Earth Bound

The cycle of life dictates that in each of our lives that we will have to let someone that we love go and as a Witch I know that growing up and growing old is something that each of us must do, and with that birth and death have their place cards at the dinner table in which we must dine upon and over the years I have come to understand that where death is concerned that it is the frailty of our human nature that causes us to hold onto the dying, as if we were trying to keep them from progressing and moving forward into their next incarnation.

For the living, those left behind it can be down right scary when life relinquishes its hold and death secures its grasp on the soul of a loved one, but, to the one who must make the journey through the long winding corridor of death it is nothing more than the next phase of their life.

Death by no means is the final scene, for the only part of the living that truly dies is the body, for the soul within lives on and as humans we must learn to tap into the divine part of our nature in order not to hold those that we love captive and earthbound, a soul becomes earthbound when it feels that it has yet to complete the lessons set forth in its current incarnation, there are other ways in which a spirit becomes earthbound, sudden-unexpected death will surely cause the spirit to remain within the physical plane, although the fleshy body that it called home has decayed.

I know of one young man whose life was ended purposely at the tender age of 17 by an individual who he had no prior knowledge of, the man who took his life ran him down with a car and seven years later when he was asked why he did it, he simply replied that he didn't know, the case was old and cold and yet the spirit of my young friend haunted his murderer day and night until the man finally confessed, it was a seemingly senseless and cruel act of mankind, but, as a Witch I know that there is no coincidences, there is only cause and effect and on some level we will know when the time comes for us to cross that long bridge into the Summerland, the one thing in life that we can be sure of is that our journey will one day come to an end, but, not before it is meant to!

When a Witch comes across a soul that has become earthbound we will make every attempt to show it the way home into the Summerland, as with the situation of my young friend he had already embraced his death, during a discussion that he had with his older brother just a short month before his death he had expressed that he felt that he would not live to see the age of twenty-one, his brother shrugged it off to the overwrought emotions of a teenage boy who was having a hard time adjusting to the loss of his father, Todd's father passed away a year earlier, during the trial of Todd's killer it came to light that the man who took his life was the husband of the woman with whom Todd's father had an affair with, the man stated in open court that he stalked Todd for months before he decided to exact his revenge, and he wept like a three-year-old when the jury handed down a life sentence with no chance of parole, this man killed a seventeen-year-old-boy for the crimes his father committed, well. Todd was his fathers shadow and in the end I guess he was his keeper too and as swiftly as the jury decided his killer's fate, Todd also decided that the Summerland could no longer wait, we felt his presence one last time that year in the circle at Hallowmas, my guess is that he has already reincarnated.

Death is meant to be a natural part of life, and it is my belief that we are not suppose to take it upon ourselves to make the decision to end our lives prematurely, however, as a Witch I believe that freedom of choice is a personal right, that doesn't mean that I agree with or that I condone suicide.

There are other ways that a soul can become earthbound, bounding ones spirit to its grave is a practice that I do not personally partake in, but, I know a Witch, in fact I know her very well, she is highly regarded by those in the Witch community here in Georgia and in 1992 when her father died she desecrated his grave by urinating on it and she bound him to his grave where he will spend all eternity and to this day when I visit the cemetery, just so happens that her father was buried in the same cemetery where my Mother's ashes were put to rest, I guess I need to clarify, half of her ashes fill an urn that was placed in the ground for the death mongering Christians in my family and the other half were scattered to the four winds, anyway, I see him roaming about, although he cannot venture too far from his cell, for it is as if she placed a ball and chain around his ankle, nevertheless he is anchored to his grave, I am not certain what this man did to her to deserve such a heinous punishment, but, I am sure that she had her reasons, either way it couldn't have been an easy thing for her to do and although she is somewhat a radical old Witch, it was a hard thing for me to witness and the burden that she carries with her daily could have been avoided simply by letting go and forgiving whatever vile acts of humanity that she felt that he committed against her and as a Witch she knows that the soul is vulnerable during the dying stage and the three days that immediately follow the death of its earthly host and in order for one to successfully bound the spirit of a departed they must act fast and so she did, the last conversation that I had with her on this subject was in 2000, I was able to convey my thoughts on the situation in a non-judgmental way and we both agreed that my thoughts were my own and she made some crude comment that opinions are like broomsticks and every Witch has one! On that note we agreed to disagree and never to broach the subject again, she was one of my spiritual leaders and for her worth I give her respect and as it is told, "If you agree not with the company that you keep, then vote with your feet" and so I cast my vote to the four winds and sprouted wings upon my feet and I took to the sky, for a Witch I wouldn't be if I failed to stand beside my principles and nature teaches us to compassionately deal with those around us in life and in death!

In birth our spirit enters life through the gateway of the east and it is through the doorway of the west that our spirit flees to embrace our death, for it is the cyclical energy of nature that cast a veil of mystery upon our soul and it is the light weavers of the world beyond this one that will illuminate our pathway and show us the way into the gardens of the Summerland when it comes our time to go.

Life is often filled with pain, but whatever pain that you and I have to contend with today is simply a minuscule blip in the archway of time, pain is temporary, pain is what lets us know that we are still alive and that we are among the living and happiness serves that purpose as well, for it is the spirit within that humbles itself before the threshold of pain, for the spirit feels no physical pain, the pain that our body feels is different from the pain that our soul may feel, it is true that our soul feels pain on an emotional and even a mental level, but with pain comes growth and it is through that growth that we are able to mature spiritually and progress into our many incarnations, pain is no different than any other energy and in the cyclical-natural-world that we live in we already know that to everything there is a beginning and an ending, life begets death and death begets new life and with that comes a whole new set of life-lessons, that is providing that we have not opted to take the easy way out and I do not care what anyone has to say, suicide is cowardly and is the fools way out, because while one may put an end to whatever they suffer from, their suffering is temporary and their solution is permanent, and besides the Gods of Karma will not let you off that easy, for as soon as you attempt to make your way into the Summerland they are going to put a boot in your butt and send you right back here where you will reincarnate almost instantly and you will be destined to relive all of those horrible events that you have already been through and wouldn't have to go through or deal with them ever again if only you would have embraced the lessons associated with them!

Suicide is not only cowardly, but it is a game of Karmic Russian Roulette and there are no rewards or prizes at the end, only the pain staking realization of a legacy forever tainted and those you leave behind will heal and the scars that your action has left imprinted within their minds and their heart will be hard for them to bear, but, they too will put their best foot forward, because they have obviously learned a lesson that you failed to learn and that is our human pain is temporary and our Divine happiness is permanent and while it may seem that we have forgotten how to be happy or that happiness has abandoned us, neither is true, all we have to do is to create a balance within the confines of our life and embrace the lessons that come from and are associated with the elements of sadness and happiness, sadness is the darker of two and happiness is the lighter and it goes without saying that one would cease to exist without the other.

The fact of the matter is that each of us are here on the earth plane to learn and to grow spiritually, pain and suffering are but a small part of that experience, just as happiness and euphoria are and believe it or not we will benefit and grow from each experience that we have in this lifetime, be it good, bad or indifferent, we are meant to embrace the events that take place within our lives, otherwise there would be no need for us to exist.

We as magical beings can influence the events in our life and through the process of magic we can change anything that we desire, all it takes is the will to believe and the desire to succeed, coupled with a bit of divine intervention and suddenly all things become possible and the one thing as a Witch that I have learned is that nothing in life is impossible, it doesn't matter what it is and I do not waste time on trying to explain the unexplainable, magic is a mystery contained within the heart, mind and spirit of each of us, magic never fades or abandons us, nor does the Goddess, for the Mother is all around us, she is the air that we breathe, the water that we drink, the fire that warms our hearth and the earth that we lay our bodies upon, in birth we are but a twinkle of light and in death we are the drops of dew that return unto her, the world is a gigantic melting pot and like it or not, whether we call ourselves a Witch, Christian, Jew or Muslim we are all children of this world and as humans we are all earth bound together and we must overcome our challenges and learn our lessons in order to free ourselves from our fleshy bonds and to grow spiritually and part of that challenge is to learn to come together as individuals in a unified effort to spread peace and harmony among all the Goddesses people, otherwise we are doomed to repeat our lessons until we finally get it right and how hard can it really be, after all we have a mother in common, the Earth!

Blessed be

Phelan