Spyrit Dancers' Musings On All Things Wiccan

While I was setting up for my full moon ritual last night, I took some pictures of my ritual space and altar.  Of course, as I state on my one picture, it is always at that time I remember that I still don’t have an altar cloth that will cover my table to the ground.  My altar currently consists of a sheet of scrap plywood that is atop a stack of cinderblocks that are stacked on top of each other.  I’m a firm believer in not spending a ton of money on things, so I use what I have on hand.  Eventually, I want to put some wooden 2×4 legs on my table so it is a bit more stable, and burn some images into it.  But for now it works.

This is a side view of my altar looking east.  For my directional candles, I use candles you can pick up in a grocery store usually in the Hispanic section.  I got mine at Albertsons.  They come in the correct colors too, and are inexpensive.  I ended up during the ritual taking the rocks they are on, putting them on end, to create a windblock.  It wasn’t too windy, but enough that they blew out initially.

My circle is big ,12′ across, for a solitary.  I do this as in the winter I wear heavier clothing, and have no desire to catch myself on fire from the directional candles when dancing around the circle.   This is one area of our yard we still have not put the weed cloth then gravel down.  I like too that I can see it out my office window, and I have a very clear view of the moon, even when low in the sky, from my circle.

This is a picture of my Altar.  I don’t have all my candles on it yet.  I put 3 white candles that are in jars for light, and my Goddess and God candles on the top of it by my “cock rock” and my Witchy Goddess.  I also had my mistletoe, and mint that I brought out to empower during the ritual.

You don’t need expensive tools and trappings.  My first athame that I used for years was a wooden letter opener.  I made the wand, the bell, the incense burner, and the salt holder.  I found my “cock” rock. The vace is a $1 vase from WalMart we spray painted copper.  I use bottled spring water for my water, and organic rock salt for my salt.  My book of shadows (not shown) is a 3 ring binder, because I find it easier to keep it organized.

Intent is the main thing.

My goal for next month is to have a cloth that drapes to the ground on all 4 sides.  If I don’t it doesn’t matter. The material works fine for me. Blessed Be everyone.

Did you do anything special to mark the occasion?  This year I did something different in that I harvested Mistletoe from my Mesquite trees.  The druids believed that Mistletoe had the most properties harvested on Midsummer when the sun and moon were both in the sky, so I did.  I now have bundles hanging upside down in my garage drying, and plan on hanging them over the door ways of my home, garage, and greenhouse.  I’ll have a few left over to sell, but not many.  My husband filmed me harvesting some, and bundling them up…my first at him filming any kind of craft/ritual/celebration.  I hope to have it up on YouTube by tomorrow.

Today the world balances between day and night as we enter fall equinox.  Starting tomorrow, the days start to shorten and the nights start to lengthen as we head into fall towards winter.  This is one of the harvest festivals, the end of the grain harvest where the God is getting ready to cross over into the land of shadows.  The Goddess is starting to take on her crone aspect, and the world pauses before sliding into winter slumber.

Take time today to thank Herne and Epona for their harvests and the plenty we have to keep us through the cold dark days that are coming.  I like how Raymond Buckland putts it in his Solitary Pratice book.

Hail to the Mighty Ones; the Lord and the Lady; Herne and Epona!  Now that the season of plenty draws to its close, I take time to look about me and enjoy the beauties of autumn.  Here is a balance of day and night, light and darkness.  The wheel turns, and turns again.  Death approaches, arrives, and passes on.  New life comes into being ~ and so the wheel turns.

Take time to thank the Goddess and God for all you have in your life. I know my life is rich with the love of a great man, new projects, and money that is starting to flow in with the workings of my prosperity spells.  May your life also be balanced and enriched.

My full moon ritual was awesome last night.  For whatever reason (mainly weather) I haven’t performed an outdoor ritual in a long time, so last night, given the weather was mild, I held my ritual outdoors.  I chose a corner in the back of my yard (which has a privacy fence) for privacy, and scribed in the gravel (yes, its the desert, we have a lot of rocks in our yard) a 12′ circle to give me more room to move around.  The normal table I use for an alter is a bit rickety, so I used a 4′ fold-out table for my altar, and placed all my tools on it before sundown, so I could see better.

Shortly after the moon rose, I began my ritual.  It was cloudy, and the moon played peek-a-boo with the clouds. It was still a bit windy, so I couldn’t get my directional candles to stay lit, but was able to get 2 small candles that were in glass jars lit on my altar to help me see my BOS.

I conducted a ritual where I spoke with Aule the smith, and asked his blessing and empowerment on all my rune stones, then one set at a time, cleansed them with salted water, and sage to cleanse them with all four elements.

When I finally finished with that, and wanted to do my prosperity and protection of my property part of the ritual, the moon burst out from behind the clouds.  It was an awesome sight, and I was able to look up at the moon and tell the Goddess my desires.  So much better than performing in my cramped little office!

When I was finished, I took a large couldron full of empowered salted spring water, my sage, and got my husband, and we walked our entire property border, concentrating on keeping anyone wishing to do us harm out of our property, and inviting happiness, prosperity, and good health into our property.  I sprinkled the salted water, and he used the sage wand.  We have an acre, so it took us awhile to do it…something I’ve been meaning to do for awhile.

We have had break-ins three streets over from our house, and we wanted to create a barrior that no one that wished us harm could cross.  I’ve done this countless times in my home, but this was the first time we’ve done it on the border of our property.

Both of us were pretty tired today…I have a feeling we both expended a lot of personal power during the ritual.  But more than that, we felt an overwhelming feeling of peace in our home.  I remember reading a book by Ellen Dugan saying that you could always tell a witches home.  Not so much by the decorations, but by the good feeling you get walking in the door.  We’ve had that for awhile, but it has been greatly magnified since yesterday.

And prosperity! Our income from our business is on an upward track.  If it continues, we will have our best month ever.  Stay tuned on that one.

Imbolc is the first of three spring festivals and celebrates the turning of the year from winter to spring.  Imbolc invites the earth to awaken from its winter slumber and release the icy grip to bring forth warmer days.  Tradionally, this was the Feast of the Torches, and at sunset, people would light lamps or candles in every room of the house welcoming the sun’s rebirth, and lengthing days into their home.

Here where I am, we have been having warmer days since January, but in many parts of the country winter is still ruling.  Even the poor groundhog who peeked his head out today predicted 6 more weeks of winter.  A lot of people get depressed or dreary during this time of year, wondering when the winter will ever end.

Today, burn some candles, or turn on the lights and invite spring into your heart.  Take heart that days are lengthing, and spring will soon be here.   This is a good day for changing your decorations on your table, or doinga good “spring” cleaning.

You might also do what I plan on doing…looking through my supplies and getting my seeds ready for early planting in my greenhouse as this is the time of year for me to start thinking about that in my part of the country.  I’ll also be working my garden soil, getting it ready for the first plantings next month.

However you celebrate it, or wether you call it Imbolc, Groundhog Day, or Candlemass, rejoice that spring will soon be here.

Today is the start of Chinese New Years (Year of the Ox, my year by the way), The New Moon, AND a solar eclipse! Could you stuff more wammy into a day or what?

According to Cerridwen Iris Shea:

There’s energy for fresh starts with the New Moon and New Year energies. The ox represents strength and endurance. What you begin now has the capacity to last a long time. The solar eclipse lends positive, active energy to the change.

Today is a VERY good day for concentrating on goals you wish to achieve in this new year. It is also a good day to list some long term goals, as the ox energy of endurance will help you to persevere in the long run.

My plan is to write a list of goals. Some for the next few weeks (get my books ready for my accountant, blecch) some for the year, and some for long term. Then under each goal I’ll write active steps I can take towards the goal (planning an hour a day to work on my books until they are done).

I plan on then creating ritual space, and placing my goals on my altar. I will probably anoint the sheet with some of my oils to help with the goals (healing and fast money and business success will the the three I’ll use). I’ll visualize me in the future once the goals are completed. (positive visualization is always a good thing when working on goals). Then finally I’ll ask the Goddess and God, and the four elements to lend their energies in achieving my goals.

After doing my ritual, I’ll place the goals in my book of shadows, and review them every month. Check off the goals I’ve achieved, and remind myself of what I need to work on to make the goals I haven’t achieved to happen.

I hope this helps you in planning your New Moon, Year of the Ox, Solar Eclipse celebration!

One of the craft items I’ve been wanting to make and sell are sets of rune stones. So last night, during the full moon, I crafted three sets I’ll be putting up on eBay later on today.

What makes these stones special is not so much the stones, they are plain black tumbled stones, but the fact that they were made on a full moon. I then took them into a ritual circle, and called on the elements from the four quarters, the Lord and Lady to come and bless the stones and give the caster true seeing from them.

Then I went into meditation and met with Aule the blacksmith in his underground cavern, and asked him to bless the stones, and tried to charge them with as much magickal energy as I could.

Finally, I rolled them in sea salt, washed them in spring water, then smudged them with sage to remove any possible negative energy left from where ever the stones came from.

I really felt good, and as luck had it, I timed the casting of my circle with the exact time of the full moon… 10:27pm.

So whoever gets these stones should have the most powerful set of runes I can make…well, at least until I make more on the next full moon.

This is the type of crafting that I love, and I hope that the lucky buyer really loves them too.

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).