Christmas Eve 2025 - When the Uno game battled on for two hours and Mistress Ventress decided that we were done! One of my favorite New Year traditions...or perhaps chores...is filling out the new calendar.  2023 was foxes.  2024's calendar theme was deer.  2025 was baby goats.  This year, I was able to get a Witches Calendar--a favorite of mine that I usually go for. This year's chore had me re-evaluating my Sacred Year--my holy days.   Paganism is a very DIY path, and being eclectic, very  DIY.  Lots of trials, errors, adopting, tossing, tweaking, and self evolution.  My spiritual path is very different than it was 10 years ago, 5 years ago, and even a year ago.  Which is good.  We're supposed to heal, question, and change.  We're supposed to evolve.  My Sacred Year has gone through many changes since I was a witchling. Wiccan to eclectic to spirit work to moon heavy to hearth focused to Hellenic to Norse to a mixture of...

June 7, 2025: My spiritual practice has always been eclectic. I've tried to join specific spiritual paths and traditions but I can't just be on one type of pagan or magikal practitioner–rules that I respected and thus left those groups. I have Kindreds from all over the world, and mine have always said to research and study to understand and show respect, but overall, just do what I know. Be authentic. Do what feels right, don't force it. If they don't like what I'm doing, the Kindreds will let me know. I am mostly Kindred guided on my spiritual path. In fact, my eclectic nature is one of the reasons why it took me so long to join ADF. I don't do well with being told how to believe and how to practice by humans–what is and isn't allowed (no shade towards non-toxic healthy groups with their own rules). Spirituality is a personal practice–between you and your Spirit Family and Allies. Yet, I wanted community and was drawn to ADF. I was tired of being...

May 28, 2024: Ancestors I'm not going to lie, this is the fifth time I've tried to write this part and got smacked with writer's block, suddenly unable to remember what heck an Ancestor even was, despite that Ancestral Veneration is a big part of my spiritual path. Perhaps I'll start with the ancestral shrine and see what flows? September 9, 2023 Above is a picture of our family's ancestral shrine. It's a place for us to honor our ancestors of spirit, blood, inspiration, place; animals and humans; past lives and this one. There's also a couple of things for the Psychopomps and Death Gods. Unlike my other altars and shrines, this one doesn't change too much, unless new information is learned about someone, and they're removed (toxic ancestors aren't welcomed here) or someone dies. Within the cabinet you'll find offering dishes and woven bowls made by the kids, various trinkets, gifts, inherited jewelry, real and replica fossils, pendulum...

 May 30, 2025: June 20, 2024 - Summer Solstice I know I attended Three Cranes Grove and a Virtual Fire Proto-Grove's Summer Solstice rituals, but I can't find my notes or photos! However, I also celebrated the First Day of Summer with my family, in ADF-style. For this ritual I honored the Norse Sun Goddess Sunna and the First Day of Summer. There was drumming, dancing, ribbon rings, and fun. We asked for blessings of joy and healing. I dedicated a small throw that I had crocheted to Sunna and in return she blessed it. This blanket was inspired by a quilt that Three Cranes Grove made that's blessed by Brigando every Imbolc. Inspired by them, I crochet myself a queen size blanket to be blessed by my Healers for the Fall and Winter months. Being too big and heavy for spring and summer, I put that one away and now pull out this throw that's blessed with joy and healing energies, too. Sunna was very present and gave us a joy boost, after months of mour...

 June 8, 2025: Working with the spirits is important in seiðr, from magick to prophecy. It's important to be on good terms with the spirits, otherwise they won’t want to work with a person, will they? They are our neighbors, friends, companions, mentors, and protectors. You also want to stay on good terms with those who don't particularly care for humans, too. I try to stay on good terms with our incorporeal neighbors and roommates in different ways. Starting with the next generation. From a young age, we taught our kids about respecting animal life, even the creepy crawlies, like house centipedes and spiders. My husband has a fear of spiders, yet getting him to stop squishing spiders was actually easier than expected, because he understood how important it was to teach our kids the value of life. Not all bugs can go outside, especially when it's too cold for them. We either give bugs the chance to run on their own or we gently move them to a place out of sight and ...

 June 1, 2025 : My Revision Essay Instead of a revision, I tossed the first attempt, and decided to start anew, since I wasn't going to be able to remember the answers to the questions asked, as annoying as that is. I journal almost daily and have a terrible memory. Too much to try to go through to find the answers. I've been studying and practicing a Norse spirit worker/prophetic tradition called Seiðr (sayth-ur) since 2022. It was actually quite easy to transition because it was a lot like my eclectic style of spirit work that I've been doing for about two decades. The only things different were the deities and using a high seat, varðlokkr (spirit songs), and staff to trance with. I've used drumming and rattles, masks and fetishes in my oracular and spirit work, but no special seats or staff. I'm almost always connected or plugged into the Other, of course it didn't come easy to develop. I've always had psychic abilities, too, as many people in my ...

 July 9, 20 24: The Two Powers Meditation is a method to help one ground and center, getting into the right headspace for ritual, spell work, divination, and whatever task requires calm and focus, be it spiritual or mundane. It is a meditation that can help to connect, balance, and anchor a person to the waters of the Underworld and to the fires of the Heavens, while also using the waters and star fire to fill three cauldrons within us to purify, restore, and empower. For many years, I always used the basic tree meditation of roots and branches to ground and anchor myself between earth and sky. I had attempted other guided meditations in-person and online, but I struggled with them, whether it was the delivery, the script, or my ADHD–often the meditations are just too slow for my attention span. Eventually, I'd find a method that worked for me called Anchoring by Kee Reiter. Anchoring is like the Two Powers and other methods. Kee will have you start from you...

 June 7, 20 25: Indo-European Book Review: In Search of the Indo-Europeans by J.P. Mallory When I selected this book, I did so because it sounded interesting. I thought it was going to be more about the people and cultures. Instead, it’s about the language, which I like etymology—I took a class in high school and at college. It’s an interesting subject, learning about the history of words and thus the speakers of those words. I was excited about the book. However, reading the book was a challenge for me. I have dyslexia and really love reading and researching and all that, and this book was difficult. Ironically it was just too wordy—just get to the point. It was almost like the author was being paid by the letter, or had a word count he had to reach, too. Too many long pretentious words when one word would have worked. Boom, to the point. I’m definitely not a fan of the author’s writing style. I know I’m not the best writer—wordy af—but I’m not a professional writer! ...

Jan 28, 2025: The High Days are 8 days on the Wheel of the Year that pagans in general tend to celebrate throughout the year. They are made up of four quarters and four cross quarters. The four quarter days are set on the Solstices and Equinoxes, and the four cross quarter days are set in between them. When exactly they are depends entirely on whether or not you follow the modern solar Gregorian calendar or the more traditional lunar calendars, like our ancient ancestors did. Each High Day celebrates different things, from seasons to entities. Let's take a little look into each of these High Days. Unlike most pagan and druid Wheels of the Year, I start mine with February 1st, instead of November 1st because I follow the Gregorian New Years instead of the various new years of our ancient ancestors. Imbolc - February 1 Imbolc is a time of renewal and is associated with the arrival of spring in Ireland, when the sheep began to calve and produce milk, which was ...