44 Days of Witchery :: #1
I've wanted to do this one for
a while but never seem to get it together. Maybe this will help keep
this blog alive even though I'm the only one who reads it!
What’s your witchy background?
I grew up sort-of Christian, but always believed in magic and
fairies. I used to put milk out by the raspberry canes at night, and
play under the canopy of wild grapevines and lilac bushes. I had an
oak tree that was my special friend (my only “imaginary friend”),
and when the library cut it down, I was heartbroken. I especially
loved ghosts, cemeteries and ghost stories, loved to scare myself
shit-less in the middle of the night! It wasn't until I hit puberty
that I began to sense the ghosts. But that's a tale for another time.
When I was thirteen I read—get ready for it—Mists of Avalon.
Next I read The White Raven by Diana L. Paxson. “All gods are One
God, All Goddesses are One” was something I could live with. It
helped me from talking back in church if I would just repeat this to
myself when the rhetoric (esp about keeping women quiet and
submissive) became too hard to stomach.
The only other book that made a big impression on me was The King Must Die
by Mary Renault. It's about being chosen by a god, and it's about Fate.
It's also about Theseus and the Labyrinth--if you get a chance, you
should read it because it's amazingly good.
I went to college, where I
befriended some Wiccans. Only one is still practicing that I know of,
and I only know because she's still a good friend of mine. For me, it's been almost four years(half the time I've been in
Alaska!). Now that I think about it, it began when we moved into a
house at the crossroads. We are in the western quadrant. To
the east is an unmarked lane with three cabins on it, to the north
and south meanders the dirt road, twisting and turning through the
birch, willow and black spruce.
I was pregnant. I was feeling like an earth goddess mama. I read
Margot Adler and Merlin Stone. I reread The King Must Die. After
reading some Wiccan 101 books, I finally felt comfortable enough to
practice—whew! All those ritual tools! All the ceremonial magic
stuff! It's enough to make your head spin! I never did a formal
dedication to the gods, I decided I'd rather skip right ahead to
being a magician (but setting up everything...waiting for the right
planets/right time...couldn't do skyclad because of bugs...the
annoying rule of three...totally exhausting. No wonder so many people
give it up!).
Anyway—long story short, I felt like something was missing. I
stopped practicing. I did some research, I had a dream about the old
gods of Russia. The Lord of the Underworld, the Bone Mother, Moist
Mother Earth and the firebird were there. K. told me that he was amused
and pleased that I had been looking for them--he called me by my secret
name. He also said that I was "allowed" to call upon other gods (for the
record, I'm not Russian, I'm Slavic/Polish and English). Well...that
was pretty decent of him, considering. The others did not speak. The
Bone Mother's face was in shadow, and I only felt the MME's presence.
After the dream, I wrote it down, but still did not practice (I had been
invoking MME prior to this).
Instead, I concentrated on the land. How it felt when the
seasons changed. I have some pictures of “the way the light feels”,
but you can't really sense it from a picture. There's a point when
you just “know” that the season has turned. It's seven days past
the equinox as I write this, but the domino has yet to fall. When it
happens, it happens, and I can't explain it. I can't explain how the
light feels falling through the spruce. It's breathless,
expectant, waiting.
Then I read a book about
traditional witchcraft...yup. That night, I dreamed about the
crossroads. To dream of the crossroads means “you will make an
important decision that will affect the rest of your life”.
“Certainly it is clear that the crossroads and its related
symbolism had been considered as a place where mysterious beings can
be met, and where life and death, microcosm and macrocosm merge into
one another. ” (“The Enchanted Crossroads” to read the article,
go to: http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/crossroad.htm
)
Where am I now? I've stepped upon a new path, twisting and
turning, meandering through the shadows and the light. Where am I
going? I don't know yet, I'll know when I get there. The lesson is in
the journey, not the destination.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Thursday, March 15, 2012
coincidence? I think not.
Is it coincidence or not when things line up like this? You tell me.
Last year around this time, three things happened: my children got very ill with whooping cough. A (now ex-friend) tried to set me up with someone while I was still in a relationship with my current partner. This person repeatedly FB messaged/stalked me and just gave me the creeps in general. I cut ties with those "friends" and repaired my relationship with my partner.
Yesterday: creepy guy messaged me on FB *and* my eldest son has come down with whooping cough. I am very, very pissed off right now. You don't mess with my kids. I'm not waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Last year around this time, three things happened: my children got very ill with whooping cough. A (now ex-friend) tried to set me up with someone while I was still in a relationship with my current partner. This person repeatedly FB messaged/stalked me and just gave me the creeps in general. I cut ties with those "friends" and repaired my relationship with my partner.
Yesterday: creepy guy messaged me on FB *and* my eldest son has come down with whooping cough. I am very, very pissed off right now. You don't mess with my kids. I'm not waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Eneke Beneke, Let Me Live
This is inspired by a recent
discussion in one of the forums I belong to, about “the darker side
of fairy tales”. Here's my contribution (albeit a bit short/shallow
in some places, as I did not have the energy to go as deeply into it
as I could have...still, I haven't critically thought about fairy tales, at least not by writing it out, for almost 8 yrs, so good enough I say!).
This story always interested me. It's
from "The Lambkin and The Little Fish." (Grimm's
Fairytales, #141)
"The children ... played
at counting out.
"Eneke Beneke, let me live,And I to thee my bird will give.
The little bird, it straw shall seek,
The straw I'll give to the cow to eat.
The pretty cow shall give me milk,
The milk I'll to the baker take.
The baker he shall bake a cake,
The cake I'll give unto the cat.
The cat shall catch some mice for that,
The mice I'll hang up in the smoke,
And then you'll see the snow."
They stood in a circle while they played this.... As they were running about so merrily the step-mother watched them from the window, and grew angry. And as she understood arts of witchcraft she bewitched them both."
What were they saying in the rhyme that upset her so much?
Let's deconstruct it from the beginning. The children are playing a counting-out rhyme (remember most children's rhymes often reference darker things—recall Ring Around the Rosie). They're playing by running around the pond, so maybe the pond is symbolic of a door to the Otherworld?
Eneke Beneke—who or what is Eneke Beneke? I couldn't find much, just that “Beneke” is a common German last name.
Eneke Beneke, let me live—a plea to a powerful spirit to spare your life.
And I to thee my bird will give—a sacrifice. Birds symbolize freedom, so maybe the soul or free will.
The little bird, it straw shall seek
The straw I'll give to the cow to eat.
The pretty cow shall give me milk,
The milk I'll to the baker take.
The baker he shall bake a cake,
The cake I'll give unto the cat.
The milk, the cake, etc are food for the familiar, which is the cat.
The cat shall catch some mice for that,
The cat catches the mice, which are thoughtforms or whatever the witch wanted from the other realms, perhaps shapeshifters, or small souls.
The mice I'll hang up in the smoke,The smoke is from the incense, I presume, or the smoke used to “feed” the spirit (Eneke Beneke).
And then you'll see the snow."
This is an interesting line, especially how “snow” was emphasized. It makes me think of Frau Holle, who was an Underworld goddess. When she shook out her goose down blankets, it snowed. So is Eneke Beneke another name for Frau Holle? Or is Frau Holle on the side of the rhymer?
EDITED TO ADD (3-15-12): The "snow" refers to the ashes from a flesh sacrifice.
Curious and curiouser, the step-mother bewitches the children for singing the rhyme. Was she afraid? Was she the one they were bewitching? She certainly took her revenge fast enough—she turned them into a little lambkin and a fish! But you'll have to read the rest of the story to find out about that!
What do you think?
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