Tag Archives: Magic

Map Making Step 2 – Commit

21 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by in Enchanted

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As the moon swung into darkness I dreamed.

I dreamt of the sea, crashing against the shore.

I dreamt of emerald green forests on red cliffs.

A butterfly landed on my head and I heard music.

The song of the wild world.

I took a deep breath and I sang.

At the dark moon I made space for my enchanting, an altar to the Queen of Faery and Enchantment in my studio space.

As the moon turned bright I lit a candle and prayed that She would guide me along the path of enchantment and that I, in turn, could bring beauty, joy and healing to the worlds every day.

I felt her presence and her assent.

I dreamt of stairways through darkness and coridoors that moved, of hidden rooms and choosing life.

I felt the weight of mundanity. How to follow the magic while working retail? I walked through the dark, breathing, waiting, praying. How? Until the darkness lifted and I realised that even here were people to enchant, folks to offer laughter and to lighten the day for. I remembered my goal as someone who offers service to customers… I hope to bring a little joy to each heart that I encounter, to help them leave with a smile even if not what they came to buy.

I know I do not always succeed, but even at work there is space for joy. Everywhere there are people there can be enchantment.

Enchantress in Training; Lesson 1.

Commit to enchantment even where you don’t think it is possible. Try, wherever you can, to bring a little joy into the lives of those around you. Make this your offering to the Queen and a gift to those around you. Remember that you cannot please everyone and remember that every real smile makes the world a little happier.

Commit to enchantment.

A Song of Autumn

24 Tuesday Jul 2012

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

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The song begins, calling the sun to leave.

I begin with blobs of colour, a canvas and a sense for the atmosphere I am searching for. My brush spreads the paint, thick and textured, across the woven surface. A space emerges, like an ocean from the pearl-white ground.

Sun on the waves…

As the sun sets in the distance, mimicking the turn to the darkness we know will come again, a song hums through the waves and carries our thoughts into the depths.

A song from the depths, returning to the deep…

My Beltane Quest

08 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by in Following Delight, Magic, Reflections

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The thread of fate weaves through the tapestry of life… like Ariadne’s thread leading you to your centre, to the heart of your life.

Beltane. The turning of the year from darkness to light.

A time of transformation, of beginnings, of springing into the future.

A time where that which you have dreamt over the long winter nights can enter the world…

It has been a magical month, Beltane coincides with May Day and this year May itself became the day on which the year turned!

It began with the full moon’s growing before May itself. A birthday party. Divination by the river… a call to sovereignty. My question was; how can I make a living doing what I love?

The answer; first you must be Queen.

Well, what do you do with an answer like that?

I committed to finding Sovereignty in my life, trusting that it would become clear. And so began my Beltane quest.

I wonder; what is the quest you are on right now? What is the quest waiting for you?

 

(Watch this space for the unfolding of the story…)

The Story of the Rabbit

31 Thursday May 2012

Posted by in Art Craft and Beauty, Faery, Magic

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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!

A Painted Adventure

04 Friday May 2012

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

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Faery River painting In Progress

Through the studio inspiration flows as a river from faery. Painting – my prayer, my ritual, my magic – brings me to the power in the land.

I’ve been painting more now, when I have to travel to my studio, than I ever expected. Having a dedicated space encourages me to set aside time for painting and encourages focus. I’ve got at least five paintings in progress now, including ones I’ve not worked on for almost a year which are suddenly talking to me again!

The more I paint the more truth I find in the thought that painting is prayer and prayer is conversation with the divine. I’m finding my magic leading me deeper into art and further into working with the magic of the land I live upon and the people I am descended from. The stories of Y Mabinogi resonate in this landscape and the Norse tales echo in my bones. I find myself painting Blodeuwedd and Freya side by side.

My own work with the Faeries is still central to all that I do and it is becoming clear that my path is taking me deeper into exploring the magic of this land. As I open to listening, the responses come back clearer and clearer…

I find myself stepping back magically from other traditions (though they still inform my practice) and deepening the connections within my heart, working directly with the spirits and gods who are walking with me. Its an exciting time and I do not know quite where this path is heading but I know it is enchanted!

It is wonderful, the magic that occurs when you make space for it.

How are you making space for the things you love? And what path opens up to you when you do so?

Longing for space…

02 Friday Mar 2012

Posted by in Creative Process, Following Delight, Reflections

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Pink Winged being flying

Can I spread my wings and allow myself to be bigger than I am already? Can I keep growing and exploring and playing? Can I afford to keep playing small? Can you?

Something in this post by Pixie has cracked my heart.

I gazed at the images of her filling her new space, of her Pandora’s box and giant thirsty canvasses, and my breath caught in my throat.

I’ve long longed to spread colour on larger canvasses, to have a bright space full of sunshine and shelves and drawers and places to put my paints within easy reach… I’ve long kept my artworks small because my living space seemed to require it.

But what if that isn’t so?

What if that cannot be so?

What if I can spread out and create the space I need in this wonderful home of ours?

What if I only think I cannot spread my wings out as far as I wish to?

What if my thinking small, my playing small, is the only thing keeping me that way?

Maybe I’ll try a bigger canvas and decide it isn’t for me… but I have everything to lose by never trying… and much to gain if I do.

Time to stop waiting for the right time.

Open, Breathe, Remember.

Sea-Staff

11 Wednesday Jan 2012

Posted by in Reflections

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Stood by the pier I sing softly to the sea
I pray to La Siren and the Gatekeepers…
“As I walk along the shore, let me see what I need to see.”

I breathe in deeply of the salty air, the cries of gulls fill my ears and I begin to walk.

Do I look hard, I wonder, or try to just relax and let reality wash through me? Taking my cue from the ocean I choose the latter.

Maybe five steps I have taken before I see, standing in the sand and calling to me, a staff of driftwood. The perfect height for me.

Sometimes what you need will come to you.

You cannot run from what you hold inside…

27 Tuesday Dec 2011

Posted by in All Posts, Magic, Reflections

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I’m learning what it means to hold an ocean inside me.

Oil Painting - Water Gate

Light shines from the depths

For so long I ran from water – fearing the depths of the ocean which engulfs, the river which sweeps away, the floods which drown. I knew its power, this water, I turned from it not because I thought it held no power but because I feared it because I knew its power.

Now I come to learn that I hold an Ocean within me. How can you hold an ocean within you and not break?

Trying to keep it contained lead to cracks through which it seeped.

I tried to build a relationship with Water outside of myself. This did not work. What I’ve come to realise is that what I ran from was what I carried within me. You cannot run from what you hold inside.

I feared that it would break me. If I had not begun the process of accepting it… it would have done.

Slowly I feel my way through holding an ocean within my self. Slowly, like the turning of the tides, I come to find the depths within my core, the power and the freedom there. Simply acknowledging that Water is so much a part of Me relaxed something clenched so tightly. Relaxing into my own nature, a source of perhaps my greatest power, allows me to hold it without breaking.

I will not be washed away as long as I remember that I AM the Water.

I have run from the things that hold power for me so often.

What do you run from? Which of those things hold power for you?

Solsticetime!

24 Saturday Dec 2011

Posted by in All Posts, Following Delight, Magic, Reflections

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From now on, the days get longer, even while the world gets colder.

This has been a busy season, and yet… I have been saying ‘No’. I have been slowing down with the season. I have been seeking the stillness. Returning to roots; food and fire, hearth and home.

Turning inwards and outwards at the same time. Learning about the Runes, seeking my ancestors, discovering how I have grown.

I spent last weekend with some of my living family, last night with my friends. Between the two, however, it was time to Feast with the Dead.

Prompted by Ms. Dirty’s Midwinter Madness (Magic, I mean Magic!) challenge to feed your ancestors something that they’d actually recognise I finally did a bit more concrete digging around who my ancestors were… found out more about where they were from than what they were like: Poland, Normandy-via-Essex-via-Kansas/Mass., South Wales, London… a thread of Germany in there. Mostly Northern Europe really.

In looking for traditions, well, I didn’t find very much that I was certain of. I didn’t dig as deeply as I’d have liked to either mind. Many of them were Christian and, though I’m not quite sure which flavour, I figured a Nativity scene would probably be appreciated.

Candles and cooking seemed like the best way to go.

Kitchen Ancestor Altar

I acquired a piece of red cloth to use as a tablecloth and to, most likely, embroider as an ongoing ancestor-connection project later/over the years.

I found the recipe for rock-cakes my Great-Nana used to make.

I researched Polish foods and created a recipe for stew which fitted.

I bought milk to make mac’n’cheese.

I cleaned house and lit a fire in the hearth.

Fire!

Lighting a candle for Hella who has been a long time presence in my life, and candles for the gods of my traditions and of my ancestors, I set out a cup and biscuits and invited those that wanted to join me in the kitchen to tea.

While cooking I felt them near; bustly, strong, female presences. Making food that nourishes is important work.

My partner and I sat down to eat with a place set for my ancestors, but, until I sat alone with a cuppa and a rock-cake and let my mind still I didn’t feel them clearly as I had in the kitchen. You have to listen to hear, of course.

An acknowledgement.

Recognition that they cannot do other than be part of my foundation, cannot do other than support me – though they could rock that foundation if I don’t act with honour.

A reminder to trust my instincts.

A sense of caring.

I left food out overnight for them to help themselves.

Food!

In the morning, I was surprised to see the teacup was still full of tea. Seemed to me that, really, it should have been empty…