Licensed Chest Crusher

written: October 7th

Inner Witch October Photo-Challenge:

Day 7 = Waxing Moon

I remembered the Photo Challenge too late in the day to get a photo of the actual waxing moon, which is what I would have LOVED to have done. Instead, I thought I could do a test page in my Bullet Journal / Catch-All Journal on the magickal properties of the various phases of the moon (as they are listed as prompts further on in the month).

I popped over to Pinterest with that intention and got sucked down the rabbit hole that IS Pinterest. And then I remembered, I don’t give a fuck what phase the moon is in for the use of magick. None of my magick is lunar tied. For me, I just like being out UNDER the moon, regardless of what phase it is in. So why would I put the time and effort into making various pages in my journal (to be later transferred into my Book of Shadows) that have NOTHING TO DO WITH MY PERSONAL PATH? Just stupid in my opinion.

So instead I ended up writing down some oil diffuser recipes for a good night’s sleep. ::chuckles:: I want to test those out and figure out which ones I like and which ones work…and which ones are just god-awful. Far more productive than writing about magick I’ll never do.

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I am really liking the Tarot Challenge. I debating sharing that here but ultimately decided against it. It was just another major step to get bogged down with and I feared that I would just drop it if it was too complicated. So instead, I am writing each day’s reading down in my Bullet Journal / Catch-All Journal and enjoying it. I’m using the Pathfinders Deck and I am really enjoying reconnecting with totem animals through it. And I LOVE the fact that the deck has so many non-standard totems included in it. It really broadens your horizons on the totem front, and forces me to learn new ones as well.

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I had CPR training today for work. Work is trying to get EVERY person on campus (Campus Leaders, like myself, plus all the aides as well) to be CPR and AED trained and certified. I haven’t been certified in a number of years, so it was definitely needed. And given that they’ve changed a few things since I was last certified, I’m glad to have the updated information. So now I can crush people’s chests and zap them with a defibrillator now. ::toothy grin::

And Head Boss Lady (Kelly) inquired how the rest of the day went yesterday with Shitty McCreepy Pants. I explained a few things I had to talk to him about and Kelly told me to write all of that down. She suggested that maybe I start keeping a work journal just about him. I don’t think she understands the amount of writing I would have to do. ::shakes her head:: So I’m thinking of getting a 3-ring binder just for him. That way I can easily type up all the insanity (because I type worlds faster than I write), and then I can just print it out and file it in the 3-ring binder. Plus, it gives me an excuse to go buy a 3-ring binder. ::grins and winks:: Yeah, yeah, I’m addicted to office supplies.

So now, I have to write up all THAT shit. And then print out ALL of the stuffs I have written up about Shitty McCreepy Pants (which, by the way, it totally his new official name here). And then I get to put it all in my binder. ::sighs:: When I said I enjoy documentation and writing....this is sooooo NOT what I had in mind, dammit! Why do the gods listen to those remarks, but totally ignore my desires to win the fucking lottery?!?!?!

Thankful Thursday

written: October 6th

First up, the Inner Witch October Photo-Challenge:

Day 6: Incense

This is the Artemis incense created by the super talented and AMAZINGLY awesome Harvest Moon Haven. This is the incense that I use in my daily prayers to Artemis revolving around our canine companions (both alive and deceased). It’s one of my all time favorite scents.

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I am thankful…
1. a four day weekend this weekend. I have Friday and Monday off and I’m hoping to really relax and take it easy.
2. amazing rice krispy treat I purchased at work through our new vending machine. Ok, so I bought TWO of them today, but seriously they are amazing.
3. rewatching Spartacus on Netflix.
4. learning to speak up more and be more direct in my communications with my staff.
5. that my bosses are working with me to resolve the issues with Super Shitty Creepy Aide.
6. still maintaining A’s in both classes.
7. good health…especially the shit care I’ve been giving myself due to stress and exhaustion (due to work and school work).
8. watching Gotham: Season 2 with the husband each night.
9. still maintaining my daily practice of anointing my forehead (3rd eye) and setting my intentions for the day before I go to work. I swear that is the only reason I have not gone on a murderous rampage....yet.
10. made the first payment towards the drum Brandy has for me. She’ll be painting on a design on it that both of us and one of my wolf spirits all agreed on. ::grins::

As Blunt as Possible

written: October 5th, 2016

Inner Witch October Photo-Challenge:

Day 5: The Sun

While I may be dedicated to a solar-deity, Lady Sekhmet, but I am not a huge fan of the sun. I am very much a lunar witch, a nocturnal witch. While I may be dedicated to a sun goddess, my spirit is very much a lunar creature.

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A member of the Tarot Journaling Face Book group posted a Tarot Challenge for the month of October. I’ll be doing those as well.

It’s the Nerdy Witch Momma’s Halloween Divination Challenge.

It only has 30 prompts because she made it loosely based on Halloween, not necessarily a One-A-Day Challenge. But me, I like things to sync up, so I wrote one of my own to add into the mix to make it line up. I will be playing catch up to get up to date, and then will be keeping up with the daily challenges from here on out (well…starting tomorrow at least).

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Work went a bit smoother today. My Supervisor came out to drop off some supplies I had ordered and to touch base. It was good because it gave us a chance to really talk about what Head Boss said about the Shitty Aide situation and for me to gain a lot of clarification.

Per Supervisor – I am to be as blunt and direct as necessary and I am to document all infractions. I told her because it was hinted that I was setting up Previous Shitty Aide (aka Sleepy) to fail and was “picking on” her, I didn’t want that to be said of me in this situation with Current Shitty Aide (aka CREEPY). And she said that was not a concern at all. We need more documentation if he’s messing up before we can fire him. Or hopefully, I whip his butt into shape and he gets better. I told her even if he gets better, I would still recommend she move him to another campus because my Two Awesome Aides can’t tolerate him. He was too creepy, too quickly, and there just is no coming back from that.

Push Back

written: October 4th, 2016

Inner Witch October Photo-Challenge

Day 4 : Witchy Tarot Deck

Starting at the top, moving clockwise:
1. The Pathfinders: The Animal Totem Deck, by assorted artists
2. The Gilded Tarot, by Ciro Marchetti
3. The Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through the Ways of Animals, by Jamie Sams and David Carson
4. Messenger Oracle, by Ravynne Phelan

These are the four Tarot/Oracle decks that I currently have. But I have a wishlist of others going that once the funds free up, I’ll purchase for sure.

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The work saga continues. My Upper Boss has pushed all the craziness back onto me. I’ve been basically instructed to train the Shitty Aide to the best of my abilities.

At first, I was royally pissed off. Like, Sekhmet-almost-destroyed-humanity level of pissed off. My two aides that have been with me since the beginning of the year, who are also having MAJOR issues with said Shitty Aide were royally pissed off as well…which only made me more angry. These two aides have proven themselves AMAZING aides, and thus I’ll defend them and my campus against all comers.

Except against Upper Boss. ::grumbles:: Not a whole lot I can do there. But I’ve requested an in-person meeting with her because we will be hashing some of this shit out. No worries, I’m no longer in the heads-must-roll level of anger. I’m mostly just bewildered.

So yeah, I wrote up a whole shit ton of Directives for Shitty Aide and I to go over and for him to initial beside each one, thus stating that I’ve made it clear what is expected of him.

Like respecting personal boundaries. Not touching other staff members. Not hovering, not staring at staff members. Not roaming the halls of the school during the school day and staring at the school staff. Not leaving children behind on the playground. Not standing inside the girls’ bathroom to “supervise”. Stop “duding” the parents/grandparents when they come in (seriously, he would say “Wassup dude” to EVERY parent). Learning the students’ names – stop calling them “dude” as well. And to make sure the topics/words are appropriate for elementary school aged children.

Yeah, I made him cry. After we finished our “discussion”, I told him to take a moment, clean himself up, and that he had 10 minutes to compose himself before I expected him back down at the cafeteria (our “home base” for the after school program).

So I’m looking at this as a challenge, instead of a curse. I am being taught to speak up and speak directly. So the challenge is now to speak up enough, bluntly enough to either whip him into shape, to write him up enough to get rid of him, or to wear him down until he quits.

Onwards.

Are You Kidding Me?

Inner Witch October Photo-Challenge

October 3rd: Candles

I originally thought of getting my full candles stash out and taking a photo of that....and then I realized I probably have a candle addiction. i have multiple stashes of candles all over the house. So instead I thought I would take a photo of my current favorite scented candle – Ashland’s “Vanilla Spice” pillar candle (purchased at Michael’s). I light it for the utterly amazing vanilla scent and I find it very soothing.

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The day has been pretty interesting. I have specifically avoided discussing my current woes of my staff issues at work. It’s been so insane – beyond anything Chelsea ever did.

Like, seriously? I have to explain to an 18 year old that claims they want to be a teacher....that you can’t discuss AK-47s with students. You can’t say the word “douche bag” in front of a 5 year. You can’t tell a student that the one that’s being mean to them is a “jerk”. I mean, holy shit! Are you fucking kidding me?

So we had a long discussion with my boss about it. And two of my aides also talked to her about their concerns. And it seems like she was really hearing us. Hopefully this will be resolved asap.
Trust me, it ain’t fun having to correct a parent that is pissed about an older kid teaching their 5 year old the word “douche bag”…that it wasn’t a kid....that it was your STAFF member. Yeah. That was a BLAST!

But I am hopeful that this situation will get fixed soon and we can move on to something better.

Smudging

First up is the Inner Witch October Photo Challenge

October 2nd’s Challenge is Elements:

Earth: four Witch’s Burrs (pods from the sweet gum tree) in a buffalo horn bowl.
Air: Sacred Feather
Fire: lit candle
Water: rain/storm water housed in a skull jar (specifically for the Harpies)

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I had forgotten how labor intensive smudging down an entire house is. I’ve decided that it would be good to smudge down the house after the end of September. It was a viciously brutal month on both my husband and I and I would see all that residual negativity banished from our living space.

So I lit up the big sage bundle and started in my room (it’s the only room upstairs), and worked my way down. I paid special attention to all doorways and windows. Basically driving all the negativity OUT of the house and then sealing it behind it. But holy fuck, doing that for EVERY room? Man, by the time I was done, my arm was on fire! ::laughs:: I also did most of the outside of the house. I still need to do the very front of the house – there are two windows that have been smudged on the inside but not the outside. And seeing as how I’m attempting to NOT scare off all the neighbors, I’ll wait until night time to do those, so as not to draw too much attention to myself. ::laughs:: Hell, I even smudged down my car while I was doing the back of the house. I did the yard as well.

I am hoping that this will bode well for the month of October for us. I don’t think I could handle a second round of the shit September spewed upon us.

The next step I would like to do is bless the house fully, to invite in all the GOOD that around us, to fill the house to bursting. I am not sure exactly what that step will look like. I could use rain water. Or make salt water. Or using some sort of anointing oil possibly? Or re-smudge with Sweetgrass this time around. I will do that on the Full Moon (Oct 16th), so I have a little time to figure it out.

NaJoWriMo

October first.
Thus begins another round of the National Journal Writing Month challenge.

Given that this semester of grad school seems to be even more labor intensive than the previous semester, I’m setting the goal of simply writing SOMETHING every day. If I hit the 500 word mark for the day, bonus! But I’m not setting it as an actual goal.

And, one of my Pagan/Witch groups on FaceBook also listed a “Inner Witch October Photo-challenge” that looks VERY appealing to me. So I’m giving that a go this month as well.

The list of Photo-challenges:

So today’s photo-challenge is “Sacred Altar”.

I elected to photograph all three altars I currently maintain and use.

First one is my main altar, the one I use the most, the one I use in ritual and spell work.

It’s a little messy from Mabon. I didn’t do anything for the Black Moon (2nd new moon in a month) that occurred on Sept 30th. I know, bad witch! ::laughs:: Oh well, I’ll be cleaning it off and setting it up for the Full Moon on Oct 16th. And then I’ll be gearing up for Samhain, at the end of the month.

Next up, is my altar for a very specific wolf spirit that guards my dreams. She has a name, but I am not comfortable sharing that information.

 

In the back is a beautiful wooden wolf carving my husband gave me upon my return from my trip up to visit Wolf Park and Wolf Creek Habitat. The wooden wolf is wearing a wolf claw necklace given to me by Brandy. It also has a string of snowflake obsidian, an offering the She Wolf specifically requested. In front of the wooden wolf is a picture of my husband and Old Lady Dog (rest in peace) from when they were much younger. And in front of that is a wolf family candle holder that my Mom had picked up years ago and that she then gave to me. This altar is a mix of sacred and mundane, as it’s also my side table to my bed.

Last up is a nature altar set for a very specific purpose. Very simple and primitive, but very potent all the same.

This is the crape myrtle that my husband planted in Old Lady Dog’s memory. This is also where I do my daily prayers to Artemis, to watch over and protect our canine companions, both living and deceased. So yes. It’s a plant with a stick of incense, but this is the sacred place that gets the MOST use.

I just wish Josey would quit pooping near it. ::laughs:: I have to really watch my step at times!