Living in Flow

Magical parenting, finding your purpose, and supercharging your magic

The weeks between Candlemas and the Spring equinox are fickle. This year for the first time since moving to the PNW, it snowed on my birthday. It was an unexpected but beautiful surprise. I am a desert rat by nature so asking me to drive in the snow is tantamount to asking me to fly a plane. What are you crazy?! So I made my husband drive me around like a chauffeur all week. I also snuggled up with some good books while looking out at my winter wonderland of a backyard and took my son sledding on the steepest hill of my neighborhood. It was truly magical. 

When I first moved here in 2021,  I discovered a lovely publication called The Wondertales of Scottish Myth and Legend. I highly recommend the audiobook if only for the delightful Scottish brogue of Jack Chekijian. It is a collection of old Scottish stories. 

My favorite is The Coming of Angus and Bride. It tells a tale of dark old Beira, the Queen of Winter. She longs to hold onto her power even as it fades with the coming of spring, so she keeps Bride, the peerless princess of spring, captive as her prisoner. Her son Angus, the ever-young, lives across the sea on the magical floating Isle of Summer. One morning he awakes from a dream and longs to rescue the princess. 

It is February though, which is called the Wolf month for its fowl temper. So he borrows three days from August and travels across the narrow sea to rescue her. Beira is enraged by this and slams her hammer against the ground and frost spreads across the ground. She mounts her black steed and gathers her 8 hags who ride hairy goats and bids them “Ride to the north and ride to the south! Ride to East and ride to the west! And I shall go forth also!  I am declaring a war on all growth!” And they fly about the skies causing winds and storms. She and her hags fight Angus continuously from brides day to spring. Each day they become a bit weaker and he begins to gain the upper hand. 

Then Beira borrows back the three days of February that Angus pushed aside and this is the worst snowstorm of all.  After this, Angus beats back Beira and her hags and she retreats to the spring of youth to drink from it and become young again and fall into a deep sleep. Angus is reunited with Bride and they are crowned the King and Queen of Summer. 

I love to retell this story to my son at this time each year. It so perfectly encapsulates the strange weather that characterizes this season. 

This Sunday was also the first Sunday of Lent. I am not abstaining from anything but rather adding in devotional work. I think this is a better fit for the season. I awoke at sunrise and made prostrations to the sun in the form of sun salutations. I followed this with 10 mins of meditation, 10 mins of energy work, and 10 mins of prayer before heading off to church. I frequent an Episcopal church. I rather like them because they ordain women and the LGBTQ+ community and are generally very progressive in their politics while at the same time, very traditional in their liturgy and customs. 

I do this not because I feel the need to worship Christ or any god really. It connects me to my ancestors in a chain of prayers and songs and repetitions of ritual going back thousands of years. I find this comforting and it pleases my ancestors. 

This was my first Lent and I was excited to partake in my first great litany. The bells rang out and the Deacon called out his parts as the church sang back. The Deacon was followed by someone carrying a cross shrouded in a purple veil. He was followed by the choir and finally the Rector. They sang their parts with the rest of the church slowly walking in circles around us as bells continued to ring out signaling the next verse. It was as if they were creating a magic circle around the church for protection. I found the whole thing fascinating! There is so much untapped ritual magic in the church. 

Repeating the rituals of the liturgical year puts me into relationship with both the seasons and my ancestors. It feels like being in flow and in right relation with my spirits of place.

This kind of flow is where the magic happens. It where you find your place in the world and suddenly start following your purpose.

Being in flow makes the magic work better. It’s why magical timing is so important. Timing with the moon as it waxes and wanes. Timing with the week as it shifts from one planet to the next, and timing with the month. Be it lunar mansions or my very favorite, the lunar days from the Hygromanteia. It’s a very simple system where each day has a specific magical goal. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend the Lunation Rite written by Ivy Bromious over at Circle Thrice. There is something about this ritual that really supercharges all your magic! I’m not disciplined enough to do this all year but I plan on doing a round at the equinox. I would love it if you would join me! 

The last piece to staying in flow is to plan, divine, and reassess. I have several ritual spiritual cleanings planned between now and spring. But the best way to know how much, when, and where is through divination. 

My very favorite form of divination is Geomancy. It’s a system of sortilege that forms figures into a shield chart. These can be placed into an astrological chart and interpreted. I will dive deeper into Geomancy in another post but suffice it to say, it works and it’s the most accurate form of divination. Just ask old Uncle Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa. 

This time of year, I like to ask the spirits where I need renewal in my life and then follow through. Then I divine again and see how it went! I’m always amazed when I bother to include them in my plans how well things seem to go. It’s just like being in flow. 

Till we meet again.