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My well cost me almost $10,000. I haven't paid a water bill since moving out to the country. After 10 years, I'm probably almos
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Some of those solutions only work if you live in the country with no nearby neighbors :-) However, things like using low-flow toi
Everyday Witchcraft: Simple Steps for Magical Living
Fun, simple, and easy ways to integrate your spiritual beliefs as a Pagan with your everyday life.
Deborah Blake
Deborah Blake is the author of Everyday Witch Book of Rituals (Llewellyn 2012), Witchcraft on a Shoestring (Llewellyn, 2010) as well as The Everyday Witch A to Z Spellbook (2010) and several other books. She lives in a 100-year-old farmhouse in upstate New York with five cats who supervise all her activities, both magickal and mundane.
Most folks know February 2nd as Groundhog Day, when a furry critter is hauled out of a hole to predict the length of time remaining until spring, based on whether or not he sees his shadow. Of course, for us witchy types, the 2nd is Imbolc,a quarter-cross holiday (midway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox) that celebrates the first stirring of life under the quiescent earth. Along the way, the day also transmuted into the Christian Candlemas.
What do all these holidays have in common? They are focused on that small light in the midst of the winter darkness. For many of us, winter means cold and dark. Think how much more impact that had on our ancestors, whose only light came from candles, lanterns, and the flames of their fires. By the beginning of February, the food they'd fought hard to preserve for the lean winter months was probably starting to run low, and it may have seemed as though spring would never come.
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I'm doing this, in a way, with my next two ski trips as I've hit a plateau. I'm putting raidho on one ski and wunjo on the other t
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What a great idea! Let me know how it goes!
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I woke up this morning thinking I need to step up my divination education, and found this post with my morning coffee. I have a s
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Excellent! Let me know how it goes :-)
It's always a good idea to start the new year out right. I like to have my house reasonably clean, but this year I took that a step further and dismantled, cleaned, and rearranged all three of my altars.
Needless to say, not everyone has three altars (or even one--if you don't have one, this might be a nice time to create one as a spiritual center to your home). But if you have even one, it is a good idea to periodically clear and cleanse it--nobody likes a dusty altar--and check in to see if it is still what you need in its current incarnation.
...There’s an old saying: A new broom sweeps clean. This refers not only to the fact that brooms wear out (especially the old style besoms made of twigs), but also that it is a good idea to replace your brooms every once in a while, since they get worn out energetically as well. Folk lore tells us that you should never move an old broom to a new house, lest you carry old troubles from one place to another. So it makes a certain amount of sense that even if you don’t get a new place, you might want to consider periodically getting a new broom. [Hint: Samhain is a great time of year to get a new broom, since it is the start of the new year...]
Recently, I got three.
I think it is natural to feel a little more vulnerable as winter approaches. The nights grow longer and the days colder, and some echo in the back of our ancestral brainstem tells us that soon food with be scarce and predators will prowl. (Which explains why I suddenly want to eat lots of fattening comfort foods. Thank you SO much, hindbrain.
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