Wishcasting Wednesday: Fall

Today's prompt at Jamie Ridler Studios is "What Do You Wish For Fall?" I thought about this for a few minutes and then I came up with an answer, as I always do. (I just love Wednesdays!)

This Fall I wish to share my gifts.

Lately, I've been going through phases when I feel like I have so much to give to the world and then other times I wonder what wisdom I possibly have to share? Lil' ol' formerly-super-shy, introverted, Dominee.

And then I started thinking about being a "newbie" to this path. What can someone who is new have to contribute? I have met so many wonderful people, experienced Yogis, certified Life Coaches, business Gurus, Artists that just completely amaze me. Then there is me. I've been to four or five yoga classes, My "business" just got off the ground seven days ago, and I just started painting this month and it feels odd and wrong to even call myself an artist.

So what do I have to give? I thought, thought, thought, about this. I can share with you my journey, I can reveal my transitions, I can listen, I can foster friendships, I can learn everything I want to learn and then begin to share. I have a fresh perspective on so much, and I can share that. So this Fall I want to share my gifts. Right now they may amount to small tokens but that's okay It doesn't make them any less valuable.

What gifts can you share with the word?

Read More

Happy Autumn Equinox!!!

Right now my toes are cold and I feel the urge to have very warm, very fuzzy socks. The sad thing is that at the moment I don't have warm, fuzzy socks. It makes me sad, but do you know what it means? It means that it is officially AUTUMN! I'm doing my little happy dance right now because you knoooow how much I love Autumn!

I have something to share with you, something other than my love of warm, fuzzy, socks. Over the last few weeks I've been carrying this idea around, close to my heart. A way to share all of the things I love about Autumn, a way to let you love them too. My Autumn Blessings Kit was born. It has been a labor of love and I am so happy to birth it out into the world. So happy to share it! Here's what you'll find inside along with a 6 minute meditation on Letting Go:

Connecting to Nature
This section will help you connect with the outside aspects of Autumn. The changes in the air, the coloring of the leaves. Allow yourself to fully embrace Mother Nature.

Connecting with Yourself
Dig deep within yourself to discover what Autumn means to you. How does it make you feel? What lessons can it teach you?

Connecting with your Home
Start making your home into a safe, cozy place to spend the coming months. De-clutter and clear your sacred space of negative energies.

Connecting with your Ancestors
 Autumn is a time to honor our ancestors and be grateful for the impact that they had in our lives. We will talk about Ancestor Altars, Dumb Suppers, and how to show our appreciation for those spirits and angels that watch over us

Art
I recommend several different ways you can incorporate art into the season.

Autumn Activities
 So many things to do during the season and I share with you my favorites!

Music
Music makes every celebration complete so I made a list of all of my favorite Autumn Celebration-centric songs for you to enjoy!

So my dearhearts, I'd like to wish you an Autumn full of warm, fuzzy, socks, hot apple cider, and colorful falling leaves. Embrace the magic, the coolness in the air, and the love all around you. I am so very blessed. I have felt so much support from those around me. I would like to give a huge THANK YOU to my support system Eric, Melissa, Loran, Vera, Lau, Carrie, Margie, Laurie, and so so many others. Can you say power of the Goddess Circle? Soooo much love.

Speaking of LOVE, Loran, one of the most awesome woman I know, has officially launched Loran's Heart, a juicy website full of beautiful photography, wisdom, and journaling! So go check her out!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Read More

Wishcasting Wednesday: Immersion

Wishcasting Wednesday! Yay! Today's question is What do you wish to immerse yourself in? I thought about this one for all of 30 seconds and I came up with two conclusions, writing and love. Yet in a way they go together.

I spent all of last night working on my "autumn Blessings" eBook, to be released this Friday and I got it done! I loved spending the night with the tap-tap-tap of the key board and creating something beautiful. I loved it. I miss those days of my childhood when I got so deep, so involved in something that I would almost lose myself in it.

But what I really want is to immerse myself in all of the love in my life right now. To know that I am loved is amazing. It's not the quantity of the people that love me, but the quality. This year I have met the most amazing people and they have so completely enriched my life.

I feel nourished for the first time in a very long.

I have family. A support system. People I can really rely on and they are all vibrant, radiant, people.

I am blessed.

That knowledge and support has flowed over into other parts of my life. It has enriched my existing relationships. It has made me happy.

So I am happily diving deep into this ocean of warm love.

Thank you, Universe. Thank you so much.

P.S. The other day I made an eBook of all my favorite inspirational music and you can find it on my products page for free. :)

Read More

Wishcasting Wednesday: Guidance

Today's Wishcasting Wednesday Prompt over at Jamie Ridler Studios is "What Guidance Do You Wish For?" This prompt took me longer to think about than I think any of the other prompts have. It felt like there were so many answers and yet at the same time, there weren't any at all.

I then came up with an answer that for me encompasses all of that. I wish for the guidance to make the right choices for me. So much of my life was spent floundering. I made bad choices, I didn't have a sense of self, who I was, or what I wanted. I spent my life living for other people and it nearly ruined my life. However that was years ago and now I am different. Now I know how to listen to that guidance inside of myself. I wish to continue to listen. To steer my ship through the waters of life in my own way, following my own direction, and not letting anyone tell me where to go, because I know. I know where I want to go, where I am going, and where I want to end up.

I am guided by the universe and my own sense of self and that is what I wish to continue to do.

(If you are a new reader, please like my facebook page over on the right hand side!)

Read More

Things I Love: Jewelry, Dark Caves, and Recycled Clothing

Lately I've felt like I've been stuck in a cave. It's dark and lonely and there's that constant dripdripdrip that drives you crazy. Nothing good about being in a cave right? Well, I think sometimes we need that dark space, the quiet, calming, soothing oblivion. A sacred space to sit with ourselves, with our darkness, and learn to accept it.

One of the things that I am really loving this week, and what brought this to the forefront of my thoughts, is a Pagan Podcast called the Unnamed Path, specifically the episode titled Dark Night Of the Soul (Go listen to it right now!) I was listening to it at work and it hit so many chords with me. When you start to travel down the right path you feel resistance. Suddenly you are questioning everything that you knew before. You have to take a new look at your beliefs and your truths. That resistance is a challenge, asking you to take a look into your core, into what you believe and where you are going. It is something that you should welcome because it means you are moving forward. Hyperion uses the metaphor of a lobster growing by shedding its exoskeleton and before it grows a new one it is vulnerable and squishy. I was like "Yes! This is how I've been feeling. I am vulnerable and squishy!" My new ideals, thoughts, processes, haven't fully hardened. There's still pieces of "old me" that I haven't yet shaken off.

Selina Fenech - I love fantasy art and this woman is so talented and amazing. I adore her stuff. My favorites are "Bubbles", "Earth, Life, and Magic", "Aphrodite's Passion" and "Follow Me".  Definitely worth looking at and getting lost in faeries, Goddesses, and mermaids.

Katwise's Etsy Shop - If I had limitless income I would hire this woman to make all of my clothes and I would be the best, most colorfully, dressed person I know. She takes old sweaters and makes patchwork coats and other things and they are absolutely gorgeous! You can "like" her on facebook to stay updated on when she adds new things to her shop.

Speaking of fashion, I'd need jewelry to go with my awesome patchwork coats and I'd choose Creations by Moonlight. Allurynn creates such beautiful jewelry and I find myself wanting to buy everything. I recently bought three stackable rings and they are gorgeous. They are made of her leftover metal but each one is beautifully crafted. I adore them.

Today's music that I love love love, is brought to you by Amanda freakin' Palmer. The song In My Mind is one of my favorites and you can also download it for free on her website which makes it even better! It's all about the imperfections of trying to be who you want to be.

So those are the things I love right now (including you of course!) It's Monday so I am wishing you a wonderfully magical week!

Read More

The Caged Bird

Good afternoon Dearhearts! I'm nursing a headache at the moment but you know how it is when your Muse goes dancing through your head and you just have to listen. Muses do not like being ignored. So I have my lemongrass candle, incense, deep breaths, and a big bottle of water, hoping that these things will soothe my head and let this post out. If it's all over the place, my brain apologizes!


On Wednesday I had a dream, which is usually nothing special, but this was. I felt like this was a dream from my spirit guides, the Universe, my higher self, whatever you want to call that all-knowing entity. This was a dream that was meant to teach. 


Myself and a wizard (because all good dreams have wizards and magical people) were given this bird cage with a yellow canary inside of it. We were teleported to this ravaged countryside and told to find something wooden or metal to break open the cage so the bird could get out and fly free. 


The countryside was gray and brown and dark. There were broken, abandoned, cottages littering the land. It was quiet and empty. It felt like I had to hurry. Like something was coming, something big, bad, and scary. After many attempts of trying different things, big sticks, wooden posts, big pieces of metal, of beating that cage, I finally broke it open, but the bird didn't fly out. I remember feeling this sense of dread and panic as the wizard and I knelt down on the ground and I looked inside, fearing that I had killed the bird.


Lying on the bottom of the cage, so frightened she was paralyzed was the little yellow bird. I remember watching her chest move up and down so fast, her eyes looking into mine, terrified, and I knew right then she was never going to fly out. The only way she was ever leaving the cage was if I reached in there and pulled her out. I had failed the quest.


So I've been thinking about this dream for the last few days. What it meant, what it should teach me. At first my interpretation was easy. The ravaged countryside represents that I think that freedom = chaos and disorder. Being confined equals safety to me. Which was my subconscious telling me that I fear feeling free.


Thinking upon it further I'm not sure it's that easy. I think that the message is that I need freedom, it's scary, even terrifying at times, but I need it. I probably shouldn't go about bashing my cage to get out, but I need out, eventually, in my own time. I need out. It's happening slowly, I've come out of my cage in so many ways lately and sometimes I do get scared and insecure that maybe the me that I want to be isn't the me that I'm supposed to be.


Maybe I'm meant to be the bookworm who doesn't talk to anyone and never wants to go out and is content to play World of Warcraft all day by herself and do jigsaw puzzles while watching Tv on the weekends because people suck, dontcha know?


I just need to take notice of how I feel, keep track of the feeling of overwhelm and ask myself why? 


I just realized something important. 


I've made so many new friends lately, something new and exciting to me, and sometimes I find myself wanting to revert back into that "cage" because it's easy, it's comfortable, it's what I know. Am I worthy of so many wonderful people? Do they really like me? Would they still if they knew what does on in my head? I'm sure these things are normal and this is a growing pain so I'm going to ride it through.


Any advice or interpretations you'd like to share dear? I'd love a fresh outlook. 


Big hugs Loves!

Read More

Wishcasting Wednesday: What Path Do You Wish to Follow?

This weeks Wishcasting Wednesday Prompt is What Path Do You Wish to Follow? This post has been mulling around in my head for weeks and I've been meaning to get around to it. This is the Universe telling me maybe it's time to figure it out. When I think of path I think of two things. Life path and spiritual path.


My spiritual path is the one I seem to have trouble finding at the moment.


In July I blogged about how my spirituality waxes and wanes with the Seasons. In Fall and Winter I delve deeply into my spirituality. It feels like I go into hibernation mode and life becomes more about the inner realm than the outer realm. 


Autumn is approaching and I feel that familiar tug. Calling me, calling me to dance joyfully down the path of prayer, Gods, and magic. I'm ready to embrace it, to follow it. I hope to create a practice that will stay with me all year long. My spirituality is ever changing, from year to year, I learn, I grow, I evolve.


Yet some of my favorite memories are sitting in my sacred space, with candles and my journal, and simply being, right there in the moment. Moments of joy, divinity, and comfort. That is the path that I wish to follow. 


So let's be magical, divine, beings!

Read More

The Three Things

Last night I was thinking about changes, more specifically, the changes that I see in myself. It has been such a long road for me. At the end of last year my life was a complete and absolute mess. Everything was wrong, I wasn't happy with anything, and every part of my life was effected by that. I was depressed, I was miserable, and I didn't really like myself. There were so many things "wrong" with me that I didn't know how to go about fixing them.

So I asked for help.

I went to one of my friends and I asked them to tell me the three things that were most "wrong" with me, the things I needed to work on to be a better person. In my head I had such a long list that it was overwhelming to me. Three things seemed manageable, three I could do. I got an answer. I needed to stop holding grudges, I needed to stop punishing people, and I needed to control my anger. (Secretly the answer I wanted was "you are perfect just how you are" but honesty was so much better.)

So nine months later this is where I am. The day after we had this conversation I sat down and I made a list of names and all of the grudges I was holding against those people. It was two pages long. I'm not kidding. Some of them were little things that I refused to forget, some of it was things that happened a decade before, but it was all resentment. I was carrying around so much anger and bitterness and I realized for the first time in my life how much. It was absolutely shocking to me. So I worked on letting it go. Today if I were to recreate that list it would involve one person and a handful of grudges. Nowhere near the two pages of nine months ago. I learned that 99% of grudges aren't worth the energy involved to keep them.

Secondly, punishing people which goes hand in hand with the third, which is my anger. When I used to get mad I handled it like this, I was passive aggressive and if you confronted me I would blow up on you. I found myself turning into a verbal abuser. I would say things specifically to cause hurt to someone. I would be cruel, I would attempt to tear people down and damage their self-esteem, combine that with my grudge-holding and I could be one terrible person to you.

I'd throw things in your face six months later just because I could.

I feel ashamed right now writing about it, but I'm telling myself that this is my truth and I'm not that person anymore. Pride not shame.

I feel like I have healed in so many ways just by concentrating on those three things. Confronting the fact that I would verbally abuse others made me deal with my issues of my self-esteem. Dealing with my anger showed me that a lot of those feelings were just hurt that I didn't know how to deal with.

A long nine months, but I feel better, I feel more "whole" than I've felt in a long time. It has been so long since I said something mean or hateful and I do not miss that part of myself. I've worked on forgiving myself for being the person that I used to be. Asking someone for help isn't a bad thing, that one question, "What three things should I change about myself?" and the answer, completely changed my life.

I am proof that you can change.

You can become better, greater, than what you ever thought you could be.

It just takes a little bit of work, all good things in life do.

Read More

The pathway to Autumn

Morning sweethearts! If there is one thing that I absolutely love and adore beyond all else, it is the feeling of Autumn. It's still 23 days away until it's "official" and even longer until it starts to feel like it here in Oklahoma, but September still brings with it the thought of crisp, cool, air and falling leaves. It's one of the things I loved best about growing up in Ohio.

Do you feel the magic?

It all just feels so magical. I think part of it is because during Autumn I tend to go more inside of myself and I'm a pretty magical person. I decided to start the month off on that note of magic. This morning I took a sacred bath. It was candlelit with apple incense burning, Heart Sutra by Wah playing in the background, and lavender scented water. After my bath I braided my hair and put on a bindi, two things that always make me feel pretty and magical and then I sat and meditated.

Then I asked myself what I want this month to hold for me.

What do I need to make this month beautiful for me? Better yet, what do you need to make this month beautiful for you? I want to keep chugging away at making this website ahhhmazing. Any suggestions dearheart? I also want to surround myself with love. Love is everywhere and I want to feel it and experience it. I want to rebuild bridges, I want to connect, I want to spread joy.

I hope that we all have an amazing month.

I'm sending you joy.

I am sending you happiness.

And most importantly I am sending you love.

Let's have a blast, shall we?

Read More