A Package and Some News

Well. I said I had news, and I think it should be okay to share it now. I will attempt to condense a long story to its main points. For a long time, I have felt extremely drawn to the Shinto Kami, and just earlier this week decided that I finally felt ready to begin a relationship with Them. I have felt an incredible sense of peace in the wake of this decision, but I also know I have a lot to learn. I really want to be able to purchase pieces for a Kamidana like the one I blogged about on Tuesday; however, those pieces are expensive. This brings me to my second piece of news.

I got a job!!! I actually scored another library position down here at school, and I couldn't be more excited. I had my first shift tonight, and it was great. I can't wait to be making some more money so I can save up for things.

And finally, I got a really neat package in the mail today from my mom. There were a lot of great things in it, but check out these two handbags.

For some reason, my laptop takes great quality videos but really bad pictures. Still haven't figured that one out. Anyway, mom found both of those at a rummage sale. The red one has a dragon and chrysanthemum pattern on it, while the blue has a lot of kanji calligraphy. They're beautiful bags, and they might be antiques, I'm not sure. I am taking it as a sign, though, that I'm on the right track. It was really the confidence boost I needed to open a package and immediately be reminded of Japanese mythology.

February 5th, 2013

Recently, the library where I work was getting rid of several cartfuls of old books (they were donating them to another organization), and they gave employees about a week to go through said books and take any they wanted, free of charge. I hadn't been expecting to find anything of interest, seeing as metaphysics isn't the world's most popular genre, but actually, I found probably six or seven that looked good! One of these is The Power of Creative Dreaming, by Pamela Ball.

 ~~~~~~~~~~

Creative dreaming, or "lucid dreaming", as it is more commonly known, is essentially where one recognizes that one is dreaming while dreaming. In this instance, one of two things happens - the dreamer wakes or the dreamer succeeds in remaining asleep and is able to alter and control the events occurring within the dream. How much control one actually has depends on the individual - practice, after all, makes perfect. Lucid dreaming is a lot of fun on its own, as one has the opportunity to do things that are otherwise impossible, like fly, walk through walls, explore outer space, etc. However, from a metaphysical perspective, there are a lot of other applications for lucid dreaming. One could, for instance, use such techniques to contact a spirit guide or patronus animal, or work with images in the dream to create inner peace and healing. Through lucid dreaming during a nightmare, for example, one has the chance to face the frightening images in the dream, shrinking the problem down to size and getting rid of it. Such actions in the subconscious can have an exponential impact on one's waking life. A particularly vivid, non-lucid dream could indicate the onset of an illness, a problem that you are avoiding, a chakra imbalance, or other issue. By later using lucid dreaming to look at the problem, one can more fully asses the issue and deal with any mental factors - stress, for example, is often the initiator for disease and illness. Lucid dreaming can help deal with and find solutions to that stress. So go ahead, give it a try - use a combination of focus on your desire to dream lucidly, affirmations, and sleep (that is a sort of essential component) and wait for dreaming awareness to set in. Don't push yourself. Results may not be immediate, and that's okay - "all good things to those who wait". Taking note of your dreams in a dream diary can improve both your dream recall and your ability to dream lucidly, and also gives you a record to look at later, examining your dreams for reoccurring themes or images. Sleep tight!

January 16th, 2013

I had a half-day today, since we had finals, meaning that I got home at 1:00 instead of 3:00. I already know that I did really well on my AP Environmental and Global Business tests, and I think I did well on Japanese, too. I have three more tests tomorrow, and two on Friday. I'm crossing my fingers...!
Today, I'm going to move some things around on one of my bookcases, to hopefully make enough room for the massive influx of books I've had. In addition to the two books I purchased earlier this month and those I got for the holidays, I got another half-dozen or so books from the library, which was getting rid of several cart-fulls and were letting staff members take what they wanted. I got a bunch of metaphysical ones, including one on dreaming, and another on channelling. Huzzah!

October 16th, 2012

I was at the library last night, shelving books, when I came across a piece entitled Earth Mother, by Ellen Jackson. Intrigued, I took it with me to read on my break. I thought it was really sweet, and enjoyed the emotive illustrations. It's a great book for young children, and parents will like it too, with its message that we all have a place in the world, and that all living things are special and important. Here is Amazon.com's summary:

"The circle of life turns in unexpected ways. Earth Mother awakes with the dawn. As she walks the land, swims the seas, and climbs the mountains, nurturing all of creation, she comes across Man, Frog, and Mosquito. They each give her thanks for nature’s bounty, yet can’t help but give her advice about making their lives better. Everybody’s got an opinion, it seems, and Earth Mother is amused when it becomes clear that the circle of life is not without a healthy dose of cosmic humor."

August 19th, 2012

So many exciting things to write about today. First of all, Hazelnut will be coming for a visit on Tuesday, before we're both back to school the day after. Summer went by so quickly.
I also started my first official job today, working as a page/book shelver at the local public library. I'm still not sure how that's going to play into my busy schedule, but it'll work out somehow.
On a more magickal note, I've been interested in the local flora ever since a presentation I saw last week on edible wild plants. Not only is harvesting wild edibles an interesting task from a culinary perspective, being able to identify natural growing herbs and flowers can be most useful in creating one's spells. It seems to me that it makes the most sense to work with what grows around you, naturally, rather than some dried flower shipped here from the other side of the planet. The energy just isn't the same. I'd like to get a real field guide, but in the meantime I'm making do with an app on my phone, called NatureGate. It allows you to look at a wild plant and choose from a wide variety of characteristics that describe it. Then, it calculates the potential species of what you're looking at, based on what you specify. It's a neat idea, but I'm not sure how useful it will be for me; it's based in Finland. Still, it says that many of the species are found worldwide, so we'll see.