November
2017 – Open Your Ears
The 1st of November is seen in the Wiccan
calendar as our New Year’s Day (Halloween/Samhain being our ‘New Year’s Eve’),
it is also known as All Saints Day when the Anglican and Catholic churches
honour the saints and martyrs from days gone by. For many Wiccans the festival of Samhain
crosses over from the 31st October to November the 1st,
sadly for most of us it will just be another day at work, or clearing up after
a Halloween party for the kids! One
thing I would say is take a note of the dreams you had on the night of Samhain
(31 October/1 November). If it is true
that the dead speak to us through our dreams see if you had any significant
messages whilst you were sleeping. Write
them down, they may not make sense right now, you can always come back to them
and they might suddenly mean something to you!
November is seasonally a time for welcoming the dark
nights, the days are getting shorter, the earth is barren and cold. It is a time of quiet and reflection when we
accept the death of the earth, knowing that in coming months the spring will
come and life will once again take on meaning and flourish as the land becomes
bountiful once more.
For me the last few weeks have taken on a strange theme
of ‘hearing’. There have been three incidences. Firstly my daughter has failed two hearing
tests at school and I have literally had to ‘shout’ and really persist to get
myself heard in order to take this matter further. Luckily for us she appears not to have any
actual hearing problems, certainly nothing that is impacting upon her learning
and ability to lead her life, but she does need some further tests. I left countless messages on various phone numbers:
school nurse, hospital, audiology units, etc. and it really felt like no one
was hearing my concerns. Secondly my
phone speaker (the bit you hold to your ear to listen to people) has decided to
go to sleep. I can barely hear anyone
when they call me. I have since
discovered that if I have them on my Bluetooth in the car I can hear them and
if I plug in an ear piece into the phone I can hear, but not if I just pick up
the handset. Again totally frustrating
and terrifying especially when you are trying to get information off a person
or having a business call. Not being
able to hear what is being said to you leaves you vulnerable and scared. Thirdly, we were on the train and one of my
daughters was trying to watch ‘Trolls’ on the tablet and we couldn’t get the
sound to work! Apparently after all the
huffing and puffing from me, I discovered there was a fault on that particular
file.
So, three sound related issues within a matter of a week…..
It certainly got me thinking: is this a coincidence or is it something I should
be thinking about? Am I missing some
great message? Is there someone trying
to tell me something or is it my voice that is going unheard? According to my husband it’s a sign for me to
‘shut up and listen…..’ Of course listening and hearing are two different
things. You can be listening to someone
but not really hearing what they are saying.
My problems were definitely hearing related, listening was the thing we
were all trying to do! I started to
explore the concept of how being deaf must feel: a truly isolating
experience. Imagine never hearing the
sound of your alarm in the morning (yes ok not a good example), or never
hearing your partner tell you they love you, never hearing the sound of
birdsong, your favourite song, the ring of the telephone, your children’s
heartbeat, your cats purr, your dog’s panting.
The world would feel quiet, eerily so.
It would feel lonely and somewhat scary.
People would ignore you from time to time as if you cannot hear what
someone is saying they presumably eventually stop talking to you. Maybe these experiences are inviting me to
pause for a moment and really listen to what my inner voices are saying,
perhaps it is a sign to just forget technology, forget hearing what everyone
else has to say and start listening to my own inner voice.
Practical
Magic
You will need a pen and some white paper, red paper,
green paper, black paper.
This ritual will help you to identify and listen to your
inner voice or intuition. Firstly think
about something that you need to make a decision on, it might be a job offer or
promotion, whether to employ a certain person, which person to go on a date
with. The list is endless, the list is
yours to choose from. So once you have
identified the ‘problem’ that needs addressing write it down on a plain white
piece of paper. There are three steps
you now need to take, firstly:
Pause. Take a moment to consider the different ways
in which you might go with this problem.
There will be several avenues you could take. Write all your different solutions down, if
you feel one solution is too scary or feels weird put it on the red paper,(i.e.
red for danger) if you feel neither good nor bad about it write it on the white
paper.
Listen.
Listen to how your body is reacting as well as your brain. Perhaps one possible avenue is making you
feel sick or shaky or dizzy. Write down
your physical reactions to each possible avenue on the red paper and lay it
underneath the possible avenues you have made a note of.
Pinpoint. Once you have explored all options and how
they make you feel mentally and physically take a moment just to see whether
you feel your uncertainty is coming from a genuine bad feeling or just fear of
the challenges that are being presented to you.
Fear is completely different to having an instinct that something is
wrong for you. Fear is about our
insecurities and lack of confidence.
Don’t avoid making a decision out of fear. However, if you feel it’s not
about fear but more about a bad feeling that you cannot completely put your
finger on, then it’s probably your instinct and you should always listen to
this.
Sleep on it and then the next day look again at your
choices and write the one that ‘feels’ right on the green piece of paper. Go to bed that night with this green paper
underneath your pillow and hopefully by morning you will feel assured and
relieved that you have made the right decision.
Crystal
of the Month – Moldavite
It’s November and as we’ve been on this voyage of
discovery for 11 months now I thought it was time to get one of the ‘big boys’
out. Moldavite is known as The Holy
Grail Stone. It is an incredibly
powerful stone of healing and transformation and as soon as you come into
contact with it you will usually experience a strong reaction. (E.g. tingly,
electrical feeling in your hands and arms, sometimes a hot flush). One of the reasons it has this reputation for
being such a powerful stone hails back to its beginnings. Around 15 million
years ago a meteorite exploded over southern Czechoslovakia, as it came into
contact with the earth these green crystals of Moldavite were formed, so as it
came from the sky, some people do actually feel the stones were ‘heaven sent’
so to speak. If you are ready for the
next stage of your spiritual development this is the stone for you. It will help you go further into a meditative
state, it is a powerful stone of protection and healing (I use it in Reiki) and
it WILL bring about change in your life if that’s what you are after. Use it wisely, have a strong clear objective
as you hold it so that you are in charge rather than the other way round.
Angel
Card of the Month – Romance Angels Are Helping You
This is a rather lovely card to get, especially as we are
accelerating full speed towards Christmas and the end of the year. If you are looking for a soul mate then this
card encourages you to focus on the qualities you are searching for as well as
make healthy lifestyle changes for yourself.
Concentrate on self-improvement, get out there in the world and take up
that hobby you’ve been thinking about, make new friends, and really listen to
your intuition. Possible specific
meanings include: the person you are asking about is your soul mate, you will
experience a happy change in a present relationship, you are learning to love
yourself, you will soon meet someone special.
Moody
Moon
This month’s full moon falls on November 4th
at 05.22 in Taurus, (you will be forgiven for thinking the moon is full on
Friday 3 November as it will appear so huge, but it is actually the 4th). This is a great time for any monetary
dealings, as well as anything that makes you feel secure. Perhaps you find out you’ve got a new job
around this time, or you make an offer on a house, or buy new furniture or a
beautiful painting. The down side of
Taurus is that it can be a very stubborn sign, so don’t allow yourself to be
completely dogmatic and immovable on this full moon, remind yourself to show flexibility
and you will come out best.
The new moon is on 18 November at 11.42 in the sign of
Scorpio. Of course new moons represent offers and new beginnings. Sometimes beginnings are disguised as
endings, particularly at this time when Scorpio is very much linked with
death/endings. Don’t feel put off if something
is coming to an end around this time, it marks a fresh opportunity which will
be around the corner. Don’t mourn your loss, celebrate the fact that when one
door closes another opens. Look for
those hidden opportunities and grab them with scorpion vigour.
During this month you will see the planets Mercury and Saturn
in the evenings in the west of sky. In
the mornings Jupiter can be seen in the east until mid-month and Venus and Mars
also in the east.
On November 5th as we are watching the fireworks,
the sky will be producing its own ‘fireworks’, Taurids Peak will be producing
about 5 – 10 meteors per hour, tonight it is at its peak, however the full moon
light will block out all but the brightest meteors.
On 18 November look out for Leonids peak which will
radiate from the constellation Leo, this will produce up to 15 meteors an
hour. The dark skies of the New moon
will give the ideal conditions to view these.
Eat:
apples, artichokes, avocado, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, lemon mussels,
oysters, oranges, potatoes, quince, squash, scallops, sea bass turnips and wild
duck
Play:
some of your favourite music. Whether it
be the lyrics or the tune that ‘speaks to you’ indulge in some sound therapy
and change how you feel about something.
Love:
Silence. Sometimes we need to retreat to
the natural sounds of nature, the ‘silence’ of a forest on a cold crisp day
with just the sounds of the natural world around us remind us of what it is to
‘be’.
