Still Alive....

Hi Everyone!

I just wanted to write a short note to say I'm here but still no internet at home. Hopefully we will get it by the end of the month. For now, I'm alive and still getting the new place in order. I had hoped to have enough time to craft while unplugged from the net, but there is so much to do at the house that I'm having a hard time scheduling any crafting into my day. I have however started reading a book with my daughter. While we're waiting for her to begin K-12, which is an online public school if you didn't know, I am just helping along her education with some classic books. We are reading "The Diary of Anne Frank". I remember reading this book in school and it had a huge impact on me. So I think I'm enjoying it more than she is. lol

Anyway, just wanted to say hello and I hope to get back to blogging soon.

Love,

SWC

Moving Forward

At last! I can finally say we are moving forward. It's been a long hard road, but we are finally going to move out of my MIL's home. We just signed the lease today. We'll have to wait till DH's day off this Saturday to move. But I've been doing all of the paperwork and getting utilities in our name. We stayed and walked around the apartment for a bit and Sierra is in love with her room.

The bad news is that we have very little household items in our name. DH's aunt is giving us two love seats, one of them is a sleeper sofa. We have a table that Dh's PC can go on. Other than that, we don't have a lot and not a lot of money to buy things either. I've posted on Freecycle asking for some essentials. We also won't have Internet for a few weeks, so I'm sorry to say I won't be able to write on my own blog or indulge myself in reading your lovely blog posts. It's just a temporary hiatus though so I'll be back with fresh content and much happier for having my own space!

I'll leave you with this. It's my latest clay creation. They are Elder Futhark Runes. They are carved on both sides. I also will be working on a clay box for these to go in. Once I'm finished they will be going in my new Etsy store, Pagan Creation. I may also do a little something for a giveaway in October. So stay tuned for that!

So until next time, Blessings, love, and light to all.

SWC

A Year & A Day

I don't often write or share rituals for other people. However a friend of mine asked me to direct her in the right direction and I couldn't deny her. I came up with this simple ritual for dedicating yourself to a year and a day of study. This is NOT an initiation into the Wiccan faith. This is just something to recognize in yourself and to Deity that you are dedicated to learning all you can within that year, and then deciding if Wicca is for you.

Text I've put in brackets are instructions and not spoken words for the ritual. 

A Year & A Day Ritual

August 30^th, 2012

Set up your altar

What you'll need

• 2 white taper candles to represent the God/Goddess.
• 4 small candles
• 1 yellow to represent the east and air.
• 1 blue to represent the west and water.
• 1 red to represent south and fire.
• 1 brown to represent the north and earth.
• You can add crystals or anything else of spiritual or ancestral significance to you.

Calling of the Quarters & Deity

[Walk in a clockwise circle while saying...]

Lord of the Sky, Mother of the Earth, I call you forth to witness this rite. May you shine your blessings upon this work tonight. [Light both taper candles and place on altar.]

[Face north with the brown candle. Light and say...]

From the North, I call the steady beat of earth. My you guide my spirit along my path.

[Place candle on the ground at your feet. Please be careful of the fire!]

[Face South with the red candle. Light and say...]

From the South, I call the element of fire. May its passion encourage me forward.

[Place candle on the ground at your feet. Please be careful of the fire!]

[Face the East with the yellow candle. Light and say]

From the East, I welcome the rays of the sun and its breath of life giving air.

[Place candle on the ground at your feet. Please be careful of the fire!]

[Face the west with the blue candle. Light and say...]

From the west, I welcome the stormy emotions of water.

[Place candle on the ground at your feet. Please be careful of the fire!]

[Stand back at your altar, which should be in the center of the circle btw!]

[say...]

These four directions I do so imbue. These hopes and wishes will come true. I set before myself a year and a day to decide what path my life with take. I ask the Lord and Lady to enter my heart. Guide the way, this is my start.

So Mote It Be.

The Wishing Pot

I do a wishing pot when I want to manifest something in my life. In your case, you are looking for wisdom. You'll need an essential oil or flower to add to the water. Here are a couple choices. If you can't add an oil or flower, just choose salt for purity.

SANDALWOOD - Spirituality, meditation, sex, healing, psychic awareness

PEPPERMINT - Purification, mental energy, psychic powers

ORANGE - Purification, heightened awareness, luck

LOTUS - Healing, luck, opening to spirit

Add water to a large pan.

Add essential oil, flower, or salt while imagining the water being imbued with wisdom and purity. Write your wish on a piece of paper. Write a letter to the Lord and Lady. Speak to them as if they are your best friends. Express your feeling of something missing in your life, and ask that they grant you wisdom and guidance.

Fold the paper and add into the water.

[Poem: Read this aloud at altar.]

Mystic fog so thick and true, only a light to guide me through.

As I walk the path of fog, mystic forces walk along.

Hand in hand Spirit guides me,

along this path set before me.

No fear shall enter my mind today,

the light shall guide the fog away.

Spirit that guides, reveal your name to me.

I'm open to your thoughts and love for me.

At the end of this mystic path,

brightness of mind and spirit I will have.

So now I walk with no fear in me,

For I have your guidance, love, and mystics power within me.

So Mote It be

[Pour the water with your wish on the ground, saying... An alternate is to dig a hole and bury the mixture.]

To the spirits of the earth, I consecrate these hopes and dreams into your womb. If it be for the greater good, may these wishes be granted with all due speed.

Releasing the Quarters & Thanking Deity

When a witch creates a sacred space, we must release the energy that we've brought forth. So it is very important to release the quarters and thank the deities.

Essentially you'll be going backwards from the pattern you did the opening in. This is called widdershins or counter-clockwise.

[Face the west, extinguish the blue candle and say]

From the west, I calm the stormy waters. I thank you for your presence and release you.

[Face the East, extinguish the yellow candle and say]

From the east, I thank you for your breath of life giving air. I thank you for your presence and release you.

[Face the South, extinguish the red candle and say]

From the South, I extinguish the flames of passion. I thank you for your presence and release you.

[Face the North, extinguish the brown candle and say]

From the North, I thank the steady beat of the Earth. I thank you for your presence and release you.

[In a counter-clockwise motion, walk the circle while saying...]

As I prepare to end this rite, I thank the Lord and Lady this night. Go if you must, stay if you will. By the rite of my ancestors, so mote it be.

[extinguish the two taper candles.]

And you're done.

Pagan Creation

August 31st, 2012. Blue moon. Photo by Robin LC

So last night was the blue moon and I know many of you were outside enjoying yourselves or doing a ritual. My daughter and I sat under the moon and mostly talked for awhile. She is coming into her own and I'm teaching her a bit more about my faith, and she is participating when she wants to. We made an offering just as a thank you for all we have in our life. Unfortunately, the night was cloudy and we didn't get a good look at the moon. But it did come out for a few minutes to greet us. 

Image Source

I'm one busy little bee. I'm enjoying crafting with clay. So much so that I am making an endeavor to open an Etsy store. I do not have any products to add yet, however I will soon!

This is what I finished tonight. I started out just making a nameless young goddess. She turned out to be a crone. Hey nothing wrong with that! She just called to me to be older, and cloaked.

Cloaked Crone by Robin LC

Her face is a little rough, but that just adds to her character. My Etsy store is titled Pagan Creation and my tag line is "Finding perfection in imperfect art."

See I am no great artist. However I think art that is hand done with love is far more powerful than any mass produced statue most Pagans find in stores. And... I'm not charging an arm and a leg for them.

So how do you like my cloaked crone? Does she speak to you?

My Home, My Rules, and My Wayward Daughter

Dear Miss Sierra Belle,

One day, far in the future, perhaps you'll read this. Sometime in your lifetime there will be endless web pages created by parents that will become a written record of the small moments of your life you'd otherwise forget. So here it is, today's record.

I had to punish you today. Not because of a need to be mean or even strict. I really hate to discipline you. However as children often do, you leave your mom and dad no choice.

See today when you left the house without your glasses because you woke up late for school, I thought I'd be a nice mom and bring them to you. I know how you can't see the chalkboard without them, and I don't want your education to suffer just because of your sight.

So as soon as I had someone to watch your brother for a few minutes, I drove to your school and found you in the gymnasium. Your back was turned to me, so at first I just saw your lovely self talking with a group of friends. Then I tapped you on your shoulder and handed you your glasses with a smile and a hello. That is when my heart dropped. I knew, in that moment, I would have to be a mean mom today.

That red lipstick I let you buy with your allowance, the one I specifically told you not to wear outside of the house, was on your lips. You have many other shades of lipstick and lip gloss except weird colors. A light pink would have looked lovely on you. I know the need to feel beautiful and I don't believe a little light makeup at your age (which is 10 btw) is inappropriate. However since you feel the need to disobey me, I must become strict like my mother.

You see at your age, I was not allowed makeup at all. I thought I was being the "cool" parent by allowing a little makeup. It is makeup after all. No big deal right? Wrong. Makeup should be tastefully done, and that bright red is like an advertisement for all men to say "Look at me, I'm more grown than I really am."

I was going to do the discipline myself. However as I sat here throughout the day, I realized I always am the one to discipline you. So I decided, as a daddies girl, perhaps it's better that your father be in charge of carrying out the punishment.

So when you came home, I grabbed your backpack and pulled all makeup out of it. Turns out you had the red lipstick in your pocket which is a sure bet you knew it was forbidden IMO. I also brought the rest of your makeup into the living room. Then your father proceeded to tell you that if you can't follow the rules, you don't get to have any makeup.

Then the order came from him. You must throw away all makeup. Even the lip gloss. Yep, that one I probably wouldn't have made you do, but it's your fathers choice and I stand by his decision.

You cried, you screamed, you probably want to hate us. But in the end, you'll thank us.

We love you darling daughter of mine. You have no idea how much you are like me when I was your age. Except I had to hide all of my makeup, because my mother wasn't "cool" enough to allow light colors.

For my mother, I just had to call you because yes, we have come full circle. I am certainly getting back what I dished out!

Your loving mother,

SWC

Blue Moons Powerful Energy Boosted by Hurricane Isaac

We're coming up on a very powerful time in the year. Not only because of the moon but because of weather events as well. On the 31st we will have a blue moon, which just means we have an extra full moon in our calendar year. This only happens every 2 or so years. Hence why they call it "once in a blue moon".

This is a great time to work on any spell that is going to take a long time to come to fruition. If you're working on your finances, school, or other life long changes, this is a powerful time to do this kind of spell work.

However Hurricane Isaac is on it's way, and for those of us in the northern part of the county it shouldn't hit us until Friday evening, Saturday, and maybe a little bit Sunday. Which means that the energy of the storm is going to be mixing with the energy of the blue moon. It's an especially chaotic time of high energy.

Weather magick always gives me an "energy high". You should always ground during any magickal work, however grounding is very important with weather magick because the energy is raw and chaotic. Without grounding you may feel a bit light headed, dizzy, and you'll just be flinging out energy with no real direction for it to go. Needless to say a lot of magical oops can happen during this time if you are not careful.

So for those who plan on doing a blue moon ritual, you may find yourself needing a little more time to ground. During the ritual keep a stone or a bit of sand in your hands or pocket. Or if you have a small pouch put some soil in it and wear around your neck. As always, make sure your purpose is clear and precise to avoid any magickal mistakes.

Do you have plans for what you'll be doing during the blue moon? I will once again be teaching my daughter about ritual, and she'll be helping me set up the altar. Since we are facing some large changes in our life (Possibly moving and beginning the K-12 online school for DD) I'll be focusing on our financial life as well as giving thanks for all we have.

Leaping Forward & Altars around small children.

I don't want to say things are definite yet, but I see light at the end of the tunnel! If you've been a long time reader of my blog you know that we live with my MIL. She is a nice woman, but living so close is, to put it mildly, a huge irritation. Since my husbands employment with Goodwill we have been saving to move, albeit slowly. I received a call and had a meeting the other day with the apartment manager, and I think we have an apartment that we can afford. To my understanding, they are cleaning up the apartment and doing some repairs. I should hear back from them within a week or two. It sounds like once that's done it is ours, but until I have the keys in hand I'm not calling it mine yet.

The downside is that my daughter would have to change schools, and the school in this district is rated poorly by the state. My options are limited. I could drive her to her current school, which is not the best but is rated better according to state rankings. Or perhaps do the K-12 program. 

Do you have any experience with the K-12 program? I'd love to hear your opinions on enrolling your child.

Of course this chance to have our own space leads to dreaming about how I'm going to decorate it. In the past I've not really "decorated". Our version of home decoration was to allow our daughter to make pictures which ranged from early childhood scribbles to nice pictures and hang them on the wall. They were beautiful to us because it was our daughters artwork, not so beautiful to visitors though.

I'd like to make an extra effort to make sure our home look nice on a low income budget. This is a new beginning after all. I'd also like to keep a few small altars out. In the past I've kept our altar packed away and take out when needed. That was the result of having a small child who liked to get into everything. Of course, I have a toddler son now so that concern has not changed.

My only other option I can think of is hanging altars. I know I'll keep one beside the door. Perhaps a hanging basket you would use for plants would work for my purposes. I don't particularly like to keep altars up high, but I feel the need for permanently set up altars instead of my temporary ones.

If you have small children and have open altars, how do you make it safe for small children? I'd love any more ideas and pictures if you'd like to share.