pagan prayer

Gender, Identity, and Paganism

/ Twist the Leaf / 2 Comments

This week’s question from the Pagan Perspective YouTube channel is about gender, as well as how gender factors into your pagan practice and beliefs.

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Topic for the Week of 10/7: 

Part 1 from Jack Place: “Your thoughts on transgender people and the difference between bio sex and mental sex.”

Honestly?  I don’t really care.  I’m Pansexual and see people, not gender.  My only issue is when it comes to pronouns.  I really hate the whole pronoun thing, because there is so much room for confusion, mistake, and accidental offense.

Part 2 from MintyDandyDannie: “Supposing that there is a third gender as many believe and feel, how would you react? Would it still fit in with your current beliefs? Or would it create a need for movement? How do you feel about the concept of a third gender that is not related to male or female in any way?”

For this part of this week’s question, I think need to start out by explaining why the second part of the question is phrased as it is, and why it would even matter.

In many pagan practices (such as Wicca, for example), there is worship of the God and Goddess.  This includes mythos that follows the wheel of the year where the goddess and god are intertwined from conception to birth to growth, to adulthood and conception again, rinse and repeat.  In these religions, adding in a third gender could, I suppose, upset the balance.

Obviously, as I’ve mentioned this before, this is not my path.  My path deals with nature, the elements, and the energies of creation, evolution, and balance. There is no deity.

Yes, there is a yin and yang to the balance of all things, but although it is often “classified” as masculine and feminine, it has nothing to do with gender.  Those terms are used for in discussion of these energies more due to “stereotypical stereotypes” than accuracy. (And, isn’t that one hell of a term?)  All people and all things have both the “masculine” and “feminine” energy within them.  The terms are archaic, and yet it is because they are archaic that they are universally understood when used… and thus continue to be used.

In my tarot practice (both in reading and teaching), as well as my practice as a whole, I have moved to using the terms “projective” and “receptive” (or yin/yang depending on the situation and usage).  I think this better expresses my perceptions without confusing things with the mention of gender.   If there was a third gender?  That gender would also have projective and receptive energies within them, just as everyone and everything else does.  Therefore, it would really have no effect at all on  my beliefs or practice.

 

My Morning Routine

/ Twist the Leaf / 1 Comment

Being that I’m away from home for the week this week, I figured today would be a nice day for some nostalgia.   Well, nostalgia concerning my normal routine, that is.   So I thought you might like a peek at my regular morning routine.

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I usually work on the farm at least six days a week, and I wake up VERY early each morning to head to the farm and get there by 5am for my shift.  I very literally pick my ass out of bed, put on  my crappy tattered farm clothes, grab my keys, a handful of protein bars, and my phone, and head out.  I don’t bother with a shower or brushing my teeth, or even combing my hair.

My shifts on the farm are usually between 4 to 7 hours in length depending on what needs done that day and if the owner needs any extra help.

Once I get home, I immediately toss my clothes in the washer and hop in the shower.  I do all of my washing, flossing, tooth-brushing, plucking (because I do not grow enough hair on my face to bother shaving), hair combing, other intimate grooming, etc in the shower.   I get out and apply lotion, then apply emollient bar to the various scarring on my body to keep them supple so they don’t crack.  Deodorant, ear cleaning, all that good stuff comes next.

I then get dressed and spend about 30 – 60 minutes on the floor doing yoga.  Once this is done, I move to my altar and do my daily devotional.

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What is a Daily Devotional?

Every morning I stand before my altar.  I take a few minutes to center and ground myself, and then I light the candle on my altar.   I touch each of the corresponding spheres on my altar as I go through this invocation in my mind (obviously, I can’t speak these aloud).

Energies of the North, Earth, and Body… I welcome you
Energies of the East, Air, and the Mind… I welcome you
Energies of the South, Fire, and the Inner Spark… I welcome you
Energies of the West, Water, and the Emotions… I welcome you

I then touch the Gaia statue and continue…

Energies of creation, evolution, and balance… I welcome you

I touch my father’s kila and the mirror of my grandmother and continue…

Beloved ancestors that wish to bestow love and wisdom… I welcome you

I light incense.   Usually this is a combination of Nag Champa and Frankincense. I then stand before my altar and take a minute to center myself again so that I am not distracted when I decide to continue.  Gratitude comes next…

Thank you for this beautiful new day and all of the opportunities it presents to me to improve myself and the world around me.

Thank you for my safe and secure home, my beautiful and loving sister, my trusted friends, my lovely Luna, and my beloved partner.   Thank you as well for the love of my mother and loving care others around me.

Please guide my feet along today’s path so that I may…. (changes from day to day)

Examples:  Enjoy the day to the fullest, have safe travels on today’s journeys, have a productive day filled with accomplishments and small pleasures, etc.

I then pick up my daily draw deck for the month and I begin to shuffle.  As I shuffle, I am requesting…

I ask that you provide me with a positive message to carry with me throughout my day and foster perspective.

I repeat this as I go through riffle shuffling then switch to a seesaw overhand shuffle until a card falls out (or jumps out).   Sometimes more than one card comes out (as you’ve seen in my daily posts).   If it is more than two cards, I will put them back and ask for an answer that involves less cards.

Once I have my card of the day before me, I will take a moment to sink into the image and really -feel- the card, then return my attention to my altar to close things out with…

Please accept my gratitude as I strive to learn from your messages and follow your guidance.  Today, and Every Day.

I then blow out the candle to close things out, and snuff out the incense.

From there, I will go to the bed and lie down with my legs up the wall.  I will settle into a piriformis stretch position, and then meditate (usually to the guided meditations provided in the Calm app on my phone).

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Once my meditation is done, I will then head out of the bedroom and feed Miss Luna, get my tea made (complete with collagen peptides added), make a couple pieces of toast with peanut butter, and get my probiotic yogurt out.  With tea, toast, and yogurt in hand, I then sit down to take my morning medications and eat.

From there, my day diverges into whatever else I have to get done or do throughout the day, any other shifts I need to work, business tasks that need completed, etc.  But, my mornings up until that point?  They’re pretty much the same every day except Saturdays.

Traveling with Items of Faith

/ Twist the Leaf / 4 Comments

Okay, so I’ve mentioned before that I do not normally travel with items of my faith.  I leave my tarot cards at home, and instead take a deck of playing cards.  I leave my crystals and other items at home other than those set into the (very innocuous) jewelry that I wear.

Travel AltarThis is how I was taught, and it’s the practice I have followed throughout my entire life.  But, I’ve been feeling a need this time around to bring some things with me.  This is different, and unusual for me, and yet it’s a nagging niggle in the back of my mind that I’m having a hard time silencing.

So… I made myself a ‘kit’ of sorts.   A sort of ‘travel altar’ that I have packed to take with me on my trip.   I thought you’d like to see it and what’s in it.

Above, you can see how it looks all packed up and ready to go.  I’m using a book bandolier to hold it all together, and what you see there are two small hand-made notebooks for taking notes on any readings I do while I’m gone so that I can bring them back and transfer them into my journal when I get home.  I need to be able to hand-write my notes, as this connects to a different part of the brain than typing (no matter what device I’m typing on).   For example, all of my self-care spreads are hand written prior to being added to this blog, as are some of my other personal readings that I’ve shared.

Also included is my favorite type of pen for this type of writing (thank you Sharpie).  Then above that is my tin with all my supplies, and above that, the tin containing the deck I’ve decided to bring along with me on this trip.   I chose a tinned deck for protection of the cards, and that deck in particular because 1) it’s very easy to read and 2) it’s very inexpensive to replace if something happens to it.

Travel Altar

Okay, so in the picture above, you see everything taken out of their tins.  Starting with the deck of tarot cards on the left and working clockwise, we have….

  • The Morgan Greer Tarot deck (in a tin version)
  • A small spray bottle of homemade purification spray consisting of alcohol, distilled water, sweet grass, garden sage, lavender, clove, bergamot, rosehips, allspice, rosemary, and cedar shavings.  These ingredients are put in alcohol (this batch was made with vodka, although rubbing alcohol will also work) and set to age for several months before being strained and diluted with distilled water.
  • One tealight candle
  • An incense holder
  • A small sample of soil from the Olympic Rainforest, and beside it, a small sample of rain water from the Olympic Rainforest as well.
  • My black Sharpie 0.8 fine point pen
  • Two 18 page handmade notebooks (passport size) that came as a free gifts with past bandolier orders (made by CleverHands on Etsy)
  • A selenite thumb stone, and above it, a crystal quartz thumb stone
  • A flourite heart
  • Two small sticks (each) of Nag Champa and Frankincense
  • A small baggie of crystals and stones including labradorite, rose quartz, smoky quartz, amethyst, malachite, nuummite, tigers eye, apatite, citrine, moonstone, amazonite, green calcite, and a few others
  • A strand I made to signify the four elements.  It is created out of amazonite, citrine, carnelian agate, and amethyst, with crystal quartz positioned between each and on either end.
  • A mini Bic lighter

Travel AltarAs you can see in the picture on the left, it all fits nice and neat inside the little tin, and the tin closes tightly.  I will carry it on the plane, except for the lighter, which will have to go in my suitcase (because no way they’re going to let me take a lighter on the plane when they won’t even let me board with a pair of jeweler’s pliers).

So…. there you have it.   Something new I’ve never done before.  And yet…. maybe it’s time, yeah?