Full Moon Mania

So now that I am getting a little bit more settled - unpacked, cleaned, started some part time work, in the midst of my online classes, and starting a new educational technology blog....I can finally start getting back into my magical groove as well.  I've certainly been missing it, hardly even feeling like a witch. Afterall, as they all say, it's a way of life.  I made it back to my class to participate in my year and a day ceremony.

But more importantly on that front, I managed to get my etsy shop open and listed an item or two from my wedding (with more to come!). It's a good start to have a few items listed but as I've discussed in previous posts, my end goal was to make homemade soy candles for household magic and general decorations alike.  Usually I am morbidly unprepared for the various holidays and cycles. Short of stopping by a CUUPS ceremony, I don't generally have the items or ritual prepared for my own solitary work, and each time I watch a sabbat or esbat come and go with not much more than a meditation.  Sad, I know.

But alas!  I opened my planner, saw that beautiful and exciting white circle indicating a full moon.  I had some work to complete and dinner to make/eat with the husband but I got it all done and sent him off to bed. I stayed up, prepped my jars, cleansed them with the elements and a small chant (after starting with a very thorough physical cleaning, of course).  As I was using glass jars I emptied and cleaned from my own items I wanted to make sure the essence of pasta was not lingering and muddling up our intents here.  I melted a big batch of soy wax, added lilac scent for a light, heavenly sense, and finally covered the top (didn't wan't bugs in my fresh wax) and left the candles out to bask in the full moon glow overnight.  I finally have full moon candles ready to be decorated and listed on my site - so keep an eye out!  If we can get this kicked off, I may find more types of containers online and try to keep a steady and consistent design going.

But guess what, that's not all!  I found a simple, quick full moon spell in my witch's almanac for Monday and was able to do before getting ready for bed. The husband even decided to join in, and he's normally a little intimidated about actually doing spells as opposed to just celebrating sabbats in a group ritual.  This one involved only paper, pen, and some water. We wrote a wish for ourselves on the paper, said a chant provided by the almanac, and tossed our wishes into the water while sitting on the porch under the moon.  I must say, I'm rather proud of my full moon participation this time around. As a solitary, it's usually pretty hard to make sure I don't have work/school/family/friends preventing me from setting time aside. But I believe the secret will be preparation ahead of time, and finding quick simply things to do alone (or with a loved one!) to remind us of the special events that continue around us, with or without our noticing.

the Candle Crafting Continues

I made a post recently mostly just about decorating some natural candles I bought for my wedding.  While those are turning out lovely, my passion and admiration for the gentle glow and scent of a good candle has only burned brighter.  Many times, in passing, I have thought about making candles. That fantasizing grew to be about candles that are so interesting and handcrafted with love and natural ingredients, that others may actually like to purchase them.  I have a friend who enjoys the thrills and drama of a home business, making and selling products online.  While not enough for a year-long career, she seems to really enjoy taking time from her office job in the holiday months to work from her apartment.  However, I also know people who have attempted to do some online business and it hasn't quite worked out.  So candles has never been a serious career move idea for me, but the idea still lingers as a whimsical hobby.

One day recently, I finally decided to at least get enough supplies for a candle or two and see if I could even make a candle worth selling.  Or at the least pretty enough for me to keep around the house and maybe save some money from buying candles.
Armed with some wood wicks, a hot glue gun, a box of soy wax, fragrance oils, and a melting pot...I went to work in the kitchen.  Interestingly enough and by coincidence, it was a great time to be making these candles for magickal purposes as well.  It was around the full moon, and on a Saturday, which according to my weekday correspondences courtesy of Ellen Dugan's Book of Witchery, is represented by pomegranate.  Lovely!

With pomegranate for fertility and/or prosperity, and vanilla for sensuality (great for relationships), the full moon should amp up these candles for love and prosperity.  I melted down leftover wax from a glade apple-cinnamon candle I had pretty much used up, and poured that into another nearly used candle with a wintery smell.  Tada - already rejuvenated old candles and made them usable again! :) I was also left with a nice new frosted candle jar!  The other jar I used was an old artichoke hearts container that I washed out (many times - artichoke marinade smell lingers apparently). Eco point 1 for me, reused glass jars.

 The process was actually pretty simple.  I scooped about a half cup of soy flakes (eco point 2!) into the pot.  I set it up double boiler style, as instructed by a plethora of YouTube videos.  It melted quickly and I added in the pomegranate oil and some rust-colored candle dye.  I decided to do layered candles; hey, go big or go home, right?  So I poured the first layer in after having glued down my wood wicks (eco point 3 - all natural wicks!). I had to let that cool before dealing with the next layer.

Second verse, same as the first.  I melted down more wax, this time left it natural colored, and added vanilla.  A few repeat rounds of wax pouring later... I actually had pretty and delicious smelling candles!  Not to mention, my kitchen smelled WONDEROUS.

I finished the jars off with some ribbon I had around the house.  Not too shabby...this candle thing may work out just yet!  I gave one to my friend (the one who works from home) and filled her in on all the magickal goodness that awaits her within her one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted, eco-friendly, witch's candle. She was pretty excited, agreeing that love and prosperity were certainly things she could use :) She was also shocked at how clean and pretty they looked (which I most strongly concerted with her surprise) and  planted the seed - "I think you really could sell these, especially if your going through the trouble of establishing correspondences and moon phrases into this..."  
I kept one candle for myself, and happy to say, it's still going!  I have had it lit for maybe 1-3 hours in a night, and over the course of several nights it is nowhere near half used.  I imagine it has a good 10 hours burn life in it.  I haven't made anymore yet... but will definitely try to work on that soon! 

Halloween Adventures and Voting

I hope everyone had a happy and safe Halloween, and again I hope the best for all those up north dealing with the Hurricane.  The holiday was filled with lots of love and good things for me, even though I did not make it to the Shadowfest (name for their Samhain celebration this year) at the Universalist Church.  I ended up taking a lot of the day into my own hands, which is hopefully a good sign for the year to come.

Just a recap on this day, Samhain (usually celebrated October 31st) is the Gaelic, or Old Irish, festival marking the end of the harvest and the start of the "darker" half of the year.  To the dismay of evangelist, this does not mean dark as in "evil" in any sense, but instead simply that the days continue growing shorter and during that time in Ireland the weather would grow cold and dreary, too cold to be outside for person or livestock.  The poor at the time had to hope that the final harvest was full enough to sustain them through these harsh months and just the same hoped that their livestock, which serves as a family's livelihood in such an agricultural community, would make it through the winter.  It was quite literally, the dark half of the year.  Thus the holiday moves to the April/May time in the southern hemisphere, which is when their winter begins.

We may no longer be in an agriculturally predominant society but in the eyes of pagans who honor the Earth, it is still fitting to use this seasonal marker as a designated time to reflect on the "harvest" of the year so far and reflect on our lives.  Have we been living the way we should or want to? Have we been allowing any unnecessary negativity to block good things that we deserve or need?  Now is the time to address these things.

Rightly so, I had baked delicious pumpkin bars for the fall season and taken them to my mom's office in the morning.  After dropping those off (which were very well received by her colleages) I set off to do my civic duty and vote in the presidential election.  Unfortunately, the benefits of early voting were not so much as I had anticipated and I still had to wait over two hours to complete the task. It still felt good to vote and be done before the eminent chaos of November 6th.  Although, I did end up missing my office hours at the college and subsequently completion of the work I intended to do there.  Oh well, sometimes we have to sacrifice for the greater good.  After some reflecting in honor of this time of harvest, I decided it was still a great day.