Author Archive

05
Aug
2010

August Update

By MeadowMoon

Hello there! Yeah, it sure has been a while since I have posted anything to the blog. Trust me, over the months that I have been away, my mind has been thinking constantly about my website, the blog and forums, the podcast…

Anyway, here I am. I am “officially” back. I wanted to provide an update here for those of you who may not be connected to me or the podcast on Facebook or Twitter. Between now and the weekend, I will have a mini-update episode uploaded to iTunes. In this episode I will basically be explaining my absence. I will be getting back on track and will have full episodes uploaded on or around 08/15 and 08/29.

I wish I could say that I have been doing some amazing spiritually energized things, but that wasn’t exactly the case. I won’t go into a lot of detail here or I will have nothing for the mini-episode!

Darkest and Brightest Blessings,

MeadowMoon

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21
Apr
2010

April Update

By MeadowMoon

It isn’t news that Episode 21 hasn’t been uploaded yet. Well, life has me a bit preoccupied right now and I was never able to complete the recording of that episode. Currently, there is a situation within my family that demands my immediate attention. Due to the this and the unknown challenges that lie ahead, I will have to postpone any future recordings of my beloved podcast. Unfortunately, I do not know as of today how long this will be for. It could be a couple of weeks or even a couple of months.

In the meantime, I will continue to communicate with you by way of this blog, through the forum, on Facebook, and through email. So I won’t completely be missing from the public, just won’t be able to get recordings out due to the time involved. I ask you to please send your positive energies to me and my family at this time. We currently find ourselves in a situation we never conceived of and hope we all come out stronger and closer than ever before.

Please know that this current situation has nothing to do with the previous spiritual work that I was doing and discussing during the last episode. On a positive note, I found an appropriate pausing point for the work I was doing involving my past and will carry on with this in the future at whatever point it comes into my life again.

Thank you all for supporting this podcast. You are truly the most amazing people I have ever had the privilege of communicating with.

Darkest and brightest blessings to you all!

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11
Apr
2010

Episode 20

By MeadowMoon

Here I am about to record the next episode and I am just getting the show notes posted for Episode 20. After my last episode, I had to take a break. It was desperately needed as I hope you can understand. Now I am feeling a whole lot more refreshed and recharged. Maybe I can get caught up on everything I have let fall behind. I have been receiving some awesome emails from all of you and I want to thank you all for your encouragement.

In this episode, the following music was played:

Winter by Frozen Silence

Chaos Engine by Ten Penny Joke

Emergency by Ten Penny Joke

Evil Things by Ten Penny Joke

As many of you already know, this was a tough episode for me to record. As part of my new spiritual journey on the darker pagan path, I have had to take a deeper look at myself and within myself. In doing this, I have had to face the unpleasant parts of myself and the unpleasant times in my past. My podcast is a reflection of my pagan experience and all that it entails. No matter how personal my experience gets, I am here to share with you what I am going through, the good and the bad.

I discovered that the items I had listed as my not so great qualities didn’t really need to be viewed that way. I feel these qualities weren’t so much bad as they were unbalanced and thus were viewed more in a negative manner. I decided to try to figure out at what point in my life did these qualities tip the scale in the favor of the not so great side. What seemed like a simple and logical question to ask took me on a journey into my past. I was hoping this would come later down the road but here I was standing before it and turning around would not accomplish anything. So, I took a deep breath and bravely stepped forward.

My past played like an old movie in my mind.  When I was 10 years old, I was faced with a situation that no 10 year old child should have to deal with. This situation lasted for a few years. Fearing I had no one to turn to for help, I pushed all my pain, anger, and everything else deep inside. At the age of 15, everything that I had attempted to bury inside reared its ugly head and demanded an outlet. One day I appeared to be a normal 15 year old, the next day I woke up with a mission. That mission was one of self destruction.

I started burning myself on my arm at night. Then later I moved to carving my body with words and symbols in places where no one would see. Then I moved onto taking pills. It didn’t matter what kind, as long as it was moving me closer to an end, I was satisfied. All the details were on the podcast so I don’t feel the need to spell it all out here, please understand.

Now that I look at the situation and what I did to myself, I hold my breath and my heart skips a beat. That was a young girl that needed so much help but purely depended on herself to fix herself. The horrifying part of self destruction is that once you have taken that path in life, that path is forever there. A person makes the choice to stay off that path or to go down it again. Thankfully, I have enough love and self respect now that I don’t feel the need to ever travel that path again. But regardless, I know the path is there, used or not.

I continued this journey into my past for as long as I could. At the time I recorded this episode, I had to put further progress on pause. Due to mental, physical, and spiritual exhaustion, I will have to complete this on a later date, whenever that shall be.

This episode I dedicate to my husband. I love him more than words could ever express. He literally saved my life more than he will ever know.

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08
Mar
2010

Episode 19

By MeadowMoon

As many of you are aware, this is my first episode after my announcement that I would be darkening the focus of the podcast, moving away from the book study of Wicca and all that love and light perspective. Now I feel more comfortable in the shadows and hope you all will enjoying listening to the darker side of paganism that many pagans choose to ignore.

For this episode, we here the following music selections:

Night’s Calling Me by Chronique

Voodoo Dream by Antarhes

Background for paranormal segment:

Chaos by d-alternative

On the darker pagan path I now walk, I see that there is much needed focus on myself. Those qualities that people often deny or pretend they don’t realize they possess. I have started working on a list of my poorer qualities so that I can work on these to become a better person, or to at least not live a lie. I have three things listed so far and I know that once I work through each of these, I may find I few more to add to the list. The first order of business for myself is working on being less selfish. Yes, I find that I can be a very selfish person. As I look back on my life, I have been that way for far too long. I even had myself fooled that I wasn’t that way…imagine that!

Working with the darker aspects of our spiritual beliefs, we have to not be the fool, so to speak. We have to be brutally honest with ourselves and pull out all of the skeletons we have in our closets and face them…each and every one! If not, we are the fool and people from the outside looking in can most likely detect that as well. If we don’t face these things ourselves, then one day, we will be forced to. Would you rather have the choice and do this willingly or forced?

Once I have sucked it up and acknowledged my bad traits, then I need to grow a set of steal balls and make the next move. This involves me asking a couple of those closest to me that I trust and know would be honest with me what negative traits do they see in me. I figure if I have already made my own list and started working on my faults, then my feelings won’t be hurt too bad once I am told from another person the things that are not so good about myself.

Also, in this process, I will be forced to face things in my past. Things that I may not be able to share so opening with you all. I can tell you that I have dealt with some things that I will never forget. It is painful. Very painful. However, I must do this. It doesn’t matter whether the things in my past were nice or ugly. The truth is, all the good and the bad made me the person I am today. And I love myself. I am ready to face all that made me who I am!

During this episode I shared with you the story of Philip. If you would like more information about this experiment that was conducted in 1972 by the Toronto Society of Psychical Research dealing with psychokinesis get the book Conjuring Up Philip: An Adventure in Psychokinesis written by Iris Owen and Margaret Sparrow.

Since the last 12 minutes of the podcast was missing, I can assure you that not much was missed. Overall, based on the experiment, it was concluded that it may never be known if the results of the Philip experiment were due to the group’s collective subconscious or if they did conjure an actual entity that posed itself as Philip. Other experiments were performed and similar results were found. However, since the first group was able to list the things that worked, groups that followed were able to get knocks and table movements much quicker. Instead of the experiments taking a year, results could be obtained in 5 weeks, as was the case with the experiment which created Lilith.

I am sure within the near future I will be trying my own experiment. I have never tried table-tilting, but after seeing what these groups have done, there is no way I can ignore how mystical this entire process can be. As a paranormal investigator, I have many questions about many cases I have studied over the years and wonder more about the actual people who were involved. What if in some of these cases, it was the person and not so much a paranormal event? Hmmm.

Until next time, I give to you my Darkest and Brightest blessings,

MeadowMoon

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22
Feb
2010

Episode 18

By MeadowMoon

This is one of the hardest episodes I have recorded. It was deeply personal for me and I was hesitant to even do it. Why you may ask? I was scared that the listeners I had gained would leave. It feels good to see how many people care to listen to a little podcast from a woman in South Carolina. I love seeing the download numbers increase. I knew that there was a chance of those numbers declining by allowing my listeners to see the darker side of myself. However, with everything I have faced in the previous few weeks, I owe it to myself, my spirit, to be true to me and all those in my life.

In this episode, I played the following music that showed my progression over the past few weeks.

Winter – Frozen Silence

Insomnia – Josh Woodward

Black Satellite – TenPenny Joke

It has certainly been interesting allowing myself to come out into the open. Many close to me already knew this, but for my listeners, I worried about being stereotyped. Yes, even pagans can stereotype others, but maybe a little less harshly. When a person mentions being interested in the darker aspect of things, based on my previous experiences with this, they tend to immediately jump to the conclusion that you are steering toward black magic and are off to summon demons.

I am going to start following my heart with this podcast. I, MeadowMoon, am of the night kind. I don’t mind working in the shadows where others choose never to go. I will let the moon, the stars, the dark Gods/Goddesses guide me on my journey. While others only focus on the love and light aspects of things and work their magick in the daylight, I will enjoy the peacefulness of the darkness and will feel the benefits of working in the night when others sleep and the world is a bit more peaceful. I will not only focus on this darker aspect, but the lighter side as well for I believe in maintaining some sort of balance when possible.

I don’t know where this decision will take me, but I am ready. I have been ready for some time. I just needed to give myself permission to follow my natural path. If my regular listeners decide that my podcast is no longer what is best for them, then I am thankful I held their interest for the time I did.

I finally feel alive in such a way that I never have before in my 33 years on this Earth. I feel free. On this episode, I only shared with you a portion of what I have gone through. I share another part of my story in my PaganPages.org article for the March issue. I will post the link on March 1st on the Facebook fan page for those interested in knowing more about the spiritual turmoil I have gone through to finally find the real me.

Thank you all for sharing this journey with me. I could not have done it alone.

Blessings,

MeadowMoon

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08
Feb
2010

Episode 17

By MeadowMoon

Took me long enough to get this out, didn’t it? Thanks for your patience while I adjust to my new “reality”. I didn’t expect to feel so empty after completing school…wow. I hope to get over this funk soon:)

For this episode, we hear the following music selections: Destiny by Chalice and Blade, Every Sacred Thing by Gaia Consort, and Why? by Greg Baumont.

For Lesson 16, the book shares a broader view of Wicca. We learn about connecting with objects. The book recommends picking a plant, tree, or rock near your home. The intention of this is to build an intimate relationship with the object you have chosen. If you can’t visit this object daily, mentally visit this object. Pay attention to any response it may give you.

Then we move into connecting with the spirit of places. To connect with the spirits of your place, you can do this mentally using your hall of consciousness.

The book then continues to discuss the pendulum. This is a tool I have used quite often. There are all kinds of pendulums finding one you like should be easy. You can do this standing up or sitting down. However, if you are sitting down, I would suggest making sure your feet are on the floor. While holding your pendulum by its chain or string  in front of you between your thumb and index finger, you need to establish which movement means “yes” and “no”. I just ask, “Show me yes” and “Show me no”. Once you see which movement means yes and no, ask your questions. It you want to ask a question that could have more possible answers, you can buy or make an answer board that lists all the possible answers and hold your pendulum over the answers to see which answer provides a response. For me, I generally only use my pendulum for simple yes and no questions and when trying to locate lost items.

Lastly, the book discusses dream symbolism.  I think that the best way to understand your dreams is to have a dream journal and have a book on dream interpretation handy. As you write down your dreams and use the book, you will begin to see a pattern between certain things you dream and how it manifests in your life. A dream interpretation book is great to get you started in understanding your dreams. Down the road, you will be able to determine what certain things mean in your dreams for you, but not necessarily everyone.  For example, the color blue in your dreams may mean you are happy, but for someone else, blue may represent sadness.

In this episode, I discussed spiritual laziness. This topic isn’t so much identifying this trait in others, but acknowledging it within yourself. It happens to all of us from time to time. You can hear more about this by listening to this episode:)

Thank you all for your support of the podcast and I will be recording episode 18 soon. At this time, I am aiming for having an episode out bi-weekly.

Blessed Be,

MeadowMoon

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12
Jan
2010

Episode 16

By MeadowMoon

Life can certainly throw things at you and leave you there to figure out what to do next. Seems like that is what happened to me anyway. Feels good now that everything is getting back to what I consider normal. I am finally back podcasting. Not promising I can get back to my weekly schedule, but you will certainly be seeing more of me than you did last month:)

In this episode, I played the following music from the Podsafe Music Network: Voodoo Doll by Michael and Spider & Let the Magic In by Boffius.

In Lesson 15, we move into many more interesting topics the book has to offer someone studying the Wiccan path. We begin the lesson discussing labyrinths. These have been around for thousands of years and are used as a path for prayer and meditation. Each person’s experience walking the labyrinth has their own personal experience. There is not a wrong or right experience to have. If you don’t have access to a walkable labyrinth, there or finger ones you can access on the web. A finger labyrinth can be traced with your finger and the book advises for you to take time once or twice a day to trace the path to the center then back again. Pay close attention to any effects this has on you. Write down your experience in your BOS. Eventually, you can take a particular question or problem you are dealing with to the center of the labyrinth to ponder the options you have for answering the question or correcting the problem.

Now we move on to a self discovery collage. In this exercise, you will need the following:

  • White poster board 10 x 12 inches
  • A glue stick
  • Scissors
  • A few magazines with lots of pictures
  • A timer

Set your timer to 30 minutes. In this amount of time, go through the magazines and tear out the pictures that appeal to you. Don’t use your conscious mind. If a picture calls to you, tear it out. Once you have your pictures, cut them out, then glue them in place on the board. When you have finished, look over the board and see what messages you can detect from the pictures you chose. Did you choose pictures of things or places? Did you choose pictures of people or cars? This can help you understand if you have any desires that maybe you are not allowing yourself to feel on the surface, but feelings that exist deep within. This is a great tool for understanding parts of yourself.

The book offer an introduction to runes. I feel that the best way to learn the runes is to find a set that you like and study the book that may come with them. If it does not come with a book, there are several wonderful books about runes on the internet and at local books stores:)

Lastly, this lesson discusses chakras. Chakras are energy centers in the body. There are seven major chakras, which are discussed in this lesson. Each one deals with a certain kind of energy. Below I will discuss the chakras in order.

  1. Base or root chakra. It is red. Found at the base of the spine. Deals with feelings of survival, security.
  2. Sacral chakra. It is orange. Found in the sexual glands. Deals with sexuality, creativity, and friendliness.
  3. Solar Plexus chakra. It is yellow. Found between the naval and the diaphragm. Deals with personal power and how you present yourself. It can also be a personal reservoir of personal energy.
  4. Heart chakra. It is green. Found in the area of the heart. Deals with giving and receiving love and your openness to life and experience.
  5. Throat chakra. It is blue. Found in the area above the Adam’s apple. Deals with communication and your will.
  6. Third eye chakra. It is indigo. Found on your forehead just above your eyebrow. Deals with your psychic/spiritual abilities.
  7. Crown chakra. It is purple. Found about an inch above the third eye chakra. Deals with spirituality.

When your chakras are balanced, you function better and have increased health and energy.

Lastly for this episode, I shared my personal happenings over the past month. I finish school in less than a month and attend the graduation ceremony in March. Also, I have become a columnist at PaganPages.org. The name of my monthly column is A Walk on the Pagan Path. Be sure to check it out:)

Blessed Be,

Meadowmoon

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29
Nov
2009

Episode 15

By MeadowMoon

Wow, I have to start of by apologizing for the delay in this posting. Life has been a little chaotic for the past two weeks. The schedule for the podcasts, email responses, and blog postings have all been effected. Thanks for your patience. I really hope things will get back to normal this week.

The music heard during this episode was Pagan Ways by Damh the Bard and The Rede by Gaia Consort.

In this episode, we are starting Lesson 14: Divination. There are many forms of divination but we discuss Tarot. We then learn about Connectedness and this involves becoming familiar with your environment. We also learn in this lesson Spiritual Healing, Dream Interpretation, and Guided Visualization.

For the rest of the podcast, I ramble about what I have been up to. I realize this entry is a bit shorter than usual. Again, hopefully all will be back on track soon:)

Blessed Be,

MeadowMoon

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10
Nov
2009

Episode 14

By MeadowMoon

Hope everyone is doing well! The forum is FINALLY active so be sure to check it out and be sure to recommend any topics you feel should be added. Also, please take the time to register for the blog and the forum so we can share information with other listeners and amongst each other:) I would also like to mention that if you are listening to the podcast and are enjoying it, feel free to leave a review over on iTunes.

In this episode we heard the following music: Circle is Now Open by Chalice and Blade and Pagans by Greenfoot.

This week we will be working on Lesson 13: Increasing Psychic Ability. Some forms of psychic ability are as follows:

  • ESP (Extra-Sensory Perception)
  • Precognition
  • Telepathy
  • Psychometry
  • Clairaudience
  • Clairvoyance

If you feel that you are non-psychic, give it time. Make sure to continue doing ritual and alter work, meditate every day, continue to scry with the magic mirror you made previously. Also learn to pay closer attention to your intuition. When you feel the urge to check something or do drive in a different direction somewhere, listen to that little voice. Even if you don’t do it, learning to listen to and acknowledge you intuition is an important step in increasing your psychic abilities. Be aware that this may take some time so don’t try too hard. Trying too hard can actually shut down your abilities.

We also learn in this lesson to set boundaries. The Wiccan Rede may say Harm None, but that does not mean you have to be a doormat for other people. Rather than harm people in situations where you may feel threatened, learn to protect yourself. This can be done by warding, protection and binding spells. Don’t try to control or manipulate others, simply defend yourself. As we continue, we learn to banish negativity, we learn how to increase our concentration which helps greatly with increasing your psychic ability, we learn the technique of  forming an invisibility cloak and lastly lucid dreaming. As always, don’t forget to document your experiences in you BOS.

Hot Topic:

In Episode 12 I asked for your views on substitution during spellwork. Did you feel that you should always follow a spell to the exact ingredient? Based on the feed back I received, substitution is often fine though there may be times when you feel the spell was not as powerful because of the substitution. The intent behind the spell is often what makes the spell work or not.Thanks for sharing your information on this.

I have decided to discontinue the Hot Topic. Maybe I will pick this up again in the future.

Pagan Unity Day in Charleston, SC was amazing. This was my first formal pagan event and I am already looking forward to next year!! I was highly impressed with the vendors and the items they had available. The workshops held were my favorite part. I can’t forget to mention the awesome drumming. If you ever get a chance to attend a pagan event, don’t miss out on the opportunity.

Hope you all have a great week!!

Blessed Be,

MeadowMoon

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01
Nov
2009

Episode 13

By MeadowMoon

Wow, what an incredibly busy day!! Samhain, trick or treating, time change…OH MY!! Trick or treating was a blast. My son was dressed as a winged Grimm Reaper. He looked awesome, but it was also hot. Therefore, he soon ditched the mask and the hood came down. He looked like a friar….too funny!! I appreciate everyone who voted on the poll over on FB. The show be extended…..now what? We shall see:) I hope you all have enjoyed the October episodes. Everything will be somewhat back to normal in November.

In this episode, we heard two songs by Hungry Lucy, Grave and Bound in Blood – Insomnia Remix, and the background music heard during the Paranormal Segment was Riding the Banshee by Dan-O.

For Lesson 12: Designing a Spell, we learn how to design our own spell and not have to depend on spells found in other sources. We have the means to do this as long as we know how. This is where the correspondences we discussed last week comes in handy. Think of your goal. Once you have done this decide which day of the week is best and which phase of the moon is best. Choose what color is best associated with accomplishing the goal you have and choose this color for your candles. For your ritual bath, add an herb that has properties best connected to your goal. To the when choosing a gemstone. When speaking the spoken part of your spell, hold the gemstone in your hand. Then carry the gemstone with you until your goal is accomplished. The spell can be completed at your alter. Don’t forget to write all of this information in your BOS and also include the date and the way your goal is accomplished.

The book assists us with reaching our Hall of Consciousness. The use of the spiral staircase is a great way to do this. However, you can choose any setting you like to do this. Maybe you are more relaxed by walking on the beach or walking through the woods. Whatever works for you is fine as long as you are able to find the answers you seek. Next we learn about the aspects of deity and connecting with goddess. For learning the aspects, remember to only work with one form of deity at a time. Again, don’t forget to write what you did and what happened in your BOS. When connecting with goddess, the book instructs us to add a red candle to our alter. Light the candle everyday and feel the connection you experience.

After working through this lesson, part 1 of the book will be completed. Next week we begin on part 2 which consists of the following lessons:

  • 13: Increasing Psychic Ability
  • 14: Divination
  • 15: Labyrinths
  • 16: The Broader View of Wicca
  • 17: Understanding the God and Goddess Relationship
  • 18: Designing Rituals
  • 19: Spell Variations
  • 20: Herbal Gardens
  • 21: Concept of Time
  • 22: Numerology
  • 23: Numerical Value
  • 24: The Nature of Reality

Thank you all for the votes over at Podcast Alley for October. I made it to #15….AWESOME!!

Ok everyone, we are only on episode 13, but I will be done with these lessons on Episode 50. We need to go ahead and starting thinking about where we want to go next. Do we want to continue with Wicca a bit longer or do we want to explore another pagan path. During my meditations this past week, Kitchen Witchcraft has constantly been coming up. Maybe that is the next avenue for me to explore…..guess I will need to visit my Hall of Consciousness to find the answer! I would like your input on this. You are as much a part of this podcast as I am so I would like to hear your thoughts.

Paranormal Segment:

I share with you yet another one of my experiences and one of my aunt’s experiences. For my story, I was with a group of friends trying to see the local urban legend Bingham’s Light. Though we did not see the glowing light, something happened. I noticed flashing lights around my friend’s car after he attempted to provoke the spirit of Bingham. When it was time to leave, his car would not start. Guess it was not such a bright idea for him to provoke:) We then went to Montrose Cemetery. This is an old cemetery located on the edge of a cliff known to be haunted by a big, tall, dark figure of a man. This night was crazy and one of my friends vowed to never ghost hunt again!! Listen to the podcast for all the details.

You all have a great week and I can’t wait to spend even more time with you next week.

Blessed Be,

MeadowMoon

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