Signs

Lots of signs from Nature this weekend. Yesterday I moved all the plants from the inside planter at the library onto the patio, so the planter can be repaired. I took a bit of care with them, tied up some weak branches, and made sure they all had plenty of water. When I went outside to check on them for the last time before the weekend I saw a crow had visited them as well and left a feather, which my cats are now enjoying.


Then early this morning I got up and watered all my home patio plants and topped off the fountain water (it’s been over one hundred degrees during the day lately and everyone is thirsty; even the fountain). Found a solitary sparrow feather sitting waiting for me when I went out to check on it all a little after the watering. Hmmm. Lots of birdy gifts.

The most fantastic sign of all though was later this morning as I was shopping. I went to the local Sephora to check out Kat Von D’s makeup line, and after buying some iridescent eye shadow was walking back to my car when a huge scarab beetle flew up to me and slowly began circling me. He passed up and down me, and regarded me front and back. His iridescent blue and green shell glimmered in the sun and resembled the powders freshly painted on my face (I am not always the demure reference law librarian). He landed on my hand, appeared to study me quite intently and then circled me a few more times before taking stock and continuing his way down the pathway. The total encounter was probably about four or five minutes long. Another shopper witnessed this and came up to me, asking whether I knew anyone who had passed who liked scarab beetles. She said surely this was the soul of someone who knew me. Well, of course I know who this was. And I smiled, tears stabbing the back of my eyes, as this person is with me always, and shows himself in the sweetest and funniest ways.

I spent the afternoon laughing and teasing myself that I see Spirit in a lot of strange ways! Feathers blowing by and overly familiar scarab beetles! Then I turned on a television rerun of Lisa William’s Life Among the Dead, and of all the episodes that could have been showing, the one being broadcast was the one most personal to me: the War Widow reading, which makes me remember so vividly a reading I had a few years ago in which my friend came through for the first time since his passing. Coincidence? Ah, there are no coincidences!

I believe our loved ones in spirit send us signs all the time to let us know that they are there and that they care about us and are helping us. Spirit has the ability to influence nature, like crows and scarab beetles. Watch. Be open. And see who shows for you today. It might be the penny on the ground (check the date!), the animal encounter, or, as my neighbor experiences,the finding of hairpins in the oddest places and times. How does Spirit show to you?

Afternoon at the GIA

Today I went to the GIA in Carlsbad, California for a tour of the library and related areas. Wow! What a fantastic place. As you approach the center, you see the Tower of Brilliance, which displays the world’s largest crystal octahedron, made by Swarovski. It gleams like a beacon.

After going through two levels of security I met up with my GIA friend Paula who walked me around room after room of stunning gem displays – everything from old gem cutter equipment to glittering faceted gemstones and micron photographs of crystals that looked like paintings by O’Keefe. I was completely bedazzled and almost overwhelmed with the energy. Some areas of the building were buzzing with crystalline energy to the point of making me dizzy. The rare book vault was profoundly still and peaceful.

Of interest was a large chrysocolla; longer than my arm, and just the right size to be a wing:

And many intricate patterns of crystals – these social rocks fascinate me more than the cut stones. They sit in attendance one on the other....like friends around a campfire...

There were also fossilized sea creatures who became jeweled in death:

The library and the rare archive room blew me away. I could have spent a week there and barely emerged for food and air. There are more than 38,000 volumes on everything you can imagine having to do with gemology, including a couple of sections on the metaphysical aspects of stones. Woo hoo witchy woos!

You can bet I'll return - there is much magic and lore to uncover there.

Grounding Myself Tonight

Did you feel it? The atmosphere today was kinda off. Absolute confirmation came when the staff at Starbucks related their clientele was either out of sorts or spacey today. Then my Vedic astrologer friend Adam Eliot explained that Venus is going through a difficult transit, and we are feeling the energetic wave effect of that celestial experience.

All day long I felt like I needed to watch the sky for incoming… who knows what. So tonight… grounding…. Back to center. Shower off the detritus of the day’s negativity. Salt bath soak. Walk on the Earth and send roots of my energy tendriling down to the pulsing core energy that sustains us all. Water the garden and feel the plant energy. I want to feel any energy that connects with the Earth. I want to sleep outside tonight.

Bedazzled!

The Gem and Crystal Faire was stunning! Room after room after room of sparkling stones and bustling crowds; the place buzzed with happy energy. It was indoors, but had a bazaar like feel: amethysts from Uruguay, lapis from Afghanistan, silver from India, larimar from the Dominican Republic…. Booth after booth of exotic wares and sellers!

This assemblage was geared toward the jewelry maker and crafter, so there was a prevalence of booths with strung gemstones… tables deep with amber, coral, turquoise, garnet, jade, pearls, and carnelian strings. I longed to dive into them like a bath, or at least run my arms through the piles like a pirate with a treasure chest.

More to my practical taste as a magical homemaker were the raw mineral sellers and their arrays of globes, palm stones, tumbles, and raw points. I wound up purchasing a lovely ruby fuchsite palm stone. Once I figure out the camera Tina has loaned me I shall post a picture. It is the most beautiful apple green with ruby… and exudes a vibrant hopeful energy! My cats are all over it still.

The lads selling the fuchsite were very jolly, and produced a tray of iced cake balls they had made and gave us each one after our purchases. I shall now call them the Cake Ball Miners and visit their shop up in the Inland Empire area of Southern California.

My favorite find was a stunning quartz point array tucked back at a booth in a remote room. It is about eighteen inches long by about eight inches wide, and has many, many, many quartz points of all sizes emerging from a matrix. For Lisa Williams fans: it looks a lot like the quartz point array she has in her office in the first season of Life Among the Dead. Talk about energy! I held my hands over it for a time and the energy was like a million little acupuncture needles striking me. Tingle! I heard Vincent Price’s voice in my head: “the tingler!” (I hear Vincent a lot, so get used to it because you’ll read me referencing him and his films from time to time). At $4,000 the array will have to wait for another time.

Interestingly, the event was held at the Scottish Rites Center here in San Diego. Translation: the Masons: the modern descendants of the Templar order. As we meandered through the hallways we looked at the cases of hats and aprons and tiaras and various regalia of the organization. It reminded me of the Old Testament references for gemstones and the high priests. (Exodus 28:15: “And thou shalt make a breastplate of judgment…”). Those ancient cultures had it going on too! They recognized the influence of crystals on the human energy field. Why else give detailed proscriptions for breastplates with gems for each tribe of Israel, to be laid out in a precise manner? Oh I hope The Naked Archeologist has a show on the Breastplate of the Ephod! Or a reprise of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, where the priests demonstrate for the high school audience why they inlaid the gems in such a way, and how the energy of crystals assisted them in their spiritual rites.

Ah… now I must get back to the practical world and work on some legal stuff this Sunday. But my mind remains bedazzled by the faire. If one comes near you, go – you’ll find some wonderful little thing to add to the energy of your home. And maybe the Cake Ball Miners will be there!

When a diamond is set in a golden ring, it looks very nice. The gold is glorified and at the same time the diamond is glorified. The Lord and the living entity eternally glitter. And when a living entity becomes inclined to the service of the Supreme Lord he looks like gold. – Bhagavad Gita.

Crystal hunting

Headed to a crystal and gem faire this weekend. Hope to be able to post some pix !

Sage it Out With the New Moon

Ah the Dark of the Moon is upon us tonight and anticipation fills the air. But first… housekeeping is in order! And given the focus of this blog, of course I mean magical housekeeping!

Magical housekeeping can be done anytime, anywhere, but is especially appropriate at the time of the New Moon. The idea is to clear the space you live in of negative energy, which has accumulated over a period of time. By doing it now, at the New Moon, you can start the coming lunar cycle with a sparkling and peaceful home environment.

If you haven’t ever done this for your home, I strongly recommend that you do. Negative energy attaches to places for many reasons and in many ways and after time it can really become interfering. Sadness, anxiety, conflict; these all happen to us at various times and the negativity lingers and must be cleaned away. Have you ever been to a location that had something horrible happen there? Remember the residual energy you felt there? The same thing happens in your home as the result of your emotions, your interactions with others, and just the messy business of living.

You want your loved ones to have a happy and calm place to live, eat, and sleep. A magical home may not be always free of strife, but it can be restored to a place of peace with some intention and ritual, and time-tested methods.

If your home has a lot of negative energy, it will take a few cleaning sessions. Once you get a place cleansed, though, absent any horrific events, routine cleaning will keep it fresh and positive.

Here are some of the things I do; I’d love to hear your methods as well.

Open the windows and doors. Let the air flow through. If you do nothing else, do this. Life energy, or chi, gets stagnant if it can’t move. When you open your place up, the energy flows and it’s like a river coming through and clearing away the debris of your psychic travail.

Sage it out! Light a sage wand, or (my preference) burn sage leaves on a charcoal pellet and waft the sage smoke through the house. Be sure and let the smoke get up into the corners and around the edges of walls and crevices, as this is where negative spirits will keep themselves. Mind your smoke alarm! Consider using another method to clear the space around that. No need to scare the neighbors. And be careful you don't drop sparks. The wands can be a little messy that way, so exercise care.

If you don’t like the smell of sage (my cats hate it, but they have to deal), you can use any high quality incense. Sage is particularly effective against active negative entities; incense will lift the atmosphere very well and clear it of residual negativity. And even though sage smells a little like weed, no worries. (I had the local constabulary rap at my door one evening in response to a domestic disturbance down the walkway just as I was in full magical housekeeping mode, and when I opened the door a blast of sage smoke struck the officer. I stood there looking very witchy-woo in a black outfit, my hair messy, and cats twining around my ankles as I held a smoking plate of sage. He never said a word about it. He’s a So Cal cop!)

You can also walk around your home with a candle, or a crystal wand (I love, love, love my selenite wand!) and say words of cleansing and protection. You can make up the words, or use words from your religious tradition. You can invoke Jesus, the angels, or the saints, or whomever you pray to for protection. The main point is that YOU invoke the protection and OWN it. As with all prayer and spell work, it is your energy that makes it work. This is not the time to be a wimp. This is your home. Claim it.

Banish the negativity. Send it away – direct it out of windows and tell it to leave. Invoke calm and love for your home, and call in protection if you feel the need for that. Rearrange your crystals and determine which will take pride of place for the next lunar cycle. My selenite globe usually fills that role and sits squat in the center of the house.

AA Michael is known for his protective work and will always gird a home if you ask him. One of the archangels, Michael is found in all spiritual traditions, which is remarkable if you think about it. But you have to ask. Your energy starts the process. I don’t know why this is, but it is. You have to ask. (Remember that time is a dimension, so you can ask for protection for the past, too – oh that’s a discussion for another night…)

There are lots of other housekeeping hints like this to discuss, but it’s getting late and I have to go finish my cleaning. I guarantee that if you do this little psychic shakeout, the space will feel lighter to you afterwards. If you routinely clean your home, you know what I mean. Please add to this discussion and comment with your methods. If this is new to you… give it a try. This is the perfect time to do it.

For my Muslim friends: Ramadan Mubarak! May the peace of Allah be upon you and may you have wonderful evenings of feasting following the fasts!

New Moon Magic

A friend suggested I write about New Moon work as the New Moon is approaching (around the 20th). I’m happy to oblige.

Moon work is supremely centering and relaxing. We humans have always looked to the Moon for calendaring, crop planting, and various and general inspiration. We ladies learn at an early age that our life cycles correspond to the same 28-day rhythm as Moon phases. Everything from tidal flow to emergency rooms crises and child birth rates seem to crescendo as the moon waxes, so it’s the rare mind that disassociates totally from the notion that the Moon is somehow energetically connected to us. Being mindful of Moon phases is very useful in leading a magical life. Tailoring meditations and life tasks with Moon phase is a tidy and cyclical way of dealing with all things in their proper time.

Take for example the phase of the New Moon: the time when the Moon is Dark and not visible to us. Many believe that the Dark is the time of greatest power in the Moon cycle. I think this is because it is the time of greatest possibility. The Dark occurs only for a moment, even though the sky seems pretty dark for several nights. The Moon is about to begin the waxing phase and so this discrete moment of Dark is a moment of pure anticipation. It is symbolic of the moment at which thought and intention become manifest; when out of the cosmic field, waves become particles. I picture Dr. Fred Alan Wolf running around, waving his arms and going on about axioms and resistance (I love Dr. Wolf so much). It’s a heady concept, and great for late night discussions. But what does the New Moon mean to us on a day-to-day level? How do we work with her?

On a practical level, the time approaching the New Moon (which we are in now: the Moon is in the third quarter as I write) is good for letting go, cleaning house, wrapping up old business, cutting cords, discarding behavior which no longer serves you - that sort of thing. As the Moon appears smaller and smaller; as that crescent wanes to a sliver, consider what YOU can let go of. What no longer serves you? Is it behavioral patterns that are long ingrained? Is it the clutter in the junk drawer of the kitchen?

Are you stalled in fear and not accomplishing all that you want to accomplish? Clear it out! Do you want to start a project? Sit down, clear your head, and do some concrete thinking and planning. Do your groundwork. Moon is about to start to wax and with that energy you can accomplish anything.

As the Moon wanes down, you too can crouch down in preparation for springing into action during the waxing phase. Get ready. You can do anything if you put your mind to it. And Luna is always there to keep you in mind of your own possibilities.

However you meditate, take a moment to think on the Moon. Ask Her for guidance (or ask whichever Deity you talk to). Your Deity created the Moon (regardless of your spiritual tradition, I think this is a given). The Moon is there to help guide you. You can’t get it wrong; look up and see what you see. Put on some music that makes you move, and clear out your mind, your home, your life!

Now I'm not a highly metaphysical man/But I know when the stars are aligned you can - Michael Franti, Say Hey I Love You

Farewell, Campbell

Today the world mourns the loss of Campbell R. Bridges, a dynamic man who spent much of his life in Kenya. He is famous for discovering Tsavorite, a green gem of exceeding brilliance and quality. He was brutally murdered by claim jumpers who wanted control of his mines.

Tsavorite is an example of one of the new and powerful crystals Mother Earth is now revealing to us. It is an amazing healing stone and particularly useful in crises. It assists in girding the strength of anyone who wears it; transforming fear into strength, crisis into challenge.

New stones such as Tsavorite appear on Earth when they are needed. It is ironic that the man instrumental in revealing this stone passed from this world in such a manner. One hopes his glimmering grossularite assisted him.

Look at the gems you are wearing right now. Realize they are powerful repositories of energy. Visualize what it took to get the stone out of the ground and into your hands. Many people, many paths, temporal drama, eons of time. That stone, that crystal, is far older than you and will remain dynamic long after you are gone.

And yet now, at this moment, in that stone’s millennia of being, it is with you. Can you feel the energy?

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing there is a field. I will meet you there. – Rumi

Thoughts Become Things.. and sometimes silly evenings

This evening I’m having dinner with Paula, a librarian from the GIA– my favorite cache of crystals in the whole universe. I met Paula at a party a couple of weeks ago and we hit it off. It happens that way when you work with crystals. You keep finding more people and crystals. Our encounter got me thinking of the concept of synchronicity, and one of my favorite stories. Some of you have heard this already, as I love to tell it, so apologies all around and feel free to click off now if you know this one.

It was several years ago and I was at one of Deepak Chopra’s satsungs in La Jolla back when he had his Center there. That night the main speaker was the legendary Fred Alan Wolf, physicist extraordinaire. When Fred talks I can barely keep up with his ideas – he zooms around on a plane well above my thick head. But I love, love listening to him. Dr. Wolf spoke at length about how scientists have demonstrated in a tangible way how a thought can become form; how the particles emerge from the mist; how things go, as his book title implies, from Mind Into Matter.

As coincidence – or in this case synchronicity – would have it, musician Dave Stewart was in the group as well. And as the evening continued we all got very silly. There were tabla players there and we got Deepak rapping Rumi out to their beats; we made Dave go out to his bus to get his guitar and we sang and made merry. And as the hours slipped by it all got very cozy. At one point Fred said he had always wanted to make a movie about the quantum reality in such a way as to make the concepts accessible to the average viewer – he wanted to make it a la Monty Python. Jokes were made as to how this could take form, and then – in a moment of pure synchronicity – Dave mentioned that he was meeting with Eric Idle in London the following week, and would Fred like to get together? The shock on Fred’s face said it all. Of course! Imagine saying you want to make a Monty Python film and someone says oh here, let’s go meet with the creator of Monty Python…. Wild!

Now at that point Yours Truly left the story, not to speak with either Dr. Wolf or Mr. Stewart since, but in matter of a couple of years, What the Bleep Do We Know came out. If you haven’t seen this yet, you should. It’s a great film about how the quantum reality works and it’s done in Dr Wolf’s crazy manner. It’s the film he made – the film he intended to make way back at that synchronous satsung evening. The film he set his mind on creating. People and situations and circumstances rose up to meet his intention. Out of his mind came this creation. Synchronicity…. It brought him everything he needed. Only… he had to take the initial steps to put the whole thing into action.

What could we do in two years if we put our minds to it? We could do anything. We really could.

Reaching Higher Ground

Early today someone asked me how he could raise his vibration to a higher level. You’d think it would be easy, but my friend was having difficulty.

We are after all, nothing more than whirling bundles of discrete energy. Our bodies are made of space and electrons and neutrons and bits of this and that. And all energy has vibration. So as sentient beings we ought to be able exert a little control over the ‘vibes’ we give out to others. We ought, as spiritual people, be able to exude such balanced energy that we immediately soothe all those we come in contact with and have nothing but happy encounters. Yeah right.

Many days I deal with the public and lately they have been a difficult lot. They are angry, resentful, rage-filled, and insulting. At least they are when they are confronting the legal system. And many times the legal system is confronting them. So I suppose they are entitled to be cranky. I smile benignly and offer help and stifle the urge to match their negative remarks with retorts of my own. It’s a real challenge, though, when they make disparaging remarks about attorneys, about women, about the judicial system, and me. After all, I’m standing in front of them, making them face their unpleasant situation.

So after work today I took a walk. And before I padded out the door I slipped a lovely crystal in my pocket: a gorgeous piece of lakeshore prehnite from my friend Barbara, of the Keeweenaw in Upper Michigan. As I walked, and rolled the crystal in my hand, I began to feel calmer and lighter. I thought of Barbara and her lake. And of my own water here by the Pacific Ocean. I felt the crystal buzz with its ancient energy. And for some whimsical reason Stevie Wonder started singing “Higher Ground” in my head. The brain is a fine computer and I played all the intricate melodies and complex rhythms of that great song out in my mind. And as I walked, the day’s tensions and inequities melted away. I could return to my home refreshed and with my vibration raised up. All thanks to a walk, focusing on a crystal, and Mr. Wonder’s magical music.

“I’m so glad that he let me try it again/Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin/I’m so glad that I know more than I knew then/Gonna keep on tryin”Till I reach my highest ground” -Stevie Wonder. Higher Ground

Start Me Up!

First post on Magical Home/Magical Life! Finally! I'll get pix and more up in the next few days, but had to get started on this blog even without them. There's something about the energy in the air right now that motivates me. The time is right.

The whole purpose of my scribbling here is to explore ideas, create dialogue, and help others create a happy home environment, a happy family environment, and happy life through the use of magic. Everyday magic. Practical magic.

What's practical magic? Well for me it's a combination of the old ways (read: pagan wisdom) and quantum physics. We have the tools. Most of the time they're free or low cost. Most of the time we have them in abundance.

Moon work, crystal work, energy work, herbs and oils, meditation, wakeful dreaming, mediumship. We're going to discuss it all. It's not a secret. But it is ignored and discarded.

So let's change that and unlock the information.