Pentacle Energy & Tools

[qos]

Readers of my primary journal are aware that I have a long history of struggle with the realm of Pentacles. Taking care of my body, my finances, and my hearth has always been low on my priority list -- and I've put as little effort as possible into the pursuit of a job. Even now, when I have a sense of vocation, putting together and manifesting an actual practice has been fraught with avoidance and lack of energy.

But this weekend has been filled with surprisingly powerful and peaceful pentacle energy. I spent a great deal of my time focused on home and finances: sorting files, arranging filing cabinets, balancing my checkbook, doing my taxes.

Sunday evening I entered ritual space to get reacquainted with my magical tools. The layout and substance of them were telling. I had two blades (not counting the knife left on the shelf and my swords), a handmade wand, a beautiful cup, and no pentacle. In fact, I've never had a pentacle. I had a silver dessert dish which I used for OAG rites which required a place to put the Host, but until last night I've never felt the slightest need for an actual pentacle.



One of my two blades is a heavy duty hunting knife, a birthday gift from an old friend who takes his knives very seriously. When I would use it in the women's spirituality circles I used to attend, it would usually evoke little sounds of distress from the other participants. The second is an old-fashioned dagger, purchased long ago at an SCA event and used as part of my garb. This was the blade I used in my OAG ordination ritual, primarily because it fit the overall tone/style of the ritual better. I love both of them, but the dagger turned out to have the stronger charge (not surprising, actually) and the hunting knife told me it preferred to be used for other things.

I was disappointed when the wand felt inert in my hand. I made it from a piece of driftwood from Whidbey Island, which has been a sacred place to me for most of my life. I set a crystal in the end and wrapped the area under the crystal with copper wire. Two friends helped me create it: my daughter's godfather helped me with the power tool to dig out the end so I could set the crystal. The man who gave me the hunting knife helped me wind and epoxy the copper wire, because it was a three-hand operation. Although I feel like it should be the most tied to me, it felt the most distant last night, but I had a sense that once I started to use it again we'd reconnect.

Despite my frequent antipathy to/with Water, the cup was the most powerful of my tools. I have a lovely ceramic vessel, bought specifically for my OAG ordination -- and it's the tool I've used most frequently over the years. During the infrequent times I've cast and invoked, I've felt just fine simply using hand gestures, words, or silence. But the cup has felt necessary to use.

Since I didn't have a pentacle, I placed a small cauldron filled with dried pine needles and tiny pinecones in the North.

Lacking an actual tool in the North, I invoked my own northern guardian, and spent some time talking with him. I'm going to get a pentacle soon -- possibly at Edge of the Circle books when I attend lupabitch's totem card workshop with my daughter this Saturday.

The Northern guardian is someone I've worked with in other contexts, who showed up in the North earlier this week when I was doing an elemental working and once again found the space empty. This morning, as I get set to go to work and let my colleagues know I've accepted a new job, have good memories of a productive weekend of hearth-tending, and have enjoyed the first home-cooked breakfast I've made in I-can't-remember-how-long, I'm wondering if my recent vivid interactions with the King of the North is activating aspects of myself that have been long been dormant or repressed.

Comments

[lupagreenwolf.livejournal.com]

Earth can be a tough one, especially because in this culture we are often taught that it's okay to "just get by" physically--pay someone else to make your food, make it quick, get less sleep than you need, etc. And in paganism there's often such an emphasis on the spiritual that the physical is only really given lip service. But it's good to see you making headway in all this :) When I did my Earth month in therioshamanism, it really woke me up to the need to care for the physical aspects oflife, especially health-related.

Yay :) We get to see you this weekend!

[shadowandstar.livejournal.com]

Yea, indeed!

Is all your time booked? I'd love to have you over to my place, or meet you for brunch or dinner or something. . .

[oakmouse]

I'm wondering if my recent vivid interactions with the King of the North is activating aspects of myself that have been long been dormant or repressed.

I think so, yes. Also the breath work you've been doing may play a role.

Pentacles? If you don't find a good one at Edge, try a hardware store that carries decorative wooden plaques and/or ceramic tiles. You can get some astonishingly beautiful things that way. Also consider the ceramics department at shops like Uwajimaya, where you can find many small flat dishes with interesting and unusual colors and patterns on them.

The magical pentacle doesn't have to have a five-pointed star on it at all, and if you do want a five-pointed star you can not infrequently find such lovelies as five-petaled flowers. I used to participate in a temple ritual that featured a five-petaled carved wooden flower as its pentacle, and another that used a five-petaled cherry blossom dish. Both of those rocked.

Have fun!

[oakmouse]

Oh, also? Excellent field-expedient pentacle. ;)