A is for Altars

Yeah, I'm sure everyone is going to be doing altars this week, but every altar is different, no? So let me show you mine. I don't have the best light on this wall, so the camera's flash throws shadows a bit oddly.

I'll have closeups in a moment. So this is the last part of the hallway into the living room; the door to the kitchen is just to the right of the altar. That means I walk past this spot multiple times a day. I like that it's in such a well-traveled spot; it keeps me mindful of it. The necklace hanging on the left side of the altar is a sun, the necklace on the right is a moon. The statue in the middle I found in the same shop that I bought the little statue of Ganesh and the little statue of Shiva. I don't see it as a fertility symbol so much as a sexuality symbol. Here's a close up of it:

 

When I'm not wearing my necklace, it hangs here. It's a trinity knot inside a dragon ouroboros. The statue stands on top the tarot card The Sun, for family, love, and loyalty. Turning to the left side of the altar:

It looks cluttered in this shot, but it's really not. Ganesh is sitting on top of a glass cube with a dragon etched inside; That represents me. I coil my hematite bracelet around the cube when I'm not wearing it, and there's two more pieces of hematite to either side of the cube. I love hematite; it grounds me and makes a lovely worry stone. (Those two pieces occasionally go in my pocket if I know I'm going into a stressful situation.) I usually keep a tarot card or two under the glass cube for various purposes. The crow feather is one of many that I own; Crow is rather dear to my heart. On the left wall of the altar is a stuffed bull - I am a Taurus, after all!

Now the right side of the altar: 

This glass cube has the Marine Corps' Eagle, Globe, and Anchor etched into it; it represents my husband until I can find a Peter Pan statue. Shiva sits next to him; Sascha rather likes destruction for creation's sake. As he's still looking for a job, there's a coin sitting on top of the cube; it happens to be a British pound coin, but it more the monetary symbol of it. (It was also left in our car by a dear friend and not discovered until we were halfway across the country from said friend, so it's a special coin to us.) In front of Sascha's cube is a dragon sheltering a fairy under his arm, a good symbol for us.

The two goblets on either corner hold small lavender candles for serenity. The altar cloth has an aquatic theme; I may be a very earth person, but I have Pisces rising and can be watery in my imagination and emotions. The entire altar is the top shelf of a bookcase (one of many in our house!) but this bookcase holds my pagan/feminist/philosophy/mythology books. 

I'm very happy with my current altar; it's the first time it's really been out in the living space instead of hidden in a bedroom. I like not having it hidden anymore.

Book Review - Celtic Fairy Tales

Celtic Fairy Tales (Dover Children's Classics) - collected by Joseph Jacobs

I really enjoyed this short book of fairy tales. They are told in a conversational, story-telling style, making it a wonderful book for reading to children, or to memorize the tales to tell in some other setting. It includes some well-known stories, such as "Connla and the Fairy Maiden", where Connla rides with the fairies and steals the maiden they wanted to steal, and winds up marrying her; or "Fair, Brown, and Trembling", a celtic take on Cinderella. 


I particularly enjoyed "A Legend of Knockmany", though I've read it before. It's the story of how Oonagh, Fin M'Coul's wife, scared off Cucullin by pretending Fin was his own infant son. (All spellings from the book.) Upon seeing how strong the "baby" was, Cucullin realized the father must be immensely stronger than he himself was, and fled.

There are lesser known stories in the book as well, like "The Shee an Gannon" where a young man must discover what stopped Guragach Gaire from laughing in order to win the hand of the princess. I also enjoyed "Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree", in which a man's first wife is murdered by her mother out of jealousy over her beauty. His second wife revives his first, helps her kill her mother, and the two of them live happily with the husband ever after.

Some of the stories are simply re-tellings of other stories, like "Conall Yellowclaw" where a man disguises himself as a sheep to get out of the cave of a blind cyclops. Just like Odysseus and Polyphemus.

Overall, a very enjoyable book.

Sunday Photo

It snowed here just before Christmas, and though it didn't stick long, I have some really pretty pictures of the woods behind our apartment.

PBP - Andraste's Hare

Well, here we are again! It's a New Year, and a new Pagan Blog Project. So we start back at the beginning of the alphabet with A. Conveniently, the name of this blog starts with A, so I thought I'd explain the meaning.

Andraste is believed to be an ancient celtic warrior goddess and the patron goddess of the Iceni tribe. (The tribe Queen Boudicca hailed from.) Andraste is a warrior goddess, a goddess of victory. She oversees battles and is represented by ravens. There's a very in-depth look at her here.

A few of the more important bits from that blog about her:

"Andraste is a warrior goddess, the goddess of victory, of ravens and of battles, similar in many ways to the Irish war goddess Morrigan. Her name is thought to mean "the invincible one" or "she who has not fallen". It is told that her presence was evoked on the eve of battle to curry favor. As a Goddess of divination, she was probably called upon to divine the outcome of battles and war."

"As Andred, her romanised name is Andraste, she was a lunar mother-goddess figure associated with fertility and love. In her dark aspect however, she was associated principally with warfare and specifically with victory. She is sometimes compared to the goddess Andarte, a deity worshipped by the Vocontii of Gaul."

The hare was believed to be a sacred animal to Andraste; before Boudicca led her troops into battle it's said she released a rabbit and watched where it fled, as an augury.

So Andraste's Hare, to me, is a path to victory. It's the journey. This blog is about exploring my spiritual side and deciding who I am. While Wisdom is what drives me, more than Victory, my condition of victory is finding wisdom, so in a way it works.

The mythos of Andraste and Boudicca and the white rabbit has more than one meaning for me; my Maine Coon cat is named for Boudicca. My beautiful fearless girl. I've often thought of this entire pagan journey as falling through the rabbit hole, or chasing the white rabbit. It's kind of amusing to me how often Andraste and Boudicca and her hare show up in my workings and in my life.

So Andraste's Hare. Finding victory and wisdom in the path of the White Rabbit.

Book Review - The Hollows, by Kim Harrison

Today's review is a little different. I'm about six books into The Hollows series by Kim Harrison. I'd read the first four some years ago, and decided to re-read those and then catch up on the rest of the series. And they are FANTASTIC. They start with Dead Witch Walking. Dead Witch Walking introduces Rachel Morgan, Ivy Tamwood, and Jenks. They all leave the I.S. (think a supernatural FBI/police force) to form an independent investigator firm. Rachel's a witch, Ivy is a living vampire, and Jenks is a pixie.

The books remind me a lot of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, before they devolved into porn. The Hollows has a few romance side plots, but they are definite side plots. They're not the main drive of the books.

So far I've read Dead Witch Walking, The Good, the Bad, and the Undead, Every Which Way But Dead, A Fistful of Charms, For a Few Demons More, and I've just started The Outlaw Demon Wails. The action does not stop in these books!

I thought the take on vampires was especially interesting in this series; there are living vampires and undead vampires; you can be born a vampire or bitten and turned. That makes you a highblood or lowblood living vampire, respectively. Once you die, you come back as an undead vampire without your soul. Through the use of vampire pheromones, the undead and living vampires manipulate those around them. They wind up being a very abusive family, where the undead vampires use and abuse all around them, their only thought being for their own welfare/pleasure, while the living vampires strive to please their undead masters because the pheromones make them think they love them.

I could see it being triggering for someone who'd been abused or lived through a similar situation. The author mentioned in an interview that she intentionally styled them after abusers/abused; where the living vampires struggle with their feelings of love for their abusers while fighting the instinct to pass the abuse on. The relationship between Ivy, Rachel, and Piscary (Ivy's undead master) is a good example of this.

The series continues with White Witch, Black Curse, Black Magic Sanction, Pale Demon, A Perfect Blood, and, on January 22, Ever After.

I'm hoping to be caught up with the series by the time Ever After comes out, and I'm making good progress.

If you're looking for a good supernatural series that ISN'T all about the sex (there's a few sex scenes, but mild ones) then you should take a look at the Hollows series!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2013. I am making a re-commitment to this blog for New Year's, but we're going to do it a little differently. I'm going to keep a couple of my theme days - Friday will still be the Pagan Blog Project, Sundays I will probably still just post a photo. Thursdays I will still be trying to review all of my books. Mondays are already Monday Madness, and pretty random. I've been having trouble finding anything to write about on Tarot Tuesday and Kitchen Witch Wednesday, though. So those will also now be random days. I do need to start posting more recipes, so I'll try to start that, but not only Wednesdays.

So Happy New Year! Did anyone do anything witchy for New Year's Eve? I went to a party with a ton of friends, and met a lot of new friends. The only thing witchy I did was invoke a quick circle and meditate for about five minutes because the noise level was breaking my little introvert heart. I like parties - I like people - but every so often I have to retreat to a corner of the house and get some peace. Luckily, the house was big enough I could do that easily!

I am looking forward to a new year of sharing things here on Andraste's Hare. What are you looking forward to this year?

Monday Madness

I have, perhaps, a startling confession to make.

I don't believe in God.

I believe in gods - small g - but not God. I do not believe there is an omnipresent, omniscient, all-powerful God. My gods are flawed. They do not know everything. They can't do everything. They're not always paying attention. One of my favorite quotes describes WHY I think of my gods like this.

"Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?"
(this has been attributed to Epicurus, but there's a lot of debate over whether that's correct.)

In the wake of the last two shootings - the one in the Oregon mall, my home state! and the one in Connecticut that killed all the children - this seems like a time for this quote. A benevolent, omnipotent, omniscient God COULD NOT have allowed that to happen. I refuse to believe in a God that would.

There's also the conundrum of, if God created us, then he created evil as well and allowed it. I will not believe in such a God.

My gods are small. I view my gods as facets of the same divine force; I see no issue with praying to Brigid with one breath and Kali with the next. I believe in Pantheism - EVERYTHING is part of the divine force. In a sense, praying to Brigid is praying to myself; focusing my energy, my will, through the lens that is Brigid in order to achieve an end. When I say I hear Cerridwen calling, it not that an entity named Cerridwen is trying to get my attention; it is that I feel myself needing to transform away from the hearth and homemaker I've been and into something new.

I do believe there is a divine force. I do believe in magic. This sets me apart from atheism. But the God of monotheism just angers me.

This rambling brought to you by Facebook drama with family. (I'm in green, my mother is in black.)

A walk through the woods

Well, these crows apparently do not welcome my company like the crows back in Oregon did; they left soon after I began my walk, and are returning now, as I type this on the computer and watch them through the patio door. But my walk was enjoyable, nonetheless.

There were several trees with large, woody vines entwined around their trunks. I love seeing that image, even though I know it's not good for the tree.

Caught a crow mid-flight.

The squirrels were not as shy as the crows were; this guy scuttled around beside me for quite some time as I took pictures.

I love the S-curve of the creek through the woods; the way it has cut into the ground and made deep banks looks particularly cool.

One of the banks, held up by tree roots. There is a bit of trash in these woods, unfortunately. I've seen worse, but it's still disappointing.

Found a tiny sprig of holly growing; I was careful to walk around it and let it be. At least I think it's holly, but aren't holly leaves usually glossier? Not sure what else has those saw-tooth edged leaves, though.

Another bank held up by tree roots.

A large downed tree; looks like it came down quite some time ago.

I'm standing with my back to my apartment building here, looking deeper into the woods.

Turning around, I'm now facing my apartment, which you can just barely see through the trees. The woods wrap around the entire apartment complex, we occasionally see deer in the parking lot!

Thought this was an interesting little tree, with the bulby vine wrapped around the branch. At least I think it's a vine; it kind of looked like tree, but I'm not sure why it would have grown like that.

And I have to end this with what drew me out there in the first place today. So many crows!

The Crows are calling

Going for a walk in the woods today, the crows are calling me to come play!

Video taken on the 9th, but they were back yesterday and again today. I'm heeding the call today. I should have Sunday, there were about twice as many crows then as there are now. 

Monday Madness

Yes, I'm aware Monday is the only day I've been posting the last couple of weeks. I've been working almost every day at the retail store lately. (Holiday Shopping, Joy!) There will, however, be a new Pagan Blog Project post this Friday.

That said...I'm writing again. In other places than the blog. You see, in high school I dreamed of being a writer. I loved writing. I wrote short stories, plots for longer stories, poetry...I just wrote. I wrote less and less in college until I finally stopped altogether. I can count on one hand the number of poems I've written in the last ten years.

But...I had a scene worm its way into my head one night, and refuse to leave. Once I wrote it down, two more quickly followed. Now I have a partial plot, an inkling of how magic works in this world, and three main characters. I have a full year before NaNoWriMo rolls around again; I may spend this year building scenes and plots and outlines and characters, and then next NaNoWriMo I may attempt a book.

If you had a species that was kind of a cross between a roc and a dragon - and they bonded telepathically with their riders, like so many dragons do in books - what would you call them?

I'm currently calling them "Companions" but that's also the name of the Heralds' horses in Lackey's Valdemar. So it's mostly a place holder. (It's also a bit of a side plot - the story lies with the people more than the birds.)