Just to give you an idea of what I mean when I say spiritual inspiration can come from anywhere, here are some examples from my own practice.
1. I use prayer beads, which of course are common to many cultures; I designed my own system, however, so it’s not a mala or a rosary.
2. I light a flaming chalice on my altar to honor my UUism, which was one of the first ways I altered my way of doing things when I joined the church. The chalice is a traditional Pagan symbol, but to me the church’s flaming chalice is the light of reason in the embrace of spirit–a flame in a chalice. That’s just how I view it, though, everyone thinks of it a little differently as a symbol.
3. I smoke cleanse my space, but usually with stick incense for practical reasons. I have been known to use white sage but I’m not buying any more now that I understand how threatened the plant is becoming. I’d rather the tribes who use it in their own traditions have it. There are a couple of Native-made stick incenses that I’m willing to buy but no more bundles for this Witch.
4. The goddess that I interact with looks almost exactly like a celebrity (Sara Bareilles, please don’t tell her, lol). I have no idea why! I am a fan of her music but if we were going on fandom levels alone she’d be Taylor Swift. That would be truly weird.
5. When I envison magical energy I use a modified version of a concept I found in a fantasy novel (Gael Baudino’s Strands of Starlight, which calls it the Dance; I just call it the Web of Life). When “hooking up” to the Web (you can’t be disconnected from it but your awareness can be) I experience and imagine how, in the movie Pacific Rim, the Jager operators snap into their robots and enter the Drift (see gif below).
6. Not long ago I was doing a meditative journey and found myself in the Forest of Spirits, which is where I sometimes meet with Persephone, but instead someone else showed up, and we’ve met a few times since. I don’t think he’s a god, just a teacher-type entity–and at least in these meditations, he’s Dream of the Endless from The Sandman TV series on Netflix. We talk about working magic through the visualization of the Web of Life, and I’ve learned quite a bit about, as he calls it, dreamweaving.
Full disclosure, this may just be because I want to bang Morpheus like a Tibetan temple gong, but even so, the imagery works surprisingly well for me.
7. Over the years I’ve used imagery from witchy and ritual moments of Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Vampire Diaries, The Secret Circle, The Craft, Practical Magic, and Frozen 2 when casting circle or doing energy work. When I see something neat that looks like what I’m planning to do, I try it! If it moves me, I keep doing it. If not, I go back to my usual methods.
8. The images of Deity on my altar include a Funko Pop! of Te’Fiti from Moana.
Okay, so I couldn’t find the Pacific Rim gif I was looking for but I think you’ll agree this one is way better than anything I could have shown you related to the post.
