The Way of the Hedge Witch

So I've been pretty bloody awful at writing lately.

My current book that I am working on now is "The Way of the Hedge Witch" by Arin Murphy-Hiscock. I'm enjoying it so far. I had previously read The Way of the Green Witch by the same author, and had enjoyed that as well.

The book is good, though some of the information is very general and touched on very lightly, it takes a nice angle of recognizing spirituality in every thing you do, and devoting time to recognize the significance of daily tasks. I'm enjoying some of the ritual suggestions for create a symbolic "hearth" in your home.

It is a very light read, and I would probably cross-reference the author's information on deities and household spirits, as it's too general to perhaps be overly trustworthy. But y'know, deities terrify me and aren't something I'd consider invoking lightly, so...

I need to buckle down and read though, because we're almost at month 3 and I'm done 1 and 3/4 books..eep!

Work and life and everything in general has been a bit crazy these last few weeks.

Honey Badger posted a blog post prompt:

In the busy world we live in, how do you find time for your spiritual self? How do you maintain your spiritual growth and nurture your inner connection to deity in between meetings, phone calls, traffic jams, family, friends and everything else you do?

One of my favorite times of each day has become my morning walk to work from the bus stop. I could bus closer-I intentionally get off where I do and walk, about 2km, to work. I like the exercise, the fresh air, and I usually put my tunes in and just let my mind go. It isn't always a spiritual place it ends up in, but a lot of the time I do end up having deeply philosophical thoughts, almost meditative experiences--as much as one can have, when there are streets to be crossed and you're walking in a less than stellar part of town. The music is the key; during my workday, as well, if I'm having "a day", I will often pop in my earbuds on my break or lunch and listen to a few songs. When I can't find a specific, set-aside time to be "spiritual", I find those little moments of almost-meditation do wonders for helping me reconnect.

Beltaine

This is a big picture dump upcoming, since photos are worth a thousand words and I really think I am too sleepy for that many words right now. Like man.

Our coven had our Beltaine ritual tonight, which was "my" ritual to host/run, and part of our monthly ritual for IDGAF. We used Gods Be Praised's dad's yard, with a firepit, so we had a decent fire going. Before the ritual we roasted hot dogs, and afterward made S'mores.

Since none of us have a "hearth" to relight from our Beltaine fire, we each took a lantern with a tealight, and lit it in the fire, after tossing in pieces of parchment on which we had written things that sparked our creativity, passion, inspiration, or excitement. The candles can be relit, and used to light other candles and thus share that energy around our homes.

(These lanterns were $5 at a local grocery chain and are metal. The little silver one is Jackalope's, and was from walmart since she didn't have one. Mine is the red. Hee.)

Good times.

One thing I've definitely had to coax myself into has been altar remodeling. I used to leave my altar largely stagnant unless I got something new. I've been having a LOT of fun changing it around for the sabbats, even if there's only been Beltaine and Ostara so far that I've really changed it up for.

For my altar for Beltaine, I really had planned on sticking more with "fire" than "fertility, so I added a dragon statue, and a wooden piece I painted to look like a salamander. I did end up adding a small "lucky frog" figure for fertility.

Then, yesterday, I ended up at a local store called the Black Market, which sells a ton of stuff...including carved wooden penises. Honey Badger had already bought one, and wanted another. I thought perhaps this could be my more "traditional" fertility symbol for my altar. But I gotta admit. Not a big fan of penises. Even wooden ones. Mixture of being really gay, and also maybe a bit immature at times. So I thought, how can I make this dick less awkward to have on my altar?

Glitter.

This ended up turning into a pretty hilarious kitchen-party-for-three, my wife watching Honey Badger and I paint and bedazzle our wooden phalli. In the end, I decided to make mine a mushroom.

 I am so stupidly happy with how it turned out. It is glittery as fuck in person and the spots on the top glow in the dark. Mission fucking accomplished.

So I reworked the altar again to include it:

And replaced some stones in my leaf bowl with some acorns.

I definitely have some post-rit exhaustion, but it was an awesome night, and finally the first real day of sun and good temperatures. Maybe, hope to the gods, spring is finally here?