My Pillow is NOT Your Bed

Ok. I know Cindy thinks I?m turning into the cat lady, but since I?ve never really been around cats before, it?s really not surprising that this cat kind of fascinates me. So the cat has been sleeping at my feet, on the floor or on her kitty bed by the bedroom door for ages now. If she?s kicked out of the room, she usually just lays in front of the door until I get up, then she?ll follow me around all morning and try to convince me to stay home from work.

Well, lately, she?s decided that she should sleep on my pillow. Seriously? Like I want cat hair on my pillow? Or a tail thwapping me in the face- she thwaps her tail a lot, even when she?s happy. Weird bird. Anyway, so she?ll start down by my feet, the floor ,or her bed, and the minute I fall asleep, she?ll creep up and lay down on my pillow, above my head. If I wake up, I block and send her down to the end of the bed, but she?s getting fairly sneaky about it. So I wake up to a tail thwapping. Or sometimes she?ll pat my head with her paw. The other night, I reached up and she bit me. Not hard at all, mind you, but I?m training her not to bite. She KNOWS it too. When she bites, she gets forced off of wherever she is, or gets kicked out of the room. I think she thought I wouldn?t notice if I was asleep. So I kicked her out. I hope she learns soon, I?m trying to use cat treats to help. Hubby is a pushover and will feed her cat treats non-stop. I?m going to have to hide them from him. LOL!

Labor Day Weekend

This is the least intuitive computer I've ever been on. When I double-click on a picture, don't open photoshop- it takes like 10 minutes to fully load. Damnit. Anyway.

This labor day weekend has been full of labor, and lazy. This past Saturday, my coven had an open event called Night of a Thousand Goddesses. It was really nice. Too bad my wrist was hurting so much, I could barely concentrate on my presentation. Blowage. We had new interested sisters, and I like to be at my best when we have new people. Oh well. Perhaps its the Goddess telling me I try too hard? I learned two things that night: 1) I shrug my shoulders like a moron when I get excited, and 2) if I write notecards from what I know, just go from my brain, stop focusing o the cards. I was in a lot of pain, so I wasn't at my best, like I said. Bummer.

I don't know whats really up with my wrist and forearms, but they were hurting like the dickens, with big swollen lumps of muscley goodness Saturday night into Sunday morning. Sunday, I ran around with the hubby- picked up some sweet tea vodka. Yup, its super super good. Today, I helped my MIL pick out some new rugs for her bathroom. I think she wants to upgrade the style of her bathroom. Cool deal!

We ate so well tonight. Crab legs, shrimp, steak, corn on the cob... yummers! I only ate a little of each, as my tummy hates it when I mix my meats. *rimshot*

I uploaded my Lopez Lake camping pics to my facebook and my photobucket. Had hives really bad- scratched myself scabby this weekend. So, I sucked it up and took the prednisone. It drive me crazy because it makes me want to eat everything in sight! So its harder than usual to not do that!

And what would a blog entry be without a cat video/photo/story. Okay, so I went to put away my laundry (yay, its all done), and I found the cat in my back room. The back room is a mess due to the flooding issues we had here, and so the cat was crazy and climbed the the highest point in the room. So, of course I took a little video. I was crazy sceered that she would hit her head on the ceiling fan...

My "Studio" Space

One of the cool things about living here, is the fact that I get my own C/craft room. This room is for my crafts, and will also be used as a temple room. I got to choose the paint color (a nice moss/pea green), and got to move all of my stuff in here. All of my work clothes are also in here, as our closet is TINY. All my casual clothes are in our room. It was a little challenging, trying to find places for my stuff around my in-laws stuff. My bookcases from our living room, and the armoire from the hallway is in here, too, so it was a little difficult, at times figuring where everything was going to go. My one plan was to find more table space. Here are a few photos from a couple days after we moved in.




(All of the bottles are from the herbs I had to dig through to make the incense for Litha! LOL!)

And so, I got a few things put away...

And then I had to find places for my in-laws' stuff so I could use the space, too.



and so I did!

In the photo below, you'll see our linens. We had to find space for them. My ILs said we could use their towels, but I really like ours. And ours match our bathroom and stuff. Things like that make me feel relaxed.


So, now that almost everything is put away- just have a few things to hang up and some trash to throw away... here it is... TADA! I am typing away at the desk right now on my mini and feel SO comfortable in it!

Here is as "Ivy pose" shot. See, it comes in handy for more than just myspace and facebook! I tried to get most of the room so you can kinda see it. See the pretty green?


Here's my comfy papasan chair (great for meditation and reading), two witchy cabinets stacked on one another (I need to bind the top one to the wall), and my white cubes from Target with my big paper trimmer and my Xyron PCS.


And here is my witchy armoire with my hand drums and other meditative things. Sorry its blurry. Those pink blobs are cute candle holders from Ikea. Like I needed more candle holders, right?


Below are my bookcases. On the left there is my open working BOS that we use in my coven. In the center is an upside down candle holder where I will be hanging my finished jewelry pieces before I photograph them. The painting is one I want to get framed. It looks better than it seems. But I'm no painter! On the right are two nesting tables, perfect to drag out for altars or shrines!



Here is my spare table and shelf for visiting crafters! Below are floor cushions for classes or meditations, and four wrought iron candle holders for quarter candles- I only use them sometimes.


I know it looks a cluttery mess, but it looks better in real life. On top are all my scrapbooks (including empty mini ones in the basket), then I have prima flowers and embellishments (sorted by color in the tackle boxes, and others in the easily ported purple boxes). Then on the table I have my ribbon scrap jars, assorted odds and ends, my basket of adhesives, my tool bag, a spaghetti jar of ribbon spools, my 8x8 stuff, jewelry tools, and drawers of stamping stuff.


My herb jars, candle and incense holders and statuary. And other randomness.


On top are my notes, BOS's (coven and personal) and my coven scrapbook. Ask me, I'll show it to you. And if you know where to get a 8.5 x 11 ringed album to hold lots o pages, please share.



Here is my armoire of randomness. Its mostly just the things we use most in circle, as well as some momentos, like my floral crown from Beltane, and other things like that. I know its a mess, but I'll have time to sort it out, now that everything is IN there. :)


And thats my new Studio!

The New (to me) Pets

Well, I thought I might introduce this cast of characters that wake me up at 6:30 in the morning. :)

Here is Dottie. Dottie is also known as "The Bitch" or "The Brat." Because she's eeeevil most of the time. But since my SIL and her two kids moved out, the cat has been so super sweet and nice. She's a completely different cat.



This cat is Kit. Kit is a lazy-assed cat that is very laid back. He is happy if you pet him. Or if you don't. He really doesn't care.



This one is Libby. Libby was in a car accident, and as my SIL managed an animal hospital, she came home with her. She pretty much keeps to herself in the cat condo, but is getting more and more adventurous.



Not pictured: Chumley. He's anti-social.

Now, for the doggies!

Mojo is a PITA. He bit my mom. Twice. Not serious, but still, he can be a little unpredictable around new people. He's also pretty cute. He's a maltese. Both him and the yorkie (below) were give to my SIL, because they couldn't sell him. Mojo has a few little tan patches. Evidently, people buying Maltese's are white supremicists! I'm kidding.

Now, we have Sammie. Sammie is a Yorkie. The pet shop couldn't sell him because his head was too big for his body. Seriously- he's a bobbleheaded dog. The cutest one EVER! He likes giving kisses!



And finally- not pictured, is Patch, a big black and white cocker spaniel who doesn't hold still long enough for photos. I will GET him one of these days, though!

And that rounds up the animals that I live with. There is a big beautiful gray stray cat outside. He hangs out all day. So I guess he belongs here. :)

Raven

The full moon of April goes by many names- one of those names is "Raven." So, I was doing a little research on the folklore of Ravens throughout time, and stumbled onto a great resource at Druidry.org. You can obviously tell its a Celtic related site, due to all the western European knowledge. :)

Folklore

Native American

According to Jamie Sams and David Carson, in their excellent book Medicine Cards (which accompanies a beautiful deck of animal cards), Raven's medicine is magic. She is the Great Mystery of the Void.

Black, to Native Americans, is a color of magical power, and only to be feared if misused. Raven symbolizes the void - the mystery of that which is not yet formed. Ravens are symbolic of the Black Hole in Space, which draws in all energy toward itself and releases it in new forms. The iridescent blue and green that can be seen in the glossy black feathers of the raven represents the constant change of forms and shapes that emerge from the vast blackness of the void. In Native American tradition, Raven is the guardian of both ceremonial magic and healing circles. She is also the patron of smoke signals.

Raven's element is air, and she is a messenger spirit, which Native American shamans use to project their magic over great distances.

In many northwestern American Indian traditions, Raven is the Trickster, much like the Norse Loki. Observing ravens in nature, we find that they often steal food from under the noses of other animals, often working in pairs to distract the unfortunate beasts. Anne Cameron has written several northwestern Indian tales (Raven and Snipe, Raven Goes Berrypicking, Raven Returns the Water, and others) with the Raven as Trickster theme.

China

Ravens are considered a solar symbol in Chinese mythology. The three legged raven lives in the sun, representing the sun's three phases - rising, noon and setting. When the sunlight hits their glossy black feathers just right, they seem to turn to silver.

Japan

The Shinto Goddess, Amaterasu is sometimes represented as a giant raven, Yata-Garasu.


India

Brahma appears as a raven in one of his incarnations. Ravens are also sacred to Shiva and Kali.

Australia

In Aborigine mythology, Raven tried to steal fire from seven sisters (the Pleides), and was charred black in the unsuccessful attempt.

Middle East

To Egyptians, ravens represented destruction and malevolence. However, Arabs call raven Abu Aajir - the Father of Omens.

Hebrew/Christian

In the Hebrew/Christian tradition ravens were considered unclean, representing impurity, mortification, destruction, deceit, and desolation. Ravens were cursed by Noah for not returning to the ark with news of the receding the flood.

Yet, conversely, the Bible also says that ravens were the protectors of the prophets; they fed Elijah and Paul the Hermit in the wilderness. Also, ravens helped St. Cuthbert and St. Bernard.

In contradictory Christian traditions, ravens represent the solitude of the holy hermits, yet also the souls of wicked priests and witches.

European

Since ravens can be taught to speak, and have such a complex vocabulary of their own, they are connected symbolically to both wisdom and prophecy. But in Europe, at least from Christian times, ravens have several strikes against them: black is considered a negative color; ravens are carrion eaters; and they have a symbiotic relationship with man's oldest enemy, the wolf. In many western traditions raven represents darkness, destructiveness and evil. They are sometimes associated with deities of evil and of death. Both witches and the Devil were said to be able to take the shape of a raven.

Greece

Raven is the messenger of the Sun Gods, both Helios and Apollo. She is also associated with Athene, Hera, Cronos and Aesculapius.


Northern Europe

The pagan Danes and Vikings used the raven banner on their ships, in Odin's honor. These flags, usually sewn by the daughters of great warriors and kings, were tokens of luck on their voyages. Houses where ravens nested were also thought to be lucky.

Odin had two ravens - Huginn (thought) and Muninn (memory) who flew about the world, delivering messages, gathering knowledge and reporting back to him. One of Odin's many titles is Hrafna-Gud, the God of the Ravens. Odin's daughters, the warlike Valkyres, were sometimes said to take the shape of ravens.

In the Elder Edda's cryptic poem, the Grimnismal, a verse refers to Odin's ravens:

Huginn and Muninn, every day
They fly over earthground.
I fear for Huginn,
that he may not return.
But even more, I fear
for the loss of Muninn.

In the Norse shamanic tradition, Odin's ravens represent the powers of necromancy, clairvoyance and telepathy, and they were guides for the dead. This poem expresses a shaman's fear of his loss of magical powers. (Source: The Well of Remembrance by Ralph Metzner, Shambala, Boston, 1994)

Central Europe

On Walpurgisnacht, April 30th, German witches fly to Brocken Mountain in the Harz Mountains for the great witches' Sabbath in the shape of their familiars - ravens and crows.

Western Europe

In Beowulf, an Anglo Saxon poem, is written " . . . craving for carrion, the dark raven shall have its say, and tell the eagle how it fared at the feast, when, competing with the wolf, it laid bare the bones of corpses."

In Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady Macbeth sees the raven as a herald of misfortune as it "croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan."

In England, tombstones are sometimes called "ravenstones".

Among the Irish Celts, Raven was associated with the Triple Goddess, the Morrigan, who took the shape of Raven over battlefields as Chooser of the Slain. She was a protector of warriors, such as Chuhulian and Fionn MacCual.

Raven is also the totem of the pan-Celtic Sorceress/Goddess Morgan le Fay, who was also called the Queen of Faeries. In some tales, she is Queen of the Dubh Sidhe, or Dark Faeries, who were a race of tricksters who often took the form of ravens.

Irish and Scots Bean Sidhes (Banshees) could take the shape of ravens as they cried above a roof, an omen of death in the household below.

Tha gliocas an ceann an fhitich or Fice ceann na fhitich are Scots Gaelic proverbs meaning "There is wisdom in a raven's head."

"To have a raven's knowledge" is an Irish proverb meaning to have a seer's supernatural powers. Raven is considered one of the oldest and wisest of animals.

Also a bird of wisdom and prophecy, Raven was the totem of the Welsh God, Bran the Blessed, the giant protector of the Britain, the Isle of the Mighty. After the battle with Ireland, Bran was decapitated, and his head became an oracle. Eventually Bran asked to have his head buried in what is now Tower Hill in London to protect Britain from invasion. Bran's Ravens are kept there to this day, as protection against invasion. During World War II, Tower Hill was bombed, and the ravens were lost. Winston Churchill, knowing full well the ancient legends, ordered the immediate replacement of ravens, and they were brought to Tower Hill from Celtic lands - the Welsh hills and Scottish Highlands.

Raven was the favorite bird of the solar deity, Lugh (Irish/Scots), or Lludd (Welsh) the Celtic God of Arts and Crafts. Lugh was said to have two ravens to attend on all the His needs (similar to Odin and his ravens).

Many Celtic tribes and clans descend from animals. An ancient clan called the Brannovices, the Raven Folk, once existed in Britain. To this day, the Glengarry MacDonalds of Scotland have a raven on their heraldic arms, and their war cry is Creagan-an Fhithich - Raven's Rock, a landmark on their ancestral lands.

The Scottish Goddess of winter, The Cailleach, sometimes appears as a raven. A touch from her brings death.

Giving a child his first drink from the skull of a raven will give the child powers of prophecy and wisdom in the Hebrides.

Scottish Highlanders associate ravens with the second sight. An excellent book on the subject is Ravens and Black Rain: The Story of Highland Second Sight by Elizabeth Sutherland (Corgi Books, Great Britain, 1985)

In Cornwall, as in England, King Arthur is said to live on in the form of a raven, and it is unlucky to shoot one.

"Have not your worships read the annals and histories of England, in which are recorded the famous deeds of King Arthur, whom we in our popular Castilian invariably call King Artus, with regard to whom it is an ancient tradition, and commonly received all over that kingdom of Great Britain, that this king did not die, but was changed by magic art into a raven, and that in process of time he is to return to reign and recover his kingdom and scepter; for which reason it cannot be proved that from that time to this any Englishman ever killed a raven?"- Don Quixote by Cervantes

The Welsh Owein had a magical army of ravens.

In Welsh folklore, the raven is also an omen of death. If the raven makes a choking sound, it is a portent of the death rattle. A crying raven on a church steeple will "overlook" the next house where death will occur. A raven could smell death and would hover over the area where the next victim dwelt, including animals. Ravens were heard to "laugh" when someone was about to die. Welsh witches, and the Devil, would transform themselves into ravens.

Magic

This section really was great for summarizing the symbolism prevelent in the cultural folklore above.


Raven is a contrary spirit. On the negative side, Raven represents the profane, the devil, evil spirits, the trickster and thief, war and destruction, death and doom, the void.

Yet in many cultures Raven also represents deep magic, the mystery of the unknown, death and transformation, creation, healing, wisdom, protection, and prophecy.

Raven is both the symbol of the sun, and the symbol of a moonless night. She is the birth giving light in the center of our galaxy, and the black hole in the center of the universe, to which we are all traveling to our eventual extinction.

Raven is the fatal touch of the Calleach in winter, the wisdom of Odin, the vessel of prophecy given to a seer, the mighty protector of the Western Isles, and the healing message of an Indian shaman.

Raven is a complex bird, both in nature and in mythology.

Invocation of Raven
by Susa Morgan Black

Morgana of the Dark Moon Night
Onyx bird, bold in flight
Raven, come to us now!

Keeper of the sacred well
Where the faerie spirits dwell
Raven, come to us now!

Guardian of the Blackthorn Tree
Home of the feared Banshee
Raven, come to us now!

Teacher of warriors, and of sex,
spells that heal and spells that hex
Raven, come to us now!

Bean Sidhe by the river bed
Washing shrouds of the newly dead
Raven, come to us now!

Twin birds of memory and thought
Who brought the knowledge Odin sought
Raven, come to us now!

Raven with his bag of tricks
Always getting in a fix
Raven, come to us now!

Stalwart guardian of the Land
The sacred bird of mighty Bran
Raven, come to us now!

Wise One of the Second Sight
Who foretells our human plight
Raven, come to us now!

Raven, Oldest of us All
Watch over us and hear our call
Raven, come to us now!

Evocation of Raven for Healing

by smb

Bird whose magic is revealing
The hallowed mystery of healing