Yasmine Galenorn - Embracing the Moon

EMBRACING THE MOON

A Witchs Guide to Shamanic Magick

Yasmine Galenorn

A Nightqueen Enterprises LLC Publication

Published by Yasmine Galenorn

PO Box 2037, Kirkland WA 98083-2037

EMBRACING THE MOON

A Witchs Guide to Shamanic Magick

Copyright 2015 by Yasmine Galenorn

Second Edition

First Electronic Printing: 2015 Nightqueen Enterprises LLC

Cover Art imagery licensed via Shutterstock.com

Cover Design by Yasmine Galenorn

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any format, be it print or electronic or audio, without permission. Please prevent piracy by purchasing only authorized versions of this book.

While this is a work of nonfiction, the author is not responsible for any attempts to practice the instructions/information contained within. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, or places is entirely coincidental and not to be construed as representative or an endorsement of any living/existing group, person, place, or business.

A Nightqueen Enterprises LLC Publication

Published in the United States of America

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to all of the Witches, Shamans,

Priestesses, Medicine Men, Wise Women, Druids, Midwives,

Wolves, Bears, Panthers, Snakes and all others

slaughtered in the name of religion, domination, and

economics.

We do remember.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

For this new edition, my acknowledgments also change. It has been a long time since that February 29, 1980many years have passed through my life, and I hope more to come. I have learned so much from so many, and taught many in my path.

My love and blessings to my husband, Samwise Galenorn, who has been by my side since 1993. I love younow and to the future. As long as love shall last has lasted a lovely, long time.

And I send love and hugs to our furbabies, past and presentwhether on this side of the Rainbow Bridge or playing in the Summerlands on the other side. Pakhit, Luna, Tara, and Meerclar have all passed from our lives. We loved them long and stood by them in the end. And now, we share our lives with four more cats: Calypso, Brighid, Morgana, and little boy Applewho just came into our lives this year.

But most of all I want to bend my knee to my godsmy faith never wavers, never dims. I have seen brilliant displays of magick, and I have seen dark despair, and they have been through there from the depths to the heights. I am yours, by blood, by heart, by word and action, and by soul.

To Mielikki, Lady of Fae, Mistress of the Hunt, my Lady of the Forest.

To Tapio, Lord of the Forest, Pack-Master, Dark-Bearded One, my Lord of the Wolves.

To Ukko, Sky Father, Lord of the Winds, Father of the Storm.

To Rauni, Lady of the Cauldron, Keeper of the Keys, Lady of the Rowan. Mother of all Mothers.

To Lady Bast, forever an honored guest and guardian in our home.

To Lady Brighid, my goddess of inspiration and creativity. My muse.

You have all brought magick and wonder to my life and I thank you.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

July 2015:

So much has changed since I first wrote this book. Its been almost twenty years, and it feels like a lifetime away. Im now a bestselling urban fantasy and paranormal romance author with forty books under my keyboard, so to speak.

Our senior kitties passed over the Rainbow Bridge and we have four babieswell, three six-year-olds and one baby. We moved, and now own a house. And Im older and, I hope, a little wiser than when I first wrote Embracing the Moon.

Im now heavily inked with over seventy-five hours in the chair, and every tattoo is a symbol of my spiritual journey that Im on.

My path has taken some major shifts and leaps, though the essential core is still there. Im a priestess of Mielikki and Tapio, though now I work in such a specific path it would be hard to work with others. I now walk in the realm of Dark Fae magick, the intrinsic magick of Mielikki. Im now also pledged to Ukko and Raunithe Father/Mother of the Finnish pantheon. And I also work with Brighid.

I thought about updating Embracing the Moon, but I think I need to let it stand, with a few minor adjustments. There have been so many changes in the world that I would have to rewrite the entire book. Since so much of the foundation of what I practice is recorded here, I want to honor it for the work it was. Though Ive altered my views on a few things and my practice has changed and deepened, this is the book I needed to write at the time. So I will let it be what it was meant to be. I do have new material that I plan to publish soon, and that worka series of essaysexplores the shamanic realms in which I now walk.

So, enjoy this book, and please remember: while Ive changed a great deal, these are the practices that led me to where I am now.

One important note: I do not give personal magickal advice. I no longer read tarot for anyone who isnt a personal friend. I simply dont have the time or leeway, and it isnt my calling to do so. What you find in the pages of these books are what I have to offer you.

If you wish to contact me about this book, please do so via the contact page on my website.

Bright Blessings,

~the Painted Panther

~Yasmine Galenorn

1998:

My journey into magick and witchcraft officially began on February 29, 1980. For several years I had been casting around, testing different spiritual paths to find the one right for me. I looked into Buddhism, Agnosticism, the New Age movement, but still nothing seemed right. I had heard of witchcraft, and while I no longer connected it with Satanism, I believed it was for those who felt powerless to control their own lives. I had never heard of the Goddess as most witches see her, and while I felt the wild pull of the Moon, I never paid it much attention.

Then, on February 29, 1980 (Leap Year Day, of all days), my life changed, inexorably and forever.

I was attending The Evergreen State College, had recently turned nineteen years old and was in my junior year. Id obtained my A.A. degree at the age of seventeen, and by the time I was nineteen, there had been many changes in my life. Id hitchhiked to California to live with my sister, got engaged, and broke the engagement just as quickly. I returned to Washington State and enrolled at Eastern Washington University but decided I didnt like it there. I went home for a brief time and that didnt work out, either.

So I decided to move to Olympia, Washington, to attend Evergreen. From the moment I arrived in September 1979, I knew that I had made the right decision. Situated in Western Washington along Budd Inlet, The Evergreen State College sits on one thousand acres of land, most of which is relatively undeveloped. While I found some of the academics lacking, I quickly fell in love with the environment and knew that I could never again move inland, away from the coast with its rolling oceans.

Back then, it still seemed safe to walk alone at night and I often took off after midnight to wander through the mist that rose along the soccer fields, through the trees.

It reminded me of the Faerie-land I heard of in childhoodmystical and ancientand when the mist clouded the sidewalks, I felt as if I were slipping between worlds. Were dragons hiding around the corner? Might I be about to stumble on a group of trolls in the shadows of the woods? I longed for something new, something different to show me the realities that I suspected were out there.

Then, in early 1980, I had two experiences that would forever change my life.

The first was in late January, shortly after my nineteenth birthday. I was meandering along a particular path that I walked during the day and wanted to see by moonlight.