Snapped a shot of the Lunar Eclipse about 3 hours before it was full. It was really beautiful, and aside from the incredible phenomenon that it was, it was also a really sad reminder of the state of our planet. At the full eclipse the moon took on a red hue due to the pollution in Earth's atmosphere. I find that to be incredibly sad. But it was very beautiful to behold nonetheless! I saw three shooting stars while I watched the shadow of the Earth cast itself over the moon! I felt euphoric!

(click to enlarge)

Well, I'm adoring the new changes that are being made to Covenspace. Everything seems a little cleaner... a little more polished! Three cheers for Pythia! It's really feeling lovely and more like home around here! I've been personally trying to spread the word about covenspace, and trying to rally some financial help, but I don't know if it's done much good, however, it's not about recruiting, it's about rallying the troops, lol. I've lost touch with a lot of you and I regret that, but I hope everyone can be supportive of Pythia and of covenspace!

In other news, the lunar eclipse is tomorrow and I'm rather excited! I plan to sit on a lawn chair, dawn the layers of clothing, wrap myself in a blanket, make a thermos of tea and enjoy the eclipse. It must be an incredibly powerful moment... the earth, sun and moon all in alignment! For a lot of us who worship the sun as our god, the moon and earth as our goddesses, it's just thrilling when they're all on the same spacial plane... all in a row. I can't wait!  I don't have any magikal plans, aside from prayer.  Do you think it would be a good time to ask the universe for money? lol.

Well, up here in Ontario we University students enjoy what's called "reading week" as opposed to "Spring Break," which would, in theory, have to take place in the spring.  It's sortof a method of suicide prevention (and actually, a few of the schools with higher incidences of student suicide get a reading week in the fall term as well) but also a time for students to catch up on their reading (thus the name).  Anyway, I'd like to use mine to focus on meditation.  It's going to be the one week of the year that I actually have off because I'm going to be taking summer courses this year!  Unfortunate :(.  Oh well, I plan to take all of September off and then go find work somewhere with my shiney new university B.A. (HA!  *eyeroll*)

Anyway, I don't know if any of you read this blog, but I'm wondering if you can reccomend any books with effective methods of meditation for people who HAVE reached a deep meditative state, but have no structured way of doing so.  Usually I just listen to my heart beat and focus on my breathing and let my mind go free.

I know it's been a while but I had a very strange spiritual experience last night.  I was laying in bed and on a whim I thought I would try to do some soul searching: a past life regression meditation.  I'm usually not the kind of person irrespoinsible enough to do something like this on a whim but I wasn't thinking and I started without casting a circle.  Suddenly in the corner of my mind there was a figure shaking his head erraticly, up down, side to side... every which way.  He scared the hell out of me.  I reached over and turned on my light, and the TV and tried to flood my brain with anything to wash out that image.  He was looking at me while he was doing this and pardon me, but I could have pooped my pants.  As soon as I felt comfortable to move off my bed, I had a bath and tried to cleanse away the negative energy I felt from this vision, then dried off and annointed my third eye with lavendar oil.  I still didn't feel good so I lit up a sage smudge and walked around my bedroom with it, and visualised white light flooding the room.  After I finished this I had a much stronger sense of security.

At this time I decided to try again with the past life meditation.  I cast a circle and took a few minutes to talk to my spirit guides [whom I've yet to meet, but who I'm sure looks out for me] and asked them to keep away the negative vision I had before.  I rolled onto my back and let myself fall into a meditative state over a prolonged period of time.  I wont go through the specifics about what and who I was asking for visions from, but suddenly in my minds eye I was looking at my hands resting on a wooden banister.  I could hear the sound of sails billowing in the wind and a distant call of a gull.  I couldn't look up from my hands... I was staring at them and they definitely weren't the hands I see when I look down at them now as I type this.  I could feel my own hair whipping around my head in the wind and I could hear wind rushing past my ears.  I heard the sound of water crashing into wood but I still couldn't look up.  The vision was over just as quickly as it began and I was back in my bed.  From what I can gather I must have been on a ship, or on a peer.  I don't know the time period and I don't know where.  I was just struck by the physical sensations of the wind, and the clear auditory senses of the moment.  I just wanted to share that here because I may try to meditate on that "memory" again in the future!

I've missed posting here!  I really should do it more often! 

It's been a little over a month since my last update. I feel guilty because I have 3 blogs that I currently use, and they're all for different purposes, and yet I tend to only use my LiveJournal, in which I do not post about pagan things. There are some things that I'd like to talk about, though, so I will!

The full moon a few days ago- did anyone else feel entirely thrown off that day? I drove into a curb and blew out my tire (I'm a decent driver, not often do I randomly drive into things! lol). It was also one of those days where you can go to a million stores looking for something simple like plain white napkins but everyone has every colour of the rainbow and yet no white. I sometimes have the worst luck on the full moon...

Also, there is a store near to my house which has disguised itself as a souvenir shop, and yet there are small signs in the windows that read "Private Readings Available, ask inside." They also have various crystals in the windows, and some candles and beautifully carved boxes that seem to be the right size for tarot cards. In Southern Ontario psychics and pagan shops are hardly rare so it seems strange to me that these people are trying to hide the nature of their shop, however to each their own. If they want to stay in the broom closet far be it from me to force them out.

Also, a friend of mind got me a beautiful storage box for my altar. It's called the Maiden, Mother, Crone Box from 'Nemesis Now.' It's currently?housing some stones and essential oils.