My very first Pagan House Social.... sort of.

So tomorrow, Pagan House, with the exception of myself, will be traveling up to Keeler for the weekend to pick a shitload of sage for Heartland... and they have entrusted me with facilitating the Pagan House Social, so that is just what I will be doing tomorrow night. It's quite exciting for me, because they even gave me the green Pagan House shirt to wear! Yeah it's pretty geeky of me to get excited over that but what can I say, it truly is quite an honor. :) I'm not quite sure about how the attendance is going to look tomorrow, but I am hoping for the best. So far no one has really RSVP'd yes for the event on the meetup groups, but I guess we'll see how it all turns out tomorrow...

Yet another long overdue update...

So I'm having a real problem with updating regularly.... I suppose that's why I don't have too many visitors to the blog these days.... but oh well, it'll happen.... in time. So a lot has definitely happened since my last post; I'll try to sum it all up here in as short a post as possible.

So I suppose the first thing to talk about is my initiation into the first degree of the Pagan House way. It was very empowering; I felt amazing all throughout the ritual, and I found a very peaceful feeling during the call of the ancestors part. It was even cooler because they had us, the students, build the altar and cast the circle. Everything about it was just great, and I loved the rush that I got from it all. The whole thing ended with some devastating news, however, which I am not at liberty to discuss on here.... but it truly broke my heart while at the same time making me proud that such a great opportunity presented itself. So anyway, Morgan said that during the call of the ancestors, she saw that my ancestors were big islander looking folk, wearing long tan-brown papery looking skirts with black designs on them, and holding sticks that looked like they were used for paddling... The men were all tall and strong, while the women kind of kept quiet. Interesting, noh? Ever since then I've been trying to find a little bit of time every day to kind of do some research to see if I can find what kind of tribal people had that kind of outfit.... no luck yet though.

Secondly, I was supposed to lead a New Moon ritual a few weeks ago, but that ended up not happening because my schedule had been changed and I had to be at work at the time the ritual would have been going on. Everyone was really excited for me to be doing the ritual, and I was excited myself, however I did not feel that I was truly ready for such a daunting task just yet. So I suppose that worked out for me, even if everyone (including myself) was kinda bummed out about the sudden turn of events. My new schedule also prevented me from going to my year and a day classes, so that was a HUGE disappointment for me. However, My beloved High Priest and High Priestess at Pagan House did all that they could to see if they could work something out for me with my command or with the chaplain... And while they were not so successful on that front, my schedule suddenly changed, outta the blue, back to my normal day check hours... so it's interesting how things just work out for me lately...

I think the best part of this update is right here, however. Over the last couple of days, I have done three Full Moon Rituals; the first one being a skyclad one up in Carlsbad, the second one being a regular one in Mission Bay, and the third one being a smaller one at Balboa park. The reason this is important for me to mention is that in all three rituals, I played an integral part in the ritual. For the first two, I casted the circle. The first one was actually a surprise to me; I was told that I would be doing it at the second one, so that was the one I had prepared for. But my lovely teacher Morgan had the surprise planned out for me, I suppose. According to the people's feedback from that first night, I did great, so I'll take it as it is. The second one went much better; I received a lot more feedback, so I'm feeling a lot more confident about this. In the third one, I was asked to be the God for the night, so I accepted because at the time they had asked I was the only guy there. After that ritual, they had told me that I did wonderful for a first timer. lol. So anyway, I guess the point of this all is that I am growing more and more into my personal power and it excites me! Looking back on the past six months that I have been here in San Diego, it's just amazing to see how far I've come and how much I've grown on this path... Back then I definitely never would have thought that I would be casting circles at this point! And I have my wonderful teachers of my two classes: Aaron and Morgan Taggert of Pagan House and Carrie Hammond of Indigo Paths, to thank for that. I can't wait to see just what the rest of the year brings to me and how much more I grow!

Announcing a new Meetup Group: The San Diego County Warrior Circle!

So I posted the following message to a few of my Meetup groups announcing a new group that I have created for the military pagans in San DIego County. If this thing is successful and grows big enough, I might even have the Warrior Circle thing expand to other bases... it's part of the dream but a much later part, if you know what I mean. First I have to get this thing going.

"In light of the recent events that took place earlier this month at the US Air Force Academy, I have decided that now was the proper time for me to set my plans in motion and I created a new meetup group called San Diego County Warrior Circle. This is a pagan group for military servicemembers. Our goals are many, but the main one is to provide a stable community for pagan servicemembers. We are here to educate those new to the faith or those who are just curious about the things that we do. We are here to make sure that people know their rights when it comes to the military and religious practice and worship. If you are in the military, please join, and tell your other pagan or pagan-curious friends who are also serving. If you aren't in the military, but know someone who is, please invite them to check out this group. This is my dream and I would like to see it grow into something big, but I need your help to do it."

So there you have it, my latest update... Things are really starting to look up for me again, and I am so happy about that. I have Owls class tonight up at the Pagan House in Carlsbad, and every second spent up there is just an amazing time. I love being up there and basking in the energy of the place.

My Vision for the Military Pagans, and some exciting updates!

So, I have my own little Pagan House vision, but then I also have my own personal vision..... and it is all about the military, since I am serving on active duty in the military and all that. So anyway, in my last journal entry over on The Pagan House blog I had answered a question about what I planned to do with the knowledge that I gain from taking the Owls class. In my response, I mentioned something about sharing my knowledge with other military servicemembers I said, "One of my dreams is to be able to teach other military service members who are new to the path or who are just curious about it. I want to be their walking, talking Pagan encyclopedia and aid in their spiritual growth and development."

This is me expanding on that sentence and going into my actual vision for pagans in the military. Someday soon, I'd like to organize a group on base (I'll start out with just people on base, and if things go well I will expand to all servicemembers in the area [San Diego County]...) that would come together at an agreed frequency to perform rituals with a military tone to them; kinda like a military coven, I suppose. However, the group would be so much more than just that. The main purpose of the group will be to provide military servicemembers with a community in which to exchange knowledge, ideas, information, and resources. Whether it be teaching curious servicemembers about the pagan spiritual path, or even teaching established pagans about certain things that they do not know yet or have not heard of, one of the main goals of the group will be to exchange information within the community. One of our goals within this would be to set up classes every now and then covering a vast array of topics, such as circle casting, calling the corners, making smudge bundles, how to build and use an altar that complies with barracks regulations, etc. I am currently reading a book called "Faith and Magick in the Armed Forces: A Handbook for Pagans in the Military" by Stefani E. Barner, and one of the things that I want to do with the knowledge that I get from the Owls class and the information that I will gain from reading this book and doing other personal research is to kind of act as an unofficial pagan chaplain for the group. By that point, I should be able to answer most questions involving pagan life in the military (like rights to worship, getting time off to be able to go to rituals, etc.). My services should suffice until the day that an official pagan chaplain comes into the armed forces.

So there you have it, my grand vision for the military pagans out there... On to the exciting updates lol.

So last post that I made, I completely forgot to mention that I CAN FINALLY SEE AURAS. It's still in its infancy stages right now, so I don't see any color yet... But I can definitely see an energy field around a person's physical body. I think it might have been awakened that time that I saw Maureen's shield (in fact, maybe it wasn't her shield that I was seeing, but her aura!)...So anyway, that's big update #1... Big update #2 is that I performed my first act of Reiki healing last night! It felt amazing while I was doing it, and Jennifer said that my hands and her foot were really hot (so yay, I did it right [or just for the Pagan House, "I wasn't doing it wrong!!] lol). I ended up being REALLY hungry after that, and it got real bad on the drive home... which stuck me as funny since I had already eaten like 4 times at The Pagan House that night!

BIG update

So I haven't posted anything on here in a while, sorry but the mundane life took hold of me for a while.... There are a lot of things to talk about but I will try to keep it as brief as possible. First of all, I am now taking two year-and-a-day classes. The first one with Carrie Hammond of Indigo Paths up in Oceanside, and the second one with Aaron and Morgan Taggert of The Pagan House up in Carlsbad. I don't have a car, though, so transportation to and from classes is my biggest problem. Or so I thought. At first I thought that maybe I was overloading myself or that I should ease up on it a little bit, but then I looked at the situation and I realized that there was a HUGE sign that I was right were I was supposed to be, and that I really am on the right track with taking both of these classes right now. Somehow transportation isn't really as big of a problem as I thought it would be, because I always manage to find a ride to classes and then back to where ever it is that I need to be. If that ain't a sign, I don't know what is, lol. I also finally answered the call of Reiki. It's something that has been calling out to me for the past couple of years, but I have never really had any resources or teachers around to teach me. Now I'm down in San Diego county where there pagan community is just overflowing with Reiki practitioners and Reiki masters who are excellent teachers. I am learning Blue Fire Reiki with Carrie Hammond, again of Indigo Paths. These are all great people and I am just really excited about everything that I am learning about in all these classes. I'll be part of the priesthood in no time, lol.

Which brings me to my next topic of discussion, the pagan priesthood/pagan clergy life. That is definitely a goal of mine, not just so I cam walk around saying that I am a 21 year old high priest or whatever, but so that I can use my knowledge and title to help others in the military. I want to study anything written about rules and regulations for worship and religious activities, etc and be able to answer any questions about it when other military servicemembers come up to me with questions or complaints that they were not let off of work to go to rituals or whatever. Kind of like a Chaplain, I suppose. I want to unite the military pagan community, first here on base at MCAS Miramar, and then in the entire San Diego county. Because I know there are others out there who have questions and concerns related to issues at work that deal with their pagan path. There are chaplains available for these generally, however I'm sure there are many people out there who just aren't comfortable talking to chaplains because of the religious differences. The only reason I feel comfortable talking to chaplains when I need to is because I was raised in a Catholic environment, and I was once Catholic myself. So there you have it, my vision for the future of military paganism.

Another big deal that recently happened is that I recently finally built my altar in my barracks room. Shocker, ain't it. Who would've thought that it would ever be possible to set up a functional altar inside a military barracks room, where generally you cannot have anything burning in there? I had been holding back on building my altar for the longest time because of that reason in particular, however my teachers at The Pagan House made me realize that using the flameless electric powered candles isn't so bad. Basically, it's all about the intent and purpose so if you use those things intending for them to be representative of the actual flame and wax candles, then they will be as such. So I took all the extra effort to even wrap each candle in tissue paper to match the color correspondences of the elements. I was really excited to see the final results. In addition to the intent, though, my teachers also pointed out that technically speaking, electricity represents fire anyway so it would be alright.

So there you have it, my big update. I was going to write a lot more, but it's 0343 and I'm really sleepy so I will have to continue some other time.

The most intense meditation session I have ever had!

So I completely forgot to blog about this, but it's been on my mind since it happened so now that I finally have the time to do it, I am blogging it.

The morning after the NMR and my shamanic journey, I woke up and after eating breakfast I went into the temple to meditate. Almost immediately after closing my eyes, I was transported to my sacred space, the place I go to every time I meditate. It's a grassy knoll type of area, but this time I saw it eventually connecting to a beach and the ocean. When I got there, I was immediately greeted by my wolf totem/guide and without even saying a word I transformed into a wolf and let out a loud howl. Before I knew it, many other howls were going off in the distance, and eventually I was surrounded by a pack of wolves, including my totem wolf. We then immediately proceeded to running. We ran and ran, over the grassy knoll and through the open fields of grass, running and running until we got to the border of the forest entrance. We proceeded to enter the forest, running through it just like we were running through the open fields. After running for a while, we came upon a circular clearing, and in the clearing was a deer with the most majestic antlers I had ever seen. After observing it for a while, I decided to move in on it and attack. I initiated the attack, and after I got the first few bites and rips in, I called the rest of the pack in to feast upon this glorious meal. they proceeded to rip and tear at the deer's flesh and meat with their mouths, and we were all getting saturated with deer blood, and I let out a loud howl, which was soon followed by everyone else. After the feast, we went back to the grassy knoll area and then it was time for me to go home.

Very interesting, indeed. So intense, too. I could feel the wind rushing against my fur, the ground hitting my paws with each stride, and the feeling of the deer's flesh in my mouth as my teeth dug into it. It all felt very real and exciting; I almost didn't want to leave!

My very first shamanic journey

The following is my recollection of my very first shamanic journey that I experienced during a New Moon Ritual at The Village Witch in San Diego, CA. It's quite interesting.



Shamanic Journey @ The Village Witch

New Moon Ritual

01/15/10



Falling into a hole as the drumming starts, then I end up in a cave with a river flowing upward. A man with a crocodile head is there with his mouth open and water gushing out of his mouth into the river. He points out in the distance and I see a Viking like ship coming up the river. I try to follow it up the river but they tell me that I can't follow them. So I start to go back down and I step into the river but as soon as I step into the river I get caught in a downward current (even though the river flows upward). My whole body gets submerged underwater as I travel downwards on the river, and I feel as if I'm trying to fight the current. Eventually I go over a waterfall and plunge another good distance downward into a larger body of water. As I plunge into the water, I try to swim up but I feel hundreds of hands pushing me down even further, so I plunge further down into the depths of the water. Then I see a city inside a bubble on the ocean floor below me. The hands push me through the bubble and I am suddenly dry inside the city. I see people wearing long silver robes walking around and machines that are flying through the air like hovercrafts. In the distance I see a grand pyramid that seemed like it was at the heart of the city. A man approaches me and has a conversation with me. He welcomes me back and starts telling me things about the place. I then point to the pyramid and ask what it was for. He told me that was where the focused their energy and concentration so that they could call the gods. We had more conversation, and then he told me it was time to go further down. He then pushed me lightly into the ground and I felt myself get sucked up by the ground and then I plummeted further down through the earth. I eventually hit land again and everything is pitch black. Then a blue flame goes on in the distance and I san faintly see another crocodile man. I walk closer to it and he points to somewhere in the distance, so I assumed that's where I was supposed to go. As I walked over there, I fell int a hole and I plummeted further down into the earth. I hit ground again and once again it's pitch black. In the distance an orange flame comes on and I walk closer expecting to see another crocodile man but instead I am greeted by a being who was similar to the crocodile men but instead had the head of a deer. He pointed to an opening in the distance where a light was resonating. So i walk over there and my totem wolf was there ad he told me it was time to return to my body. He said to hold on to him and I could ride him all the way up. So I grabbed hold of him and we begin going back up, back up through the tunnels, up through the caves, and then we hig water again and we travel upwards through the water. We keep going up, we go up the waterfall and then back up the river. We go back to the initial cave and then back up the hole i descended from and then we were back in the temple. I thanked my wolf and he left after that. I was in my body again and the drumming started up again and I fell back into trance and I felt myself going down through the hole again. This time though, instead of hitting the ground I was launched through the hole and I was back in the temple for a second but my body kept shooting up past the temple and I looked down as I rose upwards and into space. I see the earth beneath my feet and I look around into the vast nothingness of space. Then I see the Viking-like ship again and it is being driven by bird-like men. They had bodies of man but on their arms they also had wings, and they all had the head of a bird. I tried to follow them again but they said no to me again because they were going to the valley of the gods and I could not go there yet. Then the callback drumming starts and I feel myself descending back onto the earth, going down, down, down until I am back at the temple and inside my body. Then the journey ended.

My progress so far...

So I have made a lot of progress in the past couple of months.... I've attended a bunch of rituals, raised a bunch of energy, and am now able to focus inward a lot better during meditation..... lately though, like in the past week or so, I've been kinda getting a calling to do some kind of magickal work.... I don't really know what it is just yet, all I know is that it's calling out to me and I'm supposed to do something about it. I'm really excited about the direction that my life is going in now, and it can really only get better from here. I am opening myself up to the mysteries and wonders of the Universe and Life. I recently registered for classes under a formal teacher, Carrie of Indigo Paths. and I am really excited to get the ball rolling on this part of my life. Valera recommended her to me so I sought her out, and now I am a student in her Basic Witchcraft class which starts on the 17th and lasts for 14 weeks! I can't wait to learn everything that she has to teach.... I am REALLY, REALLY excited for this!!