Pagan Cowgirl!

2013-11-06T18:31:00.001-05:00

The Raven King

Not long, not long my father said
Not long shall you be ours
The Raven King knows all too well
Which are the fairest flowers

The priest was all too worldly
Though he prayed and rang his bell
The Raven King three candles lit
The priest said it was well

Her arms were all too feeble
Though she claimed to love me so
The Raven King stretched out his hand
She sighed and let me go

This land is all too shallow
It is painted on the sky
And trembles like the wind-shook rain
When the Raven King goes by

For always and for always
I pray remember me
Upon the moors, beneath the stars
With the King's wild company

From Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

Yes! Yes!

2012-09-11T20:40:00.002-04:00

It is so true:

I love Idaho! At the least, I will eat very, very well indeed. So many different types of taters! And a fabuloso farmers' market. Many photos to come; it's a photogenic state.

Cheers from the Western Wizardess!

Lightin out for the territories

2012-08-25T15:01:00.000-04:00

I'm almost packed. Plans are laid for how the kitty-cats will travel along with me, meowing all the way. I wonder how it's going to go, being a vegan pagan in Idaho?

I aten't dead (again)

2012-08-19T18:05:00.000-04:00

For realsies. But sometimes a little blog break is nice. There is Halloween candy in the stores!

Indeed.

2012-05-02T23:31:00.001-04:00

About to go a-Maying, and a-fae-ing. I wish you joy this Beltane.

Color. Colour.

2012-04-30T00:57:00.000-04:00

Oh yes.

Oh yes, please.

Oh yes, please, with wisteria just everywhere.

Oh yes, please, rainbows with kitties on top.

Beltane Blessings from The Wizardess!

Yep. I do.

2012-04-19T19:18:00.001-04:00

So good

2012-04-02T16:24:00.000-04:00

"The Bowl"

2012-03-29T20:38:00.001-04:00

"There was a woman who left the city, her family, her children, left everything behind to retrieve her soul. She came to the desert after seeing her gaunt face in the mirror, the pallor that comes when everything is going out and nothing is coming in. She had noticed for the first time the furrows under her eyes that had been eroded by tears. She did not know the woman in the mirror. She took off her apron, folded it neatly in the drawer, left a note for her family, and closed the door behind her. She knew that her life and the lives of those she loved depended on it.

The woman returned to the place of her childhood, where she last remembered her true nature. She returned to the intimacy of a small canyon that for years had loomed large in her imagination, and there she set up camp. The walls were as she had recalled them, tall and streaked from rim to floor. The rock appeared as draped fabric as she placed her hand flat against its face. The wall was cold; the sun had not yet reached the wash. She began wading the shallow stream that ran down the center of the canyon and chose not to be encumbered by anything. She shed her clothing, took out her hairpins, and squeezed the last lemon she had over her body. Running her hands over her breasts and throat and behind her neck, the woman shivered over her own bravery. This is how it should be, she thought. She was free and frightened and beautiful.

For days the woman wandered in and out of the slick-rock maze. She drank from springs and ate the purple fruit of prickly pears. Her needs were met simply. Because she could not see herself, she was unaware of the changes--how her skin became taut and tan, the way in which her hair relaxed and curled itself. She even seemed to walk differently as her toes spread and gripped the sand."

That's from Red by Terry Tempest Williams. If you've never read anything of hers, walk, saunter, traipse, jog, trot, run to a library or bookstore and please check her out. I LOVE HER WORK. Would you like to read the rest of "The Bowl"?

All hail Terry Tempest Williams!

At this point in my life...

2012-03-12T01:26:00.001-04:00

this kinda represents me!

Makes me wish I still had young kids...

2012-03-08T21:06:00.000-05:00

And that is truly, truly saying something. More accurately, I wish I had a Mama who would make me wonderfully cute and/or beautiful bento box lunches! Look at this! Look at this!

The Fruit Ninja from the Happy Little Bento Blog. I mean really. Who would not love this as a snack? Okay, that is an egg in the ninja outfit, but if one is handy like this, one could easily sub in some rice or tofu for the filling. Ninja egg with cucumber spear, knife & throwing star.

Here's another that I'm sure took much less time, but is adorable as well...and vegan! My only complaint about Sherimiya, the awesome bento making mom, is that she uses some animal products. But overall, pretty vegan friendly! She has some veggie burger recipes I'm going to try.

Yet another freakishly adorable little lunch. The things you can do with tofu...la la la!

Well okay then

2012-03-06T19:10:00.000-05:00

Yes. I am turning into Yellowdog Granny. There are many worse peoples I could be!

Bloodstone for March

2012-03-03T22:59:00.002-05:00

Who in this world of ours, her eyes

In March first opens, shall be wise.

In days of peril, firm and brave,

And wear a bloodstone to her grave.

If you want to go high-end for your March birthday, there is this Scottish Victorian era brooch: $1255.00 I am really liking the star on this. And I'm happy my birthstone is a nice cheap agate.

Not quite your style? Okay, I'm not a fan of gold either. There is this lovely silver ring: may be more like it at $75.00!

So you, or someone you love, is a March birthday, and you are really, really cheap? Well, then, have some little polished bloodstones: 4 for $1.11. And at least make a little medicine bag to put them in, cheapskate.

Happy March Birthdays from the Wizardess!

The bounty of the Intertubes

2012-02-28T21:48:00.000-05:00

People are just bringing it on home lately:

Well, yes indeed.

Why, yes, I am a water sign...

Gleeful cuteness abounds!

Yes.

2012-02-26T20:18:00.000-05:00

The place to be

2012-02-25T04:07:00.000-05:00

I could be happy with any one of these!

Such great images lately

2012-02-23T19:43:00.000-05:00

Yeah random. But I love them all!
Cheers from The Wizardess

Well, yeah!

2012-02-21T19:14:00.002-05:00

Of course I do, I am the Wizardess.

oh

2012-02-19T21:06:00.001-05:00

Wishes for some wild snow from The Wizardess

Happy Horny Werewolf Day

2012-02-15T04:07:00.001-05:00

I am so sorry I didn't get this posted on or prior to the actual Happy Heart Day! It's just so blessed GOOD:

Found on The Mary Sue. I've got to poke around there more often.

Really Good Valentines Stuff

2012-02-14T00:01:00.000-05:00

For the fantasy lover here are Game of Thrones valentines by Chris Bishop. I understood them all except for the Hi Cutie one. Any G.R.R. Martin types care to enlighten me?

And then there is the Museum of Broken Relationships. Depending on your attitude towards the VDay, this is worth a visit!

Or just reframe the whole damn day as the Feast of Aphrodite, even better.

Valentine's Day = Aphrodite's Feast

2012-02-12T18:17:00.000-05:00

I know that many people hate Valentine's Day. Or at least, some very vocal folks complain about it throughout the internets. But I love it, and take it as a special time to honor Aphrodite. Look at it as a time to honor all kinds of love, not just romantic & sexual. A friend could always use a little heart-shaped card & a bit of chocolate. Aphrodite is also Lady of the Beasts, so take your doggie for TWO walks on 2/14. Get your kitty a feathery toy.

And there is everything good about self-love: Every time you masturbate, the Goddess finds a good home for a little kitten.

So let's open up Heart Day & make it into Aphrodite's Feast! I'm planning a fabulous menu for Tuesday. Let the festivities begin....

Aphrodite

2012-02-08T14:57:00.000-05:00

Coyote at the Kitchen Door: A little snippet

2012-02-01T00:30:00.000-05:00

Stephen DeStefano's Coyote at the Kitchen Door is a good, quick read. (Must admit that I skimmed much of the environmental theory, since it was stuff I already agreed with.) A few more of his stories of encounters with animals as a wildlife biologist would have been enjoyable. He gets up to some good writing here, about my sweet Coyote:

"She has been called "ky-ote" and "ky-o-tee"--coyotl, cayeutes, cojote, and Canis latrans. Some have referred to her as song dog or prairie tenor, burrowing dog, brush wolf, prairie wolf, cased wolf, or barking wolf. A ghost of the plains of a century past, a ghost of our cities in more modern times.

She has been accused of being a varmint, a scourge, a pest, and a weed, and she has been praised as an icon of the American West, elevated to a key role as a top carnivore in the balance of nature, and deified as God's dog.

She is a dedicated mother and an excellent hunter, a long-distance traveler and a tireless scavenger. She is a carnivore and an omnivore and a vegetarian, depending on circumstances and opportunities. She is recognized by her track and scat, her voice and her scent. She is know for her cunning, her slyness, and her ability to survive and persist and move and spread. She has taken up residence in virtually every ecological community and human environment on the continent and has eaten everything humankind and nature have to offer. She is among the most adaptable of species.

She has befriended badgers and mated with dogs and wolves. She is strangely familiar and altogether foreign. She has survived decades of cyanide, strychnine, and 1080; .222s and .308s and 30-aught-6s; steel-jawed traps and wire snare; barbed-wire fences and speeding vehicles; bad press, half-truths, and outright lies.

She has found her way into the stories and songs and poetry and legends of all who have ever shared this land with her. We have used her name and image for our business and sports team logos while we have hung her carcass on our fences and tacked her hide to our sheds. We have worn her fur and put a bounty on her body and shared some of our most memorable evenings with her serenades and songs. We praise her, idolize her, and fear her and hate her, sometimes all in the same breath, and as such she has become an analogy for our relationship with all of nature. We have lived with her for our entire existence in North America, and if we were to lose her altogether, we would forever be missing a piece of what it is to be American.

But there is little chance of that, because she is a coyote and she knows how to get by."
(p. 147)

Oh yeah, that gets at it. The coyote sighted in an Erie, PA cemetery got her own Facebook page. We love seeing Wile E. outsmarted by Road Runner. Our feelings for Madame Coyote are complex, and so they lead to great stories. Come on in to the East Coast, Coyote! Just don't eat my kitty-cats.

Candlemas Treasure

2012-01-31T00:07:00.000-05:00

This is a quiet holiday, but it is one of my favorites. I'm such a solitary!

Imbolc Blessings from The Wizardess!