Merry Meet, all. Hummingbird, here. 21-year-old eclectic Pagan and witch who works primarily in crystal, warding, and energy magicks. Asexual, with a wonderful girlfriend. I am just beginning to learn the path of Athena. Attending college with end goal of a degree in Interior Design.
This blog is a digitalized record of my life as a Pagan. It includes spells, charms, notes on the properties of various magickal items, and my own personal experiences with my practice. Sometimes I post multiple times a day, sometimes it's once a month.
All are welcome here. Please, make yourself at home, and let me know if I can help you with anything. )0(
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!
One of the organizations I belong to at school took a social trip today over to a local pumpkin patch. The weather, which had been kind of wet and gross this morning, turned out to be beautiful, and it was a lot of fun picking through the pumpkins with everyone. Pumpkin carving and baking pumpkin seeds are a few of my Samhain traditions, and I always have a great time doing it!
The pumpkins - they ranged in size from little bitty ones to big carving-size ones.
I didn't buy any, but I love ghost pumpkins. They look so neat!
Here's my purchases - a big pumpkin to carve, two gourds, and a mini pumpkin. The gourds I'll be trying to dry out and turn into shakers. I also picked up the "Witch Please" mug today, over at Walmart. They had a whole collection of oversized Halloween mugs, and it just seemed very me.
In addition to the pumpkins, I bought this wire-wrapped tree of life necklace. There was a local artist selling them there at the pumpkin patch, and I'd been wanting something like it for a long time, so I decided to go ahead and get one.
Things are getting spooky here! I've decorated our apartment, and my roommate and I have been getting costumes together. We've also engaged in a bit of spirit work, talking to some of the other inhabitants of the apartment. They seem to be friendly, and like to knock on the walls at night.
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!
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?
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
Some pictures from the ritual yesterday! It was held indoors at Gaia House, although at a balmy 65⁰, we could pretty easily have had it outside.
Table decorations for the post-ritual potluck.
Holly leaves inscribed with some Japanese phrases denoting what I want to grow in the coming year. (Other people used runes, but Japanese felt more applicable to my practice.) They say, よろこび (joy) 愛 (love), and 平和 (peace). The one saying joy I wrote in yellow, hence the fact that it doesn't show up in the picture.
One of the members brought her pet Tegu, named Walter! I got to hold him - he's a real snuggle bug.
Getting ready for the gift exchange.
A Yule Carol booklet, with lots of the rewritten classics.
My gift from the gift exchange - three colored glass jars!
The electric candle doesn't show it very well, but it's Harry Potter! I'm taking it to the Samhain ritual tomorrow, and will be able to light it with a real candle then. I also made up another batch of pumpkin seeds to take.
Today, the dining hall is all decked out.
The cider is locally made and delicious. I could drink the entire vat of it.
They also have a coffin cupcake display, which is fun.
Tonight, I'm planning to go to a bonfire with some friends, and then tomorrow is Samhain! I can't believe how fast October has flown by, but it's been so much fun this year!
I'm going to pack as much Samhain into this week as I possibly can!
This past weekend, of course, was the Halloween party. Here's some of other people's pictures, after they got added to the Facebook group:
New friends!
A Valkyrie and a dog with a fondness for fire.
A civil war soldier.
Myself, winning the "Most Creative Costume" prize.
I still don't understand how this happened.
Zombie chicken?
And then tonight, the resident housing department invited students to come paint mini pumpkins during one of their meetings, and goodness knows I love me some pumpkins, so I went.
Mine was inspired by Van Gogh's The Starry Night; the lighting kind of washed the color out, but I like it.
My mom also sent me some goodies in the mail. I didn't take a picture, but suffice it to say, I won't need to go trick-or-treating to get my chocolate fix this year.
The party last night was really nice! I met a few other Pagan students, as well as lots of adults in the community, got to pet the sweetest little black cat, and ate more Samhain snacks than I probably ought to have.
Here's my Carlos the Scientist (from Welcome to Night Vale) costume. I actually won "Most Creative" for it! The other categories were "Sexiest", "Scariest", "Best Couple", "Ugliest", and "Most Pathetic". My favorite by far was the fact that somehow, people got it in their heads that they could put down whoever they felt like for "Best Couple" (as opposed to pairing costumes which obviously went together, like ketchup and mustard or something), and ended up nominating two guys, one dressed as a Greek god, and the other dressed as a peanut.
For my prize, I won this lovely spiderweb lantern. The hostess, who won for "Sexiest", also gave me her plastic rat prize, on the condition that I named it after her. These have both been duly added to my stock of Samhain décor.
I wanted to post this yesterday, but I ended up doing a bunch of homework instead, so here it is today. Happy October! I am excitedly getting ready for Samhain. I had to do a change of living quarters yesterday, but I'm all settled in my new space now, and I really like it. Here's some pictures of how my roommate and I have decorated it:
Some spooky cards for the door.
Tinsel, my calendar, my candelabra, and a few other things that got cropped out.
Trick or treat!
Some little ghosts fleeing Sam and Dean Winchester.
A pumpkin and tea light to spookify my roommate's dresser.
More pumpkins.
My Samhain altar, which I'll talk more about some other time.
It was a little surreal to just sit and relax this afternoon after being in a constant state of motion all week, but I did make myself take some time to recharge. I ended up doing a page in a Japanese brocade-pattern coloring book that my mom sent me in the mail.
Complex patterns like this, as well as mandalas and similar, are great tools for active meditation; that is, if you find it difficult (as I sometimes do) to calm your mind just sitting still, then coloring is a good way to center and focus while still doing something.
Now, I wasn't doing this as a meditation today. Instead, I sat watching some YouTube videos by other Pagans and just generally trying to expand my knowledge base. Still, in the future, I may very well use it as a meditative technique. I may also cut up a page or two and paste smaller drawings into what I've decided to call my Scrapbook of Shadows, especially if I need decorations for pages on Shinto deities, practices, etc.
I went out for a walk after lunch today to collect some leaves for my Mabon ritual, and I actually ended up finding all kinds of neat things.
I saw a bunch of birds, including two large hawks or vultures, I'm not sure which, and a hawk at the top of this tree. I also went down by the creek again and spotted more frogs.
Here's my altar after I added my findings to it. My basket of leaves is in the back. On the left is a big piece of shelf fungus, and next to my little wreath is a collection of seed pods and acorns. I also found a piece of sycamore bark, which I'm now using as a stand on my desk to hold some offerings.
This was the other thing I discovered: a tiny bird skull. It was lying in a pile of cicada exoskeletons, and I felt drawn to keep it, so I added it to my basket. It's now in a Ziploc bag where it will stay for a week or two, to be sure there aren't any organisms living on it.
It's been kind of a long day here, but my roommate offered me tea and I've been researching Japanese incense, so I've finally relaxed a bit. I found this site, Shoyeido, through HolisticAlchemy on YouTube, and I have to say, they have some gorgeous incense and incense holders. Also, Japanese incense is pure all the way through; that is, it's not a dipped wooden stick. Because of this, they produce a lot of fragrance with very little smoke. This particular brand ships out of Kyoto, and has been a producer of high-quality Japanese incense for 300 years. I would definitely be happy to order from them in the future!
In other news, I was walking to dinner after work tonight, and I found a big piece of pampas grass lying on the sidewalk. It was exactly the sort of thing which would work with my Mabon altar, so I picked it up. The whole stalk was a bit big to carry into the dining hall, but a piece of the top came off in my hand, so gratefully I took that with me. It's sitting on my altar now, and I'll have to take a picture later, but it was just a really pretty natural offering, and I was glad to stumble upon it.
Today I tried making a carved apple head! I read about them a long time ago in a book of witchy crafts, but then I was reminded of them about a week ago when Ember HoneyRaven did a video about making some.
That's how mine turned out. Apple heads are great decorations for Mabon and Samhain altars and generally for throughout the autumn season. To make one, you only need:
Apple(s)
A knife
A peeler (optional)
Lemon juice (optional)
Paper towels
First, peel the apple. This can be done with a peeler, or a knife. Either way, be careful not to cut yourself. Then, take the knife and carve the outline of the main facial features into the apple.
Once the outlines are there, dig out the eyes. Those should be deeply carved. Also carve around the nostrils, though not as deeply. Add definition to the lips, and create a deep mouth cavity. If possible, over-emphasize all the features, because the apple will shrink as it dries. If desired, ears can also be carved on the sides, and one can add eyebrow ridges and cheekbones by carefully shaving away apple.
Once the face is finished, rub it with lemon juice to prevent the fruit from browning.
Dry in a dehydrator, in an oven at 150⁰ for one hour, or over the course of several days in the sun. When finished, one can add a hanging string to the stem.
I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos on my day off, and also did quite a bit of work on my "Scrapbook of Shadows". Here's what I was working on.
I added some more decor to my Celtic tree month pages. We have some holly trees by my residence hall, so I picked one up and pressed it. The other lead is a piece of ivy from our garden at home. I'd like to add more to this still, but this is what I've got at the moment.
Here's the last Celtic tree month page. It definitely needs some plant samples, so I'll have to either find or draw some sometime. The right page is adorned with packaging from a bar of soap I got at Fairy Fest a few years ago. I added a tiny feather I found coming back from brunch this morning, and also wrote in a summary of how to make a magickal hand wash as demonstrated by Ashera Star Goddess on YouTube.
I have these pages mostly covered up because a lot of the information is pretty personal to me (not that you could read it, anyway, as blurrily as my laptop took these photos), but these pages were about my power animal, or patronus, the Hummingbird.
Here's a detail of the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird I drew in the corner.
I also put up another video today, talking about how I got into the Craft. If you're interested, a lot of it is things I haven't talked about much on here.
