{"id":12038,"date":"2016-01-01T01:10:08","date_gmt":"2016-01-01T06:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=12636"},"modified":"2015-12-21T10:26:56","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T15:26:56","slug":"thriftcrafting-witching-on-a-budget-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2016\/01\/01\/thriftcrafting-witching-on-a-budget-23\/","title":{"rendered":"ThriftCrafting: Witching on a Budget"},"content":{"rendered":"

Holiday sales<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"ornamentsw\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0Merry meet.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Just as you may have stocked up on witch hats and black napkins after Halloween to save for next Samhain, look among the post-Christmas sale items for things that will be at home next Yule, as well as for other sabbats and rituals. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I have a black bear that sat on my altar for half a year while I did a ritual using bear medicine; it returns there from time to time. There<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/span>s a polar bear, too, that walks across my altar especially around my birthday <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2013 <\/span><\/span><\/span>both as the representation of one of my animal guides and of a yearling polar bear, shot by a native on Baffin Island the month I was born and sold to an Airman who gave it to his sister <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2013 <\/span><\/span><\/span>my mother <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2013 <\/span><\/span><\/span>that now resides with me. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Both these bears began their life as Christmas tree ornaments. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span><\/span>s also a spider in a web and a cornhusk woman gotten long before I was on a pagan path <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2013 <\/span><\/span><\/span>both also Christmas tree ornaments; both also used in ritual. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

After the holidays, when ornaments are typically half price or less, consider looking for ones that can serve other purposes in your Craft. Moons, stars and suns. Cats. Fairies. Angels. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>A star can serve as a pentacle. Birds can call East. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I picked up clear glass bulbs in several sizes, on sale after Christmas one year, and filled them to represent the elements: milkweed seeds and feathers for air, red chili peppers for fire, shells for water and tiny pinecones for earth. They hang on my tree, but there<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span>s no reason they can<\/span><\/span><\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/span>t also hang from the light fixture in the dining room when witches gather around the table below it. Those same clear balls can also be used to hold the ingredients of a spell.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

And next year, consider decorating your Yule tree with objects that began their life as something else: shells, small grapevine wreaths, ribbon, cookie cutters, keys, toys, dolls, animals, pinecones, crystals, jewelry, buttons, frames holding portraits of family or deities, popcorn and cranberries, or dried fruits and flowers.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Merry part.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

And merry meet again.<\/em> <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holiday sales   \u00a0Merry meet. Just as you may have stocked up on witch hats and black napkins after Halloween to save for next Samhain, look among the post-Christmas sale items for things that will be at home next Yule, as well as for other sabbats and rituals. I have a black bear that sat on my altar for half a year while I did a ritual using bear medicine; it returns there from time to time. There\u2019s a polar bear, too, that walks across my altar especially around my birthday \u2013 both as the representation of one of my animal guides and of a yearling polar bear, shot by a native on Baffin Island the month I was born and sold to an Airman who gave it to his sister \u2013 my mother \u2013 that now resides with me. Both these bears began their life as Christmas tree ornaments. There\u2019s also a spider in a web and a cornhusk woman gotten long before I was on a pagan path \u2013 both also Christmas tree ornaments; both also used in ritual. After the holidays, when ornaments are typically half price or less, consider looking for ones that can serve other purposes in your Craft. Moons, stars and suns. Cats. Fairies. Angels. A star can serve as a pentacle. Birds can call East. I picked up clear glass bulbs in several sizes, on sale after Christmas one year, and filled them to represent the elements: milkweed seeds and feathers for air, red chili peppers for fire, shells for water and tiny pinecones for earth. They hang on my tree, but there\u2019s no reason they can\u2019t also hang from the light fixture in the dining room when witches gather around the table below it. Those same clear balls can also be used to hold the ingredients of a spell. And next year, consider decorating your Yule tree with objects that began their life as something else: shells, small grapevine wreaths, ribbon, cookie cutters, keys, toys, dolls, animals, pinecones, crystals, jewelry, buttons, frames holding portraits of family or deities, popcorn and cranberries, or dried fruits and flowers. Merry part. And merry meet again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12038\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}