I don’t know if I am supposed to be on the letter “b” or the letter “c” this week. My “b” word is beauty. I was told once that the way that I see beauty in nature comes through in my photos. This also relates to my appreciation of nature and honoring all spirits which is part of my faith.
I decided to motivate myself to write more I would try the Pagan Blog Project which is to use different letters of the alphabet as a prompt and write about them.
So of course the letter A is first. A is for athame which I don’t use. It is a witch’s knife with a double edged blade for directing energy while casting a circle and the like. Initially when I was 16 and found that I was indeed a witch I wanted to have all the tools. Included in these tools is the knife or the athame which is used as an extension of your hand to cast energy into something. I used one for a couple of years and engraved the handle of my athame as well. People find knives scary and I realized that there wasn’t a reason for me to use one. I could use my hands and use a wand instead. Even if you make the end rounded a bit it still can be dangerous if it’s not properly sheathed. You never use an athame to actually cut things with other than unseen energy. I love wands and have since used wands for casting a circle or I use my hands. It can symbolize the male energy and is the sword in the stone and it is the representation, when it’s in the cauldron or cup of male and female energy together.
I like to make my own wands too and put my energy into them which I will share when we get to the letter W maybe. 
Winter is cold and in some places dreary and even painful. How we react and deal with the Winter on a daily basis forms our opinions about it though.
There are some positive things about the season as it’s the time of the solstice when we gather with friends and family and there are different animals that are not present and others that journey toward us at this time. There is time for introspection, reading, talking with friends and family and visiting neighbors, making things indoors like quilts to keep us warm or knitting mittens.
Weeds and plants that were annuals we tried out that may or may not have done well are gone. They are frozen in some cases to the ground and have lived their cycle. In the spring when the earth wakes up again there will be space and nurturing elements for all that we have dreamed up in the Wintertime. I have been looking at my seed order and am ready to place it so I have those to look forward to.
Today there are 68 days left until the Spring Equinox when the earth is awake and flourishing giving life to all. Until then we still have time to dream, make plans and enjoy the stillness.
If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up. -J.M. Power
We have a Christmas time tradition on Twelfth Night (give or take) and celebrate the last night of the season. La Befana, the Christmas Witch from Italy comes to give little gifts to the children. We always eat Italian on that night even though we have 0.0 percent Italian on either side of either family. My husband was stationed in the Navy in Naples and he learned about her while living there. I thought she sounded great and she either leaves gifts or comes to the door or comes inside to deliver them every year. We also have fire in the fireplace and roast smores with our circle, tell stories and think about the year to come.
This year she looked a little different like she is maybe more Muslim and also wasn’t getting around very well and it took her a long time to hobble off.
Last year had my favorite number 11 in it so I thought it would be really good. It wasn’t that great but not bad either. This year I actually think is going to be great though I don’t know why. I have one of my “feelings” so I think that is good enough for now.
I have an idea for a video art show but I can’t get it together quite yet and have to do it on the weekends for now. I am fearful of cameras, well video cameras and avoid them at all cost so if I end up doing this it will be a huge step for me. I am in the planning stages.
I am still sort of working on my pagan book though most of it is in my head and needs to get out again soon. I am writing by the seasons and am getting behind again.
This year is the year of the farm for me as in I will be procuring 2-10 acres and starting my dream farm including a CSA. I will of course post on my other blog all about that. I am still waiting for my part-time job to fund the farm but even if I have to do it in baby steps that is what will happen.
I hope you have a safe and happy New Year’s weekend and no matter what your outlook on the coming year is, I know that there will be some good in it for you too.
Time for the light to return and we’re getting ready for a new year. I hate Winter but I am optimistic about 2012. Maybe it is sort of odd being so excited about this year but for some reason I am when other crazy people think the world is going to end right?
We celebrate the Winter Solstice or Yule every year. I have been for 20 years now and as a family for 9 years give or take. When it is cold and dark and you are getting together with others to celebrate the return of the light it can’t be bad.
This is the second ritual we have had at a local park in a huge sheltered area among the trees and mushrooms. There is a playground nearby too but this time we did two rituals which worked out very well. In reality we did one ritual with just adults and the evening was spent eating, drinking, playing and making gingerbread houses.
We celebrate the birth of the sun
from the womb of wintry night,
for he is the light.
If you want to know more about the solstice this year visit this site.
This is my recipe for a plum or Christmas pudding that was traditionally made with suet and soaked with brandy or other alcohol before the sauce was warmed by lighting it. It is served at Christmas after it has been soaking for a month or more. I don’t like fruitcakes or brandy so I came up with this variation of a recipe from the bundt cake pan I purchased this year. Use caution while igniting the rum!
Amy’s Chocolate Rum Cake
1 (18.25-ounce) package devil’s food cake mix
1/2 cup sugar
1 (3.9-ounce) package chocolate instant pudding mix
1 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs
½ cup container sour cream
¼ cup rum
Heavily grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan. Set aside.
Combine the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Beat at low speed with an electric mixer just until combined.
Pour batter into prepared pan
Bake at 350° for 50 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes; remove from pan, and cool on wire rack or plate.
Wrap the cake in foil for a day and then start adding a rum and sugar mixture to the cake every week for 3 weeks. I heated the sugar with the rum on the stovetop to dissolve the sugar first.
We-wrap the cake in the foil and put it in a large Ziploc bag as well or wrapped in plastic shopping bags.
A few days or the morning before serving melt ¼ cup sugar, ¼ cup butter and ½ cup chocolate chips in a saucepan over low heat. Pour on the top of the cake so the chocolate drizzels down the sides.
Before serving heat ½ cup rum in a microwave safe cup or a pyrex cup with a spout for 30 seconds.
Light the rum on fire using a long lighter and pour onto the cake!
The Journey
by Mary Oliver
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice-
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old rug
at your ankles.
“Mend my life!”
each voice cried.
But you didn’t stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations-
through their melancholy
was terrible.
it was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the starts began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice,
which you slowly recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do-
determined to save
the only life you could save.
