I remember many years ago, when I first started down this path, I collected many objects to use in ritual practice, candles, cauldrons, crystals, etc. Some of these items have fallen by the wayside, some of them have been used for years, but what strikes me today is that some of my most valuble are the ones I never intended to be ritual items at all.
Now I'd like to say I'm not a sentimental person... but that is a lie. My jewellery box still holds a blue plastic ring given to me by a boy when I was 8. However, what I'm talking about here goes deeper than that. It's fair to say that objects and places hold a certain type of energy when they are used for ritual practice... sometimes this happens without us even being aware of it.
For me this hit home whilst stood in a camping shop looking at boots. I need a new pair, but it wasn't until that moment I realised why I really didn't want a new pair.
I bought my current pair of boots in 2009, and without realising it they've been the only consistant peice of ritual wear I've ever owned. I wore them to my first pagan gathering, my first group ritual, my first camp, to conduct my first ritual, to explore the spiritual landscape both locally and everywhere I went. I wore them the first time I met my husband, the first time my kids saw the summit of a mountain, the first time I saw the aurora. Yet here they were at the end of their practical life.
Now, yes, I will buy new boots. The old ones however will remain with the rest of the useless things I hold too dear to throw away or rehome. The situation however got me thinking. How thankful we should be that magic can find a home in the most unlikely of places, and how wonderful it is that we can so naturally place it there.
Happy Lughnasadh everyone. It is the start of the season of thanksgiving and harvest, sometimes we make stores for the dark days without even being aware of it, and recieve that energy back without even noticing, for that alone we are fortunate.
