Smokey Saturn's Day

 Blessings Darlings!

Welcome to Saturn's Day.  A Saturn's Day where I have some Saturnian magic to do.  It's all about business and finances, because IMO my husband has the business skills of a gnat, and needs a lot of Divine Intervention.  Divine Intervention starting with Saturn.

So I'm here, in the mid day hour of Saturn, prepping for the ritual/offerings that will take place during the evening/early night hour of Saturn.  I'm doing this because, IMO due to his business sucking all of our money into itself, I can't afford to buy supplies right now AND pay for propane for winter.  Saturn likes black, including black candles.  I have zero black candles.  Nor do I have any charcoal to coat white candles with (and I do have white candles) to not only make them black but also do the black/white thinking that some say Saturn likes.  I DO however have the Sacred Small Weber Grill (the Smokey Joe) and wood. 

So I have a smokey little fire going (the remains of a hurricane came thru' here yesterday, with a full day of rain) in which I'm making my own charcoal.  At least I hope I am.  I don't need MUCH charcoal, but I'd like enough to coat a small candle AND have some for any black salt I might want to make over the winter. 

If I fail at charcoal, I'll roast some ground coffee so it's black not brown, and use that to make the candles black.  One of the offerings will be black coffee anyway, so it will be on the same theme.

That's what's up here today.

Frondly, Fern

Autumn

Blessings Darlings!

Fall is an insanely busy time around here.  The Chubby Hubby has caught up on work after the summer conference he teaches at and is involved in new projects, for one thing.  For another, the weather has finally cooled off so I'm doing more things.  Meanwhile, the garden hasn't really slowed down yet. 

The first thing I did with the cooler weather was do the sewing I'd put off all summer.  In late spring I'd taken all the clothes that needed patches and other repairs and gotten them ready to be worked on.  Mostly that meant that I'd ironed or fabric-glued patches in place, intending to sew the the patches on more securely.  Since the clothes were all long-sleeved shirts and long pants, they didn't need to be done immediately.  But I discovered that during the 100 degree days of summer I was .... disinclined .... to sit with material covering me, doing the sewing in my lap (knee and elbow patches have to be sewn by hand here, I don't have a sewing machine with an long narrow plate to slip them over). So suddenly it was 'patch or die!'  or at least "patch or everyone will have to wear their GOOD STUFF around the house, leading to them wearing out into no longer being the good stuff".

It took a few weeks, but the winter stuff is now caught up on.  Which means I'm identifying summer stuff that needs work.  Why do the underarms get holes in them?  I understand the holes in the front of the shirts - we have cats. Cats have claws. Cats poke holes in things.  Those holes I'm going to do some embroidery over.  I'm thinking of doing protective runes.

I've also started the fall round of carpet shampooing, and all the rest of the fall cleaning.  It's a constant battle against cobwebs here! 

And I'm working on harvesting every wild herb that I can.  I'm sure that this is embarrassing the Spawn, who is often with me when I suddenly stop and grab, say, a nice mullein plant, or cut some grape vines, or dig up some chickory roots.    And then I have to clean them, dry them, store them. 

And, as I type this, tomorrow in October 1.  Which means Samhain is coming.  With my 9-day personal prep for that (see this post), and coven ritual, and maybe Audience with the Ancestors with the larger tradition .... busy.

What's on your plate for Autumn? Are you preparing for the Cold Times, for Samhain? Clearing the way for introspection or study?

Frondly, Fern

Orange Extract

Blessings Darlings!


During this last round of being broke I took using every bit of food to new heights.  Which meant I had to buy ingredients only, never 'food' as such.  Baking everything from scratch, however, meant that I went thru' even ingredients at a rapid pace.  And things like extracts can be expensive!

So even every orange, lemon, and lime we ate had to do double duty.  We'd eat the orange/use the juice of the lemon or lime, and then the peel would be transformed into the citrus extract du jour.  They are VERY easy to make, except for the price of the vodka.  And as you all know while it is legal to homebrew your own beer and wine it is NOT legal to distill your own liquor. 

Anyway, take the peel of the citrus fruit in question.  Just the colored part as much as possible, the white pith is pretty darn bitter.  Put it in a jar (I prefer glass jars, YMMV).  Cover it with vodka.  Rum or Everclear or whatever might be fine, too, but I use cheap vodka.  You can probably add up to a pint for one orange, somewhat less for the smaller fruits.  Let it sit for a few days.  Strain. Done.

If you're in a hurry, just use a microplane grater on the fruit you want the flavor of and add the peel to the dish, but it's not quite the same.

If you were actually after essential oils for some ritual use ... add the peels to a small amount of flavorless vegetable oil, like peanut or 'vegetable oil' and let it sit.

Frondly, Fern

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

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.

Imbolc Preparations

Blessings Darlings!

Want to prepare?  Okay.

Turn off the podcast.  Put down the book on Wicca. Step away from the computer.

Instead ... go outside. Spend time there.

Make it a point to notice when it's sun rise and sun set each day.  Feel the lengthening of the light in all your being. 

Leave offerings for the local manifestations of the nature spirits.  It's still the hungry times for them, and will be for rather a while.  Coat a big pine cone with peanut butter (or melted tallow) and roll it in bird seed.  Tie it on to a local tree.

Frondly, Fern