The Ramblings and Wanderings

Posts Tagged ‘About Juniper’

I am a farm girl; I “get” the lambing season at Imbolg as I have spent many sleepless nights in the barn, praying to Brighid as I midwife livestock. I don’t need to be reminded of where my food comes from, I have grown it!

I don’t need a lesson to tell me how to experience the elements, I have lived in them, and I have worked in them. I have been up to my knees in frozen mud and in snow, with the winter sun beating down on me as I fix the horse fencing. I have had a wind burned face, a sun burned nose and frost bitten toes.

I have lived at the edge of endless wilderness all my life. I have performed rituals in a real grove. I have done meditations under an elder tree that is older than my country. I backpack into the wild on a regular basis, I have had bears on my property in spring and summer, fishes spawning in my creeks in fall, and moose that walked by my house each morning.

I have touched a shrine to Epona on my way into the stable each day. I have poured offerings to Taranis when ever the storms loom close and threaten the seedlings newly planted. I have sung to Danu when I walk the fields. I have praised Cernnunos as my hound and I track wild rabbit.

I adore wildcrafting and learning the native plants of an area. I have dozens of field guides. I love learning about animal tracks and all of that. I love being bale to walk through a landscape and know what grows/lives where and why.

My connection with Nature is largely through animals, a result for farming and working in animal rescue, as well as the wild. Thanks to living in places where I have accesses to it as well as being raised by the kind of Dad who teaches his daughter orienteering for fun on the weekends.

Formal gardening is an area I am not a strong at. My mother and grandmother have terrific green thumbs and are amazing gardeners. Things just come naturally to them. Anywhere my Mom is, things grow bigger and greener than they “ought” to be. This didn’t happen for me, so I was put off a little when I was younger, feeling frustrated and inadequate.

I am a much better container gardener for some odd reason. Also I do very well with xeriscaping and growing native plants, that are happier to be allowed to do their own thing for the most part, rather than working with finicky rose bushes like my Mom.

As for the home I talk to house spirits and they are normal to me in a rather odd way. I have a kitchen shrine and a house altar and a sunroom shrine. Honestly I feel quite unhappy, even a little anxious not having my shrines up, they are such a part of my life now.

The gods and spirits get fed regularly, usually home made biscuits or something along those lines. The ancestors have a permanent place on the house altar, where they get acknowledged everyday.

I love to cook, though I am no expert. I love to bake more and have a little notebook I cram with hand written recipes. I love to experiment with food and make a terrible mess in the kitchen.

I always have a Birth of Venus hanging in my bathroom, a witch ladder somewhere, broom by or above the door, witch balls hung in the window etc

I love having a magickal home, living in an enchanted world. My poor man, Dr. Philosopher has to adjust to it. Just the other day he dared to put a half full tea cup on the shelf with my herbalism gear, which is below the house altar! He got a “tsk tsk” for that!

Having recently moved into the city, I have to adjust to pulling the blind down if I want to wander around naked, setting off smoke detectors with smudge sticks and having not moonlight but streetlight coming in through the window.

It’s easier to not notice the big maple tree on the corner when in the city. I find myself talking down to house plants in a way I’d never do to potted juniper on the front stoop, let alone a 100 year old elder tree!

A Simple Life

By Kat Ballew

Cows grazing on the mountain side

horses running wild along the seaside

Birds singing as they journey past

and old men telling tales that are unsurpassed

Butterflies fluttering their wings in the breeze

And the sun doing everything to appease

This is the simple life of living

This is a day of thanksgiving

The tumbleweed rolls across the desert floor

The owl sings a song and is the nights decor

The fireflies flash their lights in harmony

And the crickets they do play for all a symphony

The waters rush up to scare the shores

The milky way dips and peace from it pours

The wolf howls out but the moon is not afraid

A simple life for nothing would I trade

Okay. So my dear Bren may or may not have eaten his “Totem” for dinner last week. And I joked about it. A few people had panic attacks about this. So in my usual sweet but sarcastic way let me address this.

First of all, I am the kind of woman who has been known to start pillow fights in the middle of the afternoon in downtown Ottawa. I don’t take life all that seriously. I take my Witchcraft seriously, but not entirely seriously. If there was a rule that in order to be a Pagan and/or Witch you had to be serious all the time, about everything, and never crack a joke, I’d join the Discordians, or possibly the Pastafarians. I do love spaghetti.

So with that out of the way …

I just adore the endless debate over the proper definitions and uses of words. Especially words stolen from cultures we invaded then conquered and shoved onto reserves to eek out a life of poverty and hopelessness.

The whole Totem vs Familiar vs Power Animal vs Let’s Just Call Them Sprits debate is a personal favourite of mine.

Folks often use Totem for just about anything. From my understanding in most of the cultures that have Totem concepts, you get one of these at birth. Often it’s a tribal thing. Kind of like how as a Fergusson our ancient clan badge is the Poplar tree. There are all kinds of rules regarding Totems, depending on who you talk to. These things vary from culture to culture, tribe to tribe, website to website … got it?

Familiar also gets used for just about everything.

In my mind it is an actual animal (maybe a plant too) you work magick and ritual with. In A very real sense, not a “My cat jumped on my altar once” way. My now elderly dog Crash and I have a relationship that can only be described as uncanny. Those are other folk’s words, not mine. The fact that she allows Bren to take her half a block away from me to potty in the morning is amazing. This dog and I part a part of each other. In ritual we dance an intricate dance built upon a decade plus of working together. She guards me as I walk the Hedge and sometimes even joins me. I can go on and on but I won’t.

Then there’s Power Animals, Spirit Guides, Spirits, Ancestor Teachers … the list goes on and on and often different words are used for the same thing.

It’s enough to make your head spin.

Now while I do understand it is important to be using words in a way that makes sense to us all, so that we can communicate better, I also feel that at times we worry far too much about these things.

Once upon a time, while wandering on the otherside of the Hedge I found myself hanging out with the God Who Has Antlers on His Head. Since nothing seemed to be happening, I decided to ask a question.

I asked “Sooooo … are you one individual god, not a god at all, are all gods one god, or are you some kind of archetype … or what?”

His response:

“It doesn’t matter”

So there you go.

It doesn’t fucking matter.

Not that we have that out of the way …

Bren is not a shamanic practitioner; he’s a Druid and Philosopher. He doesn’t know what his Totem is and I don’t know what his Totem is. He has a special fondness for rabbits, that’s all.

And yes, he eats rabbit. Last week was not the first time either.

In some Traditions, it’s totally against the rules to eat your Totem. Bren knows this. He has worked with First Nations Elders off and on for many years. Not as a spiritual student, but as a guy working for the government and such learning their customs and values in order to beat the white guys in charge over the head with the proper ethics of dealing with the First Nations people. But he knows a heck of a lot about First Nations culture, customs and spirituality.

When I joked to him about eating his “Totem” the first thing he mentioned (not totally seriously) was that it’s against the rules in some Traditions to do so.

At which point I said “Yeah, but you’re white”

Bren and I are not First Nations. We are Celts and Anglo-Saxons by blood and culture at best (and Canadian of course)

The debate over whether white folks have Totems aside, there is a lot of good evidence that animals had some major sacred importance to white people once upon a time. The horse for example was associated with some heavy hitting goddesses, with the land itself, and with sovereignty.

But white folks being white folks, we’ve always done things a little differently than other cultures. We don’t treat scared horses like sacred cows in India, or Totems you can’t eat.

Here’s an interesting ancient Celtic practice:

In order to be king, you must (in front of the whole tribe) have sex with a horse, then kill it, then butcher it, then eat some of it, and then cover yourself with its blood and guts and maybe even parade around in its still oozing hide.

Yep yep

So, even if Bren’s Totem is a rabbit, I don’t feel all that bad about serving it to him for dinner.

Thanks for reading yet another nonsensical ramble.

Plenty of folks with leather jackets and combat boots have good jobs, an education, own a house and are good parents (etc)

Plenty of hippy-types and non-conformists are good, intelligent people

Just because someone is a non-conformist, or just plain ol’ dresses funny, doesn’t mean they are a “have-not” … some piss poor loser on welfare

Just because someone lacks a formal education doesn’t mean they might “drag down” your class

They still yank girls out of school to help run the farm and raise the other young’uns

Education does not equate intelligence

Plenty of folks with less than or little more than their high school diploma can read at a university level

*sarcasm* what would some dumb redneck farm girl know about Paganism? It’s not like someone who spent most of her life working with animals or raising crops would have any idea about communing with Nature or the cycle of the seasons. Nor could anyone who has both been midwife and butcher of animals understand anything about life and death. Nor could someone who has hand raised animals, rehabilitated rescue animals, and was changing diapers and caring for little ones before the age of ten have any experience or knowledge that would make her suited to clergy training or pastoral care.

I own more (non-fiction) books than my dear Dr. Brendan … I miss my books! (They are in storage)

Just because someone doesn’t want a house in the suburbs doesn’t mean they hate people who do … or that they have some kind of a defect.

The majority of people with the highest IQs in the world do not have the kind of jobs you might expect or lead the kind of lives you would think. One of the smartest men in the world is a happy bus driver; another is a biker who plays with radio equipment in his garage.

Most folks with genius IQs refuse to fit into societal norms … and many of them dropped out of school at some point. (Like Einstein)

I respect a formal education; I also respect someone with real life experience, both are great too.

But there are great works in this world more worthy of respect than getting your Master’s degree.  Look at Mother Thersa.

I might not be able to do calculus but I can walk through a stinking, filthy, disease infested puppy mill, take up an emaciated dog in my arm, carry her to the SPCA van and help her deliver her still born pups on the way to the vet … and keep my head clear, my eyes dry and my hands steady while I do it.

I may have never read the works of Socrates but I know how to step into an 8×6 foot pen with a 150 pound dog that has been used and abused in dog fighting and put him on a leash, and teach him about love.

It’s my blog and I’ll bitch about whatever I want to

I am 29 years old, well travelled, well worn, know what the meaning of hard work is etc etc but I am also not in my Mother phase. I still like to stay up late and dance, play loud music, be silly and giggle and such.

I am not a kid, I find it very difficult to socalize with students and other girls in their twenties and Maiden phase because they are still very much “kids” the biggest concern being getting drunk or borrowing money from daddy to pay the rent or something … And I’m too mature for them and feel like a stick in the mud or like some kind of older sister playing babysitter.

But most of the women in my age group who aren’t still girls are Mommies. I find it just as difficult to socalize with them, first off they tend to act like there’s something wrong with me for not being married with no kids, and they aslo seem to have nothing going on but being Mommy. I have nothing to contribute to conversations about losing the baby fat or potty training. Also I am too immature for them! Too loud, to rebellious, too bold and daring, too silly.

I belong no-where. I’m stuck in the middle with no (in real life, not online) friends.

It sucks!

Poor me.

I am teaching a class for mysticwicks at their Circle of Teaching

it starts up Jan 11th, register with the CoT and message me to enroll!

Cottage Craft & Wild Witcheries is for anyone looking to integrate their spiritual and magickal practice with their daily lives, from the kitchen to the garden, from the family room to the wilderness. A magickal practice does not cease once you pass through your front door, whether you are heading inside or out, as such this class will bring the magickal into the mundane and teach you how to carry it with you wherever you go, be that in your home, a vacant lot in the heart of the city, or at a nature reserve.
Our goal is to explore creating both a Home-based and Nature-based practice of Witchcraft, the class will not be specific to any one Tradition (Wicca, Heathen etc) but provide a framework that you can use to create a workable practice of your own or build around any Tradition that you already practice.
This class will be accessible for those new to Witchcraft but will also provide a challenge for anyone looking to move beyond Paganism 101. It is written with the assumption that you have read at least one Paganism 101 book in the past, however.