Kitchen Magic
Oct. 16th, 2019 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
callunavOnce upon a time, I was at a week-long pagan retreat/workshop (the Vermont Witch Camp as run by the Reclaiming Collective, if anyone's familiar) and I had a ritual go sideways on me and was really upset and sort of...thrown off afterward. So, the second day after, when I was still feeling that way, I sat down with one of the teachers and tried to explain how confused and unhappy and tangled up I felt.
She listened, and made comments/asked questions that showed she was paying attention. When I was done, the first thing she asked me was whether I had washed my hair since the ritual in question.
I thought about it and said, no. She nodded, and suggested I do that. I think she made one or two other small suggestions that I could try immediately, and she said she thought it was likely it would start to settle. However, if it hadn't by the time I got home, she suggested that I get a 7-bean soup mix, pour it out, and sort all the ingredients into separate piles. She said, sorting something outside yourself helps sort things inside yourself.
Washing my hair did, in fact help, but I was still feeling a little off when I got home. Since, at the time, I had more than seven different kinds of grains in the house, I didn't bother with getting a pre-prepared soup package, and mixed myself a large handful of different kinds of rice and barley and oats and so forth. And sorted it out again into little piles.
It helped amazingly. I've used the same thing again at different points, and still keep a small glass jar full of a mix of grains as one of the many items in my altar.
As a pagan, I deeply respect and admire magic and ritual that is practical and uses the things we have around us in every-day life.
As a therapist (yeah, you knew the work angle was coming), I respect and happily make use of the reciprocating effect between body and emotion, inner and outer. So, since I don't think bean soup would really be considered appropriate in my office, I'm getting a whole lot of different sizes and colors of inexpensive plastic beads, and will set that up with a small scoop and some little ziploc bags, to give people to take home and sort and see if they can't get their own thoughts and feelings sorted out as they do. Won't work for everyone - nothing works for everyone, just as nothing works every time - but if it works even once, it's worth it. (Especially because I can get 1350 assorted beads for about a dollar on Ebay.)
She listened, and made comments/asked questions that showed she was paying attention. When I was done, the first thing she asked me was whether I had washed my hair since the ritual in question.
I thought about it and said, no. She nodded, and suggested I do that. I think she made one or two other small suggestions that I could try immediately, and she said she thought it was likely it would start to settle. However, if it hadn't by the time I got home, she suggested that I get a 7-bean soup mix, pour it out, and sort all the ingredients into separate piles. She said, sorting something outside yourself helps sort things inside yourself.
Washing my hair did, in fact help, but I was still feeling a little off when I got home. Since, at the time, I had more than seven different kinds of grains in the house, I didn't bother with getting a pre-prepared soup package, and mixed myself a large handful of different kinds of rice and barley and oats and so forth. And sorted it out again into little piles.
It helped amazingly. I've used the same thing again at different points, and still keep a small glass jar full of a mix of grains as one of the many items in my altar.
As a pagan, I deeply respect and admire magic and ritual that is practical and uses the things we have around us in every-day life.
As a therapist (yeah, you knew the work angle was coming), I respect and happily make use of the reciprocating effect between body and emotion, inner and outer. So, since I don't think bean soup would really be considered appropriate in my office, I'm getting a whole lot of different sizes and colors of inexpensive plastic beads, and will set that up with a small scoop and some little ziploc bags, to give people to take home and sort and see if they can't get their own thoughts and feelings sorted out as they do. Won't work for everyone - nothing works for everyone, just as nothing works every time - but if it works even once, it's worth it. (Especially because I can get 1350 assorted beads for about a dollar on Ebay.)
no subject
Date: 2019-10-17 12:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-18 02:29 am (UTC)