Happy Beltane, Witches!

Can you hear your calling calling you?

Beautiful Lithuanian grass works by Gintvilė Giedraitienė.

Happy Beltane, Witches!

10 years ago, you might say I was still in my apprenticeship.

I’d already been leading small public rituals for four years, but I didn’t yet feel confident in my direction yet as a public witch.

All I knew was that I could feel a tug, and I had to follow it.

I suspect you know what that tug is, even if you don’t KNOW you know yet. 

The tug is Ariadne’s thread, looped around your heart, helping you find your way to your sacred homelands.

The tug is a fascination, a draw that keeps pulling you towards something, even though you don’t know why. 

The tug is your destiny calling out to you. To get to your destiny, you have to turn, and walk towards it.

Your calling will show up in your life as an interest that won’t go away.

The Seed Guardian, by Holland Otik.

Maybe it’s a fascination with the image of Medusa (like I talk about in my book, INITIATED: MEMOIR OF A WITCH). Or maybe it’s a tug to stop on your daily walks to touch every plant. Or maybe it feels like an addiction to buying certain kinds of fabric, even though you don’t know what you’re going to do with it all yet.

What I’ve learned is that if you follow your calling, eventually, you find your way home.

For me, I’m home in my life when I feel like a) I belong here, and b) even when it’s hard, I know I’m supposed to be here, doing what I’m doing. 

Home is when you know that the place you’re in needs you as much as you need it.

Rather than feeling scary and burdensome, the needs of home feel liberating.

Here’s a picture of the Summer Solstice retreat venue. The top floor is the place where we’ll be holding our rituals.

Anyway, I’m thinking about all of this because this week is the last week I will be offering the opportunity to join my Summer Solstice 3-Day Retreat on June 21, 2024.

As it happens, I recently realized that the venue where we will be holding the event in Sierra Madre, CA, is the first place I took a 3-Day retreat with one of my own teachers, Amanda Foulger.

Of course, I had no idea that 10 years later I’d be leading my own retreats there at the same location. It didn’t even cross my mind, all I did was just follow the tug, and with patience and perspicacity, the rest took care of itself. 

Delightfully, at that same retreat, we did a divination practice with a stone, where I saw a symbol that ended up leading me to… the PhD program I’m currently attending at UCLA. 

It makes me laugh to think of how our path unfolds in life.

Here’s a pic of me making a photo pout in the Summer Solstice retreat venue, where I was - by coincidence - last year on Halloween. I was a joy fox <3.

When I signed up for that 3 day retreat with my teacher, it was just because I felt drawn to it. I didn’t know why, I just felt a pull of curiosity and joy — and now I know, that’s what our calling feels like.

Our calling knows things that we don’t, it can see futures that we haven’t even dared to imagine for ourselves.

So if my retreat feels interesting to you, if you feel curious and joyful about it, consider following your call! Friday is the last day the books will be open for it this year, there are only a few spots left, and…

… Beltane (today) feels like an auspicious time to commit to the journey!

Hope to see you there! More info below.

Beltane Blessings,

Amanda

P.S. If you want to know more about the holiday of Beltane, you can read more about it in my post from last year, including a Beltane Blessing, here.

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Painting by Asja Boros.

SUMMER SOLSTICE RETREAT INFO

In this retreat, you’ll learn foundational skills that will support you in life and in witchcraft (and in your business or your artwork, or whatever else it is that you’re seeking to nourish in your life). You’ll need the skills you learn here to do future more advanced workshops with me in the future.

Skills You’ll Learn

• Circle Casting

• Grounding, Centering, Shielding

• Altar building

• Trance work to call in a Familiar

• Scrying Divination

• Prayer to conjure herbs and work with the spirits of the land

• 3 songs/chants to use in your practice

• 1 dance to raise energy (variations for all levels of ability)

Ceremonies and Rituals

• Litha (Summer Solstice) Ritual: to honor and invoke the power of the summer sun

• Brigid’s Healing Ceremony: for power, inspiration, and skill

• Fetching Your Familiar: a ritual to get you a spirit guide, or strengthen your relationship to one you already have

Joy & Rejuvenation Practices

• Yoga (my brother – who is a FANTASTIC yoga instructor specializing in back pain – will be leading these)

• Breathwork (for all levels)

• Meditation

• Mythology and Storytelling

• Working with the solar deities

• A gentle hike to a waterfall (optional)

• Healthy food

• Singing and chanting

• Dancing! (my favorite cure for the blues)

To find out more, or to book your place on the retreat, click the link below.