Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Love and Hate

I have come to the realization that love is infinite, and hate is not.

Hate, being a negative emotion and energy, must be generated from some source within the person or thing radiating the hate. Love, on the other hand, is everywhere. It is a positive emotion and energy, and has no bounds.

I say it has no bounds because if we look at this logically rather than theologically, there are couples who stay together forever. My grandparents on my mother's side, for example. They married right out of high school and were married until my grandfather died. Grandma is not looking to date anybody else, because her love for him is still present and very strong. She continues to generate it. When a person dies, usually the hate a person is generating will slope off and eventually die as the hater goes through life having no more contact with the person who died.

Also, if you strip away the emotional aspects of those two words, and even the words themselves, what are you left with? Positive and negative. In my experience, positive energy is very easily pulled from your surroundings for anything you need it for - be it keeping you awake, magickal workings, healing, or any number of other reasons. Negative energy, however, is very hard to come by, and even if you find a large deposit of it somewhere you won't be able to pull it from said deposit easily. It just will not budge without a LOT of persuasion. (I know, I tried.)

Why is that, do you think? The only logical conclusion I can draw is that there is an abundance of positive energy and a shortage of negative energy in our natural environment. (yes, we are a part of that.) If there were no hate, there would be peace... because that is the natural state of the world. Peace is also attributed as a positive thing. Nobody and nothing likes holding on to negative energies - it breaks down whatever it touches, leaving the container it was in with smoldering holes in the mind and body. in nature, sufficient amounts of negative energy can kill plants. (granted this is a HUGE amount we're talking about here, but it's true.) that same amount of positive energy will act like miracle grow to the same plant.

emotions = energy created from the heart itself. The mind can start, stop, stimulate or depress the creation of said emotion, but it is created at the heart. If we are part of our environment, then we'd react the same way to positive and negative energies. Nobody is angry all the time - our natural state is a state of peace. Look at relationships - a relationship filled with hate, even if only on one side of the equation, is doomed to fail. A relationship filled with love will last lifetimes. And I'm not talking just about romantic love - even the love we have for our friends, our family, and our acquaintances. There is always something in everybody to admire or cherish. NOBODY is completely worthless or a waste of space. So why hate on one another? Why say those mean, negative things? Try loving on them instead and see what happens. I'm almost willing to bet that you'll receive love in return.

Blessed Be,
SNT

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

I has a podcast!

The title says it all!

The podcast is an attempt to further my studies in the craft, and if anybody wants to listen in on what i'm learning they can! I'm rather excited to see how things turn out.

I'll be posting my stuff on Podcast Ally, as well as iTunes and PodBean. The links to Podcast Ally and PodBean will be put in the "my other stuff" page.

Anyway, This post will also serve as the show-notes! So if you've listened to my first podcast and want to leave a comment or get in touch with me, go right ahead.

commence show notes!

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Welcome to the Tiger Stripes podcast, This is your hostess Sasha Nichole Thomas. Please note that this podcast is just my opinion. If you don’t agree with me, terrific! You’re entitled to your opinion just as much as everybody else is. If you have questions or comments you can find my contact info at the end of the show. Please note that rude or obnoxious behavior is not acceptable. If you have something mean to say, please make it constructive. Thanks!

So, this is my first podcast ever! I suppose that warrants a bit about me and why I’m doing this podcast. Well, I go by many names but here I’ll call myself Sasha. I am a 24 year old Wiccan that is relatively new to the path and to podcasting, so this should be quite interesting!
As for why I’m doing this podcast, I was inspired by other podcasters out there such as Brook from the Ipod witch and Tahleah from Geek Witch. I hope that this will help others as well as me grow in the craft.
I plan on doing an herb segment, as well as a brief history of a god or goddess, starting with my goddess, Bast, and alternating between god and goddess with each podcast. I’ll call it the divinity segment.

DIVINITY SEGMENT

Bast (also known as Bastet) has been dated back to at least the Second Dynasty, circa 2890 BCE. So she has existed for a little under five mellinea. Her most common depictions were a beautiful woman with either the head of a cat, lion, or large desert cat. She was never shown fully human except in one Ramesside depiction where she was made one in the same with Mut, being called Mut-Bast.
She was only associated with the domestic cat about two thousand years after her worship began.  This is probably how she’s best known, but her depiction as a lion or desert cat didn’t go away when her domesticated image came into being.
I mentioned earlier that she was also known as “Bastet.” This is a common mistranslation of her name. Foreign influences started changing the spoken language, dropping the ‘t’ sound off of many words, and thus scribes started adding additional T’s to written language to stress that it should be pronounced.
She is one of the many gods who are known as the “Eye of Ra.” It is a title that denotes a god who functions as a protector or avenger. She is definitely not an always-content, always happy goddess. One text even has her ripping out the hearts of transgressors, and delivering them to her father and the king. Her protective nature is found in the hundreds of shields unearthed in excavations. Her avenging nature was softened by her association with het-hert and Mut. Even when the Greeks came to Egypt, however, they chose to associate Bast with Artemis, the virgin huntress of the Greek pantheon. Bast was exclusively a solar goddess until the Graeco-Roman influence hit Egypt; then, because of her association with Artemis, she became lunar.
As the eye of ra and the punisher of the enemies of Ma’at, Bast is invested with the cat’s grace, strength, speed, and cruelty. She encapsulates the charm, patience, and wile of a domestic cat, as well as the potential for the raw brute strength of a lion.
Myths about Bast include: She is the goddess of lesbians, sexuality, pleasure (including illicit drugs), That bast and Sekhmet created the world together, Isis is Bast’s mother, and that Bast and Sekhmet were sisters.

Most of Bast’s worshipers during that time period would offer cool water in her worship, but now that we have more things accessible to us we can offer her many different things. Some suggestions would be whole meats, chocolate, limes, or perfumes. Organic things are preferred because they will more than likely have undergone minimal processing and have pesticides or growth hormones. But like all worship, it’s the sentiment that counts. Don’t offer something large and impressive in terms of the value of the item itself without actually wanting to give it. Also, never let an offering go to waste. Yes, you can offer chocolate and eat it too.

All of the preceding information was taken from www. per dash bast dot org. Give them a look when you get the chance for more detailed information than what I’ve stated here.


HERB SEGMENT

I wanted to do something that most people already knew a little bit about, but perhaps would want to know more about, so I chose Aloe for my herb today. It’s not an herb per say, but it is a rather remarkable plant!

Aloe Vera, also known as barbados aloe, burn plant, aloe barbadensis and medicine plant, is what just about everyone uses to put on sunburns and sometimes minor cuts. But did you know that it can be used for so much more than just sunburns?

There are over 240 different species of Aloe, growing mainly in the dry regions of Africa, Asia, Europe, and America, but for today’s segment we’re going to talk about Aloe Vera.

Aloe has incredible healing properties because it is rich in vitamins,  minerals, and amino acids that are essential to the body. Some of these include vitamins A, C and E, Selenium, magnesium, copper, zinc and more. Aloe is a natural pain reliever because it contains  Salicylic acid and Magnesium, is wonderful at anti-inflamitory work because of Gibberelins and Lectins, has antiseptic properties due to the Saponins it contains, and has loads of antioxidants.

Ingesting Aloe Vera  is said to promote dental health and hygiene,  aid in healthy digestion, support the immune system and help regulate weight and energy levels. Add to that the amazing number of vitamins, minerals and amino acids you get from the plant and it makes me wonder why I haven’t started this sooner! I found some very interesting looking recepies using Aloe by googling the phrase Cooking with Aloe.

Magickally, Aloe is used for protection and luck spells. It is said to guard against negative influences and prevent household accidents, particularly if grown in or near the kitchen. It is also said to prevent feelings of loneliness, so if you’re feeling lonely you can cuddle your favorite Aloe plant! It can also be used to bring you success in the world. Aloe is typically associated with the feminine, the moon, and water.

Here’s an interesting tidbit of information for ya: After using the gel from an aloe leaf, said leaf will seal itself up, making it easy to store for later use.

So that’s the end of the podcast!

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Merry part and Blessed Be,
Sasha NT