Monthly Archives: September 2015

Sep 29 2015

Wizard’s Glen — Haunted or Just Eerie?

Wizard’s Glen is located along a part of the Appalachian Trail that runs through the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts.  Nestled in the hills of Dalton, this site sits along Gulf Road which starts at the intersection of High Street and Park Avenue in the Southeastern part of town.  It’s a four-mile unpaved designated scenic road that looks more like a pathway.

As you traverse up the street the air seems to get cooler as you approach a high rocky ravine cut through flint rocks.  The area narrows as huge boulders ascend skyward through the densely treed area.  Other large rocks that have fallen among the boulders look like they’ve been dumped from the sky to fall where they may.  A lot of the rocks are moss covered and the overgrowth of bushes and dense foliage take over the place.  Even though,  crevasses in the rubble are obvious….at least they were when we last visited the place.

There’s a local myth that claims over a 100 years ago a local man had been out hunting and was bringing home a deer he had gotten when a terrible thunderboomer hit the area.  The rain was blowing sideways and the lightening was frequent.  Not wanting to travel further that night, the man hung his quarry from a tree branch and went to find shelter under one of the overhanging monoliths.  All of a sudden the place started lighting up. He watched as an evil spirit and its minions started dancing around, whirling themselves into a frenzy.  Suddenly, an Indian girl was brought forth and heaved onto one of the large flat stones.  All the demons charged at her with knives, killing her.  As she turned her head away she caught the eyes of the hidden onlooker.  He grabbed his Bible, lunged to his feet, and ordered the spirits to leave her alone.  The scene then vanished in the next crash of thunder and everything was again dark.  When the man rose to leave the next morning he believed it all to be a dream, but found someone, (or some things), had stolen his deer  —  and who else could it have been?  Can the screams of the young girl still be heard on some dark, stormy evenings?

Hobomocko, the Algonquin spirit of death, is attributed to being the organizer of the human sacrifice made that terrible night.  And the area already had a reputation for being a power spot for the Native American shamans who performed their invocations and rituals.  Even now, the huge, flat, altar stone can still be seen.  Some claim the red iron ore stains are really the spilled blood of many unfortunate others who became the ritual gift to a higher deity.

–   ashanta

We would like to invite anyone who would like to contact us, share a story, comment on anything, or just keep in  touch to reach us at:

ashantaofthelema@gmail.com                                Thank you!!

Sep 24 2015

Commune with the Universe – Meditate

All meditation can lead to a channel that opens up to inner wisdom, regeneration, and connection to all that exists in the Universe.

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘meditation’?  I think meditation is one of the most misunderstood spirituality practices in use today.  It seems to carry an aura of some sort of superiority in the quest for enlightenment. Those who practice it seem almost apart from many other people.  And, it appears to retain a shell of mystery as to comprehension of its inner connections to all things transcendental.  I wonder if this veneer has been planned and finely honed or if it is inherent in the belief that it is a study of eastern ways as opposed to being introduced by the west.

Meditation can be practiced by anyone,  anywhere, anytime.  It doesn’t have to be done while sitting on a mat in an uncomfortable position.  It can be utilized while taking a walk for a few minutes in the middle of a hectic workday.  It can be done while sitting poolside, ocean side, on a deck, or in your living room.

Meditation is a tool to reunite with the unseen, the unknown, and the incalculable.   It can inspire, teach, and open pathways. The most important thing to do to reach the most desirable state of meditation and produce the best results is to try and quiet your mind.  It’s important to stop your internal dialogue.  And these things are easier to say than to achieve.

Try to not focus your attention on anything specific because when you do that your mind becomes fixed on that thing and stillness escapes.  While you will hear things around you don’t try to figure out where they are coming from or what they are.  That will also draw your mind to fix on something else besides the task at hand.

Let the Universe guide you and open yourself up to the things it has to offer. These results can be just as beneficial and potent as the ones achieved by a practitioner who rests in one position for hours on end….and who knows  –  maybe they are napping.

–   ashanta

We would like to invite anyone who would like to contact us, share a story, comment on anything, or just keep in  touch to reach us at:

ashantaofthelema@gmail.com                                Thank you!!

Sep 17 2015

Magic – Black or White?

What is magick?  To the best of my ability to describe it, it is the practice of trying to change something or make something occur by use of a ritual.  Rituals can use a number of tools such as a wand, bell, chalice, athame, candles, oils, incense, herbs, and other things of the practitioner’s choice.  Some people draw circles around themselves for protection and others forgo that step.  Generally, a rhyming chant is spoken to express the purpose of the work.

Rituals can also use invocation  – the summoning of energies such as gods, goddesses, elementals, entities, etc., in hopes they will help produce the desired results.  And this is where magick seems to get a bit sticky.

Wiccans are famous for their insistence they only perform white magick while Satanist’s are accused of practicing black magick.  So it seems the energy that is called upon determines the type of magick one is performing.  For instance, white magicians may call upon the Great Horned Father while others may call upon Pan or Ammon…..supposedly a darker side. But, no matter what type of magick one professes to practice, the only thing that truly matters to get the job done is will.  Or you can call it intent.  And since everything we do, within this vibrational matrix we all live in, affects everyone else – there is no such thing of not touching the lives of someone else.  These effects of any action on others will be good for some and not so good for others.

The label of the magick performed diminishes when viewed from a broader scale.  There is no such thing as white or black magick.  If you practice magick – you practice magick – and it will work depending on the strength of your intent.

–  ashanta

We would like to invite anyone who would like to contact us, share a story, comment on anything, or just keep in touch to reach us at:

ashantaofthelema@gmail.com                                Thank you!!

Sep 12 2015

Horns & Skulls

What is it that evokes so many different responses to the sight of either horns or skulls?  …and most of them are negative.  Horns and skulls were things to be treasured, appreciated, and sometimes venerated before and until the time that religion decided it could make money from a frightened and controlled population.

Horns were not considered a sign of evil or demonic until the Romans were forcing Pagans to give up their gods such as Hathor, Moloch, Pan, Baal, etc. Around that same time Christian art began portraying Jews as evil and depicted them with horns.  Until then they were a symbol of wisdom and a sign of being a ruler.

In 1505 Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to sculpture Moses to adorn his tomb.  Michelangelo created his work with Moses adorned with horns.  They represented his “glorified” head as he descended Mt. Sinai with the 10 Commandments – –  for the second time.

There are other depictions of Moses with horns, also. There is a fresco in St. Andrews Church in Westhall England, a sculpture in Vilnius, Lithuania, and The Well of Moses in a museum in Dijon.

Skulls were another representation of strength, wisdom, and power.  They were neither demonic nor evil until about the same time that horns fell into discretization.

A few examples of this are the Celts use of skulls to depict the seat of the soul.  Winged skulls such as those on old grave markers were considered a sign of life beyond death. Skulls have historically been used to repel evil and achieve wellness and success.  The skull & crossbones symbol represented spiritual rebirth through transformation of a greater spiritual understanding of how the world works.

Some cultures practiced drinking from skulls.  For them, it represented acquiring the traits of the deceased they respected.  The skulls of their relatives were cleaned and gilded to drink from in a ritual of honor for the dead.  This practice is similar to the Mexican Dia de los Muertos – Day of the Dead – when skulls are decorated for festivities to revere those that have gone on before.  This celebration begins at midnight on 31 October and runs to 02 November.  It coincides with All Saints Day, in Christian lore, and with our much celebrated Halloween.

–   ashanta

We would like to invite anyone who would like to contact us, share a story, comment on anything, or just keep in  touch to reach us at:

ashantaofthelema@gmail.com                                Thank you!!

Sep 8 2015

Tarot as a Great Life Tool

Tarot readings are most often thought about as a prognostication of coming events in one’s life.  They are something you get from a seer or fortune teller to find out what’s in store for you.  But, I don’t think that approach is a practical one.  Nothing is written in stone and if you can change one thing the outcome can be much different.  The question is –   what do you change?  and – how do you know?  That’s the time for a tarot reading.  It’s a tool to help you discover the different energies going on around you so you can know better what to do.

A tarot deck resembles life in its cards –  Wands, Cups, Swords, Discs.   Wands stand for the intellect, ideas, considerations, and anything of a fire nature.  Cups are water related and represent our emotional selves.  Swords are our troubles, tribulations, difficulties, and anything of an air nature.  And, Discs are of the earth and symbolize the material world – stuff and things.

There are many components to a tarot deck that all have meaning in a reading.  They are full of symbols that shed light on the condition or situation at hand.  The suit is important, but so is the imagery, color, number, planetary attributes, element, and the relationship of the cards surrounding one another.  The Major Arcana and Court Cards interplay with the four suits and are also important in determining all the ingredients of the final analysis of the layout.

Another vital aspect of a reading is found by determining what suit or suits are most important to you in the way you see yourself or feel about your present situation.  If you know and understand the suits that mean the most to you,  those suits will give more extra meaning to a reading.  Seeing where your suits are located in a layout and knowing what surrounds you and how it affects you are important tools at your disposal.

Discovering your options and understanding a good course of action to achieve your goals is invaluable in making the decisions that are most beneficial in your life.  By knowing the things that oppose you, you can meet them head-on, challenges are mitigated and success is more readily achieved.  So, as said earlier, a tarot reading is a good life tool to show you how to reach your goals and point out the pitfalls to avoid.  It isn’t something that tells you what you’re stuck with and what has befallen you.  Change one thing and everything else changes with it.

– ashanta

Sep 6 2015

Is Your Sign Ophiuchus?

What Sign are you?  Are you sure?  It seems it depends upon how you view astrology.  The 12 Sun Signs we are all familiar with are named after constellations that travel around the ecliptic.  The ecliptic is a circle in the celestial sphere that appears to be the path the sun travels in a year. The celestial sphere is an imaginary circle in which the person looking at it is in the center.  Therefore, from this perspective, all celestial objects appear to lie along this plane.

There are other constellations, however, that the sun traverses on its annual course.  They are fixed stars, though, and astrologers don’t like to count them because some feel they aren’t relative to the study.  Many astrologers use a system that only deals with the sun’s relationship to the moon within the parameters of solstices and equinoxes.

This is also one of the major controversies between astronomers and astrologers.  Especially those scientists who would like to demean and dismiss astology as a legitimate study.

There are two major zodiacs – although many others as well.  The one used by most western astrologers is the Tropical Zodiac which was explained, in part, above.  The other is the Sidereal Zodiac which studies the sun’s position against a star background.  This is the system used primarily in the East and by astronomers.

Anyway, could our Zodiac possess a 13th Sign?  Yes – and perhaps it should.  The sun spends quite a bit of time transversing the constellation Ophiuchus from 30 November to 17 December.  That’s quite a bit of time to be in a place without having any affects, whatsoever.  So, if you’re born during those dates perhaps some of the traits or aspects of Ophiuchus has meaning for you.

Ophiuchus is situated between the Signs of Scorpio and Sagittarius.  It is called the ‘Serpent Holder’ and it’s sigil is a capital U with a horizontal wavy line through the center that represents the snake.  Ophiuchus  represents the Greek physician Ascelpius who is generally depicted holding a snake, similar to the Caduceus today that symbolizes the medical profession.

Ophiuchians would like to be healers or people who fix things.  They enjoy connectedness and are gregarious, quick-witted, industrious, and can be quite showy.  On the other hand, and there’s always a darker side, they can be moody, greedy, envious, and controlling.  As in any other astrological analysis, the planets in this house and how they are aspected contribute to the personality a person possesses.

This simplistic blurb doesn’t detail the many complexities of astrological chart construction using any of the multi-analytic systems available to astrologers, but the question remains – are you more Ophiuchus than Scorpio or Sagittarius?

–  ashanta

Sep 6 2015

Are You Psychic?

Are you psychic?  You probably don’t think so, but I’ll bet you’re wrong.  In many cases we’ve been taught there is no such thing or that it’s evil.  You know – “Don’t dabble in the occult.” sort of thing.  That certainly stands in the way of using one’s natural ability. Having a capacity for being psychic doesn’t require some special feeling or aptitude.  It is important to realize everyone has this innate gift of psychic sensitivity.  It’s normal and it’s how the rest of nature operates.  Other living things were never taught there was no such thing or that it was wrong.  Thinking like that hampers learning how to access and use our naturally-given senses….which is probably why it was given such a bad rap to begin with.

There are many different names given to the various areas of ‘psychic ability’ that one may possess.  It seems everyone has their own talent they will be more adept in than another.   The most popular at this time seems to be communing with ghosts – or at least trying to find out if they are real or not.

Searching for an entity could involve many different psychic abilities.  If one has mediumistic talents, seeing and talking with a spirit should be quite easy.  But, being sensitive can cover a great many areas.  Being clairaudient would allow you to be able to hear spirits talking while clairvoyance would let you see an apparition.  Both can be present at the same time in the same person.

One could have the knack for automatic writing to allow the deceased to write through a planchette onto sheets of paper while the practitioner , alone or with others, places their hands on the writing tool.  This is similar to an ouija board – which I will argue isn’t evil, but that’s a different story.

Some people could use psychometry to discover something about either someone who is either still alive or has passed.  If given an object belonging to the person in question the psychomotrist can detect information about the person through their residual energy.

–  ashanta