Drying herbs, making tinctures, and offering sacrifices. Just a typical Sunday afternoon.

The celebration of this year’s Beltane.

What you’re seeing is the setup that my little circle did, with the centre bowl completely as offerings for the Horned God. We dedicated each candle to a different God representing each direction. We handmade the incense ourselves while in the circle.

After ritual, the offerings were left left in the cleft of a tree’s trunk.

Bottom photo: the symbolism of the Great Rite by the God and Goddess Personified of our circle. The Triple Goddess symbol and the God symbol were painted on the right hands of the conduits with body paint and smeared together.

I hope you enjoyed your Beltane/Samhain!

Blessed Be
)O(

 All these photos are property of TheLivingWiccan. Do not remove source, do not use pictures without permission.

Today I was pondering harvesting my large aloe plant for ritual, but wasn’t sure if the plant was ready. I took my hand to see, and an entire lance fell off into my hand. Knowing this was a gift, I set about a thank-you ritual.

This ritual was to bless the aloe vera lance to be used in further ritual, should I ever need a protection satchet, a love potion, a protection potion, whathaveyou. It was to bless the aloe, and to thank the God for blessing it.
So what you see in the above picture is parts of my God altar set outside in the garden. There are two antlers, (recycled and respected) a red candle, and a burning bowl full of sage. All fire safety precautions were taken to ensure I didn’t set my creeping moss on fire.

Some of you might notice the cornbread! It’s an offering to the God as payment for the gift of the aloe and the further use of it. Some of you might also notice the extended God symbol I’ve drawn onto it in blood. (Being an avid student of medicine, all safety measures were taken there as well)

I’ve always seen the God as slightly more “sacrifice-y” than the Goddess, you might say.

I left the aloe out until the sun set. I laid down in the grass next to it, even though it was a little brisk out. I meditated until I knew the God would send me a sign. So finally I opened my eyes to see the moon overhead, ready to take over my watch. I went back indoors to warm my bare feet and relish the fact that I had once again communicated with my God and Goddess, with the Earth, and with myself.

All in all, a pretty sucessful ritual.

(Do NOT remove source)

** EDIT: 02/23/12: One more day until the contest officially closes! **

Surprise!

A lot of people ask me things like “Where can I get an altar cloth?” or “Where can I buy/how can I make my own incense?” Right now you have an opportunity to get both! I am giving away 10 gift packages!

Each package contains:

• 1 altar cloth (of varying colours and styles), measuring 2 feet by 2 feet
• 1 bag of homemade incense
• 1 special surprise gift to put on your new altar! (should you so choose to)
• a handwritten note from me explaining the significance of the ingredients, colours, and gifts used. :)

Each gift package is different - each altar cloth is different, and each bag of incense is unique, and homemade by me, TheLivingWiccan. The incense is handmade using a mortar and pestle, and ingredients I either harvested from my personal gardens, around the world (such as the Italian wild roses some of you might be getting!), or harvested directly from personal rituals of mine (such as Sumach from Samhain or Balsam Fir from Yule).

The Rules:

1. You must reblog to enter. Likes will not count.
2. You can reblog as many times as you’d like, but it won’t change your chances of winning.
3. You must be a follower of TheLivingWiccan to enter.
4. You must be a resident of North America. (sorry, but postage is hard to determine and expensive. I will be doing other giveaways in the future, and I will definitely open it up then)

Other Notes:

Winners will be selected through random.org to ensure maximum fairness. I will post the names of the winners, but also private message you if you win should you miss the post. I will take any allergies into account when selecting which incenses to give for the winners.

****The Giveaway will be open until February 24th at 11:59 EST — exactly one month from the original post****

Blessed Be, and Best of Luck!

)O(

TheLivingWiccan
 

** EDIT: 02/23/12: One more day until the contest officially closes! **

Surprise!

A lot of people ask me things like “Where can I get an altar cloth?” or “Where can I buy/how can I make my own incense?” Right now you have an opportunity to get both! I am giving away 10 gift packages!

Each package contains:

• 1 altar cloth (of varying colours and styles), measuring 2 feet by 2 feet
• 1 bag of homemade incense
• 1 special surprise gift to put on your new altar! (should you so choose to)
• a handwritten note from me explaining the significance of the ingredients, colours, and gifts used. :)

Each gift package is different - each altar cloth is different, and each bag of incense is unique, and homemade by me, TheLivingWiccan. The incense is handmade using a mortar and pestle, and ingredients I either harvested from my personal gardens, around the world (such as the Italian wild roses some of you might be getting!), or harvested directly from personal rituals of mine (such as Sumach from Samhain or Balsam Fir from Yule).

The Rules:

1. You must reblog to enter. Likes will not count.
2. You can reblog as many times as you’d like, but it won’t change your chances of winning.
3. You must be a follower of TheLivingWiccan to enter.
4. You must be a resident of North America. (sorry, but postage is hard to determine and expensive. I will be doing other giveaways in the future, and I will definitely open it up then)

Other Notes:

Winners will be selected through random.org to ensure maximum fairness. I will post the names of the winners, but also private message you if you win should you miss the post. I will take any allergies into account when selecting which incenses to give for the winners.

****The Giveaway will be open until February 24th at 11:59 EST — exactly one month from the original post****

Blessed Be, and Best of Luck!

)O(

TheLivingWiccan

Surprise!

A lot of people ask me things like “Where can I get an altar cloth?” or “Where can I buy/how can I make my own incense?” Right now you have an opportunity to get both! I am giving away 10 gift packages!

Each package contains:

• 1 altar cloth (of varying colours and styles), measuring 2 feet by 2 feet
• 1 bag of homemade incense
• 1 special surprise gift to put on your new altar! (should you so choose to)
• a handwritten note from me explaining the significance of the ingredients, colours, and gifts used. :)

Each gift package is different - each altar cloth is different, and each bag of incense is unique, and homemade by me, TheLivingWiccan. The incense is handmade using a mortar and pestle, and ingredients I either harvested from my personal gardens, around the world (such as the Italian wild roses some of you might be getting!), or harvested directly from personal rituals of mine (such as Sumach from Samhain or Balsam Fir from Yule).

The Rules:

1. You must reblog to enter. Likes will not count.
2. You can reblog as many times as you’d like, but it won’t change your chances of winning.
3. You must be a follower of TheLivingWiccan to enter.
4. You must be a resident of North America. (sorry, but postage is hard to determine and expensive. I will be doing other giveaways in the future, and I will definitely open it up then)

Other Notes:

Winners will be selected through random.org to ensure maximum fairness. I will post the names of the winners, but also private message you if you win should you miss the post. I will take any allergies into account when selecting which incenses to give for the winners.

****The Giveaway will be open until February 24th at 11:59 EST — exactly one month from this post****

Blessed Be, and Best of Luck!

)O(

TheLivingWiccan

Surprise!

A lot of people  ask me things like “Where can I get an altar cloth?” or “Where can I buy/how can I make my own incense?” Right now you have an opportunity to get both! I am giving away 10 gift packages!

Each package contains:

• 1 altar cloth (of varying colours and styles), measuring 2 feet by 2 feet
• 1 bag of homemade incense
• 1 special surprise gift to put on your new altar! (should you so choose to)
• a handwritten note from me explaining the significance of the ingredients, colours, and gifts used. :)

Each gift package is different - each altar cloth is different, and each bag of incense is unique, and homemade by me, TheLivingWiccan. The incense is handmade using a mortar and pestle, and ingredients I either harvested from my personal gardens, around the world (such as the Italian wild roses some of you might be getting!), or harvested directly from personal rituals of mine (such as Sumach from Samhain or Balsam Fir from Yule).

The Rules:

1. You must reblog to enter. Likes will not count.
2. You can reblog as many times as you’d like, but it won’t change your chances of winning.
3. You must be a follower of TheLivingWiccan to enter.
4. You must be a resident of North America. (sorry, but postage is hard to determine and expensive. I will be doing other giveaways in the future, and I will definitely open it up then)

Other Notes:

Winners will be selected through random.org to ensure maximum fairness. I will post the names of the winners, but also private message you if you win should you miss the post. I will take any allergies into account when selecting which incenses to give for the winners.

****The Giveaway will be open until February 24th at 11:59 EST — exactly one month from this post****

Blessed Be, and Best of Luck!

)O(

TheLivingWiccan

So, I have to say something about this photo.

I’m all for Pagan Pride, really I am. It’s great that people have so much love for their practices. But there are things about this photo that just make me…. really uncomfortable.

For example, something as simple as “The Age of Innocence is over”. This has so many negative connotations. What does that make this new coming age, then? The age of Blame? Corruption? Evil? All direct antonyms of Innocence. And what “enemy” supposedly must we battle with? Battle? Really? What ever happened to peaceful talking? And nonviolent resistance? Don’t even get me started on the “or die trying” bit. This whole picture just looks like an over-dramatic take on a whole religion, inspired by TV shows and fiction novels. That’s not the message I want to be sending to people who are interested in my practices.

I’m all for Pagan Pride. But let’s make sure we can have some pride in our actions, as well.

A photo like this may be beautiful to some (and even to me, it’s beautiful. The colours are striking), but it only sends negative messages to those who know little or nothing of our practices.

Maybe a more positive photo should be uploaded. One that celebrates the open-mindedness of our people, and the ability to adapt, as we have before, to the changing times. To a time where all religions are recognized and loved, and don’t have to “battle the enemy or die trying”.

Blessed Be!
)O(