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Halo Quin

~ Author, storyteller, witch

Tag Archives: Goddess

Imbolc Inspiration

02 Thursday Feb 2023

Posted by Haloquin in Creative Process, Crimson Craft, Following Delight, Magic, Reflections, Storytelling, Witchcraft 101

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Aberystwyth, Brigid, Community, Crimson Craft, Festival, Goddess, Imbolc, inspirations, Music, Ritual, Singer-Songwriter

Happy Imbolc folks!

It’s been a month of magic here, in the darkest coldest part of the winter I’ve been lucky to be conjuring love and light and warmth. Last night was my online book launch for “Crimson Craft – Sexual Magic for the solo witch” and it was an honour to share some magic with those that came (even with the tech trouble!)

Then this evening was spent hosting the local moot’s cocreated ritual, celebrating the growing light of love and inspiration. Brigid made an appearance, we sang together, and there was light, of course.

Imbolc is the festival where we mark the emergence of new life, from lambs to snowdrops to baby songs to tiny humans to the rising hope that we’ve made it through the winter, into the world.

This month is also FAWM – February Album Writing Month – a challenge to write 14 songs in 28 days. I love that it starts on Brigid’s day, the festival of Santes Ffraid (in Welsh), saint/Goddess/midwife of creating, healing, and, importantly, inspiration.

I’ve been secretly writing songs and been mostly too shy to share for years, and now I’m ready to change that. This past year, I’ve been practicing making the songs… But haven’t felt ready to show them to many people. I finally realised that truth, which is so often the case: we rarely feel ready. There is always something else to tweak, to edit, to perfect. And so, in the supportive space of FAWM this month, I’m aiming for 7 sharable songs as the light blossoms brighter.

I asked for Brigid’s blessing on this Imbolc night to overcome the perfectionism that holds me back from sharing the joy that arises when I make music, however unpolished it is…

And as declarations have their own kind of magic, let me be clear on my intention: Over the next month I’ll be sharing a little about my musical journey, the lessons it’s teaching me on magic, and, of course, some of my music.


This month I’m hosting a free Full Moon/ Imbolc ritual online for members of the Crimson Coven Collective, on Sunday 5th February ’23, at 7pm GMT. Join the Crimson Coven here to get access!

And I’m offering a new workshop rooted in the magic of the Crimson Craft on “Courting Divine Love” on 15th February ’23. In this workshop you’ll be guided by the gods in connecting to Divine Love, uncovering both self-love and self-trust within yourself, and laying the foundation to manifest the magical life your heart desires.

Find out more here: Courting Divine Love.

A banner for Courting Divine Love, illustrated with roses and the points above. Click for the workshop page.

Book Review: Sekhmet

11 Tuesday Jan 2022

Posted by Haloquin in Magic, review

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Tags

Author, Bard, Bardic, beauty, book, Book Review, Devotional, Egyptian, Fire Magic, Goddess, gods, learning, Magic, Neopagan, New book, Pagan, pagan theology, paganism, review, Sekhmet, Solstice, Summer Solstice, sunshine, Thealogy, Theology

I’ve long known of Sekhmet, that lion-headed, powerful Goddess of healing and rage, but I have never really known much about her. Olivia Church’s book has definitely changed that.

A pile of books on top of a laptop, "Pagan Portals: Sekhmet" on top, with a small black cat statuette, and a red and gold background.
Yes, I know that’s Bast.

Heavy with the weight of history, Church’s slim book clearly arose from a deep academic understanding of the sources and research surrounding the vengeful Lady of Flame and Pestilence, but the depth of direct experience also shines through. This is not a dry, dusty, text. Although it is dense the language is graced with rich and poetic illumination, and a bright passion for both the Goddess and her culture.

I now know much more than I expected to find out about this ancient Egyptian power, and would certainly use this as a reference book, and for inspiration if I ever choose to work with this multifaceted deity.

Despite the concise nature of the Pagan Portals books, Church has succeeded in including a both breadth and depth of information, and has in no way diminished the Eye of Ra, Sekhmet herself.

The short version: beautifully written, research heavy, introduction to a multifaceted Goddess, crafted with obviously personal, passionate, devotion.

Pagan Portals – Sekhmet, by Olivia Church (Moon Books, 2022)

Quin's Books - Bookshop banner - gold writing on red background, trying to look fancy.
Find this and other magical books, including mine, at Quin’s Books. (affiliate link)

NEW BOOK RELEASED!!! – Gods and Goddesses of Wales

28 Friday Jun 2019

Posted by Haloquin in Creative Process, Following Delight, Magic, Stories, Storytelling

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Arianrhod, Art, Bard, Bardic, Barn, Blodeuwedd, book, Branwen, Ceridwen, creativity, druid, Druidry, Goddess, gods, gratitude, Gwydion, life, Manawydan, Neopagan, New book, OBOD, Publication, Published, Religion, Rhiannon, Stories, Taliesin, Wales, Welsh pagan, witchcraft, writing

It’s here!!! Midsummer 2019 has completed a piece of devotion for me…

IMG_20190627_161811_879

Pagan Portals: Gods and Goddesses of Wales is out!!!

I’m really excited to announce the manifestation of my newest book, a practical introduction of Welsh deities and their stories, through their stories. It’s designed as a primer to get started on your journey with beings such as Rhiannon, Blodeuwedd, Taliesin, Gwydion, and more. There’s even a pronounciation guide at the back (thanks Sarah!)

Here’s the official blurb:

An introduction to Welsh deities through traditional myths and practical exercises. Written by a practising witch, living in the heart of Wales and working with the deities woven into the land, this book contains the major stories and backgrounds for the Gods and Goddesses of the heartland of the Druids. Within its pages you will find information on the major deities and where their stories can be found, alongside suggestions on how to connect with them and weave relationships with them into a modern pagan practice.

You can order this through your favourite bookstore, they’ll find it under author “Halo Quin” (publisher: Moon Books) or through amazon.

Looks like I’m living the dream… a published author 😀 Thanks to everyone who supports me, who encourages, proofreads, inspires, shares, buys, reviews and generally cheers me on. Couldn’t do it without you (In fact, without you all, there’d be no point.) This last year has been a wild ride and in amongst it all the gods of this land have been woven…I’m glad to do my part in sharing their stories. What is remembered, lives.

Happy Thoughts,

Halo Quin x

Overlooking a sunny Ceredigion Bay in wild, West, Wales.

Book Cover YFM

My first “Moon Book” can be found here!

 

The Story of the Rabbit

31 Thursday May 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Art Craft and Beauty, Faery, Magic

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Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, Artwork, Faery, Feyhearted path, Goddess, Hare, Magic, musings, Painting, process, Rabbit

Painting - Spirit Rabbit Gate

A butterfly enjoys the artwork which captures the spirit of a being who travels between the worlds and brings magic and love into our lives.

When I finished writing my Faery Heart book I had a dream for the artwork on the cover – a gateway between two trees through which the magic of Faery would shine. I took up my brush and painted the first of my Faery Gates series, pouring magic into each brush-stroke as a prayer in pigment to bridge the worlds and allow enchantment to pour through for each person that gazed upon it.

My flat is now full of these gates, they flow from my brush and feel like coming home. But the second that I began… it remained formless for two years. I painted the faery-light but there was something missing. So I painted others and waited.

And then my bunny died.

She reappeared in the painting. Finally, it was complete.

Domino was a rabbit, but in the picture she also becomes a moongazing hare, carrying the magic of the ability to burrow into the dark places for healing and the sacred swiftness and stillness which is twinned in each of the long-eared Goddess-beasts across the neo-pagan world.

The hare has long been seen as a familiar, or a form, of the witch, wise-woman, magic-worker, the one who crosses the gap between the worlds beneath the full moon’s light to bring back knowledge and power into our realm. This picture is one of reflection, of becoming aware of other worlds and other possibilities deep within ourselves and within the heart of the world. It is an image of love and the peace before action. As a painting it holds all that I poured into it and all that you find within it. As a prayer, a spell, it carries the magic of the otherworlds and the blessings of the spirit-world into our lives. And it honours the hare, the rabbit, the Goddess and those that we have loved and lost who are never far away…

I am producing a limited run of 50 canvas prints, hand-made, mounted, numbered and signed by me. When they’re gone I won’t be printing any more like this!

To own a beautiful, limited edition print of a sacred piece of art, follow this link to my Etsy listing!

The Forest, The Dark Mother and Elephant snot (part 3)

17 Saturday Dec 2011

Posted by Haloquin in Following Delight, Magic, Reflections

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Tags

Devotional, Faery, Goddess, Imperfection, Living Life, Magic, musings, Religion, Skande Vale, Strangeness of Life, Unexpected

Valli the Temple Elephant

An elephant's trunk is rough like stone... and its blessing is sticky!

A three-part story of a pilgrimage to The Community of the Many Names of God – Skanda Vale, part 3. Find part 1 here and part 2 here.

It was dark, night had fallen and I thought that Valli the elephant would be asleep for the night.

J, N, P and I walked past the door to Valli’s home, and P told us the story of how she gives blessings for treats as one of the Monks darted past us with a bag of carrots… and opened the door to her home.

“Would you like a Blessing?” He asked us.

I was in awe. She was huge and beautiful and had such presence. How could we say no?

She brushed my hair with her trunk and held it out for the carrot.

“Now that wasn’t a very good blessing Valli,” said the man, “try again”.

She placed the end of her trunk on my head… and SNORTED!

Ew! Covered in Elephant snot!

Queue peals of giggles and wiping with tissues. Valli got her carrot and I had a definite blessing! No-one else got snotted, so I feel honoured, if dubiously.

As we entered the forest to return downhill the sense of the land Spirit/s returned and, again, I was filled with Bliss. I wished the lights were off so we could walk through the forest in the darkness and feel Them more strongly. N turned to ask me how I was doing and, before I could tell them my wish, the lights blinked out leaving the path lit by the Full Moon’s light! Divine!

The curry, made from the food donated to the Temple and blessed in the Puja’s by the Gods, was heavenly too. Very, very spicy. As P says; ‘Religion is delicious.’

Its a fascinating place, Skanda Vale. Multifaith but primarily Hindu in form. Is it right to go and attend the Puja’s if the god-forms are not the ones you connect with most strongly? Is it cultural tourism to go to somewhere like this and participate when we don’t worship Kali at home? Is it ok that I see Her as a form of the Dark mother, who I do worship, and that I enter the Pujas with respect while seeing Kali as part of a larger form? I’m both a hard Polytheist and a believer that all is one. The faces of the Dark mother are an interface for her AND each Dark Mother Goddess is a being in her own right. She may not claim me, but I respect Kali and participating in her Puja’s move me, touch me, effect me in ways I appreciate.

As long as we enter into these relationships with respect and honour, following the rules of the Temple and the Gods and we hold a space in our hearts for these beings, then is it wrong?

Skanda Vale is a special place, deliberately open as a multi-faith space. Believing that all gods are, ultimately, the faces of The Divine. Protecting life where they can, offering connection to those that come with right-mind. In such a place as this to enter with respect and love – Perfect Love and Perfect Trust – is right, even when the Hindu Gods may not be your primary pantheon.

 

The Forest, The Dark Mother and Elephant snot (part 2)

14 Wednesday Dec 2011

Posted by Haloquin in Following Delight, Magic, Reflections

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Tags

Devotional, Goddess, Imperfection, Living Life, Magic, musings, process, Religion, Skande Vale, Unexpected

Mother Kali

The Dark Mother is present and adored.

A three-part story of a pilgrimage to The Community of the Many Names of God – Skanda Vale, part 2. Part 1 lives here.

We were refused entry. Two of us, J and N, had not observed the obligatory vegetarianism and so knew they’d be watching from the terrace of the temple. But P and I had. As a full moon Puja it was more full than usual and so, there was no room for us!

Things will be as they will be.

The terrace is seperated from the main Temple room only by double doors and a wall with windows. A screen shows Kali throughout the Puja. The doors are open and the terrace is still part of the Temple.

I got as far as the door, the last female at the gates, and was told no.

Interesting.

As we sat and sang and rocked and prayed I let my ego roll the wound around my mind – Rejection! Rejection! it shouted. I waited until it calmed down and breathed through the disappointment. So close…

And then we came to a place where we could share in the place we were, my Ego and I.

Things will be as they will be.

Perhaps it was just as well – I had space to breathe, to move and avoid the pain of siting still for nearly 3 hours. I had space to breathe, to take in what I was able to and not be overwhelmed by the echoes of the burn-out from the pilgrimage I’d made there last. I had space to breathe, and to remember the place I find myself in many rituals – always on the edge.

At the last of Her Pujas I sat in the doorway.

Many many rituals I have ended up on the edge of the circle, holding the space, walking the boundary.

In my chosen career I walk the edges of acceptability – Philosophy does not look kindly upon Faeries.

In my religious traditions I tend to have to find my own way – neither dark nor light but both and neither.

On the edge.

I laughed and cried and sang and rocked and prayed. I smiled at the children who ran round the terrace. I searched for the words in the prayer book to try to understand. I made an offering of my pain and my singing to Her and I asked for her to destroy those blocks that no longer serve me. Those blocks that hold me back. Gladly, like the whirling scythe at harvest time, I felt her dance through me. I gave them to her. We’ll see if I try to claw them back again!

Shivering from the cold kiss of winter I entered the warm temple-room in the space allowed for the pilgrims to present themselves to Kali. I washed myself in her flame, knelt to her and accepted the blessings of sacred ash and colour and food that washed the body of the Goddess.

Time passed faster in the terrace than it had passed for me in the Temple room last time I was there.

Dealing with the disappointment and the cold and the strange experience of finding myself on the edge again was a good thing.

What will be, will be.

I really did not expect what happened when we left the Temple to join the other pilgrims in eating blessed curry…

The Forest, The Dark Mother and Elephant snot (part 1)

11 Sunday Dec 2011

Posted by Haloquin in Following Delight, Magic, Reflections

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Devotional, Faery, Forest, Goddess, gratitude, Honesty, Living Life, Magic, Religion, Skande Vale

Skanda Vale Forest

The land is alive around us...

A three-part story of a pilgrimage to The Community of the Many Names of God – Skanda Vale.

Four of us walked through the darkening forest, a reddening full moon rising over the horizon as raindrops dripped upon our brows.

The trees were full of magic, the Spirit and spirits of the land – I could feel them around us, moving swiftly, watching.

I last stood on this land after an early morning Puja to Her, several years past. I’d stayed at Skanda Vale for two days with a friend and we’d been to every Puja each day. I was burnt out. The lack of sleep, the intensity of devotion-devotion-devotion in a language I did not really understand, the immense amounts of vegetarian curry (very tasty but not my normal diet!). We’d planned to stay a further day. I left that morning and said, even then, that I’d love to go back to visit the land if only I didn’t have to go to the Pujas too.

Last night, as I walked through that forest, I remembered why I fell in love with the land there.

Somewhere so alive my skin tingled and my heart overflowed with joy.

The twilight filtered through the trees and lit the way. I felt blessed to be able to feel the life that flowed through that place, recognising that the work I’ve been doing to open my awareness is not without success. I once thought myself as psychically sensitive as a brick, unable to sense the magic in the world around me. Now I step onto devoted land and almost fall over. Take heart, the things you long for can be developed over time.

I grinned the whole walk up through that beautiful, haunting forest and wondered what the Dark Mother, in the Dark time of the year, under a Dark Full Moon would share with us at the Temple that evening.

Skanda Vale’s site is here… and parts 2 and 3 of the story will be posted soon…

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Meet Halo

Snow Pixie

Welcome to my world!

Halo Quin is an author, a storyteller, and a practicing witch with a lifelong relationship with the spirit realm (faeries, deities, and the primal powers of land, sea, and sky, specifically) who aims to share magic through experience. Halo lives in wild West Wales, right by the roiling sea, and loves to sing, dance, and otherwise enchant through performance. She also runs the local storytelling circle, and an ADHD resource centre, and ultimately encourages self-knowledge, self-acceptance, self-healing, and self-enchantment through everything she does... leading to:

Beauty ~ Magic ~ Delight

Re-enchanting the world, one story, one song, one spell, at a time.

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If you like my work, you can help with costs (and keep me fueled with tea & cake) with a tip via ko-fi, it all helps! Thank you!

If you like what I write then please do consider supporting me as a Patron here.

Thank you to my Patreon Patrons for your support!

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I'd love to hear from you! Email me at haloquin@gmail.com Or find me on Twitter!www.twitter.com/haloquin

Recent Posts

  • Imbolc Inspiration
  • OUT NOW! Crimson Craft – sexual magic for the solo witch
  • Happy 2023! (and where I was in 2022)
  • The end of a chapter
  • Book Review: Sekhmet
  • Book Review: Intuitive Magical Practice
  • Book Review: The Bird Atlas
  • An Ode to Books
  • Still a Witch
  • NEW HOME FOR TEA!

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NSFW – Twisted

And for the over 18s… My alter-ego, Ms Quin, writes erotica, kinky poetry, on sacred sexuality and the like. You can explore some of Her writings and poetry readings, and find her sexy book of poetry via links at Twisted Ms Quin.

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