Canadian Pagan Declaration on Intolerance

Hey, Pagans, Heathens, Druids, Goddess-Spiritualists, Witchy-Woo Folks, and others who practice earth-centered religions/spirituality, ancestor veneration, and/or polytheism in Canada:

Please go and take a gander at the Canadian Pagan Declaration on Intolerance. You may wish to sign it yourself, as an individual or as a representative of your particular faith group, circle, kindred, grove, coven, or other congregation.

Thanks,
Meliad.

New Moon – Leaf Moon Begins

So we got home from Toronto yesterday, just in time for New Moon.
I’m not gonna lie (though I am going to be kinda vague), but my heart is brim-full of hope. And dread. But mostly hope. Sitting on a patio in Toronto without a coat, on Friday, eating a late lunch with some of the Chosen Family, soaking up the sunshine and watching the leaves open up on the shrubs… I feel like this right now. Like I’m opening, knowing there’s still a danger of frost.
 
In Ottawa, the nights are still chilly, and the leaves aren’t nearly as far along, but I feel that, by the time Leaf Moon is full, they will be. Leaf Moon is our month of spring, between the winter of slush & mud and the summer of lilac blooms (to pull on the weather of Palimpsest to describe where we live). My garden bedframes are waiting to be filled with earth and seashells and coffee grouds, and then with seeds (and perhaps some mulch, if I can swing it). My Secret Project that went live back in February is stepping things up ever-so-slightly. My heart is full of My People and the amazing, got-your-back community that we’ve built, the love that blossoms every-which-way on so many levels.
 
It was a good weekend. I hope it’s set the tone for Leaf Moon, and for Life going forward. 🙂
 
What secret seeds are germinating in your world? What things are starting to poke their noses above the soil to see results?

Full Moon – Thunder Moon Crests

I’m two days late with this one, although I feel I’m making up for that somewhat by writing it during a thunder storm. 😉
You may recall how I mentioned that Thunder Moon is “go season” when it comes to canning.
Well… I may have spoken too soon. I’ve done peach butter and apple butter (courtesy of a friend with an apple tree in her yard) but nothing else since Thunder Moon began. I’ve got 20lbs of tomatoes to buy before I get my sauces started, and that may not happen for a while. I do have soup stock (duck and turkey bones, for the most part) on the make in the slow-cooker, so that’s something, but… I’m feeling like a total slacker on the preserving foods front. (Maybe because I harvested and froze three different kinds of fruit, plus made cucumber pickles, radish pickles, serviceberry chutney, and service berry jam (soooooooooo much serviceberry jam) during Berry Moon, and my limited production in the past two weeks has me feeling slow in comparison.
 

New Moon – Thunder Moon Begins

Hi all!
 
So I’m writing this much earlier than is strictly necessary. Thunder Moon doesn’t actually start for another week [EDIT: It starts today, August 6th, thense my finally getting around to posting it. /EDIT]. None the less, here I am scribbling away. Probably because I’m all excited about creating my first Etsy Coupon. Hint: If you use coupon code ThunderMoon13 between August 6th and September 4th (the duration of Thunder Moon), you get 10% off any purchase of $20 or more at my shop.
 
Anyway. Thunder Moon.

D is for Discussion – Pagan Blog Project 2013

So. Last week, I did have the opportunity to chat with a friend about sacred kink, spritual bdsm, and ordeal work. It was good to be able to chat about it with someone else who’s exploring the combination of S/M, D/s, ritual, and personal gnosis. The term “UPG” actually got used out loud!
 
Talking about this kind of stuff[1] is always a little bit weird for me because, while I’ve got lots[2] of “book learning”, I have very little in the way of natural tallent. It makes for a weird balance of experiences, and it leaves me feeling like “Okay, so I can talk a good game but… Fuck, all y’all are in the NBA here, and I’m still shooting baskets in the park[3]”.
 
I think mostly I’m hoping (desperately) that I’ll be able to bring something other than (in addition to) my ears to such conversations, and that what I have to say isn’t going to be the equivalent of someone walking into a women’s studies graduate seminar and going “Hey, did you know that sexism is bad???”
 
Eugh. :-\
 
What’s that thing? “The first step to knowledge is knowing that we know nothing?”
Yeah. That.
I know nothing.
And boy does it ever suck. 😛
 
Moving right along.
 
 
TTFN,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.
 
 
[1] Energy work; being able to Capital-S “See” More-World People, energy blockages (in the physicial or emotional body, if I can put it like that), where there are cracks and potentials and all that stuff.
 
[2] For a given value of “lots”. I find I’ve read more stuff – so I can direct people to book resources or blog resources when they need it. But I also find that most of the people who are looking for written resources are also people who have a lot of natural ability and have done most of their learning, to this point, through experimentation and Just Knowing and being able to See the results of what they’ve done.
 
[3] Hah! Basketball metaphor! My Dad would be so proud. 😉

Witching – The Soul and Centre of It

So… I’ve been busy. (YAY!) With paying work (YAY!) including a commision from an Etsy customer and a heap of modeling work (that’s gone from one week to three — huzzah!) It’s been a good day.
 
I’ve also started work on a vegan stew for someone I know, who is dying.
Not so good.
 
This is a thing about witchcraft that I tend not to hear about much in Ye Olde Blogosphere. It’s a thing that I’m not that good at, but am striving to do better. It’s a thing that my wife does without a second thought.
 
A big part of Witching – in the Terry Pratchett sense[1] – is being a community care-taker. I frequently suck at being a community care-taker. This thing, where I’m contributing to the meals of someone I know, is one step towards ammending that situation.
 
 
Cheers,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.
 
 
[1] Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching series (see here, here, here, and here, if you want them) does a remarkably good job of articulating my personal witch-crafty worldview. You could do worse than checking them out, if you take my meaning.