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. 

The Sun Goddess

Today I finally finished reading The Sun Goddess, a book I started at the beginning of the semester. I would just like to say straight off the bat that this was an excellent book, and I would highly recommend it.

I came across the text after watching The Pagan Scholar on YouTube. The fellow who runs the channel, Travis, is an academic who reads and reviews scholarly works on contemporary Paganism. He had reviewed a title called Eclipse of the Sun, a book on sun goddesses, and I was really interested in reading it. However, when I went to order some books with a giftcard, I couldn't remember the title, nor could I find the video he talked about it in (I now know it was "Ouch, My Paradigm"). I ended up looking at other books on sun goddesses instead, and decided that this one looked promising. I ordered it, and am nothing less than pleased with it as a scholarly examination of the sun goddess narrative.

Title: The Sun Goddess: Myth, Legend and History

Author: Sheena McGrath

© 1997

Sheena McGrath is a practicing Pagan now living in California. She has been involved in groups in England and Canada, and has her degree in medieval studies.

McGrath's book opens with a proposition: that modern Pagans (and non-Pagan scholars, for that matter) who automatically associate the goddess with the moon and the god with the sun are looking at mythology too one-dimensionally. She proposes instead that the majority of pre-Christian Indo-European religions worshiped a sun goddess, with a corresponding moon god. She then goes on to prove this thesis with evidence from a plethora of Indo-European cultures, citing language, migration patterns, iconography, and surviving verses and folklore; she makes a compelling argument suggesting that, historically, the Greeks and Romans were really the odd ones out in terms of assigning gender to the luminaries. 

McGrath begins by introducing the reader to the Indo-Europeans, describing how and where they lived, how language patterns (and in particular, gendered language regarding the sun and moon) changed, and why she chose to compare their mythologies. Namely, Indo-Europeans prior to Christianization had a mythological cycle which was identifiably similar across political, cultural, and ethnic boundaries.

She then launches immediately into describing known sun goddesses from across Western Europe, talking about what we know of their worship, the symbols they used, and what remains of their stories. McGrath starts with Sól in Germany, then moves to Sunna in England, and continues with Freya in Scandinavia, St. Lucia in Sweden, and Œstre of the Saxons.

Next, she looks at Eastern Europe, beginning with the Baltic Saule. She talks at length here about the myth cycle, comparing it to trends in other regions, and in particular examining the frequent pattern of a moon god who seduces the sun goddess' daughter, the sun maiden, as well as twin sons of the sky god who are to be the sun maiden's husband(s). McGrath examines some known sun maidens, and includes in her list Auszrine. She also describes the horse and the swans as being significant examples of sun goddess imagery.

The following section traces sun goddesses in Slavic mythology, looking at Solntse, who between Her and Her sun maiden daughter also fulfill a role in the cult of the dead. McGrath further describes Slavic goddesses of the solstices, a mysterious solar goddess frequently depicted on traditional wedding embroidery, and how even in the Catholic church, the Virgin Mary has come to have solar aspects in Russia.

Then McGrath moves to the Celts, pointing out Grian and Graínne, as well as goddesses of hot springs like Sul, and fire goddesses like Brigit. The Celts also worshiped a series of horse goddesses, and McGrath reiterates her position that equine goddesses usually have a solar aspect. These include Áine and Macha. 

She also covers Arinitti and Nikkal of the Hittites, Arevhat of the Armenians, and Mtsekale of the Georgians.

While McGrath does acknowledge that the Greeks do not generally support her proposal (and indeed, notes that part of the reason for the dominance of the moon goddess, sun god narrative is a fierce historical obsession with neo-classicism), she does point out that it's not all so cut-and-dried as Helios or Apollo as the sun god with Selene or Artemis as the lunar goddess. McGrath brings up references to a female Helia, as well as the the strong solar imagery associated with Pasïphae (who mated with the very lunar bull in the story of the labyrinth). Other Greek women associated with the sun include Circe, Medea, the Hesperides, Eos, and even Helen of Troy.

Then the text moves on to India, where the sun god, Surya, has an aspect, Savitar, which is sometimes addressed as female. There is also his horse goddess wife, and a daughter, Suryaa, a sun maiden who marries twins, as in other Indo-European mythologies. Then there is Tantra, a fire goddess, and Ushas, goddess of dawn.

The next few chapters restate much of what has been said already, but categorizes information differently so that if one were looking for a specific piece of information, it would be easier to locate. One chapter discusses the relationship between solar goddesses and mazes, while others discuss the moon, sky, and thunder gods.

The final sections of the book switch from scholarly research to application, a pleasant surprise for me, as I had not expected this book to contain any information on ritual. McGrath provides a very simple ritual structure, and then offers several guided meditations and rituals by which to honor various sun goddesses and moon gods. 

Whew. If that seemed like a long summary, it's because it was. This is not an especially thick book (177 pages, not counting appendices or the bibliography), but it is dense. There is a ton of information here to read through, all of it very completely researched. If I had one criticism of the book, it would be that the organization of chapters felt, at times, a little arbitrary, but that is a small, small complaint. The book is fully cited from other reputable researchers (including references to Eclipse of the Sun, which makes me chuckle), and I learned an incredible amount about goddesses I had never even heard of before. 

Not only that, but this issue of assigning gender to the sun and moon (which in and of itself I feel is a fairly unnecessary practice, but that's a topic for another time) is an important one, because when we as a community get into this practice of automatically pairing the moon with women and the sun with men, we start leaving the door open for stereotyping and misogyny. 

Why? Because it's never really just that we pair women and the moon, is it? We pair women with all of the other metaphysical associations we have with the moon, namely passivity and receptivity. Meanwhile, men get paired exclusively with the active, sending energy of the sun. This type of binary thinking isn't beneficial to anyone of any gender, because no person exhibits one sole type of behavior all the time, and to suggest otherwise is ultimately limiting. 

Therefore, for that and other reasons, I feel that books like this are really critical for breaking the paradigm in contemporary Paganism, and coming to realize that mythology is complex, and that no one single narrative will ever fit every culture, nor should it, and nor should we try to make up or twist facts to suit a limited world view. 

9.5/10, absolutely read through this if you have the chance.

January 26th, 2016

I've had an almost-unnerving amount of free time after my last few days of class in which to sit and read, so I've been working my way through my new books. The first one I picked up was Moon Magick, which I've seen recommended on a few different Pagan and/or witchcraft channels I watch on YouTube. I'll be honest right off the bat: I did not love this book. My review of it, therefore, may be a bit rant-y. You have been warned.

Title: Moon Magick: Myth & Magic, Crafts & Recipes, Rituals & Spells

Author: D. J. Conway

© 1995

I was first intrigued by this text because it sounded like it should be extremely comprehensive, and the formatting reinforced that impression. Also, the artwork throughout the book is quite beautiful. 

The first chapter examines accounts of the moon's effects on human behavior, while the second examines beliefs relating to the lunar year. From there, the book breaks down every lunar month into its own chapter, and lists a ton of information corresponding to each one.

These chapters begin with a quick breakdown of which lunar goddesses around the world have festivals in that particular month. It follows this with a bit more elaboration on the purposes of these festivals and the deities they are associated with. Each month also has a list of magickal correspondences, including stones, herbs, colors, animals, and etc. Conway provides surviving bits of folklore attributed to that moon, and then several simple recipes to try. Each chapter also has ideas for small crafts, incense or potpourri blends, and summaries of the myths of the relevant goddesses. She even provides sample rituals honoring those deities.

It may sound pretty decent, and I cannot deny that there are parts of this book which were quite good, and which I will use. However - I have a few pretty significant complaints to lodge against this text which prospective readers may want to be aware of. Possibly these are related to the age of the book (it turned 20 last year), but as modern Pagans continue to read books like this, the associated issues continue to persist in our community.

First: this text does a great job further solidifying the gender roles which are often assigned to women in ritual, specifically the idea that women can only relate to moon goddesses (one of the other books I'm reading at the moment is doing a marvelous job at arguing against this premise), that feminine always equates to passive, receptive, and/or negative energy, and that masculine and feminine energies are the only kind which exist. As a woman with several friends and acquaintances who do not subscribe to the gender binary, this strict adherence to the male/female division strikes me as cissexist, especially when one considers that there are many deities who are agender, genderfluid, or otherwise neither specifically male nor female. On a side note, some of her cologne or herb blends are specifically listed as being "for men", because apparently Conway's notion of gender is outdated enough that she thinks men cannot enjoy lighter scents, and that women won't like something spicier or more savory.

Another issue I take with this is that it is at times very Eurocentric. While I have no issue learning more about Artemis, Diana, and Selene, there are moon goddesses all over the world, and I would have liked to learn more about them, especially as this book is making the claim to be a global representation of moon worship. There was little information from Africa or Asia, and virtually none pertaining to North or South America. Not only that, but what information there was about non-European cultures was at times just plain incorrect. I cannot claim to be any kind of expert on mythology, but there were some instances where even as a layman, I could tell that Conway's information was wrong. In one instance, she has a "Japanese friendship branch" craft, which she claims is given for weddings, birthdays, and new homes. In six and a half years of studying Japanese language and culture, I have never heard of anything remotely like this, and google does not turn up any results which remotely resemble what Conway is talking about.

Additionally, I found several instances where the language pertaining to other countries and peoples is objectifying at best, possibly tending towards racist by today's understanding of language. For instance, it strikes me as being inappropriate to take a drink based on Indian recipes and refer to it as "exotic", and I also am not thrilled by her practice of adding cinnamon or sandalwood to an incense and thinking that somehow makes it suddenly "middle eastern". If there are actual historical precedents for any of her blends, she did not list them. She could easily have named them something else without any stereotypical overtones. 

Moreover, I object to Conway just taking traditional practices from existing cultures and re-writing them for Wiccan-flavored rituals. While I do think people should work with the deities that call to them, I think that that should in all cases be done respectfully. Appropriating bits of somebody else's culture and pantomiming their religious practice does not in any way strike me as respectful. 

Of less importance, but still irritating to me, Conway cites herself a couple of times, which from a scholarly perspective is a problem, especially as I don't think any of her other books can be considered especially authoritative in their fields. Not only that, but she also interrupts herself a few times to recommend other Llewellyn products. I can't decide if that was her choice, or something Llewellyn advised her to include, but in either case, I don't need to be marketed to while I'm trying to read.

TL;DR: If you're looking for very general, beginner information about lunar deities, it might be worth skimming through Moon Magick and seeing what appeals to you. However, I would take what Conway says with a grain of salt, as her historical information in this text strikes me as very suspect at times, and her treatment of South and East Asian deities in particular is often exotifying. It's definitely the sort of thing I'd borrow or buy used, rather than paying full price.

January 20th, 2016

This was meant to be posted yesterday, but funnily enough, I was reading and forgot. Over the holidays, I received gift cards for Barnes and Noble, and I was able to use them to acquire some books I've been wanting to read for a while now. Three of these are applicable to the contents of this blog, and they all just arrived, so I thought I would share, that you too may experience the joy of new books vicariously through me.

Now, I say "new", but I actually bought all of these used. You can get a lot more bang for your buck that way. I started off with D. J. Conway's Moon Magick, which I've seen several very complimentary reviews of on YouTube. I also picked up a second Conway book, Dancing With Dragons, which has been on my "to read" list for years. I saw it ages ago in a bookstore, thought it looked interesting, and have never been able to get a hold of a copy. 

The last book I picked up was The Sun Goddess, by Sheena McGrath. I had seen a review for a solar goddess book which sounded really informative, but when I went back to look it up, I couldn't find the review anywhere, so I'm not positive this is the same text. Still, it sounded like it had a lot of really interesting content.

I will be reading these as I have time over the semester, and will certainly review them when I've finished!

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.

September 12th, 2015

I went on a field trip today! It was for my Architecture History class, and we went to check out a gorgeous Romanesque and Byzantine cathedral, and then we went to a cemetery.

I know it's not quite Samhain yet, but it certainly felt like October today, and it seemed appropriate to wander the grounds a bit. My professor described the architectural precedents for a lot of the mausoleums, and I tried just to honor the local spirits with a small offering when we got off the bus.

The newer area was designed according to Feng Shui principles. For instance, this fountain has a line running through it to mark the Northern direction. Theoretically, it would also align with local dragon energies. However, my professor explained that this area was actually built over an old garbage dump, and therefore has too much bad Chi to really fix with Feng Shui.

Here's a family grave marked with a Celtic cross, and which also has a statue of Grief personified.

This cemetery had a lot of obelisks, and apparently those are usually used for burying Free Masons.

We saw tons of really neat things today, but this mausoleum was possibly the most interesting to me personally. It's designed in an Egyptian style, and there's actually sphinxes on either side of the doors. The symbol in the center, with the sun disk, wings, and serpents, is actually the emblem of the goddess Isis, and is used on Her temples in Egypt. 

I was originally supposed to go on a camping trip this weekend with a local Pagan group, but it ended up being cancelled for a variety of reasons. Because of work and my field trip, I wouldn't have been able to go, anyway. However, we're supposed to be having a Mabon ritual next weekend, so I'm looking forward to that!

August 28th, 2015

I think I'm going to like my Architecture History class. Parts of it are definitely going to be a challenge, but my professor is very knowledgeable, and he keeps throwing out pieces of mythological information. Take this picture, for instance:

Many of you have probably seen this design before in sculpture or molding. What you may not know (I certainly did not) is that this pattern can be called "egg and dart"; the egg component symbolizes life, and the dagger symbolizes death. The pattern hails from ancient Greece, and specifically belongs to the fertility goddess Artemis of Ephesus. This is not the goddess as the Huntress, but rather as a deity of abundance. Her temple at Ephesus is one of the seven wonders of the world.

To the right is an image of Artemis. My professor actually pulled a reproduction of this statue out of his pocket while he was lecturing. The bulbs on her chest have been interpreted as breasts, eggs, ox testicles, and probably more. The scholarly analysis is that they are gourds, which are a particular symbol of this aspect of Artemis. 

That's what I've got. I just thought you all might appreciate this little tidbit. I also did another video today, if anyone's interested in checking it out.

August 24th, 2015

I had my first round of classes today, and on the whole, they went pretty well. I did spend a couple of hours doing homework this afternoon, but it luckily wasn't anything too stressful. I was able yesterday to read my new book from the thrift store, but by the time I finished it, I didn't get the chance to do a review. Hopefully I can bang one out in short order here.

Once again, the title of this was We'Moon '07: Gaia Rhythms for Womyn. The 2007 theme was "On Purpose".

This was a datebook and sort of almanac for the year 2007, but it also contained a lot of general astrological information, poetry, short stories, information on the sabbats, and lots of gorgeous illustrations. Interestingly, the calendar component also followed the lunar calendar, so there was that element of femininity to it.

Parts of this book were really great, and parts I was less interested in. The spelling of "women" as "womyn" threw me off a bit. I do have grapheme > color synesthesia, and any time the spelling of something is altered, it also changes the color of the word, so that was weird. They did it, they explained, to create a word etymologically separate from the word "men"; "women", "female", and etcetera are all obviously derived from words referring to the male gender, which the authors apparently found too patriarchal. I sympathize with the sentiment, but found their solution to read as rather contrived.

Besides that small linguistic criticism, I found it to be very readable, and actually more inclusive than I had been afraid it would be. Obviously the calendar was eight years out of date, but if this sounds like the sort of thing you'd want to look into, they are offering a 2016 datebook on their website here.

The message of this book, On Purpose, was really about intention, and using one's energies to focus on the future. A lot of the works asked, what can I, as a person, do to make the world a better place for future generations, and I think that's a message which still bears relevance eight years later. Much of the discussion was about the environment and climate change, but social justice was also a prevalent theme.

There was a poem about being gender-nonconforming, some art and a story by disabled women, works which crossed racial lines... In general, it struck me as being one of the more intersectional books I've come across.

I'd originally bought the book thinking maybe I'd cut out the artwork and do a collage or something, but now that I've read it... Yeah, I think that's just going to stay intact on my bookshelf.

A few other things from today...

That's my "back to school" picture outside the design building.

And then, I was able to pick some sage today!

I only got a couple of leaves, but remember that spiral garden I helped build last spring? Sage and kale were about the only things that grew, and there's a lot of them! I'll probably harvest more gradually, but I need to clean out another jar first.

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 21st, 2015

I'm not moved in yet, but I am down near my school now. My mom and I are staying the night at a hotel, and then I'll be getting settled in tomorrow morning. On the drive down, we stopped at a little rest area, and they had this advertisement in one of the displays:

The ad is for some winery (I apologize for all the glare - the poster was behind glass), but I did a double take when I walked in, because the drawing of the woman looks just like a Neoclassical goddess. I then did a second double take, because the heading across the top reads, "From the earth to the vine, from the grape to the wine; to you..." which in my mind sounded bizarrely like a commonly-used line in the Cakes and Ale ceremony. Possibly this is a coincidence, but I'm taking it as a good omen nevertheless. 

August 16th, 2015

While looking for some other things upstairs, I stumbled across a little BOS my Aunt C gave me when I was six. It's a black volume which she personalized with inserts on the inside cover. When she gave it to me, I only vaguely understood the intended use, so mostly I scribbled all over it. The scribbles, however, were done in pencil, so I was able to erase them and now I can actually use it, after like 13 years. Perhaps there's some significance in that, now that I think about it.

This evening, I decorated the title page. I think I'll use it as more of a spell and prayer book, as opposed to a formal BOS with ritual instruction and the like. Maybe one day I'll even show it to my Aunt.

On the left page, two triquetras frame a pentacle. Below, an insert reads:

Presented to:

{Name}

From:

Aunt C

Yule of 2002

Across the bottom is a triple goddess symbol made of Celtic knotwork, with a Tree of Life in the center.

On the right page, the alchemical symbols for air, water, fire, and earth go across the top. In the middle, another inset reads:

Book of Shadows

What Witches Need 

In Order To Be Witches

{star}

On the bottom is a Green Man face. 

I chose to use the fuchsia as it matches the color of the names which I mostly erased from the photo above. 

Now I'm working on the next two pages, which will hold a sort of book blessing. I am interested in trying to make a sort of scrapbooked BOS (a Scrapbook of Shadows?) - I've seen some beautiful examples, but never really got around to doing anything to that effect.

Blue Moon 2015

What a weekend it has been! A blue moon, Lughnasadh, and Fairy Fest, all overlapping one another!

Destiny came over on Friday and we got all our costume things sorted for Fest. We also did an Esbat ritual to celebrate the blue moon, which was her first time doing an Esbat as well. I won't get into all the details, but we got dressed up in some robes of mine and some pieces of magickal jewelry - a pentacle and Tangerine Quartz necklace for me, and a silver wolf necklace for her.

My phone doesn't have a front-facing camera, so my selfies always turn out a little blurry-looking. I thought this was a cute pre-ritual picture, though.

We enjoyed a nice ceremony where we did some spellwork to further our long-term goals, and then afterwards we took leftover cookies and juice outside for offerings, standing under the moon for a while. It had what looked to us like a blue halo around it, and was very bright over the neighboring houses.

As always, my camera-phone utterly failed to do the phenomenon justice, but the pure Goddess energy was really spectacular.

The next morning, we had to be up quite early for Fairy Fest. Lughnasadh dawned bright and clear this year, and for once we had an actual harvest to honor - our tomato crop has delivered in droves now that my dad and brother built them a planter box. 

As you can see, the tomato on the left was bigger than my hand. We've also had bowls full of cherry tomatoes, and as of yesterday several more large heirlooms have come into ripeness.

I took this photo of a (very short) sunflower soaking up the morning rays after I paused a moment outside to set down a bit of toast in offering. Destiny and I enjoyed the light for a bit, and then it was off to Fairy Fest! 

O hí Lughnasadh

I haven't done an actual Lughnasadh ritual in at least four years because I'm always spending the weekend at Fairy Fest. This year, however, with Destiny coming over, we're planning to do something in the evening. As such, I figured I ought to get my altar set up ahead of time.

I rather like this design. I might edit it a little still before next week, but I think I've got a nice, solid foundation.

On the left, I have my chalice, gourds, (plastic) grapes, a cup and saucer for water, salt, and a pair of dried corn cobs.  I also have a "corn dolly" goddess figure (actually made out of taffeta) which I put together several years ago. 

In the center, I've my elemental candles all sitting around the direction plate I got at the auction last month. In the center is the tea light from Rebekka, as well as a tiny incense holder and my new Selenite wands. 

Over on the right side of the altar, there's a god figure to match the goddess one, as well as my wand, athame, and a feather. There are more gourds and grapes, and I filled my cauldron with some festive potpourri I found. A seasonal fairy hangs in the back, and up front sit pieces of Orange Calcite, Citrine, and a crystal which I've finally identified as Aragonite. 

All of this is sitting on an orange tablecloth with a smaller green swatch in the center. The orange is one which I've generally reserved for Samhain in the past, but I decided that I might as well use it since I likely won't even be here for Samhain, and I wanted some more color. The green is actually a piece I got in Japan during a high school calligraphy class. Hidden under my elemental items is the Japanese kanji for "festival"; it's really just as well that it's hidden, because I didn't do the neatest job of writing it. C'est la vie.

Still not entirely sure what our ritual is going to consist of - I'll continue researching that this evening - but I'm excited!

June 16th, 2015

And we're off! My family and I are on our way to the Boundary Waters, where we will be camping for a week. We've only been on the road for three hours, and have many more before we arrive, so I have plenty of time to get some reading done. I've started off the day by finishing my book of Celtic mythology.

Title: The Mammoth Book of Celtic Myths and Legends
Author: Peter Berresford Ellis
©1999

I've spent around the last week reading this anthology, and have really enjoyed it. Ellis has a personal connection to the stories he relates, and he succeeds in capturing the original Pagan spirit of these tales better than in many interpretations.

The myths come from throughout the British Isles, with legends from:

• Ireland
• Isle of Man
• Scotland
• Wales
• Cornwall
• Brittany

The stories cover The Shining Ones, the gods of the Celts, and tells how they were eventually usurped and relegated to the role of the sidhe (shee), the fairy folk. They tell likewise of many heroes and quests, of ghosts and enchantments, of mermaids and sea-maids, and of castles and ancient forests.

I had never had the opportunity to read any of these stories previously. Some of them I had seen summarized, or heard referenced in songs, but it was great to finally be able to see the originals. I feel like it fleshed out a big gap in my understanding of western mythology, and would definitely recommend it.  

I'm going to try to not use up more of our data plan, so I will leave it at that, but have a great week everyone, and I'll see you on the other side.

June 5th, 2015

So I finally finished reading my fairy encyclopedia! I don't know why it took me so long to get through, but regardless, here are my thoughts on it.

Title: The Element Encyclopedia of Fairies 
Author: Lucy Cooper
©2014

Calling itself the "ultimate A-Z of fairies, pixies, and other fantastical creatures", I wasn't sure how I would feel about this particular encyclopedia of folklore when I picked it up at Barnes & Noble a couple of months ago; I'd read part of another mythology text in the Element Encyclopedia series and had not been impressed. However - this very quickly won me over.

It is clear from the get-go that the author has done her research. Cooper's writing is authoritative and in-depth. While this is not a how-to for someone interested in actively working with fairies, it also is not condescending in any way towards those who believe in them, either. When one considers writing style, the book is made both engaging and accessible while being very informative. The cross-referencing of different names for the same fairy(ies) is not perfect, but is very good on the whole, and her crediting of and reference to other compilers of folklore is one of the better ones I've run across outside of academic texts.

All that being said, it's really the information that the reader cares about, and this text has a lot of it. There are multiple inserts throughout the book (about one every 150 or 200 pages) which discuss topics not specific to one type of fairy. These include:

• What are fairies?
• Where is Fairyland?
• Connecting with fairies
• Elementals and flower fairies
• Fairies in literature and legend

Then, of course, there is the actual A-Z itself, which talks about fairies and similar spirits from around the world. All of this info is drawn from documented myths, and Cooper even goes on to tell the reader which books they can look to so as to read the original legends. In many cases, she provides abridged versions of the stories, which are interesting reads in and of themselves.

She also includes important people, particularly writers, relevant to the world of fairy tales in the encyclopedia. I found this useful because though I might read classics like Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book and etcetera, I do not always know much about the authors, where they are coming from and what their biases are, or where they were getting the folktales that they then published in their collections. I appreciated Cooper providing that cursory bit of perspective.

The Cottingley fairies, which Cooper discusses at length

And yes, I did say "spirits from around the world". The book is probably Eurocentric, it's true. Many of the stories come from Ireland and the UK. This is not inherently a bad thing, of course. I myself have always loved English flower fairies, and the Celtic Tuatha de Danann. But, other cultures have fairies and fairy-like spirits as well, and they often get ignored in texts like this. Cooper's book, however, actually gave more information than in many of her peers' works.

Although there is very little coverage of South or Central American lore, she talks about spirits from many different North American native tribes (Navajo, Ojibwe, Algonquin, Sioux, Inuit, etc.), Aboriginal Australians, African peoples (primarily focusing on Nigerian Yoruba lore), and the Maori people. There is also discussion of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Siberian fairies.

Additionally, I feel I should point out that Cooper does not take deities and call them "fairies" for the sake of bulking up her content. Of the few that are in the book - Brighid comes to mind - she explains the reason for their inclusion; in Brighid's case, it is because she was a Tuatha de Danann before she was worshipped as a goddess.

Finally, Cooper makes note of where some of these spirits have appeared in pop culture, which I always find to be fun and interesting trivia. For instance, Harry Potter fans might like to know that Dobbys, Cornish pixies, and Padfoots all appeared in local English legends well before JK Rowling wrote them into her delightful series.

Tl;dr: If you are looking for a guide to working with fairies, skip this one. If you want to read about the stories and histories of fairies, this is a great place to start.

~Fairy folk are in old oaks~

May 4th, 2015

I ended up not doing much on Beltane for Beltane, but I was very busy this weekend with other creative and manifestive pursuits, so I still got to tap into some of that energy regardless. On Saturday, I helped one of my friends paint the nursery in her new house, and on Sunday, I worked some more on an accessible dog park with my architecture group. (Friday night I spent seeing a production of Godspell instead of actually doing a ritual. Oops.)

Tonight, though, was amazing! I just learned that there's a Pagan alliance in my region, and they do open rituals every so often. They did an Esbat tonight, over in the labyrinth circle behind the Gaia House, and I was able to make it. I don't have any pictures at the moment, although one of the guys there did take a bunch, so I'll keep you all updated.

We started off by going around the circle, smudging each other with sage smoke. Then we drew down lunar energy and used it to charge a bowl of moonflower seeds. We all got to take little peat pots, fill them with dirt, and then plant several seeds to take home! I've always wanted moonflowers, so I was very excited. Everyone was really friendly, and it was absolutely gorgeous weather. Plus we had a few little bats dart around overhead.

I'll be going back home for the summer, but in the fall I'd really love to check out their Mabon ritual or something! Great group, for sure, and I'm excited to go back.

March 16th, 2015

I realized that I have never posted pictures of all of my dreamcatchers, so I thought I might do that today, and also explain some of their history. In order, from newest to oldest, these are mine:

Made by my friend Destiny, she gave me this as an early birthday gift just last Friday.

A gift from my grandma, I received this one perhaps a year or two ago. She wasn't sure I would want it, so take from that what you will about her understanding of my interests.

If you dig way back through my posts on this blog, you will see that I went to Niagara Falls a few years ago. There was a Native American woman there selling traditional, handmade dreamcatchers, and I was more than happy to purchase one.

A Yule gift from my Aunt C, I've had this one for probably four or five years now.

My oldest dreamcatcher, I purchased this one while on a sixth grade field trip to Springfield. As I recall, I got it in a gift shop located in a reproduction of Abraham Lincoln's home town.

~~~~~

Dreamcatchers were originally created by the Ojibwe-speaking people of the North American Great Lakes region, primarily in Canada, but extending south into the American states of Michigan, Wisconsin, and etcetera. The Ojibwe words for dreamcatcher include asabikeshiinh, the inanimate form of the word "spider", and bawaajige nagwaagan, meaning "dream snare".

In the 1960s and 1970s, during the beginning of the Pan-Indian (later the Pan-Aboriginal) Movement, Native Americans sought to unite their efforts for the protection of the rights of native peoples in the United States, and the dreamcatcher became a symbol of the First Nations. Some Native Americans, however, do see dreamcatcher as being over-commercialized, or even culturally appropriative, and it is important to bear that in mind.

According to Ojibwe legend, Asibikaashi, or Spider Woman, cared for the children of the native people. As the Ojibwe people spread across North America, it became harder for Asibikaashi to look after all of the children, so the mothers and grandmothers made magical webs for the children by tying sinew cord around willow hoops. The dreamcatchers filtered out bad thoughts, only letting good ones enter the mind during sleep.

The willow frames were traditionally either round or teardrop shaped, and the string tied in a fashion similar to snowshoe webbing. They could then be decorated with feathers and beads.

~~~~~

I am not Native American, and the brief history presented above was researched entirely on the web. It is not my place to comment on the trend of non-Natives using dreamcatchers, but I think it is important to remember that they are special objects and deserve to be treated as such. If you want to buy one, support actual Native Americans and purchase from them rather than getting cheap knock-offs, if at all possible.

March 5th, 2015

Okay, so, it took me a couple of days, but I did finally finish my bigger painting to put on my altar. It's about 12"x12", I think.

The symbolism probably speaks for itself, but in general I was going for elemental colors surrounding the God and Goddess.