Day 14: Chanting

So I was going to just write a filler post here (I even started writing one), because my brain wasn't cooperating and then it hit me like a broom to the face. Chanting. Chanting is a perfectly witchy thing to do. I could say my brain is allowed to be absent during it, but that is totally not true. Chanting is one of those things that raises power, but if you are anything like me, and there is a chance that you might be remotely like me, words don't come out right. Or they refuse to leave your mouth the way they are supposed to and you are left fumbling a word so bad the person you are talking to looks at you like you have fell off your rocker and started whacking yourself with it. Yes the hubs has given me that look. I like chanting as a way of raising power because it does not require me to dance, bang a drum, or something. I can't dance, and I don't have a drum. Chanting is also a step a way from singing (in my mind it is), which I do every day even when I sound awful. The hubs' bleeding ear drums are proof of that. Anyway, there it is. Chanting. Yep.

Off to ice my bruise from the broom... Laters. <3

Not A How To

I just want to point out that when I am doing this 100 days thing, it's a personal challenge, not a how to. I am not doing this to show other beginners, or anyone else how to do this. I am doing this and blogging about my experience with it. This is like my online journal, and it is helping me with staying with something. Maybe when I feel like I have more experience with this religion, and forming my own rituals, spells, and whatever else, I could feel comfortable in teaching others. However, this is just a blog about me trying to keep up with my faith, and showing my take on things. I just wanted to clarify what it was about. I apologize if this post makes little to no sense because my brain is slightly fried, and I am still tired despite going to bed early last night.

Day 11: Using my Tarot

So I decided to do tarot today. I usually can't think of anything to ask while doing tarot but today I managed to think of three things. I usually do a 3 card spread to answer a yes or no question.

Anywho, here is a picture of my tarot deck.

Its the Tarot of the Cat People

Then my cat decided to help with my tarot reading.

Pet me. Now.

After I petted her and got her to move I started shuffling the deck with my mind on my first question. 

Should I go running tomorrow?

Aren't those little kitties cute?!

The first card (reversed King of Pentacles) means peril or danger, the second card (Page of Swords) means Vigilance, and the third card, (reversed Five of Swords) means a chance of loss or defeat and weakness. Well I took this as meaning, if I do decided to go running tomorrow (well later today) that I should be vigilant, or I may hurt myself or be too weak to actually get through it. Since it is an overwhelming amount of negativity for this one, I am going to go with an overall no for the answer to the question.

My next question was: Should I redo week 4 of the C25K?

All reversed... hmmmm..

The first card (reversed Fool) means faulty choice and bad decision, the second card (reversed Nine of Wands) means that there would be adversity and delays, and the third card (reversed Queen of Cups) means inconsistency of honor. So I interpret this to mean that if I go ahead and do the week over again, that I would just be adding more adversity and delay to my running, as well as it being a bad decision. I should just continue with the program as written. So the answer to this question is a no.

The third and final question I asked t his evening was: Should I do the 5k at the end of the month?

They are all right side up!

 Well this certainly looks like a very positive reading right off the bat. The first one (Six of Swords) means, success after anxiety, the second one (Eight of Swords) means turmoil and domination, and the last one (Six of Pentacles) means gratification. Well I always have anxiety about anything I do, and I feel like this is telling me that I will do it even though I have anxiety about it, and despite the turmoil, I will dominate myself, and be gratified with the outcome. So all in all this one was my first and only yes of the evening.

I love tarot because it is open to interpretation, and the cards are so beautiful. I started tarot in high school with a Rider-Waite deck and LOVED it, but I either gave my deck to someone or lost it after I bought this one. I am a huge cat person, so this deck is great, however I don't have the same connection to this deck that I had with the Rider-Waite deck. I think I just need to spend more time with the cards. Anyway, you can find this deck here.

Anyway, off to bed with me. I need to take the oldest wee one to school in the morning! <3

Day 6: Calling the corners/quarters

Calling the corners/quarters. Which one do I call it? I've seen it called both. I have it written down as quarters in my Book, but I didn't know if people would understand it that way, and I have issues with anxiety about that kind of dumb stuff. I get anxiety about the weirdest things. Anyway, I have written my own corner callings because I like writing stuff and it seemed pretty basic and easy to do. Remembering it is a whole other story.

I know which way is North, and you can expect the dominoes fall into place from there. Anyway, every time I have gone to call the quarters I always forget what I am supposed to say. I resist the urge to say "Hey you, yeah the one who represents this side, get over here, and play with me." I say shit backwards and in the wrong order. Half the time I think the guardians of the quarters are laughing at me every time I bumble a word.... which is just about every single time. So I am sure you all see why I really need practice with this. I don't want to drag my book around with me every damn time I walk around the circle calling the quarters because my brain refuses to remember a few short sentences. My corner casting is basic. Nothing fancy at all. I just need to devote time to sitting down and memorizing the lines as if I was in a play.

Anyway, I might as well share my easy simple (yet totally beyond me) corner castings. (Also which way do you really start from? North or East? I have seen it both ways!)

East:

Hail to the guardians of the watchtowers of the east, powers of air and intellect, bless this rite with your presence tonight.

South:

Hail to the guardians of the watchtowers of the south, powers of fire and passion, bless this rite with your presence tonight.

West:
Hail to the guardians of the watchtowers of the west, powers of water and emotion, bless this rite with your presence tonight.

North:
Hail to the guardians of the watchtowers of the north, powers of earth and balance, bless this rite with your presence tonight.

Here is my "dismissing" the quarters thing. (I don't like saying dismissing. I don't own them, or command them to do my bidding. They are just there to play with me, and then they go to wherever they go to.)

North:

Guardians of the North, powers of Earth and balance, thank you for your presence tonight. Stay if you will, go if you must, farewell and blessed be.

West:
Guardians of the West, powers of Water and emotion, thank you for your presence tonight. Stay if you will, go if you must, farewell and blessed be.

South:
Guardians of the South, powers of Fire and passion, thank you for your presence tonight. Stay if you will, go if you must, farewell and blessed be.

East:
Guardians of the East, powers of Air and intellect, thank you for your presence tonight. Stay if you will, go if you must, farewell and blessed be.

P.S. I can keep saying I am sorry for posting so late, however I am a night owl so I suspect this will be the norm for my witchy posts.

Blog Clothes

I have finally finished tinkering with my blog cloths. There are still things I want to fix and tinker with here and there but now there isn't construction dust and weird colors everywhere. Yay me for coding a blog for the first time and not using a program! Wooooo! I thought for a second there I was going to toss my computer out the window... That would have been bad....

Now to figure out what I am going to do as my witchy thing today.

Facebook Evangelists

Much like Televangelists, there are those people who feel the need to preach their version of religion on Facebook like it makes it easier to get into their version of heaven. The more conversions the more points towards divine ascension into the perfect afterlife. Golden clouds of gooey pleasure, sprinkled with pixie stick crack. I get onto my Facebook, and within 3 minutes of scrolling into what I missed, there is at least one person on their Facebook stage telling the unenlightened masses that Jesus is the one and only true savior, and that through him is the only way into heaven. Well, going through him would be a little hard without a knife, and then you'd have to scrub the blood out of your outfit. I know bad joke. Anyway, normally Facebook preachers don't bother me. The times it does bother me is when my news feed is completely covered in bible verse, and when someone uses those bible verses for hate/bigotry.

I know, maybe I should get new Facebook friends, or maybe block those comments from my screen. The thing is, I generally like the people who spew the verses, because most of the time they don't spew them. The ones who use the bible for hate and bigotry, are usually deleted right after I read their disgusting posts. Sometimes I give them a piece of my mind, but most of the time I don't really bother with it. I also really hate the "If you don't follow my God, you are going strait to hell, you devil spawn." Those make me giggle snort, because we totally quiver in fear of going to a place we don't believe in, and to be tortured by Satan, whom we also don't believe in.

There is one friend on my list in particular, who is particularly awful about it all. He is a very devout Seventh-Day Advent, and constantly remarks about how he is not celebrating pagan sexual whatever when it comes to a holiday of some sort. Drives me up a wall. I don't hate Christians, but this one guy says how much he hates paganism with every post about killing pagan Easter bunnies, and not celebrating pagan sexual rites. (He said that Valentines day is a pagan sexual rite... Sorry hun, do your research, it's purely Catholic in origin.) He doesn't want to be judged or persecuted for his religion or his beliefs, then why judge others? Why tell others if they don't follow his religion that they are going to hell, and they are going to burn? Makes no sense at all.

There are so many parallels between the religions of Earth. Other religions adopt parts of others to help people convert. Most (not all) of the Christian holidays are pagan in origin, even the current calender is pagan in origin. (Wow this blog post turned more serious than I originally intended it to be....)

Tell me what you think about it in the comments section.

Twitter Is Anti Pagan

I have come to realize that Twitter is anti-pagan. It actually suggested that I follow Reverend Al Sharpton.

Yes that did happen.

What in the crap?! I follow pagans, wiccans, witches, and random celebrities (only one of which I have actually internet stalked to the point I creeped myself out...). So from this I deduce with no factual evidence, Twitter is anti pagan and actually doesn't like my choice of religion or politics and wants me to follow this guy who would be so against everything I have to say... Except for maybe no more racism. Because that shit sucks.

Intro

So this first post I am going to put up here is going to be a quick intro to me, and to what I hope to accomplish (if anything) with this blog.

Here I am, quirky, slightly sarcastic and entirely full of shit. My name is Nichol, and yes it is a different spelling, which some people have a hard time remembering. Like my high school English teacher. I love her to death, and she was one of the biggest influences in my life, but that woman could never remember the spelling of my first name. Especially since I had her for all 4 years of various English/Creative writing classes. I have been into Wicca and Paganism since I was a teen, and just recently as in last year, I started to try to practice it. I say try only because I suck at follow through on things, and planning ahead is really not my strong point. I am a fly by the seat of my broom kind of person. See what I did there? Yeah I used a pagan reference. That totally gives me pagan points. My life is fueled by peanut butter sandwiches, cartoon movies, and a mainline of some sort of caffeine into my system. My two wonderfully awesome, yet psychosis inducing children are the reason why I can make peanut butter sandwiches blindfolded, and recite nearly all cartoon movies by heart. My oldest, 5, has Autism, it is high functioning, and it's not a crutch for him, and no I don't hate it. It makes him unique in that fabulous one of a kind way. My youngest, 3, is as strange as they come. The other day he told me he was a Vampirate, which is so utterly fantastic and hilarious, there is no way he can't be mine. My husband and main squeeze, some how puts up with my random outbursts of weirdness, and loves me despite it. He takes me with a grain of salt, and two xanexs. Actually that last part isn't really that true, it's only one xanex and a large jack n coke. Okay fine, he doesn't take xanex and he rarely ever drinks and if he does, it's just a beer.

Onto what I hope to accomplish with this blog... I am not sure I hope to accomplish anything except put out my brand of humor and throw a random pagan twist onto things. I don't really take a lot of shit the wrong way, and I am sarcastic to a fault. I really enjoy tongue in cheek humor, and pretending to take things the wrong way just to make a fuss for no other reason than the entertainment value, and to see people's reactions. Some people are just too serious. Seriously.

In closing, I am witty, hilarious, and awesome. Even if it is in my own mind. So if you feel up for it, join me in my struggles to find the humor, and throwing a pagan twist on just about everything. <3