Public Lammas Ritual

written: August 5th

Photo for the day:

 

Beautiful, nearly Full Moon rising. I wanted this other shot of the Moon between a pair of pine trees, except this asshole decided to park his truck in the way, so it looked like I was taking a picture of his truck. And he kept looking at me like I was being a jerk. ::sighs:: So I continued on, and got this shot instead. But next month! I’m gonna get that damn pine tree shot, asshole or no asshole. He can just piss up a rope for all I care.

So today, Hazel and I went to the CUUP’s public Lammas Ritual. Their group revolves around the hearth – the heart of the home. And so their Lammas ritual wasn’t much of an actual ritual. They are massive bakers for damn sure. There were probably 20 different bread-things and they had made this awesome Ritual Loaf. The loaf is kneaded by three members of the coven – a maiden, a mother, and a crone. It was shaped to look like a bushel of wheat.

The group is split, most being Norse based, which makes Hazel super happy. It was nice to see her flitting around, getting to know everyone. Me, as always, I’m far more reserved. The other part of the group is more based on Celtic. All in all, a super welcoming group….but. I dunno. A guy there really rubbed me the wrong way at the start. But then maybe he was just overly keen about making us feel welcome? I dunno. I am working on listening to my gut more, and my gut did not like him one bit at the beginning. After talking with him, he doesn’t seem that terrible. But. ::shakes her head:: But, that first impression doesn’t dissipate.

And of course, Hazel loves the Heathen group. Which, I have to admit, they seem to be really awesome. Especially the one who wants to start a “Gay, Viking, Cowboy motorcycle gang”. ::laughs:: With Texas become extremely lax in its weapon laws come September, it will be perfectly legal to open carry handguns (as long as they are registered and you have a permit) AND an axe, if one is so inclined. ::chuckles::

Lil Moons & Firestone

written: August 4th

Photo for today:

 

I came across these cracked quartz 20 mm beads while I was at Michael’s. I was there to pick up boxes to mail the oils to my friends. I’m really hoping the various layers I’m employing will keep the oil vials safe until they reach their destinations.

And I was looking around for some moon charms to gussy up the plain white 7-day candle I have for full moons. Instead, I came across these beads. To me, they look like perfect miniature moons! I am not sure if I’ll use them for the candle, but I just couldn’t pass them up. I am thinking of making a garland with them – 13 for the 13 full moons that typically occur in a year. Or I had a vision of a necklace made of three of these, and some of the smaller ones (that look like even smaller moons) and then the rest of the necklace is made of tiny pearls. It would be beautiful to wear specifically for lunar rituals. I should really sketch out that necklace before it dissipates from my mind.

So hopefully tomorrow morning-ish, I can mail out the oils to Annie, Nona, and Francesca. In the afternoon, Hazel and I will be attending one of the local Pagan chapters of the UU’s Lammas public ritual (which I’ll give Hazel her oil before we go to that). And THEN on Sunday, I am hoping to meet up with Linda so I can pass along HER oil. And after that, I’m pretty sure I’m going to be completely social-ed the fuck out.

I finally got my car back around 3 pm today. Turns out it was the starter – so a much cheaper fix than an alternator. And I was reminded all too well why I do not like that particular Firestone. ::shakes her head:: But I refuse to delve into that. No sense in rehashing crap I already know. Now, next month I will get another opinion on the brakes and the battery. I have ZERO trust in that particular Firestone.

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Thankful Thursday #31

written: August 3rd

Photo for the day:

 

A small little altar I have for my Dream Protector. The little dark wolf is carved of hematite and I just love it. It has a perfect weight…hematite has a serious density to it.

I am thankful…
1. That I managed to snap a photo before I went to bed as I had forgotten to take one all day! ::laughs::
2. That Liz was available and able to come rescue David and I from Staples and take us home, due to my car dying in the parking lot.
3. That David had today off and thus was able to run me around to get my car towed.
4. Lammas/Lughnasadh solo ritual went well enough AND that I was given inspiration on some things to work on for the rest of the year.
5. Divvied up the Red Fast Luck Oil for five of my friends. And now it’s resting on my altar, soaking up some good energies.
6. Plenty of good walks with Josey in our neighborhood.
7. Found a Sharp-shinned Hawk feather on one of our walks. I’m seriously over the moon about it.
8. I was finally able to get my car towed, after waiting a few hours for one place to call me back. My second choice was more expensive, but they were there within 25 minutes of my initial phone call.
9. Today is Lil Nephew’s 3rd birthday! I cannot believe he’s three! I need to get my butt back down there and see them all – plus visit my Mom as well. I dunno, I just kind of dropped off the face of the earth for a bit and haven’t really seen my family that much.
10. That I’m half way through my Master’s degree. It certainly has been vastly more labor intensive and brain intensive than I ever would have thought (because I am so utterly naïve about such things), but I do enjoy most of the courses, so that makes it bearable! ::laughs::

Lughnasadh: Part 2

written: August 2nd

Blessed Lammas/Lughnasadh! I did my ritual today, which…just a day past the standard date of celebration, so not too shabby for me! ::laughs:: Though, I’ve heard that astrologically speaking, Lughnasadh doesn’t occur until August 7th….so maybe I’m just celebrating early? ::laughs:: Though, now I kind of want to do a bit of research (I know, such the surprise!), and for 2018, I would like to test out celebrating the Sabbats on their astrological days instead of the “standard” Pagan days. Could be interesting! Ok, so I’m going to pause here and go write that in my planner or I will completely forget! How hilarious would to be to find that because I almost always celebrate my Sabbats a few days past their Standard Pagan Date that I’m actually much closer to celebrating them on their astrological dates?

Alright, brace yourselves because here come the photos.

First up, this is the tiny jar of apricot preserves one of my students gave me:

 

Seriously, isn’t the jar just too damn cute? It will be cleaned and cleansed and eventually used in some spell work.

And spreading the apricot preserves on the bread I baked yesterday:

 

Doesn’t it look like liquid sunlight on the bread? Normally, I would have taken this up to my room, placed it on my altar, and then eaten when my ritual was complete. But since Josey LOVES the bread beyond reason, and she’s typically in the room when I’m doing ritual, AND my altar is well within Josey reach…I decided it was wiser to enjoy it downstairs before ritual than having to combat a dog in ritual to save the bread. ::laughs:: And yes, Josey got a piece of bread as well, without the apricot preserves, but she was plenty happy with it!

Lammas/Lughnasadh altar:

 

It’s a bit bare, but I was also doing some ritual work, so I needed the space. I divvied up the Red Fast Luck Oil for the friends I’ll be sharing it with (Annie, Francesca, Nona, Linda, and Hazel). In each of the little bottles, I also added in a chip of pyrite and a chip of citrine.

Not pictured is the black artist board that I originally made for my Rail Spike Protection spell. I decided since it has the four sigils (for the spikes) on the board, that I would keep it under my altar. This way, anytime I do ritual, it empowers the sigils on the board, that link to the sigils on the rail spikes at the four corners of my property. I pulled that board out from under the altar, and used it as the actual work place for the oil, jars, and stones.

Close up of the jars themselves:
 
 

I then blessed each jar, wishing that the oil aid my friends in their future endeavors:

 

Then I thumbed through my two lists of goals that I have (my birthday goals and my 101 Goals in 1001 Days). I crossed off ones that I’ve completed. And I also crossed off ones that I no longer feel drawn to. Surprisingly, looking at the two lists of goals, I’ve actually accomplished quite a bit more than I thought I had. Granted, the 101 Goals are set to be accomplished sometime in the next 3.5 years….so there’s quite a few I haven’t done yet, but it was nice to be able to cross some off as completed. And I only added in one goal to the list – get a chair of some sort for use in ritual. sitting on the floor is a tad bit too short for my altar, so a meditation seat or something along those lines would be awesome.

Lughnasadh: Part 1

Blessed Lammas/Lughnasadh! It’s the Sabbat of the First Harvest. Bread is traditionally baked, which thankfully, I did manage to get baked today.

Damn grabby ass dough. It fucked up my star.

 

But I at least knew better than to try for a full pentacle…that circle around the star would have completely mucked it up so bad.

Apparently today was an AMAZING day for feather gathering on our walk:

 

The large feather is a sharp-shinned hawk. Then starting from the top:
Woodpecker
Blue Jay
Blue Jay
Eastern Bluebird

I just wish Josey had behaved a bit better so the walk itself wasn’t so crappy. ::sighs:: I thought people were supposed to be terrified of pit bulls??? I wish the people in this area WERE terrified of pit bulls. Because they aren’t. And they aren’t even polite about it. ::sighs::

The bread turned out great. I decided to try some of the apricot jelly a student gave me. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be so delicious! I used to hate apricots because my grandparents had an apricot tree that we had to pick for them. You know what likes apricots like you wouldn’t believe? YELLOW JACKETS and BEES. Hell to the no.

This apricot jelly is the first time I’ve had anything apricot since I was probably 10 years old. I’m sad I only have a tiny jar (though that jar will definitely be used in some spell work later on….it’s too cute to toss). I plan to pick up a jar to take to the Lammas Public Ritual Hazel and I will be attending on Saturday.

I will be doing my Lammas/Lughnasadh ritual tomorrow. Today was all about getting the damn bread baked! ::laughs::

Backpacks & Exhaustion

written: July 31st

Photo for the day:



“Some” backpacks, stuffed with school supplies that Sandy sent me and Ruben to pick up at one of the massive churches in the area and take to the high school. She made it sound like there wouldn’t be that many. Turns out, there are 1,351 stuffed backpacks and another hundred empty backpacks, and a massive box (talking 6 feet by 4 feet by 4 feet) FULL of assorted supplies. Yeah, that shit took all damn day to do. BUT, it’s an awesome “problem” to spend the day lugging these back and forth. They are for the “less fortunate” children in our school district to ensure they can begin the school year with the required supplies.

So I finished off the Red Fast Luck Oil that I’ve been babbling about since Friday. Holy fuck, it’s this BEAUTIFUL deep ruby red color. I need to look into the full range of magickal properties of Alkanet (herb) that gives the oil it’s stunning red color. Because, lemme tell you, Sekhmet has been practically purring about it this entire time. So I’m thinking of maybe making something with it to put on the altar for Her? Or maybe something that I can use as an offering to Her? Gotta put that on my Witch To Do List!

Speaking of that Witch To Do List – tomorrow is Lammas/Lughnasadh (holy crap, I spelled Lughnasadh correctly without having to look it up first! Woot!). I need to finalize what all I will be doing. I had planned to mix up some bread and let it rise in the refrigerator overnight…but I was so damn exhausted by the time I got home, I couldn’t even muster up the energy to feel BAD for not doing so. ::laughs:: Hopefully, tomorrow, I won’t be so worn out and I can get my loaf cooking on. I’ve already set up my altar and have my goals all printed out AND in one spot! Woohoo! That like never happens for me. ::laughs::

Poles & Oils

written: July 30th

Photo for the day:




Look at my POLE! ::cackles:: I have no idea why or how…but my rosebush sprouted and TOOK OFF. This cane in the foreground is almost twice the height of the rest of the bush, and I swear, it sprouted over night! ::laughs::

Today was another super chill day. I love that our weekends are so low-key. It really allows us to unwind and destress before another workweek attempts to kill us. ::laughs::

We watched “Couples Retreat” on Vudu. Seriously, it’s one of our favorite movies and I swear we’ve watched it over 100 times. And yet, the shit is still as funny as the first time we watched it. This movie is where David also came up with the idea that we needed to go to couple’s therapy…just so we could screw with our therapist. ::laughs::

Tomorrow, I get to finish off the Red Fast Luck Oil. After that, it will be ready to divvy up and use. ::smiles:: I’m so seriously giddy over it. I haven’t unwrapped it since I wrapped it up with all its little trinkets back on Friday. I’ve just kept it on my altar and let it do its thing. I finished up my notes on the oil and figuring out the information I’ll pass along with the oil samples I will be sending out to friends. Just need to finalize the list and pick up some little red organza bags and maybe some citrine chips (in the bead sections). I’d like to put a small citrine chip in the oil to boost its wealth attracting attributes. And the red organza bags, because the oil is supposed to be wrapped in red cloth. If I can’t find the bags, then I’ll think of something else. ::chuckles::