Monthly Archives: October 2008

Happy Samhain

Blessings for Samhain everyone! I will be out of town for the celebrations for a few days. Take care and have a happy Celtic new year. Since I am doing a workshop on shamanic rattles and the Silver Branch for Samhain:


The Dedication To A Book Of Stories
by William Butler Yeats


There was a green branch hung with many a bell
When her own people ruled this wave-worn and tragic Eire;
And from its murmuring greenness, calm of Faery,
A Druid kindness, on all hearers fell.

It charmed away the merchant from his guile,
And turned the farmer’s memory from his cattle,
And hushed in sleep the roaring ranks of battle:
And all grew friendly for a little while.
For all who heard it dreamed a little while.

Ah, Exiles wandering over lands and seas,
And planning, plotting always that on some morrow
May set a stone upon ancestral Sorrow!

I also bear a bell-branch full of ease.
I tore it from green boughs winds tore and tossed
Until the sap of summer had grown weary!
I tore it from the barren boughs of Eire,
The willow of the many-sorrowed world.
That country where a man can be so… Continue reading

Owls and Crystals

Here is an excerpt from my journal, about one of my first trips across the Hedge (slightly edited and shortened):

I was trying to visualize an entry in the earth when, suddenly I am in a cave. It is a massive cave, made of grey and black rough rock; the floor is kind smooth though. The cave is roughly circular and has a very high roof.

On one wall of the cave, but not in the centre, kind of to the side, is the entrance. Through this I see green land and forest and mountainside, I know that is the way to the MiddleWorld.

Moving to the left hand wall from the entrance is a waterfall coming from the rock wall. It is clean, clear water that flows into a pool, out of the pool, crisscross the caves floor into a pool near the center of the cave and then out the entrance, into the world.

Opposite the entrance is a smaller opening, it is shaped like a vagina, with labia and everything, and this is another exit. The opening has darker rocks around it. Through the opening is a small cave with a hole in the floor, this too… Continue reading

A Witch’s Work is Never Done

A Witch’s Work is Never Done
Some projects I am currently working on:

* A black robe

* A new cloak

* A workshop on shamanic rattles and bell branches

* The website, of course

* Waiting for bears to go hibernate so I can get into my future ritual area. Wind chimes will be hung and solar lights will be placed to discourage returning bears, a scarecrow will be placed there was well. The bear have thousands of acres of backcountry to wander in; they can stay out of a half-acre of land for set aside ritual purposes, as well as where livestock go

* My OBOD Bardic grade
Some things on the backburner:

* A Scarecrow/Stag God effigy

* Painting the new library/ritual room at the back of the house. Living room, kitchen and bathroom get priority

* Unpack everything

* Probably a lot of other things
What I’m reading right now:

* By Standing Stone and Elder Tree by William G. Grey

Most useful book in the library right now:

* The Element Encyclopedia of Witchcraft by Judika Illes
Future plans:

* Samhain hosted by the Druids’ Hearth

* Winter

* Beltaine at my place!

More Quotes

“If you wind up with a boring, miserable life because you listened to your mom, your dad, your teacher, your priest or some guy on TV telling you how to do your shit, then YOU DESERVE IT.” Frank Zappa


“Paganism is wholesome because it faces the facts of life.” Aleister Crowley


“Modern morality and manners suppress all natural instincts, keep people ignorant of the facts of nature and make them fighting drunk on bogey tales.” Aleister Crowley

“The Tradition you draw upon is native to the land upon which you stand, solely because the power must ever be drawn direct through the earth wherever you might happen to be. The circle is the gate which opens in the Earth and allows in/egress through the powers of the Land.” Andrew Chumbley

“In early Stone Circle times, people did not distinguish thier Life-Faith by any special title or categorical description. Religion in the sense we see it nowadays had no particular meaning, It was taken for granted people would relate themselves with whatever was there however came most naturally to them, and on the whole there was an overall kind of general pattern most of humankind appeared to recognize in common.” William… Continue reading

Snap-Apple Night

There Peggy was dancing with Dan
While Maureen the lead was melting,
To prove how their fortunes ran
With the Cards ould Nancy dealt in;
There was Kate, and her sweet-heart Will,
In nuts their true-love burning,
And poor Norah, though smiling still
She’d missed the snap-apple turning.
On the Festival of Hallow Eve.

Snap-Apple Night, by Irish artist Daniel Maclise in 1833

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