There's The Kind of Help I Need and The Kind of Help I Don't Need

Let's start with the kind of help I apparently do need.  Yesterday I was convinced that the computer was broke.  I pushed the button and nothing happened.  All the cords appeared to be attached to the back of the tower I even jiggled them a bit for good measure, but with no results.  Now the device has been behaving a bit "off" the past few weeks, so the idea of it giving up the ghost was not a foreign thought.  I just pushed the button a few more times and then shrugged my shoulders and went about my day. 

When the littles napped, I snagged Miss Busy's tablet and blogged about my sad, broken, computer.  I also resolved to put my new found spare time to work and get more art, magic, meditation, and living done.  Then Superman got home from work.  He jiggled the same cords I did then pulled out the desk and plugged the unit back in.  Vola!  We had a working computer.  He smirked at me and named himself a computer genius, but said no more.  That means I'm in trouble and he's saving up all the smart comments he could have made about this escapade.  Next time I think I've gotten the upper hand in some silly, verbal sparing match he's going to pull out the material about the computer.  I'm sure he's already got the outline written. 

 

Which now brings me to the help I don't need.  In an attempt to be true to yesterday's resolutions, I got my day off to a good start in the arts and crafts department.  I prepped a canvas for a mixed media landscape and then turned my attention to the scrying mirror I've been planning.  I don't know if old Mercury is making a last ditch stab at me or if Miss Busy and Merlin have some strange allergic reaction to progress, but turmoil soon ensued.  

Just after I had applied a second coat of paint to the glass and turned my attention to the dishes, the kid and the cat broke into a racious game of tag which resulted in a foot print in my wet paint. Next was a game of peek-a-boo in the table cloth.   Not long after, I got an important phone call and ended up sounding like a nutter while I dove across the living room to rescue my tea mug from Miss Busy and then moments later was attacked by a plastic picture Merlin sent flying off the top of the fridge.  I certainly won't be able to say I had a dull day. 

So Here Goes Nothing

This morning I pushed that little button on top of my computer tower and nothing happened.  No little click followed by an electronic grunt and a flood of blue light. Just silence.  Uh-oh.  I knew it was coming for about two werks now, but it was still a sickening moment.  So now I am learning all about mobile blogging on Mise Busy's tablet. (I haven't figured out how to change the font color on my side comments or use spell check.   The buttons are there, but they don't seem to do anything.) The typing is a bit time consuming, but on the upside I dont have t8ntransfer photos from on3 device to another anymore.

Really, not having a computer may be a small loss.  I know that our society depends on them greatly (after all its how I communicate with you), but perhapse we depend on them too much.  I personaly am (or have been) addicted to the easy information a computer with Internet provides. Being the owner of a constantly wondering mind, I could spend all day at my desk chasing information trails online.   It almost seems liberating to think off all the time I will have to devote to my craft and my creations now that surfing the internet will be a little less convenient.

So what do I plan to do with my new found time?  Meditate longer, actually write the spells I have floating around in my head, create items for my future Etsy store, sew a ton on my new sewing machine, work on my BOS, and actually take the time to read.  If it all gets too low tech to handle and my thumbs can't handle doing all the typing, I can always get my fix at the library.

Making Do

I grew up making do and using what ever was available.  My parents didn't spend money unless they absolutely had to, so their artistic child had to make art with items already found around the house.  Thankfully, my mother was a seamstress so I had a fair amount to choose from.  Being resourceful is something I take great pride in and actually love doing: it is a fun challenge, expands my creativity, and is good for the earth.  I even incorporate making do into my magickal practice.  About 90% of the resources I use for creating magickal items are post consumer and nearly 75% of the resources I use for spell crafting fall into that category as well.  The trick is knowing what to save and how to use it.  My best rule of thumb is to think outside the box. 

 

Items I recycle on a regular basis and how I use them in my magical practice

• Broken Jewelry: creating charms or amulets, embellishing handmade magickal items, decorating my altar
• Brown Paper Bags: creating spell packets you intend to burn, writing spells, drawing spells for sympathetic magick
• Candle Stubs: sealing spells or containers of herbal concoctions
• Chicken Bones:  crafting, opportunity/positive change spells (wishbone)
• Coconut Shells: creating amulets, peace/healing spells
• Coffee Grounds: enhance energy with in a spell, fixing the nitrogen in my altar plants, creating exfoliating scrubs
• Crown Royal Bags: crafting, storage, spell bags
• Egg Shells: energy/life/new beginning/fertility spells
• Fabric Scraps: crafting, spell and mojo bags, making twine, creating poppets, making herb pouches
• Glass Jars and Bottles (with lids): storing herbs and herbal concoctions, creating witches bottles, impromptu candle holders, containment spells
• Hair Clippings (with permission): personal magick
• Scraps of Wool Yarn:  tying spell packets, making witches ladders, knot work, stringing amulets or talismans
• Tin Cans:  to use when melting down wax with out creating a huge mess
• Toilet Paper Tubes: making large spell packets to burn

Items I collect from nature when they are presented to me and how I use them

• Animal Bones: species specific workings and mojo bags/talismans
• Drift Wood: crafting
• Fallen Leaves: crafting, decorating, clearing negative energy, wind magic
• Feathers:  crafting, attracting energy, representation of the Elemental Air
• Pine Cones: protective spells, holiday decorating
• Pine Needles: protective spells, holiday decorating, creating incense
• Pruned Tree Limbs: crafting, starting fires
• River Rocks: crafting, representation of the Elementals Earth and Water (body/strength and blood/emotion), soothing/healing spells
• Shells: crafting, representation of the Elemental Water
• Shed Skins (snake or beetle): new life/growth spells
• Stones: crafting, representation of the Elemental Earth, soothing/healing/protection spells

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list of items used in my magickal practice and the way I use these items may not be textbook, but results are what matter and magick is very individual.  I also use a lot of herbs from the health food store and some that I wild harvest locally. 

Most of my crafting items wreaths, thread, buttons, picture frames, mirrors, beads, and even fabric are purchased post consumer at yard sales and thrift stores and then cleansed.  I have read that using secondhand or post consumer items can contaminate ones magick, but I do not find a significant difference in the energy coming from the majority of the items I find used in comparison to those coming from a factory. Honestly, factory work is no fun.  How many factory workers do you know who carry around a ton of positive energy?  Rather they are new or used, items that have an icky feel to them just don't come home with me. 

The Proverbial Woodpile

Years ago, when my oldest four were small, I had a homestead not the house pictured.  Although the house was modern, it was heated solely with wood.  Usually the job of bringing in firewood belonged to G.I. Joe and I, but one fall afternoon I decided to expedite the task by including the younger three as well.  The girls took to the task quickly, but Mr. Man had other ideas.  While the rest of us were heading out the door, that little rascal disappeared.  On my second trip back into the house with an armload of wood, I decided to investigate his disappearance I had assumed that he was looking for his chronically missing shoes and found him crouched behind his bed testing the "out of sight, out of mind" theory.  Unwilling to be punked by a four year old, I hustled him outside while he howled about the cruelty of forcing such a delicate individual out into the cold. 

By this time the wood box was nearly full, so I informed Mr. Man that the last two armloads of wood were his responsibility.  He continued to howl about the frigid temperature in the 40's while the rest of us filtered back into the house.  For the next ten minutes, I watched from the kitchen window as he stomped back and forth in front of the woodpile, kicking at the ground as he went.  With out any prompting from me, his brother went out and offered to help him, but was answered with a screamed, "Go away!"  About fifteen minutes into the saga, I went to stoke the fire and returned to the kitchen to see that Mr. Man was laying on top of the wood pile with his arms crossed defiantly, muttering under his breath.  Cracking open the kitchen door I heard his mantra, "I'm cold.  I'm cold.  I'm cold."  Returning to the wood pile, I explained the lack of logic in his protest.  If he would just bring in two arm loads of wood he could stay in the nice warm house for the rest of the day.  In response he added kicking  feet to the crossed arm, muttering pose. 



Hamming it up for the camera: Mr. Man (13) and G.I Joe (16)

 

Eventually, I did get my two arm loads of wood and Mr. Man was allowed shelter from the sub-Artic temperatures found in central North Carolina.  As cute and funny as this story is, as adults we really aren't any different than my stubborn son.  Human nature is to be  addicted to comfort.  Each of us has a well defined comfort zone.  When forced out of this zone we are often stubborn and defiant, unwilling to do the work required to get back to the place we feel safe in.

Those of us on a Pagan life path would probably all agree that peace and enlightenment of some form are major goals in our lives. We have an idea image of what we long to become, but we drag our feet when it comes to study and meditation. When life is busy or stressful we seem to balk at self improvement more than ever and that is when we need centering the most.  That is how we get stuck out on the wood pile when we would rather be snuggled up near the fire. 

Read a article about chakras or alternative medicine, take a quiet nature walk, spend a few moments breathing deeply and visualizing the person you want to be...Thirty minutes of focused "me" time every day will make a noticeable difference now and a life changing difference in the long run.  Every beautiful bird starts out as a humble egg. 

Peanut Butter Cookies: A Bit of Kitchen Witchery

My mother would have a heart attack if she even suspected that I added magick to her peanut butter cookie recipe, but I did! I hate to admit it, but I do find a bit of satisfaction in knowing that. For all the mama traits the woman doesn't have, she gets an A+ in cookie making.  These are the ultimate in rich, creamy, melt in your mouth goodness and they are only composed of three yes, you read right only three ingredients. 

One of my favorite witches likes to say, "Live Your Magick!"  Since I am a full time mama, my magick is in mothering.  Yesterday just seemed like a good day to add a bit of extra memory making to equation, so Miss Busy and I mixed up a batch of these cookies.  Every time we make them, I tell her the three ingredients so that she will have this special recipe memorized by the time she is ready to try the magick on her own.  Since these cookies are one of my fond childhood memories, I include a bit on my own mothers magic as well: flattening them with a potato masher to get the little knobs on the top. 

Absolutely Wonderful, Amazing, Yummy, Melt in Your Mouth Peanut Butter Cookies

1 Cup Peanut Butter

1 Cup Sugar

1 Egg

Heat the oven to 350.

Cream together your three ingredients.

Shape into balls and roll in a bit of extra sugar to coat. This is the step where you add your magick.  While I am shaping the ball I concentrate on the good, warm memories I want my children to have of their childhoods.  I then channel that energy and a good dose of love through my hands and right into the cookie.  To enhance the intent of the magick, we sit together and chat while we enjoy them. 

Set on cookie sheet and flatten with a potato masher. This creates round cookies.  Here we talk about the cookies being the same shape as the moon.  Miss Busy isn't old enough to have very in depth conversations with, but she is already learning about the tides and moon phases. 

Bake for 10-12 minutes. 

Remove from oven and let cool on pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. 

The hardest part about this recipe is waiting for them to cool.  Since they are really more like confections than traditional cookies, they cool very slowly and will scald your mouth if you are impatient enough to bite into one early.  Yeah, ask me how I know.  These are absolutely amazing with a glass of milk and I've been know to justify them as breakfast food.

Free Form Dreading and Embracing Myself

 

It's been six weeks since the last time I brushed my hair, eight since I have conditioned.  I'm looking pretty wild right now and I love it.  Already this journey has taken paths I never anticipated and I am learning more about myself everyday.  I am becoming more empowered to be completely, totally, and honestly me.  Because I have now taken the drastic step of completely rejecting societies standards of beauty, for the first time in my life I know that I am pretty.  Really, I'm not trying to sound egotistical, this is a big break through for me. From my husbands loving influence, I use to believe I was pretty.  Now I simply know it. 

 

Growing up in rural Montana, I saw dreadlocks in person for the first time when I was 11 or 12 years old.  They were being worn by a blond girl of 17 or 18 and I wanted to be her.  To me, she was the epitome of beauty.  Not only was her hair magnificently wild, but everything about her spoke of natural ease.  Of course, I only saw her from a distance, but it was one of those slow motion cheesy movie scene moments.  It is completely correct to say that I was drawn to dreads, although at the time I could not put my finger on any other reason than aesthetics.  Since my super conservative parents weren't about to let me dread my hair, the idea went to the back burner and continued to percolate for over twenty years. 

 

As I grew older and begin learning more about the culture of my ancestors, I found that my longing for dreads was calling to me from a time long ago.   I am a proud descent of the ancient Celts (Lowland Scott) and Vikings (Finn and Swede) on my dads side of the family, with more Viking (Swede) mixed with Sioux (Mandan) and German on my mom's side.  It is fair to say that the majority of my ancient ancestry likely wore their hair in some kind of natural matted style.  If we want to be completely frank, most prehistoric people probably did since there was no means to brush and maintain their hair in an "orderly" fashion.   Having always felt like an old soul and needing to connect with those who came before me, the desire to grow dreads makes perfect sense. 

Spiritually, my decision to dread goes beyond ancestor reverence and is an extension of my relationship to nature and my kindred the Elementals.  It is an acceptance of my true self similar to the way many witches take on a spiritual name, the girlish woman who still loves to dance barefooted and who wraps herself in the wind.  It is showing the Universe that I am happy with who I am and love the person I was created to be. 


**Since some of you are bound to notice, I do have five twist and rip dreads tied off with wool. 

Feeling Crafty: Altar Wreath



Many of you may know that I make just about everything I need for my practice.  In the past I have always used a grapevine napkin holder wrapped in brown wool to create a pentacle for my altar. It was only a few inches across and seemed to get lost among all the other items I had in my small space. My altar looks very roomy now that it is undressed for winter, but all it takes to become crowded is a few seasonal items. I've known for a few months now how I wanted to remedy the situation, but obtaining a blank, vine wreath took a bit of time. 





 

 

In essence, the new pentacle is the same as the old one; only larger and more decorative.  I used a thrifted vine wreath my favorite thrift store has a great craft department, bias tape, fabric and ribbon scraps, and glass seed beads on this latest project.  I love the combination of rustic and whimsy and feels that this piece really reflects who I am and how I relate to the world.  I may need to make more seasonally appropriate wreaths for Samhain and Yule, so I will continue to keep an eye out for additional blank wreaths.