Category Archives: Magic

Pwyll’s Descent – Welsh Mythology and some Faeosophy

19 Thursday May 2016

Posted by in Enchanted, Faery, Magic, Philosophy, Stories, Storytelling

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My work has risen from my experiences with spirits and magic, my theories have come from exploring the stories and putting the tales and my experiences together… So something I’m working on is weaving the theory back into context of the stories for the talks and workshops I have coming up this summer and I thought my lovely readers here would enjoy a taster!

On 5th June I’ll be co-teaching a workshop on working with the spirits of the land and this little video introduces the first part of the story and some of the ideas behind this work.

Pwyll is the “Prince of Dyfed” and, whilst out hunting, he finds himself on a strange adventure to the Welsh Otherworld, Annwn. Later he will meet Rhiannon, but first he had to prove himself worthy of honour from Annwn and its denizens… 

 

This story is from the first branch of The Mabinogian, a cycle of stories written down in 12th-13th Centuries and compiled together (and translated into English) by Lady Charlotte Guest. Because of the time they were written they are couched in terms of medieval society and social structures, but the magic shines through, carrying with it evidence of the oral culture and understanding of the world in which these tales were born. Tracing the patterns of the myths and stories can teach us a lot about the relationship we humans have had with the land and its spirits, and what we had learnt (and have recently mostly forgotten) about how to navigate those relationships for the benefit of both worlds.

I believe this is so important I wrote a book on how to get in touch with your own connection to the otherworlds, and you can see more about that here, and I’m constantly exploring new ways to share that understanding and the skills that worked for me with others. Bringing it back to where I began, rooted in the stories, where we learn best, feels like and important thing to do now.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Workshop in Wales! Spirits of the Land!

17 Wednesday Feb 2016

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Spirits of The Land Workshop! Sunday 5th June, 10am -7pm

Spirits of Place Workshop by HaloquinJoin us in the wild hills of West Wales for a day of magic!

Working with the spirits of the land and the stories of Pwyll, Arawn and Rhiannon we will delve deeply into working with the Spirits of the Land and developing our own practices for building and deepening our relationship with those spirits and powers.

This one-day event is in the tradition of Reclaiming Witchcraft in which we often honour the “Spirits of Place” or the “Spirits of the Land”, so in this workshop we will explore what this means and ways in which we can recognise and honour those spirits who graciously allow us to work our magic in their homes, and who support us as we do.

***

Little Foal

Rhiannon, who once ruled over Dyfed, returns to help us learn to honour the spirits of the land…

In the first branch of The Mabinogian, Pwyll meets the Lord of the Otherworld, travels there, learns its ways and returns with a deep connection and friendship which benefits both worlds. Then, one of their ladies, the Goddess and Faery Queen Rhiannon, comes to live in our world and offer her wisdom and compassion to the people of her land. Through engaging with these stories and working directly with the spirits of the land in which those tales were born we will develop our skills for recognising and honouring the spirits in (almost) any place we find ourselves, building a foundation for future work with the spirits of the land and the faeries.

Who is this for?

This will be a practical, intensive day of magic. Some experience is helpful, but an open mind and willingness to participate is essential. If you would love to honour the spirits of the land and the Fae, deepen your relationship with them, and gain skills for continuing your own journey with them, this is for you. If you love the Welsh tales and gods, this is for you. If you enjoy hands-on, magical experiences, this is for you.

This is not a lecture. This is not therapy. This is not spellwork. This IS experiential work focussed on supporting you in developing your relationship with the spirits who have been here long before we have, in the way they present themselves to us now.

Visit my website for more details!

Questions? Want an online version of this? Fancy inviting us to put this on in your home town? Comment below or email Halo!

Book Release Date! Your Faery Magic

17 Saturday Oct 2015

Posted by in Enchanted, Faery, Following Delight, Magic, Philosophy

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It’s official! Your Faery Magic is on its way!!!*

Release date: 11th December 2015

Ready for pre-order with Amazon now!

This is a book for beginners on the Faery path, it is for those of us who loved the tales of flower fairies but felt more at home with the goblins and dryads, carving our own wands and brewing up our own potions. This is a book for finding your way towards a faery path of your very own. It is the book I wish I had found when I began in paganism, and I hope it will help guide many feet towards uncovering their own relationship to the spirits of nature.

It has been described as gentle and mature, non-prescriptive and fascinating.

This is the official blurb:

“Have you ever felt that you were ‘different’? That the Otherworld was closer for you than it is for other folk? Have you ever wondered how you can tap into the wild, untamed magic of your own faery heart? Then this book is for you. Once upon a time ‘Fey’ meant both the spirits of the natural world and the nature of those humans that were in touch with that magic in themselves; the seers, the spirit workers, the ones who walked between. This is your guide to finding that Fey magic which sings in your heart. Through this book you will meet your guide, visit faeryland, learn about the beings of the faery worlds and develop your own faery craft to work in harmony with the power and cycles of the earth by unlocking the nature of your Fey spirit. Time for you to become the Fey you truly are.”

I’m SOOOOO excited!!!

*happydance*

*I’ve been offline since moving house… and the release date, book cover and advance copies all arrived whilst we were offline! So technically this news is a little late, sorry!

Healing Hearts Oracle!

19 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by in Art Craft and Beauty, Creative Process, Following Delight, Magic

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I’ve just launched a fundraiser for my latest project! Please help if you can by contributing (and getting shinies!) and spreading the word! 

The short version:

Healing Hearts is a 50 card deck of deities including male, female and third/other gendered deities to heal the divine in all of us. (And to fundraise for kickstarting my Undercover Enchantress in Academia career!)

 

Click here for the campaign!

The longer story:

The Enchantress shares three moments:

Paint dripped down the page as I stepped back, to see a face of the divine peering back at me. It spoke.

Cards fell from fingers, faces of the feminine divine laid out before us as we heard their words spoken with reverence. I wondered where the masculine was.

The Green Goddess, the Horned God and the Sacred Earth spoke to us from their seats through our Priest and Priestesses. They called us to honour our hearts and the hearts of those around us.

Image and word in cards combine. The divine ones speak to us. In many forms they gift us with their guidance. Their stories light our way, bring healing to our hearts. Their many, many forms and faces reach out to us and stand before us as role models for our lives, as guides to the Sacred in our own Hearts, showing us where their powers reside in us and in the world.

And so a work of art in honour, in service to the gods and in service to the divine heart of each of us, is begun.

An Oracle deck – a work of art that is handled, spoken to, listened to – and a book of their stories and rituals together to bring the gods in their many forms, male, female, androgyne, into our lives. They come to show us that we too are sacred and that all the people of the world, regardless of sex or gender or race, are divine too.

Healing Hearts is an Oracle Deck which includes male, female and third-gendered deities from cultures all over the world, to allow us to meet the divine in its many faces and heal our relationship to the divine masculine, feminine and androgyne in our lives, within and without.

It is also a detailed book detailing the stories and history of each deity within the deck with rituals and devotionals to help you listen to their words directly, useful when paired with the deck but equally helpful on its own for those that prefer books to decks. In order to make this really awesome I’ve asked my friend Pawl to help with the research!

And finally it is part of A World Enchanted, the home of myself (Halo), and thus is supporting my pursuit of a PhD in philosophy of art and enchantment in order to bring the importance of magic into an academic, philosophical framework. Enchantment requires living as part of the natural world, not above it, and by welcoming the many forms of the divine into the world through art I am helping to open the possibility for more individuals to recognise their place within the circle.

Click here for the campaign!

Temple of Tales

16 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by in Enchanted, Magic, Queenship, Storytelling

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I’ve been working on a new eCourse! A set of video-rituals working with the story of Persephone to help you claim your sovereignty…

This will be the first in a series of magical journeys through myth and fairytale which will each take the participants into the space of magic which lives within stories, the place of the gods, so that you can create the life you wish for.

Explore the Temple of Tales!

Explore the Temple of Tales!

What happens when magic and stories meet?

Have you ever heard the voice of a goddess, whispering in your ear to walk with her for a time? To share her story? To guide others through magic into their own tale?

We call this Persephone’s story, but really… is it Kore’s? Is it the tale of who the Goddess becomes, or who she was once, and always will be?

Kore was the daughter of the grain mother. A flower child she played. She was stolen away from her home and forced to face the greatest challenge we know; death. And on entering the underworld, Kore found pomegranate seeds. Bright red jewels. She hadn’t chosen to face the Lord of Death, or enter his home – few ever do – but she did choose to eat the seed of life that comes from death.

No-one else could have found life in the land of the dead as she did. No-one but a child a life could have claimed that crown. She became Persephone, Queen of the Dead, but she is always Kore, daughter of the grain, daughter of the seeds, just a little more grown up.

 

We live this in our lives. We make choices, face challenges, grow up. But we are still who we have always been, deep down. We still carry the seed we started from. Our genetics, our roots, our childhood dreams shape us and the roles we choose. Even if we choose in opposition to these beginnings…

The question is whether we choose roles for ourselves that allow us to grow, to flourish, to rule over our own lives. How often have we chosen the path of Sovereignity? The path of Queen (or King)?

What do you choose now?

Originally posted on A World Enchanted.

Map Making Step 7 – Daily Practice

26 Wednesday Dec 2012

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Making Space and Time – Prioritising Enchantment

Since making my commitment I have lit a candle every day to honour the Queen of Faery and my chosen path. I have prayed for guidance on my path as an enchantress and made my first deliberate thought the intention to bring beauty, healing and delight to those around me.

Every time I do, I feel better. I feel the kiss of magic.

This is my second lesson;

Make space and time for enchantment.

After opening the day with a prayer to enchantment, over the following hours I find myself wondering what the most enchanting way of behaving in a situation is, how I can best embody ‘Enchantress’ in any given situation.

Often this happens after I’ve noticed myself being less than enchanting! Or when I’ve made an attempt but it was ignored, misunderstood or not noticed. When I berate myself for failure I feel worse, but when I recommit to my goals and make delight a priority I feel better in myself even when I don’t succeed in delighting anyone else.

My Third lesson, then;

Aim for enchantment, forgive yourself if you do not hit the moon!

Map Making Step 5 – An Enchantress… causes change

12 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by in Enchanted, Magic, Reflections

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An Enchantress is… One who enchants;
One who brings beauty, healing and delight to those around her.

One who works magic of the Fae.
One who brings beauty to the world.
One who causes change.

This week I’m looking at what it means that an Enchantress causes change and how that relates to healing. And Circe makes an appearance!

***

Circe
Tranforms
men into beasts
What she sees
their true nature
revealed.
Circe,
Do you know
How their time
Spent four-legged
Healed them
Once returned?

One of the most notable enchantresses in mythology named as such is Circe. She lived upon an island and had the power to transform humans into the animals they appeared to be. You could understand this as her revealing their true nature. Perhaps the men who she changed into pigs couldn’t see how greedy they were being when they tried to steal her treasure. You can guarantee that they understood this after their time with four legs!

Everything is change, constant change. If a key activity of enchantment is the creation of beauty then creating more beauty will include healing as healing is change that leads to wholeness and greater understanding.

An enchantress then heals by causing change. By sharing beauty and joy, by creating glamourie and mirroring those around her and through direct methods of healing she creates space for change and helps others to change themselves.

 

Selkie-skins

19 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by in Following Delight, Magic

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I’ve always liked the Selkie mythology though I feel more of a resonance with the tales of merfolk losing their voices and walking on pins and needles for what they love… but an opportunity to go to a workshop by the sea on selkies opened just after I saw my first seal in the same area, so I took it as a sign and travelled down, in a car full of witches, to Pembrokeshire.

We visioned, we stitched new skins for ourselves, we sang and danced and made pledges to ourselves and the ocean, standing as witnesses for each other.

Ocean's Edge

we walk the line between the worlds, seeking soul-skins lost and given away. Who are we? What do we long for? What would we gift ourselves to rebuild our skins? And when would we shed them to dance in the moonlit sand…?

We talked of seals and soulskins, of selves lost, stolen, given away… We asked the question; ‘Why would a selkie dance on the beach, risking her skin, when her first love is the ocean?’

Why do any of us risk being vulnerable? Why show our hidden faces, the ones that allow others a way into our core where they can soothe or wound or delight as they please?

Because without the trust in allowing another so close, we miss the feel of moonlight on our hearts – another kind of ocean, the ocean of connection. Without connection we can only be ourselves in a box, hiding our light…

There is a need to be soft, open, vulnerable sometimes. And a need to be thick-skinned and following our hearts other times.

The selkie wears her skin to travel, to survive. She slips her skin to dance and open to delight. Her skin shows her true colours and keeps her safe so she may do what she loves. It falls away to allow her to connect and be inspired…

What is the skin you’ve lost? The dream you gave up? When are you vulnerable and when are you single-minded in your determination?

Trees, Ogham and Mirrors

15 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by in Following Delight, Herbology, Magic

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I’ve been learning about trees this past month.

Ogham Altar

The first five trees begin with Birch…

The fantastic Ms. Raven of Greenwoman Crafts periodically offers online classes in one of her specialities – Ogham. I’ve had an Ogham set for over a decade and have started teaching myself about the trees commonly considered to be signified by the sticks every few years but starting with Hawthorn has meant I’ve never gotten past the next tree. Thinking about it now, perhaps I struggled to move past the stillness of the Oak without external motivation or perhaps I find overcoming Holly’s defences tricky…

Let me explain; for some reason when I’ve approached Ogham before I’ve begun with Hawthorn, after Hawthorn comes Oak, then Holly. Apparently I should have started with Birch! This time, under Raven’s guidance, I began with Birch and have continued on… through Rowan, Alder, Willow, Ash and on past Hawthorn and Oak.

Noticing this tells me something about myself… I’ve been thinking that I’ll learn about the trees this way but, of course, the world around us mirrors our selves. In learning about the trees I’m learning about myself. I’m reminded that I don’t like to move into stillness (Oak) because I’m unsure how to handle it, though I’ve gotten better and I was able to properly engage with Oak this time because I’ve begun to cultivate stillness internally by working with the other trees first. I’m also reminded that I avoid discomfort (Holly) and that this means I’ll miss some of the benefits hidden in difficult places! But I also know that I will face it eventually.

It intrigues me how clearly that which is absent can teach us as much about ourselves as that which we encounter and that the world around us is such a direct mirror of our internal processes. The world we live in is made of our relationships to the beings around us and can therefore do nothing but reflect to us ourselves.

I am grateful to the trees for mirroring my self back to me and I look forward to continuing to learn from them!

Photo of Birch on Campus

Thank you Birch, opener of the way!

 

John Barleycorn

23 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by in Art Craft and Beauty, Creative Process, Following Delight, Magic

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While painting this evening the piece I’m working on – four canvasses for the four festivals of Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas and Samhain – revealed their story to me.

Until now three images had begun to take shape. The story behind Robert Burn’s poem began to wind through my thoughts and the final piece of the puzzle became clear.

John Barleycorn

There was three kings into the east,
Three kings both great and high,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn should die.

They took a plough and plough’d him down,
Put clods upon his head,
And they hae sworn a solemn oath
John Barleycorn was dead.

But the cheerful Spring came kindly on,
And show’rs began to fall;
John Barleycorn got up again,
And sore surpris’d them all.

The sultry suns of Summer came,
And he grew thick and strong;
His head weel arm’d wi’ pointed spears,
That no one should him wrong.

The sober Autumn enter’d mild,
When he grew wan and pale;
His bending joints and drooping head
Show’d he began to fail.

His colour sicken’d more and more,
He faded into age;
And then his enemies began
To show their deadly rage.

They’ve taen a weapon, long and sharp,
And cut him by the knee;
Then tied him fast upon a cart,
Like a rogue for forgerie.

They laid him down upon his back,
And cudgell’d him full sore;
They hung him up before the storm,
And turn’d him o’er and o’er.

They laid him out upon the floor,
To work him further woe;
And still, as signs of life appear’d,
They toss’d him to and fro.

They wasted, o’er a scorching flame,
The marrow of his bones;
But a miller us’d him worst of all,
For he crush’d him between two stones.

And they hae taen his very heart’s blood,
And drank it round and round;
And still the more and more they drank,
Their joy did more abound.

John Barleycorn was a hero bold,
Of noble enterprise;
For if you do but taste his blood,
‘Twill make your courage rise.

‘Twill make a man forget his woe;
‘Twill heighten all his joy;
‘Twill make the widow’s heart to sing,
Tho’ the tear were in her eye.

Then let us toast John Barleycorn,
Each man a glass in hand;
And may his great posterity
Ne’er fail in old Scotland!

~ Robert Burns

The layers built up as the story unfolded…

A sliver of three paintings show a peek of what they might become.

A peek at what is to come…