Jeudi: Weather-Wise

Winter weather is often absent from the tales of old wives aside from when it comes early or stays late.  This is probably because our agrarian ancestors didn’t pay too much attention to it aside from when some disaster like a leaky roof or animal epidemic struck.  Winter was down time; farmers got in their crop, slaughtered the designated animals and hunkered down well before the month we now call December.  Medieval era Europe is one of the most indicative cultures as far as this is concerned.  The Illuminated Hours of the Duke of Berry, for instance, show fairly comfortable peasants doing no more than chopping wood and warming themselves by their fire on a winter day.  No wonder the Christmas holiday lasted twelve days.

There were a few notable signs that seem to hold true in both hemispheres and particularly closer to the poles.  The Northern Lights were thought to be a sure sign of windy snow storms in the offing and the Southern Lights are also considered a storm warning.  This is probably a fairly accurate assessment as the clear, crisp winter days that allow viewing of the Borealis are often followed quickly by clouds and storm.

Another sure sign of storm from late fall to early spring is the bunching up of large, domestic animals at pasture.  Horses and cows were turned out almost daily, regardless of weather, and seeing them stand together with their breath making foggy clouds around them was often an indication that it was time to bring them back to the barn.  Native Americans on the Great Plains had a similar weather indicator but in their case, the animals were bison.  

A final winter storm warning was said to be falling stars or, in particular, meteor showers.  This probably speaks to the same sort of weather patterns as the beliefs about the Borealis.  If the sky is clear enough to see falling stars, it naturally follows that sooner or later it will cloud up again.

Header: February from Les Tres Riches Heures de le Duc de Berry

Mercredi: The Art of Giving

I've talked a lot about oils at HQ over the last year.  There are myriad magickal oils used in all disciplines but hoodoo is especially fond of oils for dressing things like mojo bags, talismans and so on.  Oils are a lot easier to make than most people might think but the process is time consuming.  Making magickal oil as a gift for the upcoming season would most likely be right out, but planning ahead for occasions in the coming year is certainly possible.  Then too, at least for me, the cold, dark months are the most conducive to the kind of concentration required for an ongoing magickal working.

First, you need to decide on what herb or herbs you’d like to use.  Dried herbs are really the only choice for making magickal oils and, although purists will tell you that any herb used in magick should be grown, plucked and dried with your own hand, I use the stuff right off the grocery store shelf.  For me, it is not just a matter of convenience but the reality of where I live.  Many herbs grow nicely here in the sub-Arctic but many more will not even sprout without greenhouse conditions.  My black thumb makes that impossible so it’s off to the market I go.  If I can find fresh herbs, I will dry them myself but I won’t stress over it.  Intention counts for a whole lot more than what time of day and with what silver athame you plucked those stalks or leaves.

Next, it’s time to pick an oil.  The very best medium for magickal oils, to my mind, is almond oil.  If you are making oils for food preparation, corn oil works best.  Olive oil is also nice but it is really not good for use in magickal oils as it can go rancid within a year or so. 

You’ll also need some good apple cider vinegar, glass jars with tight lids to hold your oil and herbs, a fine strainer or cheesecloth for removing the herbs from your oil, and a warm, dry place for your oil to steep.

Place about two ounces of dried herbs in a mortal and pestle and really grind them down, as close to a powder as you can.  A cup or bowl and the back of a spoon will serve the same purpose.  Put the crushed herbs in a glass jar and then pour about eight ounces of oil and a very generous tablespoon of vinegar over them.  Seal the lid of your jar and shake gently before putting the whole thing up in a pantry or other warm, dark spot to set up.  Some people set their jar in sunlight but I find that this tends to degrade the oil too quickly.

Two weeks later, strain the oil into a new jar to which another two ounces of herbs have been added.  You can top this off with a bit more oil if you like and then start the whole process again.  Continue in this endeavor every two weeks until the smell of the herbs you are using is pleasingly clear to your nose.  The longer the oil sits, the more the herbal mixture will develop and the more intention and concentration you will be able to infuse it with.

After the oil is strained for the last time (three to four rounds of the process is usually enough), decant it into a nice bottle with a tight sealing lid.  You can mark it for use with a tag or sticker if you like, after which it is ready to give as a gift or go into your magickal cabinet for your own use.  A votre santé ~

Header: Madonna del Vittoria by Andrea Montegna c 1496

Mardi: Herbal-Wise

Holly is one of the two herbs representative of the Christian celebration of Christmas.  The other, of course, is ivy which is the feminine to holly’s masculine.  This tradition actually came to Europe from the Roman festival of Saturnalia and was grafted onto the Druid and Scandinavian reverence for the prickly bush we now call holly.

In just about all magicks, holly is used for protection.  Both Druids and Wiccans advise planting holly bushes near a home to protect it from dark magick, the evil eye and demon infestation.  Scott Cunningham writes of an old tradition that recommends tossing holly leaves at wild animals to encourage them to leave your property or your presence.  Personally, living in a place where truly threatening creatures like brown bears are frequently too close for comfort, I’ll bring a gun along as well.

Druidic tradition says that newborns should be sprinkled with water infused with holly to protect them as they grow.  Men should carry a holly leaf as a pocket piece for good luck; in contrast, women should carry ivy.  If a girl plucks nine holly leaves at midnight on a Friday, wraps them in a white cloth tied with nine knots and tucks this under her pillow, she will dream of her future husband.  This only works if the entire ritual is done in silence; the magick is particularly potent on or near the Winter Solstice (December 22^nd this year).

In hoodoo, holly carries the same tradition of protection.  The leaves are burned to protect and cleanse the home.  Holly branches are also hung above the front door to encourage luck and draw helpful spirits to the place.  Bonne chance ~

Header: The Spirit of Christmas by Spencer Baird Nichols c 1910

Lundi: Recipes

Last Monday I posted some recipes for warm drinks from our local paper’s quarterly magazine 61 Degrees North.  Mulled cider and hot chocolate are great, but if you’re looking for something with a little grown up kick, I’ve got two more recipes from the same article that might just hit the spot.  Particularly if it’s as cold where you are as it is here in Anchorage, AK.

Hot Toddy

1 ounce whiskey or bourbon (the recipe recommends “Alaska’s own Outlaw Whiskey")

1 tbsp honey

1 cup hot water

Squeeze of lemon

Pour honey and liquor into the bottom of a mug.  Fill with hot water and finish with a squeeze of lemon.  You can add tea, if you like, to turn this into a nice pick me up if you’re feeling under the weather.

Chair 5 Coffee

Directly from the article:

If you’re in Girdwood, stop by Chair 5 for this hot treat: coffee with Kahlua, Baileys Irish Cream, Tuaco, cognac and crème de menthe with a tall cup of whipped cream drizzled with crème de menthe.  Yum.

Yum pretty much says it all.

Header: Chair 5 in Girdwood, Alaska via tripadvisor.com

Dimanche: Swimming

Catalina Swimwear ad circa 1950 (note the gentleman has a matching coverup) via Midcentury

Vendredi: Shapes in the Leaves

Circles, triangles, squares and lines; geometric shapes are some of the easiest to spot when beginning to read tea leaves.  I’ve seen at least two every time I’ve tried.  Getting the hang of what exactly they are trying to say is another business entirely.

The basic shapes, according to Lyons, amount to only seven but the number of combinations is endless.  Here are the seven major geometric shapes and their meanings in tea leaf reading:

Circle: this shape is sometimes said to represent a ring and is therefore thought to be a sign of impending marriage.  It can also represent closure, wholeness or even pregnancy depending on the other patterns surrounding it.

Cross: a cross can be thought of in the same light as “crossed conditions”.  It foretells a stalled venture, unsuccessful enterprise, hostility from others or illness.

Dots: dots are thought to indicate money and are interpreted as adding a financial element to any other shape/pattern they are near or – in particular – surround.

Line: interpreting a line as a path or road seems to be the prevailing notion in tasseography.  The path may be windy, broken, or split off into two possible options.  The interpretation can be elaborated on depending on what pattern(s) touch or cross the line, or seem to wait at the end of it.

Polygon: though rectangles/squares and triangles have their own meanings in tasseography, other polygons like hexagons and octagons are generally lumped into this category.  They represent right action and/or a balanced nature.

Rectangle or square: confinement or restriction are indicated; in unusual circumstances these shapes can foreshadow a prison sentence.  Sometimes the rectangle is interpreted as a coffin, indicating the death of someone known to the petitioner.

Triangle: triangles are read as either facing up or down.  If their high point is facing the rim of the cup, then the petitioner should stay his or her course; their current plans will succeed.  If, on the other hand, the point faces the bottom of the cup, no amount of hard work will bring the petitioner’s endeavor to a successful end.

And there we have the basic geometric shapes and their general interpretations in tasseography.  Next week: animals and other living creatures.  Vendredi heureux ~

Header: The Reading the Tea Leaves by William Hogarth via wikigallery

Jeudi: Great Spirits

According to the now familiar story, a Nahuatl native named Juan Diego was walking the fourteen mile path home from mass at the cathedral in what was then Tenochtitlan and is today Mexico City.  The day was December 9, 1531 and as Diego, who some have claimed was a local shaman, rounded the hill of Tepeyac he came upon a vision of a beautiful woman wearing white and blue and “shining like the sun.”  She was dark haired and eyed, and her skin was as brown as that of the flabbergasted Diego.  To him, she appeared nothing like the statues of the Holy Virgin at the cathedral.

To Diego’s amazement, that is exactly who the woman claimed to be.  She told him, in his own language, that she was Mary, the Virgin Mother of Christ, and instructed him to convey her message to the Bishop of Tenochtitlan.  A church in her honor should be built on the site where she now stood; on the little hill known as Tepeyac.  With this, the beautiful lady disappeared leaving the shaman trembling and dizzy.

What Juan Diego must have thought as he trekked home that day is unknown to us but the fact that some researchers indicated his connection to the pre-Hispanic religion of the Nahua people should give us pause.  The hill at Tepeyac had long been the sacred ground of their mother goddess, Tlakatelilis who was known to the Aztecs as Tonan. 

Tonan bears some curious similarities to the Mayan goddess of women, Ix Chel.  Both were thought to descend from heaven and were prayed to by all women and mothers in particular.  The story goes that Tonan’s son claimed to be the mightiest of all the gods.  Tonan responded that the truly mighty were far more than just strong; if her son was the mightiest of all he would produce milk and feed the infant gods.  Of course, he could not meet his mother’s challenge and his claim to superiority came to an end.

The Aztec goddess was worshiped at the Winter Solstice, very near to the time when Diego’s vision first appeared.  At these ceremonies, a young woman would chosen the year before would represent the goddess.  She would dance through the city in a white dress of seashells and feathers while singing the praises of the benevolent earth.  When the procession reached the temple, the girl would be sacrificed to ensure the fertility of the land and the people.  To this day the Nahua of Mexico celebrate the Festival of Tlakatelilis over three days ending on December 24^th with music, dancing and offerings of flower garlands made to statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

It took several more visions of the beautiful lady before Juan Diego finally approached the bishop.  He was of course rebuffed, written off as an ignorant Indian babbling for no reason.  But the lady had other ideas; she marked Diego’s tilma, a robe made from cactus cloth, with her image and gave him a bouquet of glorious roses – out of season no less – to take to the bishop.  The miracle achieved its purpose and the bishop was convinced.

Today the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe stands near Tepeyac hill and Diego’s robe hangs in the sanctuary surrounded by silver and gold leaf.  Miracles are still attributed to Guadalupe who shares a common bond with other Virgin Mary figures such as Our Lady of Fatima and our Lady of Lourdes – both of whom also have pre-Christian connections.  Not surprisingly, Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patron saint of Mexico and of Mexican people dispersed around the globe.

While no true believer would see anything but a Christian miracle in this story, the debate continues as to Juan Diego, his vision and his true intentions.  Some authorities say there was no Juan Diego and that his story was fabricated to increase the faith of the local indigenous people.  Others claim that Diego did indeed have a vision but of his own goddess, which he then cleverly tweaked to dupe the Catholic Church into building a shrine to Tonan all unbeknownst to them.  The debate over the authenticity of the famous tilma also continues; you can read more about that here. 

If nothing else, the story illustrates how the religion of a conqueror will happily absorb that of the conquered in order to further its own ends.  Just as the Celtic sun god Lugh became Mercury under Roman rule, so the ancient Tonan/ Tlakatelilis has become Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Header: The tilma of Juan Diego enshrined in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Mexico City, Mexico; photo by Bill Bell via ontheroadin.com