What's Not in the Books

Many years ago as a baby Feri in training I was introduced to a guide, who has since become a trusty friend and ally, who first showed himself to me as a man in a pot. He gave me a name to call upon him and showed me a thing I did not understand until much later: alraun. I did some digging to try to understand the puzzle pieces he showed me, but they did not connect for a long while. It was not until I had gotten to know this guide and friend better and was initiated that the pieces connected. By that time I was already creating my own poppets and finding my own style and story. Vasalissa very much took the torch on that one, in many ways, she reminded me of my own Matron goddess: Hekate. In spite of the fact that Vasalissa had taken up the torch, my earth guide friend, whom you have heard me refer to as the Poppet Prince, still guided my hand. So today we talk a bit about alrauns.

The lore about them is pretty clear. They can be mischievous if not properly cared for. According to lore they require weekly attention such as baths, a proper place to sleep, anointings in precious oils, and just a talking to. How do you go about that??? I have found my own way in the dark, secret places of this on my own and discovered a few things on my own. My Poppet Prince has been showing me how he would prefer to be cared for and it is not exactly what lore has shown. While, yes, he enjoys a nice anointing in oils I consider precious but, when it is time to get to work, it's blood he requires. By now he has acquired a dark staining that gives him an mysterious appearance. He is clothed in my finest lace and blackest of ribbon. I tried a coffin like style of home for him but, it was not to his liking. He took up hearth and home in a cobalt blue jar with a silver lid that actually can be rung like a bell when struck. I was originally utilizing this jar as a wish jar and ritual bell but, I relented and gave it to him. He sits in a place of honor on my altar quite happy and snug and cozy there with the lid firmly atop while he's sleeping.

The talking to part is not what I expected when I first started my alraun care adventure. I expected that I would talk to him very much the same way we speak to our cats, dogs, sometimes fish ( and on occasion I do just that.) Oh no. That's not what it is for me. I learned very quickly that from the get go he speaks to me in dreams and in meditations when I go in to faery, we have a back and forth dialogue that includes words, images and sometimes sounds and smells. I guess I could have gotten the hint when I was first embarking on his creation but, I completely missed the point on that one and misinterpreted the dream. I think at that point the Poppet Prince was trying to warn me about my now ex husband and his extremely jealous behavior patterns instead of an intruding spirit. Oh well live and learn. The other puzzle piece that I have recently put into place actually came out of the mouth of my Faery Aunt while I was grieving the loss of my witch garden. She said that the spirit of the plant will come back to you when you re-establish new plants; the spirits don't just die and go away, they wait for a new host. It brings me comfort to know that now. Should, Gaia forbid, anything happen to the vessel I have cared for my Poppet Prince in, I can lovingly create him a new host body and call him forth again.

Alrauns have been talked about in lore as being created from the most coveted of witchdoms plants, most often as a mandrake root. Truth be known, I think an alraun is made from a root. Period. A root that you lovingly pull from the earth, replant in your personal plot and care for as a plant for a bit before you begin the formative shape. Yes the leaves will at first wither and curl. Yes it will come back if you have carefully handled the roots. In my experience, I actually had vibrant sow weed flowers bloom during this process as I was making offerings and connection to the plant. Yes, I put a sow weed sweetly in its own pot, brought it home and called it friend. I am a city witch and there things in the city that only urban plants know, like how to grow in the cracks of the sidewalk and push through asphalt to defy the shape and form society wishes to create of you.

If you are going to chose to work with alrauns, my suggestion is get to know the earth spirit called into it first. It is this spirit you will be working with. I also suggest only one alraun at a time until you come to a good understanding of how to connect and work with one. Since we know that books may be great sources of information and knowledge but, they are no substitute for hands on dirt under the fingernails practice. Just focus intently on your alraun, listen to all your hidden senses and instincts while following the pattern put forth by our ancestors. Understand that it is not exact and varies slightly from witch to witch ( and that's okay.) Most of all, enjoy the process. If there is no love and joy in what you are doing, you are doing it wrong. Do not be afraid to deviate from lore a bit because it is not in the books. There are lots of things that are not in the books and you may miss out on beautiful secrets. What's not in the books is within your own heart.

Dana Scully Hair

http://jojokersina.deviantart.com/art/Dana-Scully-5-Blended-11202217

I woke this morning to a strangeness. An internal voice I recognize as spirit reminded me that right before I got married to my ex. I had cut my hair. Short. I suddenly went from having hair that fell the length of my back to looking like Dana Scully. Upon hearing that message, I was reminded of a study that was done during the Vietnam conflict. The special forces during this time recruited talented scouts with abilities to track at the level of supernatural, recruited some of them, and cut their hair. Failure after failure occurred after the scout's hair was cut and the special forces want to know why. When asked, the recruits sited that they could not sense the enemy any longer. Test were done with a new set of recruits who were allowed to keep their hair and successes in the field remained the same with these men as they were pre-recruitment. There is much ado about this study and many who just want to blow it off as a woo story. Here's mine:

When I met my ex, he had long beautiful hair that would make any woman green with envy. I was fine with it, I had my own long hair. I worked a couple of jobs at the time to make ends meet; I was a single mother. One of those jobs was reading cards in a metaphysical shop. I found my ex at the time to be funny and sensitive and even a bit shy. I could sense there was something underneath the shyness, but didn't poke too hard. I thought it rude to invade someone's mind space and decided that if he wanted it revealed he would reveal it. Eventually he did and I was shocked at the story that unfolded and I decided that, in spite of my misgivings, it was too preposterous to be a lie and ignored the alarm going off in my head as me being paranoid after my experience with the relationship before.

Eventually, he asked me to marry him and I obviously said yes. One morning before we were to be married, I woke up with my long braided hair wrapped around my throat and the end tucked under my husband-to-be's shoulder falling off the bed. I just about strangled myself with my own hair and decided: that's it, it gets whacked! I came home looking like Dana Scully. My husband-to-be was shocked, he thought I was only going to take off a little bit. I didn't notice at first that my intuition had slipped away from me a little. I had been so busy at the time with pre-wedding last minute things that I didn't have time to read the cards as I usually did and by the time I got back into the reading habit, any association with the hair whacking and intuitiveness had been lost. I noticed that there things in the cards I couldn't see any more. I thought maybe it was due to the new mother zombie mode and let it go.

As my hair began to grow out over the months and years that followed the things that I previously missed in the cards came back. I attributed that phenomenon with my meditation rituals and the return to practice with my cards re-establishing my energetic exercises to work with my native intuition. All the time my hair had been growing back silently, my intuition came back with it. Still, no correlation between the two sprang to mind. As the years passed, I began to sense there was something deeply wrong with our relationship, but I could not put my finger on it. Much later I visited friends who warned me I had hidden enemies. Indeed I did and they had years of head start on my and it explained the feeling of fear and dread I had been fighting off for years thinking it was paranoia. ( my ex did a great job of keeping me spun around so I wouldn't realize it was him and his crew)

While I had decided after my hair whacking the first time, I was not EVER going to do it again, my husband at the time cut and grew his hair back several times and the thing that I noticed each time is that when the hair was cut short, he was cold and distant and his temper more volatile. He and my eldest son ( his stepson) would argue more frequently and more heatedly. He grew insensitive and selfish even. That corresponds with these statements made in the study I read years later:

"Cutting of hair is a contributing factor to unawareness of environmental distress in local ecosystems. It is also a contributing factor to insensitivity in relationships of all kinds. It contributes to sexual frustration. " 

I have always been an experience is king kind of girl so when I re-read the study this morning and thought about all the times my husband had long hair, then short hair. It made more sense to me. I do not propose that all of my husband's unacceptable behavior is attributed to his hair length, not at all, but it may have been one of those things that elevated the levels of cruelty when he started keeping his hair short. I know my short hair diminished my intuitive levels. I had to work harder to keep the feelers out, but I have to admit that it made me sharper having short hair because I did have to work harder. I just never made the connection that I may have severed away my psychic radar system. Guess I'm not doing that again. I think, maybe there is definitely something to this study on hair length and it being an important part of our intuitive awareness radar. There are other spiritual communities that

http://themindunleashed.org/2013/11/the-relation-between-long-hair.html

have similar beliefs about long hair. I have experiences that agree with both study and spiritual communities and I have more trust in my experiences these days over what any study or debunker has to say.

I wish I could remember what the title of the book I found the study in originally. It was a book about secret government studies done. Later I re-read the study on line and remembered reading it in that book. I would prefer to be able to site the information accurately to you from a good source but all I can find right now are varying blogs and what not. (ugh) If I run across the book in the library, I'll be sure to come back here and cite it here in an annotated footnote sort of thing. 

Angry imps!

I like this discussion on the dark side of meditation and the issues that can occur. I view them of course not necessarily from a scientific or even scholastic perspective. I come to this discussion from personal experience ( which is king in my book) and a shamanic eye. It is necessary to have this discussion because these are real consequences of awakening a possible shaman without the lore/ guiding hand/ shamanic ethos and spirit contact. Meditation is not a practice of scientifically silencing the mind and it's voice, it is a conscious effort to connect yourself with the divine part of yourself and divinity as we are able to perceive and understand. This requires understanding of uncommon sense to be applied in a common sense world. Yes this is indeed a paradox, but if you are in the mirror's reflection, everything is backward, yet we still understand it.

 I agree with the Dalai Lama: you cannot have a Temple without a large library to support it. ( Library guides are also very much desired.) Libraries and library guides teach us that there are answers out there and if they are not direct answers, we are able to take the facts or read a pattern and bring it into focus to understand or at least come to terms with the strangenesses currently in play. Between libraries and meditation, shamans thrive; remove the libraries and the whole kit and caboodle is insanity in a crazy burlap bag of angry wet cats. Poor burlap bag. I believe that when you are centered within yourself while in meditation that what you have learned has the potential to become wisdom through right action.  I think we often forget that life is a mystery to experience not analyze.

I have had some very negative experiences in both meditation and trance. That does not make me unstable. It makes me pretty "normal." EEEEEKKKK When these disturbing things occur it is a cue for me not to run away, but to carefully inspect. I may be experiencing an angry shard of myself or even missing soul piece! That is not to be ignored or taken lightly in the shamanic world. ( it is also not red alert/ klaxon alarm/ panic button pushing event.) It could be causing illness, true indeed, even emotional disturbances. . . the good news is that you can fix it. In fact, when these things come up you are being invited to help heal the issue. Not just fix it; heal it, mend it, bring the tattered ends together for peace talks. These things, these dark frightening things that hide in our beings. . . they are us. And they want the same things we want: love and acceptance for who and what they are. Really it's like the soul shattered off and made all these little imp like shards and they come back to haunt us. The only truth we need to understand in these moments is this: It may be an imp, but it's my imp and I love it. Well loved imps are much better behaved than ignored, ostracized, and angry imps.

Thus the witch proverb:

Faithfully serve your imp, and S/He shall faithfully serve you.

Storyteller shamans

I have always thought that the telling of stories was one of the most important things for a strong society to bond into a people. Not the news, not documentaries, not the neighborhood gossip sort of stories, but the ones of legendary proportions. The ones where the villain looks to be larger than life and invincible, the heros reluctant to step to the plate, the magic hidden in plain sight. These are the stories that truly matter. They used to be told in the flickering light of a fire at night when the creatures of night stalked their shadows. The Shaman or storyteller would have everyone huddled around scarce to breathe for missing a nuance of tone as the story came to life. Sometimes the fire would help with a dramatic pop and shower of sparks. These were the days when tribes were small.

Our tribes are much larger now, but stories are still a major bonding thread through our cultures. It's not likely that we are going to huddle around a fire ( although that still sounds fun) but we all at one point find ourselves scrunched down in a movie theater chair or a sofa in our living room waiting to be told a story. When we really look at it the storyteller has to jump through many more sacred hoops to tell their tale, but the beginnings of the storytelling process remains the same. The storyteller turns inward and flies up into a realm of ethers that he or she has been invited into. Literally it is a new world with rules, heros and villains all of it's own.

Like the past, these stories link tribes of a culture together regardless of what part of the world the story travels. All who hear and love the story become kith and kin, welcomed into the world with a common understanding of humanity even if the language is different. These stories not only bind cultures together, they can act as a guide in the dark shadowed night of the soul. Often times when we are listening/ watching/ reading these stories, we end up empathizing with a specific character in the saga. During times of demon dancing it becomes helpful to look to these figures and those around them for wisdom and guidance while you dance your own shadow dance. The wisdom revealed may not be a direct application to your own motion, but rather a sudden flash of realization and inspiration. This is a true aspect of shamanism: the application of the shaman's vision to the realm we walk in whether it be a large outer world project or a personal quest.

Shamanism is not a dwindling practice, it is alive and well. It has evolved, shifted to suit the medium, the people, the largeness of the world's tribe. Maybe the traditional means and methods of training have been passed quietly around to certain keepers of these secrets, but lost they are not. There are those out there who continue the traditional practices in secret with a small group of people in clusters all over the world and sometimes in places most unexpected. Often times these Shamans, if you will, do not share their adventures believing them to be irrelevant to the outer world or useful to anyone but themselves. Sometimes what is revealed, the shaman feels should be kept secret for a time until it is the correct place in time to reveal the mystery for further unfolding. Sometimes the shaman never reveals the story because the battle is their personal dance.

Every once in a while, I fall upon a movie, book or painting that reveals to me that the art of the storytelling shaman is still alive and well. These people may not recognize what it is they are doing, but I do. If there is any doubt, ask the story teller this:" how real are your characters and their world to you?" Most of them will tell you something like this:" my characters talk to me and have a running commentary on my life." These storytellers may not have been trained in traditional manners or be keepers of traditional secrets, but they have tapped into something larger than themselves and come back with a legend to pass to their perceived tribe. Some of these modern legends have swayed the thinking and understanding of real people in this realm, possibly shifting this world in a very real manner. If that's not shamanism, I don't know what the hex is.

I believe society needs these story tellers to help make sense of our world and lives. I believe that these stories make us stronger as both a society and individual. Think carefully, who are your storyteller shamans? How have they affected your universe? What untold stories have you been invited to dance within and have you the courage to tell them?

Opening doors

 I know that I have missed out on all the hub bub with Pantheacon ( again.) I have deliberately tucked and rolled then slid into my own private thinking space for work of my own. I have one suggestion for those like Z who wish to hold a birth woman only ritual. Hold three rituals: birth women only, transgender only, mixed. End of story. Everyone gets what they want. There would be no one feeling left out, they would all have something that is their own.

Time has skipped by me this last 9 months without so much as the courtesy of a squeak as it did so. Moving into a new place has literally uprooted my patterns and shook my little sandbox around burying some things, exposing others. It's not like moving from one apartment to another where things sort of resume where they left off. There are new chores to dole out and do, there are future repairs that must be planned before a thing completely becomes an emergency, improvements to dream about, and a community to get to know. It was nice to slow down this week without being sick.

In the strangeness of my own private portal to faery, I delved into my own self and dug up some answers I was expecting to hear and some that took me completely off guard. I knew there were things I needed to pick back up since my thumb was injured. Being healed now, I am ready to pick those things up again: yoga and mudras. It is easy now to see how much of an effect mudras and yoga has had upon me. Settling into my mudra reminded me how much I missed it. There were things that I was able to note, the flow of energy as the mudra took effect was interesting. It was like someone had poured peppermint oil on all of my nerves following the path through my body as it was being activated. Each moment the mudra was held was like the electricity in my body was being elevated, like a dimmer switch being turned.

My dreamscape has been very active. Most of the characters there were familiar faces and beings I have worked with for quite some time. There was a new surprise. I found myself in front of a mirror with the Ice Maiden. She was giving me mirror scrying tips. Upon waking, I made a mad dash for my journal to write them down before they receded back into my dreaming mind. This experience lead to questions about the nature of mummification and its effects upon the energetic body. I don't remember being contacted by the Ice Maiden quite like this before. She has shown up in places like a daemon would in my past, but never has she actually shown up in my dreamscape and spoken the way she has. Did the fact that she was so well preserved have something to do with her reawakening upon being unearthed? Is there something about being preserved that allows your soul to hold a space in time, possibly to skip through generations to pass secrets of the ancient practices necessary to that Shaman Thread I spoke of earlier? Were the ancients oblivious to this or was this something they understood? While things in my life seem to make more sense there are new questions, some of them I may not have answers to until it is my turn to pass through the forbidden mysteries.

While the ritual I conducted on my own behalf has shown to be effective, they ( my guides) have added aspects to it: part two and part three are coming around soon. I can now see why my friends and guides were giving me vexing half answers before. I am understanding the necessity of certain events that were unpleasant for me. Sometimes while you are content to stay where you are, you are needed to perform a different task. That will require you to shift and give up certain things that interfere with the new things coming your way. You have to wait for the door to open before you can enter the threshold. And some doors are best not forced open.


I am feeling calm and peaceful today. It is a sensation I have not had in quite sometime and I have missed it. I have a feeling that mirror magics and lessons are in cue for me. Curiouser and curiouser.

Skull, skull, skull!

We live in a time when every time we turn around, someone is wearing a skull. You see them cutesy with heart shaped eyes, on earrings, pendants, T shirts and skin; sometimes they are fierce and grim. This witch has to wonder: what is it that is resonating so deeply within our culture that we must subconsciously call upon the power of the ancestors? I realize wholly that on the surface of things people think they are cool, hip and even cute, at least the heart eyed ones, but I was brought into awareness of the fact that we are attracted to certain kinds of energy in certain modes of thinking. Skulls have a very specific energy.

Skulls represent the power of wisdom and our connection to our ancestors, even the power of death and release. Skulls also represent the transmission of ancient teachings and mysteries. With that said, it could also be that skulls represent the ability to learn and evolve. All of man's ability to exist physically depends on what is within the skull and it's well being. All of society requires a healthy mind in each individual in order to function smoothly.

How do you make a mind healthy when we treat them all like cookie cutters and stampers and attempt to train them all in the same exact manner? Each individual mind works differently, we see this most clearly in school. When we take a look at how each student learns it becomes apparent that the mind of each individual takes in and processes information different. Some are visual, some are textural others yet are auditory. These are just surface analysis of the subject, what if it goes as deep as perception? What if one student is literally seeing something that most others cannot? Does that make this person crazy because his or her peers cannot verify or measure what this person is perceiving? I'm not certain that this is always the case. 

Shamanism and psychosis often times share symptoms. Those who could be shamans could indeed become psychotic with out proper awareness of what is occurring and without proper training. We are no longer a society that openly embraces shamanism. We like to call things in  black and white labels: sane and insane, good and evil, day and night. I reasonably suspect the mysteries of the ancients and ancestors are beyond the black and white labels. It may be time as a society that we openly teach basic mind stabilizing techniques in schools while children are young. Stabilizing and clearing basics such as grounding bring peace and harmony to the operation of the mind. Regardless of a person's religion, wouldn't this be a beneficial thing? There would also be the potential of an added benefit: it may increase a child's ability to learn. 

We may be calling upon the spirit of our ancestors. We may indeed be lost with out an understanding of what has become of our culture and society. We may be experiencing discordant resonances created by our lack of understanding in how our minds work.  We may be experiencing these societal traumas because we have forgotten how our minds may be connected to much more than our bodies. Maybe our minds are connected to a large streaming network of humanity not only in current existence, but past and  future as well. It is said repeatedly by spiritual leaders and spiritual people that we are all one. 

What if they are right and we are a one large organism? An organism consists of many different types cells that form and operate differently. With that said, not only would not everyone be able to be a heart cell, each grouping of cells would require a different type 'education'. It is also a strong possibility that within each cell type grouping, each cell learns differently. Maybe part of this ancient knowledge that we  lost includes information about how each of these 'cell groupings' are best identified and taught the skills they need to help the organism function smoothly. 

Maybe now that we seem to have embraced the imagery of ancient wisdom without a fear reaction it's time to start asking: what have we forgotten and how do we relearn it?

This video is one in a series of eight about ancient teachings being transmitted through crystal skulls. All eight are avail able on You tube. This is just to get you started ;)

Terrance Miller talks about Shamanism and Psychosis here. It is an interesting thought form. Enjoy!