The Smack Down

written:  October 1st

October 1st!
This is the beginning of another round of the National Journal Writing Month Challenge. I’m going for the daily entry (like I have been doing all year thus far) and for 500+ words each day.

 

AND I’m also doing the Inner Witch October Photo Challenge. I’m using the same prompts from last year as I couldn’t find an updated one, so I’ll just modify it as needed:

 

So, today’s photo prompt is “Sacred Space”. Originally, I was planning to take a photo of my entire altar with the doors open, so one could see the storage underneath my altar. But, given that the gods have been talking to me…ok, basically issuing me a challenge for this month (because CLEARLY I do not have enough challenges just yet)…and they were getting pretty damn insistent that I take up their challenge. And trust me, if I were to attempt to not take up a challenge laid down by Sekhmet? Um, yeah. She doesn’t take no for an answer. So instead, She would have continue prodding and prodding and PRODDING until I accepted it. At least I’ve learned that much in the 20 or so years I’ve been working with Her. So yeah, I accepted the challenge before I earned a good old fashioned smack upside the head that will knock me cross-eyed for a bit. And to demonstrate that I understood the challenge AND accepted it, I brought all three of Her statues out, WITH their garnet offerings and lit a stick of “Egyptian Musk” (free sample I received with my order from Dazey Mae Treasures).

 

I’m keeping mum on the challenge Sekhmet’s laid down. All I’ll say is that this is one of those multi-level challenges. I was being an arrogant lil asshole, so high and mighty on myself against these other “witches” in this FB group I’m a member of. They are going on and on and ON about Shadow Work. It’s such the “in” thing to do. They talk about how they go face their darkest sides of themselves each Samhain season and how “great” it is. ::shakes her head:: Let me tell you…Shadow Work is dark, and dirty, and you essentially burn yourself to the ground and then spend the rest of the time putting yourself back together. And it takes months to accomplish. If they are doing it in a week or two? They are barely scratching the surface. And who in their fucking right might would actively seek that out?

So, I was all high and mighty about this, looking down my nose at them….and Sekhmet took notice. ::sighs:: So guess who’s plunging me down into a bit of Shadow Work with this challenge She’s laid upon me? ::sighs again:: Yep, this lil Wolfie. So yeah, there’s the Challenge…and then the lesson in the folly of arrogance (yep, sitting through that class again….my arrogance is my hubris and it ALWAYS leads to my downfall of some sort. And yet, I pick it right back up again and start waving it around again. I swear, if I were to design a flag to perfectly sum up my hubris….it would be a white flag with a MASSIVE red bullseye on it. Hmmm, I wonder if I could work that into some magick to aid in this newest Challenge? Must think on that more.