Council Blog

Okay, I’m a few days from mid-week, but I thought of what to write and jumped right in!

With my Milagro Box craft coming up, I’ve been thinking about the word “miracle” and all the ways we use it in our culture and what it really means in a more sacred way.  A Milagro, as an object, is from the cultures of Mexico and in Spanish “milagro” means “miracle” or “surprise”.  No pun intended but I was surprised to read that. But when you think about it, a lot of things we call miracles ARE pretty surprising.  The physical “milagros” from Mexican culture, are small charms of many different objects. We will be using the charms to create boxes for purposes sacred, magical, or simply decorative.  The ways the Milagro charms are used in Mexico, that I have read about, are varied and seem pretty magical in my mind. Placing some kind of intention in the charm and carrying it for healing or protection or offering it to a saint in the hopes of answered prayers reminds me of my magical practices.  After all, a spell does seem pretty miraculous when it works, and a lot like prayer when I am crafting it.   

Miracle is a word that might seem to be only religious.  We hear it a lot from folks from certain religions who tell us that something they prayed for and then happened was a miracle of God. I can’t disagree. I think that the folks of these faiths are probably thinking that miracles can only come from God and perhaps that they are mostly spectacular events that seemed unlikely.  (surprise!) I think we limit ourselves and our own power when we give all the miracles to the supernatural.

With Imbolg right around the corner, I am of a mind that miracles are about to begin in earnest as the Universe’s powers of growth return or perhaps I might say, when the Goddess begins to awaken.  It’s not spring but neither is it full winter. Thankfully, we are past midwinter and if you go outside on Imbolg and look closely, you will see small bits of green beginning to return and maybe even crocus awakening.  Whether it is the grass you take for granted or the lovely bulbs who are here for such a short time, life is coming back to the earth.  This can be nothing short of a miracle.  These things have looked “dead” for months. 

If you don’t know me, I put my heart and soul into a pretty big garden every summer.  I feel like Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s apprentice waving my trowel like a magic wand, conducting the magic to grow the plants that make the neighbors say “how do you get it to do that?” “Miracle Grow?”  haha!   Well, I can’t say “magic” unless it sounds joking, but “it seems like a miracle, right?” is sometimes a good answer.   And it’s true.  Every flower is a miracle.  I don’t cure cancer but I do make lots of flowers, small and fleeting miracles. Miracles, big or small, from a big G god, a goddess, the Fae folk, the Universe, or just random surprises,  are all around us.  Put your hand on your chest.  You aren’t doing anything to cause it but your heart is beating and keeping you alive.  YOU are the best miracle.   You can create your own miracles with the miraculous spirit you have.  On Beltane my children used to leave May Baskets for the neighbors.  Surprise!  The neighbors got a happy miracle and so did we when we hid and watched their reaction.  

Magic, prayer, and focused thought are tools which can help us to intentionally create miracles for ourselves and for others.  Miracle Grow is actually well named – the surprising magic of watching plants say “oh my god, thank you for that!” and start to grow. I give them blue stuff, they grow.  Magic nitrogen potion. 

Go ahead, call a car crash that didn’t kill you a miracle.  It was. Recognize the miraculous when your sickness got better when the doctor told you it wouldn’t. Sometimes, with modern health care, we can take babies for granted. But a baby is pretty freaking miraculous.  But don’t forget the smiles you create, the plants that return when winter lets them go, every breath you take, and the comfort your breathing gives another person who loves you, when you ponder the meaning of miracle.  (Tuesday my youngest kid turns 26! Miracles abound!)

What are miracles? Certainly the surprises we were not expecting when we had given up hope. But it’s not just that, not just the big things and the surprised person screaming “It’s a miracle!!”. I think miracles are simply Life, and all the myriad of surprises we give and find as we walk life’s paths. 

Blessings (and miracles!),

Chel

I know shoveling is not our favorite activity, and driving or walking in the snow isn’t always fun. But we are in a record long dry spell, in the middle of a drought.

Human impacts upon mother nature have changed our climate drastically already. And now the chickens are coming home to roost. If we don’t get a very wet, snowy winter, there will be some hard times ahead for all of the western half of our country. There won’t be enough water for crops. We may have to have water rationing. And the fire season may be incredibly dangerous.

So I think perhaps you will forgive me, and even join in with me in praying for snow. The weather forecast today says some rain, and tonight a little snow, but it’s less than an inch of accumulation. We need some heavy prolonged snow this winter. So that’s what I am praying for: several heavy snow falls all winter long.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

I love the peacefulness of a dark night. I love the magic of the dark moon. And when midsummer rolls around I find myself kind of falling into a funk. It’s like a sunlight overdose.  I call it the “noon of the year”.  But interestingly, when midwinter (Yule) rolls around, the peace and the magic of the dark are not enough to keep me at peace.  Now there seems to be too much darkness.  I know, that sounds strange coming  from me.  But every afternoon the day leaves sooner but instead of the peaceful night rolling in to calm me, I somehow feel cheated.  It can’t be night at 5pm, but it is.  It’s interesting that my mind prefers the darkness and would like it if midsummer would pass over with less intensity.  But here, in the season of increasing darkness, I call out for just an hour or two more of light, please.  I think my body takes it kind of hard, no matter what my mind tells me about the beauty of the night. Deep down inside, no matter what we think, what we know, scientifically, the world seems to be dying and with it, our bodies suddenly fear that the darkness is not a calming night but a never ending descent into the darkness of the underworld. 

This slowly encroaching fear is  why our ancestors stoked up the fires and got the neighbors together for a party to remind each other that life is still bright and hope is not to be forgotten no matter how short the days.. It’s why we tell the tale of a young king fighting to bring the light to his kingdom and the tale of the old king yielding his time of dwindling light.  The Holly King is often depicted as a Santa Claus looking fellow and I like to imagine that the Holly King puts a gift of light in my stocking as he surrenders his throne.   The light has been fading so low but on Yule, it will begin to return and thus the hearty cheer that we made it to Yule when that night finally arrives..  Much winter lies ahead, but no matter the weather or how dark it still feels, in less than three weeks we will  know we are on the way back.  “It’s dark, but it’s not scary” (Jewish Wedding Band)

Blessings
Chel

A new kind of blog this time. Let us know what you think of this audio post. Chel and Jordan sat down to talk about their introductions to Paganism and to Covenant. Click on the play arrow below. If you have trouble let us know.

Here it is a little past mid-week.  My mind has been swirling and filling and emptying again and taking all of me with it.  What to write, what to write? How to write when focus cannot be found?  For any of you who were at Samhain, you were able to meet my Goddess Oracle deck. I hoped that perhaps the cards could help me stop spinning and find focus and I think they did. 

I was given “Ecstasy” for my primary card, the absolute joy of living. Curious.  It is early November and darkness is enveloping us all like a peaceful blanket, a call to rest.  And most years my mood follows the light down into an unpleasant darkness that yearns for Yule to bring me back the light.  But not this year.  The swirling I mentioned at the start is very energetic.  I am thinking and getting things done. And I’m scared.  I’m bipolar.  When my mind and mood shift to a higher gear I fear I might be getting manic, a happy but dangerous place to be.  What does one do when energy, creativity,  and happiness cannot be trusted?.  

Perhaps the card means that having energy and creativity is just that.  I doesn’t have to be something to be afraid of. It can be used and enjoyed.  The next card, the one that tells what’s holding me back from achieving the first card is Kuan Yin, telling me that I must find compassion for myself.  Telling me that I can be happy and energetic without that meaning bipolar mania, and that it’s okay to enjoy it.

I take the next card and find Artemis on the card that tells me what to do. This card always means that I need to be true to myself when I draw it. And what will the cards offer for my experience, what I need to experience to be able to finally find or enjoy the positive aspects of the ecstasy card?  

Surprise – Sekhmet meets me with a burning rage and tells me I need that, too. Really? I need to experience rage to feel ecstasy?  But rage  feels so dangerous. Could it be that before anyone can seize pure joy for even a moment, the true wrongs that make us angry must be addressed. Perhaps enjoying ecstasy without fear, can only come when what needs to be burned away is gone, leaving space for something positive.. The cards always seem to know  just what I need to learn.  

Blessings

We have arrived at my favorite time of the year.. The liminal space between the end of one year and the beginning of another. In my tradition at least. It is the time to clean out the closets, sit with yourself and make your hearth the best space it can be. It is time to take long walks watching dappled sunlight create shadows. It is time to sit in front of the mirror, lights off, candles lit and see what you need to recognize in your own reflection.
Samhain marks the end of the working year; the harvest has been brought in and now we can gather at the hearth with our beloveds. As the nights grow longer and the veil thickens, a quiet settles on the land. We wait in limbo for the light to return at Yule.
In the waiting, we have an opportunity to do the mundane work of clearing the clutter and the spiritual work of understanding our shadow selves.
Shadow work is a very personal way of weaving together magic and self empowerment or care. It is the practice of taking time to look at our innermost workings to manifest the best version of ourselves so we can achieve great things. Shadow work can be the picking apart of negative behaviors or it can be learning new communication styles. It can look like intense meditation sessions or a tarot spread surrounded by chunks of amethyst. How is not as important as why you are doing the work or what you want to achieve. Shadow work is digging in and unearthing the parts of your unconscious or personality that are maladaptive or so repressed that they manifest in ugly inconsistent ways.
There are plenty of ways to get started from journal prompts to Jungian texts to new-age podcasts. A few minutes on your favorite search engine will help you find a tool to kick-start your journey. I can recommend Kelly Ann Maddox and Christine Jette, as they have both helped to form my understanding and practice of shadow work. I will put links to their work in the comments.
After the hustle and bustle of the summer and then the harvest.. It is time to intone the Iza rune and listen to what the vibrations shake loose. I encourage you to sit in front of the mirror with nothing but candle light, to answer hard questions in a fancy notebook or meditate on a mountain trail and find a better way forward.

Many blessings on the journey!
Jean Loomis

This midweek moment was supposed to be posted, as its name suggests, in the middle of the week. Wednesday, maybe Thursday, something like that. Today is Saturday. My point is, that it is okay to not be okay and to say it.

How that relates? It’s been one of those weeks where everything seems to take way longer than you expect, things that should really take you thirty minutes seem to take three to four times that. And just like that, poof, there goes the entire week. In addition the way my depression manifests itself is in one of two ways: anger, or what happened this week – lack of motivation. I got writers block, not just on this blog post, but in everything I was doing at work and for Covenant alike. When I get behind on things, my depression tends to come on strong. This week, I am not entirely okay. Nothing is wrong, but I’m behind and I am depressed. I am saying it, because it is okay to not be okay.

There is this notion that some people like to push, that everything should always be alright, that if we are healthy and nothing is actually seriously wrong then we should be happy. But that just isn’t reality for most of us. Nothing can be “wrong” and we can still find ourselves depressed, or struggling in a number of ways. And I want to say it. You’re not alone in this. It is okay to not be okay. You can’t just make yourself be happy if you are not. You’re not alone in struggling for what seems like no reason. You’re not alone in getting behind on projects. You’re not alone in just sometimes not feeling 100% or being at your best. And that is okay. We need to cut ourselves a little slack for this, because beating ourselves up over it will just make it worse. We have to just keep doing the best we can, keep moving forward, try to elevate our mood sure, but don’t feel ashamed of being down or slow or just not okay. It happens to most of us. We are human and this is part of being human. Find a way out of it if you can, and cut yourself some slack if you can’t. You are worthy, you are loved, you are valuable, and you are enough just the way you are. Blessings!

Jordan

I do try to make my blog entries a bit related to what is going on at Covenant.  This week it’s about what’s NOT happening at Covenant, yet.   The Dark Moon group.  We had really started to get into a rhythm of sharing before Covid.  Candle rituals, tarot cards, wishes and spells sealed with flash paper, shared rituals and the grand Inanna Ereshkigal ritual made for interesting and shared spiritual gatherings.  I’ve been missing the purple lights and Heckate’s torches. I’ve been missing all of you. 

If you haven’t been here and you are thinking “Dark Moon”, I thought it was called New Moon.  For my practice, there is a time when the moon is completely dark, neither waning nor waxing.  It is a time of potential, it is the cusp, of what only you know.. And then, there is a tiny sliver of a moon, the New Moon, that signals the beginning of the new lunar cycle and the time to act. 

So let’s just do it.  November 4th at the Hall, the post Covid Dark Moon group will begin.  Let’s say 7:00pm.  If that’s too early or late, and you want to come/plan to come, let me know.  Helios runs behind the foothills earlier and earlier so we should have a nice amount of darkness.   If no one comes, I’ll light candles and continue my relationship with my divination cards and I’ll try again in December.  Come with ideas. Bring your own candle if you want.  We’ll figure out something.  It is the group’s Dark Moon, what’s left of the year is when we imagine our future. 

That said, I decided that perhaps I would try to tell you about how I became the keeper, the priestess, if you like, of the Dark Moon. There are so many ways to look at the Dark Moon, things to do or not do, Goddesses to get to know, or at least know about. And most of all, for me, the facing of fears in the Dark that has created me.  Probably a boring auto-biography but you will know more about me and how the Dark Moon became a strong part of my practice. I came to the Dark Moon slowly.  It is a little daunting to be a solitary practitioner in a small-lot suburban neighborhood of two story houses.  My backyard is visible to anyone who wants to look and a full moon shines so brightly that my various cats could join me because I could see them.  Without anyone to share the joy and energy of a full moon with, my life encouraged me to find Dark Moon power.

For most of my adult life I have dealt with undiagnosed Bipolar disorder. (Three cheers of Mountain Crest and Lithium)  Who knew why I was energetic and happy and suddenly in a paralyzing pit of despair.  The downs were far more intense than the short lived ups.  Too often I found myself in a place I came to call The Abyss, a lonely and deadly place of inescapable darkness.  And one day I thought to myself something along the lines, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” by looking at living a new way.  

Stop trying to be the sun, stop being the day, stop doing rituals in the bright moon light that hampered my ability to relax.  “Turn and face the strange” as David Bowie once sang.  So I turned and I found the Dark Moon standing there waiting to embrace me and show me a different kind of darkness.  Because if you want to be there, in the Darkness,  it’s a whole different story.  Sure it still hurt but there was so much to do with the darkness.  If I was in it, I needed to understand how to live there, not just exist.  I started going on walks after 10pm at night.  And the first thing I felt was an enormous easing of my stress level.  There were less cars, less noise.  But more than that, I had not realized that without the people, the cloud of feelings and energy that bombard sensitive people would lessen. 

I found Lilith and she made me brave and strong.  My practice became stronger, my intentions clearer, and my faith in the powers of the universe intensified.  I had/have a miniature set of tools – a cauldron, a 2 inch athame, a chalice fit for a hamster, and stones a plenty.  This is great for anytime work and in the house work when it is cold or raining on Dark Moon night.  Spells brought results more frequently. I found more peace and learned to face fears and perhaps hide from them and feel good about being safe. 

I don’t mean I hid from the fear as in avoiding it or not looking at it.  I mean walking through the fear with enough protection to feel safe.  And here comes the black clothes.  When I walked at night away from my neighborhood I was constantly aware that I was a vulnerable prey animal.  I trusted the darkness to hide me but trust is something that asks something from you so I wore  black head to toe.  This meant being aware of not only potential threats, but that I was invisible and to stay away from cars. 

I liked it, the shield of darkness and I began to use the same powers of protection in my clothing to keep the emotional and psychological influences on me in a lesser state.  Shields up, so to speak.   Which helped me be more relaxed in casual situations. 

Now I have walked into the gentle darkness of the moon, a darkness more powerful and helpful than the darkness of the Abyss that I used to live in, against my will, in danger of death.  Going outside at night to sit or practice is a sensation like easing into a hot bath, like being held by the universe or a caring goddess of the night. 

My love of the Dark Moon and the Goddesses that call it home was sealed under a starry sky, during a shooting star night of the Perseid meteor shower in August 2018.  My mom used to get sick a lot and what she got always seemed to last forever.  I felt like she was always coming down with something, being sick, and making a slow recovery that impaired her life.  My mom can be a thorn in my side but I worried.  I began a project under the full moon (see, I live my lunar life backwards sometimes) of harvesting herbs or buying herbs associated with healing.  It seemed like a crazy idea.  I didn’t want to make her sick with some untested potion, I couldn’t let her know that what I made for her was laced with magic, so I decided on a candle.

The herbs dried, then I put them in wax and under the waning quarter moon I cast a circle and did a ritual as the wax and herbs boiled over a small fire. (I kinda felt like a MacBeth witch), all the while seeking Lilith’s power. And the wax potion, a small thing like starter sourdough, sat in it’s magic for a week.  At the Dark Moon, it was time.  I took it all outside, the wax, the jar, the wick, the herbal magic.  And I thought, “No offense Lilith, but this needs to be big, who else can come?  Hekate fell out of some book.  I guess she wasn’t worried that this was our first date.  I surely did not know what a regal and powerful queen I had summoned. 

And all the neighbors were outside.  Lanterns and fires and grills, and dogs.  But I realized they were all there to watch the meteor shower.  It’s funny but I think the energy those seekers of falling stars put out over the backyards perhaps joined the magic.  It took awhile to melt the wax which gave me time to do a longer ritual and then sit and watch the meteors. Lilith and Heckate, and you have to think that Perseus energy (slayed Medusa) was also there.  Melted wax mixes with  magic herbal wax.  Candle is poured into a used glass candle holder that had a silver cross on it.  And after all was said and done, I told my mom to light the candle and  pray for herself, not just other people, which was a novel idea for her.  I have often thought that there is a great deal in common between a prayer and a spell. So it burned sparsely and I think she got to a place of believing just having it lit was like a prayer for herself.   

My mom got sick this week.  She can’t seem to kick it.  But she never got Covid.  She never got sick again until this week. August 2018 to October 2021.   I do not doubt the incredible power of Hekate, keeper of the keys of the three realms, bearer of torches to protect and light the way.  The only person who travels even into the underworld and out again without the help of Zeus.  A goddess of the dark lower realms who visits Persephone but is powerful enough to leave.  She, I imagine, was the power in the darkness which welcomed me when I first turned and decided to find life in the darkness. 

I am not Morticia Adaams, but perhaps a grown up Wednesday, finding strange, dark things to be interesting and not frightening, who is curious why anyone would find the life which has a dark tinge to be weird.  It just is.  The darkness of the Abyss is often blotted out by the more powerful and positive darkness that, for me, is symbolized by all the things the Dark Moon has to offer.  So when you see me in black or watch me enjoy ritual under a dark sky you will know it is the most positive magic I have ever brought into my life. 

See you November 4th.  

In the meantime I’ll be collecting herbs and getting ready to make a candle with Hekate!

Blessings!

• 

• 

We made it.

Another season passes and the wheel keeps turning. Summer is passed and we stride into October.

Fall is the season for all senses. The feel of cool, crisp mornings and evenings after a long hot summer. A warm, palate of vibrant reds, oranges and browns take over the trees and hillsides. The taste of pumpkin spice seems to be in everything. The sound of crunching leaves underfoot. The smell of woodsmoke without it meaning wildfires.

The season for many brings joy, for others sadness. But for each of us the seasons bring specific associations. And the changing of seasons is the basis for the Neo-Pagan calendar. In fact, the changing of seasons was the original purpose for calendars to be invented at all. At the dawn of modern civilization human kind stopped migrating with the change in weather and settled into towns and started farming for our food. In order to ensure people had enough, you had to time your planting and harvesting carefully with the seasons. Plant too late the food won’t grow enough, harvest too early you may be missing out on more growing season. So the ancients tracked the sun and moon and broke the year up into sections which could then determine when was optimum to plant, and when to harvest.

The Sumerians and Ancient Egyptians had this system down to a science (possibly one of the earliest sciences) and their calendars became a model for other civilizations. They tied the seasons to their deities and celebrated holidays to encourage the bounty of the land. Today as Neo-Pagans we still honor and celebrate the season of fertility and planting, and as we march into Autumn we will celebrate the harvest time. In this way we keep truly ancient traditions alive. The names may change, the traditions may not look the same from culture to culture, but we are all tied together through out time and across the globe. As the Shawnee saying goes: We are all one people spinning through Mother Sky together.

So what are your connections to the Fall season? How are you marking the change of the seasons? And what does Autumn remind you of?

Blessings! – Jordan

Blessed Mabon! May the balance of light and broomsticks bring you a moment of reflection that empowers your journey into the darker half of the year. For those of you that were able to join us in the Sanctuary on Sunday: Thank you for your patience and levity. It was a boon to my soul to be be able to share that ritual with all of you.

We also had an opportunity to honor the Harvest Moon this week, with it’s rise at the end of our ritual on Sunday. I was privileged to see it’s pale full self over Horsetooth Rock this morning on my way to drop off the kiddo at school. I am always filled with such peace and gratitude when I catch sight of her hanging over the Rockies.

Many Pagans put a whole lotta emphasis on the full moon and I do not want to take away from the significance of our relationship to that breathtaking satellite. I would, however, like to remind us all that the moon’s cycle- from dark to full to dark again- has beneficial energy for magic, manifestation and contemplation on every one of those 29.5 days. I am only going to touch on the waning moon here, because that’s where we are now in the cycle, and the energies of the waning moon fit beautifully with the onset of autumn. I encourage you to do a little digging into the energetic correspondence to the phases of the moon.

With the full moon on Monday, today’s moon is waning and starting to show a little more lopsided egg shape when she rises later in the evening. This part of the moon’s cycle has energy to support releasing and reflection, which I think goes really well with the fall cleaning and hearth sweeping. As our families and focus move indoors, many of us are already planning to clean out closets and sweep out the corners that have collected dust bunnies over the summer. Collect what can be donated, like a stack of magazines that will never read again and the kitchen gadget that you doesn’t get as much use as you thought it would. There’s a coat drive somewhere in town soon: donate those old coats and warm clothes. Getting rid of what no longer serves you isn’t just about bad habits or grudges. There are plenty of ways to find meaning in releasing.

It is super easy to add a dash of magic to these mundane activities, if you want. Try adding a mantra or empowering statement to your repetitious vacuuming or an essential oil to your duster. You can also turn the fall cleaning into a full blown ritual to release what no longer serves. Light altar candles, set intentions, burn incense and make offerings to your house wights before you start your cleaning. Once the house is in order, consider anointing your doorways or salting your thresholds. Before you extinguish your altar candles, take a moment to express gratitude for your home.

The waning moon and the turning season are in cahoots to help you release the things, both mundane and spiritual, that which no longer serves you.

Blessings!

Jean Loomis