Chicken & Dumpling Stew
* Rain and heavy fog: odd weather for January in Virginia. But then, we haven’t had “normal” for some time now.
* We all have our guilty pleasures and Downton Abbey is one of mine, if for nothing more than the sheer pleasure of a soap opera about a legal entail and the opportunity to indulge my fantasy of growing up to be the Dowager Countess. Downton’s inspired an interest in all things Victorian and Edwardian. Here’s a delightful series of videos that follow the seasons in a Victorian kitchen garden. Especially now, when there’s scant gardening to be done in my little plot, I’m enjoying learning and fantasizing about growing a bit more of my own food. Let me know what you think.
* I knit while I watch tv and, just now, I’m working on a pattern from Vampire Knits. One thing that John Michale Greer suggests everyone do for the new year is to learn a craft, skill, or hobby so that you can make actual things — sweaters, clothes, music, tools, pots, toys — you know, things. What do you make?
* Pagan Square has up a great post on honoring City Spirits. Most modern Pagans live in cities. More and more, I think that a sign of a healthy modern practice is the relationship that the Witch or other Pagan has with hir own landbase and its spirits. I am devoted to and will always work with Hecate and a number of other Goddesses from Europe, but I work daily on my relationship, as well, with Columbia, the Goddess for whom my city is named and on my relationship with the spirits, and powers, and beings of my own Bit of Earth.
Galina Krasskova says:
I think that a good place to start (in addition to honoring one’s ancestors–they can really go a long way toward helping a person in these things) may just be working with city spirits. These spirits are a type of vaettir, or nature spirit, what the ancient Romans called a genius loci (spirit of place) but they’re louder (at least I find them so) and more used to interacting with human beings than other types of earth spirits. Also, there are so many different ways to engage with the topography of a place, and each of these can be a pathway toward engaging with the city spirit itself . . . .
A friend and I recently made offerings to the land at a garden deep inside a large Southern City. It was just past dusk and, as the rum sank into the dark Earth, you could almost feel the land exhale and enjoy the attention and care. It reminded me, again, how simple and elegant it can be to practice modern Paganism.
What City Spirits do you know? Which ones would you like to know?
* Speaking of simple and elegant, one of the simplest and most elegant daily practices is to light a candle and sit in silence. You could turn off the computer and do it now. If you don’t have a candle, or can’t have an open flame, you can use this candle:
I make things from clay: goddess torsos (big and small), permission goddesses, garden goddesses, tree sprites (larger than they sound), masks. And I make jewelry – much of it with focals I make from glass or clay. And beads – I’ve made some glass beads. And collages/vision journals, spirit cards. I paint. I mosaic. In the past I’ve embroidered, needlepointed (including designing for a shop in Florida in the 70s), quilted, macramed. Also paly with hypertufa (not much but some) and garden art – specifically forever flowers (found dishes, cups, bowls made into flowers), and totems (same: found dishes, cups, statues, vases, etc). =)
Knitting and crocheting … we made most of our Christmas presents this year … it was a mad rush at the end but worth every ache in my hands.
I make music ( I play Celtic harp and the guitar, but I sing better than I do anything). I make jewelry (mainly semi-precious beads and crystals. I hope to get into wire-work, soon). I do counted cross-stitch. I make clothes. I knit and hope to learn to crochet this year. I try to see beauty in everything and every moment. Making beautiful things only adds to my happiness and to the happiness of those who receive my gifts.
I’ve been making Gothic Lolita dolls dresses for the dolls I had when I was a little girl, as part of some heavy-duty and very conscious Inner Child work. Part of the something behind it I think is that I’d been making little virtual outfits for the Sims and wanted to make something real, something physical that I could put my hands on. I’ve also been making earrings like crazy; both of these are heavily spiritually purposeful as I try to Witch my way through, past, and/or around a really horrible artistic block. I think I’m making some progress.
I don’t myself live in a city, but one thing the quote from Galina Krasskova reminded me about is that I keep bumping up against the wall of honoring the ancestors. My immediate ancestors all look to be, well, abusive bastards. I know there are deeper, or even non-blood-related ancestors, but I can’t seem to get past the immediate ones. I’m not sure what to do. I understand that probably it isn’t strictly necessary to honor the ancestors as a witch, but part of what I’m dealing with is a distinct feeling of a lack of sturdy foundations, and I imagine connecting with some kind of ancestors would help that. But I can’t seem to bring myself to do it.
Oh and also, Hecate, have you ever ‘grounded’ with the other elements? I had an insight the other night that it could also be done that way, and I thought of you, with your constant mantra of ground, center, breathe. ‘Grounding’ in fire right now sounds like it could be a very very good thing for me, but I’d never heard of anyone else doing it.
Wow, this is a creative crowd! Thalia, I’ve never grounded in fire, although when I ground I pull the fire energy from deep within the Earth and from the Stars into my body as a part of the grounding. It’s an interesting thought, though!
Oh! I hadn’t thought of the stars as fire too; that’s a really good connection and I think will help me a LOT. I’ve been ‘told’ to connect air and earth (above and below) as a way to improve memory; the image I got was one hand up and the other down (like the Magician) like a neuron with axons and dendrites. But the fire at the edges of both of them would be good to connect too as I’m an Aries. Lots to think about, thanks!