Gifts of the spirit are primarily in two categories: the gifts around us provided by the Creator and the gifts we receive or obtain as a result of choosing a spiritual path or discipline.
Of the gifts provided, we have the elements of air, earth, water and fire. These elements are each associated with a direction- east, west, north or south. The directions, are also gifts we can use to enhance change, healing (of mind, body and spirit), facilitate new beginnings or ventures and to accelerate a result. These characteristics of the directions are gifts available for us to use. In a majickal meditation or work, each element is placed in the direction with which it is related. This combination helps intensify the energy we require for our work. Different disciplines attribute difference characteristics to the directions and elements but whichever discipline you choose I suggest working with one element at a time and I think the following story will help you understand why.
If you recall the chapter on my hardships, you will recall it was an early winter, we had no heat or electricity and we were going to be evicted. The day our electricity was shut off was one of many extremely, despairing experiences. My mother was not doing well in the hospital, I had lost my job and well, you know the rest (but believe me, not all). In a rage of desperation, I decided to cast my first spell. I had just recently begun exploring earth religion but had never done a ritual. This day I simply had to do SOMETHING, anything that might make me less powerless so I set up the elements in their respective directions (according to Wicca) and began my spell. I recall feeling energies swirling around me and if nothing else, I felt better and somehow comforted.
Well, shortly after doing this spell a tornado hit a nearby town. Our area is not known for tornadoes and the few that have occurred did not occur at this time of year. The irony is the tornado hit only two places: a town where it blew down an old, dead tree and one of our electric company’s power plants some distance away! Coincidence or…? I felt badly for those people who were going to be inconvenienced but it was this experience that taught me my primary lessons. I would only work one direction at a time for a long, long, LONG time and I developed an awareness of the consequences that can result from imprecise and frankly, sloppy work. Such is the power of the elements in their proper places infused with intense energy of the mind. And the power that could create this can also recreate. This formulated power is a gift that the contemplative and trained mind can use to better conditions, situations, health or spirit.
We have the rocks, animals, plants and insect spirits that are all around for us to learn from and to guide us. One summer had been a very interesting one for us. We had our house sprayed all summer long by skunks, seen coyote (thought to be extinct in our area), had a bat fly in our house twice in one week. A grasshopper also found its way into our house! Most people would not make much of this other than considering this to be the nuisance of country life but, here is what I see.
Skunks represent attracting and repelling people. I have had some friendships that have taken odd turns and each in directions away from me. Skunk also represents being respected. I have been embroiled in a human rights for the elderly dispute with our county for the better part of the year and if not liked, I have earned some concerned respect from those parties.
The grasshopper represents leaps forward being offered. This can be spiritual as well as career wise. This year has provided me with more of a sense of purpose and creative opportunity at a more rapid pace than before as well as the most spiritual growth in a short period of time to date.
Bats represent death in order to be reborn, usually in a spiritual sense but, this has also been a year in which I have suffered seven personal losses that forced me to determine do I really believe what I say I do? Of course, my belief and truth never wavered but the sorrow made my own spiritual path difficult to practice ( I still walked my path). With each loss a part of who I am died because each of those that died shared my history that is my past that made me who I am today. So, in essence their death made me refocus on who I really am and in redefining myself, I went through a rebirth. The bats were reminders of that which is perennial which is death and rebirth. Bats also signify what you fear as your greatest enemy as well as the darkest part of ourselves. During my sorrow, grief and rage I repeatedly had to examine my fear of losing people I love as well as realizing the darkest part of myself is my rage. But Bat spirit also teaches that we must embrace our own darkness to see how bright our light can truly be. That year was very dark for me in this respect. It has been interesting learning about the subsequent light.
Coyote is the trickster or the equivalent of Murphy’s Law in Animal Medicine. I have felt dogged by coyote on many an occasion (pardon the pun) and in this regard, according to Native tradition, coyote is my shadow totem or all that I fear but have not learned to master in order to stop this repetitive theme. Coyote is a hard teacher for the mastering of coyote requires learning how to laugh at how things can play out, even in the circumstances of hardship. I’m sure you will agree that in my hardest of times, I was hard pressed to find anything to laugh about.
The other day, my husband and I were in the barn and he was shoveling wet shavings that had fallen under the floorboards of one our horse’s stalls. There are rocks under the floor boards as well because we live in the mountains and rocks are everywhere. As he attempted to push a small rock, he lightly tapped it with the shovel and it suddenly split lengthwise in half. That rock absorbed whatever negativity was around us. As a result, it shattered. The stone hematite works in a similar way. My daughter has had numerous hematite rings. They have all just slipped off her finger and shattered. They were doing their job. Did you ever have a glass just suddenly break in your hand and you did nothing to make it break? That is negativity being neutralized. And glass, made from sand is the diviner.
Think how quickly and suddenly fire can be ignited. How quickly it can ravage. The gift of fire is its intense speed and this gift is excellent for speeding up matters that are urgent to a desired conclusion. Because fire is so quick and powerful, the ultimate in focus of thought is important. For as quickly as we may think so will that energy be sent out with the strike of a match. Traditionally, the gift of water reflects healing and cleansing which is why it is the main base ingredient for spiritual baths and cleansings of an environment. Air, usually represented by incense signifies new beginnings and is effective to use when we are feeling stagnant in our lives. Anything of the earth (dirt and rock) represent change. If you think of the seasons and the cyclical changes of the earth, use of this element can assist us in being able to accept and create change. We have the gift of the power of Creator, his angels and all of our guides and protections that are all available to empower our own spirit, which of itself is a gift.
Do you have a favorite flower that lifts your spirit? Is it a bunch of roses, lilacs or daisies in your home that makes it feel brighter? The spirit of a flower transcends its appearance. There is power in its color as well as its scent. Think about some of the reasons your favorite flower makes a difference when you have it in your home. Recall the chapter on color and consider how you might begin to view color from a different point of view.
Think about weather. Everyone loves a cloudless blue sky with the sun shining and I do too but, I am also sensitive to stormy types of weather and enjoy it! My favorite days on a beach included going during a storm and watching the surge of the surf break. Seeing a beach so gray as to look silver under the darkening clouds of a storm is very exhilarating and a real thunderstorm is simply glorious to me. I love the feel of the wind and at night, how suddenly there is a glimpse of day all by the flick of mighty lightning! I am not frightened by it nor am I frightened by thunder. The louder, the better.
When my daughter was a little girl, she would sometimes be frightened by the crash of thunder. I always used to tell her that the thunder was the Creator clapping hands because someone had done something good that was pleasing. She was no longer afraid of storms. A part of me still sees thunder as the Mighty’s round of applause. For those who dare, there is a mighty gift of power at times such as these. I recall that recently, I had a gathering to honor Hecate, the Moon Mother. We were outdoors and were putting our offerings on the altar when it suddenly began to thunder and rain. The odd thing was it rained on everything except us and then it thundered. It thundered all throughout our petitions. As soon as we were finished, the rain and thunder stopped. As soon as we got back to my house to feast, it down poured and thundered all night. This experience was a gift of acknowledgement of our dedication and the weather was the communicator!
I want to pause here for a moment and look again at tools that can gift us with insight. There are runes, stones with druid markings that are read like cards. There are all varieties of tarot cards, crystals and crystal balls, water and flame. For many, learning the meanings of these tools helps them to eventually obtain broader and specific information. I have never memorized the meanings of any of the four decks use when I read cards. To me, they are the dial to a cosmic telephone. I think when I was younger and new to all this, it became important to me to be able to shut things out. I have had some scary experiences and have seen some things that were terrifying and so, in an attempt to filter out the unwanted, I made cards the way in which I could open and close sessions.
As I have shared with you, as you advance, as I have, you can just forget the concept of total filtering because as you become more adept you will see more, even if you do not want to. I don’t work well with crystals, crystal balls or water as divining tools. That is not my “gift,” but I work well with fire and water not as divining tools but as purges and to produce a speedy result. Like so many starting to explore the mystical, I used to use a Ouija Board. The disc would move around the board without my directly touching it. But, experience has taught me that this is a dangerous devise because any unknown entity with any type of agenda has an open invitation to just come on in. What would you do if it were malevolent? Again, the untrained should not do anything like this and honestly, adept people generally just do not bother with a Ouija board. For the most part, however, the other instruments or tools can do much to expand the spiritual gifts we each have within us and historically have been used by shamans, witches and spiritualists since whenever the beginning was. So, they all have their function and purpose.
There is another gift one might receive as a result of learning these arts. With me, it was unexpected and not really welcomed. It is astral travel. Astral travel is when your spirit actually leaves the body and wanders in the spirit realm or in the material realm. My first experiences were extremely disconcerting because I just didn’t like the experience and would resist it. I would find myself in a tunnel in which there were multicolored lights glowing all around me. I felt as if I were moving with incredible speed, like on a roller coaster. It would feel PHYSICAL. Keep in mind it felt physical because as a novice, I could not disassociate myself from the tactile senses of the body. I would fight and try to mentally tell myself it was a dream or that I could control it. Eventually, I would and then, like free falling without a parachute, I would crash land into my body on the bed and jolt awake shaking as if I had physically fallen. I would finally get back to sleep and it would happen again, over and over all night long.
In time, I realized this was a gift I was supposed to be willing to receive and worked hard on venturing astrally. Most times, I would just leave and wander. I would go to streets and places and then just come back. Sometimes I would remember or sometimes I would not but, I did learn how to know when I traveled astrally. Even though I would never wake up, when I woke up I always felt as if I had been up all night (which I had). Astral travel when unexpected can get you into trouble. You can lose your way out there so I have learned to ask my Creator to provide me with protection should I travel and I then instruct my protections to watch over my body if I roam. I then program myself to wake up instantly if any threat to my person (by person or spirit) is to occur or if I am going to be disturbed. Once, when traveling I landed inside a cemetery not far from my old house in Brooklyn, New York. I looked around and thought to myself, “I overshot my landing.” Suddenly, I was assaulted by a dark looking spirit. I willed myself back home and woke up but when I went back to sleep, I was attacked again.
This went on for weeks. I would wake up and two things would happen. One of my protections would stand in front of me and keep the entity at bay and the other was my husband Ralph (before we were married) who would astrally appear as well. I consulted with a friend who was an adept at Santeria. He told me I had gone to the realm of the Baron of the Cemetery without invitation and this was how he was showing his displeasure at my disrespect. He gave me a ritual to do at midnight on a night when he would work to help me convey my apologies. That night, although awake, I was unable to move. My bedroom was FILLED with spirits arguing on my behalf and those condemning my actions. My advocates won and I went to sleep. I was never bothered again by the Baron.
As time passed, I learned how to travel. Now, I travel to ‘school’ where I receive instruction that consciously, I rarely remember but it doesn’t matter because my spirit has all the information for future reference. I have seen my beloved dead, I have visited realms of blue water so beautiful they cannot be described, I have flown over my area and walked around my house unnoticed by my family.
This astral body is a major aspect of Hawaiian mysticism especially in healing. The kahunas believe the astral body is attached to the physical one by a spiritual umbilical. They also believe the astral body and physical one are mirror reflections of each other. If someone is sick and is brought to a kahuna, they will not focus on the physical body. They heal the astral body and since one reflects the other, the physical body heals. So there are spiritual gifts and energies that are around us to be used as well as material gifts.
But I think it is more important to sometimes look not so much at what is around for us to use. We also need to contemplate the things (or gifts) we gain just by pursuing a spiritual path.
We feel more connected to our Creator. I never felt this growing up but I can tell you now, it is great feeling to know you have big guns looking out for you. You are entitled to feel this way. It is our right and destiny to be close to Creator. You develop relationships that will never leave you in the company of your angels, protections and guides. I personally think life is a void without joy, hope and gratitude. (Been there. Done that.) Life has no purpose if we give up on it. Through my hardship, I truly learned gratitude. Just waking up and having a roof over my head on any given day, taught me to give thanks for the blessings of the day. I have been able to find to find awe because the place I am now is so different than during those dark days. It was painful but, I learned trust. It is a wonderful thing to be able to trust in something. You learn not to worry for you will be provided with what you need (although not always what you want).
There was a time I missed so many blue skies and autumn leaves because I was blinded by fear, sorrow and rage. I could not see past my pain and was so blinded by bitterness I missed out the gifts of sight—sunsets, sunrises, flowers blooming and the potential that was within myself. So, there is a return to childlike awe and awe is like the best of presents which we know usually come in huge packages or very small ones. How we view a day can be the same. Great events may happen or very small ones but, if we look, there is awe to be found in all of them. What do we do when sorrow takes those we love away? We grieve, we mourn and remember what we believe for that is what will keep us on the path that leads to seeing them again.
Some people discover their gifts in comfortable circumstances, some find them as a result of overwhelming situations and others merely have them foisted upon them.
I have shared with you my truth because years ago I was given the goal of writing a book that would tie all disciplines together. At the time, I was just beginning to explore spirituality and simply could not see myself as ever being able to do a project like this. Since that time, I have had a life filled with careers, creativity, family life and spiritual growth. This book, is the evolution of a life path and was truly given to me late one night. All of a sudden, the words came and this book was a gift from my spirits to my spirit and to yours.
Above all else, let us not overlook the greatest gift of all given to each of us by the Creator: The power and gift of our own spirit.Merry meet and Merry Leave but most all, BLESSED BE!