Blessed Lughnasadh to you! The harvest time has begun and what a harvest it will be. Lugh is the god of the harvest, but he holds a wonderful place in my heart as the god of crafts. And his consort Rosmerta, the goddess of healing and prosperity calls out to me.
Do you hear her? Her voice echos with Lugh's in support of our endeavours and our ideas. No wonder I wanted to do more than make bread, but to make homemade butter as well!
Lugh calls to me constantly in my crafting, as I always have either a crochet hook or knitting needles in my hand. I am grateful to him for his continued patronage, and I acknowledge his prescence in my life over the past 25 years with gratefulness as the crafts have given me peace.
He has also inspired me of late to make necklaces with hagstones. Hagstones are amazing stones that naturally have a hole in them due to water flow/dripping. I also added dragons blood jasper, lapis lazuli and hematite. The hagstones were charged with full moon energy and the intent of healing and protection set the morning after.
I cannot stop wearing mine, seriously! I can feel the higher vibration in them!
Suggestions I have for this holiday?
Craft something!
Even if you are just drawing something (doodle), do it and enjoy it.
Write a bit of poetry!
Bake some whole wheat bread, make some butter (let me know how yours comes out ☺).
Between now and the Fall Equinox is a good time to work on bringing in some plans and some feelers, let them come to fruition. All that hard work that you have been doing has completely paid off, it really has. But right now, the harvest also means hard work, and sweaty work with cursing and wiping sweat off your brow.
To wrap up this post is my tarot reading for this holiday. My three card pull is about the three things I need to focus on.
The nine of Pentacles is about enjoying the harvest and the prosperity that I have earned. Spend it with family and really be present in the world so you can enjoy your family.
The four of Chalices is a card of waiting, perhaps the stability that I have been wanting to have is here but cannot come without help from another, either friends or family. I need to rely on someone from outside myself to help me keep my stability and to not turn my back on that person or people.
The Ace of Wands has to do with spiritual enlightenment and being at one with my intuition. This is something that is a strong part of my life now, I am not perfect, but I am better able to listen to my intuition and my spiritual life is finally at one with my inner life. There is a flourishing that is happening there, and I am grateful for it.
Enjoy this Sabbat and keep your chin up through this Mercury Retrograde. Remember that it is all about communication, so if you keep the lines of communication open, you will be fine.
Blessed Be!
Talia Ravenspath
Oh Mercury, you trickster.
So many people are worried about the mercury retrograde that is starting TODAY. But relax, it's okay! Don't stress about it and create a situation where you are going to self-sabotage yourself with anxiety over it.
With the full moon tomorrow night and the mercury retrograde, all I have to say is to just work on your meditation and mindfulness. It is so easy to mess up communication, which is one of the main things that mercury stands for. So work on mindfully being truthful and openly communicative without being brash or harsh (Leo hanging out right now).
Things to do?
Charge those crystals! Especially get out those gemstones that are helpful in aiding communication, like Amazonite, Lapis Lazuli, Sodalite (my favorite), or Turquoise and after charging them sit with them Saturday morning and program them to specifically help you get through this time period.
The full moon with the lunar eclipse makes it a particularly charged full moon, a super moon. So the charge will be wonderful. Just stay positive!
Meditate. Make sure you are being mindful of your breath. Your steps, your level of compassion for yourself and others. Because creating a level of kind regard for yourself helps you fight the demons of depression and anxiety.
How?
Because depression is worrying or dwelling on the past and anxiety is worrying and stressing about the future. Neither of which you control. Meditation brings you to the present. To the breath, to the life inside you.
So if you are worrying about the Mercury Retrograde, and I now a lot of you are, please don't! Just relax and use the gifts the universe is handing you. Something is always going to be throwing off your vibe, but the mercury retrograde is all about perception, it's not really going backward, we just see it as going backwards.
Be like the Hanging Man (or the Oak King in my deck), let go of old perceptions and habits.
Today's three card reading was on the three things I need to focus on during the Mercury Retrograde. The first card is The Wild Hunt, or the Tower. As a major arcane card I believe that some things that I believed were true will collapse under pressure (and I believe this may be a continuing thing). This card is not scary because sometimes we build our beliefs of something on false facts or poor communication and they will inevitably collapse.
The second card is the Three of Chalices, which stands for creativity and strength in community and friendship. I need to make sure I stay focused on the friendships and community to keep my head on straight.
The third card is the Seven of Chalices, which is a card of choices and a pause in contemplation. With the mercury in retrograde, this is a good card to remind me to meditate and be thoughtful in my choices and actions.
Stop stressing about the Mercury Retrograde!!
Be well and keep your chin up.
Talia Ravenspath
