The Snow has Fallen

Yep. First snow fall of the year. Funny how up here in the Great White North, snow is not as commonplace as some of our friends from the south might think. Not along the southwest coast anyhow.
I bottled ten bottles of mead today. I made some labels for them with my very lacking labelling program. Moon of Akellare Mead. Our coven name.
The mead is VERY dry, and is maxed out at the 18% that our Lalvin 1118 allowed.
Hopefully, with some aging, it will taste less like mildly flavoured whiskey, and more like the honey/berry wine it should. (though I AM a big fan of whiskey, so that's okay too)
I had the reverend from Carman United Church over for tea. She's really nice. Being the eclectic Witch/Gnostic that I am, I decided that until I can get some people interested in an AJC (Apostolic Johannite Church) out this way, that I want to attend church. Not just any church, but one that can allow me the comfort of connecting with God in my own way. The United Church of Canada recently adopted A Song of Faith as "a timely and contextual statement of faith, with a view to circulation throughout the whole church for study and response while honouring the diversity of our church and acknowledging our place in a pluralistic world and in an ongoing and developing tradition of faith"....
I sort of stumbled upon it one day not long ago and thought... wow. I really like this.
Now, although it appealed to my Gnostic self, and my Witch self, I don't take to heart the term 'Creator', as I don't see the 'creator' god as the Divine God. This flawed world in which we live seems to display too much of the mark of a demiurge of sorts. This is the existence which we fell into. And I'm just trying to find my way home. When this Song of Faith calls God the Creator God, for my own mind's peace, I read it as just THE BIG GUY, the Emanator ... The Ineffable... and of course, any mention of sin, well to me, to sin merely means to Miss the Mark.. to err. So really, I can find alot of inspiration in many things I read, when I read it with my X-Ray Gnostic Goggles on ;)

Here is a part of the Song of Faith:

"Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We also speak of God as

Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer

God, Christ, and Spirit

Mother, Friend, and Comforter

Source of Life, Living Word, and Bond of Love,

and in other ways that speak faithfully of

the One on whom our hearts rely,

the fully shared life at the heart of the universe.

We witness to Holy Mystery that is Wholly Love.

God is creative and self-giving,

generously moving

in all the near and distant corners of the universe.

Nothing exists that does not find its source in God.

Our first response to God’s providence is gratitude.

We sing thanksgiving.

Finding ourselves in a world of beauty and mystery,

of living things, diverse and interdependent,

of complex patterns of growth and evolution,

of subatomic particles and cosmic swirls,

we sing of God the Creator,

the Maker and Source of all that is.

Each part of creation reveals unique aspects of God the Creator,

who is both in creation and beyond it.

All parts of creation, animate and inanimate, are related.

All creation is good.

We sing of the Creator,

who made humans to live and move

and have their being in God.

In and with God,

we can direct our lives toward right relationship

with each other and with God.

We can discover our place as one strand in the web of life.

We can grow in wisdom and compassion.

We can recognize all people as kin.

We can accept our mortality and finitude, not as a curse,

but as a challenge to make our lives and choices matter.

Made in the image of God,

we yearn for the fulfillment that is life in God.

Yet we choose to turn away from God.

We surrender ourselves to sin,

a disposition revealed in selfishness, cowardice, or apathy.

Becoming bound and complacent

in a web of false desires and wrong choices,

we bring harm to ourselves and others.

This brokenness in human life and community

is an outcome of sin.

Sin is not only personal

but accumulates

to become habitual and systemic forms

of injustice, violence, and hatred.

We are all touched by this brokenness:

the rise of selfish individualism

that erodes human solidarity;

the concentration of wealth and power

without regard for the needs of all;

the toxins of religious and ethnic bigotry;

the degradation of the blessedness of human bodies

and human passions through sexual exploitation;

the delusion of unchecked progress and limitless growth

that threatens our home, the earth;

the covert despair that lulls many into numb complicity

with empires and systems of domination."

At Spiral Inward, a thread was posted about Jesus Outside Christianity. A blog post by a woman who had an experience in which she connected to Jesus, as a Pagan. It was a really nice read. You can check it out here A Non-Christian Experience with Jesus.

For the years I spent in the Craft, solely as a Witch, although I had alot of fun, for me it was lacking. Too much of it felt like dress up, or smoke and mirrors. Not to say it is fake, or that it feels this way for everyone... but for me it just didn't pull my spirit. No, Goddess did not talk to me, and no specific deity called my name. But when I read about Sophia and Jesus the Christ/Logos... it hit a nerve. I had been reading alot about where our ritual as Gardnerians had come from, and that led to Crowleyish stuff (not surprising, as he wrote Gardners rituals), which ended up leading me to Gnosticism. Now, working with Hermetics as a system, and Gnosticism as my spiritual belief... Wow.

That's all I can say.

I feel it. The presence of Archangels, the connection to my Chokmah and Binah and Sophia and Christ, and... The Divine. Finally. After all these years of spiritually searching, I stumbled upon the path home. I know I'm not done.. NOwhere near it, but I do know that at least I finally am BEGINNING to understand,

Who I was

What I have become

Where I was

Where I am going

From what I am being freed of

What birth is

What rebirth is

It is a bit of a slow process. But it is progress. And my heart is filled with joy. (even as the dark shadows stir unhappily at being exposed to the light)

With all these thoughts floating around in my head, I can say I am looking forward to Christmas. The return of the Sun. The re-birth of myself.

*Thanks to Father Scott+ for starting the Seven Questions Thread.