Focus on Growth

 I hope yall're staying grounded, shielded, hydrated, and are remembering to breathe.  I also hope that you're unplugging and taking necessary breaks from social media and the "news".  I hope you have something to focus on this year, be it a goal, deity given, or whatever.  Something to distract from things that we cannot change, that we have no control over.  

I'm not saying to turn your back on anyone or fill your world with illusions, but the media ain't our friends.  Dirty, fearmongering, hate, disinformation.  When I was spiraling after that Project 2025 big reveal over the summer, my Kindreds said that I was stressing over speculation.  Knock it off.  Stay away from politics.  Let those who're capable, who have the resources, skills, and connections handle the political magiks.  My strengths lay elsewhere.  They said that I needed to focus on joy, Sunna--The Sun, and trusting my own intuition.  They also gave me tasks to focus on.

• Practice Seidr with Freyja and The Cailleach

• Less internet, more Hearth Work with my Hearth Mothers

They said this is a time of training for me.  They need me to be ready when the time comes.  I see this battle occurring in waves.  Some attack, some rest, some train, some heal, etc.  Then there are others who focus on other necessary things, like morale and just keeping life going.

And one of my goals--to get back to work on the Dedicant Path.  I'd love to be done with it this year, so I can move onto other ADF programs.

I'm not yet motivated enough to work on my DP essays, although I have been living the Virtues.  I'm not ready to live Fertility yet either.  Still working with Moderation and the others.

So I continue my seidr studies.  There are two books that Freyja and Cailleach want me to get: 

1. Seidways: Shaking, Swaying, and Serpent Mysteries by Jan Fries

2. The Norse Sorceress: Mind and Materiality in the Viking World by Leszek Gardela

Which has led to other books about spirit work, shamanism, tricksters and shapeshifting.  Concepts that I'm certainly not new to.  I've been a spirit worker for a number of years, and seidr isn't that different from what I've been taught by my Kindreds.  I've gotten better with spirit/astral shapeshifting, too.  As of last year, I can shift easily now...the forms that I know, of course, such as:

• Anthropomorphic Winged Reindeer

• Anthro Fox

• Reindeer

• Fox

• Dragon

• Lynx

• Foxlynx

• Peacock Phoenix

• Ring Neck Pheasant

• Crow

• Merperson

I've also merged my soul with a crow and experienced its life and thought processes for a while.

I do have Loki to thank for most of the recent teachings.

The first time I remember shapeshifting was in the mid 2000's, when I wanted to know what kind of baleen whale I was in the life before this one.  Astrally, I shifted into a fin whale.  That was jarring as fuck, let me tell you.  I still remember seeing my room with eyes on the sides of my great big head.  How those baleen felt in my mouth.  Feeling the weight of basically a beached whale.

Something like that stays with you.

Then later, Shiva transformed me into a peacock phoenix.  Giving me a taste of what I'm capable of, just as Dionysus did in 2014 with trance possession.  A taste--show me what I can do if I work for it.  Work for both, I did.  

Now that I'm better with shapeshifting, They want me to progress more.  With Seidr, there can be a degree of shapeshifting, as well as the spirit and seer work.  My guides made sure that The Art of Shapeshifting by Ted Andrews dropped into my lap this month.  Different spiritual path, nonetheless helpful to my independent studies.

I shall do as commanded.  I'll focus on joy, the sun, my intuition, seidr, and hearth work.  I will continue to grow and train and heal...and also write those essays...  I will do my best to stay focused.

Again, I hope you have something to focus on, too.

- Dedicant and Hearth Keeper, Foxlyn