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Yard Sale Witch - The World of eMagic





As I sit here this morning with my coffee, overly sweetened with vanilla, I hear the bugs singing as the sun slowly rises over the dunes of my new home. The wheel turns and moves us on around the sun. I think about where I am now and where I may be going in the future. 

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

My paths lay before me, waiting for me to choose my direction.  Scrolling through the social media feeds, I see so many just trying to stay alive. Thoughts and prayers, energies sent around the globe holding together this tumultuous place in which we attempt to thrive. What are we doing with our energies? What have we become?

Have you noticed that when you hear something over and over your brain begins to block it out?  The frog in boiling water tale quickly comes to mind. We're sitting here with our feet to the proverbial flames and still we stand closer. We forget that we need to refill these energy reservoirs before heading out to our next "thoughts and prayers" event.

Image result for thoughts and prayers

Historically the witch required something that belonged to the target in order to cast a solid spell. Hair and nail clippings and sometimes even personal possessions were collected and used as anchors for magical spell work.  Today magic seems to be sent across the electronic divide with a simple "High Five" emoji and the word "sending".   Apparently "sending" is the new "abracadabra" or "so mote it be".  The world of e-Magic has begun.




Image result for high five emoji


Now I'm the first to balk at someone who says you must have a red candle for this magic or a blue for that. I do not for a second believe the energies created from the candle are dependent on the color. Hell, currently you can barely find a candle that is colored completely to the center so is part of my magic blue and part white?  No, of course not.  My intend is there no matter the color of my candle. The color is merely a reminder of my intent. It helps me keep my focus on my "blue" magic vs. "green".

Sometimes we forget that while it is easy to send our eMagic out into the world, it is still grounded in our being. It is still part of us and requires us to take physical measures cut the cord from that connection. So be mindful of that magic you're sending out. If you are a person who is non-magical, I urge you to begin a relationship with a magical person who can connect you to the spirit world outside that of the Yard Sale Witch who is selling you magic for a buck fifty.

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Your witch is your adviser. They are your confidant. While sending energies on a status message can be beneficial it can hardly replace the one on one interactions available from working with a magical professional.  I'm also calling on you witches out there, your words are power. Your spells are important. Own them. Don't allow them to be stuffed in the discount bin at the yard sale. You provide a service to the community around you. Don't allow your power to be stuffed into a tiny box.

You can practice e-Magic as long as you remember you are THE MAGIC.


Growing,
Sosanna

Tips for Tagging - A Blogger's Story

So over the last month I've been working to get my blog the way I want it to look.  I know that in order to keep your readership up you need to engage your audience.  There are several ways to do this.  The hottest idea right now is related posts.

Screenshot - Confessions of a Modern Witch


This is where your readers can see other stories that relate to the one they just read.  This is great for getting folks to see how much you blog about a particular subject.  What seems like a simple element to add to your blog; this one really gave me a fit. It made me decide to jot down a few tips on tagging that might help others deal with this better.

1. Tagging is important.
     Tags help you put your content in buckets.  While Twitter would have us believe that it is just a way to draw attention to a particular word, in blogging this is how your content is categorized.  It may be cute to have 500 tags, but it isn't really good for your blog.  Try to limit your tag use to very specific areas you intend to blog about.

2. Singular and Plural.
     Tag is not the same as Tags.  Remember that if you blog about jars it will create a separate tag when you want to talk about one jar.  Something small but just limited your (s) will more than likely cut your tag list down in size.

3. Spelling.   SPELLING
    For general purposes we know as bloggers (web writers) that spelling is important, however if you think someone is important enough to make it a tag; you should probably be extra careful in setting up your tags so that you don't come back three years later and find out that you have tagged five stories with samhian instead of samhain.

4. Hashtags
    Again I blame Twitter here for making us believe that all tags should be prefaced with the pound sign or hashtag.  While it is used in several social media applications, Blogger is not one of them.  I spent 12 hours yesterday recreating all of my hashtags since this blog started over 5 years ago to "fix" my hashtag mistake.

5. Hashtags are categories
    While this seems super simple one thing to keep in mind when creating hashtags is that these are intended for your audience to find your content.  These are like keywords but also more like a label. Think about an old school library card catalog.  Your blog is a card catalog and the tags are the index cards that a reader can use to find your posts (books).  While it might be a great idea to create tags for Christianity, Wicca and Islam it may also make sense to create a fourth tag for religion.  This will help your related posts relate more readily.


While these things will not solve all your issues, I have found through experience that creating and managing an effective tag cloud will help keep your content a bit more streamlined and allow your readers to find what you're trying to say a bit easier.

Hope it helps!

Happy Blogging







My History - Working with Wire

As part of my year of mastery, I wanted to be sure to document some of my work with jewelry. My goal is to really take this year to hone my skill and start the path to becoming a jewelry master.  I want to start by sharing some of my older wire wrap pieces when I first began working with wire.


Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson

Just looking at these photos makes me realize just how much I have improved.  Next time I'll share some of my newer pieces.

Thanks for following!

Ice - A Witch's View with Sosanna - Nature Photography Challenge - Day 7

I have been challenged to post 7 days of nature images by Heather Brooks Ray. I also need to challenge someone else each day to post images, but no one volunteered.  If you want to post your images I'd love to see them. For now, you just get me.

I had really hoped to have some new snow pictures for this post.  Winter Storm Jonas decided we to only get rain instead.  So here are some photos I took of our winter last year.  I really love the way the ice forms on objects.  It is just amazing.

Ice Storm 2015
Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Ice Storm 2015
Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Ice Storm 2015
Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Ice Storm 2015
Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Ice Storm 2015
Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Ice Storm 2015
Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Ice Storm 2015
Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Ice Storm 2015
Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Nature Photography Challenge - Day 6

I have been challenged to post 7 days of nature images by Heather Brooks Ray. I also need to challenge someone else each day to post images, but no one volunteered.  If you want to post your images I'd love to see them. For now, you just get me.


This is one of my favorite nature/outdoor photos I've ever taken. We went to the NC Zoo and I managed to get this awesome shot of the lions.  I just love them.



North Carolina Zoo
Photographer - Renee Sosanna Olson


I ended up with some really nice flowers as well.



Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson 
Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson

Photo Credit - Renee Sosanna Olson