Walking the Hedge » festivals

Wordless Wednesday: Ostara and Such

Juniper — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 20:36:28 +0000

Lupercalia

Juniper — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 06:36:33 +0000

“Happy Lupercalia!” I said to my roommate Grey once she had gotten home from work and settled in for the evening.

“What’s Lupercalia?” she asked.

“Far superior to Valentine’s Day” I replied, then grinned with delight as she read the Wikipedia entry.

“Too bad we don’t have any goat skin to wear and run around in.” said Grey.

“I have goat skin.”

“That’s right … you DO have goat skin.”

And so the plotting began. There was much giggling in our house that night. It’s all about celebrating how awesome life is, after all.

The next night we saw a man about harp and visited someone dear for Valentine’s Day. On the drive back home, we declared ourselves to be on a Valentine’s Day/Lupercalia quest.

One Witch said to the other: “Don’t worry, no matter what happens, we have a harp in the trunk.”

On the last day of Lupercalia, we headed into the countryside.

Grey and I put on our newly made goat skin garters, winter boots and warm cloaks (and not much else). We trucked along down the path towards the forest and once out of sight of any neighbours, we gave the boys our cloaks to carry. Then, giggling like lunatics, Grey and I processed down the snow covered “yellow brick” road. Shaking rattles and shouting blessing at the land. An attempt was made to sing “Hoof and Horn” but running about in the snow whilst naked takes your breath away. We also couldn’t stop laughing long enough to sing properly.

We picked a birch tree we liked and stooped there. While the boys watched and smoked cigarettes, I stood a large and dark phallus in the snow. Grey and I surrounded it with the stems of tulips, lilies and daffodils, as well as the blossoms of pure white carnations. We announced the coming of spring and declared the land to be blessed. Sacred smoke was burned to entice Faunus to come along and play, bringing spring time with Him.

We turned about and holding hands, Grey and I skipped back down the road. Crash the dog followed along, far too busy finding good smells to care what we were up to. Once we reached the end of the trees that hid us from the neighbours, we waited for the boys to catch up and give us our cloaks.

Back in the house and warmed by a good fire and real clothes, I asked permission to burn the sacred cakes in the fire. If a man builds you a fire, you ought to respect him enough to ask before you start tossing stuff into it.

We settled in for the night to watch movies, drink wine and make merry. All acts of love and pleasure are Her rituals, right?

I hope you had a good Lupercalia, folks!

Imbolg To Do List

Juniper — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:37:56 +0000

[ ] Repot a tree
[ ] Hearth blessing
[ ] Beer!
[ ] Dairy!
[ ] A devotional ritual to Brighid, including vigil
[ ] Share the Flame of Kildare
[ ] Walk in the snow. Bonus points if there is love making to be had in the snow (any volunteers? LOL)
[ ] Go for a drive in the countryside
[ ] Wave to the livestock as I go by
[ ] Eat large quantities of food
[ ] Ritual with my fellow Goat Ladies
[ ] Write like a motherfucker

Frigga!

Juniper — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 05:39:44 +0000

This is one of those random feast days where people on the internet are vaguely aware that today might be one of Frigga’s days. Or was that the 7th? It usually sounds/reads like:

“… something, something distaff day”

You can do you own googling and see for yourself.

This just so happen to also be one of those little feast days that I celebrate in some small way. Because Frigga rocks for so many reasons and she deserves a little love from me at least once a year. Also because the 12th of January is two days after my younger brothers birthday and is therefore easy to remember. The winter needs lots of feast and fire days, don’t you think?

I”ll admit that I enjoy the random obscurity of it.

My roomie and I set up a temporary altar on the microwave. Said an invocation, lit a beeswax candle, gave the lady some wine and yummy bread and other goodies. Laid out a spindle, spoons, knives … you know.

I’m about to take down some more of the Yule decorations. One of the evergreen things from the front door. It takes me from Yule to Imbolg to take down the decorations. I like having 6 week to do that.

I might work on my prayer shawl for a little while. I have some writing to do (still recovering from having to recover the PC to a slightly older date due to a virus and loosing some work)

I’ve been quietly mindful of Frigga and her spheres of influence throughout the day.

I’ll read something with her in it, or find that Ravencast episode where they talk about Her.

If it feels right, I might throw the bones (cast my collection) and see if She has anything to say to me.

Pick something, find something happening in the next month or two. Something small, not Thorrasblot or Imbolg, unless you typically don’t observe them.

Here’s a fun, random and obscure Pagan feast day, a modern one. Pour out a nice little offering at your ancestor altar for Dorothy Clutterbuck on her birthday, Janurary 19th. heh

Happy Winter Stuff!

Juniper — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 22:37:04 +0000

Easy Mulled Wine

Juniper — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 17:12:38 +0000

One large bottle of dark red wine. A cup or two or three of cranberry-grape juice. A few oranges in slices or quarters. Plenty of organic honey. Ground cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. Cover, low temperature for a few hours. No metal utensils.