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  The homestead is abuzz, quite literally, as I’ve released some three thousand ladybugs in to feast on the gray aphids.  Calendula heads are clipped and their vine-dried seeds harvested. Bunches of oregano, thyme and rosemary are hanging to dry.  Lavender and fennel are deflowered, hibiscus blossoms in their natural wrappers are almost ready for the teapot and honeysuckle flowers are twining their golden arms around each other on the rack. The drying room is filled with intoxicating odors and I have already begun to blend them for next year’s ritual incense.  My favorite season of all is just about here – Autumn. I’m reflecting once again on the year…

Dress code   A few weeks ago I joined a discussion in a pagan Facebook-group about ‘what pagans/witches wear’. Almost at the same time I was asked to do a photo-shoot ‘as a witch’ so to speak. I really didn’t get it. Pagans are normal people that wear whatever they feel like. Do clothes make the witch? I don’t think so. Well, not in my case anyway… In my daily life I don’t dress ‘witchy’, whatever that may be. I’m most comfortable in jeans and a shirt (warm weather) or jeans and a sweater (cold weather). After some reading and asking around I found out what was meant by ‘witchy’…

    Magnetic Meditation Take three slow, deep breaths. Feel warm white light like a sun shining only for you, pouring over your body, burning away stress and fear, awakening love and peace. See the Universe, and yourself in it, as a billion suns of different sizes and colors, sending out flares of energy and receiving flares of the same color in return. Some of the flares are so dark you can barely tell they are light.  Some flares are tiny, others huge.  But they are all returned in kind. What color of energy do you want to attract in your life?  Make your sun send out more of that…

In the Craft we pray to be reincarnated with our loved ones, “that we may meet, and know each other, and love again.”  This refers not just to members of our genetic family, but to those rare friendships we make a few times in any lifetime, when we meet someone with whom we feel an immediate sympathy and a natural trust and openness.  These meetings are very mysterious. They seem to take place between people who have known each other before; there is a déjà vu quality about them.  Sometimes romantic love is involved, and then we seem to have met our soul-mate, the reflection of our inner being right…

I can tell you what is real to me, I can tell you what it is that I see. It may be hard for you to understand, just believe in me as you take my hand.   There’s a power in the bond that we share, there are so many reasons why we care. It may seem strange, even quite unreal, just have faith in what you feel.   Listen to the sounds the silence holds, be aware as knowledge starts to unfold, just sit back, let it come to you, don’t worry about what you have to do.   For each of us has a time and place, we…

Victorian Mourning Rituals        The Victorian Era, 1837 – 1901, brought us some of the most interesting rituals when it came to honoring the dead and ensuring the proper release of the spirit.      Due to tuberculosis, pneumonia, and other infections, death came often.  Unfortunately a high number of children also passed, some before their first birthday.      When a death occurred, the mirrors in the home were covered to ensure the spirit of the deceased didn’t get trapped or confused upon leaving the body.  If a mirror in the home fell and broke, it was considered a sign that another death was about to occur.  The clocks were…

    “When Fantasy Meets Reality: The Conjuring” Another old-school horror movie hit the theatres last month called The Conjuring, and it’s doing remarkably well as far as the horror genre goes; but unlike many flicks that are cookie-cutter yarns using the same tired formula, this one is- at least in part- based on a actual events involving real people and two iconic pioneers in paranormal research- Edward and Lorraine Warren.   Half marketing ploy, half respectful homage, the producers of The Conjuring hype the “based on a true story” aspect, but the names Ed and Lorraine Warren have been well known long before this movie’s release to those who’ve made…

Inspiration in the Badlands “An artist’s duty is rather to stay open-minded and in a state where he can receive information and inspiration. You always have to be ready for that little artistic Epiphany.” —Nick Cave, Australian musician I’ve just spent the week in the badlands of North Dakota on a work trip to collect Late Cretaceous fossils for a new exhibit at the museum. I didn’t expect to be going on a week long artist date. I found myself surrounded by sculpted buttes striped in orange, brown, cream, and purple. There has been a lot of rain this year, so we can add more green to the palette than…

Welcome to Jade Owl’s Cottage   Happy Lughnassadh!!! The month of August brings us the 1st of three months of harvesting and putting up what we have spent the spring and early summer planting and fiercely tending. Of course, depending on where you live in the world, you have already started in late June and thru July; however the bulk of it begins now. This month I will start discussing how I harvest, dry, and put up my herbs, flowers, and what veggies I plant. I have a recipe for candies flowers, herbal waters, and a couple of my favorite summer recipes. Of course I will throw in some homey…

Are you cyclically confused? In a ceremonial quandary? Completely clueless? Wonder no more.                  *Ask Your Mama™                Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Spirituality and Didn’t Know Who to Ask™   A Question of Self Nurturing   Dear Mama Donna, I have been caring for other people for so long that I don’t think I know how to take care of myself. Whenever I think of some self-care rituals, I fly off to some nebulous airy mental space and lose my resolve. I need to be able to root myself in the physical plane and know that I can keep my feet on…