The Lucky Dragon

新年快樂

Happy New Year!

And happy new moon.

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year. And last night was a new moon. So tonight we celebrated.

We had eleven in our circle tonight. We honored the Goddess Fortuna and we made good luck bags.

Fortuna is the Latin goddess of luck and fate. In her honor we made these bags to carry for luck.

Each bag contains…

Ivy- Representative of the element of Earth and the color Green

Earth= health, wealth, prosperity, employment and fertility

Green= love, fertility, abundance, money, prosperity, luck, resurrection, rebirth, jealousy, teaching, learning, changing attitudes, environmental issues and peace.

Cinnamon- Cinnamon can be used to make charms to draw love, happiness, and money.

Cloves- Cloves bring good luck and prosperity. Cloves keep good friends close and stops malicious gossip.

All Spice- Allspice can be added to sachets to aid in attracting money and/or luck.

Clear Quartz- Clear quartz is a stone of manifestation. Hold the crystal with intent and focus. The crystal will remember and permeate any environment it is placed.

Whole Nutmeg- A whole nutmeg seed can be carried to bring luck during all games of chance from cards to Bingo to roulette. Nutmeg can also be carried as a charm to encourage a favorable decision in court cases and success in other legal matters. Nutmeg carried will also help to ensure good luck while traveling.

Once that was finished, a new member of our group, who is also my daughter, offered a seeker oath, binding her to learn for at least one year. If she has not committed after that she can part ways with the craft or choose to seek again. It is her choice. No one is forced into the craft. Not even my kid. Besides, she is 17 and does tae kwon do, she could probably take me if I tried to force her. And as a gift, she was given a red journal to use as she sees fit. It has dragons on it.

And since it was Lunar New Year, an Asian celebration, I made beef and broccoli and rice as well as egg drop soup.

Thank you all for coming. May the lady Fortuna follow you where ever you go.

Blessed be.

A New Year's Prayer

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.

My mom had a magnet on her refrigerator that said that when I was a teen. It’s a pretty popular prayer. And I think it holds up to views throughout religion in general. I ask the Gods and Goddess to grant me serenity to accept the things I cannot change. I also ask for the courage to change what I can. But my theory is that people in general have forgotten the last line.

The wisdom to know the difference.

Just because you don’t see how right away doesn’t mean it is unable to be changed. Don’t just give up on it. These days people give up too easily.

Oh, well, nothing I can do. Moving on.

No.

In the words of Captain Jack Sparrow…

The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem.

The Gods and Goddesses have given you a lot of power and trust. You can do more than you think.

Today is the first day of a new year. Happy New Year!

Today I pray for peace and happiness this coming year. May it be filled with blessings, positivity and love.

Don’t just say it. Don’t just think it. Don’t just post a silly meme about it. Go out and do it. Live it. Show it.

Blessed be.

On A Cold Night

Sometimes your best laid plans don’t always pan out. Sometimes what the Gods deliver is better than your plan.

Tonight we honor the full moon. This one is called the Cold Moon or the Long Night’s Moon. Both of those names are apt as for the fact that they happen around the winter solstice and the coldest and darkest time of the year.

Today I went to Disneyland and honored the God and Goddess by spending the time with my family. We walked around and had a great time as always. (FYI… I read somewhere that Walt Disney was Pagan. His family came from Ireland, so perhaps Celtic.) In the park they had booths set up to try holiday foods of other cultures. We tried a curry dish from India, a lamb dish from the Middle East and kugel from the Jewish booth. (The curry was my favorite.)

Since I knew we had planned to go to Disneyland today, I had planned to have an esbat last night by myself.

Planned to.

But then…

Some very nice person made a coconut cake for a friend. And that friend was having a bad day and the cake sure lifted her. Then she called me and asked if I wanted to share in this cake. And I told her since she is sharing her cake with me; I will share my dinner with her. (It was tacos and pozole.)

So instead of an esbat service for one, I held an impromptu, informal service for several. We ate a fabulous meal. I taught a younger witch (13) about runes. She and I did a candle spell together for good luck. She told me about her first deck of tarot cards. She admired things on my alter and I gave her stuff to set up her own at home. (Much like mine and her mother.) I gave her a candle and some incense and an incense holder. I even lent her a book to study and gave her a new blank book to write in.

Before I go on… let me tell you about that blank book.

Earlier this month I received a box of items from a subscription service I subscribe to. Inside the box was this blank book. It has a design on it from the new movie “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them”. (Yes, I am a huge Harry Potter nut.) When I pulled it out of the box, my husband asked me what I was going to do with yet another blank book. I immediately told him I was going to give it to the before mentioned 13 year old. I told him she would need it. For what purpose and when, I did not know, but she would need it.

And she did. Last night. The God and Goddess know what they are doing.

Anyway, she and I read runes and talked. Then we enjoyed an informal communion. We used the coconut cake as it was already a blessing.

After they left, her mother sent me this picture of the alter she went home and set up.

I love it.

See…

I wrote this post for these reasons…

1. Being Pagan is a perfectly normal part of life.
2. The God and Goddess know what is best for us.
3. Magick is everywhere, you just have to look for it.
Blessed be.

Book Review: Teen Witch

Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation by Silver RavenWolf

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


If you go into this book thinking it is for mature adults, you will be disappointed. This book is clearly written for the 11 to 16 age group, depending on their maturity level. Which is fine, because I didn't buy this book for me. I mean really, at my age I would not buy a book for me titled "Teen Witch". I bought it to share with the younger members of my group. But I decided to read it myself first.

I like this book. It was a good way for a kid to get started without providing them too much at once. Yes, it is a little hokey. Yes, it can be a little patronizing. But you know what, at that age and at that level, that is what you need.

It has a bit of a Christian overtone, but the author clearly wrote it for teens who do not come from Pagan families. It is also a little dated. It was written in 1997. So technology has certainly changed since then. Actually, the whole world has changed since then. The author laments that teens who are interested maybe discriminated against. While that certainly may still be true, I believe that it is way less of a problem than maybe in 1997.

I thought it was a good start. I have not read other books by this author, but now I would like to find out what she writes for adults. Should be interesting reads.



View all my reviews

Hail To The Princess

Are you the parent of a small person? Say maybe ages 2 to 8? Okay.

So then you have heard of Princess Elena of Avalor...

For those of you who are not hip on this...

Princess Elena is a Hispanic princess from a cartoon on Disney channel. She is awesome. She even has an abuela who makes tamales.

And I have a 4 year old daughter.

So I am all about Princesses.

So why an I telling you this?

I have a point, I promise.

Today is Dia de los Muertos. The Day of the Dead.

It is a Mexican custom going back to Aztec festivals honoring the dead. It can also be linked to the Catholic observance of All Saints Day. People build alters, sometimes elaborate, to honor their deceased family members. There are all kinds of interesting traditions that go with it, including the decorating of sugar skulls and baking of pan dulce. (A sweet bread or cake) Here in California those things are easy to find as we have a large Hispanic community.

But again, why am I telling you this?

Because Princess Elena's family celebrated Dia de los Muertos.

Therefore, so did my 4 year old.

The idea must not have seemed too far off to her. Make an alter, light some candles, make a cake...

So I say, go ahead.

Behold... Dia de los Muertos alter by one very cute four year old.

The spirit is strong in this little witch.

Blessed be.

The Witching Hour

A Blessed Samhain to all my witches.

Did you just say that SAM HANE? Don’t do it! It is pronounced sah-win, or sow-in or sah-ween.

Hence…

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I hope you all celebrated and had a great night. I know I did.

But before I regale you with tales of my night, let’s talk about, just what is Samhain?

Is it the night you finally get to ride that broomstick?

Nope.

Are zombies coming?

Only if you are playing Plants vs. Zombies. Then yes, Zombies, they are coming.

Samhain is a cross quarter festival on the Wheel of the Year celebrated by Wiccans and Celtic witches as well as some other neo-pagan groups. And super awesome witches like me. It falls approximately half way between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice and is the last harvest festival of the year. Some people call it “The Pagan New Year”. Not for me though. New Year’s Day is still January 1. But it does mark the beginning of winter.

So many of our current Halloween traditions come from these long ago pagan Samhain celebrations; from costumes and going door to door for treats to apple bobbing and carving pumpkins. All can be traced back to Samhain. There is so much I could write on the subject.

This is one of the “Spirit Days” when the veil between this world and the other realm is the thinnest; a time when spirits and fairies cross over and visit. This is a time of remembrance. People visit cemeteries and set up ancestral alters leaving favorite items or other offerings to those who have gone ahead. We share stories of them, maybe even set a place for them at dinner.

Most Samhain celebrations include communal bonfires. They serve to bring together the community. Ages ago, our ancestors would put out all the fires in the villages and relight them from the communal fire to bring unity.

This year we carved pumpkins. We set them on the porch to welcome our ancestors home. I made a nice beef stew and butternut squash ravioli. (I got the stew recipe from a pagan book titled “The Magical Year”.) We set up an alter with seasonal fruits and veggies. We added sage and incense and candles. Also added were items special to those we have lost.

One member of our group was the fire tender and started the fire at sunset and kept it going until the sun came back up. We burned sage and cleansed our souls. We wrote down out affirmations for the year and put them in the fire.

It was a great night.

Until we meet again…

Blessed be.