A Wise Word:

Witchcraft is all about living to the heights and depths of life as a way of worship. --LY DE ANGELES

Thursday, September 29, 2016

D' Aulares' Book of Norse Myths


Usually, a book review from me is a good thing.  I share volumes that I love and leave the ho-hum ones on the shelf.  Today, however I am going to share a book that I recomend you DO NOT buy.

A few months ago, I purchased D'Aulares' Book of Norse Myths with a preface by Michael Chabon through Amazon.  I can remember reading the Greek version of this book in grade school and loved it, so when I found this I thought I just had to have it.  Wrong!

The book features Norse deity and their adventures, but cloaked in a very Christian bias.  The preface includes some thinly veiled negativity toward our ancestral faith and the first two chapters are presented with such a Christianised slant that Superman insists they give him the creeps.  Further accounts are not exactly correct, but there is little harm in them and most mythologies for children have to be edited a bit.  The final chapter,however, is completely Christian propaganda and should and will be avoided at least in our house.

Since this book is paid for and on our bookshelf, I do read it to the children, but I read very slowly and do a lot of improvising.  Mostly, we look at the beautiful colored pencil illustrations and tell the story's for ourselves.


With all the good books available in our time, I would certainly recomend that this not be one you spend your hard earned money on.  Study the Eddas and Sagas or which ever classical stories build the framework of your faith and retell them yourself.   Work as a family to create an illustrated collection of your favorite tales and bind it into an heirloom tome.  You Tube has some great book binding tutorials.  Teach your children, but do it on your terms.  



Friday, September 23, 2016

Sourdough Hot Cakes: Making New Memories and Honoring the Old

Lately, I've been noticing that cooking blogs make sourdough complicated.  They want to measure humidity, add unnecessary ingredients, make huge batches of leaven to use only a small sample, and do tests to rate the activity of their starter.

Just reading what the modern cook has to say about sourdough intimidates me and I've known sourdough all my life.  Sourdough was a staple for prospectors, cowpokes, and busy pioneer women.  It is intended to be simple.

As far as anybody can figure, my Papa kept a sourdough starter for 70 years.  He was of the cowpoke variety.  Every morning he made sourdough hot cakes or "doughs."  His kids were raised on them and so were us grandkids.  I made it a point to make them an important part of life for my older children and now I have started with the younger ones as well.



 This afternoon, I made hot cakes with Little Moon.  It's a simple process, but far easier with out the help of a hungry two year old.


Instead of a proper recipe, doughs are more of a ratio.  Use one cup of starter for every two people and go from there.  For each cup of starter use 1 tsp white sugar and 1/2 tsp baking soda.  Yep.  That's it.

Pour starter in a large bowl and gently mix in sugar.

Place baking soda in a mug or small bowl and dissolve in a tablespoon of warm water.  Fold into starter.

This is the fun part! As the baking soda mixes with the starter, the batter foams and grows.

Spritz a preheated skillet with non-stick spray and spread batter thinly.  The pan should be over medium heat. When the surface starts to dry, flip the dough and cook for a minute or so longer.


Done and done.



Serve with maple syrup and butter no photos of this as the girls were more than over me photographing their food.  My Papa always ate his with two over-easy eggs sandwiched in the middle and an entire flood of syrup, washed down with black coffee of course.

The girls loved this new addition to their diet and before we sat down to eat we set the prettiest hot cake in front of my grandparents photo as an offering.  All rolled up, the way Papa liked to eat them for an afternoon snack.


Monday, September 5, 2016

My Evolving Path

So, I've been pretty quiet for the better part of six months now.  It's been pretty hectic in more ways than one, but I am hoping to get it together and begin sharing my witchy adventures again.



As most of my readers know do I still have readers after this long absence?  I have identified as an animistic witch and focused mostly on nature in my craft.  Things change.  Over the past several months I have been reevaluating my spirituality and practice, not because it wasn't working, but because I felt something else might work better.

To be honest, I never felt wholly comfortable with the Celtic style rituals found in much of American witchcraft.  I also found a lot of standard practices to be a bit unweildly.  As I looked to simplify, I fell into a lot of sigil magick, which I found to be highly effective.  Then it just seemed natural that I learn about the Runes.

With the Runes came a deeper interest in my Norse heritage especially when I found additional Norse ancestors in my lineage, this interest was also spurred by the fact that Superman had developed the same interest.  Soon, the interest became a longing and we begin perusing a Norse/Heathen/Asatru whatever you decide to call it path.  Finally, we found what fits!



As I seek to embrase and learn my tribal faith, I continue to practice nature magick in a mostly intuitive way.  Someday, I hope to be learned enough to consider myself a Vitki.