Familiar?

Having a familiar of the foxy persuasion:

PROS

• Very cunning.
• Very smart.

CONS

• Tendency to leave you hanging.
• Know way more than you do.
• Will not tell you ANY of it.

PS- This is veering off into loco-crazy hearing voices but just to make it clear, I only really hear things when I’m in trance (IF YOU DON’T THINK I’M NUTS, I SALUTE YOU).

summer coming

It’s my day to keep the flame for my Cill and while mulling over the Bride, I’ve realised that I’m due to become better acquainted with her. The Bride is the patron of poetry, and for me this extends into my education. I have exams coming up in the summer and to do well on them, I have to start revising now. It sounds like I’m going overboard but it’s much nicer to feel comfortable with the exam when you’ve still got two weeks to go instead of cramming right up until the last moment. I also have to do some work related training, which means loads of booklets to fill out.

Other members of my little personal patheon related to education and learning are Papa (gate opener, therefore, he can open the gates to new knowledge) and Hekate (although her remit is more occult and witchy knowledge rather than geography). Studying is such a mundane act but it adds a little motivation if I have my gods behind me.

 

 

 

 

 

day 1

Things have been going well so far. I’ve started my big spring magical cleaning and I’m sort of dreading doing the rest of it. It’s one of those things which is so hard to properly get into but once you start the big job, it only takes a few hours. I’ve realised that quite a lot of my witchcraft revolves around-in mundane terms- cleaning and cleansing. It’s strange, because I’m naturally a messy person but these days I can’t stand clutter and mess (MY FAMILY, WHO READS THIS WILL BE LAUGHING THEIR ASS OF RIGHT ABOUT NOW). This carries over easily to witchcraft, where banishing and cleansing are certainly not alien.I hardly ever do spells, the last big one I did was for my father, months ago. Most of my witchcraft centres around trance and hedgecrossing, and you only need small binding and protective spells for that, if at all.

Tonight, I’ll be setting up the magical groundwork for the cleaning. Incense is already burning (it’s a… lilac-y, grassy, sea breezey blend, yum yum) and soon it’ll be time for me to turn off all the lights except for my working candle (first I have to hang up the laundry but I thought telling you that would ruin the whole witchy atmosphere, sorry homies).

Anyway, I’ve started Divine Horsemen: Living Gods of Haiti, which has ended up being quite dry but interesting none the less. It’s all about Haitian Voodoun and although it’s slightly dated (RHODESIA? YOU MEAN ZAMBIA/ZIMBABWE RIGHT?) it’s still a bloody good source of information. The internet is fairly repetitive and sparse when it comes to reliable information on Voodoo and the loa so it’s wonderful to have a book where every tiny thing is explain and detailed. I’d recommend it for anyone interested in Voodoo, especially if you honour the loa. While I’m all about making it up as I go along and running on intuition, there’s always room for research, even if I end up throwing it all out in the end. I really don’t understand some people’s aversion to learning about different religions, if your faith is so weak that reading a book will break it, you were never really believing in the first place.

persephone, goddess of spring.

Persephone is queen of the underworld, grain mother and spring maiden all at the same time. She can’t fit into the Wiccan maiden/mother/crone archetype, she’s all at once and never fits into just one. Her story is about being kidnapped against her and her mother’s will so that she was subject to a man’s desire, but I don’t really see it like that. I don’t think god/desses can be forced into doing anything, even by another god, it’s their choice.

Persephone changes with the seasons, she brings the growth in the spring. Spring equinox is coming up, this is when she arrives, although she’s making her presence known right now, by sending up daffodils and snowdrops. This sounds so white-light and fluffy, but this is the beginning of a fasting and abstinence period for me (OHOHOH, I’M STEALING LENT). I’m having my last day of stuffing my face full of food and buying stuff up on the internet before all that stops. Up until the equinox I’m shedding the darkness of winter to purify myself for spring. Persephone goes through the same process, she ascends to earth from the underworld and now her role as  ruler there is superseded by the need for her to bring life and vitality.

One thing that annoys me about some new agey-y spirituality/religion is the emphasis on feast days and days of huge celebration. I think you can go in a completely different direction and it can hold the same power. Putting emphasis on what you’re not doing just as good. I’m going to reign myself back in, stop myself from overeating, stop myself from buying things I don’t need, weeding out what I don’t need. Fasting is going to be a part of this and so is saving up money instead of spending it.

The purification season ends with the equinox, when Persephone is reborn. I’m really looking forward to it, I’m hoping that something will have changed, but I’m not sure what. I’m just buzzing with anticipation, even though there’s more than a month to go.

 

PS- doesn’t that painting look so Persephone-ish? She ain’t letting you through that door.

little god houses

I really, really like the idea of shrines. I like the tiny little ones, stuffed with all sorts of paraphernalia all distinctly related to one god or goddess. Shrines come up in so many religions, from Buddhist to Christian. What makes a shrine different from an altar is that an altar is for work (like the sacrifice of mass or Wiccan cakes ‘n ale) and a shrine is for more for devotion. Shrines and altars can be mixed though, like an altar taking up most of the space with a shine at it’s head.

I’m working on my own shrines at the moment, trying to piece together little bits and pieces of things that remind me of my gods. I have some supplies for the Bride and Hekate coming in the mail but I’m still on the lookout for more. Samedi’s shrine will be made or completed during Halloween, when skulls and other creepy goods are more readily available (THRIFT > BLIND DEVOTION, SORRY 2 SAY), and so will Persephone’s, even though hers will be a mix of flowery, spring and good old fashioned death. That leaves Papa and the Horned One left. I think Papa’s will be the most simple and rustic looking, while the Horned One will be a profusion of moss, twigs and little clay mushrooms.

 

Y U NO SANE?

“This struggle has been going since the Women’s Mysteries first appeared. These individuals selfishly never think about the following: if women allow men to be incorporated into Dianic Mysteries,What will women own on their own? Nothing! Again! Transies who attack us only care about themselves. We women need our own culture, our own resourcing, our own traditions. You can tell these are men, They don’t care if women loose the Only tradition reclaimed after much research and practice ,the Dianic Tradition. Men simply want in. its their will. How dare us women not let them in and give away the ONLY spiritual home we have! Men want to worship the Goddess? Why not put in the WORK and create your own trads. The order of ATTIS for example,(dormant since the 4rth century) used to be for trans gendered people, also the castrata, men who castrated themselves to be more like the Goddess. Why are we the ONLY tradition they want? Go Gardnerian!Go Druid! Go Ecclectic! Filled with women, and men. They would fit fine. But if you claim to be one of us, you have to have sometimes in your life a womb, and overies and MOON bleed and not die. Women are born not made by men on operating tables.” - Z. Budapest

What the fuck? I mean seriously, what the fuck? How can you say that without realising how much of a bigot you sound like? (AND HOW CRAZY YOU SOUND? I MEAN, I THINK A LOT OF THE OLD SCHOOL WICCANS ARE A BIT NUTTY BUT THIS PUSHES THE BOAT OUT)

ALL OF THE LIGHTS

Lots of people hate Kanye West but I adore him. I love the bass line on this song and the fact that La Roux also sings on this tracks. Somehow the determination and light-hearted hard headedness in the song seems very Legba-ish to me (WHO KNEW AN OLD MAN WOULD HAVE SUCH GOOD TASTE?).

HENNA MEHNDI IN MY HAIR

Beauty and the act of making yourself more beautiful has always been a very Kore-ish thing to me, especially at this time of year. Right now, I imagine, she’s making herself young and beautiful again for when she ascends to her mother and the living world. She does the same thing at the autumnal equinox too, but then she’s making herself beautiful for a totally different reason- her husband. I don’t think make-up or hair dye is inherently unnatural (ALTHOUGH, YOU CAN TAKE IT TOO FAR). I think that if you cross the line between bringing out your best features and making yourself into a totally different person, then you’ve sort of lost the point of it.

Anyway, I just dyed my hair with henna (AFTER FIVE BLEACHINGS AND OTHER BOX DYES, GOD FORGIVE ME AND MY CRUNCHY HAIR) and it came out in a vivid orange-y red tone. It was so cooling and nice, having this muddy helmet on my head for four hours as I let the dye soak into my hair. It smells like hay to me but I added some bergamort oil to sweeten the scent a little.

It surprises me how henna isn’t used very much in witchcraft and magic on the web. I would have thought that an all natural tattoo that fades in three weeks or so would be regularly used but obviously not. Anyway, I gave himself a Papa Legba veve so that he would guide my feet (or my left foot in particular). I can see it when I walk around in bare feet at home but no one else can when I’m working or at school. I’m thinking of inventing some veves for my veveless gods (OH BRIGID, HEKATE, KORE AND HORNED ONE, Y U NO HAVE YOUR OWN SYMBOLS?) so I can decorate myself with  them.

plans plans plans

I have a cold. It’s one of those where it swaps between me having a dry throat and me having a bunged up nose. I made an appeal to the Bride (this isn’t a life or death situation so it would have been a bit dramatic of me to go running to Samedi). I offered incense and warm water, then asked for her blessing.I’m going to go to the local orchard tomorrow too (it’s really my orchard but I don’t think anyone but me will agree with that) as another part of the offering.

It’s dark moon soon (OR NEW MOON BUT I CALL IT WHAT I SEE) and I want to put together a little spring ritual, where all the gods I worship are honoured (FIRST TIME EVAR). I want to involve the familiars too, now that I’m getting a feel for them. Deer is clingy and close, always around while Fox is more watchful, who knows where he goes. Baking bread for the occasion sounds like a good idea too, even if it is just to replenish my supply of communion bread. This will be the first time that I solidify my beliefs- writing them down and thinking about them isn’t the same as putting them into practise. I’m nervous, partly because I’m just not sure how I’m going to do this but I’m hoping that it’ll all come together in the end (SUFFICE TO SAY, IF I NEVER POST HERE AGAIN, ASSUME I’VE BEEN SNATCHED INTO THE ETHER AS EITHER A REWARD OR A PUNISHMENT).

Party with the familiars

With some Beyonce and Buck Cherry blasting through my headphones, a candle laced with rose oil to lure the spirits in and an offering of something fizzy and sweet, I think I managed to summon up my familiar friends for a little party.

(I have some incense waiting to be ground up for next time- caraway, juniper, rose and orange- YUMMY).