Samhain

October 31st is Samhain, and as I am someone who thrives in the colder temperatures, and with a passion for ice and snow, this festival is special to me in that it heralds the reign of Cailleach Bheur, The Queen of Winter and foremost representation of the Hag Goddess. In myth and legend she is an old woman, blue faced and in black rags carrying a staff, and with a crow on her left shoulder. She can be bad temper and dangerous to people. Her rule ends at Beltane (May 1st,)
On a magical and meditational level I work with the crone in her guise as either Cailleach Bheur or as Cerridwen. Both have overlapping aspects and correspondances. Generally, however, Cailleach Bheur reigns with pre-eminence from Samhain to Imbolc. Imbolc is when Cerridwen dominates my witchshed - my little 6x4 garden shed.

I generally work little magic through Cailleach Bheur, who is more a personification of the winter months and snow clad hills rather than a working deity. If I do have special magic and rites I wish to work during these months, then I will call on her, but that isn't often. Most of my work is held until Imbolc when the crone Cerridwen, who represents prophecy, magic and transformation is established for me.

The Old Woman of Beara

‘Tis many a day

since I sailed on youth’s bay

year on year has scored my flesh

since my fresh sweet strength went grey.

Many a day

I have been as cold as they;

even in the sun I wear my shawl;

age has put me too away….

A poor old woman, let me be;

the eyes are dark that were so fair;

the glittering ones I slept with pass

and leave me to the dark and prayer….

Happy island of the main,

to you the tide returns again,

but to me it comes no moreover the deserted shore.
Seeing, I can scarcely say“Here is such a place”; today

what was water far and wide

changes with the ebbing tide.

--From "The Lament of the Old Woman of Beara", anonymous, ca 10th century.

Translated by Frank O'Connor (1903-1966

Healing time

I had some surgery about 3 weeks ago and will be sitting around at home for a couple of months. I get bored easily, especially if incapacitated, so the weeks are going to be filled with tedium. I have had a lot of support from my 3 best mates on UK Pagan. I suppose my time is best being filled with reading as well as getting a bit involved in a Wiccan online course. The interesting fact is that I found this:
http://www.magickaschool.com/index.php
as a result of making enquiries for a friend, she wasn't interested but I became so!!
I am not a Wiccan at heart, I dont like a structured state, which is how I see it, but I think it is good to take the lessons and exams just for the knowledge.

I am interested in the tarot course for much the same reason. I use the tarot as a focus when I am reading with a subject, I let the cards and their positions speak to me rather than me attempting to interpret them, so again, from a history and understanding their background, the tarot course is quite interesting.

Such a grey and murky old day and the best you can say is 'it might rain or it might not'

Mabon - 22nd September

There were three men came out of the West
Their fortunes for to try
And these three men made a solemn vow
John Barleycorn must die.





According to the Wheel Of The Year it is Mabon, the second harvest, a festival with the enduring image of the burning of the wicker man.

This might look like an echo of human sacrifice as popularised by the film of the same name, but this isn't the case. It is the ritual cremation of the body of the corn god.
And as with many festivals, as well as being a time of ending Mabon is a time of new beginnings, of fresh starts.

This festival doesn't figure much in my calender in the traditional sense. For me it is important as acknowledging the first chilly breath of Beira and the approaching rule of the Winter Queen. I am sat this morning with my first of the seasons winter clothes, and this morning when I got out of bed I gave my first thought to the Winter crone.

I will attend my small bedroom altar and decorate it with the traditional signs of Autumn, pine cones, fallen leaves and twigs. I cannot do much tomorrow as I am away or else I would have taken a walk in the woods

Here is a link for a fuller explanation of the tradition of Mabon, rather than the individualistic style of Hillwitch:
http://crystalforest3.homestead.com/Mabon.html

They ploughed, they sowed, they harrowed him in
Threw clods all upon his head
And these three men made a solemn vow
John barleycorn was Dead.

In English folklore the most popular figure is John Barleycorn, a character representing the crop of barley harvested each autumn, and, as importantly, symbolizes the drink which can be made from barley, beer and whiskey. In the traditional folksong, John Barleycorn endures all kinds of indignities, most of which correspond to the cyclic nature of planting, growing, harvesting, and then death.

They let him stand for a very long time
Till the rains from heaven did fall
Then little Sir John's sprung up his head
And so amazed them all
They let him stand till the Midsummer Day
Till he grew both pale and wan
Then little Sir John's grew a great, long beard
And so become a man.

They hire'd men with scythes so sharp
To cut him off at the knee.
They bound him and tied him around the waist
Serving him most barb'rously.They hire'd men with their sharp pitch-forks
To prick him to the heart
But the drover served him worse than that
For he's bound him to a cart.

They rolled him around and around the field
Till they came unto a barn
And these three men made a solemn mowOf poor John Barleycorn
They hire'd men with crab-tree sticks
To strip him skin from boneBut the miller, served him worse than that,
For he's ground him between two stones.

Here's Little sir John in the nut-brown bowl
And brandy in the glass
But Little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl's
Proved the stronger man at last
For the hunts man he can't hunt the fox
Nor cheerily blow his horn
And the tinker, can't mend Kettle or pot
Without a little Barleycorn

Blessed Be!

To the memory of a special and very gifted woman.

I knew Shelagh for 18 years before she passed into the Summerland in 2000. She awakened my awareness to a much wider existance than the everday world we are consciuously aware of.

I met her in 1982 and within weeks of meeting we were spending more and more time discussing a variety of spiritual and paranormal subjects, which is funny really because we had met as a result of our mutual interest in Ancient Rome but now a subject increasingly taking a back seat as I developed a voracious appetite for the vast library of books she owned. The emphasis on witchcraft, but there was also a great deal concerning Spiritualism, Theosophy, Buddhism, etc, as well as a great many on herbs and natural remedies, tarot, palmestry, astrology and much, much more besides.

I was soon identifying with much of what I read. I had looked into a number of spiritual paths that had interested me at various times in my life, Islam, Christianity, Shinto. But nothing had held my attention in the way hedgewitchery and wicca was.

Something resonated deep within me, making me want to learn more and more.

Shelagh then began to tell me about when she had been a Wiccan high priestess some years before. There was some aspects she could not tell me because of certain secrecy vows she had taken, and these I respected so didn't press her, anyway, I wouldn't have needed to, what she taught me was plenty enough. She had developed away from the coven, becoming a solitary witch. I took a great interest and in time she started to teach me practical aspects such as plant identification and uses they could be put to.

She introduced me to the local spiritualist church where I began to develop my own psychic gifts.

My deepest regret was that I was not with her when Shelagh passed over. Personal issues had put strains on our partnership and in turn I wandered from the path of The Goddess. I returned a couple of years ago and am working to cover lost ground and forgotten knowledge.

This entry is my tribute to her and the gift she has given me.

Compassion for Ian Brady?

I think it is an insult!!

The 71-year-old child killer is currently held in Ashworth High Security Hospital, Merseyside.
But after being force-fed following a series of hunger strikes, he has appealed for a switch so he can die in Scotland, the country of his birth.
Brady's lawyer Giovanni di Stefano said his client had been encouraged by the return of Abdelbaset al Megrahi to Libya last month.
He told the Daily Record newspaper: "There is no reason Brady should not return to his own country just like Mr al Megrahi did.
"The attitude regarding mental health in Scotland is perhaps somewhat diverse to the UK.
"I have told Brady that he may well achieve his goal by being transferred there."
Mr Di Stefano hopes to have Brady moved under the Repatriation of Prisoners Act 1984.
Brady, who was born in Glasgow, was jailed alongside Myra Hindley in 1966 for murdering five children in the Manchester area in the 1960s.

Every time I go through the bleak and soulless Saddleworth Moor I think of poor little Keith Bennet still out there in an unmarked grave. Not even buried, just dumped in a hole. I think of the grief of his poor mother, and the efforts this tortured has made to prise the location from this beast and his demoness of a lover.

To comply with any wish of Brady's would be an act of betrayal to Keith's mother. I can understand al Megrahi being released, after all, who wouldn't rank diplomacy a greater priority than a plane full of human lives?

What is our justice system becoming? Even in the small area of it I work I have seen it eroded over the last 30 years. burglars and shoplifters are laughing at the cops and the courts, they treat people like me as just a minor nusiance knowing if we catch them bugger all will happen and they can stroll into another shop and try their luck tomorrow.

Civil respect from everybody, young and old has gone down the pan. kids treat everyone else like shit and the old folk speak and make demands like everything is simply their right.

A New Venture

I am a 51 year-old female and Buddhist principled Celtic pagan witch. That is quite a lot to get your head round, I know, but basically it means that while I practice my art I am always mindful that I do not cast any magic that will cause any lasting harm to life - dispensing a warning shot isn't the same thing and if justified is perfectly ok. I am a strong believer in Karma, the law of what you so shall you reap, so I know that any deliberate harm will only weigh against me at some future date or future life.
I have never kept a blog before, aside from one built into a pagan forum I am a member of, I just thought it might be fun to try one of these things from scratch, who knows, maybe it'll be the start of something big. Or maybe it will fizzle out and die.
The lack of photos at this point is because my camera was part of a haul when our house was broken into a few weeks ago.