Symbolic warmth charming Frozen birds,

The North wind blows, the country is experiencing the onset of the winter in no small measure, our friends of fur and feather search the frozen landscape for food and water that is not in solid form.
Cattle stand with patience at the trough, waiting among the clouds of vapour for one to shatter the ice and enable the herd to drink, above the bovine rabble the smaller winged fellows huddle together for warmth upon the lines of power and communication that our modern society now worship with all the reverence once payed to the divine hosts of the universe, the lays of modern man that span this Island from coast to mountain, civilisation contained within covered wires of progress.
As the cold descends, it brings chaos to much of our modern world, people risking life and limb in the pursuit of the almighty pound, a preconditioned sense of importance, a feeling that the world might somehow fall apart if Mr Anonymous should fail to turn up to work, unprepared as we are in this land, is it not a great shame that the masses are unable to cope with something a simple as the changing seasons.
The lessons are there to be learned from, do the cows pace up and down the fields? do the birds fly frantically trying to find food and warmth? They do not, they wait patiently, they conserve energy, they know that within their very existence and within this temperate land provision will be made, a farmer breaks the ice, a kind soul will place food and water and an impatient tractor driver will spill some of his cargo in the rush to get things done, somehow all of nature is tuned in to the stream of fate, a flow that so many do not see and acknowledge.
A time to be more like our animal kin, repose and thought, the clarity brought in by Jack Frost is a gift, slow and deliberate action may be the key, conservation of our supplies, we will not rush toward our own demise because we do not have bread and milk, the impatience to maintain this idea is more likely to be the cause of death, do those in lesser developed places keel over when faced with these minor distractions, or do they learn to develop the mechanisms to cope?

An interesting week for this one, work continues alongside greater learning, the period of distraction and indeed disruption is coming to an end.
A good friend and far wiser man than I has been very much forced into making a statement to clarify his position, with regard to those usurpers of an highly disruptive nature, that we have mentioned and have indeed met upon the rambling pages of the cunning man.
The statement can be viewed here http://www.clanoftubalcain.org.uk/luxveritatis.html for those who are interested, beyond that no further discussion is of value here today.

I for one have sound something for which I have searched my entire adult life, I have been given advise on technique which has started to allow me to bring the spiritual aspects of my world together in a solid way with the more mundane, to finally bring acts of devotion into my everyday waking existence and dispense with the distractions therein, to tune in to those distractions instead of trying in vain to block them out, an epiphany, a true revelation that will bring much fruit and contentment on my own search for the truth, at the age of forty one I now have one life, no longer the two separate realms of existence, it requires more practice and devotion but I see it more as an achievable act rather than an unobtainable state of being.
There are those who may read this that would presume this is the failing of a first year neophyte, it is not, it is an area I have struggled with for many years, only recently have I seen the importance in the unity of these aspects, and now with help from others can finally hope to achieve this more priestly existence.

During this week of learning, I have seen many things on many levels, I have paid attention to the petty machinations of others and seen the mess left by dirty undisiplined magics, on a another level I have looked at the mechanics of apparently simple charms, I have been utterly bamboozled and astounded at the depths of symbolism within these tools and trappings of the traditional craft, realising also the need for those of us who would hope to use them with any real effect need also to look beyond and to constantly re-examine the familiar, this is paramount, I am not talking about searching the net for pertaining information but searching with intuition and instinct (there's that word again), going away and then returning to think upon the riddle once more.
Listen to what the symbols say to you, just because another might disagree with your interpretation does not mean that you are wrong, this is the true magic of symbolism, the key to your own doors and not that of another, we all live in the same world but our view of that world is different depending very much on where we stand at any one time, further pushing forward the "Truth is variable " motif once more.

My own keys may not fit any of your doors, but if you hear a jingle and a scratch at the entrance to your home during those hours of darkness ,it might be me trying them out, if you don't try it out how are you to know, only joking of course, I would be looking for an open window.

Flags,Flax and Fodder. Tony.