Songs of a Cricket - blog

Witchy Aesthetics

9/19/2018

Witchy Aesthetics has been a hot topic as of late in the YouTube Witchy / Pagan community and I have reserved recording a video regarding the topic, but I do have an opinion on the topic that I would like to share with my readers who are either creators or viewers.

While I am concerned about the basics of making a video such as overall quality from sound to visuals my priority is the information I am sharing whether that is general knowledge of the topic or my personal experiences, insights, and opinions. I don’t generally wear make-up or do my hair for videos … I’m not overly concerned about how pretty I look though if I am feeling ill or have a cold and appear sick I will not

How Can I Thrive as a Witch While Living in a Christian Community?

9/12/2018

Recently I was emailed by a viewer of my YouTube Channel and in the correspondence was asked how he could thrive in their Craft as a Witch while living within a Christian community. His neighbors, coworkers, friends, and the majority of his family members were Christian, which made him uneasy to openly practice his Craft for fear of being attacked and mocked for his beliefs. I empathize with this individual. I know not everyone has the ability to be unconcerned about what others think especially if there are children or jobs at risk. In answering this viewer's question I can only speak from my personal experiences and as someone who lives in The United States where we have a greater freedom than many other countries.

Firstly I believe it is important for the individual Witch to define his or her practice. What I mean by this is that each of us has a focus that permeates our Craft. There is something that we do most often or maybe it is the only thing we ever do. It is something that we love to

ABC of Paganism: O is for Oils

9/5/2018

Essential Oils have been a part of my Craft since the beginning. I have an emotional and psychological association with the sensation and scent of oils. I was raised within a Roman Catholic home and have been anointed with the Oil of Catechumens to strengthen me to turn away from evil, temptation, and sin when I received the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, and Matrimony. The act of anointing someone or something with oil always made the occasion feel sacred and important and was something I was eager to continue when I transitioned to my Wiccan practice.

Within sympathetic magick it was a common practice to anoint with the fat of sacrificial animals as it was perceived to be a powerful charm second only to the blood of the animal. The practice of anointing with oil is believed to be rooted in this ancient practice, which makes sense to this Witch.

Absolutes … Black and White Magick

8/29/2018

Reality is subjective. When we consider our life experiences and our Craft as Witches it is all subjective. Nothing is true and yet everything is true. This concept upsets many a Witch and a cowan who are comfortable when things, people, and experiences are defined and organized in the strictest of ways:

This is black magick and this is white magick.
This is a malediction and this is a blessing.
This is self-serving magick and this is altruistic magick.
This is a harmful spell and this is a healing spell.
This is a magickal truth and this is a deception.

But we are all aware that life is not this tidy. Life is not clean. It’s messy and dirty, which is the same for Witchcraft. There are no limits to magick. There are no boundaries when casting spells. Everything is possible and the only moral code that should be followed is the one defined by the Witch.

ABC of Paganism: N is for Names

8/22/2018

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.

–Chinese Proverb

Names hold power. All one must do to find evidence of such a fact is to refer to the Egyptian god Ptah whose thoughts as words became real, that which he named was created or the Abrahamic god in the Old Testament of the Bible, existence in the book of Genesis starts with the power of the word and naming of the animals in the Garden of Eden.

How Does One Set and Maintain Personal Boundaries?

8/15/2018

If you identify as a Psychic Empath then you are fully aware of how difficult it can be to set personal boundaries and sometimes once those boundaries are set it can be even MORE challenging to maintain them. A wonderful book I would recommend you read is Esoteric Empathy by Raven Digitalis.

Personal boundaries are vital for the Psychic Empath because as such we are the natural psychic sponge of humanity. Most times we unintentionally absorb the energies that surround us whether it is from; the environment we are physically placed in, the sentient beings (living and dead) that surround us within that place, the events that transpire there, the sounds and

ABC of Paganism: M is for (The) Morrigan

8/8/2018

She appeared to me first in a dream. I was confused as to who she was as it was unclear so I reached out to others who I knew had an active relationship with her only to be informed that if it was indeed The Morrigan that I had encountered I would know. So I dismissed the vision as a simple dream and continued my practice without a second thought. I felt the same way about The Morrigan as I did Isis; she seemed trendy. Everyone was working with or they were priestesses of The Morrigan and I didn’t want to be like everyone else so I resisted. But she persisted. She continued to appear to me in dreams and would make her presence known during my meditations. I witnessed murders of crows in the backyard of my home. I found black feathers while on walks in the neighborhood. I couldn’t ignore her so I conceded and acknowledged her.

It was clear that I required her aid. My family was going through a

Do Loving Gods Punish Humanity?

8/1/2018

I had a YouTube viewer ask me to share some thoughts and advice on how they can work through the belief that the gods will punish those that show them disrespect or when protecting their followers. This particular viewer was attempting to establish what their personal beliefs were in relation to the gods and found that they had contradicting beliefs; the gods are all loving / the gods are wrathful and wanted to find some way to reconcile these beliefs because both felt true. They went on to question how an individual would disrespect a god and how that god might respond.

I think it is important for each of us to contemplate what we

Practices For The Dark Half of the Year

7/25/2018

The Wheel of the Year is divided into two equal halves: the Light Half of the Year and the Dark Half of the Year. It is the time from the Spring Equinox (March 21) to the Fall Equinox (September 21) that we experience the Dark Half of the Year. This is a time when death is witnessed in its many beautiful manifestations; from the shedding of leaves from the tree branches above our heads to the hibernation and migration of numerous species of our animal friends. This time of stillness, of rest is required so that the vital energy that sustains life is able to recycle and be stored so that it might be reborn once again come Spring and the Light Time of the Year. My personal practice reflects what is occurring within my environment, which is a clear manifestation of what is happening with the Seasonal Tides of the Earth herself.

ABC of Paganism: L is for Learning

7/19/2018

The concept is simple; as mystics, occultists, magicians, sorcerers, wizards, witches, or whatever label you prefer for yourself ... we are always seeking. We are always searching for the greater knowledge or the hidden knowledge. It is the foundation for all magickal practice and is the first axiom of The Witch's Pyramid; "To Know" and in order to know anything the individual must find it, comprehend it, and learn it. There is so much for the Witch to learn about ourselves and our personal realities without even considering the shared reality of all humanity and any other realities that might exist beyond.

For me, this idea, the idea that I will never stop being a student,

Earthbound Spirits

7/11/2018

I have always had a morbid fascination with death. When I was a child I would lay in bed and "pretend" to be dead allowing my mind to explore the possibilities that lay for me beyond the physical life I knew and while I have not yet experienced physical death, well, at least not in my current incarnation, though I know I have had previous (congruent) life experiences on this physical plane of reality and have experienced death in those lives, I have an understanding of death, which was shared with me by my spiritual allies; those non-physical entities that I work with and have worked with during this current incarnation.

Death is a process similar to birth and just as birth takes time, typically forty weeks from conception, death also

ABC of Paganism: K is for Keys

7/4/2018

I have had a love for keys since I was a child and would collect any that I found abandoned or that no longer had a valid use for its intended purpose. Car keys, house keys, padlock keys ... old rusty keys, newer keys ... any sort of key was a treasure for me. I would eagerly place the key on a silver key ring or chain and keep them in a safe place. I would pretend to use my found keys to open locked doors whether physical or imagined believing that whatever it was secured behind those doors was important and valuable and available to only me since I held the key.

Musings

6/27/2018

Sometimes as we live our lives and practice our Craft there are situations and people that can really just irritate us. Right? I am aware that these moments appear so that we can take time and reflect on why it bothers us to such an extent and to grow from the experience. Perhaps the person or situation is reflecting back at us something that we may want to examine more thoroughly; a wound that we have not healed from that could possibly be effecting our Craft in a way that is detrimental to our overall well-being. I believe that often times when we are being confronted and even ridiculed by a Christian this may hit us swifter and with more emotion than if it was by someone else and about something other than our religious or spiritual beliefs. There is this history we share that energetically binds us to each other in suffering and grief, which is a trigger for many Witches to lash out and feel the need to defend themselves, but I am not one of those Witches. I was raised within in Christian home and explored Christianity for years before forging my own spiritual path. It isn't that I disliked the teachings, but more that I don't believe that any one religion has

ABC of Paganism: J is for Judgment

6/20/2018

When I consider the concept of judgment within my Witchcraft I first consider the Tarot card of Judgement XX and what lessons it brings forth when it appears in a spread; making a judgment on a situation or experience, judging others or oneself, facing the reckoning of the gods … when I do so I realize that there are often times when judgment is not only useful and helpful, but necessary. Within my own practice I recognize that judgment forces me to create boundaries where there previously were none or forces me to contemplate my own desires and needs instead of always yielding to others (especially when dealing with a coven or group of other practitioners). While it is certainly true that compromises must be made when I am a member of a larger group there are things that we all should refuse to compromise on, especially if we are uncomfortable with whatever it is being presented to us, though I would also concede that sometimes our own discomfort may indicate that there is a shadow within ourselves that we may want to address.

My Beloved Familiar

6/17/2018

Alchemy had been struggling with feline diabetes in the previous couple of years, but with a diet adjustment and holistic supplements I had been able to get his glucose level under control and while he still wasn't as sprightly as he had been in his kitten years he had regained much of his weight and movement in his hind leg, which had succumbed to nueropathy. All of my family members were concerned during this time and due to his profound weight loss we had considered that our time with him was dwindling, but as he began recovering and his normal behavior returned we no longer worried. Life was good.

The morning of Monday, May 21 brought new concerns. My husband awoke to find a number of blood drips on our living