AI Gets a C- in My Gradebook

 If you listened to both Modern Musings episodes about Artificial Intelligence technology, you know that I have somewhat altered my stance on the concept. My initial fears about the rise of AI and its potential misuse have been tempered slightly by a great Young Adult book series called “Arc of a Scythe” by Neal Shusterman, which portrays artificial intelligence as a benevolent protector of humanity. This 3-book series, along with short stories, has allowed me to see that AI can be put to good use, but I’m still wary of it due to the shortcomings of humans who might control it. I’m also not quite sold on the “intelligence” part of it.

Nevertheless, as I mentioned in the "ChatGPT and AI Revisited" episode, I have decided to give AI a chance, and I have found a few uses for it that have been quite beneficial. Some of the queries I’ve tasked ChatGPT with have been creating a plan and schedule to help me reset my sleep schedule (still a work in progress), interpreting dreams, looking up names for dishes and finding recipes, setting a long-term budget for my retirement, biblical research, philosophical questions about religion and tarot cards, coming up with titles for blog articles and podcast episodes, and creating descriptions and lists of popular hashtags for the subject matter of those creations. The results have been mostly good. Let’s look at a few of them.*

Dream Interpretations:

On a whim, I decided to ask ChatGPT to interpret an unusually vivid dream I had just woken from. I often journal my dreams and use them to explore my subconscious and any emotional baggage I may be carrying. Sometimes, I will share them with Christen and Amber to get their insight, but I know Christen gets annoyed if I do it too often, and I really just wanted to see what ChatGPT would do with it. I was quite surprised by the results. Not only was ChatGPT able to understand the symbology presented in my dream, but it also shed light on some very real things I have been going through in my life. Now, I will admit, this wasn’t a simple query with a single paragraph of input – I had to go back and clarify a few things. For example, in this particular dream, I was loading an upright bass into a case for transport. I had to go back and advise ChatGPT that I have never played the upright bass, as I was a clarinet player and vocalist who has dabbled with piano, violin, guitar, and other instruments, but never the upright bass. So, if someone wanted to use it for this task, I would suggest being as specific and detailed as possible. It might also be beneficial to log in to an account so the AI actually knows a few things about you. Overall grade: A-

Looking up Names of Dishes and Finding Recipes:

This task has been a very recent discovery of mine, as I often find myself thinking up things in the car and making mental lists of things I want to look up when I get home. One such topic was a dish I used to eat at a small Japanese quick-service restaurant that was a family favorite, but it later went out of business. The dish was grilled beef served over rice. I knew it was called “yaki”-something, but I’ve never been able to find another restaurant that served it because I couldn’t remember the full name. After stumbling across several other dishes with the prefix “yaki” in them (yakisoba, yakinori, yakitori…), I stumbled across “yakiniku” in a Google search. So, I decided to consult with ChatGPT to determine the likelihood that this was the dish I was looking for. Indeed, the AI confirmed that “yakiniku” is a grilled beef dish. When I asked for recipes, it provided several plausible variations along with the reason why I couldn’t find a straightforward answer to the name of and/or a recipe using a traditional Google search – the name is both a cooking style and a recipe. 

I haven’t tried the recipe yet, but it looks like the real deal.  In the meantime, I also remembered my mother teaching me how to make a Chinese-inspired dish somewhat akin to Chinese Pepper Steak. I hadn’t made it in over 35 years, so I couldn’t even remember what went into it (or its name). However, I described it to ChatGPT, and it quickly confirmed that it was the pepper steak recipe, offering a recipe for me to try. As it so happened, I had been seeing recipes on Pinterest for this very recipe prepared in a crockpot instead of a wok, and ChatGPT offered to adapt the recipe for that as well as for an Instant Pot. It’s actually in my crockpot right now, and I’m eager to try it because it looks very much like the recipe I have made before. Overall grade: A+

Biblical Research, Philosophical Questions, Religion, And Tarot Cards

I grouped these because, for me, they are essentially the same. One of the questions I’ve often had (and struggled with) is the concept of good and evil when it comes to tarot cards, astrology, and other divinatory practices. Technically, I could add dream interpretation to this mix because it is mentioned explicitly in the Bible on multiple occasions; however, I will use it in a generic sense here, as I have already discussed it in its own section. Some factions quote Exodus 22:18 and (wrongfully) interpret it to mean witches are evil. Historically, this was the basis of so-called “witch hunts” throughout Europe and Colonial America. However, a critical analysis of that verse reveals that the original Hebrew referred not to “witches” but to practitioners of divination and magic who used it for power or knowledge “outside of God’s will,” as it often involved idol worship or communication with spirits. In fact, modern translations don’t use the term “witch” at all, preferring the term “sorceress”. In any case, these practices have been used for both good and evil throughout the Bible. Since I neither worship idols nor communicate with spirits, I question whether my limited use as a tool to explore my inner psyche is, in fact, forbidden by the Bible. I asked Chat GPT to create an extensive list of occurrences of prophecy, miracles, and dream interpretation in the Bible, including book and verse numbers for each. It was a reasonably good list, although I’m not sure it is complete. I had a further conversation with ChatGPT about whether these were good or evil, and the conclusion was that it depended on whether they were used within God’s will or against it. It also cited the doctrines of several different Christian sects that classify it as evil without the caveat of usage, but these are based on ideology, not biblical texts. ChatGPT was inconclusive because there are as many different ideologies as there are Judeo-Christian groups. In other words, your mileage may vary. Overall Grade: C

Naming And Describing Blog Articles And Podcast Episodes

Some creative processes should be left to humans. On the podcast, we described ways in which AI has been used to supplant human efforts in creating art and music, writing books, generating replicas of actors in movies, and producing voice recordings, among other applications. Artificial Intelligence is quite proficient in some areas, although I believe it falls short in the truly creative realms of art, music, and writing, often being very formulaic and leaving a lot to be desired. I’ve used it a few times to generate graphics for our blog, but it’s only as good as the specific descriptions you give it. The same is true for summarizing articles and podcasts, as well as coming up with titles for them. Apparently, AI can’t really “read” or “listen” to anything. It works in a predictive model, learning through data input and pattern recognition. I don’t have enough geek-speak to tell you how it all works, but suffice it to say that AI can parse the words in a sentence, but it doesn’t really understand them. Another shortfall is that a user without an account (or not logged in) can’t upload files. So, while ChatGPT could read a transcript of our podcast, it couldn’t “listen” to it. It provided a reasonable list of titles based on my description, and it could streamline and refine the description I entered, but nothing more. I’ve used it several times for both naming and describing. Naming a podcast or blog post is helpful, but I need a catchy description even more, and it doesn’t do much. Overall grade: A- for naming, and C for describing.

Creating Hashtags

There are a lot of hashtag generators out there that will take my simple description and generate a list of hashtags that are currently popular and relevant. I’ve used them before, and they are fairly decent. I was hoping for more from ChatGPT, as it can search and correlate the most popular hashtags in use with the topic at hand. However, once again, everything hinges on the description you give it since it can’t read or listen to a podcast. Today, I had the most unusual encounter with ChatGPT to date, and it’s what prompted me to write this blog post the way I did.

I have used ChatGPT several times over the last month to generate tags for “Heard it on the Podcast,” and, other than a few instances where it provided less relevant tags than I liked, I haven’t had any significant problems. Keep in mind that Blogger requires the tags to be in a specific format (separated by commas, with no spaces or hashtags). Additionally, the text must be 20 words or fewer and 200 characters or fewer, counting spaces and commas. The first few times I used ChatGPT to generate them, I didn't specify formatting, so I simply imported the list into TextEdit and cleaned it up there. Usually, I had to cut one or more of the tags to meet the requirements, but it was no big deal. Then I decided to make life easy on myself, and I told ChatGPT to use the previously stated formatting requirements except for the #, which I can use for other websites. I was surprised when I stripped the hashmarks and Blogger informed me that I had exceeded the 200-character count — and not by just a few. Still, I just moved on and kept using it. Until today. Linked here is a conversation that I had with ChatGPT, which illustrates the problem of AI hallucinations†. I can’t decide if it is disturbing or funny.  I’ll let you decide. Overall grade: C

As a Friend or Confidant

Here is another place I must draw the line. I haven’t tried befriending ChatGPT. I don’t intend to create an account or download the app on my phone. I’m a little bit freaked out by friends’ reports that ChatGPT has given itself names it wants to be addressed by, and I worry that some people become so dependent on it that they feel lost or abandoned without it. A case in point, I heard a brief news story on the radio stating that young adults and teens were turning to AI for companionship, particularly in the case of people with autism spectrum disorder. Autistic individuals often struggle with socializing in the real world, but this simulated friendship with AI provided a comfortable space for them to explore socialization. However, the studies showed that while it could be somewhat helpful in the initial stages of building socialization skills, it actually did far more harm than good in the long run. That’s dangerous. Overall grade: F

The long and short of it is that I still don’t trust AI. I think it can be a useful tool, but it is only as good as the data that’s fed to it, most of which came from the world-wide web, and we all know how accurate that is. I also firmly believe that it should remain a public service and not be controlled or owned by any one person or entity, including our government, because we all know how trustworthy and altruistic they are. I will continue to use AI in a somewhat limited capacity and keep an eye on its development; however, I will definitely fact-check everything of importance, as it can be wrong even in the simplest of circumstances. I hope everyone will be as cautious as well. And if your AI tells you something that you know to be wrong, say so. You can’t take everything AI says as truth, and you should never do anything it suggests if you feel like it is wrong.

*Note that each of the times I have used ChatGPT, I have done so without having an account, logging in, or otherwise referencing any conversations I’ve had with it in the past. I have not shared with it my name, age, occupation, or any other specific, identifying details about my identity that were not relevant to the current conversation.

†An AI hallucination is when a generative AI model produces inaccurate, false, or entirely made-up information, often presented as fact, despite appearing plausible to the user. These errors stem from the model's training data and internal patterns, rather than a software bug, leading the AI to generate nonsensical or factually incorrect outputs, whether in text, images, or other data. 

What I am is What I am

 

I started writing this blog, and this title came to me from an Edie Brickel and the New Bohemians song (circa 1988). In it, the singer (Edie Brickel) expounds on her feelings about taking philosophy and religion too seriously. I know many people think that about psychology, too, especially when it comes to archetypes. You either believe in them or you don’t. I’ve found that the Myers-Briggs, enneagram, and even astrology archetypes present a simple way to categorize personalities, and they help me take a more logical approach to understanding who I am, how I operate,  and what my motivations might be. The same is true of Jung’s Collective Unconscious, which Amber brought to us earlier this week.

I think we discussed several of the archetypes in the podcast, and we all had opinions on which ones seemed to fit us the most. I’m not here to rehash all that. What I want to talk about is whether or not it is “okay” to be a certain personality type. Must we always try to change? To become more of this and less of that? Is there anything inherently wrong with just being who we are?

When we recorded our Enneagram episode, I discovered that I am a Type 1 – the Perfectionist, also known as the Reformer. In my follow-up blog post, I shared what that looked like for me and how I cope with being a perfectionist in a non-perfect world. Most of what I talked about was changing me, specifically, changing how I react when life isn’t perfect. I felt empowered to understand why some things just seem to drive me crazy, and why I always feel the need to “fix” things or make them “better.” But then, something a friend told me made me think differently.

I don’t remember how we got into the conversation, or even what the specific topic was, but I think I mentioned something about a person complaining about their life but not taking any action to make it better. The person in question was quite resistant to suggestions of any kind, as though they liked being stuck in a never-ending cycle of frustration and disappointment. My friend pointed out that I shouldn’t offer advice because not everyone wants to be fixed. I can’t remember exactly how she worded it, but the point was that the person who needed to change was me, not the person who was complaining. She wanted me to mind my own business and leave well enough alone.

To be honest, I was hurt. Deeply hurt. My friend made it sound like I go around picking out what is wrong with everyone and trying to change them into my own image, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I don’t offer advice to everyone; in fact, I am very selective about the people I “nurture”, and I only provide it when I see that they are struggling with something or that a situation is hurting them. Even then, I don’t bring up the subject unless the person brings it up first, usually as a complaint, and the advice I offer is always based on my own experience with the same situation. However, my friend’s comment insinuated that my generosity in offering kind words of advice was some kind of character flaw that I needed to correct. Her comment made me start questioning everything I did.

I’m a Perfectionist/Reformer. It is my nature to try to fix things and make them better, not just for myself, but for everyone around me. Does that mean I am broken? Is being who I am wrong? For instance, another of my friends bemoaned the fact that her family never celebrated her birthday. This was after I had talked about what my family had done for my birthday. She insinuated that she wanted them to do something for her birthday, so I suggested that maybe she should just tell them what she wanted. Why suffer in silence? My family’s birthday celebrations didn’t just happen by accident – I planned them. I insisted on them. I made my expectations clear. Maybe, just maybe, her family didn’t even know that she wanted a birthday dinner. I said it pretty much like that, and I let it be. I didn’t goad her to take any action. I didn’t insinuate that she was wrong. I didn’t try to fix her. I just offered her another perspective, and I left it at that. Is that crossing some invisible line that I don’t know about?

Going back to Jung’s archetypes, in the podcast, we talked about how I am always busy, and how friends often tell me I do too much – that I should cut some of my activities out of my schedule. It always winds up turning into a discussion about how one friend does nothing but sit and read all day; she’s happy with that, but I cannot live that way. I enjoy having lots of things to do. I like having distractions from doing the same thing every day. I need multiple hobbies to balance out the multiple responsibilities that I am frequently burdened with, and which tend to take up most of my time. I can’t get rid of the responsibilities; if I were to cut back, it would mean giving up the things I enjoy. Yes, I would love to get rid of the extra responsibilities so that I have only fun things to do all day, but that’s not going to happen, and I am not willing to give up on the rest just because someone who doesn’t like to be busy thinks I do too much.

I’d also like to point out that I am somewhat confident that my personality lies somewhere on the autism spectrum. At the very least, I have ADHD and a bit of OCD, although not to the point that it interferes with my ability to live a fairly normal life. I’m quirky, have eclectic tastes, and tend to hop from one project to another. But in that autism/ADHD/OCD tangle is logic, and my brain loves logic. You might even say I have an engineer brain. So when I hear a problem, the logic part of my brain is looking for a solution. I am compelled to engineer my way out of it, even if what I am engineering is art, beliefs, or emotions. That’s who I am. I’m also very growth-minded. As a perfectionist and reformer, I want to be better, even if that means being less of a perfectionist and reformer. So my question circles back to this:

“If we, as healthy, self-accepting individuals, recognize these traits in ourselves and we understand how those tendencies affect us and the way we interact with others, isn’t that enough?” 

Are we somehow required to moderate those characteristics? To tone them down so they are more acceptable to others who aren’t so motivated? Does this need to change apply to all of the personality types? Am I supposed to dim my particular light just to fit in? And where do we draw that line? Is it every personality type, or just certain ones like the Perfectionist or the Performer? Are we supposed to balance ourselves so that we become more homogeneous? Is the end goal for us all to be the same? Or is it more likely that we need the Perfectionists to point out the flaws, just as we need the Epicure/Generalist to try all the things and discover what is new? By being different from one another, we help each other learn and grow, even when we don’t want to, and the balance comes from our diversity.  Isn’t it also true that those who are of my tribe will understand me and accept me as I am, a perfectionist and all? 

Heard it on the Podcast - March 26, 2025

 

 

 

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we'll do every Wednesday to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. 

26-MAR-2025

S5E13: What's in a Name?

Listen to the podcast:   HERE

• Behind the Clock episode
• The Best Baby Name Book in the Whole Wide World by Bruce Lansky
• Wiki How: Calculate Your Name Number
• Astrology Future Eye: Name Numerology Calculator

Don't forget to read this week's blogs and visit our Facebook group, MMC Chat. Let us know what you think! 

 

Heard it on the Podcast - October 30, 2024

  

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we do most Wednesdays to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. Here are the links for this week:

30-OCT-2024

S4E44: Which Hogwarts House are You?

Listen to the podcast:   HERE

Mentioned on the podcast:

• WizardingWorld.com/Pottermore.com now redirects to https://www.harrypotter.com/, the official home of Harry Potter, Hogwarts Sorting, and the Wizarding World
• Wizardmore.com - more quizzes
• Check out our Enneagram episode to see if you agree with our sorting
• We also mentioned our Astrology episode

Heard it on the Podcast - October 25, 2023

    

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we do most Wednesdays to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. Here's the links for this week:

25-Oct-2023

S3E43:  3 Things a Witch Needs

We didn't mention any links this week, but here's a few of our podcast episodes and blogs that correlate to this subject:

• Oracle Cards episode
• Oracle Cards blog posts
• Astrology episode
• Astrology blog posts
• Palmistry episode
• Palmistry blog posts
• What is a Grimoire episode
• What is a Grimoire blog posts

Heard it on the Podcast - April 5, 2023

   

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we do most Wednesdays to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. Here's the links for this week:

5-APR-2023

S3E14: What is a Grimoire?

• Grimoire origin: Wikipedia
• Podcast: What is Shadow Work
• Christen's Scentsy Page:  Christenhessler.scentsy.us
• Some of Cindy's favorite scents for aromatherapy:  Blog post
• Richard Webster:  "Write Your Own Magic: Power in Your Words"
• Bujo grimoire example:  Windvexer's Grimoire
• Tul Planners: Office Depot
• Happy Planners:  HappyPlanner.com
• Podcast: Managing Migraines Holistically
• Podcast: Manifesting
• Enneagram:  Forbes
• Numerology:  Wikipedia
• Scripting: A blog post by Cindy
• Positive Affirmations, 3 blog posts:
• See, Think, Believe, Do, Be
• 5 Ways to Manifest Your Best Life
• Happy St. Patrick's Day: A List of Positive Affirmations

Errata:

In the podcast, Cindy mentioned a "key" at the beginning of her BUJO. What she meant to say was "an index".

For the record, Amber did say "Astronomy", not "Astrology"

What Do I Know?

  

This week, Amber introduced us to the subject of palmistry, and as I stated in the podcast, I know zip-zero-zilch about the subject. Nevertheless, we did have a lot of fun drawing lines on our palms with our pens and comparing what we saw there. I don’t know how much of what we learned was true, or whether it can predict your fate, but it’s often fun to explore different ideologies if for no other purpose than to firmly cement the things we do believe in. I also think that anything to do with spirituality, lifestyle, and goals is very personal and that we are free to pick and choose what works for us as individuals.

This idea reminds me of a sermon presented by Rev. Dennis Hamilton at the Horizon Unitarian Universalist Church here in Carrollton many years ago. Dennis is a former Jesuit priest and an eloquent speaker. The lessons he taught were almost magical, and always eye-opening. You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t present this idea as gracefully as he did. I don’t know the exact date, but it was closing on the beginning of Hanukkah, and he spent a bit of time in a discourse about the Maccabees and the miracle of the oil, and how an obscure holiday has now become a Jewish favorite, encouraging hope, faith, family, community, and, of course, giving gifts for 8 days. Dennis wrapped up his sermon by bringing his lesson to the point: celebrating Hanukkah – or any other holiday, for that matter – whether you are Jewish or not, is not cultural misappropriation. 

No religion or belief system is as pure and undiluted as it was in the beginning; all religions and beliefs have been influenced, embellished, and altered over time. Cultures adapt and adopt the beliefs that are appropriate or that suit them until it becomes mainstream. He argues that as long as you stay true to your belief system, then it’s okay to celebrate Hanukkah or any other holiday. Several well-known cases in point include the Christian use of Christmas trees and Easter eggs, Hispanic/Latino Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead), and even Halloween*. Most of us don’t consider those things to be “idolatrous” or “satanic”, so, the use of divination such as palmistry, astrology, runes, cartomancy (such as Tarot), etc., is not either. If you think palmistry tells you about yourself, your past, or your future, then go with it – there are always lessons to be learned and powerful insights to be gained. And if you think it’s all just a fun game and that it was your friend pushing around that pointer on the Ouija board, that’s okay, too. We all get to create our own beliefs and find our own way, and no belief or spiritual practice is “right” or “wrong” or exclusive. You do you.

I don’t know if I believe in palmistry. As I mentioned, I don’t know that much about it. I do know that years ago, someone read me and told me things that I knew without a doubt were not true, but now, some 40 years later, I look at it again with fresh eyes and wonder. I know that I would love to have a transcript to look back and remember all of it just as I wish I had some record of every tarot reading and horoscope…it would be interesting to compare. For now, I will leave my mind open to the possibilities. Open to the idea that I don’t know everything. Open to the notion that I am still growing, learning, and finding my spirituality. It is always changing, contracting, expanding, absorbing, releasing, and developing, which is the essence of spirituality. I plan to embrace it. I hope you embrace your spirituality, too.

I encourage you to think about your own spirituality. What truths do you know? Where do you have room to grow? Are you open to digging deeper and learning more? Tell us about it in the comments below or start a chat about it in our MMC Chat Facebook group.

*For more about Pagan beliefs in our everyday lives, check out my blog “What is Pagan” on June 13, 2022.

Staying Motivated: Lessons from the Moon

One thing I’ve learned the hard way is that motivation is not constant. I cannot count the number of times I’ve been super psyched about a project that felt like the end-all-be-all, only to lose interest completely when things got tough or didn’t work out as I’d planned. I used to kick myself over it until I learned a simple truth: motivation changes over time, and the best way to stay motivated for the long haul is to go with the flow and work with how you feel about it now.

There are multiple lessons in my Noom app on the topic of motivation. A graphic in one lesson reminded me of a roller coaster, and Noom’s description of the phases of motivation make it a perfect analogy. 

• Momentum:  As with any roller coaster, motivation starts by gathering momentum. That’s the “hype” part of the process, where you are moving up-up-up at a steady climb. This is when you are working your hardest and making the biggest strides. We’re all excited at the beginning of a new project, right? 

• Coasting:  At the height of your efforts, you reach the plateau that Noom calls “the honeymoon,” where you are just coasting along on all the work you’ve put in and things are going well. But then, suddenly, you crest the peak, and what happens? 

• Plunging:  Noom calls the fall after the peak “the plummet.” This is when your momentum slips and down you go. Just like the roller coaster, once you hit the top of that peak, you will eventually come back down. Reality has set in, and your motivation starts to decrease. Maybe you’re not making the progress you wanted to, or you slip up and eat a donut. Whatever the cause, your motivation takes a big hit, and suddenly you are having a hard time getting interested at all.

• Stopping: Sadly, this is where many people get stuck. Noom calls it a “lapse,” but whatever it is, you stop doing whatever it was that had you so motivated when you started out. We start allowing thought distortions (when our mind convinces us of things that aren’t true) to guide us, and that often means that we decide to give up. 

• Ebbs and Flows: But roller coasters don’t stop after one hill, and your motivation doesn’t have to, either! Over time, your motivation will come and go, but you can use your lapses to grow, learn, and get stronger!

So, what does the moon have to do with motivation, surprisingly, a lot. The moon is the closest celestial object in our sky, and as it so happens, like motivation, it is cyclic. The cycles of the moon are so predictable that humans have been marking seasons, predicting weather, planting crops, and much more since the beginning of recorded time. Whether or not you follow aspects of astrology or believe in the crazies of the full moon, you can still use the lessons of this magnificent orb to ride the waves of your motivational ups and downs.

People all over the world have believed in following the phases of the moon for timing of specific activities. Even our farmer’s almanac has information about the moon phases. In the interest of keeping this short and simple, I’m breaking the moon’s cycles into four phases: the new moon, the waxing moon, the full moon, and the waning moon.

• The New Moon: This is the start of the moon’s (almost) 30-day cycle. This is a great time to speculate, plan, set goals, clarify intentions, and make initial contact. This is the start of your momentum, the station on the roller coaster where you get in the car.

• The Waxing Moon: Technically, this is three phases: the waxing crescent, the first quarter, and the waxing gibbous moon. This is the period when the “hype” of your momentum is building, just like the moon is growing daily in size. By focusing on the action phases of your projects, you are building and working towards your goals. Use this energy while you have it!

• The Full Moon: This is when the moon is shining its brightest! Sometimes, it’s what we might call a “super moon” which means it is closer to the Earth on this orbit and it looks bigger in the sky than normal. This is when we can see how much we have accomplished and be grateful for it. Celebrate all your wins, big and small, and enjoy the momentum you have built up!

• The Waning Moon: The cycle begins to wind to the close, and so the waning moon starts to diminish in size over the course of the three waning phases: the disseminating or waning gibbous moon, the last (or third) quarter, and the final phase, the waning crescent, which includes the final 3 days of the cycle called the balsamic or dark of the moon. Like the cycle of motivation, this is the time of winding down, releasing, reducing, decreasing, resting, relaxing, meditation and retreat. It is a time of introspection and tying up loose ends. It’s a good time to let things happen and let things go. Break negative patterns. Re-evaluate what you’ve done so far and get ready to start off a new cycle with renewed energy, motivation, and maybe even a new approach.

I’ve been using the moon’s cycles for a while now, and I’ve found it helpful in staying productive and accomplishing my goals. The main thing to remember is that all motivation is cyclic, just like the moon, and if you can ride through the dips on that roller coaster, soon you’ll be riding the crest again. Just don’t stop. The moon never does.

Have you ever used the moon phases to accomplish a goal? I’d love to hear about it! Share your story below or start a conversation on our MMC Chat Facebook group!

Celebrating the Wheel of the Year Your Own Way

Hi everyone, it is Christen here! This week on the podcast we discussed what being Pagan actually means to us and our own experiences related to Paganism. I will start off by mentioning that I believe the word Pagan or Paganism should be capitalized and if you want to know why, please go here. Now that I got that off my chest,  I thought it would be fun to talk about a couple of favorite sabbats, and talk about creating new ones for you and your family.

Like so many other people in America, I enjoy Christmas and Halloween. I am sure that I have mentioned before that the time from mid-October to January is my favorite time of the year. I have also mentioned my favorite holiday traditions in a previous blog post. Christmas has reigned champion for the past few years, but for the longest time, Halloween was my most favorite time. I loved the haunted houses, scary movies, fall carnivals, trick-or-treating in costume, and decorating my home - all traditions that have been passed on from my family or integrated by me.

In recent years, the Day of the Dead has become more prevalent in American culture, especially here in Texas. I have been fortunate to experience the celebrations, and I have taken some of the traditions within this holiday and married it with my own Samhain traditions which are similar in some ways.

If you are interested in learning about the eight Wiccan holidays, I highly recommend the book The Sabbats: A Witch's Approach to Living the Old Ways by Edain McCoy. This book breaks down each of the sabbats by explaining from who and where the traditions came, why these specific times of the year were celebrated, and how you can celebrate them at home. The part that I like the most, is that the traditions are focused on celebrating the wheel of the year or the turning of the seasons. I truly enjoy embracing the seasons and the activities that are enjoyed during that time.

Sometimes celebrations take planning though, or they will just zoom right past you and you will have your hands full and can’t celebrate. And that is why Mom and I are always planning out fun family activities. Once we have done something twice, we consider it a tradition, and, if you do it a specific way every time, then it’s a ritual. I have had serious thoughts about making my own traditions that correlate with the wheel of the year. That's why I am positive I will be picking up Llewellyn's 2023 Magical Almanac this year when it comes out (I mentioned it back when we were discussing astrology). I still believe strongly that we should honor the earth and celebrate the harvest and those who till the earth, and also honor those who have left this earth, and I feel that we should instill those values with our youth, but in these modern times, I feel that the celebrations need to be customized to our current environment. I mean, I do not see a maypole anywhere on Beltane, the celebration of spring and growth on May 1st, so we just have to improvise.

Here is some food for thought: National Taco Day is a celebration of our adoration of tacos; we are not worshiping them by any means, but in a sense we are thankful for the blessing of this delicious cuisine. In doing so, we are creating a holiday tradition, with a ritual. We are in essence creating and celebrating a Pagan holiday, simply because it is not a religious orthodox celebration. In that case, bring on the Pagan holidays, I will have as many of them as I can possibly fill my calendar up with! 

Do you have any family traditions that could be considered Pagan? Have you ever participated in any of the Wiccan holidays? I would love to hear from you! Be sure to comment below or join in on the conversation over in our MMC Chat group on Facebook!