From Skippy, on reaching Scarlet who isn’t near a phone or computer:
“IM her through the group mind.”
Well, if you’ve done any group mind work, you’ll find it funny, anyway…
ETA: And the thing is, she got the message.
Category Archives: Spirituality
Catechism For A Witch’s Child
When they ask to see your gods
your book of prayers
show them lines
drawn delicately with veins
on the underside of a bird’s wing
tell them you believe
in giant sycamores mottled
and stark against a winter sky
and in nights so frozen
stars crack open spilling streams
of molten ice to earth
and tell them how you drank
the holy wine of honeysuckle
on a warm spring day
and of the softness
of your mother
who never taught you
death was life’s reward
but who believed in the earth
and the sun
and a million, million light years
of being.
– J.L. Stanley
(found via Margie’s Brigid’s Hearth: Pagan Parenting page)
– Read more of J.L. Stanley’s Labyrinth Poems
OOAK Work of Art no. 1
Since people seem to think my odd hobby has some coolness to it, I’m about to throw caution and my shyness to the wind and share my first project. Here’s a couple of pics of the Yule gift I gave to our local cougar:
The OOAK Morrighan Barbie wears a hand-made black linen skirt with two full-length slits in the front, laced shut at the front of the hips with copper floss. Her hand-dyed black halter top with mesh sleeves ties at the back. Woven into her left front braid is a pewter feather; another pewter feather is laced with copper floss to her hand-painted spear, along with a black crow feather. On her right hand lands a hand-made raven, wings held wide. Around her waist is tied a hand-tinted miniature of the recipient’s Craft tradition third-degree cords.
And a decent look at the feather cloak which rests on the Morrighan’s shoulders, designed to look like two folded raven wings:
I was really pleased with how the whole doll presents an air of alert motion and activity. For any OOAK fans who stumble across this post as a result of a search engine and who need to know, the Morrighan was created from a Kayla Secret Spells doll, and her face was not repainted: I managed to find one off the shelf who had a perfect disdainful yet amused I-can-see-into-your-soul look on her face that I wanted, without any touch-ups required.
The next doll I’m customising is very different from the active and alert Morrighan, however; I’m trying for a softer, dreamier look. And then there are the three dolls I have sitting to the left of my desk, who are destined to become a shadowbox scene of the three aspects of the goddess Brid: muse, smith, and healer. None of them require repainting, thank goodness, only creating original costumes from the sketches and colour notes I have in my notebook. (Yes, yes, fine: the dolls are Batik Princess, TRU Charity Ball 1997, and Grand Entrance 2 respectively. Happy, fellow OOAKers?)
There. More than I ever thought I’d let anyone know about this hobby. Hey, it’s costuming in miniature: saves money, saves time, and the result isn’t just worn once then hung in a closet.
Bits and Pieces
I’m better today, thanks to my selfless husband leaving during Smallville last night to pick up DayQuil/NyQuil for me.
Since I didn’t get out yesterday, I made sure I went out this morning. It felt so good to be outside in warm weather instead of grey overcast damp world in which I usually end up travelling. I went downtown to deposit a cheque and pay the next three months on the post box I rent with a friend. At the bank I discovered that my money has apparently thawed, since I was able to transfer a chunk to my other account and then access it via debit. Huzzah! Bills to pay! Costume elements to pick up! Groceries to buy!
Tonight Skippy‘s coming over to do the final modem switch between my current computer and my brand-new-used-to-be-Scott‘s computer. So if all goes well, tomorrow I’ll be using a new system. (It’s never that easy; I know this well. Let me be optimistic, okay?)
During today’s writing jam, t! and I listened to various 80s rock and 70s punk albums. No one will ever believe that the first half of Chapter 7 was written to “Holiday in Cambodia” — either of the versions we heard. (1.5K today. Not great, but not bad.)
I mentioned to t! today that I feel like a traitor spelling words like “color” and “emphasize” a la American in this text, as opposed to good solid UK/Canadian spelling. He assured me that I was traitorous. Such love and support.
And I’ve somehow missed this Memphis Slim song up till now, but thanks to the new Susie Ariloli album it’s firmly entrenched in my brain:
MOTHER EARTH
(words and music by Memphis Slim)
You may play the race horses
You may own the whole race track
You may have all the money to buy anything you lack
I don’t care how big you are
I don’t care what you think you’re worth
When it all comes down we got to go back to mother earth
You may own half the city wear diamonds and pearls
You may have a jet plane and fly it all around the world
I don’t care how big you are
I don’t care what you think you’re worth
When it all comes down we got to go back to mother earth
You may have a great army at your command
You may have some politician eating out of your hand
You may have some servant who’ll do anything you say
But mother earth is waiting, it’s a debt you gotta pay
I don’t care how big you are
I don’t care what you think you’re worth
When it all comes down we got to go back to mother earth
Witches Weekly: The Moon
Another dark, overcast day. I feel like I’m working in perpetual twilight. The prevailing gloom of the past couple of weeks is really getting to me.
Witches’ Weekly has a new set of questions up:
Do you celebrate and/or perform moon magic on the Esbats? If so, why?
Depends. I view moons (full, dark, whatever) as an opportunity to commune more than anything else. I do use lunar energy to fuel spells when necessary (not that I do a lot of them), but magic is never the sole purpose of an esbat for me.
Do you feel that the phases of the moon affect the energies of the waves and people?
Yes. Duh. I’m female, and a Cancer Sun, Pisces Moon. I’m quite aware of how the moon affects people.
What type of magic do you best associate with the moon?
Depends on what phase the moon is in. I go on the fritz when there’s a dark moon: I sleep badly, communicate badly, and don’t remember what I’ve read or studied. If I do ritual around a dark moon, I tend to be quite emotional, and as I know emotion fuels magic I have to be very, very careful. I find that I use waxing energy more than any other energy; I just tend to do random workings during that phase more than any other phase. As a rule, I use lunar energy for gentle enhancement of whatever work I’m doing.
Maybe it’s the greyness of the day, but I’m craving chocolate. And I’m so sick of tea.
Drat
We had a wonderful birthday party for my goddaughter. She played with everyone, appreciated her presents (“Look! Look!”), handed round cake with style (“Happy Birthday cake!”), and we all got to spend time with people we don’t see as often as we should. By the end of it, we all were ready for a nap; it seems that no one slept well on Friday night. HRH and I arrived home mid-afternoon, and next on my agenda was to pop by the MPRC Beltaine Fair downtown. I was so sleepy that I lay down and closed my eyes, figuring I’d have a quick catnap to get out of my zombie-like state, then bus into town… and when I woke up, it was six in the evening, and the phone was ringing.
Evidently my body decided to get back at least some of the hours of sleep it missed out on the previous night. Fine, except couldn’t it have taken just one hour, then saved the rest for later? I would have gone to bed early. I really, really wanted to see what was on sale at the fair, and see how the workshops went.
Drat. And of course, because my body had stolen sleep during the day, I wasn’t tired enough to sleep again until midnight. Grr.
On the good side, HRH and I sat down last night for an in-depth joint Tarot reading looking at the next twelve months, posing questions and reading for different time-frames (electional Tarot! – well, if you’re an astrologer you’ll get the joke), and our projected plans seem to have quite favorable outcomes. It did a lot to settle doubts and nerves.
Witches Weekly: Spring
Last night’s barbecue reminded me that Witches Weekly asked spring-related questions which I haven’t yet answered.
What do you take as the first sign of spring’s arrival?
The first warm breeze; the change in the light quality; the appearance of potted hyacinths in the supermarkets, and their subsequent appearance on my mantelpiece at home. Mmm… love the smell of hyacinths.
The confirmation of spring is the first barbecue!
Do you plan to take on any new personal activities/duties this spring? If so, what?
Usually in spring I choose to drop an activity. It’s part of my unofficial spring cleaning process: I clear out the stuff that doesn’t benefit me any more, things I’m clinging to just because.
What’s the first word that comes to mind when you hear “Spring?”
Depends on what time of year I hear it. If it’s any time in winter, it’s “Please.” If it’s mid-to late-March, it’s a phrase: “Thank God.” I live in Montreal, the Land of Extreme Temperatures, sub-arctic to sub-tropical. By the time spring rolls around, we’re all heartily sick of winter. (And yes, the opposite is true by the end of summer.)