Author: Cat Cole

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DR. LEO MARTELLO

Sometimes the voices of the past need to be heard again, and Dr Leo Martello is one I find needs to be heard, given our current times. Dr Leo Martello was born in 1930. The time he was born into was difficult, and he did not have the best of times growing up either. But he did not let that keep him or his voice stilled. He grew up to become one of the first Gay Pagan Priests of the time, and his voice and opinions were strong and unpopular. I can only imagine what his voice would be saying now.

There is a lot of published negative speculation about Martello’s credentials and his Witchcraft line. One needs to remember his was a time when many covens and family lines were secret, therefore unable to be “verified”. Although aware that historians had criticized the witch-cult hypothesis of Margaret Murray, Martello also stood by her claims, believing that Witchcraft had been passed through oral tradition and thus evaded appearing in the textual sources studied by historians.

Which, in a way, is true if you consider that anyone who was not of the Abrahamic faiths was considered Pagan. I myself come from such a line and was sworn to secrecy in 1972. What is important is not his credentials, but the way he lived and his words that proved him to be an outstanding Witch in the community, and the community loved him.

“Where do I begin to write about a legend? A man who gave tirelessly of himself for the fight for human rights, animal rights, gay and lesbian rights, and for Witches worldwide to worship in complete freedom? Leo Martello was an amazingly compassionate man. He never turned away anyone who genuinely needed his time and effort in the pursuit of a just cause. He fought long and hard for the freedom of Witches and Pagans.”

— Lori Bruno, Martello’s friend and co-founder of the Trinacrian Rose Coven, 2002.

In 1969, the Stonewall Uprising in New York was the catalyst for the Gay rights movement. It was a series of spontaneous demonstrations by members of the LGBT community in response to a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in New York City.

Prior to this uprising, it was illegal to be gay, it was illegal for Gays to display affection in public or to wear non-gender-appropriate clothing, or to be served alcohol. This is when illegal clubs came into being, where gays could safely gather and enjoy themselves. The Stonewall Inn was one of those illegal clubs, and why the police raided it.

The six-day event involved patrons and residents resisting police harassment in a pivotal moment of community organization and defiance against a backdrop of widespread social discrimination and legal persecution of LGBTQ+ people.

After the Stonewall riots, Martello – himself a gay man- involved himself in gay rights activism, becoming a member of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF). Leaving the GLF following an internal schism, he became a founding member of the Gay Activist Alliance (GAA) and authored a regular column, “The Gay Witch”, for its newspaper.

In July of 1969, Martello attended an open meeting of the Mattachine Society’s New York branch. The Mattachine Society was a secret, early LGBTQ+ rights organization founded in Los Angeles in 1950, inspired by a medieval French masque troupe that satirized social conventions. Led by figures like Harry Hay, its goals included challenging anti-gay discrimination, educating the public, and providing a support system for homosexual men during a time of intense legal persecution and social stigma.

The society’s work involved initiatives like advocating against police entrapment, providing legal advice, and publishing ONE Magazine, the first widely distributed gay publication. Martello was appalled at the Society’s negative reaction to the Stonewall riots. He rejected the categorization of homosexuality as a mental illness and found that idea to be self-loathing for all Gays. Shortly after, he published his thoughts in an essay that stated, “homosexuality is not the problem itself. The problem is society’s attitude towards it.”

The gay rights activists who also rejected the Mattachine Society’s approach, and who favored a confrontational stance against the police and authorities, then founded the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), with Martello elected the group’s first moderator. Martello supported the GLF’s stance that condemned “this rotten, dirty, vile, fucked-up capitalist conspiracy” that dominated American society, and he volunteered by producing articles both for the group’s newsletter Come Out! and for the wider press.

Martello believed in Pagans being activists and in the dissemination of the news. He was involved in the GLF’s campaign against The Village Voice, a pioneering weekly alternative newspaper in New York City, founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, and Norman Mailer. Martello was against their decision to ban the word “gay” from advertisements and magazines, and their preferred term “homophile.” Which had also been used by the Mattachine Society. Wanting to break from previous gay liberation organizations, the GLF embraced the term “gay”, with Martello dismissing “homophile” as sounding like a nail file for homosexuals.

Later in 1969, the GLF was restructured and became the Gay Activist Alliance (GAA). Although continuing the GLF’s emphasis on taking a confrontational approach to conventional American society and authority, the group was more tightly organized and focused exclusively on attaining equal rights for gay and lesbian people. The businessman Al Goldstein agreed to invest $25,000 in the GAA’s new venture, a newspaper written by, and aimed at, the country’s gay community. It was launched in December 1969 as GAY, and it soon gained a readership of 25,000. Martello contributed a regular column known as “The Gay Witch.”

In 1970, Martello founded the Witches International Craft Associates (WICA), a coalition of many covens and traditions, and under its auspices organized a “Witch In” that took place in Central Park on Halloween 1970, despite opposition from the New York City Parks Department. To campaign for the civil rights of Wiccans, he then founded the Witches Anti-Defamation League, an organization of those who take action when adverse, untrue, or dishonest and discriminatory statements are made about Witches in the media by writing protest letters. The Witches Anti-Defamation League was later renamed the Alternative Religions Education Network.

In November 1972, Martello lectured at the first Friends of the Craft conference, held at New York’s First Unitarian Church. In April 1973, he moved to England for six months, where he was initiated and trained in the three degrees of Gardnerian Wicca by the Sheffield coven run by Patricia Crowther and her husband, Arnold Crowther.

Martello continued to encourage acceptance of homosexuality within the Pagan and Witchcraft community, authoring an article titled “The Gay Pagan” for Green Egg magazine. In which he expressed the view that homophobic Wiccans were “sexually insecure.” He was also among the prominent male Pagans to endorse feminist and female-only variants of Wicca, such as the Dianic Wicca promoted by Zsuzsanna Budapest. Martello defended the growing rise of feminists in Wicca, criticizing what he deemed to be the continual repression of women.

In the 1970 W.I.C.A. Vol 1 newsletter by Martello, He writes, “Like other minorities, Witches have been the dumping ground of other people’s garbage. In medieval times, the only liberated woman was the witch. She slept with whom she pleased. She was a threat to the church and the establishment.

Unlike other religions, witchcraft has always held the woman in high esteem.  Martello writes, “Witches have to define themselves; challenge the stereotyped roles forced on them. Witches must learn to like themselves and each other and no longer give the establishment the sanction of the victim or permit the age-old tactic of divide and conquer. Say it loud, I am a Witch and I am proud!

Written on the bottom of this same newsletter was another belief of Martello’s: “Live and let live, let each witch do their own thing based on concept, ‘harm none, ‘ but with the right to self-defense. Traditionalists would be wise to remember that covens have always been autonomous and independent.”

Martello was also critical of Wiccans who espoused a division between white magic and black magic. Commenting in his newsletter that it had racial overtones and that many of those advocating such a view were racist. “White witches are assumed to be good and black witches bad. But there are white witches that are bad and black witches that are good. The use of white to denote good and black to denote bad is a form of unconscious racism and part of the Judeo-Christian brainwashing. If a witch is going to claim they only do good, then say I am a good witch and stop using white as a synonym for virtue, it is not tradition, and it is not a substitute for truth. In today’s context, using black and white is ill-advised and outdated.”

What is important is the focus on how pagans, Witches, Gays, and Women have been treated, and remembering those who were our voice. The people and voices of the past, their actions, and words gave us the blueprint for standing up for our rights in current times. They are how we came to have the rights we do, for without them, we would still be in the closet and even more persecuted than we currently are. So hail to the unquiet Dr. Leo Martello, who was one of many who blazed the way for us now.

 

 

 

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The Passing

I recently had a fan ask if I had ever published my most challenging psychic experience. The answer is yes and no. There have been a few that were challenging. However, one is published. In “Handbook For Our Future Parents” by Oberon Zell, on page 31, you will find “The Passing” by Cat Gina Cole.

The Handbook for our future parents is an amazing book, chock full of resources and personal stories for self-discovery and parents of Pagan children. My chapter, The Passing, confirms the concept of reincarnation as a personal spiritual reality. It tells of the transfer of ancestral knowledge and life experience from one generation to the next, from a real experience.

The Passing tells how an incarnation can be an ancestor passing knowledge and life experiences to the next, and part of a continuous spiritual lineage. The Passing explores our spiritual understanding and the profound nature of life and ancestral knowledge.

The Passing was challenging for me because I was lucidly going through an intense astral travel while simultaneously dealing with the knowledge that my Grandmother was dying, and learning new knowledge about myself and my family. The Grandmother I speak about in this article is the woman who took my mom in after her bio parents passed away, and was the only Grandma I knew growing up. So, for the inquiring fan and all my readers, I will post a revision of The Passing.

The Passing

By Cat Gia Cole

Ever wonder if reincarnation is real or not? I certainly had. While being raised in a closed magical family tradition, I had been taught about reincarnation. It was spoken of as real, and I had read about it in Edgar Cayce’s books, none of which gave me the concrete proof I was seeking, so the mystery remained.

One night while staying with my Grandma, I had this “dream.” It seemed so real. Startled, I woke panting, all tangled in my blankets, fighting to get free of them. In the dream, I was in a village that was being invaded, and I saw myself being killed by an invader.

Later at the breakfast table, Grandma took one look at me and said, “Rough night?” Still shaken, I sat down and told her about the dream. Right then, she took the time to teach me about past lives and reincarnation.

She began by telling me what Unverified Personal Gnosis was. It is an event one experiences that cannot be verified by others but is real and true for the person experiencing it. She explained that past lives and reincarnation are considered a UPG. She explained that incarnation is an opportunity for an ancestor to pass information and experiences on to the next generation. Which is something I had only heard of happening in primal tribal communities.

Then she told me of “The Passing.” She described the passing as an event that occurs when an elder is dying and they “Pass on” all their knowledge to the next in line, which is all part of reincarnation. She discussed it as a fact of life, to me, then just 19 years old, but it remained an unknown mystery to me as I grew up. I was in my thirties and four hundred miles from grandma, with all her mysterious talk far from my mind, when the passing occurred.

It was a day like any other. I went to work, made dinner, and so on, but that night as I slept, Grandma called to me. Astrally, I was transported to her bedside, where it was very clear she lay dying. She reached for my hand and said, “I must show you.”

As I took her hand, we were transported to a foreign land in her past. We held hands and watched as people fled their homes. They were bundled up, carrying what they could, their children following, or with babies bound to their chests with scarves. I saw a child crying over dead parents who died on the trail. I watched the child get carried away by another adult as they screamed and cried for their parents.  I cried too.

“This is where our people come from,” Grandma said. Her words shook me from the intensity. “This is Poland, after the Great War, but the fighting never stopped. We were never safe. This is what our people call the trail of souls.” As I watched, I felt heartbreaking sadness from Grandma as she spoke. “You see that screaming child taken from her dead parents, that was me. Before I could respond, she had turned away, my heart now breaking for her too.

More images began to flash clairvoyantly in my mind like clips of an old movie: a young girl playing with flowers, then she was in school. It was Grandma’s life flashing before us, a reminder she was dying in real life.
Then the images changed, and we were now in a barren land, dust blowing around a clapboard home. Once inside the house, I saw a flash of Grandma as a twenty-year-old woman pregnant, the next moment, she had a baby in her arms. In the room were the Roberts, whom I had always known as my bio grandparents. I recognized them from old photos as they had passed before I was born.

As I watched, my bio-grandparents took Grandma and her child in. I saw where they raised the child as their own, as Grandma was a friend helping out the household. It was 1932, according to the calendar on the wall shown to me, the year my mother was born. This was significant, and I could not believe what the vision was implying.

The scene shifted again, and as my eyes adjusted, I could tell we were in a cave. There I saw a long line of people to the right and left as far as the eye could see in either direction. As each one walked by, I got a glimpse of their life, what they were, how they lived, and what they knew. I could see and feel it all flowing into me through an energetic wave accompanied by clairvoyant glimpses of each.

Every one of them was some kind of oracle, visionary, magician, mage, wise woman, monk, and so on. Grandma left me even more stunned when she said, “They are all you now. This is your line, their knowledge, their lives are now your lives, your knowledge, and now you have mine too.” I cried.

But before I could respond, we were transported back to her bedroom, where I was holding her hand and crying. “Let go, girl,” she said, “stop fussing, you have work to do.” She patted my hand, smiled, and let out her last breath, and I sobbed.

Four hundred miles away, I woke up crying out for my Grandmother. An hour later, the phone rang. Mom called to tell me Grandma had passed,” I know,” I said, “how?” she asked, “It was the passing mom, she gave me the passing I stammered. “So, you know then, everything?” “Yeah, mom, everything.”

My dreams for the next month or two were loaded with past-life dreams, mine, Grandma’s, and those of the many ancestors we have been before. The passing was much the same as I held my mom when she passed in 2010. In each, more magic and family traditional knowledge came, and so the passing goes.

 

 

 

 

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TRANSFORMATION

There are all kinds of transformations we go through in life, and magic. Ironically, transformation is constant for something so chaotic and fluid. It is the tower card of our lives.

As many of you know, I lost my husband last year, and it has been very difficult. I promised to give myself at least a year and a day to be as numb as I needed, to grieve or be depressed or anything else that came my way. I was set to accept the process, whatever it brought. And it brought many surprises.

There have been many wonderful things that came, like the creation of Haven and the many community members who shared my property and surrounded me. While I have been in the abyss of depression before, grief is its own critter. 

What took me by surprise was the downward swing that came after all the wonderful. You know the stuff that comes when the dust settles and you are all alone. While I have housemates and am not fully alone, the element of water and all its emotions came like a personal tsunami that made me an island.

Right in front of those closest to me, I withdrew, and my many skills were helpless for a time. Even medication changes, while helpful, could not stand against the might of the water element and its mission of transformation.

It was not until my therapist said something about dealing with grief in a house full of memories, the place where I cared for Mike and where he had passed, that I got a glimmer of inspiration.

This is when I began redecorating the house and getting rid of more stuff. The biggest help was moving the couch Mike had imprinted on and covering it. This seemed to break my connection to all his residual depression. Then, my pal Phaedra Bonewits mentioned Florida water. This, too, was a great help.

And whether it was Mike haunting the house or just part of my process, the effect and dialogue were the same. But these two things,  along with vitamins, seem to have calmed the waters. The fact that I am even writing again is a testament to the turning of the tide.

This is when I realized I was in the tower card mode of transformation. My therapist is a pretty cool dude and knowledgeable about grief. It was his words informing me that I needed to recreate my life and how I wanted to live AFTER MIKE. These were painful words, “After Mike,” as it implies letting go, and with letting go comes letting others in, that’s scary when you feel so vulnerable.

The tower card implies tearing down the old coping skills, among other things, and I am now certainly doing that as I re-gather and re-create myself. Shoot, our whole nation is in tower card energy right now too, so I was feeling some of that as well. The point being, we are all in one phase of transformation or another, like snakes shedding their skin, rubbing against sharp rocks to get free of the old, and enduring the process to become new.

Each day, there is progress, often unseen or unfelt, while in our process, but it is there. Progress and transformation are symbiotic with each other, as are the tower and the element of water, much like there is no light without the darkness. The journey has been nothing short of amazing. I cannot tell you how good it feels to be writing to all of you today. It is a breakthrough of epic proportions and makes my heart sing.

I must admit I cannot even mention the tower card these days without thinking of the last Pantheacon in February of 2020, where on the last night, they had a huge disco dance to images of the tower card. In retrospect, it sure seems to me that’s when so much tower energy entered our whole nation’s structure. Sometimes people know not what they do, as my mom would say. Maybe someday I will look up the attendees of that night and do a survey, but I digress. Just know I am on my way, transforming and becoming, and there will be more writing to come. I am ever grateful that all of you have stuck with me through it all. Many Blessing to everyone!

 

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The Mantic Arts

The Mantic Arts, have you ever heard of them?

In layperson terms, the Mantic Arts are divination with earthly objects, like fire, smoke air water, and much more.

There are hundreds of ways to employ the mantic arts. But before we dive into that long list, let’s look at the Encyclopedic Psychic Dictionary by June G. Bletzer and some history on the Mantic Arts.

“To ask a question silently or verbally and immediately use a mundane system, non-human or human organism or inert object, in a manner that will reveal the hidden answer.

The theory originated from the I Ching in 2,000 B.C. The description goes on to say there is no chance. All things in the universe follow a definite order; symbols serve as models or patterns from which physical objects evolve. Wow 2,000 years before Christ, well, they have certainly been around a while.

Mantic Art skills in ancient times were used to predict and guide the conduct of persons and nations, settle disputes, and uncover personal problems. In the Mantic arts, symbols are formed in the atmosphere that precede earth doings and are sent to humans to announce or warn of these earthly events. In ancient times everyone believed that the orderly universewrites its patterns in all things and the lay person became proficient in the skill of divination. The word Mancy was born of the Greek word Mania which means hidden or sacred things which is a much better use of the word than what we are currently used to.

There are so many forms of Mancy arts it would be difficult to name them all, so I will only list a few. Divination by animal behavior can be Theriomancy or zoomancy. Divination by using the atmosphere is  Alectromancy.

Interstingly, there is divination by book, and it is called Stichomancy while bibliomancy, a word we are more familiar with is specific to the bible only, and pyromancy is divination by burning objects.

Here is a funny one that will make a friend of mine happy, divination by cake dough is called Critomancy, and divination by cakes and cookies is Aleuromancy. By candle is Lampadomancy, and by wind is Aeromancy. Divination by crystal ball is crystalomancy, while crystal pieces are crystallomancy.

Dream divination is Oneiromancy, and divination by mediumship is Psychomancy and the list goes on. In short, the Mantic Arts are divination by whatever is at hand.  My grandmother divined by talking to pretty much everything.

I enjoy the mancy arts because they are elements of the things around us. I like being able to listen to a blade of grass whisper, “water” or to have it give me that image in my mind. It builds a connection and they are great for exercising our magical skills.

Maybe now the next time you stop to pick up a rock or feather or anything else, gently hold it and see if you can get it to speak to you. and tell you its secrets.

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A CURSE OR A BLESSING?

Alright, psychics. I know you are out there, let’s talk about the blessing and the curse of it all. And FYI being empathic is also a psychic skill.
THE BLESSING, Folks know you are psychic in some fashion and they ask your advice or learn from you. Your skill has helped you in some way over a period of time and you have found a way to make it useful.
THE CURSE. 1. People come for advice and then ignore the advice. And when stuff all falls apart they come back and ask why you did not tell them.
2. You can tell what is going to happen and you watch it all happen knowing there is nothing you can do to help or change things.
I struggled with this anomaly in my psychic skills for years, until one day I realized we know what we know not to stop the chain of events but to have an advance warning of what is coming so we as psychics and healers can help with the effects of the event after the fact. Our gifts whatever they may be are precognitive based. Most psychic skills have an element of precognition.
It was not until I wrapped my brain around this that I became much more comfortable with my psychic skills and stopped the love-hate relationship I had with them. It was also when I began using them properly.
This all works for me, and each of us are a bit different, what has worked for you?
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Chaos or Eclectic?

 I was cruising through YouTube a week or so ago and saw one of the younger male witches I like, talking about chaos magic, so I stopped to listen. I expected to hear something new as I have some old perceptions of what chaos magic is. Imagine my surprise when he began to describe chaos magic as what I know to be Eclectic Witchcraft. I began to wonder if all that had been changed was the word used to describe the same thing. This led me to do research, which I enjoy.  I compared our family definition of eclectic and chaos magic with the broader public definitions only to find it was pretty much the same as our family definition.  

Here are some other descriptions I found along the way.  

 Eclectic witchcraft is a practice that combines spiritual, occult, and magical practices from many different cultures, philosophies, and time periods; There are so many practices the Eclectic Witch can use the list is endless but may include, Shamanism, Eastern philosophy, Buddhism, Ceremonial Magick, Psychism, Mediumship, and any of the many forms of divination. 

My grandmother and mom always said our family craft was eclectic, which meant our practices were created from a broad spectrum of practices and beliefs. This broad spectrum aligned with our family’s definition of a Witch, being described as, “Having the ability to work with and or manipulate any energy, vibration, deity, spirit or being you encounter without any restrictions and being adept with plants for healing.” Which is pretty close to my definition of magic as well. 

And chaos magic is the ability to catch or create, then use the most random rare, unusual, and one of, type of energies, occurrences, and created beings by using old and mystic occult practices and sigils. How does that differ from eclectic? The eclectic witch uses the fixed natural and re-occurring types of energies such as plants animals, and natural elements rather than the random and mutable energies combined through sigils and older occult practices. 

That said I think some of the research I found describes it better. The Donning International Encyclopedic Psychic Dictionary by June G. Bletzer describes chaos as; The creation of perfectness consisting of indestructible, Intelligent, energetic, atoms and smaller particles; As not having order, as mankind knows order; The essence of all things made in the universe; A Mish Mash of the original principles of humanity, the formless void of primordial matter; the essence of all things made; some call it chaos others call it perfectness as mankind knows no other.  

Other sources state; “The perspective of chaos theory suggests that seemingly small life events can have a large impact on psychology, mental health, and human behavior.” 

“And that chaos teaches beliefs can shape perceptions, and the world can be changed intentionally by altering those beliefs.”  

“Chaos magicians use belief as a tool, often creating their own magical systems that combine different things like quantum physics, chaos theory, anarchism, and practical magic.” 

It is in this way chaos magic and the eclectic are similar by using combined practices and intention. Yet the sources of the of the belief, the intention, and the systems used are quite different. The chaos practitioner uses complex systems whose behavior is highly sensitive to slight changes in conditions, meaning that small alterations can give rise to strikingly great consequences. To perform magic successfully, chaos magicians believe it’s necessary to enter a state of altered consciousness called “gnosis”. In this state, thoughts are stilled, and awareness is focused on a single point.  And more often than not, Eclectic practitioners practice their beliefs while conscious.  

Chaos magicians also believe in servitors, which are beings that can be given many names from different cultures’ demonologies. Where Witchcraft practitioners are more likely to make or attract a familiar instead of making a servitor, but this is not exclusively true. Some eclectics cross over into chaos magic just as easily as they do any other practice they are familiar with. 

While chasing the rabbit down another hole I discovered this bit of information; Chaos Magic works on laws which may be either known or unknown. Everything in the universe functions according to laws. The Nine Laws of Chaos Magic are as follows:   

  1. Kosmos and Kaos self-manifested together. Stability and change are mirror images of each other. The actions of Kaos are those of Kosmos with an infinite number of possible paths.  
    2. The condition of complex systems over time depends on their initial conditions.  
    3. All complex dynamic systems have Magic Points – critical points where a small change can have large consequences. Magic Points are seldom obvious. Stimulation of a Magic Point usually gets bad results before it gets better.  
    4. Complex systems are not reversible.  
    5. All living systems are dependent upon cooperation. Life creates the conditions for its own existence.  
    6. The more independent a system, the more feedback loops it requires.  
    7. The future of any complex system is unpredictable.  
    8. All creative activity is the result of tension between Kaos and Kosmos. Creativity, discovery, and invention result from the conjunction of two or more distinct frames of reference.  
    9. Complex systems at equilibrium are not really at equilibrium.   

I know this is just the tip of the iceberg on both of these topics, but it is enough to get you thinking and chasing your own rabbits. Many Blessings to all. 

  (Sources https://www.psicopolis.com/fisikepsic/chaosmagic.htm#:~:text=Chaos%20Magic%20works%20on%20laws,universe%20functions%20according%20to%20laws 

https://guides.monmouth.edu/Occult/witch#:~:text=Eclectic%20Witch%20%2D%20Eclectic%20Witchcraft%20is,mediumship%2C%20any%20form%20of%20divination 

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_magic#:~:text=Chaos%20magic%20teaches%20that%20the,by%20deliberately%20changing%20those%20beliefs. 

 

 

 

   

 

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Catching up

Life is funny just as I sit down to write about how I feel like I am fading from public life a friend messages and tells me they are carrying the commercial they made for me on their channel. How sweet and thank you, Harold Sanford Carter III, I needed that.

So, what is on my mind today? I have come to realize I am a person who can only focus on one major thing at a time. A friend asked about it on FB the other day. For example, if I am writing a book, all else falls aside, housework, friends, everything and my book has my entire focus, like a method actor becoming the role. I get blinders on and do not see anyone else but what I am focused on and nothing else matters.

This is true of everything in my life. I recently had a loving friend I reached out to, kindly show me that when I have serious stuff to deal with I push friends away rather than include them in the process. Which, leaves them with feelings of their own about my actions. This shows that you are never done working on yourself, life always has more to show you.

Currently, I am not in the public spotlight and feel, I am better able to see and accept such things, it is one of the perks of not being in the spotlight. I have often said that the more involved you are with this man’s world, the farther from your spirituality you are. I guess this occurrence proves the point. And, as you can see like all things, this trait in me has a good side and a consequence.

For example, when it became clear to me my husband needed more of my support due to his illness, I threw myself into it quickly one hundred percent without looking back. No harm no foul right? Sure, except I left people out of the process who love us both.

So what has me in this frame of mind? I think it is a combination of things, self-discovery, medication, and the realization that I am moving into a different phase of life with my husband. It is the phase where our main focus is managing our health and how much we depend on each other for that.

I also know that balance has to be a part of the job. I have to keep the things that make me content and feel useful and not ignore them. I have to learn to balance that with the time it takes for me to care for my hubby, and I am adjusting. As I adjust I will be adding more of the things I enjoy like writing a blog and teaching.

I love what my friend Phaedra Bonewits says about balance, “Balance is like a pendulum, it moves all over and always comes back to center.” In other words, balance is not walking the straight and narrow it is more about going with the flow.

 

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Kitchen Witchery

KITCHEN WITCHERY

Today’s act of magic was some old-fashioned kitchen witchery. For some reason, I like hand-washing dishes while it is raining. Today I had that opportunity, and I opened the kitchen window and door as I worked. The rain and breeze brought waves of aroma from the roses out the window and aromas of oregano and sage from the herb garden out the back door combined with the comforting sound of the rain. I thanked the windows for doing their job. For being a portal to let in or keep out nature as we desire. For their protection and for being a bringer of light and vision.

I extended my gratitude to the rain and thanked it for its service. Rain gives us the water we wash with and so much more. With my hands in the water, this allowed me to connect to the element of water. Emotions are connected to water and what came was happy emotions and memories. As I washed the dishes, I reflected on memories of how each dish, fork, and other kitchen item had served in creating those memories. All the friends and family that had eaten from them, the amazing food they helped create. I let my gratitude and happy memory flow into each item as I thanked it. I even thanked the sink filter for keeping my plumbing clear of debris.

As I handled each item, I could feel how happy they were to be of service and to be shown love and gratitude, it filled me in return. I then let all of that flow back to the rain and let it all connect energetically.

As I cleaned the stove, I could feel the happy memories and good food and the hard work it has given in service to this home. I could feel how happy it was to be cleaned and given shiny new rings for the burners. It made me smile and I thanked the old crusty ones for their service too as I considered their hard work and memories. They were grateful to be done with their work and put to rest, they had given their all and more.

The floor was no different as I swept and mopped. I could feel it talking to me about its service. It showed me how it takes all our dirt and cast-offs and how it has held steady for every step each person who has been here had taken. I smiled again as I thanked it for holding up our home and how it keeps our home together for us. It too responded in kind for being recognized, cared for, and loved in return. Even every bit of dust dirt, or pet hair on the floor holds energy and memory, and I thanked it for being there too.

When I was done, I looked around and smiled, filled with all the good feelings emanating from the kitchen, the heart of the home was now recharged and so was I. As I looked out the door to the garden and took in the smell of the herbs the rain came to a stop, its job of magic done for the day, and I thanked it for its service and a job well done.

This act of magic is all about animism and energy. The magical idea that all things have a spirit, and energy and recognizing and honoring that. It is also an act of mindfulness, being fully mindful of each moment and being truly present with each thing you are encountering in the moment, and allowing yourself to have a fully engaged energy exchange with it. Some call this simple acts of magic and yet as you can see even simple acts of magic can have big results! Simple acts of love to small things can go a long way, and that is magical indeed.

Many Blessings to all!

 

 

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The Comfort Zone and Magic

The Comfort Zone and Magic

By Cat Gina Cole 5/25/23

Most of us have heard or been told not to do anything outside our comfort zone as though that threshold is a huge stop sign. While valid in many social circumstances and even in some magical ones, it can actually prevent you from gaining knowledge and experience. Witchcraft and Magic are transgressive by nature and should take us beyond our comfort zone.

This brings up questions like what is our comfort zone, what is its function, why should we move past it, and how do we move past it?

Our comfort zone is something that was socially conditioned into us for general safety, or something we created based on our experiences to keep us safe for many valid reasons. We put it up and leave it in place and never question it again and it becomes a taboo to ever cross, even for ourselves. If we ignore our comfort zone and make no changes, it will restrict further growth and can in some cases cause us and others harm. As we grow physically and mentally, we must also give ourselves permission to change the hard and fast “rules” and adjust those that no longer work for us.

For example, an individual who has been abused or traumatized in any way might continue seeing themselves as a victim/survivor and keep themselves away from social interaction. This is a valid reaction as one heals, but if you stay there, you never heal completely. Instead, it becomes how you identify and becomes all you are. When that happens all decisions and actions are based on past experiences only.

In my recovery from being an abused/traumatized person, staying in my comfort zone was only one PART of the healing process, not the end place, and not my whole identity forever. The comfort zone from trauma is not meant to be a comfort zone forever. We are not meant to live in fear. Danger is real, fear is a mechanism to teach us and to be learned from. Fear provides us the opportunity to grow beyond fear’s limitations. And fear shows us our current limits and asks us if want to stay there or go beyond it. This fact about fear has a lot to do with the phrase, “There is no light without the dark”

Staying in a fixed comfort zone promotes the mindset that anything we need or want in our lives must come from outside ourselves. Holding this belief means we believe we have no personal power; no control or choice and it keeps us perpetually at the mercy of others and helpless.

Nothing could be further from the truth. All of us have personal power and choice, all of us have the right and power to claim ourselves, and to create our own lives. We do not “have to” wait on others. To do so only leads to a repetitive cycle of disappointment. This is because no one can satisfy your needs and desires like you can.

Everyone needs a little help now and then, sometimes you are not sure what you are looking for, but others might. These people should only be guides to help you find your personal empowerment, not people who keep you dependent or helpless, so watch for that when you seek the like-minded, friends, teachers, and counselors. And when you find one, examine your comfort zone, and ask yourself, are they one the healthy side, challenging you to grow or are they on the side of it that says, they are not healthy for me?

Now that we know much more about the Comfort Zone, what it really is and what it does let’s apply all that to Witchcraft and Magic. If for example you are looking for a magical social group and only stay in your comfort zone, you may never find one. Especially if you approach a group and you allow your comfort zone to make the decision. This can result in you not joining in and having a good experience. Instead, you will feel like a spectator and not connect with anyone. Like all things Magical and Witchcraft this will take repeated effort to accomplish for some. If you feel like a spectator rather than a participant, you are also blocking the energy flow. This is true if it is a social group, a group ritual or even a solitary magical working. This then prevents any working or group from being that much more effective and powerful. Letting go of our comfort zone for the moment is the only way to feel fully engaged and share the energy flow of the experience.

Particularly in Magic and Witchcraft, the comfort zone will lie to you and tell you, you cannot do magical practices until you are taught. This is because in your comfort zone as it currently is, has you believing you have no personal power or ability; you have only doubt. Which is a lie, you do have personal power and all of you have magic within you.

But you will not find it until you push past your comfort zone and step out to the other side and into the magical energy all around you. Once this is done, and you continue to play around with Magic and Witchcraft for a while, it will lead you to ask more questions, read more books, meet more people, and this will begin your path.

Even those who have been practicing for some time can still struggle with their comfort zone. Feeling Magical energy can be quite intense and “uncomfortable” and sometimes scary. Some might even believe that a simple mirror spell or freezer spell is black magic or worry about harm none, or a person’s free will. Only to a point are these things valid.

They are designed to keep the beginner cautious, which is ok in the beginning, but staying with this thinking prevents you from exploring the full depths of Witchcraft and Magic.

There is such a thing as Magical Defense, and Magical Defense is not black magic. Magical Defense is protection from an action you know someone else took first. Now if out of the blue you decide for no real reason to harm someone or put a curse on them just for sport or fun, or just to see if you can, that is what most call black magic.

Any spell or working can be used either for good or harm. There is no list of this one is good this one is harmful; it is all in why and how it is being used. Thinking of black magic in this way is typically out of someone’s comfort zone and is an example of someone who has not gone beyond their zone to discover this is true for themselves, they just stopped at the perceived boundary.

I think of the comfort zone as a signal that I have been triggered about something in my past. When I feel it, I remember I am not in the past. I am in the now, and I am doing a working that needs my focus and full power and energy.  This allows me to push it aside until I am finished, I will come back to it later and address whatever it was separately.

It would not do while leading a ritual or spell to break down in the middle of it and give in to the emotional self. As in the example above, it only robs the working of all power and effectiveness. Stepping past the comfort zone in Witchcraft and Magic allows you to step into the full power and energy of the working making your magic much more effective. So, the next time your comfort zone bumps against you, tell it “Not now, I am busy growing, learning, being magical, manipulating energy and gaining personal power.”             Many Blessings to All!

 

 

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Buckland Museum of Witchcraft

My journey in witchcraft since I came out of the broom closet has been pretty incredible. I began as a simple country witch and now I know people I would never have imagined I would come to meet. I think the pinnacle of any witches public career is to be recognized by the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft.

Prior to 2019 I “knew of” The Museum and never thought I would end up in attendance at their event at the last pantheacon in the company of Oberon Zell, but there I was.

In February of 2022, my book Psychic Skills for Magic and Witchcraft was released. I was honored to learn it was being sold at the Buckland Museum bookstore.

In August of 2022 Oberon Zel and I were presenting at the Eugene Pagan pride when Ceera Brandt approached us saying she had an entire collection of the Green Egg Magazine  (Created by Oberon Zell) and many other pagan periodicals that had been collected by her partner Laura Wood who had recently passed she wanted to donate to us.

There were many boxes and I really enjoyed going through them. I sent the whole collection to the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft, which resulted in my being interviewed by the Museum.

In the interview, I tell the whole story and all the details and even reveal future projects. If you would like to see the video click the link below. Many Blessings!