January 28th, 2017

I'll be heading over to SIPA's Imbolc ritual later this evening, but in the meantime I've been working on a knitting project. I like to knit a lot - there are few things quite so satisfying as making something you can actually use and wear - and I've been trying for years to get the hang of knitting sweaters. I've made no less than three separate sweater attempts in the past, and have gotten horribly stymied every time. However, as a holiday gift, my brother gave me a copy of Knitting Wizardry, by Amy Clarke Moore; it contains 27 projects inspired by the aesthetic of the Harry Potter movies, including socks, gloves, hats, and yes - sweaters.

On New Year's Eve, I picked a pattern to try. The techniques seemed like ones I could figure out, and I loved the look of it. The pattern, titled "Ginny's Sweater", features lacework up the back showing the faces of owls.

One of the benefits to being a knitting witch is that knitting (or crochet, for that matter) is a remarkable opportunity for knot magick. The owls in the back remind me of Athena, and also the expression "eyes on the back of your head". Therefore, I've been knitting this as a protection sweater. The idea is that the owls keep guard so nobody can sneak up on you wearing it, and so forth.

This is the sweater as it currently is in progress. I have the bulk of it done, but I need a bit more yarn to do all the finishing details, most particularly the button-band.

And here's the back. The owl pattern looks more subtle here than it does in the book's photo; not sure yet if that's a combination of my gauge and the yarn I chose, or if it just needs to be blocked. Regardless, I'm really happy with how it's coming along, and it even looks like it might actually fit me.

If you would like to purchase Knitting Wizardry, it's available as an e-book or a hard copy. This is the author's page for Ginny's Sweater on Ravelry, which in turn has links off to get the book.

A Familiar Face...

Usually when I go to or from school, it's by train. Chicago Union Station, a Neoclassically-detailed building, with representations of Greek figures throughout, contains a statue of particular interest to me in the Great Hall. 

The Union Station website claims that this statue, a woman holding an owl, is meant to represent night, while the man on the column next to her holds a rooster, and represents day. They argue that this is meant to stand for the 24-hour nature of railroad transportation.

While I do not doubt that that was their intention, the Greek goddess of night, Nyx, is not associated with an owl. The only goddess I am aware of tied iconographically to the owl is Athena, of whom Owl Faced One is even an epithet.

Whatever the case, I find it comforting to pass through Her gate.

May 10th, 2016

I have my last final exam today, and then I can go home for the summer! I can't wait to be back in my own room (and I'm very excited about our vacation in June - more on that as events progress). I felt it was appropriate to wear what I think of as my Athena socks to class; they have owls on the tops, and say "WISE" on the bottoms.

April 24th, 2016

Had a busy but good day today, part of which involved heading over to the Gaia House for a few hours, to enjoy a reception for the artists who have work in the Pagan art exhibit which has been on display there this month. We enjoyed coffee, lemonade, and an assortment of little snacks, and generally were able just to hang out and chat.

My painting, with description, that I've had hanging up.

A collection of paintings, all by one lovely individual.

A series of nature photography, all by another artist.

Triple Goddess painting by one of our more Norse-inclined practitioners.

These two photos, by SIPA director Tara, have a rather interesting story. They were taken on vacation while visiting a haunted potter's field of unnamed soldiers. Apparently, just after these were taken (on actual film, not digitally), it started to storm, so obviously there was not enough sunlight to cause lens flare (the white patches on the photos are just glare on the glossy paper; the orange is actually present). Also, these were the only two photos on the whole strip of film with these strange colors, so it couldn't have been water damage. As such, Tara's thought is that she caught some spirits on camera. The one in the top photo actually even looks humanoid.

Me with my painting.

Hand-made grimoire.

Set of runes.

And just for good measure, this is the spiral garden I helped build last spring. As you can see, the plants are pretty well-established now. The sage and kale really took over, so that's pretty much what's growing at this point.

March 27th, 2016

I got to do some painting today! After being up past 3:00 this morning finishing up a project (better to be up late on a weekend than during the week, in my opinion), I've been able to spend most of my afternoon just relaxing and working on a piece I've been wanting to do for some time now.

I thought I had posted pictures of a picture frame I painted over the summer in offering to Athena, but I can't seem to find that post now. In any case, I had painted the frame, but at the time, had no picture to put in it. I was planning to draw something the following day, but life got in the way as it has a tendency to do. When I was home for spring break last week, I picked up that frame and brought it back to school so I could finally make something to put in it, and I had the opportunity today.

This is my painting of Lady Athena, and it isn't very big (5x7, I think?), so it only took a few hours, but I really liked how it turned out. It's not easy to tell in this picture, but some of the gold on Her armor is metallic paint. The whole painting is my own design, done in acrylics on chip board.

And here it is in the frame. I didn't consciously intend it, but it rather looks as though the feathers around Athena are floating down from the owl above Her. 

March 17th, 2016

Happy St. Patrick's Day! A lot of my spring break so far has been consumed by homework, and a lot of the rest consumed by cleaning. We're getting new carpet tomorrow, and we've had to take everything off of our shelves and other pieces of furniture, getting them out of the way for the carpet install. Most of our possessions are currently occupying the garage, and my things in particular are stacked up in the computer room, which has laminate wood flooring.

Since we were taking everything out and cleaning anyway, I figured this was a good time to do some heavy-duty space clearing. I started off doing all the physical work - vacuuming thoroughly, dusting everything off, moving furniture that hasn't been moved in 10 years to clean behind it, etc. I finished that up today, and then decided I was going to open the windows, play some music off my Pagan playlist, and use a shaker of mine to break up stagnant or negative energy.

Well, things were going great, my room was cleared, I was jamming with my shaker, and I had just finished driving all that unwanted energy to the front door to banish it outside, when my shaker broke in half and spilled plastic beads all over the floor. Apparently, the effort of space clearing was too much for the cheap glue holding it together. I swept up, finished chasing the stagnant stuff out the door with the broom, and then decided I was going to fix my little instrument.

I replaced the plastic beads with barley (for Athena) and short grain Japanese rice (for Amaterasu), and hot glued it back together. I think it actually sounds better now.

I finished up by using a bell to invoke positive energy, and not leave a void in my room. I'll have to go around after the new carpet is in to really build in some protective enchantments and whatnot.

January 15th, 2016

I went with my mom to Goodwill today to find some silly things for gag gifts (we're having a bit of a party tonight) but also ended up getting a few other things while we were there.

I need a red taper candle for an upcoming Imbolg ritual, but when we went to Target the other day, they were totally sold out. Party City was also sold out. Apparently, people needed a lot of red candles for their holiday festivities or something. Anyway, Goodwill had one, brand-new and in the plastic, for $0.50, and my mom also stumbled across an owl candle for $0.99.

I thought the owl would be great for my shrine to Athena, so I took it home, and it seems to fit in perfectly.

Shrine to Athena, now +1 candle.

November 19th, 2015

I'd just been thinking this morning that I needed to post some more, but haven't really done much spiritually this month. It's been very busy with working on projects for my classes. However, then when I went for brunch, I was sitting in the dining hall and a big buck of a deer, antlers and all, went bounding through the field outside and jumped over the creek. It happened too fast for me to take a picture, but it was a good reminder from deity to take some time for reverence today.

One other thing I had been meaning to share is that my model of the Temple to Athena Nike is being displayed in the design building. My professor really needs to go back and reorganize the other projects in the window, but here's what it looks like at the moment:

September 25th, 2015

Rome wasn't built in a day, and neither are my architecture models.

I've spent so much time this week working on a model of the Temple to Athena Nike that I pretty much haven't done anything else, but as of this morning, I finished it.

My ARC History professor should be happy with it, and I think the goddess is, too. If I get it back, I'll probably put it on my altar as a place to give offerings. 

August 26th, 2015

Okay, I won't be posting this until I get out of class, but this was hysterical, and I just have to share.

Today, as part of my Architecture History class, we went out on a hike around the campus and my professor was explaining the stories behind the styles of some of the buildings. This one draws on some Greek architecture:

The photo is hard to see because it's at a distance, but in the center over the door is a broken pediment, a shield, a shell, and a cornucopic vine of the sort that were hung on sacrificial animals. Such a carving was a repeating motif throughout Hellenic Greek architecture. 

My professor explained this, and then held up a model of the Parthenon of Athens. He had one student hold it, and others play the role of a priest, a sacrificial oxen, and a virgin maiden. He then had them recreate a ritual sacrifice to the goddess Athena Polias, with the "maiden" (portrayed by a good-natured boy) walking up to the temple model throwing rose petals from a basket, while the "priest" mimed slaughtering the "oxen" on a black stone altar. 

I will say again that we were doing this little example of Greek ritual in the middle of campus at 12:30 in the afternoon.

I did collect some of the rose petals after the fact, and I will be putting them on my altar.

Scrapbook of Shadows

I continued adding to my little BOS today. I really like how it's developing. Here are a few sample photos. Sorry about the blurriness; the light quality in my living room could stand to be improved.

First, my book blessing pages. On the left, I glued a tag one of my mom's friends made me a long time ago. I wrote a short incantation on it invoking the elements to protect and guard my book. The right page is occupied by an "ancient Egyptian" blessing used on the show Babylon 5 which always resonated with me: "God be between you and harm in all the empty places where you must walk." Cursory research is inconclusive on whether or not the blessing actually is Egyptian or if the show's writers simply made it up, but some sites anyway cite it as being from the 18th dynasty of Egypt. Authentically Egyptian or not, I find the words to be powerful ones.

On the next two pages is a prayer to Athena which I found here. As I am currently developing a relationship with Her, it seemed appropriate to include a prayer to Her first thing. I also glued in a tiger lily petal, and a sunflower petal, both from our garden.

Long-time readers may remember the posts regarding the Celtic tree months I did several years ago. I collected a lot of information, but it never made its way into my working BOS. Today, I dug up those posts and summarized their contents. I also took some leaves belonging to the trees under discussion and pasted them in. The birch leaf was wide enough that I created a foldable insert for it so that it would not cover up my writing. I also used a crayon to do some leaf rubbings on the right page, but the thickness of the paper stopped that from working very well. The tree month section spanned several pages, but those aren't finished yet, as I'll be adding more as I come across trees of the right varieties. 

Seven new pages today! That's pretty good, I think, and I like how they're looking!

August 11th, 2015

Oh look, it's my 400th post. I don't have anything particularly spectacular for the occasion, but it's been a productive morning. I spent several hours finishing off my weighted blanket this morning. Ta da!

It weighs about nine pounds, and I got my four little crystals in the corners for some extra soothing energy.

Then I sat and did some further research on Athena, and specifically Her festivals. I found some rather interesting information; first, that Her birthday is celebrated monthly on the third day. Of course, the Greeks followed the Attic calendar rather than our Gregorian one, and the Attic calendar corresponded to the lunar cycles, so the third day of their month actually falls two days after the new moon. For those working with Athena, a new moon ritual this day would be an appropriate way to honor Her. One could incorporate Her worship into an Esbat, or one could opt for a more Reconstructionist approach and honor her with a specifically Hellenic ritual format.

Personally, I think that for now at least, I will continue my Esbat ceremonies only on the full moon, and on Her festival I will give Her offerings in a format more traditionally Hellenic.

Athena also has the festival of Plynteria, which falls on the 22nd - 25th of Thargelion. The month of Thargelion begins on what we would today know as the first new moon of May, and may continue into June. Plynteria honored Her as Athena Polias, or Athena of the City. In this aspect, She is the protector of Athens. At this time, her temples were ritually cleaned, and it was recommended that one avoid new ventures as Athena was resting and would not be available to bless one's efforts.

August 8th, 2015

What an exciting day! I bought my first laptop this morning, and also restocked on poly pellets for my weighted blanket. I had requested Athena's help in finding the right laptop for the right price, and I was able to get exactly what I needed.

As a thank-you offering, I actually painted this picture frame last night and am adding it to her shrine (temple?) today.

As you can see, I still need to make a picture to go in the frame, but I was very pleased with how it came out. It shows many of Athena's symbols, including olive trees, an owl, a dove, a bowl of gems, Her golden helmet, spear, and Aegis shield, a snake, a spindle, and tiger lilies. I also have quite a bit of Turquoise, which is Her stone, so I plan to put a piece of that on my shrine as well.

August 7th, 2015

After years of a nagging intuition, I was finally galvanized into actively seeking a patron or matron God/dess this past weekend when I found an embroidered Athena drawstring bag at Fairy Fest. I've felt drawn to Her for a long, long time, and finally felt the time was right to reach out to Her, so I bought the bag to give as an introductory offering. Yesterday, I spent several hours researching Hellenic Paganism; while I enjoy practicing as an eclectic, it was important to me that I honor Her in the appropriate manner. I found this website to be an extremely helpful introduction.

I also wanted to give an offering of olive oil and barley, and luckily we had both in the pantry. I set up a small shrine to Her last night. It looks like this:

You can see the oil and barley sitting on the left; I later poured these into the white dish. The back of the altar is adorned with some paintings of mine, as well as several owl images, a few things I've crocheted, and some of my pottery. I put some knitting needles and a crochet hook in one of the pottery pieces. Also present is a tea light, a replica arrowhead, and an award from my high school. 

I wore the flower crown I bought at Fairy Fest, as well as an owl ring, and a red shirt. According to Judika Illes' Encyclopedia of Spirits, red is Her color. 

I had worried that I would not receive a response, but no sooner had I finished introducing myself and giving the offerings than I received an image of Her in my head. She spoke to me for some time, and one of the final things She requested was that I share the knowledge of her power. So - if you are feeling in any way drawn to Athena, then make yourself known to Her! She accepts all honest acts of devotion.

Here's a closer look at the back of the altar:

August 3rd, 2015

It's probably a good thing I took today off work. I was so exhausted from walking around all weekend that I could barely sit up this morning. A shower seemed to take the edge off, though, so that was good. And after taking today for just me, I feel almost completely re-energized.

This morning, I worked more on a weighted blanket project while watching CharmingPixieFlora's YouTube videos. I would recommend them to anyone, but especially to those practicing Wicca or eclectic Paganism. Some of her videos contain more 101-type information, and others delve into greater detail, but even as someone who now considers herself to be pretty experienced in the Craft, I still find it helpful to refresh myself on basic information every now and then, or to listen to a different viewpoint. Besides, she's so bubbly that you can't help but feel happier listening to her talk.

After I got to a solid stopping point, I moved on to researching the crystals I bought this weekend. Expect posts on their properties over the course of the next week or so.

I also finally took some time to reorganize my closet. I consolidated boxes and got everything straightened out, which had the ultimate effect of freeing up a lot of stagnant energy and giving me an extra crate to contain my books when I return to school so that I don't have to disturb the one currently holding up my shrine.

While I was at it, I went ahead and sorted through the things I bought at Fairy Fest.

From left to right, I purchased a piece of Kyanite, a piece of Amethyst Spirit Quartz, a tiny chest with a brass pentacle on top, a little turtle dragon, a Ruby, and a drawstring bag embroidered with the image of Athena and an owl. I also got two little pouches for the Kyanite and the Ruby.

The straw mat the things are sitting on top of is actually a miniature tatami mat that I made in a class while in Japan last summer. I've been trying to figure out what to do with it for ages, and it finally just occurred to me - I can take it with me to school and use it as a tiny altar! I feel like that will be much energetically neater than setting things on the old dressers or desks that the university provides. 

The turtle dragon's name is Frederick. I adopted him from the Dragon Lady at Fest (see more of her work here), and when I told a little girl he didn't have a name yet, she suggested Freddie. He seemed to really like that idea, so I ran with it.

I got the Athena bag not only because it is lovely but also because I think I'd like to start working with her, and it seemed like it could make for a great introductory offering.

I also got this wonderful headdress that my bunny is modelling for me. I love the little horns on it!