Sanctum – November Theme: Simplicity, gratitude, and integration
Welcome to the beginning of the Celtic year, my dearest sisters. We are fresh off the heals of a Scorpio New Moon, Diwali, Samahin, and we remain in the midst of the thinning of the veil today and tomorrow, as we honor All Souls’ Day and Dia de los Muertos. However you choose to honor your ancestors at this time is up to you. There are many traditions and practices for you to partake in. Many of you may have already set up your ancestral connection altars, and I encourage you over these first few days of this month to pause in reflection and silence to connect with your departed ancestors. Pay homage, honor them, and ask them to connect with you. We just did our Elder Council Drum Journey and you can partake in that meditation any time over these next few days. Now is the time, sisters.
Now is the time when we move into this month of abundance and gratitude, giving thanks at the month’s end for the bounty that surrounds us during our American Thanksgiving. To me, this month carries an energy of deep reflection and an accounting for the many ways in which each of us is so greatly blessed. What are you thankful for? Some people choose to do daily gratitude posts on Facebook or start a gratitude journal or daily meditation. I urge you to pick a practice to stay in a state of gratitude this month, one that will be a constant and comforting reminder that even though life is hard and very challenging at times, we are blessed. Honoring our blessings creates space for more blessings to come.
Invoking Lakshmi, Ganesha, and Saraswati for prosperity
In our Sabbatical content, we discussed the Hindu pantheon and explored the mother goddess, Mata-Lakshmi, a most sacred deity who brings wealth, abundance, and prosperity to us. I suggest really taking time this month to explore your beliefs and ideals surrounding prosperity, especially money. It’s the perfect time to rewrite those belief patterns we started exploring last month, but this time keeping the focus on success and prosperity. On 11/11 we are given the opportunity to invoke our prosperity and money magic to counterbalance our May money magic. When we do magic at one point in the WOTY, we want to balance it on the other side to increase its fruition.
- What areas of your life are you experiencing the most abundance? Write down or draw 5 words that would describe your life if money was no issue? (If you can’t dream big you won’t manifest big.)
- What are your beliefs around money, prosperity, and success? What does wealth and success look like to you?
- What areas of your life are you the most generous in? And the least? Where do you give freely, be it time, money, emotional support, etc.? Do you give with a hidden motive?
- Where do you exhibit the most wisdom? And the least?
- What areas of your life do you feel are obstructed right now? What do you believe is blocking you from attracting abundance and success in your life, if anything?
Now is the time to set intentions for enjoying the abundance and blessings of your life in simple and meaningful ways. Practicing gratitude doesn’t need to be a big ritual. In fact, the more simple the better the chances of continuing it. Now is also a potent time to set intentions for bringing abundance into your life. Visualize all you seek floating gently and effortlessly toward you on a ship sailing the seas, traversing the four corners of the world to bring you what you desire. At the firey new moon of this month, all is available to you. And with the veil between worlds thinned and permeable, ask your guides and elders to come forward too and support you as you co-create your dreams.
Our November Alchemical work
Our alchemical work in Sanctum finds us pointing west on the WOTY, as we just celebrated Samhain and the Celtic New Year 
The veil between our living world and the outer realms is still at its thinnest, and in many ways the veil between our inner and outer selves is thin, too. Take advantage of the connection. As we swim through the Prima Materia, our inner darkness, the world itself grows darker and nights extend their reach beyond day, here in the Northern Hemisphere. We find our place of integration. True magic happens when we align magical work with the great Wheel and use nature’s energy to fuel our sacred practice.
Integrating the wisdom of the shadow
As we move deeper into the fall season, I hope you are enjoying it. The road here this year has been long and paved with both joys and struggles. Take a moment to breathe in the wisdom of the year as you’ve lived it. You and only you have lived your path to where we currently stand. So take time to acknowledge and honor that.
And now, the work continues. The fall season continues to take us, here in the North Hemisphere, toward longer and longer nights and shorter days, leaving us to find our way through the forest, with less daylight to guide our way. During the fall and winter New Moons, it’s as though entire Universe disappears into a great chasm. The darkness is tangible. And this is where we learn to trust the sound of our own voices. Here, we learn that darkness isn’t scary; it’s part of the natural cycle. We are all part darkness and part light. And we’ve been excavating our shadows since summer came to an end and as we greeted fall. And now, the work of integration begins, and we begin yielding the beauty of our own inner darkness as we learn to integrate with it. You’ve earned the alignment you’ve been feeling this season. It’s all happening.
The process of holding the raw and freshly rinsed yield from all your soul mining activities plainly shows you the treasure already been buried within you; your work now is to figure out how to integrate these pieces of your darkness into a configuration that aligns them with all of your lighter aspects to create a new and fully, wholly integrated self. This step is critical. You need to take the time to really see what you’ve brought forward from the shadow work, and be honest with yourself.
Journal prompts:
- What parts need to remain with you, and what parts can be cast back into the shadowy caves for exploration or for use in
another time, or even another lifetime? Not all of your shadow aspects require integration; only you can decide what stays and what goes.
- When you think about integrating your shadow and allowing certain parts of it to become part of your whole self, what emotions come up for you? Are there pieces that you feel comfortable and prepared to integrate, or are they pieces you feel less comfortable about integrating?
- How would your life feel and look different today if you allowed all parts of your light and darkness to integrate and be a part of you?
- What have you learned about yourself so far in this process that has surprised you most?
Your mantra here is:
“I trust my deepest inner knowing about what facets and forms of my shadow are meant to accompany me
in the next phase of shadow work. I ground any unneeded energies into
Mother Earth and allow her to carry the parts of me and this process that are too heavy for me to hold.”
As we explore the separation/integration/conjunction stage you might consider ritual practice to purify your spirit, your space, and your energy. You may want to use a white candle for purification rituals and white crystals, like selenite, howlite, agate, and calcite.
I recite the following prayer or invocation, which can be adapted for your use:
“Great Spirit and Goddess Divine,
I seek integration of my soul and spirit,
a joining of all the shadows and the light.
I release the darkness to be as it will.
I need not fear it any longer.
Here I greet and I love myself.
And with the blessing of your presence,
I purify what is unclean, and that which doesn’t serve me,
making new and light all that surrounds me –
illuminated by the infinite and divine grace and peace
that vibrates through my very being, head to foot.
Amen, Aho, and So, it is.”
