Little Things

When I have guests over, I do the usual and clean the apartment.  I take care of the physical tidiness, but I also do a little extra for the spiritual side of things.  Although having company resulted in a stressful Tuesday full of cleaning, fatigue, and the self-loathing that resulted in this post,  I made a point to do a little magic today.

Quite simply, I made an offering.  I chose a blend of incense known for it's purifying properties and offered it to Brighid.  She is my patroness but also a Goddess of the hearth and home.  I prayed to her that the negativity in our home be purified, and that it - and we - be as hospitable as possible to our guests.  A little thing like that can go a long way.  Amidst the hustle and bustle, I took a moment to stop and connect.  I feel that Brighid responded.

It is definitely the little things.

( For My LJ Friends: http://adfcatprints.blogspot.com/ )

My Autumn Equinox: Part One

Yesterday I talked about what the Autumn Equinox means to me.  Now I'm going to share with you some of what I've been doing to celebrate it!

I've started to collect twigs from specific trees to create small ogham staves.  So far I've started luis/rowan and dair/oak.  I'm proud of them so far!  Here they are with some festive mini pumpkin gourds.

Some of the last summer flowers cut, bound, and ready to offer at a gathering I attended last night.  They turned into the table centerpiece!  

My personal altar with an autumn-colored altar cloth and harvest offerings.

Here's a closeup of the cornhusk doll I made.  She's probably the third one I've ever finished so...  she's not as impressive as some others out there!  I'm proud of her all the same.  I actually grew the corn that she's made out of!  Granted, because only two spouted and were grown in containers, they didn't produce large ears.  Still, I was able to grow my own offering and autumn decor (the stalks have been cut and tied to an iron post outside).  This dolly is going to be part of the main offering at Muin Mound Grove tomorrow.  Everyone was encouraged to make a corn dolly to place in the fire.

More harvest offerings!  Everything except the gourds were from my own garden.  I included the tiny ears of corn.  Behind all the flowers, fruit, and vegetables is a harvest Earth Mother doll I crocheted.  She's my planned personal offering for the big ritual tomorrow.

I'm looking forward to seeing my grovies tomorrow and celebrating the harvest.  On the actual Equinox I  went to Better Farm for a potluck dinner, casual "ritual," and bonfire!  What an amazing place!  I met so many wonderful people.  Everyone was so hospitable.  Sharing a meal with local gardeners, artisans, and free-thinkers; listening to a fiddler and guitarist tweak out an acoustic "Knocking on Heaven's Door;" standing in a candlelit barn; and sitting around a smokey fire while crying "I hate rabbits!" every time the smoke hit my eyes - now that was a great way to spend the Equinox!  

( For My LJ Friends: http://adfcatprints.blogspot.com/ )

Some photos to share

My altar and craft room has also become a greenhouse. There are various vegetables and herbs here. I have more seedlings that aren't in the photo.




Here's my "fairy pot." I put offerings by the statue from time to time. Notice all the brown vegetation from past offerings. It's how I deal with living in an apartment and not feeling safe enough going into the forest at night*.


*We really did find some strange things when cleaning up back there...
** http://adfcatprints.blogspot.com/

Where do my offerings go?

It is true that I live in northern, rural NY. However I still live in an apartment. I feel like I live in a tiny suburb. It's former military housing and looks like a development. All the buildings are practically carbon copies. There is a forest here and I have access to it, but it's a bit of a walk from my doorstep. So where do I put my often biodegradable offerings? I don't want to flush them because there are concerns of water pollution, even if the offerings are biodegradable. I don't want to throw them out because that seems less than pious.

My solution has been to create a small sacred place outside of my apartment, on my patio, for offerings to go. This has been a learning experience with various pros and cons. It started as a small clay pot filled with dirt, stones, and a fairy statue. At some point, a liquid offering froze in a crack and shattered a chunk of the pot. It wasn't looking good for a month. I wasn't sure what to do... Today I converted a red metal pail into my offering pot / mini fairy rock garden. There are also some shiny gems and bits of silver in there. I included shards of the old pot to create some continuity. I'm hoping the metal will be better able to withstand the occasional liquid offering in the cold. Although, since the shattering incident, I've been giving more incense offerings. Even so, I nailed some drainage holes into the bottom.

It still doesn't look all that amazing. In the spring and summer I want to surround it with flower pots and maybe even paint the pot a different color.

Prepping for Imbolc: Part 2

I'm not finished with it yet, but here is a photo of the Brighid cross project I'm working on.



The pattern on the brown/gold fabric may not be the best for the project but I'm determined to see it through and perhaps add some embroider to embellish it. I usually don't do things like this - appliqué and quilt techniques are new for me.





And here's a photo of my Brigihd altar so far. This isn't anything Imbolc specific - I've been adding to it since moving here. It's situated over my stove for obvious reasons. I do my flame keeping here.