Magick Is Real

I remember reading something a long while ago that said, you shouldn't invest so much energy into objects or things because the magic comes from within you. Don't depend on that lucky penny or piece of jewelry as the strongest talisman you can have comes from your own soul. That always stuck with me because I don't have one special piece of jewelry that I wear consistently apart from my wedding band, I usually mix it up. However, something can be said to speak for the total opposite and here's what I find fascinating.

Every religion has a symbol or symbols representing something we can all look to whatever our faith may be, and find comfort or solace in that object. For some it is an actual place of worship, for others it might be ornamental things we display in our yard or lawn, while for others it might be a piece of jewelry, a stone, a memento someone gave us, that object we found on the ground shortly after something miraculous happened to us so forever after we carry it with us. Whatever it might be, it hits home for us in a special way that reminds us of the path we are on together and individually.

As I pondered this I realized that even though I might mix up the actual objects I carry or wear, that there are things that I carry with me always, especially when traveling. You can take the term "traveling" any which way you choose here. The point is, there are special items that I find that comfort or have healing energy within them. It's a tough feeling to describe so I can shortly sum it up by saying, the actual item resonates in my hand from the energy I give it or receive from it when holding it or wearing it.

Even when I am done wearing or carrying it, and place whatever it is back in its special case or pouch or on the mantel, wherever its usual "home" is when I am not using it, that energy stay nestled within it. Part of that is the energy that I am reminded of when I pick it up once again. In this way I am creating a harmony within myself, and creating a special magic that flows from it to me and back again. So much do I believe in this type of energy work, that I offer this short story to you.

My daughter went around the fire with me when she was still in my womb. She felt the energy of the drumming from everyone in the circle as the beats of the drums vibrated off of my body. Throughout my entire pregnancy, I wore the same talisman of the Goddess which I only took off once she had been born and we brought her home, where it has quietly and lovingly hung above her crib since. The only time it is not there, is when I travel with her. I say my prayer to her and to this talisman every night, as that energy I carried then, still watches over her now while she sleeps.

Also during my pregnancy, I wore my prayer beads that my beloved sister and friend had given me out love and friendship. When I do not wear them they are in their special resting place. These prayer beads have been to several gatherings with me, where they have been around fire, where they have been lovingly touched knowingly or unknowingly by so many of you. That energy that I carry from these events and from all of you still resonates to and from these prayer beads. Recently when I took my Djembe out of its protective bag, my daughter became instantly fixated on the prayer beads that dangled from the shoulder straps for the drum. She now has taken them to be hers, and I grok this.

What I find fascinating, is that she is very gentle with them, She focuses on each bead, she wears them around her neck, she holds them, twists them, walks in patterns around the house with them all the while jibber jabbering in her own prayers. A few weekends ago my same beloved sister and friend came over and stayed the night. While she slept late into the morning, my daughter went straight for the prayer beads, and literally did circles around where my beloved one slept. All the while she remained focused. She did four laps, she repeated the movements she did on each lap, holding them up while she rounded a corner, touching the ground with them while she rounded the place where my beloved sister slept, putting them around her neck on the third corner, and on the fourth sitting down, reflecting and wrapping them around her wrist.

She was priestessing energy while my beloved sister slept restfully, peacefully, unaware of any of this while I quietly sat and felt the magical energy my 18-month-old was weaving throughout the house. She was creating safety and nesting space for her special friend. And without knowing it, my friend was sending that energy back to her in her sleep. My sister told me that she slept so well, wrapped in an energy of comfort and love.

So now we come to the most interesting part. Without fail my daughter reaches for "my beads" as she calls them whenever she is home. She takes them with her as often as she remembers to grab them. At the beginning of the week, when at her daycare and without her beads, she spiked a fever of 104 degrees. The staff there told me they hadn't seen a fever come on so fast and go so high so quickly, and that apart from the high temperature, she seemed perfectly herslf. She was still smiling and happy and had no issues at all which was hard for them to understand. She is teething and fevers are common, but a fever that high in a child is dangerous as so many things can happen and they need to be instantly given attention to bring their body temperature back down, and quickly.

I got the call, I picked her up, I took her home, I did all the mommy things I needed to do. But, the very first thing she wanted was the prayer beads. Within a fifteen minutes of her holding her beads, before medicine of any kind was given, before a cool bath was given to bring her temperature down, her fever dropped three degrees. My only explanation, if you can attempt at all to describe devine intervention or miracles, is that the magic is real. That the energy given to and taken from those beads is very real. It is not that I never believed that, it is that I never felt it be more true than when this happened. I cannot describe the tears and laughter that washed over me as I took her temperature as saw the results.

By the time I had gotten her to the doctors office, her fever had almost fully disappeared. She wore the beads all the way there, she wore them the whole time she was in the exam room even moving them slightly out of the way to make room for the stethoscope, and she wore them all the way home. When she finally slept I kept them in her room near her bed so when she woke up she would have them readily available to her. I totally felt a deeper connection with my child than I thought could be achieved apart from the time I carried her within my womb. My little priestess doing her thang.

So, the long and short of it is, that no matter what path you find yourself on, no matter what symbol or symbols bring you comfort, re-energize you or deepen your faith, they are your talismans for a reason. Yes, that energy you carry within your soul is the best one of all, but there is something to be said for carrying that penny for luck as well.

Love and Light,
SarahFae

Gratitude

Someone just gave $150 scholarship donation.

To you and to all those who have donated - you are helping us make sure that what we do around the fire is accessible to as many people as possible. We are all grateful, thank you!!

We are still in need of scholarship funding, since as projected we're behind what we had to offer last year. When you register for SpiritFire please do consider making a donation - any size makes a difference.

Happy Spring,
Josselyne

Call for Contributions

In a month, I go to New Orleans for the Popular Culture Association/ American Culture Association Joint National Conference. The Festivals and Faires Area has papers on Burning Man, Renaissance Faires, State Fairs, Mardi Gras...and, this year, a paper on Fire Festivals.

I have about 15 minutes to define: the sacred fire circle, fire festivals, the fire family/tribe, etc. In my proposal I ask origins questions, so I'll trace our origins back to RoS and Starwood. I'll mention Mayfire, Fires Rising (or not...), Sacred Soul Fire, SpiritFire, PhoenixFire, Forest Dance. From my proposal: "All of the above-mentioned festivals are annual events that run for less than one week and have beugne within the last decade. How does a new community rapidly define itself, and how is one's identity as a member of the "fire tribe" negotiated?"

I have a fairly good idea about what I'm walking in with and what I want to present. That said, I'd wager a bet that every single one of ye has a thing or two to say about this. This is the place to do so. For clarification: Lyra's going to an academic conference. The area that she's presenting in is the Festivals and Faires area, which is filled with cool crazy cats. That said, she's still bringing the fire tribe into the ivory tower, and her paper may be published. Does anyone have any responses to: What are these festivals, and how are they different from older ones? Why have they grown so in the last 15 years? Who goes to them, and why? What is this all about?!

Mo' Betta'

It's March?! How did that happen??

Now that I've been out of the tropics for two winters, I realize that I have been much more focused on seasonal changes than I had been for several years. This is perhaps one of the most potent periods for me, Imbolc to Spring Equinox, for it's delightful to see the afternoon light linger just a wee bit more each day.

Common advice/inspiration for this time of year is to take stock of our seeds, so to speak, and start planting the ones that we can and plan--specifically--to plant the rest when the time is right. Specificity is a good focus word for me this year. It's easy for me (many of us?) to frame my desires in the abstract, but of course without concrete, specific plans--and planting!--nothing comes of it.

So, my questions to all y'all are what you would like to see manifest this year at SpiritFire. Or what you *plan* on manifesting. Do you use SFF as a yearly benchmark, like I do? In other words, ok, by SpiritFire I'm going to shed an inch off of my waist. (Blimey! Now it's witnessed! Now I *really* have to do it!!) What about plans for the event and community itself? Like, ok, a few years ago, (insert cool thing) happened at SFF. Could I somehow bring (cool thing or variation thereof) back?

This would of course apply to the other side, the stuff we write on the feedback forms for staff and say, hey, that thing, um, with the people, and, um, the stuff...sucked...can that not happen? I don't know that we need to go down that path--there's something kinda cool about focusing on what we specifically want to *do* *create* *cocreate* etc, as opposed to focusing on what we don't want. I guess the balance would be, if something wasn't working for you last year, or hasn't been working for you for awhile--what is your plan to make it mo' betta'?

Count to 10...and don't forget to breathe...

When I was a child I can remember very vividly moments where my mother's face would become redder than a tomato, and she would stop herself from speaking, only to either count to ten out loud, or do so in her mind before speaking in a very low, very calm voice. This got her point across much more than yelling ever could have as that deep, motherly, bordering-on-sensuality-and-explosion tone captured my attention and made me listen right quick to what she had to say. It was when she reached that level of calm, and her voice was steady that she had become empowered in a way I can only begin to understand now as I walk this path.

I now realize how I apply it to every day situations like something stressful happening at work, or a car cutting in front of me on the highway just so they could get off the exit ramp two seconds before I could. Before stepping on the accelerator and screaming obscenities which would only make things worse, particularly if it was an unmarked police car chasing another person... counting to ten helps a great deal. I could also use this method when my daughter decides that the dog's water is fun to splash in, and/or drink, and subsequently soaks herself and everything within a ten foot radius.

It's not just a way of preventing yourself from saying or doing things you don't mean, it's a method of relaxation that you can practice to bring that blood pressure down, and reduce your stress level. A form of quick meditation without the dim lights, candles or soft music to bring yourself to a happy enough place to realize that messes can be cleaned up, people can be misunderstood, and it's not the end of the world if the toilet overflows from an action figure being flushed down it.

I was reading about how spirituality has a deep-rooted connection to mental and physical health, and it is beautiful how this count-to-ten method ties into that. Spirituality concerns itself with matters of the spirit which can be tied to religious belief or faith, in many senses of the word. It doesn't matter what you believe in, just that you believe in something. And by putting your faith and beliefs in something, it becomes part of your spirit, part of your soul and your every day way of life. This includes not only your mind and body, but also the development of your inner life through specific practices. Spirituality relates to matters of sanity, psychological health, personal, subjective dimension of religion, matters of the heart and my goodness, the health of those around you :)

I have now taken it as my mantra to practice my mother's tried and true count to ten method when life throws a particularly hard day or series of days my way. I try to remain as calm as possible so the young people around me who absorb everything like a sponge, do not take anything with them into the world I will regret. So that my friends know me as a level-headed person who gives a lot of thought to everything they do or say. So people know that I can listen to those who have opinions that differ than mine, and can calmly tell me they disagree with me on something knowing I will take that to heart and not get instantly defensive or upset with them.

Each day is a new lesson, filled with different challenges. It is how we deal with these challenges that allows us to adapt and move on... keeping the dog water dish at a higher level to prevent a repeat of drenched everything that made me so unhappy the last time for example. Try to allow more time when I need to travel somewhere so if someone does cut me off, I'm not stressed about it. To try to remember that my loved ones don't mean to get on those last tiny frayed ends of sanity, and that I do love them. I think if everyone in the world practiced a little more thinking about what they say or do when something upsetting happened, and takes those long deep breaths and just count, we'd have a lot less violence, a lot less stress, and a lot more blissful of a place to live in with their fellow spiritualists, artist, idealists and dreamers of dreams.

Namaste
SarahFae

My answer to Brett's Question

Spoken with eloquence by Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor, who is now one of my heros. Wendy Mooney turned me onto this - thanks Wendy!

Please, take the 18 or so moments to check this out - wow.

A Romper Room for Spirit

It seems there was much excitement about this blog coming into existence, as is evident in the number of posts and comments early on, but as of late that has slowed. Has anything changed?
For me there are a number of things that limit my exposure here, ("limit my exposure" being one of them). I get too busy to sit and focus long enough to write something that is important to me, related to Spirit Fire and I feel is worthy of my asking others to take time from their busy lives to read. Now, having set my criteria for this post, onward!
I see Spirit Fire as a space in time to grow, to stretch into that higher vision of ourselves that we all carry, some a bit deeper than others but there just the same. A place to more deeply believe that we ARE magical beings, all of us. We get to play at that with others who are exploring their own paths. Like a spiritual Romper Room with a wide array of toys to play and learn with, a present, caring, playful staff and lots of colorful friends to be inspired by and to inspire, all wrapped up in a beautifully adorned, safe container. Any time we get to spend thinking more highly of ourselves has got to be good for us!
I invite us all to take the opportunity to be who we aspire to be, to see ourselves in our fire friends and to reflect the beauty of those present as much and as often as possible.
See you on the Mountain,

PS. If I post and ask a question, will that get more comments?
Brett