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[behindstarryeyes]

Ok, ennui has overtaken me and I feel like starting a new discussion.  Now, this is just the nosiness in me, but how do you bring aspects of your spirituality into your everyday life?  Meditation? Reading/research? Spellwork? How often do you do ritual, or do you?  Do you make offerings to your Gods/Goddesses?  If yes, what do you offer and how often?  Do you wear jewelry or other symbols of your faith or display them around or in your home?  Do you have a permanent altar?  If so, what do you place there? 

I have to say I am always interested in how others celebrate their faith.  Being the only pagan person I personally know (except a friend of mine who became interested in exploring paganism because of my beliefs), I am ignorant of how others may bring their faith into their everyday, secular lives.

[The Pet Goddess]

I've never had much affinity with the moon, but I do love the sun.  I greet the sun with a poem or a devotion every morning thanking him for bringing light to the world and warming the earth.  I talk to the trees in my yard and thank them for their beauty and for offering their branches to the birds who's sweet songs delight my ears.  My two magnolia trees are the embodiment of one set of my grandparents.  I ask for their protection and thank them for the love they give.  I hang windchimes and other whatnots...Grandma's earrings according to the grandkids...in one of the trees.  I offer my thanks and appreciation and joy to the universal powers that be when I smell newly cut grass, fresh dug earth, the scent of rain...  I love standing on the back porch feeling the wind pummel my body.  My every day is as sensual as I can make it.  I love life.

I do magick when I have a need.  I light candles sometimes for nothing more than to say thank you to the universe for all I have and all I am.  Henry Miller said, "Do anything, but let it produce joy."  That is how I try to live my life these days. 

To answer your other questions...  My living room coffee table is my altar and is the center of focus in my home.  I am a reiki practitioner and employ candle magick and crystals in my healings.  I have quite a large crystal collection that is displayed in a curio cabinet in my living room.  My altar currently consists of a large silver pentagram, various crystals, tingsha bells, a rattle, a small cauldron for sage burning, a mother earth goddess statue, candle holders, a stuffed salamander and other whatnots.

Reading and research is first and foremost in my life.  I read every reiki book I can get my hands on as well as many other books on candle magick, magick, paganism, spells...  I like to know what others think and how they practice. 

As to jewelry, I have a nice sized silver wire wrapped double terminated quartz crystal that I wear quite often.  I do have a pentacle that I wear once in a blue moon.  Wearing a symbol of my beliefs is not important to me.  There is a quote that says, "Preach the gospel.  Use words if necessary."  I like that.  My life reflects who I am, not a piece of jewelry. 

[tresss]

Hi starryeyes,

Good idea for a thread. Tried something similar a while ago.

Personally I know Goddess not as a particular demigod, or mythical character, but as a universal process which is absolutely everywhere and everything. But I also feel her and know her as personal to me, like an actual personality. She has a lot of love, elegance, beauty, power and knowledge.
So I embody these ethical ideals in myself each day and try to make each moment beautiful and feel things with transcendental love.
The idea of transcendental living is important to me. I try to live on a level where I am in loving awareness. So in order to do this I am not a very materially attached person. If we focus on THINGS too much, all our energy and thoughts get tied up in stuff and we grow weak. Goddess is always a free, open, and energetic state of being. So I don't rely on stuff to be happy, but I accept that things are also Goddess. So I also don't live like a monk. :-) I practice being 'Goddess conscious'; that is, attaching consciousness to all sensory activity, and always trying when I can to live life in the now. I hate calanders and diaries!
Being Goddess-conscious is also about utilizing the senses to activate mindfulness that every little object and process is in some manner, her personality or presence. It's also about feeling loved by those things, and feeling your own energy co-mingle with the earth. On a good day it feels like everything is making love. ;-)

[marisol]

Tresss EbS is waiting for you on talking Stick. It's over don't be a coward.

[marisol]

Come out Tress defend yourself, we know you're here.

[tresss]

So I always try to utilize stuff for self-expression.. to see my conception of Goddess all around me. It takes time and effort to develop your mind like this though. It requires much personal inquiry, thought, and trusting your intuition. But the basic gist of it is to never see absolute seperation or conflicts, but to see instead, inter-connectedness (Is that a word?!) and distinctions or degrees. You still accept things like war and death, but you see how that is connected to life. You don't negate it.

I also interchange 'God' (As in 'The one') with Goddess...meaning absolute spirit. My logic is that all distinctions of the absolute, being as they are absolute, are all one...but still distinct as well.

My approach is creative, because I understand the creator in a natural way like an artist. :-) We have the paintbrush too.

I have a small altar. But it's very simple. I pray there at a large drawing of my personal symbol for God. I do a lot of symbol work and drawings.

[tresss]

Beautifully said PG. ;-)

While I'm not huge on jewellery either, I love simple horseshoe necklaces. I do believe they offer me some power, but it's really just an accessory..a bit of fun. I also have a 'star of david' necklace, which I just renamed 'Goddess star'. Actually my core  personal drawn symbol is a little more detailed. To the star I add a dot in the center (Symbolizing the absolute, on the forehead). Around the star is a circle, representing awareness and unity. And lastly I put 2 squares around the circle that are symbolic of two states of material reality. The upwards pointing triangle represents active energy, and conscious mind. The downwards pointing triangle represents the opposites of those. :-)
I find that the horseshoe is more intimate and devotional for me, while the star is more of a practical tool.

[behindstarryeyes]

Thanks, PG and tress...just what I was looking for!  I am trying to bring new things in to practice to celebrate my spirituality on a more regular basis.

Funny you should mention Reiki books, PG, I am actually seriously looking into taking a seminar in September to become a Reiki practictioner.  Lately I have felt that I needed to change careers, and really would love to get into something that reflects my spirituality, and I'm drawn to healing for some reason.

And tresss, I totally agree with what you said about people getting too wrapped up in things.  The more I explore, the more I realize how much time and energy is wasted on things...cleaning them, maintaining them, just my vision being cluttered by them.  I even toyed with the idea of getting rid of my TV yesterday.  I'm having a bit of trouble with thinning out my books, though.  I'm a book hoarder.   

[The Pet Goddess]

Funny you should mention Reiki books, PG, I am actually seriously looking into taking a seminar in September to become a Reiki practictioner.  Lately I have felt that I needed to change careers, and really would love to get into something that reflects my spirituality, and I'm drawn to healing for some reason.

I'm having a bit of trouble with thinning out my books, though.  I'm a book hoarder.   

You will never regret becoming a reiki practitioner.  It will open you to worlds you never knew existed. 

I'm a book hoarder too.  I did manage to force myself to part with a few books a while back.  A closed book sitting on a bookshelf serves no one.  Share the wealth!

[behindstarryeyes]

You will never regret becoming a reiki practitioner.  It will open you to worlds you never knew existed. 

I'm a book hoarder too.  I did manage to force myself to part with a few books a while back.  A closed book sitting on a bookshelf serves no one.  Share the wealth!

I am getting excited.  There are a few seminars earlier this year, but I am broke, so I have to save my pennies for the fee, plus this is the only one offered in this town, and I have relatives that I could bunk with there, also to save some cash.

I am a big re-reader of books, so that's why I hate to get rid of them, especially things like some book series that I had as a kid that are now out of print.  I even thought about making them available to lend out, kind of like a library...yes I have THAT many books, lol.

Do you have any recommendations for a good first-time Reiki read?  Of course, I know what it is, and my seminar of course furnishes a textbook, but it would be nice to do my homework before I go, and I have been hesitant to buy any books since I don't know which ones might be good to start with.

[The Pet Goddess]

I highly recommend The Reiki Magic Guide to Self Attunement by Brett Bevell and Reiki for Life by Penelope Quest, both which can be found on Amazon.

Brett Bevell gives distance attunements.  You say a chant and download the attunement.  He is very much what he calls a New Age Reiki practitioner.  He does give traditional certification classes at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY.   

A reiki class will give you a certification and will teach you hand positions.  While hand positions are found in most reiki books, it is always nice to have one-on-one instruction.  So it depends on what you want to do with reiki.  I do not use the hand positions as reiki is intelligent energy and knows where to flow and what to treat. 

Most reiki groups will not accept you without a certification.  Your ability to flow reiki is no less effective without a certification.  I have had people roll their eyes at me when I say my attunements were downloaded by a chant.  Yet, some of these same people recommend me and seek me out when they have issues that need treated.  I have proven my reiki is effective.  Some traditionalist are stuffy old bats in my opinion.  They think I am wild and crazy.  To each his own.  Reiki is always in control. 

I always recommend taking a reiki class if you can, but it is not necessary.  I would suggest you start with Brett's book and see what you think.   

[behindstarryeyes]

Thanks!  Found the first one on ebay...I love ordering used books on ebay.  Recycle and save money! 

I have also thought for a long time about going back to school and getting a degree in holistic health...I live in a small, rural area, yet we have a Naturopathic Doctor in the area who actually has a thriving business.  He has services out of his shop, which also sells herbs, vitamins, organic products, books, teas, and crystals/stones (actually where I get a lot of my own supplies) and someone told me recently that he will rent space to other holistic health practitioners.

[The Pet Goddess]

I have also thought for a long time about going back to school and getting a degree in holistic health...I live in a small, rural area, yet we have a Naturopathic Doctor in the area who actually has a thriving business.  He has services out of his shop, which also sells herbs, vitamins, organic products, books, teas, and crystals/stones (actually where I get a lot of my own supplies) and someone told me recently that he will rent space to other holistic health practitioners.

How wonderful!  Go for it!  The way I figure it is that time goes by and we get older whether we make the most of it or if we sit on our butts.  Might as well do something constructive with the time and have something to show for it. 

I believe alternative medicines are the way of the future with so many people without health care in the world.  While I do not fault anyone for making a living charging for reiki, I believe something as simple and powerful as reiki belongs to the world and should be given freely.  This is one area where I get in trouble with other reiki practitioners.  They feel that if someone doesn't pay for reiki or a reiki attunement, then they won't appreciate reiki.  To me, reiki is a gift to all humanity.  My dream is to run a free reiki clinic for those that cannot afford health care.

When I first started as a reiki practitioner, I volunteered at a local animal shelter.  Reiki is very effective on animals.  I am now a hospice reiki volunteer.  Reiki heals on so many levels, sometimes in enabling a person to make peace with themselves and their family before departing this world. 

I think you have probably figured out by now that I get quite excited about reiki.  I cannot imagine my life without reiki.  I reiki my food in order to enhance the vitamins and minerals.  I will not, however, be giving reiki to the chocolate bunnies I am planning to consume on Easter.  I keep hoping I won't absorb any calories or any of the sugar into my system.   Lol...   

[behindstarryeyes]

How wonderful!  Go for it!  The way I figure it is that time goes by and we get older whether we make the most of it or if we sit on our butts.  Might as well do something constructive with the time and have something to show for it.

Exactly!  I have to say that while the job I have now is steady, pays well, and has great beneits, it's also stressful, tedious and I am beginning to absolutely hate it...I literally dread coming to work every day, which is taking its toll on my physical and mental health.  I used to think that the former things were more important, now the older I get the more I realize that they're not.  I am beginning to realize that being poor and happy is a better alternative than secure and miserable!

I think you have probably figured out by now that I get quite excited about reiki.  I cannot imagine my life without reiki.  I reiki my food in order to enhance the vitamins and minerals.  I will not, however, be giving reiki to the chocolate bunnies I am planning to consume on Easter.  I keep hoping I won't absorb any calories or any of the sugar into my system.   Lol...

I also have a tendency to get quite excited and exuberant about things I'm interested in.  I think that "passionate" is a term I'll use! 

And yes, chocolate bunnies are evil...they whisper to me when I walk down the Easter isle at Walmart.  No need to make them any more powerful!