Every day I give thanks in my journal. I write about the people I love and the spells I have cast for friends and family and give thanks to the Goddess for helping me through the good times and the not so good times. I honor the Buddhist Goddess Tara (She is my patron Goddess) with Her mantra OM TARE TUTTARE TURE SVAHA!

The connection I have with Green Tara (Her Tibetan Buddhist name) is immensely powerful. I know that when I honor Her with offerings and prayers that She helps guide me to the best life I can possibly live. The Goddess for me is an aspect of the interconnectedness of all things. She is the Great Mother (like Isis), the most powerful form of creation. She exists in every religion on Earth.

Day by day though, She and I have a communication of gratitude. I thank Her for helping me to sort out my issues and for giving my spells power and focus. It may seem silly to ask the Goddess to listen to my concerns yet I know She listens, I know that She gives me Her special attention because I keep Her in my heart always. She is me and I am Her.

Thinking about what I am thankful for as Thanksgiving approaches I am reminded of how I start every day praying to the Goddess and chanting Her mantra. It is said that to invoke Green Tara one only needs speak Her mantra and She will bestow Her blessings upon you. I cannot tell you how often I have found this to be true.

Today I am grateful for a sweet black and white tomcat who visits me lately in the evening on my back porch. His presence doesn’t thrill my Lucy too much (she hisses at him through the window on the back door) but she indulges me by letting me sit outside with him. He doesn’t seem to be a stray but a neighborhood cat as his fur is quite clean and he is well-fed. Still he should have a collar on with tags of pertinent information if his owners allow him outside.

Of course I don’t believe in letting cats outside since they are small creatures and need to be taken care of. They live twice as long as cats who go outside and they don’t bring home fleas and feline diseases. I believe my new friend is neutered though which is good. I call him Raphael because he is like an angel. He is personable and I so enjoy spending some time in the cool night air with him curling about my legs and raising his big head up to meet my hand to get scritches.

He has bonded with me and I am honored to have his attention. He is an angel (to me as a Buddhist this would be a Bodhisattva) and we all must take time to sit with the angels and show them our gratitude.

I cast spells everyday. Not just for clients (I actually cast those according to specific moon phases) but for myself and my family.

This past week was a little stressful because we were all concerned about a family members health so I cast a well-being spell for her. I did a healing ritual, lit a blue candle (for healing), dispelled negativity by lighting sacred sage incense and did a round of 108 mantras to my patron Goddess, Green Tara.

I cast a specific abundance spell for myself also this week and then a protection spell for my brother. I sent healing energy to other family members as well as cast a spell for clarity for my new niece who had had some very important decisions to make recently.

I find that more and more I turn to witchcraft first when a problem arises for those I care about. There is something greatly comforting about the ritual aspect, the deep connection with the Earth and the Goddess and letting that energy permeate me as much and as often as possible.

It’s the little spells I cast the most often which seem to make a huge difference in my life. Sometimes I don’t even realize that I am casting them but later I will think about it and realize that I have had powerful synchonicities taking place for days in a row and I will realize that all the time I have been casting mini-spells either through the written word, spoken or mentally.

Synchronicity is one way for me to tell that magick is at full-steam ahead in my life.

I usually experience at least one per day but often when the energy is mega-watt, it will be a number of them, three to five in one day. Sometimes they take a day or so to come to fruition but they are usually pretty quick. When I have a few days in a row of this it’s a sign that my connection is deep. When this coincides with a full moon (as it did this week) it is intense enough to take my breath away. It’s what I live for!

I’m sure you have done this before: you pull into the mall parking lot and it is packed. You say to yourself, “Please, oh please let there be a spot close to the entrance.” You may even recognize the futility of this since there isn’t a spot anywhere, never mind close to the entrance, yet you make the declaration just the same and sometimes, when the forces for mall goodness are aligned - you watch a car you hadn’t seen with backing lights, zip right out of primo spot.

Fate? Perhaps. Mathematical odds? Most likely. Force of focused will and intention? Now we are in my territory.

If I told you how often this happens to me you wouldn’t believe me. People would say, oh it’s just luck. Luck is when it happens once in a while. Witchcraft is when it happens according to focused will and intention. And truly, I do love getting a good parking spot.

A friend of mine asked me yesterday what I would be doing if I were not a professional witch.

I had to think for a minute because I honestly cannot imagine NOT being a professional witch, at least in some capacity. Perhaps it has to do with the fact that I’ve been doing this online now for five years? It is in truth the longest single enterprise I have taken part in outside from working on websites which I have done since 1995.

Being a witch is not just part of my life or part of my business - it is a part of everything I do - how I relate to the world, how I see people and their issues, how I desire to help people to make their lives better. This is something that I always felt eager to do, even as a child, but as a witch and Buddhist this is the grounding center of my existence. There is the craft, there is daily puja (Buddhist prayer), meditation, yoga and family (I consider friends to be family).

I would practice in secret like the wisewomen of yore if I could not practice my craft in the pure light of day. I could not be kept from my love of the earth, of nature, of the seasons and herbs, crystals and all the mysteries this world holds. As I practiced before, quietly, not on the Internet, not blogging, not a public witch, I would always practice, always increase my knowledge and study as much as I could. Being a witch is something that you know, something that you are and do and are always becoming.

I enjoy many different activities - writing, arts & crafts and various creative expressions. I love technology and computer and video games (and have been involved with those for many years) yet at my core I am closest to living in an almost medieval fashion. That is where my heart is.

Now when I say medieval think nice modern Renaissance Faire and not toothless, unclean, loony woman who lives at the end of the town.

On cold November mornings like this when I go outside and sit on my back porch wrapped up in my cozy blanket sipping a cup of herbal tea, listening to and watching the birds and the dawn breaking, there is nothing but me and the song of the earth.

For this witch, that is enough.