Wanding Up?

[herlander_refugee]

I am not particularly toolish when it comes to magic. Magic is not a formal part of my spiritual practice, but magic is not forbidden by my neo-pagan blend of deities, either. So, I view it at times as an experimental practice as well as a practical art. I have experimented with the use of various tools (knives, swords, cups, cauldrons, fans, wands, etc) as I have read about the use in various magical traditions.

I am still inclined, when doing the rare (for me) circle to simply use my hand. But since, for me, tools are symbols, I find that I am more open to experimentation of late. I made a new wand this weekend, one that strikes me as almost whimsical.

My first wand was made while working through one of Thorn Coyle's Feri books, it is made of a rose cane with the thorns blunted a bit and removed from the hand grip area. It has a fluorite tip---one of my favorite minerals. Over the years since, I find I reach for this substantial wand when I feel in need of defense or want to make use of a magical clue by four.
It is a battle worthy wand, lol! And when I made it, that was the only reason I could imagine using a wand instead of my hand---when battle was imminent.

This weekend's wand is smaller and twisty as a snake bent on escape. It is made of corkscrew willow and is painted in the colors of my house---colors that symbolize reaching for the heavens, for the glory that is Asgard or Olympus! It makes me merry to look at it, it grounds me to touch it as I am very much a home body and it links me to my home. It is my comfort wand and has not stones, or embellishments aside from paint and a bit of polished on sheen. Since life gets "bent" from time to time, I thought a wand with similar bends might be a cheery answer.

I still don't reach for a wand as first resort, but it feels rather right, at last....to have more than one choice. How do you 'wand up'? If you have a personal wand, what does it connote to you? Did you make it, buy it, get it as a gift? What is it made from, and does it always feel right in your hand?

I suppose if I'm going to hang around and comment, I should say hello.

[featherynscale]

Hi there. I'm featherynscale. My elevator speech about my spiritual practice goes something like this: "I'm a magician informed by Unitarian Universalist ethics and a monist theology. I'm eclectic, but the sort of eclectic who decided that 'eclectic' meant I was responsible for doing a lot of study on different religions and traditions rather than the sort of eclectic who decided that 'eclectic' meant I could do whatever I felt like without having thought any of it over first." (Not that I'm saying that's a bad thing - I know any number of witches and magicians who do brilliant work entirely on instinct. I'm just not very good at working like that, and I don't want people to expect me to.)

In the realm of paganism, I'm interested in mythology, ceremonial work, QBLH, story-telling, ritual technology, pop-culture magic, Druidry, animism, and magic not based on male/female gender polarity. Outside of paganism, but related, I'm interested in language, communication theory, psychology, theater, writing, singing, and making stuff.

My entry into the world of paganism and magic was with a Brit Trad Wiccan coven that had an emphasis on learning, personal responsibility, and being a pagan who was decent to other pagans. I still try to do all of that business, even though I moved away from those folks and found that the God/Goddess gender-polarity thing didn't work as well for me as it used to (I'm genderqueer, and there's really only one way to be a genderqueer Trad Wiccan, and you can't do it alone). Since then, I've worked with qabbalists, chaos magicians, Sheya, UU pagans, druids (mostly ADF), Asatru, Hellenists, and folks in the Kemetic Orthodoxy. I'm currently with a pagan UU congregation, where I design and facilitate rituals and teach other people to do the same.

So, um, that's me. Hi! :)

Equinox Rites?

[herlander_refugee]

A sort of "herding cats" entry here, lol. Everyone isn't Wiccan, or even Wiccanesque, so I can't say "Merry Mabon" and expect to get everyone, can I?

I thought a discussion of what various traditions do at the Autumnal Equinox might be enlightening and engaging, so let me plunge in and then I hope others will share as well!

Neither Equinox is celebrated by our family as a big fire-in-the-pit affair. Both are what we call "working sabbats" and are largely concerned with seasonal turn preparations. At fall, I am finishing any seasonal jam making of the year, and sometimes fruit canning. And I am putting the various gardens to rights for the winter all through September and into October.

On the day itself, the only ritual event is the "Feeding of the Stones." My property is marked by a circle of stones, each named for a family deity. The feedings occur at both vernal and autumnal equinox, but one is a more brief peremptory affair---a splash of libation and handful of grain.

The other, most often the fall sabbat is more involved. On Thursday, I will not go round the circle in a simple circuit, but will instead break it up by pantheons. Some are Nordic, some Welsh, some Hellenic and a couple are Amerindian. Each grouping will get individual food and drink selected by culture. I will sit by the stones in turn, meditating at each for 5 to 10 minutes---the idea being to "hear" a critique of my ending year and advice for the year that begins (for me) at Samhain.

The family will have a simple supper in the evening...a bit more than ordinary, but not the full scale blow-out of Samhain or Yule.

And finally, at either Autumnal Equinox or Samhain (the choice is weather based) a Harvest Lady is posted on the porch as guardian through the dark of the year, she will be endowed with hand-made ornaments on the Equinox Eve.

Our herbal lady this year is over 6 feet tall, she is made of lavender, St. John's wort, oregano, lemon balm, hops, wormwood, mugwort, and bracken. Here she is:



And here are her ornaments, ready for Wednesday evening:



So tell me, those of you who are not restrained by oaths, what are your plans for taking note of the Equinox?