Gathering and Growing

Gathering and Growing

I know, I have been terrible at writing my blog. Well I have been busy, not excuse. I have also been taking some very important "work on myself" time. The shift in seasons brought up deep and old darkness and pain. Rather than glossing over, I decided to take these pieces and work with them. For each thing there is a season. I have also been baking, making and picking my way through charity shops (thrift stores). 

Me and N spent a lovely Saturday evening making this. I scavenged the hoops from wooden bracelets. The glass from a necklace has both an eye feel, and a spiral. Then I used the Holy stone and the rowan wood I gathered.

Cabbage and bacon bake and oat bran bread, made from scratch by hand. There was cake but it went too quickly for me to take a photo!  (Banana Bread and Ginger Crunch Cake).

I also had the great pleasure of having my old HP in circle on Friday with me, TK, and N.

We cast the circle together (a circle variant I have used before to align our energies early on). Called the quarters, and evoked. I then did a Goddess prayer from my book and everyone seem to find if affecting in a positive way. Then with maybe less preparation than N normally gets we began. She kept up well though (playing with the big guns now N). It was a journey circle and it was great. It really was good. I was working with King Arawn the Stag and his dogs. They chased the deer into the forest. It really was deep and meaningful for everyone and it was great to see N working with masculine energy as BG and TK brought it in abundance to this circle. There were clunky moments but for a first time of us together it was really good.

I bought a load of new storage this weekend to put all my packaging and crafting stuff in as it was taking over the room! 

We found and bought new things for making. TK is experimenting with rune dice with great result. N and I took apart some necklaces for their beads and details.

Then the Sunday swim. I swam much further and deeper than usual (I try and not dive too deep because having a nasal polyp burst is not fun) as did mini witch, amazing what avoiding lots of splashy kids will do (baby pool was closed). I really enjoyed it at the time, but Monday I was wiped out and not able to do much of anything.

I feel really inspired by the work we did and I am doing. I wrote more of my book and began planning the next one (I know). I even bought a new notebook!

The ideas were really flowing. I keep coming back to the idea for my Sacred Spa and retreat too. 

Oh and TK found Pintrest, not that he knows how to jump into that addition yet!

I am listen to myself and my guides. 

I am being gentle with myself. After all, I don't know many people who have been through the trauma's I have with that heart as whole as mine is. It is okay to be gentle with myself as I would be others. 

Making and Dreaming

Making and Dreaming

Back in the world...ish. I have been ordering, and making, gathering and then resting so my on-line self has had to take a back seat!

I spent Saturday teaching, gathering and making.

 

From gathering Rowan berries (and leaves and wood) and making incense and salts for blessings and and protection; the pink salt and berries look so pretty,

 to finding new suppliers for my resins (I had a crappy batch of copal) and I now have a great one! I know it is work but receiving packages always feels like getting presents!

I also added some sandalwood essential oil to my sandalwood chips (different kinds of sandalwood) Anyway now I need to find some more big jars to store stuff in. I usually love to recycle my own jars but for stuff that is expensive and needs a good seal then I recon a good jar is worth it! Some artists (because that is what they are) cut down some young birch trees to make use of some blank wall space near us and I figured why waste the wood? They would make great staffs, wands and runes! I may gather some more mug-wort and glass-grass (Artemisia vulgaris, Equisetum Arvense) while I am at it too.

Mabon is such a busy time! In am looking forward to baking this weekend. Oh and Samhain! I had thought about sacking off the usual party (and stress about folks turning up or ditching last minute) but it seems people really do love the fireworks, mulled wine and honouring of the dead.
May what you gather do you good.
Bright Blessings

 

 

Away with the faeries

Away with the faeries

I see a fair amount of other worldly things at in my regular life. From spirits of all kinds, to visions and dreams that are "more than dreams". So when I needed to make a quick and small batch of Mabon incense yesterday for a customer and I had to burn some to make sure it was "right" I had not expected to be quite so....not here?

Incense is funny stuff. You can mix all the same ingredients and it smells different, so you have to tweak it an add more of this, to balance that and so on. Even the mid level blend I was doing has 4 different essential oils as well as herbs and resins.

The herbs in this blend are dominated by yarrow, sage and rue. (Salvia Officinalis. Ruta graveolens.) 

Yarrow: Achillea millefolium is a strong psychic herb, raising vibration and awareness, so much so that even though it is great for coughs and colds I rarely use it because it makes me unable to control how much I "see". Anyway as a core ingredient in this blend I had no choice "suck it up" and make sure my blend was not only right, but good. It took a while to find the right balance and make it sweet enough but I got there. When it was done I jarred it up and TK wrapped it for posting.

Well I felt fabulous (my family were not impressed as I had no filter and pure "Lucy" was spewing out of my mouth). After a mad cleaning frenzy TK dumped me into bed.

As I lay there I was suddenly aware of a woman sat next to me on the bed. She was sat up. She had white unruly hair and was old. She was wearing a dress with many colours of soft blue. Behind her was a tree or shrub of deep blue colour. It's bark was smooth almost silvery and the roots were twists and tangles. The roots curled and spread seemingly beneath the bed and the branches  grew and curled so I was in this bower  of shining leaves. I felt safe and peaceful. I placed my head on her lap. She stroked my hair and soothed my kind and sweet words. I felt so loved and comforted that I wept. I wept at the intense and loving energy that was around me.

She bid me rest and as I did she sat with me, watched over me weaving or crocheting.

She told me to eat. I was confused until TK came upstairs a few moments later.

He brought some amazing bagels which I devoured. All the time she was there. Just moving the threads, smiling at me without looking.

I took the plate out and then crawled back into my bower.

I turned over, my back to her now and she tuts.

"Oh a right old tangle. Someone tried to bind you!"

Slowly, slowly she unpicks the threads and pulls.

Strand by strand leaves my body and I feel calmer and more centered. With each strand I feel more relaxed and less anxious (I had not realized I felt anxious). I drift into a deep deep sleep.

On waking TK is there.

I feel rested and awake. TK suggests I eat then head back to sleep again. I make another batch of different incense as the customer wanted the Samhain blend too. This is much easier as I have the expensive blend still in! TK suggest more sleep, but I am not tired. He makes me a yarrow tea, which I drink (damn it is is bitter). Still I have no more visions. The Lady is gone and yet I feel the echo of her presence, like perfume left in a room. 

I don't think any words I wrote, or any painting I created to give to you that feeling of my head in her lap. My feeling of being intensely soothingly loved. 

Bright Blessings    

The Grind. Sacred powders and salts

The Grind: Sacred powders and salts

I like salt. It is cheap, easily obtainable and cleans and does cleansings like little else. You can add stuff to it, or add it to things (like baths, mop bucket or even your washing machine.) You can use it to make circles, sigils, or focus for spells, charms, bottles, altars or even just season your soup!
Salts absorb and reflect, which is a handy quality. Allowing a witch or magick worker to draw things and energy to, and repel in equal measure and at the same time.I love rock salt, especially pink rock salt, though I am happy to use almost any salt in a pinch!
When I am making a salt for a spell bottle or charm work I add oils and herbs and spices, charge with crystals. Sometimes I end up using salt to dry out things (like wild apple peel, or rowan berries). This leaves me with a salt that has that essence already in it! Which makes working with it all the more powerful and exciting. Traditionally in Craft, salt is blessed then mixed with water to cleanse and clean a space before ritual work. This is still the case with mixed and charmed salts but you are only limited in their use by your imagination. You can keep them as a spell on an altar (drawing in the spell and repelling the unwanted energy) or as witch bottles around a person or space or cast them on the floor, at a threshold or doorway, or mix into your cleaning water.

 Cascarilla is very simple too. It is finely ground eggshells (mine are always free range and often organic). Sometimes I mix other herbs and spices in there too. This stuff is amazing at protecting people and things from unwanted energy. Just dusting your hands when you need to touch something of dubious energy can prevent you from having it's yuck stick to you.This fine powder can be used like the salt to mark and protect doorways and circles. Unlike salt it is fine to use on grass and in forests as it does little to no damage to the vegetation. This means it is great to use during outdoor rituals. It can also be mixed with a little water and fine flour and turned into a chalk.

Both salt and cascarilla (ground eggshells) can be used in ritual and purifying baths. While cascarilla may not be "Celtic" in origin I can see a great idea and appreciate that it works and has potential in ritual and spell craft. I also wish I had know this when I kept chickens!
Bright Blessings

Mainstream media bias

Mainstream media bias

So a few years ago I asked a question on my FaceBook wall. This question was based on my on experiences of the media in Britain's general bias against Wales, (I am from there after all) Scotland and Northern Ireland. The stories that come from these places (IF they are covered at all) in my experience were all pro-English biased. I live in England. I married here, had a child here. I like some of it more than others.

My question was roughly (it has been years). Are there riots in Wales and Scotland? They keep saying UK riots, but only talking about England! 
This was not to say I assumed there were no riots, quite the reverse. Wales in particular has a long and lustrous history of rioting. It has a large black community too, and a lot of poverty. I was just wondering if my friends in Wales could tell me what the media generally didn't (and doesn't) what was actually happening.
What I didn't expect was the wave of hate I experienced from my English" friends".
I mean seriously, I was accused of racism. Hate-crimes. Being anti-English. (Notably the main vein of this flood of bile were from well off, privileged white men, well all of them were.) Pages and pages of rage and hate.

HOW DARE YOU SAY SOMETHING.
I don't see it so it doesn't happen.

How dare I?
I was shocked. Some of these people were what I thought were decent people. People I had helped. People I have loved and supported.
Now when I tried (and then TK tried) to explain it was about media bias not anti anybody. Nobody. Listened. Certainly nobody cared.I was devastated. Truly.
I changed my FaceBook page. I removed and deleted a lot of people. I lost friends, because I saw something ugly and usually hidden. I couldn't find the words.
In the last few years I saw and noticed something else. This reaction is almost identical to what happens when a victim speaks out about her abuse. The reaction is the same. #NotAllMen; the voice of white male privilege gets challenged on it's behaviour and it lashes out and is so full of hate.

HOW DARE YOU SAY SOMETHING.
I don't see it so it doesn't happen.

Then Scotland began it's journey (some might even say fight) and the mainstream media was doing it's same old same old (as far as I can tell) but suddenly people NOTICED. Through g+ and certain facebook group were seeing what I had seen.The media bias was and is real. 
There were facts and figures that were and are being mislead. The bias was showing. Now I do not think for a second that this bias is down to individuals. Editors and presenters, directors and so on are not to blame (though complicit). The media in this country is under the direction of the Government and corporations (notable Murdock ones). Thankfully the internet came to the rescue.
More and more people are speaking out. There is still the "I don't see it so it doesn't happen" lot but the facts and feelings of real people are getting out there.
While part of me feels vindicated "I TOLD YOU SO" part of me feel deeply sad. Sad because I questioned myself, my sanity, my voice. Sad because the hate was so close that I just hid. I crawled away sobbing.
The news is supposed to be the truth, as unbiased as possible, and it is not. I am glad people are waking up, I just wish that I had not closed my eyes and pretended to be asleep.  

Holy Stones

Holy Stones

I have been on my jolly hol's, my vacation, and as TK is pron to doing (especially at a pebble beach) he went in search of of "rock friends". TK has a knack, a skill, a gift when it comes to being around rock or pebbles, bending down and finding a gem, sometime literally. It is so magickally that even I find it breath taking to watch. Well we (this is the loose term for me sitting watching the water and TK and Mini-witch combing the pebbly shores) got quite a haul! From Jasper by the handful, dolomite's, and pieces of flint worn so thin you could almost see through them. Yet the biggest haul were holy stones. 

Adder stones, hag stones, witch stones, Glain Neidr, snake eggs or simply Holy stones are the common names for stones and pebbles that have a naturally occurring hole in them, often from water erosion. They have been used "to see" faeries and other unseen forces as well as heal and protect from negative and evil magicks. Worn by Druids as "badges" (according to Pliny). It is believed that the stones mentioned in The Mabinogion are these stones, one that Peredur uses to see and kill the invisible monster, and Owain is gifted a stone of invisibility by the Maiden. These stones are not only considered magickal by the Druids as some have been even found in Egyptian sites. While I can not personally attest to the invisibility, I can say that with rough 40 of these beauties in the house it is positively buzzing.They were put above doorways, hung on keys and sewn into pockets to protect people and animals from all harm.
The ones we are selling are lovely but I do like the ones we are keeping just for us. TK popped one on my bind rune and other than it keeps turning it's self around (yesterday my necklace was backwards so I swapped it around three times in a row) it feels really great. 

The pictures are not bad but it is hard to get the wonderful vibration they give off. The textural quality. It was no mean feat bringing all these rocks back on the train but it was worth it. It was so great to catch up with my teacher and his wonderful wife (and family). It does make me keen and pine to move to somewhere else again. Stoke is many things, a place of outstanding beauty is not one of them!
Pop to our shop if you fancy one!

Magick, morality and ethics

Magick, morality and ethics

Doing the "right" thing is tough and in the modern world of magick and life, not easy. There are all sorts of maxims and catch phases trotted out especially about magick that seem to tie people into the comfortable place of doing nothing. This nothingness also has consequence and can often be very hurtful to the people around them in need.

An example:

 There is a homeless guy who you see everyday. You may or may not know their name. You don't know their story. You can pass by everyday and look away when they speak to you. (Is this harming none?). Or you can give them some change (which they might choose to spend of substances to temporarily easy the pains of living in the cold and hard) which is like doing a little healing for someone. You could go to someone "higher" than you and complain or make this person move on ( giving over this person to a Deity or spirit as they are "not your problem") empowering you to feel like you did something and that "someone more qualified" is dealing with it and you don't have to feel or see this person. You could talk to them. Listen and get to know them. (this comes with many risks including getting hurt). You could take them food (removing the choice of how they spend money). You could help them into a shelter, over even take them into your own home, and care for them.

Do these sound unrealistic? Far fetched? Who would take in a homeless person? Well my friend and teacher did just that. He first took hi to a shelter. On their recommendation he went to see a doctor and found out he way dying. My friend then took him in and nursed him until he passed. THAT is kindness on another level. One I aspire to. I have feed people who were hungry (for lots of reasons), taken a few into my home when they were homeless or in danger. Healed people when I was in pain. Listened when I needed to speak or scream. Put my hands on someone in a kind healing way when they had not be held or touched for a long time. 

Looking the other way. Making people in need "someone else's problem". Is not moral superiority, it is cowardice. I am certainly no saint. I will protect those who are vulnerable or unable to defend themselves and I have no problem kicking butt to do so. Magickally or otherwise. I don't always get it right. Sometimes I mess up, lose my temper, get things wrong but I am willing to take the flack for my mistakes. I would always rather that than live with the "what if's" the "I wonder if I" of if I had not acted.

I care deeply and sometimes this gets me hurt. Sometimes I don't see the big picture until afterwards. Yet I do the best with what I have at my disposal at the time because I don't quote "and harm none" I try to live it. Harming none is almost impossible, so maybe my way is "for the greater good". Do my actions (or non-actions) leave the greater good better or worse?

If you are a vegan who is selfish and cruel to humans this does not serve the greater good.

If you are a healer who doesn't heal, this does not serve the greater good.

If you heal and help everyone but yourself, this does not serve the greater good.

If you trot out the Rede and ignore needy, this does not serve the greater good.

If you hex or curse people because you feel slighted or injured, this does not serve the greater good.

I get heartily irked by those who spout the most being the people who care and do the least. It doesn't matter to me the Path people follow because a good person is a good person. They try. They may or may not be saintly. They make mistakes (because do). Opening up your heart and being vulnerable to hurt makes us able to feel compassion, what a beautiful agony that is.