Valentine's Day Smart Ass

written: Feb 14th

Today’s #cy365 photo challenge prompt is “A Valentine”:



Now the story behind this.

My husband and I generally don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day. It’s not because we’re edgy or cool or are anti-Valentine’s Day. It’s just we don’t want to celebrate it on the same day as everyone else. ::laughs:: Because we hate crowds.

So I was quite surprised when he gave me this box of chocolates and said “Happy Valentine’s Day!” Then I realized it was rather light. I shook it and heard nothing. I looked at him and his big shit-eating grin and asked him “Is this empty?” To which he piped up “Babe, it’s the thought that counts!” ::dies laughing:: I retorted with “Well, it’s more than I got you!” Ah the joys of living with a jokester.

RIP Andy

Today’s #CY365 photo challenge prompt is “Tiny”, so I took a photo of the TINY clover blossoms that are showing up in my yard.

1st photo is of just the blossoms:



2nd photo is of the blossoms and my index finger so you can see just how tiny they are:



I got the news today that Andy was found deceased. I don’t have any other information than that. I texted Dusty (Andy’s brother) to verify the information because Andy tends to go off-grid every so often and I didn’t want to spread rumors without knowing for sure they were true.



Andy certainly had his demons. I had even had to unfriend him on Facebook because of the negativity he was spewing was just awful. I know there were some mental health issues there as well…but there is only so much you can do if the person REFUSES any sort of help.

It just sucks that this is how it all ended.

I came home and lit a candle for him. I don’t know what his personal beliefs were (though I know he was viciously anti-Christian), so I figured I would honor him in my own way. I dressed the candle in “Mystery” scented oil by Sage Goddess (one of a thousand samples I have). Mystery certainly seemed to shroud Andy throughout his life, so I felt that was an appropriate selection.



I just hope he’s found the peace that was denied him here on this plane of existence. And I hope he attains all the wisdom and knowledge he thirsted for.

White Boards & Grimoires

written: Feb 12th



Today’s photo is part of the essay I had to write today for my Financial and Human Resources Management in Information Agencies class:



Yep, still using that white board my husband gave me a while back. It seriously has been quite useful, as I do prefer to write things out long hand and writing on the white board doesn’t fatigue my hands. I’m actually thinking of getting some white board paint and painting a huge board with it. I would get my husband to put an edge/frame on it (so that when I erase things, the eraser poo doesn’t smudge up my walls) and then have him hang it in my room. Honestly, I would love to have a HUGE one that takes up most of the wall next to my bed. Big enough to do my class work on, and my own personal writing on when the mood strikes. I could keep my weekly To Do List there as well. Ah, the possibilities of a 9 foot long, 4 foot high white board. ::laughs::

So, seeing as how my essay today (all 800 words of it) revolved around the Vatican Library, and because I am terribly behind on the YouTube Pagan Challenges, I thought it would be a good balance to write about one of the challenges.

I did Week 1 on January 10th and Week 2 on January 15th.

Week 3’s Prompt: How to organize your books – a table of contents, books marks, etc.

I have two books I’m working with. My Book of Shadows (which is more reference that I’ve built up over the years) is divided based on Sabbat, Esbat, Rituals, Totems, and Miscellaneous. Because it’s in a 3-ring binder, I use tabbed dividers. It does make it very easy to locate information I have on Ostara sabbat (an upcoming one in March, for the Spring Equinox).

My Working Grimoire is currently in a 3-ring binder, but I plan to have it bound at the end of the year into a hardback book. In its 3-ring binder phase it is also separated with tabbed dividers – but it’s separated according to month. So any ritual I do for the month of January, be it smudging, personal ritual, spell work, Esbat, Tarot readings, etc., it all goes behind the January tab. So my Working Grimoire will be done chronologically for the year. Maybe I’ll put a Table of Contents in before I get the book bound. It would make it easier to find the information. Or maybe I could include tabbed dividers in the bound book as well? Hmmm, all things to think about and figure out at the end of 2017 or the beginning of 2018.

Full Wild Moon

written: Feb 11th

Today was the Full Moon for February. It’s typically called the Snow Moon….but yeah, here in Texas, there is no snow, so it’s not really a name that resonates with me. I was reading in “The Modern Witchcraft Grimoire” and the author listed the “Full Wild Moon” as an alternative name for February’s full moon and I just love it. So that’s the name I’m going with for this full moon from now on.

Altar with the lights on:


Going left to right:
Galaxy Coyote Skull (I had put her away for safe keeping when we had the pest people come through and I just hadn’t gotten her back out. But I was quite happy to have her back on my altar again.)
Blue Tarot Bag = The Messenger Oracle deck
Unsheathed Athame (witch’s black handled knife)
“Shadow” tea light (by Sage Goddess) as a candle for the Great Pythoness/Snake spirit
Bone snake “wand” – also a symbol of the Great Pythoness (by TalismanaDesigns)
4 adorable white candles I picked up at Tuesday Morning store (I’ll have to take a photo of just them…I love them).
Small green vial – Anointing Oil (by Sage Goddess)
Altar Pentacle
Black glass jar (formerly a Samhain candle – by MoonGoddessMagick) used to burn my bay leaves in
Sekhmet statue and Her red candle
Sacred feather and Artemis Incense by HarvestMoonHaven
White paper = notes on the Full Moon Tarot layout I used
Black obsidian wand on top of the paper

And two candle-light / shadowy Selfies:


And #2:

Nerd

written: Feb 10th

Today’s #cy365 photo challenge prompt is “What I’m reading”:



Yep that is currently what is DOMINATING my life at the moment. I have a massive paper due (1200 to 1500 words) due by midnight. Don’t get me wrong, it is vastly fascinating to me, but holy shit – 1200 words is a lot more than I’m accustomed to writing.

So yeah, while I’m sure these articles aren’t interesting to anyone else, I find them VASTLY awesome. They have figured out a way to read these scrolls that were basically flash-burnt-to-a-crisp thanks to Mount Vesuvius – yep, the very same one that annihilated Pompeii – without unrolling and thus damaging the scrolls. And thus far, the ones they’ve scanned and translated and all that jazz are previously unknown works by Philodemus (a Greek philosopher). Who knows what else the other scrolls may contain? And the fact that this is one of the few libraries to have “survived” from ancient times? Too friggin’ awesome!

Thankful Thursday 06

written: Feb 9th

Today’s #cy365 photo challenge prompt for day is “Twins”. And I’m sitting here and scratching my head, trying to figure out where the fuck I’m going to find some twins. And then my snarky side piped up and we did this photo of my “twins”:



::dies laughing::

I am thankful…
1. The week is almost over. This has been a weird ass week and I’m ready for it to be over and done with.
2. My Imbolc ritual turned out quite nicely. I’m very pleasantly pleased with it.
3. I finally found THE PERFECT book blessing for my Grimoire. I wasn’t even looking for it and just tumbled across it reading something else. But damn, when I read it, it electrified my spirit. Just amazing. I’ve already written it in my book and I just love it.
4. Pampering shower – I really need to do that more. I needed it and damn, I felt so much better all over.
5. Nice quiet MoonTime. The first day is always the most brutal, but after that, it’s fine.
6. Getting snail mail from the Letter Mo challenge. I haven’t been able to keep up with the letter-every-day portion, but I’m doing what I can.
7. All the compliments I’ve received on my photos of Leviathan out in the tree. I definitely have to do that more often now that I have a house and don’t have to worry about the apartment people being horrible about it.
8. The horrible group project for the Financial & Human Resources Management class is finally over and done with. I’ve never been a part of such a text-happy group. The group texting FROZE my phone at one point and I had to remove the battery to restart it. Oye!
9. Goofing off and playing with my students once more at work. I really need to do more of that as well. They love and I can DEFINITELY use the extra exercise. ::chuckles::
10. Trying out some new meals and some tried and true recipes this week.

Exhausted

Today’s #cy365 photo challenge prompt is “Pink”.
And anyone who knows me, knows I do NOT like pink. So I almost skipped this prompt until I looked at my BaBuJo (Bastardized Bullet Journal):



Yeah, there’s some pink on it. It’s one of the more girlie things I have currently. ::laughs:: But it’s pretty and I like it and that’s all that matters.

I am exhausted. Like a bone-weary level of soul exhaustion.
Oh hello, MoonTime. So nice of you to stop by. Only a few days early this time around. So much better than the times it decides to drop in a WEEK EARLY.

I wish I had written more yesterday about my Imbolc ritual. I don’t write it all down for “public” consumption on my blog here, but even for me, yesterday’s entry was light. I dunno. I think I’m still mulling it over, getting a feel for it all. So yeah, good call lil Wolfie on video recording your re-dedication. There’s no way I could remember the words now and my fingers refuse to write anyways on the subject.