Of course, I’m not neglecting my love of all things esoteric but I’m so loving giving my heart to natural medicine. Please come by and join me there. I have a blog running there too which gives loads of tips and tricks on caring for your health naturally. Subscribe by clicking the little orange RSS button at the top of the website there and we can stay in touch.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

www.nmah.com.au

In Oak and Mistletoe we have a policy of not teaching anyone under the age of 18 anyway and this is for a number of reasons. We don’t think that it’s appropriate to formally teach someone until they are mature enough to make an informed decision about their spirituality choices. That’s not to say that we don’t think youngsters shouldn’t be taught informally. I think one of the joys of parenthood in fact is to help young ones experience the activities associated with faith throughout the year but that’s the parent’s responsibility rather than a coven’s when that person is a minor in my opinion. I’d be keen to hear the views of others.

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

Having been hit with a emotional sledge hammer yesterday, I’m feeling rather battered and bruised and I must admit that my calm and rationally thinking brain hasn’t fully kicked in yet. I’m struggling not to over react in retaliation. So far so good on that one but I can’t guarantee that at some point the emotions won’t take over and say something I might later regret.

In the meantime though, I remain calm, as unflustered as I can, wait out my time and I’ll just see what happens over the next few weeks. Fingers crossed, toes crossed and hoping that the Goddess will pave the way to a positive outcome for me, whatever that may be.

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

Doesn’t it make you grateful for what we do have living in the 21^st century!

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

My garden is beginning to come alive again with the apple trees showing tiny buds peeping out from the new growth. The daffodils have flowered and my favourite flowers, the freesias, are bursting into bloom around the sacred circle space. The agapanthus are already sowing flower heads and the lawn is coming alive again. What a delight to se life and warmth once more!

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

Smiles and blessings Amethyst

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

I cannot believe it is August already when it only seems a few weeks since last Christmas for example. I can’t believe I’m more than 50 years old! That seems to me to be absurd because I just cannot comprehend that my body has experienced 50+ years and yet I still feel so young. In truth, this astounds me and yet I know it to be true, my birth certificate confirms it.

Time may not be an actual construct we can hold but it continues to pass by at a regular and predictable rate. I wonder how old I will feel once I reach 70 or 80 or…

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

The weather is a natural force of her own making and we will always complain that the winter was colder this year or the summer was too hot or too short or too wet or too dry. The poor weather fairy has so many demands placed upon her with the wedding couple wanting a dry day while the farmer needs the rain. We don’t want too much heat because of bush fires but some trees need the fires in order to produce seeds.

In all seriousness, yes the weather may be gradually changing over several years but she will always produce superlatives. So each day or season will always be wetter or dryer or hotter or colder (or whatever) than we remember it being last year or last week. Poor weather fairy can’t win!

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

My photo is in the paper again today (front page of the weekend supplement – http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/ipad/no-hex-please-were-witches/story-fn3o6wog-1226456625657 ) alongside a feature story about witches and magic and while I find the story a little patronising, it is quite positive about witches and what we do which is great. It’s in photos of ourselves like the ones in this article though that we’re really confronted with what we look like and I can see my skin aging, my girth growing, my eyes sagging, my jaw line dropping and all those other usual signs of aging creeping in. No longer do I see the lithe body of my youth and the taught skin with no hint of the wrinkles yet to come. Instead I’m confronted with the obvious manifestation of my croning years.

While I can soothe myself with notions that the croning years are also filled with wisdom and with a greater depth of understanding for life and others, somehow I’m not sure that’s enough compensation for the ever drooping features of my physical body (giggles at myself) and so I guess I just have to understand that the wisdom of age comes at a price. After all, our inner beauty is what really shines from us, not how perky our boobs are or how smooth our crow’s feet still are.

I think also my dilemma is around the fact that my mind still feels in its mid thirties while my face and body clearly and honestly reflect my much more advanced years than that! There’s this growing chasm between how old my brain feels and how old my body feels. Guess I just have to get used to it really don’t I?

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

However, when someone of another faith (or in fact even my own faith!) is rude, threatening and makes utterly derogatory comments based solely on the fact that I follow a different spiritual path to the one they chose, that is inexcusable. To threaten me and demand I follow only their faith is appalling. To then follow that up with insults simply because I’ve made a choice to follow a different faith is absurd. And all this coming from two people I have never met and have never once talked to is nothing short of bazaar!

Please understand that I have no problem with anyone of any faith. I have some wonderful friends who follow faiths different to my own and I love them all dearly. I would NEVER insist that they change their viewpoint so that it matches mine much less insult them based purely on their spiritual decisions.

In fact I don’t even think this is about faith. I think it’s just about two very rude people who consider it acceptable to verbally attack someone with insults, with nasty and utterly disgusting comments and it doesn’t matter that their comments were aimed at my faith choices. The fact that they consider it acceptable to behave in such an appalling manner to someone they have never met or talked to and know nothing about other than my faith is disturbing!

So to you two gentlemen, I offer blessings for a peaceful life and having banned you from my Facebook page, I hope to never read any of your filth ever again.

Blessings, Amethyst

While I adore spring, (indeed, it’s my favourite time of year) I’m yet to feel the warmth of it this year and so I’m beginning to crave that caressing warm breeze. I’m still wearing winter woollies and thermal vests and thick socks. I’ve still got the extra winter blankets on the bed and my warm coat is still being worn every time I go out. Some on spring, I’m waiting for you!

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

My first earthly impression of baby Flynn (who weighed 3.41kg or 7lb 7oz and was 51cm long) is that he’s such an old soul returning again. He has such a special part to play in the symphony of life this time round and he has an incredible amount to teach us. I’m looking forward to learning from him and I can’t wait till September when I finally get to see him, his big brother Emmy and his big sister Lilah and give them all a hug.

Such a wonderful day birthdays are!

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

With that said, they are still busy days with several things on the list to get finalised but none the less, I can do them at my leisure and I can even do all my tasks in my PJ’s!

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

I’m not suggesting we should all go and find totally new ways to practice or to deviate from our chosen paths (although to do so sometimes often opens the doors to new ideas that can support our practice) but I am suggesting that adding new options to ritual, perhaps dropping ritual in favour of meditation sometimes, perhaps creating different styles of ritual, asking to observe the rituals of fellow covens close by and learning new techniques can be ways to ‘spice up’ your practice to keep your dedication strong.

As humans, we are not static beings. We grow and develop and change every day and I believe our practice can be a reflection of our human change as well such that its growth supports our growth. Trying out new ways to be spiritual and religious can often confirm that the path we’re already on is perfect for us at this time or it can show us that there may be other ways we can journey that bring fulfilment and a greater connection with deity.

So with that all said, while our Outer Court content and process will remain static for the time being given its basic introductory content, I personally continue to explore complementary ways of adding to my Craft practice so that I can enrich and develop it as I to develop as a human. What a wonderful journey life is

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

It doesn’t last too long usually and then I get back to ‘normal’ and realise that the occasional spiritual discontent is merely a way for me to theorise and work out exactly how deity fits into what I’m experiencing at the time. The periods of discontent and doubt aren’t related to times where things are difficult necessarily either so it’s not about “there can’t be any gods or they wouldn’t let this happen!” Personal and larger scale problems and disasters are part of being human so it’s not those that trigger my doubt in deity occasionally.

I think my rare doubts come about more when I question the purpose of my ritual activity to be honest. Sometimes I seriously wonder if deity gives a hoot whether we do ritual or not. I often consider that perhaps they are happy with us humans just knowing they are with us rather than them sitting and being present while we parade around doing a bunch of actions and saying a bunch of stuff that supposedly brings us closer to the Divine.

With all that said, my unshaken and core belief is that there is something, somehow, a force or energy source that created us, that fuels who we are and what we do. It serves us, feeds us, binds us with each other and our planet and in fact ‘is’ us and while I might occasionally doubt the reality of Gods and Goddesses, I never waiver from my belief in an underlying, core energy that holds it all together. For me, that’s a constant and one I’m very grateful to surrender to unconditionally.

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

Yes I know I’m no saint and yes I know I can be very impatient at times with people so perhaps I should consider my own faults before I report/comment on the perceived faults of others. Additionally I know I’m an idealist and that in reality, we are humans and so we do make mistakes with one another. However, all that aside (although taken into consideration), I simply continue to fail to understand (no matter how hard I try) why a small minority of the Pagan community find it important to judge and ridicule other members of the same community.

I wonder if the answer lies not in our Pagan approach to life but in the obvious fact that we are human regardless of our spirituality, opinions and personality. By the very fact that we are human, we are not perfect and the human condition is often one which likes to assert its authority and position rather than respect the right of others to their opinions.

In a perfect and ideal world, where all humans regardless of their spirituality honour one another, there would be peace and mutual caring. Until that time, I will continue to do my bit by being tolerant and as respectful as I can towards others. If each one of us did that each and every day, we may one day end up with the peace and mutual caring that we all crave.

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst

I know I don’t like routine and so a never ending stream of things to do/cope with/complete would get boring so having things come in stages stops that boredom of course but why does everyone want everything done all at once and at the same time?! Aggghhhh!!!!

I’m off to have a minor hissy fit and then prioritise and organise the current “whamo” of things to do

Smiles and blessings, Amethyst