November 1st, 2015

And as of today, the Samhain season is over, and we move on towards the rebirth of Yule. I was thinking a lot the past few days about why we consider Samhain to be the "Pagan New Year", and the conclusion that I've come to is that the sabbat is really the final celebration of death on the Wheel; from Lughnasadh to Mabon to Samhain, we're considering the harvest and the autumn and the gradual shutdown of nature. 

Now, in the month and a half before Yule, is a fallow period of quiet contemplation. We can determine our goals for the next year, get our things in order, and be ready to begin again like the sun on the winter solstice. If we imagine the Wheel of the Year as a tree, then this period is the acorn, lying dormant under the soil. Above the surface, nothing appears to be happening, but beneath the earth, there is so much potential ready to sprout. 

I did a bunch of cleaning today, as well as redecorating. I had a lot of Samhain decorations to take down, and a few little Thanksgiving items to replace them with. It feels far too early still to decorate for Yule, and besides, those things are all at home; I'll have to be sure to pick them up over Thanksgiving break. 

I wanted to redecorate my altar, and so I shifted everything around a bunch. I've decided to try keeping an ancestor altar up year-round, and my crystals also wanted to be switched out. Then I had some sugar maple leaves I'd pressed, so I set those around as well. 

It feels a lot calmer in here after the fact, and I opened my essential oil bottle for a bit this morning, so the whole room smells like frankincense.

This is the Quartz point I received at yesterday's ritual. Since it has such a strong tie to banishing magick, I decided to set it on my altar facing one direction, with my other, invoking Quartz point facing the opposite direction. It struck me as a good way to balance out the energies.

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! 

Lammas Bread and Protection Spell

Lammas is celebratory of the first harvest of the year, which more often than not largely involves gathering up the grain: maize, wheat, barley, etc. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that baking bread with this freshly-harvested grain is a typical activity of the Lammas season. Hundreds of years ago, the first loaf to be baked was broken into pieces and crumbled into the corners of the granary, or other grain-storage facility. This was intended to protect the grain against pests, spoilage, and other forms of damage. An adapted version of this Anglo-Saxon charm is a great way to involve the whole family in the Lammas ritual - even young children can help measure the ingredients for the bread (not to mention all the help with crumbling the bread later!).

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Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 cups bread flour (have some extra on hand)
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds (toasted)
• 2 tbsp active dry yeast
• 2 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups "scalded" milk (heated to almost boiling)
• 3 tbsp smooth peanut butter
• 3 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

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Directions:

In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients. Add the peanut butter and honey to the hot milk and stir until combined. Allow liquid to cool to 115 °F, then stir into flour mixture. Knead gently for 15 minutes, adding some of that extra bread flour until a smooth, elastic dough is achieved. Lightly wipe with vegetable oil, cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap, and allow to rise in a warm spot until dough size has doubled. This step may take several hours, so be patient. Then, punch down the dough (gently, again - food doesn't respond well to violence). Shape into two loaves, and let rise again until doubled. Bake at 375 °F until golden brown and delicious.

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Protection Spell:

Once cooled, take one of the loaves and break into quarters. Step outside the home, and, beginning at the North or Northeastern corner of the building, set down one of the bread pieces. Recite a blessing of protection. A simple version is:
I call on the spirits
Of north, and south, east and west
Protect this place
Use your creativity. Leave the bread for the local wildlife, and continue around the house, repeating the procedure at the four corners of the property. Then enjoy the other loaf!

Extras:

While I am certainly no expert on the subject, bread can be baked in a vast variety of designs and shapes. If one appeals to you in particular, and especially if it reflects a theme of Lammas, go for it! The bread can also be baked in a wreath shape. Holes are cut in the bread, and candles can be inserted. Consider using 12 candles, for the wheel of the year. They don't have to be large; even tea lights in a sturdy glass container will do nicely. Or, just leave the bread in traditional loaves. It's your call.

Recipe/spell from here.

November 6th, 2011

While my mom and dad don't really mind my religious choice, they still expect me to go with them to church and to participate and whatnot. As such, I have been helping with the preschoolers' Sunday School. Today, the craft we did was so Pagan I couldn't help but smile to myself. The kids made shakers out of two paper bowls filled with grains (corn, rice, and barley) and then decorated the outside with a printed-and-cut-out picture of a woman holding grains. She was supposed to be Ruth or something from the Bible, but all I could think was the Goddess at Lammas. Obviously, it's a little late in the season for harvest activities, but come next Mabon or Lammas, this could be a really cute craft for Pagan kids. They sound a lot like rainsticks when shaken, so one could even devise a small, kid-friendly ritual where you make these shakers and shake them to "rain" abundance (symbolized by the grain) on the household. It also gives the little ones fun instruments to use in ritual that won't break the bank to replace if something were to happen to them.

In other news, I want to decorate my altar for Yule today, after I finish this post and get off the computer. Pictures, anyone?