Beltane

Edinburgh is expecting 12,000 people to show up to celebrate the fire festival there.  I would love to see that.

Beltane is the ultimate fire festival.  The third of three spring fertility festivals and named in honor of fire, Bel, itself.  It has long been celebrated in northern Europe and is one festival that the Church was hard pressed to attempt to co-opt.  The maypole beat out the crucifixion as a way of celebrating spring, hands down.

There is no wrong way to celebrate Beltane.  Chances are there is a fire festival, Maypole dance or a drum circle near where you live.  If not, and you don't want to start your own (those pesky neighbors again), simply do something outside.  Walk, run, plant something, feel the sun on your skin.  Light an orange or red candle, ask the Element of Fire to enter your life with it's passion and creativity.  Honor whatever Sun God you converse with.  This is the wild, passionate, masculine energy to balance the gentle, coaxing spring energy of Ostara.  I'm not normally much on duality and balancing energies, but this is the obvious exception.

Happy Beltane!

April Full Moon, Seed Moon

Fertility is in the air.  This is the time for planting.  Planting seeds.  Seeds of plants, projects and magick.  Do some magick for new beginnings.  Plant some magickal plants in your garden for your magickal needs all year long.   If you have been making plans, time to stop planning and start planting.  Get started.  Bring new things into your life to grow now. 
I have containers for a container vegetable garden ready to go and I will be planting seeds at the Full Moon.  And I am doing some herbal magick for my business to grow.   I will put the spell I am using up on Borrowed Book of Charms tonight.

Full Moon is April 28 at 8:18am EDT more astrological information found here.

Earth Day

If we were going to add a new sabbat to the Wheel, this would have to be it.

Earth Day

The 40th Annual Earth Day is April 22

go to earthday.org for information

If you are on Facebook please check out Cascadian Farms fan page.  They are pledging to donate $1 to organic farming research for everyone who pledges a green activity through their site.  It doesn't cost you anything, you just click on one of the activities listed that you would be interesting in doing.  Everything from installing a composting toilet to planting a tree.

listen more often to things than to beings

tis the ancestors' words when the fire's voice is heard
tis the ancestors' words in the sound of the water

New Moon, Energy and Reiki

I have been studying Reiki for a while, received my first atunement a few weeks ago and tonight I will do my first treatment on someone else. It has definitely helped me, now hopefully it will help another.

April New Moon

New Moon on April 14, 2010 at 8:29am EDT. New Moon is in Aries.
Here is our New Moon ritual again.

You will need:

One candle to honor the Goddess in her new moon, blue or white is nice, any color is fine. I have a large pale blue/green candle that I use for all moon rituals.

Incense or sage for cleansing the area.

A small unused notebook and a pen.

Four items to honor the elements.
I sometimes use:
a small bottle of sand for the element of earth
a feather for the element of air
a red candle for the element of fire
a small cup of water for the element of water

When I am in a candle mood I use candles for the elements:
brown or green for earth
yellow or pink for air
red or orange for fire
blue or white for water


Cleanse the area with incense or sage. I create sacred space by simply grounding and centering and visualizing an area around myself filled with energy, closed to random or chaotic spirits and open only to those I invite.

Call the Elements.
I start with Earth. If you are using candles, light them as you call each Element.
Calling them can be as simple as 'I call the Element of Earth to attend and add energy to this sacred space' or as elaborate as you wish.

After calling the Elements, take a moment to honor Goddess, ask her to look favorably on this ritual that you offer up to her and light the candle for her.

Take a few minutes to sit quietly. Reach out to the Elements for additional energy and power. Fill the space around you with their power and energy and reflect on the new moon as an opportunity for new beginnings. An opportunity that we are offered over and over again.

Take your notebook and write something along the lines of:
I will manifest these things that I desire and need in my life and I will do so without harm to anyone else.

Then begin to write down what you need to create in your life. It can be a few things or many. Large or small, tangible or not.

Concentrate on manifesting these things in your life without harming anyone else.

Release the energy that you have created with this work and send it out into the universe to do your bidding.

Thank the Goddess for her presence in your life and put out her candle.

Thank the Elements for loaning you their energy and ask them to return to their own realms, putting out their candles (if any).

Bring yourself back to normal time/space, ground the energy creating your sacred space.
_____________________________

On the full moon take your notebook and cross off any items that have manifested in your life since the new moon. On the next new moon create a new list, leaving off the things that have already arrived. Do not just cross off and add to the old list, each new moon write down the new list.

On her blog Liz has a cleansing ritual bath that would be a wonderful way to prepare for this ritual. Check it out at Lizzie's Logic.

Witch's Ladder part 2

Here is more on the Witch's Ladder.
Remember when you are making one, it is the intent that counts. This is not an arts and crafts fair and you will not be graded on the finished product, which will probably turn out better than you thought anyway. When I was working on mine the horsehair was winning a battle with the yarn and twisting this way and that. I was very frustrated but tried to focus on the intent behind everything that I braided into or added to the string. I was quite pleased with the finished product, it had taken on a life of its on, did not look like I had planned and worked just fine.
My witch's ladder is in the previous post (a few days ago). The one pictured here is from Ann Moura's website and *sigh* it does look quite beautiful, doesn't it?

Ok, enough of that. Here is a wonderful witch's ladder to make with/for a child who is having nightmares. This witch's ladder will act like a dreamcatcher. If the child is old enough, have them make it with you. (PS.. it will also work for an adult) There is a longer version that I will be posting on A Borrowed Book of Charms.

You will need:
18 inches of three different colored ribbons/string/yarn
blue or indigo for restful sleep
silver for dreams
black to repel negativity

Tie your first knot and begin to braid.
'Nightmares, monsters
All scary things
I'm no longer afraid
Protected by these strings.'

Braid three inches and tie another knot.
'There is nothing there in the dark
That isn't there in the light
Even when the sun is gone
My heart has perfect sight.'

Braid three inches and tie another knot.
'The moon is out my window
Shining down with love
Protecting me at night
Til the sun rises above.'

Braid three inches and tie another knot.
'Closet doors are closed
Nothings under the bed
Now it's time to sleep
And rest my tired head.'

Braid three inches and tie the last knot.
'No nightmares, no monsters
Not one scary thing
I'm excited about tomorrow
And the fun that it will bring.'

You can add small bells or tiny mirrors to the knots for additional protection. You can anoint your knots with oils if you like. Hang it above the child's bed or drape it over a headboard, where the child can see it every night.

It's time!

Do your part to help the battle against colony collapse.



The Great Sunflower Project

Many studies have been done on our agricultural bee populations and in recent times the commercial beekeepers have experienced colony collapse. What scientists had not studied on a large scale was how the wild bees were doing and what effect that has on pollination of garden plants, crops and wild plants.

In 2008, we started this project as a way to gather information about our urban, suburban and rural bee populations. We wanted to enlist people all over the US and Canada to observe their bees and be citizen scientists. We asked them to plant sunflowers in their gardens so we could standardize study of bee activity and provide more resources for bees. Sunflowers are relatively easy to grow and are wildly attactive to bees. Since 2008, we have expanded the list of plants studied to include Bee balm, Cosmos, Rosemary, Tickseed, and Purple coneflower.

So far we've found that the on average our gardeners are likely to see a bee pollinate every 2.6 minutes. Surprisingly, over 20% of our gardens never saw a bee! We want to thank all of our citizen scientists for being our observers.

You can participate by getting annual Lemon Queen sunflower seeds from us, at your local store or through one of these seed sellers. The instructions are here. Do join us! It takes less than 15 minutes.

Witch's Ladder

A friend of mine taught a class a couple of weeks ago in how to make a Witch's Ladder. I had never heard of a Witch's Ladder so I went along to learn about them. It is basically knot magic and has been around for a very long time. The Witch's Ladder had a reputation for a long time as being knot magic for hexes and binding only, but it has lately come to be seen as just another form of knot magic and used for almost any spell. The effort of making the ladder and the focus of the objects in the ladder make it a wonderful tool for an important spell.
This one has 13 knots for the Moons and 4 more for the Elements. It has feathers to represent the mystical association of birds as messengers to the gods, the colors are to honor the Goddess, for protection, for peace and for prosperity. It has a long piece of hair from a horse's tail woven through it. I made it to do a spell for my horse who has some trust issues and the hair is from her tail.

Other items frequently woven into a Witch's Ladder are small bells, colored bits of yarn, colored crystals, tiny mirrors and separate intricate knots. The knots can be tied or untied as a spell progresses or the whole thing can be made ahead of time and left intact, which is what I did.

More on Witch's Ladders in a few days and I will be posting some spells to go with it, one might be just right for you or perhaps give you an idea for a spell of your own.

Facebook and Networked Blogs - Oops, Never Mind!

Sorry about that! Pagan Tapestry was a member of Networked blogs for about 20 hours.
I joined Networked Blogs to promote a work site and then I saw that there were some pagan blogs that I followed that were members so I signed up this blog.
But the business blog got screwed up by that network. I had it set up so that I could put an entry on the website blog, it would feed to my Facebook business page, go out to my friends and then feed on to Twitter and go out there. All automatic.
So today I wrote a piece on the website and it went nowhere, not to Facebook and not to Twitter. Tracking the problem I found that Networked Blogs was BLOCKING it from feeding anywhere except to THEIR page and if I wanted it to go to my friends, post on my FB business page or go to Twitter, they wanted me to PAY THEM for free feeds that I had already set up. So I deleted everything and blocked them.
Be warned if you ever want to use them for anything like this...you can do it yourself with help from FB and Twitter for free.
So, since I blocked them this blog is gone too....sorry about that!