May 31st, 2006 at 6:13 pm
(Metaphysical, News, Uncategorized, Wild Foods and Medicines)
We had a small storm with a lot of lightning last night. One of the bolts happened to strike a tree in the yard of one of Eloric’s co-workers. The tree was a maple and the explosion was rather impressive as it threw chunks of wood over 80 feet and dented a van that was parked across the street about 45 feet away. We went out after the storms and were allowed to take several large pieces of wood. The largest piece is over 5 feet long, three inches thick in places, and about 5 inches wide at its widest spot. I think I will make talismans, perhaps a wand, and runes. Wood from a tree stricken by lightning is potent magickal material. Just handling the stuff triggered a very interesting and helpful dream for me.
I am in the process of making ginger oil. It takes three days. I’m sure I’ll relate how it went when it’s all over. Hopefully, I come out with around three cups of lovely, warming, yummy-smelling, golden oil for my trouble.
And in other news: Yet more dental horror. I had to go in today and I must go again tomorrow. The root canal I had on Friday is acting up. Between the internets and me- I’m quite tired of going to the dentist.
May 30th, 2006 at 10:52 am
(Thoughts, Wild Foods and Medicines)
I have a little secret that I’ve been keeping for about a week. When everything comes together, I’ll tell all. But it is good and it is shiny and it involves a small bit of fame.
I’ve challenged myself to stop expanding my mineral and crystal collection for four months. I don’t think I’m going to do well at that as I’ve found some holmquistite and some bustamite and those are two minerals I’ve been wanting for quite a while. Perhaps I’m part dragon there somewhere as I happen to have quite a hoard. Not as big as some mineral collectors’ hoards but in quality it is very excellent. It would be nice if I didn’t like stones so well and if stones didn’t like me so well- but what can one do? Apply a little will-power and hope for the best, I guess.
I managed to make dandelion blossom oil yesterday. 2 cups of flowers and enough olive oil to cover, heat very delicately for about half an hour. Very yellow, very beautiful oil. Good for the skin.
May 27th, 2006 at 8:57 pm
(Interstitial Cystitis, News, Uncategorized, Wild Foods and Medicines)
I’ve just been in a reclusive mood lately.
The past two days I’ve had some more dental horror. I had a root canal yesterday that did not get completely numb the first go around. It was not fun. The only part of me now that hurts is my face because of all of the shots he gave me. I swear that two of them went right into my sinuses. My cheek is actually swollen over said sinus. Hurts like hell. But I have something that will take off the pain.
I have been talking with Poke lately to see if I’m meant to work with her this fall. So far I have learned quite a few things from her and have seen her all around town. She has said that you can destroy the body but wisdom is still in the root and the root will regenerate the body. That was after the poke plant in the neighbor’s yard got beaten down by a substandard weed whacker. I like talking to poke. She speaks slowly, more like a tree or a wise elder. And you can be sure I am going to be extremely careful when working with her. That is why I am respectfuly approaching her now to form a relationship for later on. Poke is like Kali. Be good to her, respect her, and she won’t fry you to a cinder. Don’t monkey around with Kali and don’t monkey around with poke.
Other than that, I had an “I’m an idiot” related flare this month, thanks to some grain alcohol. Next month should be better and the month after that, I should be in remission again. Yes it hurt but I am very confident that it was a one shot deal and that I’ll detox or whatever and have my bladder subjugated once again.
May 16th, 2006 at 10:14 pm
(Rants, Witches Weekly)
Have you or anyone you know ever been discriminated against for their beliefs? If so, what was the outcome?
I was sort of hoping this one wouldn’t show up because it brings up a great deal of old garbage for me but I guess once in a while it is good to purge.
Yes, I have been discriminated against by my co-workers, in-laws, and people in the neighborhood. I have had some nasty rumours started about me just because I am not Christian. I have also been villified in my town, been called Satan-worshipper by people who didn’t even know me personally, and have had a crusade to convert me staged by the Baptist church that sits at the end of my block. I have also had a group of friends be discriminated against by the asshatted bigots of their town.
One co-worker told another that I had poisoned her husband, which was why he had so many health problems. The other person then spread around the store than I was a horrible, evil witch and to stay away from me.
I think the worst thing that happened to me was a betrayal of my trust by my sister-in-law, whom I had known my whole life and who I thought was my friend. I had built my first home page, complete with pentacles because I was Wiccan at the time and really dug silver pentacle graphics. She asked if she could see the page- she was sitting beside me at the time- and I brought it up but stopped it from loading the pentacle graphics because I got a bad feeling about what she would say if she had saw them. Hitherto I didn’t think anything of her and my being Wiccan but I just caught a bad vibe off of her, so I made sure she didn’t see the pentacles.
I guess she went home and looked up my page, saw the pentacles and got all rightous and scared. She mailed her sister, who also lives in my town, and together they first mailed all of their friends in town about how I was a horrible, kitten sacrificing, blood-drinking, devout-Christian-cursing W.I.T.C.H. and how it was their Christian duty to go to my guestbook and froth and foam about how it was so sad and terrible that I had “turned [my] back on God”, how they would “pray that [I went] back to Him,” and all sorts of spammy, barf-inducing pap— Because, while I have nothing against Christians practicing their religion, it was clear that the posts were personal attacks as they included personal information about my yard and my pets.
After that I started getting e-mail from my SIL’s brother-in-law. Stupid, third-grader stuff from a man older than I was. At the time I had not realised that my sister-in-law had outted me but it soon became very apparent that she had taken it upon herself to spread it far and wide. I have to say that I was pretty traumatised because I had not outted myself and was going to remain in the broom closet for quite a while longer because I feared the sort of reaction she precipitated against me. I did finally confront her about it but she lied to my face about parts of it and still believes I have no clue it was her- to this day. She did give me the lame excuse that if I were a “real friend” I would have let her see the pentacles- what, and have her go bat-shit insane all the same? A bigot is a bigot is a bigot is a bigot.
SIL said at one point she had “feared that [I] had cursed her because of all of the bad luck [she] was having”– which is par for the course with this type of person, I have found. They don’t want to take any sort of responsibility for their lives so when they can’t blame things on God, they’re perfectly content to blame it on an “evil witch”.
I’ve had kids yell obscene names at me because their parents told them I was a witch. Our house has been paint-balled because of my spirituality. I have also had trees maliciously damaged but not too near the evil witch’s house, as she might ride out on her broomstick and steal the vandals’ souls. It is not fun or nifty to be out in Middle-America, I can tell you. Not in a small town where there are no others to band together with to defend our common interests. The outcome of all of this is that I don’t like to go out alone as I never know whether my neighbors are going to have an old-fashioned lynching- which may sound funny but I have no trust of the people who are younger than 50 here any longer. It’s made me hate most of my neighbors but it keeps them out of the yard for the most part and keeps the Jehova’s Wittnesses away.
Now my friends, in some ways they’ve had it worse. They lived in the county seat and ran a “witch store” there selling all kinds of lovely things, a lot of them handmade. They had books, hand made bessoms and soaps, hand-sewn cloaks and dresses, handmade wreathes, incense, perfume, candles, tea- you name it they had it or they could order it for you. It was a sweet, cozy place with great energy, on the inside, at any rate. But, thanks to the discrimination, not to mention the blantant hatred shown by the townsfolk, it didn’t last a year.
I think I’ve detailed this before but people would leave dead animals on her stoop, mostly small birds. Kids would come in on a dare, thinking that perhaps we might dose them with henbane, drag them into the basement, and turn them into cat food. Adults would come in and ask the most innane questions or come in and begin loudly declaiming Bible verses or preaching. One day when the owner had left me and her daughter to tend the store while she went to a medical appointment, a woman came in, looked straight at me and said- “Do you participate in all of… all of…” wild hand gesture, ” all of this?” her eyes as big as dinner plates. I looked right at her and asked “Are you asking if I am a witch?” If it were possible, her eyes grew bigger and she nodded. “I am multifaith, she is Wiccan,” I said, gesturing to the daughter, “and the owner is Dianic. We are not harming anyone by being here so please, as we are respectful of you, respect us.” She turned around and left, shaking her head.
Someone, if I remember rightly, also smashed in the store’s picture window.
The outcome of that was that my friend moved the store into her house and only has it open by appointment now, if it’s still open. I haven’t talked to her recently.
May 9th, 2006 at 10:13 pm
(Interstitial Cystitis, News, Rants, Wild Foods and Medicines)
This weekend Eloric and I went down to the river again and gathered enough violets- half a pound to be exact- so that I can make violet syrup. We were kind of honked because someone rode a 4 wheeler through our prime violet patch. Tell me- with the price of gas, how the hell can these people afford to rape nature with these things so much? We have to scrimp and save if we’re going to make it to Virginia this year and here these idiots are, zooming around like gas is still seventy-nine cents a gallon.
Anyway. I got suckered into going to a First Communion on the same day. It was. not. fun. Between the 7 year old boy shrilling like a girl on purpose, the month old baby screaming, and the autistic girl screaming and running around (yes, she cannot help it but it didn’t help my pounding sinus headache) my ovaries have turned to dust. And I realise I’ve already claimed that I ovulate sand but this just reaffirmed everything for me. Let other people do it. I’m not. No.
I also got tired of explaining:
1) What Interstitial Cystitis is,
2) Why I am not working at the moment,
3) Why I don’t eat meat,
4) How long and just how sick I’ve actually been.
“So, they finally gave you a day off, eh?” said Eloric’s Grandfather. “No,” I replied, “I have been more or less violently ill for a little over a year and a half. I lost my job and there were days I begged Eloric to run me over with the car, it hurt so bad.” So. That didn’t go over well with the uber-Catholic Grandfather, but I don’t care. I’m still mad at him for helping to ruin my wedding. I don’t give a tinker’s dam whether he approves of my illness or lifestyle and frankly, I didn’t want to be there anyway but we were trapped because we were seen before going to the river. I had to keep telling people over and over and over and over again. I should have fscking prepared leaflets. I don’t care if they understand me- it is fully my intention to avoid them for at least another three years.
I think I am going to go two fields over here shortly and dig myself a poke plant so I can have poke root this late fall. Yes, poke has to be handled carefully. If I doubt myself, I’ll get poke tincture from a repurable natural herbalist.
I would go on and tell about how Eloric found an arrowhead but I am in a very nasty mood and I don’t want to write anymore.
May 3rd, 2006 at 4:08 pm
(Eat Your Yard, Nature, Thoughts, Wild Foods and Medicines)
I got up rather early this morning and went through the yard picking plantains. I had never realised until a few weeks or so ago that those “weeds” in my yard are really good for your skin.
Plantain “helps relieve skin and scalp irritations, reduce inflammation heal minor injuries. Plantain oil is well tolerated by any type of skin and traditionally was utilized as a restorative and anti-aging skin remedy. It was used to nourish and treat sensitive, irritated skin and scalp, help restore injured or tired skin and for daily revitalizing treatment. Plantain oil is also believed to be helpful in the treatment of conditions of mucous membranes”.
“Plantain infusion (tea) can also be used as a soothing wash for sunburn, windburn, rashes, or wounds.”
And- say it with me- it’s free! *snort*
So naturally, I started an entire quart of plantain oil this morning for use during the winter when my skin does unkind, bumpy, itchy things. It’s sort of strange to start thinking of winter when its barely spring but you can only harvest certain herbs in the spring and some of them are quite useful over the winter, so here I am. It’s a nice way to get outside and a nice way to commune with nature, even if all the nature you can get to is your yard. Plantain grows absolutely everywhere and is available from early spring to first frost.
I dunno but while I was out in the yard, I began to feel extremely thankful that I had convinced Eloric not to spray the yard this year. And I mean I felt thankful towards the plants and the yard for supplying me with all of these wonderful herbs I can use to keep myself and Eloric healthy. I felt like the plants had come to be in the yard because I needed them and they knew it. Sounds kooky, I know- but I don’t care, people go on about worse, I’m sure. My yard is a magical place and I wish I could spend more time in it without being bothered by the neighbors gunning their ATVs, shrieking, the stink of kennel, or loud country music (or any loud music, for that matter) blareing from one of the houses on the block.
May 3rd, 2006 at 11:19 am
(Witches Weekly)
Several traditions believe in honoring ancestors and those that have passed before us. Do you honor your ancestors and if so, what types of things do you do to honor them?
I’m not very big on ancestor worship. I do honor them several times a year with extra offerings and, naturally on Samhain. I just usually find myself thinking about my grandparents, particularly my maternal grandfather, and telling them that I love them. Maybe once in a while I do a kenning, again, with my maternal grandfather, because I hardly got to know him but still miss him horribly. I don’t like to talk about it much as it gets me too worked up.
As for far-off ancestors… sometimes I leave food offerings in the forest or pour out some milk or tea for them. I know they’re how I got here but honestly, I don’t do much. I try to respect my ancestors and elders and to live in a way that I believe would honor them.
May 1st, 2006 at 12:01 pm
(Nature, Wild Foods and Medicines)
Or something. I just have been too blah to be bothered to update.
My vegan experiment was a total BOMB. I’m not sure why, whether it was lack of protien or calories, though I was eating vegetable protien like it was a holy obligation and eating often. I just couldn’t concentrate and felt like crap. So I’m not cut out to be vegan right now. I’m at peace with that. I’ll just cut down on dairy instead. Although cutting down on eggs would be much easier.
We went herb gathering and hiking up by the river on Thursday. I got my first nettle sting from being stupid and careless but at least I know what they’re like now. If we had had the paper, we would have made a map of all of the fruit trees from Eloric’s father’s house to the bridge but we weren’t thinking. We were also going to ford the river but it was a little too high and bone-chillingly cold. I picked about a quart of violet blossoms for extract and syrup. I think we’re going up again soon, hopefully to camp a few times before the kids get out of school… because we like our privacy 
While we were hiking, at the absolute furthest point away from civilization, Eloric announces: “Unnnhhhh, I think I’m gonna puke!” and sits down on a large boulder. I frantically dig through the backpack he’s wearing because I don’t want him to puke in the river or all over the springs. He sits there, looking pale and pathetic while I wade along the edge of the river and alternately moisten my bandana in the trickling springs for him to wipe his face with. Finally, after half an hour or so, he announces that he can walk and we go back to where we had the cooler stashed- about 3 miles. He eats a bananna and is miraculously better.
Other than that, we had another bout of some sort of stomach bug, bananna-resistant, which lasted 24 hours. Probably some contamination somewhere.
Later today, I’m hoping to make violet leaf and flower extracts and violet syrup. We’ll see how that goes… especially since I have nowhere to put the syrup. Maybe I can bum some canning jars from my mother until I can order some from Mountainrose Herbs…
cats, 
