How to Become a Witch, Amber K. [new books to read .txt] 📗

directly as we would like: “This is God. You should eat more—you’re too thin—and that cigarette can’t be good for you. By the way, the winning lottery numbers for Saturday are…”

The messages often will be both simpler and subtler—hope in the sunrise, comfort in a warm bed, or persistence from the tiny, tiny barrel cactus spotted while walking today in the high desert. Or the messages may come through the words of others, in a quiet conversation with a friend, the words in a book, or the lyrics of a song. One purpose of meditation is to teach ourselves to be still and listen, for the Goddess and the Old Gods are always speaking.

Journaling

The Mighty Pen

Journaling can be done together with dreamwork or divination, or separately as a meditation on the day ahead or the day that is closing. If done in the morning, it is a way to prepare your mind, emotions, and spirit to create the kind of day you want. If it is an evening exercise, it can be used to remember, absorb, and integrate the events of your day.

Journals do not have to be in perfect English, or even complete sentences, to be valuable. Sometimes phrases, impressions, or poetry can best express your thoughts and feelings.

Writing about your life should be a disciplined effort to record and understand it, not merely stream-of-consciousness babble. Return to your earlier journal entries from time to time, and see how your views and attitudes have evolved. Then you can consciously choose to continue your life in the same direction, accelerate, slow down, or choose another path.

Music Hath Charms

And Songs and Chants

If you already sing or play a musical instrument, then naturally you will want to include that part of your life in your spiritual practice.

But what if music is not really part of your life? What if you’ve never been part of a band or chorus, or have never learned to play anything? What if your musical talent is limited to sliding a CD into a boombox?

In his Bill of Musical Rights, David Darling said, “There are no ‘unmusical’ people, only those with no musical experience.” Deep inside you there is ability. Your heartbeat tells you that you could make rhythmic sounds with a drum or rattle; your breath says you could breathe into a wooden flute. You may never be an opera singer or world-famous pianist, but you can make music.

How does music fit into your daily practice? Think about it. If you meditate, why not have beautiful music playing softly in the background (here’s where that slide-in-the-CD skill is handy). Or play recorded music and dance—or breathe—to it.

But you can also make music to celebrate your life and blessings, to give thanks to Mother Earth or the Hornéd God of the Wilds. The music you make does not have to be someone else’s song, printed in proper notation and played correctly. It can be totally spontaneous and free, whatever comes out of you. Pound that drum, dance and shake those rattles, blow those pipes! There are no music critics listening. Maybe it’s just a joyful noise, and that’s fine. Maybe over time you can make something more complex and pretty to the ear, and that’s great too.

And if you are already a skilled musician, then create and play and sing as an offering to the Old Gods and just to make your spirit happy. Here are some Pagan chants you can learn, if you want. Just remember that your music never has to come out of a box or stay in one.

Chants for a Daily Practice

Unfortunately, due to increasingly strict copyright rules, we can’t give you the words to some of our favorite chants, even with attribution. However, we can list them with websites where you can get the words and the tune, so that’s what we’ll have to do. All websites were accessed on Samhain 2010. Websites change and disappear, but if you put the words of the title in quotes, you can find websites that have the lyrics and tune. All songs can be accessed at www.bornpagan.com/upca

/song_cycle, unless specified otherwise.

Circle Chant (We Are a Circle) by Rick Hamouris, Kate West, or Unknown, depending on your source.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQQWwFnk198 (alternate tune, wonderful pictures)

Goddess Chant by Deena Metzger, the chorus in “Burning Times” by Charlie Murphy on Rumours of the Big Wave CD, EarthBeat Records, Redway, CA, 1992, 1993.

We All Come from the Goddess by Zsuzsanna Budapest

Elemental Chant (Air I Am) by Andras Corbin Arthen

Air Moves Us by the Reclaiming Collective

The River Is Flowing by Diana Hildebrand-Hull

The Blood of the Ancients by Charlie Murphy

Hecate, Cerridwen by Patricia Witt

Silver Shining Wheel by Peter Soderberg

Gardening

Many Witches have gardens that they tend with great love. This is one of the best ways to attune with nature, to see the wonders that sun, rain, and fertile soil can bring to the world. Consider planting a garden, or even a small pot of herbs, and caring for it every day.

There are as many kinds of gardens as there are unique gardeners. Some people enjoy the classic English flower garden, one that’s bound to have some faery folk playing in hidden corners. Or you may prefer to grow herbs for healing and magick; just be sure you are well trained before you use them medicinally! If your soil allows, it’s always wonderful to have a vegetable garden; you can eat something absolutely fresh and organic that you grew yourself.

A xeriscape garden is perfect for dry areas. Create beautiful groupings of drought-resistant native plants among rock formations, and support it with a water-catchment system on your roof. You can also design gardens based on the elements, the zodiac, chakra colors, certain periods in history, or other cultures. Be careful not to plant invasive species that will crowd out the locals, and of course avoid chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

Plant devas

Every plant species has a deva, which might be called the soul of the species. People who work closely