I know I’m a little late with this – I haven’t been able to decide what to write about. (It wasn’t so much that I was undecided, it was that I was decided on too many things.)

So, I was poking around on Face Book, procrastinating hoping a topic would leap the forefront, and I noticed that I was suddenly seeing a lot of spider pictures on my timeline.

Now, I like spiders – they are a great totem for writers and other creative sorts – so of course, one of my first thoughts was to wonder what it meant to suddenly be seeing so many, especially since I haven’t been feeling especially creative lately.

The answer, of course, is that it doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

I see it over and over again in Pagan groups on Face Book: someone, usually someone new to the path, will post that s/he has seen such and such, or that this, that, or the other has been happening and “What does it mean?”

Chances are, it means nothing. Not everything is a sign. Trust yourself to know when something is. (A large part of walking this path is trusting your inner knowing: get used to it. Sure, you’ll make some mistakes, but that’s how you learn.)

In the same vein, not everything has a metaphysical cause. Sure, everything is connected, and yes, I am a firm believer in a holistic approach to medicine and healing, but let’s get real here, folks: a sudden rash of headaches, or tummy upsets, or hives, or what-have-you is most likely not the result of someone cursing you, nor the result of a plague of demons, or… (fill in your own favorite “reason” here) so…

Get. Thee. To. A. Doctor.

And still in the same vein are the people who are looking for a magical solution to their problems. Yes, magic works, and it can be used for mundane purposes, but it’s a lot easier to tackle most stuff on the physical front first. And even if you do use magic, it doesn’t solve the problem – you still have to get up off your butt and do what needs to be done on the material plane.

In short – and in what may become a recurring theme – believing in magic doesn’t mean losing your common sense.

Hmm… maybe that spider did mean something. It certainly kicked off a blog post…