Lesson 5

I am very simplistic in most of my practice and try to use my tools for multiple purposes.  I do use my athame as well as a boline and it is set aside for magical purposes only.  I seldom use a wand as I use my hands or my athame to cast circle.  The scourge, I personally do not like the use of this for any magical purpose.  My reasons are personal, but I would never discourage someone else from using it.  Other items seem to find their way to me as the Lord and Lady deem me to use them.  Until next post, bright blessings to all.

Lesson 4

Altars
 
I happen to have several altars within my home.  I have my ancestral altar, my personal altar, and I have set my downstairs of my townhouse as an altar in and of itself.
 
My Ancestral Altar

 

My Ancestral Altar is set to the West, facing the Summerlands.  I also set my altar in the West during Samhain for any rites.  The skulls represent life, death, and rebirth.  There are many pictures of loved ones from both my side and my husband's.  We honor them by burning incense, tobacco, giving offerings of alcohol, etc.  I also have candles to represent the Goddess and the God.  The Hawthorn in the bowl on altar represents protection negativity and "evil" influences and to open spiritual communication with the ancestors. Sometimes there are things left on the altar to ask for help in bringing some things to fruition or for advise. 

 

My Personal Altar

 

My Personal Altar is set in the North.  I set most of my altars in the North because I am so drawn to it.  In my tradition, North represents Earth.  I also happen to be an Earth Sign (Capricorn). It provides me with grounding.  Since I was a little girl, I have always loved Bast.  She is a Goddess of many things (compassion, protectress of woman and children, of course cats, seductress, and warrior).  I was drawn to her love and compassion.  She fascinated me.  So, I have had an altar devoted to her for a long time now.  Her colors are red and green. I have a red towel on the altar as my altar cloth.  I also have a green bowl setting on my altar that I place stones or salt in.  I also have a chalice. There is a bowl for water. I also have an offering bowl in front of my Bast Statue to give her offerings of catmint.  I do burn incense often as an offering to her as well. 

 

                             North

Green bowl                            Water bowl

 

 

 Goddess        Bast Statue         God

 Candle                                        Candle

                            Offering

                              Bowl

 

My Household Altar

 

This truly represents my entire 1st floor.  My kitchen happens to be in the North; the representation of hearth and home.  In my front room I have the elements on the West wall, such as my Blue water in my hurrican lamp and my Goddess Statue of Danu (a Goddess of water, rivers, streams, etc.).  On my East wall, inhabits my bird.  A peach-faced love bird. She represents the element of air, of flight, and of communication (boy does she chatter).  Outside on my patio, the South-side of the townhouse, I have a firepit, representing the element of Fire.

 

 Other Altars

 

 I have also included some of the altars that I have set up for Ostara, My wedding, and for Samhain. 

 

These are a lot of fun to set up as well as very spiritual.  Everything that is included on the altars have very special significance to all those involved.  The Ostara Rite altar was set up for a ritual that my husband and I facilitated at the Community Center and open to the public.  This ritual was focused on re-birthing ourselves in this life.  My wedding altar had the two candles that represented our individual flames as well as the unity candle.  We did not extinguish our individual candles for this rite.  Even though we have come together in this life, we are still individuals.  The last, the Samhain altar was an altar that everyone could light candles and add momentos to honor their ancestors during the rite.

 

Blessed Be!

 

Rev. Candy S. Lacey-Partlow (aka Priestess Raven)

 

 
 

Lesson 4

Altars
 
I happen to have several altars within my home.  I have my ancestral altar, my personal altar, and I have set my downstairs of my townhouse as an altar in and of itself.
 
My Ancestral Altar

 

My Ancestral Altar is set to the West, facing the Summerlands.  I also set my altar in the West during Samhain for any rites.  The skulls represent life, death, and rebirth.  There are many pictures of loved ones from both my side and my husband's.  We honor them by burning incense, tobacco, giving offerings of alcohol, etc.  I also have candles to represent the Goddess and the God.  The Hawthorn in the bowl on altar represents protection negativity and "evil" influences and to open spiritual communication with the ancestors. Sometimes there are things left on the altar to ask for help in bringing some things to fruition or for advise. 

 

My Personal Altar

 

My Personal Altar is set in the North.  I set most of my altars in the North because I am so drawn to it.  In my tradition, North represents Earth.  I also happen to be an Earth Sign (Capricorn). It provides me with grounding.  Since I was a little girl, I have always loved Bast.  She is a Goddess of many things (compassion, protectress of woman and children, of course cats, seductress, and warrior).  I was drawn to her love and compassion.  She fascinated me.  So, I have had an altar devoted to her for a long time now.  Her colors are red and green. I have a red towel on the altar as my altar cloth.  I also have a green bowl setting on my altar that I place stones or salt in.  I also have a chalice. There is a bowl for water. I also have an offering bowl in front of my Bast Statue to give her offerings of catmint.  I do burn incense often as an offering to her as well. 

 

                             North

Green bowl                            Water bowl

 

 

 Goddess        Bast Statue         God

 Candle                                        Candle

                            Offering

                              Bowl

 

My Household Altar

 

This truly represents my entire 1st floor.  My kitchen happens to be in the North; the representation of hearth and home.  In my front room I have the elements on the West wall, such as my Blue water in my hurrican lamp and my Goddess Statue of Danu (a Goddess of water, rivers, streams, etc.).  On my East wall, inhabits my bird.  A peach-faced love bird. She represents the element of air, of flight, and of communication (boy does she chatter).  Outside on my patio, the South-side of the townhouse, I have a firepit, representing the element of Fire.

 

 Other Altars

 

 I have also included some of the altars that I have set up for Ostara, My wedding, and for Samhain. 

 

These are a lot of fun to set up as well as very spiritual.  Everything that is included on the altars have very special significance to all those involved.  The Ostara Rite altar was set up for a ritual that my husband and I facilitated at the Community Center and open to the public.  This ritual was focused on re-birthing ourselves in this life.  My wedding altar had the two candles that represented our individual flames as well as the unity candle.  We did not extinguish our individual candles for this rite.  Even though we have come together in this life, we are still individuals.  The last, the Samhain altar was an altar that everyone could light candles and add momentos to honor their ancestors during the rite.

 

Blessed Be!

 

Rev. Candy S. Lacey-Partlow (aka Priestess Raven)

 

 
 

Lesson 3

Ritual Tools
 
I do love tools and the symbolism that goes with them.  But, I have practiced many a rite with none of them.  And yes that index finger does wield a lot of power.  The "power" or "energy" is within the practitioner.   Over the years we tend to collect tools,or at least I have. 
 
Of all the tools I use in ritual, my favorite is incense.  Incense sets the mood and triggers what the rite is about.  I make alot of my own blends, so I have a particular purpose for each.  Some are for healing rituals, some are to honor the ancestors,and some are for particular times of the year.  My husband and I perform many handfastings and I often make a special blend for the couple. 
 
More importantly though, the tools used in ritual are for the purpose of helping us focus on the rite and to assist us with making connection with our Deity.
 
Blessed Be!
 
Rev. Candy S. Lacey-Partlow (aka Priestess Raven)
 
 
 

Lesson 2

The concept of "Consequences" is not something that is new to me.  I raised my kids with this consequence.  We were not always Wiccan, we were Christians.  So there is truth to this concept regardless of religion.  One thing is that the more energy you put into an action, the more inertia it has to continue growing and build until you have "whatever you send out will come back to you three-fold". 
 
As far as keeping a notebook, I do so for every class I have; just part of being organized.
 
As far as keeping a record for a week, this is something that writing it down doesn't really benefit me because I already live this way.  I have been doing this for a long time.
 
I will tell you though I keep in mind some things that I can use as an example that I deal with everyday:
 
1)If I go to work, I will get a paycheck based on that work.
 
2)If I take my medications, I will be able to regulate my blood pressure, my diabetes, and keep my stents open.
 
3)If I take the time to study and apply religious theory based on my beliefs, I will grow spiritually.
 
4)If I take the time to be involved in my community, I will develop relationships within the community for networking, friendship, and for unity within the Pagan community.
 
5)If I clean up the environment around me, the world will be a more ecologically sound environment.
 
6)The list goes on and on.
 
Making a list for an assignment of consequences for our actions and being done with it at the end of the assignment is not enough.  This is something that has to be lived every day!
 
Rev. Candy S. Lacey-Partlow (aka Priestess Raven)
 

Lesson 5 - Altar basics

This was an important lesson that highlighted some basic tools that we need as Wiccans. I've been using a Google extension called ispeech that reads the lesson back to me in audio. I've found it helps my retention better, like I'm in an actual lecture. I have these basic tools already, I've just got to consecrate them.