Month: April 2019

It is Monday Morning, April 29th, Hail & Well Met

To make a donation, even $2.90 USD from EVERYONE reading this will make a huge dfference. Please make and light handle for strenght and healing for Lady A ‘s familiar Kade. Please make a candle Ford Lady Abyss for strength and comfr. Add both of them To your daily prayers. Thank you very much for our paryers, love, support and candles for Jade and Lady A

Planning a Summer Garden?

As the days begin to become longer and the world warms up, it is time to plan this year’s garden. I usually plant the things I know I will use in making lotions, recipes, and crafts. I grow my herbs on my deck so I can step out to snip off a piece to add while cooking. I’m sure to plant more sage and the lavender grows abundantly every year to use making smudge sticks. I used to plant a huge vegetable garden, but the rabbits and my old bones have deterred me these last few years, and I only do a few tomato plants and some beans. As the years have passed I have tried to envision a flower garden with perennials to minimize the time spent working in the garden and more time just enjoying it. I am happy to say I am finally reaping the benefits of preparing our gardens to sprout up beautiful, colourful flowers with minimum work on my part. Have you thought about growing some of the herbs and flowers that you can use to decorate your altar and use in many crafts and recipes? You don’t need to have a big garden. Choose the things you know you will use or find a use for something that grows naturally in your yard. A previous owner was kind enough to leave plenty of lily of the valley for me to enjoy. Something you have grown from a seed or a slip from a plant has your magic touch. You have watered it, provided light and warmth and nurtured it to become hardy, healthy, and bountiful. Some of my best thinking happens while I am caring for my plants. I come up with different ideas of how to use them and I love sharing the harvest with family and friends. Do try to connect with Mother Earth and accept her gifts an she blesses us, one and all.

Cleansing your Magical Tools

Since spring is a good time for cleaning up, I thought I would share with you how to cleanse the objects on your altar or any new items that you might want to add. This is a very important step to ensure that there isn’t any negative energy attached to the item, and to make it your own. If at all possible, I try to do this when it is a new moon, but you can cleanse whenever you feel you need to. Items that you wish to use on your altar are not the only things that you should cleanse. Jewellery, stones, amulets and anything that you will carry on you should be free of another’s energy and empowered with yours. As time passes, you may feel the need to “freshen up” and do a little spring cleaning with your special items. There are different ideas on the best way to cleanse. This is the method I like to use, but you can do what works for you. You can find other suggestions from many sources on online and in reference books.

What you will need:  dish of water (I like to use rain water), feather, white candle, and a small white cloth

Add salt to water. Place object in water or sprinkle water on all sides. Say 3 times “Earth and Water I ask you to remove all energy but my own from this ______________________.”

Place object on white cloth. Use feather to wave over object and say 3x  “Air, I ask you to remove all energy but my own from this ______________________.”

Light the candle. Hold object carefully above candle and say 3x “Fire, I ask you to remove all energy but my own from this ______________________.

Return item to white cloth. The cloth represents Spirit. Now ask Spirit 3x to remove all energy but your own from the item.

After the objects are cleansed lay them on the altar. Call upon the God or Goddess you feel comfortable with. While making the sign of the pentacle over each object say, “I call upon ________________ to bless and consecrate these items to be used in any magic I work or any ritual I perform. I ask Spirit, Water, Earth, Air ,and Fire to bless and consecrate these items to be used in any magic I work or any ritual I perform.

So Mote It Be!

 

A Witches Bag that reflects the Soul of her Ancestors.

20190428_105416

 

28th April

Written for Coven Life

by Priestess Hypatia

As I reached into my Witch Bag hanging over my shoulder, to grab that essential something, it warmly reminded me of my grandmother Gigi who is in the Summerland’s.

She was a cumbersome Greek woman with long white braided hair that always and I mean always wore an apron, from the minute she woke up, till the time she was ready to go to bed.

The little I remember of her has left me with the warmest, funniest and kindest memories. Her perpetual apron was worn over her garments like a smock that tied at the back, it had a large pocket at the front that she would fill with what I thought were presents. Out would come dried herbs and flowers in what seemed little sachets, baby tortoise shells, coins, seed pods, old pieces of jewellery, old rings, pendants and broken chains, little pieces of net and even a small Icon of St Cyprion. She even had a dried cicada once, it was a bottomless pit.

Time went and I never really thought of it much, until recently that is when I reached into my Witch Bag.

Now as we know, it is nearly Samhain here in the Southern Hemisphere. A wonderful time where the Veil between the worlds is thin just enough for that extra communication between the here and the beyond. Looking at Gigi’s painting she reminded me of her little quirks, one of them was her pet crow BiBi in Greece. Not too many people had crows as pets, so it did seem strange. She was always telling BiBi off because she would steel her valuables and hide them in the roof. On the other hand BiBi would also leave gifts around the house that my Gigi thought was so auspicious and she would put them, you guessed it, in her apron pocket.  Every now and then my Grandfather was instructed by my Grandmother Gigi to raid BiBi’s nest and retrieve some of my Gigi’s valuables.

A couple of years ago I wrote an article here on Coven life about how to construct your own Witch Bag.

A Witch’s bag represents the soul of the Witch, it reflects her beliefs, her practice, and her attraction to the mysteries and unknown. A Witch is always looking for signs from here and the beyond. For my Grandmother Gigi it was from auspicious trinkets BiBi left behind and of course BiBi herself. Ornithomancy is divination through birds and when BiBi would screech or do something unexpected Grandmother Gigi would know exactly who was going to visit and even say what. ‘Ow your auntie Katina is coming to tell me her troubles’. As a young teen I thought that she was hilarious, well it’s not the case now! She was always spot on with the help of BiBi.

Ow I nearly forgot about the Icon in my Grandmothers pocket of St Cyprion.

St Cyprion was a magician that converted into a holy man by abandoning his magickal path and following the Christian faith. The irony is that there is still till this day in the Orthodox bible anti curse prayers a.k.a -spells that were written by St Cyprian himself.

I encourage you to also remember. Remember that the little things that you practice and that you believe came from your DNA, your blood line. You are all of your ancestors. We all have stories to tell whether they are passed down from words of mouth or trance. Never forget your story.

 

Blessings

Hypatia

Lyme disease

Thank you for this important and timely information.
I would like to add that any land mammal can get Lyme Disease if bitten by a Deer Tick. As a veterinarian assistant I would advise anyone who will be taking their pet, especially hunting and retrieving dogs, in the woods for any reason to get them the Lyme immunization shots. There are 2 shots that need to be given 4 weeks apart to insure they work correctly. It is also a good idea to put a light weight t-shirt on your pet any time they are outside. Deer Ticks also make a home in tall grass, weeds, and even flower beds. If an animal under about 45 pounds gets Lyme Disease it is usually fatal. Please contact your vet and get the shot to prevent your loving companion from this horrible disease just as you keep them immunized from fleas and ticks and heart worm. The flea and tick medicine doesnot not always work, I have seen it fail right in front on me when my Miniature Pinscher had flea bites that got infected 2 summers ago. She had gotten a shot to immunized her from them but it did not work as it was suppose to. See post for herbal flea repellent I will be posting in a couple of minutes but check with your veterinarian before use if yourlife cat or dogis takes any medication on a daily bases.