he turned his gaze towards the camera and said the words that would change my outlook towards my life: “We live in a virtual world and it’s sad. People are sitting at home giving up their own lives to virtually watch other people lives, that so sad! I’m proud to say that I am not one of those people; I’m out there LIVING my life!” (as close a quote as I can paraphrase from memory) His words really reached out and touched me! I think of ALL the things I want to do in this life, creatively and mundanely, I think of how often I complain that I simply don’t have enough time. Then I think of all the time I spend in front of that flat screen watching characters, real and imagined, following their “lives” and “dramas” while the clock keeps ticking away on my own life…I also realized this applies to social media as well, another time sucker...very fun and provocative, but again, something that needs to be moderated in my own life.... I started to wonder how much more could I get done, how much I could create, if I started living, really LIVING, my own life instead of watching or reading about someone else’s? I'll leave you with that thought.....looking forward to sharing with you what wonders I discover as I make the choice to dramatically drop the amount of time spent watching tv and reading social media and get out there and make my own life happen!

Healing time in the Land of Water.....

"Nothing in the world
is as soft and yielding as water, 
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.

The soft overcomes the hard;
the gentle overcomes the rigid,
Everyone knows this is true,
but few can put it into practice." - Lao-tzu

 Blue Moon Cottage is situated in an area that is gifted with water; ponds, lakes (big and small) streams, creeks, rivers. In fact, just beyond the five homes on the lane behind me is a pretty sizable lake and down the road a mile is a huge lake and about every third house out here has a pond or mini lake in it's yard. I dwell smack dab in the Land of Water.

  From the first moment I saw this house I knew I would live here and I knew this was a special place, for me and for those who would come here. It is a place of healing; a quiet, restful place to catch your breath, dial down, unplug, unwind and just be.....when I came across the above quote it struck me that it was not just happenstance that this place, this house is located in the Land of Water.

I thought of how water is used for baptism, for cleansing, for moving things out of the way, for clearing out, for smoothing over, for polishing, for proceeding forward....all the things I need to do with my life and I can to rest in the knowledge that my new home, my sanctuary, my temple, my body, my soul is exactly where it needs to be....

In the last few weeks as I've been settling in and getting used to the new rhythm of my life, in the back of my head I kept thinking I should be doing more, that I needed a new project to start, that I should be "doing" something with my new life, I was starting to feel guilty....then I started receiving tidbits of randomness; a word here, a quote, a cyber postcard, all leading me back to same thought; that this feeling of guiltiness was WRONG, that I need to stop worrying, thinking about what my next "project" is going to be because I already know, have known, my next "project" is me.

For too long my past issues have been the (literal) mountain in the middle of the room, at first it was the excuse as to why I allowed myself to procrastinate on moving forward with my "projects", once I do my "housework" then I can give my "project" the time it deserves, but then I would procrastinate on my housework as well until it became a physical mountain that became so overwhelming that it took the Universe creating a catalyst, creating a do-or-die situation to shock me out of my self-imposed hell.....I have climbed that mountain and conquered it, clearing the way for no more excuses....but now I have to step up and tackle my own "house", my temple: my mind, body and soul...as I was fretting over wondering what my next project should be the answer came to me, quietly and quite clearly, time now to use this place of healing to cleanse my body, my mind and my soul, time to use this temple of rest and retreat to heal myself. I have tackled one of my biggest obstacles and it no longer stands in my way, time to turn inward and start becoming the woman I am meant to be...

Blessed Be...

The sweetness of cultivating roots.......

"Speaking of lairs, mine has been getting to know me slowly .. this house has been here a long time longer than me, and there are stories in the walls I am sure. I feel like each day I have nested and arranged and unpacked and boiled the kettle and sat painting, I wafted metaphorical Rima into the house as others have done before me, and the walls are sniffing me to see what they think." Rima Staines - The Hermitage

This is one of my favorite quotes. The first time I read it I was so taken with her choice of imagery "the walls are sniffing me to see what they think." I feel that happening now, here at Blue Moon Cottage except we've moved past the sniffing stage and moved onto hugging. This house "sniffed" me out the first time I walked through the door and like what it saw, I truly believe that. I also believe that was part of the reason why everything so incredibly smoothly with the whole process of buying this house.

I lived in the other house for 22 years, rented it for 22 years. It was a house, it kept us warm, safe and dry but it never felt like HOME to me. Some of it had to do with the fact that it was never truly mine, some of it because the worst period of my life happened there, but so did some of the best, the most magickal, most evolved times in my life. I hold the memories dear but it was past time for me to go, to move on. In fact over the last few years I think the house was ready for me to leave before I was. When the house was finally empty again of all traces of mine and my kids life we both seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, we both knew my time in that house was done. Since we've moved I have heard that the landlord has torn up all the greenery around the house and yard...stripping the whole place bare, inside and out, starting over with a clean slate.

Blue Moon Cottage on the other hand is mine, completely mine and not just because the mortgage and title are in my name, but mine in a deeper sense, as in I BELONG there. I know this much, I have never slept so peacefully anywhere else....as soon as I get home I feel at peace....from the first time I pulled into the drive as the new owner it has NEVER felt weird, there was no "adjustment" period, I have never drove home towards the "old" house, it just feels like it has always been that way instead of just a few weeks....and that's when you know your roots are growing in the right place......

Blessed Be.

Welcome to my NEW blog!

Thank you for following me here to my new blog: The Witch of Blue Moon Cottage.

My life has changed dramatically in the last few years but especially over the last few months. I decided that my old blog belonged to my past...(it will still be available for reading).....this fresh start, this new chapter in my life finds me with a new "voice" as well that needs a fresh, new venue to sparkle in!

I hope you'll come visit me here at Blue Moon Cottage, we'll dance around the campfire, share some spells, read the Tarot, delve into the shadows between the moonlight. Some days I'll stir up a big pot of my magickal soup, brew you some enchanted tea and we'll sit at my antique maplewood kitchen table and talk, share, laugh, cry and wonder at the magick of it all....