Down Time

I missed yesterdays blog update, because I didn't really have anything to update.

My Tarot studies have been going well, another of my friends got a deck and he has been practicing almost non-stop with them.

I have been going to a Meditation group on campus, and found out that a few people in that read Tarot as well, so we're going to compare decks after next week's meeting.

Other than that, this week was kind of slow for me spiritually. I always struggle with periods between Sabbats, because there's a kind of lull.

I was racking my brain trying to think of something to write about. I thought about doing a Broke College Kid's Paganism and talk about how I worship on a budget, and I still might do that, but it just didn't feel like a good time for me to do that.

But then I realized that its okay to have non-Pagan-y weeks. People don't have to meditate every day or practice witchcraft everyday in order to feel 'connected.' I think its important to have off-weeks too.

I spent this week doing a lot of Tarot, and that's the only real Pagan-y thing I did. I hung out with friends, I worked as an usher at my school's musical this week. I saw my family today.

It's okay to have down-time. There are no rules about how often you have to practice your faith. I think that's what I like best about Paganism, and I forget that a lot.

Hopefully I'll have more exciting news on Monday!

DIY Tarot Deck Bag

So this is the bag I made for my Tarot deck! Since I have kind of started a Tarot group with my friend, my other friend asked me to make one for her deck. I decided to make a tutorial for you guys!

When I was looking for easy diy Tarot bags, I felt like there weren't a lot of resources, and most of them were drawstring, which wasn't what I wanted. So while I was driving one day, I realized I could make them like this. I hand-stitched my own, and used a machine on the one for my friend. I hope this is helpful for people who want to make a cozy home for their decks.

Materials:
1/8 yard of outer material (regular ol' fabric, or heavy duty stuff in case you're worried about it ripping. I used standard cotton, and its held up so far.)
1/4 yard of liner material (I recommend something silky so that the cards slide easier.)
Scissors
Thread
Needle or sewing machine
Ribbon (Something thin)
Pins

Step One: Find some cute fabric! My friend got hers at Walmart, with the blue material being a dollar, and the liner was two.

Step Two: Place your deck on the outer material, wrong side up. You want to make sure the deck will fit. For this one, I folded the fabric so it covered half of the deck, and then marked it. You might want to fold it over more for a wider bag if you plan on keeping a spread cloth or crystals in the bag.

Like so

Step Three: After marking the spot on the fabric, take a ruler or other straight thing and make a straight line up the fabric so you have a line to follow while cutting. Cut out the fabric.

Step  Four: Once you have a long piece of fabric, you wanna take your deck and lay it on the fabric, kind of near the middle. Fold the bottom of the fabric up, so it covers the deck. Take the top part of the fabric and fold it down over your deck. This part will be the top 'lip' of the bag. Mark the fabric where you want the lip to come down too. I usually have the lip cover the top half of the deck, but you could make it longer if you want.

You can kind of see where I marked it in silver sharpie

Step Five: Cut off the excess fabric, so you just have the fabric for the bag. Then pin the bag fabric to your liner fabric, with the right sides together.

Step Six: Cut the liner to match the bag fabric. Then if you want, cut yourself a cute lil' spread cloth out of the remaining liner material.

Step Seven: Stitch the bag fabric together on the long sides and one short side

Step Eight: Flip the bag inside out, so now the right sides are facing out. Then flatten it with an iron if using a machine, or just manhandle it a little.

Step Nine: Tuck in the raw edges of the open side, and stitch that shut.

Step Ten: Grab your deck again, and place it on the liner side of the bag fabric, and then fold fabric up to cover the deck. Mark it with a pin, remove the deck, and flip it so the liner side is out. Pin the sides together.You should see the bag begin to take shape now.

Step Eleven: Stitch up the sides, liner side out. Flip it inside out so the liner is now inside the bag.

Step Twelve: Cut off a long length of ribbon, and pin it to the lip of the bag. I put mine about 3/4 of an inch up from the bottom of the lip.

Step Thirteen: Stitch a line down the ribbon, and backstitch over it again to make sure it stays attached.

Step Fourteen:Wrap your deck in your spread cloth, and put it in your bag. After that, wrap your ribbons around the back, and tie them in front. Trim off the excess ribbon, after making sure they are even on both sides. The bottom three pictures are to help see how to ribbon will look after its tied and cut.

And that's it! I know it seems like a lot of steps, but it really is simple, and doesn't take long to make them. I've had mine jumbled around in my purse since November, and its held up really good thus far.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! Let me know if you have any questions.

Practice, Practice

Last semester, one of my friends came out to me as a witch. It was one of the most heartening experiences so far on my path, because it made me see that there are others out there. It can be easy to find people online, but because there is that disconnect between us, it can still seem like no one out there practices with us. So meeting someone in real life who is also a witch can be great, especially because days like today can happen.

My friend asked me to meet up with her and do some Tarot readings. I have fallen way behind on the Spread a Day 2 challenge on Tumblr, so I jumped at the opportunity to catch up.

We met at the student center on campus, which was another first for me. I try to keep kind of quiet about the witchcraft aspect of my faith, because I know that's the part with the most stigma. Setting up our table with all of our cards and spread cloths made me nervous at first,especially with so many people I knew around, but it very quickly felt natural.

We were joined by my other dear friend, as well as a couple others that we knew. This was very helpful because we could read for them instead of just swapping back and forth.

It was probably the most fun I have had in a while! It felt good to hang out with people and do what I love without feeling like I had to hide it.

And what was probably the best part of the whole thing was the respect we were given. I was expecting a few people to come up and be nosy and pry and look down on us. I was pleasantly surprised. We sat there for almost an hour and a half, and no one harassed us.

I feel blessed to be in a community where that is possible. I have read stories about people reading Tarot in public and having that one snotty person come up and tell them about how they're working with the Devil or something. So being able to practice, and not have to feel ashamed, was extremely liberating.

For the first time in my months of practice with Tarot, I actually felt like a Diviner. And it was amazing!

We are meeting again to do the same on Wednesday, and even better, two of my friends will be joining us after seeing the work we did today. I may even start a Tarot group for us to gather weekly and practice.

I encourage others to do the same, you may be surprised at how great it is!

Me taking notes for my Tarot journal

My 'Be Nice to People' Rant

So tonight is the opening night (and unfortunately, the only night) for my school's production of Eve Ensler's "The Vagina Monologues". I was appointed the director for this year, and it has been an absolute blast!

The cast has been very helpful, and they all came to rehearsal with something new they had worked on for their monologues.

What was the most interesting thing to me, was how different each woman was. I had one actress who was a gender-fluid lesbian. Another woman is waiting until marriage for sex. One girl had struggled with relationships in the past, and another is currently in a very happy relationship with her adoring boyfriend.

I think its easy for us as people to forget that everyone is different, and has a whole life story. We get caught up in our own lives, and our own dramas, and it becomes a habit for us to forget about everyone else's struggles. We tend to critique everyone because that's not how we are as an individual.

I see a lot of this in the Pagan community, with people spreading hate about whether or not someone follows the Wiccan Rede, or if they use curses in their work, or if they are 'fluffy.' Its the only part about the community that really bothers me. There is so much insensitivity in the world already, so why do we need to bring that into our faith? Our faith that is already fairly discriminated against.

Everyone in life has their own self, and their own identities. They have their own codes of what is right and wrong. Just because I practice my craft a certain way, doesn't mean that everyone has to practice that same way. The same goes for everyone else.

There is no one correct way to live life.

Just some food for thought.

DIY Pagan Prayer Beads

Today, I tried my hand at making a set of prayer beads. I have felt a sort of calling to make a set for a while, and last night I just felt like tomorrow was the day to make a set. I just realized that tonight is also the New Moon, which I think is pretty cool.

I looked at several varieties of prayer beads, and decided to go with one similar to a Rosary, because I liked the way it trails at the end. I have also seen a lot of Pagans use prayer beads in that are in a straight line, but I wanted mine to be necklace-esque because I liked the idea of my prayers coming full circle.

I used two different colored beads because 1) it reminded me of night and day, and 2) I wanted one color to signify a time to give thanks (gold) and the other to pray for someone/send positive energy to someone (black). I ended it with the big white bead because it reminds me of the Full Moon (Goddess) and the Stag to symbolize the Horned God.

It was pretty difficult to make them, but once you get the hang of tying tiny knots, its goes fairly quickly. I made this from scratch in a few hours.

Materials:
Thread
Beads (I used two strings, because I wanted two different colors)
A large bead (its called a Guru Bead for Malas)
Some more small beads to go after the large bead
A charm
Scissors
Patience

First, you need to tie a knot in your thread. Leave lots of room at the end, this will be where the larger bead and charms will go. After tying the knot, add one of your main beads, like so:

From there, you tie a knot to keep the bead in place, and then repeat the steps for all of your beads. Try to keep the beads close together, but if you want to run them through your fingers more, a little space might be better. This step is what messed me up, a lot of my spaces are uneven, but hey, its my first try. After adding all of your beads, it should look like this:

Once you've done that, you need to take both of the threads at the long end, and thread them through your large bead:

Pull it tight, and knot it to keep it in place. Then you can add your smaller beads:

And guess what happens next? That's right, knot it again. After knotting it, you add your final charm by tying it onto the loop of the charm. Again, try to keep it as close to the beads as possible:

And that's it! I hope this helps people looking to make their own set. You could customize the colors for whatever deity you'd like.

Now I'm off to cleanse it! Happy New Moon!

DIY Rice/ Dream Buddy

Today I will be talking about a craft I made a while ago, which is my rice/dream pillow buddy...thing. I used to have really terrible nightmares four to five days a week. It is actually why I got into crystal healing, which in turn got me into paganism.

I used crystals to help with nightmares, but I was always worried I would lose them if I kept them in bed with me. So I made this little sleeping buddy!

I found the fabric for like a dollar at Walmart, and then I traced and cut a pattern from it. I made mine a bird, but you could make yours whatever you felt like.

I made a little pocket to put on the side of it to hold my crystals for me. I took a small square of fabric, folded down the edges and stitched to keep the raw edges from unraveling. Then I stitched the square onto the front of the bird.

You can see the pocket better here

After that, I put the two pieces of fabric right side together and stitched it almost all the way around, and then turned it inside out. I hand stitched it because my sewing machine is busted, and I kind of feel like hand sewing puts more intent and energy into it.

After stitching, I filled it with rice, and some chamomile lavender loose leaf tea I have. I used these because I know they help with sleep, and its also what I had on hand. You could use whatever herbs would help with what you want your buddy for i.e. basil for prosperity.

Stitch the opening shut, and there you go! All ready for bed. I tuck amethyst in mine, and keep it on the pillow  next to me. My nightmares have noticeably lessened, now I go weeks before I have one.

Because it has rice in it, you can even microwave it a few seconds to make it nice and warm for super cold nights. Just make sure you don't microwave it with a crystal in the pouch!

I hope this is helpful! I'd love to hear about how you would use one.

DIY Rose Water for Self-Love

So Valentine's Day is tomorrow! I love Valentine's Day, and I use it to celebrate romantic love, as well as friendship and familial love.

I recently came out as a witch to several of my friends, and decided to take this opportunity to give them a witchy Valentine's gift in the form of a Rose Water spray. I did this a few weeks ago, and gave it to them early, but they appreciated it nonetheless.

I used four roses, one for each person I was making the Rose Water for, and ended up with way too much. I would recommend using two roses instead.

Ingredients:
Roses
Distilled Water
Strainer (I used a small colander)
Spray Bottles (I found mine in the travel cosmetics section at Walmart for less than a dollar)
Gold Sharpie
A Small Pot

First, I lit my God and Goddess candles and asked them to bless the roses with self- love and confidence. Then I plucked the petals from a rose, and placed them in my mini-colander.

After putting them in the colander, I rinsed them under cold water to get rid of any potential dirt or pesticides.

Then I put the petals into the small pot and added distilled water until the petals were just about submerged.

After that, I turned the stove on to simmer, and covered the pot. You should eventually see condensation form on the lid.

I let this sit for about fifteen minutes, occasionally stirring, until the rose petals lost their color.

I let it cool, and then poured it into a Ball jar, which then went into the refrigerator. I also poured a little into my offering bowl on my altar to thank the God and Goddess for their help.

While it sat in the fridge, I added a sigil in gold sharpie to the mini-spray bottles that would soon house the Rose Water. After a bit, I carefully poured the rosewater into these bottles.

The sigil means "I am important and loved" and it is from byewitchedkid on Tumblr, so all credit for the sigil goes to them.

Once I poured the Rose Water into the bottles, I focused  my intent again on self-love and confidence. I then put them under the light of the full moon, next to some rose quartz to charge.

So far, I really like it. Each morning I spray some on before I get dressed, and it helps give me a boost for the day.

I hope this DIY comes in handy! Do you have any Valentine's Day plans? I'd love to hear about them!

Into the Woods

For the past week or so, I have felt a little out of it. I have a case of mild depression, and while usually I'm fine, every now and then it will flare up and be annoying for a bit until I get back to my usual positive self.

In conjunction with this bout of sadness, I have felt the urge to go outdoors. The air inside has felt suffocating, and heavy on my skin. I knew that I needed to get back outside.

So today, I took a trip out to one of my favorite spots, New Germany State Park.

New Germany is this beautiful secluded place, but today it felt cold and drab. I didn't feel the same connection I usually felt. My toes were freezing, my hands were firmly tucked in my jacket pockets, and I was staring at the ground trying not to slip on the firmly packed snow.

I trudged along, enjoying the fresh air as a means to ignore the cold, when suddenly I realized that all of this 'bad' stuff was just as much nature as anything else.

Nature isn't just the sunshine, its the cloudy days. Its the soft grass, and the mud caked on your boots. Nature is the sun on your face as well as the rain tangled in your hair.

And all of that is just as beautiful as anything else.

I found that the chill in my fingers was my connection to the God and Goddess just as much as a warm breeze on my back. I didn't have to feel this pleasant fuzzy feeling to know that I am still connected to it all. And I should still appreciate that, even if its not all rainbows and sunshine.

And despite the cold and slush, it is still beautiful:

The Wheel of the Year turns, and life goes on. The Earth has bad days just like the rest of us.

Somehow, it makes me feel better.

First Attempt at Kitchen Witchery

My working altar for tonight

So I've been doing the Spread a Day 2 challenge on Tumblr from ArcaneMysteries and Ragabash Witch. The spread I did today told me to focus on a goal, and card I drew was Strength, which is something I've been working on getting for a while. Strength is one of my favorite cards, and it shows the inner strength in a person. I find it very difficult to say no to people, and I almost never stand up for myself, and so I am hoping that by working on this, I will be able to put my own needs first.

So since I am working on strength, I thought it would be a good chance to incorporate some kitchen witchery. I decided to make chili, since its delicious, and I think that it would be a good food for Strength, since its got a lot of fire in it.

I set up a little kitchen witch altar, with my God/dess candles, the Strength card, and some crystals that I felt were appropriate (shungite, malachite, Tiger's iron, jasper, and red jasper.)

I asked the God and Goddess to help me in my creation, and to imbue my food with inner Strength. I also asked that they help me stand up for myself and for the right of equality for all people. As I added each ingredient, I thought about my intent.

I would give you all my recipe, but I don't really have one.I cut up a green pepper and added a can of chickpeas, vegetable broth, kidney beans, and diced tomatoes. Then I added a bunch of chili powder and some salt.

I really enjoyed this, and will definitely try more kitchen witchery in the future. Do you have any good recipes for kitchen witches? I'd love to hear them!

My Black Thumb Cure (Or so I hope)

Embarrassing fact about me: I am terrible with plants. I love plants, but everything I touch dies, excluding the three tiny cacti I have that are somehow surviving.

So when my grandmother gave me the basil plant she purchased from the grocery store, I knew I had to take action. It's already in a pretty bad state.

My poor little Basil

So I thought of how best to help it, and decided to throw some witchcraft at it, in tandem with more mundane tactics.

I bought a 6" terra-cotta pot and weeded out the dead parts of plant to prevent overcrowding. I used a gold sharpie to draw designs on the pot, and tossed some crystals in there with it. I added some quartz crystal, as well as two stones I found in nature.

In addition to the crystals, I created a sigil for "Growth" and I drew it in gold sharpie on the bottom of the little saucer that goes under the pot. Its my first attempt at sigils, and I am pretty pleased with it:

 "Growth"

After that, I remembered that my best friend gave me a fairy terrarium kit, so I put the decorations from that around it because a) they are cute, and b) if there are nature spirits maybe they'll help out. I am trying absolutely everything I can think of to keep this plant alive!

For the non-witchy stuff, I got new soil and potted it with that, and I also purchased a grow light for it, since my apartment gets very partial sunlight. I also have some houseplant food for it.

Finished!

And that's it! Hopefully it will grow better now, and maybe this will help other black thumbs out there.

Full Moon Cleanse

Last night was the Full Moon! I celebrate by cleansing my crystals, cards, and whatever else I feel needs it.

Ready for cleansing!

My cleansing ritual is usually pretty short. I start by lighting some incense, last night I used Frankincense, and I walk around the space to cleanse it. Then I place it in its holder, which is usually in a small box to catch the ashes. I put the ashes in my jar that represents fire on my altar.

To cleanse the crystals, I run each one through the smoke and concentrate on cleansing it of negative energy.

The Tarot cards get a bit more. I separate the cards into each suit and the major arcana, and I order them from lowest to highest. This leaves five piles. Then I run each pile through the incense smoke and focus on cleansing it to help guide my readings in the future.

I also cleansed my Tibetan singing bowl, just because I haven't done it before, and I felt that it needed it. I held the bowl above the incense upside down to catch the smoke in it, and again focused on ridding it of negativity.

Ready to catch some rays!

After cleansing, I move everything over to my window sill to soak in the Full Moon and charge it with good intentions.

I thank the God and Goddess for aiding me in my work, and that's it!

The red liquid in the spray bottles is rose water, which I will be doing a post on in the future.

I hope you had a good Full Moon! Blessed Esbat!

Happy Imbolc and Spread A Day 2!

Hello, and Happy Imbolc! I hope you are enjoying your day.

My Imbolc involved finishing up a Valentine's Day gift to my girl friends, making a Brigid's Cross, cleaning my apartment, tarot, and making a cup of my favorite tea.

My Brigid's Cross

I made my Brigid's Cross out of pipe cleaners because they were cheaper, and I have no idea where to get rushes from.

I found a tutorial on making Brigid's Crosses out of pipe cleaners here:

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-St-Brigid%27s-Cross-with-Pipe-Cleaners

Today I also completed Day 2 of the Spread A Day challenge on Tumblr!

Arcane Mysteries and Ragabash Witch have created a Tarot challenge, which involves doing a Tarot spread each day. My Tarot skills are pretty rusty, so I am using this challenge as an opportunity to improve my reading abilities.

I hope you all have a great Imbolc! What are some things that you did to celebrate?