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To begin this comforting ritual, anoint a yellow candle with calming and uplifting bergamot oil, then light it to bring mental clarity. Place a yellow rose in a vase to the left of the candle. To the right, place a bowl containing at least two citrine or quartz crystals.

Next, you will need saffron water, which is made quite easily by simmering a single teaspoon of saffron from your cupboard in two quarts of distilled water. Let the saffron water cool to room temperature and pour it into the bowl of crystals. Put your hands together in prayer and dip them in the bowl. Touch your third eye in the center of your forehead, anointing yourself with the saffron water. Now, speak aloud:

Life changes us as we go through it, day by day and year by year. Sometimes those changes fall under the umbrella of Big Official Life Changes that we already have rituals for in the modern western world: graduation, marriage, funerals.

But sometimes those changes don't have common, expected ceremonies associated with them. I've filled in some of those gaps in the pages of Ariadne's Thread, providing rites for coming of age, welcoming a new child into the family, blessing a new home, and more.

My next-door neighbor stands in his front yard, garden hose in hand.

Welcome to the Long, Hot Summer of '23. We haven't seen Drop One of rain in weeks.

“Fifty percent chance of rain tonight,” I say over the fence.

He casts his eyes up to the sky: Here's hoping.

“Maybe we need to start thinking about killing the black goat,” I say: my standard in-group joke during rainless times like this.

(Black for dark rain-clouds. Thunder likes goats, they say. A bull, of course, would be even better, but these days, who can afford one?)

“Any chance they'd take squirrel instead?” he asks. Drought notwithstanding, it's been a bumper year for mast; there are even more squirrels frisking around than usual, which in this neighborhood is saying something.

“Not a chance,” I say. “It has to be something you value.”

He shakes his head. Damn gods. “Well, here's hoping,” he says.

“Here's hoping,” I say, and move along.

Sandalwood has been used for thousands of years in India. The woody, sweet smell clears your mind and reconnects you to the earth. This simple spell can actually be used every day as a prayer, or to prepare for meditation.

To begin, light a stick of sandalwood incense and “smudge” the area with the soothing smoke. Anoint a brown candle with sandalwood oil and light it.

Is Alexander the Great Actually Buried in Wisconsin?

In the dream, I'm attending a pagan festival, the main claim to fame of which is that the body of Alexander the Great—yes, that Alexander the Great—is buried on grounds.

Now, the ultimate fate of the sôma, body, of Alexander the Great, Talisman of Alexandria, remains one of history's enduring mysteries.

Said festival being held in Wisconsin, then, this strikes me—even in dream-logic—as unlikely in the extreme, to say the very least.

How he got there, the stories don't tell. A likely enough scenario readily presents itself, though: late Antiquity, the rising power of the Church, hostile to a rival Savior, an epic journey westward of the faithful across the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, and thence (presumably) up the Mississippi: fodder for a C-grade popular novel, one might think, with scenes switching back-and-forth between the ancient world, and an incredulous archaeological present.

Recently, it occurred to me that when I speak with the gods, and they speak back to me, they are using my brain to communicate with me, so they use whatever they find in my brain. I speak to them in my native language, English, and they speak back in English. Or, they might speak in symbols with which I am familiar, and therefore may understand. They speak in the sounds, sights, and smells that have meaning for me. For example, I might see an animal I associate with a specific god, such as a butterfly for Sigyn. The gods don't really need to communicate with signs, since I have time set aside every day for communication with them. But they send them sometimes anyway, because it brings me joy, awe, and wonder.

Daily ritual anchors the gods in my life each day. There are rituals meant to be unique and only done once and there are rituals meant to be the same every time, and both have value. My small daily rituals are meant to be similar to each other every time. 

James Battersby and Christine Aguiar from TarotCollectibles.com have just released their latest deck The Spring Waite Tarot! Replete with bunnies, butterflies, and rainbows, this re-imagining of the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot adds color, whimsy and themes of rebirth to this iconic deck.

Watch my unboxing below: