B is for Beeswax – Pagan Blog Project 2013

I make beeswax candles. I make them to sell at craft shows – one-ounce tea lights and three-ounce votive candles in steel holders – but I also make them (half-ounce tea lights in re-used metal cups) for home use as light offerings for my various gods and ancestors. I made some the other day using a slightly different mold (¾oz rather than ½oz) and experimenting to see whether I could still burn them in my recycled foil cups or not (hint: yes – but only if I “hug them in” before they’re fully hardened, otherwise they spill a little bit).
Regardless, in an ideal week, that means 13 candles to get everybody (gods, ancestors, and honey pots) fed. Fifty-seven dozen tea lights per year (or just shy thereof).
 
I do this because (a) I can, (b) it’s way less expensive to make them myself than to buy them from a store (where beeswax tea-lights run about $1 each), and (c) because I don’t like paraffin.
 
Yeah, I’m a snob. I get that.
 
But I feel like feeding my People with a paraffin tea light from the grocery store is a bit like grabbing an egg-mc-muffin[1] for them; while making the candles myself, out of beeswax no less, is like making them a home-cooked meal from local, sustainably-farmed ingredients, with all four food groups included. Either way, they’re getting fed. But the latter means that they’re also receiving the end-product of my skills, time, attention, and energy. And I think that makes a difference.
 
 
So that’s my super-quicky PBP13 post for this week.
TTFN,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.
 
 
[1] I’m deliberately picking on the erf-mc-nerf here because they actually make me feel a little sick, even though they’re… reliable… in their horribleness and frequently better than nothing. We go through months at home where we’re traveling every weekend and it’s easier to grab breakfast on the road than to wake up enough to make something similar (scrambled eggs on toast, with or without cheese and marmite)

“Doing the Work” – some thoughts on a post

Okay.
So there’s This Post – put up by Del, over at Sex, Gods, and Rock Stars[1] – talking about what “doing the Work” actually means.
 
It’s a good post.
I like how Del breaks it down, talking about how “Work” means preparing yourself physically and habitually, and doing maintenance on your body, mind, education, religious practice, and community ties.
 
This matters. It’s a good and simply-put reminder to, well, to not put the cart before the horse, essentially.
 
 
I need to remember to go slowly. To maintain and support:
 
– My altars (with weekly candle offerings, the occasional bit of dusting, and a few other things) and, thus, my relationship with my gods and ancestors (and the various other spirits in the house).
 
– My community ties (organize a monthly salon, yeah, but also go to the leather brunch, or the kinky queer women’s get together, or the femme pool night, or the mosh, or what-have-you. Help people move. Go to birthday parties. Feed people who need a good meal. Offer a workshop on… something. I may need to figure that one out. 😉
 
– My body (by eating Real Food, by getting to bed before midnight, by actually moving my body around in significant ways on a regular basis (modeling, walking, yoga), by investing in a sun-lamp, my giving my toenails a chance to breathe without being covered in polish).
 
 
I have to remember to do all those things, to make them habitual and normal and part of my routine, before I can start adding to that routine by stepping up what I’m up to in terms of spiritual/religious practice/activity (let alone services).
 
Which doesn’t mean I can’t keep practicing the exercises in Trance-Portation. It just means that I have to do the other stuff as well. 🙂
 
 
TTFN,
Meliad the Birch Maiden. 🙂

[1] A blog which, given my interest in sacred kink, is probably one I should be reading on the regular.