Every Color

Per our usual tradition, dying eggs with my sister Jessica, Aunt Nancy and Uncle Rick!

Jean Daughtry

Jean Daughtry, the wife and conductor of Don Daughtry, the Deep Trance Consultant, passed anyway on Monday night. Jean has been sick for a while, but it's still hard to know she's gone.

I was lucky enough to have 5 deep trance readings and I’m really fond of Don and Jean. Jean was full spitfire, spunk and love. She also had gifts of her own; She saw spirit guides and auras. When I asked her once, she said my crown was blue.

Over the next month I'm going to listen to my readings, read my notes and write in my blog about some of the things I learned from Don, Jean and The Source (of information where the answers where collected).

Here is Don and Jean's website if you want learn more about what they did, including watching a sample video of Don in a trance.

http://myndstream.net

The Invitation

Just a couple days left to enter your Random Act of Kindness!

Will we reach 200 entries?

Rally the troops! Let's pull out all the stops! Raw! Raw! Raw!

It doesn’t interest me
what you do for a living.
I want to know
what you ache for
and if you dare to dream
of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me
how old you are.
I want to know
if you will risk
looking like a fool
for love
for your dream
for the adventure of being alive.


It doesn’t interest me
what planets are
squaring your moon...
I want to know
if you have touched
the centre of your own sorrow
if you have been opened
by life’s betrayals
or have become shrivelled and closed
from fear of further pain.


I want to know
if you can sit with pain
mine or your own
without moving to hide it
or fade it
or fix it.


I want to know
if you can be with joy
mine or your own
if you can dance with wildness
and let the ecstasy fill you
to the tips of your fingers and toes
without cautioning us
to be careful
to be realistic
to remember the limitations
of being human.


It doesn’t interest me
if the story you are telling me
is true.
I want to know if you can
disappoint another
to be true to yourself.
If you can bear
the accusation of betrayal
and not betray your own soul.
If you can be faithless
and therefore trustworthy.


I want to know if you can see Beauty
even when it is not pretty
every day.
And if you can source your own life
from its presence.


I want to know
if you can live with failure
yours and mine
and still stand at the edge of the lake
and shout to the silver of the full moon,
“Yes.”


It doesn’t interest me
to know where you live
or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up
after the night of grief and despair
weary and bruised to the bone
and do what needs to be done
to feed the children.


It doesn’t interest me
who you know
or how you came to be here.
I want to know if you will stand
in the centre of the fire
with me
and not shrink back.


It doesn’t interest me
where or what or with whom
you have studied.
I want to know
what sustains you
from the inside
when all else falls away.


I want to know
if you can be alone
with yourself
and if you truly like
the company you keep
in the empty moments.



~ The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer ~

(Thank You Sea Witch)

My Answers

A big thanks to all of you who indugled me with a question for my interview! Each of you will receive an extra entry in the Random Acts of Kindness Campaign. Thanks again!!


SpiritPhoenix asked...
What is your favorite holiday ritual/tradition?

Probably Christmas, twinkle lights on evergreens, the scent of cinnamon and the sound of carols! Or maybe Springs first blooms and the smell of fresh earth! But then there is my Birthday right at the summer solstice that has many years of happy memories tangled up in birthday candle smoke and wishes. Oh but October! Walking cemeteries, singed pumpkin flesh and costumed kids filling the streets, holding hands with my Ya-Ya’s as we dance the spiral dance at the Witches Ball, dumb suppers and divination parties! I think above any one holiday or ritual, I hold reverence for the change of them, always having faith the wheel will turn.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Crystal LunaRouge asked...
As a mother of a young child, how do you share your faith with your child?

Chatters asked...
How do you bring beliefs to your daily life, the everyday mundane?

I walk the walk, not just talk the talk. I really try to follow my spirit and what stirs my soul, with Angelus right beside me holding my hand. If I want to go to Church, I do. If I want to paint a picture, I will. If I want to dance naked on the solstice under the full moon, well here I come! (That was Practical Magic plug, BTW). My faith isn’t something I can easily sit down and teach - it’s lived. It is not found in any one book, it is found in all of them. If I can instill any type of faith in my little man, it will be the faith to follow his inner voice.

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Anonymous asked... How would you like the world to change in order for a better future for the children of today?

If I had a humongous magic wand that would allow me to cast a spell over all the world, I’d make people see the glass half full. I could only imagine the ripple effect through future generations if their ancestors looked at their life, good and bad, and choose to focus on the good. I read somewhere once that..disappointment is inevitable, but misery is a decision. When we are in a good place, we do good things. Good things equal a good future.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Raven_Nightwind asked...
If you could trade lives with each of your friends for a day, what would you do when you were them?

Sort of like that show Wife Swap? Or more of a Freaky Friday kinda thing? Hummm…

Ed chooses a new wife.....









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Diana asked...
My question... How many awards have you won for having this wonderful blog?

Thank you for the award! I’ve been bestowed many of them lately, but I’ve gotten very, very laxed at accepting my awards, my sincere apologizes. Awards are a great way to learn about new blogs, and to get exposure as a new blogger. I was no exception, they helped me greatly when I first started blogging.

_______________________________________________________________________________


Sea Witch asked...
What sustains you?

My son, my family, my friends and coffee. Everything else is desert.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Stella Seaspirit asked...
Your Pagan dream home...how would you design it and how would you make it more Pagan?

I don’t know if I would call it Pagan, but I think I know what you mean ::wink:: I would recreate the Owen’s house in Practical Magic. Beam for beam, it is absolutely perfect.




_______________________________________________________________________________


The Awakened Heart asked...
"Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" (Mary Oliver)

Keep making lists and keep crossing things off when they are done!!

_______________________________________________________________________________

Rue asked...
As a Pagan who is out of the broom closet - do you still run into people/family/friends who don't understand or agree with your beliefs? How do you handle that?

My family loves me. I wouldn’t say that everyone agrees with me but they accept me. For the most part we have a don’t ask, don’t tell unspoken agreement.

Growing up, my family only had religious moments. I think what stuck with me was their respect and skepticism of religion. Always on fence looking it all over and that’s a great quality to have! I have an equal amount of respect and skepticism for all religions: Pagan, Christian, Judaism, Muslim, and whatever I left out. I think all religions, including Paganism, are a box. I don’t want to live in a box; I like to think of myself as an eccentric spiritualist. Since I’m not a “Hardcore Pagan”, I don’t rant about stolen holidays, I don’t refuse to see a children play because it’s in a church and I don’t wear or say outrageous things for shock value. For that, we all get along just fine.

As for the rest of world, who the fuck cares! I ignore it, but honestly I rarely have felt discriminated against. Just like anything in life, people who expect discrimination will usually find it.

_______________________________________________________________________________

Bridgett asked...
If you ever have a baby girl...what will her name be? :)

Oh oh oh a fun question!! I love OLD, uncommon names, hence Angelus. I don’t know if I want to have anymore children, paying for one college education seems hard enough. If I did have a little a girl it would probably name her Ravinia, until I change my mind a hundred times.


Did you know a good source for old names are Vampire stories? Angelus comes from a vampire story.
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Dirgesinger asked...
What do you do when the spells and magic you always practice just don't seem to "work"?

Stop doing them, it sounds like a time for change. The first example that comes to mind is my daily tarot card reading that I do occasionally. I pick a daily card, learn its meaning and use that as a guide and influence for the day. After a while, it seems to stop working, or better put I stop connecting with the cards. So I take a break.

Now if you mean that you cast a spell to say, get a new job, and it repeatedly doesn’t work then it’s not the spell. It’s never the spell, it’s you. When it comes down to it, spells are completely and utterly useless. All the magic is in you! Spells, prayers, chants and charms do nothing more than help you focus, so ok they aren’t useless, but hopefully you catch my meaning.

There is a frame of mind I reach; sometimes it’s with the help of a spell or reading an obscure essay, or catching a certain light, when I reach that frame of mind I know what I have to do to get what I want. There is usually a frenzy of excitement and a desire to see it through. I wait for the frenzy, then I know it’s right and it’s working.
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Luna asked...
Do you feel that you are imparting Magic or Faith or Both in your practices to your family, friends and the world?

Since we I believe we are all connected everything we do effects each other and the world. That’s not something I try to over think though, there are so many webs connecting us I just want to do what I do and “be the change I want to see in the world”.

Prince Soars with Dragons

“Meddle not in the affairs of dragons; for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.”

LeRoy is one of Angelus' first dragons, given to him by his Godmother when he was born. Each year we take their photo together to chronicle Angelus' growth.

Why a dragon? It all started with his nursery which was decorated in magical creatures, most especially dragons. LeRoy is one of many dragon keepsakes that Angelus has since been gifted from friends and family. The Ya-Ya's have even designated him "Prince Soars with Dragons"!

Birth


1 year old


2 years old

3 years old

___________________

P.S. Just got back from watching 'How to Train your Dragon", most excellent!

Art in Tu-Tu's

Our March Educational Playdate with the Petite Ya-Ya Witchlets
was at the Detroit Institute of Arts.


It's a what?


A couple fairy princess' dance around African art.


Leisure Hours, John Everett Millais, 1864. Did I mention that while at the DIA I picked up a few more things for the Boxes of Random Kindness?


The Great Hall.


This is the amazing court we have lunch, it is divine.


Ed, Yours Truly, Luna, Amanda and Witchlets

Hygeia, Goddess of Health c. 1615
Peter Paul Rubens 1577-1640

Hygeia and her snake symbolize health. In Greek myth, Hygeia (pronounced hi-GEE-uh) is the daughter of the god of healing. Like her father, she's identified with a snake. Here she pours restoring liquid into her snake's mouth.

Rubens paints Hygeia as an ideal, robust woman. The stormy background is a reminder never to take good health for granted.

Fireplace Motto

The beauty of our house is order.

The blessing of our house is contentment.

The glory of our house is hospitality.

The crown of our house is godliness.

The source of this Fireplace Motto is unknown, by the earliest record I find is used in The Home Missionary, March 1908. I have intentionally changed "the" for "our", it sounds more...... housewives united!

Spring Tea

I spent the Spring Equinox with my friend SpiritPhoenix, she invited me over for tea and we had a great time! While Angelus and her little flower child played, we talked about tarot and tea and her Ostara ritual and homemade liquors, she did her damnedest to get me drunk! Her family recipe for peach cordial was amazing; unfortunately if she shares the recipe her mother LUPEC sisters will disown her tar and feather her. hump.


I brought my Moro Salad and she made the oh so tasty quiche below. Moro Salad is so named for the restaurant that Hubby and I frequent, but we've made it our own. It's romaine lettuce, hard boiled eggs, jalapeño stuffed olives, salt, pepper, red wine vinegar and extra light olive oil. I never measure, so the ingredients are all to taste, but I will say that I use twice as much olive oil as red wine vinegar and when I add the olives I spoon a little bit of the olive juice in too.



Swiss Cheese and Mushroom Quiche

1 (9-inch) unbaked pie crust
1 teaspoon butter
1 1/2 cups chopped onions
1/4 pound mushrooms, chopped
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon crushed dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups milk
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
Paprika

• Arrange crust in 9-inch pie pan; set aside. Preheat oven to 375°F.

• Melt the butter in a small pan. Add onions and sauté over medium heat for a few minutes. (SpiritPhoenix demonstrates to the right) When they begin to soften, add mushrooms, salt, pepper, thyme and mustard. Sauté about 5 minutes more and remove from heat.

• Combine eggs, milk and flour in a blender or food processor and mix well. Sprinkle cheese over the bottom of the pie crust and spread the onion-mushroom mixture on top (but not the sautéed juices; use a slotted spoon). Pour in the egg mixture and sprinkle the top with paprika.

• Bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until firm in the center. Cool for 15 minutes to set custard. Serve warm or at room temperature.




We ended the day with a stroll through her historic downtown area that she is walking distance from. I'm rather envious of her little Stars Hollow. While we were pursuing the stores I picked up a few more things for the Boxes of Random Kindness!

Five Things

I ♥ These 5 things:

• Cajun accents

• Blog Music Mixes (That's when you have several blogs open at the same time and their background music plays together. My current favorite mix is Chocolate Tea and Marmalade Tea and A Day in the Life of a Domestic Enchantress with a little bit of Musing of a Modern Witch.)

• Black Nail Polish

• Hobby Lobby

• New Moon on DVD. Go Team Jacob!


Today is your last day to ask me a question in My Interview!

Have a wonderful first week of Spring! I can't wait to read all about it on your blogs!

Herbs and Eggs

I recently switched my kitchen herbs from ornate ceramic pots to these terracotta pots. I have a problem with over watering my herbs, since they are right over the sink they get a drink every time me or Hubby have a glass of water. So I came up with this terracotta solution. Did you know that a "disadvantage" of terracotta is that it soaks up a lot of the soils water? This can leave most plants with dry soil and thirsty roots, but it perfectly solved my problem. Since the switch my herbs, especially the basil that I thought was a lost cause, has experienced much new growth. See the little green nubs protruding below? I rather like the uniformed terracotta look now and I'm happy to have found a balance to my water issue.




I'd like to give a big hug and thank you to Raven for stopping by to see me this week. The Ya-Ya's are holding true to their promise to Hubby to keep me company while he is gone. By the way, Hubby came home last night! He is laid off again, ugh, but he's home. ::smile::

Raven and I made fresh squeezed lemonade and deviled eggs while talking and enjoying the beautiful early spring weather; the time went to fast. We got to talking about how we make deviled eggs differently. I use pureed onions, mayo, mustard, paprika and a dash of cayenne. Raven uses relish, mayo and mustard. How do you make deviled eggs?

Wish Ticket

A recent Random Act of Kindness was inspired by my favorite blog: A Fanciful Twist. Ms. Vanessa created these beautiful wish tickets to share with the world, so I did! I placed three ticket in three of my favorite books at the library. The next loaner will get more than he or she imagined! Which of my favorite books did I select? Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen and Dance Upon the Air by Nora Roberts.




Take a look at Venessa's distribution of her wish tickets and remember to download and print your own to share with the world, everyone could use a free wish.

Graveyard Dirt

"You remind me of a man. What man? The man with the power. What power? The power of hoodoo. Who do? You do. Do what? Remind me of a man..."



I've added a few more items to the Boxes of Random Kindness. The box winners will nab Graveyard Dirt, Coffin Nails, Cayenne Pepper, Salt, Votive Candles and Snake Skin. If I have time, some Red Brick Dust and Sulfur too. Use to practice HooDoo, or put on display to scare your mother-in-law. ::smile:: A special thanks to Luna for accompanying me to the graveyard to replenish my dirt.

"Red Brick Dust: This is actual powdered red brick dust, believed by many, especially in Missouri and Louisiana, to have protective magical qualities. It is also reputed by some to draw money and business. Lay a line down at the doorway for protection from your enemies, or to draw customers to your place of business.

Hot Foot Powder: used in African American hoodoo folk magic to drive unwanted people away. It is a mixture of herbs and minerals, virtually always including cayenne pepper, and usually other ingredients such as sulfur, black pepper, graveyard dirt, bluestone, gunpowder or salt.

Graveyard Dirt: There are basically three ways that Graveyard Dirt is employed in hoodoo: in spells of protection, in enemy tricks, and in coercive love spells . Despite its inclusion in such harmful formulas, graveyard dirt is not evil per se, and it has uses all its own that reflect its venerable stature in the African religious practice of ancestor veneration.

In African-derived magic such as hoodoo and Obeah, graveyard dirt is an important "magical link" (in the Crowleyan sense of that term), because of the powerful cultural beliefs centered around the role of the dead in rituals of invocation. This was and remains especially true in the Kongo, from whence most African-American slaves came, and in West Africa, where most Afro-Caribbean slaves came.

(You may find veneration of ancestors rather misleadingly called "ancestor worship" by earlier Western scholars, and you will often see it referred to in that way in books published in English prior to the 1990s, but American and European scholars have recently come around to using the more accurate African term "ancestor veneration," due to their contact with Africans who have entered academia and gotten on the internet .. and still practice ancestor veneration.)

In Palo Mayombe, a mostly Cuban and Brazilian survival of Kongo religio-magical practgice somewhat admixed with Catholicism, the dirt from graves is kept in a "prenda" on an altar.

In hoodoo, as in African magic and in Palo, graveyard dirt can be used for good or for ill. There are several well-known love-spells that utilize graveyard dirt, and just as many spells to hold someone down or restrain them in some way (what British people might call a "binding spell".

In hoodoo, the ritual of collecting graveyard dirt -- by the practitioner him- or herself -- is called BUYING graveyard dirt. The usual payment in the US, since the 19th century at least, has been a silver dime, preferably a Mercury dime (this brings up thoughts about that earlier thread about Mercury / Hermes / Eshu / Nbumba Nzila / Eleggua). Customs vary, but generally the dime is offered to the dead in the entire graveyard or to the specific spirit from whose grave one will dig the dirt.

If one wished to do harm, one might buy the dirt of someone who "died badly" -- before their time, through execution, or so forth, because their spirit, once invoked, would be inclined to perform evil deeds with little compunction. If one wished to bring about love, one might buy the dirt from someone who loved one in life (a relative or a deceased spouse, for instance) because their spirit, once invoked, would be inclined to help one achieve lasting love. Some workers prefer dirt from a baby's grave, because they say that the spirit thus invoked is malleable and biddable; but others say it is too weak, being young, and will not prove as effective as dirt from the grave of an adult.

This practice of the individual buying dirt from a graveyard led early on in hoodoo to the root worker / herbalist buying the dirt and then re-selling it. No stigma is attached to this practice, but the re-seller may be questioned closely as to whether the dirt was properly "bought and paid for." I have ads in old catalogues in my collection dating back to the 1920s in which graveyard dirt was offered for sale to the African-American community, so this is not a recent phenomenon. -- like most of the merchantile aspects of hoodoo, it arose as urbanization made the personal gathering of symbolic ingredients difficult to achieve. The price of graveyard dirt is usually nominal -- it's dirt cheap.

Neo-pagan authors such as Scott Cunningham have written that graveyard dirt is "just code" for certain herbs, such as mullein, but this is easily proven untrue by simply asking the average root-worker. In the African-American community (if not the Wiccan community) graveyard dirt is dirt from a grave that's been ritually "bought and paid for." ~ Hodoo in Theory and Practice by Catherine Yronwode


Differences between Voodoo and Hoodoo
Hoodoo and Voodoo are often mistaken for one another. Some believe that the terms may have a common etymology. Simply put, Voodoo is a religion, whereas Hoodoo is a group of magical practices.

The ancient African religion of Vodoun is an established religion with its ancient roots in West Africa. Its modern form is practiced across West Africa in the countries now known as Benin, Togo, and Burkina Faso, among others. In Haiti, Cuba, and other Caribbean islands, the worship of the Vodoun gods (called lwa or loas) is practiced in a syncretic form that has been greatly modified by contact with Catholicism. The Voodoo of Haiti and Louisiana Voodoo are better known to many English speakers; similar practices among Spanish speakers in Cuba are called Santeria.

Hoodoo shows obvious and evident links to the practices and beliefs of African folk magico-religious culture. The Hoodoo practiced in the U.S. by the enslaved Africans was brought from West and Central Africa, specifically, the area that is now known as the Congo and Angola, Togo, Nigeria and other West African regions. ~ wikipedia

Happy St. Patty's Day!

P.S. A leprechaun added some gold treasure to the Boxes of Random Kindness!

Tag

I'm not usually efficient enough to participate in tags and awards, grateful as I am, I run outta time, ugh! But when Spirit Phoenix and CelticDragonfly tagged me in this game, and I took a peak at my photo, per the rules, I KNEW I had to make time for this one....

The rules go like this:
• Open your first photo file
• Scroll to the 10th photo
• Post the photo and tell the story behind it
• Tag five more people



So we have me and my Ya-Ya's drunk as skunks on New Year's Eve. I'm in red (mostly off camera), Kelly is in green laughing her ass off in the background, Luna is umm..catching and Raven is uhh...pitching. I have no idea who took this picture or what the hell was going on, but wow, it makes me giggle uncontrollably. Ya-Ya!

My ever fluid Ya-Ya free verse..
My Ya-Ya's and I have our own lingering gumbo of tequila and lemons and salt. Black cotton and cigarettes, big floppy hats. Coconut and lime, late night phone calls and text messages. Strawberry Boonesfarm. Lavender, Ginger, Rosemary. Kelly's incense and Luna's Coffee. Nursing baby's, diapers and Arnica. Bonfire smoke. Chocolate. Kombucha tea, glitter and laughter. We are rock n' roll, we are wicked, we are mothers, nurtures and healers. We are Ya-Ya's!

I tag:
Raven
Luna
Kelly
Rosemary Gunn
King Eryck

Labels

"I know not what path I follow
It is the one deep within
It calls to be in the dark of the night
It sooths me in the brightness of the day

When I reach for it - to hold it and give it a name
It slips away, elusive as the misty rain
I want to name it so that I can explain myself
So, that when someone says what do you do
I can say I am this to you

However, when I try to label it It fades....

The time I spend trying to see what it is
I miss being what I am
For my path is me" ~ Anonymous

Pansies and Peppers

My niece, Anicia, recently helped Angelus and I start some seeds for our garden this summer. We planted pansies, jalapenos, habaneros, and bell peppers. In the past, I've sown hundreds of seeds indoors and nurtured them into little plants for my gardens, but I have fallen in love with a local greenhouse that has great prices. I decided to only start a few seeds myself this year and purchase the rest.

How To Make Newspaper Pots:

Roll newspaper around a round glass, leaving about half of the paper hanging off the bottom. Use newspaper that about 6 inches high and longer than the circumference of your glass, fold your newpaper until it's about the right size. You want your pot to be several layers thick of newspaper or it will fall apart before spring.

Fold the paper hanging off the bottom, first push down the top, then the sides, then pull up the bottom and tuck it into the other folds. Truthfully this only work right about half the time; when it doesn't hold, use tape!

Stand your glass up and pull it out. Ta-da!

Cheap and green! The real beauty of a newspaper pot is it can be placed directly into the ground in the spring, no need to pull the plant out of the pot because the roots will grow right though the paper and the paper will biodegrade.