ワンドのナイト：The Knight of Wands

For the first time in a long time, I have attempted to shoot a video in Japanese, it is about my long connection with the tarot's Knight of Wands. It also looks at three important decks for me.

Rider-Waite

Witches

Thoth

Ostara two：オースターラ２

 

Nature doesn't need human magick

But, humanity needs nature’s magick

自然は人類の魔法が要りません

しかし、人類は自然の魔法が必要です

Ostara オースターラ

オースターラはウイッカの春分の日の祭りです。昼と夜の長さが同じなので、この日はバランスが非常に重要です。この時、春の花は女神を象徴し、純潔を意味しますが、今や神は若くて強い男となり、二人の結婚の時が来ました。12月には女神は新たな命をもたらします。ですから、春分のあたりは新しい事を始める時期なのです。その新しい事は種のようなもので、きちんと育てれば、強く健康な植物になるでしょう。キリスト教のイースターは、春分直後の満月を迎えた後の日曜日です。なので、オースターラとイースターには関係がありますが、春分の日の方が歴史的です。オースターラとイースターではともに、卵を特別な新しい命の象徴としています。故にオースターラは、新しい人生のお祭りなのです。

Ostara is the Wiccan spring equinox festival. Therefore day and night are of the same length, so balance is very important on this day. At this time the spring flowers symbolize the goddess, meaning virginity, but now the god has become a strong young man, so the time of the goddess and the god's wedding has come. In December the goddess's baby will come. Therefore around the spring equinox is a time to start new things. That new thing is like a seed, if you look after it, it will grow into a strong healthy plant. The Christian Easter is the Sunday after the full moon, after the spring equinox festival. So there is a connection between Ostara and Easter, but spring equinox festivals are more historical than Easter. Ostara and Easter's special new life symbol is the egg. So Ostara is a new life festival.

タトゥーの物語

English Below：

日本においてタトゥーは、ヤクザを連想させるので、しばしば蔑まれています。しかしイギリスの海軍の船員にとってタトゥーを入れることは、古くからの伝統なのです。90年代までたくさんの人がタトゥーを蔑んでいましたが、最近はイギリスでもタトゥーは非常に一般的なものになりました。1979年12月23日、僕は最初のタトゥーを入れました。その時僕は16才でした。聞かれる前に言っておきますが、もちろん僕の母はとても怒っていました。短刀と僕の名前が入ったリボンのデザインのタトゥーを選びました。それは、とても伝統的なイギリスのタトゥーです。タトゥーが完成する直前、突然、彫師が三つの星をデザインに加えました。僕はそのタトゥーにとても満足していました。当時はとても鮮やかでカラフルなタトゥーでしたが、今はかなり色あせています。しかし、僕はいまだにそのタトゥーを気に入っています。それから2,3年して、僕はタロットの勉強を始めました。そして気がついたのです。僕のタトゥーは二枚のタロットカード、「ACE of SWORDS」と「THREE of PENTACLES」の組み合わせになっているということに。僕にとってこれは非常に良い組合わせです。タロットは僕を新たな異教主義である「ウィッカ」に導いてくれました(1)。そしてウィッカでは「ATHAME(アサメイ)」と呼ばれる小さな儀式用ナイフは大切な物なのです。僕の腕に生涯消えないそのタトゥーがあることは、とても良いことです。タトゥーは世界中で見られ、多くの文化的意味を含んでいます。

伝統的な日本のタトゥーはヨーロッパでとても人気があります。全てのタトゥーには語るべき意味や物語があるのです。

Tattoos are often looked down on in Japan, because of there connection to the Yakuza. In Britain, there is a long tradition for sailors to get tattoos. But up to relatively recently, tattoos were looked down on by many people, but these days they have become very popular in the UK. I had my first tattoo on the 23rd of December 1979, I was sixteen years old. Before you ask, yes my Mother was angry! I chose a tattoo of a dagger and a scroll with my name on it. It is a very traditional style of British tattoo. Just before finishing the tattoo, the tattoo artist added three five-pointed stars to the design. I was very happy with the tattoo, it was very bright and colourful then. Now it is very faded, but I still love the tattoo. A few years later I started to study the tarot and I realized that the tattoo was a combination of two tarot cards, the Ace of Swords and Three of Pentacles. The combination is very good for me. Tarot led me to the Neo-pagan religion of Wicca, where a small ritual knife called an atheme is a precious thing. It is very good to have one permanently on my arm.　Tattoos can be found around the world and have many cultural meanings. Tradition Japanese tattoos are very popular in Europe. All tattoos have a meaning and a story to tell.

Waiting for Yule: a poem

His body lying in a field dead
Lifeblood seeped into the ground
Resting with the seeds of life to come
Above is a carpet of her red, yellow and brown tears
That dark feels that it has won
Forgetting that the summer light felt the same
The leaves decay and caress the blood
But, the sun is reborn
She sees his eyes again
She whispers life
And the seeds cry, life

First Post in a While

I have not posted here for a long time, the last time was in August 2016, but I feel that I would like to write about: Witchcraft, Wicca, Tarot, Magick and Astrology again. I have started with a little poem about Astrology, my astrology. If you have not looked into your own astrology, this modest tarot reader would highly recommend you find a good astrologer. I have been a tarot reader from the early 1980s', compared to my knowledge of tarot, my understanding of astrology is superficial. But I know the basics fairly well and I believe it is good for a tarot reader to study astrology. For an astrologer, it is also good to know about the tarot, they are complimentary arts.

This is a very short post, but I will be writing more very soon.

Bright Blessings

Satisfaction

As a solitary Wiccan it can be hard to keep motivated and stay satisfied with your path. In May I moved to my new home and I am very happy here. But since the move both my photography and Wiccan practise have taken a back seat to my teaching and language study.  I began to feel dissatisfied with this situation, but was not sure what to do. But then I remembered a little magick embedded in the word satisfaction, that is the word action. It does not have to be a big action, but if you do something to improve your satisfaction with something, this will lead to other positive changes. So I believe this small ritualistic action of photographing Ebisu and Benzaiten, then writing this post is enough to get my practise back into gear again. If there is something in your life that is unsatisfactory for you, do not wait for someone else to do something, be pro-active and do something positive to make the situation better. It will work like magick.