Finally!

It Finally Snowed!

I never thought that I would be excited to see it snow. I was watching the storm last night, just like a little kid anticipating a school day tomorrow! At our house, we got 4.25 inches of snow. it's the first time all winter that we have had more than one inch of snow at a time.
While it has been nice, in terms of lack of shoveling and bad driving, it's just wrong!

The man that plows our driveway got here at 5:00 this morning. Our bedroom is just feet off the driveway. It feels like he's coming thru the wall when he goes by!

Here's a picture of my little gargoyle guy on the deck this morning.

Since it's snowed, I need to go out and make sure the bird feeders are full, and put some cracked corn out for the wild turkeys. They'll probably show up later for a free lunch. It's a beautiful sunny day out there, although the wind is really blowing!

I hope it's nice where you are!

Making a Spirit Box

Making a Spirit box or jar is a great way to have some fun and make a useful magickal item. A Spirit box is a place for you to put your problems and fears, to give them up to the Goddess, God, Universe, or however you refer to your higher power. If you have a problem that you can't solve or a fear that is holding you back, write it out on paper, fold it or tear it up, and put it into the jar, and put the lid back on. You are giving this problem to your higher power to deal with, for the best possible outcome. For this to work, you really have to trust your higher power. Do you?Really? I have found that putting my problems into the Spirit jar to be quite freeing. It also serves to help me keep the faith, as it were. The photo is of my own Spirit jar.

This really doesn't take a long time to do! This is a fun craft to do with a friend.

To make a Spirit box, get any box with a separate lid. It can be as large or as small as you like. You just need to make sure that it can hold several pieces of torn or folded paper at a time.You can also do this with a jar. You should decorate the box, but feel free to use any/all materials you wish. It can be simple or quite elaborate. If I'm using a paper box, I decorate both the inside and the outside. To do a jar, I just do the outside. I use paint, rubber stamps, glitter (always glitter!), cut out pictures from magazines, printed tissue papers (especially for the jars). I might glue on beads, ribbons, feathers, shells, and/or acorns. There are no rules or right way to do this! The goal is to have fun, and not stress out about the results!

For adhesive, I recommend using Mod Podge. You can also use white Elmer's glue, thinned out a little. Mod Podge is nice because you can seal your work when you are done by brushing on a coat all over the box. It also comes in a sparkle version. If you want to pile on beads or other attachments, Golden Regular Gel Medium is good. You can press the beads into it and it will harden nicely. There are lots of different craft glues on the market, so you can just use your favorite. Let the whole thing dry overnight, keeping the lid separate until it's dry.

So, you've just made a Spirit box! To use, just write out your problem on paper, read it out loud, and ask your higher power for help in solving it. Put the paper in the box and put the lid back on, and forget about it! I keep my Spirit jar on my altar. It's good to occasionally clean out the box. Don't go back thru and read everything! Just dump it! I burn the contents of mine outside in the fire pit. I hope you have fun making your Spirit box! I'd love to see photos of yours when you get done!

Caring & Sharing

Every time I get complacent, the Universe cuffs me 'upside the head. Last night I had one of those reminders. I had an unpleasant experience on the Etsy forums last night. Someone took exception to some things I had listed, and the reasons why I listed them. It was very upsetting for me. It felt like a personal attack, and those of you who know me know that I don't do very well with things like that. But that isn't why I'm writing about this. I'm writing because of what I feel came out of the whole thing for me.

I have always said that I am so incredibly lucky because I have a FANTASTIC close community of friends, and friends that are like family. You know who you are!!::insert your picture here::

It's a rare thing- this community of mine! It's hard to express just what it means to me.

I have been a member of Etsy for the past six months. I have started to build community there with some of the buyers and sellers that frequent my shop, the Treasury and the Forums. I always try to keep my head above the fray in the forums, give as much information to those who ask me questions about my products, and give encouragement to those who seem to need it at any given time, in the forums, and directly thru email. I do this because it seems like it's the right thing to do. I'm big on doing the right thing for others (I'm still learning to do it for myself).

Well, I got a reminder last night that there are others like myself out there on Etsy. I received emails of support from several people after the flaming forum posting went up, and they helped me so much! This new community in my life is such an unexpected joy, a bonus of joining Etsy!

So, many thanks to those of you who sent your support! It means so much and really did help me feel better again about what I'm doing on Etsy.

Tomorrow night is the full Moon! I think that I will use this opportunity to do a little ritual. Being that the moon is full, it seems like a good time to acknowledge all this good energy in my life. I'll light a candle for my friends, sending positive energy out to them and the Universe.

Goddess knows, we all need it!

Brightest blessings to you all!

~tracyw

Walking on Water

Now, isn't that quite the trick for a witch? We are supposed to sink, aren't we? I suppose that I should clarify;
I've been walking on ICE Water! :0)

Lake Mattawa is finally frozen. Yesterday was a bright, sunny, and even sort of a warm day, so I went walking out on the lake. Not to worry, there's about 7 inches of ice on it! The ice fishermen were out in force, but only a few fish were to be had. I saw one man who had caught a small salmon, at about 2.5 pounds. Other than that there wasn't much going on out there. Sure, everyone was having fun, but not with the fish!

The element of water corresponds to the Western direction. Water rules our emotions, and is the element most closely related to LOVE. And how important is that? Well, everything is based on Love ~ all that we do, and all that is magick, or Universal. Water is purifying and healing. We are made out of mostly water. I don't know anyone who doesn't like to listen to the tides rolling in, or a babbling brook. These are so soothing to us, because we are a part of it. The gateway of the West is also where we turn to honor those who passed from this life. Learning to trust our intuition is to learn to work with this element. The following lists just a few of the many correspondences to element of Water and the direction of West:

• Color ~ Blue
• Astrological signs ~ Pisces, Scorpio, Cancer
• Metals ~ Silver, Copper
• Herbs ~ most flowers such as Roses (love), waterlilies, horsetail
• Planetary ~ Moon
• Animals ~ Bear, Raven, Dolphin, Whale, Heron, Frog
• Tree ~ Willow

There are so many associations with the element of water. Too many to list them all here. There are a couple of books that are really good for learning about the elements and directions. Scott Cunningham's Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Amber Wolfe's In the Shadow of the Shaman. Both are good to have on hand for reference, but also have nice exercises and rituals, as well.