So today I want to talk to you all about an another amazing blogger. She dedicates herself to the lore of England. To the Fae. To Arthur. And actually even to Goddesses.
So it’s not all about England either. Her latest post on Aphrodite April is amazing. So here I am showing you her best posts. Please follow her!
The Blodeuwedd and Guinevere Connection
Flower Brides, May Queens, High Queens: Archetypes in Analysis
~ All Hail the White Rose and Enchantress of Avalon ~
– M
“Praises to you O Lords and Ladies, blessings to you who answer prayers! Thank you for lifting me up high when I was low, for putting a smile on your child’s face once more!
If you remember yesterday’s post, I was in the middle of a Greek ritual. And for some reason I started spontaneously praying to the Gods for something other than my usual requests. In fact it was almost like my subconscious was coming out. Usually on Noumenia I ask for cleansing and purification with Apollon Noumenious. Or I ask Selene and Endymion for money since the moon and the Stars are associated with money.
And I work with Zeus Ktesios and Hestia on bringing prosperity to the Household. But I ended up asking for the original cold weather of my early childhood. Of waking up one morning and feeling the brisk chill. And seeing cirrus clouds in all of their feathery splendor. So I just went with it.
And this morning it was a beautiful grey day! When I was a child I loved days like this. When it would rain I used to pretend I was Captain Nemo. And I played with my maternal grandmother. Usually with a Nick Jr. cartoon or puppet show. My favorite was Eureka’s Castle.
The Tuatha de Dannan have recently been making their way back into my life. When I started out doing magic, like many I fell into Wicca. During this time, I was exposed to the many Gods and spirits of the people in the United Kingdom. And the Greek Gods. My Master even says the pantheon there is more like a “UK Pantheon”.
Because the cultures and peoples are so mixed in this area that no one culture can describe it. From the Welsh and the Irish, to the people of the Isle of Man and the West Country. I had worked as an eclectic witch for years. Then I decided that while I am very good at eclectic magic, I wanted to study and officially serve the Gods. In each of their cultures.
I had already initiated into Greek Polytheism/Paganism. But I still hadn’t reconnected to my Celtic roots. And I began to look around for a person to teach me. Properly. For a while that was a bust.
Until one day I found out that in my Greek Temple there was a Druid. And not just any Druid, but an elder in her tradition. I couldn’t believe my luck. Here she was. My Master.
Fast forward to the present. I have been studying them. And lately they have been very vocal. Besides the totem pole that I shared yesterday, I also have been giving them libations. And food.
And for some reason I thought of them when praying to Selene. The Tuatha are Faerie Gods. And many of the Fair Folk work with the moon. Maybe that’s why they entered my working. But I prayed with all my might.
Prayed for that chilly weather that makes me relive the happiest times of my early life. And the next day, they answered,
Some shots from the Balcony
My Balcony Garden
The Sun partially came out near the end but that was okay
Now I’m sure some idiot somewhere is going to come on here and say, this proves nothing. Or it’s coincidence. Let me say this : normally I would agree that it isn’t enough to be evidence. But lately our “spring” in Miami is more like Summer. Even for Florida, we have had historically high temperatures.
Courtesy of Global Warming. Some of the heat we have experienced hasn’t been seen since past centuries.
In fact, whenever the meteorologists claim a cold front will come, we don’t bat an eye anymore. Almost all cold fronts before this one have failed miserably. And they were stronger and had more of a chance of becoming cold weather than this meek little front. But instead we all saw a grey and cool day. With heavy clouds.
A good cool wind, and a gigantic smile on my face.
Praise be to the Gods, for the Shining Ones have answered prayer
– M
Cue all the disgruntled people in the more Northern states and countries. Coming here to tell me that I’m lucky that I live in a place that has the same temperature as Dante’s inferno. But I will say something of this place, the clouds tend to be beautiful.
I was celebrating the second day of the Noumenia here. And as I went through the litany of prayers that I have been doing today, I suddenly looked up. And I began to think. Was it thinking? No, I think I was praying again without being aware of it.
I was partially thinking of another group of Gods I worship, the Tuatha de Dannan. Not only the Gods and Faeries of Ireland, but one of the most ancient pre-human races that lived there once. Maybe it was because of the clouds. Both they and the Theoi and Theaia are called “the Shining Ones”. And in my mind I prayed in my own way,
“Please bring back the cool, the gentle winds with their fresh air. Please bring back the cool weather. Bring back those beautiful clouds I used to get up and see in the mornings in Miami. That fresh cold air when we did have cold here. One of the only good things I remember from my childhood.
Please bring back the morning mists. The damp dew of the early mornings. Bring back those sweet cold mornings with the frost of the old winter, which still rides the new spring air, bring back that which brings light to my life,”
I stopped, realizing I had accidentally said this in the middle of my official prayers. Or maybe it isn’t a mistake. Nothing done during ritual is ever a mistake. That’s what one of the Priests at my Hellenic temple always tells me. Maybe the ritual brought out what was in my heart.
So I went back to saying the words with an open mind.
“Let me relive the wonderful feelings of joy I had in school when I woke up on a cold morning. One of the few joys I had as a child. Let me feel alive again with these wonderful clouds and allow my soul to soar. Grant me what I ask. Please I beg of you.
Please O Shining Ones, bring to us the cold,”
For my Druid Master Nicole and my Hellenic Priest Tim, thanks for always being sources of knowledge, wisdom, and inspiration.
– M
Note* Some people celebrate this night on December 24th. But others do it since the 21st of December (Winter Solstice). I actually celebrate it three times : The 21st, 24, and 25th (midnight) of December. Since it’s still dark even though technically it becomes the 25th at midnight, I continue the celebration. So technically it’s only twice.
Tonight we await Winter Solstice. The time of darkness. The time of silence. Of the cold wind blowing against the windows at night. Or in Florida’s case, the cold waters that fall from the sky.
Tonight we settle into the darkness. And allow ourselves to truly be consumed by it. To travel beneath the trees. And to hide in their shade. To see our breath as we exhale it.
And prepare for our rites.
I’m sure a lot of people think this is pretentious. No one is actually going around doing this stuff right? Yeah tell that to my neighbors. They all see me do it and then freak out and run away. It used to bother me.
And I used to go out of my way to hide what I was doing. Finally I said, if someone were dumb enough to watch a magical rite let them. And let them pick up something they weren’t meant to pick up. So as tired as I already am this morning from all the work and preparations, I have to stay up at midnight to perform my sacred rituals. Specifically Spirit communication since tonight is Mother’s Night.
That also means a night of divination and preparation. A night of feasting and drinking. A night of being with your family. Huddled up towards a Hearthe fire. While the Yule Log is burning.
There are so many traditions here that it’s hard to name them all. So I think every year I will write about a different one. That way I don’t drive myself crazy trying to write an Encyclopedia Britannica everytime. Also I apologize ahead of time for typos.
I am working hard to sift between clients. Plus all the rituals I do and follow. But for now let’s talk about a tradition I love very much. And it’s weird because so far I am not a Nordic practitioner. At least not officially.
Yet this became a cornerstone of my practices in Yule.
Modranicht/Mōdraniht/Modranect (Night of the Mothers)
Essentially, this feast is the beginning of Yule for many Nordic practitioners. It’s dedicated to the Dísir. It’s basically a word for all female spirits. Female faeries and ghosts. But also your female ancestors and Goddesses.
They’re honored on this night.
Much even today remains unknown about the Dísir. And points of view of them vary by regions. German scholars think they are linked to a West German Cult dedicated to female spirits. While others think they are older. At mother’s night several sacrifices in the feast dedicated to them were performed, called dísablót.
An important thing to note here is that Blót or “sacrifice” does not always mean blood sacrifices. A blot could be pouring a libation of mead to a spirit or God. Or giving cooked food to a spirit or God. There are many types of Blót out there. Although it is believed animal sacrifices were offered during this time.
But there is no right or wrong way to do this.
“The Gods and Goddesses, landwights, and honored dead have always received physical offerings of various sorts. These ranged from simple pots of food left in bogs or graves, to golden vessels and great hoards of amber, to the spectacular sacrifices of an entire defeated army along with all its animals and gear, a practice confirmed by archeological discoveries at sites such as Hjortspring, Nydam, and Illerup (see Our Troth vol. 1, chapter 4). In the sagas, a devout worshipper of the gods is called blótmaðr mikill, ‘a great sacrifice-person.‘
Even after the coming of Christianity, people continued to leave offerings at holy springs and trees and fields, and in some areas continued to do so into the modern age. People also continued leaving out offerings to the spirits who guarded their homes and farms,” – Offerings for Norse Paganism | The Troth
In this respect, I see a lot in common with Norse and Celtic views on offerings. My Druid Master even told me that you could offer up swords in ponds or lakes to the Gods. Some were offerings and others were for magic. How badass would it be to offer an entire defeated army to your Gods and spirits? That’s some powerful magic right there. But back to the Dísir,
“Generally, a Dís (singular of Disir) was seen as a powerful supernatural being that took a keen interest in families and estates. Their strength could vary greatly. Sometimes, they were described as mere guardian ancestor spirits, but their power could also inflate to that of minor local gods. The Disir would usually use their power for good—they acted as guardians to families and family farms, and sometimes even lent their protection to individual people. Yet, they did not love unconditionally and were known to take revenge against families or people who had not given proper sacrifice, or had otherwise angered their respective Dís,” – The Mysterious Disir Of Norse Religion
In many ways this sounds a lot like the Agathos Daimon and the cult of the heroes in Greece. Note I am not saying that any of this is the same thing. I’m just pointing out interesting similarities. It seems at least some of the Dísir were probably Demi Goddesses, local spirits, or ancient heroines who offered protection and blessings. The national encyclopedia from Sweden makes that even more obvious.
“In Norse mythology, a dís (Old Norse: [ˈdiːs], ‘lady’, plural dísir [ˈdiːsez̠]) is a female Deity, ghost, or spirit associated with Fate who can be either benevolent or antagonistic toward mortals. Dísir may act as protective spirits of Norse clans. It is possible that their original function was that of fertility Goddesses who were the object of both private and official worship called dísablót,”
– Nationalencyklopedin (National Encyclopedia from Sweden)
But they all agree on the same thing. They were a collective of Goddesses, heroines, and regular female entities. And they were so powerful that apparently like the Nourns, they could manipulate fate. Which makes sense if you realize that this is a massive faction of spirits including Goddesses. Just with the Goddesses alone there is more than enough power to manipulate fate itself.
Now imagine every woman who has ever existed in every race. Both human and non human alike. No wonder even the male Gods and spirits feared them. There is no defending against such power. So Modranicht is a very special night.
And Modranicht especially holds a special place in my heart. I have always felt a pull towards it though I don’t know why. It feels like home to me. Later I will explain how this holiday is special to me in other ways. But now I have more or less defined who the Dísir are.
Now it’s time to define the other Mothers.
Matres/Matronae
What’s interesting here is that they are found not just in Nordic religion but all over Celtic religion as well. Their images and motifs seem to surround shrines of various countries. Going back to even before the Roman Empire. So who are they? The truth is we don’t know. We think they might be Triads of Goddesses who are aligned to each other.
But they could also be the same Goddess in Trinitarian form.
Whoever they are, they seem to be the main, all powerful spirit beings amongst the Dísir. Who they were and why they were so revered remains a mystery. What we do know from all the offerings granted to them, is that they granted a lot of prayers. The only thing we do seem to know about them is their origin is Germanic. This is based on their clothing in all of their depictions.
They’re appearance shows that they come from the Ubii tribe from east of the Rhine River. We know that their power is great. And this is shown by how they take leadership over the assembly of the Dísir. Even amongst Goddesses, they are the highest of the high. Could they somehow be the living embodiment of the primordial feminine?
Dísablót for the Dísir
In the case of the Matronae, we know what kinds of offerings they had because of the inscriptions on their votive stones. We know they received incense, pigs, bowls of fruit, and also decorations of fruits, trees, and plants. We also know that their worshippers would leave idols of them at holy temples or other buildings. So any of those things are good offerings to leave them. Well except for the poor piggies.
Sorry but I am of the opinion that sweet innocent creatures need to be left out of sacrifice. I have no problem sacrificing a wife beater or a child molester. Or someone who abuses the elderly. Just so long as I don’t get caught and arrested. Just kidding (or I am?).
But there’s something I learned in my temple when doing certain sacrifices. You can make an effigy of an animal or person to sacrifice. And you can bring it to life via rituals. Heck you can even just write what you want to sacrifice : a bad habit, an obstacle, or even a problem in your life and light the paper on fire. Simple.
The Dísarsalr
This was a huge building dedicated to the Dísir. And the altar where their sacrifices were given was the hörgr. From what little I have been able to gather (I am sure there are more learned sources than myself) there was a high priest and priestess. The priestess sacrificed an animal and “reddened” the altar with blood (Hervarar Saga). Now it doesn’t actually say it was a priest or priestess.
The one who reddened the altar was Alfhildr, the daughter of King Alfr. But she was performing this ritual herself. In many occasions, Royals assumed a priestly role in ancient religions. But later we see the Kings of Sweden perform the ritual themselves as high priests of the temple at Uppsala (Ynglinga Saga).
We know this because a King named Adils died while doing the ritual at the altar site. The ritual had something to do with him riding around the stone altar with his horse. Which is another magical tradition you can find in different cultures. Thus we know that men could and were also involved in a priestly capacity. So we know that the rituals could be gender neutral and done by anyone.
In the eyes of the Dísir, we’re all just mortals. And therefore not one of us is better than the other. Though I think it’s obvious women have a higher status. Given the fact that this celebration is focused on the sacred feminine.
My personal practice
This is my own version of the Modranicht feast. Part of it is eclectic and part of it is a reconstruction. I mostly follow my reconstruction based on personal research. Which I hope to find more answers and evolve this a little more. So I start with a family feast.
I have been blessed with a good mother and sister. They’re both pains in the ass but I love them. I buy a large dinner for the three of us and eat on the eve of the solstice. I give an offering to Goddess of the Home and Hearthe. All of them, before and after the food is eaten.
I do a special prayer to them. And I also honor all of my spirit guides in the name of my female spirit guides. I also honor both of my dead grandmothers and my dead cousin. I told you earlier I was going to tell you why this tradition is special for me. Ever since my grandmothers and my cousin died, it’s given me a way to touch base with them.
To honor them. To communicate and know the ways of the wise spirits. I honor my female Fae, and other spirits including heroines of the past. I give an offering of incense and flame, as well as fruits or vegetables to the Matronae. I also sacrifice something to them.
Usually bread. They seem to like the Cuban cheese bread that I offer to Hekate. So I give them that. Or Cuban bread. If you live near Cubans, you know you could live off that stuff.
Sometimes when I really have money I try to find German markets to get them food. But they also exist in Ireland and other places in Europe so sometimes I alternate. To the other Dísir, I give them a rare or medium rare steak. And I leave it on my chothonic altars outside. Let them eat through the animals.
If not that, then I give them whatever I could find that they would like. These offerings I give before midnight. As preparation. Then I take a cleansing bath to be pure. And I await till midnight.
I give my final offering at the stroke of midnight. A candle I burn for them. My personal Dísir. Those Goddesses and spirits to whom I give offerings. And many more whom I don’t know.
The Dísir who visit me aren’t just European. All the female Orishas join in. Female indigenous spirits like the Hopi Spiderwoman and the Hawk Maidan. I also converse with Sunna and Amaterasu. And I await the arrival of my grandmothers and cousin.
Who signal the arrival of my foremothers. I see them all coming down from on high.
Like they are descending from a beam of golden light, itself encompassed by a white light. And we begin to talk for about an hour or so. Because I have to get up early I can’t really talk the whole night like I used to. So I make arrangements for them to speak to me in my dreams.
And with that, here ends my writings.
🌚🎄🎅Some other links on Yule and Winter Solstice and the coming New 🌒🌑🌘
Celebrate the Winter Solstice with Sacred Foods and Feasting
Winter Solstice: 5 Rituals and Customs for an Auspicious Year
The Holly King and the Oak King
Contemplating Darkness on the Winter Solstice
WINTER SOLSTICE DECEMBER 21, 2022
Yule/Winter Solstice : The True New Year
The Story of Yule – How Vikings Did Christmas
Witch of the Week : Rhiannon and the Winter Solstice
“Tales and Wassails” episode for the midwinter nights
Where did the idea of Santa Claus come from?
– M
The Mexican version of All Saints and All Souls’ Day! With some indigenous flavor. Even though I’m Cuban and not Mexican. But I celebrate this day with a particular zest as if it was a Yoruba holiday. Other Santeros do as well. It’s mostly based on the Aztec version of the days of the dead.
The month of the dead for the Aztecs was in August not November.
Miccailhuitontili (Feast of the Little Dead Ones) for dead children. And Miccailhuitl (Feast of the Adult Dead). The original dates were August 9 and August 10. But with the coming of the Colonizing Spanish Empire, trying to forcibly convert the indigenous people, they changed the dates to All Souls and All Saints Day. Which is even funnier because those days were a Christianized version of the Celtic Pagan Samhain.
So Catholics, attempting to convert Pagans from an indigenous non European Pagan background, converted their holiday to a European Pagan background instead. So for me these two days are awesome for celebrating both! I have many images and videos to show you. But first, here’s my son on Halloween!
He was a Cuban Pimp for Halloween
On this day, the traditions of the indigenous peoples, mix with Folk Catholicism and Spiritualism. As well as Spiritism. Tomorow it will be the same.
And here are some videos!
– M
Watch this amazing 21 minute video on the differences and why people conflate the two of them. One of my favorite YouTubers.
A Modern Pilgrimage to the Isle of Lewis & Harris, Part 1 For a long time, I felt a soft but insistent tug to go to the Isle of Lewis & Harris, on …
Triple Goddess in the Land by Eline Kieft
The first time I had ever written an It came with the storm story was due to a hurricane that hit Honduras. The story was so fascinating and strange, I took time to transcribe it and translate it into English. I never thought I would end up creating a series on this. But here we are. And to make it stranger, it’s about something that happened here in Florida.
People say that “things” come with storms. That a storm is a doorway into another world. And spirits can hitch a ride on them to our world. That’s why the story from Honduras I translated didn’t surprise me. If anything it reaffirmed the old tales.
But most people don’t think anything like that could happen here in North America. The US and Canada are considered too modern for such superstitious fancies. Are they now? I’d argue there’s just as much strange activity in the Americas in our age as there is in our countries. And a series of such things happened during the Hurricane. So this is the story of, possibly, Florida’s Wild Hunt.
A Door Between Worlds
For many years there have been stories of portals in the sky. Opening at odd times and showing strange lights. And that can happen even under normal weather. Storms can tear into the dimensional fabric even more. How this is possible is unknown.
Science dictates you would need the power of a small star just to power a small worm hole. Although a spiritual being is an entity of a higher universe. And in theory they could conjure up power at a greater level at their finger tips. Is that what’s happening here? Do they just call up a storm with their power?
Or do they hijack an already existing storm? We may never know.
What is known, is that many people have reported strange things happening in storms. Even seeing strange things. Specifically during hurricane or tornados. In Ancient Times, Gods and spirits traveled the skies on storms. Which leads us to the Wild Hunt.
Essentially, the Wild Hunt is a Supernatural Hunting Party. Sometimes in the sky, or sometimes even on Earth. Wild Hunts very. Some are led by Faeries, and other are led by the Dead. Some are led by Gods and Folk Heroes.
Everyone from Odin, Arwyn, and Arthur have led Wild Hunts. Sometimes they’re led on land with wild dogs.
Always led on Horseback
Some are on land
And others are in the Sky
Wild Hunts were normally considered bad by most non magical people. Because it was believed the Hunters were pursuing evil spirits. And people were scared that witches were astral projecting as spirits to join the Wild Hunt. (1) Not that there’s anything wrong with that. In fact it sounds like good fun!
And they appear in almost every culture. From Polytheistic religions to Monotheistic religion.
The Hoofs on the Roof
But this time my family and I didn’t have to go through this. The storm went to Central Florida. A strange place to go to. The people there were so sure they would be missed, that even the authorities slacked off. Big mistake.
The Governor and local leaders didn’t bother issuing warnings to the populous until it was too late. And no one could do anything about it. And the storm roared forth. Like a giant wave of pain and darkness upon the land.
In addition to what you are seeing here, entire roads were either flooded or blocked by debris. But I won’t spend more time on this post on that. Instead I will talk about the strangeness. There was something weird about this storm.
Something the other storms never had.
The feelings in the air was just eerie. It wasn’t even Samhain yet and it felt like the dead were in the air. Some people think that when certain events are going to happen, spirits gather. Is that what was happening here? I wondered as I was throwing the trash out in the days preceding the landfall of Ian.
For many days we had all been feeling as if someone stepped on our graves. I prayed like crazy and left offerings wherever I could hoping we would be okay. In addition to all the weirdness we were all feeling in Miami, the storm seemed to be alive. I mean storms change courses all of the time. They are alive to a certain point.
But this was different. It seemed like it had a destination it was mapping out. And when it finally touched ground wreaking all that devastation, people talked about their experiences. A lot of people said it sounded like a freight train was hitting their houses. That’s to be expected.
Most hurricanes actually sound like that. Or they have this really deep whistle in the air. That’s how it was for me when I was a kid during Hurricane Andrew. It also sounded like the lightning was actually falling on the road. And it felt like a flood was about to crash through the barricaded front door of my house.
But then, weird stories started to come out of Central Florida. A few people were claiming that they heard what sounded like horse hooves running atop their houses. Now when I heard this, for some reason I felt this electric shock. Like that feeling you get when you know something. I felt like this was a sign of the Paranormal.
But just because I have a feeling doesn’t mean that I am going to come out and say “it’s the Wild Hunt,”. Obviously, that won’t ever be proven by science. What I can do is draw on my paranormal training to try and debunk what I believe. If I can disprove it then than means there’s at least a possibility that it’s nothing paranormal. And I would have to adhere to that unless I have proper proof.
I studied everything I could find online on storms.
I have been waiting since Ian and after Ian. I researched with the mind of someone who doesn’t believe in shit. Who believes there is a reasonable explanation for what happened. First I assumed it was that the storm sounded that way. So I looked up Hurricane sounds.
And while many articles and videos show that they can sound like freight trains or have those same whistle sounds I have heard, nothing about horse hooves. Nothing anywhere. And I used multiple search engines including DuckDuckGo. Nada. Zip.
Zilch. Next I tried psychology. And I tried to reason that because there is such a large farming community in Central Florida, people there reasonably associated storm sounds with sounds they might hear every day. Sounds they were used to. At first I went with that explanation.
But then I realized, that’s BS. We have many farms here in Miami. There’s a place called the Redlands. It’s an agricultural district with mostly wealthy families living there. Gigantic mansions and properties you couldn’t imagine.
Sometimes I just go there to watch the big houses and to buy fruit from the farms. And even in Miami, there are smaller farms and urban farms. Heck it’s not even outside of the normal to see random wild animals and farm animals in the city streets. I have a chicken that somehow made it into my apartment complex. We all feed her.
And I looked at the reports. None of the people who heard the horse hooves had farms. They were all regular people who lived in houses. I’ve probably been to more farms than they have. So it couldn’t be that.
And if living or being near farms would make us believe hear “horse hooves” in a hurricanes I would think we would associate those sounds the same way too. We have had hurricanes for years. And no one here or in any other part of Florida mentioned the hurricanes sounding like horse’s hooves. So that’s a bust too. After all this time researching and attempting to debunk it, it came up empty.
The only other explanation is Oh the Hurricane just happened to sound that way this time. Which is lazy thinking. I have heard half cocked bullshit explanations like that by skeptics and cynics alike. They always end up creating the most idiotic explanations and then pass them off as reasonable ones. I remember a Sheriff tried to tell a family that witnessed a UFO, that they had seen a large owl and became “hysterical,”.
And what’s worse is that the same BS is used by skeptics for that case. It’s a woman and her kids so they have to be hysterical. I am so tired of people who think that way. It’s a lack of intellect and just lazy reasoning. If you can even call it that.
Point is, there was nothing to debunk it outside of lazy reasoning and speculation. None of which holds up to scientific scrutiny. So it’s just as likely that it’s something paranormal as it is non paranormal. So debunking was a dead end. Time to do what I do best.
As the description from the article says, the Gods of death, sleep, and dreams were considered Gods of Prophesy. Normally I call them and other beings to give me dreams to tell me about stuff. But right now I can’t. I lost a friend and am mourning his death. According to Greek tradition that means I have a 13 day mourning and purification period.
But my Druid Master has told me the Tuatha dé Danann have no such restrictions. But instead of a God, I decided to call the spirit of a Druid Seer. I thought this would be a nice concession to all sides of my magical life. After all, as a British witch once told me,
“Why call Gods to know or do things when your dead Aunt Tilly or one of the Fae can easily do the same? If not better?”
So I spoke to an old friend……Fedelm.
Fedelm is a dead Druid poet and prophetess. She had exceptional powers when alive. And many people believed that her black eye brows were the sign of the triple iris. Showing that she was meant to be a Seer. Among her many powers is Imbas Forosnai.
A sort of trance state. Where one calls down the Gods to ask for answers to questions. I haven’t read about it in years. But I believe you need a triangular stone and raw ham and cheese that you chew in your mouth. Then you place the chewed up ham and cheese on the stone.
You put this behind the front door. And either sleep or enter a light lucid dreaming state. There you talk to the Gods and inquire what you will. Fedelm was a master of this ability, and probably didn’t even have to do this ritual all of the time to gain answers. She could predict anything at any time.
Even in death, a Prophet’s connection is strong. One would argue it’s even stronger. So I gave her an offering at my shrine for the dead. Invited her to come visit me. And went to bed.
My dreams were weird as fuck. It was like being in Woodstock. Sometimes in my sleep I was awake enough to know that I was talking out loud. Then I woke up and tried to piece together what I was dreaming. I remembered some bits.
I ignored the ones which were obviously my subconscious. But I paid attention to those things that were out of the ordinary. I dreamt of a tidal wave made up of people. But there was no water. Or rather there was.
They were hiding in the water.
In non-corporeal form. And yet they were still able to influence the physical world. I saw them rise up and create the storm from beneath the waters. They were restless. Some were just angry and wanted to destroy things.
And their faces were deformed. Some died of suicide and others of COVID. They were railing against the world. It’s not fair, I felt them saying. It wasn’t our time yet!.
And they just fused into this collective mass of dark water. And I could see lightning inside the water too. And hear many angry voices roaring from within it. And that’s when I woke up. My heart beating and me drenched in sweat.
I felt like I was there. Somewhere in the ocean. Like I had to be quiet so that I wouldn’t catch their attention. It was one of the most intense and fucked up visions I had ever had. Like these were people who died in 2020 and onward till now.
Or from the many suicides that happened in the pandemic. I waited, calmed down. And for the next few days I put it out of my head. And when I felt I was calm and centered enough, I tried normal divinations. And they all confirmed in one way or another what Lady Fedelm had told me.
Of course this is magical “evidence” for myself. I can’t expect any of you reading this to believe. And I’m sure other magic users in Florida have different opinions on the subject as well. But I know, and many of us here in Miami who felt it know, Ian wasn’t a normal Hurricane. Something did come with the storm.
And it’s wrath was terrible.
(1) The Wild Hunt by Frontier Partisans
Adventures of A Mage In Miami 