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!

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!

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.

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.

January 11th, 2016

I won't be home for Imbolc, but I decided yesterday that I wanted to update my altar anyway, so that the energy would be more in tune with the current season. It was still set up for Lughnasadh when I got back in December.

I put a bunch of my herb jars in the center to charge (mint, rose petals, lavender, and yarrow), and then decorated with flowers and candles. I'm also using some pillow cases on top of my altar cloth; they're mostly plain white, but my great grandmother embroidered hummingbirds with flowers along the edges. 

My usual BOS is at school, so in its place, I have a small notebook sitting out on the left side which has sabbat and esbat rituals copied in it. 

I always feel like Imbolc is hard to decorate for, but I actually rather like how this is looking. As always, I'd be happy to hear from any of my readers regarding suggestions for amendments to my 

October 27th, 2014

I carved my first pumpkin of the season tonight! Check out the Itsukushima torii gate!

I only had an LED candle, so it wasn't very bright, but I'll light it with a real one tomorrow night, and hopefully that works better. I had a little accident with the thin piece in the middle cracking on the right side, but I've got it sort of propped up, so hopefully it stays.

I also roasted my pumpkin seeds!

It's a really easy recipe. Rinse the seeds, and then for about every two cups, add a teaspoon of oil and a teaspoon of salt. You can also add other seasonings; garlic is a good one. Then pour them onto a microwaveable plate and microwave on high, stirring every two minutes until they're nice and crunchy. It will probably only take between five and eight minutes of cooking, total.

Shopping Haul

I did some shopping today! 

In order to celebrate my new job, and also just to relax a bit, I went out and bought some things at Earthbound that I've really been wanting.

First off, they had this amazing candelabra which I've been eyeing since last fall, and I finally just had to have it. It's completely my style, and just very bright and cheerful, so I'm glad to have it, even if it was pricey.

I got this cool candle at a discount, and it's actually a bit brighter purple than it appears in this photo, but it's a four-sided pyramid carved with an eye, and I think it'll lend a really interesting energy to any psychic work I delve into.

I got one of the best deals on these. They're 100% pure essential oil diffuser bottles, originally priced at $16, but they were on clearance for $4 a piece, and I got the second one at an additional 50% off, so I only paid $6 for the pair. The brand is rareESSENCE; on the left is the peace scent (frankincense, myrrh, palo santo), and on the right is the clarity (eucalyptus, sage). 

I also walked over to Goodwill and picked up a few things. This is Zen: An Ancient Path to Enlightenment for Modern Times, by Peter Oldmeadow. It looked interesting, and it was only $1.

This book, also, was $1. It is Medicine Woman, by Lynn V. Andrews, and is an autobiography. Again, it sounded interesting.

And then last, but by no means least, I picked up a frame for a very cool piece. This poem was written by Travis, of the Pagan Scholar YouTube channel. I won it in his giveaway, and wanted to be able to display it appropriately. It's a piece of blackout poetry, and basically turns an old Bible page into a unique, Pagan-ish poem!

August 29th, 2015

I'm super excited! Today, the Gaia House was having what they called an "Omni Sale" - basically a rummage sale with books, clothes, art, household goods, and more. They are fundraising so they can do some much-needed renovations, and let's face it, I'm a sucker for a good bargain.

To start off with, I got several books. They were all only $1 each!

I first picked up this, The Fifth Sacred Thing, by Starhawk. I read her The Spiral Dance several years ago and really liked it, so I'm interested to see what this one is like. The back synopsis made it sound like it's a work of fiction. I guess we'll see!

Then I got Kundalini Experience, by Lee Sannella, M.D.. I've not read extensively into kundalini energy, and I am interested to see what this has to say.

I also picked up Being-in-Dreaming: An Initiation into the Sorcerers' World. My understanding is that this one is an autobiography of a woman, Florinda Donner, who participated in a Mexican variant of sorcery. Once again, it looked neat! I'll report back with reviews, eventually. 

While I was there I also got a vegetarian cookbook; I think that'll be a Yule gift for my Aunt C.

The last thing I picked up was this fine gentleman:

This dragon is actually an incense burner! One sits a tea light in the receptacle between his wings and then pours essential oil, liquid incense, or etc. in the glass dish above; wax melts would also work. Then one lights the candle, which heats the dish, and causes the scent to be released! I probably won't be using him in this fashion anytime soon, but in the meantime, I think he's going to be a little room guardian. He seemed to like that idea! 

August 22nd, 2015

I am officially moved in to my dorm room for this year! My mom and I got to my building around 9:30, at which point we had to haul everything up the elevator to my floor. It took the greatest bulk of the time to get the furniture placed correctly, but once that was done, the decorating went pretty smoothly. I didn't set my altar up at the time because I didn't want to make mom uncomfortable, but I was able to do it this evening after she left.

Once I had the basic unpacking done, she and I went to lunch, and then went shopping. We checked out both the local thrift store and the mall, and I found some very cool things I would like to share.

This is a book I got for a dollar at the thrift store. It's called We'Moon '07: Gaia Rhythms for Womyn; there's no single author, as this almanac was compiled by many people, but it was published by Mother Tongue Ink in 2006. Obviously, the 2007 calendar is way out of date for 2015, but the book contains some beautiful illustrations of goddesses and other figures, poetry, astrological information, and what looks like a lot of other cool things. I'll write you all a review after I read it.

Next, we went to the mall, and I went into my favorite store, Earthbound. They had Himalayan salt candle holders for $6.95, so I picked one up. I'd been wanting a salt lamp of some kind for years, and although this one wasn't fitted for an electric light, I still liked it a lot.

I also got this: a baggie of Guatemalan Worry People. The bag holds seven of the little figures. One is supposed to whisper one's worries at night into the bag, and then the Worry People will carry away your worries. That seemed like the sort of thing which might help me manage my anxiety, and they're handmade, so I was happy to pick up a set. 

Tonight, I got my altar set up. Last year, I put it on my dresser, but this year I didn't want my bed lofted, as that turned out to be a huge hassle. My mom suggested I put my dresser under my bed to make room in my closet, and it doesn't even have an inch of clearance. That left my mini fridge as the only available flat surface. It actually seemed to work out well. My altar cloth fits perfectly, I have crystals all over it, and also some offerings for Athena. In addition, I took a Starbucks Frappuccino bottle, cleaned it out really well, and made a hyssop infusion in it. I'll probably talk about that in a later post.

Hanging off the edge of my bed, I have my travel altar kit, as well as a pixie dust bottle from Fairy Fest. My travel altar I may use to do outdoor rituals, to take on Pagan retreats, etc. 

So that's what's going on here. Days until school starts: T minus one...

August 6th, 2015

It's been a pretty productive day today. I got quite a bit of cleaning done, first with a load of laundry, and then by pulling out the bottom drawers of my dresser and removing all the accumulated junk. While I was at it, I found my little pewter hummingbird stone which I'd never been able to locate after it fell back there a year or two ago.

I have it sitting as part of a miniature shrine to the element Air on top of my dresser. With it is a yellow candle and matching knit bunny, as well as a replica arrowhead and a watercolor painting of an owl I did. I have similar mini shrines for the other elements as well. This one probably gets the most use, since I stand in front of it to do my hair.

June 8th, 2015

So I pieced together this little photomanipulation for Destiny tonight.

She picked out the pictures, and then I edited them together. I think it came out neat! She's going to use a series of these for iPad backgrounds.

September 13th, 2014

Today has been an interesting day. It started off a little slowly, as cold Saturdays have a tendency to do, and I was more than comfortable staying in bed for a while. However, I'll be going home next weekend for my little brother's birthday and still needed to find him a present, so I decided to figure out the bus system and get myself to the mall. Mission "read a bus schedule" having been accomplished, I let myself wander for a while, checking out the different stores. Nothing really caught my eye until I found a toy store wherein I got a big set of child's art supplies for him.
Coming out of the toy store, my eyes lighted on a shop with a very eclectic assortment of goods in the display window, along with a couple of Himalayan salt lamps. Anyone who goes to enough of these places comes to recognize such salt lamps as the staple product of a new age store, so I walked in. I was not disappointed. The energy was fantastic, and as for the products... Suffice it to say that if I had had the money, I would have emptied the place.
There were masks, dresses, skirts, shawls, jewelry, art pieces, instruments, an entire table of gemstones, and if that weren't enough, the back half of the store was both clearance and buy-one-get-one-free. I could have cried with happiness. In the end, I ended up with several things for myself, as well as for a friend who also has a birthday party next weekend.

The first thing I discovered was the crystal table. It shouldn't surprise anyone that I was drawn to it like a moth to a candle flame. While I already posses a majority of the crystals on display, they had some stunning generator crystals that I had to tear myself away from. The picture at left is more or less what they looked like, and they came in Clear Quartz, Amethyst, and Rose Quartz. I really wanted to get one, and I was surprised by how reasonable the price was - I had been expecting $30, but these were about $15. Still, with everything else I was buying, I didn't know if I wanted to spend another $15 just then. I may go back tomorrow, though, because I really was drawn to them. It was immediately apparent why they were considered generators - all I had to do was hold my hand over them, and I could feel like a rush of cool air the energy spiraling around the central point.

I discovered the mask collection in the back; they were all excellent quality, and right up my alley where costuming is concerned. I bought this one:

Perhaps I'll wear it for Samhain. They had boxes of large white taper candles on sale for a dollar, so you know I snapped some of those up, and then I looked up and noticed these, tucked on a little shelf.

They're Tektites! I've been looking for these for ages - who knew you had to go to a mall in the middle of nowhere to find them? What are Tektites? If you don't already know, you'll just have to wait for me to post about them. Mwahahaha....

Playing Catch-up...

Hello, ladies and gentleman! I'm back! It's been a crazy month here, so let me fill you in on everything.
My family, grandpa, and Aunt C all went camping in Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for a week. We left home on June 29th, and returned July 7th.

Here's a pretty sunset - isn't it gorgeous? We saw a plethora of wildlife, including turtles, toads, snakes, eagles, and a mink or a weasel.

We stayed in tents, of course. Aunt C and I were in this one, grandpa was in his own, and everyone else slept in a larger tent. I was asked upon my return what it's like to sleep outdoors. I was rather dumbfounded by the question; it' hard to describe. For readers who have never had the experience, it is hot and muggy, even when it's cool outside the tent, and if it rains, it's damp. You can also hear everything through the canvas, so you get woken up by the birds in the morning, and you go to sleep hearing the drone of the mosquitoes.

Our street had a block party last weekend, which was a lot of fun. A fire truck and police car stopped by to visit and give demonstrations; the little kids (and some of the bigger ones) all got to spray the fire hose. We grilled out, got to know each other, and the dozen or so younger kids raced each other on tricycles and played on the water slide.

I got dragooned into helping with my mom's church's annual Vacation Bible School, but luckily, I got to avoid all the religious drama by volunteering in the Arts and Crafts department. Over the course of a week, the kids made swords, shields, tunics, catapults, and more, in accordance with this year's Medieval theme. I've been doing art with VBS for years now, and usually I'll make a couple of the crafts for myself. This year, however, I didn't really care for a lot of the designs. Yesterday, though, they made lanterns, complete with little electric candles. I thought it'd make a nice altar addition, especially because I'm not allowed to burn my real candles, and since there were extra kits, I made one.

Last but not least, our town puts on an event called Summer Celebration at the end of July every year. Among other things, one major attraction is the town parade, in which different clubs and companies enter floats. My mom and I are members of our local choral society, and have been working on the society's parade float. Since the parade's theme this year is Broadway, it was right up our alley. I can't post pictures of the completed float yet, but here's me with the topper for the giant Tony award we're using as the proverbial icing on the cake. I drew the design on both sides and painted it. Quite the production.
You can also see in this picture that my arm is in a splint. I've had tendinitis since March, and am now seeing an Occupational Therapist to get my wrist healed up. Send positive energy, please; I want to get back to having full use of my thumb ASAP!
Whew! I think that's about everything. On with the regularly scheduled program!

Thrift Shopping...

In an additional bout of excitement, my mom took my brother and I to Goodwill on Thursday to do a bit of (thrift) shopping. I found some good quality candles and a glass candle holder, all for less than $4!

Together, I've got an unopened package of eight small white tapers, a medium-sized baby blue taper, and a larger purple one, plus the holder, which I really needed. Now maybe I won't have to try keeping my tapers vertical in a jar full of gravel.

 

Also, while cleaning out our shed a week or two ago, my mom found a glass top for my cute little bunny rabbit table. I don't know how well you can see it here, but in any event, I now have another surface in my room on which to set things. I've been wanting to put together a little shrine for a while; maybe I'll make that a summer project.

June 20th, 2013

My family went out of state last weekend to visit with my grandparents for Father's Day, and to see my Aunt C's new house. It's pretty fantastic, even though she's not all situated yet - the garden alone is awesome! On the drive up there, we stopped at a rest station for lunch and I got myself a pretty pewter faery statue while I was at it. I think it's just perfect for my Litha altar, don't you?

My grandma had some other exciting goodies for me, one of which had been meant as a Christmas present: a Selenite candle holder! It's really good-sized, and a perfect centerpiece for ritual. 

The picture isn't the greatest; my apologies. I'm sure I'll put together a post about the various properties of Selenite sometime in the next few days.