As we bring February to a close, I would like to end this series in Light Work. Over the past month my family has grown a lot, has become healthier and has become much more aware and appreciative of our Earth, our food and the sustainability of our previous lifestyle and its impact on our beautiful planet. We continue to grow and embrace our new way of life daily. This isn’t a sprint, it’s a journey that will take patience and practice. I have included some pictures of a few of our favorite meals this month. These are ones that I made at home and that the whole family enjoyed. Also included is a dish from Noodles and Company. I had the Japanese pan noodles with tofu and it was delicious. It was a reminder that we could still eat out occasionally and enjoy that atmosphere while remaining stern in our beliefs. I came to realize that it was impossible to be the spiritual person I am without having an understanding and some regret for what I was doing/ allowing to be done to Mother Nature, innocent animals and to the temple that I believe my body to be. If I had to give someone advice on where to start their own journey on this path I would recommend two shows: (both available on Netflix) Where the Health? and Forks over Knifes. These are great starting points and remember it’s about the process not being perfect.
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Facing North--- Reviews on the Latest Occult/New Age/Spiritual Supplies, Books, Tools, Music, etc.2/27/2018 For those of you that follow me on Facing North, the February edition has been posted. There are some great music reviews by some of my fellow reviewers this month if your looking for some New Age/ Spiritual/ Occult music. My review this month was on a Moon Affirmation book and Companion Journal by Eileen Troemel and I think you all will find it very interesting so come on over to Facing North and check out all of the fantastic new reviews on occult supplies, books, music and tools. Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/57262408@N02/16545748772/ Soon the first Full Moon of March will be upon us. This moon has been called by many names throughout different traditions: Chaste, Seed, Worm, Storm, Sap, etc. There is a common theme among all these names and that is their reference to the beginning and to purity. March is a month of preparation for the new. The ground is prepared for planting. Seeds are prepared and sometimes even planted for the later harvests. Worm castings are present being the first foods present for newly hatched birds. Some trees begin to seep their sap as early nutrition for other living creatures. In some areas we see new seedlings begin to appear, roots begin to grow and the ground getting softer while rain pours down vital life to awaken all that has been dormant. It’s all part of the beautiful cycle of life among Earth that we see play out year after year. As witches, we work within our moon cycles. This cycle is particularly important and there is much important work to be done. This is a fantastic time to plant the seeds of future dreams. It’s a great time to begin grooming areas of our lives for future possibilities. We can prepare ourselves for new employment, new family additions, or new family animal. This can be done mentally or within our homes and families. You could choose to research or read books on these areas in order to gain more knowledge on a specific area, for example. We can begin blessing the ground we plant in and the herbs that we may already have planted. Nourish our soil and prepare it for a bountiful crop. You may want to sit and plan out your garden layout, what you will plant and how much of a harvest you plan to receive. Overall, this is a great time to make a plan, set intentions, begin new and exciting adventures, or even get a “new” beginning/fresh start. Look forward with child-like vision, dreams and wonder. Shoot for the stars, be “The Fool”, the naïve, carefree and motivated to explore. Blessed Be! Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/pgurt2/8629049594/ I truly believe that our spiritual journey can’t be approached “half assed’. It affects so much of our lives that it is only natural that it be more of a lifestyle choice than an off the wall decision. Just like people who go to conventional church have meals together, events together, and other activities that make up much of their time when they give in to it 100% so does this journey. I feel like you get what you put into it. Now in saying that, I am not saying in order to do that you must follow the steps I am taking. I believe that everyone’s journey is actually completely different. However, this blog follows my journey and where it has led my family and me in our everyday lives. In part 1 of this series I talked about some of the changes and realizations we had regarding our health and our diet. I hinted to some of the dietary changes but didn’t really talk about them specifically. When I began my journey we were eating out a couple times a week. I wouldn’t say I had a terrible diet but an average American diet of processed, fried, canned, etc. foods that were high in meat and dairy products. Over the past 6 weeks I have transitioned from that into what I am today and that is 100% vegan. For a couple weeks I started to just eat healthier and cut back on breads and sugars. Then slowly cut back on meats to more fish less and less reds. After completely cutting meats I began to cut back on dairy. Almond milk was an easy transition but cheeses were hard. Every meal we had incorporated cheese in some way. Although I am 100% vegan, my family is all at different stages. I knew that they had different desires from the beginning and my goal wasn’t to push them into something they completely resisted. At this point, I would call all three kids vegetarians. The girls have no desire for meats at all. They all three love the almond milk over cow’s milk in cereal and anything else we use it in. Cheese has been a little harder but they have done great. My oldest wants to still eat eggs but only from our own chickens. Since they aren’t producing right now she hasn’t had any but the other 2 don’t like eggs to begin with. The biggest thing keeping them from the vegan path is the hidden milk and eggs in everyday products that they aren’t willing to give up. Things like having a cupcake or cookie at a school party, etc. They aren’t purposely eating those products but worrying about them hidden in products while they are out being a kid is too much hassles for them at this point. My husband will always eat meats. He has cut it back and is choosing healthier meats but I can’t ever see him giving them up. His diet is healthier mostly because he eats the things that I fix all of us but I will occasionally add chicken breast and such to his. So he is still getting more veggies, less dairy, less fat, let cholesterol, healthier grains, etc. We are striving for improvement not perfection. I just want to make my family healthier. I don’t want us to be another disease statistic and showing them how to eat well at a younger age will help them much more than fixing the eating habits as adult. Over the past 6 weeks I have lost 18lbs and I am steadily losing. I am not counting calories nor do I feel hungry. I am just eating better. I never really over ate. I just ate the wrong foods. I am not putting a big emphasis on losing weight just on getting healthy. Spiritually, I feel more connected than I ever have. I feel like I am making good choices to protect the Earth and its creatures in areas of my life that I completely overlooked before. Stay tuned later this spring when I finish up this series with our Part 3, which will include an update on how everyone is doing and some recipes of our favorite meals. For those of you who follow my blog, you may have kept up with my Shadow Work Series this past winter. Just too quickly recap; during my time (the time of the Crone) of inward reflection, I began seriously looking at what I was struggling with in my life, where I was holding back and what needed to be fixed. As I was emerging from this shadow work into my light work period, I made some significant discoveries. Among those were, the fact that since I had stopped smoking on March 14, 2017 I had begun to pick up my previous bad eating habits, ultimately leading to some weight being gained that I previously had a difficult time loosing, which lead to some negative inward feelings and thoughts. I had traced back and discovered the root of so many things I was struggling with. So, to quickly sum up, it lead me to my New Beginnings blog on taking my life back, my health back, to stop making excuses and start making changes. Additionally, most of my followers are aware that I write product reviews for Facing North. I was presented with the opportunity to read and review a completely new and different style book then normally available. This one was titled Turbo Metabolism by Pankaj Vij. While I knew I wanted to make some changes in my diet, I must admit I began this book with a healthy amount of skepticism. I am a Midwestern girl, grew up on a farm raising animals that ended up on our table, I have hunted game in the fall and I currently raise chickens for eggs, etc. I quickly realized this book was challenging me in ways that I eat that I didn’t really think about before. Like many others, I looked at healthy meats, dairy, etc. as part of the food groups. Finishing the book I felt very motivated. Not that I had been completely sold by only what I read but it absolutely made my mind question what I was doing and encouraged me to seek out my own research. Consuming my time for several days I launched my own internet research on all the claims. During this research I came across some recommended television documentaries. At this point I am making big diet changes. I am seeing undoubted evidence that I need to look more closely at a whole food plant based diet. I mention these concerns over this time to my family and they immediately thought me crazy. They were ready to burn the book I’d been reading even with my argument of the supported online evidence. My husband was 100% carnivore. Over the years I had tried the meatless Mondays several times and it always ended in complete failure. He swore a meal was not a meal without meat. One daughter said sure no problem but I’m not giving up bacon ?????? The other said I was crazy if I asked her to give up cheese. My eavesdropping 5 year old son said heck no, he loves cows, pigs, fish, bacon, sausage, and continued for a while with all the other meats he could think of……like father like son. One day I decided to begin watching the first documentary I had recommended to me called What the Health. My oldest daughter and husband had just come home from school and work and watched it with me. We all three ended that show on the same page. WE NEEDED TO MAKE BIG CHANGES. My daughter was now 100% on board; my husband made a big commitment to take steps in that direction although was adamant that he was going to slowly finish the meats in the freezer because he had paid for them. But both were ready to leave right then to go to the store and stock up on more fruits and veggies. This was a pretty pivotal day in our family. My younger daughter saw enough of the show that she was now on board. And I realized my son was taking all his queues from all of us. Over the course of some time we listened, and found more and more research online and on documentaries. Things like the television show Forks over Knifes and Rotten blew our minds and honestly made us angry. They were finally seeing and hearing what I had tried telling them the weeks before that I was discovering. Although it would be difficult we were going to make significant changes to our families diet and their future and I was excited…..and a bit overwhelmed. Keep watch for other blogs in this series to keep up with our progress. Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/susan3032/7522878822/ Do you keep a journal of any kind? For a very long time, I didn’t. I was always afraid that the secret nature would be revealed by someone too nosey to not let me have my privacy. Other times, as i got older, I would have good intentions and buy a book, begin to journal and then quickly give up the routine. Several years ago, I had a doctor tell me how journaling was very good as a way to release anxiety and stress. Later on, my craft teachers would stress the importance of journaling in tracking our successes and failures. The hard head that I am, it took many years to finally get into a habit of it but now I feel that it is a very important process for me. And I now know that this is a tool that everyone should use. A journal doesn’t have to be used as a place to write down day in and day out account of every moment of your life. That would get very boring, really, for me, it takes on a few different roles depending on my mood for the day. Most times, I use it to record very important events where I know I need to remember the details, times when I am truly pissed off and need to blow off some steam, or times when I feel that I need to speak directly to the divine or higher consciousness. What constitutes an important event? Well, for me, these weren’t events like kid’s birthday’s or anniversaries, etc. We usually have pictures and numerous accounts of these events. The important events that I am speaking of are more like self-revelations, magical workings, rituals involving manifestation, divination readings, etc. Making note of the atmosphere, the correspondences and tools used, what our EXACT manifestation was, the time of day, the moon stage, etc. Then going back and making notes over the next moon cycle on how these workings manifested a change, if they were successful or correct in their projection, and how I could possibly make adjustments in the future to be more specific in directing the energy or more accurate in interpreting divination symbols, etc. This type of journaling has become a game changer for me in my craft. Journaling away my stress and anxiety: Sometimes, we need to allow ourselves to unload and by doing that we release what is weighing us down and back. Rather than speaking the words to someone who may or may not understand, have a loose tongue, or even have the ability to lend an ear, I normally use my journal. I don’t rant to be heard or to hurt someone, I rant to remove the negative feelings from myself and embed them on that paper. Sometimes the paper is full of pissed off scribbles that no one, not even I, could possibly even read later on. Although that doesn’t matter since I actually never refer back to this type of journaling. Once I release that energy from myself, it would be pointless to even try to reread it and reabsorb the power it once held over me. After I have left my stress, anxiety and anger on that paper, I am lighter and of a better frame of mind to find a solution. We don’t always rant because we are asking for a solution from someone else or wanting advice, we just want a trustworthy ear. And time and time again, I learned a hard lesson that was those ears are very hard to find. And other times, through working out my trouble on paper, it was revealed that the problem was really just me being an asshole and it gave me a direction to work on. Journaling used as a direct line to the divine and/or our high consciousness. When I am really seeking insight, direction or purpose I will journal to my higher self or my deity. In this journaling I actually address who it is I am seeking: Dear Self, My Dearest Hekate, Dearest Pan, etc. I have found clarity many times through this type of journaling but it is something that requires a little more work. This journaling requires less thought and more letting myself relax into a meditative like state and write what comes to mind rather than complete and well thought sentences. It is through the lack of editing my thoughts and words that I find the truth in what I am asking and truly seeking. In a way, this can be used as a sort of divination of its own. And because of that, I tend to follow up after a while to see if questions were answered over time. It has always been useful to pay particular attention to dreams within the following moon cycle for answers from the divine after a request. Because I journal on these occasions alone, I do not have a daily entry. There have been times that weeks or months go by without really having anything noteworthy to write about, and it is during that time that I let myself off the hook. It is by feeling like I am required to write in it every single day that I became bored, lost interest, and began to dislike the idea of journaling all together. It felt like more of a chore rather than a tool. However, when I began journaling for necessity (or what I had defined as my need of it), that I seen it as a nonreplicable tool. Your need may be very different than mine, that is not the point here. The point is to discover your need and then to allow the journal to be your personal tool for success and well-being. Blessed Be )o( Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/135152783@N02/38021335125/ Are you exactly where you think you should be in your life? Are you right where you intended to be? Have you already met your ultimate life goals? If not, what are you doing to get there? How have you decided to manifest all your desires? Do you think you can just set back and it will happen for you? Let me be the first to tell you that you won’t get anywhere without seeking out and putting an effort into your goals. Stop being complacent! We should never be content with where we are. As individuals we should always seek betterment or our lives may as well be over because they are just boring and meaningless. You need future plans, goals for yourself and for your family, things to strive for and look forward to. These are the things that light a fire in our souls. They are things that make us believe in something and help us to feel inspired and to inspire others. Stop making excuses! I don’t care what background you came from, what life has dealt you, etc. You have the ability to be more than average if you apply yourself and strive to go to the next level. Excuses are used by people who are too lazy to take control of their future and who would rather complain about how they can’t and everyone or everything is against them. If you grew up on top, then don’t be content making your way off someone else’s hard work. Your effort should be in earning your place there on your own. How to do it? Stop bitching, whining and sitting still. Start trying harder. See your end result and decide that no matter what it takes you will succeed. Failure will not win because you need to know that that failure is no more than a stepping stone. Successful people haven’t always won. They just know how to fail and how to get back up. Leadership is a way of living. It’s saying something and then doing it, taking the necessary steps to become successful. Stop buying into other people’s dreams and buy into yourself because the only person you can absolutely count on is yourself. Start investing your time into making you great. In order to be great yourself, you need to be mentally and physically strong, independent and motivated. No one is going to show up every day to tell you to do what you need to do. You need to be there to push yourself. You need to be hungry for change and for the transformation that you know you can make for yourself. Once you move yourself in the direction you need to be moving, you can then feed everyone else because you will have overwhelming success. You must be ready for change or you’re never going to change. When you are ready you will put everything on the line. Then, once you plant your feet and fully invest, you will gain momentum and succeed. I get frustrated at witches who think just because they “worked a spell” it should turn out perfect. Or other religious believers who think that magick is fake because if it wasn’t then all witches would be millionaires with no problems. NOTHING is going to do the work for you. Magick is an extra push, magnified energy invested in a specific cause but if the practitioner isn’t putting any energy into that cause themselves then magick won’t do the work for them. And magick doesn’t happen overnight. You won’t wake up tomorrow morning a millionaire because you manifested it last night. But with the right effort from you, magick can lend you some extra energy to push you in the right direction in the steps you are already seeking. Magick won’t land you a job that you never even applied for. Magick won’t shed 50 lbs. off our asses while we eat a Big Mac. We need to stop being lazy and thinking there is a quick fix or someone/something out there that will do all the work for us. The motivation for change comes within us. Maybe your magick this season should focus on smaller steps like helping you manifest energy toward finding your hunger, your desire and drive to be the best you. This way, will will be transforming ourselves for our new beginning. Blessed Be )0( Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/20973016@N05/3995690505/ In this Imbolc season of new beginnings and fresh starts I have decided to take back my health once again. Finding the motivation for this was like seeking out a needle in a hay stack. I convinced myself I was completely content to die fat and happy. However, I also know that my way of dealing with stress since I quit smoking almost a year ago has been with food and I am seeing a lot of previous hard work go down the drain.
My resolution this year was to do a lot of shadow work, which I have done. It is through that shadow work that I have gotten mentally prepared for this journey. Getting back into an unhealthy lifestyle has been the cause of not dealing with stress in an appropriate way. It’s always too easy to revert to old habits, and safety nets, when we are feeling vulnerable and unmotivated. I remember after I lost over 75 lbs. a few years ago, I had critics who refused to just pay a compliment or if they did it was very short lived and/or followed with a critique. They would make sly comments about saggy skin that, even though too coward to point directly at me, still targeted and wounded me. My efforts of weight loss felt empty even with the weight gone. I still didn’t feel good about what I had done because rather than seeing a healthy person people were only moving on to another imperfection rather than a Barbie doll figure. I slowly lost my drive, my motivation and myself as I begin gaining back pounds. Through my shadow work, I find the same people who like to criticize and demean all I am and do, are the same one who are very flawed themselves and yet are too coward to make changes to better themselves. These are the people who sit in criticism as if they are perfect and know how to fix the world around them but can’t look in their own mirror. I feel sorry for them, their negativity continues to poison their souls and their bodies. I also found that I need to stop seeking out my motivation and validation in other people’s words and actions. I need to find that within myself. To stop caring what others think of me and to know what I am worth myself. I also stop and see myself through my children’s eyes. The ones who say they didn’t even realize that I had gained/lost any weight, that only see me as mom and love me that way. I realize that the best thing I can do for myself is to be my own best friend, protector and warrior. New Beginnings Drawing Giveaway!!!----UPDATED----- Our ad and post on Facebook was deleted within 24 hrs of posting mysteriously and so we had to repost it. We thought we would take advantage and sweeten our previous giveaway deal a little bit so here it is. ALSO anyone previously entered will still be entered into this so you don't have to reenter the drawing. TWO drawing winners will get to choose their THREE favorite herbal blends in recloseable bags and will receive one charcoal disc to burn on. You may choose your 3 favorite among the following: (pictured) Purify Blend Spirit Invocation Blend Curse Breaker Blend Money Blend Peace Blend Lucky Blend Courage Blend Healing Blend Come visit the store to see what each blend has to offer. The winner of the drawing will receive 3 of the above blends of their choice (5 grams each) and the charcoal disc PLUS FREE SHIPPING. So absolutely NO cost to the winners ($20 value). To enter the drawing here are the guidelines: 1. Like and Share this post 2. Like our Facebook Page 3. Go to the store at www.CynnamonCharmed.com and enter to receive our newsletter, giveaway news and coupons via email. This can be done at the very bottom of the web page where it says subscribe now in the lower right corner or via the pop up asking for your email. We never sell your emails and we don’t send emails more than 1x per week unless we are discussing a current order you have with us. Do all three steps above and you are automatically entered in this drawing. Deadline to enter is March 20, 2018. Drawing will be held on March 22 and the winners will be announced on our Facebook page and on the Charmed Daily Blog on the website. The winners has until March 30, 2018 to claim their prize and send me their choice of herbal blends with their shipping address. Good Luck to Everybody and THANK YOU for helping Cynnamon Charmed celebrate our New Beginnings Giveaway I am SUPER excite to now be able to publish videos here on the Charmed Daily Blog. In the past, I could only publish them on our Facebook page and then I would put the link to them here for you all to go check them out. Now you all can view them right here on the blog without having to be forwarded to Facebook. Very exciting!!!
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Keri Nichol
Founder, Artist, Herbalist, and Writer Archives
August 2018
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