Bats

I'm unaware as to how much coverage this has been getting, since I don't watch much television, but multitudes of bats are dying off in the North Eastern United States. They're succumbing to a disease known as White Nose Syndrome, a disease that scientists know nearly nothing about.

The three main species of bat effected by the disease are the little brown bat (the bats we see frequently flying and eating mosquitoes in the summer and that nest behind shutters), the Northern Long Eared bat and the already endangered Indiana bat.

Bats are some of the creatures I love the most, second only to the elephant. Throughout history, bats have been revered as well as feared. Creatures of luck, transformation, happiness and thanks largely to Bram Stoker, nightmares. As creatures special to me, particularly the little brown bat who I've grown up with, their plight has been breaking my heart. After I read this article I was depressed and needed an emotional outlet.

So I gathered my supplies and created this shrine to bats, featuring the three species mentioned above. I blended herbs and stones and poured my love and hope for their survival into my work.

Herbs:
Lavendar: Protection, Healing and Peace.
Sage: Longevity, Fertility and Protection.
Star Anise: Protection.
Thistle: Strength, Protection and Healing.

Stones:
Petrified Wood: Longevity, Protection and Healing.
Rose Quartz: Love and Healing.

My shrine will be hung above my altar and I will be saying a few words for my winged friends during my Lammas ritual.



Edited to Add: I received a very polite email from a woman over on the World Bat Line list serve informing me that my long eared bat is mislabeled and in actuallity is a Pallid bat, who also possesses long ears. This is what I get for using Google to locate information and then picking the photo in the correct positioning for my needs, instead of cross referencing. Sentiment remains unchanged though. :)

The Turning Leaf

I've been on a shrine making kick lately. I'm trying to wrap up some swaps so I can work on items for the Etsy shop I'd like to open before the summer is over. I'm also toying with the idea of attending my first craft show as an exhibitor in November. I'm not sure that my work will fit the demographic of my area, however I need to start somewhere! I'll see what I can whip up over the next few weeks and go from there.

For now, here is a project I worked on for a fellow paper crafter and one of the women who inspired me to begin art journalling, Phizzychick. Oddly enough, I sent a non paper gift to her and here it is:

It's a turning leaf pendant, inspired by a more sophisticated one I saw on her wist. Mine is not made with crystals and sterling silver wire, but it was my first foray into the world of beading and I am thrilled with the way it turned out!

After the first two hours of work my poor pointer finger was dotted with teeny bruises and blood spots and incredibly sore, despite my use of tools. I had to put it aside for a few days while my fingers healed and I devised a new plan of attack. I'm pleased to say the second half of the work went much more smoothly.

Silver plated copper wire, with a mix of glass and stone beads on multi strand leather cord.

Pagan Chunky Pages

By day I've been helping customers solve a plethora of issues and wanting to go play in the rain instead. Usually during the summer I want to go bask in the sun like some sort of great soft fleshed reptile, but since it's been raining more or less constantly in New Jersey, I've gotten acclimated to splashing in puddles instead.

My nights have been spent crafting for various swaps I'm involved with over at Craftster.org. I've been an active member of the Wicca/Witch/Pagan swaps for almost a year now and they are by and large my favourite swaps on the site. We've gotten a fairly solid group of swappers who have been conversing and traveling through the wheel of the year together, but we also love newcomers who step timidly into the circle and wave a friendly 'hello' at us. Aside from the feeling of sisterhood in the group, my favourite part of the whole thing is how very ecelectic we all are. We've had folks from all different backgrounds and beliefs join us and share their thoughts; Santerians, Trinitarian Wiccans, we've even had a few curious Atheists and Christians join us. It's a marvelous melting pot of belief.

The current round has been a swap for Chunky Pages which I have had an excellent time working on and can't wait to share pictures of. So, despite sending them out today and knowing full well that no one has received, I'm going to share a few of the pages I made.

If you're one of my WWP swap partners, avert thine eyes.

....

...

..

.

Benzaiten, Goddess of Luck, Art and Beauty:


Ganesha, Remover of Obstacles. God of Art and Wisdom. Also one of my household dieties.


Venus, Goddess of Love and Beauty.


A Calavera, in honour of Dia De Los Muertos.

Art Journalling And Preparations

I finished up two new pages in my art journal today, bringing my total new pages up to six. Now, when I count pages in terms of art, I count by subject matter. So a two leaf spread to me counts as one page. No? Too bad!

In the normal world of page counting, I'm 173 pages into my 537 page book. Still a long way to go! To be fair though, the pages are sort of flimsy, so I sometimes glue 2 pages together to double the thickness. With the amount of bulge going on in the book already, I don't know if I'll be able to fill all the pages without it looking like one of those vintage Reader's Digest Christmas Trees. I may need to just start painting and using thin paper bits on a lot of pages instead of collaging everything. We'll see.

For the mister's birthday


Gypsies


Asbury Park, NJ


Page about the Protests in Iran after their election.


The Letter A


Magpies, based around a fortune from a cookie.


Detail. The fortune reads 'Where your treasure is, there is your heart'.

We're going camping this weekend and I plan to bring my journal along. Hopefully I'll get some journalling done. I just need to remember to bring my book, small watercolours, pen and a glue stick. Never know what you'll find to glue in your journal.

Herbal Charms - Protection and Sleep

Recently there's been some negativity floating around in our lives. Worst of all, not only has it snuck into our home and required a good smudging, but it's been making me fidgety and giving me some truly restless nights.

The other night I whipped up some small sachets and filled them with herbs and stones and left them to charge on my altar after making my intentions for each strong and clear.

The first one I made was an amulet to stop some of the negativity from following us through the front door of our home.

First, I made the drawstring pouch out of black fabric. Black is fantastic for absorbing negativity as well as for banishment. I then added herbs and few stones that suited the charm's intended purpose.

• Clove - For protection and banishing


• Bay - For strength and protection


• Rosemary - For healing, protection and to increase happiness


• Calendula Flower - For keeping negativity out


• Juniper Berries - To Drive off negativity/ill intentions


• Tiger's Eye - Protection from negativity, helping us to ground and let things go at the door.


• Quartz Crystal Point - To strengthen the spell

The second charm I made was for a restful night's sleep. I made the pouch from brown and blue batik fabric. Brown is great for calming and grounding and blue is excellent for peace. Again, I added herbs and a few stones that suited the purpose of the charm.

• Lavender - For protection, love


• Chamomile - For aid in falling asleep, soothing dreams


• Rosemary - For protection, healing and love


• Rose - To protect the emotions


• Cloves - For Protection and to banish bad dreams


• Amethyst - To capture nightmares and negativity.


• Head of Sunflower - This was the head of the seed I planted on Ostara, the blooms beneath it were starting to appear and the leaves were about to come loose. I included it to continue my Ostara wish as well as increase happiness while dreaming.

After completion I put the charms on my altar to charge for three nights. I then hung the charm of protection above the front doorway and the charm of restful sleep above our bed. When it is time to recharge them I will take them down and refresh the herbs, cleanse and recharge the stones and start the process over.

Celebrations and Forests

Still recovering from a busy weekend. Not the bad kind of busy, mind you. The sort of busy where you don't realise how much you've been doing until your alarm goes off Monday morning and you lament having to return to work.

My poor husband must have hated waking up next to my stretching and moaning self. Mondays are not my best morning as it is, but after a three day teaser vacation, it was worse than usual. Luckily I was able to procure a large cup of black english tea with a dab of honey. Quite tasty.

Some photos from the weekend adventures:

New Hope, PA:




Fireworks at the local college on the 4th:


Picnic and Hike at Cooper's Mill:

Altered Book: Chakras

I was recently in another round of the Wicca/Witch/Pagan swap over at Craftster and was paired up with the a wonderful partner who is a universal shamanic healer. Most of his workings revolve around self healing, spiritual awakening and the chakras. He also asked for a piece of art to display on his wall or shelf.

Being a born hoarder, I had a small stack of children's board books waiting for me to do something with them and found one with the perfect number of pages to accomodate the 7 chakras. Here is how it turned out:

















There was a storm rolling in as I was trying to take pictures, as evidenced by the darkness of some of the photos.

The Alpha..

After a whim moved me to do so, I've decided to start a blog to share some of my photography, craftyness, ramblings, witchery and maybe even recipes if I manage to come up with any.

I can't in good conscience leave just that as an opening entry, so let me answer some questions posed by the fabulous Mrs. B in her latest pagan journal prompt

What brought you to the pagan path?
I believe that I have always been on it, I just didn't discover a name for it until I was in my late teens. The first real push in my learning came in the form of a deck of Tarot cards that were given to me, without any prompting, by an acquaintance.

Do you feel that you were always on it, even before you knew what it was?
Absolutely! I was always a loner as a kid and loved to spend time outside digging in the dirt, sitting in a pile of leaves, swimming in the lake or chatting to oak trees. I vividly remember making concoctions when I was 5 or 6 out of sticks and mud and nuts and berries and just believing they would do something though I can't recall what. I also made an obscene amount 'monster traps and repellents' reminiscent of dream catchers, magic wands and amulets. I never grew far from nature as I grew up, like so many people I know did.

Were you raised as a pagan? Did you know any pagans growing up?
I was not raised pagan. Thinking back, I definitely had a few pagan friends growing up, although at the time they identified themselves as agnostics.

At what age did you finally consider yourself to be a pagan? What religion were you raised?
My grandmother was strict Irish Catholic, and gave me at least 4 copies of the bible as a kid. I think she gave up on me when my parents split up. My parents were both catholic of a very loose sort. We never went to church and religion wasn't a big deal in my home. It allowed me to read about and explore different faiths very easily; no one batted an eye when I brought home an idol of Ganesha or set up a small shrine to him.

I came into my own, faith wise, when I was in my early 20's. I'm 26 now and have offically been out of the broom closet for two years.