The adventures of a Witch who writes nonfiction and fiction.
Author of 11 books from Llewellyn, including The Little Book of Cat Magic and Everyday Witchcraft as well as The Baba Yaga, Broken Rider, and Veiled Magic series from Berkley Romance
Blue Moon Circle came over to my house today for a belated Beltane celebration and instead of doing our usual ritual, we worked on a spiritual project instead: tearing apart and rebuilding the outside circle we use for rituals during the warmer part of the year.
My friend Ellen (now a BMC member, and someone who came to rituals as a guest for years before she decided she was actually Pagan and joined officially) and I built the original circle the first summer I was in the house, 12 years ago. Blue Moon Circle has been using it since we started practicing together 10 years ago this spring. That's a long time. Not only was the circle in not-great shape (many of the rocks in the 9-foot-around circle sank into the ground and were mostly covered with grass) but a number of different people had come and gone in that time.
We decided it was time to freshen up both the circle itself and the energy in it, starting anew with both the folks who have been there since the beginning and those who were new to the group. We started out by cleaning up the post-winter mess, cutting back the brush that had overgrown the edges, and digging out the old rocks.
This is how the circle looked when we started. (Our supplies are off in the left hand corner.)
Needless to say, we didn't wear our usual cool garb :-)
Once the debris was gone, we re-dug the fire pit, replaced the stones and found a few new ones to fill in the gaps, and planted flower and seeds around the edges to symbolize the growth and abundance of the season.
Then we had a quick ritual to consecrate the new circle, complete with a (very small, because there were 30 MPH winds)) fire in the fire pit.
It's amazing how happy it made me to look at the end results, and to feel the great energy in our lovely revitalized sacred circle.
We "planted" our old group staff out in the circle. I'll go out later and move it to the edge of the area, and eventually it will fall apart and go back to the earth, along with all the old energy it contained. And when we're ready, we'll make a new one.
Sometimes it is good to reinvigorate old patterns, or to let go of even treasured things to make room for something new. What have you started anew lately?
I don't do many book signings--there aren't too many places near me to do them, and I don't travel much. But my friend Rob Wandell has a fabulous Pagan/New Age/Cool Stuff shop in Binghamton, NY, about an hour away, and he's been asking me to come do one for years.
So if you live anywhere near upstate NY, I hope you'll join me next Satuday, the 10th, from 1-4 PM. I'll have copies of The Witch's Broom
as well as a few copies of my earlier books (including a couple of rare copies of the now-out-of-print Circle, Coven & Grove and Pagan Anthology). I might even bring a few pieces of my handcrafted gemstone jewelry!
Here is a link to the Facebook event page Imagicka Book Signing
The address is 75 Court Street, Binghamton NY
I hope you'll come by and say hello. There will be food, and cool things to look at in the shop, and well...ME.
What do you think--do you live close enough to come? If you are there, be sure to tell me I know you from here!
Magic the Cat says "Be there or else!"
Angus says, "SNACKS!"
I hope I get to meet a few of my online peeps. See you there!
Today witches and Pagans celebrate Beltane, also
known as May Day. Passed down to us from an ancient Celtic fire festival,
Beltaine is a celebration of life, love and fertility. The sun has returned,
and the land is blossoming. The God and the Goddess are at the height of their
youth and vigor, and they renew the Earth with the consummation of their love.
I spent last weekend at a local gathering, full of spirit and joy, despite the almost non-stop rain. Luckily, it stopped dripping on us long enough for people to dance the traditional Maypole dance.
Blue Moon Circle will be observing our own (slightly belated) Beltane this coming Sunday. When it is also supposed to rain. But even if it does, there will be joy.
Happy May Day to you. May the coming season bring you prosperity and abundance. I hope you dance!
Me, about 50 years ago. As you can see, I've barely changed at all. And I always loved reading...
My birthday is today, the 28th of April. I will be (wait for it...) 54. Yawn. I'm sorry, but 54 is not an exciting birthday. 50, now that's worth getting all het up about. 80 (which my father will be celebrating on the 18th of May)...holy crap. 54, however, just seems to be one of those birthdays that fall a little flat. To be honest, I don't even have any plans to celebrate, other than a traditional shared birthday lunch with my friend Bobbie whose birthday is May 2nd, and a mutual pal.
But people keep insisting I have to do something to observe the anniversary of my birth (hey, it's not like I did any of the hard work...oh, and THANKS, Mom!). So I'm going to do a birthday giveaway.
I know, I know--it's more traditional to get gifts on your birthday than it is to give them away. But you guys have made the last couple of months pretty shiny for me, what with The Witch's Broom hitting number one briefly, and consistently staying in Amazon's top 15 for Witchcraft, and my ebook re-release of Circle, Coven & Grove staying at #1 on the Kindle Witchcraft list for ages. I pretty much already have the gifts I wanted.
So I'm going to do what makes me happy, and that is sharing my happiness with y'all. I've got a little bit of new swag...
And rather a lot of old swag
(since the person who won the last giveaway never contacted me so I could send it to her).
And I will also throw in a signed copy of one of my books--winner's choice. That includes the new one, a copy of the (now out of print) paper edition of Circle, Coven & Grove, or any of my other Llewellyn books.
You don't have to do anything special to be entered, either. No big contests, no "you must spread the word" (although if you want to brag about my books or this giveaway, I won't stop you), nothing to buy. Just leave a comment here. You can share a birthday wish with me--for me or for anyone else. You can just say "hi." I'll pick a random commenter on the day after my birthday, to receive all these celebratory goodies. [Make sure you leave an email so I can get in touch with you.]
Thank you all for making the last year so amazing. Having you in my life is all the gift I need. Although if you wanted to put up a review for either of the books mentioned above, that would make an awesome birthday gift :-)
There are many
ways to celebrate your spiritual path, whatever that may be. But virtually
every society has used some form of music as a part of their communion with
deity, from Buddhist chants to hymns sung in church. For Pagans and witches, making
a joyful noise and sending it out into the universe often involves chanting or
drums or both.
My group Blue
Moon Circle often integrates one or the other of these into our rituals,
although not always in the same way. Drumming is usually used to build energy,
which is then channeled as extra power into a spell or magickal working.
Chanting might be used as we cast or dismiss the circle, or as part of the
ritual itself. On the last full moon, we simply stood out underneath that
glorious bright light and sent our song up to the goddess in praise of Her
beauty and grace.
When done as a
group, drumming or chanting can bring the individuals together and form them
into one voice, one beat, one song. When done by yourself, the sound can
connect you to the world outside yourself—to all those who came before who sang
or beat a drum and to the gods themselves.
Drumming is
associated with spiritual practices in so many cultures because it can be done
in a rhythm that mimics the human heartbeat. It is easy to learn, and you can
create a drum from scratch if you can’t afford to buy one. (Ask anyone with a
toddler—all you need is something to bang on that makes a cool noise, and maybe
a stick to hit it with.) You don’t have to be a talented musician, and while it
is nice if you can keep a beat, even that is optional.
In the same way,
you don’t have to have a great voice to sing or chant. The gods don’t care that
you would never win American Idol. They hear the true spirit in your voice and
that is enough. If you have a hard time memorizing long complicated chants, you
can print them out on a piece of paper, or use ones that are short and simple.
Here is the one
that Blue Moon Circle is using the most of late:
Earth my body,
Water my blood, Air my breath and Fire my spirit
It doesn’t get
much simpler than that, and yet when sung from the heart it can be tremendously
powerful. There are times in circle when the sound is so deep and strong and
true, it gives me goose bumps. You can find all kinds of chants on You Tube,
too.
One of the women
in the group told me recently that she had a tough time getting into the
drumming. It wasn’t that she couldn’t do it—in fact, she spent years playing
snare drum in a bagpipe band, marching in parades in front of large crowds. But
that was something very different. In professional music, the emphasis is on
perfection and control. Spiritual music, though, is all about NOT worrying
about perfection—about whether the rhythm is steady or the song sung exactly in
tune. Letting go and embracing your own music in all its glory, perfect or not.
Making a joyful
noise is really just that: taking the joy (or sorrow) you feel and sending it
out into the universe. Drumming in thanks or praise or celebration, singing
from the heart and soul. You can drum by yourself to get into a meditative
state, or chant in the shower to start your day off right. Either way, the gods
don’t need you to be perfect. They only want you to be present, in your own
life, and in the world. The vibrations that move through the air on a beat or a
breath are just another way to connect with your own inner voices, or send your
energy out to connect with the rest of the world. And that’s enough.
I've had a nasty cold for over a week. I'm calling it The Cold that Would Not Die because I can usually chase those suckers off in a couple of days with a lot of garlic, Vitamin C, echinacea, and zinc lozenges. The cold itself is mostly annoying--started with a sore throat for a couple of days, then segued into the popular "constant nose-blowing, head-like-a-brick" type. The worst thing about it is that is seems to make the people who have it (I've compared notes with a few friends) feel like someone took the stuffing out of them. In short, other than going in to work, I've gotten virtually nothing done. Bah.
So mostly, there has been some variation on this most days:
Sometimes that cat and the book are on the couch, but really, that's been about it. On the bright side, I get to reread lots of favorite humorous romances and call it research. Right?
Achooo!
Sorry. Hope you're having a good week. Everyone stay healthy, okay?
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