A hormonal rambling,

(wrote this a few days ago and just decided to hit publish)

I'm on my rag, and it blows right now. I have spent most of the day in a rental car running massive errands. Pounding headache. Irritable. I was also dealing with motion sickness in the car, which is a total WTF for me. I've never in my life had problems with it. Apparently I can not read and be in a moving car at the same time!

I encountered a witch in my dreams last night. She was an elderly black woman with silvery hair, it fit her like a glowing halo. She was teaching me things, for the life of me I can't remember what it was that she was showing me. I tend to dream in two sets, right after I nod off and again before I wake. It was an early part of the night dream and I woke up shortly afterward and told myself I should write it down. I didn't of course, I was asleep again before I could reach for my pen and journal. I need to be more disciplined with my dream note taking, because this is where most communication happens for me.

I got up to some witching on the full moon. There were a few projects that I needed to polished off. Consecrated some spiritual cleansing soap, a sort of Florida Water type recipe (scent wise).

I infused the oils with a variety of herbs, but the main one being hyssop, a plant I love dearly. It's a simple and humble, but one that I have strong relationship with right now.

Lots of seed for next year.

There was also homemade Florida Water, local red brick dust put to purpose (living by an abandon brick factory has its benefits), blessing oil made, mugwort cookies, offerings and other shenanigans.

Hah, do you not see a theme there? Hoodoo tends to find it's way into my practice. I've seriously been considering taking a course in Hoodoo with cat yronwode. I have the prerequisites needed, I just need to do the interview and once accepted, the book purchase. It would be a great thing to work on this winter, as I wont have too much going on. My roots are in the deep south, so it just seems right.

A rare spotting,

While walking home one evening from the park, I spotted this little patch of Indian Pipe under a birch tree, in a place I like to forage for boletes. I've never seen them before. I understand that they can be very rare, so I had to take pictures. I think they were towards the end of flowering, a few had been run over by slugs.

The raspberries are in crazy productive mode. I can usually walk away with a quart a day! I'm thinking my first batch of mead will have to include some raspberries, there is just too many in my fridge and they need to be used!

Two reasons why my neighbors hate me:

1.

I let the grass get really long. It's about thigh height and chest high in some areas. I love it though, and I know it is home to many little critters.

2.

I let the dandelions grow as much as they like, nay! I encourage them. This little guy? I found him while working the soil in an area I'm cleaning up for the herbs & poisons. His three little roots were perfect and without thinking I braided them on the spot. It'll be a perfect little talisman.

Green things,

I'm so tired. I've been getting up earlier and going to bed later. My work load (like, real job) has been, to say the very least, exhausting. I cant complain though! I love the longer days, love, love, love, them.

I had HUGE plans for the garden this year, but due to the rain sticking around a lot longer than anyone had planned the veggie part of the garden fell through. Right now I've put all of my focus on the herbs and poisons that I've got going right now.

Catnip man, my kitchen sink pal.

Silvery wormwood. I love running my fingers through the foliage and huffing in the bitter-sweetness.

Mugwort baby.

Marshmallow.

This grows beneath the raspberry patch, I knew the name of it a few days ago, it's totally slipped my mind though.

Last year I believe, we had a nest of baby spiders in the house. They appeared all over the place. They're starting to come out now that it's warmed up. I've found a couple dangling around my head in the kitchen. It's quite a surprise when you turn around to see 8 tiny eyes looking back at you!

I somehow managed not to snatch a shot of my datura, who I love. The spiders also love that plant, most mornings I can find shimmering strands running from the wormwood, marshmallow and datura. The plants have been getting regular offerings and sweet talkings to facilitate friendship.

Of cartomancy and datura,

Look what I got in the mail today!

I'm in the midst of giving cartomancy a good faith effort. I haven't delved too much into any form of divination, except for the odd tea leaf reading, dream work and just everyday omens and signs. I have been working with a tarot deck (for a few years, but not seriously), but I wanted to give old fashioned playing cards a go. The NWW Guide to Cartomancy got my wheels spinning, as well as directing me to this lovely deck by Corina Dross!

My datura is growing so damn fast, its almost frightening. I know that this plant can be quite mischievous, dangerous and abusive by just being around it, so I have been extra respectful and careful while handling. The interesting thing is, it seems to almost demand attention and is luring me in with its gloriously green and fuzzy foliage. And this little guy gets my attention, as you can see. Also, that picture was taken about a week ago, and its grown a LOT more since!

Being a novice gardener, I jumped the gun thinking I would be able to grow a crap load of veggies (in many varieties) and a crap load of herbs. I don't know if my baby green thumb ass can handle that much to start, so I've decided to give the herbs and poison plants priority over the veg. As I am in a financially secure position right now, the veg would be nice, but it isn't necessary for my survival. I will be going forward with the pepper, tomatoes and eggplants. Probably lettuce and an ornamental melon called a plum granny - that was apparently used in the Victorian era to perfume under petticoats, in purses and other places. There will also be lots of bee and hummingbird flowers. Melissa officinalis is popping back up next to the raspberries, my favorite!

I'm looking forward to stang hunting once the full moon comes around, which is soon. I have hazel in mind. It grows all over and it is a tree that has always managed to capture my attention, and not to mention all the magical attributes it carries.

A storm is about to rumble through and sleep is calling to me.

Starting with the moon,

I fine tuned my normal calender into lunar based months just a few nights ago. As it unfolded, it just made sense to me, like a smack up side the head ("where have you been?!"). I've been looking to establish routine and a system, or schedule if you will for ages, and finally, finally something I think will work for me.

Right off the bat? A formal Hekate's Deipnon. I've done a similar sort of supper for her before. Crossroads offerings - baking of a saffron honey cake in her honor, dandelion root tea and garlic cloves left at a handy spot I found along the nature trail that runs by our house.

(saffron honey cake, it is a variation of the recipe found in Hekate: Key to the crossroads. It's a vegan cake base and then made unvegan with the lemon and honey glaze poured over it)

I'll be creating a shrine to Hestia tonight, I have a decent sized ledge that hangs right over my stove that'll be perfect. This is something that I've actually been wanting to do for a while. And a few particularly perfect shrine items fell into my lap the past few days, giving me the nudge to get it done.

I get the nagging feeling that it is high time to put the books down and get the hands dirty. Or maybe that is just cabin fever? The rains are so persistent and I feel house bound! (I really need some going-out-in-rain gear) All I want is to sit in my backyard with plant friends and bask in the sun.

Which reminds me! I have datura seedlings, opium poppy seedlings (both doing particularly well) and newly sprouted henbane seedlings. The non poisons are currently all edible solanaceae: eggplants (ping tung, little fingers) tomatoes (black cherry, silvery fir tree) and peppers (Ozark giants, Bulgarian carrot, Italian bull horn, and another hot variety - cant remember the name). They're doing pretty good, they seem content under the grow light. I'll need to transplant them soon though.

The days are noticeably longer I know, I just want the sun to touch my chilly bones. Mmm, mid-summer.

Jelly,

I bought a shit ton of pomegranates a while ago ($10 for a big flat of them!). I ate about half of them raw and the rest were sitting the fruit bowl on the verge of turning bad. Last night I cracked each of them open, extracted the juice by hand using a cheese cloth and added some pectin, a whole vanilla bean, a bit of lemon juice and a gods awful amount of sugar. Had my jars all boiled up and made my very first batch of jelly!

Turned out fabulous. I was so scared I wouldn't get the seal on the jars, but after pulling them out of their boiling bath the lids began to snap and seal up!

Now I'm day dreaming about all the canning I'll be doing over the summer and during harvest. There will be so many blackberries, I'll probably get sick of them. I did find a very nice recipe at the library for a pumpkin jam, with vanilla, honey and rum! How good does that sound?

I think I'll be doing Imbolc in the backyard, what better place to encourage/celebrate the stirring of spring? I also need to begin preparing the raised beds! I got my ship notification for the grow lights, finally. Goodness, I cant wait for green things!

Ouch,

I've had a ache in my right butt cheek, lower hip on my backside, for about a week now. I'm pretty sure it's muscular, I fucking hope so. I don't have health insurance and x-rays aren't cheap. I've been rubbing it out each night by balancing my weigh over my bum, and rocking back and forth on the floor, seems to kind of work out the knot that is there.

I am likely to be sore all over tomorrow. I had to move a pretty fucking large pile of wood, that my totally awesome landlord left just sitting in the middle of my yard. He came by unannounced about a month ago to hack away at the Alder in the backyard. Yes, parts of the tree were dead and needed to be trimmed, but, a warning would have been nice and knocking out the live and active winter squirrel nest was totally unfuckingcalled for. It made me so angry. I watched that squirrel every damn day, fixing it's nest, rising in the morning, eating the noms I left out for em. He also left two huge piles of branches just hanging out. I cant complain about them too much though, as it has been providing shelter for the birds over winter, they love hanging out in there.

Wood pile moved, and neatly stacked along the house. Ground raked and twigs moved. The drit looks good and is filled with worms. Making way for the garden! I've got grow lights on order and have the whole month of February to get my shit together. Doing two raised beds, lots of containers, and the shabby dirt hill that we have will be used for witchy herbs, poisons will be in containers on the deck. I hope to get some mandrake going! Need to figure out what I want crawling on the back fence, I really don't like seeing my neighbors. Especially when they're piss drunk and projectile vomiting with a cigarette in their hands, proceed to wipe the sick from their face and then settle back down to have their smoke. UGH.

I am probably totally over doing it for my first time gardening, going deep-end first, lets hope my ass can swim!

The last of summer berries,

When we first looked at the house we're in now (just renting) the raspberry bushes were heavy with fruit, it made me so excited. We weren't able to move in in time to reap the full berry harvest, but we're lucky enough to enjoy these last few fruits of the summer. Its nice being able to pop out into the yard for a little snack.


And on a completely unrelated note, posted this on the tumblr earlier this afternoon:

Looking forward to the new moon. I plan on making incense and an oil for Hekate. I haven’t felt much of her lately, she is subtle. Her name has a habit of popping up all over the internet when I’m not even looking for her. A few months ago though, I was being visited by snakes and dogs very frequently in my dreams and was bitten while dreaming (it was a kind of friendly bite, if that makes any sort of sense). When I began researching the messages I was being sent I was almost shocked that it was in fact, her. I had been looking towards my own ancestry (run of the mill, Scots-Irish, Germanic) and expected to find my gods there, but no. Now that I know she has chosen to work with me, she seems to have backed off, but illuminates on things that she would like from me or what I should do. My relationship with her is a few months old, and only now am I building an altar in her name and working on regular worship. I’m looking very forward to building a stronger relationship with her. In a way, this is sort of solidifying that I do in fact have a relationship with her. Like a personal affirmation that I’ve never made.

Fuck yeah for figuring shit out!

not fucking around,

Herbs seed currently on order:

Henbane

Woad (SO EXCITED about this one)

Poppy (opium)

Indigo

Elderberry

Mugwort

Datura

Tobacco, wild

Wormwood

Much more to be ordered soon.

I didn’t realize this until after looking hard at google maps for a long time. I’m next to a creek, that is next to a large forest patch, that is next to a cemetery.

Its pretty obvious that I owe someone, something - big fucking time.