Using a New Tarot Deck

It’s strange for me to consider that I’ve been doing Tarot for over a year - close to two, now that I think of it - and the Rider Waite deck has become my favorite. Though I’ve misplaced my first deck somewhere at my mom’s house (A tiny pocket size tarot that cost me $5), not counting that one, I now own three decks. The first deck is the Thoth Tarot, which was given to me by some friends who found it in a room they were cleaning out, the second my Rider Waite, and the third the new deck which I mentioned in my last post - the Manga Tarot.

I’ll admit - when I first unwrapped it, I was a little tentative. A Manga based tarot? My first instinct was that it would be sort of cheesy and childish - for me, other decks using a ’manga’ theme are usually just fad decks, cashing in on people who enjoy anime and Japanese comics. In my opinion, most of these look terrible because it’s not truly manga style art but imitation, and cheap looking to boot.

However, as I looked through the deck, my excitement grew. Though this art doesn’t look precisely ‘manga-ish’ (in fact the work of an Italian illustrator), and while the images and symbols chosen for each card are perhaps more blunt than the traditional deck, they are still very well thought out.

Joyful Yule

Though this is a post regarding Christmas/Yule, I’m not here to talk about it’s decidedly pagan roots - a quick bit of googling will clear that up for you pretty quick if you didn't already know about all that. What I want to talk about today is what was probably the first stress free and completely wonderful Christmases I’ve had in some time.

The days leading up were a little awkward for me - this was my first year sending out my own Christmas cards, and shopping around for gifts on my own. But a white-elephant party with my friends and a family gathering with my boyfriend’s family wrapped up this holiday very nicely for me.

The dinner was fantastic, and so were all the gifts. I got pretty much everything I directly requested, and a few surprises as well.

A chip off the block in the road

As wonderful as my spiritual journey has been so far, it hasn’t all been rainbows and metaphorical unicorns.

Lately, night after night, I find myself sitting up until the sun rises. Two, three days go by before I give in and lay down, close my eyes, and pass into black sleep and wake feeling sluggish and worse off than I did before.

It’s the dreams.

I can’t remember most of what happens in them, but I know this - it’s almost always my father.


Hit the jump if you want to read more - but be forewarned that this is a seriously ‘downer’ post.

Little Black Book

There’s been so much I’ve been learning lately - new and wonderful traditions, seasonal celebrations, songs, rhymes, facts and myths - aside from this blog, how am I supposed to keep track of it all? Many Wiccan traditions call for a Book of Shadows for either personal or group use. A BOS is much like a journal, but instead of just writing down thoughts and feelings, you record important dreams, rituals, spells and other relevant information. You can put down things like recipes for celebration meals, different teas you drink and how you react to them, botanical information, and astrological charts. Whatever you might deem as important to your path gets recorded. It’s a very personal book, though when shared among a group or coven, it incorporates input from everyone. Wiccans aren’t the only ones that do this - having a book for keeping track of your spiritual growth is a habit encouraged in many paths.

Assumptions make an awkward situation for you and me

We didn't have as many crosses as this, but you get the idea.

A few years ago - maybe as few as two - had I walked into a home and realized that I was in a pagan household, I would have expressed mild interest. Much further back and I might have felt a certain degree of discomfort.

My mother‘s enthusiastic discovery of Jesus Christ around 2003 meant I lived in a very Christian flavored home. Bible verses on banners and in frames, a cross in every room, a small ceramic bust of Jesus above the TV, etc. Christian pop and choir sung hymnals played all through the lit hours of the day, and some hours of the night. There was a time when I would get yelled at for wearing ’boy’ shirts or basketball shorts - after all, women aren’t supposed to wear men’s clothing, according to scripture. Living in such an environment (and having grown up attending my grandmother‘s church), it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that I just accepted Christianity as a belief and a part of my life.

Though I had friends in high school who talked about being witches or Wiccans, I don’t know how serious they were about it then and didn’t really take it seriously. Kids in black nail polish and bondage pants came off as less youth-seeking-spirituality and more teens-rebelling-against-the-norm.

Sorry guys, but this look just doesn't scream 'seeking a deeper spiritual truth' to me.

Though I might have worried vaguely about their immortal souls at the time, I didn’t (and still don’t) believe in forcing my own beliefs on any else.

These days, now that I’m exploring a pagan path, however, I recently found myself in a very awkward feeling situation.

A year and a day

I’ve met people belonging to all sorts of cultures and following all sorts religions. Conversations on religion typically lead to a declaration of some sort:

“Oh, yeah, I’m a Christian”
“My mom is wiccan”
“I’m agnostic.”
“I’m Muslim, actually.”
“Eh, I’m Jewish but I don’t really, ‘practice.’”
“My parents are Catholics, but I don’t know if I believe-”
“I study Buddhism.”


 Having declared themselves, there's almost always the follow up-

“So what are you?”

Jesus Camp

Jesus Camp (2006), a documentary following the lives of some fundamentalist families and their children while attending an evangelical camp, caused a something of a stir when it came out, and I wanted to see it then - but being that it wasn’t a movie theater release and wasn’t available in rental stores in the area I lived in then, I didn’t get the chance. Having finally gotten a hold of it recently, I had to wait until after the hustle of the Holiday and settling in back at home to watch it, and I have to admit, I felt weird watching it.

 During the opening, following footage of a Christian political radio show, children in darkly colored face paint dance to thumping music, waving rods during a choreographed number. I could see how some might see the scene as a bit ominous - but having grown up attending musical events at my own church, I could see the other side of the situation as well. I was fine up until the point they showed a couple hundred kids, hands in the air as they reached for God, being cried to to open their mouths and start speaking in tongues. It was creepy to say the least.

    Now, I don’t have an issue with people who speak in tongues - a Christian who speaks in tongues is told in the scriptures that the gift of tongues is a blessing and a sign of true faith. Tongues and convulsions as a result of spiritual ’God’ possession are phenomena that appear across cultural borders, both in some forms of Christianity and many instances of Voodoo or tribal witchcraft. What I have a problem with is Children - kids, immature human beings who have no perspective regarding spirituality - being pressured to accept radical ideologies without being given a choice or perspective.

Just a few days until Halloween

 It’s only a few days before Halloween, and as I contemplate what the season means to me, I’m glad I grew up with friends and family that were big about celebrating Halloween. Carved pumpkins every year, trick-or-treating, then sorting the candy at home - depending on how cold it had been that year, probably with hot chocolate and maybe some late night horror movies. Even when I was 16 and my best friend and I swore we were too old to trick-or-treat and spent the night passing out candy, we couldn’t help grabbing some pillow cases and doing a quick run around the neighborhood afterward. It wasn’t a lot - but we DID get candy… and so did her brother who, in a fit of trying to be mature, had also sworn off Halloween that year.

I always felt bad for my friends at school who had to stay home that night. Their families, typically for religious reasons, kept them home. For them - or at least their parents - this was a time to hide inside with the lights off on the front porch to discourage trick-or-treaters. They didn’t even pass out candy. They were told it was a time of devil worship, that people ran rampant in the streets with demons, and that someone would poison them or hurt them. I remember a kid telling me that his mom had taught him that by dressing up in a scary costume, he'd be inviting demons to posses him. I don't know if that was true or not, but I know lots of families view Halloween with a wary eye, casting it at its best as a time for drunks and vandals, and at its worst, a night of evil.

pictured: a Satan-worshiper in the making.

At the very least, many kids I grew up with were told it was anti-Christian.

But we kids all new better: this holiday had nothing to do with what you believed in, at least when you’re a child. It was about being scared for fun, about dressing up as anything you wanted to be, running from door to door and demanding free candy from strangers… and then getting it.
For the kids that couldn’t gather it themselves, it wasn’t unusual for a few of us who did to share our haul the next school day.


Halloween - the day, the season - has been warped from a solemn celebration of life and death to a time of fear and paranoia, perverted with consumerism, and demonized by scared parental concern groups.

Sour Dreams

Anyone who’s been following along so far would know that, based on my past posts regarding Symbolism, Dream Guides and spiritual direction, that I hold dreams in pretty high regard. Even if dreams are just the result of the mind spitting out random images and ideas, I believe very strongly that they provide a window into the subconscious and the things that worry - or delight us - the most.

A month or two back, I was plagued by stressful dreams about my father, and life in general. I chased them off by hanging up a dream catcher near my bed, and putting a special gris-gris near my sleeping area, with carefully selected items inside to - if the intent was correct - redirect any bad dreams so that if they didn’t hit the dream catcher, they still wouldn’t get to me.

For a while, this seemed to work. If one were to believe the idea that Dreams come from outside the body or mind, and were the result of spiritual or magical influence, these measures made sense. And as I’ve said before, if they can affect my subconscious and give me calm, then I don’t care whether or not they’re magic.

But what if the cause of the dreams is completely internal? Magic or not, if I’m setting up things to keep out bad influences and ignoring the cause of stress carried in my own subconscious, then I’m not going to be very effective.

I’m bringing this all up because, much to my annoyance and loss of rest, the stressful dreams have returned with a vengeance.

Pendulums and chakras

The words “Divining” or “Dowsing” call up lots of different images for different people: anything from looking into a crystal ball to a psychic holding a crystal on a string over a map, trying to locate treasure, to someone using a forked stick to locate water.

There are lots of methods. Using a weight on a string is popular, as is two rods bent at right angles so it looks like you’re holding a capital L in each hand. Dowsing for the purpose of divination - fortune telling, answering difficult questions, etc - is also popular.  Results regarding questions not directly related to the life of the person operating the tools are at best hit and miss.

For this reason (and the fact that dowsing has yet to prove itself in laboratory conditions) I’ve always chalked up the results to the same thing behind moving the planchette on Ouija/oracle boards and automatic writing: The ideomotor effect. Minor muscle movements, unnoticed by the user, directly affect the movements of the tools. As a result, the subconscious speaks out. It’s my belief that you will pretty much never get an absolutely accurate answer out of dowsing unless some part of you already knows the answer to the question being asked.

As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve used pendulums - typically a ring or similar weight on a string - before, to get absolutely honest answers out of myself regarding tough questions where I thought I might try to lie to myself. But given the dream I had, specifically the symbolism around changing my views on dowsing, I’ve decided to do some more digging. What I found led me to look into chakras.

Dreaming of Halloween

I had another one of my strange dreams last night. It was kind of funny to me in that it was seasonally appropriate.

I was walking alone at night, down a small paved road with trees on either side. There were bright lights strung up all around - orange, white and yellow. All the trees were beautiful shades of red and orange.

There was a cottage at the end of the path, decorated with fall wreaths, Indian corn, pumpkins, squash, etc. I knew that I was supposed to go in, so I did.

Inside, the house was decorated for Halloween, and there were bowls of candy out. I didn’t see them at first, but there were a bunch of other women in the house with me - some little girls, some teenage girls, some women (who I somehow knew were the mothers of the children) and a very old woman who seemed to be in charge of everyone. EVERYONE was wearing a costume - the little girls were dressed mostly as fairies and imps, and older girls were dressed mostly in fantasy costumes - goddesses, witches, queens, etc. Everyone was laughing and working on small crafts, or cooking.

But something strange was going on in the back of the main room.

The Autumn Equinox

 The trees are changing, the weather is getting colder, harvest season is wrapping up. Now is the time for cider and donuts, apple mills and hayrides. For pagans, yesterday was Mabon, a cross quarter holiday on the wheel of the year for Wiccans. It's a sort of thanksgiving.

It’s the time of ‘second harvest,’ and it’s themes center around harvest fruits. An apt symbol of this celebration is the Horn of Plenty, but most things associated with this season - gourds, pumpkins, squash, corn, grapes, apples - are fitting. In relation to nature, it’s appropriate to go out for a walk and bid good rest to the trees which are now getting ready for winter… as are most animals.

Birds are gathering to fly south, and mammals prepare their burrows for the cold to come. It’s a time to honor our aging family and friends, and to celebrate not only the bounty of harvest but the rewards of our own personal efforts. All in all, this is the time in which we reap what we sow, and give enjoy all that is good in our lives.

9/11 and Religion

Nearing midnight on the 9th anniversary of one of this country's greatest tragedies, I wanted to talk a little about this image. Or at least, it's message.

*sigh*

One of the things I find ironic is that the owner of this vehicle is probably a 'Christian.' If so, I wish someone would contact them and tell them everything certain cultures ever needed to know about Christianity, they learned during the 200 or so years the crusades lasted. Or at least during the inquisition.

A popular rebuttal to such comments is something along the lines of  "But those weren't really Christian practices - all of that happened because of people using God to falsely justify war!"

Well, let's take a moment and step back to examine that statement.

What exactly am I looking for?

What is a religion?

Sit back for a moment and try to define that for yourself.

Is it a belief?

Some people believe that 9/11 was an inside job. Is that a religion?

If you define religion by fanaticism, maybe for some...

It's a belief in a higher power, or a practice that worships god/s.

Well, Buddhism doesn't adhere to that, but it's considered a religion.

What is religion then?
Is a religion even what I'm really looking to find?

Hit the jump for more.

Mundane Magic: Sound

While I believe that our interactions with the world around us via our senses are small miracles in themselves, sound especially seems magical to me. Sound changes us.

The sudden jarring blare of music in a horror movie: the crying of a child: the laughter of a loved one: the pop of dry firewood on a quiet night. Sounds of man and nature. Music, in particular, moves us.

"Why Bother?"

Why?

Why bother purposely to get hooked on what has been long described as the opiate of the masses? How exactly can I explain this…

Tools and Supplies (pt 2) : The Athame

A fade up from black: a circle of hooded cultists approach a stone altar, upon which a helpless virgin in white is bound and gagged. They chant and ominous music reaches a crescendo as their leader raises a gleaming dagger, and -

Wait, what? No, no no. Human sacrifices, drawing blood with a dagger - this isn’t Wicca!

"I summon the Dark Lord."
"You must roll a 15 or higher to succeed."

The use of the ritual dagger is one aspect where mainstream religions and media have blurred the lines regarding who does what.

Strange Dreams 2 - and The Wheel of Dharma

I'm gonna be honest - this one is RIDICULOUSLY long. Today’s post is about another dream, in which I met sort of a spiritual guide. If you’re more interested in reading about The Wheel of Dharma - which I’m sure is the more interesting topic for most people who might visit this blog - then hit the jump and scroll down until you see “The Wheel of Dharma” in bold. Otherwise... well, you'll probably be bored. Just a warning.

Tarot

At the beginning of the summer, I was at Colossalcon in Ohio. When I started to get bored between bigger events, I decided to walk around with my tarot deck, and get some practice doing readings for profit (read: $1 a reading). I only got a few bites, but the people that got readings were across the board impressed. Two of the girls I did readings for ended up crying by the end of the reading, shocked by how accurate the things coming up were.

However, following a reading where the guy I reading for was particularly impressed, a guy that had sat down to watch made some comments.

Grinning and scoffing, he said something along the lines of;

“Well yeah, but see the descriptions of these cards are so vague that it could fit anybody. A few key words that could work with anybody make it seem true, it’s all fake.”

I let him go on for a few minutes about how buzz words - words that affect everybody - were being used to make it seem like I knew things that I didn't about the guy I was doing a reading for. He was right and wrong at the same time.

When he was done, I just smiled, and explained to him something that I think anybody who wishes to use tarot needs to understand.

“First of all, Tarot does NOT tell the future.”

Tarot in the Student Life Center

I was sitting in the student life center at the college I go to, relaxing with my boyfriend as we waited for my class time to roll around. I took out my tarot deck and did a quick reading for myself – the results told me for the second time in two weeks that I needed to turn to my boyfriend for help with my bad dreams and worries – and was about to do a reading for him, when;

“Hey, what is that, a tarot deck there?”

There was an older man, latino, with a bushy mustache with a few threads of white in it. He was smiling, and seemed curious.

“Yeah,” I smiled back.

“You know how to do it?”

“Yeah, but I just started doing it earlier this year.”

I described the kind of spread I was using*, and he responded by telling me the style he used.

Pictured: Celtic Cross and Staff layout - aka, the style I use.

“How long have you been doing it?” I asked.

“All my life,” he responded.

He explained that his mother had taught him and his siblings, and that her mother had taught her, and so on. Grinning, he moved to our booth and asked me to do a reading for him. When I finished, he seemed pleased, and told me I’d read correctly. He then asked if I’d mind if he did a reading for me.

I was more than happy, and handed him the cards.

He then spread the cards out, flipping a card up every four cards. A top row of cards was my past and present, and the next three told my future. He used the entire deck in the reading, and used a method that depended almost completely on the face image of the card, rather than the symbols in the picture. But still, he touched on key points –

“Your father is worried a lot about you… he wants to protect you.” Another card – “A man in your family who loves you is waiting for your call.” He also made references to marriage and fortune coming my way.

Overall, it was a very strange and unfamiliar way (to me) to read the cards, but the things he said still made sense to me.

I couldn’t help but think of my dream – tarot cards with meanings I’d never heard of before, with images and values I’d never seen or thought of, but still having meaning nonetheless. I understood, then, the lesson I was supposed to learn:

There are many valid methods of doing a reading, or interpreting the cards – many of them are traditional, and blend different beliefs (he had me make the sign of the cross on the deck before the reading) but all work. It just depends on the person.

In my dream, the new form of Tarot was handed from one practitioner to another, who then inadvertently handed it to me.

The man had pointed to one card, and told me: “Someone old and wise will send you a message, in a dream - or already did.”

Smiling, and wondering what his grandmother and mother looked like in their youth, I nodded. Maybe they already had.

*there are different interpretations regarding what position in cross/staff means what, but I use this:

1) the key issue of the reading

2) Obstacles in the way of resolving problems related to the issue

3) Subconscious traits

4) Conscious traits

5) Past

6) Present

7) Who the questioner is to the people around them

8) Who the people around the questioner are

9) hopes and fears

10) Probable outcome

Strange Dreams

I think that most people who dream (and remember their dreams) experience at some point or another 'meaningful' dreams. Dreams that seem to predict something about upcoming events, or just seem like they're trying to send a message.

I typically have several very odd dreams every night - ranging from flying over the countryside to fighting zombies en masse. But I also have highly emotional dreams, mostly about my parents or loved ones, about regrets, and things I feel frustrated about.

Many Native American beliefs teach that to ignore your dreams is dangerous, and could cause illness and madness - certainly, many people believe that dreams are the mind's way of working out problems it can't deal with during the day; a pressure valve, so to speak, or a filter. Freud believed that our dreams were the result of our desires and wishes combined with the activities we do all day, and that nothing we see in a dream can be made up. Rather, everything in a dream is remembered from our lives in some shape or form. There are countless theories about dreams and dream interpretation, what causes us to dream and why we do it, but no one really knows for sure.

I'd like to believe, for me at least, that dreams really do act as a way for the mind to work out problems in a safe environment. A way to deal with stress or maybe just experience something wonderful. Like I said, I dream a lot about my parents - I worry about my mother, and my relationship with my father right now is more or less nonexistent because I'm afraid of talking to him. So in my dreams, I endure situations with my mom where we're fighting or angry (I worry about our relationship going bad) and I have nightmares about my father controlling my life with fear and guilt. In my dreams I can react in ways I wouldn't (or couldn't) in real life, for fear of retaliation. The consequences I experience in dreams are impermanent, but the implications are powerful and can be a great aid in every day life and dealing with life problems.

Walk in the park

Today was a local celebration with art vendors, craft tables, beer tents, live music, a battle of the bands - the works. There were tons of people of all ages, and lots of dogs. I got let off work early and set about walking around. Right away I found a mortar and pestle for a great price, and snatched it up. Rain clouds that had moved in cleared away, and the sun was bright but not hot.

I walked around and just watched. I got caught up chasing a lost twisted balloon flower with little girls, and couldn't stop laughing. I got to pet at least 3 types of puppies, wander in and out of stores that are always closed when I go by - it was wonderful. I donated money to charitable causes, and watched people all around me perform random acts of kindness.

I made my way to the little park where the bands were playing, and found a seat on a bench. I didn't realize I'd sat down next to someone's stuff - he'd left it beside the bench - and when the owner came back, he sat down next to me. We watched the bands together in silence, and he suddenly jumped a little - his expression seemed to say "how could I forget."

"Would you like a bottle of water?" He asked, reaching into his bag, sounding apologetic.
"Oh! Yes, please, do you have an extra?"
"I have lots, the church down the street is handing them out for free."

Making a pentacle

Still being in the process of accumulating the tools for a proper altar, one of the things I decided to make myself was a clay pentacle. I made a dish for the purpose in my ceramics class, but as I was decorating it, I became self conscious of people seeing it.

Would they think it was a pentagram (satanic) and just assume instead of asking? Would they see it and just assume that I was a long practicing Wiccan? What sort of judgments would people make just looking at it - if any at all?

One guy in my class, noticing that I was using a compass to draw a pentacle, perked up and mentioned that he used to draw them for some friends all the time - and then asked if I was "Into wiccanism or that Odin stuff." I said no, that I was just looking into earth religions, and he nodded, returning to his work - a beer stein with a skull and vines on it.
"That's cool," he replied. "I have a lot of friends into wicca or whatever."
He was oddly immature - being in his early 30's, he dressed and talked a lot like a teenager. It made me question what associations I might attach to myself allowing my interests to be more visible. It also made me question myself.

Making a witch bottle

Witch bottles are bottles/orbs/jars what have you that are meant to trap negative energies, curses (or maybe even astral projecting witches!) inside, and then destroy them either via the items/potion inside, or by the light of day. A witch bottle found in England made the news on the netterwebs recently - a traditional sort filled with all sorts of nasties, such as bent nails... and urine.

More after jump.

Tools and Supplies (pt 1)

A lot of different practices call for a lot of different tools (necessary or not for practice). For instance, Christians don't need a church, or pews, or a crucifix to pray or be Christian - but a good number of them go to churches anyway, partially for the fellowship, partially to feel closer to God, whatever reasons. Smaller, more personal physical items are sometimes carried - things like Rosaries, or a more open term, Prayer Beads.

A few months back, I made a Buddhist prayer mala. 108 beads with 4 markers splitting it into sections of 27, with a 'guru' bead at the bottom, and a tassel. I also added 3 removable counters that attach to the mala - two strands with counters (10 ea) and a little bead on a silver clasp that sits between beads on the ma la.

(The pictures aren't mine)
Holding the mala in either one or both hands, I say a mantra (Om Mani Pedme hum) and for every mantra I pass a bead. For every full round (108) mantras, I slide up a bead on the counter on the left. Every time all 10 beads on the left get slid up, a counter on the right goes up. For every 10 counters on the right, the little clasp moves over one bead.

When the clasp has gone all the way around, that's 1 million mantras. "But wait!" You say. "That math is all wrong!" Well, not quite. Every time I do a round, it only counts as 100. Why?

Every time I say a mantra, it's supposed to give me good karma, or spiritual merit. The last 8, however, are donated to the world, to everyone around me. When the 1 million mantras have been said, I dedicate the practice - once again - to everyone. As of this post, I've reached 31,500 mantras for myself. It'll be sometime before I reach my goal. You might wonder how much time I devote to this, or what the point of it is, but it's not something I do constantly - it's for moments of quiet, meditation - something for when my hands are bored at the movies, or when I'm just relaxing. In other words, for moments of peace... like a physical prayer.

In any case, the point of today's post (before I started rambling on about beads) was that I'm still looking for my tools. Since I'm looking into Wicca right now, I'm looking for the tools I'd use on my altar (Cauldron, Chalice, etc). I'll be heading out to a local gift shop, and some thrift stores in a bit - pictures if I find anything good.


UPDATE

A fruitful hunt! The gift shop uptown was closed today for whatever reason, but a trip to the local Salvation Army and The Goodwill resulted in a small incense burner, and a metal mixing bowl. Not for a cauldron, mind you, but a singing bowl!

I'll post another vid as soon as I find a better striker. As for the burner -

The picture makes it look huge, but it's only about 3" tall. Still, this size is normally around $11 at a store. Oh, and the bowl? A genuine singing bowl of the same size is normally over $100. Both the bowl and the burner ran me about $3. I love thrift shops.

Up and Running

I've been meaning to get this blog up for a couple months now, so here it finally is. Over the past year, I've been mostly looking into Vodun/Voodoo/Hoodoo, and brushed up a bit on Buddhism. Right now, I'm looking into more 'earth' based religions, specifically, Wicca.

Just the other day, August 1st, I celebrated "Lammas" with my boyfriend - First Harvest, the end of Summer and the very beginning of Fall. According to what I've read about the Wiccan faith, a time to celebrate the bounty of the earth, to consider regrets from the past year, and to begin gathering the fruits around you.

I don't exactly live on a farm, but there is a nice field nearby, and a very nice garden which I've been invited to share. I collected little bouquets of Queen Anne's Lace, Wormwood, mint, tansy and Rosemary, for use later*, and in the evening we made harvest bread. I just used regular dough with chopped up herbs and garlic kneaded in. The dough was a bit thick and I didn't feel like making little figures or separate rolls, so I just made it into a braided loaf. We shared the first two bites, and celebrated being together for the past six months. We also celebrated looking forward to future harvests. Overall, it was a very nice day, and a nice 'holiday.'


For those of you questioning the collection of the toxic plants (Wormwood and Tansy), they're not for consumption - their for use in gris-gris/mojo bags and satchels. Some might dismiss it as superstition, but I like making and carrying these at times, putting them under a pillow, or putting them in a drawer with my clothes. If nothing else, it sure makes things smell nice.