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I have been working on crocheting this blanket for nearly 2 years now. It's the project I grab whenever we go on a long car ride (an hour or so at least) just to work on while I'm sitting and riding.

My mom asked me the other day "who's that for?" No one. "Why are you making it?" I really don't know. I like the colors of the yarn - Mandala yarn from Walmart - and I'm only using the slip stitch so there are no "toe holes" that catch your toes and let cold air in. Other than that, this blanket has no meaning.

Pachamama entreats us to
restore her clean waters,
allow the singing of the birds
to bring peace to her skies,
renew cosmic harmonies
on our sacred land.

excerpt © Marcia Starck 2012

When someone sneezes, it's considered polite to respond with a blessing or a wish of good health.

So what do you say when a pagan sneezes?

(No aspect of culture is too obscure to merit careful consideration.)

Well, you could say Bless you or Gesundheit like everyone else, but there's nothing distinctively pagan about either. (How Americans came to use the German word for “health" as a sneeze-blessing is a question well worth the asking, but it's one to which I don't know the answer.)

Wiccans might say Blessed be, although I don't think that I've ever heard this phrase—generally reserved for greetings and farewells—used in this way.

But for my pentacles, the Irish have the right of it.

Last night of my being alone, in a hotel room, away from my family for training.  Tomorrow I will go to work and then leave for home sweet blissful home!

But for now, I'm sitting in front of my laptop, watching Fantastic Beasts <3, drinking some water and enjoying a chocolate bar while dipping it in some almond butter all the while writing to you fine people.

"The winter solstice happens in nature around us.  But it also happens inside of us, in our souls.  It can happen inside of us is summer or winter, spring or fall.   In the dark place of our soul, we carry secret wishes, pains, frustrations, loneliness, fears, regrets, worries.  Darkness is not something to be afraid of.  Sometimes we go to the dark place of our soul, where we can find safety and comfort.  In the dark place in our soul we can find rest and rejuvenation.  In the dark place of our soul we can find balance.  And when we have rested, and been comforted, and restored, we can return from the dark place in our soul to the world of light and new possibilities."

Who bears the responsibility for training Pagan clergy? What happens when a Jewish woman tries to reintroduce the divine feminine into her culture? And how are death and darkness treated in Shinto vs. western Paganism? It's Watery Wednesday, our weekly segment on news and analysis from the Pagan community! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

Sometimes you don't realize the power that energy carries.  I have been teaching my girls about energy, you know, how everything around us has a type of energy attached to it.  It's almost funny watching them as they discover this and the thought process clicks and they realize that there are reasons why they feel the way they do about things around them.

We talk about residual energy and how every person and thing that comes into our house leaves an energetic imprint of some sort.  As well, our emotions leave imprints of energy.  I explained that this is why we need to cleanse the house of energy as well when we vacuum, dust, and clean the house in the normal way that most people think about cleaning houses.  Intention plays a large part in this cleaning.  Most people who do not do energy work can still clear the energy out of their house through simple cleaning, as it is their intention to clean and make their space feel clean, feel fresher, feel better.  They seem to watch, pay attention as things change around them and us.  They are mindful of the people we meet and who come to visit.