W is for (Waiting, Warm-Ups, Wonder, Will, and) Woo – Greater Granola Blog Project 2013

Reblogging this from Syrens as it fits on this blog as well. 🙂

syrens

At the moment, between knitting and sewing and cooking and trying to write a novel, I’m working my way through reading Radical Ecstasy. I’m not quite halfway through, but I wanted to talk about some stuff that’s coming up.
Radical Ecstasy was published about ten years ago – it’s an oldy but a goody, as they say – and it’s about using S/M techniques to reach ecstatic states.
… Sort of.
 
It’s about rough sex as religious/spiritual experience;
It’s about building western style tantra techniques into kink and pain-play scenes;
It’s about sado/masochism as sex/magic as sacred/mystery;
It’s about sex and kink and woo.
 
Right up my alley in other words.
 
I love the woo that I find in my leather community. I love the discussions that come up at leather women’s brunch, talking about a particular colour of blue and how it matches from person…

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So… That Could Have Been Worse…

So…
A while back, I mentioned doing a door-wash on Samhain this year, the point being – among other things – too keep out anyone with nasty intentions.
&bsp;
And then someone broke into our apartment at 2am, the other night.
 
Thing is, it was the temporary security guard who’d be hired to keep an eye on the place while the super intendent was out for the night.
He’d locked himself out of the office but, having the Universal Key, figured he’d go and hunt through the super’s apartment (…in the dark…) looking for a spare set of keys.
 
It’s worth noting, at this stage of the game, that we live in what would normally be the super intendent’s apartment. We’ve had visits from the police who also wanted the super (that was a bit of a shock the first time it happened, I don’t mind telling you). We’re considering putting a note on the door directing all-comers elsewhere on that front.
 
Anyway. My wife lept out of bed and chased the guy – in his uniform, which is why she didn’t beat him up – out of the apartment and into the lobby.
 
So… My question is: Did it work?
 
Not the chasing him out of the apartment bit, and not the grounds for a lawsuit against our landlords bit (though we’re not going down that road if we can avoid it, thanks), but the bit where my spell was supposed to keep out ill intentions.
 
Because… He didn’t take anything. Ghost met him halfway through our kitchen – meaning that he’d walked past both our purses, a functional CD player, at least one lap top, and some nice (if heavy) antiques, plus a couple of fivers lying on the coffee table[1].
We’re pretty sure that he really did just screw up and then screw up worse when he tried to fix the problem.
So…?
 
Mostly, I think that the next time I do a doorwash I need to include something about deterring uninvited visitors/strangers or something… :-\
 
Thoughts? :-\
 
 
Cheers,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.
 
 
[1] In our neighbourhood (in our building) five dollars = one fix OR enough to keep you in ramen for the last week of the month, so it’s not to be sneezed at. Just for context.

Y is for Yule – Pagan Blog Project 2013

So I did “X is for Xmas” not that long ago and, in the same vein (but, officially, in a different year’s PBP sequence – ahaha) I’m doing “Y is for Yule” this time around, and writing it early, no less.
 
It’s Friday. Friday, the day when I blog about witchcraft. Friday, the day that I light up my altars. Friday, the day that I try desperately to get my home back into functional, breathing order from the chaos and entropy that have gone on during the week.
 
Today is harder than most. My wife brought home a lot of her work equipment (for good reason, and I don’t blame her for doing it), and between the additional boot-related supplies and my own Xmas crafting work, things are a little more chaotic than usual.
 
Never the less, I’ve got a (tiny) picnic roast braising in the slow-cooker, and plans to get my socks on and brave the icey sidewalks (if they are, indeed, icy – the temperature rose above freezing this past day or two, and everything’s been melting) to pick up some sparkling cider to have with the roast and a remoulade that I’ll make when I get home, along with an apple crisp or similar.
 
My hope is that we’ll put up the solstice decorations tonight. Hang holly garlands in the windows and decorate them with icicles, pine cones, snow flakes, and sun bursts. Do it to the tune of Solstice Bells, Hail the Holly King, and Snow.
 
I am trying to create traditions. In a way, this is probably how everybody does it, regardless of what their faith is, and whether it’s all that different from what their families-of-origin practice. Sorting through the things I did as a child (my grandmother’s shortbread recipe, First Footing Over the Phone (yes, really), giving gifts, candles in the windows[1]) and finding meaningful things to do that are mine, and ours, alone (truffles and mulled wine, longest night parties[2], Sortilege and dozens of candles, holly garlanding the windows, and bacon the morning after).
 
We don’t stay up all night.
 
I’m a morning person, and tend to fall asleep by 2am even when I’m up late, plus people have jobs to get to in the morning (though we’ve started hosting our parties on the Saturday closest in order to avoid that problem) and kids to get home to. None the less, we try to stay up for a fair while, and then tidy things away before heading to bed.
 
What are your Yultide traditions and traditions-in-the-making?
 
 
TTFN,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.
 
 
[1] In my mom’s case, they were electric, but that was the way we did “christmas lights”. Very different from this kind of thing.
 
[2] Sadly not the kind that Phedre would have attended, although it’s on my “Someday List” to start encouraging people to dress up in something faintly costume-y (in that formal-wear+accessories way of Longest Night parties, I mean). We already drink Sortilege (maple whiskey, in lieu of some sort of French flower-based liqueur) and wish each other joy on the longest night, so… 😉