Goddess and God - Earth and Sky

Once again, I am turning to Mom's a Witch for a blog prompt.  The truth is, I am a bit exhausted and out of touch these days.  In our new location I am spending more time out doors, but with two very small people both are mobile now it is not a time for spiritual tuning.  Yes, I passingly notice the sun on my face...the wind in my hair...the cool earth beneath me, but it all flutters by before I can fully soak it in.  I suppose it's no different for any mama of little ones, I just don't remember being so worn out when the big kids were young.

Ok, back to this blog topic.  Since I missed April lets forget for a moment that May is almost gone as well I am mashing up a pair of topics from April and May: Who is your patron Goddess and God?

When I first started exploring Paganism, I thought that I had to choose patron deities.  Everything I read talked about finding your patrons, learning to work with them, growing your spiritual strength through them.  There really wasn't much room for negotiation.  I needed to find a Goddess and a God. Yet, no matter how deeply I delved I could not come to grips with the concept of embracing a deity.  So I focused on Earth Magick and just kept learning and studying while skirting the whole higher being issue.

Somewhere along the way, my attention turned toward Shamanism maybe because I play a Shammy on WOW and I started finding answers that suited my natural bents.  Going back, way back to the first family groups living in mud huts, people did not seek answers from sacred personalities, but from nature.  Shamans spent a life time learning to communicate with the Elementals and the spirits of nature and the ancestors: they spoke to trees and read the clouds and received messages on the wind.  This made sense to me.  This is what I had been tinkering with my entire life, but had never been able to put a name on.  My deeper primitive self connects to the energy of The Universe through raw nature. 

I am a Animistic Witch. As recently as last fall, I would have labeled myself an pantheistic witch, but that was simply because it was the only label I knew that somewhat fit.  My magick comes from fostering a close relationship with the Universal Power and the Elementals.  I am "A child of the Earth and the Sky: kindred of the Elementals."  My allegiance is to the natural world around me.

The Good Spell Book-Love Charms Magical Cures and Other Practical Sorcery: Gillian Kemp

The Good Spell Book was given to me nestled into a box of random books on divination and magick and I very nearly bypassed it as just another bit of frivolous writing.  Although my first response was to file it in the bookcase and forget about it, I kept finding myself drawn back to this book.  It's beautiful cloth binding and comfortable heft kept asking me to open it up and explore.  Once I did, I was delighted. 

This little volume is densely populated with bits of Romanie folk magick and spells.  It is fun and friendly to read and the handwritten notes in the margins give it a very personable feel.  The intent behind this volume feels very sincere and  accessible. 

The test of any spell book is of course it's spells and this one could almost be viewed as a simple primer on earth magick.  I have adapted a several of the spells and practices for my own use and been very happy with the outcome.  The simple folksy manner of these workings make them ideal for the magical mother looking to infuse her home and the lives of her children positive witchy energy. 

Earth Power by Scott Cunningham

Amazon stock photo

Awhile back, I found an old copy of this book and devoured it in an afternoon.  I won't go all cliché and say that "it changed my life," but it was a real eye opener.  I was on a path to perusing Druidry and picked this book up out of curiosity just to find that I couldn't put it down.  By the end of the second chapter I knew I was a witch.  Not going to be a witch, but a witch.  Unbeknownst to even myself, I had been practicing Earth Magic for years.  If I had been asked about it previously, I would have probably laughed it away, but I always knew there was power to draw from nature if you only knew how to ask.  It was an intuition that I credited to the native Sioux in my ancestry.

Unlike Mr. Cunningham, I do not (even now) prescribe to Wiccan ideals, but this book is invaluable none the less.  It would certainly be the first book I handed to a seeker of magic.  The writing is beautifully simple without diminishing the power of the topic and leaves even the most timid reader feeling that magic is within their realm of possibility.