Samhain

Samhain this year was much more eventful than Mabon, which unfortunately is one of those sabbats which I often neglect to mark as it's usually moving time. On Thursday night I did my own ritual, and my mini altar ended up looking pretty swish given the limited resources I had to hand. My little ritual consisted of meditations to old Loreena McKennitt favourites 'All Soul's Night' and 'Dante's prayer', and the bulk of it consisted of writing things I wanted to get rid of on pieces of paper and burned them in a bowl, disposing the ashes to the four winds out my balcony window. The smoke went everywhere somewhat but I'm sure Spirit got the message. I also did two rune casts, Samhain night being the best night for divination, one for a general overview, and one for advice in what to put energy into manifesting over the coming year. Afterwards I went to the Halloween special of the weekly Beerlingual pub quiz (which I did badly at as usual lol.)

On Saturday I braved a trip to the wilds of Getafe (or so it felt for how long it took to get there) in the South of Madrid where I took part in a ritual recommended to me by someone in the Espiral group. It was in the local civic centre and we had a lot of space in a room used as a gym space for the fifteen of us to work in. They had me cleansing the space and calling in and out Fire in the South (which of-course I ballsed up, as I always do when I have to say something of any length in Spanish that I can't read off a sheet.) Funnily enough once again we had the task of putting things into knots in a cord that we wanted to get rid of and burning them in a central cauldron (great minds think alike), and the rest of the ritual consisted of meditations with ancestor candles, song and dance. As for the journey back, well I'd like to say I've got a firm grip on the Madrid public transport system - this journey back flushed that down the toilet. But hey, on the plus side, we all got hideously lost together so it was at least an opportunity to get to know some of the lovely faces there. :) Til next time. xx

Espiral 1

Espiral 1 took place the 26th and 27th October, and is the Spanish version of the first course of Reclaiming training. Having taken something similar online in English I was able to follow the course content more easily than the rest of the group despite the obvious difficulty with the language barriers. We began with a lecture on the history of Paganism in Spain, then went onto temple chakra dance (opening the chakras with dance.) We raised energy and drew oracle cards (moon cards and deity cards) and had their meanings explained to us:

I tried to get the most out of the meditations we did but my mind tends to wander during meditations in Spanish as it's so much harder to concentrate on the words. The first day was 11 hours of rapid-fire Spanish which in itself was exhausting and it's annoying being so much more tired than everyone else when I want to engage as much as possible.... and also hungrier than everyone else lol. Mealtimes is one of those things I simply won't adjust to, yet the entire working day/ school day/ anything day that involves other people or even leaving the flat (if you want to go to the shop lol) is structured around it. We had lunch around 2:30, and the workshop was scheduled to finish at 9. So around 7 the instructor said, ok, if you want to go out and get some chocolate and a coffee or something, we'll have a short break now.... so I shit you not we hiked to the nearest supermarket, sat in a coffee shop and filled up on hot drinks and snacks. Now really, Spaniards.... why snack all evening just to eat dinner when you get home at 10 when you can eat dinner at a sensible time. Arghhh! Anywho the ritual at the end was nice, (something we helped put together in groups), and one of many nice Spanish quirks of ritual is to have a mini altar for each element, so here they were for Espiral 1:

The next day we went to the park on a bright and sunny morning to do work with the Iron and Pearl pentacles (I did Iron online last year and am now in the middle of Pearl, work I explained to them was more detailed in the online English version but it was really nicer in a group.) We explored the points of the Iron and Pearl Pentacles and other pentacles too I hadn't worked with before, and learned there were different movements for each one, in a kind of stadha/ yoga type approach which I liked.
Espiral 2 will take place with the same group in mid-December, conveniently just after I finish Pearl Pentacle in English :).
xx