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Halo Quin

~ Author, storyteller, singer-songwriter, witch

Tag Archives: musings

Oracles and Completion

28 Friday Dec 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Art Craft and Beauty, Enchanted, Faery, Reflections

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, challenge, Completion, creativity, Faery, Faery Queen, Feyhearted path, Heart, Honesty, Imperfection, Journey, Magic, musings, oracle cards, process, project, Strangeness of Life, Tools

Not so long ago a parcel arrived in the post. It was addressed to A World Enchanted. I was so excited! I spent months putting together a deck of Oracle cards and for almost a year I’ve been using one I printed myself… now I have a professionally printed deck and three to sell!

My Oracle Deck!

The Completed Deck!

I’m really proud of my work and the printed cards are beautiful. It works perfectly for uncovering what is in your heart and the heart of the world and the simple readings I did for others were very well received.

And somehow I’ve completely avoided posting about them here. I haven’t put the 3 decks I have for sale in my shop, I haven’t told you about them properly, I haven’t done anything with them beyond using them for myself.

Why?

Despite how it may appear, I struggle with being visible. I struggle with putting my work out there and allowing it to be seen. I struggle with completing projects and releasing them into the world. Artworks contain such a part of the artist’s spirit that an entire deck of my art makes me very visible and so, sharing them, I feel very vulnerable.

This New Year I am considering ‘Wholeness’ as my word for 2013. A word that includes the concept of completion and of being whole in myself. A word that speaks of safety, strength and holiness. Sacred Completion. A guiding light to help me overcome this block and share more beauty with you.

And today I am posting my Oracle Decks in my shop. There is more to do to complete this project than put the information up, however. I need to spread the word. I need to share this beauty, be seen, be known. So here I write and contemplate where to share with others what I have done!

Oracle Deck Set for sale

The FeyHearted Oracle and Guidebook!

Here is the page on A World Enchanted for the FeyHearted Oracle Deck for your enjoyment. If you feel called I would love for you to share this page with your friends and anyone you think might enjoy the deck!

May you find it easy to complete the things you wish to do and share your gifts with the world!

Map Making Step 6 – Devotee of Delight

19 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Enchanted, Following Delight

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Tags

delight, Devotion, Enchanted, Enchantress, Ethics, Faery, Living Life, musings, process

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.
In recent posts I’ve discussed each of these aspects, how an enchantress uses Glamourie and Honesty, a hint of what it means to be Fae, what beauty is and how this relates to Healing. Each of these is an aspect of enchantment, the magic of the Fae. Each one can be used in negative ways too, illusion and glamourie can be used to mislead, transformation is not always healing and Faery runs by its own, untamed laws.

As human beings who live within the world, with other human beings and dependent upon the land and those around us – however self-sufficient we can manage to become we still have to depend on good relations to allow us to stay in a specific space! – it is sensible to use these skills in positive ways, to work to heal and help ourselves and others, whether human or Fay. The majority of magic-workers understand this and the fact that everything is interconnected. The double-edged nature of enchantment – and all magic – means that we can protect and defend ourselves where necessary and the interconnected nature of all means that we will think carefully about what course of action to take. As a result I will be posting almost exclusively about the positive side of enchantment and trusting my readers to follow their own ethical codes.

An Enchantress is one who enchants.

As one who focusses on beauty, healing and joy, I am also a Devotee of Delight.

I am Enchantress and Devotee of Delight. When I remember these two things together I follow a healing, beautiful path.

Map Making Step 5 – An Enchantress… causes change

12 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Enchanted, Magic, Reflections

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Tags

Change, Circe, creativity, Enchant, Enchantress, Feyhearted path, Healing, inspirations, Journey, Living Life, Magic, musings, process, Stories, Transformation

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.

 

Map Making Step 4 – An Enchantress… brings Beauty

05 Wednesday Dec 2012

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

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Tags

beauty, creativity, Faery, Feyhearted path, Imperfection, inspirations, Journey, musings, process

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.

Last post I considered what working the magic of the Fae might mean, here we look at beauty.

Beauty is generally considered to be subjective. It is an aesthetic principle of what is pleasing to the senses. As such, when this is the goal of the Enchantress, She will strive to make the world more sensually pleasant to exist within. This doesn’t mean avoiding the unpleasant however, it means engaging with what needs to be done to create beauty in the long term.

One implication of enchantment for beauty is the use of illusion, of Glamourie. If we make the world more beautiful we could use illusion to do so. Here, then, is a question of ethics to be addressed here; how ethical is it to use illusion and can this help heal others? Aside from this, a fundamental position to take when working with the Fae is utter honesty in order to foster trust within yourself and with the spirits. We could use Glamourie to create the illusion that something is worth more than it is, as in the fairy tales of leaves enchanted to look like gold, and thus trick others into getting the rough end of the deal. This doesn’t help in the long term however as one’s relationships are what helps one through life and if you screw over your neighbour today they won’t help you tomorrow!

So how can illusion and honesty go hand in hand?

A glamour can be used to present oneself in a positive light – just as when you wear a suit for a job interview which you could fulfil, this doesn’t show who you are but it does allow you to get the position from which you can do the job well.

Illusions can be used to guide folk to realisations, to illuminate the truth and reflect back their realities. Just as when a painting inspires it’s audience to re-evaluate their world, an illusion can help someone to rethink their perceptions. A good costume, for example, can act as an illusion and can, at the very least, make folk smile.

Ultimately, however, the Fae are considered to be illusions by many in our world. In dealing with them and their stories and imageries we are creating what would be considered to be an illusion in order to illuminate the greater truth; that all is connected, the world is alive and magic is real.

Map Making Step 3 – An Enchantress is… Fae

28 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Enchanted, Faery

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Enchantress, Faery, Faery Queen, Feyhearted path, Honesty, inspirations, Magic, Map, musings, process

Moving through the darkness
Light a candle
Say a Prayer
Sing your wishes to smoke on the air
Music lingers
Notes unsaid
Kisses from Angels
Of deep black and red.
The Waterbound lady
Holds out a blade
Choosing wishes and dancing
Or the quietest glade.
~Halo 15/11/12

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.

What do these mean?

First, ‘the magic of the Fae’ asks the question, who and what are the Fae?

Being Fae, 
from my writing project ‘Faery Steps’

Words weave strange tales, a vision of what is and was and will be…

Fey; adj. Mysterious and strange, ‘fated to die’, ‘visionary’ and ‘mad’.
Fairy; from faierie (Middle English); the realm or characteristic activity of the faie; enchantment.
Fay; from Faie which evolved from fata (Latin); one of the ‘Fates’; i.e. a spirit
(Courtesy of Wikipedia!)

‘Fey’ and ‘Fay’ have different roots, words which have come to be connected through the resonance we hear and thus cousins. We, as strange mortals who see beyond the veils, become fey and thus fay. Fey is the human that is visionary, seeking magic and the world’s beyond. The Fay are those that live beyond the material, that shape the land and guide the growing things, the spirits who weave the destiny of each living thing. Untamed and wild, their ways are often different to our but strictly governed by their own code of conduct. The first rule of conduct is ‘Honesty’. Honesty with oneself allows you to know who you are, what you want and how your subconscious will effect your choices in ways that support or contradict your conscious choices. Honesty with the Fae is firstly a matter of respect – if you break your word to them you show you do not respect them – and secondly it shows that you can be trusted. Without honesty you cannot trust yourself to navigate the brambles to the Well of Vision and the Fae will not trust you to deal fairly with them.

As a word for the land, the act of enchantment and now the people who enchant, ‘faery’ reveals to us the interconnected nature of all three. As the fate of nature Faery is that which must be, the blueprint and soul of the natural world.As seekers of the land of faery we become visionaries, we become fey. In becoming fey we become fay and thus faery. This, in turn, connects us to the land that is Faery and we join the magic that moves through the realm that gives shape to the world we walk.

We are the realm of magic. Our hearts beat out the rhythm that shapes the world.

Map Making Step 2 – Commit

21 Wednesday Nov 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Enchanted

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Tags

Enchantress, Feyhearted path, Living Life, Magic, Map, musings

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.

Selkie-skins

19 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Following Delight, Magic

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

musings, paganism, process, Seals, Selkies, Witch

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?

A Song of Autumn

24 Tuesday Jul 2012

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

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Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, creativity, inspirations, Journalling, Journey, Living Life, Magic, musings, Ocean, Painting, process, Whale

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 Office in the Sunshine

14 Saturday Jul 2012

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

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Tags

Art Craft and Beauty, Commitment, creativity, Determination, gratitude, Imperfection, Living Life, musings, Strangeness of Life

My Office in the Sun

Ah! Life is Sweet!

Its a strange thing to find myself actually working from home. Taking my materials outside I craft in the sunshine and it is work. I am the owner of a business, fledgling as it is, a ‘Business-Woman’. This title I once felt I couldn’t claim for myself, I thought I was uncomfortable with the concept but I’ve realised this past month that the concept did not scare me, rather I felt like I wasn’t doing enough to accept the label for my own. As a registered, self-employed artist now I find the label fits comfortably and I’m excited to play with this new hat on!

Especially when it means I can justify sitting in the sunshine listening to the bees love the flowers!

A bumblebee loving a flower - picture

Why yes Mr. Bee, we can have a meeting now!

Strange how much it takes for us to feel justified doing the things we love…

Beading for a workshop - picture

The Tempest has snuck into every corner of my life… even my beading reflects a sea-theme.

A Pilgrimage to The Well and Waves

15 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by Haloquin in Creative Process, Following Delight, Magic

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Commitment, Devotion, Faery Queen, Feyhearted path, Heart, Imperfection, inspirations, Intent, Journey, musings, Pilgrimage, process, Queenship, Strangeness of Life

I was called to travel with my friends on a pilgrimage, in search of my direction, my crown?

On the South West coast of Wales stands a cathedral where a flame of peace was to be lit, at a shrine behind which stood the Mother of Saint David, St. Non.

The Mother blesses those who ask it…

The cathedral was filled with light and pretty things, but empty for us. No magic danced in the colours which streamed from the windows. No nourishment in the food that lunchtime. This was not a place for us, though others were clearly blessed. 

From the hidden icon of the Mother, however, peace and love flowed.

We travelled further towards the sea, to St. Non’s Chapel, her Well, her Ruins, upon the windswept cliffs of Wales.

The sea rises into the air…

Processing down the slope, greeted by the Well and a choice. Do you choose the chapel, or the ruins? Civilisation or the wilds of the wind and waves?

We each presented ourselves to the well, blessed by her healing waters.

Here she lives…

We chose the sea path.

Passing through the stone circle of the ruins we separated, lead by the magic to where we belonged. I found myself above the waves, breathing the sea-mist, buffeted by winds.

I asked; what must I do to reach my dreams? How do I do what you have asked me to?

A seal appeared, carrying the song of the sea…

The Mother held me, rocked me, washed me clean until I walked, entranced, along the cliff to the chapel where I was crowned, unasked for, in buttercups.

A candle lit, a prayer spoken, respects paid. We explored the ruins. A place of power. And then, we returned, passing the Well with thanks. Washed clean and each transformed into more of who we are.

I wonder; what pilgrimage are you making, or would you choose to make, this year?

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(c) Halo Quin ~ author, storyteller, witch

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

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