Do you want to be considered for a 2018-2019 Jaguarmoon seeker by being accepted in the Art of Ritual? Classes begin November 1, 2018 and we are looking for spiritual minded individuals who are seeking knowledge within a community of highly trained eclectic instructors . At Jaguarmoon an individual can expect to learn the basics of witchcraft in a year and a day. During this time the seeker will be studying traditional teachings, performing magic within the class and also participating in lunar rituals and sabbats. They will finish the year, having done the work, with a clear understanding of witchcraft and the ability to continue their knowledge however they chose to do so. All rituals, classes and coursework are online and we do our best to accommodate everyone in the classrooms schedules. If you have any questions about Jaguarmoon or the Art of Ritual please contact Maat at [email protected]. You may also visit http://jaguarmoon.org/the-art-of-ritual for more information or for application questions. Be reminded that the application WILL NOT open until 9/26/2018 so you can prepare your responses for the questions but you will not be able to actually submit them until that date. Blessed Be
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Facing North is an online database of spirituality and metaphysical related books (and tools) that is a fantastic resource for reviews on newly released or upcoming titles. You will find unbiased reviews on thousands of books on many different subjects fiction and non-fiction. As a contributor for this organization, I would like to share with you some books that I reviewed over the summer:
Find personal reward in your success. Don’t feel like a failure if you don’t get support or encouragement. Compliments are nice and great to keep you motivated but sometimes we are surrounded by people who are miserable themselves and they can’t afford to offer you positivity. Learn to shield. Shield yourself from the jealous, negative energy that some people can spew. It’s not you that is lacking or not measuring up. This stems from something with in themselves. And remember that true family and friends are happy for your successes. They want to encourage you and lift you up not try to knock you down and make you feel inadequate despite your milestones. I get a large mixed bag of responses about my lifestyle and most of them are unfortunately negative or critical at the least. I get comment such as these: “It must be nice to have time to work out” “It must be nice to stay at home all day and work on yourself” “If I had (____________) I could be vegan too” “Aren’t you too old to run” “Aren’t you afraid your putting too much stress on your body at your age?” “Being vegan, you are not getting enough nutrition for your physical lifestyle.” “I wish I had your energy.” This is just a sample of comments I get regularly and I get very frustrated. These are just the ones related to my diet and exercise, let’s not even get into the ones on spirituality. I have to be my own advocate in those quiet moments when I let people get me down. I have to remind myself that I am ONLY 37 years old. I am making my health a priority. I FIND time now for me because for too long I came last and my health and well being suffered for it. I run a small business, I write book reviews, I teach the craft online, amongst many other things, like being a wife and a mom to 3 very involved kids in school activities. My schedule is crazy and I go go go from 6 am to 9:30 pm every single day. I am a cook, a taxi cab, an accountant, a planner, a maid, a hair dresser, a therapist, a mediator, ……………………………………….. It is more often than not that the only hour a day I get to relax, meditate, clear my mind, or be inside my own head is when I am running or exercising because the Gods know I can’t shower or use the rest room without children (or the husband if I am honest) in the room or shouting at the door. AND for the love of the GODDESS……………….I am NOT VEGAN!!! I am vegetarian. I just stopped correcting people out of frustration. And my nutrition if better than it’s ever been. I know many of my readers know exactly what I am talking about. Mom’s (and Dads) these days are stretched very thin and I want you all to know that it is okay to take that time for yourself and screw what other people think because they are just jealous. They are jealous because you are becoming the best you for yourself and your family while they are still making excuses. We make time for those things that we value the most. That should be yourself and your family. Find your way of clearing your head, of meditating and of letting things go. I do this when preferably running or exercising in whatever kind of boring gym cardio I am up to. When I am done the weight on my chest is lifted and I can leave it all behind. I can work out issues and become at peace with things that bothered me. Stress is aging and harmful to our health. Find your way of letting it go. Life is too short to get caught up in other people’s expectations. Let them worry about their own life and someday you can see how that worked out for them. The only regret you will have when you are leaving this world is what YOU have done not what other people thought of it. Summer came and went so fast this year it took me by surprise. Here in Missouri we didn’t have much of a spring. We dealt with drought conditions much of the summer too. Plants and flowers that normally thrive easily really struggled with only tap water to keep them going. I suppose we didn’t have it as bad as some states did but it was definitely noticeable here at home and out in the wild where I gather my wild flowers for the store. Lavender plants that have produced really well the past couple years were just sticky and not wanting to snap out of the hibernation looking stage. I thought I had lost a couple of the plants completely but then half way through summer they started showing some new growth. I knew this wasn’t because of our winter this past year, it was mild and I insulated all the plants with straw for even further protection. Two of our grapevines went crazy. This is our first year getting a good harvest off of them. I love using the leaves in smudge sticks and in different herbal blends, especially sabbat blends for the harvest season. Another plant that really struggled in the dry heat was our sage. It was just like it was fighting to survive, let alone to flourish and so we didn’t get much taken from those. I refuse to take from plants that are struggling for survival because I feel that doing so would stress them and ultimately that negative, stressful energy would follow the cuttings and then be manifested in whatever they are used for. This is part of the responsibility that green witches work with in order to make sure that what they take is actually a gift from nature for them to pass on and not doing something in the reverse. In the wild, we really hit the jack pot with the hemlock. It was early June and I normally have a hard time finding much hemlock hidden within all the Queen Ann’s Lace that we have around here. However, this year, we must have either hit the perfect time or the plant loved the weather that others were struggling with. We sold out of this so fast last year that I knew I needed to stock more of it this year and that we did. Already selling a LOT within the past couple months, I think we should still be ok and stay in stock through the winter but we will see how demand goes. So, yes, this was a more difficult summer for our wildflowers, plants and herbs. By effect, it was a harder season for Cynnamon Charmed. However, learning to adapt and being resourceful are all parts of the craft and mastering that art. Although it was a difficult summer, it wasn’t a failure or a drain, it was a learning lesson, and a metaphor for life and how we need to be resilient and able to adjust to the curve balls we all get thrown. During the late winter, I planted the seeds of transformation in my life. Feb. 14 my girls and I went completely vegetarian. I never looked back. Seeing the health changes and the changes in my energy level, I began the next step of taking my own health and making it a number one priority for myself and for my family. I decided to get fit. I don’t mean fit as in a size zero because, honestly, that shit ain’t ever going to happen. I mean feel good physically, mentally, spiritually and stop making excuses beginning with “ I can’t” or “I am too old to”.
I began running in April with my daughter. It was comical that we set out with intention of running cross country type miles and yet we couldn’t get 200 yards without gasping for air. We pushed each other every day to get out and run regardless of how much the other complained. One day she was lacking motivation and the next was me. We began an app called Couch to 5K and over the summer made it through the 9 week program. It was a long hot journey. We ran every single day starting with 1 minute at a time and ending with a straight 30 minute run. Some days we ran in the rain but most we ran in 95 degree and hotter temps with high humidity. We live surrounded by hilly terrain that you don’t really pay attention to until you must run up it. In August my daughter started her freshman year of cross country and I was alone to train. I had been cross training 2x a week at the gym and lifting weights to help building muscles and make me a faster runner. I had to find a new way of staying motivated, one that relied only on me. I used to run at night when the temps got cooler. I couldn’t imagine getting up and running. But now I run 3-4 mornings a week. I get up and get the kids off to school, lace up my shoes and get my running in, then come home and begin my day. I only run 3-4 days a week now because I run farther and the mileage begins to take a toll on my body, after all I am still fairly new to this and am still a work in progress. I still cross train 2 days a week, lifting weights and doing cardio on the elliptical for 30 minutes. I tried running on the treadmill but that was scary. I could easy see myself on one of those treadmill utube videos of people that fall and get flung off the back of it. I don’t run at a steady pace and until running on one I didn’t realize how crooked I run. That thing is just disturbing. All joking aside, I am proud of myself. My body is stronger, lighter and in better physical condition then I have been since I was in high school. It’s a journey and I have goals so there is always further to go but as of today I have lost 35# and I can run for more than 5 miles and an full hour straight. Today alone, I ran for four miles and then I walked for a mile to cool down. My body is transforming, and that is causing me transformation mentally and spiritually too. My biggest words of advice: Keep doing what you know you should be doing every day until it becomes a habit. It doesn’t ever get easy ALL the time. Everyone has low energy or bad days but do it anyways. I have never seen anyone return from a work out regretting have completed it. The 2018-2019 Corn Dolls are available now for purchase at the Cynnamon Charmed store in the “Divination, Magic and More” section. These are a great addition to your Harvest celebrations and can then be carried into your Spring celebrations as well. Last year we had a half dozen available and they sold out within a couple months. This year we created a dozen to help fill the customers demand. These are very time consuming to make. The corn is planted by seed on our own property. We tend, harvest and make each doll from the corn we grow. I individually create these dolls by hand on Lammas day. They are charged in the moonlight that evening and with the protection of the goddess for whomever’s home welcomes her inside for the winter season and for whomever requests her blessing for their crops the following spring. There are lots of traditions associated with the Corn Dolls. They are representation of the Goddess Brigid and are fantastic additions to any Lammas or Imbolc celebration. They bring luck and abundance to your home and crops. In short, many early people believed that Brigid, as grain Goddess, was left homeless when the crops were harvested and so the dolls were made to house her spirit and she was brought inside the home to live until she was ploughed back into the soil the following Spring (normally Imbolc). Yet another belief comes from the early Native Americans, who have been also crafting these for many years. They believed that making one after a bad dream and then discarding it back into the Earth would carry any evil spirits away. Order Now Last year I made a video tutorial on how to make your own smudge sticks. For customers who would prefer to buy them pre-made, I added four different varieties to the shop and there were a couple of each kind available. Not realizing how popular they would be, they sold out very quickly. Since we grow, harvest and make our own herbs we are unable to just get more in stock. We learn every year from what our customers enjoyed and strive to provide more of those products the following season. SO this year, we have added to our smudge stick selection. There are more varieties and more quantity this year. Just yesterday I added 6 different varieties to the store. So, now Charmed customers should be able to find the smudge stick that meets each persons individual need. Some smudging ingredients you will see are things like mint, sage, butterfly bush, tiger lilies, coleus, vervain, thyme, lavender, bergamot, honeysuckle, grapevine leaf, and much more. Some are even blended to invoke the Faery or the Goddess to help in the workings you are manifesting. You will find the complete selection in the “Smudge Stick” section of our Cynnamon Charmed store. Pricing is based on the availability of the herbs/flowers/plants used and shipping is ALWAYS a flat $5 at Cynnamon Charmed so be sure to stock up soon. I hope you all are having a great Lammas. It is the first sabbat of the harvest season and we get to start giving thanks to the Gods for all that you have been blessed with this past year. What seeds did you sow that have come to fruitation??? This can be financial, personal, health, love, etc.
The picture shows the Lammas altar that I decorated this year. I like to display with reds and went with the apple theme. You will see grains, fruit (apple and peach), stones (citrine, adventurine, cat's eye, moss agate), seasonal flowers (marigolds, mint, lavender, etc.), our Lammas Herbal Blend from the Cynnamon Charmed store, Sage essential oil smudging spray from Cynnamon Charmed, etc. There are lots of items in the store to help you all decorate your altars and your homes for the season. It's not too early to browse the Samhain wreath selections and soon we will have our fresh batch of corn dollies in the shop. Last years sold out very fast so we will try to make more this year but don't wait too long to pick yours up. Hope you all are having a great summer, and a blessed Lammas! ~ Keri If you have been to the Cynnamon Charmed store lately, you will have noticed a few changes. A few of the sections have been removed and some item updates have been made. This is all in an effort to make the store site friendlier for our customers to navigate. In addition, I have removed older stock, a few products and our ritual/intention kits. The kit contents are able to be purchased individually still but no longer as a complete kit. We discontinued our homemade soaps for now but they may be back in the future. We are always looking for ways to improve our products and our customers experiences with Cynnamon Charmed and that is why we continue to be a 5 STAR rated store.
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Keri Nichol
Founder, Artist, Herbalist, and Writer Archives
August 2018
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