Happy Imbloc!

Today I got up early (for me) and set up my altar. I went shopping and I came home to an AWESOME post by Pagan Culture (aka one of my favorite blogs). I was picked to be Touched by Pagan Culture. The post is here. Read it!


Technical Note: I've noticed my followers widget isn't working. I'm working on it, so keep checking back.

ANYWAY! Onto the fun stuff.

So, this is my altar. Yes, it’s also my desk, which is why there is a lamp. I don’t have much ritual space. In fact, I have the floor and this desk. I would have everything on the floor, but because of my cat, it was better on my desk. As you can see, there are four place settings, I’ll explain them. And yes! Those are Hello Kitty glasses. They are all I had. I got some plain, basic glasses today for ritual use for offerings, along with plain plates.
The altar cloth is a silk scarf with a Western Native (so...British Columbia) image on it. I believe it’s an eagle. I picked it because...I have no idea. My Mayan Square one was too small, so this was my second choice.

This is Quetzalcoatl’s place. He’s my patron God, so I thought it would be nice to put him first. I love them all equally, of course. Anyway, his candle, the red one, felt right, and the blue holder is due to the fact Quetzy’s colour association is traditionally blue. The egg (and stone chunk you can’t really see) are made of malachite, the same colour as Quetzy appeared to me in my dream/vision. He’s got tequila and 70% dark chocolate (which he adores).

This is my welcoming plate to Cama Zotz. Yes, that is a giant Beanie Baby. It was all I could get last minute. His candle is dark purple and fig scented. It smelt dark and forest-y, so I thought of the rainforest. He was the one that asked for this altar, funnily enough. He’s got tequila and 70% dark chocolate.

Moving right along, this is my Egyptian place setting. The three candles are for Thoth, Ptah and Bastet. The stones, which you can’t see, are ones from the bases of each of my four statues, Sobek, Thoth, Anubis and Isis. They have a glass of tequila, and a plate with both milk chocolate Hershey Kisses and some 70% dark chocolate.

My final place setting is for my little flower faerie, Leiko. She is like the traffic controller to my room. She’s small, but she can be deadly if she wants to be. Anyway, the purple agate slab is hers, along with all the purple stones I have, beside the purple candle. Did I mention she liked purple? Anyway, the glass is filled with a pink lemonade cooler called Vex. It’s sweet, and almost like cream soda. She likes sweet things. She has Hershey Kisses. We got her those for Samhain one year, and she loved them. She said they were just the right size.

Presents!
In my shopping adventure, we went to The Weather, and they had a sale! 30% off! It was awesome. So, let me show you what I got. I got some plain clear quartz (not shown).

This is a Smokey quartz ball. Total impulse buy. I did not need it, but damn I wanted it. It’s so pretty, photo’s can’t do it justice.

Obsidian heart for Quetzy. One of Quetzy’s sacred stones is obsidian. I can be a bit of a purist when it comes to which deities have which stones. I follow my intuition at times, like with the malachite, but sometimes I just go with what the book says.

These next three things are for Cama Zotz. He got a slab of obsidian, because he is a God of the night, the underworld, and all manner of darkness. Obsidian is black. See! Connection! The heart is hematite. I was looking through my stones and he wanted a piece of hematite I had. I was like “okay, you can’t have this piece because it’s totally not suited for you, but I’m going out today to get you some.” The hematite I had was okay, but not perfect, and I wanted it to be perfect.
But, the best thing for him was the rose quartz skull I found. See, this is what binds Cama Zotz and me together. The rose quartz is me, my personal stone, and the skull is his, the personification of what he is (being the God of the Underworld and whatnot).


Long post was long, thanks for reading it all!

Leamington Tomato Faeries

Ever heard of Leamington?
...
Yeah, I didn’t think so.

Ever heard of Heinz ketchup?
Aha! See, you do know that one.
Want to know why Heinz is so good?

Well, Leamington is the Tomato capital of Canada, perhaps of the world. Why? Because of the HUGE Heinz factory there. Nearly everyone in the town is connected to that factory. My grandfather was a foreman there, I believe.

On August 1st, during my New Year’s celebration, I was lucky enough to have some of Leamington’s tomato faeries come by. They are around the same height as a “standard” flower faerie, but are usually more pudgy. They dress in very comfortable-looking clothes, and wear big hats they weave from long grasses during the summer. They have very rosy cheeks and are almost always smiling.
During the summer months, they sleep in large tomato fields outside, and some of them will work in the greenhouses during the day. In the colder winter months, they sleep in the Heinz factory, and all of them work in the greenhouses.
They are very proud of their tomato products, and always swell with pride when they see or hear an ad for Heinz.
They enjoy a good party, these faeries. Though my New Year’s celebration wasn’t exactly a loud or large party, they still enjoyed themselves. They got mad at me when I tried to have a 9th Timbit (note: I bought 20).
These faeries love my family. My grandfather worked with the tomatoes, my dad could eat his weight in ketchup and my mom loves the creamy tomato soup Heinz makes. They are proud that there are families like mine who positively adore their products, and their tomatoes.

If you like tomatoes and tomato products, eats Heinz. The Faeries will be so happy. If you ever go to Leamington for anything and want to give the tomato faeries a present, leave chocolate or honey Timbits (or cakes) near a window and call them. They really will be happy. No one really knows they are there, but they are the ones who make Heinz stuff as good as it is.





Yeah, this picture is of the Tomato Family in Leamington. I drive past this every time we go, and every time...my parents say "Let's take a picture of Lea with the tomato family". At that point, I really crank up my MP3 player.