I'm a Solitary and Coven Witch. I have a few pictures of my working altar online so, thought I'd add to the fun. This is my working altar as it is now. I'm moving - literally this weekend. Not sure how things will work out space-wise. I also have a Protection altar I can submit later.
Greetings to all and thanks to the Mods for a great community!!
( clickety click )

*squee* I'm going up to Peabody to see Lewissa Monday and pick up the gorgeous burgundy skirt she made me.
(I got to wear it at I-Con, but it was a tad too big.yay!) so she altered it for me. I'm going to have her look at this weird green fairy-ish skirt I bought and see if it can be altered too.

I think I'll make her and Jeff some brownies.

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY

chalkhorsegirl and kittenkatt

The Loomers are doing a benefit show at club Passim Saturday the 17th at 4PM for the Evergreen school. Adults $15 kids $7.50

I was thinking of taking the medium, would anyone else want to come with us? Kids tickets are half price and all the money (including the cd sales)goes to the school.

I would be totally happy to get dinner elsewhere afterwards as I hate the food at Passim (I understand the wanting to be veggie/vegan thing but does your pizza have to suck *that* bad?)


I figued out part of my crappy mood may very well be that I am currently not getting enough live music in my life.

Tupelo Music Hall Londonderry NH October 4th

Richard Marx duo acoustic with Matt Scannell (lead singer of Vertical Horizon)

There is a 6:30 show and a 9:00pm show.

Who would go to this with me? Tix are $45




I don't think I love anything in the world as much as I love Matt Scannel's voice! Acoustic? OMG!

( Yes that includes "pretend rockstar boyfriend"and company..shhhh.)

Bike to Work Day http://www.sfbike.org/?btwd
Chocolate Chip Day, National http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/May/chocolatechipday.htm
Cold Sophie's Day (5th Ice Saint) extra cold weather was expected.
Day of Families, International http://www.un.org/esa/socdev/family/
Day of Vesta*
French Fried Fairy Awareness Day (Fairy)
Goddess Month of Maia ends
Holy day of Jupiter (Roman)
Holy Day of Thoth (Egyptian)
Maiae Inuict /Feast of Maia and Mercury (Old Roman)*
Mercuralia*
Never Turn Your Back on the Ocean Day (it might be waving at you)
Nylon Stockings Day
Peace Officer Memorial Day (aka Police Memorial Day) http://www.nationalcops.org/npw.htm
Rain Dance Night (Guatemala)
Relive Your Past By Listening to the First Music You Ever Bought, No Matter What It Was!, No Excuses Now Day (no, really this is on the Daily Globe calendar! http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/6293/glmay.htm#O )
Sacrifice day to the Tiber River (Roman)*
Safety Dose Day, National http://www.dosekeeper.com/
Straw Hat Day* (official day to switch from felt to straw hats for the summer)
Yoruba/Santeria feast of Ochossi, Orisha of Animals.*

St. Dympna's Day (patron of the insane, asylums, mental health workers; against epilepsy, insanity, sleepwalking)*
St. Isidore's Day (patron farmers, farm workers, ranchers)*
St. Hallvard's Day (patron of Oslo; defending innocence)

This Day in History
1252 - Pope Innocent IV issues the papal bull ad exstirpanda, which authorizes the torture of heretics in the Medieval Inquisition.
1793 - Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for "about 360 meters", at a height of 5-6 meters, during one of the first attempted flights.
( more about starred* holidays  )

Got a package from xkiarna today. It contained a red and black feather boa, a sparkly red candle, and this amazing figure of (ahem) a skeleton lady with blonde straw hair and a fur-trimmed red robe, holding a black rose. Said figure is now on my altar. All this time and I'd never found an image or statue of Her Ladyship that suited me -- well, now I have one, and I'm sure Loki doesn't mind sharing the tiny altar space with "Daddy's little princess." Heh.

The accompanying card of Catwoman scratching Robin in the face was strangely hilarious, too.

 

That I never see someone saying "We believe in free speech here" outside a context of "and that means you should shut up about being bothered by what got said"?

Yes, this is the same stupid dwama. I may give up usenet for Lent.

I'm a priest in the Apostolic Johannite Church (http://www.johannite.org). We're a Gnostic Christian group that likes a bit of Ceremonial Magick. So, I have a ritual space:

( Pictures under the cut )

Hello. I have been interested in making an altar for a while now, but am not sure where to start or what to do. I don't follow a specific religion, but I consider myself to be spiritual. Does anyone have any ideas on how to create a non-religious altar? I was thinking of something to do with gratitude for what I have, what I wish for my life and the lives of others, good thoughts, meditations, changing of seasons etc. My beliefs are pretty much all over the place so it would probably be a mix of things.

Thanks for any help ♥

Thanks to the folks who wished me well after my recent tattoo-and-flu experience. I'm feeling better now, although still somewhat frail around the belly parts. Had to go in for another hemoglobin A1C blood test today, so that's a grand total of five times I've been stuck with needles in the last few days (perhaps scentofrain is having the horrors at the very thought). The new tattoo is healing well although it is somewhat itchy. I know better than to scratch.

Wonder of wonders, I actually said the entire set of bead prayers last night even though I was too tired to get out of bed and take my beads from the altar on the other side of the room. I only got a few of the prayers out of order once I'd gotten to the Jotnar (the last group) and was starting to fall asleep. I really need to get back on track regarding my devotional practices. I regret to say I have not been praying daily, nor even regularly. I have also not being doing any yoga for the past month or so. I have been a slacker. Yeah, I could argue that I hurt my wrist or that when cauldronfarm has Shiatsu class on Saturday I've no way to get to the yoga studio anyway, or that Beltane and tattooing and sickness have all happened, but that doesn't excuse the rest of the time when I haven't even been trying to reach my goals.

Well, rather than feel guilty over it anymore I should just start up again, especially with the yoga.

Tomorrow.

Today my stomach still feels like someone has stomped on it.

Due to a recently announced vulnerability in Debian and its derivatives, e.g. Ubuntu, the OpenSSH keys for lorien, my server, have changed. This will mean very little to most people. Basically, if you see a scary warning message about man in the middle attacks, it's because I changed something to help prevent man-in-the-middle attacks, and you should take on the new key.

The fingerprint for the new DSA key, for the vaguely paranoid:

1024 a8:99:19:f5:c3:06:c4:dc:42:95:1f:bf:70:4c:4e:69

New RSA key fingerprint.

2048 cb:ce:58:83:7e:52:59:18:0a:4a:b3:8a:58:6a:67:32

(The sufficiently paranoid wouldn't have trusted me to post that, you understand.)

Enjoy!

-- Lorrie

May 14
Argei *
Buttermilk Biscuit Day, National
Crazy Day
Dance Like A Chicken Day, National
Festival of the Midnight Sun *
French Fairy Awareness Day (Fairy)
Help Clean Up Your Street Day
Isis' day *
Kamuzu Day (Malawi)
Mother Ocean Day
Mother of the Sea Dragon *
Psychosavato/Sluggards' Feast *
Receptionists Day, National
Runic half-month of Ing (expansive energy) begins *
Stars and Stripes Forever Day
Tithe Day - North Africa
Underground America Day
Veal Ban Action Day

St. Bonifatius' Day (4th Ice Saint)
St. Matthias' Day (Western; patron against alcoholism)

This Day in History
1660 Widow Robinson of Kidderminster, England, and her two daughters arrested for using magic to try to prevent the return of Charles II from exile.

( more about starred * holidays )

Since I was first alerted to the quake by partners and people from my MFA program sending worried emails (today) I think that answers any outstanding questions about my safety.

Still mostly off the computer, but will hopefully get back to your comments when my wrists have recovered. (Which 15 minutes of typing this morning tells me they haven't, yet, alas.)

I'm aggravated.

I just found out from Syn's Mom..no more camping out in Oakham. Cory's trailer is supposedly wrecked from the winter,( I can only imagine what the shack looks like then) and neither of the boys are planning on camping there this year.

(Yeah cause if you fucking half-ass your winterizing TWO years in a row..guess what happens?)

Awsome. So I'm betting anything of mine still out at Syn's trailer/shack is probably ruined, and the nice futon bed I helped Syn buy is probably wrecked too.

No flea market, no hanging with his Dad this summer. Goddamnit.

I'm pissed too that he couldn't just tell me this himself, I had to find out third hand from his mother(who heard it from other brother A.)

Oh and obviously we can guess who'll be the one doing all the driving this summer *again*.
Even though now he has a car(which he still hasn't paid me a dime for).

I'm thinking it's time to find a nice local chewtoy.

I big hearty thanks goes out to Saint Expedite! That was quick, and I appreciate it! Have some twinkies and flowers. :) (I couldn't find poundcake at the grocery store in my 'hood, hopefully Saint Expedite likes twinkies, too!)

I made this tonight after rising from my sickbed hungry for a home-cooked meal. It is based on a recipe from the Old Farmer's Almanac website. Tarragon and cream are one of those food matches made in heaven -- that's why you often see recipes for chicken with tarragon cream sauce.

Serves 6

1 lb. fresh mushrooms, washed and diced
1 lb. cooked new potatoes, peeled and diced
1 small onion, peeled and chopped small
1 stick of butter
3 tbsp. flour
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
2 cups milk or light cream
1 cup sour cream
1 handful fresh chives, chopped
2 tsp. dried parsley
2 tsp. dried Russian tarragon
Salt and pepper

In a large heavy-bottomed pot, melt 1/2 stick butter and saute the onion and mushrooms over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Add the chicken stock and potatoes; set aside on medium-low heat.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, melt the other 1/2 stick of butter and add the flour, whisking constantly to make a roux. When the roux has thickened up, add the milk or cream little by little, then add the sour cream, whisking well to ensure there are no lumps.

Pour the milk mixture into the pot with the vegetables. Stir in the chives, parsley and tarragon. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cover and let simmer over medium-low heat for 10 minutes or until soup is thickened and savory-smelling. Serve with a salad and hot buttered toast, oyster crackers or slices of toasted French bread spread with roasted garlic cloves.

* * *
Now, I feel I must make a confession: the reason so many of the recipes posted here begin with "adapted from..." is that I am utterly incapable of following a recipe exactly. Even more shocking, in most cases, I feel that there is no recipe I have yet to attempt which cannot be improved by the addition of more butter, cream, bacon fat, seasonings, extra vegetables or maple syrup. (Not all these things at once, mind you.)

Imagine -- me, the Foodinista, doling out recipes left and right, and yet unable to take directions myself without attempts to "improve" on them! The horror! Well...no. I don't expect anybody to follow my instructions to the letter, and my dearest hope, in posting so many recipes to this journal, is that other people will experiment too. Perhaps someone else will come up with an improvement on what I've created, or find a way to make something that tastes better to them. That's why cooking is so much fun -- endless potential for creative inspiration.

May 13
Apple Pie Day, National (wrong time of year, don't you think?)
The Celebration of the Three Mothers*
Celtic tree month of Huath (Hawthorn) begins
Druid Day (sounds made up)
Fairy King and Queen Jumping Competition (Fairy)
Fiesta of Five Flags http://www.fiestaoffiveflags.org/seafood.html
Garland Day- offering garlands to Neptune (extant in England)
Indian Day http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfcZknSpHOw
Lemuria 3rd Day
Leprechaun Day http://www.holidayinsights.com/stpat/leprechaunday.htm
Procession of Our Lady of Fatima (Macau)
Purlliya (Ancient Anatola; Dragon Slaying Festival)
Runic half-month of Lagu ends
Thargelion Noumenia (Greek) http://www.antonineimperium.org/thargelion.htm

St. Erconwald of London (patron against gout)
Blessed Gerard of Villamagna (bodily ills, sick people)
St. Imelda's Day (patron of first communicants)
St. Servais' Day (patron against rats, vermin, foot troubles)
St. Servatius' Day (3rd Ice Saint patron against foot problems, lameness, leg problems, mice, rats, rheumatism; success)

This Day in History
1933 Day the Humanist Manifesto was published. It exhorts people to affirm life, not deny it; engage life, not flee from it; and work towards the happiness of self and all
1917, the Goddess in the guise of the Virgin Mary appeared to three peasant children in Fatima, Portugal. The event, which was one of six divine appearances from May 13 to October 13, drew worldwide attention.

The Celebration of the Three Mothers - observed annually on or around this date each year in Celtic countries, which honored the Triple Goddess, who brought prosperity and a good harvest. The Three Mothers or Triple Goddess are known world round in many cultures, and represent the three stages of life. This triad also symbolizes the three phases of the Moon: Crescent, Full and Dark. The Goddesses are most often known by the titles of Maid, Mother and Crone. Carved in stone, they hold bounty on their laps: a basket of fruits and flowers, an infant, a foal.

Surrounded by apple mint, parsley and a curry plant. I'm new and still learning about gardening and paganism, amongst other things. This strip of garden was overgrown with weeds, which I cleared away and am in the process of planting herbs, veges and flowers in. I'm always on the lookout for magical, decorative additions for it which won't offend my elderly Christian neighbours. Couldn't resist this wee fairy when I saw him - he reminded me of a character from Labyrinth! (:

Just before one there was a huge crash. Everyone ran out asking "is everyone all right?" and it turned out that the top of the tree across the street had falling down across the road. Seems to have brushed the roof, but not damaged anything. No windows broken, no lines down.

I went in to call the town to tell them about it, and while I was on the phone saying "It didn't seem to hit any lines, we've still got pow...(er)" the power went out. Soon thereafter a police cruiser came and made a report, and within about 10 minutes the town road guy came. "Have chain saw, will travel." He was quite willing to let us have the wood for our woodshed (and probably more happy to have Star lug it away as he sawed. Sadly there was a casualty- it fell right on my bleeding heart bushes which were looking gorgeous this morning! Now they are totally crushed. Whine....

Oh, yes, there was another casualty- the kids spotted a small animal that seems to have fallen out of the tree when it broke- looked kind of marsupial. I guessed 'possum, but they seem to have decided it was a 'coon. It was alive, but looked like it was in shock. Since both opossum and raccoon eat eggs and chickens, I'd be willing to have it die, and am actually more worried about any that may be surviving in a nest somewhere.

I'm more disturbed about my bleeding heart plant. I hope it lives. (Will the roots die if there's no greenery growing out of them?)

Husband is going off to practice or something tonight. I'm taking the medium to karate, back at 6ish. If anyone feels like hanging out let me know.

greylady THANK YOU FOR THE NEW BOOKS!!!!!!!! you rule! I need to go get something in Nashua before the end of the month, sushi road trip?

This is the entrance altar to my home. It is simple and is an altar of gifts and is dedicated to peace in the home.

This is my altar to the fae, devas and helper spirits of my home

This was a weekend of ups and downs. Saturday morning I took Ham to Aikido. Then we went home for lunch and started finishing the dining room. We unpacked some lingering boxes and got things set up the way we wanted. Then I started an apple crumble (crustless pie). Once it was in the oven, Ham and I went to the library and grocery store while Hub started dinner. She got her own library card and was super pleased! She even got to write her name on it.

Hub made a wonderful Italian meatloaf for dinner, which we had with mashed potatoes and beans. Dessert was the warm crumble with ice cream.

Sunday morning Hub and Ham got up and let me sleep in. They made coffee and then ran over to the grocery to grab some pastries, flowers, and chocolate for me. Sleeping in was nice, but it would have been nicer if Ham hadn't woken up before six because she was so excited. After breakfast we went to the Hillsdale farmers market. We didn't have much cash, but we got some local honey and a big bunch of kale. We will go back again this coming week though. Then Ham and I went over to the Columbia outlet store where I got some socks and some super-marked down hiking shoes. My other pair were coming apart (which, since I bought them in like 1997, isn't all that surprising). The shoes were a bit of an unexpected splurge, but a nice one.

Then we made dinner: hens roasted with rosemary and basted with butter, wild rice cooked in apple and stock, and the wilted kale with a bit of rice vinegar. Plus more apple crumble for dessert.

Overall a good weekend with lots of good stuff. There was some stress Sunday, as Ham learned a bit about the ups and downs of social interaction with some neighbor kids, but I think we made it through OK. These difficult situations can really put a kid off kilter and effect their behavior. The hard thing with the Ham is that she's often off-kilter before the event that causes the problem, which makes it hard to figure out what's going on until after the fact.

Thanks for the f-list well-wishes. I know that mother's day is difficult for many people. The way I see it is that there's three parts to the holiday. First, there's a long-standing political element that mostly now gets forgotten. Second, there's a part that's primarily for kids. Ham loves the idea of doing something special for me and getting me something (just like she does for Hub and father's day) and I wouldn't deprive her of that. Third, there's a highly manufactured and commercialized "reward the mother of your children for breeding -- with diamonds!" angle that currently gets commercial prominence. This is just plain annoying.

I figure that my Mother's Day celebration is primarily about me and the Ham. It gives her an opportunity to get excited about doing something special for someone she cares about and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy as well. Hub is a facilitator (someone's gotta work the stove and drive) and gets to enjoy the general happy family vibe. It's just not a general holiday for me -- it's a private family thing.

I always get a Mother's Day card from my sister-in-law and while I appreciate her Martha Stewart-esque sense of organization and her thoughtfulness, I'm just like why? I'm not her mom. She's not mine. I can't imagine sending a card to everyone I know who's ever bred ("Congratulations on getting knocked up, I hope your kid appreciates your 12 hours of labor!").

This coming week the weather is supposed to be beautiful and I hope to get a couple of rides in. At the library this weekend, I got a bunch of books about Oregon. Off-street paved bike paths. Day hikes in the Columbia Gorge. Hiking Oregon's hot springs. Like that.

Author Raven Kaldera has put out a call for submissions for an upcoming book about the importance of UPG in paganism and the occult.

“The Personal Gnosis Handbook: Inspiration In Pagan Religious Practice”

This book will be a handbook for Pagan religious groups as to how to cope with the issue of personal gnosis in your religion. How do you tell what’s really a divine message and what’s not? Who decides, and what’s fair? Is fair even relevant when the Gods are involved? How do you figure it out anyway? This book will tackle all those hard questions, including how to turn UPG (unverified personal gnosis) into PCPG (peer-corroborated personal gnosis), and when you shouldn’t.

Basic assumptions of this book:

-Personal gnosis is desirable and valuable, and a side effect of having actual real Gods, not just archetypes.

-Personal gnosis, when applied to group practice, needs to be judged by a variety of criteria.


I'm a bit excited by this! I think it's certainly a good time for a book like this to be written.

In another forum I'm a member of, someone got "pagan" and "wicca" confused as being the synonyms, and I responded by posting a "family tree" of paganism. It then occured to me that this might be a really useful outline for a workshop at CMA where I'm currently part of youth services (specifically with teens).

So I'd like feedback on this outline, so that it becomes not something I pulled out of my ass in 10 minutes, but something that I can use confidently to discuss the diversity of paganism. It's really only a slightly modified (expanded?) version of Bonewit's categories. I'd like to avoid the flamewar of where to put British Traditional Wicca, if you don't mind, but discussions of the placement of everything else is desired.

Please note that the categories of Paeleopaganism, Mesopaganism, and Recontructionism contain well known examples and are not intended to be exhaustive.

Edit:"Family Tree" was obviously a horrible name for my original intention... How about "slightly more detailed categories than Bonewits"? Although the concept of an actual family tree to go with it is pretty intriguing... It would probably need to be done wiki style though, as I can't imagine having the time to look *all* of it up myself

Flavors of Paganism
( new list )
( original list )

Here's what I have:






Thanks

SalonCon sounds totally fun, but alas, I cannot afford to make reservations to attend, much less travel down there. And I have no appropriate garb.

sister_bluebird, this sounds right up your alley. Have you been?

Hi everyone. I wanted to share something that I finished this weekend with the group. I own some land in Western North Carolina, outside of Asheville. This weekend we finished a Persephone Shrine there in an area of the land that we are calling Persephone's Glade. The statue is a replica of a statue called Magdalena by an artist named Alfanso Ianelli, who had also sculpted Frank Lloyd Wright's Midway Sprites. The statue jut screamed "Persephone" to me when I saw it. I love the architectural quality to it. There isn't much to this shrine except the statue and the natural area that surrounds it. Persephone is my patron so this was very much a labor of love. I hope you enjoy.

( Persephone's Glade )

Hung out with Steve and Betty for a bit,then Tim drove us all to Spike's around 8:30. I had a dog and a rootbeer and 4 of Steve's fries.Went back to their house and colored Betty's hair,and then played Mario Cart on the Wii(yes I finally played an actual video game). Had some lambic and let Steve borrow my car to run an errand, whie Betty and I played the game.

I'm going to bed now, heading to my Mom's in the morning to get my roots done(plus I forgot my half of the fresh kielbasa at her house).