December 16th, 2016

I'm officially home for winter break! I actually got back around 12:30 yesterday morning, to weather which is roughly 40⁰ colder than it was at school; I was not prepared to come back to -18⁰.

I stayed huddled inside as much as I could yesterday, and among other things got my Yule tree set up in my bedroom.

One of my grandmas moved in with us at the end of the summer, and has been sharing my room ever since. This has made it harder to keep my altars out, not necessarily because she's close-minded or anything, but just because she needs places to put her things, and they've mostly ended up on or around the spots I usually have an altar. That's been a little frustrating, but at least we're both enjoying the tree.

My mom has been buying me Hallmark's fairy ornaments since they started coming out with them 12 years ago (12 years! I was eight at the time...), and this is this year's edition, the tulip fairy. She promptly joined the tree with my other winged friends.

November 23rd, 2016

Happy Day-Before-Thanksgiving to those of you reading in America. I got home from school last night, and it's smelled like apple pie here all day long - I'm really hungry now!

I also wanted to share these cool new crystals my grandma gave me.

This one's a Selenite tower; I have a pair of them now, but the other is at school.

And then this is a massive Rose Quartz generator point - it's literally the size of my hand! I think I'm in love.

I hope you all have a good week and enjoy the festivities. Things have been hard for a lot of people lately, but maybe a little food and thankfulness will go towards some sort of resolution. And if you're out there knowing you have to spend the holidays with prejudiced, bigoted people, then know that I am sorry, and I hope things get better soon.

September 20th, 2016

Every time I think 2016 can't get worse, it does. I know I haven't been very active of late, and I can't say that that's likely to change what with how busy school's been, and on top of that, my grandfather, who has leukemia, is in a very bad state and the doctors are guessing he only has a few days.

In light of that, I decided I needed to do something today to try and deal with everything. I've noticed over the past few weeks, a very specific labyrinth design kept popping up. First I saw it on a field trip to the Antheneum, and then there was a display in the theatre building using the same graphic, shown below.

I recognized it as being a slightly smaller version of the labyrinth at Gaia House, which is itself based on the labyrinth in the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France. Since the imagery kept reoccurring, I walked over to Gaia House this morning to spend some time walking their labyrinth.

The geodesic dome sculpture is in homage to Buckminster Fuller, who lived in this town for many years, while the labyrinth turns an old concrete slab into a peace park. It really was nice to enjoy the fresh air for a while before the day got really hot, and I've attended at least one ritual in this space, too, so that brought back good memories. I'd like to spend more time there if I can manage it, I feel like it would be healing.

There's also a really nice fountain and pool just beyond the dome, which is pretty.

The other thing I've noticed a lot lately is bird signs. This is a photo of three crows all sitting on top of a street light taken last week. I saw the trio a second time this morning. Birds always seem to show up at important times in my life. It's nice to see them.

I have done nothing to get ready for Mabon, and it looks like I'll be travelling on Thursday anyway. However, I am planning to attend the SIPA ritual this weekend, so I'm looking forward to that - I daresay I need it. We might even be camping out after the ritual, which would be cool.

August 17th, 2016

It's as hectic as ever here, and no less stressful where family matters are concerned. I drive down to school tomorrow, so it isn't likely to get any less busy. That being said, I have a few photos I wanted to share.

This is a Selenite tower; my mom and I were at my grandma's house helping her pack to come stay with us for a few weeks, and I happened across this sitting on a shelf. My grandma knows how much I love crystals, so she let me keep it. I'd thought about buying one while at Fairy Fest - I'm glad now that I didn't!

Later that same day, we stopped at a McDonald's for lunch. I took a few minutes after eating to poke around in the garden beds, as they had stones instead of mulch, and I found this shell fossil. The photo came out a little blurry, but it's really well-defined.

I'm hoping this school year goes better than the summer did. I'm also still trying to get information on my new crystals together to share, so we'll see how that goes.

Spooky Yellowstone

While we were in Montana, on the way up to Glacier, we stopped for a few hours in the town of Livingston. Long considered the "gateway to Yellowstone", Livingston has had a long history of locomotive activity and tourism, and we spent time in their local railway museum. While there, I purchased a book about hauntings in Yellowstone, because I was not aware there were any, and it seemed like it might be neat to learn about them before we went there.

Title: Spooky Yellowstone: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore

Author: S. E. Schlosser

© 2013

Schlosser is a storyteller with a literature degree, who also developed and maintains AmericanFolklore.net, a site which collects folklore from across North and Central America, with legends from all fifty states. Her book, Spooky Yellowstone, draws on a wide variety of resources, including websites, newspapers, personal interviews, and texts.

The book opens with a map of Yellowstone marking places where the various sightings Schlosser recounts took place. I appreciated the inclusion of such a map, not only because it gives a visual of the spread of incidents across the park, but also because it makes it easier to compare to an actual map and find potential ghost-sighting routes. I wasn't able to convince my family to go ghost-hunting (we were a little pressed for time as it was), but we did pass by some allegedly haunted areas, which was neat to make note of.

Part One of the text retells 13 different accounts of ghost sightings, some of them modern and some of them hearkening back to the early days of the national park. My personal favorite was the story of a ghost train on the Cinnabar track ruts. While some of them felt more authentic than others, these were stories which on the whole were fairly straightforward tales of the paranormal.

Part Two goes on to describe other miscellaneous occurrences outside the explicable. Some of them resemble hauntings in nature, or, as in Fire!, examples of psychometry in action, with participants accidentally touching on a strong memory related to an area. Others were stranger, including one Bigfoot sighting, and one story of black magic gone wrong which was a bit too far-fetched for me.

Spooky Yellowstone was an interesting text with some stories that make me wish all the more that we could have spent longer exploring the national park. That being said, some of them also struck me as being a bit dubious. Was it fun to read? Yes. However, I would not call it a comprehensive guide to finding ghosts in Yellowstone. For me, it probably falls into that category of books which I liked, but did not need to pay full price for.

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.

July 9th, 2016

Well, you know what they say about a road paved with good intentions... It seems like every time I think it might be calming down enough that I could update this blog regularly, life decides to have a laugh at my expense. June was very, very busy between a vacation, bridal shower, and almost every conceivable sort of family issue. Anyway, I am back. I have some pictures from our trip that I will share (I'd been hoping to liveblog it, but the hotels we stayed in usually didn't have wifi), at least to start things off.

Mussel shell on a lake shore in Albert Lea, MN.

The Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD.

The Badlands National Park, SD.

Big horned sheep (with a baby!) in the Badlands, SD.

Mt. Rushmore in SD.

Devil's Tower National Park in SD.

Little Bighorn National Cemetery, SD.

Lakota prayer cloths tied to a bush in Little Bighorn, SD.

Sunset over Colombia Falls, MT.

Glacier National Park, MT.

McDonald Falls in Glacier, MT.

Rocks on the riverbank in Glacier, MT.

Mountains on Going to the Sun Rd. in Glacier, MT.

Snow melting into a waterfall in Glacier, MT.

Mammoth Hot Springs at Yellowstone National Park, WY.

An enormous chunk of Aventurine next to my foot; apparently it's a fairly rare stone, but happens to occur in a small town in Montana.

The Paint Pots in Yellowstone, WY.

Blue Star Spring in Yellowstone, WY.

Old Faithful Geyser erupting in Yellowstone, WY.

Grand Tetons National Park, WY.

Overall, it was a really cool trip. There was a lot of driving, but we got to see lots of amazing scenery and wildlife. I brought home some stones, of course, and a book, which I will eventually get to writing about, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy the photos, and I apologize for the long break from posting.

October 10th, 2015

I'm officially home for fall break! I'm off school through Tuesday, so I took the train back, and then my family met me and we had lunch in the city.

We decided we'd go walk around a new park, and the weather was perfect.

One feature which I especially got a kick out of was this:

The end of the pathway ended in a roundabout, and had slabs of stone set up to align with the sun on the solstices and equinoxes. I suppose it just seemed rather Pagan to me.

August 5th, 2015

Spirit Quartz (aka Cactus Quartz)

Physical Characteristics: Most Spirit Quartz is a variety of Amethyst, and so this post will focus on this type. However, some varieties may appear as Citrine, Smoky Quartz, or White Quartz, and these will have additional properties.

In Nature: Spirit Quartz occurs when hundreds of tiny points grow off the sides of a central, larger Quartz point. As stated above, most specimens are a subtype of Amethyst, and as such appear as a gentle purple or pink. Any specimen which appears to be iridescent in some ways is likely Aura Quartz, which has been artificially treated. See my post about Ruby Aura Quartz for more information.

Chemical Composition: SiO2

Mohs Scale Hardness: 7 (high)

Can be Found: The Magaliesberg Mountain region of South Africa is the only area known to produce Spirit Quartz.

Healing Properties*: Bringing emotional healing on all levels, this crystal may be used by the passing and the bereaved alike to come to peace. It likewise heals skin disorders or blistering and etcetera as a result of an allergic reaction. The stone can also help to manage Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or abuse-related stress disorders. 

Magickal Properties: In the words of the vendor who sold me my piece, this is an incredible social stone which promotes harmony in any group, be it family, friends, or peers. In the home, it welcomes guests, newborns, adopted or foster children, and even pets. Merging step-families might want to bring in a piece of Spirit Quartz to ease any initial tensions; the crystal may also help to reconcile quarreling siblings. 
As it promotes group consciousness and cooperation, a coven or study group could find it beneficial in building team unity. Use it to heighten psychic perception and dreaming, or to facilitate out of body experiences. It is also useful for cleansing the aura or a room, dispelling negative entities or energies.
This crystal is specifically one of non-duality and balance on a spectrum. Amethyst Spirit Quartz is about beginnings and endings; through this one sees its balancing properties, as well as its capacity to seek karmic justice in traumatic situations.
Especially useful in artistic endeavors, it stimulates creativity and imagination. Regardless of how it is used, the numerous small points amplify energy and send it out in all directions.

Chakra Association: Seventh (Crown) chakra, but may be used to heal any of them

Element: Spirit/Akasha

Energy: Receptive

Planetary Association: Any

*Magickal healing should never take the place of seeing a doctor and following any recommended prescriptions, actions, or other advice. Magick works best in tandem with physical efforts, anyway, so don't skimp on those check-ups!

Room Protection Pouch

Do you have problems with nosy parents, siblings, or etcetera prying in your personal space?

I recently did this spell by Honey Coyote on tumblr, where one creates an amulet-pouch filled with herbs and crystals that have protective and/or banishing properties, as well as a sigil of one's choice. The pouch I chose to sew myself so as to put some more energy into it, but a pre-made one could be used just as easily.

July 3rd, 2015

We're still getting things unpacked from our vacation. Today, I opened up a box and got out two things which my mom had won in an auction but hadn't wanted (she got them in a box with some other things). The first is this:

It's a very heavy metal disc, probably cast iron, with the directions marked on it. It's probably meant to go out in a garden, and maybe one day I'll have a garden of my own to put it in, but for now it's lying in the middle of my altar as an additional elemental alignment.

Then there was this small plate. Made in Scotland, it carries a 6-9th century Celtic knot pattern on it. I've tried researching the manufacturer a bit (St. Andrew's?), but so far I have been unable to find additional information on it. That being said, it's a lovely little dish, and in very good condition. 

I love auctions - they're a great place to find unique witchy stuff at good prices!

June 25th, 2015

It's been an exciting afternoon! My grandparents took us over to a nearby park for an afternoon of bocce ball and card games. While we were there, Nick and I climbed down a steep trail to a creek running back through the trees. He went off and explored, but I stayed near the stream bed, looking for rocks. I found a whole bunch of neat ones!

There was plenty of Quartz, of course. Making up about 12% of the earth's crust, it's an extremely abundant mineral. I've identified them as follows:

• Far left: Medium grain Quartz crystals mixed with pink Feldspar; probably some type of granite
• Left: A sedimentary rock of some kind (some sort of Jasper, I think) with Quartz growing out the top of it.
• Top right: A massive (as in, rock-like rather than crystal-point, not as in "huge") chunk of Quartz
• Bottom right: A smaller, more translucent piece of massive Quartz
• Far right: Quartzite pebble

I was also excited to find some pieces of what look to me like Unakite. Unakite is the combination of green Epidote with pink Feldspar. The distribution of the two wasn't the most balanced across all the pieces I found. In particular, I think the bottom left is Epidote and Quartz, while the bottom right looks like Epidote and Slate.

And then I found some miscellaneous stones.

• Top left: Granite; when I picked this one up, there were some neat blue flecks in it which were really pretty.
• Bottom left: Not sure yet what this is; it's probably sedimentary, although it has more rings than it seems to layers. I don't think it's an Agate, though.
• Middle: Fossils! I thought maybe it was just some rock conglomerate when I picked it up, but then I was looking at it more closely, and it does appear to have at least some fossilized bones in it.
• Top right: Red Jasper? It looked more like some when it was wet. I don't know how I could find out for sure, since I don't have the equipment for a streak test, or really to test hardness, either.
• Bottom right: This is probably more pink Feldspar, but it looked a bit like Rhodochrosite, which I know occurs in neighboring states, so I figured I'd keep it just in case.

Ultimately, I'm very much an amateur where identifying my own stones goes, so if you see anything you recognize, by all means, let me know!

Camp Log: 6/21/15

(From Hummingbird’s logs, edited and transcribed 7/2/15)

Happy Summer Solstice! It turned out to be a nice one, though you wouldn't have guessed it this morning. The day dawned misty and overcast, though it was calm. I got up around 6:30 and found it was rather chilly. Grandpa had a kettle of lake water on the stove fore breakfast, so I sat by him and just rested for a bit. The plan had been to pick the first nice day from Saturday onward to head back to the Sawbill campground. Yesterday it poured, so obviously that was out. We kept a close eye on the weather this morning to see what it looked like.

For breakfast, we had oatmeal, almonds, and dried berries again. I also washed the dishes, so as to make use of the hot water. By the time we finished up, the sun had burned some of the mist off. I went out on a rock to get a look at the clouds and slipped, sliding into the lake and soaking myself from the knees down. I was able to get a look at the clouds, though. They were still grey, but appeared to be moving off.

Eventually (aka 8:00), we made the executive decision to head out while the weather held, seeing as we had no way to know what tomorrow would be like. The boys and I tore down our tent and the rainfly. The others got the rest of the supplies. By 10:00, we were ready to go. Just before we left, the boys found a little crayfish off shore. A ton of minnows died last night (possibly due to sediment washing into the lake from the rain), and the crayfish was grabbing their bodies and eating them.

The sun broke through the clouds, and with almost no wind, it was one of the nicest days we have had. Nick and I got out way ahead of the others, so we floated along right next to Hog Creek after crossing the lake. The seagulls gave us a bit of a send-off, and we saw the eagle wheeling around by the opposite shore.

When the others got on the lake finally, Nick and I headed onto the creek. There were lots of birds up in the trees - grackles, rad winged blackbirds, and some other songbirds. We were cutting a pretty good pace at first, but the father upstream we got, the more the current picked up, and the harder it was to steer. We kept seeing places we recognized, though, and i saw a couple more Tiger Swallowtails, so we both felt pretty good about where we were headed, at least.

When we got to the portage, it looked like there was a lot more water coming down the rapids this time. Nick and I hauled our things across, and then carried the canoe over together to load it back up. I fell in the water again, because I wasn't paying attention. Also, we put our canoe in on the far side of the portage, closer to the rapids, so we could avoid a huge mud puddle.

We waited there for everyone else to catch up, and I pointed out a red-headed merganser to Nick. He also saw a toad while I was holding the canoe, fishing out spiders with my paddle. The others finally arrived, and once we got back on the creek it was only another 1/4 mile or so to the entry point  - barely two minutes of paddling.

Everyone was totally exhausted when we got back that we just stuffed everything in the cars as quickly as we could. Grandpa had to drain some rainwater out of his truck bed, and then we loaded the three canoes up on top again.

We drove back to the Sawbill campground and took sites 2 and 3. Lunch was ASAP - string cheese, granola bars, peanut butter on bagels, dried coconut, mango, cherries, and apples, beef jerky, freeze dried edamame, and gummy bears. Soon after, I advocated for getting the tents set up in case of another change in the weather. The boys helped me put it up, and then they went down to the lake while I very meticulously brushed out of the tent as I could while letting it air out.

Not long after, I walked down with grandpa and dad to the waterspout to fill up all the water bottles and look at the scenery. There's a very nice pier out onto Sawbill Lake. Apparently, the boys found a snapping turtle there, but by the time I arrived it had gone.

Right around 6:00 we got started on dinner. Mom had a readymade rice package which just had to be heated up, and then we had summer sausage and cheesecake pudding. Somewhere along the line this morning while packing, the soap had gotten mislaid, so that took a while to find, but once everything was washed up, we went over to the Outfitter's.

The Outfitter's had some camp pillows which I liked but were a little outside my budget. The owners have a dog, though, named Pheobe. I pet her for a while, and she lay down on the floor for a tummy rub. Everyone else purchased their necessities, and we walked back to camp.

Grandpa had bought a tent patch kit, so we were finally able to fix the tear in our rainfly. It's not as neat as it probably could have been, but it should stop it getting any bigger.

If the good weather holds, the plan for tomorrow is to day trip on Sawbill. There's a good chance it may rain tomorrow, though, so in that event we'll head out for a hotel in Duluth. Either way, it will probably be eventful.

(As it would turn out, the weather the following day was terrible. We split camp and headed for Duluth.)

Camp Log: 6/20/15

(From Hummingbird’s logs, edited and transcribed 7/2/15)

Well, it started off as a nice morning. I woke up about the same time as yesterday, and found that it was warmer than it's been this whole trip; that is, I could go out with one sweater on rather than two. When I got out of the tent, grandpa was still trying to solve our water dilemma, but we found another full water bottle in the cooler bag, so that helped.

Out on the lake, the seagulls were calling, the pair of loons were diving for breakfast, and the eagle was sitting up in his tree across the lake.

We had been going to do pancakes for breakfast, but discovered that the brown sugar (for syrup) had somehow been left behind, so we decided to have them a different day and and ate oatmeal instead. I had the raisin date walnut again, with hot chocolate, almonds, and freeze dried berries.

That's me second from the left.

Right as we were finishing up breakfast, it started to rain. Unlike yesterday, it didn't stay just a sprinkle. Pretty soon, we were all huddled around the fire grate under the rainfly. When we went to boil water for dishes, we were able to just collect a bunch of rainwater, but we did have some difficulty getting the camp stove to light in the rain. We got it eventually, and Ben washed the dishes. I rinsed them in the water pouring off the rainfly, and mom put them away.

I then went to huddle in the tent and played Quiddler with everyone but mom. It was a bit damp in there, mostly from people tracking in water. My sleeping bag got wet, though, which was irritating.

We ate lunch not long after we finished our card game (which I won, incidentally). We had the usual - granola bars, carrot chips, peanut butter granola, dried coconut and pineapple, string cheese, peanut butter on bagels, crackers, fruit strips, and Twizzlers. It was still raining, though every once in a while, it would stop for a few minutes. Everyone was cold and varying degrees of miserable, so we opted to boil some more rain water for hot drinks. I went with another round of hot chocolate.

Dad decided to get a fire going in the grate, but I was sick of standing around trying to stay dry under the rainfly, so I went back in the tent. I found a couple of puddles pooling up in the corners, so I wiped them away as best I could. Then I moved all the sleeping bags over, because I was also tired of sleeping on top of a big, awkwardly shaped boulder and a pile of tree roots. I also wanted to sweep up all the cedar needles that people had tracked in, but mom thought I should wait until it dried more.

I snuggled for warmth in my sleeping bag, and ended up taking a nap of several hours (I've slept more on this trip than I have all year, I swear). It was around 6:00 when I woke up. By then, the rain had taken a respite, so I walked over to the lookout point, where dad had just had a perch slip his fishing line. Mom and Nick wanted to go around the island to get a better look at the weather, so I accompanied them. Nick turned just in time to see a wall of rain blowing our direction, so we ran back to camp. Ben and I piled in the tent, where we rode out the latest squall with my paraphrasing some Celtic legends for him.

When we got out after the rain, we made dinner plans. We decided to conserve dishes by using our cups from earlier to eat wild rice soup, and then make vanilla pudding. While the boys did the dishes, I tried to get the fire going again, but the wood was soaked so I gave it up as a lost cause. Instead, I refilled the water filter bag and got a towel and brush kit from mom. I was finally able to clean out the inside of the tent; it's so much better now, especially since it's also drier.

Headed to bed now!