#secular witchery

[eldritchboop]

Treating the days leading to Thanksgiving as my own private devotional.

Yesterday was rest - purification of the spirit. I had a migraine, which happens to when my stress levels drops abruptly. I release the strain of the last few months and focus on the harvest.

Today is cleaning - purification of the home. I cannot welcome in people to a home filled with the signs of a difficult year. I make it fresh and full for the harvest.

Tomorrow is cooking everything I can in advance. This is the first phase of ritual.

Thursday I set the altar (table), make things that have to be fresh, and welcome in friends and family to celebrate that we’re grateful to be together, grateful for a day of plenty, and that we persist.

Friday starts Advent. That’s a whole ‘nother thing!

[eldritchboop]

I’m just saying, watch your dosage on the prosperity spells or you’ll end up like me, working two jobs you love for 50-60 hours a week, pulling in massive contracts.

The money is good, but I’m so tired I’m falling asleep at 1pm…with cold brew.

[eldritchboop]

Where I Live, October:

Smells Like…woodsmoke. It’s finally cool enough that people are daring to light tiny woodfires. Every so often I catch a whiff of smoke, and at first I jump - October is fire season here - but it’s been so mild that I can relax and enjoy how smoke is a sign of the heat finally breaking and a year ending with a sigh instead of a scream.

Feels Like…contrasts. The mornings are cold and the nights make me shiver and get out the spare blanket. Mist hits my cheeks each morning and I greet the return of the Sea Fog with joy. But by noon, the sun is bright and intense, and it’s time to set aside the cozy sweater and drink cool drinks in the shade.

Sounds Like…yells of hello! By halfway through the semester, the students know us and sometimes I’m walking down the class and hear, “DR BOOP!” and see someone waving from across the building. I wave and smile and tell them I’ll see them in class next. I call them by name now, and the chatter of middle-semester outreach events warms my heart as I send more of them to helpful friends, old and new.

Tastes Like…Apples and spice. My boss visits home every October and brings back interesting apples - black-skinned ones that look like plums and some so sweet that they must be syrup. I start putting cinnamon and nutmeg into my coffee syrup and the drinks switch from cold to cozy warm.

Looks Like…the beginning of the harvest festivals. There are kids in costumes everywhere, spiders in every yard and skeletons taking over the neighborhood. The pumpkin patches come to life - fields of pretty orange globes I can see even from the roadway. Ofrendas pop up in hallways and marigolds are everywhere to honor the departed. (I wait until the end of the month this time so I could better feel the month! Tag by @pagan-stitches)

[eldritchboop]

Where I live, September…

Sounds like students by day and owls by night. The chatter of students after class, in their units on weekends, and their little shrieks of joy is the soundtrack of the month. The owls have begun to duet at night, not just juvenile screams as they ask Mom why she won't bring them dinner any more. Thunder rumbles across the mountains and brings the relief of rain and the patter outside the window.

Tastes like fresh fruit. Pears scrumped from a somewhat haunted orchard that drip with juice down your wrist and taste like the entire summer was bottled in their flesh. End of year strawberries that take the Platonic essence of the fruit - sweet, tart, berry - and condense it into a single perfect bite.

Feels like crisp cool mornings, the edges rimmed in fog and the kiss of mist on the skin. Crisp, chilly nights that belie the warmth of the day and tell you that the burn of summer will finally come to an end. Like the last bits of the garden that struggled through the year but still manage to produce the tiniest harvest despite the sticky honeydew of the aphid infection that devastated the indoor garden.

Looks like golden hour on the way home from work. The feeling that the days are getting shorter and that it's a relief to wake up in the pre-dawn and wind down in the twilight instead of the go-go-go of the summer.

Smells like petrichor. The first rain came this month after a dry summer and year. The smell of earth that can finally relax after the longest year with the least rain. The promise that the storms might just keep rolling through and give us the tiniest relief from drought.

(I waited until the end of the month this time so I could better feel the month! Tag by @pagan-stitches)

[eldritchboop]

I’ve decided that I’m open to the idea of spirit work in some form. I’ve been doing @stagkingswife’s meditations and haven’t really made progress for a while.

I had a quick feeling of a spirit named Stephen who never came back, but few weeks ago, I saw some little light flashes out of the corner of my eye that I couldn’t source to a mundane cause. When I focused on them and addressed them as a spirit, I got a strong vision of a glowing die. I decided to call the spirit Lucky.

This week was a lot. My mom’s partner had an infection that caused hallucinations while she was out of town. I spent part of Sunday comforting him before we knew he was hallucinating the issue. Sometime between then and Tuesday, it got bad, and one of the cats disappeared.

I spent all Tuesday night trying to find the cat while Mom took him to the ER. We checked everywhere in the house, in his house, around the neighborhood, put up signs and called vets and shelters. No sign of her. We were terrified that she had been eaten by a coyote.

Tuesday night, I decided to ask Lucky if they could help. I got an image of the cat with flat, very unhappy ears. I took that as a sign that she was still alive.

Yesterday, still no cat (likely day 3 of being missing). I asked again and got more cat vibes but nothing specific.

Today, they found her. She was in a different house, had hid without food or water for two days, and didn’t respond to Mom or my spouse when they searched for her IN THE HOUSE. She’s a Siamese-mix, I’m shocked she wasn’t raising hell.

Tonight, I offered water and birdseed to the land as a thank you, and put a die in my childhood dice box as a gift to Lucky.

[eldritchboop]

Gonna be honest, it's been rough lately. I cried at work on Tuesday. But then it feels like all my luck reversed with whiplash-inducing intensity!

I went to a memorial last night. It ended up being really lovely, I saw some people I hadn't seen in a decade+, and somehow came home at midnight.

Slept for 8 hours straight anyway.

It rained for the first time in probably six months. I missed the first storm with lightning, but it's rained twice more and I got to go stand in it and thank it for visiting.

I walked into my favorite taco place and the lady gave me a free giant horchata because she accidentally served up too many and couldn't put it back. Horchata is my favorite drink.

I found the series I've been obsessing over (Murderbot) on Humble Bundle and got everything from the author for $18.

Sometimes you just have to stick it out, stir your coffee deosil, and wait for the tides to turn.

[eldritchboop]

Going to watch the sunrise on Beltane.

Not because I want to. But because I’m driving east for three hours to an 8:30 meeting.

[wurwolf]

If anyone is interested I have this side blog, too. It’s mostly tutorials and tips etc.

http://secularwitchery.tumblr.com/