Tag Archives: tradition

Spirituality Corner: On Teaching and Traditions

Over the past five or so years, I’ve found myself in the position to help various people on their spiritual journeys. Most particularly, I’ve found myself helping people to learn to communicate with spirit, be it spirit guides, individuals who have passed from this life, or even deity. My most recent experience has been helping someone make a connection to and contact with a particular deity he felt drawn to.

This last experience has been most interesting and even a bit challenging to me, as I have no real knowledge of or connection with this deity myself. If someone were ask me how to connect with and contact Freyja – or even one of the other Norse gods and possibly even a few of the Irish ones – I’d have a plethora of experience and knowledge to draw on. I’d be able to recommend stories to become intimately familiar with, suggestions on offerings to give, and recommendations on how to craft an invocation for calling out to that particular deity.

In this case, I simply had to show the other person how to figure out much of that information himself and explaining to him how he needed to enter a meditative state, set up a sacred space where he could meet the deity, and how to call out to said deity in his own words.

The good news is that it worked beautifully. Contact with the deity was almost immediate and awe-inspiring, which I credit to said deity’s own deep interest in working with and teaching this person. I am pleased that I was able to help make this happen, but I have no delusions that I was anything other than a helpful middle-man helping two individuals meet sooner than if they had to arrange said meeting by themselves.

Back to the struggle to help someone contact a deity I personally have no knowledge of or connection to, though, the experience has given me yet another appreciation for what it must be like to work with a more narrowly defined tradition. I imagine that those covens that focus on working with a specific deity or small group of deities must have a great advantage when it comes to teaching new members and interested people. I imagine they have a great deal of lore and very specific techniques (such as detailed visualizations and invocations) they can employ and teach those seeking to make that same connection. I imagine that said tools have been developed as a result of the tradition and learning what works best for that specific tradition and working with that specific deity or groups of deity.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t plan on leaving my eclectic coven to join or form a tradition with a narrower focus. Nor do I plan on trying to change my current coven into something other than what it currently is. I love my coven and its members exactly for who they are. They are my family and I wouldn’t change or leave them for the world.

But that doesn’t mean I can’t form an appreciation for the way others have come to do things.

Tarot Musings: Strength

Deck: Tarot of Transformation
Card: Strength (XI)
Keyphrase: Moving from the Core

A female figure stands in the foreground of the card, towards the right. She wears a patterned skirt and a veil flows across her arms and chest. A vine or branch travels up through her transparent body, suggesting a link to the earth. A bright line begins in a spiral near her feet and also travels up through and aalong side her body, flowing towards her uplifted left arm. Both of her arms are spread wide, transforming into feathered wings as they extend from her shoulders.

The woman looks over her right shoulder, gazing at the pyramids behind her in the scene. Two smaller, solid pyramids are visible a short distance behind her and to the left. A third, large pyramid takes up muc of teh background. It glows with golden light, and an eye floats just above its tip, radiating light on the rest of the card.

This card reminds us that we are at our strongest when we are deeply rooted. When we draw on the traditions of the past and the inner wisdom that lies in our core, we are revitalized. We can draw on these sources of strength and wisdom to aid us in our current growth.

The winged figue reminds us that being rooted in tradition is not as stifling as we might first think. Instead, understanding such tradition enables us to truly find and understand our wings, teaching us to use our uniqueness and freedom wisely.