Goddess Afoot!: Practicing Magic with Celtic & Norse Goddesses by Michelle Skye

From the Publisher

Passionate and Powerful: Twelve Goddesses for Modern Women

You are a reflection of the Divine Feminine. You shine like Sunna, Norse Goddess of the Sun; take risks like Cessair, Founding Goddess of Ireland; love like Creiddylad, Welsh May Day Goddess. With this guide, you'll discover how to use spellwork and magic to make lasting changes in your life with the aid and guidance of twelve powerful Celtic and Nordic goddesses.

From creating abundance to increasing your psychic abilities to connecting to the land, you'll learn how to attune to a specific goddess and connect with her energy to manifest your dreams and desires. Through ritual, invocation, guided meditations, and magical activities, you'll explore the unique strength of each goddess and discover her gift for your life.

Arianrhod • Blodeuwedd • Cymidei Cymeinfoll
Creiddylad • Airmid • Cessair • Eriu
Macha • Frigga • Sif • Skadi • Sunna

Publishers Weekly

Skye's follow-up to her enthusiastically-received debut Goddess Alive! provides advanced practitioners with additional rituals, spells and guided meditations. In each of 12 chapters, she tells the story of a goddess from mythology, drawing on medieval collections of myths such as the Celtic Mabinogion and the Norse Skaldskaparmal. These are complicated texts, and Skye's introductions to each goddess can read like a doctoral dissertation. What follows, however, is worth the extra effort. As in her earlier volume, Skye demonstrates a truly inspired talent for writing guided meditations. In one, readers will confront their fear of drowning as they pursue Welsh goddess Cymidei Cymeinfoll to her lair at the bottom of a lake. In another, they will experience the sights and sounds of a medieval Viking hall in the presence of Sif, Norse goddess of family and harvest. These scenes are so vividly imagined that there may well be crossover appeal to fans of fantasy fiction. At the same time, readers may want to have a fellow practitioner at hand to read the meditations out loud, since it is nearly impossible to do them by oneself. Skye's approach remains refreshingly original. (May)

Jennifer Kuncken - Library Journal

In this book full of imaginative visualizations and creative charms and spells, each of the 12 chapters is devoted to a different goddess from the Celtic or Norse traditions (e.g., Cymidei Cymeinfoll, the Welsh goddess of war and birth). Skye, a pagan priestess, begins by giving readers some background information on the goddess, then shares a pathworking, or visualization, in which that goddess proffers some wisdom or protection. Also within each chapter are magical activities, or crafts (e.g., a "Crown of Stars"); an invocation to thank the goddess for sharing her knowledge; and a guided meditation for furthering a young or new practitioner's understanding of magic and the fantastic. (The meditations are very detailed; some are quite frightening.) There is some explanation, too, of protective circles and consequences for the magic performed. This book is neither intended for readers hoping for a mythological discussion nor is it ideal for novices. An optional acquisition for most libraries.

Product Details

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Table of Contents

Read an Excerpt

The Essence of Magic

What is magic? Is it pulling a rabbit out of a hat or causing the Empire State Building to disappear? Is it sending fluttery sparkles through the air or changing one's hair color from brown to red and back again? Is it shape-shifting into a wolf or altering someone else's shape-the proverbial frog into a prince? Magic is all of these things and none of them. It is the ultimate enigma.

Magic is the ability to manifest one's will in the world at large. This is easy to say but hard to do. How do you create your own reality with all of the possibilities and random chances that make up life, that compose our existence, our living amid billions of people and animals and plants? Perhaps the question should be: How do you not? In truth, we create our reality every day in thousands of small, subtle ways. We instinctively make miniscule choices without even thinking about them: Coffee or tea? Library or bookstore? Condominium or apartment? Boy or girl? These choices shape our lives, causing us to form our conscious reality with our unconscious desires. It is these unconscious desires that magic harnesses. Instead of keeping your wishes in the dark recesses of your mind, magic brings them into the sparkling brilliance of day and, rather like a magnifying glass in the sun, heats up those desires so that your focus on them is absolute. This focus or intent (in other words, your desire magnified) is then amplified with natural and mythic wonders and sent off into the universe to become your reality. Magic, in other words, is taking a completely normal, everyday activity and spiking it with power in order to give it kick.

personalresponsibility

As magic is the realization of your will and your wishes, it is important to understand the implications of performing magic. Remember, everyone has the ability to cast magic spells, just as everyone has hidden dreams and desires. Your wishes are not necessarily the wishes of your best friend, or your neighbor, or your boss, or your teacher. These are individuals, separate from you and your conscious or unconscious desires. No matter how well-meaning you may be, it is generally not a good idea to perform unasked-for magic on another person. Their life lessons are their own. Who are you to decide that a relationship needs to be saved or that a job should be changed? How would you feel if someone made you their personal puppet on the stage of life? That's what magic does when performed on an unsuspecting bystander, it takes their power of choice away from them, relegating them to a supporting role in their own life story.

Are there exceptions to this precaution? Absolutely, but the repercussions must be considered, understood, and accepted before any magic can be performed. Consider this story, which occurred in my life when I was a new witch. I had two friends, one male and one female (we'll call them Jack and Jill for clarity), who became a couple. (Sigh, how lovely!) All was wonderful until Jack broke up with Jill. (Horrors!) Amid the tears and soggy handkerchiefs, Jill began to mention some of her past beaus and their... unfortunate accidents. One had been severely hurt in a mountain accident; another had lost all of his most prized possessions in a car fire. She told me that she used to lie in bed at night and think over and over and over, "I wish (insert ex-boyfriend's name here) would feel the pain that I am feeling right now." Jill was performing magic, even though she was not aware that's what it was called.

Naturally, I was a bit concerned by this darker side of Jill, but I worked on getting her simply to move past Jack's rejection. We never openly talked about magic, as I was very much "in the closet" as a Pagan. I was also not secure in my magical and spiritual knowledge. Weeks went by, and Jack mentioned to me that he had stumbled upon the opportunity of a lifetime. He was offered a position to live and sail on a replica of a historic two-masted sailing ship. Jack was ecstatic; his dreams were coming true! When Jill found out about Jack's new job (through mutual acquaintances), she began to talk a lot about hurricanes and storms at sea. Thinking back to Jill's other ex-boyfriends, I began to worry seriously about Jack's well-being. Could Jill destroy Jack's ship, possibly even killing him while at sea? She certainly believed she could, and belief in oneself is one of the cornerstones of magic. And, to be perfectly honest, after hearing the stories about her ex-boyfriends, I believed she could as well. I felt compelled to do something to combat Jill's negative, destructive spellwork. So I performed a magic spell without talking to Jack or Jill.

At the time, I believed I had no other options. I felt uncomfortable talking about witchcraft and magic with other people. Jack was oblivious to Jill's animosity and would have judged me insane had I expressed my fears. Jill was not responding to my rather thinly veiled suggestions to think positive thoughts and not dwell on the past. And I believe to this day that she had the power and the desire to seriously harm Jack. So I whipped up a spell to protect the ship from Jill's negative magic, creating a type of "astral shield." And the spell worked! The ship stayed completely protected. Jack was safe and secure ... and on land. The funding for the ship's journey fell through, and the ship never left the dock. Jack was protected, but he had lost the chance to fulfill a lifelong dream.

Even now, years later, I cringe when I think about that foray into meddlesome magic. I feel badly that Jack was not able to achieve one of his dreams. (Although, who knows? Perhaps he has by now. One can always hope!) Yet what if I had ignored the situation? Would Jack be dead even now, having been swept overboard by a wave or crushed by a hurricane's pounding surf? I don't know. I do know that I interfered in his life path and changed its outcome. For good or ill ... who can say? But the power of magic is strong, and when considering meddlesome magic, it is important to look at the options, accept the ramifications of any and all actions, and make a choice. You are taking someone else's life into your hands. You are affecting their wyrd, their fate. The power is yours, but so is the awesome responsibility. And never doubt that you will be called to task for it on the Other Side.

Any kind of magic, not just meddlesome magic, automatically comes with a responsibility clause attached. Every action, from brushing your teeth to paying a parking ticket, creates ripples in the pond of life. These everyday actions are tiny pebbles that, when thrown into the pond, make small, hardly noticeable ripples that will touch other people's ripples. When small, they affect only a limited number of people. For instance, if you decide not to brush your teeth on the weekend, probably only a handful of people will notice your stinky breath, due to the small size of your metaphorical stone. However, the pond's shoreline contains many sizes of rocks. There are tiny pebbles and palm-size skipping stones and heavy cobblestones and even boulders. Some of our actions affect lots and lots of people, meriting a bigger stone with bigger ripples. When we donate to the poor or spread malicious gossip, we drop in a skipping stone. If we pull a baby out of a burning house or kill someone with a semiautomatic weapon, down goes the heavy cobblestone. Sometimes the stone is so big and the ripples so strong that they splash to the side of the pond, and maybe even ricochet back to the center, to the root cause of the disturbance-to us. Thus, our original actions return to us, altering our physical, emotional, and spiritual lives. This concept is the basis for the magical Law of Return.

Like our everyday actions, our magical spells can affect others in large and small ways. However, since magic deals with the unseen threads of life that bind us all together, its repercussions are always greater and more far-flung than those of our small, everyday chores. Even the smallest spell creates strong ripples that will return back to us. Hence, the Law of Return: that which we send out into the universe comes back to us. Our positive and negative thoughts, emotions, and actions alter the world around us, especially when they are linked to the unconscious and the divine through magic. We reap many seen and unseen rewards and consequences that ripple far into our future and spread across many locations and lives. To perform magic lightly, without thought, is irresponsible and disrespectful to yourself and to other individuals around the world. Before casting any spell, you must prepare for the changes that will occur and you must freely accept them into your life. If there is any hesitation or question in your mind whether this is the correct course of action, stop and reevaluate your situation. You may be unwilling to accept the consequences, or you may not physically or mentally be ready for the spell. In either case, the magic will not work and you'll be wasting your time.

preparing to work magic

Performing magic takes research, courage, belief in oneself, and belief in the spell to be cast. If any of these are missing, the magic fizzles before it can soar to the universal consciousness of the Goddess. In order to perform magic, the magical practitioner must have an intimate knowledge and understanding of what is alternately known as the Witches' Pyramid, the Four Powers of the Sphinx, the Magician's Maxim, or the Rules of the Magus: the phrase "To Know, to Will, to Dare, and to Keep Silent."

To Know: Knowledge Is Power

The first section of the maxim is the reason why many store-bought spell kits don't work very well. In order for magic to work, you have to be intimately connected to all its physical components. Magic often requires stuff. Candles, crystals, herbs, moonlight, midnight dark, chants, songs, glyphs, graphs, and secret names are elements of magic. If you don't know what they mean or what they stand for, your magic becomes meaningless. If you wish to attract love to your life with a talisman, you will need to research the correct herbs, oils, and stones to use. (These are often contained in "correspondence charts" in the back of books.) If you buy a love-attracting talisman, what does it mean to you? Exactly $12.95, plus tax.

The research time is a necessary part of magical practice. It gives you the space to see your situation from every possible angle and to notice if there are other avenues open to you that you have not yet pursued. Instead of crafting a love talisman, you may decide that you want to work on the mundane level first. Or, you may choose to focus all of your energy on attracting love, combining your mundane activities with your magical ones. Perhaps you will sign up for a speed-dating session or enroll in a gym. Rushing through the "to know" section of magical preparation is dangerous and ill-advised. And often, you will not achieve your desired end results.

To Will: Believe in Yourself

In my opinion, this is the hardest aspect of the Magician's Maxim to master and, incidentally, the most important of the four. New magic wielders fail in their early spells because of a tiny seed of self-doubt harbored deep in the subconscious. This seed, planted no doubt in their childhood, won't let them totally commit to the experience-to allow the forces of the universe to work through them, carrying them along on an eddying stream of power and strength. Thoughts detrimental to the spell flit through their minds. They can't believe that they can actually create their own destinies. And, even if they manage to quiet the questions, it is difficult to trust the experience. Perhaps, they think, I'm making it all up in my mind. And when the spells backfire or fizzle before fruition, the lessons learned only serve to confirm the original belief and self-doubt, stripping away even more confidence.

So how does one believe? Only through trust does belief flourish. Luckily, trust can be fostered with the help of magical objects and a spellwork routine. If you are finding it difficult to truly believe that you have the power to alter your reality, create a magical environment in which to perform your spells. Choose specific incense that you only use during spellwork. Smudge the room with sage in order to purify and bring you closer to the divine. Put on calming, meditative music and change into clothes that make you feel magical. All of these alterations in the outer world will help to change your mindset in the inner world. Over time, they will trigger a visceral reaction in your body as well as in your subconscious, letting you know that soon magic will be in the air. Your magic will begin to flow automatically as soon as the outside magical environment is created.

Before too long, your spells will manifest in the world around you and you will begin to truly trust your own power. At this point, you may find that you no longer have a need for the incense, sage, music, and special clothes. Your magic will be intrinsic to your personality and not dependent on magical tools or ritual environments. However, you may choose to continue using them anyway, as a way to remind yourself of the transformative journey you have undergone or as a link to all of the past magical success you have experienced. Whether you choose to continue with the creation of a magical environment or decide to simply perform your spells in the living room, you now have absolute belief in yourself and the power to manifest your dreams and create your own destiny.

To Dare: Accept Future Possibilities

Magic changes everything. As discussed earlier in this chapter, its repercussions can be felt by many individuals for a very long time and will eventually come back to you, for good or ill. Therefore, as a magical practitioner, you must be willing to accept any and all consequences of the magic you send out into the world. You must have the courage to live with the responsibility of your actions.

Consider this scenario: you are sitting home alone, watching the eleven o'clock news, when suddenly a scream pierces the night, followed by several expletives and a sob. What do you do?

A. Jump off the couch, throw on your fuzzy bunny slippers, and run outside to help the person in trouble, possibly picking up a baseball bat on your way out the door.

B. Jump off the couch, throw on your fuzzy bunny slippers, and reach for the telephone, dialing 9-1-1 as you open your front door and peer into the darkness.

C. Settle back onto the couch, kick off your fuzzy bunny slippers, and turn up the volume on the television.

Each of these answers indicates an acceptance of responsibility and a tolerance for magical backlash. If you chose letter C, you probably shouldn't be doing any magic at all, since you don't wish to upset your natural state of being. These people plan their lives down to the tiniest grain of rice and would be overwhelmed by the chaos that can sometimes result from a magical spell. Those who chose B are comfortable with life's changes, but only on their terms and in their comfortable environments. These people should be conscious of the Law of Return and should seriously consider every magical spell they perform. They should steer away from any controversial magic, which might tamper with the free will of another individual. If you chose A, any type of spell and any form of magic is open to you. These people have an understanding of consequences and accept the results of their rash actions. Despite this ability to live with the repercussions, letter A people should slow down when attempting a magical spell so that they can truly consider their actions. Magic should never be done thoughtlessly or heedlessly, as it will not only affect the magic wielder, but countless other people and experiences as well.¹

To Keep Silent: Be Quiet

Simple: don't talk about your spell after you've cast it. Allow the magic to float up to the ethers and disappear until your desires are visible on the earth. But sometimes it's hard to keep quiet. We are proud of our spellwork and excited when it manifests in our lives. Yet we must understand that this is the ego talking and taking over our thought processes. Why is it important that others know how powerful we are? They can be equally as powerful, if only they choose to tap into their inner desires. If your only reason to talk about a spell is to gloat, don't do it. The universal consciousness may decide that you have plenty of everything and no longer need to create your inner desires in your life, and your magic will suffer. However, should you wish to discuss the details of your spell with other magic practitioners in order to receive their opinions and suggestions, go right ahead. It is only through this discussion that you will grow as a magician. You may also wish to share your spells with others who are having similar problems or issues. As long as you trust the individual, by all means, please share your spell. It is important to know the individual because your energy is entwined with the creation of the spell, and you wouldn't want to be linked to just anybody.

Another reason to keep magic secret is doubt. Once you have cast the spell, it is sent up to the universe to gather the energy of the gods and goddesses. However, the spell is still linked to you. The spell contains your energy and thus is always connected to the energy housed within your body. Think of it as an invisible ribbon of light that unites you and the spell, serving as a homing beacon for the positive and negative repercussions of your magic. If you talk about your spellwork with a magical nonbeliever (and there are many in this world), the doubt seeded by that conversation travels up the invisible ribbon of light and invades your magic. This skepticism will infuse your magical spell and will slow down and possibly even destroy its manifestation in your life. You will have canceled out any belief in your own power by listening to the negative, detrimental words of another. So, in order to keep your magic pure and untainted by uncertainty, keep quiet!

types of magic

Magic can take many forms and can be approached from many different directions. The end result, your subconscious desire, can be achieved through a multitude of actions. You have the choice to create any spell you wish. The options are limitless, which can be a bit daunting when first starting out. The following list is a compilation of the most common types of magic spells, each with a brief description. You will find that each of these types of spells (with the exception of sex magic, due to its controversial, adults-only nature) is represented in the following chapters, so you will have an opportunity to try them all firsthand. Most magic users gravitate toward one type of spell or another, due to personal preference and personality. As you read this list, make a note next to the magic types that most resonate with you right now. Then, as you progress through the chapters and perform the spells, see whether your interests stay the same or change. As your magic evolves, you will notice subtle changes in your spellwork; these changes reflect your growth. Magic helps us get to the heart of ourselves, find our hidden truth. It is important, then, to know where we began in order to see the growth of ourselves. The following types of magic are in alphabetical order and do not reflect the author's personal preferences. All magic works as long as you follow the Rules of the Magus; no one type of magic works better than any other type. They are all dependent on the desire, personality, and focus of the magician.

Candle Magic: Infusing a candle with your subconscious desires, so that when it burns your goals are manifested on earth.

Crystal Magic: Using the magical properties of crystals and gemstones to bring about a desired end result, either by inclusion in a talisman or in conjunction with other forms of magic.

Divination: Communing with the divine through a specific tool in order to access the future and effect change in your life. Types of divination include tarot reading, rune casting, ogham casting, palm reading, and scrying.

Elemental Magic: Accessing one of the four elements-earth, air, fire, or water-and harnessing its power to intensify and achieve your dreams.

Faery Magic: Calling on the denizens of faeryland and all of their characteristics and personal traits to aid you in manifesting your wishes on earth.

Herbal Magic: Using the magical properties of herbs to bring about a desired end result, either by burning through incense or in conjunction with other forms of magic.

Incantation Magic: Using the spoken word to focus your wishes and create them on earth. Can be performed as a song, poem, or short chant and is often repeated a specific number of times to correspond to the magical intent of the practitioner.

Incense Magic: Using the magical properties of scent to send your hopes and dreams on the smoke up to the universal consciousness.

Meditation/Creative Visualization Magic: Utilizing relaxation and breathing techniques to focus the mind on the desired goal by actually "seeing" the goal materialized.

Natural Magic: Using your natural surroundings and items found in nature to achieve your magical goal.

Physical Magic: Constructing a charm or talisman with the express purpose of manifesting your wishes and desires.

Rune Magic: Utilizing the divine power of the runes (a Norse divination system) to fulfill your wishes. Rune magic is best performed by a practitioner with knowledge of the runes.

Sex Magic: Accessing the energy that is built up during foreplay (known in Eastern circles as kundalini energy) to strengthen your magical intent.

Symbolic Magic: Using an item in the material realm to represent a person, place, object, or goal in your life. This type of magic is generally performed in conjunction with other forms of magic.

Sympathetic Magic: Altering your perception of a small object so that it becomes the larger person, place, goal, or object that you wish to magically affect. The best-known example of sympathetic magic is a voudou doll. However, changing bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ in a Catholic Communion ceremony is another example of sympathetic magic.

Tarot Magic: Accessing the archetypal knowledge and power of the tarot cards to manifest your desires. It is best to have a general understanding of tarot before performing this type of magic.

Written Word: Using the written word to manifest your desires on earth. This can be performed on paper, rocks, wood, people, or anything else that can hold the written word. If on paper, it is common to burn or bury the spell, in a time frame determined by the practitioner.

Not every magical practitioner would include divination in a list of types of magic. But I do. Magic helps us to crystallize our inner desires and manifest them in our lives. Divination focuses our whirling minds by giving us a firsthand, up-close-and-personal view of our lives from the divine perspective. Instead of being mired in the minutiae of everyday life, we are allowed a glimpse of the big picture. We briefly grasp what the God and Goddess have planned for us. This new knowledge gives us the opportunity to make changes in our lives in order to better fulfill our inner selves and realize our subconscious dreams and goals. Therefore, divination is magic, because it achieves the same goal of bringing forward our best selves in order to create our own reality. It is a powerful magical tool that can easily be used in conjunction with other types of magic.

high magic, low magic, and goddess magic

There is a lot of debate in magical circles about the most important type of magic. In my opinion, the most important type of magic helps you manifest your dreams and become the person you were destined to be. We have only a short time in which to learn all of the lessons of our soul. Magic allows us to gain confidence and open ourselves to the myriad possibilities before us. It helps us to see that we are not locked into one life, one thought-form, one way of doing things. It gives us the power to create our ideal existence on the planet. And just as there are multiple types of magic, there are also multiple magical pathways we can take to achieve our goals.

High magic strives to create an ideal existence by working directly with the divine through a specific set of rules and correspondences. There is no guesswork or impromptu spell casting in high magic; everything is planned out weeks in advance. The high magician strives to create balance in the universe and order in life through accessing complex formulae, creating sigils, and calling on the power of the divine. High magic is very concerned with higher ideals, such as the shape of the soul or peace on earth or the protection of innocents. Magic is done in a ritualized setting, usually with specific incantations and invocations. The magical practitioner must prepare him or herself bodily and mentally for the magic to be cast by showering vigorously or fasting for an entire day. In high magic, all magic is done with the astrological, lunar, solar, and seasonal correspondences in mind. This means that magic is performed at all hours of the day and night, regardless of mundane responsibilities.

Low magic, on the other hand, is conducted to benefit the practitioner on the earthly plane. A spell is cast to benefit his or her life and make living enjoyable. The low magician tends to utilize common everyday items found around the house in performing a spell. There are no complex charts and graphs or incantations to be memorized, as instead there is a reliance on physical objects and the power that resides in them. This means that low magicians supplement their own inner power with the energy they find in the natural world, housed in ordinary objects and items. Many low magicians will cleanse themselves before performing magic, but strict adherence to this type of purification varies from magician to magician. Low magicians will pay attention to the moon phase and the seasonal shifts, but with less rigidity than in high magic. Instead of utilizing the energy residing in the cosmos and with the divine, low magic focuses on the energy found in the earth and in her objects. Thus, celestial information is not as vital as personal intuition and observation of the world around you.

Goddess magic combines high and low magic, striving to bring your true self out of your subconscious and into the sunlight of day in order to make everyday life more enjoyable. Mundane needs are addressed alongside esoteric concerns and desires. By attuning ourselves to a specific goddess whose realm of understanding overlaps our own, we are able to connect with the divine while keeping our feet firmly planted on the earth. Your energy and the energy of the goddess merge to create your dreams and desires right before your eyes.

Goddess magic begins with understanding the historic and mythological role of the specific goddess. Look with the same eyes and understand with the same knowledge as our ancestors as you read and research ancient stories of the goddess. Next, travel with her in meditation to her homeland, to an ancient hall or a chilly loch. And finally, invoke her presence through incantation and work magic in your life, your hands ever guided by hers. Using Goddess magic brings you closer to the divine female presence in the universe. It aligns your energy with hers, allowing her to teach you lessons and shower gifts upon you. It is a magic defined by love-love of self, love of others, and love of the divine. There is no room for fear, hate, jealousy, or anger in Goddess magic, as those will ultimately not bring you the joy of life that we all so desperately crave.

As Goddess magic is feminine-inspired, it pays close attention to lunar and earth energies. Therefore, the moon phase and the earth's seasonal cycle are of special importance. For each magic spell in this book, a suggested moon phase and season will be listed. These are guidelines only. Do not feel pressured to wait until the "right time" to cast a spell. If you have connected to a goddess and feel as though your goals need to manifest right now, disregard the moon phase and seasonal information and perform the Goddess magic. Your intuition is your best source of inner wisdom. Listen to it and allow the power of the goddess to aid you in the creation of your desired reality.

meditation as magic

Guided meditation (also known as shamanic journeying) is one of the core components of Goddess magic, as it allows you direct access to the divine energy of a goddess. Reading and understanding a goddess's story help you connect with her on a mental level, while meditation aids you in connecting with her through your emotions and feelings. It is during the meditation that your energy mingles with the energy of the goddess, giving you deeper wisdom and insight. It is the combination of these two essences that will infuse your magic, giving it the power to manifest your ideal reality.

If you are new to guided meditation, the most important thing to remember is that you have the power to enter and exit a meditation at any time. So, if your journey into the Otherworld becomes too intense, emotionally painful, or difficult to follow, know that you can leave the meditation and return to it at a later time. No one is judging you. This is your experience, so do what feels right for you.

One of the best ways to remember your free will while performing a pathworking (or meditation) is to have a protective talisman. This is either a physical object or a thought-form that protects your spirit and body while you are journeying in the Otherworld. It could be a mantra or chant, a memory, or an ancestor, guardian angel, or spirit. You might find that your protective talisman is a stuffed animal; a picture of your daughter or son; a crystal, rock, or herb; or even a particular incense scent, like sage. Whatever form your talisman takes, it will remind you that should things become too uncomfortable in the Otherworld, you can leave and return to your own body at any time.

The following mini-meditation will help you find your protective talisman. As with all of the meditations in this book, I recommend recording the meditation onto a cassette tape or CD or having a friend or family member read it aloud, in order for you to truly experience the full power of the pathworking. Also, you might want to create a journal of some kind to record your experiences with each meditation. You can then look back on your notes and see if there are any connecting threads throughout the meditations or if they correspond to events that occurred in your everyday life.

Meditation to Find Your Protective Talisman

Take a deep breath, in through your nose, and out through your mouth. Take another deep breath, filling your stomach, your diaphragm, and finally your lungs. Hold this breath for five seconds ... 1-2-3-4-5 ... and exhale, allowing the breath to exit your lungs first, then your diaphragm, and finally your stomach. Take one more deep breath, and as you breathe in, feel the energy and the wonder of the world around you in your fingers, your toes, your legs, and your shoulders, even the top of your head. Hold the breath for seven seconds ... 1-2-3-4-5-6-7. As you exhale, feel all tension leave your fingers, your toes, your legs, and your shoulders, even the top of your head. Feel the ground under your body touching every nerve ending and muscle. The ground is warm and radiant. Continue breathing deeply, in through your nose and out through your mouth. Allow the earth to hold and support your body, cradling you in warmth and comfort. You have never felt so relaxed, so secure, so calm.

You are lying in a spring meadow. To your right is a forest. Birds play among the branches of the trees. You hear their sweet songs and see their intricate patterns against the sky. The sky is soft blue. Fluffy white clouds float above your head, cooling the rays of the bright, warm sun. You stretch and feel the heat suffusing every muscle in your body, making you more and more relaxed. A wooden staff of perfect height and weight rests next to you. It is made of oak and inscribed with symbols and glyphs of protection. (pause) You trace the carvings with your finger, and they glow with a golden gleam. You know that naught can harm you while the staff is nearby, guarding your resting form in a circle of light and security.

Inches from the staff, a bag rests next to you. Your fingers graze the soft material and pull the bag closer to you. Leaning up on one elbow, you look inside. What do you see there? A bouquet of wildflowers? A bird feather? A gleaming stone? Or something else, completely different? (pause) Whatever you see, take it out of the bag and lie down on your back. Rest the object on your chest, placing it over your heart. Feel the energy of your heart reaching out to this object, making it one with you and with the universe. (pause) This object protects you and is your gateway to the Otherworld. It allows you access to the houses of the gods, to the realms of angels, to the land of faery, and to the domain of our ancestors, where you can move and fly free. (pause) At the same time, this object connects you with your body here on the earth. If you should wish to return at any time, you need only touch the object and you will be once more in your body. (pause) The object sparkles brightly with the universal life force. It is warm and comforting in the palm of your hand. Squeeze the object lightly and place it in your pocket for safekeeping. Know that anytime you undertake a journey to the Otherworld, you need only reach your hand into your pocket and your protective talisman with be there.

Begin to focus once again on your breathing. Take deep breaths in and out, in and out. (pause) On the next deep breath in, feel the energy and the wonder of the world around you in your fingers, your toes, your legs, and your shoulders, even the top of your head. As you exhale, wiggle your fingers and your toes. Shake your legs and move your shoulders up and down. Take another deep breath and, as you exhale, move your head from side to side. Feel the ground under your body touching every nerve ending and muscle. Hear the rustlings of the people around you. Notice the movements outside. Continue breathing. Stretch your arms out above your head. You are returning to the present, to the here and now. Continue stretching. Continue breathing. When you are ready, open your eyes, blink and focus, and sit up.²

With your talisman in hand and your Witches' Pyramid intact, you are ready to embark on a life-altering journey into the realm of the Norse and Celtic goddesses! Each of the following twelve chapters focuses on a specific goddess and seeks to gift you with a deeper appreciation of self and a confidence that all is open to you in this world, if only you look within, unite with the divine, believe in yourself, and seize the opportunity. May the light of the Goddess shine down on you as you realize your full potential and create the life of your dreams!

2. The Meditation to Find Your Protective Talisman and the two paragraphs preceding it were taken from the author's book Goddess Alive!, 7-8.