For the first part of Week 5, I was out of town. I managed to keep up my daily discipline, altering it slightly to fit a hotel environment. The Portable Altar was a much cherished tool. I managed to set aside about 30 minutes each morning to worship.

On January 28th, after making my offerings to the Kindred, giving praise and thanksgiving for their blessings, I wrote/discovered the following words. Each line was spoken during, or just before I shuffled the cards:

By the Fire

By the Water

By the Tree

In the Heavens

In the Otherworld

In the Middleworld

With the Shining Ones

With the Ancestors

With the Spirits of the Land

I believe I’ve started a new tradition for myself. I’ve used this prayer over my shuffling each day since.

My morning devotional was an anchor during my time away from home. I used this time with the Kindred to re-connect with my center, to remind myself of my creative gifts, and to recalibrate my spirit, if you will.

Week 6 was not my most meditative week, but I kept up with my devotionals. As things in my life get busy, and my mind is flooded with thoughts, meditation becomes challenging. Somehow, though, I find it easier to still my mind in service to the Kindred. Worship – prayerful action – is something I can do even when I feel unable to meditate.

There are times, however, where my mind is immediately calm; so much so that I feel a direct connection to the source of inspiration. Just yesterday, for example, I performed my devotional, made my offerings, invited the Kindred into my space, and I sat down to my table to draw an Omen. I drifted into a place of quite, dark stillness. An image appeared in my mind, as clear as a photograph, and the image spoke, I thought, to a creative project I’m working on.

I sketched the image, and then, in an attempt to get a better sense of the meaning or message behind the vision, I drew a 3 card spread. I was amazed to see that the image I drew in my journal – a picture of me in full Druid robe, standing before an altar – bore an uncanny likeness to the center card of my spread: The Hanged Man (which in this deck represents Pryderi, son of Rhiannon, and his assumption into a world between worlds). I may not have thought I was meditating, but my mind was primed and ready to receive this vision.

My daily devotional and my periodic, but often powerful meditative work, have become a central part of my life. For this reason, I feel blessed.