It has been a hectic week. Monday was school, Tuesday was Tae Kwon Do (for the girls not me), and last night was a doctor’s appointment for Miss Artistic. Upon coming home last night it was revealed that the “little bit” of homework Miss Artistic still had left to do was significantly more than a little and it took her and I together an hour and a half to get it done. I was wound pretty tight when I went to bed and slept rather restlessly. So today is a grumpy mama kind of day. But, on the bright side today is my Friday.

The one blessing in the loss of both overtime and side-projects at my job is that (when life and health cooperate) I actually get a two day weekend again. It is as good for my stress and sanity levels to not have to be at my workplace for 2 full days a week as it is bad for my wallet. But I am hoping to make the most of my time off and tackle some more clutter control as well as even (perhaps) start my 2008 taxes.

Granted I still have the usual cooking, and homework to do as well. But, as the company I had planned for this weekend has fallen through and I am hopeful that I will also find some time to sit and write some thoughtful posts for the week ahead. In the meantime I leave you with a collection of links to peruse as you plan your own celebrations for the Spring Equinox.

Blessings

Mama Kelly

StornWing’s solitary Ostara rite

Josquin’s group ritual for Ostara

A Rebirthing rite for Ostara

Ostara ritual – from Llewellyn.com

Group Ostara ritual from MoonPath CUUPS

Solitary rite for Ostara – bless & plant seeds

another collection of Ostara rituals can be found here

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Written by Mama KellyTags:Ostara, spring, spring equinox

It is only a few weeks until the Spring Equinox and like many of you my thoughts are turning to the changes, the growth, I want to see manifest in my life. But, just like with gardening I can’t expect to just go outside throw down some seeds and expect a glorious harvest come summer and fall. The first step with any garden is preparing the soil.

Granted, my own garden this year will be potting soil in containers, but in times past (as in in the times of my ancestors) I would’ve found myself outside digging and tilling and plowing. I would’ve spent hours turning hard packed unusable soil into a field ready for planting. Traditionally the dark moon is a period of quiet reflection, a time of releasing that which no longer serves to make room for the new to grow in your life. This time of year I tend to compare it to the work of clearing rocks and stumps from a plot of land, preparing it to be plowed. Back breaking work? Most certainly. Absolutely necessary? Definitely!

What needs to be removed from your life? What is getting in the way of the new beginnings you desire? These are not the more easily removed weeds – a yank and they’re gone, these are the more deeply embedded bad habits, challenging circumstances, old unhealed wounds. These are the things that we may need to dig deep before we are able to pull them free.

What work do you need to do in preparation for Ostara? What can you do to give your own seeds the best chance at taking root and growing strong?

Just some food for thought.

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:Ostara, spring

Regardless of whether you and your family celebrate Ostara, Easter, or dye eggs as a secular springtime activity, here are some ideas for dyeing eggs this year

Get PAAS kits from the dollar store.

Easy, foolproof, only $1 but there is a limited choice of colors in a kit. Odds are I’ll still buy a kit as a “backup measure” but I really want to spread my wings a little bit creatively this year.

Use water vinegar and food coloring.
1 cup boiling water
1 TBSP white vinegar
20 (or more) drops food coloring.

Add colors 1 drop at a time until you reach shade you desire.

Since I have boxes of both traditional food coloring and neon food coloring this one is a definate!! If nothing else I want to make some really vivid red eggs – not pink, not almost red, screaming red.

Use natural ingredients you probably have laying about the house.
1 cup of “dye”
2-3 tsp of white vinegar

Dye suggestions:
purple grape juice, your favorite vibrant hued herbal tea (steeped longer than you might ordinarily for drinking), red wine, black tea, green tea.

This is a maybe. Most of the sources I’ve read indicate a much longer soaking time that we are used to, up to overnight!!! But I may try it with a few eggs just to see how they come out.

Eggs as Magic

Use a white crayon to draw runes, symbols, words on your eggs before dyeing them.

Match the color(s) you dye your egg to its purpose.

Example of Layering:
- draw symbol on white egg – dip egg in yellow
- dry egg and draw symbol on now yellow egg – dip egg in red
- dry egg and draw symbol on now orange egg – dip egg in blue
- egg will be a muddy marbled tone, depending on luck, the whim of the Gods and other natural forces your egg will either look very cool or really awful, I get more of the former than the latter

Treat your “magical eggs” with a sense of reverence. Dry them lovingly. Eat them with true intent.

Egg magic is perfectly matched for any purpose associated with fertility, growth, new beginnings, and anything you want to see yourself “birth” in the coming months. However, it can work for any purpose. Feed yourself “self-love”, feed yourself “wisdom”, feed yourself “inspiration”.

Take it a step further. Break your goal/dream/wish down into a series of steps and eat one egg a day.

2 day spell: God and Goddess
3 day spell: Maiden, Mother, Crone
4 day spell: Earth, Aire, Fire, Water

For the next two please keep in mind that eggs are only considered safe to eat for 7 days after they are hard-boiled.

7 day spell: chakra opening
7 day spell: North, South, East, West, Above (connection to Divine and the world of spirit), Below (connection to the mundane world), Within (your innermost truth)

Wondering what to do with all those eggs you dyed? Again, pemember that they are only good for 1 week after you hardboil them.

Enjoy!

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:dyeing eggs, magic, Ostara, spells, spring, springtime

With Imbolc just behind us it is time to start thinking about how each of us will acknowledge the Spring Equinox (Ostara). I find that the simplest way to honor the day is to pick up a bouquet (or even just a few blossoms), spend time dyeing eggs with my girls, and put our a nice meal.

You can make your own egg dyes using either food coloring or natural substances, but I tend to pick up a couple of those PAAS kits and go from there. We usually dye 18-24 eggs, with Mr Grumpy and GamerDude generally only dying 1 or 2, I usually only dye a couple myself (that I tend to dye in progressively darker colors (akin to Pysanka) drawing symbols in white crayon on each color so that I wind up with a “masterpiece” if things go well and a muddy-colored mess when they don’t) and the girls tackle the rest usually in a rahter giddy fashion. It is easy to turn a dyed egg into a thing of magic as all you need to do is draw a simple symbol or a rune on an egg (white crayon on a still warm egg is easy as pie) before dying it in a color that corresponds to the represented intent. These eggs should then be eaten with the proper focus to help your desire/wish become integrated into your life and work especially well, as one might guess, with fertility and “new growth” type of spells.

Insofar as choosing other activites, simply remember that the Sabbats correlate to the cycles of agricultural living as well as to new beginnings, fertility and growth. Think about what Spring means in the area where you reside? Consider what Spring means to you personally?

It is also fitting to spend part of your celebration planting seeds for your garden , this is of course followed up with weeks of tending your wee plants until your area is past the risk of frost and they can be transplanted outside. If you do not have the time or space to start your garden from seeds you can simply spend some time today planning the garden you will be planting.

With the economy doing so poorly and so many of us looking to cut corners in our monthly expenses a garden serves not only to connect us to the earth and to nature but can help us stretch our food budget a bit as well. We are planning on doing some container gardening this year – I plan to plant some culinary herbs, perhaps some strawberry plants, and vegetables. If nothing else I intend to plant tomatoes and zucchini which will find their way to my table in myriad forms over the course of the summer months.

And of course the ever popular Spring cleaning. Even if you can only tackle one thing – a closet, a drawer, your pantry the equinox is also a fitting time to clean out the old so that you can make way for the new.

How are you planning on spending the day?

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:Ostara, sabbat, spring, spring equinox