Abymsal Witch – Episode 5

Last night I did a ritual to say farewell to my friend.  I recorded a podcast episode right afterwards (so that I would remember what I had done) as I thought some of you might find such a ritual interesting and/or helpful someday.

Above is the altar (or part of it).  I think it’s pretty.  But then, candlelight makes most things lovely.  Following is a picture of the inside of the offering bowl (for a description of what is in it and what it was used for, you’ll need to listen to the podcast).

Sometimes we need to remember to not just drink from life, but sniff it, too.  Scent is a powerful tool, but that is a topic for another day.

Take care of yourselves, and those around you.

~Abysmal Witch

Stoner Report – Nirvana Quartz

I touch it, and there is peace.

I hold it and the universe opens wider.

A quiet universe, full of patience, full of time.

Nirvana quartz is from the Himalayas, quartz that lay underneath a glacier for thousands of years.  It has been roughened, cut, changed by the ice.  And now the ice has receded and the results of its passage are revealed.

The feeling of it is of love and peace, but not the simple love of rose quartz.  It has been tested, changed, tempered.  Its colour is subtle and its effects as relentless as the ice that shaped it.

It has known heights and depths.  It has been buried into darkness and found its own inner light.

It has been outside of time and only recently revealed to us.  It is the gift of a higher spirit, reaching out a hand to lift us up.

I adore this stone.

Monster Bush – Fear the Wisteria!

If you look into this picture:

You’ll see a couple of branches that make up the trunk of this plant.  Four weeks ago, that’s all there was.  Three branches coming off the trunk of this evil plant, no longer than what you see in this picture.

I’d taken this chinese wisteria tree and hacked it down to nothing.  I figured it had had it’s time, and I needed the real estate it was taking up.  It was spindly at the top, hasn’t flowered in years.  And I was tired of it trying to crawl up INTO my building.  It was sending up these long questing tendrils in search of a new home, a crack, or anything it can crawl into or latch onto.

Four weeks ago, that’s all it was.  Bare, dead looking wood.  But hey, I thought, I’ll water it anyways.

Two weeks ago it was liberally studded with unfurling leaf buds.  Wow, the damn thing won’t die, I thought.

Now it looks like this:

And I think, holy over zealous tree, batman!  And do you see the tendrils climbing up the window?  Seeking some new place to sneak into and take over.

To hell with bamboo, fear the wisteria!  It will take over the world. It will crawl into any crevasse.  And it can not be killed.  Fear it and you may survive.

~Abysmal Witch

Oh, gods, I think it’s grown while I’ve typed!

Stoner Report: Dragonfly Over Marsh

Hello!  Yes, I feel very excited about sending out a greeting.  Perhaps I spent too much time on my own these past several days.  Perhaps?  Okay, fine, I obviously did.  Further evidenced by this arguing of my multiple personalities.

Right, back to the blog post.

I’m adding a new semi-regular blog topic:  The Stoner Report

It will highlight certain stones that I’ve picked up over the years, some that are simply pretty, some that I use in more magical ways.  To kick this off I’m starting with a pretty one.  Oh, so pretty…

This is a rutilated smoky quartz, I believe.  The inclusions at the bottom strongly resemble reeds in a marsh and the flaw (or whatever the proper term is for the plane of visible crystal) about a third down from the top can resemble a dragonfly hovering over the reeds.  The piece has been cut and polished from its natural state and is about 4 inches high.

Magically it would be easy to work with this piece for connecting with or working with some aspect of marshes, the quiet, the life-filled land, liminal boundaries, fecundity.  I haven’t worked with it magically as of this time but I have it in my living room window and look at it on a very regular, enjoyable basis.

This Stoner Report has been brought to you in part by the wonderful selecting abilities of Stone Haven Gems, which is where I purchased it.

~Abysmal Witch

Sheer Abandon

Mason, my handsome grey brat of a boy cat, has this way of falling asleep on me that I adore…and feel just a tad envious of.

He doesn’t just stretch out across me.  It’s like he throws himself into the most flaked out, relaxed, expansive position across me that he can.

His limbs are draped over mine, limp as noodles.  His body is flopped between my calves with a leg draped over my ankle and another over my knee.

I don’t think he could be more relaxed if he tried.  But more than that, he has entirely relaxed into his space.  It’s not just that his body is limp, it’s that he’s so utterly at ease within the entire context of his world.  Or in other words, he ain’t passed out from drugs or a knock to the head or a desperate need for sleep, he’s just that completely, utterly comfortable in his skin and where his skin is.

He has put himself into the moment with sheer abandon and no concern for when the moment may end.

Lucky brat.

~Abysmal Witch

p.s. I just had to share this other picture.  He loves this little sleep tent so much that he’ll sleep in it, on it and occasionally he’ll crawl in under it.  Yes, voluntarily.  I certainly wouldn’t try putting him there.  As you can see, even his brother thinks he’s a tad nuts.

Beltaine Excursion

This Beltaine my covenmate and I hightailed it, okay we ambled casually, over to Queen E park in Vancouver.

A beautiful place and highly welcoming.  The nature wights of the place were actually a bit confused as to why we’d bother to ask permission to do ritual there.  Don’t get me wrong, they appreciated the courtesy, but they’re so welcoming they just never worry about such things.

And yes, spring flowers were certainly the bloom of the day.  The number of hyacinths was remarkable, sending an intense wave of sweet scent over the whole park.  I love getting up close and personal with flowers, I’m guessing that’s obvious by my picture style.  In one case I got so close I was inside the flower:

Being Vancouver there were the odd markers of recent rain:

Now it wasn’t all flowers, all the time.  There were plenty of trees for us to commune with.  Many tall, straight and fair.  And some of them curlier than…well, the phrase that comes to mind is a bit rude and gives also the wrong impression so without further ado, one of the curly trees.

After touring the grounds and doing our magical thing, we headed into the Bloedel Conservatory which is in the middle of the park.  There was talk about closing it last year as part of a series of budget cuts, but so far it’s still there.  Inside there was another stream, a lot of tropical plants and trees, well labeled actually which was lovely, a display by the local orchid society and a selection of tropical birds.

There was some truly remarkable orchids, but I think my favourite were these ones.  First because of the colour and second because they made me think of two high society ladies discussing passerbys.

As we were heading towards the door we were greeted by yet another bird, this one who was kind enough to let me take his picture while he kept his eye on us.  Right up until the little kid came wandering up and then he was out of there!

And that, my dear lovelies, was the end of our ritual day.  From there it was lunch, a little metaphysical book (mostly window) shopping, and then a lacsidaisical drive home through the gorgeous sunshine.

Happy May Day to all!  And to all a great night.

Snuggling with my Baby Girl

Long day.  Good day.  Hard day.  With cramps and a headache as my very own personal cherry top.

And so I did the only thing possible.  I spent an hour cuddling with my baby on the couch (Two and a Half Men in the background for some light entertainment).

I got to be the pillow.  This was a good thing.

Stillness

I sit, quiet and still. I wonder not. I sit and welcome in the lines of dark branches. They sway entangled with each other against the gray of a sky that knew both night and snow.

I sit and sway, quiet. I have drunk in the stillness of the shaded pond and have become. Life swimming, swirling, snogging below the surface within me. But I remain still. And think of it not.

I live and sway, quiet. I need not. Not of things, not of thoughts, not of what has passed nor possibilities.

Stillness

Samhain Memories

Okay, yes, I’m a little slow, but hey, I have at least one silly story and some fun pictures to share.  Like this one

It was a fabulous night.  I and my covenmate got together early in the day, where early still means afternoon.  After all, I’m just not that much of a morning person.  Our first stop of the night was to pick  up meal, snack and mead provisions.

I will say now, the mead didn’t make it.  It was my first attempt.  Our eyes glistened with sadness.  It was horrible.

Okay, phew, got that hard part over with.

While most of what we did I won’t be sharing (sshhhh, it’s a coven secret LOL really most of it was only interesting to us), the start of the night was sharably entertaining.

As twilight fell we attempted to leave my apartment to go visit Grandma Willow and do our first ritual of the night.  Yes, attempted to leave. We were a tad inebriated.  It was fabulous, don’t get me wrong, but it led to a few false starts.  But I’m slightly ahead of myself.

We bundled up, all nice and cozy and warm for an evening of walking.  I’ve got my long, black wool diva coat on (others have described it that way, it’s not my own label! lol), my Wicked (TM) witch hat (I adored that musical) on and some funky make-up.  My covenmate was in her robes.  We’re headed out the door and as we walk through it I commented “You know, for most people it’s come as you aren’t night.”

It took her a second and then we were both laughing.  She made a fabulously witty comeback which I’m so ashamed to say escapes me now and we headed to the elevator.

But shit! We’d forgotten the offering of mead.  Back in we went, filled a small tupperware container with some mead which went into my coat pocket since neither of us were carrying a bag and then we were back at the door.  I looked at her, at the door, and what did I say?  ”You know, for most people it’s come as you aren’t night.”  We both snicker as she says her fabulously witty comeback and head back to the elevator.

Ah, crap.  No gloves.  The giggling has already started as we head back through my front door.  I’m falling over as we get back to the door, gloves in hand and I have to say “You know, for most people <snicker> it’s come <snort> as you aren’t night.”  My covenmate can barely talk as she gets our her rebuttal and we flee to the elevator.

We’re at the elevator and I have that horrible moment, “You know, I forgot–”

“Don’t even say it.”

We didn’t go back again.  I don’t think we could have lived through it.  We wouldn’t have been able to breathe.

Out the door and off to Grandma Willow (yes, the same one in my Grandma Willow post).  Unfortunately, the lid came off the tupperware and by the time we arrived we only had half of the offering left to give.  And I spent the rest of the night reeking like an English pub.  Made me thirsty.  From there we went on a meandering walk back to my place, through the side streets filled with trick-or-treating kids and decorated houses.

And a lot of people with little dogs.

Every time I saw one of those, I cried out “Damn you, Toto!  It was your fault!  I know it was.”  That made for a lot of laughter on my side and on theirs.  The dogs didn’t seem to care.

On one house there was a large video screen stretched out from the balcony railing to roof playing The Blob, entertaining the adults while the kids went up to the house.

We passed a particularly friendly fellow and I insisted that my covenmate get her picture taken with him.

There was this one apartment building near my place where a group of residents had gotten together and done a wonderful set up in their front lawn.  Though the best part was the very movie style zombie wandering up to two blocks away who would come towards you with brain stealing intensions clearly written on his empty face.

And my final picture for you is of the “Smash Me” pumpkin.  I can’t help but wonder, did it survive the night?  What do you think?  What are the odds?

 

We spent some time in a coffee shop chatting about all kinds of wonderful things and then it was back home to cook dinner for us and the anscestors and watch some Halloween classics:  the original Halloween and Wizard of Oz.  In and amongst that was more ritual.  What more can be said than:

Happy New Year to all!  And to all a Good Night.

~The Abysmal Witch

 

Life is Good – Savour it when tasty

You know those moments, right?  When you stop whatever you’re doing for a mental check in and just feel *good*.

And it’s not necessarily about anything in particular.  In fact, there may be a shit storm flying through your world, but right in that moment, in that centeredness of being, you feel and remember that life is good to live.

Okay, sure, there may be a few sweat-induced endorphins helping to inspire the sensation <ah-hem> but still, isn’t it great to be alive?  To know people?  To see the sunset?  To experience and taste and touch and giggle and shiver and feel so in love with life that your heart is going to explode with the joy of it all?

And if this sounds like over the top hooey to you, have you thought about how cool it would be to share my ecstatic/joyful/just-plain-satisfied sense of being?  You know you wannnnna.

Dance with some favourite music, smell some good smelling flowers, eat your favourite fruit, touch your skin with your favourite fabric (or person if they’re handy) and realize how damn good it is to be alive.

Booya!