Patreon Exclusive Content

I started a Patreon account several months ago to become a patron of a witchy content poster. I started but got no feedback, so I have decided to revamp for the new year and start adding more content for various tiers of users. Before I had.. 6 or 7??? tiers and, really, I had it kind of complicated. The new set up has 3 tiers and makes it simpler for myself and my patrons.

I am using the paid rewards tiers to save to visit my, now 2 year old, grandson (♥ my heart ♥, ♥ my life ♥) who had lived with me since birth but moved 17 hours away in the spring of 2017. This past year away from him has been agonizing. Every pledge helps get me closer to him.

There will be free content but it will be very similar to what will be posted here. Here is what paid content will get you 

Click here to become a Maiden patron for $1/mth.

Click here to become a Mother patron for $5/mth.

Click here to become a Mother patron for $5/mth.

To help me out the most for both the blog and Patreon I would appreciate everyone answering the poll, here.

PLUS, every new patron get’s a free tarot reading! 

Sincerely thank you from the bottom of my heart for the time you have given me this year. I have about 3 months left in my year and a day, and I feel so very blessed.

Wheel of the Year: Yule ~Recipes

Merry Meet!

I’ve discovered that I don’t have that many traditional Yule recipes. I have several family recipes that we do for the Christmas gathering, but none specific to Yule. This year we are starting that tradition with a Yule Log cake with a caramel apple pie filling and white chocolate ganache frosting. I spent several days gathering my favorite frosting and filling recipes for you in case you want to try a Yule Cake with some other flavors!

Here are my recipes for:

Hot Buttered Spirits

Hot Buttered Rum (or Whiskey, Brandy, etc) is a soothing and very warming drink after a cold day outside or a long day in the kitchen.. or just to enjoy whenever! Be sure that your water is not boiling, but at a hot tea steeping temperature. Too hot and it’ll ruin the taste of the spices! Feel free to alternate spices or amounts to taste.

Cake Fillings

These filling cane be used for any cakes, but also go great in rolled cakes, like a traditional Yule Log cake. Just a few of my faves! My apple pie and chocolate fudge are/can be made vegan/dairy free and you can SEE THIS POST for a Vegan Filling & Frosting Recipe! Scroll on for more recipes!

Yule Log Cake

Our family Yule log cake, 2019

One of the most recognized Yule traditions, by both pagan and non-pagans, is the yule log. While a Yule log will also show up on our Rituals & Traditions post, I have to include it as a recipe as well!

Cake Frostings

In my opinion, frostings should be versatile and yummy! Here’s a few of my faves!

Vegan Whipped Frosting & Filling

I have a lot to adapt for in my own life having a wheat allergy, so I understand what it’s like to have special dietary restrictions, following a blog. My sister in law, who follows all my blogs, has dairy issues, so I try to have dairy free options and substitutes as well. So, Sis, this one’s for you 

Be sure to start this one a day ahead of time, as it works best of the coconut cream has chilled overnight.

Wheel of the Year: Yule ~ The Altar

Yule is when we celebrate the return of the sun, the lengthening of days again. These are things we should reflect in our altars, as well as remembering old traditions, such as the Yule log.

Symbolism

Wheel of the Year: Yule ~ Correspondences

Yule 2018 will begin on Friday, December 21 and ends on Tuesday, January 1. It will peak
Friday, December 21, at 5:23 pm EST in the northern hemisphere. (Yes, you read that correctly, 12 days. See my post here for an explanation…kinda. Yuletide also corresponds with many Old Norse traditions, including the 12 days)

Spell of Protection from Hurricanes

As Hurricane Florence approaches the east coast, for the first time i find myself turning toward my craft to ask protection for myself, my family, pets, and home, as well as the friends and community I have grown to love here in North Carolina.

If you are able, I've asked my sister in Colorado to participate in this protection spell with me, and I would appreciate your blessings as well, not for only myself, but for everyone in Florence's path.
For this, I'm going to go with timing doesn't matter. If we're turning it on randomly from all over, the abundant request certainly cannot hurt.

Wheel of the Year: Mabon ~ Rituals and Spells

Mabon is the second of our three harvest festivals. It is a reminder to “reap what we sow,” both literally and figuratively, our own crops and intentions.Night and day stand equal in length; make it a time to express gratitude for your blessings, and ask for their prosperity, complete projects, and honor a moment of balance.

Wheel of the Year: Mabon ~ The Altar

Mabon is when we celebrate the second part of harvest. It is a day equal of night and day. It is about a balance of light and dark. These are things we should reflect in our altars.

Symbolism

The Soapbox of an Eclectic Witch

I don't get up on a soapbox often. I'm short, you think I'd feel the need to reach up here occasionally, but I just let you do you and me do me and leave the soapboxes for others. But as a pagan coming out of the broom closet to not only family and friends but to the world via social media... I need a soapbox for this one.

Cultural appropriation - Oxford Reference A term used to describe the taking over of creative or artistic forms, themes, or practices by one cultural group from another. It is in general used to describe Western appropriations of non‐Western or non‐white forms, and carries connotations of exploitation and dominance.
www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095652789

I've seen so many religions and races of every fiber yelping about this one. I've seen Pagan, Christian, Muslim, Asian, Native American, white, black, green, slightly ecru, and mutts yelling about it. I've been accused of it, and recently I read a blog with a 13 year old newly beginning pagan who wanted to do something she believed would keep a dark entity away from her little brother, but she was afraid to because she thought it wouldn't work because it was appropriated... and hence ~ my soapbox.

Nothing in the world is original. Christianity, Buddaism, Paganism, Mythology, Spirituality, and every other indigenous religious movement has spread from the equator to the prime meridian and back again. Each culture has something that builds on another, changes it up, and makes it their own. Anyone remember Poeseidon & Neptune? Atremis & Diana? Aphrodite & Venus? Eros & Cupid & Saint Valentine? Heracles & Hercules? Selene & Luna? Who was wrong? The Greeks or the Romans? Neither, Because they did it their own way. God, Allah, Yahweh, El Shaddai, Jehovah... No one is appropriating because they use a different name or if they share. It just is.

And it's not just religion!

I can't line dance, I cant two-step, I can't waltz.. but I can shake my ass! Oops, I'm white? Am I appropriating? I'm a white (pasty) southern coonass from Louisiana. Does that mean I am required to be Southern Baptist and only cook Cajun food? Yeah, I can rock some gumbo and make a killer etouffee, but I make a mean tortilla soup and a decent stir fry too! A pretty awesome Puerto Rican kid I know taught me how to make pappas rellenas (and I'm probably butchering that spelling.. Sorry, O'Malley!) and I taught her how to make a gumbo. It wasn't appropriated by either of us. IT WAS SHARED in love of both cultures with a loved one to spread the knowledge and love of food!! OH! And a sweet Lumbee I know got a lumpia recipe from her Filipino uncle to share with me, and I'm pretty damned good at that too!

That said, if I want to smoke cleanse my house and use the word smudging, I will. I'm not appropriating it. How? you say.. because I can. You don't know my history. You don't know the years I spent learning within a Lakota Sioux tribe who taught me to smudge and never once told me it was smoke cleansing because I'm white. I can have a totem animal, not just because I think they're awesome (I do, and they are!), but because I earned one, but you didn't know that either. And I shouldn't have to explain myself to anyone! You should just mind your own.

So don't tell me I'm appropriating. I'm practicing my personal beliefs and I'll call it whatever I damned well please. Don't belittle someone who wants to make her family safe and tell her she's wrong for cleansing her home, just because she called it smudging because it's all she knew. She wasn't "..carrying connotations of exploitation and dominance". I'm glad she went ahead and did it. Did it help? I don't know. But I know that in anything we do in our life, INTENT is what matters.

I don't care what you're cleansing with, who you're praying to, or what you carry around to feel better. Smoke, smudge, Fabuloso, Lysol, God, Wakan Tanka, Zeus, Selene, Allah, grimoires, bibles, Korans, crystals, feathers, sticks, stones, jellybeans, or a fifth of Jack... whatever.

You do you.

Let me do me.

Let them do them.

And mind your own fracking business unless you're directly attacked.

Pagan or not, THE WORLD needs these words.

These Eight words the Rede fulfill:
"An Ye Harm None, Do What Ye Will"

Wheel of the Year: Mabon ~ Recipes

Fall harvest! Is there a better time for baking and hearty comfort food cooking? With correspondences such as apples, cinnamon, and nutmeg my grams apple pie comes to mind immediately, but there is SO much more!

Thought Co. is one of my go to sights for a wide range of ideas. The Mabon Cooking  post from Thought Co. includes links to: crockpot apple butter, herb butter blends , and there are more recipes there too!

A note on herb butters: if you want it to remain spreadable, whip olive oil or another light oil of your choosing into it AND diary free diets can use margarine or other substitutes in the same quantities to create the mixtures.

Amazon Associates

I've recently teamed up with Amazon Associates Affiliate program. All this means is that if you click on a link and order from it I may receive a small commission. I try to only link items I have used and trust, but since things sell out, etc it may be the closest thing to what I've got. I always look for the best price and value, because life is expensive enough.

There are apparently certain legalities so I don't get my hands slapped SO...

Mabon Recipes: Gram's Apple Pie

Can I start by saying I LOVE THIS PIE! Grams wasn't heavy on traditional spices or sweet apples and it makes this my favorite. She used fresh ginger which is also harvested in the fall, so another win for fall harvest! Yes, ginger. It's amazing. Just go to the market, break yourself off a 1-2" knuckle and make it. I swear it's worth it!

Gram's Apple Pie, Thanksgiving 2017

A few tips on prep:

Making Compound Butters

Whether you buy a nice hearty bread from the deli or you make it yourself, you can easily make several flavorful butters for any pallate. You can make butter from scratch, buy store butter, Amish butter, Irish butter... OR USE margarine if you can't have dairy and then add in your own fun.

Wheel of the Year: Mabon Correspondences

Mabon 2018 will begin on Friday, September 21 and ends on Saturday, September 29. It will peak Saturday, September 22, at 9:54 pm EST in the northern hemisphere. (Yes, you read that correctly, 8 days. See my post here for an explanation...kinda.)

Mabon is considered a "Witchs' Thanksgiving" because it's our fall harvest celebration.

Wheel of the Year: The Deal with Sabbats

Four of our Sabbats (Yule, Ostara, Litha, and Mabon) astrological events - solstices and equinoxes, and change peak dates year to year within a few days.

Mabon (Fall equinox) and Yule (Winter Solstice) however last approximately a week if you just search for the specific dates. I haven't determined exactly why.. (I'm researching), but I like to think that this is because our ancestors took the end of harvest and the cycling of death and rebirth throughout those sessions seriously.

But, regardless, we don't have to be exactly rigid in our celebration dates. Do you think that if our ancestors missed a solstice that the crops went unplanted? unharvested? That winter stopped? Not at all, and there is no point in wasting that energy because you missed one specific day!!

There is, if course, a peak moment of Sabbats..a strongest point, if you will, if you need that energy for specific work, but Sabbats last long enough for thought, ritual, afterthought, and contemplation. The good news is that this gives us ample time to hold our festivities (use or spare a spoon or two, if necessary) and still bless each one well as we usher it in.

The other four Sabbats (Imbolc, Beltane, Lammas/Lughnasadh, and Samhain) are approximately halfway marks between each equinox or solstice and technically last approximately a 24 hour period the same dates each year. Their peaks are generally said to peak at midnight or high noon, depending on the event

During my posts about Sabbats, I'll give you the date spreads as well as peak times. Remember: solstices and equinoxes can vary slightly year to year and hemisphere to hemisphere. My information is for the northern hemisphere, US Eastern Standard Time. A quick Google search will give you your best peak times.

However, as witchcraft is about intent, use these days as you see fit, and hold rituals as you will. Intent is your only boundary, and blessings and offerings are always appreciated.

Until next time,

New Blog Series

Starting this week, I'm starting a new Wheel of the Year series. Each week (hopefully) I'll post thoughts, ideas, recipes, rituals, history, and folklore leading up to the next Sabbat, starting with September's Mabon. I hope you join me!

Blessed Lammas & Lughnasadh!

L&L Blessings to all! How did you spend your Sabbat?

I unfortunately had a migraine all day so we had a simple pasta dish and the little one and I spoke about what Lammas was. We plan on making our Lammas bread man on the weekend and maybe a barley soup...something we can toss in the crock pot while we go to the local museums.

I'll post again when we've completed our celebrations.

Witchy Affirmations

Sometimes witchy friends post things that I really need to see/hear...

Wheel of the Year: Beltane 2020 Dinner

I forgot pictures but Kaelyn and I picked a little of each of our herbs from the garden today, started rising our herbed oatmeal bread lit Triple Goddess & Goddess incense, and chopped up all the veggies in the house that needed to be used... which were mostly leafy and green, and threw it all in the crockpot in herby layers with some chicken. We're calling it God & Goddess Green Chicken.

Goddess green chicken

• 2 lb Chicken
• 3 med red potatoes
• parsnips
• 1/4 napa cabbage
• 1/4 green cabbage
• 1/4 lb Brussel sprouts
• 4 of cloves of garlic
• sage
• sweet basil
• Greek basil
• curry
  
• English time
• lemon thyme
• parsley
• cilantro (VERY LITTLE)
• 4 cups chicken broth

Cook 3-4 hours on high and shred chicken.

Beltane

 

Beltane has recently come to pass in my part of the world; welcoming spring and the fae; blessing worldly and inner growth.

Write about your celebration (or intent you celebrate if you are having to postpone for any reason). Remember you don’t have yo be spot on time for these things..INTENT is what congress the most. If you are in the opposite hemisphere or just starting the prompts, let us know about your most recent or upcoming sabbat!

My Beltane

I am waiting the weekend to celebrate to make honey cakes and fairy cake with my daughter to leave offerings to the fae. I’ll also be starting on my witch’s cingulum as well to mark a year’s sabbats. (Update: Our cingulums didn’t get started until Litha! lol!)

My Year and a Day (updated 7/21/2022)

Has anyone else done "a year and a day"?

I'm doing it as a re-dedication for myself, not a coven (because I don't have one) but I started this post last March when to keep myself accountable. I originally started with a book but I quickly learned that I knew enough to get bored with traditional "start from the beginning" year and a day things. So I made sure to do something daily to learn and share. My way.. because YOU DO YOU! and I'LL DO ME! 

• Moon 1 of 13 ~ 3/31/2018
• Reading, studying, learning (books & online)
• Opened up to husband about needing to follow the path again

The Road to Becoming the Wide Open Witch

Rededicating Myself
13 Moons - A Year and a Day
Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.

                                                                               — Izaak Walton

(Please click the links at the top of the page for my blog posts & other content.)

I barely remember a time in my life when I didn’t follow the path in some way. I’ve always felt much more comfortable out in nature talking to animals, enjoying the trees… in the kitchen learning the