I'm digging in the dirt, Stay with me I need support

Hoo boy! I love song lyrics, and Peter Gabriel has some fantastic ones.

Staying on track, in a bit of a heat wave, while pregnant, and dealing with a Peanut, (who is processing the fact that she's going to have to make room in the center of our universe for the Bean and acting out because she has no idea where she's going to fit every thing) is taking a bit of a toll on my time.

My last few weeks have been hectic. Between Ultrasounds, meeting with a Social worker about post partum depression, meeting with the dietitians about starting to eat like a gestational diabetic complete with before and after meal finger poking and Ob Gyn appointments birthday parties and almost nightly bed changing as the Peanut processes all the new stuff going on and coming along I've been motivated to pick up only Disc World novels around bedtime instead of heavier reading.

But, but, I'm thinking about Earth as I go along, since the earth is all about fecundity and as a pregnant woman I am definitely showing off how fertile I am and embracing that it's not far from my mind at any given time. Moon Daughter was kind enough to comment on my last post with a link to a blog that is currently delving into each element in turn; and I have been reading along at the Domestic Witch with a lot enthusiasm. Her posts are so full of information and exercises that get right to the heart of the element plus a cool recipe for dirt cake that makes me wish I was able to dive in with a shovel if only the GD allowed for such brazen digestion of cookies, pudding and gummy worms.

I have picked Earth as my first element to explore and I hope to start digging and posting soon. I promise.

It's Elementary

Sometimes I have to get back to basics so that I can feel like I'm on the right track.

Every once in a while I go back and revisit things, to get a fresh look at something that I already know. I like to think of it as brushing up, kind of like taking a drawing class here and there. You get back to basics in order to head into a new creative direction or to see something that didn't take center stage before but leaps out at you now.

Revisiting the Elements is on my list of things to explore. Of course right now I'm feeling very attuned to water what with the mood swings that my over active hormones are causing; so I have a feeling that spending a week focused (or as focused as a pregnant Momma of a busy four year old can be) on the element of Water will flow fairly effortlessly. However I'm anticipating some turbulence with Air since Air has always been difficult for me to connect with.

This time around, I'm approaching the Elements from a creative point of view as a jumping point. Where would you start if you were in my shoes?

So now you know

what's put a little bump in the road I've been taking on my journey. And the bump is getting a little on the big side.

I haven't been completely idle over the last few weeks, I've been reading and learning here and there. Luckily for me, my fabulous second Mom (read Ma-in Law) has similar interests; and I like to pick up knowledge wherever I can. So when I noticed that she had a few books by James Van Praagh in her library stack I picked them up and started to do a little reading.

I often find that Pagan concepts are sometimes interchangeable with the concepts of other spiritual practices. Up to and including some Christian practices; although in the case of Christian and specifically some Catholic practices and rituals I know that this is because these religions picked up Pagan practices as a way to bring more people into their fold (the celebrations of Eostara and Easter for example.) What I found with Mr Van Praagh's books was that some of the things he does to get ready to practice his talents are interchangeable with what is standard practice for getting oneself ready for ritual; these things have just been fit into a shape that is more acceptable to someone who has been brought up within an environment that frowns upon (and sometimes even more than frowns upon depending on how open and loving a mind is) those things that fall outside of the norm.

Mr Van Praagh's background is based in Catholicism, (at one point in his youth he was training to become a priest) but when he gets ready to speak to the spirits he follows the steps of cleansing, grounding (imagining energy filling his body and spreading out beyond himself) and calling in his spiritual guides and Deity to protect himself and to bless his work thorough prayer and meditation.

When I get ready to do ritual I go through the same steps of cleansing, grounding where the earth's energy is drawn up from the core until is cascades out my fingers, toes and top of my head. I cast a circle by calling in the quarters and Deity as I cast a circle to help me with the work I wish to do. Looking at the two practices side by side they are very similar; almost interchangeable if you take out specifics regarding spirit and religion.

I suppose what I'm getting at is that once more my thoughts about Deity (whether Deity be a singular God or Goddess or a whole pantheon) and spiritual practice (whether it be Pagan or a more mainstream religious practice) are all about the same thing.

Off to the zoo

I'm hanging with my Mama this part of our trip. There's nothing like getting pampered by your Momma and spending some quality time with my sisters and the big bro and my Grandma. When I get back I'll share with you how we spilled the beans.

In the meantime I've got another scheduled post up here. We'll be back home after a big trip filled with big news, 4th birthday parties, family reunions, marshmallow roasts, mosquito bites and a trip to the zoo. It will have gone like most trips to visit family; way too fast.

I'm spending some time with the family this week.

Obviously the link that I sent you to last post was written a few weeks ago. We wanted to wait to tell our families in person before we let the world at large know what was going on.

I've got another post up at So Anyway... which goes into a little bit more about what's been going on. I hope you're having a great week and for those of you south of the border Happy Independence Day!

in case you were wondering...

a few posts ago I mentioned that I'd hit a little speed bump in my travels but I neglected to share what that speed bump was. Today I have a scheduled post up on my other blog that does the job of explaining what's been up and why I've been a little lax in my posts in favour of taking some extra care of myself.