Happy Holidays...

I love this picture. I may use it on my Yule cards...

November 28th, 2011

Good evening, ladies and gents! I have a few random things to share with you all today, not the least of which being a most intriguing new book I'm reading for English class. It's a fantasy novel called A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness, and is about the four classes of humanoid creatures: humans, vampires, daemons, and witches. The reason I bring this up here is that the witches are Pagan, and I've so far been enjoying all the little references to our culture. I haven't finished it yet (I'm about half through), but so far it's been a great book, and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy.
Also, I happen to knit small bunnies, stuff them with lavender, and sell them. Over Thanksgiving, my Grandma Fran suggested using cornstarch instead of actual lavender, and infusing said cornstarch with essential oils. This gave me the idea for making talismans to be carried in the purse, put under the pillow, in the car, etc. by putting some of said oil and flour in a pouch of cheesecloth or other fabric. It could also include other spices, beads, written incantations, and the like, but personally, I like the idea of just keeping it simple with the pouch and flour, and empowering it in a simple ritual.
Finally, I spent some time today making a simple video of "Glory to the Newborn Sun", one of my favorite Yule carols. Here it is:

Other songs on my Yule carol playlist include Have a Holly Jolly Yuletide, Silver Bells, Solstice Night, The Holly and the Ivy, Moon of Silver, Winter Solstice Song, Wiccan Wonderland, We Wish You a Merry Yuletide, Greensleeves, Joy to the World, and Have Yourself a Merry Little Yuletide.

November 27th, 2011

After a hiatus of something like two weeks, I'm proud to announce that I'm back! :) Now that Thanksgiving is over, I can get really into the Yule spirit, and today I put up my personal Yule tree. Every year, my parents get a real Christmas tree for the living room that we all decorate, but every room in the house gets its own artificial tree, so I've co-opted mine for Yule purposes. It's not decorated yet, because Mom didn't want to get all the decorations out, but it's up. I've also been listening to Yule carols on Youtube. My personal favorite is Solstice Night, a Pagan take on Silent Night. Here are the lyrics, for those who are interested.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Silent night, Solstice Night
All is calm, all is bright
Nature slumbers in forest and glen
Till in Springtime She wakens again
Sleeping spirits grow strong!
Sleeping spirits grow strong!

Silent night, Solstice night
Silver moon shining bright
Snowfall blankets the slumbering Earth
Yule fires welcome the Sun's rebirth
Hark, the Light is reborn!
Hark, the Light is reborn

Silent night, Solstice night
Quiet rest till the Light
Turning ever the rolling Wheel
Brings the Winter to comfort and heal
Rest your spirit in peace!
Rest your spirit in peace!

~~~~~~~~~~

Throat Chakra

Since I was talking about it, here is one of the throat chakra's common symbols.

November 12th, 2011

I celebrated Esbat yesterday, and it was lovely. We were out of juice, so I used water instead for libation, but I had a lovely cake I made with Hazelnut a few months ago (surprisingly, it wasn't stale at all): basically a sugar cookie topped with cinnamon, nutmeg, and colored sugar. I was able to get a lot of stress off my back, and got rid of a bunch of negative energy in my throat chakra. It was actually really cool, because I could immediately feel a difference in my ability to swallow. To clear a chakra of negativity, simply open that chakra and use your hands to "pull out" the negativity, by visualizing the bad energy as some kind of black stuff (personally, I envision it as black tentacle things). You'll be able to tell when you've gotten it all out. Afterwards, imagine a vaccum-like vortex opening and sucking all the negativity into the earth to be recycled into positive energy. Finally, close the chakra.

November 11th, 2011

A few things of interest happened the last few days. Do you remember that random post I had about music a while ago? Well, as it would turn out, Mr. H, my chamber choir teacher, has some friends at a university with a wonderful music program, and they came to sing with and for us on Wednesday. They had one song that I loved, where they spread out around the auditorium and did this piece in Latin. It was even more interesting to me, because the same tingly feeling I get when moving and raising energy came over me, and it occurred to me how music, sang right, really is little more than moving energy, raising and lowering it. Quite literally, singing, or even speaking, is vibrating the vocal cords to send out energy: sound waves. The more this is done, varying the notes and the intensity with which they are sung, can amass a huge amount of energy, which in situations like a concert can be further amplified by the excitement of the audience. 'Twas just...interesting. The Esbat was last night, but I'm going to do my ritual today, because I won't have play practice in the evening. Last night, however, I did take a cleansing shower and meditated a bit before going to bed.

Yule Altar

Perhaps it's a bit early yet, but I wanted to get out my Yule things, and I had some open time this afternoon. Here then, is how it looks at the present time. I will, of course be making a Youtube video, as well.

November 6th, 2011

While my mom and dad don't really mind my religious choice, they still expect me to go with them to church and to participate and whatnot. As such, I have been helping with the preschoolers' Sunday School. Today, the craft we did was so Pagan I couldn't help but smile to myself. The kids made shakers out of two paper bowls filled with grains (corn, rice, and barley) and then decorated the outside with a printed-and-cut-out picture of a woman holding grains. She was supposed to be Ruth or something from the Bible, but all I could think was the Goddess at Lammas. Obviously, it's a little late in the season for harvest activities, but come next Mabon or Lammas, this could be a really cute craft for Pagan kids. They sound a lot like rainsticks when shaken, so one could even devise a small, kid-friendly ritual where you make these shakers and shake them to "rain" abundance (symbolized by the grain) on the household. It also gives the little ones fun instruments to use in ritual that won't break the bank to replace if something were to happen to them.

In other news, I want to decorate my altar for Yule today, after I finish this post and get off the computer. Pictures, anyone?

Samhain Pictures

Do you recall that post a while back about Meringue Bones? Well, here they are, surrounding a jello brain (mom got the jello mould for just a few dollars on Amazon!).


Me in my Samhain costume.


Cupcakes topped with chocolate frosting, some cupcake "dirt", and cookie gravestones. The RIP is piping gel.


Frankenstein cupcakes, here topped with chocolate frosting and marshmallows dipped in green melting candy and decorated with more black piping gel. The little green arms or bolts or whatever they're supposed to be are green tic-tacs.


Me and the "Trick or Treat" pumpkin I carved.

Feel free to use any of these ideas for future Samhain celebrations. If you like, comment and share what you did! :)

November 1st, 2011

What a crazy couple of days! Aunt C came over Saturday afternoon and left this morning, so I haven't really had an open moment to do a ritual, but have been doing Samhain activities nonetheless. Saturday night, I had my Halloween/Samhain party, which was a huge success. Sunday, we carved pumpkins and had "trunk-or-treating" at my mom's church, and I had school and play practice on Samhain, hence the difficulty in doing a ritual, not even taking into account my two hours of homework after practice. :P Today, thankfully, was less insane. I spent my whole choir class grinning, as some wonderful person had written "Happy Samhain" on the board, and I was able to read a bit more of the Amulets and Charms book I checked out from the library. Not a masterpiece of work by any means, but still containing a few intriguing gems of information.