Lughnasadh 2020

Lughnasadh is a few days away so I thought I’d share what I’m up to. The past few years I have attended the 3 Cranes Grove public ADF Druids’ ritual at the Dublin Irish festival, more so to support the grove than anything else. This year however everything has been canceled because of the plauge.

In general though this has been my least favorite pagan high day. Here in Ohio it marks the start of the hottest month of the year, and the back to school shopping. Neither thing being enjoyable for me. It took me taking up gardening to feel any positive connection to the holiday. This year I am just not feeling the festive energy. I should be excited for all the veggis I will be pulling in soon but two things have kind of taken all the excitement out of me. The first thing is this is not first harvest for me I’ve been harvesting my various crops since April. Second a lot of the plants I was looking foward the the most have not done well. The mullberries never ripen, and the birds ate all my blueberries. My ground cherries never sprouted, and some animal trashed two of my squash plants.

But enough grumbling, lets move on to the fun stuff. What are my plans for Lughnasadh?

I am getting a blue heron tattoo on my arm. The blue heron is an animal spirit that I have been working with for about 5 years now and getting the tattoo just seems like the logical next step to build a closer bond.

I just aquired a Hermes statue for my altar. I am going to be adding it in on Lughnasadh when I do my standard high day tradition of dusting off the alter, changing out the alter cloth, and such.

I got 1 week left on my internship at work and then I should be able to graduate with my associates degree that I’ve been working on for 6 years. When you can only take 2 classes a semester it takes forever but I’ve stuck it out and time to get that paper.

That whole school thing is the primary reason I have had problems posting on a regular schedule. So to all you awesome followers that have stuck it out thank you.

Road Trip: Sugarcreek’s Giant Cuckoo Clock

Took a day trip to Sugarcreek to see the giant cuckoo clock. It was a nice drive through some of Ohio’s wonderful hills. Stopped at a winery, an Amish cheese shop and a farmers market on the way back. It may not sound like sound like a witchy road trip on the surface but it totally was. Ohio is my home and exploring its many treasures and pieces of history are one of the ways I bond with the land spirits. Each little town has its own vibration and flavor. The area around the clock is whimsical and a quaint little tourist trap. I loved it. I got Amish produced honey, jam and baked goods. Getting to taste some of the bounty of the land.

The winery and Amish cheese shop were nestled in to the side of a hill and gave me warm cozy hobbit like vibes. I got a lot of local made wines and cheeses. Going to have find some good recipes to highlight these cheeses because that is what a good kitchen witch does.

The farmers market was random stop along interstate 77. It was your typical small tin roofed pole barn. They had the usual offerings of sweet corn, peaches, tomatoes, peppers, and some local made preserves and baked goods. I acquired some honey, fruit and bread. Herbal teas, honey and candles are my magic staples and local sourced honey just always seems to carry the best vibrations, it just taste like sunshine and happiness and has so much more character than the stuff from big chain stores.

Every little day trip like this makes me appreciate the beauty of my state and all unique people in it. So if your a buckeye too and need to get out of the house, plan a trip. Safe travels.

Cernunnos, Devotional Art

Did some more devotional art. This Cernunnos pieces took me about 10 hours to complete. A lot of pagans like to write elaborate poems, prayers and songs for thier deities, but I do art. Devoting 10 + hours to creating an art piece is just as powerful a way to connect to a deity.

And in case some of you were wondering I do not fully draw the faces of deities as I view it as a taboo on my part. I as a mere mortal it would be too presumptuous to assume what a deities face looks like. The eye area is black to represent his connection with underworld powers.

Witchy Bling; It Is All About The Pentacles.

Buying jewelry is not exactly the most exciting part of witchcraft but truth be told the charms and trinkets we surround ourselves often end up being an essential part of our magic. They are part of protection spells. They are good luck charms, helpful crystals, aromatherapy beads, devotional pieces, and so much more. One of the most common symbols worn by witches today is the pentacle/ pentagram. It is a 5 pointed star in circle, and traditionally each points represents the elements, earth, fire, water, air and spirit. Its considered a basic protection symbol and is also used as a representation of Wicca, witchcraft, and other branches of modern paganism.

I got a new pentacle necklace this weekend. It is made sterling silver and the size of quarter. The star has been shaped to resemble a flower. Its very delicate and feminine looking and I love it. It got me reminiscing about all the pentacles I have worn over the years. My first few were some cheap gothy looking pewter jewelry that Spencer’s Gifts was selling back in the late 90s. It was all the rage fashion for us want-to-be goth mall-rat teens. I still got one of them hanging around the house somewhere. But as they were cheap the broke easily, and given how I started a retail job being a little more subtle in my attire became essential to earning a paycheck.

So right around when I turned twenty I acquired a cute pentacle about the size of a dime that I wore on a choker for a year or two. I lost it at some point. Then I bought a beautiful sterling silver one that had the phases of the moon around the outer circle. I wore that one until current so about 16 ish years. While I loved the moon one I felt it was time for a change. Like that part of my journey was complete and it was time to move further along my path. I’ve been pagan for 22 years now. Gone through a lot of fads and phases and my intuition tells me I am starting on a new chapter. I’ve over come a lot of road blocks internally and externally and changing my bling is apart of the process of changing my spiritual energy.

While there is a lot of material out there about acquiring and charging witchy jewelry, I wasn’t able to find many suggestions about retiring pieces. The suggestions I found were to do various cleansing rituals, or drastic things like burying in the earth or toss it in a body of water. Deposing of it doesn’t feel right, and it is such a quality piece I may want to wear it again at some point. I also an uncertain about a cleansing ritual because it has developed some strong protective energy. I think for now I am just going to wipe it down with a polishing cloth and shove it in the jewelry box till I can think of something else.

So dear reader I am going to ask how has your witch bling changed over the years? Love to hear your story how changes in your witchy bling marked changes in your spiritual practice.

May in the Garden

I am pretty sure the weather gods of Ohio must be drunk. Last week we had freeze warnings and last night it got so warm I turned on the air conditioning. The weather has been crazy like this all spring. This back and forth swings in the weather has been stressful for gardening.

I lost some plants to hail damage. My poor hostas look like they may not recover. I lost others to several days of ridiculously late frost. Thankfully my cabbages, peas, and radishes survived the cold snap, but it stunted several of my other plants.

I spent this past weekend replanting several plants, and pulling weeds, and such. I got to pull in my second radish crop of the season. I got to use the fire pit too, roasting hotdogs and peeps with the family.

The best part of May though is that my iris are blooming. They are so pretty.

Overcoming Personal Roadblocks Along My Spiritual Path

Hello again my dear readers,

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you may recall back in 2018 I was struggling with the idea of working with deities outside of my chosen pantheon, especially Celtic ones. I have been doing a lot of shadow work and growing since. After realizing the true root of my resistance to the idea was emotional trauma from a previous relationship I have been making efforts to over come my mental roadblocks on the subject.

The first thing I did was to work rethinking how I approached going to group rituals that were not Hellenic themed. I have been trying to think of it as an opportunity to meet new “people” and by new people I mean deities, because I already know all the humans there. The Druids I hang out with do moon rituals focused on Celtic deities, and after attending these for a while (when my schedule allows), I have got to know a little more about the Celtic Parthenon and become familiar with a few of the deities.

In one rather moving ADF winter solstice ritual I was able to connect with a Celtic Goddess named Cailleach.  Another Celtic deity I have come to get acquainted with is Cernunnos, the horned god. I did not connect with him as a god of wilderness and animals but as another face of Hermes / Mercury. The YouTube lecture Cernunnos: Looking every which way  does a way better job of explaining this variation of him than I ever could. I have had some UPG (unverified personal gnosis /SAG (singular attributed gnosis) interactions with these deities and I have added them to my practice. I have since decide I need to learn more about the pantheon of southern Gaul because that is where a large part of my ancestry comes from. (expect book reviews around this subject this autumn)

I have also been venturing in to the realm Vedic hearth culture as well.  I have been adding Yoga philosophy and spiritual teachings to my practice. Yoga philosophy works very well stoic philosophy. I have been exploring Vedic mythology and learning a about its primary deities. I have had also had UPG/SAG interactions with the Vedic Deity Varuna.

Over all I am making progress on expanding my knowledge base, and I am working on social networking with the divine, both within the Hellenic Pantheon and without. And if anyone else is struggling with the idea of working with deities from multiple pantheons I would like to recommend a YouTube video by the ADF called “Can I Mix Pantheons and Cultures in My Work”

Gardening Adventures: The Goose Gets a Makeover

Some updates to my Garden. My old fire ring died. More specifically the legs rusted off of it.  So I reused it as a planter. I put mint seeds in it, and until those decided to sprout I put a few petunias in it so it doesn’t look like a random giant bowl of dirt. I also had to get a new fire ring, got a smaller model this time but it came with storage cover and more solid leg structure so hopefully it will have a longer life span.

I had been joking with my friends about how I wanted to get a Batman outfit for Gustav my recently acquired concrete goose, you may remember him from my previous post A Goose in the Garden. Well my friends in their quarantine induced boredom kidnapped my goose for a few days and brought him back in this cute Batman outfit they had made from their kid’s old baby cloths. They timed it well, they took him during a cold rainy spell so I would not be outside to notice. I love that I have Bat-Goose watching over my Garden.

As for the plants, I have already harvested asparagus, herbs and radish -micro-greens. The peas are about three inches tall now and the cabbages and gladiolas are sprouting.

Hope ya’ll are doing well, and wishing you a happy garden season.