Tag: holidays and festivals

Posts about holidays, festivals, and religious celebrations

Rhode Island Pagan Pride Day 2014

Sunday August 16th, was Rhode Island Pagan Pride Day (RIPPD). For those of you who don’t know, last year I presented a workshop on secular witchcraft at RIPPD. This year I didn’t present or vend because I didn’t have time to get something together before the event given the severe resurgence of my sleeping disorder beforehand.

Anyway, a friend of mine was vending his spa products so I had a definite reason to make an appearance. More than that, I believe in supporting my local community – not just for the vendors but also the local pagan community.

For those who visited RIPPD last year, know it was far smaller this year. Which saddens me. It’s really hard to support the local community when the community is so disorganized that major vendors don’t want to participate.

I happened to visit a major new age store the day before RIPPD to pick up herbal supplies. The owner of the store was manning the counter and when asked if she was going, she told us that she has issues with RIPPD and one of them was the location. RIPPD isn’t held in Providence but an out-of-the-way place in East Providence. Previously to that it was held in Bristol. Not only is the location a problem but RIPPD is, apparently notoriously disorganized.

Snippet from the Demon Feast

I slip my arm through his and nudged him through the grand doors and into the moonlight balcony gardens. The roar of the sea under us was great and the wind whipped across my flesh, instantly cold and utterly satisfying. I sigh with contentment, abandon him, and step up to the very edge of the balcony, the pressed sand wall pushing into my knees. Annoyed, I concentrate for a moment and the sand parts at my will. I take a final step closer, toes curling over the edge as close to the ocean as I could get without being in the water. I take a cool, deep breath and suck in the sharp salt air. Distantly through the roaring of the sea, I hear the dock hands and sailors on the ships that have anchored on the newly built docks, still mostly under construction and barely heard of. Soon, they will be bustling but for now they are empty, dreams that have been birthed but not yet started to live.

He is silent, as always, but watching me. I spin and smile at him. “I miss the sea.”

He waves with his non-sword hand, barely a gesture before the hand returns to a fighting post. Always ready to fight, my warrior. “We’re right here.”

I shake my head and step closer to him. “I miss the sea in my physical form. It’s too far. I need to bring it closer.”

He tilts his head. “You have a plan then.”

My grin is wicked and razor sharp. “Don’t I always?”

Vigils at the Crossroads

I don’t mention it much but I live at the intersection of several crossroads and some of those roads are corpse roads. My house sits on the corner of four streets, which may sound like a regular crossroad but isn’t.

Corpse roads are roads used to transport the dead to their final resting place. Traditionally they’re old dirt roads or paths. Sometimes these roads were only used for transporting the dead, depending on local tradition and superstition. Most of the traditional corpse roads have been lost to time but new ones are around. I live behind a funeral home and one of the streets my home is situated on is a shortcut to and from the highway.

Legends surrounding these corpse roads are numerous among a lot of different cultures. I recently read several Russian fairy tales along the same vein but it is common in cultures that transport their dead, especially for burial. Vigils next to the dead are also very common, usually so spirits won’t possess the deceased’s body.

When I say four streets I mean four SEPARATE streets

This is the best I could get of the crossroads ridiculousness I speak of. The white and brick house with the pink and green trees is my actual house so you can see how convoluted the streets are. There’s the street the house faces and the street to the right of it. The street on the right splits at my driveway into two other streets (behind my house and where the blue bin is). The funeral home is on the same side of the street the photo was taken on.

In the past I served as a medium to spirits and deities. I don’t do this much anymore for a wide variety of reasons but I still have the knowledge and capability to do so. However, I thoroughly enjoyed doing the works so I continue it privately now and my family home is perfectly situated for this.

Since I live at crossroads and corpse roads, it’s pretty spiritually active around here. There’s a lot of energy given our proximity to running water (two blocks away), the ocean (.8 miles), schools (three of them within two blocks), a main thoroughfare (top of the street), plus the funeral home (in front of my house) and a social club (end of the street). There’s a huge sewer network under my house (which is why it floods so much), plus we’re on the top of a hill. In fact, the roads are so ridiculous around my house, to back out of my driveway you need to back into an intersection.  It’s a busy road for not being a major road, both spiritually and physically. Spiritually, we get a lot of paranormal events from ghosts to non-human spirits. These beings are always transients and I guess we’re something of an inn. I tend to deal with the non-humans and my brother, the Necromancer, takes on the humans.

However, the crossroads and corpse roads are also a place for beings to linger. Lost or simply unwilling to move on, these spirits hang around and drain at the energy. Children, already more susceptible to possession and influences by spirits (however rare it may be), are especially fine targets. To protect and preserve the clarity of the energy and land, I hold vigils at the crossroads every so often.

There’s typically four or five a year on various dates (often in the spring where funerals are most common as burying the dead was not feasible in the winter in ye days of old). During the vigils I put myself into a state of being that allows for easier spiritual communication. Sometimes that’s fasting, other times it’s using entheogens, or hours of meditation. The method depends on my mood at the moment so it’s not something that’s specific. I meet with the spirits that linger and attempt to get them to move on – whether that’s to pass from this land into the next to just to go haunt some other location depends on the spirit themselves. I’m not one to force a spirit, human or otherwise, to do something they don’t want. If a human spirit understands that they are dead and they’re still not ready to move on, I’m not going to force the issue unless they start hurting people or other spirits. Then I turn into a dragon and start destroying things, so to speak. I’m protective, what can I say?

These vigils last typically twenty-four hours and can be very boring. Bound to not leave the area, I tend to amuse myself (and those I’m keeping vigil for) by singing, dancing, reading out loud, or telling stories. Most often, I listen, pour drinks of purified water and clear alcohol, and lay out offerings of coins and snacks. Divination is also incredibly common, since some spirits have difficulties in speaking through a medium.

At the end of the vigil, I “reset” the area, not exactly cleansing the area but more of dispersing negative energy clumps or untangling clogged energy to get it moving better. It makes the area feel better, safer, and more exhilarating for the spirit.

I really enjoy these vigils not only as a service to my community but also as a way of connecting to spirits around me. It’s one of the rituals I’ve developed that I intend to continue no matter where I live or what the future may hold for me.

 

Play the Fool

April Fool’s Day is April first as my readers well know and a simple cursory Google search will reveal that April Fool’s Day is amazingly older than many imagine. While it surged back into popularity in the 1950s, scholars believe that the core theme of the festival is  far older and may be linked to the Roman festival of Hilaria or the Feast of Fools.  In my own anthropological and folkloric studies, I find that a feast or festival during which merry-making and playing the fool is actually fairly common world-wide, although the dates and purpose varies as wildly as the methods of which the festival is celebrated.

Running on that linked topic, I bring up the court jester. The often motley dressed entertainer of royals, nobles, and common folk alike. In Medieval Days and Ways by Gertude Hartman(1) writes the following:

Nobles were also in the habit of keeping a fool – or jester – to provide entertainment. He wore a cap and bells and a costume, half of one color and half of another. During meals he told jokes to amuse the company, and his antics and capers were a source of much merriment.

Telling jokes was not the only thing jesters might do. They often could juggle, perform acrobatics, told or made up stories, sing or play an instrument, sleight of hand or magic tricks, or perform a myriad of other entertainer’s roles. Such jesters were widely sought after and were regarded like prized pets. Even jesters with a limited repertoire were sought for as entertainment was hard to come by and travel was not something many attempted to do.

While the court jester was an entertainer and did play the fool for the amusement of their audience, the court jester often had a deeper, more involved role. Many of the best or most cunning of jesters only played at being a fool and instead could criticize the court (but not too much or risk punishment) and were sometimes used to deliver news others feared to do so. Some scholars go so far as to separate fools into the natural fool or licensed fool. Natural fools were often people with deformities or mental challenges whereas licensed fools were a profession, skilled entertainers and clever men who tread the line to mock nobles, court policies, or general politics. Early political satire, so to speak.

I could keep going, there’s a great history for jesters and fools and there’s several guilds of jesters out there for those folks who are looking to get into a new trade. (And it’s serious business competition, just like any other entertainment field). Jesters are a common literature troupe, having appeared in all sorts of media including the book series A Song of Fire and Ice, the TV show Game of Thrones (2), and the video game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (3).

Of course, I have to mention the Tarot. The first card in the Tarot is The Fool and often the Fool is represented not only as the beginning of a journey (often a journey or plunge they’re unaware of) but also the careless naivety of youth, an escape of the real world or responsibilities, foolish bravery (or not knowing to be afraid), and even the beginning or the end of everything. This last interpretation actually has historical relevance as the Fool card is set something apart of the rest of the Arcana, given the number zero but often mixed up when in discussion. Waite talks about the Fool between Judgement and the World. (4) In addition, some version of the Tarot give the Fool other card numbers.

Death also is sometimes seen dressed as a Fool in some Tarot decks. This heralds back to the idea that death is the ultimate equalizer and Death always gets the last laugh. The Death card is one of the most varied in appearance in the Tarot deck so this shouldn’t come as a surprise to some. Additionally, Death’s way of clearing the field or humbling everyone is akin to the jesters role in being able to mock everyone accordingly.

When I was determining and designing my calendar, I wanted to set aside a special time for the Fool. My festival, simply called The Fool, takes in all of the above into account. The festival, starting March 30th and running until April 3rd, is a time set aside to be the fool. While fun and games likely will be taken into account, so are acts of wild and foolish bravery. This festival is a time to break out and try something new, ride that nervous thrill of something something so stupid and yet amazing. It’s also a time to set up and consider the world around me and the politics and relationships that affect me. While taking stock, I might even take a few pot shots at people, in the name of satire (not that calling people out on their shit is something I’m accustomed to doing but I make a point of it during these days to try and pass it off as both criticism and a joke).

During this time, entertainment is the highest order of the day, mixing media at will. As a symbol of the medieval origins of the festival, I often accompany this with ‘hidden’ foods like pies, ravioli, or tuck into surprising flavors into what appears to be a normal dish. Food that appears as something else like cupcakes or cakes decorated as fast food or something else is another favorite of mine. I also wear colorful clothing, often in bright or contrasting color as well as don on jingling jewelry in addition to my normal bell jewelry. On occasion, I’ll even put my hair into unique styles to create an illusion or just for the look of it.

Specifically, it’s a time to also play the fool. During these days I endeavor feign ignorance or innocence, if only to see where it gets me, or to behave in a foolish way (such as doing something I wouldn’t normally do). In company, during these days I make it a priority to entertain as needed.

This kind of festival is not only a huge stress reliever but also somewhat necessary now that spring’s come to the Northern Hemisphere. People want to shake out the cobwebs of both their homes and their spirits and my The Fool festival is perfectly designed for just that.

  1. Hartman, Gertude. Medieval Days and Ways. Macmillan Publishing Company. New York. Original publication: 1937. Edition publication: 1965. Pages 48-49.
  2. There are several jesters in George R.R. Martin’s works and other characters who are forced into the role of a fool. I won’t say much since case of spoilers but it’s a total THING.
  3. Circeo anyone?
  4. Waite, Arthur Edward (Waite, A.E.). The Pictorial Key to the Tarot. U.S. Games Systems, Inc. Stamford, Connecticut. Original publication: 1910.  Edition publication: 2000. Pages 152-155.

I would also like to apologize for the silence around here. My shop had a sudden burst of complicated orders and it was hard to keep up and not drop other things at the same time. As of this posting, I’m currently several states away from home serving as priest, healer, confident, and spiritual balm to a client and their family. It’s very high stress but it seems the worse has passed and I’m now ready to publish the above piece which I wrote a while back. Thanks for your understanding in this.

 

The Awakening is Upon Us

On my spiritual calendar, “The Awakening” starts March first and is pretty much from there out the time where I start flinging magic around to encourage plant growth. Typically, I start spring cleaning as soon as the snow is clear of the ground, finally air out the house, and fold away “winter” clothes. Spiritually, I go around and say hi to nature spirits and a solid goodbye to Jack Frost.

However, it’s also a physically hard time for me. Spring is so close I can taste it and yet at the same time my body’s still in winter mode, sluggish and hibernating. (Yes, I know there’s a disorder relating to the seasons and it’s likely linked since I’ve had this issue since high school but I haven’t been diagnosed so let’s leave that at the wayside of this post, shall we?) I wake with the sun at this time of year and that does me no favors if I’ve gone to bed only four hours before.

Tumblr followers will have noticed I’ve been both away and not. I do check my blog feeds but conversations seem so…pointless? Yes, pointless is the appropriate word here. Most conversations – and almost all arguments – in the community are circular at best, either rearing up to a place where no one is in the right because these are spiritual experiences we’re talking about and therefore currently unable to be confirmed outside of scientifically questionable methods like divination. Or, they are history repeating itself, the same damn argument or conversation three or six months later that has been already discussed and, likely, settled.

This is part of the community. Everyone discovers things at different rates and finds different importance in it. But this time of the year it all seems to be pointless. I see a lot of talking but no doing and that’s spiritually frustrating because of all the times to be willing to do something, this is it. Plant a tree, plant a flower, start earmarking what to wild-harvest. Take walks outside despite the cold and get a little dirty. Most of you talk about being close to nature but do shit about it.

I want to scream this but reel myself in. I understand, full-well, that my path and holidays hold no significance to anyone else and it’s not true. Plenty of people do things and just don’t mention it online. I get that wholeheartedly because I’m the same way. Private practices are private for a reason.

Ah well, this post as gone well into the realm of rambling and clearly waking up as the sun rises each day is not doing me any favors. I leave you with this to ponder: spring is close in this hemisphere and if you work with nature at all – or plants or local spirits – perhaps holding an afternoon ritual or giving up an offering could do wonders for your spiritual relationships.

Silence Festival

The Silence Festival is coming up quickly on my personal calendar and for once I’m looking forward to it. Between February 21st through February 23rd, I am to be silent. This is more than just not speaking to people. It would have to be to be meaningful in today’s technological world. No posts are to be made, unless they are scheduled or queued. Social media is to be silent. No emails are to be sent, no texts, and to even keep writing to people to a minimum.

I also keep my consumption of directed media to a minimum. No reading of blogs, emails, or letters. Movies or TV (except for documentaries), video games (except for simulation games with no prose driving it), and music (unless educational and requires no speaking on my part) are to be banned as well but I’m allowed to listen to the radio as I don’t have a choice of what that radio plays. I can read books but not novels. Annotated fairy tales are OK, as they’re more scholarly at that point than not but mostly I’ll read scholarly materials.

Additionally, I will cast no spells, do no magic, read no one’s future. I will not astral travel and I will not speak to spirits. Essentially, the same rules as above applies. This is both easier and harder than it seems. It’s easier because that’s three days of spiritual laziness but I’ve been doing magic for so long that simple, everyday tasks are boosted by magic. I use magic to make water boil fast and spells to make my plants grow healthy. For three days, none of this can happen.

There are exceptions to this. There would have to be given how many people rely on me. If someone’s in danger or I need to give information to someone (like a nurse at the emergency room or firefighters) then I have to respond. This isn’t just practicality, this is part of the festival, to speak only when necessary. More than that, I feel that the goal I’ve charged myself with – to help them when asked to do so  and to protect as much as I can – supersedes all of my religious festivals and holidays. Spells to protect people or to be done in an emergency is also an exception. Likewise, I cannot help if I’m struck with a vision of someone’s future. That’s out of my hands.

Why would I put myself through this? I rarely do anything that doesn’t have a point to it in some way. This is the best time to take a breath. To simply breathe and focus on myself. To step back and remind myself of that I came from isolation and isolating myself is comforting, basic, natural state for me. I use words so often, I speak, sing, write, and do magic constantly, to fill the silence and loneliness I grew up with. With none of those things to do, I will instead do little crafts to amuse myself, window shop, and sew. Cooking and baking will fill the gaps of boredom eased by scholarly books. I will think and I will write. I have a novel to finish after all and I’m so close I can taste the resolution. Three days of silence will be perfect.

February is the perfect month for this. The coldest, driest, and bitterest of months for many, it it a silent month in and of itself. Often in New England we are encased in snow and ice. There is no where to go and nothing to do. It is a quiet month only broken up by Valentine’s Day and a few other civic holidays. Crocuses are about to bloom and crack through wind-swept icy covering of snow, bright purples against brilliant white. On March 4th, The Awakening begins on my calendar and I saw goodbye to Jack Frost for another winter and welcome the dawning of life again in the coming spring.

The Silence Festival is a time for personal introspection, to plan my final hurrahs for winter and Jack Frost before spring comes again, and to rededicated myself to whatever I need to do. This is a time to remind myself that I am the most important person to impress for myself, that only my opinion matters to me in my life, and no one can or will control my life but me.

New Year’s Resolutions and You: Witchcraft version

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Every New Year’s Day there’s about a million posts online that tell you how to make good resolutions and/or keep them. The most popular are saving money, read more, quit something (smoking, drinking, a hated job, etc), learn something new, and exercise/eat healthier1. However the most common ones are also the easiest to break2. However, magic practitioners have a leg up on every else.

How? How don’t you?

The following will inform you just how very easy it can be to keep that New Year’s resolution – or at least have a better chance at keeping it.

  • Knot spells – Trying to quit a bad habit? Get an elastic band and braid over the elastic with thread or ribbon. As you braid, make your confirmations that this is what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it. Pro-tip: use elastic made for clothing makers or crafters and tie or tape it together. The elastic will last far longer than any other. Put it on your wrist and every time you go to do that habit, snap it.
  • Cast a spell – Write and cast a spell for your purpose. Want to lose weight? Print out a picture of yourself, now draw the shape you want to me. On the waning moon (yeah, that’s right, moon phases, I don’t use them for anything but this sort of stuff) cast a spell to encourage your body to change. Don’t forget to actually exercise and adjust your diet as needed to achieve the weight loss in a healthy way.
  • Money jar – This is great for just about every resolution. Get a nice clear jar with a lid. Write (or tape on a note) your resolution on it. If you’re making a few resolutions, just write “resolutions”. Now every time you do whatever your resolution is, put money in the jar. I tend to put pocket change in mine so it might be a few pennies one day and a handful of coins the next. Keep that money to help fund next year’s New Year’s Eve drinking or to help pay for Christmas presents or whatever. But how is this witchy? Enchant that money jar to WANT money. Every time you pass that money jar, you’re going to want to put money in it. And to put money in it, you need to do one of your resolutions. (So, read a book, exercise for fifteen minutes, Google up a new craft to learn, whatever)
  • Reminders! Use your phone and computer for reminders. I log everything into my Google calender. I’d be lost without it. Schedule your workout or time to read or whatever. That’s not really witchy but it can be! Color code each of your resolutions with a color that will make you want to do it. Now print out that color and use that as a spell to encourage you to do whatever it is you need to do.

Why are New Year’s resolutions helpful for witchcraft? They totally can be. I know some folks who make resolutions like “I want to do 30 spells this year.” “I want to divine more.” “I want to start worshiping a god”. With resolutions like that, how could they not be witchy? And yes, creating object that want or encourage you to do your resolution helps.

Other reasons why to keep your resolutions may vary, and all of them can be useful in your witchcraft, spiritual, or religious practices. Let’s take the top ten resolutions according to Digital Spy from 2013 3:

  1. Read more books – Hey, why not read books on topics you want to study? Kindle is free to download on the computer and smart phones and there are lots of free books on just about every subject. Many libraries also have online e-book libraries as well to borrow from. If you spend a lot of time reading blogs, try to keep track of how many pages you read and count that towards a book.
  2. Save more money – Copy bills and put them in your freezer to stop them from increasing. Do every money spell you can get your hands on and, if spending is an issue, enchant a jar or savings book to WANT that money and enchant your debit card and wallet to be less attractive for you. Want to reward yourself at the end of the year for saving so much? Buy yourself an expensive book or tool for your practice.
  3. Lose weight – I’ve described above how to do this but another good reason is some people feel more in tuned with their energy and have more energy after they’ve exercise. I know that when I actually keep my exercise regiment, I feel much healthier, sleep better, and slip more easily into trances. Spirit work and astral travel also seems easier, but that’s my personal experiences. Yours may very well vary.
  4. Redecorate – This is the perfect opportunity to witchcraft your house and put up new protection spells! If you’re painting, don’t be afraid to write on the old paint spells, symbols, sigils, etc to protect you house and paint over them. Buying curtains? Draw or stitch sigils or symbols onto them to protect. You don’t have to just protect! You can also stuff or buy pillows for your couch or bed to help heal or sleep better.
  5. Take better photos – Photography seems odd but actually can be really interesting. You can protect your photography by putting an invisible sigil watermark on them. Want to use your photography in your witchcraft? If you’re working on a witchy garden, use photographs to document it. If you’re doing spirit work with local spirits attached to a tree, photograph the tree each week or month to see the growth and changes as you’ve built a relationship. It can be very affirming.
  6. Go traveling – Travel doesn’t have to be far or overseas! Look around to see if there’s any Pagan Pride Days nearby or if someone’s hosting an event or workshop you want to attend. Do money spells to earn up the cash to go and spells to encourage travel.
  7. Sell old unwanted stuff on eBayIf you can sell them, look to trade. Think of all the new shiny witchy stuff you could have it you do sell it! Use money spells to encourage sales.
  8. Buy a tablet – Money spells are your friend here.
  9. Organize photos – While organizing your photos, keep a photograph of each person you want to do a spell for. Want to heal your aunt? Help your brother get a job? Want to curse that ex of yours? Organizing your photos is the perfect excuse to find the best photos for spellwork.
  10. Do something for charity – This can be used as a sacrifice for your gods, depending on which deities you serve.

So you see, there’s a lot of reasons beyond the regular or obvious ones why you should want to keep your New Year’s resolutions.

My New Year’s resolutions for 2014 will be the following:

  • Exercise for at least 10 minutes once a day to improve flexibility, energy, and strengthened previously injured limbs – can be stretches, heavy house cleaning, going for a walk, or full workouts. Pro goal: 30 minutes at night and 10 in the morning.
  • Write more – at least non-blog related 1500 words a day. Pro goal: finish a book and be published.
  • List one new item a week in the shop. Pro goal: 5+ items a month

I intend to accomplish this by implementing the above tips. A money jar has been selected and constructed and will be used for all three resolutions. I have a yoga mat I will be enchanting to encourage me to use it more often and I’m putting a glamour on the fridge and cupboards to seem less attractive – no more snacking just because it’s there. Writing’s a bit trickier as I use my computer for it but I’m going to enchant my rug next to my bed (which serves as my desk) so that every time I step on it I will want to write. And for the shop, I’m going to hang a “siren’s call” type charm bag in my workshop to encourage me to work.

There’s a lot of ways to witchify your New Year’s resolutions even if the resolutions themselves aren’t terribly witchy. I find that thinking of ways to make your not-witchy stuff work better through witchcraft makes doing that stuff a little more special and fun.

Bewitch Your Holiday Shopping

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Many of us participate in holiday gift-giving and with crazed events like Black Friday, you may find yourself searching for hard-to-get items or the cheapest prices.

So here’s a quick guide on how to use witchcraft in your holiday shopping.

Charms

Make or buy charms for everything. Want to keep the money coming in? Make a charm bag. Want to find the best parking spot at the mall? Place a charm enchanted with a “finding spell” in your car, or hang a pendulum on your rear view mirror and let it guide your way.

Prayer

Pray. This is especially true for those of you who worship deities of commerce. A personal example would be on Black Friday I prayed to no one in particular (although, it may have been by a pop culture deity, I don’t know.) but I wasn’t even done with my prayer when my mum interrupted to point out the exact item I was looking for not three feet away from where I was, tucked behind some boxes.

Write a List

Write out your shopping list with magical ink, specifically ink that’s meant to draw things towards you. Can’t do that? Infuse water with magnets and drawing herbs and trace your pre-written words with it. Still too much? Enchant a pen.

Pass It On

For those who haven’t worked in retail, the holiday season is not a fun time for retail employees. Thank them for their hard work by enchanting the cash your using to brighten their day or give them a little boost in energy. Not using cash? You can do the same to your credit cards. For those skilled in emitting energy, send the staff a little bit of energy. You can also sign receipts and leave a little energy for them. Do the same for waitstaff – they’re incredibly busy during this season too. (Obviously, if your morals say don’t do this then don’t.)

Oil Your Wallet

Use magnet or drawing oils on your wallet or purse to keep your money in your pocket.

Use a Spell

Want a specific item? Write a spell for it. Write down or print out the image of the item you want, dump it in a jar with some magnets and drawing herbs (I’d add in some luck herbs as well personally), seal it up, and shake. You could also do a knot spell where each knot is a separate item on your wish list or shopping list and wear it when you go shopping. Just be wary of how this shakes out. A hot selling item, for example, might not be there on Black Friday but may be in stock four or five days later when you happen to chance on it. If you need the item by a specific date, specify that.

The Item Summoning Spell is perfect for this sort of thing!

Most important of all, remember to enjoy yourself during the holiday season and to be kind to the employees and other shoppers while you’re out.

Want more witchy tips? Check out Bewitch Even MORE of Your Holiday ShoppingBewitch Even MORE of Your Holiday Shopping

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Mourning Days and Ghost Festival

August 15th is the one day shared between Mourning Days (a three day festival of introspection and remembrance) and the Ghost Festival (a sixteen day festival).

With Mourning Days, I spend one day cleansing and attending to cemeteries. I’d spend more doing it but often life gets in the way. I have a real love, admiration, and fascination with cemeteries and graveyards. I use to volunteer and work for the state finding missing cemeteries, marking them with GPS so they can be added to maps, recording their condition, and cleaned it up if necessary (although this varied per person.) I love studying death rituals and cemeteries are gorgeous. Pillars of carved memorials only worn away by time embedded in living earth. Ugh. I can’t even express it to you with rambling poetry. A community of the deceased, laid together in the same ground but always apart, always alone.

Don’t mistake my fascination with cemeteries and death rituals as a fascination with death or murder. I like the cultural ethos around funerals, deaths, and act of honoring the deceased. I care more about how the dead are honored and how the living treat the dead then the method of death itself (unless the method of death or the condition of the body actually affects how the deceased is treated).

The rest of the time during Mourning Days, I spent with vague honors to the deceased ones I know and introspection. By vague I mean I light a vigil candle and incense. With introspection, I sit down and think. I think about those who have passed and how they affected my life. I think about how I would feel in my last thoughts of death, what I would regret or want more of. And then I use that nostalgia and meditation to plan for the future.

With Ghost Festival, it leaps off Mourning Days right into dealing with the spirits of the dead. Now I don’t deal with the spirits of the dead often. That’s my brother, the Necromancer’s gig. I don’t want it and my experiences with the dead haven’t been awesome. However, I feel that ignoring the dead entirely is an injustice as my role of a spirit walker so I spend the Ghost Festival keying into that “range” of spirits. I say range because I like to explain the different feel of spiritual energy by comparing them to frequencies. I don’t think spiritual energy is frequencies I just find people understand it easier when explaining it to folks who don’t really get or want detailed explanations. On the same train of thought, I think that ghosts can be tracked by equipment that pick up frequencies.

Anyway, I spend Ghost Festival really wandering around and seeing, talking to, and listening to ghosts. That’s what I do. Sometimes, those ghosts are just impressions, fragments of who or what they once were and other times they’re nearly full people, dead people but people none the less.

At the same time, it should be noted that the Dying Days of Summer Festival still runs till the 24th. During that particular festival, I spend it celebrating summer, the heat and the ecstasy of summer itself. The last throes of the year before preparing for the harvest and the cold, sleep of the year.

Now despite being a secular witch, I’m a spiritual person. I know there are gods. I know there are spirits. And I know they share the same world as me. I cannot, personally, exist and live without acknowledging them and their lives. My festivals are more like parties. They are not worshiping and they are not part of a religion. There are years I feel like I don’t need a Ghost Festival or often I don’t do a damn thing during the festival but acknowledge that it’s a thing I should be doing. It’s separate from my witchcraft. Maybe it is the foundations of a religion but I like to see it as my own spirituality. My witchcraft doesn’t include it. I do not do spells or charms for my festivals. This is my personal way of dealing with the things I see, know, and experience.

Rhode Island Pagan Pride Day, August 11, 2013 – a review

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Or, hell yes RIPPD

Ginandjack and a RI PPD Program

Ginandjack and I were running late. Having both slept in a bit more than we had planned, I swung by his place to pick him up and grab some breakfast at Dunkin Donuts (which is so very Rhode Island I can’t even).  A quick visit to the ATM and a hustle back to my house to stock up the Hakuryuu the Jeep before heading out.

Water was loaded up by the metal container into the cooler alongside a simple pasta salad, homemade pastries, and a pair of peaches. Finally, we doused ourselves with lemongrass and eucalyptus bug spray and 70+SPF sunblock.

As no one contacted me for a lift to the event I hadn’t bothered putting the rear seat back in. The truck was filled with our cooler, some emergency supplies, the speaker, a blanket, and Nella, the citronella plant I intended to plop on the table during my workshop so I would a) have a prop and b) won’t be attacked by insects in the near-swamp.

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The road facing away from the Sportsman Club and towards the Wampanoag Trail.

RIPPD was being held in our hometown. It was easy for us to rumble and rattle our way down the Wampanaog Trail to the nearly hidden street of Mohawk Drive (or Sportmans Drive. Depends on who you ask.). Narrow and broken, we slowed to a roll and parked alongside the road. We decided to leave most of our crap in the Jeep and took only our wallets with us.

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The view of the Sportsman Club and the event site, plus a glance of the Jeep from the road.

The first thing we saw was the Noble Knots food truck, a coffee truck who’s name escapes me, and the RI Blood Bank truck. (Later, we ended up having to move the Jeep to a small field because the blood truck had to leave and the cars were blocking the way. Oops. Poor planning on their part.)

The building itself is a single floor with three steps up (a side entrance for the physically imparied with a ramp). White and narrow, the inside was two rooms, plus a tiny hallway with bathrooms and the kitchen. I don’t have images of the inside, but they were mostly small table full of jewelry, some cloaks, and Familiar Spirits, the state’s only New Orleans’ style Hoodoo shop. The Witches’ Almanac was also inside, which I adore and highly recommend for folks who are looking for an alternative to the Llewellyn almanacs available.

We made our way to the Welcoming Tent where I was immediately recognized by Dayna, the workshop coordinator (also, an absolutely adorable and sweet person.) Once I got my program and name tag (which I refused to wear. It’s a thing.) Ginandjack and I started to wander and see what there was to see.

The location was gorgeous and larger than we imagined. The workshop tents were on separate corners of the little field behind the building, past a cement patio with a fire pit. There was plenty of space for large rituals, which was where they were also held. In the distance, you could see the marshy waters of the river opening up to the sea and hawks flew high above, circling in their habitat. The Sportmans’ Club is down the street from a wetland bird sanctuary, often used for hiking and relaxing by locals.

I think my only complaint about the grounds were the rampant amount of poison ivy, cut down but still present and the lack of seating. Other than the ground, there were no seating arranged unless you snag a chair from the workshops. Likewise, there were only tables to stand at. This sadden me because unless I plopped down on the grass, I couldn’t chat or do readings on a whim as I would normally do at get togethers. Perhaps next time. It was the first time at this location so live and learn.

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Vendors 1, including a patch of signs that may or may not leave to Night Vale.

On the other side of the building, past the food trucks, were the tents for vendors.

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Second image of the vendors. There’s more along the right but you get the idea.

The vendors themselves were mixed. A lot of jewelry, a very nice booth with stones, some mish-mash witchy stuff, soaps and aromatherapy, a few information booths, herbal products, handmade mirrors, and some statuary. It’s pretty much as you’d expect. I didn’t end up buying a thing as either I could make the things offered or they didn’t appeal to me. Gin picked up a few things here and there. For each of the purchases we strolled back to the Jeep to stow it securely in the Jeep’s lockbox before heading back in.

Unlike other Pagan Pride Days, there was a definite lack of entertainment. No music was played outside of the occasional snippets of song by a person or during ritual. It was peaceful but I’ve come to expect some music for PPD, and all events really, but since I couldn’t come up with any local entertainment either, I can’t really complain about what can’t be found.

We arrived during the Wiccan Opening Ritual performed by a group from the Stang and Cauldron shop. Since Wicca is neither Gin nor my own bag of tricks, we watched, commenting politely and quietly to ourselves, before making another series of rounds bout the vendors.

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The mid-day ritual by the Hellenic Temple of Apollon, Zeus, and Pan.

Eventually, we got to chatting with the local Hellenics since Ginandjack is a Hellenic and Dionysian. By Hellenics, I mean not just a random group but of Hellenic but the Hellenic Temple of Apollon Zeus and Pan. A Kemetic also hung out with her “Hellenic cousins” and was quite fun to talk to. We enjoyed their company and spent a good hour or so talking with them, if not more. The Hellenics were also doing the mid-day ritual, which I didn’t participate in due to being secular. I did, however, shoot a few photos and watch. If Ginandjack writes up a thing on his experiences during the ritual, I’ll link it.

I didn’t get close because not only did I not want to be involved, but because I don’t want to mess them up. (If you’re wondering why that might be, well, secrets and spoilers).

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Ginandjack came to find me under one of the tents where I was sitting quietly, watching. The Kemetic we had been talking to came over too, to talk and chat about seers and seership.

Ginandjack and I snagged some water and fruit before hitting the vendors again and discussing what we’d seen and experienced. We said hello to those we passed and wandered about.

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Ginandjack with Nella the citronella plant. Because we don’t mess around and always bring protection.

My workshop on secular witchcraft was at three, so we spent a lot of time wandering until then. Towards quarter of, we meandered back to the Jeep to collect Nella the citronella plant and my notes and handouts.

RIPPD ran two workshops at a time and I was, unfortunately opposite of Raven Morgaine, the owner of Familiar Spirits, whom was talking about Shadow Work. His workshop was packed, of course, but about a dozen people showed up for my own. A dozen people was about average for a workshop at RIPPD so I was pretty happy with the turnout.

Th workshop itself went well. While some of the attendees went away with more questions than answers (which is totally unsurprising since no one except Ginandjack I had spoken to knew what secularism was at all) but all of the attendees were interested and many actively engaged. A few stayed after for discussion before moving on to other things. It was a good hour, in my opinion.

Ginandjack and I talked to a friend who stopped by for a little while before grabbing something else to eat, making a final round of the vendors who were slowly packing up, before scooting out ourselves to hit the beach before the sun set.

I might post my “notes” here so others can see what the workshop entailed, roughly, if folks are interested.