Animals: Wolves
I am dreadfully sorry, but my archive on wolves was lost in transition. If I can manage to find it, or remember what I had written, I will put it here later. My apologies. If you are desperately in need of knowledge on wolves, let me know in an e-mail and I will get something to you. My e-mail is on my home page. Blessings!!
Care For Body, Mind and Soul:
I found a great old tip for splotched and pimpled faces...try this: Dissolve common salt in the juice of lemons and with a linen cloth pat your face gently. It should help in a few dressings. (One note; this is an old remedy, I would watch carefully if you have sensitive skin , or if it starts to look worse.)
Gardening:
I said above that I love water in a garden. You can have water in your garden in a relatively short amount of time, and with a minimum of work if you really want it. No, you dont have to wait for a monsoon to hit, you can create a bog garden. I dont know how well this would do in a desert type setting, but most certainly just about anywhere else it should work fine.
Find a shady spot in your yard where you just cant seem to get anything else to grow and dig a pit about 9 inches deep and as wide as you are willing to make it. Remove any large branches, sharp stones and rubble then line the hole with heavy, heavy black plastic--or one of those ready made pond liners you can get at a gardening center ( I know I always say no plastic, but in this case I approve). Scatter pebbles and smooth stones over the plastic on the bottom and then shovel in the backfill after mixing in some compost or well rotted manure--eeeuuuwww. Make sure you keep it well watered during any dry spells!
The plants you are going to plant in your bog are not true water plants so be sure their heads are not submerged, but their feet are kept wet. Try these: cattail, iris, joe-pye weed, marsh marigold, wild calla, royal fern, cinnamon fern, canada lily, cardinal flower, skunk cabbage, and swamp milkweed.
Housekeeping:
A little laundry magic
You can make an ordinary task a magical ritual, and a bit of fun...try some of the following ideas next wash day...
Add a sunflower seed, a garlic clove and a pinch of rosemary to the wash water to give strength to the ill. But be sure to take the garlic out before you put the clothes in the dryer, or they will smell. Better yet, take my advcie from above and hang them in the sunshine if possible.
For extra money, add a pinch of three finger grass to the wash water.
To stop arguements in the home, wash everyone's clothes with a pinch of basil and a rose petal or two in the water.
Want a houseguest to leave? Offer to wash their clothes, like a good host, then sneak in some nettle and and thistle to the water...
Seasonal Stuff
from the early fall season
Kitchen Recipes
Peppermint Tea Frappe
Pour 4 cups of boiling water over 4 peppermint tea bags (or 4 tsps of the dried herb or 4 tblsp of it fresh)
add 4 tsps of sugar, and 4 tbsp of milk.
Put it in the freezer just until it has become slushy.
Serve it with chocolate sprinkles, a chocolate wafer, or even a sprig of mint if you want more mint taste.
Scottish Scones
1 3/4 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp baking soda
3 or 4 tsp sugar-to taste
1/4 c of milk
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 c butter
1 tsp molasses
1/2 tsp each cinnamon and ginger and nutmeg and cloves
1/2 cup any chopped fruit, such as raisins, strawberries, blueberries, or nuts. (optional)
Preheat oven to 375 F. Mix the flour, sugar, cream of tartar and cinnamom, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves together. Mix in the butter with a fork. Mix the milk with the molasses. Stir in enough of the milk and molasses mix to the flour mix so that the dough will lift away from the side of the bowl. Knead a dozen times on a floured board. Roll to 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick, and cut into a dozen. Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for about 10-15 minutes or until golden.
Dolphins show us how to breathe fresh life and joy into our lives. It is very significant that they live in water, this is where life began and is the is the embodiment of creation, and passion and life. Dolphins are mammals that have nevr left the sea, yet they still breathe air, so they have learned how to breathe the air, but live within the element of basic life. They can show us in symbolic ways to dfo this with our own life---live in the world we are born in, but find harmony and joy around us. Copying dolphin breathing techniques helps stress management as well. Dolphins have great intelligence, some say second only to humans ( I think that might be objective, some humans are dumber than most dolphins I think.). dolphins show great trust, and compassion and curiousity. Also forgiveness, and a penchant to protect it's own. They are protective of any underdog in a given situation--you have heard the stories of dolphins saving a human from a shark attack.
Housekeeping-- using color to enhance your moods:
Remember the funky colors they used to paint the walls in schools? Still do paint them, actually. Ever wonder why they chose such colors? I can tell you, it was to keep the children calm. Color does affect mood, and can you just imagine 20 first graders in a school room painted bright fire-engine red??? Lots of noise, and lots of energy. So, for about 30 dollars and some imagination, you can use color in your room to help achieve a certain feel.
First decide what mood you want. Energetic? like the red described above? Calm, fresh, romantic, seductive? Red, gold and orange energize a room. Blues, greens, purples calm and soothe a room. (For a complete color chart and the applicable mood or association, refer to my grimoire page using the link below). If you dont want to commit to a complete paint job you can try out a shade you want using pillows, throws,tablecloths, towels, curtains, even lampshades. You can also paint one wall in a room your particular shade to see if you like it. If not you can easily paint it back--just make sure you have plenty of the old paint around.
Care For Body Mind Soul--
Do you remember how great you felt when you went on vacation over the recently past summer? Or maybe a few summer's back if such is your particular case? Well, I just went on my first vacation since my baby was a baby--he's 7 now--and I am not so willing to give up the feeling of pure bliss and stressfreeness. We had a waitress at a hotel we were staying at in Kauai call that feeling the 'lalas'. She says she sees it all the time. So, I dug up some ideas on how to prolong the lalas now that we are back. Try this:
Wytche's Kitchen
Sweet Potato Souffle
This is so amazing, I make it whenever I can, season notwithstanding.
Topping
English Muffin Pizzas
This wise woman has tons of stuff going on during the fall season. I gotta take my kid to his school, his after school activities, get him his Halloween costume, feed my pets, walk my dogs, feed my man, walk my man...hahahahaha, care for my home and garden, and work. The last thing I have time for every day is fancy dinners and/or lunches. I threw this little quick recipe together one day to save time. Everyone loves them, and it's so easy to vary them depending on what you have in the fridge.
Start with english muffins--or any flat bread, like pitas, tortillas, sourdough, etc...slap some tomato sauce on them, and some chedder, or mozzarella cheese. Bake in the oven at 400 for 10-15 minutes.
That's the bare bones version. I have gone so far as to add sun-dried tomatoes, goat cheese, and basil to these. You can add bits of chicken, if you eat meat-I dont. Or spinach, mushrooms, jalapeno peppers and avocado. Just about anything. Experiment, and if you find something great, let me know, I'm always up for new ideas for this.
Gardening
Last month I wrote about bog gardens which required lots of water. I thought this month I would balance it by writing about something that needed drier conditions. Ornamental grasses are not lawn grasses, they are large clumps of tall gracefully arching blades and pretty delicate seed heads that almost resemble flowers. There are tons of different varieties and they are easy to maintain, and look good mixed into any type garden. Most grasses prefer full sun and welldrained soil--they arent cactuses though, make sure they get watered! Dont feed too often, and cut down clumps in spring so new shoots can grow. Some blades are sharp, wear gloves. If you have a small garden, or a limited amount of space for grasses, be careful what you plant, because some will spread quickly...
Use tall grasses at the back of a bed, like zebra grass, or ravenna grass, or pampas grass , and smaller ones in the front, such as Japanese blood grass, or blue fescue. Grasses mixed with sunflowers and black-eyed susan creates an autumn in the country feel. Grasses are at their peak this time of the year.
Spells For The Season
Halloween is almost upon us. This is a witche's favorite holiday. It is the time when the space between all worlds is at it's thinnest, between the living and the dead, between the ethereal and the mundane, between the human and the faery. With this in mind I found some spells, courtesy of Gerina Dunwich's "The Wicca Spellbook" to aid in magical work.
Spiritual Power Spell
Burn an incense of cloves, chicory root and cinquefoil during seances, or when using any divinatory object that deals with other worlds, ie. a Ouija board. It will help increase your powers as a medium.
Spirit Aid
Burn an incense of wild thyme and wood sorrel as an offering to benevolent spirits when doing any type of divining.
Psychic Vision
Use mugwort as an aid to any type of scrying, ie., Crystal balls, magic mirrors, etc...You can burn it as an incense, or brew it in a tea used to cleanse your crystals, or mirrors. If you brew it with lemon balm and drink it to increase your psychic vision. I'm not aware of the proper dosage, tho, so be sure you ask when you purchase it. Or call a natural foods shop and ask them to help you.
Winter, 1997-98
Animals--Deer and a special bonus for the holiday season, elves.
Deer---Deer are one of the most successful families of mammels, adaptable to almost any climate. They teach us adaptability and openess to change.The deer represent innocence and return to nature. Every year deer lose their antlers and each year until they are five years old, the antlers grow back bigger and stronger. because antlers are a deers primary form of protection this symbolizes losing one's outer strength and learning to rely on inner strength and wisdom until the outer returns stronger than ever. Also, antlers symbolize reaching for a higher power, each year with each lesson in survival the antlers get taller, therefore closer to that higher power. Deer have highly developed family units...the mother deer will not allow anyone, except for the father near her newborn. The father stays with them for the first few months, and the baby deer stays with it's mother usually for a year. If deer have shown up in your life it could be a gentle reminder to you to take a look at your family unit. If you have deer in your life, you will be surrounded with freshness and innocence. New adventures will be yours in gentle, luring ways.
Elves---Each land has different elves and they all go by many names. They dress differently depending on their origin as well, as humans do. Mostly they are beneficial and kind to humans, perhaps mischeivious, but kind. But some can be wicked. In general, elves in groups are kind, solitary ones are not. They can sew and spin and teach us industriousness and the art of weaving. To contact elves invite them into your home or magical circle by leaving out food and milk for them, and locking up your cat as cats are one of their natural enemies. Elves can be asked to aid you in home protection spells and also help with all sorts of magical workings...
Care For Body, Mind, Soul--November, December, 1997
The holidays are upon us once again, and even those of us who practice alternative religions fall prey to the rush and craziness ( I have Yule to contend with anyway). One major word of advice, while you are out getting things for everyone else, get yourself a little something, you deserve it!
Now, one way to find yourself getting less stressed out is to simplify. Here's some tips for that. "Style is what you leave out, not what you add.", that is a very valuable little insight, and a true one. Think how wonderful bare old wooden floorboards look in the sun, or plain white sheets, etc...When buying gifts, stick to simple things, everyone loves and you cant go wrong. Again, wonderful plain white sheets for your parents, or beautiful plain earthenware bowls filled with orange pomanders for friends ( to make pomanders, stick whole clove seeds into unpeeled oranges- use as many cloves as you like to give you the mix of scent you want. As the oranges dry over time, they will become hard and shrink, and the cloves will become firmly lodged in them.) Wrap your items in plain natural paper and attach a tiny sprig of pine, or hollyberry, or whatever plant grows naturally in your backyard. Instead of those cheesy gift tags, tear little squares of parchment paper and use those instead. No time for overdecorating? String some tiny white lights up along the border of your roof and then over whatever bushes you have in your front yard--voila, simple, but classy, and inexpensive holiday decor. Do the same inside, why not have lights in where you can enjoy them as well? As for holiday cooking, try to simplfy your kitchen as well this year. Plain wheat rolls served with real butter, warm from the oven, roasted potatoes, corn still on the cob. Who needs fancy sauces? A good tureen of gravy ( I like mushroom, personally) adds enough flavour to almost anything. If you feel financially strapped this year, listen to your inner voice and find ways you can simplify and so cut costs without sacrificing the fun of the holiday season. All of the things I have suggested above are lowcost, easy and disarmingly beautiful to someone who expects the typical glitz and glam of Christmas. And make sure you take time to take long soaks in a hot tub. What could be nicer than warm water on weary bones after a day of Christmas shopping?
Gardening---what to do with your dead garden--
During this itme of year, when snow covers the ground in most of our cases, the world outside your window can be a calm, but perhaps a bit boring after a while, place. Those beautiful annuals you had in your gorgeous Italian pots on your front walk are now dried, dead , brown things covered with snow...Your grass is covered with snow, your decidous trees are bare stalks, everything is pretty much sleeping for the winter. One way to add some colour and brightness to your garden during this season is to work with those things that do well during this colder time. Gather pine boughs from the trees you see, or go to a garden center and buy some. They are not very expensive. The garden center calls them pine tops....take the old dead plant matter from your containers and stick lots and lots of pine tops in there instead, really mass them in, perhaps ring the outside with holly boughs, or sprigs of mistletoe. Water the container, like you would any regular plant, the water will freeze and the tops should keep just fine until next Spring, when you can replant your annuals!!!
Housekeeping---some holiday decorating tips
Okay, in this household we celebrate Christmas and Yule, and to do this I found some fun ways to combine them. Have you ever heard of the traditional Yule log? It was basically just a log cut from a tree, decorated with greens and burnt on Yule. Pretty simple. I found one in a store that I bought and it actually never gets burned, but you can make one almost for free. Take a log about a foot long, find some cool ribbon in winter colors, like dark green or red, and some pine greens. Glue the greens onto the log, using melted wax instead of regular glue. Then, tie a bow into the ribbon, and also with wax, 'glue' that onto the top of the greens. You can add little pinecones if you wish, or nuts, or other such things to create your own Yule log. Let it sit in your fireplace, or if you dont have a fireplace, near your front door, or even in front of a radiator!
I have a tree as well as a Yule log, and I try to use living trees if possible. But there are things you can do with a cut tree to 'give it new life', if you will. Many communities have composting centers where you can take your tree and they will turn it into compost. You can also find a wild, natural spot in some woods somewhere and leave it there to become a home for myriad small critters. The tree will obviously biodegrade. Just be sure you get off every last ornament, especially glass types, or that icicle stuff. Speaking of icicle stuff, I swear, that has got to be one of the most dangerous things ever invented. Kids, dogs, cats can and do swallow that stuff and beside a risk of it getting caught around all sorts of body parts and choking them to death, there is also the risk of it cutting up their insides if it gets into their stomachs. That stuff is like flexible glass streamers. I avoid it like crazy!!!
As I have said before my man is Christian, and has very traditional views about Christmas and Santa Claus and all that. I am not, and dont. So, to strike a happy medium between the two I searched and searched to find a tree topper that would represent both views. I found a Santa who was dressed in brown robes instead of red, who carried a sack of goodies, but also a nest with birds in it in his other hand, and who carried a wooden walking staff. He is more of a Father Christmas, then the red and white Santas we Americans all picture. I call him the Pagan Santa, and he happily sits atop our tree every Christmas.
Try strewing pine greens around instead of using plastic decorations. And who says the pumpkins from Thanksgiving and Halloween cant be used for Christmas if they are still good. Just top them with more greens, or if you have hollowed them out, fill them with pinecones and hollyberries.Place red green and gold candles around, and use them! Most of all, have fun, and enjoy the holiday spirit. It's only as commercialized and fake as you let them make it out to be....
Tofu Turkey Pie
Ok, this is my version of turkey on Christmas. As you know, I am a vegetarian, so I am not going to cook a poor dead turkey. I found this recipe yeats ago when I was first starting my own home and had to figure out something to feed my family that resembled a Christmas dish. It tastes just like a turkey pot pie, and even the meat eaters in my family eat it up. (even my dad, who grumbles and grumbles and grumbles about there being no 'real food' secretly loves it...)
1 half baked 9 inch pie crust and the dough for a top crust
1/4 cup flour
1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp garlic powder
3 cups firm tofu, cut into bite size pieces ( not the soft japanese style
stuff, like for miso soup, the harder textured stuff like in chinese
food...)
2 tbsp oil
1 cup chppoed onion
1 cup celery
or other vegetable, like mushrooms, I personally dont like
the celery in it
1 cup sliced carrots
2 cups meatless gravy ( the only canned meatless gravy I have ever found in
America is Franco American mushroom gravy. I thought I'd tell you this in
order to save you time reading labels in the grocery store...)
other veggies as you wish...
Have the crust ready. Combine flourr, yeast, salt, garlic powder and tofu in a paper bag and shake. ( Let me give you a wee tip here...as tofu comes packed in water, be sure you drain it well,and then, after you cut it into pieces, use several paper towels to gently blot most of the moisture out of the pieces. This saves your pie from being overly runny and also reduces the possibility of your paper bag getting too soaked and tearing, dropping your tofu and other ingredients on the floor....I learned this the hard way.). Saute tofu mixture in oil until lightly browned. Add onions, celery and carrots. When onions are soft, add other veggies, such as peas, corn, or green beans, or mushrooms. Pour gravy over mixture and stir. Pour into half baked crust and top with the top crust. Bake at 375 F. for 30 to 40 minutes.
This is my mother's recipe. My mother, who doesnt cook ANYTHING, cant stand to cook, was always on the lookout for fast easy to make things. Since the children have left, she orders pizza, or makes a bowl of cereal for herself and my dad for dinner, or they eat out. She hates to cook like no one I have ever seen, outside of a man. This fudge was what she made at Christmas to have at least one homemade thing around. It is so incredibly good, that no other fudge has ever matched up in my eyes, and I adore chocolate so I try it all. It doesnt get sticky on the outside, like most fudges, and it melts in your mouth, requiring, literally, no chewing.
6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate pieces
1 lb powdered sugar
6 tbsp evaporated milk--kept at room temperature!!! this is important!!!
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c butter ( soft)
1 c of any filling you want to put in. This is optional. I usually make one
batch plain, and one or more batches with my choice of fillings, like peanut
butter, nuts, caramel, junior mints, etc....be creative...
Melt chocolate pieces in double boiler over hot water (nnot boiling!!!! The reason for all this room temperature stuff, and not boiling, is because the fudge is hard to mix due to it's stiffness, and my mother found that it is easier to mix when everything is nice and temperate...). Combine in mixing bowl the powdered sugar, evaporated milk, vanilla and salt. Stir until smooth. Add melted chocolate, stif until blended. Add the butter. Then mix in any fillings you want. Spread into a buttered 8 inch square pan, and chill. When cold, cut into pieces and enjoy!!!
Animals--rabbits and hares
Rabbits are known for their abilty to procreate, and also their speed and agiltity. It moves primarily by hops and leaps, and those with Rabbit as their spirit guide probably will find that their life moves in much the same way. Because rabbits are one of the most common prey animals, nature has provided them with extreme fertility. If you have rabbit as your spirit guide, be extra careful with birth control and planning. Rabbits also are masters at defense, they have had to be. They have the abiltiy to freeze on a dime, to double back, and lead a merry chase, and to hide. All these are qualities those with rabbit as their guides would do well to learn. They are always utterly aware of what is happening around them, this quality of observance is paramount ot their survival.
Care For Body, Mind, Soul
With the weather just turning warmer, but still that nip in the air, and a season of harsh temperatures just beginning to pass us, I thought I'd find some care tips for skin made sensitive by the cold winter past.
The best tip for skin is to eat well and drink tons of water, but there are some other things we can do that dont require long hours at the cosmetic counter and the addition of even higher credit card bills after we have just started getting Christmas paid off. Watrcress is an excellent skin food, eat it to cleanse the blood amd crush the leaves between your fingers and apply to your face or other areas to relieve pimples and the like. Cucumbers and avocados (as I have said before) are wonderful applied to the skin to combat dryness. For those of you who love the new alphahydroxy treatments, where do you think AHAs come from? Fruit! When you are stuck without your regular AHA, you can always rub some lemon, or orange juice directly on your face. Obviously, if it stings, rinse immediately, and discontinue use. My fave herbs for skin care are calendula and chamomile. Love them. You can get inexpensive creams at health food stores. They are both known to soothe and soften irritated skin. Dont forget the tips I have already included on this page, for example, almond oil smoothed on the face 2 or 3 times a week. It works wonders, truly.
For a mask for dry skin, mix an egg yolk with a Tbsp each of honey, almondoil, crushed peaches, and carrots. Spread over face and neck and leave on for 15 to 20 minutes. Rinse with lukewarm water, tone your skin with rosewater, and apply your favorite moisture cream. A super powered moisturizing mask!!
Gardening Bulbs: the cheaters guide to gardening.
Not really, bulbs do require some work, but they are terribly easy and almost foolproof. Now, most bulbs should have been planted in late fall, but because they start to show themselves in early spring, I thought I'd mention them now. The trick to bulbs is bulk. One or two measly little things poking their heads up through the snow wont amount to whole heck of a lot, but hey, 100 yellow daffodils shrieking "COLOUR" against the snow just might turn some heads. Fortunately they are relatively cheap, and they self-produce. Once you have your first mass in the ground, you are guarnteed to watch the group get bigger and bigger every year. I know the proper way to take care of bulbs is to dig them up every year and divide the bulbs so that they can spread, but I have never done this and I have had great success with mine. They just sort of naturalize and sure enough, one of the first signs of life in my garden every year are my bulbs. Bless their hearts. I like to plant many differnt types of bulbs, so that they follow each other in the bloom cycle. Be sure that you dont cut the greens back after the bloom cycle has ended. The plant fortifies itself for the next year by withdrawing nutrients back from it's green leaves. If you cut those off before they are completely brown and dead, the plant wont bloom the next year and you may lose it altogether. If someone gives you a gift of daffodils, or tulips, or narcissus or any other type of bulb, save the bulbs after the plant has died. Wait for the leaves to turn brown, remove the bulbs from the dirt, cut off the dead leaves, and put your bulbs outside in the ground where they wont be disturbed. Next year the bulbs will grow all by itself. If you dont know how deep a particular bulb should be planted, a good genral rule of thumb is about three inches down. Most bulbs like to be planted between one and six inches.
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