Guilty Pleasures and The Battle Wages On

Hi and Merry Meet,

This morning while I was running I was thinking about guilty pleasures.... I know, odd to think about when you are running right? I think about lots of strange stuff when I run to keep me from thinking about how many more miles I have to go. I did 6 today in case you were wondering (that's 1/2 of my goal of a half marathon in September!)

So, anyway, I was thinking about my guilty pleasures. My favorite is to put on music when I cook and dance... I am a terrible dancer, but when I'm cooking I think I look great! Of course, that means that my cooking suffers from all the dancing, but I still do it. I will only dance around when I know that no one is looking. It's kind of funny in a way, because my husband will hum songs when he thinks no one can hear him.

The battle of Rabbit Vs. Meds is in day 3! Monkey (the rabbit) is now trying to hid when he sees me and the dreaded meds. However, if I try to trick him with treats, he falls for it. Crazy rabbit! This is his begging for treats face:How can I resist???

What are your guilty pleasures? Come on, you know you have one! ;)

Blessed be,

Autumn

It's Summer Time!!!

Hi and Merry Meet,
Today it *finally* feels like summer!! It is so nice to see the sunshine and have it warm again! No rain is forecasted for today, so I might even go to the beach! I haven't been yet this year, since it hasn't really felt like summer.

My garden is happy to have a whole day to bask in the glow of the sun. All of my herbs are getting huge! My rosemary is starting to look like a bush! My thyme and mint are not so unmanageable yet, but they are also large and in charge out there.

I was able to get some wedding done and make it nice again. With all the rainy days, the weeds have really crept in and started to make themselves comfy. I had to scold them and tell them that they can grow in my yard. The yard is my husband's domain. Mine is the garden. I also pulled out some ivy that was creeping in from my neighbor's yard. I enjoy working out there and it seems like it has been too long since I had to chance to talk with my plants.

As for the rest of the day, well, I am just enjoying being able to be outside complaining that it is too hot! :)
Blessed be,
Autumn

Rabbit Ranting

Hi and Merry Meet,
Last week, I had to take one of our rabbits to the vet. He has a sore foot and I wanted him to get looked at.

What is it about pets and vets??? At home he is all mopey and acting so sad. In the car he is having a tantrum (yes, rabbits have tantrums....). Once I get him inside the vet's office, he acts FINE! However, his foot tells another story. He has licked all the fur off it and so he is now on antibiotics.

Of the four rabbits in this house, giving this one meds is the worst. Look at this sweet face: Trust me, he's not so cute when I have to try and get him to take meds! He's on two different ones... one of them he likes, the other... well, not so much. I think sticking my head in a lion's mouth would be easier then giving that to him.

After that task was completed for the day, I spent the rest of my morning job searching. I'm taking some time off to eat and read, and then back to searching. I have a feeling that my reading today will finish up the Green Witchcraft books. I do enjoy her style and next I plan to read Scott Cunningham's Wicca: For the Solitary Practitioner.

After, dinner, I'll wrestle the beast again for his second dose of meds! Only 9 more days of this fun and excitement. I really do love my rabbits, when I'm not fighting with them! :)
Blessed be,
Autumn

Rainy Day

Hi and Merry Meet,
Today I am enjoying being snuggled up on my couch with a blanket and a book. It just seemed like the perfect thing to do on this rainy day.

Personally, I love rainy days. I love to watch the rain fall and think about how it is so helpful to me (since I don't have to go out and water my garden then :) ). The other day it was a down right down-pour! Today is a light drizzle. I think there is something very relaxing about drizzle. It's kind of a lazy rain and so my mood today is also very lazy.

Other things that I love about the rain is the sound it makes on my house, and the way it cools the air so it is prefect for sleeping. Water is not my strongest element, however, it commands respect when it want to.

In other news, my husband and I are going to visit our families this weekend. It helps a lot that we are both from the same hometown and were high school sweeties. I am looking forward to spending time with my family. We are going to see my brother and his girlfriend this weekend! They just got engaged and I am so excited for them!!! I can't wait to see them and just hang out together.
Enjoy your day!
Blessed be,
Autumn

PS- I will finally get my camera back so I can have some photo updates of my garden and other fun stuff! :)

Divinations

Hi and Merry Meet,
I've talked about the fact that I took a tarot class a while ago. I really love my tarot cards and love to do reading. I have done reading for friends and family. I've also done readings for strangers. I've started to look into other divination techniques. Two of the ones that I have become interested in are pendulums and reading palms.

I got a pendulum a few weeks ago. I cleaned it and consecrated it. We are still learning to work with each other. It's a blood stone and it has a short chain on it. I got it when I went to my hometown. The shop there is really nice and she has a huge inventory. At the shop, this pendulum was the only one that felt right. Once I got it home, we are in our "getting to know you" phase. I think my questions are not clear enough and so it gets confused trying to answer me. That's something I'm working on! I need to focus on making my questions very clear and precise.

As to reading palms, I use to have a book about it when I was a kid. It was a lot more complex then I thought it was. I tried to learn it with that book, but I never got very far. In my reading of Green Witchcraft III, there is a section on reading palms. One of the tasks set by the book are to trace your own hand, draw the lines and then interpret what you see. I think I need more practice with this!

Enjoy your evening! I'm off to watch Torchwood: Children of Earth. Love it!
Blessed be,
Autumn

New Reading

Hi and Merry Meet,
A few days I started reading the book Tarot For The Green Witch by Ann Moura. I really like her writing style and I find it easy to follow.

Tarot is something that I enjoy a lot. Before I did my dedication ceremony, I took tarot classes with a friend of mine. I took them with her so that she would have someone to go with. I never expected to fall in love with it. My first deck was the Gilded Tarot. I love the images of this deck. The class really opened my eyes about tarot. There is a beauty and a connection to it that I think is misunderstood by many people. After taking the beginner class, I had to take the intermediate. It was an amazing class and such a sharing of ideas. We had a professional reader as the instructor, but all of us added our thoughts and ideas. I loved how close knit our class became. I learned as much from my classmates and I did from our instructor! She was the one who recommended the Tarot For The Green Witch book.

This book expands on what I know about tarot and is showing me how to incorporated in my craft practice. She uses several different decks to explain the meanings that she uses for readings. I currently have three decks and would love to expand my collection, however, being unemployed at the moment, expanding is not going to happen right now.

I've only read a few pages so far, but I find her take on tarot very interesting. She shows how the cards really relate to the green witch and how they are not only part of the craft, but how the energies are all around us all the time. She also shows how the major arcana are in pairs and how the energies are interrelated.

Tomorrow I hope to be able to get outside and spend some time in my garden! I haven't been able to do that in a while. Hopefully, the weather will hold!
Blessed be,
Autumn

Magic In The Movies

Hi and Merry Meet,
Today I went to see the new Harry Potter movie with my cousin. I loved it! I'm sure there are those out there who will disagree with me on that point, however, I don't care... I still like it! ;)

Why did I love it? This movie focused on the relationships that make the books so strong. They didn't focus on the classes or spells as much this time. Real magic is so much better than movie magic, so I was glad that they told it more from a relationship story point of view. I enjoyed it even though it differs a bit from the books. I guess to make it fit in the time frame they needed to tweak some plot lines.

When it comes to books being made into a movie, I admit I'm a bit of a purist... I almost always love the book more and feel that after watching the movie that it has ruined my images of the book. I do love good CG, but I like to imagine the characters in my head much more. It makes it more real for me. One very major exception to my books to movies is Queen of The Damned. I love that movie! The book was good, but I loved the movie more. Funny, huh?

Anyways, I hope that if you go and see Harry Potter that you enjoy it. I sure did!
Blessed be,
Autumn

Full Moon Esbat

Hi and Merry Meet,
Last night I celebrated the Full Moon with my own written ritual! I also found a small table in the basement that I can use as a altar! I didn't really have one before... I just used a piece of wood to put my candles and stuff on. It was too small, but it was perfect to start with.

The table was from my husband's grandmother. She used it as a TV table and a magazine rack. Husband said that he thinks his grandma would be happy that someone is using it again. The wood had some history! You can feel it when you touch it!! As part of my ritual I cleaned and consecrated it. It now is up in the spare room that I have claimed as my "Witchy Room". I put a card with a picture of the Goddess Epona on it and some tall white candle sticks on it too. I'm very excited about my first real altar. I'm hoping to find some cool material and make my own altar cloth. I'm excited to change it around with the different seasons!

Last night was very special for me since it was my first ritual that I wrote! I hope that everyone had a happy full moon esbat too!
Blessed be,
Autumn

Today's Thoughts

Hi and Merry Meet,
I feel like this past week I have just fallen off the Earth.... my life has been so busy and full that I haven't had time to sit down!

I hope that everyone had a happy 4th of July. We sure did. My husband's coworker invited us to visit his family at his camp for the weekend. We had a great time! It was nice to hang out and relax. I have to admit that the fireworks show was spectacular! It went for over an hour and then when all was said and done, they would find more... it was a very prolonged final. I love it! We stuffed ourselves with Smores and even had a clam bake. Hubby and I enjoy this family a lot and it was a nice way to spend time together.

Tonight is the full moon, but there are no open circles in my area. That's ok, since I have some things I want to cleans and dedicated to my Craft use. It will also be a good opportunity for me to try writing my own Esbat. I admit I've been a bit dependent on books to help me so far. This past week I took a big step and wrote my first healing spell.

Writing my own rituals and spells is a very big deal to me. I've liked using the books for guidance and help, but I think it is time I stood on my own two feet and see what I can come up with. I am still very new at all this, but I feel like I have grown a lot recently. Medications are starting to get easier and I am able to relax more quickly into them than when I first tried. I know that in my daily life, I have become much more relaxed and peaceful. There is still a lot of stress, but I feel like I am handling it differently and not letting it get to me as much as I was.

Tonight might be cloudy and rainy... no outside Esbat for me.
Blessed be,
Autumn

Cleaning Up!

Hi and Merry Meet,
Today I have adopted the mantra "A clean space makes for a happy witch!" So, with much vigor and passion I pulled out my vacuum and got to work.

I did a bit of house work this morning and then I got side tracked by all the clothes that we own. I started to pull out jeans, shirts, and other things that we haven't worn or don't fit anymore. I know that Spring has passed and I'm a little late to the Spring cleaning fad that people talk about, but I do try to weed out old clothes several times a year.

My hubby, who two days ago joined the gym to get in better shape, has many pairs of jeans that don't fit. Why are we keeping them?? Because he might fit into them again one day.... hummmm.... why not give them to someone who needs them now?

So, my donation bag of clothes has grown over the past few hours as I ransack the house looking for items that can be given to those in need. I am a big believer in Good Will, or Salvation Army stores. I think that they do a great job and people who can't otherwise get clothing can.

I also love to dig though all the stuff and see what kinds of treasures I can find. I found my alter libation bowl at a Good Will a while back. I also found a great set of wooden candle stick holders for my illumination candles. Easy way for me to set up my alter when I don't have a lot of money to spend. Also, I love that all the things I find are unique and individual in some way. It makes them special and they have a good energy about them.

I'm back to vacuuming and dusting after I go though some more stuff!
Blessed be,
Autumn