The Veil Walker

Shamanic Veil Walker, Spiritual & Shamanic Life Coach, Reiki Master, Druid, & Appalachian Hedgewitch

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Pisces Oil

10 Drops of Ylang Ylang -  Associated with both the element of Water & Pisces.  Ylang Ylang promotes positive energy and helps bring peace and beauty to the home. They stimulate intuition and promote creativity. Ideal for divination, they also aid in dreamwork and communication with spirits. These oils provide a great deal of supportive energy during times of transition and exploration of one’s deeper spirituality.

10 Drops of Sandalwood - Associated with both the element of Water & Pisces. Sandalwood is well known for supporting personal growth, providing spiritual inspiration, and manifesting peace. Its healing energy brings renewal, stability, strength, and well-being. Sandalwood also aids in divination, dream, and astral work. Additionally, this oil boosts creativity and aids in expressing your desires.

2 Drops of Jasmine -  Associated with both the element of Water & Pisces.  Jasmine enhances divination as well as contact with the spirit realm. This oil is also an ally, providing protection for dreamwork, channeling, and astral travel.  Spiritually, jasmine stimulates intuition, bringing inspiration for creative endeavors as well as clarity for communication. It is also instrumental for peace, healing, and overall well-being.

Use a Safflower Oil as a carrier oil in rollers or master bottles. If you are wanting to infuse with dried herbs instead. Safflower Oil is the perfect neutral oil  to use for any intention and purpose.

 If you are on a budget or wanting to use plant matter instead this oil can be made using the “fast infusion” method.

Have you tried adding Essential Oils to your spiritual practice yet?

Resources:  Llewellyn’s Complete Formulary of Magical Oils: Over 1200 Recipes, Potions & Tinctures for Everyday Use by Celeste Rayne Heldstab &  Mixing Essential Oils for Magic: Aromatic Alchemy for Personal Blends by Sandra Kynes.

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The New Moon in Pisces

The New Moon in Pisces is on 3/2/2022. Here is some “Threads of Inspiration” for the upcoming Pisces Moon Cycle. Are you ready to swim with the fishes?

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Shamanic Journeying The Wheel of The Year/ Imbolc

For us nature-based souls, the seasonal sabbats are great times when magickal & spiritual people from all different traditions and walks of life can come together in ritual, ceremony, and celebration to reach across both space and time, uniting us all in the turning of the wheel. 

For some of us, who celebrate with others, these seasonal celebrations are nothing short of having a good time, and who doesn’t love a good time… especially when the sabbat involves uplifting music, dancing, and sharing food with those in attendance. With all the fun and festivities being had in celebrating we sometimes forget that our sheer enjoyment and pleasure is raising energy for the turning of the wheel and even taking us into an altered state of consciousness and being. 

Our celebration is RITUAL and is much needed to turn the Wheel from our side of the veil, just as Spirit turns it from their side of the veil. We are partners with the Wheel and when we raise energy and celebrate, we are making the next turn and keeping the cycle, the balance, and harmony… since our rituals & ceremonies here within the Middle World create energy & change that ripple throughout all the worlds. 

But what about those who practice solitary or who are looking for more depth when it comes to the sabbats. Well, those of us who are called to a path of more spiritual vocation can transcend the traditional celebrations by working in a more shamanic context during the turns of the wheel. Instead of just celebrating and enjoying music, dance, and food leisurely, we can instead use these as powerful shamanic ritual tools to induce an altered state to then direct our energies to the other worlds to ensure the turning of the wheel as well. When we journey at these great times within the wheel, we can access gateways of awareness and healing. As the energies align, these peak times provide us with a new way of understanding ourselves and the world… For when we heal & understand, we help the world and provide more energy for the Wheel to turn.

Each turn in the wheel can provide a theme or focus for personal journeys within our current position along our path. Through Journeying The Wheel of The Year, we not only observe and honor the changes of the seasons and cycles but also directly participate in them. Such journeys are an excellent way of finding new allies, deepening relationships with the ones already known, and may also provide personal revelations that may have been elusive in previous journeys.

This approach also helps with connecting with those seasons and turns that may be more difficult to work with because of weather conditions, location, or even with a disassociation with that sabbat. In shamanic living, life is about balance and relating to our present world & the whole Wheel with all its seasons. Each is necessary and a part of life. Each is a part of the elements and the cycles of life on this side of the veil. When we journey the Wheel of The Year, we can find that the spirits of the seasons are great allies. Each manifests as a personality, with wisdom and advice to share and work to do to bring balance.

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IMBOLC JOURNEYING

Most of us know that Imbolc is a festival of lights, in a sense it’s when many nature-based people seek to awaken the slumbering Goddess to rise for the coming Spring. Imbolc is a time to stimulate ourselves and our inner fire by embracing cleansing, renewal, and rebirth. Shamanically, we can literally journey “into the belly” of the Underworld to visit the slumbering Goddess for self-nurturing & healing, or the Land of Fire to establish boundaries and for purification and transformation.

The Journeying of The Wheel can have countless focuses based on the needs of the practitioner. So, I will conclude this post with some themes/focuses you can incorporate into your own Imbolc ritual.

⭐ Side Note – As I am one not to tell anyone what one may or may not do…please approach anything and everything with respect for when we journey, we are visitors in their realm. Prior research before attempting anything is recommended. Everything shared is shared with the intent of sharing information.

Cleansing Journey with Brighid for Imbolc -https://youtu.be/RmV3xv2IW6I

The Dragon as an Ally - https://www.travellersjoy.ca/.../04/the-dragon-as-an-ally/

Journeying the Wheel of the Year/Imbolc – Journey or Meditate on Imbolc and allow the journey to take you where you need to go for your own spiritual insight and transformation.

Meeting the Spirit of Imbolc - Journey to the Underworld to meet the seasonal spirit of Imbolc and see where it takes you. Ask one of your guides for help. Follow your intuition and guidance. If this is a season, you don’t normally enjoy, seek to understand why, and how to make inner peace with the Imbolc. The seasonal spirit will guide you. Then ask for a ritual that will deepen your experience with the season.

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Imbolc Crash Course

This year, Imbolc is on February 2nd.

What is it based on?

Also known as Candlemas.

It celebrates the coming of spring.

Generally, the date is placed halfway between Yule and Ostara.

It began in the pre-Christian era on the British isles.

First mentions of it come from Irish literature, with mentions in poetry that relate it to ewe’s milk and purification.

Speculation that it may have been celebrated in line with the breeding cycle of sheep. So, when lactation started, they celebrated Imbolc.

Celebration were based around Brigid, who was evoked in fertility rituals and oversaw poetry, crafts, and prophecy.

Traditions included:

Creating an oat and rush effigy of Brigid that they would put in a dress and place in a basket overnight on February first.

Burning lamps and bonfires to celebrate Brigid on the day of.

How to Celebrate

Some easy examples include:

Set up an Imbolc altar.

Perform a candle ritual.

Prayers and devotions related to the shift from winter to spring.

Cleansings: Of yourself, with a bath. Of your home by cleaning and organizing.

Creating a cross of Brigid or a Bridey doll.

Plant seeds.

Cook and eat foods that celebrate the hearth and home. - Breads and grains. - Vegetables. - Dairy.

In general, celebrate rebirth. Celebrate the new season and the new life that comes along with it. Do what brings forth passion and fire and warmth. Find joy and comfort in domesticity.

Who is Brigid?

The daughter of Dagda. Goddess of fertility, healing, fire, sun, and poetry. She is triple-aspected and Imbolc celebrates her Maiden aspect. Her other two aspects, also named Brigid, were of healing and of the smithy.

She rules the fire of the hearth and the fire of imagination, channelled through poetry. The fire of the blacksmiths. Candles, bonfires. A perpetual flame to Brigid has burned for centuries, minded by priestesses, in the town center of Kildare.

Later became Saint Bridget.

Symbols of Brigid

The snowdrop.

The swan.

The flame.

The serpent.

Sheep.

Silver (purity), green (fresh life), and red (fire).

Symbols of Imbolc

Blackberry.

Coltsfoot.

Ginger.

Rowan.

Willow.

Sources

https://www.goddessandgreenman.co.uk/imbolc-candlemas/

https://mythopedia.com/topics/brigid

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Brigit

https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/imbolc

https://www.learnreligions.com/guide-to-celebrating-imbolc-2562102

This post is a compilation of the above sources. It is a simplified version of the information regarding this complex and history-rich holiday and deity! If any of this interests you, I encourage you to do your own research and discover for yourself. Truly, it is in the spirit of the season!

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New Moon in Aquarius - 2/1/2022

Here are some highlights of this powerful New Moon. The words below are described and come from a Druid perspective and approach.

Practicum - A practical section of a course of study.

Triads - Words of Wisdom

Eisteddfod - Means “sitting or session”,  The Teachings engage our Intellectual Self, the exercises of the Practical Work develop our Inner Abilities and evoke the Will and Imagination, the Eisteddfod engages our hearts and souls.

Gwers - Quite literally means “lesson”.

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IMBOLC – A DEEPER LOOK INTO THE STIRRING OF THE FIRE WITHIN

We all somewhat know that as we approach Imbolc, we are 6 weeks from the Spring Equinox and this is a great time to work alongside the agricultural season and start planning our goals, intentions, and seeds we wish to manifest this year, however, we can do more than simply writing these intentions in our journals or on a sheet of paper. 

Anytime we truly apply ourselves more than the bare minimum effort…we are in turn showing and telling those Divine Powers of the Universe that we are meeting them halfway and that we are ready to receive, claim, and do the work to manifest things into reality. Imbolc is more than “planning & planting” seeds, it is also about what I call the “QUICKENING”. What do I mean by quickening? I mean this is a time to STIMULATE ourselves and our power by embracing cleansing, renewal, and rebirth. It is time to start putting things into motion! We can see this just outside our windows with how the days are starting to grow longer and the Sun is returning with its warmth preparing the Earth once more for growth. 

This is a sabbat that is about preparing and starting to work for what is to come, getting rid of old things that no longer serve us (like how we do Spring Cleaning) and introspection. Imbolc is about beginnings and the transformation from Winter to Spring. Simply put, you can’t get more or new shit if you’re still carrying around your old baggage… That old baggage is the kindling to the blazing fire of your transformation and renewal to this new year of possibilities. 

During the Winter, we usually rest, reflect, and process... but now it is time to stir & quicken within.

I want to put a thought in your mind…We know in magickal or spiritual living, each season/sabbat has a corresponding element. However, have you ever matched or read the story of those elements in a sequence? For example, we know Imbolc is Fire, Spring is Air, & Early Summer is Water. At Imbolc we clear, plan, and begin to send those intentions through a portal of Fire. Then the smoke of our intentions is carried on the breeze by the Air of Spring to the higher realms and beings. Then we start to see the first beginnings of growth of our intentions being manifested and nourished by the rains and water of Early Summer. 

Imbolc is Fire - Fire is a purifier but in living a magical or spiritual life it is so much more… fire is also a powerful tool because it is also seen as a portal or gateway to send our intentions to those higher realms & beings. That’s why so many different paths and religions use fire and candles. Every time we burn a Bay Leaf or piece of paper with an intention on it (no matter if the intention is drawing or releasing), we are sending those intentions by smoke to those higher realms & beings to manifest it and bring it forth to reality.

Agriculturally, this is a time when people start clearing the land from the Winter’s rest and preparing it by burning the dead and old leaves and sticks (removing the baggage). By burning we are making room by clearing the old & sending our intentions of new crops and harvest to the universe. Also, by burning we are also preparing & healing the land by adding some ash to the soil to help those future crops absorb nutrients from the soil and help it to become fertile once more. This is why we see so much agriculture and nature being applied to the idea of our intentions being spiritual seeds and crops that we want to cultivate and harvest… it’s almost like our “simple” ancestors were on to something ;)

 Imbolc is the light at the end of the tunnel, the birth of the new Spring. It is a small light, like a candle seen in the distance because Spring is still some distance away (which is why we see some Christians celebrate Imbolc as Candlemas). It makes it only right to celebrate Imbolc with candles rather than torches or the blazing balefires that will mark our Spring & Summer celebrations.

So, this Imbolc take some time to stir your inner fire within and light some candles, release the baggage, and send all your "seeds of intention" for an epic year to float on the breeze of the new coming Spring.