Songs of Solstice: Goddess Carols

 My copy of arrived yesterday, the cover art by Kat Shaw is beautiful the pages are filled with some wonderful songs sung to old familiar Carols, prose and poetry to warm the spirit’s soul on the winter solstice and beyond. Among the pages are more art pieces by Kat Shaw and other wonderful artist. This book of goddess carols will make an great addition to your Yule and Winter Celebrations. Personally this Girl God book will grace my goddess bookshelf for many years to come.

This may be the book you didn’t know you needed until you open the pages, there are page after page of beautiful Goddess Carols to make your winter celebrations extra special. I can imagine a circle of women gathered at the solstice voices raised in song, and I can hear myself singing these carols aloud during my own winter celebrations and beyond.

With my Walking the Wheel of the Year journey I plan to pick out a few of the carols I can sing at sunrise or sunset along with my drumming.

I have posted this to my other blog here:https://deborahsasthecroneflies.wordpress.com/

Warm Wishes for a Wonderful Winter Solstice

May this Winter Solstice and the Turn of the Wheel bring you Love, Peace and Good Fortune in the coming Year. Let us Welcome the returning Sun with Hope and Joy.

 Brightly burns the Yule log tonight,

Magic dances in firelight.

Hold my hand and join the song,

Raise the Sun King bright and strong.

Dark is giving way to light,

As brightly burns the Yule log tonight.

Blessing for a Happy Thanksgiving

 

A new month and a new member in my family.

November began with me starting my Walking the Wheel of the Year journey, besides the obvious walk in nature I plan to observe more closely what goes on around me as I walk for the entire year, I plan to take photos, make journal entries and collect bits and pieces from my walks, so finally I bought the book I have been wanting to read and perhaps it will make my walking the wheel of the year more eventful.

Yesterday Tropical Storm Nicole blew through the state of Florida, we has quite a bit f rain and heavy winds luckily all the trees have remained upright, so far.  We just had the tree debris removed from the tree that fell onto my neighbors fence last month.  After the workers finished a little visitor ran after the truck, I had a feeling he was living under those tree branches in my yard.  After he followed me to the back where I inspected the clean up and he kept getting under my feet.  He followed back up the driveway to the mailbox and to my door. We have so many stray cats in the area and many of them find their way into my yard.  This one was different, I believe he was one of the kittens that were around in May hiding in the stones of the fountain wall where other trees fell.

It was Wednesday the day of the Full Moon and Eclipse, which wasn't visible because of the clouds and rain prior to the Tropical storm heading our way.

Meet Moon Shadow, I went around the cul de sac and asking the neighbors behind me if he was one of theirs, he wasn't, he didn't belong to any of my surrounding neighbors. I ran some errands and he was waiting for me by my door when I returned. I scooped him up fed him with the food I just bought, I searched the few shelter sites and neighborhood sites, he wasn't posted on any. On Wednesday he had his first visit to the Vet, first to see if he was chipped, since he wasn't he had his first vaccines, he is scheduled to be neutered in a few weeks. He is the most affectionate cat, he has 6 toes on both front feet which makes him extra special. He showed up on the full moon with an eclipse and his coloring looks like he has moon phases. The night of the 8th I kept dreaming cats and the Cat Stevens song Moonshadow kept playing in my dream. It's been more than 20 years since I've had the desire for another pet, I believe the Goddess sent him and he chose me.

He is happy and warm and well fed getting to know his new home.  He is playful and would rather have cuddles then play time.  He has the most beautiful face, and he has my heart.

On November 1st I gave myself the first dose of Repatha, it was relatively easy to do and the injection site looks like a target. I am glad I only do this twice a month. I performed a short ritual asking for no terrible side effects as I’ve had with pills. Going from a very low fat diet to a nearly no fat diet went surprisingly easy, now my body and those cholesterol levels need cooperate.

As of today the only side effects that I noticed is intense hot flashes which come and go which isn't too bad since I have had hot flashes for quite a few years, though most of them subsided from menopause, I can put up with them.  I take the second dose on the 15th.  I had blood work recently and my total cholesterol dropped from 250 on July of 2021 to 216 on November 2nd, my goal is to have it under 200 by the New Year.

The Wheel of the Year Turns to Samhain

 

Tonight as the barrier

Between the two realms grows thin,

Spirits walk amongst us, once again.

They be family, friends, and foes,

Pets and wildlife, fishes and crows.

But be we still mindful of the Wee Folke at play,

Elves, Fey, Brownies, and Sidhe.

Some to trick, some to treat,

Some to purposely misguide our feet.

Stay we on the paths we know

As planting apples we go.

This Feast I shall leave on my doorstep all night.

In my window, one candle shall burn bright

To help my loved ones find their way

As they travel this eve, and this night, until day.

Bless my offering, both Lady and Lord,

Of breads and fruits, greens and gourds.

September Ends on a Windy Note and October Burst with Thoughts of Autumn

October came in gently after hurricane Ian passed over Florida leaving much destruction in many areas of the state. I am fortunate enough to live in the north central part of the state so mostly we had rain lot’s of rain and some wind. In fact, after the hurricane was passed we had about 20 to 30 minutes of wind gust which took down another tree in my backyard.

Oddly enough I had walked around my house earlier in the afternoon and the tree was still standing, the next day my neighbor came to tell me about the tree which was on my fence over her back garden. She said she didn’t hear it but seen it fall. I didn’t hear it either, but I never heard the other trees that went down a few months ago. I told her it would be taken care of and the next day my son began to cut it apart, returned yesterday to finish his goal of getting it cut back enough to get it off the fence into our yard. So now the tree is in pieces in my yard which will be cut and hauled away soon.

October began with cool evenings and much drier air which makes my daily walk to the corner and back pleasant and has allowed me to walk in the park for a short walk. I think my energy is finally coming back. The photo is from the corner looking to my house, it isn't a long walk and most days I can make it up and back 3 times. 

I began a new 30 days of goddess journal, this time using the Simple Log book which has 3 days per page with the opposite page blank for images, art or more writing. I went with this method for the next few months since the online shops are quite busy from late September to January and with my stamina not where I would like it the shorter entries may work out best for me.

This is the first 6 days of October and I fit enough for each day even made a very small foldout goddess which was a challenge to cut with these old eyes. I do miss the larger pages but this will work best for me now.  

The pages above are October 1-3 words: Invite, Observe and Know, the pages below are for Oct. 4-6 the words are: Ramble, Intent and Refuge.

I have been feeling out of sorts lately some days just not myself and other days battling the constant nausea just gets to be too much especially when the abdominal pain worsens, honestly I don’t know how much more my body can take.

On an up note I have a few books I am going to start reading this week and a few magazine issues to finish.

We are quickly approaching the dark half of the year so I am preparing a few things which I will post about as they happen. This Saturday I am taking a Broom making class which I am really looking forward to attending. The following Saturday I hope to join the local group for a broom decorating workshop. I say hope because health at the best times throws a curve to my plans.

I will leave you with a sweet little witch image.

The Wheel of the Year is Turning to Autumn

The Harvest Elder tends the web of life.

She gathers in the clan and brings the harvest home.

Her season is Autumn, her holy day the Equinox, her lunar phase the Third Quarter Moon, her life stage early elderhood (mid-60s through late 70s).

She owns her wisdom without apology, taking her place on the Council of Elders.

When younger ones despair that justice comes too slowly, the Harvest Elder nevertheless persists — and encourages us to do the same.

She mends the fabric of the universe along with her granddaughter’s ripped jeans.

She surrenders to Mystery with every falling leaf.

She gathers the harvest in, then gives it all away.

She pours out a steaming cup of herbal tea for you.

Come, pull up a chair. Listen to her stories.

She reaches out her hand and says, “Come along. I’ve been there.

I will show you the way.”

She mends the web of life.

Art and Words by Joanna Powell Colbert

I have loved the work of Joanna Powell Colbert for many, many years so this morning when I received her Newsletter in my email, I just had to share this image of the Harvest Elder and the beautiful words she shared in the newsletter. This is one of the in progress images from The Sacred Wheel Oracle. You can be sure I will be purchasing it as soon as it's available.

My August Misadventure, Tonight's Full Moon.

I don’t remember when an August sailed along quite so quickly as it has this year, except the last week when I found myself once again hospitalized after dinner on the 25th when all of a sudden I felt something off with my left eye, it felt as if I had something in it but knew I didn’t and when I looked at my dinner plate it looked as if it was outlined in a very bright glitter, when I looked up the entire room looked that way and my left eye felt it was too big for the eye socket. I waited a bit and my vision became worse and I developed a slight headache, it now looked as if I was looking out a window that someone splattered purple, yellow and blue paint on after about 10 minutes the vision went totally black and I knew I was in trouble. Off to the ER I went while in the exam room all of a sudden there were 5 other people standing around asking questions, looking for veins and before I knew it someone said STROKE ALERT. Yikes.

I was admitted after several test and lucky enough in between video consults and test my vision began to clear and by the time I was in my room, with a view I might add, my vision had returned completely. And then the nightmare begins, I am not a great patient, I dislike being hooked up to monitors that have alarms going off every 5 minutes constantly which messes with my need to sleep. I get irritable when I can’t get up and down to use the bathroom on my own. AND I detest when nurses and doctors don’t listen when I day my blood pressure tends to spike especially when I am in a stressful situation and it’s quite normal for me so don’t keep freaking out when it gets so high. I know they have to because I am on stroke alert, but turn off the room monitors so I can sleep, since they are being monitored in a little room down the hall, they finally did.

Lucky enough the MRI of the brain came back negative for a stroke, but my carotid arteries are worse than a year ago, thanks to my former cardiologist dropping the ball on the neurosurgeon not getting back to him on the 3 visits I had when he kept asking if I heard back, No I didn’t and give me a name and number so I don’t have to depend on your office to set up. Well that’s water under the bridge and partially my fault for not being more aggressive, I thought I could trust the doctor to be honest with me and I was so wrong, the reason he is now my former cardiologist, I lost total confidence in him.

So anyway, the left carotid artery is now 100% occluded and the right now has a stent, it was 75% clogged. There is a clot in the M1 part of my brain that nothing can be done about so I feel like a ticking time bomb. What really gets me worked up is that in July of 2021 when I got the 2 other stents in my coronary artery they told me they couldn’t do the carotids because a neurosurgeon had to deny the surgery, well I found out that was a big lie and it could have been done right then and there or on a different day. I was fuming and they keep wondering why my blood pressure won’t go down. HUH!

I am thankful the surgeon put in the stent and now I have to once again rework my diet going from low fat to no fat makes sense right, the hospital had me on a regular diet which blew my mind since they were aware of the carotid and coronary artery disease, not to mention the 3 obstructed abdominal arteries which the surgeon told me can be dealt with. I am a mess spent the entire weekend in the hospital until the surgery on Monday the 29th, I was hoping to go home in the afternoon, but spent another day and was released on Tuesday the 30th.

In between being admitted and the surgery I was moved to 2 other rooms, on the 1st move while I was speaking with two people on the surgeons staff I was given a shot of Hydralazine which I had a terrible reaction to, it is supposed to rapidly drop the BP in my case my heart began to race and my ears were pounding, I couldn’t breathe and my hands and feet started tingling, I thought I was having a heart attack. It took about 30 minutes or so for me to start to feel normal again in the mean time I was demanding to go home, I felt I would die in that hospital if I didn’t, after a while I regained my calm, spoke with the doctor and decided to stay. I insisted on no other medications except what I take at home.

Ten minutes later they wanted to try something else, NO. The nurse came back 30 minutes after that with something else and again I refused. I was being moved back to the 4th floor where I was before they moved me to the 6th floor. I don’t think I had been up there more than 2 hours when all this happened. As I was being wheeled to the elevator we were told they nurse on the 4th floor was refusing the report from the nurse on the 6th floor and back to my room I went, 20 minutes passed and I was on the move again the nurse now accepted the move. So down I went, wheeled into my room, when the staff that moved me was leaving an argument began in my doorway, fighting about moving patients down without an okay and blah blah blah, I asked one of the nurses to have them discharge me I don’t want to hear this argument in my doorway, unfortunately I was in front of the nurses station. Poor man is trying to calm me down and I am getting more and more upset. Finally they moved the argument away from my door and I asked to close the door. A few minutes later a nurse came to apologize and told me it wasn’t about me, I don’t care I can’t be in this environment I have enough going on and my blood pressure is going to keep spiking with all this negativity.

I did find my calm once again my blood pressure was staying high most of the time, dropping to normal or not high enough to set off the alarms, when the nurse came in to say they were going to give me Hydralazine I nearly lost it. NOT gonna happen that stuff nearly killed me upstairs. I am not taking anything except what I take at home, I did mention I have a prescription for Valium 5mg but I usually break them in half cause 5 makes me like a zombie. They checked my prescriptions and confirmed I do have Valium prescribed so the doctor order the 5 mg intravenous. WOW did not expect it to hit me so fast my son was there at the time and let me just say this I could never be a spy cause on just 5 mg of Valium I was ready to give away all the family secrets. I don’t recall anything he told me I said in the first few minutes of getting the dose but I mentioned a few days prior I had a dream about a mushroom growing out of my check and he said I kept talking about mushrooms on my face and a contraband tea bag I had. It was actually funny when I got my wits about me again.

Anyway, despite everything, I have a stent in my right carotid artery, a clot in my brain, a desire to purge stuff and get on with my life.

In less than a week the full moon will rise, in a few weeks Autumn officially arrives, with the turn of the wheel we celebrate Mabon and once again my life has to make major changes.

I began my 30 days of Goddess journal for September here are a look at the pages for the 1st and 2nd:

I am still working on the Moon Crystals embroidery piece though I did fall behind a little bit I need to complete the moth and it will be completely stitched.

I am currently reading a few books and magazines it’s about all I can manage with the energy I have at the moment.

I usually buy the Autumn issue of Enchanted Living since it was Fairie Magazine, there is an article on Brooms I think will be interesting.

I am enrolled in a Broom Making class in early October and a group I am in is having a Broom decorating workshop the following week so this article came at a great time, and I am also rereading Deborah Blake’s The Witch’s Broom.

I haven’t made any progress on the new Greenman embroidery but should be up to stitching later in the week.

I am hoping the rain passes by early through the day so I can see the Full Moon, if not I will perform my Harvest Moon ritual in cloud cover, here in Florida it won't be the first time, this is after all our rainy season, and September seems to stir up all those tropical storms and hurricanes.

Blessing for a Warm and Wonderful Lughnasadh

 

The turning of the calendar page to a new month also brings the turning of the Wheel of the Year to the 1st Harvest, Lughnasadh or Lammas. In brief, Summer has passed its zenith and although temperatures are still quite warm (in the Northern Hemisphere), the sun sets a bit earlier each day.  Some crops are ready to harvest and preserve for the coming months.  Lughnasadh, named for the Irish Sun God Lugh, is celebrated on the first or second day of August.  It is the first of three harvest festivals.  This festival celebrates the grain harvest as well as fruits and vegetables that ripen in late Summer. 

I love this Lugnasadh art work by Bonny Hut, it is full of seasonal images and has me longing for autumn.

Besides giving thanks for the abundance of the first harvest, this is a good time to reflect on the goals and projects you began earlier in the year.  Have they come to fruition as you planned?  Or do they still need more work to develop into what you envisioned?  There is still time to edit and revise before the next harvest!

I am currently taking part in a SAL (stitch along) we are using the pattern Moon Crystals by Lolli and Grace. The SAL began on July 27th and will continue into August. My progress so far is right on schedule though I snapped the photo earlier before the last lazy daisies were completed. The next portion of the SAL is announced on Wednesday, August 3rd I am curious which part of the pattern will be next and what stitch will be used which makes it quite interesting. The first two stitches are the split back stitch and the lazy daisy. At first I didn’t like the split back stitch but after a while I got the hang of it and I actually like the look. My lazy daisy stitches are a bit wonky as you can see, it’s one of the stitches I have yet to master. I really should go back to the basics and make a few stitch samplers to get the feel for the stitches again. Most of my work is done in the back stitch so I am once again dipping my feet into uncharted waters. So far I like the results.

 

Demeter, Lady of Fruit and Grains,

of ripening suns and harvest rains.

I call to you, Mother, hear my plea,

Bestow your Blessing here on me.

Last Tuesday morning the Tree Service arrived and began working without so much as a knock on the door. I heard all this noise looked out and pieces of a tree were being fed into a wood chipper.  Well midway through the job a piece of machinery broke down so they went onto another job while waiting for the mechanic to fix the truck.  They returned about 90 minutes later to resume the job.  They had to move one of the limestone boulders to get the heavy equipment in and assured me they would move it back after the job was done.

A few hours later it was real quiet so I looked out the door and there wasn't a soul in sight. They left, forgetting to move the boulder back (which would be okay), they left a 5 gallon bucket of hydraulic fluid and the payment.  My son and I looked around the yard to see how well the work was done and what may need to be done next.  The company called and asked if the men were still there and I told him they were gone, but needed to come back to get the hydraulic fluid and if possible to put the boulder back and get paid.  
Everything looked good, of course there is a few clean up jobs needing to be done, where the heavy equipment was.  I did notice all of the branches of my pear tree were cut off which I'm sure was do to the heavy branches coming down. 

The removal of the dead cedar tree was crucial because it was so tall and I worried it would either fall  on my house or my neighbors.  The tree service cut down the stump that was next to it and all I have left are two little pieces which I will make into spirit dolls one of these days.

A New Month, A Year Older and Some Stitching Stuff

 On July 1st I celebrated my 67th birthday, time does fly when you get to a certain age for me it was around 45 since then the days just seem to pass in a flash. For my birthday my son and I went to my favorite beach, his wife stayed home since she is currently using a face cream for treatment of skin cancers and doesn’t want to spend too much time in the sun and she isn’t a beach person and since she knows I love the beach (my happy place) she suggested we go without her. Recently she found out her cat is ill with cancer and at 18 years old she wants to be near her as much as possible. She surprised me with some lovely flowers, a few hours later the first lily began to open.

When the lily opened fully it was wider than both my hands spread wide, there is a second lily in the back that opened 2 days later and is wider than the first one, there is a 3rd lily in bud seen at the top but I don't think it will open.  The aroma from the lilies is quite strong.

On July 1st I joined the 31 Days of Creative Prompts for Stitchers on Instagram for the month of July each day there is a new prompt. Here is my July 1st post

Today is day 1 of @lolliandgrace #stitchandshare for the month of July.The first prompt is what got you into stitching? For me it was a part of the times going back to 1968, yes not a typo. I was taught to hand sew by my grandmother when I was 7 hand embroidery became a natural extension of that. In 1968 being one of those flower child hippie girls I would embroider flowers and peace symbols on my jeans using a satin stitch, back stitch or running stitch, though back them I didn’t even know stitches had names. The photo is a very early work that I did from an Erica Wilson pattern. I made it for a late friend, it hung in her home from the day I gave it to her until she passed it was returned to me by one of her children who I taught to sew years ago and thought I would like it back. I look at it and can see so many mistakes but I will say my satin stitch snake if beautiful. I stopped hand embroidery some time in the mid 1970’s right after I hand embroidered 2000 daisy on a friends wedding dress which 3 of her friends made for her. She dream when she was about 12 that her weeding dress would have 2000 daisies and she got them. I picked it back up in 1980 while pregnant with my only child, to make a few samplers for his room. I moved onto quilting which I do entirely by hand. Then in 2014 I had the urge to do hand embroidery again while shopping in a quilt shop for fabric and came across a class offered which included hand embroidery from the book Patchwork Loves Embroidery by Gail Pan. I haven’t put my needle down since. In 2021 I did a personal challenge to hand embroider a Goddess a Month and I am currently working on a Greenman image and finishing kit from Cozy Blue called Lunar Flow. 

I am also planning to take part in the SAL starting on July 27th for more information you can check out the link  https://lolliandgrace.com/blogs/blog/moon-crystals-a-new-stitch-along-for-the-snarky-modern-facebook-group

I spent a few hours at the beach on my birthday the weather was lovely though a bit too windy, I had brought along my Greenman to embroider but could only get in about 3 stitches before the winds tangle my floss.

I brought along one of my little goddess figurines from Brigid's Grove, she reminds me of sea glass.

Speaking of sea glass I found a few pieces while walking along the shoreline quite a rare find for me in the 28 years that I have lived in Florida I very rarely find beach glass.

There was a brown piece too but was still too new for my taste so I tossed it in the trash can for safety.

I also found a few Hag stones, another rare to me find on the Florida beaches.

I found 5 of them what a great birthday gift from the sea I feel so fortunate to have found them.

I have a crochet project underway as well that I just started today. I am using Lion Brand's Mandala Yarn in the Troll colorway.

It's going to be an ever growing Granny Square afghan.  I love the mandala yarn and how the colors change randomly. I have made several of the ever growing Granny Square afghans using Mandala yarns and I'm never disappointed.  For this one I am going to combine the Troll yarn with Gnome colorway to make it more colorful.

I wish you all a safe and happy 4th of July