Jar of Spiders

Oh, Hello there

jarofspiders — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 14:25:20 +0000

Hi folks!

Sorry for my absence, I have been working (though not so feverishly) on my newest manuscript…an interesting little ditty about building you own magical traditions instead of being bound by what others say or write.

Of course, all traditions were started by someone and then repeated by others, that is how things become traditions. So, what is the harm in starting your own. If you ask me that is what makes a tradition meaningful to you, changing it to make it your own or designing it to fit your spiritual needs.

For instance, some people decorate eggs for Ostara and plant them for what they would like to have manifest in the new year, some people take old shoes or old clothing and burn it to release the old and welcome in the new. Well if you don’t feel that these traditions suit your needs for banishing old and welcoming new, you could bake a cake that represents the old and put it in one of those net bird feeder socks with some seed to represent the new. Watch as the birds eat up you old woes and the seeds and then carry them away where the seeds will fall and sprout the hope you desire for the new year.

This can then be added to and repeated each year until it becomes a full-fledged tradition, which you can pass on to other family members and students if you ever decide teach anyone your ways.

All it takes to develop a viable and valuable Wiccan tradition is an understanding of the true basis for Wicca and a little creativity in thinking about how to make those theories and ethics come to life.

So until next time, happy crafting!

Mercury, Doing the Backwards Waltz

jarofspiders — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 13:29:09 +0000

Yipppeeeee! It’s my favorite time of the year, when Mercury goes retrograde and we all stick our foot in our mouth while graciously accepting responsibilities and entanglements that we would never otherwise be foolish enough to get ourselves into.

What is Mercury Retrograde you ask and why would something “out there” affect what happens in our lives “down here?”

Mercury, the fleet-footed God of the ancients, is the planet in our solar system that rules communication. He can get the point across quickly and smoothly with no confusion. Of course, that is when he is moving forward and he has his groove on. (So to speak.)

In a retrograde period, which happens occasionally throughout the year, we have a cycle of a few days or weeks when observing Mercury in the night sky would show you that it is apparently moving backwards in its orbit. This is an optical illusion caused by the difference in speed between the Earth’s rotation around the sun and that of Mercury.

While Mercury is appearing to us to be treading backwards on his path (something that all spiritual seekers can sympathize with) we down here on Earth, living under the influence of this motion, tend to experience some baffling and frustrating phenomena.

Yesterday my laptop computer which had miraculously lasted for five and a half years finally pooped out, not surprising at all since 5 is the number of completion. It had had the flickering screen, jam-packed memory, battery that wouldn’t hold a charge and overheating fan-thing going on for a couple of years. But I had learned how to combat and adapt to each of these inconveniences quite well. Yesterday it decided that there is never a power cable plugged in, even when there IS a power cable plugged in. I did discover that this was reparable by placing a very heavy dictionary on the connection part of the cable to torque it up a bit, but after just a few hours of that I realized I just needed to break down, clean out my savings and buy a new computer. So I type to you on it now….a desktop, I have decided to hate laptops for eternity.

So this is my Mercury Retrograde experience for (more…)

Snow Magic

jarofspiders — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:23:06 +0000

Since it is winter and many people are thinking about snow, or the lack thereof, I thought that I would put together a short primer on Snow Magic for all of you. Keep in mind that you really can have too much of a good thing and that you should always be careful what you wish for.

Bringing Down the Snow

Ingredients: an ice cube and a sharpish knife

Begin with the ice cube in your less dominant hand and the knife in your dominant hand. Shave the knife across the top of the ice cube so that you get a bunch of flakes (like trying to scrape butter off of a stick that is still too hard to spread on toast.)

Now that you have the hang of it, begin in the east (element of air for most) and work, scraping those icy, snowy flakes to the ground around you, in a clockwise circle until you reach the point of manifestation in the north and then close the circle.

While doing this action say (out loud or to yourself): I make manifest the snows of winter, a bright white powder, decorating the world with its insulating beauty, bringing joy to my world. I invoke the snows upon the mantle of the Earth goddess, a blanket upon her, though white and cool, resulting in less than six inches (one foot, two feet.) May these snows come down here at my locale within the next twelve (twenty-four, thirty-six) hours. (Now fill your hand with ice shards and toss them before you three times, saying….) I invoke thee, the snows of heaven, once, twice, thrice.

And now believing in your heart that it will truly be so, say: This is (more…)

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February Moon Cycle

jarofspiders — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 18:41:56 +0000

February is the month of the Ice Moon, it’s fullness falling on the 3rd this year. As I sit and write this I can hear the sound of snow and sleet bouncing off of the window behind me. It is ice in the making. As we cycle through the new moon on the 18th we head toward March and the Storm Moon. As for me I hope that we receive enough precipitation to ward of an early drought but that it remains clear enough to see the fullness of the mother in all of her glory.

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Imbolc as Valentine’s

jarofspiders — Wed, 14 Feb 2007 13:54:06 +0000

Well here we are at February 14th. The day when the mundane finally catches up with the pagan. Early February is the time of the stirring, the awakening of the seeds that will create life in the cycle to come.

The ancient way is that of the youthful maiden, giggling joyously at the stirring in her heart and her loins. It is girls forgetting that boys have cooties and boys no longer feeling the urge to pull pigtails. It is the butterflies in one’s stomach. It is the first blush, the first kiss.

This is Imbolc, celebrated on February the 2nd each year by Pagans and Wiccans the world over. It is a day sacred to the goddess Bridget, hence the placement of St. Bridget’s Day close to it in the modern calendar. It is the festival of light when we begin to stretch our hope forward out of the darkness of winter and we feel youthful and alive once more.

We do not need to ship our local rodent out before a spray of cameras, for our connection the divine Earth will tell us in our true hearts when we may expect to see the young lady unfold her Spring beauty.

Valentine’s Day is the mundane answer to Imbolc, once a day designed to embrace the sweetness that is new love and to explore the concept of togetherness and joy while the world outside tends to still be cold and unwelcoming.

What has gotten lost in the conversion to Valentine’s Day is the innocence, for this is what the original rites of Imbolc were based upon. The only sweet left in it seems to be the strawberry-filled chocolates and the pink M&Ms that pop up at this time of year.

Imbolc is (more…)

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The Creaking Door

jarofspiders — Tue, 13 Feb 2007 03:16:52 +0000

I have never been in the closet about who I am. It seems a waste of time to me if you breath and speak and never say anything of truth or value.

I am a true witch. I did not become this by reading a book. I was born as I am. I have been dedicated and focused, living with integrity. I have earned my title and do not need to advertise with a bumper sticker.

For many years people have felt instinctively that they can sip tea with me and allow the cauldron of their woes and wonderings to overflow at my feet without any fear for the clean-up.

Today, I opened the creaking door to my magic cupboard of spiritual ingredients and this blog spilled out.

I hope that you will find acceptance and inspiration here.

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