Beltane, Gardens, Birthdays, Graduations

Well, I just got word that I can finally make a HUGE announcement within the next week or so. Jeez, the wheels of life run SLOW sometimes.

I thought I would blog about a few things that have peeked my interest of late. It is the Beltane Season I have put together my garden and decorations for the season. I made the wreath with some half off flowers from my craft store, a dowel rod cut down, some red and white ribbons and some hot glue. I painted the dowel rod white, used a wire tie to secure the ribbons to the top and then hid the wire tie with some strategically placed petals hot glued on. I was really proud of how it came out and felt like it deserved some publicity.

I used the same dowel rod in different places to make other maypole around the house. Below find pictures of the maypole piece on my altar.

On my family altar I used a recycled glass spice jar filled with sand to give weight to the bottom. I left on the shaker plastic piece and then filled it in with flowers. This works so well. I can change the sand and the color of the flowers and the season is reflected in this little jar.

On my muse altar I used a candled jar filled with some rose quartz I had laying around, the flowers and made up another maypole for it. The whole project of decorating the house took no more than thirty minutes.

I few weeks ago I took pictures of my garden to blog about and wouldn't you know that I never got around to blogging. Here I am again, so I took knew pictures. These turned out better because must everything is now blooming. I didn't take pictures of the new aloe vera plant I have inside or the ivy that got repotted. I also bought a begonia in red and am happy to say that it is blooming again. YEA! The large pot with the

marigolds in it will have pole beans rising out of the center when they sow.

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I just celebrated my birthday. We celebrated a week early so that we could include Tree Bear. For those who do not know I am a karaoke fanatic and here you see me karaoking to my heart's content. I sang Melissa Ethridge, Billy Joel and Smash Mouth with Tree Bear. We had a blast. Also pictured is Becky Hamilton (Ion Dragonstone) and a very shy Suz, who doesn't like her picture taken. The cake was red velvet and while celebrating my progressing age, we also celebrated Becky becoming a licensed massage therapist! GO BECKY! We all chipped in and got her a rolling suitcase to carry her oils, towels and other massage essentials in, as well as, one starch white sheet set. She was very happy about it as you can tell!

Just ignore the bizarre singing look on my face, I was super happy that Tree Bear Sang with me. I have a commitment from him to return to this same place and karaoke together again sometime.

I promised Suz, has we all struggled and fought with her to take her picture that I would put the goofiest one on my blog. This is the winner. Becky had given up the fight because of the spectacle we were making in the restaurant. I love you Suz! Thanks for the chocolate and wine dipping sauces, you rock!

In this picture is all of Dragonstone Family Coven who were present. From left to right you have Becky (Iona), me (Dia), Tree Bear and Stone (Tony). I think just having family present and having them let me do something I like was a great gift!

Born to Shine
Today I was thinking about shinning, shimmering, glowing with the inner light that we are born with. It reminded me of this song. I was thinking about how sometimes our lives doesn’t prepare us to shimmer or shine. Sometimes we learn that when we shimmer or shine punishment happens. We get hit into place. We get tossed out of the boat. Somewhere we have learned that shimmering and shinning costs us.
Suddenly, I want to shimmer and shine like I was born to. "Well behaved women rarely make history."
SHAWN MULLINS
ShimmerSharing with us what he knows
Shining eyes are big and blue
And all around him water flows
This world to him is new
This world to him is new
To touch a faceTo kiss a smile
New eyes see no raceThe essence of a child
The essence
He’s born to shimmer, he’s born to shine
He’s born to radiateHe’s born to live, he’s born to love
But we’ll teach him not to hate
True love it is a rock
Smoothed over by a stream
No ticking of a clockTruly measures what that means
Truly measures what that means
And this thing they call our time
Heard a brilliant woman say
She said you know it’s crazy
How I want to try to capture mine
I think I love this woman’s way
I think I love this woman’s way she shimmers, the way she shines
The way she radiates
The way she lives, the way she loves
The way she never hates
Sometimes I think of all of this that can surround me
I know it all as being mine
But she kisses me and wraps herself around me
She gives me love, she gives me time
And I feel fine I feel fine
But time I cannot change
So here’s to looking back
You know I drink a whole bottle of my pride
And I toast to change to keep these demons off my back
Just get these demons off my back
Cause I want to shimmer, I want to shine
I want to radiate
I want to live, I want to love
I want to try to learn not to hate
Try not to hate
We’re born to shimmer, we’re born to shine
We’re born to radiate
We’re born to live, we’re born to love
We’re born to never hate

So I have tried twice to blog this week and both times the blogs have turned into articles. I have submitted one to Celtic Whispers, Spirit One, Wise Pagan, The Daily Spell and Witches' Voice. We'll see if anyone bites. One of the blogs turned article is going to be submitted for print publication. I'll let you know when and if it gets picked up.

Speaking of print magazines, Modern Witch Magazine has signed me to be a regular contributor to this new publication. I will be presenting features and a regular column entitled Ask a Pagan Parent. I have been working with the editors there and have really enjoyed the experience. Their first issue is out around Beltane, 2008. Be sure to ask your local store to carry this new, cutting edge magazine.

The other things that has happened recently, is that I have slide into a new computer. Some may have heard that my Husband Priest's computer caught on fire (literally!) about six months ago. I smelled and saw thick black smoke and went charging into the office to find my Husband Priest sitting beside his tower, reaching his hands into the flames and pulling out the hard drives. I run for a towel to smother the fire and ask him why he didn't worry about putting it out. "I can lose the computer, I just can't lose these hard drives!" he shouted as we both worked to put out the flames.

Since that time, my Husband Priest has been down a computer. He has a laptop provided by his work (naturally); however, he tries to keep his work and home computer use separate. He hasn't been able to do this for the past six months. My tower is upgradable and much younger than the inferno tower. We have been talking for months about replacing my computer with a laptop and sending my tower over to Stone's desk. Last weekend, we finally did this. Additionally, Stone purchased a laser jet printer so I wouldn't feel bad about printing entire chapters of my book to proof.

When we got home, Stone let me borrow his ergonomic mouse. It is wireless type and allowed me to navigate the new computer a bit easier than the touch pad would. Needless to say, he is never getting it back. I would not have thought it could make such a difference; however, I was totally wrong. I became so fond of this mouse, that I can see an ergonomic keyboard in my future.

I went from Windows 2000 to Vista and the latest version of Office. It has taken some getting used to and has been, at times, very frustrating. Stone who has been working in these environments longer than I have, has had to bale me out a few times, which irritates me. However, I am getting the hang of it. For the first time in my life, I am using my computer to track my schedule. I didn't like doing it because I couldn't take the computer with me. Now that I am mobile, it has changed everything.

I continue to study Geomancy and Sacred Geometry in my "spare" time. Tree Bear took the flue this week and we got back his allergy results. It turns out he is allergic to cats and only cats. I was sure it was dogs. Of course, the only animals we have are cats. Cassandra and Moriganna have been with us for years and I just can't see getting rid of them. Tree Bear, however, had their bags packed, ready to go and buy a pure breed dog of some kind. We have had to stave him off. His bedroom door is shut for now as we try to assess what can be done. Any suggestions are welcome!

Which brings me to my last little bit of news for the day, Cassandra has been acting very strange. She has been extremely protective of Stone and I. Last night, Stone and I were both working after putting Tree Bear to bed. We hear Cassandra meowing her hello meow as she comes into the office. Stone looks over his desk and bursts into laughter. I lean around mine to see Cassandra carefully presenting us with a AAA battery. She goes over to Stone who praises her for her "catch." I retrieve the battery and put it where it belongs. She then gets up on Stone's desk where his architectural drawings are and sprawls out, her obvious reward for capturing and delivering a AAA battery.

Cassandra has also decided that Stone's trashcan is her new hideout and can be regularly found in it asleep. Go figure. I guess it is the talk of having to find them other homes that makes me sad. When I am writing all day by myself, it is these girls that keep me company. I regularly talk to them and when I get upset they come running to calm me. I hope we can find a way to keep Tree Bear healthy and our familiars with us. The kitten picture in this blog is Cassandra. Moriganna is her daughter and is in the framed picture. We kept the black cats because that is what witches have – naturally!

Geomancy

Blogger readers - I couldn't make the Blogger site perform as I would have preferred. You can surf to http://www.lydiacrabtree.com/geomancy.htm to read this blog as it was intended.

While at PantheaCon, I went to a seminar presented by MoonSinger. The description was that the class would be an introduction to an ancient divinatory tool. Knowing that geo means of the Earth, that sacred geometry (my one true esoteric love) was also derived from the earth and it's relationship to planets and stars and knowing that geomancy and geometry share the same root word (geo), I went hoping to add to my dismal knowledge of Sacred Geometry. What I discovered instead is a divinatory practice that is slowly becoming an obsession.

At First blush it seems complicated, not as complicated as reading tarot according to traditional card meanings, complicated non-the-less. However, I liked that it was based on a simple casting method and that those who taught it seemed not so much attached to the dogma of it's practice. I have met tarot readers who will argue a meaning with you all
day long. MoonSinger and the more accomplished practitioners at the class,
played off of each other adding insight they each had brought. More importantly
that insight was simply an expansion upon one another's. I was fascinated at how
different practitioners could glean multi meanings from simple figures. So I
bought The Geomancer's Handbook available at Renaissance
Astrology by John Michael Greer (JMG). After I came home, I joined the Geomantic Campus at Yahoo Groups JMG had told me that he used geomancy because it worked, period। MoonSinger was quick to point out that geomancy,unlike other divinatory methods, had figures that were definitely not favorable. As a tarot reader, I have been carefully schooled to not interpret The Death card strictly as an ill omen. In fact, in my deck, it has come to mean transformation strictly and never physical death (I have discovered another card for that, in my deck). However, find ten other tarot readers and they will all give you some other card for transformation and physical death. Some might not even believe you can read physical death in a reading.

In geomancy, there is not a push to make all readings "good." The querent isn't going to like some of the answers they receive from geomancy. Some figures definitely aren't good
for your reading. It isn't that the figures are "bad." It is more that there are figures that would be good, better and best for your reading and other figures would be bad, worse and awful for your reading. You can actually get a,"Hell no that isn't going to happen," out of these figures.

Geomancy is made up of 16 figures¹. JMG places them in some other order in his book; however, MoonSinger, laid them in out in oppositions to one another and I prefer that method. I took the explanations from JMG's book, The Geomancer's Handbook, pages 5 - 8 (scroll down the link to find it)।This book is available through Renaissance Astrology. JMG has also written, Earth Divination, Earth Magic which many of those on the Geomantic Campus have referred to। I do not own this work yet। Additionally, I believe it is out of print. You could try searching Goggle to obtain it. (Blogger readers - my nice layout wouldn't work in Blogger - so here is a web page just for you: http://www.lydiacrabtree.com/geomancy.htm ,

You can cast these figures by putting dots in a single line and adding the dots up: Even = two dots, Odd = one dot. Or you can flip a coin and assign one side, one dot and the other side, two dots. MoonSinger set up an additional class to teach us an easier way to cast the figures which I missed. I ran into her in JMG's workshop called Renaissance Magic and asked her to please tell me what she did. She was kind enough to explain that she took Popsicle sticks and marked the dots on either end with a marker.

Inspired I went home and made my own. I didn't have any Popsicle sticks and couldn't think how it was they utilized them anyway. So I found some balsa wood in my craft drawer and used a marker to mark one side with one dot and the other with two dots. I then consecrated them and started using them. MoonSinger had talked about reading things left to right. I couldn't remember why this was important; however, I started reading my little pieces of wood left to right. So the left most piece became the bottom and so on. In the picture I took (above or in my pictures folder on MySpace), the figure would translate to:

*
*
* *
*

Puer (Boy)

Now this should be amusing to you because, Puer is about energy and enthusiasm. I just threw down the sticks not intending to read them, just wanting a picture. Yet, this divinatory tool is so in tuned that it translated my throw into what it was: enthusiasm for a new system of divination!

This amply explains why I am such a fan of this tool of divination. It is insanely simple and yet when you get into chart casting it's simplicity changes into a complex web of inter-relations only the Earth, Herself could offer up to you. the relationships are never fuzzy or difficult to understand. Yet, just like planting, this divinatory tool requires you take time with it. Sit with it.Cultivate your knowledge of it and it rewards you eagerly. It is as if the Earth wants to talk to you and this divinatory method is Her preferred method. (Do I sound like a fanatic yet.) In my quest to learn the figures,their meanings and their associations, I made flash cards. Something I haven't done in years.

I found this completely unsatisfactory. So I did what I do - I made a prayer bracelet.

I got the idea from when I learned Morse code, another binary system of communication. I couldn't remember the different letters until I found a Braille like card that had the dots and dashes raised on it. Because of this tactile learning, I soon knew the entire alphabet on sight and then it was matter of relating that to the noises I heard.

Working off of that, I used black pearls (which has always stood for occult knowledge to me) as spacers, single round silver beads to stand for one dot and long tubes to stand for two dots. I have made lots of prayer beads in my lifetime and I must say the energy of this one is really unique and different. I highly encourage anyone who enjoys prayer beads to try it out. You can make up your own prayer to say for each one or simply hold the figure and recite different aspects of that figure to yourself (this is what I am currently doing). This also helps with meditation, which most of the practitioners I have met insist is an important part of this practice. Sitting with the figure, meditating on it's meaning and connecting with its energy. See the pictures above or in the photo section in MySpace.

Moving from the round clasp, the figures are laid with the bottom most (or Earth) point first. In the close up on the clasp side, you can see that Puer is my first figure, technically it is upside down to the viewer. Opposing Puer is Via, as my last figure. You get the idea (or you can ask for clarifications and I would be happy to tell you what I have done so you can find the way best for you).

As usual, I am still working through JMG's book very slowly and reading the Geomantic Campus posts regularly. The people are nice, helpful and just as fanatical as I am (perhaps more so!). This is definitely a system worth trying.

1 The Geomancer's Handbook, John Michael Greer: Renaissance Astrology Web Site 1999-2006; pages 4 - 8

Thankful

This morning [Saturday, March 15, 2008], Yannu sent me an email which said:

Our mighty Lords of Spring
brought sacredness into our lives in more than one way. . .Thank all Powers That Be that battle took place last night [Thursday] and not tonight [Friday].

Love you

Having had a wonderful date with Stone while my son was staying with his biological father, I was concerned about Yannu and called her. She informed me that a tornado had touched down in Downtown Atlanta Friday night. This is the same area of Downtown that on Thursday night my entire Family Coven had been to watch the clash of the Thrashers and Calgary.

Disbelieving I check on line and found this link:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/14/storm.atlanta/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail#cnnSTCPhoto

The first picture given is the exact entrance that Tree Bear, Stone and I had used to find our meal before the game. Within the CNN Center the area where we had sat was the area where a hole in the roof was torn and the elements had come pouring through.

In Olympic Park, the tall towers that held portions of the Olympic flame were down. The devestation is large especially in a portion of Atlanta known as Cabbage Town. This prominently African American Community is historic in our city and we have lost entire historic homes in that district.

Praise the Goddess and God for our safety

Do not now turn your eye from all those who woke this morning to no home and a shattered life

Help them restore their lives and lead us to what we can do

So Mote It Be

Family Rituals

Families often to get stuck in the idea that rituals have to be stayed and formal. There is a disconnect between spirituality and fun. Nothing could be further than the truth!

 

Last night, I had the pleasure of partaking of the most solemn and serious of rituals: Hockey Night. This ritual gathering of thousands of hockey fans to celebrate this quick, non-stop and serious sport, included my Family Coven and a rare appearance by my sister - Yannu.

The event opened with Yellow Jacketed college men singing "Oh Canada" and "The National Anthem." Their harmonies built the anticipation of this great battle, bringing the crowd to a frenzy.

Within the first period,  the sacred drama depicting the struggle between the aging winter (a Calgary Flames linemen) and the sprite Spring (The Atlanta Thrashers Lineman) battling each other for supremacy was given. Of course, Spring over came and winter is coming to an end (sadly enough, because this means hockey itself will end on April 5th).

Through out the 1st and 2nd periods, it seemed that the Atlanta Thrashers might be beaten in their own house, even though Calgary hadn't made an appearance in Atlanta since 2002.

It was not lost on those in attendance, that the Flames were actually returning prodigal sons, who had left Atlanta and made their way to the great North to seek their fortune. I was a small child when I had last watched red and white jerseys streaking across the ice in the now destroyed Omni battle arena. I can remember my family's sorrow when the red and white packed it up and left us, stranded in a southern city without the cool breeze of an ice battle to enjoy.

Now The Flames were returning to prove that Atlanta was not worthy of them or of hockey. Only the brave Thrashers stood defending that truth. Southerners deserve, want and need hockey.  The Thrashers were going to prove this with the might of their blades, the power of their checks and slashing of their sticks!

During the game, a green cladThrash beat upon his Irish Drum rallying the crowd when we let the energy wane and the possibility of loss over come our souls. Between periods we hunted for cakes and ales to sustain our screaming bodies, eating water and cotton candy (only blueberry in Blueland will do!). We feasted on hot pretzels, hotdogs (Yannu), Cracker Jacks (Stone) and ice cream (Tree Bear).

We went through the sacred shops scouring the isles for mementos that showed the sigil of our team.  My Husband Priest, Stone bought a knit hat with the sacred emblem upon it. My son, Tree Bear came out of the event with a small hockey stick. We screamed until we were all horse.

The last period was filled with resounding battle after resounding battle where finally the issue was put to bed with an empty net goal which brought the hat trick to the great and admired warriorKuvalchuk. Hats showered the ice launched from all over Phillips Arena. The beautifulBlue Crew ice princesses, skated to gather them so that play could continue and the win could be official. For the last minutes of the game, no participant sat and no participant was silent.

The Thrashers had won.

We watched as
Kuvalchuk and Holik were given one of the three sacred Stars for their play and battle. A Calgary player was given a star as well.

Often you know a ritual was good, renewing and affective, by the aftermath. I drove home with Tree Bear in the front seat sleeping peacefully dispite the ice cream, cotton candy, pretzels, soda and popcorn.  This morning, I found him cradling his hockey stick.

I feel renewed. My Husband Priest feels renewed. My son feels renewed.  We are renewed.

Thank you Thrashers! So Mote It!
Be!!

The Wayward Athame Returns

My athame has made it home in one piece. The blade was wrapped in tape and I cleaned it with oil. When I got it back, I had expected that it would be filled with negative energy from all the handling it got and being treated like a murder weapon versus a sacred tool.

Interestingly enough, it was energetically singing. It was buzzing with energy - not negative and not other peoples' - actually it was buzzing with the residue of my energy. It was as if the athame had energetically protected itself against the invasion the moment it started. Or maybe when I realized what was happening in the airport, I was some how able to energetically protect it?

I put it on my altar after gently kissing it several times. I haven't been so happy to see a working tool in a long time. I placed it on the god side of the Family Coven(TM) altar and left it there to rest. I have notice the energetic level of the tool has back down to a normal level. Yet it does feel, energetically changed in some way.

I can't explain it. It is like the athame has had its own little adventure, sans me, and now has a different and more independent energy signature.

I am really interested in your opinions here. Initially I was all about finding some way to cleanse it thoroughly, removing all the energy from it and "starting over" with it. Now, I am hesitant to do this. I believe it should be rededicated to its purpose and to me; however, too thorough of a cleansing my change the vibration that it has obtained...

What are your thoughts?