The Lazy Pagan's Guide to Beltane (1 November, Southern Hemisphere)

I'm really crap at remembering when the Sabbats and Esbats are on their way and generally only remember the day before when it's often too late to arrange a proper celebration. It's only because Christmas and Easter are so well promoted with advertisements and the sale of decorations and Easter Eggs months in advance that these holidays are celebrated easily at our house. Unfortunately for a pagan in the Southern Hemisphere, these are mainly celebrated for the kids' sake, but are still fun. I'm working on being better at remembering when Yule and Ostara are due to arrive so my children can enjoy the Pagan holidays as well as the commercialised Christian holidays. What kids wouldn't love to have Christmas and Easter twice a year?

Beltane (also spelled Beltaine) this year was pretty much the same - only remembered it this morning after trying to mental note a few weeks ago that it was coming up. I tried to explain the day to the boys as being about love and marriage to which Mr Nearly 7 replied 'yeah, yeah, blah blah..." Clearly it's not as exciting as that other holiday being celebrated today. Those in the Northern Hemisphere are celebrating Halloween tonight, and many people here are following suit. I know there are some kids in our street trick or treating tonight and we will do our best to accommodate ie fun sized choccy bars at the ready.
As I'm celebrating Beltane in this house, the festival of fertility and the high point of Spring between Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice (although the ceramic jack o'lantern will make an appearance tonight mainly for the kids' sake and will bring it out again in April for Samhain.). Tomorrow the kids have their usual swimming lesson but we might celebrate the day out in the garden, tidying up and getting the vegetable garden going.
I don't really do alters as it's difficult with the kids and dog around so I just went outside and brought in some flowers from one of our blossoming trees.
Tonight for Beltane eve we are having:
Fish and chips from the local. (fish has been long associated with love and sex) Chips just come with it and I'm not complaining!
Lemon Tart which I whipped up this morning. (a yummy dessert to welcome in the upcoming Summer) Lemons are also associated with love, marriage and faithfulness and the eggs in it are associated with fertility.
Might wash it down with a glass of white wine for celebration (come to think of it I celebrate quite often!)
Because I already have 3 children and am not really wanting anymore, I'll be celebrating Beltane for love moreso than personal fertility! It's just going to be a nice time to reflect on my marriage to my lovely husband.
Got to go and draw some scary faces on the kids now and rummage through the costumes.
Happy Beltane Everyone!!!

Moved again

We moved again both physically and bloggerly. Please visit me at http://abroomwithaview.blogspot.com for more Lazy Pagan, beauty, and home and Mum stuff!


See you there!

The Wonderful World of Herbs

Talk about lazy!! I haven’t been on here for months. I will try and make a habit of writing more often.

A fantastic resource is http://www.herbology.com.au which is a site “dedicated to raising herb awareness with an emphasis on reviving old, once common, herb lore to enable readers to make their own basic herbal products and herbal remedies.”

I love going through this site on a regular basis and soaking up the information.

It was created by the lovely Anke whose passion and enthusiasm for herbs is contagious and I feel completely comfortable with her because it sounds as though her gardening ability is a good as mine ie not particularly!

I’m still yet to grow my herb garden (I’ve put aside a plot in the back yard) and get stuck into the recipes but since reading the information my enthusiasm has increased and I love cooking with fresh herbs now rather than always sprinkling dried ones out of the jar.

I also love how Anke has put the moon phases into her site for quick, easy reference. Believe me, I need that too!

Good luck and Bad luck when moving

According to the book, 'The Magical Household' by Scott Cunningham and David Harrington, it is bad luck to take your old broom to the new house as you are in essence bringing your old dirt, but it is good luck to leave some money at the old house for both yourself and the new tenants.

Clearing energy... leaving money... The things I do for these people lol!!!

Looks like I'll be buying a new broom and will only be able to leave about 5 cents once we've paid the movers, carpet cleaner, window cleaner, rent.... not to mention that we are losing our bond to buy new carpet because a certain little two year old of mine had some fun with some blue loo all over the carpet in the master bedroom!

Note to self: Blue loo is not going to be anywhere near the new house and certainly not on the list when we buy our new broom.

Quiet Time

Some days I find the best thing I can do is to just look out the window and take in all the gorgeous things the world has to offer:

Today:
Sun is shining with a slight cooling breeze
Flowers are blooming
Grass is green
Kids are happy and laughing

Sometimes the simplest things are the most rewarding!

How does your garden grow?

I've been spending some time out in the garden these last few days, mainly pulling out two years worth of weeds in two days before we vacate our rental property. I have to admit, I haven't ever been the most enthusiastic gardener, especially when the garden isn't mine. However, today while I was getting stuck into some pretty hard going weeding when it actually dawned on me how enjoyable it was to nurture and help the plants do their own thing, and although you can somewhat control what they do when you look after them, plants don't really belong to anyone even if they live in your garden.

Anyway, I've decided that when I get to the new place, although the garden won't technically be mine as we're still renting, I will do whatever I can to look after the plants that live in it.

Smudged it - but in a good way!

Although admittedly I often have a case of the 'can't be bothereds' when it comes to conducting rituals, one thing I have been diligent about is, when moving house (and we've done this quite a few times) I always do a house cleansing before moving in. We're moving house over the weekend and I will be conducting yet again another house cleanse. This time around I will be using a sage smudge stick which you light up and wander around the house using the smoke to purify the air, thus cleansing it of any negative energy left by the previous tenants.

Other times, in the midst of the packing and moving frenzy, I had not had time to buy a smudge stick (or even the time to smudge as the moving truck was always just coming up the road the minute I put the key in the door) and so, upon entry I would open up the curtains, blinds and windows and visualise the negative energy going out, and the positive energy (cleansed and purified by the sun) coming in.

In this house that we are moving out of, we had a rather tumultuous time. My husband was diagnosed and treated for cancer (he has now been given the all clear) and just the resulting stress (I was pregnant at the time too) caused fights, unsettled kids and lots of 'what ifs', crying and upsets. I will this time be also cleansing this house of all the negative energy left by us. I couldn't imagine allowing the new tenants (who are actually the owners moving back in) to return with all the distressed emotions still hanging in the air. Come to think of it I should have done this every other time we vacated premises too but I do perform a mini cleanse during the literal vacate cleaning - just visualising the energy left by us being rubbed away and disappearing out the open windows)

Anyway, best go and do some more packing and scrubbing (literal and spiritual)before I send out some "I'm running out of time' vibes into the air!