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.

Witchy Wednesday – Magic

Hey folks!  This week we are talking about Magic.  I don’t use a ‘k’ in the spelling because I think it’s silly.  I will tell you that it took a seriously long time to train myself not to, though.  And I still sometimes slip.

I wasn’t feeling all up to writing out my thoughts today since I have other projects I am working on, so get this … I made a video instead.  Can you say multitasking?  Coffee makes me superwoman, I swear (we were out of coffee for a lot of this week – horror, I know it).

My views on magic are pretty much as I stated in the video.  I don’t worry too much on the hows or the whys.  I’ve practised for a lot of years, so I have a system that works for me.  Though, I am always up for trying new techniques if I feel they will be able to fit into my current practise.  I tend not to go for a lot of high ceremony – I’m a Witch.  I do down and dirty.

Without further ado, here is my epic video of my own self painting a box!  Enjoy.

Next week we are talking about spellwork.  Interesting.  Until then.

Thundering Gales: The Storm Moon

The February full moon is known as the Storm Moon.  In my random, pre-article web poking, I discovered that Storm Moon is not the most popular name for this Esbat.  The most common name appears to be the Quickening  Moon.

This name is associated with the season of Imbolc and the quickenings of new life – in animals and in the earth Herself.  The first signs of spring are starting to appear, and we use this moon to work our fertility or growing magics.

The other more popular name is Snow Moon.  This is likely due to the fact that in much of North America, more snow tends to fall in February than in any other winter month.

Wheel of the Year: Imbolc

February 2nd¹ marks the Festival of Brigid.  Also known as Imbolc or La Fheile Bride.²  It is one of the four Fire Festivals or Greater Sabbats of the year.  The word Imbolc comes from Oimealg meaning ‘ewe’s milk’ as it was the time of year when domestic livestock, specifically sheep, would be lactating and preparing to give birth.

To be honest, I’ve never really had much of a connection with Brigid.  I’ve been inspired by the idea of her on numerous occasions, but I’ve never felt the devotion or closeness to her that her followers describe.

For me, Imbolc is the time of year to begin preparations for spring. I restock my supply of ritual/spell candles, bake something tasty, light a candle and make my first visit to the local nursery or garden centre.  I usually manage to pick up a hyacinth or a crocus for my indoor garden.  This year, the local nursery is still closed, so I picked up a little crocus plant at Safeway – the blooms are already open and a rich delicious purple.

Moon Magic and the Lunar Year: Esbats

THE MOON

From our earliest childhood we are mesmerized by the silvery beauty of the moon.  As large in the night sky as the sun is in the day, the moon has provided inspiration to artists, musicians and magic workers for thousands of years.

I remember the first time I pointed out the full moon to my little one.  She sat staring up at it through our frost covered window for a good ten minutes, chanting “Moon! Moon!” over and over.  Eventually she fell into silence, but would not let me close the curtain.  She wanted to watch the moon.

Now she is in love with the shapes of the moon and stars.  She is always the first to spot a crescent moon anywhere and on anything (including the cat’s claws).  She has a toy that projects stars on to the ceiling in the dark, and won’t go to sleep until she has picked out the moon amongst them.

Twenty-Five Things

This idea came to me last night between waiting for the baby to fall asleep and wishing that I had heavier curtains so I didn’t have to stare at the damned street light outside my window all night long.

For the letter T of the Pagan Blog Project, I am going to make a list.  25 Awesome Things – either things that I have done or experienced and have judged to be awesome.

Syringa Vulgaris aka Lilac

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Lilac has always been one of my favourite flowers.  It smells strong and beautiful, and where I grew up it was fairly rare to find it in folk’s gardens.  Calgary, on the other hand, is drowning in lilac.  It’s everywhere – no exaggeration here – it’s in every second garden on my street alone.  And it’s in bloom.  My entire neighbourhood is filled with the perfume of lilac.  I love it!

With such a plentiful supply, I thought I would take a boo around google and see what sort of use I can put it to.*

BOTW: The Real Witches Garden

The Real Witches’ Garden by Kate West is filled with some great ideas for those who want to add a bit of the natural world to their magical practice.

If you have never had a garden before, then this is a good book to help you out in getting started in that direction. However, if you do know how to take care of plants, there isn’t a lot that is new in this volume.