Rowan’s Random Blogging
My random posts the either can’t fit anywhere else or deal with personal mundane stuff.
Witchy Apps for your Android
Sep 7th
About a year ago I decided it was time to switch from a Blackberry to something new. I was heavily considering an iPhone but after hearing nothing but gripes about it from a number of people and seeing how ridiculous the ultimate cost of having one would be I decided to go with one of the new Android phones that had just come out. I bought an HTC Hero and have now had the phone for the full year and have loved it. The one thing that I liked so much was the open application feature that allowed people to create and share apps of all kinds for free. There are certainly a number of apps that cost money and you can purchase them for (usually) reasonable fees with the option to return them and refund your purchase in 24 hours if you really don’t feel the app is what you were looking for. One thing that I began to get frustrated with was the lack of Pagan apps that I was noticing people were able to get for their iPhone. Programs that followed the moon phases and cycles, calculators that told you the planetary hours, even aura photography apps. Recently there have been some new, Witchy apps that have started to pop up and hopefully with Andriod really having become as popular as it has, these will only increase as people learn the programming to make the apps. I figure there are a few other Android users out there that would like to find some cool, magickal apps for their phones so I wanted to share a few of the ones that I’ve found and have enjoyed so far.
Hours – This app may not be as fancy as some of the iPhone ones out there but if you’re looking for a planetary hours app that will calculate the planetary hours for any day, any time, from virtually anywhere, this app is worth the (roughly) $4.50. It helps to take out all the guesswork with figuring out what hour is the best for certain types of spells and magick. You can set a predefined location, use your GPS to find where you are or you can use the “custom location” feature to set your location manually.
iLuna – This app is by the same developer as the Hours app and is a great addition to that one. This application show you the moon phase, let’s you know when the moon is Void of Course and lets you know the sign the moon is in as well as when it will transition and what it will transition to. By clicking on the moon icon you’ll get details on the energy of that moon phase; clicking on the astrological sign will tell you what the energies of the moon in that phase are. This is another paid application but only costs around $2 or so and is also well worth the money.
MoonPhase Widget – As much as I like iLuna I also like having a widget showing the moon’s current phase on my home screen. MoonPhase Widget is so far the best one that I have found because it’s simple, only takes up one icon space on the screen, and if you click on it it will open up a screen that will show you the moon phases for the next month. This is a free app and is a nice addition to help you know instantly at a glance what the phase is today.
Zen Timer – If you are a Reiki practitioner or someone that would love to have a simple, gentle and easy to use meditation timer, Zen Timer is a great app to add to your phone. There are a number of different chimes and sound to pick from, mostly made from the sounds of various sized singing bowls, with the options to set up interval chimes which is fantastic for doing Reiki. You can adjust the length and volume of the chimes so that you beginning and end chimes are more “stand out” sounds from the interval ones if you use them. This is another paid app but only costs about $3 and is worth the cost. The developer does updates one a semi regular basis and new features get added along the way.
There are other apps that you can use to build up the Pagan aspect of your Android phone such as using shared online calendars for your phone calendar app to remind you of seasonal dates the Sabbats and other festivals, you can use one of the many RSS feed programs to add your favorite Pagan and Wiccan themed blogs right to your phone (like One Witch’s Way!) and you can use the theme customizing to add any of a number of Wiccan and Pagan themes to your phone to adjust the look and feel to however Witchy you’d like it to be.
Know of an Android app that would be idea for Wiccans and Pagans and wish to share? Post links and suggestions in the comment section!
This week’s recommendations
Sep 4th
Well, it’s the weekend and, if you’re like me, you like to do a little shopping on the weekends! I don’t know if it’s a female thing or what, but when the weekend comes around, whether it’s online or in the mall I just have this desire to go shopping. So I thought that each week on the weekends I would share some of my favorite Witchy recommendations, especially things I’m really enjoying right now, that some of you might be interested in or that might inspire you. Each week I’ll post a little Amazon list of 5 products that I recommend and a brief comment. Some things I’ve reviewed before, some I’ll review in the future, but all come as recommendations based on my actual experience with them. So every book, every deck, every CD and every movie that I recommend is something I’ve experienced personally and truly enjoyed and wish to share with you! So treat yourself, you know you want to. 
Today’s Angel Message
Aug 18th
Today I’m working with Doreen Virtue’s Angel Therapy deck once again. I was feeling under the weather yesterday during most of the day until early evening and wasn’t able to really work on an angel message with any coherence. Today felt like a great day to work with the therapy deck as a result.
Indigo
“The person you’re inquiring about is an “Indigo”, meaning a highly sensitive, natural-born leader.”
In the New Age community the discussion of Indigo’s is a big topic, especially when talking about children. This is when we most commonly hear the term, things like “She’s so in turn and perceptive for an 8 year old, she must be an Indigo” or “He has a hard time making friends with the other boys at school because of his sensitive Indigo personality.” The concept came about in the 1960s and 1970s when psychic and color therapist Nancy Ann Tappe began to notice a pattern in the auras and life energy colors of children being born around this time. She started to notice that the majority of children, especially those who were newborns and toddlers, had an evenly mixed blue and violet color surrounding them. In 1982 she published a book that outlined the concepts of Indigo children called “Understanding Your Life Through Color” which lead to another book specifically on Indigo’s to come out in 1988 by husband and wife New Age presenters Lee Carroll and Jan Tober called “The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived”. Since then Tappe has identified four different types of Indigo personalities, Humanist, Artist, Conceptualists, and Catalysts, along with a total of 17 traits to identify an Indigo.
A lot of criticism has come about over the subject, especially in the later 80s and early 90s when just about every child was being diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. With some of the traits for an Indigo being similar to behaviors common in children with these disorders it was often suggested that parents either didn’t properly treat their children and their possible medical conditions because they felt these were just the way their children expressed their Indigo personalities and yet other parents who were having their children treated by doctors and with medication tried to stress the Indigo personality issue with their children to, as some have suggested, make their children but more importantly themselves, feel better about the diagnosed medical condition. Many people have put the issue of Indigo’s to the test saying that the traits described are far too general and could really describe anyone, especially if they are in the least bit spiritual or creative. But on the flip side it is interesting to see that with the time frame that the Indigo personality began to be identified and expressed with purpose and the children born at that time, who are now adults and taking leadership roles in the world, all leading us into 2012 when we shift into the Age of Aquarius again, it leaves some very interesting things to consider and look at.
Whether or not you believe in the concept of Indigo’s isn’t so much the important message here as it is the general concept behind them. The angels message here is brought out through the message of the Indigo and that is “stand up, have confidence, take charge”. We can find that we let our imaginations run wild and we talk ourselves out of some of the great things that we might wish to do because we worry that the world is going to think we’ve lost our minds if we share our ideas and dreams. We need to spend less time worrying about what the world around us is thinking and more time focused on doing what we want to do, accomplishing what we wish to accomplish in this lifetime. Today is a great day to sit and connect with your angels, guides and Divine helpers and ask for guidance and strength in doing just that. Is there a specific dream or goal that you have that you wish to work on but you have some worry about bringing that out to the world? Ask for their help in making it happen and in giving you the strength to do what you wish to do. Don’t let the projections and fears of others hold you back or keep you from fulfilling your goals and being the leader you were born to be.
Today’s Affirmation
“I am working to move past the perceptions of others to be the leader I was meant to be.”
Back from vacation!
Aug 1st
Coming home from vacation is sometimes one of the most wonderful feelings that a person can have. You always enjoy the time away and the time that you get to travel, see new things, do different stuff, but the familiarity of home is always a great and wonderful thing. This was a fantastic vacation for me and one that went far better than I had expected. On Friday the 16th my husband and I left San Diego bound for Connecticut one a plane. This was a big deal for me since this was the first time I’ve been in a plane in many years. When I was 16 I took my first plane trip which took me from Connecticut to Orlando, Florida for Christmas vacation with my aunt and uncle. It was a horrifying experience and scared the hell out of me. For close to 20 years now I have avoided flying at all costs. This time I didn’t have much of a choice. The trip to Connecticut was in part to visit family but also so that my husband and I could pick up a car that we had at my parents house. We knew that we’d be driving back so it was either spend close to $1200 on a rental car, plus gas and hotels to get across the country, or spent $500 on two one way tickets on Southwest and just fly out there. The added bonus of flying also meant that we could spend 9 days visiting with family rather than just 3 days if we drove. So, I sucked it up, and decided to fly.
The whole airport experience was interesting, and to my own surprise I didn’t panic or have any sort of freak out in the process of checking in and boarding the plane. I also found myself genuinely enjoying flying! I didn’t cry, panic, get scared or get sick (the biggest of my worries) at all and instead found it a fun experience. I was exhausted, that was the biggest problem; I didn’t get much sleep the night before and every time I tried to fall asleep any little bumps in the air would jolt me out of my sleep with a wee bit of shock. Now I’m feeling like I’ve been given a chance to do anything and go anywhere I ever want, and it feels great! I’m working now on planning a trip to San Fransisco for my husband and I for later in the year for our anniversary.
Spending time in Connecticut with family was fun but crazy. I could have easily spent two weeks at home and still not felt like I’d seen everyone and had enough time there! Driving back was fun as always; this was the fourth time I’ve made this cross country trip and this was my favorite trip so far since this time I got to go to New Orleans. I have wanted to go there for years. I still remember watching the whole live coverage of Hurricane Katrina when that happened and being devastated at the thought that New Orleans could be gone before I had a chance to go there. We were there for a day and a half and after 20 minutes of being there I turned to my husband and said “I could live here.” This was then followed by my walking around Bourbon St. looking at for rent signs and taking pictures saying “One day, we’re going to live here.” The only bad part is I could become the size of a house because I’d easily eat my weight in beignets and po-boys on a weekly basis. It was wonderful though. The music, the love in the city, the art, the culture and history; it’s really an amazing place with an energy all it’s own. My husband loves it there and he’d been there for a day or two before so he knew I wouldn’t want to leave once I got there. And hew as right! I had to choke back a tear when we left. I can’t wait to get back there.
But, all in all, coming home was wonderful. We had two friends house sitting for us while we were away so that the cats wouldn’t have to be boarded. We came home to an apartment that looked better than we left it, flowers and all, and a delicious dinner cooking away for us. The cats took a little while to forgive us for our departure. Loki, my black cat who is my shadow and typically follows me everywhere I go, hardly wanted to acknowledge my existence, letting me know he wasn’t happy that I had left him for two whole weeks. We’ve been back a day now and he’s getting over it but he’s still a little stand-offish with me. The other two seem to be happy to be back to business as usual at home.
Now that I’m back I’m getting ready to get to work on a bunch of projects. I am ready to get completely focused on writing the meditation and tarot books so I can make some serious progress with them. I’m also giving consideration again to work on an Etsy shop in the fall. I’m going to start working on planning that out over the next few months. I have a small handful of classes that are wrapping up and I’ll be starting the Angel Communication Master Class with Angels Teach in the fall (I finished the Angel Communication Specialist class at the beginning of the month and am now certified as an angel card reader and communicator). I’m also getting ready to start working on the readings for all the awesome people that helped me to win the Tarot Guild contest and start putting together the August reading special. And the blog is going to go back to it’s more active days of the past too.
And that was my summer vacation! I hope everyone has had a good couple of weeks and I’m looking forward to connecting with you all here and over on my Facebook page. And don’t forget about Twitter and the Tarot Guild! And a Blessed Lughnasadh to you all as well!!
And the winner is….
Jul 14th
ME! That’s right! If you haven’t already heard I was successful in my quest to win the Tarot Guild membership drive contest! And I have many of you to thank! Thank you all for writing in for invites, contacting me with your questions about the Guild and then joining up. I’ve seen some of you around the Guild posting and participating. I hope you’re all enjoying it. And if you haven’t joined, no worries! Join today for free and check it out (and if you don’t know what I’m even going on about here, be sure to take a look at the write up I did on the Guild back in June).
As I had promised I’m going to be giving everyone that joined a little prize and a thank you for their help. If you joined through one of my invites then you’re on my friends list on the Guild. I’ll be contacting each of you through the Guild with a message asking if you’d like a reading, the type you’d like (tarot, angel or faery) and getting your question. When the sway box (because it’s bigger than a bag) comes there are several items in there that I already have so I’ll be giving those away.
Now comes the hard part. Waiting! I’m leaving for vacation on Friday and I’ll be gone for two weeks. It’s possible that I’ll have some down time to do some readings so I may contact a few people while I’m away and do a few readings, but for the most part, expect to start receiving your messages from me on the Guild on August 2nd. That week I’ll also be announcing details about stuff that I’ll be giving away from the swag box.
And if you didn’t have a chance to check it out this past Sunday, Dax from the Tarot Guild had me on a co-host and we chatted for a little bit about the contest, my tarot work and experience, and whatnot. Then we had on our guest, Roxi Sim, creator of the beautiful Pearls of Wisdom tarot. In the later part of the show Roxi and I did readings for callers which was lots of fun! If you missed it you can check out the archived show on Blog Talk Radio by clicking here for the show and also visiting the Tarot Today show page.
So thank you all for your wonderful help and in a few weeks you’ll all be reaping the benefits too!
panda
All systems are GO!
May 4th
Merry Meet All! I am happy to report that finally everything is all back up and running as far as the computer problems are concerned and everything is all back up and running smoothly. Mercury Retrograde has brought some really amazing experiences this time around and the loss of the computer for a week (or, I should say, the forced use of one that is quite frustrating which left me NOT wanting to use the laptop for a week) gave me the chance to work with some personal things that needed attention and doing some inner work away from the office and it was a wonderful time. It’s been a long time since I’ve had the time and the opportunity to focus on myself like that and I when I realized I was going to have that time I went into it with the intention of seeking clarity and I certainly found it. And it’s quite an empowering thing!
I’m in the process of making some changes to things that I have been doing. I will be focusing a great deal on writing the guided meditation and magick book in the coming months. I have a large part of the material already written since much of it comes from material that I have written over the years. I am going to be taking a cross country trip home to the east coast in July and will be gone for two weeks with few updates during that time and I hope to have the book finished by then, or at least very close to being finished. So that will be a big focus. I’m also going to be getting back to writing on a daily basis for Examiner.com and look forward to sharing that with you all as well. My personal path and my path of study is going to be shifting as well as I feel that it’s time to turn my study and my work inward, working for myself rather than priestessing for others which has been my main focus for the better part of the last handful of years. I’m hoping that my work with writing, doing readings, and counseling will still fulfill my desire to help others but my studying and my spiritual work is going to be turning inward. Last week I performed several rituals and guided meditations for myself, focused on myself and what I was in need of, something that I haven’t done in some time, and I loved it and loved the feeling of filling up that inner well again. Not to mention the Goddess has made it very clear that my path right now should be moving into that inner, solitary path. It’s a little scary since I haven’t been in the position in a long time but it’s exciting at the same time.
But, fear not, the blog will still be active and I’m actually going to be working on writing a personal blog again as well. This blog will be very different from what we have going on here at One Witch’s Way and will be more of a blog written whenever I feel the whim to do it, drawing and focusing specifically on my personal life (some spiritual stuff, but lots of things like home life, roller derby, my personal travels, my inability to keep my office clean and my daily chasing of the cats). I’ll also be merging The Fat Witch Project with it and once I have it all set up I’ll be posting a link for those that might want to follow that as well.
Tomorrow things will be back to normal. I’ll be posting the Crystal Wednesday post with info on a new stone that I just started working with that my husband actually picked out for me from a local shop. There’s a little story behind it and I’ll share that as well as info about the stone and ways that you can use it for magick and healing. So in the meantime have a wonderful night!
My first Mercury Retro computer snafu!
Apr 26th
Over the weekend I got to experience my first computer problem (that I can recall) during a Mercury Retrograde! The hard drive in my laptop decided it had enough of its computer life and crapped out on me. I went and purchased another hard drive yesterday but sadly (and somewhat stupidly if you ask me) I now have to wait for Gateway to send me recovery discs. Why they don’t give them to you when you buy the computer I have no idea (this is the first time I’ve ever had a computer that didn’t give you all that stuff when you bought it). I am currently writing this on my netbook which is a little tough to type on and I’m still getting used to using. Doing anything of great length on here is still a bit tricky for me since I’m still getting used to the smaller keyboard. Soooo…because of all of this the Tarotscopes are on hold until next week *fingers crossed* and blogging will be at a minimum until the other laptop is up and running again. I am going to try and do as much as I can from the netbook though. Seems sort of still to have it and not write from it since that was the whole reason I got it! So you can count on a Goddess of the Week tomorrow and Crystal Wednesday will be coming to you as well. I am working on a few other things for later in the week as well and, with all intentions in place, Tarotscopes will be back by next Monday!
Tarotscopes for April 19 to April 25
Apr 18th
Merry Meet Everyone! We’re just getting started on our current round of Mercury Retrograde and I’ll be bringing some info on that tomorrow for those of you that are both new to getting a handle on Mercury Retrograde but I’ll be taking time to also looking at what we can work with during this usually very frustrating time. We spend so much time talking about what goes wrong and what we should avoid during this time that we don’t tend to know where to find the positive in it. So we’ll be looking at that tomorrow. But for today, let’s look at what The Gaian Tarot has to say for us for the coming week!
Note: Rather than posting the picture along with the card for your sign as I have been, you can now click on the name of your card for the week and you’ll be taken to Joanna’s website where you can see a full image of the card and read a small blurb that she’s written on the card. This might be more helpful and allow you to have a better look at the beautiful art for the cards. So enjoy!
Tarotscopes for Monday, April 19, 2010 through Sunday, April 12, 2010
Aries Two of Fire
This week partnering with someone on a new project or igniting the passions in a partnership will be key to keeping things running smoothly. The important thing will be how you channel those passions. You’ll find that you feel very strongly about how to go about attaining your desires but if you’re working with others remember that you need to find a balance with the others involved otherwise the fire that should be driving you to your goal could burn you instead. You have the fire within the see whatever you want come to fruition but you just need to know how to tempered it as well.
Taurus Ace of Air
For a while you’ve likely been giving some consideration to making some changes, ones that could have some far reaching effects on your life. Whether it has to do with ending or beginning a relationship, changing jobs or working on making improvements to your health, it’s time to start going from the thinking and considering phase to actually following through. You might find though that you feel stalled and unable to really move forward because fear has you hesitating and your head and heart might be in disagreement with what you should do. This week it’s time to finally start taking steps towards seeing your goals happen.
Gemini Ace of Water
Your lesson for the week is to learn and trust your intuition and your inner voice. You may find that from time to time you aren’t really able to follow what your heart wants you to do because your head causes you to over-think and not trust your intuition. The journey to get to where you wish to be right now may seem daunting, and it may feel like could be wrong in feeling like this is where you need to be, but trust that feeling. So if you’ve been holding back on making some changes, maybe taking some risks to try something new, listen to your heart and your intuition this week and follow those feelings because it’s your Higher Self guiding you.
Cancer Two of Earth
Have you been feeling your temper getting the better of you lately, something that is probably out of character for you, it could be that you’re doing too much and taking on too many things at once and you could be in the beginning stages of falling our of balance. With your attention drawn in more than one clear direction it’s possible that you’re just feeling confused and frustrated and this week, with Mercury in retrograde, it’s possible that you could find yourself really out of sorts. This week work to find your center and get yourself in balance and then, once you find what you need to feel that balance, work to really stay there during this already difficult time with the retrograde.
Leo The Tree
This week you may find yourself doing battle with your ego which has decided not to waver, even though your heart may know that you need to let others in and pull back a bit. Your patience may be really tested this week as well and you might find that the only way to bring both your ego and your frazzled nerves back to where they should be is to step back and remove yourself from the situation as much as possible. Take a day off if you can or change plans around for meetings if necessary. The changes of you doing or saying something out of turn are going to be high this week.
Virgo Six of Air
You’re coming to a point where it’s time to fully welcome the new and say goodbye to the old, but the best way to do that is to first show gratitude for what you’ve received already. You might find that this week, if you work with others of like mind who are moving in the direction that you’d like your life to go, you will have the opportunity to honor that energy in a unique way. You’ll have the chance to learn a little more from those who are already there and by being thankful for that you’ll be opening the doorway for that energy to come to you.
Libra Six of Fire
This week you might find that you’re called on to add some of your most special energy to a group project or to an issue or situation among family or friends. The reason you might become the “go to” person here is that you have a special way of bringing creativity and energy to a group; you bring your own fire and passion but rather than overpowering others you are able to add to and raise their energy in the process. Work to bring your passion and your ability to lead in a unique way to those around you this week.
Scorpio The Wheel
If you’ve been feeling a great deal of stagnation in your life these days and you’ve been waiting for it to break, you can be sure that this isn’t going to be the week. In fact be ready for a few more setbacks, but when you’re ready and you’re willing to let those setbacks happen and just flow you’ll be better off than fighting it. Mercury retrograde is likely to effect you this week with anything that you already have going on; definitely hold off on starting anything else now. Remember “what goes up must come down” so this feeling of getting nowhere will end in the coming weeks, but you need to ride the storm out a little bit longer.
Sagittarius Five of Water
You might find yourself falling into a depression because of things from the past coming up and having an impact on where you are now. These could likely be issues or memories that you have long felt were part of the past and resolved that could be coming back from something triggered by something or someone in your life now. By mid week you could find yourself feeling like you’re in a bit of an emotional fog. Take the time to have some quite moments for yourself, meditating and working on healing and releasing those feelings of the past go and the healing energy from the Universe coming in and embrace you.
Capricorn Justice
It’s time to find balance within yourself and make peace with the past, whether it’s far distant past or something that’s happened in the last few weeks or months. Something has weighed on you it’s time to acknowledge and accept what you have done and face the consequences of your words, thoughts and actions. By coming to this place of peace you’ll find that new blessings and energy will be able to come into your life. Seek out the truth in any matters that have been on your mind and be willing to accept what you find. No one is prefect, not even you, so be willing to accept and forgive everyone’s faults, including your own.
Aquarius Elder of Water
Don’t be surprised if over this week you find that you’re the one that everyone looks to as a model of stability, especially emotional stability. Others around you this week might find themselves easily triggered and thrown into the emotional turmoil around them all while looking to you to be their “rock”, so to speak. Keep your own emotions under wraps this week, especially if you find yourself being dragged into the dramas of those around you and know that you will do far more good by remaining calm and being open to hearing all that everyone is thinking and feeling rather than trying to focus them to flow in the direction that you think they should go in.
Pisces Nine of Water
Recently you may have been feeling like something is missing on your spiritual path and it could be that you’re at a place of being so wrapped up in the mundane aspects of learning your path. Reading books, collecting tools or spiritually related trinkets, these things might be helpful but they are not the real key or real connection to the Divine. This week take time to set these things down and focus on really connecting to the spirit of the Gods through meditation and ritual from the heart. Don’t script your rituals or magickal work, just go from what you feel within and let yourself connect to the Divine in away that no book or ritual tool will ever be able to do for you. Refreshing yourself from the true well of Divine energy and refocusing your path will turn these feelings around.
Have a great week everyone!!
Check out this neat interview I did!
Apr 2nd
A week ago or so I was interviewed for a great website called The Sassy Sorceress. The interview with me is up so fly on over there and check it out.
Crystal Wednesday: Labradorite
Mar 31st
Some stones and crystals are so unique and special that we can find ourselves collecting multiple pieces of it over time because each piece can be so different, both in appearance and energetic feel. Labradorite is one of those most unique pieces.
Labradorite is part of a mineral group known as feldspars. Feldspars are distinguished by the presence of both aluminum and silica ion in their construction. Labradorite is made of calcium sodium aluminum silicate and is specifically classified as a silicate. Feldspars make up largest percentage of minerals found within the Earth’s crust with 30% of them being silicates.
labradorite
Labradorite can range from blues, to greens, to yellows to shades of brown and red.
Labradorite is a pretty common and different forms of it can be found in different parts of the world. It was originally found in Paul’s Island in Labrador, Canada which is where its name comes from. Various versions of labradorite have been found in Italy, Greenland, Finland, Russia, and Scandinavia as well. Most commonly labradorite is gray in appearance but has streaks of white, which is common among silicates, along varying shades of blue, green, and yellow within it. There is a unique iridescent property within labradorite called “labradorescense”, some specifically with a trait known as spectrolite (this is a trade term and usually applies to those pieces that are of gem quality and used in jewelry; these usually come from Finland, thought some have been found in Madagascar as well, and have a blue to red color transition). This occurs within the stone from light bouncing off inclusions of magnetite. You can see this same effect in other stones like rainbow moonstone and sunstone.
Labradorite is a great stone with many metaphysical uses as well as uses in healing work. Labradorite is a great stone for dealing with negative energy as it has both shielding and protective properties. It can be used to align the physical and spiritual bodies as well which can be helpful for those who have difficulty with meditation. This stone can help open up the psychic and intuitive senses and can help with tuning in to ones abilities with strength and clarity.
Strength and perseverance are two overall qualities in all aspects of use that labradorite can aid in as well. It is a stone that can be helpful in past life work and working through the mental, emotional and psychic sorting that can come with this sort of work. Some people also find that they have a series of disappointments or issues of not achieving things they had been striving for in these lives that are revealed in regression work. Incorporating labradorite in this work helps to lesson these feelings and helps to bring perspective to everything.
If you’re dealing with an overactive mine, issues with your imagination running wild, your thoughts getting away from you, or feeling like there is a lack of understanding about things overall, you can use labradorite to bring a sense of release, calming and peace. There is an ability to begin seeing things in a balanced and rational way when working with labradorite in this way. Placing labradorite at your desk or carrying with you to class or when studying can help you to not only concentrate and understand things more clearly but to also have those “ah-ha” moments and twinges of intuitive wisdom that seem to happen so rarely.
In the healing process labradorite helps to clear out negative and unwanted energy and is a great stress release aid. It specifically can help with issues with the eyes and issues of metabolism. For women who have menstrual cramps and tensions, a large, cleansed and charged piece placed on the area(s) where pain seems to collect can aid in tension release either on its own with meditation and visualization or as an aid to Reiki treatments for the pain. Carrying labradorite when you have a cold, or sleeping with it under your pillow at night during a bout with a cold, can help to alleviate symptoms as well. You can use labradorite for healing mostly in the heart and third eye chakras as well.
Labradorite cannot be directly used for making gemstone elixirs because of the magnetite and aluminum that it contains. However you can still infuse the essence of labradorite in filtered water for making elixirs in a sort of round about way. Prepare the water for your elixir in the normal fashion and pour it in your jar or bottle that you’ll be using. Cap it tightly and then take your labradorite and place it next to the jar so that it is touching the jar. My personal preference for working with stones to make elixirs in an indirect way is to make a much small batch using a jar that is about the size of a baby food jar and placing 4 or 5 of the stones around the base of the jar completely encircling it. I then keep this on either a window sill or on my altar where it can catch the sun and moonlight for the time that it needs to be there. While the stones are not directly inside the water, this transference works just as well. When you’re done you then have water that carries the labradorite essence and can be taken like any other gemstone elixir.
Are you following the RSS Feed?
Mar 29th
I know that a lot of my wonderful readers came to find One Witch’s Way through NetworkedBlogs on Facebook, which is fantastic! But I know not everyone is into the whole Facebook thing and some people aren’t completely up on the RSS thing. I wanted to just give a quick post to point out a few tips on subscribing to the blog so that you get all the posts delivered to your inbox or a news reader (or Facebook if you’d like to know how), this way you never miss a post and can join in the discussions by posting comments and following comment threads.
RSS, which stands for Really Simple Syndication, is basically a quick and simple way to get your blogs delivered to either an RSS reader or, depending on your email program, you can get them in your inbox. Some websites like Facebook offer apps that can do it too like NetworkedBlogs. You’ll see around the site these little orange buttons which will bring you to the feed. Then you can either cut and paste the address from the address bar into your preferred reader, or your browser may have a built in feed reader which will start pulling in the feed on it’s own.
Google Reader is one of my recommended RSS readers if you don’t have one. You can subscribe to all your feeds here and have them all sorted out along with the option to do things like make notes, find trending topics and get recommendations for other blogs and news sources based on the RSS feeds that you start out subscribing to. And the best part is, it’s free.
Another nice one is a browser plugin called Feedly. This is the one that I personally use. It allows you to create categories to keep your feeds organized by topic. Then you can set this as your start page which brings you to your feeds right when you open your browser so you always see what comes up right away.
And of course there is NetworkedBlogs. This is a real simple Facebook app that allows you to click on a simple button on Facebook for a blog and the posts will automatically show up in your news feed on Facebook. This is a great way to get your feeds and stay up to day on the different blogs that you follow, but one thing that I have noticed with this in my own feeds I subscribe to on NetworkedBlogs is that if you have a lot of friends and pages on Facebook it’s easy to have your blog feeds get buried. This is why I still recommend subscribing to the RSS feed of the blog just in case.
So if you’d like to subscribe to One Witch’s Way, if you aren’t already (or if you subscribe through NetworkedBlogs and you’d like a backup by following the RSS feed) you can check out these links below.
One Witch’s Way RSS Feed This is the preferred method of following. (if you want to past the URL into your feeder, please use http://feeds.feedburner.com/onewitchsway/RwLq)
One Witch’s Way on NetworkedBlogs
Subscribe by email! If you look at the top of the right sidebar you’ll see a place to enter in your email address and you’ll get daily emails with any new posts! A quick and simple way to get all the latest posts. No specially knowledge required.
And share! Don’t forget to share One Witch’s Way with your friends, Facebook and Myspace friends and email lists!
The eggs have hatched!
Mar 29th
Over the weekend, while going out and leaving my apartment I took a peek at the hummingbird nest and noticed that, indeed eggs were laid and they had in fact, hatched!
baby birds
It’s not the best picture and I don’t want to get close to the nest for fear of scaring them or upsetting the mother (who I’ve noticed is hanging out in a nearby tree and coming twice a day or so to feed them). But if you look closely you’ll see the babies with their mouths open reaching out the top of the nest.
If there are any other updates I’ll be sure to post them. I love watching birds go through this whole process…it’s pretty neat.
A tiny sign of spring…
Mar 25th
One of the girls that lives in my apartment building put out a hummingbird feeder a month or so ago for a bird that we have that comes along into our little courtyard-like area. She hung the feeder from the inside of the large umbrella over a table outside. This table is across from my living room window and I often see the bird come through and stop at the feeder in the mornings. Then this Monday morning, as I was sitting on the couch having breakfast I was looking out and saw the little hummingbird just kind of hanging out among a string of outdoor lights that are also under the umbrella. The bird was hanging out, sitting on something and stayed put for quite a while. I thought this was a little odd for a hummingbird out in the open, more or less, and I thought to myself “I bet that hummingbird is laying eggs.” From the angle of where I wasn’t I couldn’t really see what was going on under there so the next morning I went out and took a peek and this is what I found.
hummingbird nest
hummingbird nest
I nice, itty bitty hummingbird nest. You can get an idea of how small it is based on the things around it. Now, I can’t see inside of it because it’s high up and I don’t want to get too close so I took the pictures from a distance with a zoom…and I’m now on constant cat watch when I’m around the window because the same neighbor that put out the feeder, which the nest is right across from, also has two cats and her and her roommate let them outside and we’ve already caught one of them up on the table trying to see what’s happening up there. I worry that the cats hanging out around the table will scare the bird from coming back to the nest so I’m keeping an eye out and next time of see one of the neighbors with the cats I’m going to point out the nest to them and ask them to keep an eye on their cats.
But I would say that’s a pretty neat little sign of spring this week!
