One of the things i love about blogging is that I am more open to small moments of inspiration.  Everything has the potential to become blog fodder and therefore I pay closer attention to the world around me.  This is especially true when I am reading the blogs I follow.  Yes I read them because I enjoy having a window into another person’s life, I read them because I have developed a level of friendship with many of their authors, but also because every so often something they write on their blog will resonate with me so strongly that I will be compelled to take their thought and follow it to my own conclusion.

I came home from work Sunday and, though I should’ve been doing homework, did a little surfing and tried to catch up on my subscribed reads.  In Amused Grace Thalia writes about pulling a card representing the goddess Gaea for the coming week (btw isn’t this card gorgeous?!?) and the words of the Lady that came to her:

Find the parts of yourself that are dead and dying. Welcome them; listen to them, hear what they have to say … But let it decay. From decay, from rot, from compost spring the brightest, tallest, healthiest flowers.

My first thought was to remember a tomato plant I had in a home we lived in 7 years ago.  When the end of the season came I pulled the old plants out of the planters they resided in but left a rotting tomato on the earth where it fell, partially because it was “gross” and I really didn’t want to deal with it and partially just to see what would happen.  Winter came, snow fell, and that last tomato was long forgotten.  However, in the spring grew a new plant in its stead – stronger and bearing more fruit that the original plant that bore it.

Those things that have died in our lives …. unfulfilled hopes, dreams not followed, grief we have endured, those pieces of ourselves that we have sacrificed to become who we are now …. are not dead and gone, they simply are seeds of what is to be.  And these have the potential to be even more beautiful than what came before. But to allow these seeds to grow and blossom we have to be willing to bury those pieces in the earth.  We have to be willing to let them go, to walk away, and trust that in time flowers (or trees or herbs or fruits) will grow.

For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the time to plant will soon be upon us. Regardless of what form of the Divine your faith rests on, this is the time to “let go and let God/ess” … to trust that clinging to something long gone serves no purpose, to trust that much like that last tomato that even something battered, squashed, and rotting can give birth to something beautiful and meaningful and nourishing.

This is a perfect time to reflect on our own lives and to determine what dead bits of ourselves are we still clinging to?  This is the perfect time to pick at least one that we can bury in fertile soil and see what will rise up in its stead.

What will you let go of this Spring?

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:goddess, spring

Not all spellcraft has to be elaborate, not every spell needs ingredients or even tools. Sometimes all you need is your own intent and the power in your being. It doesn’t even have to be obvious.

I am not 100% thrilled with this little ditty. It needs some tweaking. But, most of it fell into my head and then I wrote the rest to fit. It would be something to be muttered under your breath, uttered solely in the mind, or sung aloud while you plant your seeds and plants this year.

Little seeds here in my hand (little seedling in my hand)
May you grow and bless the land
May the sun, its firey light
Help you reach your proper height
May the breeze, the fragrant air
Grace you with beauty fair
May the water of the rain
Help you, your potential gain
May the soil, the sacred earth
Grant you growth and grant you birth

- Copyright Mama Kelly 2009

May whatever you plant this Spring – in the earth or in your life – BLOOM!

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:chant, garden, seeds, spell, spring

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

What’s going on on 2Witches?

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Mama Kelly is selling books here at 2 Witches and on Amazon

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

Well hubby had some kind of stomach bug yesterday and where there original plan had been to go out as a family and “run errands” I decided, after he took to the bed, to take the girls out on my own. I surprised them by including a trip to Payless Shoes and to Fashion Bug to the announced Drug Store and Grocery Store visit.

It never fails that when the kids really need new shoes that Payless ISN’T having one of their Buy1 Get1 50% off sales.  So I spent a bit more than I would’ve liked but ….

PrincessNibbles’ sneakers had developed holes and so a new pair was more than called for.

Miss Artistic’s sneakers smell like small creatures use them for foul purposes.

Also they each needed shoes for “Easter” when we go out for dinner as a family.

I bought 5 pairs of shoes — and spent $75.00 — which is not as good as I usually do.  And while a couple of the shoes were on sale, honestly Im kind of annoyed at my lack of bargain-finidng.

Then we went into Fashion Bug where I may have made up for any sales I didn’t find.  I picked up a number of Tshirts off the clearance racks for $2-$5 each, Miss Artistic got a $38 pair of jeans that only cost me $7 ….. Princess Nibbles got 2 pairs of jeans at similar discounts. 

And I purchased each of their “Easter outfits”.

Miss Artistic will be wearing a sand colored pair of cargo-styled capris with a brown-themed 70′s design top.  Paired with this outfit will be a pair of wedge sandals (from Payless) in brown with earthy tone (salmon, turquoise) flowers and a “Gwen Stefani” style pair of sunglasses.

PrincessNibbles will be wearing a white split skirt paired with a white top with a mock shrug in a pink butterfly design.  Accenting this lovely outfit are white sandles (from Payless) with multicolor flowers on top (please note that the pink flower matches the pink “shrug” perfectly).

The only things I bought myself was a pair of earrings.  Sterling silver, french hook design with largish square peridots.  They are antiquish looking and were a steal at only $10 (down from $40).  I purchased them because the green reminded me of spring and new shoots of plants, fresh growth.  I am going to try and remember to put them on every morning, as a conscious reminder that I can create the life I want.

I also decided that I am not buying any new clothes, short of an emergency, until I lose enough weight to NEED new clothes because everything else is falling off of me.  LOL

That’s it in a nutshell.

I am off to work today, I am back to my 6 day a week schedule and dreading it already.

Blessings

Mama Kelly

Written by Mama KellyTags:children, clothes, clothing, easter, kids, shoes, shopping, spring

Happy Spring and Blessed Ostara to all. 

The Spring Equinox has arrived…a time for new beginnings, warm breezes, birds chirping and other cheerful images.

I have thought about spring cleaning — but thinking about it is about as far as I’ve gotten. I do have a long list of projects that need doing, and I do from time to time look it over — but some how the weekends get filled with all kinds of other “have” to do things and the list just gets tucked away. On those rare weekends when its quiet, the urge to nap and recover from the week usually wins out and then there are those rare occasions when something fun comes along that wins out too (like visiting with my good friend Mama Kelly, or seeing a movie, or watching a marathon of a favorite TV series episodes, or playing with my daughter, Angelgirl) — and then cleaning doesn’t seem as important.

I have wanted to have a garden with a grapevine and lots of rose bushes and flowers bulbs too which would be a great way to honor spring – but I don’t have a green thumb so I’ve never really tried planting anything. I have only one house plant that is alive after years and years of neglect and three house moves. There are days I think perhaps its really a silk plant — but then I pour some water into the soil and it doesn’t leak out — so its real.

As the years have gone by, it has gotten harder and harder to celebrate the seasonal changes with a traditional ceremony. Life’s constant challenges tend to wear away the joyfulness most days, but I do at least acknowledge the seasons in my heart and try not to grumble as much on those days. And I am truly grateful this cold weather will be over soon and look forward to spring warmth.

So blessing the garden tools or spring cleaning probably isn’t going to be on my to do list this first weekend after the Spring Equinox– but this weekend I will be helping my daugther with her school project, enjoying cuddling with her in my lap, going to a concert with Teacherman on Thursday, and in our own way celebrating life, love, and the simple pleasures of every day life. And for each of those things and the hundred’s of moments each day that we share a smile, a hug, a special moment, I am in my heart and spirit grateful to the Goddess, the Universe, Life, the creative force behind all creation by whatever name one chooses to call it.

May the blessings of Spring be with you each day, filling your heart and spirit with joy, Lady Rose

Ostara: Customs, Spells & Rituals for the Rites of Spring

Written by Lady RoseTags:about Lady Rose, home, spring, spring cleaning