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!

Giving Stones back to the Earth

I have about five or six stones in a plastic baggie with crystals. These crystals, I have no idea what they are, and they feel more like regular rocks you find on the ground than any sort of special crystla. Long story short: I don't really like them.

So, I want to get rid of them, and I don't want to just toss them. I'm thinking about giving them back to the Earth.
I have a couple of ideas.

One, I go out when I have time, maybe after class tomorrow, and just toss them either in the small forest near my house, or by the small pond by the house. The pros would be they would be out of my room and I could get it done right away. I would smudge the stones and then take them outside and toss them wherever I chose. The cons, however, would be that when the snow melts, though the small stones will probably be carried away, a few of the larger ones would then rest atop the earth.

The second option is that I can wait until spring and bury the stones in the muddy grass. This would really "give" the stones back to the earth, but it would be messy and I would have to wait until all our snow was gone, which would be April.

I'm up for suggestions, ideas, or just voting on which idea you think would work. I keep staring at this bag of stones and all I can think of is getting rid of it.

Agate

There are lots of different types of agate, so today I want to give you a general overveiw of the stone. These properties apply to all types of agate
Agate quenches thirst and protects from fevers. Ancient Persian magicians used agate to divert storms, so if you are planning a big trip and it's all dependent on weather, try using some agate. I could have used this last winter for a storm that nearly left us stranded here, instead of going to a big arts show. Lisey will know what I'm talking about.

Altar, Part Two

Another Pagan Blog Prompt!

What does your altar look like?
What kinds of items do you include, and why?
What does each item symbolize, or what purpose does it serve?

I got this print of the Aztec god Tonatiuh at the Mexican pavilion in Walt Disney World. I got it framed, so I could keep it out.
Beside this is a postcard size print of Quetzalcoatl, a deity who I’ve recently become very attached to.
Though I’m not Aztec in tradition, I found the prints too pretty to pass up, and they were inexpensive and easy to pack...as they were flat. I’m actually really happy I got the Quetzalcoatl print especially, considering he has recently made contact with me. You can read about that in my dream journal.

Okay, next is my stone collection and my deity candles.

My deity candles are my candles that I have dedicated to certain gods. I burn these the most.
The tall green and black striped one is my Thoth candle, the red one is Quetzalcoatl’s, the blue is Ptah and the white is Bast.
I don’t really know why I keep these out, I just kind of started doing it, and I found I liked the arrangement.

These are my miscellaneous stones.
Back row, right to left: Peacock ore, moonstone, dark sunstone, jade
Middle row: Hematite, Smokey quartz, clear quartz
Front row: Howlite, green apatite, snowflake obsidian

These are my two carved wands: Smokey quartz and mookite

My large-ish stones
Back row: Lapis Lazuli, petrified wood
Front row: Sodalite, zebra agate

This is my ammonite

Possibly my pride and joy: my rather large obsidian crystal ball.

My rose quartz, which is “my” stone.

These are the stones of Leiko, my little flower faerie. She likes purple. The stone in the front left hand side is amethyst, and the other three are just dyed that I found in Disney.

Finally, this is a piece of malachite I purchased for Quetzalcoatl. This is the same colour and pattern the god had when he revealed himself to me.

I keep all my stones together on my altar because I play with them when I’m working, and I like having them nearby. I really like using stones every day, so having them nearby and being able to touch them, they will really absorb my own energy so that when the day comes when I really have to use them, I don’t have to really worry about having to recharge my stones.

Well, that’s my altar. It’s a little strange, like me, but it changes almost daily, even just by brushing along the stones.