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My Grey Veil aroma, which was made for rituals in which contacting the spirits and moving beyond the veil for healing work is being performed, was dedicated on the New Moon, as the light began to emerge back into the moon. I bound together a triangle of hagthorn branches (hawthorn), barren of leaf and ripe with berries to bless and consecrate. Every ingredient had been blessed, every instrument used had been purified and now the pellets are dry and will spend the next few months aging. They are now directed and will be stored in a sacred place to be allowed to continue their maturation. The incense wasn't the only thing to receive blessings from the Hag and the Hunter; my rabbit pelt is finally, properly done and looks amazing. I dedicated the fur and bones to the Veiled One, Old Woman, the Hag.I'm working on a new aroma or two, to honor my home, the Beautiful Pacific Northwest, which will be collected and wildcrafted slowly over time, all the way through spring. It will be comprised of different parts of different indigenous trees for the first aroma; blessed trees that were here in the lush Emerald State before the invasion. I'll be harvesting from the trees with the utmost respect and ceremony, taking time to honor the land as the coastal people have done and in the way I was taught to being raised in the Northwest native community. I'll probably have to do some of this with my own family to get it right. In indian-country, there's things you do and don't do, ways you go about it all and I have to be careful about not offending local peoples or local spirits. The second smoke will be extremely difficult to get in some respects because I'll be following migratory patterns lol. THE ELK WOMAN is a great Northwest spirit, walking in her strange skin and ancient form through the dense evergreen forests in the nearby Cascade Mountains. She's the spirit of the migration of elk, from Oregon up through Washington and wherever else they go. I've grown to have a deep love and respect for the elk, so I want to make a few treks out to the Cascades in spring (looking at YOU Trish) which is when we usually see them around to scavenge after them from a distance (don't disrupt wild animals!), but mostly to get inspiration for what local plants best represent their spirits, their lives, and their extraordinary beauty. A friend of mine is giving me some elk meat and elk fat (in case I make sacred balms/ointments) later on when he gets the chance, and since he's not a game hunter but an observer and tracker, I feel better about the source...Some people think it must be hard to bridge my native upbringing with my European and African-American-Cuban ancestry in my practice of the craft... it's not. My craft is entirely separate from my being a skin... as it should be. The medicine of my family and people is separate from my craft, and it works out fine- many worlds live within me and I honor every grandmother by excluding none. I've had my nose stuck in books for the last few weeks (though I think I'm always carrying a book in my hand, even to sleep, lol). I've been rereading favorites and reading new material. REREADING: "Mastering Herbalism" by Huson, "Call of the Horned Piper" and a couple of books from Davies and Wilby. NEW MATERIAL: The "Witch's Book of the Dead" and "Hedge Rider". I just got done finishing up "The Crone Oracles" and I'm going to have to write a scathing review when I get the chance about this book. Lets just say it's new-age chakra garbage meets ridiculous anti-medical spiritualism meets "channeled" Atlantic theories. I'm personally horrified by the obsession with Atlantis that newagers have been clinging to, the pathetic market for "channeled" literature with no historic background or credible information to back it and I'm most disturbed by the casual linking together of some of the most esoteric and differentiating mystery traditions known to man. Newage-thought really bothers me sometimes because it's usually just a mix of self-help nonsense and Age of Aquarius nonsense. "The Crone Oracles" had very few valid point to make. But this is a conversation for another day lol.I'm stocking up on all my supplies every day. When spring emerges, the green rides in and the wood grows virid and fleshy again, I want to be supplied with all I will need for my early spring cunning and crafts; healing work, rituals of purification and devotion to the greenwood. I make smokes to welcome the shining court, teas, baths and soaps to purify for the RItes of Spring, work out recipes for the great Feast of Brighid that takes place after the fasting on Imbolc, and I look forward to the holiday season passing quickly. I'm notoriously the Scrooge of my family; a hater of Christmas in every way.And now? I watch the Lord of the RIngs marathon, eat Lucky Charms, drink mead and smoke.
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