Keeping Busy While Stuck At Home – Social Distancing and Witchy Crafts

 

Social Distancing. Self-Isolation. Quarantine. Whatever you call it, most of us are stuck at home for the foreseeable future.

At the beginning of the month, my kids both had colds, and as the panic over Covid-19 was ramping up, I made an effort to not add to the problem, and decided to keep them home a couple of days until their coughs and runny noses subsided. They were better by the weekend, and I was happy to be able to send them back to school on Monday. Then, on Sunday night, the province closed all public schools. All this is a long way of saying, that in my house, we are on day 15 of social distancing isolation.

These days, most businesses are closed for the next couple of weeks, and we are in the middle of what would have been spring break, so the schools aren’t putting anything out until April to help with the kids education. And since we are doing our part to help #flattenthecurve or #plankthecurve or whatever the hashtag is now, we are finding creative ways to keep busy that involve less screen time, and thus, less fighting.

Mindful Witchcraft on a Budget — Say No to Dollar Stores

I will admit it, when I was younger, I loved the dollar store as much as anyone. I could buy all manner of home decor that I never would have been able to afford elsewhere. These days, they have whole aisles dedicated to candles, incense, offering dishes, jars, herbs, just about anything a thrifty witch (or a broke witch, we’ve all been there) would need.

But with the rise of climate change, and our consciousness that the earth really is in trouble, has come the idea of zero waste or low waste and just generally being more mindful of how we live our lives. Thus, is the dollar store really the best place to source your spell materials and tools anymore? Was it ever?

Signs That You’re a Witch?

I have seen *so* many videos on this lately. Luckily, most of them appear to be older, so maybe it was just a meme-type thing, but the truth of the matter is, there is only 1 sign that you are a witch. Ready for it?

You practise witchcraft.

That’s it. The end. You can’t really be a witch and not know it. Just like you can’t really be a carpenter and not know it. The word is a descriptor of an action or a trade. It’s something you know you’re doing.

Until you hit that point, you are a Seeker. And there is nothing wrong with that. Being a Seeker is the best! Everything is new and magical and filled with enchantment. Not that I’m saying that that feeling fades with time necessarily.

Even for me, 25ish years later, the spring time feels like life and magic, journeying, and meditation feel like home; but there are few things that carry the same trepidation and exhilaration that venturing down a new path does. It’s incredible. And it should be enjoyed for as long as possible.

In the beginning, having a name for your path can feel like the most important thing in the world. How can you have an legitimacy if your path doesn’t have a name? Let me ask you this: does the tree outside your window have a name? Does the bird flitting about the branches? Do they need one to exist?

Don’t be so quick to slap a label on something that is developing and growing. I can count on one hand the number of times that someone in real life has asked me about my religion, and more often than not, they ask if I attend church. My response is simply, ‘No, we don’t go to church.’ Another perfectly valid answer would be: ‘Sorry, I don’t discuss religion. It causes too much friction.’

Back in the day, our parents and grandparents held to a strict rule of ‘no discussing politics or religion at the dinner table.’ I, personally, pull that into my own life as often as possible. We very much don’t need to know every detail of our neighbours’ business, and they don’t need to know every detail of mine.

 

When Does Your Year Begin?

I have tried many times over the years to get myself motivated and into that New Year spirit at the end of December — and for a couple of days (maybe a week), it works. I feel energized and ready to get back into doing new things and cultivating projects and ideas and fun and art and et cetera.

Then, in a couple of weeks, when the holiday decorations are down and it’s still frozen, snowy, and dark, the feeling fizzles. Right around Quitters Day (which is the day that people are most likely to give up on their New Year’s resolution) — side note: That’s also the day that I remember that I was supposed to *make* New Year’s resolutions to start with. I’m not very with it in the winter.

There are a lot of reasons for this. For one, when I was growing up on the west coast, January was winter’s finally gasp, and by mid-February, spring had begun (I miss that so much, I can’t even say). These days, living in southern Alberta, January is still a frozen wasteland reminiscent of the ice planet Hoth. The knowledge that it will stay that way until roughly May is not the most motivating of thoughts.

Also, and this is from decades of living as a Pagan, January isn’t really the start of the year. Depending on your tradition, our year starts in March. At the beginning of spring, when winter is finally really over and you can wake up with the sun and it isn’t 9am already.

Ostara for 2020 is on March 19th. Thursday is not the most convenient day for a holiday, but I digress. Spring is coming! I can finally feel it in the air (despite the fact that it is currently snowing outside my window). The sun is warmer and the critters are coming out of hibernation, and I finally feel … awake. I feel renewed. I feel energized.

Now, I will be honest, I haven’t done a lot to mark the holidays the last few years. Things have been tough and changing, and my focus has been elsewhere. This year, the feeling of wanting to get back into a celebratory year has been growing. Maybe it has to do with my recent birthday, maybe it’s just that I want to find my way back to being myself.

The point is, this year we are celebrating. We are celebrating spring, and green and growing things. We are celebrating the turning of the wheel and all the wonderful things that life has to offer.

In dark times, we need celebration and love and happiness more than ever. So I am switching off the news, and living closer to the earth this year. Even if it is under 3 inches of new snow.

What do you do to celebrate the Wheel? When does your ritual year begin? Leave a comment and let’s chat about new growth and new life.

Shattered

Well, maybe not shattered, but definitely startled, and a little upset. This morning, while moving some stuff to our new house, my new hawk’s eye pendulum fell off the counter and broke. The crystal broke, and the beaded section holding the hamsa at the other end broke as well.

I had already fixed the hamsa end by the time I took the pic. Still heartbreaking, tho

For the first few moments all I could do was stare. I didn’t know what to think. It wasn’t that far down, and I couldn’t believe that the whole thing had just broken.

What now? Do I replace it? Do I try to fix it? I have only had this pendulum for about two weeks, and already it was one of my favourites. And now it was just … gone.

The break was clean, I could fix it. But the question was, should I? For most of my life, I have heard that once a crystal is broken, that’s it for that job. Then it moves on to some other purpose, either given back to the earth or utilized for some other project.

It can still be used as a pendulum in it’s current … shortened state. It will still work just as well, but at the same time, I know I could fix it because the break was so clean (I am thinking it was an existing imperfection that allowed for the break).

Another issue to consider is that with both protection symbols breaking in the same moment, I cannot ignore the possibility that the fall and the break were the protection symbols doing their job. This is a new house with no protections built in as in my old house. I haven’t even had a chance to do a new house cleansing yet.

The practical side of my brain says that I am overtired, and jittery from lugging boxes, and what I really need is to chill and meditate a little. If we go the protection route, then the stone was likely protecting me from myself.

I still don’t know what I am going to do. There is an epoxy that I can buy that will fix the pendulum like new. Or I could buy a replacement crystal point. I will definitely need to meditate on it before I do anything.

Three Years Later

It’s been a long time. When I shut this website down three years ago,   I did it because there had been some family turmoil regarding my practise/faith/whathaveyou, and I didn’t want to make it worse.

A few days ago, I turned 40.

It’s a big milestone, if you believe in that kind of thing. I have been very contemplative over the past few weeks, and something that I am starting to feel very strongly about is how little I care about things that used to bother me. I don’t care about judgments. I don’t care about pleasing anyone else. I don’t care about living my life for the pleasure of others.

I’ve lost myself in the past few years, and I want her back. I miss me. I miss having a space to vent my thoughts and feelings. I miss having a space where I can explore my practise, and where it doesn’t really matter if I start a project and then forget about it a few months down the line (we’ve discovered that that’s ADHD, btw).

I was on YouTube today marvelling at how different the Pagan Community is today from when I was active online (SO so long ago). I have to say that I do understand a bit better the middle aged witches with the ever etched smirk as all we newbies tried to impress each other with our knowledge and ‘experience’. 😂

I do have to add, one of the things that still shocks me is how little has changed in 20 years. Practitioners with a few years under their belts are still having to explain that Witchcraft/Wicca isn’t satanic? Why? That rumour is from the 80s. None of them where alive during the Satanic Panic, they shouldn’t have to still be talking about it.

But I digress. I don’t know how often I will post here in the coming year. Maybe more. Maybe less. But I have decided that I want this space to be available. I want it to be waiting for me for when I need it, and I want it to be available to anyone else who might stumble upon anything interesting.

Cheers to new beginnings. 🥂

Still Alive

And slowly getting back into the swing of things.  As usual, the spring and summer see me away from the computer more and more.  It seems that blog projects are not the pull needed to keep me at the keys.

Lots of old projects have been seeing the light of day again, and there are always the little ones running around and being kids.  I am slowly starting to work writing back into my daily routine again.  Hoping to start taking university classes in the fall.

I will probably take a few days in the coming weeks to try and get caught up with the YT Pagan Challenge.  There were a few spring topics that I did want to cover.

Anyway, I’m just checking in and saying hi.  Best get back to writing the old novel.

The Way It Should Be

Very poignant thoughts. I couldn’t agree more, and I’m not a capital ‘P’ Polytheist.

Caw, Motherfsckers

Once upon a time, yesterday in fact, there were two chiefs. The elder was a priestess of Oshun, and the younger a priestess of Yemaya. They agreed to confer, with students observing them, on a subject in which they had not reached total agreement. What matters to this story is not the matter on which they disagreed but the manner in which they did it:

Priestess Younger brought forward her well-researched explorations of original lore, along with resources to share for others who wished to follow the threads she had found. Priestess Elder brought forward regional variations she had found and the historical context borne of her lifetime of experience.

Priestess Younger said, “This is my Work, here and now. I want to pay you respect because I know that it is the Work you have already done that makes mine possible. I wish you continued success in your own…

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