The still room

No, not a room which doesn't roam, nor usually a silent room. Mrs Beeton would have known at once not only what kind of room it is, also each detail of the necessary things within it and the best recipes to fill its shelves. A place in which to prepare medicines, cordials, oils, herbal teas, flower waters, soap, and so many other things which were once common in large homes before industry took over from the housekeeper and modernity sought to hand over the herbswoman's craft to pharmacies and laboratories. In my cottage it's an outside room near the kitchen, on the way to the herb garden. Untidy bundles of almost dry herbs hang from the ceiling. The window is small, the still room relies for ventilation on a few air bricks strategically placed. Too much light and the herbs would be spoiled, too little and they will grow musty before they dry or develop fungi and be unusable.

Sleep herbs

A medicinal pantry is so necessary when one lives in the countryside. Some herbs are staples and none more so than the kindly lavender. Here it grows wild and tall, attempting to reach the skies. Its scent is strong on sunny days, of course, but even on dark, cloudy days it caresses when one walks by. My favourite preparations are sleep pillows with purple cotton, the dry flower and some essential oil drops. Sometimes I add dry chamomile and a few drops of melissa oil. The other excellent friend is a tea of lavender flower, valerian root, hops and passion flower. Both so easy to have ready and willing to be a friend in need.

New moon offering

Today begins the new moon and by the hearth a large copper bowl, big as a punch bowl, will be set. Inside, red wine which has been mulled with honey and cinnamon and a little saffron. Once cool, milk has been stirred in, rich Irish milk with its cream yellow and thick. An offering to the snakes which protect the home and the grounds. Monthly nourishment which renews our mutual bond and keeps fresh the link of mutual aid.

Bringing the past into the future

The fire crackling in a chimney is like a portal. One which moves sinuous as a snake and darts as salamanders do, always showing a way, a path and in the case of those flames, a destiny. In an alcove, near enough the pleasant and fragrant fire with apple wood, an altar and a witch. Candles also give of their fiery glow, in a different way and with a different purpose. Old moon prepares to give way to the new moon. A time in which burning away what no longer serves is essential.

My cottage is having a spring clean, it's April after all. The comfrey has tiny blue flowers in the garden and the hyssop its first few leaves. The feverfew sings out its lemon green scent and colour next to the violet leaves. This garden will have three altars before the month ends. Within, new herbs will be added and the gentle lavender will give ground to more striking shapes and scents. This little piece of England will begin to resemble more the mediterranean. Still, butterflies and bees will find pollen and water while squirrels visit suddenly and run along the highest wall. Every witch does well when a garden of herbs is near. I am no exception. I take from it what I need and give it what pleases me to see flourish there, in rich soil well tended. Within everything is being turned inside out, pantry and cupboards shedding what is no longer needed and a list has notes of what will be added or replaced. In autumn I prepared herbal mixtures to keep cotton and linen safe from moths and sweetly scented. Now into the bonfire they will go, along with outdated medicinal herbs stored two years ago. Furniture is being poslished with wax and lavender essential oil. Curtains and carpets washed and dried in the timid sunlight of April. Parts of the past are being preserved for the future. Others entirely discarded.

A maiden from Chile

The Morrighan has to be saluted in this post, for She took a decision and judged us well. Well matched, well chosen for the task. When has She ever done things ill? She paired us, two witches, to welcome people and lead rites in her honour in a small town in the centre of Chile. Love entered our lives when the task was accepted and doors opened wide to form a community in a new way. We flourished under the Morrighan's gaze.

Lammas: when the God dies

The wheat has been harvested and the chaff lies still on the fields. The sun daily burns the plants with its heat and water is nowhere to be found. There is a feeling of great strength in the land but also of being just one step away from balance. The lend slowly moves summer towards autumn but too slow for the plants, too slow for the animals. The Old rites might bring the balance back or at least keep away most of the harm. Who knows.... it feels as if the God is not being honoured, not being observed in his yearly struggle to give himself as the sacrifice: perhaps the rituals are as much part of the process as His self given over and in abdicating this responsibility, we curtail the power and doom the suffering creatures who cannot but be the sacrifice without our help.

A poem for him

EL



Te llevara a conocer el interior de una llama,

escuchar el viento rugir,

asustar a los niños llamando duendes,

esconder la luna para que no vea

lo que la haria sonrojar.



Se dice eterno y quien podria refutarlo

cuando sabe el nombre de dios



Pide pescado para cenar,

prepara brebajes e inciensos

de yerbas tomadas por mis manos.



Pierde bufandas tan rapido como las compra:

un Dr Who chilensis

"made in heaven"

Full Moon November

Here on this enchanted hill where I have a home the moon rises from the sea north of town and sets beyond west, sailing over the bay for many hours. November nights turn warm and there is a mild breeze faintly stirring the trees. Here every element is alive and well, earth water air.... only fire needs special preparations. How I love the salamanders when they come to play in my cauldron! Strong, vital, well fed and full of play. They are harbingers of joy.

Tonight I sip herbal tea, a mix for purification bought in Glastonbury's Star Child courtyard shop. I have spent all day writing and recovering from last night's revels. It has been an active two days and it's time to retreat from the world a little and to plan the days to come.

My armchair is comfortable and through the open window comes the scent of jasmin mingled with lavender. Different yet matching scents, the sweetness of the one tempered by the slight citrus of the other. Books lie open near me and tempt me to continue working, if work it be to peruse topics which I love well.

Beltaine southern hemisphere

Beltaine is a state of mind, heart and soul... time is immaterial when one enters certain realities and so it was this Beltaine. Circles spin and then and now are the same space, we coexist with who we have always been and all those who must be..are.

Kernunnos and Keridwen are as strong and loyal as we need them to be...then they are even more so.... impregnating us with their essence, fecundity being an all encompassing thing.

Long night, long enough to stretch across centuries of linear time once the threshold is breached. The Siddhe danced on Beltaine night and they spied and played with human affairs, but with a gentle hand and smiling lips. Their magick is not made, they simply exist and by being teach us more than many mortal teachers can.

Ostara, la llegada de la primavera

Cuando la vida comienza a emerger del vientre de la tierra y las serpientes salen del letargio para comenzar a popular la superficie de la tierra. Ostara cuyo simbolo es el huevo, que contiene infinita posibilidad. Primavera y su luna creciente, tiempo de doncellas de planas dando la primera flor de la sangre comenzando a despertar en las venas cuando un calido calor acaricia la piel.

Heptagram (Septagram or Elven star)

The Septagram is the symbol known as the “Seven Pointed Star.” It’s a particularly apt and powerful symbol for a complete planetary magick system because it shows the powers of the seven planets of classical astrology in balance. Balancing the seven powers, not avoiding one or the other, is the ultimate accomplishment of any practitioner of planetary magick.Numerological Correspondences
in the Model of Seven


1 - The One, the Universe, Everything. Magickal Law of Unity

2 - The chaotic and ordered universes. Magickal Law of Duality

3 - Time (Taken from breaking down the seven elements into 3 and four, the three being primal matter; where we come from; Gold; refined balanced matter; and spirit/aether; which is really hard to define, but includes connection to the One, Magickal ability, etc, but as defined from a present standpoint.) Magickal Law of Cause and Effect.

4 - Equilibrium, the balance of the four major elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water), without the aspect of the constant ebb and flow in balance created by time. Balance at one precise moment. Magickal Law of Dynamic Balance

5 - Mutation, created from the four major elements, plus aether/spirit. This creates a continually shifting elemental balance within the confines of the influence of time. This is a force that can be view from various "present" aspects of elemental balance, viewing the shifts that are occuring from one "present" moment to the next.

6 - Entity, this comes from the idea of Universal (1) Mutation (5) that forms a pattern (intelligence), and that the One (as stated in my previous ideas) wishes to keep a balance (4) within and between the two universes (2), which requires the force of Intelligent Will to do. Magickal Law of Intelligence

7- Reflection, as above, so below, we are reflections of the divine and can become divine by that right. This comes from entity (6) becoming the universe (1), from mutation (5) within the two universes (2), and from the perfect balance (4) of all of the elements within time (3).

Definition: The septagram, a continuously drawn figure having seven points, is far less common than the pentagram. It is however important in Western kabbalah, where it symbolizes the sphere of Netzach, the seven planets, the seven alchemical metals, and the seven days of the week. It is a sacred symbol to Wiccans who follow the "Faery" tradition, where it is called the Elven or Fairy star. The seven pointed star is also an important part of the seal of the A.A., the inner order of Aleister Crowley's OTO.

To draw the invoking heptagram of a planet, start at the point attributed to the planet and move clockwise. The banishing Heptagram is drawn by starting at the same point and going counter-clockwise. The glyph of the planet is drawn in the center of the completed Heptagram.











Also known as the Elven Star.

Pentacle

Since I was a little girl I was taught at school to draw this star. Its part of the national flag, minus the elemntal symbols. I always began to draw it at the lower left hand corner, earth banishing. Always driving away what I could not live with. What it spared me from, I dont know. maybe nothing, maybe much. Hand moving towards spirit always, from earth to spirit. reaching for the heavens while knowing I walked the earth.

Between sabbats, the new moon

The new moon hangs in the sky with upwardly tilted horns, and Venus the evening star lies at her feet. Not a time of harvest in the heavens, but an empty basket ready to be filled, the time before plenty. The image, our Lady of the harvest, to send the message that I have need, oh Goddess, I have need and I meet with myself and with You before the moon to ask for my need to be met. That is all. Simple. Necessary.

Hekate portrait

A painting by a pagan artist whose name I regretfully forget.....

A maiden from Chile.....

The reason to stay awake many nights and to wish for many more nights....

Lammas 2008

Facing the challenge of getting to know aspects of the God. Seeking them out, in fact. My own way, not one imposed in any sense. A wall painting to kernunnos on my bedroom wall, properly charged. Now one of the Goddess to find, to even the polarities.

JOURNAL: Litha, once again

Litha has come round once again, fairweather friend.

Memoria de la noche. Ingrediente esencial la noche, como tambien la luna, llena. Las estrellas que miran son transeuntes la noche de Litha, menos vibrantes que nuestros ojos, mas distantes que nuestros sueños, inmediatos y perduraderos en esta noche. Es Litha y la Diosa lleva en su vientre la semilla. El Dios esplendoroso la mira, con devocion, con todo lo que un dios puede y desea entregar.

Mis pies estan sobre el mismo suelo, cemento amarillo, de techo el viejo parron que esta decorado de racimos nuevos. Conozco esta uva, negra y blanca, dulce y pequeña. Su sabor en mi boca, la sensacion de tomarla entre mis dedos y desnudarla para ver el jugo correr antes de llevarla a mis labios. El tinte azul oscuro en mis dedos, como tatuajes. Me delata esta uva, desde entonces. Con el fresco de la noche me siento bajo el parron y mis pies conocen este suelo. Mis ojos ven... todo lo ven de nuevo, espejismos u otras dimensiones ¿que mas da cual sea? Solo se que es Litha y me llama el suelo, la pared cayendose a poquitos, lo verde de la parra y el aroma a mi propia sangre. El significado oculto de la sangre. Potente, antiguo, eterno.

JOURNAL: Thessaly

I can see them, walking among these mountains, the twin peaks watching and guarding the caves below them. Witches, one and all, mythical and real, then and -if we find the door- now.

Ancient Thessalian witches were believed to control the moon, according to an old tract: "If I command the moon, it will come down; and if I wish to withhold the day, the night will linger over my head; and again, if I wish to embark on the sea, I need no ship, and if I wish to fly through the air, I am free of my weight."

POEM: Inanna (Hieros Gamos I)

Inanna:

Bien amada, tu nombre significa creación,
atrae dulzura al corazon que escucha el sagrado sonido
de la Diosa quien ama mas alla de la muerte,
hasta la misma vida eterna.

Es Inanna a quien se le ofrenda toda libacion en un rio sin fin
- cual miel, cual perfume de dulce esencia –
Innana la de las caderas sagradas que danzan el placer del cosmos.

Inanna la de la voz que canta al amanecer a su bienamado dormido,
sacro por haberla conocido la noche toda,
inmortal mediante la felicidad embriagadora de a Ella conocer
de acariciar el sagrado vientre y los senos que hacen derramar suspiros
inmortal al labrar la sagrada Tierra, siempre fértil y calida,
sintiendo que su libacion blanca entra en las morenas y henchidas carnes
de la Diosa madre, la Diosa amante, la Diosa hermana y reina.

Toda plenitud y toda felicidad fluyen de Inanna, la Diosa de los ojos tiernos y la mirada orgullosa, la Diosa quien hizo vigilia sobre su bienamado durante la noche toda, sabiendo lo que el debia ofrendar a cambio de Su sagrado amor.

Entre hombres este humilde jardinero es un principe
quien se entregara al camino mas antiguo:
el del renacer a la vida eterna – su cuerpo la ofrenda -
el de entregar su masculina fuerza y derramar su sangre por su pueblo.

Orgullosa la Diosa de su certera eleccion.

JOURNAL: Litha 2007

Solsticio, festival de fuego, antiguo dia de cuarto celta. Coincide con luna llena.

Nuevos proyectos. La Diosa embarazada del Dios quien nacera en Yule; el Dios observa los frutos de la union de Beltane, ahora en su apogeo sabe que esta es la semilla de su propia muerte, desde hoy la rueda comienza a girar hacia Samhain, hacia su ida al inframundo.

Paradox: el Dios esta en el vientre de la Diosa, sin embargo tambien a su lado en toda su fuerza solar. ¿Como llego a existir esta paradoja de la naturaleza? ¿que expresan realmente estos conceptos? No lo se.... solo se q el Dios al mirar a su sagrada conyuge sabe que se avecina su muerte y vive con ese saber, aun asi es fuerte y esplendoroso y dispuesto a lo que vendra, porque todo sacrificio de voluntad propia es mas poderoso aun.

Un poema al respecto, sobre Inanna y su elegido.