Tag Archives: Iron Pentacle

Iron Pentacle – Passion

16 Wednesday Feb 2011

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Finally, on the Iron Pentacle, we come to the point of Passion…

What has happened to our world that means expressing how you feel is seen as weak?

What has happened to our world that means we settle for years of a life we are less than passionate about?

What has happened to our world that means we hide our passions from others and ourselves?

Passion is simultaneously seen as good and evil, due to its perceived chaotic nature. Crimes of passion are thought to happen when someone’s passion is out of control. Passions are thought to drive us, to ride us, to wear us out and make life unpredictable… it is safer to be boring and in control than to take a risk and follow our heart.

Passion, like each of the other points, includes more than one perspective. The point of Passion includes our passions / emotions, and what we are passionate about. Drive and direction.

Our emotions guide us through life, disclosing how we feel about choices, about situations, about people, and helping us to know what choices would feed us, which would drain us, and which we can let go of. Knowing how you really feel about any part of life allows you to make an informed choice based on how it will affect you and your happiness, as well as what you know and can rationalise about the situation.

Your feelings, those passions that live deep within your self, reflect who you are. Owning them as part of yourself, accepting them and expressing them in healthy ways makes it possible for you to be yourself with all parts of yourself on board. Denying what you feel, or constantly burying those emotions leaves you conflicted and acting in contradiction to what makes you happy, without knowing why.

And your passions, your emotions, show you what you are passionate about. Those things you would choose to do if there were no barriers, or that you long for, that inspire you and make you happy.

If you know, accept and express your emotions in healthy ways then you can follow your emotions to find that which feeds you, that which you are passionate about! Following your passion and acting on your passions lifts your mood, gives you strength and makes the world a better place. As you follow your heart you find the world shifting to make space for more of what feeds you, as you act on your passions you become more passionate!

We have a finite amount of time on this planet, in this life, doesn’t it make more sense to risk being happy than die only knowing tedium? Not to mention the health risks associated with bottling up emotion until it explodes or eats us from the inside!

What are you passionate about? What activity makes you smile all the way through from bones to sky? What do you do that you finish feeling happier than when you began?

Listen to your emotions, what are they telling you?

What is your Passion? What makes your heart sing?

Can you make some time for that this week, can you give yourself this as a gift? This thing that truly makes you feel good, that feeds and strengthens you, that you love?

Can you make time to be positively passionate today?

Iron pentacle – Power

15 Tuesday Feb 2011

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In this series of posts on the Iron Pentacle I have written about Sex, Pride and Self, and now we cross from Self into the point of Power, the right hand point. When laid on the body the path from Self to Power flows through our heart… which tells you something interesting about Power, does it not?

How often have you felt powerless?

How often have you felt that you are at the mercy of life?

Its true that the world is beyond our control, that others act in ways we do not like and cannot defend against, and we simply cannot do all that we would choose to.We are not omnipotent beings.

And how often have you had someone hold their position of power over you? A boss, a parent, a teacher, an acquaintance? Someone who has deliberately denied you the option to act, who has blocked your path simply because they can?

Power is tricky… since we all have the potential to be Powerful people. Not holding power over others, not using force against the world, but having the internal strength to make choices at each turn in lifes path according to our own Will. Willpower.

How often have you chosen to stand up for yourself? To make your own choices? To act, in whatever way is open to you at that moment, to follow your heart’s desire?

How often have you felt: ‘I can do this!’ ?

Power-from-within is something we can hold or give away. It is not something we take from others, not an imposition of our will by force or manipulation. Power comes from that state of being centered in oneself, while knowing oneself, understanding your place in the world and your own value, and knowing what you need. Power is the ability to say yes and no when it is needful for you, not because you feel you should say one or the other.

And Power is also the ability to say yes, or no, when you know you should, because you choose to at that moment.

You can choose to do what you ‘should’, or choose to do what you ‘shouldn’t’, either way Power comes in when it is a choice.

And Power, which comes from the ability to choose how you are going to react to a certain situation, grows when shared with other people.

When you allow and enable others to also choose in alignment with who they are when they are at their most healthy, even when their choices may conflict with yours, and you hold the ability to do so yourself, then power grows. This is shared Power, working together in relationship.

Sometimes, however, this does involve stepping up and acting to change the rules, working to stop actions you disagree with, defending friends and family. You can stand in your own Power and choose to act against others. This is different to holding youself as powerful and them as powerless, which is what happens in cases of ‘power-over’.

Today, right now, take a lesson from a lioness and feel powerful. Imagine it if needs be; feel the power to know and choose your own destiny, whatever the odds. Feel that power in your bones, that power that comes from the heart, that is connected and therefore acts from a place of compassion. If you understand your own value and the value of others you can be both powerful and compassionate. And I’ve seen this reflected in people throughout my life, the most powerful people I know are both effective in their life and extremely compassionate, which means they support others coming into their own power, rather than encouraging them to wallow in any messes they may have in their life.

Today, feel what it would be like to be able to stand in your own power, to make your own choices because you choose them, and to act from a place where other powerful people support you, and you support them.

This state of power, which comes from within, which works with others, is the strongest kind of power there is.

Breathe.

Center yourself.

Feel the earth beneath you, and the sky above.

Choose to be powerful, to live your life like a lioness who is whole within herself and works with others who are also powerful.

Iron Pentacle – Self

14 Monday Feb 2011

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For the past couple of days I have been sharing thoughts about the points of the Iron pentacle, a meditational tool for self transformation used within the Reclaiming Tradition.

I have spoken of the points of Sex and Pride, and now we move from the bottom, right-hand point up into the left hand point of Self.

Self. Is there even such a thing?

An ancient puzzle poses the question: if all the planks on a ship are replaced, one by one, over the years, is it still the same ship?* And, likewise, we can ask, if every part of our body and personality changes, over the years, are we still the same self when we are old as when we were born?

There is a continuity of memories, of personality, of a body that takes up space through time. This continuity, the combination of our memories, beliefs, personality, energies and body, makes up a whole self. Self shifts and changes over time, growing and transforming.

How can we say, then, that Self could be considered a foundation stone of human existence? Something damaged by our culture and in need of reclamation for many of us?

Self is not some kind of ‘essence’ in this context, I’m not talking of spirits or souls. Self, here, is who we are in the world.

Accusations of selfishness are taken seriously, so seriously that we will often go too far the other way and neglect ourselves. This idea of being self-less is spoken of as though it were the ideal, but to neglect our own needs leaves usless able to help others or to make positive change in the world.

Who you are and who you choose to be are both important.

Look at your self.

What do you do that is by choice? Which roles do you choose for yourself, and which are forced upon you? Which do you fall into, unthinking, simply because it is expected of you? And which are expected of you and you do by choice anyway?

How do you take care of yourself? How do you neglect yourself?

What is in the constellation of yourself? Can you look in the mirror and see yourself for yourself? Can you commit to giving yourself what you need, in body, mind and spirit, wherever possible?

Can you look at the roles you have taken on and see which feel like a good fit, and which you would choose to shed, and which you’d like to grow into?

Take a few moments throughout the day to just breathe and ask yourself if what you are doing right now is good for you, or harmful. And allow yourself to wonder how you would feel if you did what fit you, rather than what you think you should do.

Today is Valentine’s day. Can you give yourself the gift of love? Can you love your Self, who you are and who you choose to be?

 

*The Ship of Theseus

Iron pentacle – Pride

12 Saturday Feb 2011

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“We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?” ~ Marianne Williamson

The second point of the Iron pentacle, as we move through the body, from the top point, Sex, to the bottom right, is Pride.

Pride is a cardinal sin for the Christian foundation of our culture.

Pride comes before a fall… the meek shall inherit the earth… and so on…

We are warned against getting big-headed, or too big for our boots. We are chastened against pridefulness, for it leads, we are told, to tripping over our too-big feet.

In our world, today, pride is mistaken for arrogance.

The emphasis on false humility, on self-deprecation, on keeping ourselves small, is all so we do  not rock the boat. If we stand up tall, being as big and as bold and as beautiful as we can be, then we can rock the world! Staying small, denying our ability, denying the ways in which we are great, all this does is deny the world of the best of us.

Pride, right-sized pride, in which we acknowledge what we are and have done and are capable of as a good thing, as something to be proud of, comes alongside right-sized humility. When we recognise our own worth, we can recognise the worth of others.

We are special, we are important, we are unique. And so is everyone and everything else.

We all have our places, we all have things we can do like no-one else.

Be proud of yourself, like you would a child who had acheived something wonderful. Encouragement and self-recognition and acceptance is what will help us to be the best we can be, do the best we can do, and to change the world for the better.

Be proud of yourself, take pride in your work, be proud of the world. In doing this you are not being arrogant, instead you are recognising your worth and what you can do for the world. If you refuse to recognise and act on this then you are denying the world of what you could do for it.

Be proud of yourself, and recognise that others are equally as important to the world. If you place yourself over them, claiming to be more important than they, then this is arrogance. Knowing the ways in which you are better at specific things, and recognising that they have thier own skills and beauties, keeps us balanced. Support each other, praise each other, recognise that we all have value simply by existing.

Notice how you hold yourself in the world, how you value yourself and others. Notice if you are prone to self-deprecation, or to cutting others down. Notice when you belittle what you are proud of, or when you focus on what you feel you have done wrong in order to beat yourself up.

Notice these things and try to shift your language, in just one instance each day.

When someone compliments you, say thank you instead of downplaying it.

When someone does something well, offer praise in a positive way, instead of pointing out the ways in which it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things anyway.

When you do something well, or something hard, don’t hide it away. Put a little comment somewhere on Facebook or Twitter, or say something to a friend about how you feel you did good. Notice where you get good feedback from, and if you get a negative response, consider not sharing the things you are proud of with that person or forum again.

Recognise your own value, and the value of all the beings in the world, and don’t settle for those that try to keep you small because of their own lack of pride.

Breathe. Every day you live through is a gift, and mistakes are worth noting and learning from, but it is not worth letting them define you.

Breathe and draw yourself up to your full height. Be proud.

“Your playing small does not serve the world.”

~ Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love

Iron pentacle – Sex

10 Thursday Feb 2011

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As I posted yesterday, I will be blogging on each of the points of the Iron Pentacle. As areas which need healing for almost all individuals, these concepts can be triggery, can be upsetting, and can bring up issues and objections for people. For that reason alone I’ve put this post under a cut.

If you are worried and still want to read: I do not, in this post, talk directly about specific experiences, or outline anything that is unsafe for work, as it were. If you do not want to read, please pass on by…

Continue reading →

The Iron Pentacle

09 Wednesday Feb 2011

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I’ve been involved in the Reclaiming tradition for about 7 years now, and one of the tools which is taught as a ‘core class’ in Reclaiming is the Iron Pentacle. Paired with the Pearl Pentacle, this meditational tool came from Feri and has evolved within Reclaiming into something slightly different, and just as useful. I shan’t be talking about the history, or much about the differences, here, but I would like to share some thoughts about these pentacles over the next few weeks.

The Iron pentacle rewards repeated work. It has as its points topics which hold a great deal of power for people in our culture, and which our society has denigrated and damaged and made taboo. The words themselves have power, and were chosen for this reason; if we can reclaim them in a healthy way, we can heal the divisions within ourselves that denying parts of our birthright has caused.

The points of the Iron Pentacle are:

Sex

Pride

Self

Power

Passion

Why Iron? Well, the earth has a core of iron, and we are of the earth, made of starstuff which has settled into a planet and lives. Our blood contains iron, iron strengthens us, keeps us alive. Iron is also an irritant; it scratches and stimulates and brings things to the surface. When red hot iron energy flows through us it burns away blocks, releasing energy which we have bound up in those places, which has not been allowed to flow.

We start with Iron to cleanse and strengthen our foundations as human beings. As human we are alive and sensual, we all have something we can be proud of, we have selves which are worthy of care and love, we hold the power in ourselves to act in the world and shape our lives, and we have passions and feel. Our culture has denigrated all these things. We are alive, we are blessed to walk this earth, and we have a right to delight in being alive, in community with other embodied beings. I intend to write a series of posts exploring each of these points from the perspective of the Reclaiming tradition.

At its heart, the Iron Pentacle is about healing ourselves and becoming strong in ourselves, in order to heal our community, our culture, the world. As everything is connected, healing one part heals part of the whole, and this ripples out…

 

Further Reading:

Reclaiming’s Principles of Unity

Starhawk, Spiral Dance

T. Thorn Coyle, Evolutionary Witchcraft

 

Iron Pentacle Workshop – Announcement

28 Thursday Oct 2010

Posted by in Following Delight, Magic

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My dear friend and I are running an Iron Pentacle Workshop next February… below is the announcement we’ve sent out.

I’ve personally been working with this tool for a good few years now, and I’m still uncovering fascinating discoveries everytime I muse on it. Running this workshop, from organising to actually teaching it is going to be a real challenge for me, one that I am looking forward to with great excitement.

I’d love to hear your experiences of taking something you’ve been learning to the next level… for me, on the Iron Pentacle, this is introducing others to it. For you it might be performing an instrument you’ve been learning in front of an audience, or speaking a language you’ve been studying in its own country… whatever it is, we take these steps, where we’ve worked on something for long enough that we’re ready to expand. And its scary. And thrilling.

I’m excited, I’d love for you to join us. And I’d love to hear your experiences in similar situations… here is the announcement, and I hope you’ll join me in the comments below…

We would like to invite you to join us for a weekend intensive on the Iron
Pentacle in Glastonbury on 4th-6th February 2011 With Raven Edgewalker and Halo
The Iron Pentacle is one of the core Reclaiming and Feri tools for
self-transformation.
It’s points – Sex, Self, Passion, Pride and Power are our birthright as free
human beings. Through our work with the Iron Pentacle we can learn to claim
these and integrate them into our lives. This workshop offers an intensive
introduction to the Iron Pentacle, and the work of integration is the work of a
lifetime. During this workshop we will use ritual, trance, energy work,
self-awareness, communication and group-work to work on areas where growth and
balance are required and learn tools to take this work out into your daily
lives.

This workshop is an intermediate workshop, Iron pentacle work can be challenging
and we will not be spending time teaching basic magical skills. It is open to
anyone who has taken one or more reclaiming core class, workshop or camp or who
has equivalent experience in other traditions. If you would like more
information or to request a registration form please contact Raven at
greenwomancrafts@gmail.com or Halo at craftyhalo@gmail.com

We will start work on 6pm on Friday with Ritual and will close on Sunday at 4pm

Cost: Sliding scale £80 – £120 a £40 non-refundable deposit it required to hold
your place with the balance being due on 10th January 2011. We anticipate this
workshop filling to capacity.

This is a non-residential workshop. For people coming from afar there are a wide
range of accommodation options in and around the Glastonbury area. Some useful
links will be sent out with the registration form.

We invite you to bring vegetarian food to share, there are also many cafes and
restaurants close to the venue.

Location: Glastonbury, Somerset – address and directions will be given on
receipt of deposit.

Teachers

Raven Edgewalker
Raven, is a British Witch who has been teaching in the Reclaiming tradition for
over ten years, she is an initiate in both the Reclaiming and Anderson Feri
traditions. She loves to travel and has been honored to have taught classes,
workshops and WitchCamps in the UK, Germany, US, Finland and Israel. Raven is
a self-employed artist and crafts-person, a teacher, jack-of-all-trades, a poet,
writer and recovering academic. She has a deep love of the natural world and
works closely with the land and the magic of connections. Raven believes that
the most important tool she can share as a teacher is that of personal practice
– a practice will flow through daily life and connect and reconnect us to the
divine with each breath.

Halo
Is Fascinated by the Fey and dreams of delight. An artist, philosopher and
Witch, Halo is enchanted by the world and committed to filling it with beauty
and joy wherever possible. To this end she turns her gaze towards magic,
questions whatever she can find, and invites you to join her in weaving a witchy
web of wonder!