Notes on the journey:

Yesterday was, all around, an uneasy day with the aethers. After I performed the rites for the blessed departed, I just sat in the quiet house to centre and ground myself.

A few times during that time I heard rustlings and thumps outside of the house. Even after I put on the porch light, they continued although my eyes saw nothing. I strengthened the wards on the doors and windows, and kept the black candles I have lit. Before going to bed, I was doing a small tidy and when I was picking up one of the sofa cushions that the cat knocked over, I saw a snake's head peeking up between the end of the sofa and other cushions. I blinked and it was gone. Needless to say, I gave the sofa a hefty thump and waited. Nothing, so I took all the cushions off and gave it another thump. Waited and still nothing, so I put the cushions back on and am left to wonder if it was just a message to be open and ready to further messages, or an indication of new energies and patterns emerging.

In the darkness, trying to still my mind and get ready to sleep, I felt an almost warm tingling around my mouth and nose, and a hunching feeling in my shoulders; like I was shape-shifting into a raven. I could see myself wearing a mantle of black glistening feathers as I skimmed over a battlefield. Landing, I sat by one corpse and began to peck away at the dead flesh and realised that it was myself that I was consuming. I was helping myself get shed of the dead parts that are no longer working in my life.

Then my daughter had a fright. She must have been travelling and something disturbed her enough that she cried out. I was out of bed like a flash and projecting a 'you'll have to get through me first' burst of oh-no-you-don't energy. Checking in on her, she was fine and didn't recall a thing, so I tucked her back up and charged her guardian stuffed animals to keep watch.

Back in my room, I projected myself into a golden lioness and made sure that everything knew that I was out walking and warding my territory. Returning to my own form, I declared my authority over my home, family, and territory.

"I am the snarling lioness, with blood-stained maw and eviscerating claws."

Called upon the protection and sovereignty of Mother Sekhmet to grant me her strength in protecting my own. I also proclaimed my authority again in triad form, listing all of my skills and abilities. After that, I could feel an ebbing of what was trying and testing, then sealed and warded those weaker points. Fell into a quiet and untroubled sleep after that. I know that I dreamt, but cannot recall any of it.