The Phoenix is still burning

More changes have continued to surface and things are continuing to change for the FRP family. Official announcements pending, FRP is continuing to work for more stability on the path that the Gods have put us all on. As things manifest, I will keep this blog posted and up to date as much as I can.

Other than that, mother's day was very emotional and challenging for many of us on the home front. I miss my mother greatly and know that only time will support some of the healing that needs to take place. Re-establishing a pattern for practicing within the home with the two young additions to the family and without my mom. This is going to be a delicate balance but one that will be crucial to the sustainability of the spiritual aspect of the unit.

Solstice is coming up and I would like to have a nice plan in place for the family. That will be one of the things I am going to work on.

as a last note for now, I want to welcome Heather back to the family as she has just recently signed on to FRP to continue her training. Welcome home!

New information on the site

Blogger has changed a lot of it's capabilities to catch up with some of the other blog site options, like word press. One of the changes is the ability to add pages to the site. So I am going to be working on that for the next couple of days, adding static pages for the virtues, mission statement, FWTI information and other tradition/FC information.

Stay tuned to some fun changes!!

Forward movement

The family is hanging tough.  Things are hard and will be for a while but we are walking this path together and supporting eachother along the way.  It is amazing how we have gotten so much incredible support from some of our friends and family. 

Everyone else in the family coven is growing during these times too.  I have been really excited to see some of the strides that everyone is making in their spiritual growth.  One of our FC members reached out to her mother and came out of the broom closet, fearing that it would be a problem.  To our amazement her mom came back with the most loving message ever.  This was such a great experience for me.  It was one of those moments where I was able to reflect on the special relationship with my mother and how special that bond can be.

As life is moving forward, we are learning to live throughout the chaos of loss.  I am also able to see how this has ripples energetically to those in the FC and am grateful that they are handling their business and moving forward with whatever it is they need for themselves too.

The Gods are walking this path with us all.

Elevation rituals for both Michael and Jenna

The Sunday of Pantheacon we gathered in the hotel room and did the elevation ritual for Jenna's first degree. A well deserved elevation and one that I was very excited to do. She was wonderful and Michael, Kathryn, Hoi Sum, Jade and I were able to lend energy to the transition.

The Wednesday after Pantheacon I did a third degree ritual for Michael reinitiating him under Rising Phoenix. Michael already earned and received his 3rd degree with Dragonstone as well and this initiation was an acceptance of his position in FWTI and within our FC as well as Dragonstone. It was an honor to do this ceremony for Michael.

Upcoming elevations are for Kathryn to the third and for Tricia to her Second. I am also pulling for janet to get hers very soon and Danielle is waiting in the wings.

It is exciting to see everyone moving forward in their studies and taking care of themselves spiritually.

Blessed Be everyone!

Changes and sadness

FRP has suffered a huge loss this year.  My mother was tragically burned in a kitchen fire on January 13th.  She was cooking for the kids when her shirt caught on fire.  She suffered second and third degree burns on 35% of her body.  Sadly she passed away on January 29th and transitioned to her resting place.  As you can imagine, we have been dealing with grief and extreme sadness as a result. 

As with the Phoenix, she met the end of this life in the fires of resurrection to be reborn anew.  As sad as we are, we are not without hope that she is preparing for her next adventure.  Sadness cannot take away our faith in this moment. 

We send love and support to her in her journey, knowing that we will be ok eventually...... yet missing her always.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us throughout this time and may you all have the blessings you seek.

long overdue updates

So, I have come to the conclusion that I have not been posting the blog as I should have and was quite surprised that it has been so long. I thought it had only been a couple of months and when I checked the other day, I saw it has been much longer. So a series of updates and a general commitment to blog more is essential.

Let's see.... our current family coven consists of Jon, Coco, Keith, Kevin, Robert, Nayeli and Adrian (grandkids), Melissa, Sam, Angie, Tricia, Janet, Kathryn, Scott and I. (hope I didn't miss anyone)

All the students seem to be on the right track and working towards their degrees. I am going to be elevating Kathryn to the 3rd degree as soon as we can arrange a schedule and I can finish writing a ritual.

Keith is back home and came back officially in April. We had to fight to get the kids since the situation they were in was not good for them. We got Nayeli in May and Adrian in June and they have been with us ever since. Keith has physical custody of Adrian and Jon and I have guardianship of Nayeli.

Let's see, Jon and I are both back in College and studying for our psychology degrees. this is a part of the plan for the long term overview for the family. Hopefully this family will continue to promote education and the act of learning.

Other than that, I guess there is not too much to share. We have been caught up in the business of family transition and trying to re-balance after the huge transitions of life.

We have been lucky enough to have Melissa visit for a couple of weeks before going back to England and we are hoping to have a nice reunion with FRP and FWTI people in February at pantheacon. Updates to continue to come.

Blessed Be.

New members of the family

So, I wanted to take an opportunity to introduce the newest members of the Family of the Rising phoenix team. We have in one week had the opportunity to see Scott, Melissa and Samuel add themselves to the team and work training to become assets as High Priestesses or Priests in FWTI.

It is amazing to me that these wonderful people are finding there way to the path of clergy and putting forth so much effort to learning and expanding so they can serve. What a privlidge to watch others grow and be open to allowing me to be a small part in their journey.

Welcome all!

Growth and celebration

Family of the Rising Phoenix has had an exciting month this month. We have had the pleasure of a new person coming on with us as a student of Rising Phoenix family coven. Amethist is a great addition to the team. We have also had one of ours complete her first degree and will be taking her initiation this month. Angie is such as asset to our family coven and to the community of FWTI that it is truly a cause for celebration.

Ariana and Obsidian are right on track for their third degree and within no time we will have two more High Priestesses coming out of our family coven. I feel so blessed to have all these talented and dedicated people find their way to me and to our community. The Goddess is truly smiling on us and the cause of FWTI.

Blessed Be to all for we have cause to celebrate this harvest.

Ostara

The family spent a great holiday together for Ostara. We spent this holiday with eht Solitaries of the Second Circle coven at the house. We dyed eggs and sat around on this beautiful Spring day.

It was great to have Robert playing and running around the others, enjoying the turn of the wheel.

We had lots of fun. My mother and Robert joined in ritual.

Part of the ritual was to answer the questions about something positive we like about our life, something positive you like about the circle and something you want to see manifest in the coming year.

Here was Robbie's answers. "Something positive about my life is my family. What I like about this circle is that you do spells and send it to the ground. And this summer I want my teeth to grown back." Very adult answers for a 6 year old kid.

I guess it is important to note that I received my 3rd degree from FWTI™ February 12th, 2008 from Lady Dia of Dragonstone Family Coven™.

Growth

Tonight Obsidian and I did a ritual with the kids for the second time. Robert did very well and I was quite proud of him. He called in Water and Earth and also chose to call in the Goddess. He did pretty well and he called the quarter in almost all by himself. I was the most amazed when he dismissed the elements all by himself. And he used the words "thank you water for coming to our circle. Thank you for your energy. Hail and farewell". How cute is that

We put up circle, Obsidian read a story about the full moon, we learned a chant "the earth the air the fire the water return, return, return, return", they danced to music ad imitated the elements at every quarter, had cakes and ale and took down the circle.

It is truely great to watch the kids do that.
Blessed Be!!

Lady Dia with the Family of the Rising Phoenix

Lady Dia is in California and spending time with our family coven. It has been a long time coming but it is finally here and I get to introduce her to the family in California. What a great thing to happen.

We are looking forward to hosting her in our home and getting to share energy with her.

Lots of rising phoenix activities

This month has been packed with family coven activities. I posted about the ritual last Tuesday. On the 24th (full moon) Jon, Kat, Marvin (jon's brother) and I did a ritual together to leave behind the old year and take hope into the new.

The ritual went nicely and we came inside, had pie and battled eachother on SingStar until 12AM.

I got a change to talk with Marvin about Family of the rising phoenix and that he is welcomed to join in. It was nice to see him in ritual with us.

I was thinking, isn't it amazing how everything just comes full fold. I am sitting here with my husband and brother in law, all wearing pentacles and in one way or another working in the craft. Several years ago I would have never imagined that this would be the case. It is amazing and inspiring all at once.

Family ritual for Yule

So this past week a very close friend of mine and I did ritual with our kids. It ended up being me, the hubbie, Obsidian and the 6 and 7 year old boys.

they were so cute. The boys decided what quarters they were going to call and were really excited about doing ritual. So we all did rituals and made cinnamon and apple ornaments in circle. The kids were great and although it took a lot of our energy to keep theirs contained, it was worth it. It was a good ritual experience for the kids.

So much going on, so little time

I have been behind in blogging since October but now that I am done with nanowrimo I will have more time to blog. Life has been hectic and the family coven is hanging in there.

We have taken a new hobbie of making wands and staffs out of our trees in the front and back yards. I just found out last weekend that the trees are mulberry trees. They make beautiful wands and staffs. So now both Robert and I have a wand and I am working on my staff.

Interestingly enough we just found out that Jon's brother has found the craft and has made a decision to follow the craft. I don't know that he will officially be doing any work with the Family of the Rising Phoenix but it is quite possible. We are discussing doing something together for Yule, Possibly a ritual or something similar.

I have been considering scheduling some standard meetings for FRP to meet and discuss spiritual matters. If we do that we might invite Jon's brother to join us.

I will write more within the next week. We are preparing for yule and recovering from Thanksgiving. In the month of December we have something like 4 Yule celebrations and that doesn't even include our christmas stuff. Whew, I will be glad when we can relax after the holidays.

Fall energy

Well, October has been an interesting month. I went camping in the redwoods for a spiritual retreat for 3 days and it was wonderful. Robbie is continuing with Spiral scouts and seems to be enjoying it still, which is good. Tomorrow is our meeting and we are going to a fire station and he has been asking about that for a week nonstop.

Jon and I went to Navlet's last night and bought some more flowers and herbs. We came home and planted them together in the cold, crisp, damp air. There was a great energy exchange between us during our planting that continued into a conversation about spirituality, harnessing and accepting our power, leadership, group politics, etc. I enjoyed it a lot and he stated that he did too. I hope we are so moved to have more of those types of conversations, it was refreshing.

We have been preparing for the coming winter. It has been raining pretty good for the last several days and the temperature has dropped significantly, especially at night time. Preparation for Samhain is in the works and this month is full of activities.

Blessed Be to all!!

Singing the fall into our home

I wanted to post because I thought it was so cute. Jon and I were sitting outside on our lawn chairs and enjoying the weather (meditating, napping and reading) when we started singing Goddess songs.

As I am singing Hoof and Horn with jon, Robbie (who is playing ball) starts singing along with us and it was obvious that he knew the words. I thought that was great!! So we all sang for a little while and enjoyed the coming fall weather. The crispness in the air was refreshing.

New moon meditation

So Jon and I decided to sit outside and observe the energy of the new moon by relaxing on the porch, listening to chant music and some Dead Can Dance and light some incense. We enjoyed ourselves so much that we stayed out there for hours. At times throughout the few hours, our kids would come out and hang out for a bit before going back inside.

It was great to sit there and exist with the elements and allow myself to connect with them in such a peaceful manner. I don't know that I have felt this grounded in a while.

Jon made a comment that struck me as a great visual of energy and power. He said "I love how the smoke dances on the air" as he was watching the incense. And I sat there for about 20 minutes thinking, "so do I".

I am very grateful that my father priest and I am doing more together in a spiritual format. And he seems to be pleased as well.

New moon aproaching

So as the new moon approaches, Jon and I have been talking more and more about doing a some spiritual work to promote needed change for one of our sons. We haven't decided what we are going to do but we do feel that something is in order.

Funny how when the family coven begins to work together as a machine, most of the things that need to be done become very natural. When we did ritual the other week, nothing was even planned but the energy was so well matched that it felt right. I enjoyed that and look forward to continuing to work with family energy that benefits the family. I hope that made sense, it does to me.

I will write about whatever we decide to do.
Blessing of light and love to all. Enjoy the turning of the wheel as the sun is slowing going away and the leaves are falling from the trees. Enjoy the crispness of the air and spread the love of nature and the universe with those you love.

Fullmoon ritual with the family

So, I had to blog about this experience last night. I was going to do a ritual to send crossover energy to a young woman who died last friday. Jon decided to do the ritual with me and I was a little shocked because it isn't usually his thing to do "structured" ritual activities.

We did ritual outside and it was wonderful. Our energies in circle were balanced and in harmony. Interestingly, Robert came to the door and wanted to come outside. He came and joined us in ritual right as we were ready to start the ritual take down.

He was very good and patient while jon took down the God and I the Goddess. He helped me say farewell to the water and when we got to fire he asked if he could say something to the sky.

He put his hands up to the sky and started to cry. He talked to the sky about how "Debbo didn't come back". For those of you who don't know, Debbo is his best friend who went back home and Robert hasn't been able to see him all summer. In fact, we were not really sure what happened to him and it has been confusing and frustrating for the family.

What surprised me was how Robert had this emotional conversation "with the sky" and he made perfect sense. Jon and I stood there watching him, amazed at his ability to push out such strong energy and communicate. It was in that moment that I knew Robert is going to be such a spiritual little guy. He was so powerful in that moment.

After he finished and told the sky to tell Debbo that he missed him, we continued to take down circle and he continued to cry. Grandma took Robert for a ride and drove by Debbo's house again (like we have been doing off and on) and thank the Gods that Debbo and his family was home. Robert got to spend a couple of hours with his best friend and came home rejuvenated.

And that was my ritual for this family moon cycle....