Wordless Wednesday--Backyard Housing

Fairy Housing

Sparrow Housing

Giveaway Deadline Extended

Because I had a special post yesterday, I am extending the deadline to enter my Giveaway. So the new deadline is Thursday, May 10th. I will announce the winner on Friday May 11th. Okie doke?

Beltane Moon Giveaway. Read about the details HERE

Wiccan? Witch? Magaly and Robin Discuss

A few weeks back, Magaly Guerrero, the wonderfully "sexy, dark and bloody" writer at the Pagan Culture blog, and I exchanged an email discussion regarding a commenter on Magaly's blog who was wondering about the difference between being a Witch and being Wiccan....are they one in the same or is Wicca removed from Witchcraft? This discussion between us led to Magaly coming up with a scheme for us to collaborate on a post addressing this question. She suggested we each make a list of 13 things (a Witch's dozen) that describe our Path. We exchanged our lists and are both posting them on our blogs today, along with a compare/contrast summary.  Here is the link to Magaly's blog with her post: Pagan Culture Blog
What do you think? Are Witches and Wiccans the same thing, totally different or a bit of both? 

I now present our Lists, beginning with Magaly:

When a new friend said to me, “I didn’t know you were Wiccan.” I responded that I was not. She gave me a puzzled look and added, “But you just said you were a Witch.”

I smiled, asked her to sit by me, and started a conversation that ended with, “Witch, Wiccan—tomato, potato.” The middle was filled with something that resembled the following list:

1. I am a Witch.

2. I revere Nature and all her creatures.

3. Magic is wild energy that can be twisted and changed.

4. To me, deities are different aspects of Nature.

5. Magic is as benevolent or evil as its intent and outcome.

6. Good invites better and bad summons destruction.

7. Spells are prayers with a flare that makes flesh dance and soul sing.

8. My pentacle is fire, water, earth, air, and spirit dancing together in the circle of life.

9. Darkness is as beautiful, powerful and necessary as light.

10. In my life, sex is physical and spiritual magic.

11. Evil is manmade and man-fed.

12. Spirituality is the garb of the soul.

13. Words have power.

My friend was quiet for a while, and then asked, “What do Wiccans believe?”

It was my turn to stay quiet for a while. I explained that I could tell her what I thought Wiccans believed, but that wouldn’t be true. But a couple of weeks later, I asked my dear friend Robin, from Wiccan Writes, for some help. Here is her answer:

(and this is my list below)

I am happy to have been asked by Magaly to collaborate on this post. I am a solitary practitioner of Wicca. This list reflects my personal path. Other Wiccans may have different views. I consider myself Wiccan and Witch; for me they are one in the same.

1. Honor both God and Goddess.

2. Adherence to the Wiccan Rede: (to paraphrase) Spellwork, rituals and other activities must Harm None; therefore do what you believe in.

3. Three-Fold Law of Return:  Good begets good (three times over) and Bad begets bad (three times over).

4. In rituals/spell work, I use Witch’s tools: wand, besom (broom), cauldron, stones, candles, herbs, incense, altar and more.

5. The Moon and the Sun are symbolic as they represent Goddess and God, respectively.

6. Phases of the Moon are vital to my Path.

7. Celebrating the turning of the Wheel of the Year and 8 respective sabbats (holidays) .

8. Natural magick (directing  Nature‘s energies to effect a change).

9. The Unseen World. There are energies and spirits that may not exist on the human level, but may still be seen, accessed and interacted with by the use of meditation, divination and other methods.

10. Stewardship of our planet and the higher love felt for Mother Earth is a guiding force in my practice.

11. The pentagram is a sacred symbol, the points representing the Four Elements necessary for life and magick: Earth, Air, Fire,Water with the fifth point  representing Spirit.

12. Positive and negative energies influence every aspect of life. I walk on the so-called right hand path, the Light path focusing on positive Work. I do not practice Magick centering around revenge, hatred, violence or manipulation.

13. Wicca is an evolving pagan religion, just as Nature evolves, neither is static; there is always something new to explore even as one keeps Old Ways alive.

And so you can see, in many ways our Lists are very similar. Magaly has such a flare, a rhythm that sets her List a'dancing and a'fire!  We both revere Nature, treasuring all things on this Planet. She embraces Darkness in a way that I don't, not that Darkness is equated with evil, by any means. I prefer to stay mostly in the Light (though I will admit to Dark Moon workings, and a familiarity with the goddess Hecate).  As Magaly says, "Potato, tomato".  Each in our own way celebrate the energies that exist, acknowledge Intent as the key to working magick. We are Witches. My Wiccan Ways enhance my Path, just as Magaly's magical lifestyle enhances hers.  This is my humble opinion.
Magaly is such a dynamic person, her writing reflects her fiery soul and she seizes life by the horns and hangs on! I am thrilled and honored that she wished to collaborate with me!
Be sure to visit Magaly's blog to read what she has to say on this subject. (The link is above)!!

Finally, The Giveaway!!

For weeks now, I have been threatening you all with a Giveaway!! And now it is here. A beautiful Full Moon tonight (called many names: Beltane Moon, Willow Moon, Flower Moon, Seed Moon) makes me want to celebrate with a Giveaway.. This May moon will be 14% brighter! (how do they calculate these things, anyway?). This would be a spectacular time to charge all your magickal tools, stones, jewelry..whatever you wish. I like to charge water for ritual use during a Full Moon. Just place your items outside where they will receive the full glow of the Moon.

Back to the Giveaway...here is a photo:

Just click on the photo to see a better view.

Earth, Air, Fire & Water by my favorite Wiccan author, Scott Cunningham. An amazing and useful book for learning how to incorporate these four elements into spellwork and rituals. Scott was a gentle, down-to-earth person who wrote very personally and personably. His concern for his readers made his books genuine, accurate and unique.

Godiva Chocolate. Need I say more?

A butterfly book mark.

When is a book not a book? When it is a beautifully disguised storage box. You can put all kinds of trinkets into this neat box-that-looks-like-a-book.

A candle that smells like summery gardens: Lavender and Chamomile scented. And a folder of blank note cards and envelopes with beautiful summer flowers on the front of each card.. Let's bring the art of letter writing back into use. Don't you just love to get a handwritten note? Well, to get on, write one!!!

Here's a sweet little figurine of a robin. Just so you can have a reminder of someone who thinks the world of you.

There might be a few other things that wind up in the box. Who knows?

TO WIN::
Simple simple simple.   Be a follower. Leave a comment that you would like to be entered into the Beltane Moon Giveaway! That is it!! Open to everyone, including international followers. I will announce the winner on Wednesday, May 9th. I will need a way to contact you, either email or blog. (i do not tweet or FB or any of that). 
The winner must respond with their snail mail address within three days, or I will need to draw another winner.

Happy Beltane Moon, Flower Moon, Seed Moon, Willow Moon, Super Moon!!!!!!

Forget-Me-Not

Thanks to my husband's quick thinking, these tulips survived the killing frosts. He covered them with a bucket.

Of course, you can see that the weeds that weren't covered managed to survive as well. A little humor from Mother Nature.

Our sweet crabapple tree thriving

Yesterday our area was inundated with small butterflies. Everywhere you looked they were fluttering and flittering by the hundreds. Little black and orange shapes, smaller but similar to monarchs. Apparently it was part of the migration of the Admiral butterfly. Thousands and thousands passed through. I tried to snap a photo or two, but they were just too quick. Nature's speed demons.

I did get this somewhat blurry photo of a ladybug in our rowan tree. This magickal tree is about to burst into bloom. I haven't quite figured out the macro settings on Elphie, my little camera. Nature provides the subjects for super photos.

In this photo, amongst the growing iris, is a swath of lily-of-the-valley. If you look closely at the ones in front you can see they have been neatly cropped. Chomped on by rabbits. Nature's pruning team.

I like this combination of colors. The blue of the muscari (grape hyacinth) with a lovely yellow; an unknown name weed. Nature provides color sense.

Forget-me-nots

 

 

Just a few photos from my yard that illustrates the gifts from Nature, with the final photo providing a message from Mother Nature herself...Forget-Me-Not.

Witchy Cat Wreath

In the mail, a large white box. In the box, a bunch of white paper. Under the paper (no bubblewrap, sadly!) the most charming wreath. From dear Kim at http://witchcatsblog.blogspot.com/

Click on the photo for a better view

I have hung the wreath on my fireplace. It looks perfect there. I love how Kim wove the pentagram with brown ribbon. The little wood shapes are cats in various seasons and poses. Purrrrfect!  Also, if you look closely you can see two of my brooms, a braid of sweet grass and on the right the sweet bow and button heart that Oma Linda from OldBaggs and Stuft Shirt blog sent me a few months ago. I have received wonderful gifts from my dear blog friends. These gifts definitely add good energy to my home.


Thanks, Kim and also the dear Midnight (a very sweet black kitty) for this lovely blog giveaway!!

May First

A rainy Beltane. No worries, though. There is time enough for bonfires and swinging on the porch. I am just happy to turn the calendar page to this merry month.

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We have had several hard frosts in the last week. Putting a bucket over tulips hopefully has saved the late spring bloomers from certain death. Central New York has many apple farmers, and they have been putting in long hours with smudge pots and big fans hoping to save their apple blossoms from the nefarious freezing temperatures. Fingers crossed for them!

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Since it was cloudy drizzly afternoon yesterday, I went to my Wiccan bookshelf and leafed through several books reading or re-reading Beltane passages. It is interesting to read things I had forgotten, or to look over some favorite paragraphs. An hour or so of refreshing my memory is time well-spent (and believe me, my memory needs quite a bit of refreshing these days!!)

I also opened my new Witches Almanac, Spring 2012 thru Spring 2013. (www.TheWitchesAlmanac.com)

It contains "...pictorial and explicit delineations of the magical phases of the Moon," as well as astrological information, articles on topics ranging from Moon gardening, seances, folklore, tarot, weather and so much more that would interest witches and anyone interested in natural or metaphysical subjects. It's a handy reference and I look forward to using it this year. The Witches Almanac is published in Providence, Rhode Island and Judika Illes is the Copy Editor. (this almanac is not to be confused with the Llewellyn almanac, though I like the Llewellyn one too. Just wanted to use a different almanac this year)

Time to run and get some tasks done. Have a Happy May Day, and blessed be!!

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