October 29th, 2017

Last night was SIPA's Samhain ritual, which was moved indoors to Gaia House due to the weather - it was freezing cold. There was a big turn-out, so the little building was very crowded.

There were a bunch of really fun pumpkins people brought. I made a Les Misérables carving with the Cosette silhouette, which turned out well, if I do say so myself.

As in other years, we set up an ancestor altar. Tara also established an Honor List, which included both names of those people wished to recognize, and places such as Las Vegas and Orlando, which have suffered devastating losses.

Afterwards, everyone had the opportunity to go through an Inner Circle to contact their personal gods, ancestors, etc.

At the end of the ritual, Tara gifted everyone with a Quartz crystal. I now have one from my first SIPA Samhain (top) and what will probably be my last with them (bottom).

Altar Update

With it now being October, I've updated my altar for Samhain. It was in need of a change, as I hadn't done much to it since the Eclipse.

I've made a sort of ancestor altar toward the front, with the rest of my ritual tools in the back. It's hard to see in this photo, but in front of the cauldron is a black skull candle I bought at Earthbound.

Also from Earthbound is this beautiful display shelf, which I am using to showcase some of my crystals. It has the moon phases at the bottom. I fell in love with it the moment I saw it!

March 5th, 2017

I rearranged my altar this morning and got it set up for Ostara!

I used a different scarf for an altar cloth (very handy if, like me, you have quite a few scarves), and then set up my many glittery egg and/or rabbit-themed decorations. It's both festive and colorful!

This afternoon, I am going hiking with SIPA; pictures to follow!

February 18th, 2017

SIPA hosted a fun little workshop tonight over at Gaia House - vision boards! I've made them before, but it's been awhile, and it was nice to get together with friends and tear up some magazines.

There was probably about eight or so of us who attended, and we made quite the mess. There were paper scraps and piles of glitter everywhere! Several people brought piles of magazines and cardstock, so we just tore into it finding words and images that stood out to us.

There were also snacks, and we got a Pagan playlist going on YouTube.

My in-progress vision board...

...and the finished version! I also wrote out my intentions and things on the back (and yes, that is Michelle Obama in the lower left corner - let's face it, her poise and grace are goals).

Last but not least, here's my vision board sitting on my altar where I can see it. I really like how it came together, and getting to be crafty was a great way to end my evening.

February 14th, 2017

Happy Valentine's Day, to those celebrating it!

I really should have made this post last week, but that's par for the course with my schedule. Rebekka, who I love to buy crystals from, was recently selling Gold Sheen Obsidian daggers in her store here, and I just had to buy one. I've been in the market for a good athame for a long time; I technically have one at home, but it's actually my dad's, and the blade likes to fall out of the hilt, so it's not very practical. I've looked at athames before, but just never really found one I connected with. Knowing my love for crystals, however, I thought I might get along a lot better with an Obsidian piece.

It's so beautiful, and the shimmer only sort of shows up in the photo, but it's absolutely stunning in the light. The blade is about 3" long, and as I predicted, I like it much better than any steel blade I've ever looked at.

There it is, sitting on my altar. As always, Rebekka shipped quickly, and her items are so high quality. I definitely recommend her products!

SIPA Imbolc

Since SIPA always has a potluck with their rituals, I borrowed a pot and made up some soup this evening; it wasn't anything fancy, just a mix from the convenience store and some tomato puree, but it turned out pretty decent.

I've hardly ever used the dorm's communal kitchen, but this seemed like as good a reason as any. I even got a bonus view of the sunset.

This little framed painting was, I think, unrelated to the ritual, but it was sitting out in Gaia House, and I liked it. "But still, like air, we rise. ~Maya Angelou"

The main altar; I love the cloth, I need to see about getting one for myself sometime.

I wish I would have gotten a picture of the Air elemental altar. All the elemental altars were nice, but the one for Air was just so pretty - it had a bunch of crystals, including a gorgeous Quartz cluster, a drawing of a deity who I think was Hermes, and a Pegasus statue. A very elegant set-up.

Ritual fire in the fireplace; I took this right after it had been lit, so it hadn't quite caught yet.

The main portion of the ritual was spent chanting while making Brighid's Crosses. They came out looking more like God's Eyes, but it was a lot simpler for a large group to do than trying to teach everyone to weave straw the traditional Celtic way, so it worked out.

My Brighid's candle, which I lit in the last part of the ritual.

The potluck was afterwards, with lots of good food, and then I headed back to my dorm room. Great night!

November 5th, 2016

I found the cutest little bird's nest laying on the ground this morning while I was on my way to Habitat for Humanity.

It seemed to be totally unoccupied, and I told myself if it was still there later, I would pick it up. Well, lo and behold, it was in the exact same place this evening when I went to dinner, so I went ahead and took it for my altar. What a unique bit of wildcrafting!

November 1st, 2016

First, a few photos from Samhain...

Me, dressed as a Girl Scout of Night Vale.

Some spooky food in the dining hall.

I never got around to doing an actual Samhain ritual, but that's okay, because I was doing an interview about Paganism! After SIPA's ritual on Saturday, one of the reporters who was there to cover the event approached me saying she was interested in doing a follow-up story tracking me and my daily experiences with my path. As such, she came over last night and we talked for a long while about a lot of different things (although to be quite honest, even in all that time, we really only hit on the basics). She also then came back over tonight, because I told her I would be changing my altar setup now that Samhain is over.

Speaking of which, here it is as of now. I don't have any of my things for Yule at school right now, and it's a little early for that, anyway, so I went ahead and switched over to just a general working altar. The cloth is actually a scarf of my roommate's - isn't it pretty?

October 30th, 2016

Yesterday was a wonderful, busy day. After volunteering at Habitat for Humanity in the morning, I got changed and ready to go to SIPA's Samhain ritual. Tara met me outside my dorm around 2:45, and we drove over to Crab Orchard Campground for the event.

The ritual had originally been going to be at Devil's Kitchen Lake like Mabon, but apparently that area is now undergoing construction, so the parks department gave us the Crab Orchard spot instead. Quite honestly, it was probably a better site, anyway - for one thing, the peninsula was huge, and we had the whole thing to ourselves. There was no designated shelter, which, granted, would have been less fun had it been raining like last year, but fortunately, the weather was perfect. The sky was clear, and it was 80 degrees in the afternoon.

I explored the site a bit, and found this strawberry plant growing a baby strawberry! It seemed a little late in the season, but as warm as it was, I suppose the plants didn't mind.

Because the area was so large, we had a lot of options for where we held ritual. Tara originally wanted to use this spot, right on the lake, which had a cool, star-shaped tree stump in the ground. However, it was quite windy, and there was some concern about whether or not things would blow over, so she decided instead to use an area further back in the trees, but which still had a view of the lake.

As always, there was a potluck. I brought soda, since there hadn't been enough drinks at the last ritual, and enjoyed pizza, vegetables, pasta, cupcakes, and cookies. There was also a home-grown watermelon which I had some of later - very tasty - and apple cider.

Look at these cool Samhain cupcakes! They were filled with raspberry sauce, too, mmmm....

I hadn't been expecting to get to use my construction skills at all at the ritual, but as it would turn out, there were some pieces to construct for the Circle setup. Sean designed these elemental doorways, built out of 2x2s and fabric, which we put together using his battery-powered staple gun. This was Air, in the East.

A close-up of the elemental altar beyond the Air doorway; people had the opportunity to banish from their lives anything relating to the element Air by writing it down and then tying the paper to the wreath like a dreamcatcher.

The Fire doorway; problems relating to the element Fire were written down and the papers burned in the cauldron.

The Water doorway; problems relating to the element Water were written down and drowned in the water inside the vase.

The Earth doorway; problems relating to the element Earth were buried in the tray of potting soil.

There was also a central bonfire for burning any problems related to Spirit, or to issues not clearly covered by one of the other elements.

These were the items I brought for the ancestor altar; we've had some deaths in the family this year, so I had quite a bit more to bring than I did last Samhain.

We held the ritual after the sun went down. It was windy enough that it was impossible to keep the candles lit, but I saw a shooting star right after everyone had finished honoring their ancestors, and it was a really good, contemplative ceremony. There were also some reporters from a local newspaper who came to talk and photograph, so I may be in the newspaper sometime this week!

September 30th, 2016

I never got around to setting up much of a Mabon-themed altar, but with October starting tomorrow, I started decorating for Samhain tonight. Not only is my dorm room covered in spooky things, but so is my altar.

The skeleton arms in the chalice are probably my favorite bit. They're actually meant to be tongs for salad or what-have-you, and I got them for a buck at the Dollar Tree. I'll probably be adding more to it as the month goes on, but I figured I would start strong.

July 12th, 2016

I mentioned that it's been kind of a roller-coaster summer, including a lot of family matters. Last Tuesday, my great-grandmother passed away at 97 years of age. I certainly did not know her as well as some, but I do know I was fortunate to have a great-grandmother in my life for so many years. We attended the visitation last night, and the funeral was this morning.

Here I am after the fact, still in black.

While my family (my mother and grandmother in particular) grieve, I will honor her in my own way as best I can. I don't have much space in my room for an ancestor altar, but I set aside a little area next to my working altar in which to display some items I've gathered together.

From left to right, I have first a photograph from one of my great-grandma's Christmas parties. I don't happen to have a photo of her personally, but her Christmas parties were always special to her as a way to get the whole family together. Then I have the programs from the funeral and the visitation, an Ammonite fossil because their spiral shape is associated with life and eternity, and a pocket watch which belonged to my great-grandpa, who I never knew seeing as he passed away before I was born. I also have a candle.

Perhaps it's sentimental of me, but when we arrived at the cemetery for the funeral, there was a pair of mourning doves sitting on a telephone pole across from the gate, and I couldn't help but wonder if maybe it was a sign that great-grandma and great-grandpa were together and happy again.

January 30th, 2016

Tonight was SIPA's Imbolg ritual over at the Gaia House. There were a lot of new people, plus the usual crowd of folks I'm starting to get to know. As part of their fundraiser, SIPA was raffling off a sword and chain mail shirt donated by one of their members. It would have been pretty cool to win, but I think my dorm might have a policy against swords...

Sword

Chain mail (and sword, but the lighting was bad and you can't really see it.)

Imbolg altar. Our ritual was dedicated to Brighid, and centered around red candles; everyone had a taper which we carved our intentions for the coming year in, before lighting them from the center candle, which has been used by SIPA since 2003, and was itself initially lit from Brighid's sacred fire in Ireland. Afterwards, we enjoyed milk and some delicious homemade bread.

My taper candle after the ritual. 

It was incredibly warm tonight - even at almost 9:00 at night, it's still now over 50⁰F outside. I don't know if I've ever known Imbolg to be so unseasonably warm!

January 25th, 2016

I redecorated my altar on Saturday, getting it at least somewhat set up for Imbolg. I'll probably add some more crystals in February, but for now I quite like it. I'm charging my new tarot cards at the moment, so those are sitting on the left side, and I'm also hoping to work more with dragon energies in the near future, so I have some dragon figures over here now in a place of greater prominence.

The red candle to the right of my Book of Shadows is for a SIPA ritual this weekend; we'll be over at Gaia House again, enjoying Imbolg festivities. Otherwise, I have a lot of the same things out, just moved around so they feel more balanced. It took me a while to figure out, but it feels pretty good.