Your book of shadows is unique.  No other book can ever be as much of, by, and for you as your book of shadows.

Other paths have books which purport to be for similar purposes, but they are collections which were collected by someone else, and often with a "one size fits all" approach.  And, most of them are available for sale at bookstores.  The only challenge in obtaining one is knowing which bookstore has which books.

Your book of shadows is different.  It is as personal as your toothbrush, and as private as your underwear.  Nobody else has to approve what you put in there, and nobody needs to see it, either - unless it is with your permission.

You can even think of it as a living thing, because it almost is.  One thing that it does do is that it grows with you.  And so, make provision for that growth.  Your child will not be wearing the same shoes at age 20 as he or she did at age 2, and so it is with your book of shadows, because it is that way with you.

And so, let's explore how a book of shadows comes to be, and how you can nurture its growth.

Blessed Be!

Is greed the real evil?

You have no idea the work that went into figuring out a title for this episode.  In fact, when I was making the show, I was still calling it "Is Greed The Real Satan?" but then I had to fact the fact that for so many of us, there is no real satan or devil.  But, I believe we can all agree that there is real evil.

And here we come to an issue which I felt the need to address.  And, I felt the need to address it now.  There were certainly a number of other topics I could have chose, including/ especially Litha.  But this one subject stood out as if it were begging me to say something.

And, I can understand why.  This is a subject about which the preachers and teachers of certain notable other spiritual paths go spinning around in circles about.  They'll talk about evil and/or "the devil", sometimes to the point that I wonder whom it is that some of them are actually worshipping!  But for all of the wind expended from so many pulpits, there has been little actual effort to define it, or figure out what to do about it.  And it's apparent why this has come to be. 

Come follow me in this exploration.  You'll find it interesting.

Of all of the apparent contradictions having to do with the spiritual, perhaps none is as dramatic or pronounced as that having to do with the effectiveness of prayer. 

Some will say that prayer has a major "kick" to it and is one of the most powerful things they do.  Others see prayer as being ineffective, perhaps even counter-effective.  Over the course of my spiritual quest, I've been on both sides of this divide, and I haven't found many opinions that lay between those two poles.  It's basically one extreme or the other.

So, if one group says that their prayer really does big things and another thinks of prayer as a cop-out for people who don't want to do anything, what is it that gives these two groups the basis for feeling that their opinion is justified?  Might it be something to do with how the praying is done?

And so, we can go into the ways that some folks might pray.  We can also see what makes prayer weak.  And from that, we can see what makes strong prayer really have a major effect.

And from all of that, we can see how to make prayer the most powerful thing we do.

Blessed Be!

Every form of endeavor has its dangers and pitfalls, and there are some dangers and pitfalls to which priestesses and priests are especially vulnerable.  
If you don't think this is about you because you don't see yourself as clergy, think again.  Each of us is our own priestess or priest for the sake of meeting our own needs.  We don't need to hire a "broker" to deal with The Divine for us.  But, of course, there are times when even clergy are in need of clergy.  And I'll be touching on that, too.

Some of the most potentially productive (and even spectacular) spiritual paths can have snares.  And, some of those snares are subtle enough that they might not be extremely obvious.

Some of the pitfalls might seem obvious, but I'm sure that at least one might cause you to have some thought.  And, some of them might not look like what they are until you're in the middle of a situation.  That is, of course, unless you have your eyes open all along.  That might not be a guarantee of prevention, but it will indeed help.

And there is one word which encompasses most of the solution.  Seek it, and most of the answer to these pitfalls will be in your hands.  The full answer might not always be so simple, but the simple solution takes care of most of what might try to tangle your feet.  And what is that "one word"?  You might have guessed it.  Download this episode to see if you guess was right!

Blessed Be!

PS:  Sorry for the delay.  I had to do an all-nighter at my day job, and came home too exhausted to put out a coherent show.