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What Is Oral Tradition?

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What is Oral Tradition?

Oral tradition is spoken communication that conveys ideas, societal customs, and cultural underpinnings such as ancestral practices. Forms of oral tradition communications include folk tales, other lore, and poetry. There are exceptions to oral tradition being the spoken word. For example, live music can be oral tradition.

The above definition of oral tradition is the one most people will see in books and on websites. And it is a good start.

What if that’s not enough for you? What if the term oral tradition calls to you in ways that the above definition doesn’t address?

What if the words oral tradition invoke something wild and mystical for you, and you know there must be more than the common definition?

What if you sense mysteries that are never spoken, but you sense they are in oral tradition?

Perhaps you have another reason that the usual answer to “What is oral tradition?” is not enough for you.

If so, you’re in the right place. That usual and widespread definition is not enough for me.

I’ll give you a larger definition from my heart and bone marrow. I spent years analyzing what I experienced and observed and how to express all that.

Most of this post is theories I developed based on those experiences and observations. Often, the best ways to express my theories are:
* lyrical writing
* storytelling
* sharing my personal feelings
* and other approaches that are far from the usual means of communicating theories.

I put a lot of work into my theories. I take pride in that. I am also proud that my theories come from years of analysis, common sense, intuition, and trust in my emotions.

Telling a personal story is the best way to start a larger definition of oral tradition. I wrote the following in October 2011. I don’t know if I’ve shared it until now:

I get frustrated because I’m devoted to oral tradition, grew up in it, but can’t explain it—it is so foreign to our society. The Fairy Witch classes I teach and the Shamanic counseling I give are oral tradition. But I can’t get across what I do in them because it can’t be explained. It has to be experienced.

When I do talk about what happens in my classes and counseling, it sounds like promotional hype. The classes and counseling sessions are filled with amazing gifts from the Fairy King and Queen and my ancestors. So I try to explain these gifts. They can only be expressed with the passion I feel about them. No dry logic would do. I feel impelled to share these gifts because I love them and want folks to have access to their immense power. But the passion and inexplicable nature of oral tradition make my words sound like promotional hype.

But, wow, despite all that, I am jazzed! Today, I wrote some poetry and prose poetry combined that gets it across a little:

Oral Tradition

Spaces between the spoken word. Tiny gemlike emptiness that can’t be caught on paper. Places and feelings that aren’t captured by memory (unless your cells are teachable. Even then, remembrance fails, your cells need to relearn the lessons). Moments that can’t be duplicated, conveyed a second time, even by the finest performer.

People being—operative word being—together.

We gobble being up
like it is an ice cream sundae;
we each get a spoon—the moment is shared,
we have chocolate running down our chins,
we grin at each other,
even if we are joined together on the phone
instead of in person.
On the phone, we are in person
when we work in oral tradition.

The above gives a glimmer of oral tradition, but conveying a little bit of it is something. If I could describe it fully on paper, it would not be oral tradition.

How to Learn Oral Tradition

If you want to learn the oral tradition of a particular culture, here are three guidelines:

1) Sit with someone who grew up in that culture and loves it.

2) Pay attention to more than their words.

3) Choose someone who is loving to sit beside.

Let’s look more thoroughly at those guidelines:

To learn the oral tradition of a particular culture, sit with someone who grew up in that culture and who loves it. You can be with them in person, by phone, or on Zoom.

You can be with them in a class they are teaching about the culture in question. You can be with them in a class they are giving about something else. You can be with them by driving them to the grocery store.

If all a person does is lecture abstractly about their culture, you’re only learning ideas. Ideas alone do not make not oral tradition.

Not everyone loves the culture in which they were raised. Here’s a story that shows why that matters.

I grew up in a Shamanic culture. It was the culture of my family. My mother came from a centuries-old family tradition of Fairy Witchcraft. And my siblings will swear that my mother was not a Witch.

Their reaction is not exclusive to my family. I disclosed to an Indigenous American Shaman that my mom had trained me to be a Shaman. I refrained from telling him that my siblings did not recognize my mother’s Witchcraft. But he responded that his mom had trained him to be a Shaman, and that his brother insisted their mother had not been a Shaman. I was grateful for his disclosure because it echoed my similarly odd history. I felt less alone in hereditary Shamanism.

Like many aspects of oral tradition, the blindness of siblings to magic that another child in the family sees is puzzling. Here’s the theory I developed. If you do not have love for a culture, you don’t see it. Think of how colonizers look at Indigenous People as uneducated savages, clearly demonstrating that the colonizers are the uneducated savages. That is an extreme example to make the issue clearer. But the problem doesn’t have to be that extreme. I am not suggesting that anyone who doesn’t see magic is savage and uneducated.

My siblings were not tuned to magic, so they never saw it, let alone as a cultural part of our hearth.

Well, I know they saw it sometimes because occasionally they admit Mom’s incredible psychic abilities and Witch spirituality … and then deny them moments later. So in the long run, they don’t admit Mom was a Shaman.

Now to expand on my second guideline for learning in oral tradition:

Pay attention to more than words. Pay attention to gestures, silences, emotions in the air, and how you respond to them.

Oral tradition is not only the spoken word. It is also everything else in the moment.

You will notice how the second guideline weaves with the third:

Choose someone who is loving to sit beside.. Then the gestures, silences, and everything else in the moment will be filled with love, kindness, and compassion.

If someone’s words are mostly ego-ridden, constantly emphasizing that their ideas are important and the only right ones, walk away fast. Find someone else.

Oral tradition is about people being together. So if someone is filled with arrogance, it fills the moment, the air, and you with toxic energy. You are receiving a dysfunctional version of oral tradition. This is one of many reasons I advise you to pay attention to how you respond to gestures, silences, and emotions in the air. When you examine your reactions to someone’s company, you can sense whether they are good company.

Arrogance and pride are not the only toxins that can fill the moment. Just as a loving person adds love, kindness, and compassion to the moment, so a person who harbors hatred brings hate, cruelty, and judgmental condemnation.

Some individuals skillfully mask their judgmental nature and other flaws as the high moral ground. Some individuals mask abusive expressions of anger as righteousness. Anger is healthy. Expressing it abusively is not.

I learned all this the hard way. After Mom died, continuing to train as a Fairy Shaman in oral tradition was almost impossible because I could not find anyone else who taught through an oral Fairy tradition. I finally found one person. There was a lot wrong with him. I studied with him anyway. I justified my decision by thinking that I could handle it. After all, I was already a powerful savvy Witch. I paid dearly. Don’t settle. Study on your own and pray for the right teacher. The teacher will come.

We are all flawed. No teacher is going to be a perfect human. But find a loving one. Note your experiences of the moments when you are with a teacher. That will help you choose someone who is loving. Don’t settle for less.

For full disclosure, I need to admit that, as a young priestess teaching Shamanism, my own arrogance got in the way. Luckily, it did not take long for me to see how hurtful I was. I changed my ways.

A Story about Learning Oral Tradition

The following story illustrates some points I’ve made about learning through oral tradition:

My mother taught me Witch spirituality from the day I was born. But she never mentioned the word Witch until she was on her deathbed. A lot of what she taught was by example. I do not mean I only watched her do ritual. Her mundane actions demonstrated Witch spirituality by embodying it. She taught me Witch spirituality mostly by the way she walked through the world on a daily basis. Here are examples: her business savvy, her excellence in the kitchen, her fierce protectiveness of me, and her loud uninhibited laughter.

Here is another way Mom taught me: I was surrounded by her essence every day. That’s the nature of living with someone. So, even were she not practicing magic, her Fairy energy surrounded me, sinking into me. Therefore, the patterns, rhythms, beauty, and power of her magic became mine.

I want to phrase that a bit better: “Even were she not practicing magic overtly, …” Adding that word is important. For one thing, a lot of oral tradition magic is woven so seamlessly into everyday activities that it escapes notice. For another, everything is magic. Every person on the planet is always doing magic, whether they know it or not. In either case, her magic surrounded me.

Oral Tradition and Magic

Ritual is one of the most important parts of oral tradition. It is also a pivotal way that oral tradition can transmit power.


Oddly enough, most published definitions of oral tradition do not include ritual, let alone include it as one of the main ways to orally transmit ideas, culture, etc.

I think the rituals of oral tradition are often left out of publications for two reasons.

1) Ritual can be subtle, especially in oral tradition. Someone might be praying silently while pouring you a cup of tea. Many anthropologists and other outside observers overlook anything that is not right in their faces.

2) Academics hogged the mainstream dialogue that defined oral tradition. Search “oral tradition” online, and you’ll mostly see academic definitions. If this dialogue included more indigenous groups, working-class people, and other less privileged individuals, a different dialogue and definition would emerge.

Let me expand on the two reasons.

Academia tends to reinforce systemic oppression. Ignoring a non-colonizer culture’s subtleties helps minimize that culture’s nuanced sophistication and its importance. This reinforces arguments that justify eradicating the culture.

Leaving out ritual and its importance in oral tradition minimizes the power that ritual gives its participants. So fewer people turn to oral tradition, not knowing the immense power that it can give them. In other words, academics will say that oral tradition conveys cultural sensibilities. That’s wonderful. But more people would turn to oral tradition if they understood that oral tradition rituals help cultural sensibilities come alive in one’s heart and cells, instead of being ideas alone. Ideas are powerful but the ability to embody them is more powerful. The wisdom of ancestors and other resources that are in our DNA and resist oppression can come forward during oral tradition rituals. Rituals instill other powers too.

People who reinforce systemic oppression do not want less fortunate individuals to find sources of power.

No one has expertise in all oral traditions. This essay emphasizes oral tradition and Shamanism. It is a weaving in which I am expert. Also, I am committed to sharing oral tradition in the context of Shamanism in my classes and counseling. I thought this essay might help explain my work. (… Or should I say “committed to sharing Shamanism in the context of oral tradition”?)

As I said, oral tradition cannot be defined or explained. It can only be experienced. In that vein, I won’t try to fully explain the relationship between oral tradition and magic. The relationship is only understood through experiential lessons.

But if I move away from trying to define the undefinable and give illustrations instead, they might be helpful:

Learning Magic from My Mother Experientially

From birth, Mom helped me strengthen and refine my natural-born magical gifts. Here is one way she did this:

From my earliest memory, Mom wrapped the ancient Faery Faith around me, not as an abstract idea but as a living magic.

This magic was in my Fey-touched mother’s maternal love. All powers are in a mother’s love, including love and magic from the Fairy King and Queen. These ancient Gods helped Mom be loving. Her love is a role model for my behavior in my classes: The words I choose, how I say them, and whatever else I do during and between my words.

Here are more illustrations:

Teaching Magic Experientially

I teach Shamanism as an oral tradition. During class, I am not talking at you. We are in ritual together, in Fairy realms. It is psychically kinesthetic. We walk between the stars and become star-drenched.

The lessons are experiential learning. Mind you, my students learn not only from doing magic and experiencing oral tradition, but also from my linear, logical explanations of magical techniques and other parts of Fairy Shamanism. But even if an explanation on the surface is a lecture, we are in ritual. The explanations are ritual. And as ritual, they too are experiential learning.

I was born a good luck charm and an amulet for peace, prosperity, and more. Good luck, peace, prosperity, and other blessings fill the air around you during a class meeting. Like I said, the energy of the participants fill the space. If you’d like to learn more about my talismanic ability, click here.

Just as my mother taught me Witch spirituality by embodying it, I try to walk my talk in interactions with my students.

Where to Go from Here for Oral Tradition Shamanism

You can learn oral tradition Shamanism, live in oral tradition Shamanism, live in magic, be magic, draw on magic. Here’s how:

Experiential learning: Attend one of my free rituals to experience the mysteries of oral tradition magic. Subscribe to my newsletter for announcements of upcoming rituals. Click here to subscribe.

As I said, you can’t explain oral tradition in print. I wrote this essay in hopes it would affirm your wild longing for something beyond the printed page, beyond dry definitions of oral tradition, beyond equally desiccated definitions of magic, and past the supposedly informed opinions of oppressors. Those opinions are lies. They not only conceal magic and mysticism, but also help suppress and destroy the culture and power of many groups.

Your wild longings are beautiful, holy, and rich with dignity. Your passion for life is blessed by ancient Gods. So mote it be!

Traditional Shamanic Culture and Business

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Rosmrta

Did you know ancient Celts had a goddess of marketing? Or that their shamans charged for many of their services, as did ancient Native American shamans? Did you know ancient Mesoamerican merchants traveled to find sacred goods?

Shamanic culture once brought the sacred into commerce, in a way we desperately need today for two reasons:

1) It will allow us fulfilling, loving, profitable work.

2) It can help stop the immense, worldwide suffering caused by callous business practices.

The division of sacred and profane in the marketplace strikes at the core of human rights, Faerie witchery, and happiness.

As a witch, I’m part of a long heritage of magic used as a tool to free people from oppression. As long as the marketplace is driven by profit to the point of callousness, instead of by an ethical focus on being of service, results will remain tragic.

So I developed innovative theories and methodologies that provide a missing piece of witchery—a shamanic approach to the marketplace. I teach it in my new book:

A Sacred Marketplace:
Sell without Selling Out or Burning Out.
Mysticism + Marketing = Sales.

ClickHereSmall

The book is two pronged in its benefits:

1) Many ethical, loving people have special gifts they want to bring into the marketplace but are stymied because they can’t figure out how to maneuver the insanity of our current business world.

These folks include artists, psychics, coaches, and others in alternative fields. Also included are people whose heartfelt dreams are less obviously special—e.g., you can make cosmetics in a loving way.

A Sacred Marketplace shows good people ethical ways to thrive in business. The book teaches

* easy, powerful, ethical marketing

* my personal philosophy of life, which is shamanic and spells out why it is moral to earn a living doing what we love and how doing so is vital to the well being of all Gaia’s children

* shamanic exercises to help you actually live that philosophy and develop personal traits for career success

2) The other benefit: if these good folks were in business, their sheer presence would help shift our business world into one where people matter more than profit. These loving practitioners would not have to do anything other than be present in the marketplace.

More talented good-hearted people in the world of commerce will—without these individuals even trying to do so—automatically transform the dominant business paradigm for society as a whole, from corporate, uncaring greed to loving concern for the individual.

I’m delighted I was able to create this book’s material. I am proud of my work in a way this society tries to squelch. Be proud of yours. Enter the marketplace with your special gifts and be prosperous. In the process, you’ll make a better life for everyone.

I care about you, so I beg you: do not wait. Great endeavors start when someone says, “I’ll do what I can.” If all you can manage is reading two minutes once a week, and you have no time to analyze what you read or to apply it, that’s a legitimate start. The book is Third Road shamanism, which means you absorb on a gut level, just by reading. Do it. Click here for A Sacred Marketplace: http://www.outlawbunny.com/2015/10/15/a-sacred-marketplace/

Traditional Witchcraft, Spirituality, and Ethics

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FDG2016TphatCurrently, it is a prevalent opinion among Pagans that traditional witchcraft was strictly magical, lacking theology or moral aspects. While I can respect that theory, it is not congruent with my own experiences. I suspect whether traditional witchery had sacred or ethical aspects varied by locale or by family tradition.

I never argue with anybody’s experience, only their theory. Theory is ever-changing. I’d never want to invalidate anyone’s experience, including my own. I’ll share mine below.

My experiences lead to conclusions that differ from the aforementioned current popular Pagan position. I hope to add to the Pagan dialogue on the topic, and provide support for those who, like me, have an unpopular point of view.

Growing up in a family tradition, I learned magic and a mystical worldview con leche. Therefore magic and mysticism were a given, as much a part of life as the air I was breathing. In the process, a religious and ethical worldview was deeply ingrained in my cells.

Note I say “my cells,” not “my brain.” It took my entire childhood and adolescence to imbibe the tradition’s basics, because cellular lessons take time.

The understandings of the tradition were so deeply imbedded in our home life that much of the family tradition was taken for granted, not out and out spoken, but more implied and lived. This includes the theist or moral aspects.

In fact, calling it an understanding in the above paragraph is somewhat of a misnomer. It is not so much an understanding as a way of being.

In any case, a lifestyle with many of its important aspects being subtle or unspoken seems an earmark of many traditional witches I have met.

When I got older, I saw that this subtlety sometimes causes people who were viewing the family tradition from the outside to not see the tradition’s deep religious and ethical roots, only the more overt—and perhaps less core—trappings. When I participated in family traditions in Europe, I usually found deep religious and ethical roots in them.

Observers are not engaged in the family culture. They are standing outside it, watching. Only by being part of a shamanic family culture over a long period of time can one can really understand the culture. The notion that to watch something is to fully understand it is a fairly current concept of scholarship. As I said above, learning the traditional witchcraft of my family required an experiential, long term lesson.

It has become almost de rigeur to insist traditional craft never had sacred or principled aspects. This makes it important to me to write this post about my family tradition, because I feel I’m speaking up for my Gods, for my witch ancestors, and for others who feel as I do.

I do not like it when a theory ceases to be a theory and becomes a mandated belief—in other words, when someone is mouthing somebody else’s words to, consciously or not, invalidate other seekers. Unfortunately, the concept that traditional witchcraft had neither ethical nor theological base has become yet another Pagan rote declaration, usually said—or written—in an intimidating tone of I-know-better-than-you-so-whatever-you-think-is-stupid.

I can admire people who authentically believe other than I do. An informed and friendly exchange of ideas about traditional craft, spirituality, and ethics could be a lovely thing. Healthy debate is a wonderfully educational process for everyone involved. A supportive, respectful, and thoughtful exchange of ideas can do wonders.

But debate is not the same as trying to legitimize and define one’s path by invalidating someone else’s. That hurtfully invalidates a lot of newbies who already feel insecure about their belief system. This can crush a newcomer’s spirit.

Coming to our community, hoping to finally find fellowship, but instead encountering someone just as invalidating as mainstream society, can be doubly heartbreaking, because they thought they had finally entered a safe space. So they often never participate in our community again, and end up without support in their Pagan explorations.

People who need to squash others in order to validate their own power have less power than they think, and more mere bluster than they realize.

Thus, I felt impelled to write this post to support invalidated Pagans.

A last thought on traditional witches and ethics: perhaps in some cases, a lack of morality had less to do with any tradition and more to do with human nature. Some people just take anything, even that which is moral and sacred to begin with, strip it of those roots, and use it for their own selfish—or even evil—goals.

I hope this post is a useful contribution to Pagan dialogue about traditional craft.

If you want experiential lessons in traditional craft, I teach The Third Road, a tradition I channel, informed by the magic of my ancestors and my mom. (Channeling teachings is part of traditional craft.) I teach mostly via group phone calls—aka teleseminars. Here’s the link to subscribe to my newsletter, which tells you about upcoming classes: https://outlawbunny.com/newsletter/

Bless you.

DNA and Ancestral Ritual

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DNA Science and magic meet. I won’t choose between mysticism and science. They can feed each other.

My ancestors are spiritually important to me. So I’m combining science and spirit in a deeply personal way: I ordered an AncestryDNA test kit.

A mystic, I travel through the blood in my veins, back through time, to discover the ancient ways my family once practiced. Today, the logical rational side of me does the same by spitting into a vial. This test tube becomes a chalice that arrived by mail, enclosed in plastic. Two supposedly disparate halves of me come together to feed my spirit.

I mailed my saliva, part of my sacred body, to scientists, who will analyze it to reveal my ethnic background. They’ll go back through many generations, the same way my meditations have. Their work will expand my otherworldly travels.

The lab analysis will determine where my ancestors hail from, based on a science my layperson’s mind can’t understand, no matter how much experts explain it.

Many scientists would be equally puzzled by my ability to uncover historical information by meditating on my blood. I have my expertise, they have theirs. I get to draw on both.

A relationship with my ancestors, in ritual and daily life, is pivotal to me. They lovingly support me. And I tend them. Trance journeys give me a strong intuitive sense of my ancestors. The DNA results can help me know whether my intuitions are correct.

It would be fine to trust my intuition without the DNA results. (Check out my blog about that: Mysticism and Non-Academic Scholarship.) But corroboration is useful.

Science can support my spirituality in other ways, too.

For one, I come from a European shamanic family tradition. Some of my family history has been lost. I’m hoping DNA will fill in gaps.

For example, I might see how major societal events impacted my family’s past generations to shape the family’s spirituality. That familial story could provide context to better understand my own path.

Luck allowed me to gather a staggering amount of anecdotal evidence about my ancestors. Information from relatives, and from strangers I don’t know but who have my last name, and from other sources, provided enormously convincing material, when looked at as a whole. I believe anecdotal evidence is part of folk culture and one source of the old wise ways. This fecund anecdotal evidence can be augmented with DNA science.

For example, the DNA test might help me gather more anecdotal evidence, if it leads to relatives I hadn’t learned about previously. They might know family history I don’t.

DNA results could also be a jumping off point for more ancestral rituals. I love the wisdom of ancient cultures, and appreciate reenactment whether based in textbooks’ history or intuited history. I revere native and ancestral spiritual practices. These leanings feed my desire for DNA info about my ancestral roots.

I can best explain another reason for wanting a test by telling you a personal story.

A friend of mine was part of a DNA study. Before continuing the story, let me be clear: I’m not part of any study. My test kit is from AncestryDNA. They’re not experimenting on me, and their tests results do not show an ancestral timeline such as you’ll read about in my friend’s tale. I checked out some companies, and AncestryDNA seems to give the most comprehensive results. If you’re interested, their kit is also easy to use.

Back to my story:

My friend phoned me one day, and exclaimed rapturously, “I got the DNA results. My family originated in Egypt!”

Then she added, “My later ancestors migrated to Greece. Guess where else my ancestors migrated to?”

I responded, “Mongolia?”

There was a long pause. Then she said, in a stunned voice, “That’s right! How did you know?”

“It was obvious. Your immense love for Egyptian religions motivated you to become an Egyptian scholar, devoted to reviving ancient Egyptian spiritual practices, which became part of your personal devotions. Later, you seriously worked with Greek Gods. Then, you channeled material that had no geographical basis, as far you knew, but later found out that the material resonated with documented Mongolian traditions.”

I continued, “Your family only told you about your Caucasian Irish lineage. But your earlier ancestors influenced your mystical life. Your spiritual quest this lifetime follows the migration of your ancestors, step by step!”

The point of my story: I want to know if my DNA matches my various spiritual leanings.

There can be valid reasons we’re drawn spiritually to cultures we were not raised in. Our DNA might be one of those reasons. I don’t hold with the idea that you should only use the spiritual tools of your obvious ancestors.

Mind you, I am not okaying co-option. I’m saying legitimate cross cultural shamanism exists.

That legitimacy is hard to come by. It would take a whole book to explain how to pull it off ethically and otherwise, so I won’t get into it here, except to say:

By “cross-cultural shamanism,” I don’t mean “core shamanism,” AKA the idea that shamanism is primarily the same in all cultures. I disagree with the modern standardization of shamanism.

My experience is that shamans individualize according to cultural differences, and way past that, individualizing family by family and person by person.

My personal definition of legitimate cross-cultural shamanism is an ethical, thoughtful blend of earth based mysticism as it manifests in various cultures.

Moving on:

I am a little worried. With adventure, comes fear of the unknown: am I going to like the DNA test results?

But mostly I’m excited about the DNA adventure I am embarking on.

And I feel gratitude for science and magic.

When the DNA results arrive, I’ll post them here, and share how it impacts my mystical journey.
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Note: I first posted this blog May 2015 at http://witchesandpagans.com/sagewoman-blogs/a-faerie-haven.html and post it again here for those of you who tend to read me here.
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NewsPrpl

Sacred Doubt

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May I not let doubts drive me into fear-based decisions.

DoubtRecently, I was feeling shaky about my decisions in a couple of life’s arenas: I had doubts about how I approach relationship with my Gods. I was also doubting one of my financial decisions.

The doubts popped up during ritual. At first, I thought these distractions during rituals lessened the rites’ power. But I’m realizing that doubt is part of the spiritual process. Sometimes, it’s good to doubt. Sometimes, doubt adds to a ritual. (Yes, doubt during a rite can lessen its power. But I’m talking about something different here.)

I started thinking about the benefits of doubt. Doubt can lead us to change our minds for the better.

Doubt can also lead us through a process that, in the end, helps affirm our decisions and cleave to them better than ever.

Moving all the way across the country sometime soon, to return to California, is a huge decision and risk. For example, I’m giving up ownership of a three-bedroom rural home on 7/10 of an acre, with a $700 monthly mortgage payment (!) to rent at a much higher monthly cost. Eek! So I wrote a prayer about doubt. The prayer could also be used as an affirmation. I share it here in case you find it relevant to your own personal life.

If you use this prayer/affirmation, please tell me how it goes. I’d love to hear your experience, because it will be unique to you.

Sacred Doubt

May I accept my doubts.
May I recognize doubts as part of life.
May I understand doubts as sometimes part of a self empowerment process.

May I not run from doubts in myself.
May I not run from doubts in other people.

May I not let my doubts drive me into fear-based decisions.
May I not let other people’s doubts drive me into fear-based decisions.

Instead, may I remember that my doubts are a part of me
that might be need healing or empowerment.
May I give that part of myself love.
May I give that part of myself respect.
May self love and respect heal my doubts, if they need healing.*

May I allow my doubts to bless me,
with power or other gifts.

Though there are times it’s good to validate,
invalidate, or analyze my doubts,
may I take time for simple gentle awareness of them.

May this simple, relaxed observance
allow my cells’ innate wisdom
to guide my whole being, both body and spirit.

Note 1: I added the phrase “if they need healing,” because sometimes a doubt does not need healing. For example, a doubt can be a partial recognition of a truth we haven’t grasped yet. When we honor doubt, instead of trying to “heal” it, we allow space in our consciousness for the partially hidden truth to fully emerge.

Note 2: Here are instructions for the above-mentioned simple gentle awareness. Instead of watching your doubts with a sharp effortful focus that is a tiring strain, rest your attention on your doubts gently, the way your head rests on the pillow at night.

Use the comment field below to tell me your own thoughts about doubts. We all have different experiences. Perhaps yours are so different from mine that they will enlighten me. Or perhaps yours are fairly similar to mine, which would be helpful affirmation for me.

Blessed be, Francesca

FRS_Bar_6

On your life journey, you deserve the best tools. Click here to learn about the Faerie Ritual Set: http://www.outlawbunny.com/2014/06/11/frs/

Snow Faerie Snowflakes

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Updated 2021.

This post was written in the mythopoetic realm that I’m always building, that I might continue to inhabit it happily. It’s a lighthearted post overall, in hopes it helps keep our spirits bright during wintry days. Included are some more serious thoughts—which I believe also can keep life bright. Let me know what you think.

Isn’t it amazing how someone can spot a wonderful part of you that you’ve overlooked? William Dreamdancer, an online friend who is an astute fellow, noticed that I’m a snow faerie.

Here I am, one of Santa’s Yule elves, but I never noticed I was a snow faerie. How could I have missed that? . . . I mean, you don’t have to be a snow faerie to be a Yule elf. Santa gives different jobs to different elves. But still …

Informed of William’s insight, Santa made me one of his official Snow Fairies this year. That is the job title for elves who tend the snow. (If you wonder why I’ve spelled it Faeries earlier in the post, and now I’m spelling it Fairies, check out this post:
https://stardrenched.com/2020/09/08/fairy-faerie-faery-fey-fay/)

My job as a Snow Fairy is creating snowflakes. I’ve gotten to make a lot of them. Making them makes me very happy.

Some Snow Fairies fashion snowflakes, and other Snow Fairies tend the snow in different ways, e.g., ensuring snowflakes don’t melt before they have a chance to fall from the sky. (I love making up the facts of my mythopoetic realm. And once I make them up, they’re true.)

On the mundane plane: I did a series of paintings that involved my drawing approximately one-hundred unique snowflakes. This post has three of those paintings.

A single snowfall uses up a lot of snowflakes. However, as I said, I’m not the only one of Santa’s elves who creates snowflakes.

In fact, every time you create paper cuttings of snowflakes to adorn a Yule tree, tape to a window, or otherwise decorate your home, you’re automatically one of the Yule elves helping make snow. Ditto your children when they start cutting the paper.

During a snowfall, I love watching Wind Fairies blow my snowflakes hither and thither.

Wind Fairies also make snowflakes drift lazily down. When they fall on you, look carefully and remember that Snow Fairies make each snowflake unique, especially for you.

Drawing snowflakes is a meditation that centers me into sanity and sacredness, which keeps me from going down the rabbit hole of dysfunction aka America’s holiday craziness. One of many perks of working for Santa is getting to do jobs that maintain joy, not only mine but that of others.

Popular culture, which as a whole considers magic nonsense, embraces it this time of year.

For one thing, during winter, many people who would humbug magic the rest of the year become open to miracle transforming their lives.

Also, the population as a whole becomes more open to extravagant decor. They forsake bourgeois restraint and the bland decor that results, replacing it with sparkling lights, bright red clothing, and gaudy displays. Typical holiday decor, with its exuberant fun, fills the air with magic. (Christmas decor is Pagan at heart and often has Pagan roots historically.)

Plus every year, folks everywhere are excited about a jolly elf who flies through the air, mysteriously managing to give gifts all over the world in a single night. If he isn’t wondrous and magical, nothing is, and I love seeing people suspend their disbelief (even if it’s only long enough to watch a Santa Claus movie).

Popular culture’s indulgence in magic this time of year is such happy, satisfying fun for me.

Want rituals that foster happiness and sheer joy in you?

Please join me in my free upcoming winter rituals.

There will be two rites. Attend one or both. One ceremony will meet in person in the San Francisco Bay Area. The other will meet worldwide via teleseminar aka group phone call.

We’ll drink in the season’s wonders, enchantments, and joys that they may lift our spirits and transform our lives. This will include an imaginary visit with Santa, to foster our happiness, joyfulness, and transformation even further.

Full details will be in my newsletter. Click the banner below to subscribe.

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