Thursday, March 29, 2012

I Dream In Color

Blessings Darlings!

I rarely share dreams here, but last nights dream seems different.

It started post Shit Hitting The Fan, with lots of trains, all going down the same track. Then a parallel track, on which a train of Army women in green colored fatigues. I was wearing my Assembly of the Sacred Wheel tabbard, in it's specific blue.  Had to deal with a train full of folks in black on the track my stuff was on.  Another train had all sorts of brightly colored children's books, one series that was coordinated by color. Realized that coordination of trains on tracks had to be re-established and my group was the one to do it - me standing on the tracks waving at the random trains wasn't cutting it.  Found the original round house area .... where I realized that the train lines were coordinated by color.  A Wise Woman - rather like the recently passed Shakmah Winddrum - commented on how finding this was the right approach, so I showed her the few clues to how it was done before that we'd found and where we were looking for more.

Okay, that was the dream.  But let's add in that yesterday online in a group we had been discussing Kontantinos' "Nocturnal Witchcraft".  Which I compared to Scott Cunningham.  I didn't go into detail on WHY  saw them as equivalent (other than to say both tend to be rather Kindergarten Wicca).  But the dream commented on that for me.

Cunningham and Konstantinos both tend to work strongly with a white/black duality.  Black.  White. Only grey lies between them.  Okay, that's one map of the territory.

In my dream there were all the colors of the rainbow, shown by the rainbow of knowledge in the books.  My job is to see the best way to combine all those many and varied colors.  I suspect that the roundhouse also has 'color wheel' associations - there are NO 'pure colors' outside of the filing systems like the Kabala and the chakras.  Which are GREAT filing systems, but it's not good to mistake the map for the territory.

But the stuff on trains, or in books, don't do any good while still on trains.  Mix, match - and use in every day life.  The train load of coal is nice and all, but it's more 'useful' to me as electricity that I use to power my life.

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Planting Taters

Blessings Darlings!

I have a LONG  list of things to blog about, but have been too busy to blog.  But since I threw out my back yesterday just getting READY to plant potatoes .... I'm taking a few minutes to write a bit while the pain killers kick in today.

I didn't muck up my back this time as badly as I did last year.  This year I was just carrying too much weight in manure to the garden and my back said no.  So I stopped. But did get back to it today, carrying lighter loads.

PLUS I changed how I was going to plant the potatoes.  No hills this year.  No working with the clay soil with them at all.  Nor am I doing anything like 'official' raised beds.  No, this year I'm using garbage bags.

I still have some big black 45 gallon trash bags that we used when moving - for transporting clothes that were in closets on hangers (bunch about 10 - 15 items on hangers together in closet. Take a big garbage bag,  bag the clothes from the bottom to the top-by-the-hanger.  Tape bag shut around narrow part of hanger).  They were kind of beaten up by the move, had tape on 'em, some have holes. 

So I took them to the garden.  Put in a layer of straw 4 - 6 inches deep.  Dumped a 3.5 - 4 gallon bucket of well-aged horse manure on top of that.  Add two seed potatoes, there will be plenty of room for two plants.  Top with 4 inches of loose straw - more will be added when the vines start.  I had enough manure to get 6 bags, 12 plants, started. 

Lazy? Yes. More manure than they needed? Probably.  Will the bags last the season? Yes, I think so.   Will they last more than one summer? Heck no.  Could I get something done without making my back worse?  YES!  And that was REALLY important today.  Almost magical.  Totally Kitchen Witchy. 

Potatoes are a planting priority for me this year, since I'm planting both calories and nutrition.  A bushel of lettuce is great to eat, but in hard times it won't keep you alive as long as a bushel of potatoes. It's just part of my survival / prepper / preparedness approach.

Frondly, Fern

Thursday, March 22, 2012

The Threefold Bitchslap

Blessings  Darlings!

Some neopagans say that they live according to the Rede-as-harm-none (which I covered earlier here) and the Threefold Law Of Returns.  And that the three-fold law, they will tell you when asked, is "Whatever you send out you get back three times over".

Well, no, that's not what the Threefold Law is.

The root of the Threefold Law seems to be in the "long version" of the Rede, as written by Lady Gwen Thompson .... who was not Wiccan but but BTW .... and BTW at the time was NOT "British Traditional Wicca" but "British Traditional WITCHCRAFT".  It was published in Green Egg in 1974, don't recall which issue.

The line in question reads "Mind the Three-fold Laws ye should three times bad and three times good." I copied that from  http://rialian.com/wiccrede.htm 
 
That's not about you getting back three times over what you send out. That's "Whatever someone does to you, good or bad, do back to them three times over."  Yes, I checked this with a Gardnerian, in case anyone was asking.  It's supposed to be YOU being the manifestation of the hands of the God/dess/es handing people karma logical response to their actions. No room for passive-aggressive behavior here. 

It's not you sitting in front of a picture of the dude that dropped you and repeating "The three fold law will get you" and expecting some bean counter in the sky doing it for you. 

It means that you are expected to take an active, involved role in creating Justice right here on Earth. 

It's easy being nice to someone who's been nice to you.  Co-worker jumped your car and you bring them cookies or whatever.  Easy peasy, no risk.

It's harder, especially for women, to take an active role in bitchslapping someone who has worked to do you harm.  We've been rather socialized to just walk away, to be non-confrontational.  It's DANGEROUS, we've been told, to say "No, that is not allowed, stop that". Bullies are supposed to be out for attention and we've been told that to ignore them makes them go away.

But that's not the case.  Bullies get worse without confrontation.  Silence ENABLES abuse -ALL types of ause - rather than stops it.  I can't find the scholarly article right now, but last year I read one that pretty definitively showed that social confrontation did not CAUSE conflict - it ENDED conflict.

Yeah, it might take doing it more than once.  Like, maybe three times.... or more. 

But when pushed - push back ... or make dang sure that the push-ers momentum is used by you to make sure that they fall. Hard. And in public.

Administer the Three-Fold Bitchslap.

Frondly, Fern

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

The Mau types

Blessings Darlings!

Oh, oh, oh! The Mau is writing on .... life. And dying. And, of course, Persephone. http://melittabenu.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/links-that-made-me-think-dying-before-you-die/

You really should read it.

And I really need to meet her sometime soon.  Suz, we HAVE to get to a ritual over there!

Frondly, Fern

Monday, March 19, 2012

Beef Recall

Blessings Darlings!

This beef recall probably won't affect any of the rest of you.  My local Wegman's, which I shopped at yesterday, called to tell me that the ground beef I bought yesterday is being recalled.  A part in their meat grinder broke SOMETIME yesterday and there may be metal shards in the ground beef. 

Obviously I used my Wegman's membership card when I shopped, so they knew that I had bought ground beef. I don't even really know WHY I use the card there - I KNOW it let them monitor what I buy and isn't usually tied in to any discounts.  It's a violation of OPSEC. But this time it paid off.  I know to return the meat.  

On a Pagan note ... once I got the meat home SOMETHING told me to NOT immediately form it into 1/4 pound patties and individually freeze them.  I left the meat in a cooler (my fridge being pretty full) with ice packs instead.  That was a good 'something'.

Why "Something" couldn't have told me in the STORE not to buy the stuff, thus saving me a trip back there, is not clear.  I'll have to find out why what wonderful whatever I'll get from driving the 6 mile round trip later, I guess.

OH!

Nevermind, now I know.  Just after I got home yesterday, FedEx dropped off a check from a client.  I need to drive back to that city to deposit it.  I refused the Chubby Hubby's request that I do that same afternoon.  I said that I was SURE that one of us would be returning to the city in the next few days.

I guess tweaking me was seen by 'SOMETHING' as easier than getting FedEx to drop off the check earlier...

Whatever.

Frondly, Fern

Friday, March 16, 2012

Herb Garden Plan

Blessings Darlings!

I've sort of decided to put in a raised herb garden in the front yard.  However, I suspect the Chubby Hubby is going to tell me to have it elsewhere, because he thinks that flowers and such belong in a front yard and useful stuff in a back 40.

So I'm not really sure WHERE it will go.

OTOH, I've decided that it will probably be made of 8 railroad tie type wooden beams, stacked two deep, held in place by drilling two holes (one at each end) of them and pounding a 12 inch metal stake thru' them into the ground.  So the area will be, I dunno 4' by 4' or 5' by 5', whatever length they come in.

The ground within will be lined heavily with newpaper, my usual approach for smothering grass and weeds.  Then I'll dump the contents of my 'compost bin' -  the  30 gallon garbage can I've put all our kitchen waste in for the past year - on top of that.  And in will go my seedlings, as well as any herbs I have to buy since the rosemary seeds, among a few other herbs, haven't sprouted. 

I'll need to buy some peppermint, too, to put somewhere where it won't be a problem.  It can be VERY invasive, but like many of the herbs its flower attract bees by the bushel and thus help keep bees going strong and help insure that pollinators come visit all my plants.  Which is important to the vegetable garden!

How does your garden grow?

Frondly, Fern

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Vibrating Sacred Names/Words/Chants

Blessings Darlings!

Did I just say that out loud?  Well, yes, I did, when I scheduled the post. 

In my magical universe there are many ways I can magically bring things into being.  Writing them down is one way to do that - a to-do list is very potent magic for me.  But saying something out loud is another.

Ah, the magic of words.  Of keeping your word. Of making an announcement to the Universe and inviting the Gods and all your friends and enemies to laugh at you.  Powerful stuff!

Add to that the concept in Western Magical Tradition (probably brought over via Theosophy from Asian religions) of VIBRATING things into the universe, especially of vibrating Sacred Names!  Power raised several <   not iterations.  Not decimal places.  Logarithmetly? How is that spelled? >

I never 'got' the idea of vibrating things into the universe until the Smithsonian Institution showed me how it's done.  Well, the Institution didn't do it ....

What happened was that the Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian, on the Mall in DC, had Tibetan Monks create a huge, elaborate mandala out of colored sand.  It took them weeks to do it.  And every day before they got to work on it, they would first chant.  I don't have a clue what the English version of they were chanting was.  But the WAY they chanted - I assume that Siberian Shamanic Throat Music must be similar.  It was astonishing.  You KNEW that those chanted words were 'being vibrated out into the Universe" in some special way. 

You can hear things like it at this reference:



 the interesting stuff at about 10 seconds in.

Frondly, Fern

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Havamal Part 8 - The Mating Game

Blessings Darlings!

This week in the Havamal - Odhinn trashes women. And men. Or at least dating. Or speaks of the challenges of actually finding intimacy. 

While the words used usually say love here .... more of the time it sounds like lust, or day dreams.  For all logic, all sense is thrown away.  This is not about finding someone to spend the rest of your life with! 

At best it's love as illness, love as destroyer.  Tristan and Isolde-level strurm und drang.  I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise, given the era this came from.  Survival then really did depend in large part on wise choice in a mate and their family.  You had a role in the survival of your extended family, your clan, your tribe, your village to uphold.

It didn't matter if you were gay or straight, for that matter.  You  needed to marry, to form an alliance to strengthen your tribe and to have children, explained   Alexi Kondratiev in a class at Sacred Space Conference some years back.  The group was more important than the individual.

No man should trust a maiden's words,
Nor what a woman speaks:
Spun on a wheel were women's hearts,
In their breasts was implanted caprice,

To love a woman whose ways are false
Is like sledding over slippery ice
With unshod horses out of control,
Badly trained two-year-olds,
Or drifting rudderless on a rough sea,
Or catching a reindeer with a crippled hand
On a thawing hillside: think not to do it.

Naked I may speak now for I know both:
Men are treacherous too
Fairest we speak when falsest we think:
many a maid is deceived.

Gallantly shall he speak and gifts bring
Who wishes for woman's love:
praise the features of the fair girl,
Who courts well will conquer.

Never reproach another for his love:
It happens often enough
That beauty ensnares with desire the wise
While the foolish remain unmoved.

Never reproach the plight of another,
For it happens to many men:
Strong desire may stupefy heroes,
Dull the wits of the wise


Yeah, the blood leaves the brain and goes to regions farther south, in both men and women.

The mind alone knows what is near the heart,
Each is his own judge:
The worst sickness for a wise man
Is to crave what he cannot enjoy.

So I learned when I sat in the reeds,
Hoping to have my desire:
Lovely was the flesh of that fair girl,
But nothing I hoped for happened.

I saw on a bed Billing's daughter,
Sun white, asleep:
No greater delight I longed for then
Than to lie in her lovely arms.

"Come" Odhinn, after nightfall
If you wish for a meeting with me:
All would be lost if anyone saw us
And learned that we were lovers."

Afire with longing" I left her then,
Deceived by her soft words:
I thought my wooing had won the maid,
That I would have my way.

After nightfall I hurried back,
But the warriors were all awake,
Lights were burning, blazing torches:
So false proved the path

Towards daybreak back I came
The guards were sound asleep:
I found then that the fair woman
Had tied a bitch to her bed.

WHY is it that "All would be lost if anyone saw us and learned that we were lovers'?  I'm thinking that would have been a question he should have asked and dealt with up front.  Probably back to individual pleasure over the needs of the tribe?

Many a girl when one gets to know her
Proves to be fickle and false:
That treacherous maiden taught me a lesson,
The crafty woman covered me with shame"
That was all I got from her.


Certainly this rings true about dating/courtship.  Odhinn here seems to have wanted to get laid, rather than the public 'we are an item' coupling, and certainly not marriage.  If marriage was the goal he'd not have agreed to keep things secret.

Courtship.  Let's look at the third definition from the Bing dictionary: friendly and often ingratiating attention for the purpose of winning a favor or establishing an alliance or other relationship.  Were any of the folks talked of so far doing anything working towards marriage, towards intimacy - the #1 definition of 'courtship' from Bing (the period of a romantic relationship before marriage)?  Nope.  It's all game playing. 

Now, I personally think that dating to have fun and even get laid is fine - not all dating SHOULD lead to marriage.  But I'm of the opinion that if you're out for a good time, be up front about.  Own it.  It's okay. 

But some folks ARE going to lie about their intent and lead you on to think that they are on the same songsheet you're on.  Which is why you test, you evaluate.  How do they treat others?  What are their values? Especially if YOU are into dating/courtship in search of marriage and real intimacy.

Gunnlod sat me in the golden seat,
Poured me precious mead:
Ill reward she had from me for that,
For her proud and passionate heart,
Her brooding foreboding spirit.

What I won from her I have well used:
I have waxed in wisdom since I came back,
bringing to Asgard Odrerir,
the sacred draught.

Hardly would I have come home alive
From the garth of the grim troll,
Had Gunnlod not helped me, the good woman,
Who wrapped her arms around me.


Here, of course, Odhinn is the jerk, having tricked Gunnlod into giving him 3 'sips' of the mead according to Prose Edda version of the story, one for every night spent schtupping.  Not unlike Freya sleeping with a dwarf for every stone in her necklace Brisingamen.  Of course, Freya didn't totally empty the supply of amber, while Odhinn DID drink all the Mead of Poetic Inspiration!

Shun a woman, wise in magic,
Her bed and her embraces:
If she cast a spell, you will care no longer
To meet and speak with men,
Desire no food, desire no pleasure,
In sorrow fall asleep.


Snort. Baby boy, a woman wise in magic doesn't need spells to keep a man.  Or just cue my dear Frank Sinatra singing "Witchcraft".





 Sigh....  Ahem.  Back to the Havamal..

Never seduce anothers wife,
Never make her your mistress.

Never open your heart to an evil man
When fortune does not favour you:
From an evil man, if you make him your friend,
You will get evil for good.

I saw a warrior wounded fatally
By the words of an evil woman
Her cunning tongue caused his death,
Though what she alleged was a lie.


Is all of this, really, about putting one's self and one's personal desires above those of your tribe?  About forgetting to judge a potential mate by the same standards you judge the worthiness of your friends and associates? Of putting pleasure above sense?

I'm going to have to puzzle that one out more over time.

Frondly, Fern

Ornithomancy

Blessings Darlings!

The Mighty Suzanne Thackston has a new Pagan Examiner article out! 

I would SO love to know more about birds and ornithomancy. Of course, the basic bird knowledge would have to come first.  At this point I don't recognize enough of them to do any divination via them. 

Just another thing on my to-do list.  And it's a heck of a LONG to-do list!

Frondly, Fern

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Victimless Genocide

Blessings Darlings!

The wonderful Morgan blogged about St. Patrick. And included full citations. You - each and every ONE of you - should read it.  http://lairbhan.blogspot.com/2012/03/st-patricks-day-snakes-and-irish.html

In short:  The neopagan "we are eternal victims mythos" about Patrick are not based in fact.  They are simply a way to justify neopagans playing the victim card.

Many people are amazingly invested in playing the victim card.  A person on Twitter tweeted the "St Patrick committed genocide" thing, I cited sources showing it's not true and asked for HER sources.  Turned out the woman is a few sandwiches short of a picnic, and is now accusing me of being a part of the Russian mafia, involved in sex trafficing, just saying I'm in Druid and Wiccan groups because I'm trying to shut her up.  And asked "REAL Druids" to "Take Fern Out" (and implied a few times she's going to hex me).

In response I DID get a date offer (we riffed on 'taking me out').  Keeping the joke going I suggested we catch the Trans Siberian Orchestra.

Frondly, Fern

Monday, March 12, 2012

Hamanatashen Failure

Blessings Darlings!

Last week the festival of Purim started, Wednesday night at sundown. It's a Jewish festival that celebrates the salvation of the Jewish people as recorded in the book of Esther.  It's a fun holiday, where folks dress up, drink heavily, etc.

I'd probably celebrate it even if my son wasn't Jewish for the party aspects.

But since 'Esther' and "Mordachai" there are probably revised versions of the Pagan Gods Isthar and Marduk, and nothing like the events in the book were actually recorded during the reign of the king mentioned in the book (Xerxes 1 or 2, I've forgotten which it was supposed to be), I figure it has it's roots in some pre-Judeo/Christian/Islamic Pagan spring festival anyway.

So I figured I'm make Hamantashen, one of the traditional foods eaten then.  It's a 3 cornered cookie with a fruit or seed filling.  But I had pie on my mind*** so figured I'd try  making them with pie crust instead of with a cookie base.

It didn't work well.  The pie crust was GREAT.  I used the all-butter pie crust recipe from America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book, known around our house as "Big Blue". However, the pie dough didn't hold the shape, so flopped over into a circle topped with the blueberry filling.  NOT at all Hamantashen.

OTOH, they tasted GREAT, and were a lovely dessert.  But I had to have the Spawn pick up REAL Hamantashen on the way home.

Failure still tasted good.

Frondly, Fern

*** This COMING Wednesday is Pi Day, March 14, as in the mathematical Pi, which is 3.14(etc). I was working on figuring out what Pies to have for dinner that day - Should the main course be Shepherds? 4-can? Pizza? Pasties? Pot Pie? And what sweet pie for dessert?

Friday, March 9, 2012

Archetype Spells

Blessings Darlings!

Blessings Darlings!

We've covered common spells, we've covered insta-spells. 

More powerful yet, and ones that I've only thought about in theoretical terms and not even tried to create yet, and Archetype Spells.

These would take a team and probably decades to put in place.  These are the type of spells taught in Harry Potter - do a hand motion JUST SO while saying a word or two JUST SO. 

My theory is that doing this takes the insta-spell set up, plugs it into a superior source of power, and makes it so anyone can pull the trigger.  One person or a group can create it and get it to the insta-spell stage.  From there the rest of the group works on it, maybe daily, certainly at least at certain times of the month, to make it universal.  All using the same Otherworld set up, all using the same gesture and words.  Maybe it has to be taught by 'apostolic succession' - those who created it taught others, who then taught others.  Could the apostolic succession take place in dreams? Sure, why not - plenty of sacred stories show that happening.  It's a way that can't be relied on, but WOULD explain the re-discovery of types of magic long lost that are being recovered.  Ivo Dominguez, Jr, talks about inspiration he's gotten that sounds much like that in his book "Castings: Creating Sacred Space" - recently released by Weiser books!  Yay Ivo! Yay Ankhie (the Weiser logo is an Ankh).

Ultimately I suppose that the spell would move from servitor to egregor ....

Of course I'd like to see these type of spells being done again.  Will it happen in the next astrological age? Dunno.  I'm quite sure I won't be creating any this life time!

Frondly, Fern

Thursday, March 8, 2012

WORKING with Plants

Blessings Darlings!

Herb books are GREAT for medicinal properties assigned to herbs.  They may give some other associations they have - planets, Gods, chakras, sepherot (and sometimes the books occassionally agree on what those associations are!).

But .... if you want to bond with the Spirit of the Herb/Spice/Resin .... that's a different thing.  That takes some extra effort.

Yes, start with the book/internet knowledge.  Especially find out if it's safe to take internally, because that's one technique we're going to discuss!  Study.  Memorize. Learn everything you can about the plant. Grow it if you can, or find it growing wild.   If it's safe to take internally, eat or drink some of the plant.  See what physical effects the plant has on your body.  NOTE - IF THIS IS A KNOWN PSYCHOACTIVE PLANT, DO NOT NOT NOT DO THIS, ESPECIALLY AT THIS STAGE.  DO THIS, FOR EXAMPLE, WITH OREGANO OR HOT PEPPERS, NOT WITH DATURA.

Oh, and you might ingest the plant in an orderly fashion, if possible.  Leaves, seeds, bark, root all might have very different properties.  Again - book knowledge first. The only part of, say, Poke weed that won't be toxic will be young shoots.

Make an offering to the spirit of the plant.  Yes, it's best if you can leave it at the plant, and bonus points for finding it growing wild, but if it doesn't grow in your area that's okay.  Explain your intention to the Spirit of the Plant, and that you're giving the offering as a token of your respect.

From here, move on to building up a good visualization of the plant.  This would take me a week, but you might well be better at visualization than I am! I start with pictures on Google, then work on making them 'come alive'.  You could make a sigil of the plant name, if you are inclined that way.  I'm not a sigil person .... yet. Maybe I'll get there this life.

Finally, head into trance, hold that visualization or sigil, introduce yourself to the plant, and get to know it.   What offerings does it like? What wisdom can it share with you? What plants/animals/spirits does it play nice with .... and which does it NOT play nice with?

Record this UPG (unverified Personal Gnossis) you get from the plant in your BOSL.  Remember to give the plant an occassional offering, and an occassional visit - after working with it more you're likely to have more, not less, questions for it!

Frondly, Fern

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Immoderate

Blessings Darlings!

The [very] few of you who have commented on my blog over the years know a secret - I don't moderate the comments here.  The go up immediately.   I read all the comments after they go up and would pull any TOTALLY inappropriate ones .... but I've never had to pull any comments yet.

OBVIOUSLY my readers ROCK. And maybe my wards keep the spammers away, I dunno.

I bring this up because I read other blogs - some regularly, some as I see an interesting link.  I also comment on those blogs if I have something to ask or say.  And 20 hours ago I asked the author of a blog to cite her sources on a definition and claim she made.  I'm still waiting for my question to make it out of 'moderation limbo'. 

Oh, it's very clear that the author knows my question is there - in checking for new comments here I can see what site readers come from.  And I saw the hits from the ADMINISTRATIVE level of her blog.

Being in moderation limbo isn't a problem for me.  I'm flexible enough to win at that dance .... and get a blog post out of it.  Because I want MY reputation to be that of being open, above board, honorable, not that of hiding disagreements behind the scenes and in electronic limbo.

But that's just me.

I'm immoderate.

Frondly, Fern


Rock Star Blogging

Blessings Darlings!

So VERY many bloggers out there have been posting amazing stuff.  I shared Wade's latest.  I've got Shivian's blog post scheduled to share with y'all already.

NOW Angela Raincatcher tweeted this wonderfulness about Big Bird, written by Scott Lynch.  ANOTHER rock-star quality post.  Read. Enjoy. Learn. I did.

Frondly, Fern

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Recording Spells

Blessings Darlings!

You've created your spell. Did you write down the associations you researched, noting why you went with one herb/color/sephirah/etc over the others?  If not - do it now.  I'll wait.

Okay.

THIS is EXACTLY the type of stuff that goes in your Book of Lights and Shadows - your research, your decisions, the reasoning behind your decisions.  And once your do the spell, you write down how well the results were.  I think of a Book of Lights and Shadows the same way I think of a lab notebook for a scientist.  Also after the spell, maybe after letting it 'set' for 24 hours, record your impressions of energy work, spirit involvement, etc from the working of the spell.  I was taught by Isaac Bonewits to NOT review/dissect that part right after the spell, because it can lead to problems with the "suspension of disbelief" one assumes during the spellwork.

Later, you should go over the spell - and you'll know what you did, and why.  You'll have written down what worked, and what didn't.  You can then start to analyze WHY things worked or didn't.

You're not recording this stuff just so you have a big BOLS, you are recording the stuff AND GOING OVER IT.  That is the way you improve. 

Frondly, Fern

Monday, March 5, 2012

Shivian on Ritual Clothing

The awesome Shivian has blogged about ritual clothing!  http://blog.shivian.com/post/18448462631/ritual-clothing!   You should read it and think. 

I don't change for every bit of magic and ritual, like, if I'm going out to leave the weekly offering I will take off the dirty apron and take the fresh-baked goods out to the altar in the copse.  But for most other stuff I at LEAST put on one of two special scarves.  And most of y'all know what the Assembly of the Sacred Wheel ritual outfits look like, tabards and all.

Jerky!

Blessings Darlings!

I made my first batch of jerky!  And it's GOOD!

You see, a big ol' whole rump or round roast was at a good price at Costco.  So I grabbed it.  I used some immediately for fried rice. I canned some, for stews later. 

Then I sliced thin two pounds of it, added a marinade (I practically grabbed the marinade recipe at random from the internet), let it sit overnight, then slapped it into the dehydrator.  Later in the day, it was done.

Easy peasy.

And remember, I don't have a great dehydrator.  Mine doesn't have a variable heat setting, but DOES have a fan.

Everyone in the family likes it. No one has had food poisoning. My son gave some to one of his managers at work, and HE likes it (he doesn't have to lie to me, either).

Yay!

Since cheap tough meat is still on sale, I may well make more.  Actually, I had BETTER make more .... this stuff's going FAST.

Actually, I'd love to make some salmon jerky, if I can do that with previously-frozen fillets.  Has anyone tried that?

Frondly, Fern

Friday, March 2, 2012

How Often to do a Spell?

Blessings Darlings!

So now you've researched herb/color/spirit/wood/whatever associations for your spell, put together some wording, gotten your gear together, and done the spell once.

Should you do it again? If you want to do a spell for the same thing again, for that matter, do you need to rewrite it or somehow 're-acquire' it, as in D&D and so many of its offshoots?

Well, let's deal with the second question first - you don't 'use up' the magic of a spell by doing it.  Real life is not a D&D game.

Repetitions

Some spells you do once, and you're done.  Parking space spells, for example.  You need a space, you do a quick chant, you get your space, you say thanks, done.

Some spells get done more than once to be effective.  I suppose I was first exposed to that in Raymond Buckland's first "Candle Magic" book, where for one spell I did I recall doing it for 7 or 9 days, moving the candles closer to the center each day.

It's not uncommon to repeat a spell for 3 days, or 7, or 9, or 13, or a whole moon cycle or whole season.  It's also not uncommon for those longer-running spells to tweak them along the way.  Maybe swap an herb or two, or an incense or oil.  Maybe vocalizing differently - vibrating in a different key, singing instead of saying, what have you.

As always, record what you changed, and why, and the results in your BOLS.

Frondly, Fern

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Ritual vs Spells

Blessings Darlings!

The always interesting Wade has another GREAT post up on his blog, on how to become a Master.  I recommend it highly!

http://wadelong.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/crafting-tomorrows-master/

Frondly, Fern

Is Asking Questions Bad?

Blessings Darlings!

[BTW, for those pressed for time, the answer is 'no']

It's JUST 10 an, and I've already asked for facts backing up assertions three different times.  Two of those times have been about magic/spirituality. The other was on gas prices. 

My husband laughed and pointed out that I was asking about the Physics of Magic.  He's right. I was. I am. I do that. I INSIST on doing that. I've done it before.  My BOS is a lab notebook.  See my previous post http://fernsfronds.blogspot.com/2010/09/magical-metrics.html.

No one, so far, can back up their claims.  But only in the Pagan/Witch realm was the question taken as at all improper.  Whether the issue was "souls/spirits only come in rigid categories", or "Midnight is the witching hour", or "all Witches celebrate Yule/have Yule Logs/Have ashes from their Yule fire" or anything else - asking why that would be and for supporting info did not get .... well, anything in the way of answers, to put it nicely.

If you see Midnight as the liminal time, fine - but can't you say WHY, when the ancients seem to have looked at dusk/dawn as the liminal times?  If you see rigid lines between male/female/queer/etc souls - why would this be, and where would it have sprung from?  If you see gas prices as rising because the dollar is falling - show me where gas prices are falling in countries where the currency is rising relative to the dollar, would you?

If you are saying it's from UPG, then own up to that.  It's okay.  EVERYTHING started as UPG at one time, but while it's UPG don't imply that it's best for everyone, let alone DONE by everyone. If you got it from reading the Malleus Maleficarum, then own that.  AND then explain why you belief that is reliable.  Please. Now.

At any rate - claim what you will.  But back that thing up.

Frondly, Fern