Yvonne Aburrow's Blog, page 35

My brain hurts

Mindfulness • September Pagan Challenge # 12.

I don’t do mindfulness because it makes me ill. There’s a large body of evidence that people with a predisposition to anxiety and depression shouldn’t engage in mindfulness practices because they exacerbate these issues.

Also, in the West meditation and mindfulness are often taught out of context and without the processes and safeguards that have been developed over centuries of practice and tradition in the East.

So if you do these prac...

Waxing and waning Moon

September Pagan Challenge # 11 is about the waning Moon, but it’s actually waxing Moon right now, so let’s talk about both.

The waning Moon

The waning moon is a time for letting go of things. It’s associated with ebb tides and shedding old ideas.

Time to let go of expectations about the stability of life as we head into an era of increasing climate chaos.

Waning Crescent Moon
by Eckhard SlawikThe waxing Moon

The waxing moon is a time for taking on new projects and challenges (...

Divination with runes

Divination. September Pagan Challenge # 10. The runes are my go-to for divination.

This was my prediction for 2021 (you can see the video where I interpret the reading on my YouTube channel).

I made this rune set myself, so when I use it, I feel more connected to it.

I love the runes for many reasons. The meanings are simple on the surface but can have great depth and resonance. They speak of everyday experiences: cattle, wild animals, horses, wheels, ice, waves. There are 33 r...

Back to school

Back to school September Pagan Challenge # 9.

You can always learn new stuff: new values, new ideas, new ways of looking at the world.

Both Paganism and the Indigenous world view look at the world in a cyclical perspective, and regard everything as sacred and alive (animism).

If you want to learn more about the Pagan world view, check out the Paganism for Beginners series on this blog, Dowsing for Divinity, or the Paganism for Beginners playlist on my YouTube channel.

If you wan...

Stone circles

Stones. September Pagan Challenge, day 8.

These photos of Stanton Drew stone circle are from a visit to the UK in September 2019. For those who don’t know, I moved from the UK to Canada in May 2018.

Stanton Drew is one of the largest stone circles in Britain. It’s made of red sandstone from the Mendip Hills nearby. I love it.

Hiking in Autumn

September Pagan Challenge #6: Favourite autumn pastime

Rockwood in autumn

At last the weather is cooler and there are fewer bugs about, so it’s time to go hiking and enjoy the autumnal colours of the trees.

I love all the seasons, but British Spring and Canadian Autumn (er, Fall) are my favourites. And both are all about change and colours.

There are some lovely places to go hiking and see the autumnal colours in Ontario. One of our regular autumn hikes is Coote’s Paradise near H...

Mac and cheese

Kitchen Witchery — September Pagan Challenge #5.

I made mac’n’cheese for lunch today and remembered, from watching High on the Hog on Netflix with Stephen Satterfield, that the recipe was perfected by James Hemings, the enslaved chef to Thomas Jefferson. Hemings was clearly a culinary genius, and I spoke his name with gratitude as I ate my mac’n’cheese.

My mac and cheese

There are no paintings of James Hemings, so the second picture is of the kitchen where he worked.

The kitchen at ...

Incense

Incense — September Pagan Challenge #4. One of my favourite incenses is Night Queen, which turns out to be made from a night-blooming jasmine known as Queen of the Night.

Here’s a picture of the jasmine, Cestrum nocturnum.

Queen of the NightIncense box with a photo of the flowers

Sunrise

September Pagan Challenge #3: Sunrise

I love the colours of sunrise and sunset. It’s like a magical transformation of the sky.

The sky should be blue, grey, blue with fluffy white clouds, or tinged with the subtle colours of sunset. It should never be red and full of fire and smoke as it was recently during the forest fires.

The sun is the source of life, and symbolizes the self and the inner illumination of consciousness and divinity.

The sun “is a nearly perfect sphere of hot...

The Moon

Full Moon, 12 November, 2019Full Moon, 31 December 2020

September Pagan Challenge day 2: Full Moon.

I have always loved the Moon and the stars and the night. I love to be outside in the moonlight, or to be right out in the countryside where you can look up and see billions and billions of stars, and the Milky Way. There’s something mysterious about the infinity thus revealed.

There’s a great poem by Sylvia Plath where she writes,

“The Moon is my mother. She is not sweet like ...