The Magical World of Tylluan Penry

No, not the ones you find on BCUK's home page.... this is my idea. Every so often I shall have a browse through recent posts and select a few interesting blogs here. If they are of interest to you, then maybe you would like to visit them.

Let's see how it works, shall we? Maybe we can all find new friends this way and get Blogland moving again.... and please feel free to put your own suggestions either in the comments section here, or on your own pages.

I leave a message on each blog that I mention to let the owner know that I've mentioned it here.

And please let me know if you think it's a helpful idea!

So.... for Tylluan's featured blogs Part 1 I present to you:

Frary's Fresh Flowers blog at
http://frarys-fresh-flowers.blog.co.uk/2009/06/29/foxgloves-6422744/

Bushka's blog is always worth a visit: This post is great fun!
http://leaves.blog.co.uk/2009/06/29/bedtime-beckons-6422590/

Seaside Man has been to Glastonbury and has the photos to prove it! You can start catching up with them here:
http://seasideman.blog.co.uk/2009/06/29/a-small-corner-of-one-field-at-glastonbury-6422479/

Garden Girl's blog is worth a visit, too:
http://gardengirl.blog.co.uk/2009/06/29/back-to-work-6419381/

Well, that's it for now - do let me know what you think of this idea!

I have to admit that it's harder for me to write about my mother than it was about my father. I think of all her children, I was her least favourite. But it's not negativity we need here, so I'm going to try and post the good things about her...

Firstly, she had some great sayings:
'I'd rather be envied than pitied,' was her eternal favourite. She was the sort of woman who wouldn't even bring the milk in from the doorstep until she had put on her make up and done her hair.

Another favourite saying was 'I've got the name, now I'll have the game.' This usually meant that she found out people had been saying nasty things about her, and now she was going to live up to the reputation they had given her. Usually she made them wish they hadn't!

She was good with animals, too. She would often say she preferred dogs to people, and I've seen her nurse all sorts of strays, even wild birds, back to health before releasing them into the wild. When one of our pets was ill, I've known her sleep downstairs on the floor beside it until it got better.

The above is not a great deal for someone who featured so large in my life. But it's positive, and that's good.

Now it's your turn to share (if you want to, of course!). I'd love to hear from you!

Yesterday, I blogged about my father, and amongst the comments were some wonderful stories that people shared about their own fathers. Wonderful warm, happy memories. But why did I suddenly change tack so abruptly? I mean, I'd been blogging about psychic self defence for a while and then suddenly there I was talking about my father and his eccentricities.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

The best lessons in magic and spiritual practice shouldn't come across as lessons at all. Things have been getting bleak and nasty in some parts of blogland lately, haven't they? Well, in writing about my father, and in sharing in the stories of your fathers what I was doing was introducing a positive male figure into all this.

The Dad. Your Dad. My Dad. The Dad-we-might-have-liked-to-have-had even. All good men, kind at heart, loving, warm, trustworthy.

Why? Well, a wise man once told me that the best way to stop weeds growing in a garden was to fill it with flowers. So that was what I was trying to do. I was trying to nudge out people (male or female) who are not kind at heart, loving, warm or trustworthy by replacing them with people who possess all those qualities.

And I haven't finished yet. I'm going to blog next about mothers... care to join me?

After all the posts on psychic self defence, you might think that I have gone way off-topic here. But no, I want to talk about the importance of our fathers, and how it affects the rest of our life - for better or worse. A good father can make us stronger, wiser, better people (don't worry, I'll do another post on the importance of mothers!). A bad one can scar us for life.

I have been double lucky. I not only had a good father, I married Mr Penry who has been a wonderful father to all the little Penry's making their way in the world. And having such positive masculine influences in my life have been highly beneficial for me, and for the rest of the family.

But I often blog about Mr Penry. Now I would like to tell you a little about my father. He was definitely an eccentric, in every sense of the word. Totally unlike my friend's fathers, mine would stand on his head to meditate, fill in his Pools Coupons (remember those) with the use of a pendulum, taught me to dowse, pick herbs, make wine... he was clever and ambitious that his children should be clever too. Not because he wanted us to get good jobs, but because he believed that knowledge was the only wealth worth having.

He was also a gifted occultist in his own right, steeped in the western mysteries of the Qabbalah. He owned loads of books on the occult which he obtained when a defrocked priest sold them off! My father was, for some reason, rather chuffed about that!

One great thing about being a writer is that you get to put dedications in your books. And my forthcoming book 'The Magical Properties of Herbs... and how to find them' is dedicated to the memory of my wonderful, eccentric, maddening father.

Would anyone here like to share their memories of their father, and how they feel their lives have been shaped by them?

In an attempt to lighten the mood in Blogland, I thought I would blog a little about childhood. Whether our childhoods were good, bad, happy, stressed or whatever, they have a huge impact on the sort of people we become.

This is why I get so annoyed when people talk about wrapping children in cotton wool. THere is a huge different between taking knives off the little buggers and teaching them to bounce on a trampoline

Where I live, happily, children still appear to be children. Yes, some of them are more pleasant than others, but by and large they still play together and go in large groups up the park to play in the woods and on the mountainside. They also build bogeys and gambos.

For the uninitiated, a bogey or gambo is a wheeled vehicle of sorts, often in the old days it had a converted pram for its base. Down in the city it was called a bogey, up in the valleys it was a gambo (which is Welsh for Hay cart). The really advanced ones had a primitive steering method that relied heavily on thick string. Few had brakes - you either had to run out of steam or crash.

Of course, these makeshift vehicles were not much fun on flat ground. Where I live everything is on a steep hill, which makes them great fun but potentially lethal. So you can imagine my horror a few nights ago when I heard one of these things whizzing past my house (it's a very quiet road) at full speed.

And then there was the inevitable crash. Wood splintered. Wheels jangled, spun endlessly and finally landed. I waited for the scream. There wasn't one. Just a stunned, horrible silence that was somehow even worse. I had visions that they must have knocked themselves out.

And then, just as I was making for the gate to see if they were all right, I heard this childish giggle and a little Welsh voice crying 'Wooooow! That was cooooooool!'

Kids.

I'd love to hear your happy memories of childhood.

Firstly, let nothing that follows detract from the fact that today is the summer solstice. The longest day. The very height of summer. If you can, make the effort to go outside at least for a little while today. You don't have to do any fancy rituals... just enjoy the day for what it offers. Sit and listen... to the birds, to the silence (unless of course the neighbours are out with their pressure washer or strimmer

As for a few words of Witchy wisdom, these are intended to stand you in good stead for the rest of the year. I hope you find them helpful.

1. Just because someone tells you they're a witch, sorcerer, alchemist, alien or teach at Hogwarts does not mean it's true. Witches are as witches do.

2. Be doubly suspicious of those who claim to possess great power. If you have to tell people you have it, then generally you don't.

3. Those who claim 'I am so wicked/powerful/magical (or even magickal ) are talking b****cks. The really powerful ones don't need to give any warning. In fact, they would prefer not to. The others are just trying to intimidate you.

4. Even in the ancient world, a lot of so-called spells were complete cobblers, written only to induce the gullible to part with their money. Even more modern spells fall in this category.

5. Reading a couple of books about Aleister Crowley does not make you a Master or Mistress of the Dark Arts. Nor does wearing black lipstick.

6. Just because someone tells you they can hex you doesn't make it true. In my experience it's just another form of bullying.

7. Fear is the greatest gift you can give a psychic attacker. It's what they feed on. And of course fear breeds fear so it quickly becomes a monster to control. Don't give in to it. Learn to laugh at them. If you find it hard, go out and buy a couple of joke books.

8. Those that really have power do not need to advertise it. No matter how much power someone has, (and I've known a few immensely powerful people in my time) they still prefer the advantage of surprise whenever possible. Those who advertise their power are full of hot air.

9. I cannot stress this one strongly enough - if you suspect someone is hexing you then keep away from them. We have talked about cyber bullying on this blog before - and the only way to deal effectively with it is to stay away from their blogs, delete them as friends, delete any comments that upset you, stay off their MySpace, Facebook, TweetiePie Twitter etc., because otherwise you are keeping the 'red cord' of communication open.
Close all contact.
Suppress all interest.
No longer refer to them by name. He/She-who-must-not-be-named was the way the ancient Egyptians dealt with such people.
That way you will suffocate their intentions.

Pob lwc! (Good luck!)

Brightest blessings
Tylluan

My right arm went numb last night. I know I should have expected it, there have been odd little warning signs over the past few months, but it was still strange, like pins and needles but you don't know why it's there.

And I'd been feeling pretty rough yesterday, so no surprises there.

This morning most of the feeling is back again, although my hand is still cold and the fingers feel weird. I have to be really careful picking things up now, in case I drop them.

And typing anything is a nightmare, and my voice recognition software doesn't seem to respond very well to my accent. (I know you're supposed to be able to 'train' these things, but mine is about as well trained as my dogs )

Now I'm just catching up on my writing as and when. I even managed a sheet full of illustrations last night (before the numbness started) for my book on Runes.

It's a lovely day, and I hope to sit in the garden later. Meanwhile Mr Penry bless him, is fussing over me and not letting me do anything!

I was going to write some more today about psychic self defence and hexes when something occurred to me. I don't think I've ever known a time when I've had quite so many private requests for help and advice on this topic, and that set me wondering...

Why are we going through a period when so many people - most of whom don't even know each other, so it's not a case that they are picking up on the same ideas - feel they are under psychic attack?

Well, I think it's something in the air. Or to be more precise, it's a combination of the time of the year (just approaching the summer solstice) and the moonphase.

The summer solstice is a funny old time. Always is. When you live by the seasons you become sensitive to the sudden 'jolt' around each solstice and the equinoxes. Things change. The balance shifts. The year literally seems to change gear.

Not only that, but you often notice a period of rain just after the solstice, regardless of what the weather has been like before.

Last year (2008) we had a full moon at the solstice. This year the moon has reduced to the merest sliver... virtually the dark of the moon, in fact. And I suspect it is a combination of the solstice energy and the moonphase that may be behind these rather troubling feelings.

What we are picking up on is a collision of two great forces. The days are reaching their longest point and on the weekend all this is set to change. But at night there is no compensating moon - she has all but vanished.

So, if you are one of those people who feels they might be under attack, I would take heart from all of this. It could just be that you are reacting to some really strong energies that are buzzing around at the moment. Spend some time on psychic cleansing and grounding yourself and just bide your time... with a bit of luck many of the problems will go away by the end of next week!

I haven't been around much for over a week - apologies for this. Sometimes there just aren't enough hours in the day... and sometimes my energy just disappears, for all the world as though someone has pulled a plug and it's just drained away.

Hopefully shall be back this coming week... I thought I would write a bit more on psychic self defence - unless of course, any of you have any requests for something different?

When I started out on my path, there was no such thing as cyberspace. Psychic attacks (such as they were) existed in the here and now, amongst people you often knew or recognised.

Nowadays it is quite different. Cyberspace gives us a chance to do some pretty spectacular magical journeying. We can be whoever we want - change gender, change our age, change our looks, invent a whole new look. Our avatars may look nothing like us. (Ahem - mine certainly looks nothing like me, I hope! )

But there are some risks. Magical journeying without a computer takes skill, some training and is vastly tiring. Even so, people years ago recognised the risks - describing someone as 'away with the fairies' could often mean that they had spent too long in Other Worlds, making it difficult for them to adjust to reality, and making them vulnerable when they tried.

The same goes for cyberspace. I'm amazed just how long each day some people spend in this 'Other World.' Probably longer than they do in the real world. And yet the same problems apply just as they did years ago - being 'away with the fairies' makes it hard for us to get back into the real world, and it weakens us too, making us more vulnerable to psychic attack.

And of course, there are psychic attackers out there. The sheer ease of slipping into this Other World is extremely tempting for those who would like to exercise a bit of psychic muscle. They prowl around, looking for their victims, and can do just as much (some would say even more!) damage as an ordinary attacker.

Psychic self defence in cyberspace is very like ordinary psychic self defence. You need to avoid your attacker by not visiting sites or pages that they frequent. You need to learn to shield yourself (psychic armour is still useful in cyberspace) and block all communications with them.

Remember that in this Other World, the ordinary rules we are used to have twisted somewhat. You are not on a level playing field. Your attacker will pick their ground, and you must likewise find a good defensive position.

But, most important of all with these cyber-attacks, you need to ground yourself (get off-line a bit more!)