Announcing the Winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered my First Ever Giveaway! Lovely comments were left, and I have to say this was a lot of fun. And now for the winner:

The entries are placed into my cauldron

Stirred around with my wand

Son nicarus, with eyes closed, reaches in

mxtodis123 is the winner!

Congratulations to MXTODIS123! Mary has a lovely blog, Avalon Revisited, which you can find here 
Mary, please email me with your snail mail info within three days. I am looking forward to sending your prizes off to you.

Blessings to all!!!   Robin

Final Day to Enter the Giveaway!

The First Ever Giveaway at Wiccan Writes closes tonight at 7:00 pm EST. The winner will be announced Sunday, January 9th sometime before noon est.

What's black and white and read all over?

Today's newspaper, The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) had three articles of interest to me. Firstly, and most importantly, an article about a forum held at a high school in our area that is involving students in learning about the diversity of religions and how these diversities can enrich us, as opposed to raising conflicts. The focus of the forum was to demonstrate how various religions have a commonality, and to not allow the differences to raise barriers. There were six local religious leaders ( representing the Catholic, Sikh, Jewish, Baptist, and Islam faiths) brought together by the organization "Interfaith Works" who wanted to engage in discussion with the students about finding what religions have in common, and to dispel myths and misinformation about other religions. Ending falsehoods and myths would certainly cause enhanced relations between people.  I applaud this forum and hope to see more like this in the near future at other schools and venues. And it would be even greater to see people of pagan religions represented as well. Education and civil discussions would do much to bring about tolerance for those who worship differently.

The second article causes me concern because it seems heartless and mercenary. I think most of us are aware of the recent reports of vast numbers of birds around the world that have fallen dead from the skies. Possible caused of this mass extermination range from lightning, fireworks and simple disorientation. There have also been millions of fish washed upon the shores of various oceans and seas, dead.  In a brief blurb in the paper under a caption of Aflockalypse Now, we are told an Irish bookmaker named Paddy Power is taking bets on which country will be next to see large numbers of dead birds, and the next marine life to die en masse.  Nature has seen these kinds of mass exterminations before, sometimes explained, sometimes not. Some would like to see this as the beginning of the end of days for the Earth. As a Wiccan I am terribly saddened by these deaths, and hope it is not the result of a human-caused event. No matter the cause, or the species, these deaths hardly deserve to be a source of entertainment and mockery by the humans among us who always seem to turn up in the face of disaster.

Lastly, this from the entertainment world. With a name like Season of the Witch a new movie being released today sounds like something a witch like me would love. After reading about it and a couple of reviews I am not so sure. I never make a judgment about a movie until I have actually seen it. But from the description I wonder if I do want to see it. It is about a pair of 14th century knights (Nicolas Cage, Ron Perlman) recently returned from the Crusades who are sent to escort a woman accused of being a witch and who has apparently caused the Black Plague. There are battles and suspenseful intrigues, and the main characters "learn the witch's dark secrets".  Oh well. I think I will place on my Netflix "save" list and watch it when it comes out on DVD. Maybe someone will see it at the theatre and let me know if it is worth the trip and the ticket price.




Two more days till my Giveaway ends. Click on the picture above on the sidebar to find out more, and to enter!!!

Crop Circles in the Snow

Cold and snowy, but a little sun teases us now and again. My dogs are making "crop circles" in the snow, patterns of footprints all over the place. We stuck the Yule Tree in the snow beside one of our bird feeding stations. At first, the birds did not like it, but now they are hiding inside the branches, and having long discussions. We will see how long the tree lasts.

The Yule Tree is Now a Bird Hide-Out

Short post today, as the "declutterfest" continues. My son, nicarus is home on winter break from college, and I want to take advantage of his strong arms and unflagging cheerfulness!!


My first giveaway ends this Saturday, January 8th. Click on the photo on the sidebar at the top to read all about it and enter!!

Wiccan Rites---DeclutterFest

In my Sunday newspaper, the joyous news was proclaimed:  January is National Get Organized Month. Already? It seems that from October till about  three days ago, all I have done, is drag boxes out of the basement, decorate, re-decorate, put away, and decorate some more.  The last box has been heaved carefully placed back into its regular spot for the next 11 months, until we do it all over again.

So this January organizational thing: is it really a conspiracy to sell us all those lovely containers, tubs, baskets, shelving and other denizens of storage and display? Nevertheless, organization is a good thing, clutter is not. Especially if you are Wiccan.

Negativity is a bad thing. It hides in the corners, under rugs, filing itself away in all the stacked up mail, papers, books, lingering in the piles and teetering towers of the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life. Negative energy that is hovering in the house is one of the main causes of discomfort, restlessness, sadness, depression and these feelings can snowball into anger, unhappiness, arguments and more. 

Spellwork and rituals cannot work in a cluttered, disorganized, messy environment. Energies need clean lines and straight unobstructed paths to do their job. Sacred space requires a cleansed and consecrated atmosphere. The witch requires a rested and focused frame of mind. So housekeeping is an important practice, both physically and spiritually. There are times, though when clutter just gets out of hand, especially during these last three months of non-stop holiday activities.

 

Please don't feed the dust bunnies.  ~Author Unknown

Some people are just naturally neat and tidy. A place for everything, everything in its place. I am not one of these people.  I have to really work at it. It has been a drudgery. But now, as I incorporate my Wiccan practices into all aspects of my life, I find that I need and want to keep things organized. Changing my attitude, turning normal everyday routine activities into a spiritual practice makes life a lot smoother. I still have a ways to go to become "naturally" neat, but as they say, Rome wasn't  built in a day, and neither were these diehard habits of mine.

Now it is time to welcome the new year, take a deep breath and dive into the clutter and feel the positive energies flowing. And that is a good thing.

If you haven't already, enter my giveaway by leaving a comment.  The Giveaway ends Saturday, January 8th.

First Ever Giveaway!

Greetings One and All!  Announcing the First Ever Giveaway at Wiccan Writes!   Yes indeed, I am happy to be blogging, and having such friendly followers. It has been gratifying to receive great comments on my posts, and to have people appreciate the work and words.  Blogging has not been easy for me, first from the "techy" side, as I am not too computer savvy. I have had assistance from my dear husband, my daughter and son, and from observing other blogs. I am much more at ease now, and ready to learn some "advanced" techniques.

My goal for this blog was simply to write thoughts, ideas, and daily experiences to help me with my Wiccan path, and to demonstrate that living as a Wiccan can be fun, inspiring, wonderful, nerve-wracking, happy, serious, that I am not a "wacky airhead", demented, perverse or odd.  I am a regular person, who happens to be a witch, and who practices a religion that is not quite mainstream.

Anyhooo, I would like to thank my followers with this giveaway I have put together. I hope you will be interested in entering to win the following:

Llewellyn's 2011 Magical Almanac. There's a calendar section, featuring festivals and holidays, 2011 sabbats for by Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and Full Moons. It is filled with practical spells, rituals, daily correspondences, articles written by noteworthy pagans. This is will be handy for all levels of practitioners. Non-pagans will find it interesting and useful as well.

Dancing With Dragons, by D.J. Conway. This book is from my personal library, and I think you will find it fascinating whether you wish to add Dragons to your practice, or just as a fun, informational read. I enjoyed reading about dragon magic and though I do not work with dragons, I always want to learn as much as I can about other practices. 

These tiny candles, one silver, one gold are perfect for your altar, for spell work and rituals. I have included the sweet holders as well. I love using these small candles, and they are available in a wide array of colors. I chose silver and gold, of course, to represent the God and the Goddess.

I am putting together a charm for my winner. It starts with this shimmery little bag, and will include a fairy stone (shown) and a selection of herbs and stones for protection.  I will charge it with positive energy, and then when you receive it, please charge it with your own power and intention.

I am including a selection of incense sticks from my collection. I love using incense for spell work, rituals, sabbats and esbats, for cleansing and consecrating, and sometimes for no reason other than it smells great!

Robin Larkspur could not have a giveaway without including something chocolate.  Need I say more?


So here are the rules.  Basically no rules, LOL!!!  Just be a follower, or sign on to follow.  Leave a comment that you would like to enter my giveaway. This giveaway is open internationally. It will close on Saturday January 8th.  I will announce the winner Sunday January 9th.  The winner will have 3 days to respond. If  I do not receive a response, I will choose a new winner.  Please make sure that you leave either an email address, or have a blog that has contact info. 

The First Ever GiveAway

Hope you all like the giveaway!!! Looking forward to sending it to the winner!!!!   Blessings,  Robin.

The Professor

This morning during my usual blog and coffee fest, I was reading Patti Wigington's blog http://paganwiccan.about.com/  and discovered with delight that today is JRR Tolkien's birthday. I do not know about anyone else, but for me, Tolkien's Hobbit life drew me in and allowed me to connect with the world of Faerie as I never thought I could. As a tiny child I loved dreaming of and talking to fairies and brownies, wishing I could meet an elf or a leprechaun. My imaginary world was full of all things fae.  When I found Tolkien in my teens, I was elated and enchanted.  And of course, Peter Jackson's movies were beautifully rendered, satisfactorily providing me with hours of giddy enjoyment (not to mention, I found Viggo Mortensen so very, very, well, Very. (even if he didnt portray an elf)!

Patti's blog directs us to a link for the Tolkien society:    http://www.tolkiensociety.org/toast/2011/

At 9:00 pm EST, I will be joining in to toast the Professor. A small thing perhaps, but it thrills me to do so.

http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/assets/contributor/tolkien%24jrr_lres.gif

And tomorrow, Tuesday, January 4th, I will be announcing the first ever Giveaway here at Wiccan Writes. I am excited. I hope you will check it out.