Monthly Archives: May 2004

Witches Weekly Questions

Witches Weekly
May 27, 2004: Altar/Shrines

1. Do you have an altar/shrine?

Short answer: yes. Long answer: several. One main altar, which is surrounded by four small wall shelf shrines (two for me, two for HRH). We have a shelf shrine over the mantel with our main deity statues. I have a mirror/flame shrine which I use for writing. I created a small St Brigid shrine which hangs on a wall which is devoted to writing and spirituality.

2. If you do, what objects do you have placed on it and are any of them homemade or natural objects (ex: feathers, rocks, crystals)?

The main altar has a variety of stones for various purposes (i.e., the altar stone which is the heart of our altar, various river stones for healing work), plus hand-made candles, boxes, pouches, and so forth, including a lovely handmade statue of Hecate in her maiden form of the torch-bearer created for me by a student; the wall altars have piles of stones, feathers, acorns, etc, as well as statues; the divinity statues have stones in the offering hollows as well as being surrounded by hand-made Brid’s Crosses and a pile of wheat stalks. My St Brigid shrine has small stones piled in the cup designed for holy water.

3. If you don’t, (you can answer this if you do have one as well) do you have an area where you focus on your spirituality?

Anywhere I go, there I am… It’s good to carry sacred space within you. Being limited to a physical place is dangerous, in my opinion. All the same, it’s nice to have a material focal point, too. If I’m travelling, I use any kind of candle; I consider consecrated flame to be a physical manifestation of my internal sacred space.

4. How do you feel when you are settled at your altar/shrine (or area)?

Depends how I come to it, and the answer I require. Sometimes I’m angry, sometimes, I’m frustrated, sometimes I’m serene. What I get out of it is what I need to get out of it: either relaxed, energised, or even more angry (this last usually depends on how much I need to get accomplished in a given period of time).

More Odd Ideas

What do you get when you combine the classic, almost 2,000-year-old Indian treatise on the art of love with the most up-to-date paper-engineering techniques? The Pop-Up Kama Sutra!

This lively distillation of the world’s most famous sex guide features choice excerpts from the original text, translated in 1883 by the renowned explorer Sir Richard Burton, and is illustrated with vintage color plates from India. Best of all, six incredible pop-ups present the Kama Sutra’s most interesting, instructive, and wildly acrobatic positions in three dimensions.

Believe it or not, I tripped across this while researching editions of Pliny’s Natural History. I have no idea what they have in common, or why Amazon told me that if I was interested in Pliny, I’d also be interested in this.

The reviews pan it, by the way.

This is the Selling Point?

‘I Giorni’ is the 2001 release from the world renowned symphonic composer Ludovico Einaudi. The inspiration for Einaudi’s ‘I Giorni’ was a 12th-century folk song from Mali about a hippopotamus who was cherished by the residents of a nearby village but killed by a hunter. ‘The song,’ writes Einaudi in his succinct liner note, ‘is sung as a lament for the death of a king or a great person or for the loss of a loved one.’ The result is a tender & introspective set of 14 piano pieces.

Er, okay. Whatever…

The Daily Book Update

Today’s word count: 2,456
Total word count: 30,382

After a rocky and unproductive early afternoon, I made scones, did some yoga, and proceeded to whack out words. Yeah, baby. Thank goodness Ceri was here, otherwise I’d’ve given up somewhere around two and probably gone back to bed.

Nooooooo!

AAAAUUUUGH!

I just had to turn down advance premiere tickets for Harry Potter! I already have tickets for opening night on June 4th with good friends, and that was my first obstacle; then it was suggested to me that another double pass could be obtained so that all four of us could go to the 10.30 AM advance screening. I was on the verge of saying yes when I remembered that HRH IS WORKING ON SATURDAY.

Argh!

Damn planting season! Damn this lousy weather! Damn, damn, damn!

Speaking of Prisoner of Azkaban, I picked up the soundtrack yesterday (because The Den of Evil didn’t have the Hellboy soundtrack) and when t! paid a surprise visit last night we opened it and listened to it. It�s the best soundtrack of all three films. Lots of nice medieval consort settings of the themes, some nice manipulation and key changes of themes we already know, and a surprise appearance by the Cantina Band from Star Wars. Definitely top-notch John Williams work.

Feel The Love

I love my husband — I truly do. He’s a cornerstone in my life. I can snarl at him when I’m grumpy and trying to concentrate on writing, and he takes it. I make him tea with lemon and honey when he’s sick and sorry for himself, and he drinks it.

This morning, however, I woke up with his cold. The same cold we’ve been passing back and forth for almost two months now.

A tip for cold-sufferers: a tea made of eucalyptus and thyme is refreshing, and quite pleasant. It has a faintly clove-like taste, slightly menthol. I’m taking a cup every few hours. Let’s see if it works.

Now I’m off to buy him ROTK on DVD, because I still love him, even though he gave me the cold again. He deserves it; he’s been miserable for a week now. Besides, I need more vitamin C tablets.

Farewell, Angel…

Yesterday was the Angel Victoria Day Viewers’ Choice Marathon on the Space channel: twelve solid hours of the best Angel episodes ever.

(Marathon #, Ep. #, Episode Name)

Intro to marathon: 1-01, City Of…
#10, 4-06, Spin the Bottle
#09, 1-18, Five by Five
#08, 3-13, Waiting in the Wings
#07, 5-15, A Hole in the World
0#6, 4-15, Orpheus
#05, 5-11, Damage
#04, 1-09, Hero
#03, 5-12, You’re Welcome (100th Episode)
#02, 1-08, I Will Remember You
#01, 5-14, Smile Time
Series Finale: 5-22, Not Fade Away

I was pleasantly surprised at the calibre of shows chosen. There were several from season 5 (so someone explain to me why it was cancelled again?), a handful from season 1, one from season 3, and only one from the horrible Connor/Cordy season which was redeemed by having not only Angelus but Faith and Willow in it, too. I’d forgotten how much I loved “Waiting in the Wings” (who’d’ve ever guessed that Angel was a ballet fan?). I accepted the voluntary heart-wrenchingness of watching both Fred’s and Wes’ final episodes in the same day, not to mention the “I Will Remember You” episode from season 1 with Sarah Michelle Gellar. My sofa was Kleenex-box Central. And I managed to hit the record button to immortalise “Smile Time,” which is being sent home with t! tomorrow because he simply has to see evil puppets at work in LA.

My TV was on for eleven solid hours, which I think was a personal record. I’m glad it was rainy outside, otherwise I would have felt horribly guilty about being inside all day. Anyway, I still managed to get 1.5K written during the whole thing, plus some formatting and editing. How’s that for multi-tasking? Not that I’d do it again soon; I just couldn’t choose one over the other, so I did both.