Sunday This and That

Greetings everyone! As I mentioned in my previous post, we are expecting some rather nasty weather with a bad snow storm beginning this afternoon and continuing into late Tuesday morning! We are supposed to get anywhere from 15 to 20 inches of this white mess - YUK! COME ON SPRING, PLEASE - so tired of the freezing temperatures and having to worry about making it back and forth to work safely - even worse, my husband as well because his job is nothing BUT driving!!

Anyhow, today I finally took down my Mermaid Tree in my altar room. Speaking of mermaids, I am always on the look out for lovely mermaid statues and sculptures. This past week I found a beautiful merman statue in my price range. It is supposed to arrive this Tuesday. Can't wait! It is so hard to find a gorgeous merman to add to my collection and this one is so stunning ...

Moving on, I have had such a terrible time sleeping for the past few weeks so yesterday after my sister and I held our early Imbolg ritual, we decided to stop off at Ulta Beauty and I found this pillow mist I thought that I would try ...

Also, my sister Aurora Skye gave me a couple of other health and beauty products for Yule to try - a Vanilla and Lavender Body Butter and a Sweet Dreams roll-on oil both made by Norse Naturals ...

And, last weekend while my mom and I were shopping at one of our local Dollar Tree stores, I picked up another roll-on made with four different essential oils to aide with my bad neck and shoulder muscle pain. I must admit that it does help ...

After shopping at Ulta Beauty, we checked out our Barnes & Noble Bookstore and I found a new book on magickal herbs ...

And last, but not least, a brotherly pic of Butterscotch and Sir Leo awaiting the snow storm while hanging out together in front of the living room window.

Until next time, friends - take care and be safe!

Our Imbolg celebration ~ 2021

Due to both of our conflicting schedules and the predicted impending bad weather for early next week, my sister Aurora Skye and I decided to hold our Imbolg celebration a few days early this year. So, today, we held our ritual in my living room instead of the altar room as usual because my husband was working downstairs. As I was setting up our altar, Miss Ginger  had decided to check things out for herself ...

In addition to our altar, we displayed our personal wedding photos - symbolic of the sabbat of Imbolg as we were honoring the Triple Goddess Brigid whose name gives way to the word "bride" ...

(L-R): My parents taken after their engagement, Aurora Skye and her husband, and a photo taken from my own wedding album of my legal handfasting as performed by High Priestess and my Reiki Master, Lady Sabrina Rhiannon.

Brigid's Bed.

Brigid's ritual candle.

Lighting our white ritual candles from Brigid's flame.

Our altar adorned with symbols of Imbolg, we humbly asked Brigid to bless us with her presence and urged Her to unite with her loving consort, the Young Lord of Light, once again to bring on the coming of Spring.

Imbolc Oil

1 part basil

1 part frankincense

1 part myrrh

2 parts rosemary

3 parts cinnamon

6 drops jasmine essential oil

5 drops sandalwood essential oil

💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

AN IMBOLG CAROL

We dance the Ring of Imbolg,

We dance the round of Spring,

We dance this night to invoke,

The hope that it will bring.

(author unknown)

Wishing everyone a very Blessed Imbolg!

Groundhog Day 2021 Announcement

So very sad! Although, not terribly surprising. More victims of the mainstream media and hyprocritical Socialist Democratic party hysteria ... smh. None the less, I am still planning to watch it.

BTW, without getting into too much detail, I have very recently been a victim of the so-called "tolerant" liberals who have thought it was their personal right to deface and destroy my car and my husband and myself's home and property simply because we had the audacity to hang a flag supporting President Trump in our OWN yard a month ago - since then we have been attacked  TWICE for it ...

Our lawn after they choose to rudely and disrespectfully tresspass onto our front yard and plow down my husband's VOTE FOR TRUMP sign with their vehicle.

Picture taken after I cleaned my car off from the paint thrown all over it! You can still see the paint left in our driveway behind my car.

Let's get this perfectly straight - THEY had NO right. I do not care who anyone supports, I would never have done anything such as this to anyone!

Just my observation and view so the comments have been disabled for this post as my personal opinions are NOT up for debate nor agrument. Just for the record, I do not believe everything the media tells me to - see, I choose to think for myself and use commom sense. 

Have a great day all!

Throwback Thursday: A Ritual and a Groundhog

Blessed Imbolc/Imbolg, my dear friends! After a week of cold, nasty weather we have had a gorgeous winter day here today! My sister Aurora Skye and I had a wonderful time and we very much enjoyed our Imbolg celebration together ...

My beautiful sister!

And finally, this morning our own Punxutawney Phil predicted an EARLY SPRING ... YAY! LOL!!! ...

Imbolc Recipes

As we draw closer to the season of spring and the next Imbolc/Imbolg celebration, we may wish to look for some good food/recipes to use in honor of the Triple Goddess Brigid. One traditional food is pancakes, (and cakes of all grain-based foods). Pancakes are considered symbols of the sun because of their round shape and golden color.

Here are two recipes which I came across and would like to share with all of you.

Faery Wine

1 1/2 cups milk

1 tsp. honey

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

cinnamon

Warm milk - DO NOT BOIL. Add in honey and vanilla. Mix together and pour into a mug. Sprinkle with the cinnamon.

Bailey's Irish Cream Truffles

1/4 cup Bailey's Irish Cream liqueur

1 Tbs. butter

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate pieces

2 egg yolks

1/4 cup heavy cream

powdered sugar or cocoa

Melt chocolate pieces, Bailey's and cream together over very low heat. Whisk in yolks, one at a time - mixture will thicken, Whisk in butter. Refrigerate several hours or overnight until firm. Make small balls with a teaspoon. Roll in powdered sugar or cocoa.

(source: http://circleofthe sacredmuse.com)

Something to THINK about ...

Imbolc Lore

I don't know about you, but I have always been fascinated by the history of the holidays which we celebrate - both contemporary and pagan. The way in which they have changed and evolved over the years (even centuries) I find extremely interesting. So much so, that you will find many posts which I have published since I began this blog back in September of 2010.

I love to share as many traditions, poems, recipes, and lore as I possibly can. And, I must admit that I also love the lore and fun of Groundhog Day, which has its' own origins - and faithfully watch our own Punxsutawney Phil live on our national media channels here in the United States and always enjoy sharing the live coverage on this blog every year.

In the meantime, here's a bit of lore for everyone ~

According to an English song:

If Candlemas be fair and bright,

Come Winter, have another flight;

If Candlemas brings clouds and rain,

Go Winter and come not again.

According to an old Scotch couplet:

If Candlemas Day is bright and clear

There'll be twa (two) winters in the year.

Another variation of the Scottish rhyme:

If Candlemas day be dry and fair,

The half o' winter to come and mair,

If Candlemas day be wet and foul,

The half of winter's gone at Yule.

The German's recited:

For as the sun shines on Candlemas Day,

So far will the snow swirl until May.

Sunday this and that

Blessed Sunday, friends! This has been one of the few three-day weekends I have had in a while as I have the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday off from work tomorrow. So, I have been busy doing some much-needed work in my altar room - especially with Imbolg coming up. While cleaning up and organizing, I happened to find a heart-shaped wreath I had forgotten that I had - funny how you come across things that way, eh? Anyhow, I finished decorating it Friday night and created a new Imbolg wreath ...

I also began setting up my sabbat altar as well ...

This year, I added something a bit new. I found a small cinnamon besom to use for smudging before my ritual. It smells wonderful! But other than the pleasing scent, the properties of cinnamon are very useful indeed. Cinnamon is good for grounding, protection, success, attracting money, even love and sex magick. 

This past week, I had been working downstairs until around 3AM. I plan on finshing up today. 

Have a great rest of the weekend everyone! Brightest Blessings!

Gratuitous Merlin pic. 

Fun Friday

 

Amblyopia (Lazy eye)

The first time I had ever noticed that something was wrong with my eye was way back in 1990 at a Halloween party after someome had taken my picture. At first I thought, "That is weird - it is like my eye has a mind of its' own." Well, little did I realize that in essence it actually did and that it would only get much worse in the following years to come - making it extemely difficult to judge depth perception and what's worse, possibly putting my current job in serious jeopardy. It is called "lazy eye" (amblyopia) and it is definitly not a joke! ...

What exactly is amblyopia?

Lazy eye (amblyopia) is reduced vision in one eye caused by abnormal visual development early in life. The weaker — or lazy — eye often wanders inward or outward.

Amblyopia generally develops from birth up to age 7 years. It is the leading cause of decreased vision among children. Rarely, lazy eye affects both eyes. 

Early diagnosis and treatment can help prevent long-term problems with your child's vision. The eye with poorer vision can usually be corrected with glasses or contact lenses, or patching therapy. 

Signs and symptoms of lazy eye include:

• An eye that wanders inward or outward
• Eyes that appear to not work together
• Poor depth perception
• Squinting or shutting an eye
• Head tilting
• Abnormal results of vision screening tests

Sometimes lazy eye is not evident without an eye exam. When I was a child, this was never detected so therefore it never got corrected before it was too late. My optometrist told me that there is no surgery which will fix the "lazy eye" and the reason is because a) it was not corrected as a child, and b) the brain and the eye muscle can not communicate so therefore even eye therapy would unfortunately do nothing to help me:

When to see a doctor:  See your child's doctor if you notice his or her eye wandering after the first few weeks of life. A vision check is especially important if there's a family history of crossed eyes, childhood cataracts or other eye conditions.

Yes, my dad also had it but not as severe. His, like mine, also had not actually shown up until a bit later in life. I first noticed it in myself when I was in my mid-twenties. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WISHES!

A very special HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my god-daughter, Kylianna Love who turns 15 years old today!! WOW! How very quickly the time flies. I have had the pleasure of watching you grow up through the years from a sweet little girl ... (after all, she IS my Mini-Me lol) 

Kyli and her grandma (my Kiki-girl) reminiscing while looking through a beautiful photo scrap book of the family that Kyli created. 💜

... into the beautiful, intelligent, responsible, and talented young lady you have become today!! HAPPIEST OF BIRTHDAYS to you, my sweet girl!! I LOVE YOU, BUNCHES!!