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Before Tom's funeral sumbel, when I was arranging various statuary on the porch, I unpacked several boxes of Tom's religious items which I had packed at his house. I couldn't find the blue Freyr statue. A few weeks later there was a slight adjustment to the timeline. Then I found the blue statue, but it was Freya. Definitely had boobs. It also had a thick layer of dust, which I tried to wash off and discovered the blue was paint that just washed right off. I washed it until it turned into this, the design standing out in high relief. Then I thought, "Oh oh, I washed the goddess. The slaves of Nerthus who washed the goddess got drowned in a lake. Please don't drown me in a lake. Or the pool. Or..." To which the goddess replied that she would not drown me and I already survived drowning in the pool. Which was true, but I never thought of it that way. I fell in an aging but relatively able woman and came out an athritic old crone, so, I guess that was my shamanic near-death experience? Hmm. It didn't seem very spiritual and I'm pretty sure all I really experienced was fear. But anyway, here's my new Freya statue. To be handled with gloves on only because that blue stuff still comes off on everything.

See the image on this link because I can't upload pics to my blog right now for an unknown reason:

I haven’t used store-bought cleansers since the year 2004 when a health challenge awakened me to the importance of ridding my environment of any toxins or potentially harmful chemicals. I think it is a very good idea for all of us to consider as our health is precious. I know this made a difference for me and my loved ones. And the smell of a home freshly cleaned with lemons and scentful natural oils feels wonderful. This magical floor wash rids your home of negative and unhealthy energy and will shift things to the positive. The scent alone is enchanted.

Gather the following: 

 “The gods receive no offerings from dirty hands.”

(Hesiod)

So: at Paganicon next month we'll be doing a big, public ritual for the many-named and many-hued Lady of Spring.

Here's the downside: We' ll be doing it in a cowanish and public place, to whit, a hotel.

Here's the resulting problem: Ritual of this sort demands a high state of ritual purity, and public spaces such as hotels are not generally in a ritually clean state.

So what do you do? Obviously we can't expect to maintain the same high degree of ritual cleanliness that one does back home at the temple.

So we do what pagans have always done: we make do.

As the procession bearing the Offerings and the Holy Things proceeds through the hotel to the Place of Offering, it will be preceded—even before the drums—by one bearing the rose water and the leafy spray for sprinkling.

(And surely those who bear the Offerings and the Holy Things will have washed themselves well beforehand, hands and forearms to the elbows.)

As she cleanses, she will cry out in the ancient language of the Tribe of Witches.

I haven’t used store-bought cleansers since the year 2004 when a health challenge awakened me to the importance of ridding my environment of any toxins or potentially harmful chemicals. I think it is a very good idea for all of us to consider as our health is precious. I know this made a difference for me and my loved ones. And the smell of a home freshly cleaned with lemons and scentful natural oils feels wonderful.

Gather the following: