| Letters to Moonchild |
July 4 1998 Firesilk, Thank you for responding to my questions. I understand the magickal name. Thank you for clarifying that. I don't remember exactly how I came up with the name Moonchild, as if it's been my magickal name forever. I had the name for a while until I saw a book "Moonchild" by Aleister Crowley. Talk about coinsedence. Rituals are sometimes confusing for me, all I have are books to explain how to do a certain ritual and so on. How much is too much when doing rituals/spells? Recommendation on how often to do spells/rituals? Limits? I did the Summer Solstice in a very short form because I lacked some of the materials needed, but my heart was into it. Is it a wise idea to substitute some materials when you don't have the required? Communing with the goddesses and gods, should I commune with them every day? Prayers are helpful, I know, but is it necessary to do it every night? When I'm out in a car and I see "roadkill" on the road, I say a little prayer to the creature. How intricate or simple can a prayer be? For the "roadkill" I say, "Artemis, Goddess of the Moon, may the creature(if I can't tell what it is) rest in peace and may it's soul live on into the next." Well, I better go for now before I get kicked off the internet again. May the gods be with you, Moonchild Here's a quote for you: You are given the gifts of the gods; you create your reality according to your beliefs. Yours is the creative energy that makes your world. There are no limitations to the self except those you believe in. - Jane Roberts "The Nature of Personal Reality" Bright Blessings Moonchild, Why am I helping you? Because it is my belief that if a gift is not shared it will be lost, a pool of water that has no outlet will become stagnant. Because you asked. As to which gods and goddesses you call upon or pray to, choose only those that you feel an affinity to, those that touch your soul. Obviously you are a Child of Artemis and as such she will always be your Main Deity, there is absolutely no need to worship any one else if you choose. We are pagans, pagans do not believe that any one can tell you your true path, only you can do that, the best we can do is advise. It is good to remember this when you read the books, often the come from a vantage point of this is THE RIGHT WAY and any thing else is wrong, but that is not true. As far as substitutions on ritual components, it's perfectly okay. All you need to know is what the original was supposed to represent, then whatever you substitute should represent the same thing. For instance a ritual calls for a ruby (something rare and expensive usually associated with blood and Mars) it would be okay to replace it with a red rose, a red stone, etc, etc, something else rare or precious to you. A good book to determine appropriate substitutions is Aleister Crowley's 777. It is a book entirely of Correspondences and is an invaluable reference. Or and this is good because you say you have a strong imagination, you can imagine the component, if your mental picture of the item is strong enough on a magickal level it will operate exactly as the material component would have. In fact, I almost never perform rituals with anything other than my mental components any more, but to do this you need to work on your imagination. A good exercise to build up this ability or magickal vision is to take a tarot card or some other object and look at it for a long time, examining every detail. Then close your eyes and rebuild it with your mental eye, trying to make it as clear and accurate as possible. Then open your eyes and compare and then do it again. It takes a while to build this ability up to a point where your mental image is as solid as the real (sometimes weeks or months) but this ability helps you to perform rituals, to astral project, to call up protective sigils , all sorts of things, it is a major key to power. I reccommend doing this exercise for about an hour every day and recording your results in a journal, you'll be amazed after while at how much you improve. In fact, once you become adept, your mental image will provide more information than the actual. If for instance you call up the mental image of someone you know, you can determine their health or lack of it, important details that you wouldn't know just by looking at them. But it is better to practice on inanimate objects first, because using your "magick vision" on living beings creates a link between yourself and the living thing and it is best not to do this until you can control and/or sever the link when necessary. As to prayers, as much or as little as you feel are necessary, as simple or as grandiose as you like. Prayers are between you and your Goddess and they should be what you feel is Right. I pray and meditate every night, but I do this because it helps me relax every night and helps me achieve clarity and serenity. Otherwise I tend to obsess on a lot of things and I would never get any sleep :). I also pray whenever I feel the need, (as you do for the poor victims of uncaring cars wielded by insensitive people). I pray whenever I see something on TV that makes me sad or mad or happy. We are the shapers of Our Universe and our thoughts have power, prayers are a way for us to move the Universe to be a better place for everyone. Why we do rituals at the turning of the Seasons: We are the of the Earth and the Earth is US. The turning of the Seasons happens in ourselves as much as it happens in the world, and these rituals celebrate and reinforce this, striving to bring everything to balance and harmony. The only limits you need place on rituals you choose to perform, are those of time and relative importance. It is best to strive to have a life in balance, a time for work, a time for play, a time for prayer and religion, a time for recreation, a time for friends and lovers, a time for family. All things in balance and moderation. Prayers and rituals are there to enhance your life and help you grow spiritually, they should not become a end unto themselves driving you before them (that is the way to fanaticism), but a balanced part of a beautiful whole which is the life you strive to create this time around. Bright Blessings until next we talk, Firesilk
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