Ganesh!

The Ganesh murti that I won from WoYoPracMo, arrived today! How exciting and how beautiful! I love it! It is carved from wood and sealed. Very detailed and beautiful. I have always had a great interest in Hindu deities, and this has prompted me to learn a little more about Ganesh. My new Ganesh is living happily in the temple.

"Revered as the Remover of Obstacles, Ganesh is one of India’s most beloved Hindu Gods.
Ganesh has been a ubiquitous presence in Indian art, philosophy and ritual for many millennia. Now, interest in Ganesh’s symbolism and meaning have taken root outside of India. Ganesh’s image, with an elephant head and a human body, is easily recognizable to many Westerners. However, few outside of the Hindu religion are familiar with what he represents or the traditions associated with him.
For the world’s one billion Hindus, Ganesh is a powerful and majestic deity, said to bring good fortune when launching new endeavors. He is also considered a patron-deity of the arts and the Lord of beginnings. The iconography and history of Ganesh go far beyond his link with good fortune. The imagery associated with Ganesh offers a spiritual map of sorts, his every feature rich with meaning both practical and esoteric."

To learn more about Ganesh, check out this website.

Crazy Quilt Cloak ~ finally!

I finally got started putting the patch pieces on my crazy quilt cloak!!! I am so excited about starting it. I was hoping to have it done by next month, my 10 year pagan-versary. However, I don't think it will happen, starting so late, the embroidery alone will take many hours. The piecing does go a lot faster than I expected though. Watch for more updates as this project progresses. Yeah!

Below is my adorable Egyptian Mau, Cleopatra snoozing on the porch swing. Such a darling.

(This is the middle of the back)

Beltane Celebration~as promised

Last night my circle had our Beltane celebration. It was wonderful with a potluck feast and much socializing, May pole and Beltane fire dancing.

Ribbons in the wind.

Spiral Goddess bread

Table with fresh flower headbands

The children having their feast

Sophie loves her headband

Getting ready to weave the ribbons

Nearly there

Finished May pole ~ lovely

Our Beltane fire

Our drummer ~ yeah ~ thanks John

Fledgling drummer

Beltane dancing

Dancing around the fire

Little Altars Everywhere

While walking around the house today, because everyone feels too icky to do anything else. I noticed that even without particularly trying I and others in the family, have created little altars of a sort around the house. So along with my favorite corners pictures, I thought I would share some of those with you and tell a little about how and why it helps us to remember the sacred in our daily lives. Enjoy!

To begin with is my bread box on the kitchen counter, on top of which there are usually a variety of things that don't belong. But it always holds my adorable "gnome in the tree candle" from the 70's, that I picked up while thrifting for a buck. I just love it! It makes me so happy. Also there is the tea light holder that David gave me right after we got together that has the word "magic" printed around it, a heart shaped piece of an unidentified seed pod/nutshell, also from David, and a ball of purple beeswax modeling compound, that my youngest son put there out of reach of his sister and it never found a home. These things sitting there together that way remind me that life is made up of little things and they most times mean the most to us.

Goddess shrine update

Here is the next installment in my creation of the goddess shrine out of the little box, that David gave me. I have decided that I will create a portable altar/shrine for use in the death midwifery path that I have been called to. I have glued black velvet inside the box. Around it in the picture are some of the things I have gathered to use within. The photo of Isis/Nephthys is because She is one of the Goddesses who calls to me. I also have an incense cone and censor, a tiny statue of Kuan Yin, who is the Goddess of compassion, of whom a death midwife would have need of, I'm sure. There is a tea light and holder to represent fire, a bell to represent air. There will be a crystal of some sort to represent earth and a vial of water or a shell, for water. I am thinking of using tiny eye hooks to hang the three goddess pendents(Nefertiti, Spiral Goddess, & Venus of Willendorf) from the top of the open box. I think I have a good start and it will all be easily packed into the box and taken anywhere that my calling takes me. So what do you all think so far? Any suggestions?

In case you missed it.....

...in yesterday's last post, my new round bread board, made of European hardwood, I found it on clearnace at the local home center. I am so excited about it. I have coveted a round one for years, the circle being a symbol of the Goddess and life. Life is a circle. We are born, we grow up, and we die. But death is a part of the circle, not a final end. When we die, we are told, our spirit goes to a place where we can rest and grow young again, and be with the Goddess and the old Gods. When we are ready, we are reborn in some new form. The moon, too, is born as a silver crescent, grows to be round and full, and wanes away to darkness only to be born again. The seasons change from warm to cold and back to warm again, or from rainy to dry to rainy. Baby plants grow up as green shoots from the earth, grow tall, blossom, set seed, and die. The seed falls to the earth and goes underground, only to rise again in the spring. The circle of life. The circle is sacred in many cultures. In the book Sacred Woman, Sacred Dance, author Iris Stewart writes, “The circle is perhaps the most ancient of mystical symbols and the most universal of all dances. It is the earth and the sun in eternal movement, an unbroken, unbent line symbolizing continuity and eternity. The circle dance represents wholeness. The dance brings life full circle.”

Sacred Baking

The smell of baking bread blesses every corner of the home, and nothing tastes as good as fresh, home baked bread. Bread and bread making are part of our most ancient rituals. In Athens, people baked round cakes, representing the moon, to honor Artemis. In ancient Assyria and Babylonia, special sacrificial cakes were offered to Ishtar. Bread pans in the shape of Astarte excavated in Israel are evidence that baking was part of ancient sacred ceremonies there as well. Making bread brings us close to a common but profoundly transformational process. We work with the living loaf. We learn quiet secrets as the dough becomes supple under our hands, then grows larger with warmth and time, and is finally served to nourish and delight. Baking bread also gives us the opportunity to create symbols that literally become part of us. We combine simple elements to make the loaf, shape it to reflect what is special about a moment of time, transform it with fire, sacralize it on our altar, bless it in our circle, and then share the bread, joining with the past and teaching those to come. The bread, consecrated on our altars and blessed by the circle, symbolizes the nourishing earth and sanctifies the simple act of sharing food.

(Excerpt from, "Circle Round, Raising Children in Goddess Traditions")

I have always loved baking bread, and I have been doing it since my oldest daughter was a baby. Nearly twenty years now. Wow! I still love it. There is just something about holding the pliable dough and kneading it into something alive and tangible. From such humble ingredients as flour, yeast, sugar and water, I can make something warm and wonderful and nourishing for my family. I have tried a number of recipes over the years and found my current favorite in, of all places, "Laurel's Kitchen" cookbook, the original 1970's edition, found while thrifting last fall. The recipe is so simple and produces the best tasting, whole wheat bread I've ever had. Sophie and I enjoy making bread together now, just as her sisters did when they were young. Mixing the ingredients and rolling out the roll and kneading and punching and forming it into shapes or braiding it, or putting into pans. This evening, Sophie and I made dinner rolls from the recipe and we are going to enjoy them with our dinner tonight and probably with butter and jam at breakfast in the morning.