Just like what happened last time, once more we're looking at something that some folks will consider to be a trite platitude.  And once again, we cna discover that there is actually something important and exciting within it.

The saying this time?  "Take time to smell the roses."

There are those people who will hear that and accuse whoever said it of trying to keep them from getting ahead.  But there are also those who go from the beginning to the end of their journey and have not learned anything along the way.

You've seen such people, and people who are becoming just like them.  In the "Dilbert" comic strip recently, there were some about an MBA who had just joined Dilbert's company.  What that particular MBA lacks in knowledge, he makes up for in buzzwords and jargon.  And if you think that "Dilbert" is just a comic strip, ask someone who has been accused of leaking stories to the comic strip's author.

In some lines of work, people who are making a career in the field will speak of "paying your dues."  Those who have "paid their dues" have smelled the roses.

Each rose has a gift for you.  You'll see.  You might not understand the gift today, but the day will come when you will - or someone will recognize you because of it.

Each gift from each rose which we smell along the way will make us that much wealthier when we get to where we're going.

Blessed Be!

We all have our teachers.  And some of our teachers are great teachers.  I can name quite a number of teachers I've had, some I've mentioned to you and some have names you'd recognize if I dropped the name. 

But there are other teachers, too.  And some of them turn out to be great teachers, even if it doesn't seem like it at the time.

There are the power-trippers, there are the people with an agenda, there are those who are over-devoted to a faction's party-line, there are those who cannot mind their own business, there are the greedy, and so many others.  I might call it a zoo, except that I do not want to insult my four-footed friends who are above such behavior.

And, they get in your way.  There is something which you feel that you are supposed to do, and they do their best to keep you from that.

But, do you know what?

The joke can be on them, if you want it to be!

Blessed Be!

We spoke about The Witches' Pyramid last time.  This time, we're talking about how to get the most if its (and your) power.

So often, new students ask questions that begin with "What's a good spell to do...?", or "how would you use magick to...?" and so one of the first things I usually do with those who learn from me is make a comparison between someone who cooks burgers at a local fast-food franchise, and a top chef.

The burger-flipper knows how to follow instructions in preparing pre-manufactured ingredients into something you and I are supposed to be able to eat.  Most openings for such jobs do not have too stringent qualification requirements, and pay starts somewhere in the neighborhood of minimum wage. 

It takes years to make a chef, and a chef knows food well enough to create recipes as needed, and make variation as required by occasion, need and availability.  While a shortage of some key ingredient will inspire the chef to be creative to meet needs in spite of the shortage, the burger-flipper might only know that there's no point in asking if you want fries with that if a potato shortage means that fries are not available.

Likewise with a Priestess or Priest.  It is entirely proper that learning begins with learning how to do something from someone who already knows how to do it.  But eventually, this learning creates an assimilation of principles which will give you the ability to create on your own.

And this is when it gets good - when it's uniquely and specially yours.  You'll see.  It's here.

Blessed Be!

Perhaps the biggest misconception about The Witches' Pyramid is that it is exclusive to Witches.  Not at all!  In fact, the principle is basic to almost any spiritual path in which The Divine has an active role in people's lives. 

And, in fact, it is the corruption and perversion of The Witches Pyramid's principles which give some paths such strange concepts as "God's will", especially when they claim that their allegedly loving god can will suffering.

Think of The Witches' Pyramid as having four walls.  Each wall is a principle.  Brought together, they create energy and power. 

Let's look at each of the four principles, and see how they apply.

Used effectively, they bring with themselves more than merely what you want and/or need.  And what is especially amazing is how much they bring with them.

Four basic principles, and the beginnings of great things!

Blessed Be!

Now, why would I pick a comparison like that - comparing Beltane to a Bar Mitzvah?

Perhaps because it's appropriate!  And perhaps because one gives perspective to the other!

At a Bar Mitzvah, the boy arrives at the synagogue with mom and dad.  But of all that goes on in that major rite of passage, the focus is on the moment when he announces "Today I am a man!"  While the parents will still have a role in his life, the character of his life changes at that moment, and more emphasis is placed on what he does, and less on what is done for him or to him.

And it is the same for the God, who was the Divine Child born at Yule, whose growth and childhood we celebrated at Imbolc and Ostara.  Today he steps into his maturity and begins that part of his life's journey in which he is the one responsible for doing the traveling.  And from this day forward until his funeral at Samhain, we'll be seeing what he does.

And so, yes, Beltane is indeed the God's Bar Mitzvah.  In so many ways.  And it's one more way in which we can relate to The Divine.

Blessed Be!