My Queen, My Mother

My Queen, My Mother

My Queen, my Mother, 

I give myself entirely to thee, 

and to show my devotion to thee, 

I consecrate to thee this day, 

my eyes, my ears, my mouth, my heart, 

my whole being without reserve. 

Wherefore good Mother as I am thine own, 

keep me, guard me, as thy property and possession.

Amen

I love this prayer, the words & meaning are beautiful. While this is a prayer to Mary, "the Queen, the Mother" is also known by many names in many cultures and this can apply to any one of them, as the petitioner's practice calls for.

Too often the different religions declare "we own that!" But in reality, no they do not. The beautiful words in prayers or spells cross all religious boundaries. No one religion holds the patent on these words. The intent of the words are what is important, the Divine doesn't give a shit about the "religion" (a human construct) from which they come from. Unfortunately too many humans are too hung up on the minutia of stupid details to figure it out. Sad for them because they miss sooo much beauty as a result of that prejudice.

As for me, I just read the words and enjoy their intent and try to share with those who are open to their beauty!

Thoughts from Mark Twain

Thoughts from Mark Twain

This is so true and such a great insight. And something that hasn't been noted by anyone else since. By allowing those "words" to remain in place, it leaves the possibility open for the return of that which they promoted in the first place.

During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church, after eight hundred years, gathered up its halters, thumb-screws, and firebrands, and set about its holy work in earnest. She worked hard at it night and day during nine centuries and imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood.

Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. There are no witches. The witch text remains; only the practice has changed. Hell fire is gone, but the text remains. Infant damnation is gone, but the text remains. More than two hundred death penalties are gone from the law books, but the texts that authorized them remain.

~Mark Twain~

"Bible Teaching and Religious Practice," Europe and Elsewhere

1923

Herbs for Blessings

Herbs for Blessings

In a few days I'll be driving out to our Kansas property to take a look around, take pictures, and while there I'll be doing a House Blessing ritual. So as I need to get all of my things ready I decided to see what are some specific herbs for my purpose. But as usual, my OCD Self couldn't just look for what I'm looking for, I had to go ahead and make a list of all the herbs (well, maybe not all but certainly many) that are used for blessings - of any sort. 

So, the following list are the herbs for blessings and their respective intents (if it's other than just "blessings"). I figure y'all could copy it for yourselves for future reference as well!

Blessing Herbs

Ague root (baby)

Bachelor’s Button

Basil

Bay (house)

Birch

Bittersweet (house)

Blue Cohosh

Camphor (house)

Caraway (house)

Catnip (animal)

Cedar (baby)

Cinquefoil (house)

Club Moss

Cowslip (business & house)

Cypress

Daisy (baby)

Elder (business & house)

Elecampane (baby)

Flax (baby)

Foxglove (garden)

Fumitory (house)

Gorse (wedding)

Hackberry

Hops

Iris (baby)

Job’s Tears

Lady’s Mantle (newlywed)

Mountain Ash/Rowan (house)

Mulberry (baby)

Myrrh

Rosemary (baby)

Rowan/Mountain Ash (house)

Rue

Sage (house)

Vervain (children)

Walnut (Blessings of the Gods)

White Willow Bark

My favorite all-around perfect herb is Basil. It can be used for any purpose from blessing to cursing. I grow this herb so I have plenty of it for my Craft or culinary purposes. So I'll definitely be taking my Basil, as well as Bay, Birch, Caraway, Sage and White Willow Bark as these are the ones I have on hand.

I'll pack a Craft bag with everything, take pictures during the ritual, and will post them when I return.

Gourd Faery House

Gourd Faery House

I found a few gourds at a yard sale, each one only $1 so I picked out ten of them. This is one of those gourds that I turned into a Faery House for my friend Amber Wolf.

Materials:

Gourd

Leaves - whole & crushed

Bark pieces

Pebbles & Stones

Shell bits

Beads & baubles of all kinds

Pine seeds

Herbs for your purpose (I used Basil, Cedar bark, Cherry Plum leaves, Dill seeds)

Old and/or unused jewelry pieces

Fish tank floor beads

Hot glue gun & sticks

Herbs & Stones used & their meanings:

Basil: Abundance, Fortune, Happiness, Harmony, Health, House blessing, Love, Luck, Mend quarrels, Peace, Prosperity, Protection, Relationship healing, Temper soothing, Wealth

Cedar bark: "Tree of Life", Abundance, Fortune, Health, Love, Luck, Money, Prosperity, Protection, Wealth

Cherry Plum leaves: Cheer, Health, Love

Dill seeds: Abundance, Love, Luck, Money, Prosperity, Protection

Pine seeds: Abundance, Fortune, Health, Love, Money, Prosperity, Protection

Shells: Achievement, Affluence, Blessings, Fortune

Turquoise: Communication, Empathy, Honesty, Master healer, Negativity repelling, Peace, Positive thinking, Protection, Serenity, Understanding, Wisdom

******

Instructions:

Lay out all of the materials so you can see everything.

If you need to, draw lightly in pencil, the general placement of each of the house's elements. 

Begin with the stone "wall" around the base, this way you can easily hold the gourd by the top or lay it over on its side if needed. If you do the top first you won't be able to do the stone wall very easily and may mess up what you did on the top. So, it's best to start at the bottom first.

Next, I added the chimney stones.

Then the fish tank floor beads were added for the "windows" and next came the front door. This was strips of cedar bark laid close together. One piece had a tiny hole in it, inside which I glued a pink stone bead for the doorknob.

After the windows & door came the roof. This is made from the seeds of a pine cone. Each one was glued on individually, then the row above was shifted over slightly so as to give the effect of shingles.

Next came the fun part - adding all the tidbits and details to bring it to life! I had an old dragonfly pin that I attached to the door, and beads of hot glue were added around the chimney stones and crushed leaves added to make it look mossy and "old".

Dabs of hot glue on the roof "tiles" were sprinkled with crushed leaves and dill seeds.

The following pictures show the finished Gourd Faery House from all sides.

I found a little teapot charm, cut off the loop that it hung from and then hot glued it to the left of the door. A Faery needs refreshment, you know! The "windows" each have Cherry Plum leaf awnings.

I added turquoise beads here and there for added color. Crushed leaves were poured over the hot glue for a mossy effect around the stones as well as around the house's bell top surface. There is an amber colored heart charm that hangs from the chimney.

There are cut shell "flower boxes" on the back "windows" that each have a cut shell bird sitting on them. There are also birds on the roof top.

There is a scarab bead because you can't live in the forest and not have bugs!

So that is the Gourd Faery House! And I do believe that Amber Wolf feels that the Fae have taken up residence and are quite happy!

Welcome little Fae,

Please won't you come & stay?

This little house is yours to fill,

Joy & happiness to instill!