{"id":116,"date":"2011-07-18T07:35:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-18T12:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.wordpress.com\/2011\/07\/18\/farmhouse-seance-or-babys-first-circle"},"modified":"2011-07-18T07:35:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-18T12:35:00","slug":"farmhouse-seance-or-babys-first-circle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/2011\/07\/18\/farmhouse-seance-or-babys-first-circle\/","title":{"rendered":"Farmhouse S\u00e9ance (or, Baby\u2019s First Circle)"},"content":{"rendered":"

After the wedding<\/a>, Aradia and I drove south to meet and camp with Pasiphae and Aidan (and their two daughters) somewhat east of St.Louis, in the rural regions whence both Aradia and Adrian hail.\u00a0 The weather quickly drove us back to Aidan\u2019s family land \u2013 where we had intended to meet at some point anyway and fantasize about converting it to a covenstead-slash-commune.\u00a0 Through a series of miscommunications and Great Moments in You Had to Be There, Aradia and I ended up at the farmstead almost an hour ahead of the others.\u00a0 Though the GPS led us to the address without difficulty, the nature of rural areas made us uncertain that we were in the right place, and we approached the house with caution.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Aradia approached first, only to retreat in surprise: the house did not like her.\u00a0 So of course I had to investigate for myself, receiving a similar rebuff: we were not the people who belonged there.\u00a0 Though the house was unlocked, and nature called loudly, we waited outside.\u00a0 It was only when a family member arrived to work on the plumbing and to show us in that the house accepted our presence.<\/p>\n

When Pasiphae and Aidan arrived, the feeling of uninvited faded further \u2013 though Pasiphae confessed that she had always felt it, as well,\u00a0 and Araida and myself continued to feel scrutinized.\u00a0 Aidan gave us the grand tour of the house, the crumbling sheds, the barn with the fallen wall at the pig wallow where a town drunk had fallen in and been devoured in his grandfather\u2019s time.\u00a0 The feeling of being watched grew stronger.\u00a0 Aradia and Pasiphae grew increasingly nervous, though for myself the strongest impression I got was one of \u201cWhat the fuck?\u00a0 These people can see me!\u201d\u00a0 There was talk of doing divination to see what was going on (or had gone on) with the house and the land.<\/p>\n

I felt watched, bordering on leered at, as I showered in the basement.(1)\u00a0 Later in the evening, Aidan and I went on a run for ice and beverages, leaving Aradia and Pasiphae alone in the house with the daughters, Things One and Two.\u00a0 They were thouroghly freaked when we returned.\u00a0 Pasiphae reported being watched from outside the living room window; Aradia reported that Pasiphae slipped into trances.\u00a0 As we continued to discuss the events and possible options \u2013 divination, circle-casting, ways to protect the children\u2019s dreams – a light bulb exploded in Aidan\u2019s hands, which he took as a warning to \u201cbe careful what you say.\u201d<\/p>\n

The whole situation reminded me of my first exorcism<\/a>; perhaps that explains was why I was as cautious as I was.\u00a0 I took out my Robin Wood deck and began asking questions: What will happen if we try to contact the spirits of the house and land?\u00a0 How much of this drama did we bring with us?\u00a0 The first answer was unclear, but the second was crystal: most of it.<\/p>\n

It seemed inappropriate to just say that at the time, though, so I spent the next few minutes talking everyone down to the best of my ability.\u00a0 That done I suggested a plan of action: use one of the poker decks that lived in the house to ask a yes\/no question, \u201cWould you like to talk to us?\u201d, before casting a circle to shield the girls and their dreams (to say nothing of ourselves and our own.)\u00a0\u00a0 The answer we received was a resounding \u201cyes\u201d, so I put on my ritual jewelry (including the recently dedicated bracelet) and we cast the circle.<\/p>\n

Pasiphae sat on the couch, holding a sleeping Thing Two.\u00a0 The rest of us sat on the floor, Thing One safely in Aidan\u2019s lap.\u00a0 As always, we cast the Circle hand-to-hand in silence.\u00a0 Thing One sat there quietly, at first \u2013 willing to endure what was expected of her for the moment.\u00a0 Then she started smiling.\u00a0 She reached out, grabbed Pasiphae\u2019s foot (which Aidan was also holding, as her one hand was on mine and her other was holding Thing Two), and Aradia\u2019s hand.\u00a0 The Circle suddenly had five points instead of four.\u00a0 A shit-eating grin spread across her tiny face; she was so high on power that I could feel it over my own.<\/p>\n

I got out my cards and told them to start asking questions.\u00a0 I started again with the Robin Wood deck, but switched to Crowley Thoth almost immediately:\u00a0 Aradia and Pasiphae have only ever used the Thoth deck, and I was being ridden too hard to help in the interpretation.\u00a0 They asked questions, I laid out cards \u2013 one, two, three, or more as the spirits of the house and land moved me.\u00a0 Occasionally I was able to offer input or clarification, but not often.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Thank the gods Pasiphae took copious notes, because I don\u2019t remember much of the details.\u00a0 Those spirits rode me hard.\u00a0 I remember that there were at least three of them: the house, a guardian of the land, and at least one other.\u00a0 I remember that it was very clear that they were no ghosts: none of them had ever been human.\u00a0 I remember that they were asking the wrong questions, but I couldn\u2019t tell them what the right question was \u2013 \u201cWhat would you like to say to us?<\/i>\u201d\u00a0 Finally, I reached a point of exhaustion, and Thing One was starting to get twitchy.\u00a0 They asked a question that I hoped was close enough \u2013 \u201cWhat would you like to happen?<\/i>\u201d \u2013 and we closed the Circle.<\/p>\n

Thing One didn\u2019t want to ground.\u00a0 She ate every bit of power we released as we undid the Circle.\u00a0 Pasiphae and I did our best to drain her back out, but she hung on to as much as she could with that same shit-eating grin.\u00a0 Within ten minutes, she was out like a light.<\/p>\n

The whole farm house seemed much more calm.\u00a0 Everyone was more relaxed.\u00a0 The children were safely asleep.\u00a0 We were proud of ourselves.\u00a0 Aidan was securing the children in their beds; Aradia was having a celebratory smoke.\u00a0 Pasiphae and I were still in the livingroom, and it hit us like a ton of bricks: I felt the energy like a punch to the spine, just a little above my One Point, and surging out to my limbs.\u00a0 We both nearly broke down and cried.\u00a0 I slid off my chair, grabbed the tarot deck again, and laid out a basic 10-card spread (which I almost never use, favoring my Two Pillars variant).<\/p>\n

Here were the answers to the question they were supposed to ask.\u00a0 The house and the land needed change.\u00a0 They could not stand being abandoned.\u00a0 They needed a caretaker.\u00a0 And they were damn glad to have had the chance to talk to anyone.<\/p>\n

We all slept shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n

(1) Though I later concluded it was Frigga\u2019s handmaidens (remember the wedding<\/a> invocation?) ogling me, not the house or the land.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After the wedding, Aradia and I drove south to meet and camp with Pasiphae and Aidan (and their two daughters) somewhat east of St.Louis, in the rural regions whence both Aradia and Adrian hail.\u00a0 The weather quickly drove us back to Aidan\u2019s family land \u2013 where we had intended to meet at some point anyway … Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[258,265],"class_list":["post-116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-witchcraft","tag-stories","tag-talking-to-spirits"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8kUcm-1S","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journeythroughtheobsidiandream.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}