Happy Yule and Merry Christmas to the few left here at LJ or who read via Dreamwidth, who haven't abandoned ship for Facebook!

With all the troubles LJ keeps having I'm considering moving this blog over to Dreamwidth as I've been told it's quite easy and everyone likes it better there.
Eventually I'd like to do a separate blog for only my art and may eventually delete this one since it would be too much to keep track of.

Hope everyone is well and having a good holiday!

Happy Yulestice everyone!
:)

Hello there to all my LJ and other friends out in the blogosphere!

Just an update to say that I've been without a computer for a couple months now but I'm still here and keep up with my friends page from my phone. Since I like to include photos and links to things I've not been posting as I can't copy and paste, etc, with this phone.

Over Labor Day weekend I lost power for a few days and didn't have a car phone charger so was offline, then got power back. My computer then crashed a couple weeks later and is DED.
Had some unexpected expenses come up including car troubles, but a week and a half ago finally got rid of that money pit of a car for a brand new 2012 Jeep Liberty in bright silver!
*Breaks into the old Queen song, "I'm in love with my car,..." :D

I've never had a new car before and it is wonderful to be free of the stress and hassle of driving an old piece of crap, plus it will be great here in Michigan's wintry weather.
My other car was a 2001 PT Cruiser that I bought four years ago with another year left to pay on it. It has cost me $2000-3000 a year in repairs and a couple eeeks ago when I needed $900 more in repairs I was DONE!

Walked into a Jeep dealership and was not going to leave without a new car!
I did a bit of magic beforehand as well as implore the Spirits I work with so all would go well and I could get a lease with nothing down.
My wish was granted and as the salesman led me into the service area where my car was being readied, the music that is piped through the dealership came on with the song "Witchy Woman"!
I took it as a very good sign and got a bit teary eyed as I climbed into my new Jeep!!

So it may be a while before I can get another computer and post like before, but I just wanted to let you all know that yes I am still here and yes I keep up on everyone's posts!

The only other thing I really do from my phone is to help moderate the Traditional Witchcraft Yahoo list, plus help mod posts here at The Giants Wife at LiveJournal.

The phone I have tends to act up when I try to do things like post at LJ and it will not let me create new emails in Yahoo mail but I can respond to them. However, if I try to go back a few pages to find an email to respond to it boots me offline! Also about 1/3 of the time it won't let me scroll down to read posts at the Yahoo group so I signed up for the daily digest! Aaargh...
Stupid phone...
It's not an Android but the old Windows format and I cannot upgrade until spring.
I did discover that Gmail works great on it after spending half an hour trying to send a quick email through Yahoo though!

Perhaps the Powers that be want me to concentrate more on other things rather than play online too much. :D
Oh well...

Hope everyone had a nice Turkey Feast and doesn't get too sucked in to the commercial mayhem and overly materialistic aspects of the season!
As the tide turns toward the winter half of the year here in the Northern hemisphere, may you all enjoy the more peaceful and joyous aspects of the season with minimal stress and enjoy the gifts that truly matter.

FFFF

Regarding the latest fad of bashing those modern Pagans, Wiccans and Witches who dare to possess crystals because of the 'brutal' way they are extracted from the earth, blasted with dynamite, some being displaced from where there's mining, etc, etc...
(See recent Witchvox article)


Well, what of iron, steel, copper, silver, gold, coal and a whole slew of other things that are mined from the earth with blasting and bashing away?

Should we give up our cars, trains, jets, buses, tools, utensils, pots, pans, appliances, diamonds, gems, heat, electricity, (yes some is still powered by coal), and so forth made from the above, which are also brutally extracted from the earth? What of our coinage? Then there are the trees where many a forest has been brought down so people may build homes, furniture, decks and privacy fences. Paper money too. Where does cement come from? What is it made of? Strip mining maybe? Goodbye bricks, garden stepstones, sidewalks and paved roads!

Nope, let's just single out crystal users because it is easy to do and we'll feel so much more superior whilst we nibble our edamame altruistically...

Look at Mother Earth herself with violent volcanic blasts that obliterate millions of square acres of forest and its living denizens, as with Mount St. Helens back in 1980, Mother Earth with massive earthquakes, tsunamis, killer hurricanes and tornadoes, droughts, floods, and wildfires that move as fast as the wind blows, like 60 mph with the Australian fire a couple years back, (people couldn't outrun it even in their cars), plus the occasional asteroid impact.

Oh, and Yellowstone National Park sits on a vast underground volcanic caldera approximately 50 miles wide by 60 miles long that completely BLOWS every so many hundreds of thousands of years and obliterates everything, not to mention the periodic mass extinctions of ALL LIFE on the planet that occur on a regular basis, along with little things such as ice ages...

But we are supposed to tiptoe gently as if Earth is made of fragile eggshells, flutter our butterfly wings and bonk everyone with glitter? I think not...
However I do believe in recycling, trying to eliminate pollution, going green as much as possible, utilizing solar, wind and sea power, etc, yet at the same time Nature is a wild untamed place and yes Nature can indeed be tough.

We are a part of Nature and get swatted around like little gnats who struggle, sometimes desperately, to survive and eek out an existence before we too return to the Earth's dust....
So what if we want a few crystals and gems to take our mind off things, lend a bit of beauty to our lives and utilize for magical purposes?

Says Marilyn who has but a few crystals (though may get more now!), but sees the folly of the aforementioned illogical senseless argument of, "If you own crystals you are bad because.............."

OMG! My new computer wallpaper...

It's Jason Momoa as Conan the Barbarian! Long, wild, dark (and any other color too but especially dark) man hair has always driven me nuts! Of course it isn't just all about the hair...
But it does make me totally crazy!
OMG!!!

If one could imagine Mike Howard's "Children of Cain" ever made into a movie, Jason Momoa would indeed make the *perfect* Azazel!!!

Tried uploading the full size version to Photobucket if anyone wanted it, as I tweaked the brightness and color a bit, but kept getting an error message, so here is the link to the original photo~ http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/still/conan-the-barbarian04.jpg

Found this Owl bullroarer that I simply had to have from Fire Tree Artworkxs at Etsy.
Out of the blue I felt like searching for "bullroarer" over at Etsy and this lovely owl one came up.
It was only $10 plus $3 for shipping (my lucky 13!) so how could I resist?

It arrived on Saturday July 30, and I must say it works quite well...
;)

Currently reading:

"Evolutionary Witchcraft" by T. Thorn Coyle for the Feri aspects, "The Sacred Magic of the Angels" by David Goddard, "Fifty Years in the Feri Tradition" by Cora Anderson, "Etheric Anatomy" by Victor Anderson, and of course "Lux Haeresis" by Daniel Schulke.

Also revisiting "Psychic Self-Defence" by Dion Fortune and "The Magical Household" by Scott Cunningham and David Harrington.



       


      


       

My copy of 'Lux Haeresis' by Daniel Schulke finally arrived back on Friday and it is excellent! Worth the wait...

Good stuff to add to one's practice written by a genuine lover of the Old Ways!

However, 'Viridarium Umbris' is still my favorite by Schulke, as I'm one of those weird gardener folk who loves all plants and growing things, even down to the delicate weeds growing flat like lace against the pavement in cracks of my driveway...

Not to mention plants as Magical Spirits in their own right.


Plants Can Be Witches Too

"Cast yourself. You are the spell."

~ T. Thorn Coyle, "Evolutionary Witchcraft"




"There is a note that wavers through
the warp and weft of past and now
and quivers in a golden thread
stretched out towards future's bow.

A memory of divinity
deep-etched in blood and mind
that yearns for a perfection
beyond all earthly kind."

~ Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, "Dreamscapes~ Part 4~ Angel Realms"




APOD: 2010 May 19 - Milky Way Over Ancient Ghost Panel, dating back 7000 years, Canyonlands National Park, Utah~

I want this new book from Mandrake of Oxford by Josephine McCarthy called "Magical Knowledge: Book II~ The Initiate"~









Book Description~

"Preparing the practitioner for the challenges of deeper more powerful magic Breaking out of the age old restraints of secrecy & oaths, Magical Knowledge leads the reader through the techniques, issues and beings that the Initiate can expect to encounter. This second book in a series of three, guides and advises, informs and introduces the serious magician to rarely discussed areas of visionary and ritual magic.

The information presented in this book flows from the deep roots of true magic, and as such can be applied to any particular path or magical method; the reader is introduced to the structure and inner contacts behind the various schools of magic that exist today. Magic can only truly blossom if the boundaries are challenged, and to do that, the magician needs to understand the dynamics of power and the inner worlds. This book aims to guide the magican along that path.

Contents: Accessing the inner worlds: making contacts without the use of temples, rituals and patterns/Practical methods for working with angelic beings/ Working with deities: pitfalls and approaches/ Working with Ancestors/ Accessing and Working Within the Faery Realm/ Polarization: magical dynamics of work and partnerships/The physical implications of practicing magic/Inner landscapes of the people and the land/Magical protection: working methods/Sigils and seals: what they are, how they work and what to do with them/ Inner World Parasites/Removing ghosts and other unwelcome guests/How to deal with simple magical/psychic attacks/Dismantling Hermetic or Kabbalistic curses/ Short Tour of the Tree of Life without Kabbalah/The Structure of the Abyss without Kabbalah/The inner structure of magical lodges & groups/The Ritual Overlaying and Patterning of the Sacred Isle of Britain/ Working with Sleepers/Death and Birth/Using Tarot as a working tool/ Working methods for leading group visions/workings/The Inner Aspects of Consecration

Josephine McCarthy is a seasoned occultist and writer living in the wilds of the Dartmoor National Park in the UK. Josephine has taught and led various Western Mystery groups throughout the USA and UK for many years, and has written a variety of magical non-fiction and fiction. Her previous books include The Exorcists Handbook and The Work of the Hierophant."



Excerpt from a review by Author and Biographer Alan Richardson~

"Josephine McCarthy’s ‘Magical Knowledge book II-The Initiate’ is one of the very few books on Magick in the past 50 years which is completely original, eminently practical, and totally refreshing. I wish I’d known about the Void when I was in my nobbut-a-lad stage. I wish I’d had her take on angels, deities, demons, ancestors, faeries and inner contacts. I’d have been a helluva holy guru by now, believe you n me!
Her practical methods, her descriptions about how to enter and exit from the innerworlds, are all described in simple, flowing lucid prose. She doesn’t use obscurity and pretend it’s profundity; she has great learning which is worn very lightly. And best of all she describes her own experiences, so that you can feel in your bones that she’s not just another of the Outer Plane Ineptii making it all up as she goes along.
If this had been given to me as a bolshy teen I’d have thought: Fuckin’ hell, this is brilliant. Now that I’m entering the decade which makes me somewhat venerable I finding myself intoning instead: Blimey, she knows her stuff.
‘The Initiate’ is in a different class to anything I’ve read..."




Also want these books by Alan Richardson on the magician Bill Gray~

"The Old Sod"~






Book Description~

"William G. Gray was a real magician, a kind of primeval spirit who worked his magic as an extension of the Life Force, not as a sop to ego. He reeked of psychism like he often reeked of incense, could give you the uncomfortable feeling that he could see right through you and beyond, and had been to places in spirit that we could scarcely imagine. Many of the books on magic and the Qabalah which appear today owe a huge if unrecognised debt to his pioneering writing. If there is anything evolutionary about the current urge to work with harmonic energies within the Earth and ourselves - whether through green eco-movements, the Celtic Revival or the Wiccan arts - then it is due in no small degree to the work that was done by an old bastard who lived near the bus station in a town in Gloucestershire. Bill Gray met and worked with many of the most important figures in the British esoteric scene. His boyhood meetings with Dion Fortune and Aleister Crowley are described here in his own words, along with his personal recollections of working magic with Pat Crowther, Doreen Valiente, Ronald Heaver, Robert Cochrane and many others. This lively, entertaining and authoritative biography tells the story of how a difficult, psychic child grew into a powerful adept who challenged established and stagnating traditions within paganism, magic and Qabalah alike, and revitalised them from within - often falling out with those he worked with but maintaining their affection and respect. Generously illustrated with photographs, many never published before, the book also includes contributions by R.J. Stewart, Gareth Knight, Evan John Jones, Marcia Pickands and Jacobus Swart, plus, of course, W.G. Gray himself."


and Working with Inner Light: The Magical Journal of William G. Gray~






Book Description~

'1965-1967 ... As the New Age seemed to explode into being, everything spiritual had to be Eastern. Psychedelic artwork showed Glastonbury Tor overshadowed by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, or Stonehenge sending its energies up to Lord Krishna - imagery which William G. Gray summed up quite simply as "Balls." He was working hard to make sure that our weakened (or slumbering) Western Traditions would survive. Among his endeavours at the time was this guide to the inner and outer practicalities of ritual magic, which includes instruction on god-forms, words of power, magic circles, initiation, extension of consciousness and raising power through ritual. Previously unpublished, Working with Inner Light is the first new book by William G. Gray since the author's death in 1992. Written in the form of a journal or magical diary, it includes his original sketches, and forms a detailed course in modern Qabalistic magic which will be of immense value to esoteric students and practitioners working within the Western Mysteries today."

Wonders never cease!
I have finally found a natural organic mosquito repellent that not only truly WORKS but also smells FABULOUS! I don't mean a scent you can barely tolerate, I mean something that really smells nice, at least to my nose.

I was at Hessel's garden center in Shelby Twp. the other week and they had bottles of
Liquid Net at the check out. I thought, "Eeew! The stench of a citronella candle times 100! Yuk!", but something made me open it up and sniff. Much to my surprise, it is not anything like the other natural DEET-free mosquito repellents as it smelled somewhat like a cola soft drink.

I bought a bottle and have used it nearly every night and it works as good as the 25% or higher DEET formulas! Plus it smells great, like cola at first, and you get the hints of cedar and mint but very subtle, they just sort of combine to smell good, then after about ten to fifteen minutes it starts to mildly smell like spicy clove plus the skeetos stay away! LOVE it!
However, you do need to drench your skin with it, holding the nozzle close, and rub it to evenly distribute, as well as spray clothing, for if you leave one spot free, THEY will find it.

It contains Oils of citronella, cedarwood, lemongrass, geranium, and peppermint, though you cannot smell any citronella at all. Yaaay!
It does contain a bit of sodium lauryl sulfate- 0.40%- probably to evenly disperse the oils as well as help it adhere to skin, but one could always make up their own using a more natural surfactant.
Anyhoo, I HIGHLY recommend it, especially for those who, like myself, may have been put off by the horrid stench of some natural repellents where on warm humid evenings the scent is so overpoweringly foul that I gave up and went back to using DEET formulas. But no more! This stuff is the bomb...






The central air unit is blah looking so naturally I place a pot of flowers on it, a few tuberous begonias with Oxalis 'Charmed Velvet'! It needs to be moved when running the air, but I only run it when it's overly hot, like yesterday.

Am spending today and tomorrow doing absolutely nothing but relaxing and being in the garden! I might run up to Lowe's and Home Depot for a couple things I need, otherwise no errands, no running around, no long drives, just enjoying the two gorgeous perfect days of sunshine and 85 relaxing at home, plus watching fireworks from my backyard!! Also have an abundance of fireflies this year. If only their time weren't so fleeting...

It did reach 100 around here yesterday, at least in my city according to Weather Underground, and while it was very humid early in the day, the humidity was only maybe 50% by mid-afternoon.
I had some running around to do after work yesterday and the air in my car needs to be recharged so I had to drive with the windows down. @_@
That plus doing things like get 7 more bags of white sand and load them in my car, etc, and I thought I was going to melt in a pool of sweat, but once I got home and put on shorts and a tank top it really wasn't too bad outside and actually pleasant. Well, in the shade!
Had to water everything as all my pots and herbs were wilting despite being watered that morning, but I actually was not bothered by the heat as there was a breeze, once I cooled off from being in the car and unloading stuff. Checked Orlando Florida's temps and humidity and they were actually about 10 degrees cooler than Michigan was, 88 being the high, humidity about the same.

My best friend Michelle absolutely loved Florida and used to vacation there all the time, even in July, and would say, "It's no worse than here when it's hot and humid!".
Her parents retired and they, her brother, she and her fiancee all moved to Florida in the summer of 2001, her parents and brother to Citrus County and she to Altamonte Springs, minutes from everything in Orlando.
I was going to move too and had all these plans laid out to do so, places to work, etc, but then she passed away in January 2002 from CF.
After that the very thought of Florida only made me deeply sad and I have not gone back since, though her mom used to tell me, "You would love living here!". However, after this miserable horrendous winter with a long cold spring, I was ready to pack up everything, drive down and never look back!
Michigan is beautiful 6 months of the year, but the other 6 are like Persephone's hell....

Perhaps if I weren't so into gardening and being outside it wouldn't bother me? You can try to kid yourself into enjoying it for a while and snow is lovely for perhaps a week or two, but I nearly went mad this past winter! So, who knows where I'll end up living one day.

All I know is that as I get older, my body has no cold tolerance and I'm sick of having to drive on ice some days to and from work, clenching my steering wheel tight for dear life and bewitching my car to be safe! (Mandrake oil is put to good use here.) Plus chip inches of ice off the back threshold where it drips off the roof so I can open the damn back door and let the dog out!!!
At least flowers and green things can grow when it's 90...

Aha! Found seed for what appears to be the "Bearded Dianthus"!
It is called "Spooky" and they have it at Summer Hill Seeds as well as Chiltern Seed so guess I'll get some and grow a bunch...

However I would much rather call them "Starfish Flowers".
:)


Bearded dianthus photo from Jersey Plants Direct (UK and Northern Ireland)~






From Summer Hill~




Article from Sherwood Greenhouses on Bearded/Spooky dianthus.







And on a very happy exciting note, Ziggy is now walking again! He started on Monday June 13, a bit low to the ground and wobbly like a snake, with his tummy about 2-3" off the ground, but he is doing it and getting better! Every improvement in his mobility has been gradual and slowly gets better and better until it becomes as good as it was, whether rolling over, bending, sitting, etc.
Perhaps in another month or so he'll be fully up and walking with no wobbles...





A gratuitous pet shot of my cat Tramp, aka Iddo Trampykins aka Plumpelstiltskin, who has not been "iddo" since his kitten days as he weighs twenty pounds...




Trampy's "voice" is to be said in a somewhat southern accent and this really does describe him to a T~

Trampy~ aka Mr. Flinderheuzin, in his jodphurs, awaiting scrummitts....

"Ah am big and feht because clearly I enjoy mah meals, plus everywahn elses, beesahdes, therre is jist more of meh to love... Mah extent of exersahze is the rare burst of mornin energeh whehn I run back and forth in exsahtmint thru the ha-owse, and when mah fave-rit hewman purrson swings the flyin toys on a string at meh and I lay thurre lahke a beached whale... and I sort of *reach* fur them... sometahmes rollin over like ah blob of wiggly Jell-ah but nevah gettin up to move, which is the whole nefarious ideah, but I am clevah and outsmarts the hewmun with mah brilliance, in her sillah tricks to get meh to exersahze."



On another note, June 26 was also the birthday of my best friend Michelle, who passed away in 2002 from cystic fibrosis.
She would have been 37 today...

Starfish and Stars... Where's the beach?




Starfish flowers...







Found these lovelies at a garden center last June! They called them "Bearded Dianthus" and they were only $5 for an 8" pot, so I bought some.
They remind me of a bigger more fringy version of Dianthus "Rainbow Loveliness" that I grew from seed about 25 years ago, except those blossoms were only about 2" across with much shorter fringes.

These blooms when laid out flat are a good 4-6" across and quite dramatic with long ragged fringe! There is nothing quite like them.

Makes me think of what starfish might look like if they were transformed into flowers...

















I had protected them over winter but sadly only the red one has returned and it is quite scrawny. Eckert's garden center where I got them last year didn't have any in the last few times I went but hopefully they'll get more in.
Perhaps I'll add some sand, seashells and big sea stars to the patch where they grow? Plus save seed from them in case they don't overwinter!

Few things are lovelier in spring than the exquisite stems in blossom of bleeding hearts...















The red one is "Valentine" and yes it is a true red Dicentra Spectabilis! Now they need to breed a lavender-purple one...









White Bleeding Hearts growing amongst the Lunaria~













I have so much work to do in the garden it is sheer madness! Moving lots of things to new spots, making new plantings such as azaleas and more bleeding hearts, putting in the flats of annuals, planting up the pots and hanging baskets, besides vegetables and herbs, still planting some seeds such as four o'clocks and poppies, plus other things like paint the shed, fix the back privacy fence, make some mosaic garden step stones, trim trees, lay tons o' mulch, plant a couple trees, get new edgers for the front flower bed, and that is only part of my garden "do list"! I shall be super-busy with planting til July! Then there's feeding, weeding, applying copper sulfate every couple weeks to the roses, (and I have over 70 of them), plus mow the lawn, keep the pots watered daily, and on it goes...

Hello and welcome to the world of gardening!

Garden porn...




The ephemeral blossoms of the weeping cherry at the front of the house before it quickly faded...






The last of my magnolia blossoms taken on May 8~









One of my clumps of Virgina Bluebells, Mertensia virginica, blue as the sky~






Lunaria took over half of the 60' length of the shade bed for a lush and lovely purple display. I've had plenty of the seed pods over the years so I will save but a few this year and pull the rest, making way for 8 flats of impatiens, plus a few clumps of Ostrich ferns, some more azaleas as they go on sale and Aquilegia.
Then I'll be planting 2-3 more flats of imps elsewhere around the back yard, plus 4 more for the front! @_@

Since the spring was rather cold and wet I'm about 3 weeks behind on everything and I (sort of) joke that we had 3 months of March here in Michigan!












What my back lawn looks like throughout the month of May~











Yes, I'm one of *those* people who lets plants like dandelions, veronica and violets unabashedly take over the lawn! It is so soft and lovely in person that I can't bear to put weed killer down...

Saw this lovely icon of Diana~Artemis over at ferine's journal, who nabbed it from somewhere else, maker unknown.





It is from Disney's original Fantasia and one of my earliest childhood memories is of watching clips from it, including this whole pastoral scene with centaurs, flying horses and the goddess Diana on "The Wonderful World of Disney" when I was about 2. Needless to say, She was my favorite bit along with the Pegasus family!
Oh, and the centaurs too. (Whatever you do, don't piss off the centaurs! ;D)


So I found a still from it and made a few more icons as I wanted more of the scene included, but now I don't know which one I like best!
I've put them here for whomever might fancy them...






Guess there was also a limited edition statue of less than 2000 made of this about ten years ago but is a sold out collector's item. *wants*

Rewrote my profile again, got rid of the ranty-ness and greatly simplified it! Less is best. Now I don't need to revamp it for at least another five years... :)

Also need to start posting some garden photos as I have lots of them!




"Bit about me~

Have loved and followed the Old Ways and Elder Faiths for much of my life, with many amazing experiences across the years.

My philosophy is to live, breathe, eat and sleep the Arte Magical and let it permeate every aspect of life, day and night.

Basically for my Path, like a Tree with great gnarled roots and far-reaching branches, I follow the way of the Traditional Witch, Pagan Mystic, Heathen and Folk Magician, going back to "years ago in days of old", yet evolving, syncretizing newer elements, and trying to always live with an Awareness of the Otherworld.
It is the only way my spirit finds rest and happiness!
But with all that I know, there is still so very much to learn and do...
Forever a student!

I love the Old Ones, the Magical Dead, the Sacred Landscape, working magic beneath Lilith's Lantern light, observing signs in Nature, divination via dreams, and the whole winding Road of these Witching Ways.
And the Road goes ever on..."



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



My little wisteria that I'm training to a tree form had 32 racemes of bloom this year! It had 45 but the cute little black squirrels (a variant of the grey squirrel) thought they'd dine on some of them while the buds were still small. Had to get hot pepper spray and spray the flower buds each night and would count them each day like some frickin' miser, "The little rat bastards ate three more! Arrrghhh!!!", but it was gorgeous despite being a buffet.



















And some wonderful lilacs that bloomed from a bush that originally came from my paternal grandmother.
Mmmmm, can ya smell 'em?

OMG! I rewrote my profile here, especially with the first three new paragraphs, and then afterward read my horoscope for today at My Yahoo!
Sometimes they are very spot-on and this is definitely one of those times...


New profile~


"Bit about me~

I'm simply a down-to-earth mostly Traditional Witch, though I have grown very weary of labels, pettiness, constant scrutinizing, double-standards, and two-faced game playing that seems rampant not only in some of the Pagan community (oh there's that "bad" forbidden word~ 'Pagan'!) but even in the so-called Traditional Craft arena as well.

Guess I'm just tired of trying to fit into other people's fundie boxes with a never-ending list of rules and proper ways of doing things, and no matter how many hoops one might jump through, it is never good enough, so, fuck 'em all!

Call me a Witch, plain and simple. It's 2011 and I am breaking the chains and freeing myself, unfettered and wild, flying out of the cage, a law unto my own!
Got no time for people and their silly games, idiocy, finger-pointing and stressful snarky nonsense.
They are a waste of my time and time should not be wasted...


I love the Old Ones, the Magical Dead, the Sacred Landscape and its myriad Denizens, the whole winding road of these Witching Ways, and the Road goes ever on...

Been on this path of the Old Ways for most of my years, with a love of gardening too, though not always having a green thumb!
I have a plethora of fuzzy children~four cats~Ziggy, Tramp, Gandalf and Gypsy aka Tweeny,
and a teacup poodle~ Pebbles aka Pebzul, who is fearless as Cerberus.
Loved to draw since before I could read or write and intend to make a dream career as a Visionary and Fantasy Artist my reality one day...
I plan to someday make my home out in the countryside, no more than an hour from the sea and sandy beaches, in a climate where Spanish moss hangs from the trees and you can grow green things year round, where the mist rises up from the earth, owls call at night, and the Milky Way rises like steam from the teapot of Sagittarius.
If you can't see stars like that, then you are too close to the city lights!

Have loved and been drawn to the Old Ways and Elder Faiths since childhood, with many amazing experiences across the years.
Basically for my path, like a Tree with great gnarled roots and far-reaching branches, I follow a reconstruction of the way of the Witch, Pagan and Heathen, going back to "years ago in days of old", as well as evolving, syncretizing newer elements,
and trying to always live with an Awareness of the Otherworld. It is the only place my spirit has found rest and happiness!
But with all that I know, it is still very little of what there is to learn...
Forever a student!"


And todays horoscope~


"June 03, 2011

Libra (9/23-10/22)

Individuality is one of your biggest assets -- embrace it and you'll give yourself a new sense of freedom. The same pressures to conform will still exist, but now more than ever you should feel empowered to tell those dogmatic folks to take a hike. Go on your own way, and don't be surprised if the sheep end up following you. There is no point in being just like everyone else. You know that, but every once in a while you need to remind yourself."


Boo-yah!

Three Fates, Spinners, Faeries, Witches and their myriad associations with Standing Stones...


Excerpt from "The Secret History of the Witches" by Max Dashu, chapter "The Old Goddess"~


"There are countless avatars of the spinning goddess: Mari of the Basques, Holle of Germany, Laima of Lithuania and Latvia, Mokosh of Russia, the old Frankish Berthe Pedauque, They include local fatas such as Tante Arie in French Switzerland, Habetrot in Britain, and the Wendish Pshi-Polnitsa.

Among the Greeks, the spinner Fates are threefold, the ancient, mighty Moirae. This triunity is repeated in innumerable folk traditions all over medieval and early modern Europe. French peasants of Saintonge said that the fades (fates) or bonnes (“good women”) roamed in the moonlight as three old women, always carrying distaffs and spindles. The fades had prophetic powers and cast lots. They were seen along the banks of the Charente river, or near certain grottos, or near megalithic monuments. [Michon, Statistique de la Charente, in Sebillot I 444]

In Berry, a white faery carrying a distaff was said to walk on certain nights at the edge of an old mardelle called Spinner's Hole. Three pale ladies spun their distaffs by the Faeries' Rock near Langres. A spinner could be heard at Villy, but was only seen at dawn or dusk. [Sebillot, Metiers, 23-4] Portuguese women made offerings to faeries whose name shows its derivation from “the dianas”:

'In the Algarve the memory is not extinct of female creatures called jãs or jans, for whom it used to be customary to leave a skein of flax and a cake of bread on the hearth. In the morning the flax would be spun as fine as hair and the cake would have disappeared.' [Gallop, 58]"

"International folk tradition credits the faeries with raising dolmens and other megalithic monuments. These accounts laid great emphasis on the builders' power as spinners, typically saying that a fata or goddess or lady carried the giant stones on her head while walking and spinning..."

"The Basques named a dolmen at Mendive after the lamiñas. One of them brought the capstone from faraway Armiague balanced on her head, spinning as she went. In some versions she carried the boulder on her little finger. [Sebillot IV 21] The goddess Holle also carried off a boulder on her thumb, according to Germans of the Meisner district. [Grimm] Another Basque tradition says that the witches built dolmens in a single night, carrying stones from the mountains on the tips of their distaffs. [Barandiaran, 173]"...

"Other megaliths of the same type fell under the church's ban, and came to be called Devil's Stone or were otherwise demonized. Yet popular memory kept on connecting the archaic stone temples with the faeries and witches. The Aragonese described megalithic sanctuaries as places where witch assemblies took place. They called the dolmen at Ibirque, Aragón, the Witches' Hut; others retained goddess associations. Spanish and Portuguese traditions of supernatural moras at these monuments may allude to their ancient north African origins. [Gari Lacruz, 287-8]

Basques said that the lamiñas (faeries) or sorguiñes (witches) built the dolmens of Mendive, as well as the country's oldest bridges, houses, castles, palaces and even churches. [Barandiarán, 85-6, note] The western Basques often say that devils built the bridges, though they also name the pagans or Moors. Several dolmens are known as Sorguinexte, “witch’s house.”

In Sardinia the ancient nuraghe were sometimes called Nuraghe Istria, “witch's tower.” The witch-goddess Lughia Rajosa lived in one of these neolithic towers. Her enchanted distaff (Rocca fatata) guarded great wealth: herds, thousands of jars of grain and oil. The distaff moved around in the day, while Lughia slept, and whistled to warn her when intruders came..."


Other favorite chapters~

"Serpent in the Mound"

and

"The Tregenda of the Old Goddess, Witches, and Spirits"

Look! It's.... A TOASTER!!!



My microwave conked out last night, making a very VERY loud buzzing noise plus got way too hot on the outside, so out it went. Been checking online for a small red microwave before I trot off to the store and thought, well, I do need a toaster too since mine is old and either makes the toast too light, or if you turn it up a hair, burns it. Wasn't sure what to get, then saw this and it was like lights beamed down and nirvana!

Behold, the Pylones Paris Toaster in "Poppys". Isn't it beeyouteeful? It's like art for the kitchen! So I ordered one...







Yeah, give it a cool title or pretty package and I'll buy it! They actually call me the "package whore" at work because of this. Kid you not!

I say it can't be helped for I am a victim of my stars you see, having both the Sun and Mercury in Libra, being a child of Venus, hence I love to beautify **everything**.

Why buy an ugly plain mousepad when you can buy a pretty one with a Hawaiian sunset on it? Why buy ugly spatulas when you can find colorful ones with beautiful wood handles and little hearts and birdies on the rubber part? (Target in Valentine's kitchen stuff.) I even found these giant magnet murals online a couple years ago to cover the front of your refrigerator with that come in designs like palm tree beach scenes! Did not get one however...

I do it with everything from garden gadgets to clothes, household products such as pink owl kitchen scrubby-sponges and flower shaped veggie brushes, to a potato peeler shaped like a spud with googly eyes, other decor, bird feeders, pet food dishes (small ceramic plates that look like big flowers for their food and shallow ceramic witchy cauldrons for their water bowls!), you name it! Even go so far as to buy my sugar from Meijer because it comes in a pretty purple with gold bag. It's only sugar but it looks more pleasant when I open the pantry door. And OMG if it has stars and/or moons on the packaging restrain me!

I even want those new round tomato cages that come in lovely tropical colors, but I need at least twenty and at $7-10 a pop that is too much for tomato cages. So, I'm going to get new ones (42" x 14") that cost $2.67 each, then paint them with outdoor UV fast craft paints in cool colors, like light turquoise blue, bright lavender, orange sherbet, hot lime green and hot pink!
My tomato plants will be dressed in style...

Hey, we all have our idiosyncrasies!

At least I don't airbrush my cats in wild multi-color patterns. That would be going too far... Though come to think of it, white stars on black fur would look kind of cool! *slaps self*

Moon and Stag Oak, taken this evening with my phone...

Couldn't have said it better!


~From "The Light Bringer" by Mike Rock in "By Witch Eye"~


"It is a whitewashing of witchcraft in my opinion to accept by default the ideological terms of orthodox Establishments, to claim that the Witchcrafts are just like other religions, and to reject a particular scapegoated god for PR purposes. Witchcraft doesn't need PR, it needs mettle and honor, the integrity of its Passion and Pride. It does not need to and should not "fit in". It should be simply, and be what it is."

Things that irk me...


I have always loved the word "Warlock" and thought it a powerful, proud and amazingly sexy word and am glad Paul Huson used it unabashedly!

I have at times pondered the modern aversion to it by some in the occult community and wondered why.
I mean, if it is ok to "reclaim" the word "Witch", which nearly always had sinister evil connotations even in Pagan times and societies, then why not "Warlock" too?

Oh wait, that would mean empowering men more and the HPS of Coven DragonPoop might not like that...

Naughty naughty me for thinking such thoughts!


What irks me is people, particularly in the Pagan community who should know better, who continue to spout untruths regarding the past, as with the word 'warlock'. Yes it seems to have been a derogatory term a la 'witch', but there is absolutely no historical use of the word whatsoever **in reference to anyone betraying their coven by breaking oaths and revealing others to the authorities**, absolutely NONE, not one single instance. Yet this mistruth gets repeated and parroted ad nauseum even among so-called Pagan elders who are in a position allegedly to teach and educate. That would seem to be a sad and sorry state of affairs when misinformation continues to get promulgated by those who should seemingly know better. Too, you would think that since this topic has been done to death that people would be a bit more educated about it, but sadly 'tis not so...

The only time warlock was ever historically used in reference to any sort of oath-breaking that I ever found was when a former Scottish Pagan centuries ago left his clan and had converted to Christianity, then did a complete turnaround, rejected Christianity and embraced his former ways.
Bear in mind he was not called 'warlock' when he first turned his back on heathendom, but ONLY when he turned his back on Christianity was he called 'warlock', in reference to breaking oaths against the Church and returning to his old pagan ways.
That's it.

Those are the facts, ma'am, and everything else is just misguided propaganda in a similar vein to fundamentalist slander. Show me just ONE actual instance in recorded history, not modern speculation, where the usage of the word referred to a witch in a coven who broke oaths with said coven and endangered their brethren! I won't be holding my breath because there aren't any... At least not older than perhaps thirty years.

If some in the modern Pagan community are ignorant about such small things, how can they be trusted to know or understand greater things, such as when it comes to the Mysteries??

Also, the earliest usage of the word shows it to be an epithet of the Devil, which speaks volumes in and of itself, since the new religions always demonize the old. There is also the link between warlock and 'vard-lokkur' as well as the references in Scottish literature that use 'warlock' the way one would use the word 'enchanter' or 'sorcerer', but that's another story...


A good article on the subject~ Warlock Isn't a Dirty Word

"There is the Anglo-Saxon “oath-breaker”, which we all hear quite often. The other is from the Scottish word for “cunning man” or “male witch”; interestingly it’s quite common to hear the word warlock defined by Wiccans and Pagans as a Scottish word meaning “‘oath-breaker” or “traitor” though that definition isn’t of Scottish origin."

See also Crafting the Warlock for a very passionate and thought provoking view.

BBC Warlock Etymology

What is a Warlock?

Missing my garden part 6...


One must always grow some fragrant plants and can never have too many of them, be it lilies, moonflowers, certain petunias and spring bulbs, honeysuckle, alyssum, etc, whatever one can find and cram in someplace!


If I lived where it was mild all year round I would have gardenias *EVERYWHERE*, possibly even hedges of them!

Gardenias have never done well for me as they are a bit iffy requiring night temps of 55F and I have never gotten them to rebloom once I'd bring them home. I had all but given up on growing what is perhaps my most favorite flower (along with roses and moonflowers and...) when I read some reviews about this "Aimee" gardenia.
Someone in Texas was growing several plants of it around their pool and they bloomed through the entire summer in 90F heat with night temperatures never dropping below 70F!!

So I tried one and it not only blossomed all summer but I actually got a couple flowers this winter (indoors) too!

It is truly the best gardenia for ease of bloom, huge sumptuous blossoms and that incredible gardenia fragrance!


Gardenia 'Aimee Yoshioka', here growing with impatiens underfoot~









Gardenia is used magically for healing, love, peace and very high spiritual vibrations. A feminine plant ruled by the Moon, its element is water. It is added to Moon incenses and used to attract good spirits during rituals.

For years I tried to find a good gardenia perfume or essential oil that *truly* smells like the fresh flower but to no avail. Everything smells heavy, "soapy" and almost headache-inducing, not anything like the real fresh flower.

One day, because I love jasmine and anything coconut scented, I decided to mix some jasmine absolute and coconut scented oil and guess what? That particular combination smells just like FRESH gardenias! However it must be applied to clothing as jasmine absolute tends to dissipate very quickly when placed on the skin...



A beautiful fragrant Angelwing Jasmine found at Eckert's, trained to a standard and happy near the bird bath~









Jasminum sambac, Arabian Jasmine or Hawaiian 'Pikake' (Peacock) Jasmine, possibly the most fragrant jasmine of all. This variety I have from Telly's Greenhouse is 'Belle of India' and a single flower can perfume an entire large room! I like to keep it nearby where I sit~





Jasmine is used to attract spiritual (as opposed to physical) love, to attract money and for inducing prophetic dreams. Ruled by the Moon, jasmine's element is water.



This is a plant that I saw in a seed catalog once (T&M?) then found last summer at Deneweths called Ipomoea carnea. It grows in form just like a hibiscus moscheutos but it is a member of the morning glory family. Its flowers have the soft silky quality of regular morning glories but it also has remarkable leaves with lovely long tendrils trailing down from the tips. Pity it isn't hardy here in Michigan.


Shown growing here with some wild self-sown Phlox~










Also reading another fine issue of The Cauldron, shown here with Ziggy on my bed~





Ziggy suffered a spinal cord stroke (aka fibrocartilaginous embolism) on March 4 and hasn't been able to walk on his own but he is recovering quite well. It usually only happens to large dogs and is fairly rare in cats, but with lots of time and physical therapy both cats and dogs can have a full recovery. Basically their brain and nerves need to relearn how to walk again and it usually takes 3-4 months, and while it has only been 7 1/2 weeks so far with the Zigster, he is doing phenomenal. I would just like some sleep since he is nocturnal and thinks nighttime is party time. :)



And another gratuitous shot taken yesterday of my Siberian squill patch, just because~

Though it's been a fairly cold spring overall, my first flowers are now in bloom!


True sky blue Siberian squill, Scilla sibirica~












The venerable Stag Oak awaiting a cloak of green...











Currently reading~

Great high-quality magazine published twice yearly~

The Three Witches from Macbeth with Stangs, circa 1948, directed by and starring Orson Welles~








Reblogged from Shivian Balaris who reblogged it from Witch Mountain



Plus another shot I found~

Cool video for a favorite old NIN song...







(It was the best version of the video I could find and you can click the red pop-up message off.)

Time to renew memberships or join if you wish!


Friends of the Museum of Witchcraft~ Join/Renew

Silver and Gold...

Datura, Brugmansia, Moon Vine and Evening Primrose...



For some reason Daturas don't do very well in my garden when planted in the ground, so this past year I planted them in very large pots and they not only did well but spectacular! They quickly grew into giants and were loaded with blooms all season, so from now on it's pots for them.


Datura 'Evening Fragrance' in the evening light~





Lit by the dawning sun growing intertwined among Artemisia 'Powis Castle'~







One of my Datura grew so large, about 3' by 6', that one of its main branches split badly in the wind, so I doctored it up with a label for a bandage (recycled from a Lodestone and Lady's Mantle Van Van candle), some twist-tie, then propped it with a couple stakes as the branch was so heavy, extending a good three feet in either direction~






Datura is used magically for protection, in particular against evil spirits as well as to break hexes, when sprinkled around the home outside. It can also enhance dreamwork when a blossom is brought in, but take care as it is very toxic, especially the seeds.



Datura's kissing cousin Brugmansia, with pretty much the same medicinal, magical and poisonous properties as Datura. They were once classified the same then became their own separate genus.
This one is 'Snowbank', which has a lovely golden-cream cast to the foliage, and flowers that begin cream then age to deep peach, making for a lovely contrast of gold and silver when contrasted with the cool silvery Datura~












I had a Brugmansia 'Versicolor Peach' for many years that I kept in a huge pot, that grew over 8' tall and had a four inch wide trunk! I'd cut it back each autumn and bring it (drag it!) indoors, but it sadly died one year when there was a surprise deep freeze overnight and I hadn't known about it until it was too late. :(

These plants are so potent however that one summer night after coming home from work, there had been a thunderstorm where it poured rain for forty minutes and the pot had blown over. I naturally grabbed hold of the trunk to stand the plant back upright and as I did, a droplet of water dripped off a leaf tip and into my eye. It got a slight feeling as if something were in it then my pupil proceeded to dilate HUGE!!! It remained dilated for more than twenty four hours, so it is a testimony to how potent these plants are! They contain atropine, which is also found in Belladonna and that doctors use to dilate your pupils with. However, the pharmaceutical version usually wears off in a few hours, not a full 24 hours like with the raindrop from off a leaf!

I have a few baby Brugs that still haven't V-eed out yet (made a big "Y" shape so they'll bloom), but I can't wait! One is 'Charles Grimaldi' which has a lovely sweet scent, not heavy like other Brugs, and another called 'Marrakesch' that is a most perfect white. Plus 'Wretched Mess' which has TRIPLE trumpets, 'Daydreams' that is a pink double, and 'New Orleans Lady', which is a rich cantaloupe apricot double, also here.
Perhaps I'll be gifted with some blooms this year...



The "It's not summer without Moonflowers!" Moonflower Vine, Ipomoea alba (aka Calonyction), a beautiful fragrant flower that is lovely even for its leaves alone. It grows happily on trellises behind a border of roses~





( And a few more here... )

The book "Opuscula Magica Volume II: Essays on Witchcraft and Crooked Path Sorcery" by Andrew Chumbley is now available for pre-order at a very reasonable price, for those interested.


I treasure Andrew Chumbley's works, finding them indispensible and the absolute best of the best for my own path and practice.

Follow the footsteps trod by the Magical Dead, for it is a Path tried and True...

Treasures from the summer garden~

An Ash leaf twiglet that dropped down from the tree, a Golden Elder branch that was broken off by some creature, and some lovely Ampelopsis berries. Was going to save them for magical purposes but they ended up as offerings to a "Black Lace" Elderberry that was ailing. It was planted with magical intent after its predecessor died, then bit by bit began to die off but slowly began to perk up, doing well by the end of the season, with a little help too from copper sulfate and extra watering~






Beautiful everblooming Calibrachoa growing lush in a Halloween plastic cauldron purchased to use as a planter, alongside Lavender aka 'Elf Leaf' and elegant arching Pennisetum~



Hummingbirds are also attracted to Calibrachoas of any color, especially when grown in a hanging basket or on a deck railing.



Sprite little chickadee at the safflower seed buffet~





'Galaxy' Coreopsis, a nonstop perennial bloomer from May into November. It's a smitch more yellow than this, not too pale~





Rose 'Sweet Fragrance' (usually more peachy/orangey) which doesn't seem to have much scent but is lovely nonetheless~





Climbing 'America' Rose which blooms heavily and nearly nonstop all season long, perhaps one of the best bloomers ever~









Lilium formosanum, beautiful in the shade on a hot breezy August evening.
Lilies can be planted in the garden for protection against ghosts, unwanted visitors and the evil eye. The key is to plant with intent, evoking the plant spirit and focusing on your purpose as you do.~





Rudbeckia 'Prairie Sun' with tall Ageratum~





And a Grumpy Little Goblin who watches over all~






Snapdragons also make fantastic garden guardians par excellence and can be used for many and diverse protection purposes. (Sorry, have no photos of those!)
There's no such thing as a 'common ordinary' flower, herb or plant when one enters a witch's garden!
Why, even the decorative bits and weeds can be bewitched...


Some advice for starting your own witch garden from Alchemy Works, well, for those so inclined~

Growing a Witch's Garden

"The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies."

~Gertrude Jekyll



Foxglove 'Camelot Lavender' that blossomed all summer long until very late October!
Used to grow Apricot Foxglove with Lavender Roses, but normal foxgloves only bloom for a short while and it's been many a year since I've grown them. I shall definitely be squeezing in a few more clumps of 'Camelot Lavender' this year! In the shade with 'Showstopper Peach' Impatiens and other things...






Foxglove is used magically for protection and when grown in the garden with that intent, it protects both home and yard. Used for contacting the faery realm and known as the 'fairy herb' to the Irish, it is said to be most potent magically when gathered at the full moon.






From Ireland's OWN Myths and Magic~

"The Foxglove derives its common name from the shape of the flowers resembling the finger of a glove. The earliest known form of the word is the Anglo-Saxon 'foxes glofa' (the glove of the fox). The northern legend is that bad faeries gave these blossoms to the fox so that he might put them on his toes to soften his tread when he prowled among the roosts. Its Norwegian name, Revbielde, which translates to "Foxbell," is the only foreign name that alludes to the Fox...

In 1775, about 100 years after the last witch-hunt, 34-year-old William Withering was a doctor in Stafford, England, and an avid medical botanist. In the course of his practice, he heard rumors of an "old Shropshire woman" who could treat "dropsy," that era's term for the disease we now call congestive heart failure. Withering located the woman, a folk herbalist, who described her "secret family recipe," which contained 20 herbs. Withering realized that the active ingredient was foxglove, and after using the treatment himself, he gained a reputation for treating congestive heart failure.

Soon after, Withering published his Account of the Foxglove and its Medical Uses, which recounted how he was introduced to the plant and further summarized his results in 163 cases. The drug derived from foxglove, digitalis, has only recently been surpassed by other medications as a treatment for congestive heart failure."








Foxgloves
by Mary Webb


The foxglove bells, with lolling tongue,
Will not reveal what peals were rung
In Faery, in Faery,
A thousand ages gone.
All the golden clappers hang
As if but now the changes rang;
Only from the mottled throat
Never any echoes float.
Quite forgotten, in the wood,
Pale, crowded steeples rise;
All the time that they have stood
None has heard their melodies.
Deep, deep in wizardry
All the foxglove belfries stand.
Should they startle over the land,
None would know what bells they be.
Never any wind can ring them,
Nor the great black bees that swing them-
Every crimson bell, down-slanted,
Is so utterly enchanted.

Only 19 more days until spring! At least some of the snow has melted...


Flocks of phlox...


Here grows Phlox 'Spinners' along with 'Franz Schubert' and some 'Sedona' coleus. Pictures don't do it justice~











'Sedona' up close~




'Franz Schubert' that grows next to a chair~





Phlox paniculata 'David's Lavender' is hands down the longest blooming phlox I've ever grown! It bloomed from July until October 14th, is tall, a good 4-4 1/2 feet and makes a stately back of the border plant, plus is little affected by powdery mildew~





This is a self-sown wildling from my neighbors yard that grows in the hottest driest spot in my garden, next to some lovely Maiden Grass Miscanthus~





Another self-sown wildling, this time in blush pink, growing here with Hydrangea 'Limelight', whose flowers were stunted by the heat and not enough rain despite watering~




The flowers have a soft glow around sunset~

"Twinkle twinkle little bat
How I wonder where you're at
Up above the world you fly
Like a tea tray in the sky..."



Tickets just went on sale today online for the Midwest Witches' Ball this October and I just ordered mine.
Have only been twice, in 2007 and 2008, being a hermit when it comes to the local Pagan scene, but since then they have changed venues twice for the Ball to accommodate more people as each time tickets sell out like mad. Last year they were sold out by March 15!

A dear friend of mine loves to go and has a blast so I may as well too. Besides, when does one ever get the chance to dress up and go out? Not very often, and while I prefer to live in jeans it is nice to fancy up once in a while...


The theme this year is "Through the Looking Glass" and I've been pondering ideas. I did have a great idea some months back that involved lots of peacock feathers, though it won't fit the theme, but one doesn't have to follow the theme, just dress up!






My first idea was to make a bustier similar to this one I saw on Etsy by buying a cute black corset then sewing black rooster and peacock feathers all over it in a lovely design; make some dangling peacock feather earrings with three eye feathers each and fringy bits of chain and iridescent emerald green Swarovski crystals; then make a long, floor length ragged black skirt out of several layers of silk chiffon with deep-cut raggy edges, gathered up on one side so it comes way up over the knee, and decorated with peacock feather eyes dangling from the ragged edges here and there. Leave my hair long and maybe weave a few more feathers, like a couple shortened eye feathers along with some green side/sword tail feathers here and there to hang down. Then add a bead fringe hip scarf in the iridescent peacock colored black beads, then do eye make-up in rich dramatic frosted peacock colors! A 'la Peacock Angel with perhaps a touch of Green Man though a bit over the top...
However....


I might just go with a basic (black?) gown with a low back, perhaps a beaded fringed belly dance style hip scarf, (the better to shake one's hips with!) and get a cute mini top hat like the ones from Bubbles and Frown at Etsy for a nod to the Mad Hatter. The Bartelby B. Bat mini hat with the peacock feather and coppery bat is my favorite at the moment, though it's hard to pick just one! Looking daft is part of the fun...












Or, since 95% or more wear black, perhaps go with something completely different, like periwinkle blue or a tanzanite-lavender color?

I was always the 'rebel' at things like Ozzfest, wearing jeans and **anything but** black on top, like bubblegum pink, hot fluorescent Florida peach or bright acid-washed minty-lime green... Well, except for the one year in 1995 when I got to see Ozzy at the State Theatre, which held only 2000 people, (oh my ears but was a blast!!) and I wore a cropped tattered black tee of the "No More Tears" (aka "No More Ears") album cover, otherwise, *no black*.

My best friend too had a 'no black rule' at such events, almost always wearing a white halter top and denim jean shorts, since most everyone dressed like a biker, was a biker or wore black...
Had to stand out in the crowd somehow!


Oh, decisions, decisions...

While I enjoy the changing seasons, winter is way too long and cold for me, especially as a gardener. I miss all things green, the smell of the earth, and even miss the weeds. How I'd much rather pull weeds than chop ice and shovel snow!
There is much snow on the ground here yet, especially after a surprise extra 6" this past Saturday, but spring is only 37 days away!
Within two weeks after that the grass will green up again...



Some photos from spring and summer of last year~


One of my two weeping Japanese cherry trees, this one located in the back yard, beneath whose branches is a favorite spot used for various witching and ritual purposes~












Cherry is a useful magical ingredient in spells for both love and divination. The tree is also sacred to a mythical Japanese princess, Konohana Sakuya Hime, who was the daughter of a mountain god and who became the goddess of Mount Fuji. She is still revered in Shinto shrines near the volcano today.







Rose climbing 'America' at one of back corners of the house. Yes it really does bloom in lush clusters like that!~






Roses, as found in the classic faery tales, are quite powerful when used for protective purposes, though strangely often overlooked today in that role.
Wands and charms can be made from the thorny stems for use in banishing as well as protection from malevolent forces. They are also used magically in matters of love, healing, to calm strife and even for good luck!
Red and white roses are also sacred symbols among those who follow a Luciferian Craft tradition...


Rose 'Kashmir'. Its blossoms tend toward a purply-pinkish red, but as the temperatures near 80 and higher, the blooms become more scarlet red.~





Austin Rose 'Evelyn' that grows next to 'American Beauty'~





Austin Rose 'Lady Emma Hamilton' with cottonwood fuzzies~




( More behind here... )