Saturday, May 28, 2011

Still on being a witch and raising a little witch


I know that since yesterday words have been spread like lightning on this subject - they will never be enough - but watching my son today I was thinking...

What's the best religion? Which is the right faith? Of course, there is no absolute truth about one's spiritual path - although the recent events tried to prove it wrong. For me, the best religion, the right faith, is the one you feel at home with. The faith you feel comforted, where you find, if not all the answers to this crazy world and how it works, at least some of them. The best religion is the one that makes yo put your head on your pillow at night, and feel covered by a mantle of inner peace, strenght and serenity face all the nonsense that is thrown at our faces everyday, no matter if you're Christian, Muslin, Jew, Hindu, Pagan... If it makes sense to you, it's your spiritual home, and if it's the right one for you, I'm happy for that.

I'm absolutely cozy and comfortable being pagan and I'm proud of raising my little son on my path - while teaching him about other faiths, and making sure he knows he's free to change his mind and go find another path that better suits his soul, if in the future he feels that paganism is not for him. I know that many parents choose to keep their kids on a neutral field, not wanting to influence them on their spirituality, but I think it's just natural that my son, while a kid, follows my religion. He's used to the scent of incenses and to the light of candle flames since he was in my belly. If I was Catholic, he would probably attend the Sunday mass with me. If I was a Jew, he would read the Torah with me, etc.

I never force him to celebrate sabbaths or to perform rituals/spells. He simply shows such interest and joy that it's a pleasure for me to answer his priceless, never-ending questions and to how him my point of view. He's such a precious little thing who's constantly challenging me to debate - almost like a grown-up - the many sides and possibilities of the spiritual world. He loves reading to me about deities' stories when I'm creating my Goddesses & Gods. He loves making his own potions and amulets, and performing his own rituals at his altar. He honors and respects the eldelry as they are the symbols of his ancestrals. He's taught to be graciously strong on his opinions, and to never bow down to anyone. "Question", I tell him, not to have a blind faith, and to understand that it's important to check facts before assuming.

Nature is sacred to us and he would never hurt or kill a living creature, because that's how I taught him, and he feels it's right. I try to keep my little witch's eyes open to the beauty surrounding him. To watch the lovely cloud patterns that are constantly changing in the sky, specially during these cold weather days. To enjoy watching and feeling the beautiful ancient trees along the streets and to pay attention to the little things that will make a difference in his mood when he's a grown-up man and hard days come and he'll need to feel centered somehow.

He reads about herbs, and is starting to be really interested on their magickal properties. He naturally worships the Goddess & the God, seeing them in every aspect of Nature, and in every aspect of himself.

One thing I tell him since tender ages is "Always respect others, to be respected as well." He even wrote about it in one of his school's compositions, so much I repeat it to him on a daily basis. Obviously we all know this is not so simple, but he will learn to deal with the complexities of my quote in the right time. If he truly understands and keeps it in his mind and heart for the future, I'm happy.

Never mock on anyone, never be arrogant to think your faith or your ideas are better than anyone else's, I tell him. Diversity is something to honor and respect. H's coming to an age that being different may have an extra weight on his or his little friends' shoulders, and I want to be sure he'll be prepared to stand up for what he think it's right without needing to be aggressive or mean. So far he's doing alright on his walk.

On a nutshell (a loooong nutshell, lol), this is how I how I share my spirituality with my son, and how I would really love to see him sharing his own chosen spirituality with his kids, someday. I hope to blessed enough to live to that day.


PS: Blame on my verborragy a super-late hours when I posted this. I forgot the most important! Let's keep voting for Kris and all the pagan blogs at Circle of Moms!! :)

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Prejudice, ignorance and disrespect are SAD


No words are enough to express my indignation on this. But I tried on her Facebook post:

Sorry, I was in a rush and ended up writting this brief post above only to let you know about this new issue against pagans... Now that I'm back home, I can talk more calmly. ;P

If you read the link I posted here, you already know what's all about. If not, I'll let you know: There is this cool contest (that should be something fun) going on for the 25 Faith Blogs by Moms, where you can vote for your fvorite faith blog everyday, once a day. You'll find several lovely blogs, from Muslim, Jewish, Christian, pagans. The problem is that one of the nominated bloggers (who is now out the contest) decided to literally attack the whole pagan community by quoting Kris Bradley blog (who is also in the contest with her awesome page, as well as two other wonderful pagan bloggers) as reference to her hate and prejudice. Narrow-minded as she obviously is, she tried to link her sad opinions to the Bible to justify her awful words. What she didn't expect was to be replied back by many pagans (and even non-pagans) who could see the unfairness that was thrown in her page.

I don't like the word "tolerance". I'd rather use the word "respect". "Tolerance" always brings to my mind the image of someone on a higher place being magnanimous enough to allow someone who, in his/her opinion, is on a lower position, to be or say something not accordingly to his/er own opinions. That's why I think that in terms to prejudice, "Respect" is a better word. And all I could see in this lady's post was a total disrespect to the pagan community, a total lack of knowledge on what paganism is about, and a total lack of humbleness on the simple and obviuos fact that there is not an absolute truth when spiritual paths are concerned.

I strongly support you to speak up for your religion, ideas, sexuality, whatever, as long as you don't do it by attacking and being aggressive and disrespectful on those who don't follow your path. This is mean, sad and immature. Ironically quoting this lady (on a more righteous way, I hope): "I will not tolerate that kind of behavior."

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

To fight a cough


So the little witch was being annoyed by a persistent cough since he got a little cold by the end of March. I took him to the doctor and it's simply that cough which is always the last thing to go away... After taking allophatic syrups that didn't seem to work, my mom remembered an old recipe my grandmother used to give when she was coughing or with a sore throat. It took her a while to finally find the recipe among her belongins, still with my grandma's hand-writting, so sweet! It's quite simple and delicious. After two days, Lucas' cough got really better, and now it only comes in the morning, when he gets up to this "lovely" weather of ours.

So here it is, in case you guys want to try it - and it's already in my BOS, better safe than sorry...:

2 cups of sugar
3 cups of water
1 medium piece of ginger, washed and sliced
1 sliced lemon, without seeds
2 cinnamon sticks
A handful of cloves

Melt the sugar in a saucepan, placed over low heat, until it gets a golden color, add the water, the ginger, the lemon, the cinnamon and cloves. Let the mix boil up for ten minutes with the saucen pan covered. Turn off the heat, and rest it in infusion for 15 minutes. Filter and take it warm, up to 4 times a day. It can be kept in the fridge for two weeks. Adults: 1 tablespoon each time / Children: 1 dessertspoon each time.

Let me know if you tried it! ;)

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Samhain 2011

I know we're already turning the Wheel once more, but bear with me, lol! I just wanted to share our Samhain altars' photos, as always.

This Sabbath became particularly special to me after my dad died in 2001, and even more after my big sister Dedê died in 2008, just a few days away from this sacred day. So it's a day full of meaning and when I miss them most... I always place their photos on my altar, and also my grandparents', a loved couple I also miss... Thank the gods I have beautiful, fun memories about them all:


Lucas' altar is where we make our little ritual, where we thanked the Gods for another new year to live, and where we wrote and burned little notes on everything we wanted to get rid the upcoming months in his cauldron, with rosemary and mugwort (that's one of the parts Lucas loves most, lol!). Actually I wrote the bad things, since Lucas said he's quite happy with his life rightnow and couldn't think of anything bad to write down - my sweet little witch...:

He got too close to the camera when I was taking the photo, and I made it even closer, just because I love his "Japanese" eyes:


Of course, I made the traditional apple pie everybody loves and which is made full of the best intentions for the sabbath:


Summoning it up, it was a good night, celebrated on our quiet way, into our shared bedroom, certainly blessed by the Gods.

I hope you all had a lovely Beltane at the Northern Hemisphere! :)

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Pagans united!

Hello, everybody! It's been a very long time I don't post (it's becoming a pattern I do not want to keep!). I had some personal issues that prevented me to be online but they - seems like at least - are solved now. What a better way to restart my blog life than asking you guys to spend some minutes reading these pages, here and here? Even if you're not pagan, this subject may call your attention, because it' all about religion rights and about how some people can distort facts.

In a nutshell: David Barton was interviewed by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show last week and used/wasted his time to, among other things, state that "“The true historic meaning of “religion” excludes paganism and witchcraft, and thus, does not compel a conclusion that McCollum has state taxpayer standing … paganism and witchcraft were never intended to receive the protections of the Religion Clauses.”

From this point you can take your own conclusions (oh, sorry for keeping the Italic font type, I can't remove it, arght)... What I know and agree with tons of other pagans is that, if a dumbass like Barton can spit his stupidities, it's fair enough to have Jason Pitzl-Waters on the same TV show to discuss this issue with him. Jason's intelligence level is obviously higher than Barton, and he doesn't distort words or facts to his favor, so it will be really interesting to watch this debate, if we're lucky to have him invited to the show.

If you
, like me, feel that your word /vote can make a difference, "like" this FB page to take Jason to the Daily Show!