Everyday Lessons

There are times in everyone's life when a simple look around can teach more than all the knowledge in an encyclopedia.

What do I mean by that? Many people think learning can only be accomplished in a classroom. Valuable lessons are learned there. Just as many lessons are also available walking down the street. Some people do not think that daily life has lessons to offer. There is a need for classrooms, but many of our most painful lessons will happen far from institutions of higher learning.

Granted, it is simpler to learn from a person who knows the answers. Teachers usually have the knowledge that we are trying to learn, without paying the cost in sweat and struggle. Just wrap the answers you need into a neat little package and present it with a bow. Ultimately, though, isn't that a cheat? Our teachers have been through the process of learning that we now want handed to us. That devalues the information and deprives us of the work.

Many more things can be learned by the attempt to learn, even if we fail, than can ever be learned by suddenly "knowing" the answer.

Most lessons are learned through trial and error. This is true of the sciences, art, music, and the lessons that shape our personalities. Would you believe that a stove could be hot if you had never seen one before? If you had never seen it cook food? Would you know that you could get burnt unless you hurt yourself on the stove?

One must look upon everything as a potential lesson. The birds, the person who insulted you, your child, and everything else on this Earth should be seen as a lesson waiting to happen. Even the most crushing defeats can be turned into a tool to help you improve yourself for the next time.

While obvious sources of learning are easy to spot, many ignore the more subtle sources of experience we have available to us.

Books are a wonderful source of information. The "gold mine" of information and lessons that I found sitting in my library is invaluable. The characters of fiction stories go through trials and tribulations during the course of their adventures, and if I read closely enough, I should find the keys to avoiding their mistakes.

Music can hold lessons. The songs that touch your heart can teach something to you. One of the most powerful lessons I learned was from a song by Rod Stewart. His song "Forever Young" taught me that I cannot ever forget to tell those I love how much I love them. It's something I thank him for.

In order to prosper from learning our lesson everyday, we must do several things. First we must have total faith in our ability to learn. It is frightening to discover how many adults think that they are unable to learn. We must be willing and able to recognize the lessons and learning experiences as we are presented them. We must then be able to apply our learning into our lives. Without these three things, nothing that we experience will be of value.

The point of this article is to show you how you may not need a teacher or "Master" to learn something. The most valuable lesson is the one you learn for yourself. It is sad but true that the most painful lessons are the ones we remember the best.

Everything in our lives can teach us something. Everyone has something to share and teach. Each living plant and animal can show us how to improve our lives.

Consider the mushroom. An unassuming little fungus, but it can teach a valuable lesson. Looking at him, growing next to his cousins and children after a rainstorm, teaches us about recycling. It is there to break down organic material into its component parts, then to die to help the process along. It creates the dirt that allows the next generation of plants to grow. The animals eat the plants, then die to be changed into dirt again by the mushroom.

Nothing is ever wasted by the mushroom, but it is up to us to realize that lesson when we see it.

This can be applied to anything, from the most esoteric question, to basic survival lessons. Looking at everything around us and asking what it has to teach us about our lives can be an illuminating experience. Teaching ourselves by observation makes the lessons we learn more personal. Many sages have told us the most valuable lesson is the one you learn for yourself.

We are here to learn. We learn by experiencing life. If we don't experience life, we do not learn and we will not get the lessons we need to grow. If we do not grow, we may have to come back to another life and do all this over again.

Not all lessons are explosions and fireworks. The Lord and Lady have chosen to make a game out of the lessons we need to learn to capture our interest and hold our attention. Like all good teachers, they make learning fun. They're most powerful lessons are as quiet as a zephyr and as easy to ignore as a mote of dust.

Look around you for a week. Treat everything and everyone as something to learn from. If at the end of that week, you do not feel different and a bit more enlightened, tell me, but at try it first.

Stars light your path.

Contributed by Red Wolf

Tags: holy fool  asking questions  presentation athame  protective clothing  dead scrolls  beltane history  dark night soul  exercises nobody needs  religion wicca  handfasting  list alchemical substances  blackmagic  esoterismo  magick spells  witchcraft online  magic ebooks  

Banishing And Sealing Ritual For The Home

To be performed during at the New Moon, but may be performed at any time in need.

You will need a new white Candle (any size with holder), small bowls for Water and Salt, and a large bowl of water as well, and the censer and an appropriate incense. (Choose one that brings to your mind qualities you wish to have in your home.)
Banishing Ritual:

Meditate for a few moments on the task ahead; then make a brief invocation to the Goddess and the God, asking for Their Aid and Power in the Work you will do.

Light the white candle in its holder, and charcoal in the censer (or an incense stick may be used instead).

Consecrate Water and Salt in the usual way.

Consecrate the water in the bowl in the same manner, but do not add Salt; place this bowl in the center of the room.

Take the consecrated Water, elevate it to North, and say,

In the name of (Goddess) and (God)
I banish with Water and Earth.

Sprinkle the Water lightly widdershins around the perimeter of the room.

Bless the incense, then elevate the censer (or incense stick) to North, and say,

In the name of (Goddess) and (God)
I banish with Fire and Air.

Cense the perimeter of the room widdershins. Take the Candle and cast a Banishing Earth Pentagram at North. (Draw the Pentagram with the censer or incense stick, starting from the bottom left point up to the top point, and so forth.) As you cast the Pentagram say,

With this Sign I banish ye, foul shades of the (Quarter)!
Let this home be freed of your baneful influences!

Then go widdershins around the perimeter of the room, casting a Banishing Pentagram at each Quarter beginning at the West and ending back at North, repeating the above at each Quarter. (Do not repeat it again at North.)

Now turn and face the center of the room, where the bowl of water sits.

With your hands, draw any negative energy or vibrations remaining, and cast them into the water in the bowl by flicking or snapping your fingers at it. Repeat this action until you are satisfied the room is cleansed. Do not touch the water in the bowl, as it is being filled with the negative forces you are eliminating.

Move the consecrated Water, the Salt, the Incense, the Candle, and the bowl of water (being careful not to spill it) into each room in your home and repeat this ritual.

After banishing every room in the home (including bathroom, closets, pantry, etc.) you have finished. Empty the large bowl of water into running water (a sink or toilet will do). Wash the bowl thoroughly with cold water, scrubbing with some of the consecrated Salt.
Sealing Ritual:

Take all the Elemental substances used in the Banishing Ritual (Salt, consecrated Water, wax drippings from the Candle, and ashes from the Incense) and mix them into a paste.

Using your forefinger, use the mixture to draw an Invoking Fire Pentagram at each opening leading outside the home (the doors and the windows - and even the water pipes, if you should feel the need) while concentrating on the Intention of protecting your home from outside influences. (Draw the Pentagram from the top point to the bottom right, and so forth. Form the Star so that it is point up, or point out, as appropriate.) You may make two Stars at each opening if you wish - one on the sill or threshold, and the other on the door or window itself.

Remember that Intent is the key to success in this, as in all magickal operations; going through the motions without Will brings no results.

Tags: blessing food  responses nasty  opening ritual  consecration tools  quest truth  room cleansing  centering grounding  autarchic creed  witches coven  wiccan wholesale  sorcerer spells  people sexual  spellbook  garlic evil power  rituals spell orange  wiccan symbols  models information  hoodoo voodoo  magic consecrated operations