The Blog of zilphia

For some strange reason Callie, (the dog) has started to wake me earlier and earlier.  This past week it has been 5 and after, an today its a little after 4. 

I haven't felt the like of that cool breeze that is blowing in the garden in months.  It was really delicious.  I have a bad habit, kind of walking on the razors edge habit. Shall I tell you?     When I walk out to the garden to water and its before daylight I usually am naked as a jaybird.  I don't do this to titillate the old man across the alley, nor to scandalize the proper school teacher next door.  I am a dumpy old crone, without benefit of aerobics.  I think I am a nudist in the strict 1920s nudist colony sense of the word.  Or maybe I just like that quote from Hamlet too much--'ah, for quietus, with a bare bodkin!'  Whatever the reason, it is unlikely that anyone would ever see me...My garden is a garden gone wild.  Right now, because of all the rain, it has really gone wild, but it is planned that way.  By the end of the summer its usually totally out of control...

The privet hedge between my house and the teachers is above my head now and twined with honeysuckle and bleeding heart.  The herb garden I put in so carefully has been mauled by dogs, but there are still some herbs there..basil, Thai basil, lavender, garlic, and a lemon verbena shrub which has an out of this wold scent and will be 6 feet tall one day.  There is yellow  jasmine in the spring and roses and lantana and elephant ears which are so huge, I bet a leaf is 18 inches long and 9 inches wide.  Elephant Ears will respond to the heat from your hand...place your hand near as possible without touching above the plant and it will lean toward your hand, straining upwards.   Sunflowers will respond, too. 

There is a big succulent pot and other succulents all over.  There is a plant which looks like it is coverd in large boiled shrimp when in bloom.  It blooms most of the year.  There are huge banana trees, and flying saucer morning glories that look like blue-and-white tie dye.  There are moonflowers.  There are brick paths and bamboo and a peace sign mural on the side of the shed.  There is a blue arched gate and ivy is trained up it in the shape of an eye.  There is a forest of Camellias which will bloom at Christmas like a pink, white and red valentine.  There is a pond, with water iris and horsetail dock and water  hyacinth and spurge and 9 gold fish of a good size.   There are windchimes everywhere, in particular there is one white dead tree which is festooned with chimes and in a gale they shriek!

There is an altar, because I am pagan.  I am not in a coven, and I don't think I want to be...I like making up my own rules and hitching my wagon to my own star.  There is a perfect concrete circle under an oak tree that was already there when I moved in.  The altar is pink marble, and behind it is a plain huge gate that was made before the civil war.  (husband brought that home from a job, they replaced it)  There is a terracotta vase in the shape of a laughing lady's head which I use as my Goddess Figure.  There is a grey stone plaque Of Bacchus which I bought 2o something years ago in New Orleans which I use as my God Figure.  In between them is a small figure of Sheila Na Gig. who represents the Crone, and the gateway of life and death.  Summer is fun because I have lots of flowers to decorate the altar and festivals are pretty.  It is almost time for another one...on September 22nd it is Autumnal Equinox.  In the winter it is pretty because I have all those Camellias to decorate with.

A typical ritual goes like this.

I will have done some research and decided which God and Goddess names are appropriate, what things I want on the altar and what colors to use.  I will have strung up ivy and decorated with flowers and brought out things sacred to me that I have always used..a pottery chalice, glazed dark blue and winged which was made by a friends daughter back in 1983.  A little aquamarine colored cut glass cauldron given to me by a friend Toby back in the 1970s,  A wand that my friend Stefan made me, and which REAL witches have told me can't be used as a real wand.  

On Ostara, or Easter if you will, I dressed my alter with green and yellow candles, and a black rabbit, actually one half  of a candle mold which I painted black long ago.  The deities wear garlands made of flowers and herbs and leaves.  I like to make herb garlands for the Sheila Na Gig, because she likes them, I think. 

I do research and read spells on line, but I always write my own or arrange them my own way.

Ostara is the time when new life is forming...here was my spell.

Green Stick Bud, Green Bud Leaf

Green Leaf Bright Flower,

Bright Flower, Bring Fruit

Fruit grow ripe, Ripe Fruit Rot

Rot Feed Seed, Seed sprout Earth

Earth bring forth, green shoot reaching

green shoot green stick, Green stick bud

Green bud leaf.

Now to use this to 'raise a cone of power' means to chant it until you feel that the energy  has come to a peak.  You might just feel it, or something might happen..could just be the wind blows harder.  Last July a string of firecrackers was let off nearby, causing us to laugh and break our chant.

For Green Bud leaf I chose to do a clapping game, like we used to do as little girls.  Brian is a very good sport.

When we have done this we usually, ask the Lord and Lady's blessing and put little slips of paper with wishes written on them into the fire.

This is illuminating as any church service or mass I have ever attended.  And if the wishes are never granted in any over the top way, the prayers weren't answered either., so  its even. And its pretty too.  Brian has a big Celtic drum and drums away.  Tonight there will be a drum circle.

Well,  There I am in the moment, like a fly in amber.  Till  next time.