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An excerpt from Seasons of Moon and Flame 
by Danielle Dulsky

As a young woman, beloved witch, author, and teacher Danielle Dulsky found refuge, nurturance, and wisdom when visiting her grandmother’s rustic home. Next to the fire of the winter hearth and sitting outside with the wildflowers of spring, her anorexic body was loved and fed, her racing thoughts were slowed, and she received a maternal support she did not have in any other part of her life. These visits with Grandmother Grace were the seeds that eventually grew into Danielle’s deepening exploration into the Sacred Hag archetype and the wisdom that these elder women have been sharing since the beginning of humanity. Her third book, Seasons of Moon and Flame: The Wild Dreamer's Epic Journey of Becoming is a “Year of the Wild,” — consisting of thirteen chapters that correspond to the thirteen moon cycles, or lunations.

We hope you enjoy this excerpt from the book.

Materials: Three small, squat candles, one for each “cosmic egg” spell jar

As the new moon dawns at midspring, place your small candles on top of your cosmic egg jars. You might choose colors that correspond to your dream visions, or a simple tea light will suffice. When ready, affirm that you are in sacred space, feel into your body, and light these candles, one at a time, in the name of a less wounded, more whole world. As you light each candle, call to mind a vision of children in the future gifted with a dream similar to the dream you are calling in for yourself. If one of your cosmic eggs represents you rooted and secure in new home, for instance, perhaps you envision future generations, the yet-to-be-born, swaddled and secure, as you light the candle. If you are calling in travel and spaciousness,
perhaps you see young ones playing in wide-open spaces while you light the candle, affirming that what you are calling in for yourself is not for you and you alone.

Let the candles burn for a few minutes, holding your hands over the heat of each flame as you move between your visions. When it feels right, carefully pour some of the wax over the jar to seal it, then thank the elder ancestors for the flames they have tended for you. Open the circle and, ideally, allow the candles to burn out naturally, or snuff them if you must.

And so it is.

Waxing Moon Practice: The Wildness of Our Longing

As the moon waxes, consider that what you yearn for is also yearning for you, that you are more sensitive to the spiral dance of nonlinear time than you think, and that desire is memory. As the moon swells toward fullness, task yourself with this practice as often as possible. For each of your cosmic egg jars, move your thoughts between these four points:

Call to mind a seed memory — that is, a memory of you feeling the same feeling that is integral to your vision. While envisioning this moment, chant aloud: “Yes, thank you. More, please.”
Now, come to the present moment. Chant: “Yes, thank you. More, please.”
Call to mind the vision of you with dream fulfilled. “Yes, thank you. More, please.”
Finally, picture the vision of future generations in a more sustainable world, feeling the same feeling that you yourself are calling in.

Do this strategically until it comes more easily, though it might seem difficult at first. If your vision is you joyously dancing in nature, the seed memory might be you softly swaying in your kitchen on the first warm spring day, and then the dream-world vision might be children dancing while bees buzz about and butterflies grace the skies. Envision these scenes in succession: first, you swaying softly, then you in the present moment as you are now, then the vision of you dancing in nature, then the dream-world vision, you in nature, present moment, softly swaying, present moment, nature vision, dream world, and continue. This is a psychic dance that makes for potent spellwork, binding what you want to what you already have to what you hope will bless the great-great-grandbabes of the future, be they your own blood or not.

Danielle Dulsky is a heathen visionary, pagan poet, and word-witch. The author of Seasons of Moon and Flame, The Holy Wild, and Woman Most Wild, she teaches internationally and has facilitated circles, communal spell-work, and seasonal rituals since 2007. She is the founder of The Hag School and believes in the emerging power of wild collectives, cunning witches, and rebellious artists in healing our ailing world. Find her online at www.DanielleDulsky.com.

Excerpted from the book Seasons of Moon and Flame. Copyright ©2020 by Danielle Dulsky. Printed with permission from New World Library.

I have a stepson I just can't seem to warm up to. He lives a ways away with his mother, and we get him for a good six weeks in the summer and every other Christmas and spring break. I don't know why I can't warm up to him, for I've certainly tried. He's now 13 years old, and I have been married to his father for four years. From the start, he's just gotten on my nerves. He seems to like me, and I have fine relationships with his older sisters, who are 15 and 21 now. Could my feelings stem from past life experiences, or am I just not being nice? I try so hard to like him, and I am very kind to him and considerate when he is with us. I feel bad for feeling this way. I want to understand why I feel like this and what I can do to get past it. My birth date is 8/5/52 and his is 10/24/92.

Dreamchaser:

You have no reason to feel bad about your feelings towards your stepson. There are just some people in this world that rub us the wrong way. You are nice to him and treat him kindly when he is around. If you were mean and nasty when he came to visit, that would be a different story.

I do believe your issues stem from not only one past life, but from quite a few. I think you two are members of the same "soul family." There is this pack of souls that go from life to life with us. We learn from each other and they come with us in various forms in various lives. He was an enemy, a lover, a friend, a parent and a sibling of yours in prior lives. The emotions that you INSTANTLY felt towards him when you first met are a direct result of prior life experiences.

You need to stop feeling bad about your feelings towards him. Guilt is not good for anyone. You feel INCREDIBLY guilty, and of course you hope no one figures out how you feel, especially your husband. Don't worry - no one can see through your kindness towards the boy. This is a soul thing.

To be honest, though he seems to like you, your stepson is not very fond of you either. Though you are always kind to him, everyone else likes you, and his dad loves you, he feels the same thing you do. He feels as uncomfortable around you as you feel around him. He does not feel guilty about it, however. He just figures that you are his stepmother, and kids are not always expected to get along with their stepparents.

I do not know that there is any way for you to get past this. As he grows and evolves, he will change his demeanor and attitude. That may help you learn to like him as times goes by. At this point, however, I don't think you can MAKE yourself like him. You have been trying to do that.

If you want something new to TRY, you can ask the Universe to take away the negativity you have about him, and ask that it be replaced with feelings of tolerance, acceptance and love.

Because of the past life stuff between you two, I can't promise it will work, but you sure can try it. It will also make you feel less helpless where this situation is concerned. I know you would LOVE to get along better with him, and at least this would make you feel like you are working on that.

In the mean time, just try to make peace with yourself and your feelings about him. Sometimes we just have to accept how things are, even if we classify them as "bad."

I wish you peace with this situation.

*****

Astrea:

At times, all of us meet people we just don't like for one reason or another. Your problems with your stepson do not stem from anything in a past life, though I have seen that happen hundreds of times. The issues that you have with him are more astrological, and have a whole LOT to do with him living with his mother. That combination can't be easy for anyone.

As a Scorpio, he is naturally suspicious of anyone and everyone. That's a characteristic of that sign that can turn into full blown paranoia if it's allowed to fester and bloom!

It's not just you - he treats his dad the same way too. Dad is more equipped to handle it since they are blood relations, but it's harder for you. You want to be nice to him, but he just flat out rubs you the wrong way.

As a Leo, I know you're a consummate actress, and I know that you can keep up the facade for your husband's sake. It's difficult because the kid's mind is being poisoned against you by his mother breakfast, lunch and dinner. There is absolutely, positively, NOTHING you can do about her.

He's her baby, and he reports everything back to her that happens in your home. Then she twists things around to try to avenge all the wrongs she imagines your sweet husband did to her, and that attitude comes through in his aura whether you are able to actually see that or not.

As a sunny Leo, you feel that there is not a single person on Earth you can't manage to like. Even psychiatrists tell us that is just impossible, and that one in three people we meet will rub us the wrong way for one reason or another. Even close blood relatives can do that, so don't beat yourself up for being unenlightened just because you have a natural ability to read the boy's aura and it puts you off.

You seem to be able to overlook what he puts out and love him for who he is: your husband's son. As he gets older, he won't get more peaceful, because Scorpios are running a thousand miles per minute, but YOU will become more peaceful with the vibrations you pick up around him.

Sometimes we can never love signs that conflict with ours, but when he's old enough to figure out what his mother has been doing, he'll change his attitude, and you'll be able to be close to him just like you are your husband's two girls. He does love you, even though he can't like you, and I know your feelings for him are mutual.

Just try to roll with it and keep the peace for now ñ it will pay off for you a million times later on.