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Witch At The Crossroads: River Meditation

By Katrina Rasbold

The beginning of self-mastery comes from identifying where your energy goes and the impact it has when it gets there, balanced out with the necessity of maintaining a baseline of personal energy for your own needs. When someone has a total disregard for the needs of others or any concern about their impact on the people around them, we identify that behavior as a mental health disorder. When the reverse is true and a person gives to others beyond what their energetic reserves can support, we do not (usually) attach this behavior to mental illness, and yet, the effects can be personally devastating. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: River Meditation

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Witch At The Crossroads: Managing Psychic Attack

By Katrina Rasbold

In last week’s Witch At The Crossroads blog, we talked about symptoms of psychic attack and these may come from intentional malice or inadvertent ill will (like pouting and wallowing in anger). In this post, we discuss how to effectively manage psychic attack once it occurs or we suspect it has occurred. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: Managing Psychic Attack

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Witch At The Crossroads: Identifying Psychic Attack

By Katrina Rasbold

In researching for this article, I looked back over a blog post I wrote on Patheos Pagan in 2015 and wow, have my views ever changed! One of the great benefits to blogging and journaling is the opportunity to review and reconisder our position from years before and notice how much we learned in the interim. Back then, I had a more naive perspective on psychic attack and since that time, I have performed literally thousands of cleansings on people suffering from the effects of untreated psychic attacks, plus wrote a book on the subject. Where at that time, I considered true psychic attack to be uncommon, I now know it happens all the time. People are so much more comfortable slinging baneful energy around than I ever imagined back then. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: Identifying Psychic Attack

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Witch At The Crossroads: Breath of the Dragon

By Katrina Rasbold

An up and coming, fast-track, newbie Pagan I know recently referred to feng shui as “fluffy bunny magic.” I stared in amazement because, gentle reader, if taking the energy movement in your home seriously is fluffy bunny magic, then it is the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog. Little is more vital to your day-to-day magic than the energy flow you cultivate in your own spiritual sanctuary. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: Breath of the Dragon

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Witch At The Crossroads: The Power of Rain

By Katrina Rasbold

There is little doubt that rain is essential to life. Without it, life would not exist on planet earth. In times of drought, not only do we suffer economically and ecologically, but we also suffer emotionally and spiritually. Most people require a healthy balance of water to dry in order to thrive. Since our bodies are composed of a high percentage of water, we naturally relate to the humidity and water around us. Many people, even those who do not swim, are drawn to the water and enjoy standing in the ocean or in a river, just to participate in the kinship that exists between humans and water. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: The Power of Rain

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Witch At The Crossroads: A Different Kind of Spring Cleaning

By Katrina Rasbold

During this time of Spring Cleaning and the purging, it is important not to overlook home cleaning of a different kind. Just as we track in dirt on our shoes and hands, so do we bring in psychic debris from our ventures into the outside world.

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Witch At The Crossroads: 5 Common Energy Killing Beliefs

By Katrina Rasbold

Essential disclaimer: I do understand that some Pagans do not actively work magic, so this particular blog references those who do. My assessment of common mistakes energy-wielding Pagans make is not an attack on people who practice magic differently than I do. Goddess bless ya if it works for you. I openly and immediately concede that some of you may have had different experiences. This is, instead, an observation of what I have personally screwed up in over thirty years of practice, as well as what I observe in other Pagans who are challenged by the limitations of their own erroneous beliefs. Will any of these five issues cause Armageddon or create irreversible damage? Likely not. The worst that will probably happen is that self-imposed limitations will minimize your magical flow. Oh, how I wish someone had told me these things when I was just a little Witch rather than having to find them out on my own. So here we go: Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: 5 Common Energy Killing Beliefs

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Witch At The Crossroads: Pagan Etiquette

By Katrina Rasbold

If we are lucky, at some point in our Pagan lifetime, we will be invited to visit someone else’s ritual/grove/coven/circle/event to share in their practice. This could be at a public place such as a park or an event center or it can be at a private home or covenstead. In either instance, there are certain protocols of basic etiquette, tailored to Pagan practice, that are good to observe if you ever wish to be invited to another function. Keeping one’s name untarnished in the Pagan community is quite an extraordinary feat and it often starts with being a guest who maintains integrity and good manners. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: Pagan Etiquette

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Witch At The Crossroads: The Fool’s Journey

The Fools Journey Through the Tarot Major Arcana
By Katrina Rasbold

A common practice among those who make a serious study of the Tarot is to develop a story that takes The Fool, the first card of the Major Arcana, on a quest through the remainder of the Major Arcana until he ends up at The World card, having completed his quest and his cycle.

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Witch At The Crossroads: Where Are Your Power Eggs?

By Katrina Rasbold

Where does your energy go? 

Often, I hear even advanced magical practitioners talking about physical, mental, emotional, social, sexual, and magical energy as though these are somehow disconnected and unrelated to one another. Some even equate success as a Pagan leader with working well beyond healthy exhaustion of limits on those energy reserves. Anyone truly worth their Himalayan sea salt knows a deficit in any of these levels compromises them all and if you physically and mentally exhaust yourself, your magical energy suffers greatly. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: Where Are Your Power Eggs?

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Witch At The Crossroads: A Seat At The Table

By Katrina Rasbold

Every now and then, a person influential in your field of influence says or writes something so profound that the whole world seems to stop around you as you let the message sink in. This happened to me in February 2018 in San Jose, California when I attended a presentation by one of my favorite writers and lecturers, John Beckett. Every time I sit through any of his classes, I come away with some snippet that finds its way into my future teachings. For this presentation, his topic was “Alliances” and although he made this statement within a different context than I use it in this post, I was stunned (not for the first or the last time) by the raw truth in his words. John said, “Too many people expect a seat at the table when they bring little or nothing to the table.” Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: A Seat At The Table

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Witch At The Crossroads: Knot Magic

By Katrina Rasbold

It’s Knot Magic (Yes, it is magic!)

In my experience, one of the greatest magical focus tools of all time is the rosary. The intense concentration one can generate by praying the rosary is very nearly unparalleled across spiritual dividing lines.

In Paganism, we have our own form of praying the rosary that is slightly different, but accomplishes the same goal. “Knot Magic” is a very effective form of focused magic similar to praying the rosary, except that one instills their own intent into each “bead,” which is actually a knot. Here is how to do it:

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Witch At The Crossroads: Imbolc, Dawn’s Early Light

Imbolc is arguably one of our most underrated sabbats. If you do not study the value and impact of each of the eight sabbats, you lose balance on the wheel of the year, but for many Pagans, any celebration that is not Samhain or Beltane is met with limited enthusiasm… the sure sign of an amateur, truth be told. Sigh.

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Witch At The Crossroads: New Year’s Resolutions

By Katrina Rasbold

Did you make resolutions this year? Have you stayed true to them? How many times have you made the same resolutions over and over, year after year, each time more determined to succeed and more frustrated and dejected when you do not? How many times do the failures of previous years stand in the way of your success for the coming year? Repeated failures are a heavy load to bear.

If you are struggling and need to regroup on the resolutions, here are some ideas for tightening up and streamlining the process.
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Witch At The Crossroads: 22 Major Arcana Archetypes of Pagan Groups

Archetypes, labels, and cubbyholes. Did we invent them or did they invent us?

There comes a time when you are an old crone sitting back and watching the world turn when you begin to feel like there is nothing new under the sun. When something does spark interest as a new thought, new idea, new concept, new approach, it is exciting, breath-taking even. Mostly because it is so rare. I never imagined that I would be as jaded as I am, thankful for all of the wonders in the world, but bored with them all the same. And yet, here I am, jaded as the evergreens that grow around me and almost as old. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: 22 Major Arcana Archetypes of Pagan Groups

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Witch At The Crossroads: Jupiter Goes Direct

By Katrina Rasbold

On May 16, 2023, the planet Jupiter entered the sign of Taurus and on September 4, 2023, it shifted into a retrograde course. If you have paid even a cursory attention to astrological news, you already know that Mercury goes retrograde three to four times a year for approximately three weeks at a time. Jupiter, on the other hand, goes retrograde approximately every 13 months and stays retrograde for approximately four months each time. Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: Jupiter Goes Direct

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Witch At The Crossroads: Reading for 2024

By Katrina Rasbold

I do not usually do these types of readings because when we ask the cards a question, they respond based on the current energetic climate and where things are heading. To predict out for a full year means nothing changes from the moment of the reading, which is, of course, not a reasonable assumption on which to base a forecast. Even the reading itself is potential for change.

That being the case, I am doing this for Karen. I have three Karens in my life who I completely adore. I know other Karens, but man… these three… they just have my heart: Karen Albeck, Karen Jacoby, and Karen Stanley. One of the Karens asked me to do a 2024 reading and out of love and respect, I am doing it. <3 Continue reading Witch At The Crossroads: Reading for 2024

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A Winter Solstice Ritual

By Katrina Rasbold

The energy of this ritual is releasing the energy of Samhain and welcoming the spark of light that comes with the Winter Solstice/Yule. You will need six candles, one each in white, red, black, yellow, blue and brown. The God and Goddess invocation summons the triple aspect of both the Goddess and God for a duality working. It presumes a male-female Divine polarity, but could be adapted to accommodate any part of the gender spectrum. Continue reading A Winter Solstice Ritual

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Mercury Retrograde: Making It Work For You

By Katrina Rasbold

Author’s Note: For those who believe in magic but not in astrology, this post will hold no validity. Many of us use astrology and view the practice as a valuable and familiar magical tool. I wrote this post for those folks. The current Mercury Retrograde lasts from Dec. 13, 2023, to Jan. 1, 2024. Continue reading Mercury Retrograde: Making It Work For You