Spyrit Dancers' Musings On All Things Wiccan

$14.95
This necklace is one of my own design, and the picture doesn’t do it justice. I took a photograph of the Venus of Willendorf goddess and stylized it with cross hatching. I added the words Real Goddesses Have Curves.  You can click here for the listing on Etsy.

The Glass is 1″ wide by 2″ tall.

It has an antiqued copper bail, that has a sun symbol on the back. The back has been sealed with a glaze making it water resistant, but not water proof. You should remove the necklace before swimming or bathing.

For too long society has celebrated thin as in. This necklace not only celebrates the mother goddess, but the goddess within all of us, including chunky goddesses like myself.

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SHIPPING
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This is shipped first class mail for FREE in the US. I ship International First Class Mail overseas. Sorry, due to cost, all other countries will have to pay for shipping.

I’ve been thinking about this for some time, as some of my chunky friends of facebook, and have been posting up articles about how thin is in, despite the fact that a whole lot of us are not size fours. (Or even 14′s).  So I wanted to do something that celebrated not only the Goddess, but curvy women.  After looking around for various mediums, I decided on an altered art type glass pendant.  (which talking with my husband this morning, might evolve into something else eventually.)

So My “Real Goddesses have Curves” necklaces were born.  I have some that feature the Venus of Willendorf  Mother Goddess figure on them.  And some that feature artwork I purchased from the artist with the words added to them.  All of them hand made by me.   Check out my Etsy Store and pick one up. If you follow my blog, follow me on twitter, or join my facebook fan page, you can get 10% off!

My brother collected Birch Branches for me this spring, that were natural dead fall from his humongous Birch tree he has in his backyard.  He collected them during the waxing moon, as I asked him.

I’ve had them since March or April, allowing them to season in my garage.  It is finally time to start making Wands again.

I’ve found two distinct uses for Birch Wands in my research.

1. Cleansing and banishing.  I’ve found references to use of Birch twigs to expel evil spirits.  Birch wands to cleanse sacred areas and sacred spaces.  Some use it to “drive out the old spirits” of last year.
2. Connecting with the Goddess. Birch was associated with the Goddess, and in Celtic lands, it was associated with Brigid.

There are many Goddess references to Birch in various cultures.  The Germanic people identified birth with Bertha, their “White Lady” who was the spirit of spring.

The Norse associated the birch with both Thor as well as Freya. According to their lore, the Lady of the Woods would be angry if her bark was peeled away.  To avoid her wrath, they would wait until the tree was marked by Thor’s lightening before gathering the Bark.

The Celtic saw Brigid in the white branches of birch.

The Native Americans used birch a lot.  As the first tree to seed after the Glaciers receded, its gum was used to glue arrowheads.  Pots were made out of birch, and maple syrup could be stored for a year in the pots. Canoes were made of it, and its wood, bark, fibers, and gum were used for a variety of everyday items.  And birch bark when burned produced an incredibly white light.  Their sweat lodges were made of birch, and when heated, the steam released the oils from the birch which was good for the lungs.

With this long and varied history across many cultures, it is a wonderful wand to use for many reasons.  Healing, as all parts of the tree were used for various healing remedies.  Banishing negativity, evil, and spirits as we saw the ancients believed it to be effective in that.  And finally to honor the Goddess, particularly Brigid and Freya.  I’m so glad that I had the access to some of this wonderful wood to create beautiful wands for my fellow Wiccans and Witches.

Sources:

Sapphiremoon.info Sacred Woods :: Birch
Witch in the Wood Celtic Lunar Calendar
Pagan-Heart – Magickal Uses of Wood
Dragon Oak – Magickal Wood Properties

Today I decided to go and play bingo, and it had been so long since I played, I thought the seesions started on the even hour, and not the odd hour.  So when I showed up at about quarter to 10, I figured I was just in time.  Imagine my suprise, walking in the room, and everyone was daubing.

After a few whispers to my friend, and kidding about forgetting the time, I marked my spot and hurried out the door.  About the last thing I wanted to do was hang around the casino for an hour, so I decided to drive up and check my mail and kill some time.

Well, no mail yet, it was too early, and when I went to drive back down the hill our post office is on, I decided to make a sudden left and take another route that would have me turning right onto the main highway instead of left.  This lead me right past our little metaphysical store, Ancient Secrets.  What a perfect way to kill some time, I’ll browse their shelves for ideas.

So I went in and headed to their used book section.  You never know what treasures you will find.  And sure enough, on a shelf between two beautiful cut agate book ends, was the small book Silvers’ Spells for Abundance, by Silver Ravenwolf.  The best part? It was only $3.00, perfect for my strapped budget.

I bought the book, and then started reading it waiting for the bingo session to start.  I knew the full moon was coming up on Friday, so I was hoping there were some I could work during that time.  Stay tuned on what I find out, I’ll post it here.

By forgetting the time for Bingo, the Goddess lead me to a book with the kind of spells I was looking for.  Last month, our sales in our web business were great, but historically, sales start dropping off in Sept, so I wanted to do something to keep the sales flowing, and increase them rather than decrease them through the end of the year.  And so praying to the Goddes and God on it, she lead me to this book.  That is the way they work in my my life.  How about in yours?

My husband and I worked on grinding up the ingredients to our next incense blend, banishing negativity, and we decided to make some self igniting incense. We divided the batch in half, keeping half for the type you burn on a charcoal tablet. Then we mixed it with 10% of a chemical (I’m leaving this unnamed as I don’t want someone to get hurt if they don’t know what they are doing). We tried to light it and it didn’t burn.

Unfortunately, I missed the page before and the 7 other ingredients you had to put in it, lol. Before I found that though, we upped that one ingredient from 10% to 20% and found out it created an incense that as it came close to burning out on a charcoal tab, suddenly flared into a 3″ flame with sparks.

So, we are keeping that 1/2 of the batch to ourselves. I just showed what it did to my brother yesterday when he was visiting, and he said the smell reminded him of his days in college when they burned church incense. He had a lot of pleasant memories of that. (He attended collage at a music/religious university)

It doesn’t surprise me that it smells similar, as I could see a church using some of the ingredients to try and banish what they perceived as negativity (or evil) from their ritual space (the church). I do know that burning it in our house, along with filling it up with a lot of smoke, has made the air feel lighter and more positive.

Although my husband and I do get a bit negative at times (our income has dropped quite a bit in this economy) we have a lot of confidence in our higher powers to pull us through and to be more successful coming out the other side. I know the Goddess and God are with us during the rough times, peanut butter sandwiches, and lack of being able to do anything like go out to eat, or watch TV. (we discontinued Direct TV to save money). And she is also inspiring us in our products to sell to other Wiccans to help our income to grow.

So look for our new incense in a few days. We have slowed down this week in getting new products up with enjoying visiting with my brother, but next week we will be back in full swing.

Hard to believe it was only a little over a week ago that I was posting up about making my first batch of ritual oils, and now I’ve got quite a few listed up in my store on eBay.  My most popular so far have been my Air / Earth / Water / Fire set, and My Fast Money Oil.

It really feels good to see people buying them, it validates once again, I’m on the right path.  I’ve been meditating and praying every night for guidance from the Goddess, and every sale feels like she is pointing and saying, “see?  This is what you were meant to do. ”

Thanks everyone who has shopped at my store, your purchases are greatly appreciated it.

Tonight is the full moon. It is called The Cold Moon, (apt name in most of the US), The Wolf Moon, or The Quiet Moon and occurs at 10:27pm EST.

According to Llewellyn’s 2009 Witches’ Spell-A-Day Almanac this moon name in the Elven path is called (translated) the Moon of New Fire, celebrating the return of longer days, and was alinged with Alue the Smith. (Sorry the u has a special character over it, but I don’t know how to type it) who lives in the ground and resonates with metals, gemstones and other forms of creation and crafting.

I read this after I spent the morning searching for gemstones to make rune stones and wands out of. I have always felt blessed by the Goddess and she gently guides me down the path I should take, and this is just one example of her working in my life. I love stuff like that!

I am planning on performing a ritual tonight to bring health and prosperity into my home. (always a good full moon ritual) but after reading today’s spell, I decided to also do the ritual listed to meet Aule and ask his protection and guidance on selecting the best stones to work with personally, and to sell to other Wiccans.

The ritual (paraphrased from Llewellyn’s 2009 Witches’ Spell-A-Day Almanac )goes like this:

Light a black, gray or brown candle, and hold rocks, crystals, gemstones or metal items. Sitting comfortably, close your eyes and visualize being underground in a cave. The walls glow, and you see the beauty of the exposed metals and gemstones are reflecting light from the fire inside Arda our Earth.

You then approach Aule, who is crafting in these fires a beautiful creating, and he asks you what you wish to mainfest this year. List your goals to him, and upon hearing your goals, he creates a symbol of these goals which he has engraved on a wonderful item. It can be a stone, or a piece of jewelry, or a metal work. When he hands it to you, he shows you the item, the symbols and tells you their meanings and you feel the strong powers coming from it. You know that the strength of that power will help your goal to become real. (written by Calantirniel)

Thank him for his blessing and gift. Come out of your meditation. I plan on visualizing his symbols and drawing them, or possibly etching them on some of my gem stones that I have all over my desk and altar. (I cannot resist pretty stones and rocks, lol).