R.Brian Rueby November, 2010

Natures

Nature art is all of those fun and inexpensive art projects that are forgotten in today’s instant society. This is the type of thing that can go from creating artwork to seasonal edibles. The list is endless, yet so many people stay with the lets run down to the store attitude, when nature hands us so much to play with.

Today people run to the craft stores to buy a rubber stamp for all occasions, but what if instead you go to your kitchen. Pull out a potato, cut it in half so you have two pieces and taking a paring knife or any thin bladed knife for fine details and slice out the area you don’t want to print. Brush out a thin layer of paint onto a piece of wax paper or any other container that you may have around. Now you have your rubber stamp and ink pad.

Action food is another fun craft that entertains and feeds you through nature’s foods is the volcano. Take an apple and core it, removing all the seeds, set it aside and throw the core away. Now open a package of instant oatmeal and squeeze some butter all over it. Once you get a nice gooey mess stuff it inside the apple. Place the stuffed apple onto a microwave safe bowl uncovered into a microwave. Turn it on high and watch through the closed door until the oatmeal mixture will boil out of the top like lava and pour down the sides. Remove the bowl and after a little while as it cools the apple is ready to eat. This works best in a carrousel style microwave.

Zen gardens are an excellent form of meditation and centering of your energies. It is the sandbox of the mind. Start with smoothed sand in any convenient container. A rake or stylus depending on size of the container is then lightly dragged through the sand to create patterns as you empty your mind of thought. The flow of the rake is a reflection of your emptying thoughts. Rocks, pebbles, beads are all items that can be found on the surface to add to the design. These blocks are like roadblocks in your life, if seen and brought into the flowing design of the rake it can slide around them and add to the design instead of break it. It isn’t the design that makes the Zen Garden so beautiful, but the relaxation and flow that comes to you when you empty your mind and let nature enter it.

Crafts

• Thrifting the WitchyWay

can bring you back to nature, if you let them. A good craft is one that you enjoy and helps you relax. The world of today is filled with stress and high tech pressures. You may think your texting and video games are relaxing you, although, really all they do is create their own stress of winning or waiting for the response creates its own stress.

To close your mind to it all and let it empty of everything as you release yourself to natures influence is very rewarding. Do not think the first time you use a release like the Zen Garden it will bring the rewarding total release that you may expect. Like any craft, it is the practice that brings you to higher achievements and rewards. Learn to relax, and enjoy what nature is able to bring you.

Tags: apple, crafting, potato, stamps, zen garden

• Crafts

Boudicca Andarta September, 2009

Balance Through the Sacred Apple

One of the fruits most associated with the Autumnal Equinox is the apple.  You can use it as an altar decoration or as part of your Sabbat feast.  This versatile yet average-every-day-fruit has some very ancient magickal roots.

The Apple Tree is associated with the goddess, most specifically Ishtar, Aphrodite (Venus), Hera, Athena, Freya, Cerridwen, Pamona and Idunna.  The Greek Pamona and the Norse Idunna are perhaps the best known for their sacred, magickal apples.  Pamona was considered both a Hamadryad (a wood nymph) as well as a goddess while Idunna was a maiden goddess of the earth.  Pamona as the goddess of the apple tree tended a sacred grove of them while Idunna was in charge of the Golden Apples that maintained the immortality of the Norse pantheon.  Due to its magickal correspondences, the apple is also associated with Venus (Aphrodite) as it is a fruit of the element of water and when sliced cross-wise, it reveals to you the pentagram or the Star of Knowledge, the same shape that the planet Venus makes as it travels through the skies.

The pentagram that resides within the apple is called the Star of Knowledge is because according to Druidic lore, the apple tree is the keeper of all knowledge, and since ancient times, the apple has been a symbol of love, fertility, magick and wisdom.  These markings also represent the womb of the Mother Earth Goddess, from whom we come from and to whom we must return.

It is also a Faery Tree, so make sure to plant one in your yard as an invitation to them.  When picking apples for the Autumnal Harvest, make sure to leave a few hanging on the tree to show respect to the Faeries, the spirit of the tree as well as the Mother Earth Goddess.

THE SPELL

This is a very simple spell; you only need an apple (Golden is preferred, but not required) and a knife to cut it.  Make sure to wash your apple before using it magickally!

Either create sacred space or cast a magick circle in the tradition or style of your choice.

Standing at your altar, hold the apple up to the Gods and say:

“Fruit of the Faery Tree;

Symbol of love and fertility,

Symbol of magick and wisdom,

Keeper of the sacred pentagram.”

Cut the apple cross-ways to expose the Star of Knowledge and then say:

“Fruit of the Tree of the Goddess;

Pamona, Indunna and Venus,

Keeper of the apples of gold,

Containing wisdom ancient and old.”

Take a bite of the apple slice, making sure to notice its watery goodness and taking in the sustenance.  Say:

“I take Your wisdom within me,

Nourish my mind and soul fully.

Show me the way, guide my path,

So I may be serious, but also laugh.

At this time of equal night and day,

I am balanced in every way.”

Close your eyes and meditate as to how to be bettered balanced in all aspects of your life. Contemplate as to how to give equal time to the different hats that you wear In both your mundane and spiritual life.  Ask Pamnona, Idunna and Venus to share Their wisdom with you.  When done, say:

“My thanks to the apple Goddess,

At this moment, I am blessed.

For the good of all and harm to none,

So say I, so shall it be done.”

Place the remaining apples outside as an offering to the Faeries!

SOURCE: Autumn Equinox: The Enchantment of Mabon by Ellen Dugan

Tags: apple, autumn, ellen dugan, equinox, mabon, Spell

• Spells & Rituals