Crossroads

Blessing or curse?  We live directly at a crossroads.  It didn't really dawn on me until a little bit ago.  We take so much for granted these days.  I don't think it's a curse at all.  Just not sure what to think just yet.

The coming years are going to be...

How would you finish that sentence?  If you finish it with, "Eh, same shit different day.", I would have to say you are wrong and possibly in danger of loosing more than you are prepared to.  I know, I know, there are alot of dooms day folks, I am not saying anything close to end of the world.  No, I am coming at you from a can-you-not-see, point of view.
Obviously the economy, we are not snapping back a quickly as we used to from natural disasters, there is a food shortage that no one is willing to talk about and yet people know and have begun a swing to growing their own foods.  Financial Analysts have said over and over that we are screwed. We waste so much, those fountain sodas from the quick store in styrofoam cups are so easy, but good for nothing but fueling a broken economy machine.
On a lighter note, how 'bout that moon?

Obstackles {It's from Oh Brother Where Art Thou, I know I spelled it wrong ;-)}

I was just sittin' here thinkin', which I do that alot, just let my mind go and grab the first tasty thought that pops into my head.  First tasty thought at this moment was, what if there were folks out there that folk healing just comes natural to them, like, it's been in their history for so long that it was handed down in the DNA?  If they just let themselves, without thinking about it, gather herbal ingredients...and then BAM, this thought, I'd be afraid I would poison someone.  Now, the probabilities of this are really slim, the whole in the DNA thing, but that killer, like, for real, killer-as in negative, as in shoot the dream down, is a serious obstacle of mine.  That said, I have zero formal training, what I learn I get from a select few folks here on the net, which I will share links below, so I really don't have the confidence I might have if I had taken actual courses, which I am still hoping that someday....

Herb Mentor this site costs under $10 a month, but is a great place to start.  I recommend this site wholeheartedly, and the mentors there are all awesome people.  They are all there for the love of what they do and to help those who want to learn.  Awesome, awesome place!

Methow Valley Herbs is a blog composed by Rosalee De la Foret, great heart this lady and always open to helping.

Kiva Rose's blog.  She is, she kind of reminds me of an Annie Oakley with an herbal kicker.  She is awesome.

7song's School's blog.  If you really want to see him in action though, look him up on Facebook.

Spae Wyfe's youtube channel.  I learned so much just from her walks in the woods.  She is also a homesteader.

Books wise, I have a couple of Wise Woman books by Susan Weed.  A botany book, and a book called Magic and Medicine of Plants by Readers Digest.  The first book I ever bought was The Herb Book by John Lust, followed by Herbal Medicine by Dian Dincin Buchman which you can get the hard back at Amazon for a penny right now, used.

There are many more herbie sites out there, but these are the ones I look to the most, after I go through my blog reader I will post more.  If you are just starting out though, Herb Mentor is the place to check out and an herb blog post wouldn't be complete without a mention of  Mountain Rose Herbs .

Have a great day!

Fog

 

It is dangerously foggy out tonight and the first thing I can think of is to ask the heavens to please bring loved ones to their destinations safely.

Powers of fog, I am pondering the powers of fog.  Concealing, shapeshifting,  muffles sound, insulates.  Even in the day light can be creepy, but beautiful and mystifying as well.  Sometimes fog comes as a herald for the new season.  Maybe this is the herald for winter.

My Book

For me, my book will be my beloved teacher, an old friend, a best friend, because she is not just a book.  And I know, at this point I have lost the muggles.  Witches have a working, breathing, connected relationship with their personal books, some call them books of shadows, either way, if you have a magical bone in your body, you know what I am talking about.
Some witches get very crafty and artsy with their books, wonderful...some don't, they prefer a more scholarly type book, either way, these are our books and eventually these books will reflect the witch who writes them.
I have never had a "real" book.  A few practice books and I have a relationship with these, but kind of like a bike with training wheels sort of way.

This is the paper I decided to use.  With the help of my husband, I was looking in all the wrong places and these packs of 60 sheets are under 4 dollars.

In here I am not just jotting down information, I am stating things how they pertain to me.  How I met my goddesses and gods, totem animals, elements, sabbats and what they mean to me as well as tradition.  Pictures of my family.  I can't wait until spring and I can get flowers and green things to decorate her with <3
I love seeing everyone's BOS's and witchy rooms.

Road Trip

"Peek-a-boo!  I see you :-)"

This was a road trip down town, but I didn't start filming until St. Peters.  A few pics from where my husband works.  

Decided how I am going to put together my "Book".  Not going to get to artsy with it because, even if I do my best, everything is temporary.  She will be just what I need her to be <3.  

Started becoming more intimate with the Sabbats and the Wheel of the year and what it all means to me.  How deity fits in, and the elements.  I have seen how others use the elements, but I already knew what mine are, I just had to remember, so to speak.

Yule

I am studying, or revisiting, Yule.  I have visited many sites about Yule, read a few books on the Sabbats.

 

Each book gives additional different information, just additional, not contradicting.  Going to give a go at writing my own ritual, which, being that I am solitary, will probably be like nothing anyone has ever seen before, but that is one of the perks of being solitary.  Truly, if I would've been listening a long time ago, I would most likely have been trad wicca.  Ok, off subject just a bit.
For me, any sabbat is more about what the earth and sun are going through.  Their stories lie in the seasons.  Like during Yule, the sun is a baby god and the earth is mother.  It's about gaia resting after the birth and welcoming and encouraging the baby sun god.
So with these in mind, ere I go.

 

Do you ever wish you could shed your skin and be someone new

Snake shows us how to do it.  For the snake, when the skin becomes old and used up, she shed's the old off and don's the glistening, soft, supple new one.

What are ways we can shed our old skins?  A new way of thinking, a new way of looking physically even.  A change of attitude.  All of this and more.  It's exciting to think that snake can teach us this.

Commanded to love

Christians are commanded to love, and yet there has been so much hate against everything not considered christian and yet they would like us all to follow the same path as them.  I am free to love as I will it.  Those christians who hate go against their commandment and they are hypocrites, and I have no desire to be like that.
This is speaking to christians who go to pagan pages and threaten, and are ugly, and by "pages" I mean, youtube, facebook, blogger and the like.  I am talking about chic-fil-a and westborough, there's acouple of misguided thousands.  Just because we choose to love irreguardless of  race, religion, sexual orientation, how much money you have, we are the ones in the wrong.  Check your text

'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' "This is the great and foremost commandment. "And a second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets." ( Matthew 22:37)

 "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward in heaven will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men." ( Luke 6:35)

Garrett's Quote of the Day

A quote from Garrett, "Marilyn and Jeanie are doing country right the rest of those mother fuckers are hillbillys." Gotta love him <3

My New Art

This Can't Be Coinkydink

Birthdays

Father Feb 11
Husband Oct 11
Garrett Jul 11
Joshua Dec 12
Taime Jul 21
Ruben Feb 11
Jeremy Dec 11
Me May 31

I can't figure it out.  This isn't coincidence.  When I went for my last doc appointment before Jeremy was born, in 1992, they were trying to figure out a due date, and I said, if he's a boy, which we knew he was from an ultrasound, he will be born on the 11th.  The day he was born, during labor I had to ask what the date was, and of course they said the 11th, and husband and I were like, heh who knew.  Now Josh, I wanted him to be a girl soo bad, we hung on til the next day, but you can't fool with things of this nature.  I just can't figure it out.  And hopes of thinking it just happened that way went out the window when Jeremy was born, so....any ideas?

And pictures of winter moving in, I mean, a storm ;-)

New Lesson

So I'm sitting here playing a seek and find game, because I am addicted, and my mind is always on my path, how can I improve, which what should I look into now.  And then, from out of no where, "Let go.  Grounding is great, but you have one foot in and one foot out.".  This is not to say I am being told to kill myself, just in case anyone might think that.  I am so rooted in reality that, at times, it is hard for me to see or feel the magic.