Imbolc on the way!

Photo Gemmi Fuchsbau

I am so excited to see snowdrops poking up this week, even though we have hardly had any snow. I would love to find a few pots of these to put on the table at my upcoming Imbolc brunch.  I'm planning dairy foods, seed packets (and maybe blessings for the seeds) and corn crosses. This year, I plan to make Bride's mantles by putting out fine fabric on the windowsill in the moonlight the night before.  I want to give the seeds and mantles to my guests for growth and good health throughout the coming year. They may be kids there, and if so, I plan to have them make a bed for the corn doll we made last fall in camp as a Brigit's bed, and then add a wand for her to slumber with to spark the fertility we need to make the Earth grow again. I'll be sure to take a few photos, and I'll supply some recipes as soon as I settle on the menu.

Meanwhile... YAY Snowdrops!!

Dan Brown's Inferno -buckle up!

Gustave Doré - Dante Alighieri - Inferno: Canto VII - Hoarders and Wasters  -Wikipedia  
These guys are pushing big heavy bags of money.  Beautiful.

This morning just before 9 am EST the title and topic of the next Dan Brown book was announced. As a fiction reader I am excited.  As a witch I am excited too, because I appreciate some of the effects his fiction and his research have had on the understanding that there are many kinds of worship rituals and that they evolve.

I have not read the galleys. This is not a book review. It is a few thoughts about what happens with touchy religious topics are introduced to the mainstream.

After each of the bestseller releases of Dan's books I have noticed the same things: A fundamentalist outcry that reading such analysis of the Bible will send you to hell AND a well reasoned, effective conversation about the research in the book, and the origins of the symbols, art and ideas. And a recognition that they are not just twisted Bible scripture. That non-modern views and non-mainstream christian views of faith are not merely twisted bible words but illustrations of how many kinds of opinion and expression have been inspired by the search to understand the divine.

Stradano Inferno Map, also Wikipedia

We will hear the same outcry, and I suspect, the same reasonable conversation around this book, based on the main character's exploration of Dante's Inferno, from his Divine Comedy. I will learn more about Dante's work than I did in high school and maybe be inspired to read some of his original (translated) text. Better than that, I will be exposed to the ideas of others who have already examined Dane's writing. And I will have, I hope, an enjoyable mystery story too.

Will the specter of Lucifer (also examined in the book, I understand) be bad for witches and pagans? For some people, the same ones who won't read or maybe even touch the book, yes. People who want to judge  are gonna judge. But for the non-pagan thinking folks, I hope this will just be one more way to get the vocabulary of christian, pagan, worship and ritual words delivered to a larger audience. Dan has always represented worship and ritual as sacred to those who practice it and I expect the same kind of thing as the scaffolding for his latest fiction story.

There is one way I can think of that this book could be bad for witches and pagans, so please don't dress up as anything from the book. Just read, and be prepared with thoughtful answers for the Lucifer questions.

New Old Loom: its own little circle

To clean rust in these very tiny gaps (15 gaps per inch) I began with steel wool, then tried wire brushing after WD 40.

I am travelling around the edge of a new circle. Eventually, I will travel the smaller and smaller paths as I spiral toward the center of it.  I call this circle New Old Loom.

Weaving is a much used and often overused metaphor for working on your life, but like so many things, weaving comes with its own WHOLE LIFE. I was gifted a wonderful old floor loom (read about it here: Asking + Action = Attraction . So, I get to weave. Grow. Create and contemplate while doing it.  I have a New Old Loom and along with it I have been gifted hours and hours of assembly and rust removal. Contemplative time.

Next, I tried other grades of steel wool and tiny strips of fine sandpaper. I can make the outside shiny but the inside remains rough. I tested the "cleaned" spaces with the little piece of 40/2 linen, and it frays. As a last resort, Naval Jelly will turn the rust into a neutral coating that I can scrub off.  I taped the wrapped-thread rails to keep the Naval Jelly off them and followed the instructions. I include all of this because when I searched the web for hints on cleaning rusted reeds I found very little. Mostly, advice that it can't be done well enough and the reed must be replaced.  Plus, I find pictures reassuring, maybe the next reed cleaner will enjoy finding these.

I am trying to make the rust work as enjoyable as possible by lighting candles or incense, visualizing the wonderful woven goods that will roll from my beams after I have my darling's parts smooth, even having a lovely cup of tea handy. This last is kind of tricky because I am wearing a dust mask while I use all the steel wool and stuff. I could probably design a tasty tea delivery system to work with the mask if I weren't so committed to staying focused on this rust until it is gone. No distraction. No project hopping.

Project hopping will take me out of this circle and make me start another circle. I want to stay put.

Those would be some legendary parties, though.

This is where the biggest obstacle to weaving lies. While I rub and polish and sand and Never Ever swear at all I have my mind on a leash so it doesn't wander completely off and go shopping for the materials to build a yacht. Or a fence around our raised beds. Or teach the dachshund to balance on my big exercise ball. Wouldn't that be awesome? She could do it at parties and our parties would become legendary! Woah- pull back... It's kind of a bungee leash, so I am always having to pull my wandering mind back from somewhere where another project looks much better than this one.

The project my mind is on is seldom a project already underway. Those projects are not interesting and my skibbly little mind has explored them as much as needed because they were the mind-wandering destinations for previous hobby activities. Hobbies can eat your house, and vice versa, but I don't want to live without either one (I have friends who would happily live without a house if they could bed down in a Hobby Lobby or Michael's at night).

So, radio. I am not a big background sound person, but keeping the radio on might keep me from dreaming up a more compelling project than rust removal. Let's face it, after 4 hours of smoothing little delicate rusted reed fins and heddles replacing all the wax rings under the toilets is more compelling.

If I am going off on a non-weaving mental stroll and the radio doesn't work I want to at least redirect my head to wander over and think through some of those half done... mostly done projects I have that fall more firmly into the category of Home Repair and Improvement than Hobby. I often confuse them because I enjoy working on the house so much. Its just as satisfying as creating, just less portable. I hope this works, because my ability to picture how good it's going to look when the last piece of molding goes into place is blinding me a little to how many little "finish-ups" there are here. Stay tuned, Divine Reader. I pledge to report honestly on whether or not I am working on new or old projects.

Back to the rust part of the weaving circle.

After two rounds of Naval Jelly, the reed is covered with a film of black ex-rust and grey phosphorus coating. I can scrub this off the outside with steel wool and brass brushes (see the stripes where I tried each one), but between the fins the metal remains pitted and rough. It seems like the advice was right- if I want a reed this fine I need to buy a new smooth one.  Drat! 5 hours of subborn effort decides it. I will send for a stainless 10 dent reed

A is for Amulet charm bundle

Many years ago I wondered what a REAL Book of Shadows looked like. Mine looks like this. 

Amulets are one of my favorite things to make, and a really nice way to bear in mind an intention you are working to make real. They are like little tangible thoughts, and may be accompanied by gestures, words or sigils. A charm can just BE a word or sigil, it you desire. If it is a word, you can time it so it is said at the perfect moment, when the sun just sets or when you drop a bulb into a hole. 

The charms I make address a specific intent, like protection, love or attraction.  The right time of the moon is always taken into consideration, waning, waxing or Full. I don't make charms on the New moon, it is time for other things. I think of a charm as an offering for the Goddess I ask to help, a focus to frequently remind me of the intention I held while making it and to act as a passive reminder.  In my studies of local Pennsylvania and other rural folk magic and medicine there is frequent use of verbal and bundle charms. The amulet I am sharing today is a bundle charm.

Hand sewing is something I love, it is meditative and takes time. So, I gather my hand sewing supplies and some linen fabric too make the outside of the amulet, the bag. 

Using a rectangle about 2" by 4" folded it in half I stitch around the outside edge on two sides. One side is open, so the square is turned inside out, edges pressed with the bone folder (in the picture I have one carved like a feather) and stitched again with linen thread all the way around 3 sides. Fold the raw edges of the forth side in and stitch it partway shut.  These two seams are tight enough to hold herbs or salt inside the bag.

Now is the time to get the rest of the amulet supplies you will need. You know what you need to do your magic work, I can only show you a bit of what you might find here.

I gather my sewing supplies and stitch two sides of my folded linen rectangle using plain thread. Also pictured, red silk thread, needle case with spare horn buttons attached, carved bone folder, blue checked linen I didn't need today, thimble.

 Folk magic uses red thread and salt frequently, so before I begin the filling I make a final round of stitches using red silk thread. My desire is knotted into the red thread, in this case I made 5 knots, you can see them in the last picture. I stopped the red stitches short of the opening too. Salt, rosemary, quartz, a tiny felt heart and my words to Brigid and Aphrodidte went inside.

Linen fabric, sewing tools, little gemstones (I buy them on strings) salt, anointing oil, your hair, or your written intent could go into the amulet. I also included herbs and a small candle made of beeswax and an old earring from my hubby.

Note to the goddesses I am addressing on linen.
String of gems to choose from. Anointing oil and salt.

On different page of my BOS I recorded the details of a special
amulet a fellow asked me to make for his uniform coat.

 Include what ever things support your intentions and work to your purpose.

Of course the salt goes everywhere! Mugwort, rosemary, garnet and red wool heart went in next along with the candle.

When filled and stitched, my amulet was dedicated  and anointed before I put out the candle I used to focus.

See the place of 5 little knots in the red thread?

The soldier's protection and wholeness amulet was sewn within the coat itself, but you can feel it through the pocket.

Carry yours in your pocket or around your neck, or place it in a room or in the garden.

Already planning Imbolc

New lamb from last Spring at Peter Wentz Farmstead in PA

Reading about all of the A is for Altar posts this weekend on the 2013 PBP has made me think about planning an Imbolc party for a few friends, as I did last year. Poppy at Book of Shadows and Blessings had the same idea and has some beautiful ideas on her Imbolc post. Last year we had corn crosses to make and a Bride doll to put to sleep and seed packets. I love the idea of blessing seeds and may add that. Thank you, Poppy.

Asking + Action = Attraction

Know how to seek the best path for you.
Practice your practice. 
Listen to your needs and desire. 
Focus your intent. 
Follow your intent with Action, Asking for guidance on the way. 
Everything you truly need will come to you.

It has always worked for me. This is the story of how it worked a little differently.

Offerings are easy. I have no trouble remembering to thank my goddess for her blessings, seek peace or direction as a part of a ritual. These things come easily to me because I have done them over and over many times.
I seldom work magic for others, I occasionally work magic ON others when they ask for my help. I often meditate to align myself with understanding of what is happening and to strengthen my instinct to follow the best path. I also use magic to impart power to my herb crafting, cast protection where its needed, cast a circle or connect me to the divine.
I can't remember the last time I ASKED for something concrete for myself. Not that I do without and go without, I take pretty good care of myself and remember to include treats too. I don't feel like my goddess is really here to fill my wallet or send me a car... the guidance for the right path and my job are for that. I ask for wisdom, to manage situations, finances, relationships. I feel I receive. Even when things are difficult, I have never felt rudderless or without resources. To me that is no accident.
Maybe its a humility thing. Maybe I feel like I should give more than I get, since the goddess is my elder and has far more wisdom and experience than I.

The barn loom I didn't buy. It was a part of my day on the sheep to shawl team.

I am in the midst of some of the most mindful years of practice and meditation I have done since my late twenties. I stop to reflect, make offerings, stay in touch with the magical community as never before. I begin each day with a candle and devotion.  I stopped in to touch base with my friend, Liz, who owns a yarn shop and many looms.
I mentioned to her that I had recently been a substitute on a sheep to shawl team (they are very hard to get a place on) and loved it so much that someone was moved to offer me a huge barn loom for $500. I told Liz that since my partner is looking for work I didn't feel good about spending $500, and that a barn loom is really too huge for us. If she heard of a modern floor loom going begging for a home, or one for only two or three hundred, could she let me know?
Then we laughed. Floor looms, even the simple one I'd like, go for $1,500 to $3,500 new and since the economy is bad, Liz said, everyone is trying to get top dollar for the used looms- nothing much under $800-$1,200 was being offered used to her. Oh well.
At home, I refocused on my regular stuff, and had a lovely conversation about a job offer that was pending with my dear. I told him that the giant loom I had mentioned was not for me and that I would stick with my tabletop one for now.

Grey wool, carded, spun and woven by me!

Asking was unlike me, but I honored my heart because I had been thinking about a floor loom from early October to late November. Asking, just focusing my intent and following my intentions with Action by going in to the yarn shop and putting a voice to the desire was what it took.
The very next day Liz called me and told me there was a loom, exactly what I hoped for and entirely FREE if I could get to a retiring weaver's farm 12 miles away by the next day. Of course I could!
My Weaver-Godmother had put her farmhouse, gorgeous gardens and out buildings on the market after recuperating from a big heart incident, and it sold at once. She hadn't had the time she expected to sell antiques and hobby tools- she just called Liz in a panic and said "I want them to go to a good home before the dumpster and cleaning team arrives on Saturday".
It was the practice that has made me able to focus the power all around us to my intent. It was the Action of Asking that made it into an Attraction spell. Because I have been practicing it was there in me as I focused and asked. It was the same as saying:
I open the gates of the power 
within and around me and welcome
a loom into my life. 
So Mote it be.
You better believe I've been keeping up with that daily devotion!

Pagan Blog Project

I'm excited to participate in the Pagan Blog Project for 2013. I followed many of the posts last year and was inspired by reading the many different takes on our pagan practice. I envision most of the things I can contribute will be about how I practice my craft, things I do, make or see.
I have been doing this for a l-o-n-g time and have evolved. I learned very basic practices from a Wise Woman in the northern Appalachian Mountains where I grew up.  I gleaned from the "odd traditions" my Irish female relatives had and my children gleaned the same way from me- by observing how we celebrate (however, I explained things too).  Lots study and formality of rituals followed (and has its place), and while I retain some ritual formality, this circle has come around to the basic practices as I grow more confident and older.

I held back, hoping to acquire more skills and become better at working this blog- frankly, without a regular post I find myself avoiding the discomfort of possibly embarrassing myself. We all know how this goes.

It looks like the best way to develop better blogging skills is to plunge in and go ahead and be bad at the blogging technicalities. I'm ready to do it wrong, break rules and later find out they exist (like- always attribute pictures- I KNOW! I wouldn't lift things in my print life, I never even thought about grabbing a pic I had filed and using it without saying where I took it from. Duh. I have no idea where some of these pics started, but I should have). So, borrowed pictures: my first embarrassment and a big one. How bad could the next one be, right? If I let mistakes keep me from blogging this year I'm never going to do it.

If you are unfamiliar, this is the Project:  It is a week by week opportunity for me to share, for you to learn from me. Conversely  I get to learn from everyone else who participates and also to grow from the interaction in the PBP forum and from your comments. Please comment (I would have loved someone to send me a gentle reminder about the pictures... that could have been you).
The schedule for posting follows the calender and the alphabet. One each Friday as follows:

January 4 and 11, topics beginning with A: apples, astral travel, agrimony...
January 18 and 25, topics for B: Brigid, basil, baneful herbs, boxwood, Bast...
52 Posts over a year's time. Or a year and a day, I like to think.

You get the idea. Nearly 200 blogs all contribuiting to this complex topic- its the biggest Book of Shadows ever undertaken. learn more about it here: Pagan Blog Project details