Daily Stuff 7-11-14

Hi, folks!

Minus Tide at 6:31 AM of -1.7 feet!

It’s chilly, cool and foggy. The clouds are at 100 feet, so we’re right in that layer and the humidity is 96%! It’s only 58 and very little breeze. It looks like it’s going to be a nice day.

Yesterday’s weather was just perfect! I drove down to the shop under a bowl of clear blue, milky at the edges, with just the marine layer out to sea looking like Numenor in the distance. Tempus and I have both been Tolkein fans since the 60’s and the idea of Numenor means a lot to us, so when we see that…. well, it’s Numenor, is all. The bay was a deep, wrinkly blue with little whitecaps and crabpots and gulls. The breeze was cool, still only 65 at 1pm.

Tempus was frantic when I got to the shop, running around trying to get done and out the door. He still had to stop to pay the month’s rent on the way to pick up our friend. I re-set the books area and then settled down with the mail.

It was quiet enough early on that I got the mail done and sat with some hand-sewing, with a printed pattern sitting reproachfully on my computer desk. It’s a pattern for a sling pouch and I have a cap to do, as well. It was kinda slow, customer-wise, so I trotted down to Leslie’s (the Chocolate Frog) and they gave me my chunk of seafoam in dark chocolate for the day. We had worked out a deal for a ring. 🙂

Several friends came in to chat and I had several counseling things going on all day, odd stuff, but I kept at it and Tempus got back around 4:30. He needed a nap, so I chased him into the back to snooze, but that put paid to my sewing time.

I spent the last bit of the day doing small bits of hand-sewing, alternating with reading news articles, being tired and kinda ouchy from the gardening on Wednesday. I started closing up at 7 and came home. Tempus finally got home 8-ish.

Tempus only got in just a bit ago from his paper route and hasn’t been back to bed, so I guess I’m going to down to the shop after all. I was supposed to stay home to write today. Ok, I have a lot of sewing to do, too!

Friends of mine lost their beloved kitty this week. The cartoon make me ouch, because it’s what their little girl is doing. Please think good thoughts for the little one whose kitty is waiting at the Rainbow Bridge.

Today’s Feast is the Kronia, held in honor of Chronos and Rhea, the oldest of the god/dess creator pairs in ancient Greece. It was a topsy-turvy festival where owners waited on their slaves and everyone less the class distinctions go for a day in honor of the Golden Age. More on the festival here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kronia and on Chronos here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronos

Today’s Plant is Lovage, levisticum officinale. It seems to have originated somewhere near the eastern Mediterranean and has been cultivated for a long while, being a very useful plant. It has a strong, long-lasting scent, that reminds a person of celery and parsley, but with the volume turned up. I harvested some yesterday afternoon around 4pm and here at nearly 9am, having washed my hands several times, I can still detect it! It’s great in salads, but chop it small and mix with other greens or it overpowers! Both leaf and seed are great in soups, especially seafood chowders and the roots can be eaten as a vegetable. I’ve drunk lovage cordial, which is tasty. It has a high flavonoid content, as well. Medicinally, a strong leaf tea, iced, is a good antiseptic, especially for extensive scrapes, where it takes down the sting and swelling very quickly and can be splashed on as often as needed. It can be used for mild cases of water retention, as well, and even with high blood pressure. – Masculine, Sun, Fire – This herb is often used in love magicks, but works best as a self-confidence enhancer. Take a bath with a sachet of the leaves, or make a strong tea that you toss into the bathwater before going out to meet new people or to start a new job. It also helps to small a sachet of the leaves if you’re having trouble concentrating on a task. Wiki has more:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovage

The shop opens at 11am today! Summer hours are 11am-7pm Thursday through Monday. Need something off hours? Give us a call at 541-563-7154 or Facebook or email at ancientlight@peak.org If we’re supposed to be closed, but it looks like we’re there, try the door. If it’s open, the shop’s open! In case of bad weather, check here at the blog for updates, on our Facebook as Ancient Light, or call the shop.

Love & Light,
Anja

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Today’s Astro & Calendar

The Moon is Full. Waxing Moon Magick – The waxing moon is for constructive magick, such as love, wealth, success, courage, friendship, luck or healthy, protection, divination. Any working that needs extra power, such as help finding a new job or healings for serious conditions, can be done now. Also, love, knowledge, legal undertakings, money and dreams. Phase ends at the Full on 7/12 at 4:25am. Full Moon – The day of the day before and day after the true Full Moon.“And better it be when the moon is full!”! Prime time for rituals for prophecy, for spells to come to fruition, infusing health and wholeness, etc. A good time for invoking deity. FRUITION Manifesting goals, nurturing, passion, healing, strength, power. Workings on this day are for protection, divination. “extra power”, job hunting, healing serious conditions Also, love, knowledge, legal undertakings, money and dreams. God/dess Aspect: Mother/Abundance/Kingship – Associated God/desses: Danu, Cerridwen, Gaia, Aphrodite, Isis, Jupiter, Amon-Ra. Phase ends on 7/13 at 4:25pm.

<<< Mars and Spica >>> form a striking pair in the southwestern sky at dusk! They’re now just under 2° apart. On Sunday evening they’ll be at their minimum separation, 1.3°. Watch them change day by day.
Full Moon tonight and Saturday night (exactly full at 7:25 a.m. Saturday morning Eastern Daylight Time.) This evening the Moon shines in northern Sagittarius. Tomorrow evening it’s in western Capricornus.
Jupiter is lost in the sunset.

Goddess Month of Rosea runs from 6/13 – 7/10
Goddess Month of Kerea runs from 7/11 – 8/8
Celtic Tree Month of Tinne/Holly, Jul 8 – Aug 4
Runic month of Fehu/ Feoh, 6/29-7/13 Important in the runic year cycle, today marks beginning of the first rune, Feoh, sacred to Frey and Freya (Freyja), the lord and lady often worshipped in modern Wicca. It is the half-month of wealth and success. Nigel Pennick, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992, 1992 Runic half-month of Uruz/ Ur, 7/14-28 According to Pennick Ur represents primal strength, a time of collective action. A good time for beginnings! Pennick, Nigel, The Pagan Book of Days, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, USA, 1992

Sun in Cancer
Moon in Capricorn
Chiron, Neptune, Saturn and Pluto Retrograde
Color: Coral

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©2014 M. Bartlett, Some parts separately copyright

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Celtic Tree Month of Tinne/Holly, Jul 8 – Aug 4, Tinne (CHIN-yuh), holly – The holly (Ilex aquifolium L.) is a shrub growing to 10 m (35 feet) in open woodlands and along clearings in forests. Hollies are evergreen, and stand out in winter among the bare branches of the deciduous forest trees that surround them. Hollies form red berries before Samhain which last until the birds finish eating them, often after Imbolc. The typical “holly leaf” is found on smaller plants, but toward the tops of taller plants the leaves have fewer spiny teeth. Hollies are members of the Holly family (Aquifoliaceae). The common holly is often cultivated in North America, as are hybrids between it and Asiatic holly species.
Graves (1966) and others are of the opinion that the original tinne was not the holly, but rather the holm oak, or holly oak (Quercus ilex L.). This is an evergreen oak of southern Europe that grows as a shrub, or as a tree to 25 m (80 feet). Like the holly, the holm oak has spiny-edged leaves on young growth. It does not have red berries, but it does have red leaf “galls” caused by the kermes scale insect; these are the source of natural scarlet dye. Holm oaks are occasionally cultivated in North America.
Tinne – Holly Ogam letter correspondences
Month: June
Color: Dark Grey
Class: Peasant
Letter: T
Meaning: Energy and guidance for problems to come
to study this month – Ioho – Yew Ogam letter correspondences Month: None
Color: Dark Green
Class: Chieftain
Letter: I, J, Y
Meaning: Complete change in life-direction or attitude.

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Tides for Alsea Bay
F   11      Low   6:31 AM    -1.7   5:43 AM     Set  5:04 AM      96
11     High  12:59 PM     6.4   9:01 PM    Rise  8:13 PM
11      Low   6:20 PM     2.1

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Affirmation/Thought for the Day – Failures are divided into two classes. Those who thought and never did and those who did and never thought.’

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Journal Prompt – What does this quote say to you? – The Pledge of Allegiance says, “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” What do these words mean to you?

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Quotes

~  He is so old that his blood type was discontinued. – Bill Dana
~  Meditation consists in undoing the results of the false working of imagination, or dropping the folds of the veil of personality, which has created a sense of unassailable separateness and irredeemable isolation. – Dharma
~  I don’t think anything is unrealistic if you believe you can do it. – Mike Ditka
~  The superior man blames himself. The inferior man blames others. –  Sandy Diva

Our good fortune is dependent upon the cooperation and contributions of others. Every aspect of our present well-being is due to hard work on the part of others. As we look around us at the buildings we live and work in, the roads we travel, the clothes we wear, or the food we eat, we have to acknowledge that all are provided by others. None of them would exist for us to enjoy and make use of were it not for the kindness of so many people unknown to us. – Dalai Lama

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Lughnasadh Magick – 

Make a Corn Dolly to save for next Imbolc, Activities taken from “Green Witchcraft” by Anne Moura (Aoumiel)

Double over a bundle of wheat and tie it near the top to form a head. Take a bit of the
fiber from either side of the main portion and twist into arms that you tie together in front of the dolly. Add a small bouquet of flowers to the “hands,” and then you can decorate the dolly with a dress and bonnet (the dress and bonnet may be made out of corn husks if you wish, or and cotton material is fine too).
Corn Dolly – (For Lughnasadh) – http://members.aol.com/ivycleartoes/corndoll.html

Materials:

Wheat straw, hollow straws, or raffia
Yarn or string
Small amount of cloth
Optional: A receptacle to display finished product, such as a basket or a horn of plenty
Optional: Decorations for the dolly or her display case

Directions:

If you’re using real wheat straw, you should get it when it is almost ripe but not totally dry yet. It should still be green at the bottom. Dry for a day, hung up, and then cut off the leaves and the head of the wheat below its first joint. When you use it it should be soaked before you try to bend it, for about half an hour. If you don’t have access to the real thing, the best craft material to use is raffia, and it doesn’t need to be moistened. It is easily found at the craft stores and resembles flattened straw.

There are a lot of ways to make a dolly out of the material, but here is just one easy way. First, take a large clump–maybe fifteen to twenty-five strands–and cut it so that it is about a foot and a half long. This will be the main body of the dolly. Fold it over in half. If it seems too long right now to be the size of dolly you want, you should cut it, because it is not going to get any shorter during the process. Now, where the stalks are folded is going to be the top of the dolly’s head. Take the string or yarn and tie it around the entire bundle about an inch and a half down from the top; that tie will be the mark of her neck.

Before you tie off the section that makes her body, you’ll need to make arms. This is easy; take more of your stalks and make a longer but thinner bundle–four to six stalks ought to do it–and fold them over. Tie off at the ends and cut the looped end so it is frayed just like the other side. The little frays represent her hands. Stick the arm bundle into the main bundle right under the neck, and then tie off the main bundle under the arms. That way they cannot slip out the bottom but can still be moved side to side or diagonally shifted.

At this point the bottom of the main bundle is frayed and splayed out a bit like a skirt. This is the simplest form of corn dolly, and it can now be considered finished if all you need is a very basic doll for your purpose. However, you can of course take a few extra steps, especially if this is to be ornamental rather than just ritually used.

You may want to make your corn dolly a dress. It is easy to cut a small piece of material–use a color or pattern that matches the season or a country print–and cut it in sort of an hourglass shape. Make a hole for the head at the center of the hourglass, and pull it over her head, then tie at the waist. The sides will be open but it doesn’t much matter since it’s just for effect. If you like you can even make a smaller version to make her an apron.

Also, a nice touch is giving her wheat stalk or raffia hair. Of course, for hair you can use any material, but we’ll take it for granted that you are not making the dolly to be professional-looking, it is a natural craft, so it is more likely that using the same material as you used for the rest of her body will be most appropriate. For hair, take a few strands of straw and loop them again; when looped it should be as long as you want her hair to be on either side. You’ll put it through the slightly closed loop made by her head. If you want this to be really easy, you may want to thread the hair piece in before tying it up, like you did with the arms. Otherwise it’s still possible but you may have trouble forcing it in. In any case, thread it through the head-hole and open it up on either side, then bring it up on top of her head and tie it in a double knot. You can then leave it loose if it looks nice, or give her a braid on either side. Then it is up to you how you dress her up; some nice touches are giving her a necklace, like a twig star or a string bracelet, or you can give her a bouquet of seasonal dried flowers for her hand. Use your imagination. But it is not considered part of the traditional craft to give her a face.

The corn dolly makes a nice addition to a basket of fallen leaves or pinecones, or a wall-mounted horn of plenty with dried flowers or wheat stalks (with the heads on) protruding from behind her.

Ritual use:

This could be the same dolly used in other crafts, such as the dolly for Brigit’s Bed. If that is the case, keep these other rituals and their purposes in mind as she has come to another spoke on the wheel. If this dolly was created just for this Sabbat, it can be placed on the altar during ritual and used to represent the harvest; if you have gone the simple route and not dressed it up, it is appropriate to use it as if it is the sacrifice for the harvest, and buried outside with any other libations from the ritual. It can instead be kept and hung up in the kitchen during the season and through the winter, where it can be buried or converted to a Spring symbol when the winter is past.

 

CORNHUSK DOLLS

-Corn husks, fresh or dried, about 6-8 pieces.
-String
-Cotton balls, about 4
-Scraps of cloth, yarn, beads
-pipe cleaners (optional)
Note: If you are using dried husks, soak them in water to soften them. Fresh husks need no special preparation

Step 1: Take a strip of husk and place a few cotton balls in the middle, twisting and tying it with string to make a head.

Step 2: Make some arms by folding another husk and tying it near each end to make hands. Slip the arms between the husks that extend under the head. Tie the waist with string.Arrange enough husks around the figure’s waist so that they overlap slightly. Tie them in place with string.

Step 3: Fold the husks down carefully. For a woman wearing a long skirt, cut the husks straight across at the hem. to make a man, divide the skirt in two and tie each half at the ankles. Let the figure dry completely

Step 4: You can leave you figure as is, or give it a face, hair, or even some fancier clothes. Use a fine-tipped marker to draw facial features. Glue some fuzzy yarn on for hair. Add some tiny beads for buttons, and bits of fabric for aprons or vests. A pipe cleaner staff or cane will help the man stand upright.

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Silliness – Outer Space Joke – Q: What kind of music do planets sing? A:Neptunes!