After the Rose, breaking the curse Part One
Chapter One
The Circle cast, the candles lit, and a sliver of the waning moon shone its light in through her window. Alina wore nothing but a sheer sapphire blue gown, and when she raised her arms in salutation of the Goddess, the moonlight outlined her silhouette. She called the Guardians of the Watchtowers at each of the four quarters, to watch over her while she performed her ritual. She blessed each in turn, using smoke from the incense for the element of air to the East, her altar candle she used to represent fire at the South, water represented the West, and salt at the North represented the earth. She focused on her intention and when her mind was clear of all except her desire, she began to recite her request to ‘The Lady’.
“A curse was sent some time ago and many did it harm.
In angry words the curse was made knowing it would return
But anger blinded common sense and warnings heeded not
For in her rage the Mither’s words sadly were forgot.
With all my might and all my will those words I wish to break
And end the pain and suffering that the angry one did make
Time has passed and will again, as new days come and go
Lady hear my plea, break the curse, please make it so.
I make amends for words that should never have been sent
Ever shall I try to help others with good intent
Lady listen, hear my call, hear my honest plea
And grant my wish, please make it so, this curse no longer be.”
“And it harm none so mote it be.”
She stood in quiet supplication with her hands clasped in the prayer position. She was still for a time, thinking about the past, and thinking about her ancestor Mary. The story handed down spoke of Mary, who on a wild winter day, with the snow thick on the ground, and a gale blowing hard, issued a curse. The story told was that Mary was making her way to hospital with her baby Rosa who was very sick. A fancy carriage, with a passenger who was described as a pompous, wealthy American, slowed down to look and when he saw that she was a Gypsy, he refused to stop and help her. Mary, enraged and distressed, uttered a vile curse, cursing him and his family for generations to come. Some said the curse caused the assassination of one of his descendants in the 1960’s. No one ever said that family’s name aloud fearing that it would stimulate the curse. Some went as far as saying that the curse touched each generation of Mary’s family.
Alina, an only child, who was unaware of any living relatives, only heard these stories when she first discovered her extended family, after her parents had died. She thought of those dark days in the past, when life for her ancestors was much harder. She thought about the tragedies that had befallen Mary after making the curse. Mary’s family had suffered too, and she wondered how Mary’s life would have been had she not been enraged when the American refused her a lift in his coach. What road would Mary’s life have taken? What choices would Mary have made, and how would these choices have affected Alina’s life today?
She knew by her pagan faith that whatever you put out returns threefold, do good and good will return, do bad and bad will come back to you. Alina was sure that the curse was still present, and would be, until someone was able to break it. Breaking the curse was her mission and she knew that she would do everything in her power to make amends for Mary’s curse. She thought about the unforeseen course of events that had led her from being a recently bereaved daughter and unhappy wife, to being a divorced professional psychic travelling all over the country. She was sad that her parents were no longer with her, but now that she had found her true faith, she had the understanding that they would live again, and this gave her comfort.
A cloud began to pass over the moon, and she stirred from her thoughts and moved to the East quarter of her circle. She began, quarter by quarter, to give thanks to the Guardians of the Watchtowers, and to offer back for their use the powers and energies of air, fire, water and earth that had not been used. She snuffed out her candles and opened her circle. She placed her crystals, wand, athame and chalice on her altar tray, along with her incense holder, and the small bowls for water and salt. She took the tray through to her office and stored them safely in her magickal cupboard, where they would remain until the next time she would use them. She changed into casual fleecy trousers and a knitted jumper and then wrapped a thick blanket around her shoulders to keep her warm while she sat on her small balcony overlooking the River Clyde. The sky was clear, and bright with stars, and there was a cold December chill to the air. In her mind’s eye, she could see past events unfolding before her, and if she was honest with herself, she would admit that sometimes, she found it difficult looking out at the river without remembering.
Mary’s daughter Rosa had died during the birth of her first child Rosie, and Mary, heartbroken by the loss of her beautiful girl in childbirth, poured all her love and care into looking after baby Rosie until one day, when Rosie was just a young teenager, she disappeared while out selling trinkets. Travelling families came from everywhere to help with the search but no one ever saw Rosie again and no one knew what had happened to her.
Sometimes it takes harsh experiences to awaken the spirit, and such was the case with Alina. First, the tragedy of losing her parents when her father suffered a heart attack while driving on a day out with her mother, and then her realisation that her husband JJ was cold, uncaring and unsupportive, leading to her leaving him. Stripped of everything that she knew, a new path opened before her, and her spiritual awareness came to the fore.
So much had happened to her in the last few years; she knew she would never come to terms with losing her parents, but each day that passed helped her to remember them without that deep gut-wrenching ache in her heart. Now she could think of them and think of the happy times that they shared. She glanced over to the ceramic flowerpot sitting in the corner of the balcony. The rosemary bush had flowered profusely during the summer, and that made her smile. She thought back to the simple ceremony that she had performed to remember and honour her Mum and Dad. She had written them a beautiful letter telling them how her unhappy marriage to JJ had ended; she had hidden her unhappiness from them when they were alive, but they knew, even though she never said anything, they knew.
In her letter, she wrote about the day she left JJ, and how, when she was checking into a hotel for a few days, she had accidently bumped into Cassandra, the organiser of a psychic tour. That meeting had set her on a new path. She wrote about her friendship with Sally, and how much they laughed together and how supportive Nancy and Davy, her parent’s closest friends, had been. She expressed her love for Ronnie and his Aunt Nessie and even little Jock the West Highland Terrier. The paper was wet with her tears as she poured out her heart and wrote about all the things that they had not been around to see or hear from her lips.
When she had finished writing her letter, she put some fresh soil in a clean pot and then folded her letter several times, until it was a square, small enough to place on top of the soil. She added a little more soil to cover the letter and then fetching the small rosemary plant, for remembrance, she re-potted it on top of the letter. She packed soil around the plant to hold it firmly, watered it, set it in one of her mother’s favourite ceramic plant potholders, and sat it on her windowsill. She lit a T-lite candle in front of it every morning, and this helped her through her grieving process. Each time she re-potted her plant she wrote another letter, once again telling her parents of events that had occurred since the last time. She kept a diary on her pc of everything that had happened since she started touring with Cassandra’s Psychic Fair and it was her way to keep copies of the letters that she had written to her parents and planted in her Rosemary pot. She occasionally wondered if maybe one day, her notes would form part of a book. Her plant was much larger now and it was strong enough to sit out on the veranda all year. It gave her comfort every time she looked at it, and she could now think of her parents without shedding tears.
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