The Contemporary New England Witch

The Contemporary New England Witch
Author Ms.Faith

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Your Book of Shadows . . . my what?

 Good Evening,

For those who may be taken aback by tonight's discussion title, ( I hear murmurs 'Book of Shadows, of course! I know what a book of Shadows is, hrmph! I'm a witch after all! I mean really!) No offense intended, (gentle laugh) for I design my discussions for the novice learner. I like to look at, then re-examine and then some, the basics of what we do as witches. 

I have left behind, a long while ago, learning exclusively from others. Do Not Get Me Wrong! I still can and do learn from the Magickal Masters (my phrase for such esteemed writers as Raymond Buckland, Janet Farrar & Gavin Bone, Raven Grimassi, Stephanie Taylor-Grimassi, Laurie Cabot and Silver Ravenwolf to name a few of my favorites) And heed my words well. When you have gotten to a place where you no longer learn, and you're all about teaching and telling others the way things are, you've made a misstep, in my opinion.

NEVER stop learning. Yet you will find it a natural progression along this path that as you learn, practice and experience more, then your lessons come from your experience far more often than from others experiences. This is good. But don't think you can no longer learn from others. This speaks of ego and perhaps a touch of .  .  .  o.k. I'll say it .  .  . 'power-tripping'.  Yes, there it is.  I find the older I get, and the centuries fly by my witchlings, trust me! But, the older I get, the more humble I feel in what I have yet to learn, experience and discover.

So for those who do not already know it, a Book of Shadows is a journal of magickal record keeping.  I'll touch on just a few concepts surrounding the Book fo Shadows and as I do, I hope to dispel some misunderstandings or complete and total fabrications concerning this mysterious aspect of witchcraft.

The term Book of Shadows is thought to have its origins in ancient Sandskrit, and an alleged booklet reputed to divining the future by the length of a person's shadow. Gerald Gardner was the first to introduce this concept, a book of magickal writing called a Book of Shadows, so it's origins go back to the 1950's.   Earlier books were called Grimoires, which were also books designed to contain magickal spells, ritual practices and other occult knowledge.

I'm not going to debate its origins because it really matters not. Today, a magickal practitioner can use many forms for a book of shadows.  You can hand write one in a journal or notebook, keep on on your computer to print out pages as needed for use in ritual. A scrapbook concept is also a nice idea. Many practitioners like myself have more than one.You can have a spell Book of Shadows, one for rituals, one for dreams, magickal encounters, Sabbats, esbats, kitchen witchery, potions and incense etc. They are as diverse and as unique as you are. You may like to work with one volume or with multiple volumes.  It's all and totally up to you.

If you are practicing and do not have a Book of Shadows yet, please consider creating one.  I would love to say that over the years my memory has sharpened and I can remember a spell or incantation I cast last year like it was yesterday. Um .  .  . er .  .  .  it's just not so.  I'm afraid dearies, it won't be the same for you either.  The rituals, gatherings, feasts all come flowing back when I look through my Books of Shadows. Some are just picture albums of old friends, coven members and past encounters.

A few tid bits of advice from this Contemporary New England Witch:  (These might tick off some of those in the magickal communities but these are my opinions, and as such I stick by them)

Never buy a pre-created Book of Shadows.  Oh .  .  .  did you hear that? I think I heard cauldrons dropping all over the place!! But I stand by what I say. Create your own. I've seen covens on social media sites selling Books of Shadows created and 'possibly' used by others. I say possibly because we can all go to a craft store nowadays, with a good base blank journal and create an amazingly looking Book of Shadows. Spill some red ink here and there, perhaps some tea (great coloring agent by the way used all the time to make new paper materials look ancient and dated) paste a few obscure photos of witchy people doing witchy things, in black and white of course.  Paste a few twigs of various trees, grasses or herbs and pen a few clever incantations.  Tell everyone how you've been creating this for yearrrrrs (even though the binding has no wear on it, but the pages look beat to hell? hmmm You get where I'm coming from? Oh, yes and these will sell for several hundred if not a grand.  I'm not kidding. Some of you have seen the same.  Why am I a skeptic? Publicly accusing some of  .  .  .  'misrepresentation' . . . shall we say?

Simply because as a witch, my spells are creations of me. My rituals are sacred and special. The work I put into my Books of Shadows I do just for me, and for my use.  There's no way in a Christian Hell would I EVER sell my Book of Shadows. Period.  I mean would you? No, not the one you create just to sell to those less aware, but one you have worked on, put love, energy, magick and lots and lots of precious time in. Would you sell it?  Money has little place in witchcraft. Now, I'm not saying we don't need money as witches, we do. But there are tons of ways to legitimately make money from our skills, without misrepresentation. Read tarot cards, crystal balls and rune divinations like myself. Or perhaps you sell potions, herbs and incense, also like me.  Hey, I know, you could even hand-make really cool Books of Shadows and keep the pages blank for the practitioner to put his own work into. Some of these types of books are available and they also cost several hundreds of dollars, but are marketed accurately and without all the fun work done for you.

Let's say that the Books of Shadows marketed by others, used in others covens for others magickal workings are authentic. O.K. Why would I need it? Now, notice I didn't ask why would I want it? I understand how many of us would like and appreciate other magickal tools and work made by other of the magickal community,  and if you're a collector then fine. But to buy as it was marketed, for others to use for their own personal Book of Shadows? For almost 1,000 dollars?  Maybe I'm just too New England, because I'm having a hard time swallowing it. 

Now this debate can go back and forth, as Gerald Gardener was the 'originator' of the Book of Shadows and he allowed coven memebers to copy the parts they found relevant, but nowhere do I see him counseling that one copy the entire book, although some covens make this a requirement and they can! It might be nice to have a coven Book of Shadows if I had ever had a High Priestess I worked with who was organized, but alas that was never my experience. I keep my own and so can you. It needn't be expensive and truly if you have hundreds or a thousand dollars to spend on someone else's magickal workings then that's great for you!! I'm a bit narcissistic with my magick, I believe the best magick for me comes from within me. Period.

You can hand write your Book of Shadows or print it out on the computer, whatever feels best for you.  Here's pictures of some of my own Books of Shadows throughout the years!  





These are some of my oldest Books of Shadows that took on a book form. Many were handouts printed on single sheets of paper and passed out to us by my first High Priestess.  The first two photos in this series of pictures is the current book for Enchantments. 

Peace and Happiness!


 © 2010-2011 Enchantments, LLC Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website. 

If you know someone who would like my work, please send them this link. If you or they would like to be included on our daily email distribution list send me an e mail with your email address to be included. If you ever wish to unsubscribe to this blog, please contact me and you will be immediately removed from our list.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

More pictures of what I've been up to!

 Good Evening,

The beautiful weather calls me outside and away from the keyboard more and more as I'm reminded by the Wheel of the Year that we are past the mid point of the summer season and we are heading towards fall and colder times ahead. So to conserve time for both you and I, I've put together another pictorial discussion. I hope you enjoy the gardens. These are gardens at Enchantments and some at my witches cottage home.  Now, I hope you get to spend some time outdoors this week. Yes, it will be hot, but these are the days we'll remember in January, February & March. 



 A new rose bush called double delight. The center of the rose is a pink and the edges are stained deep rose. Beautiful.
 Yet another bloom on the same Double Delight bush, with far more rose stain color and less pink. Very diverse coloring amongst its many blooms.


 Liatris - Blazing Star truly is as vivid purple as it appears.
 I like to put unusual items in my garden. This was an old chandelier that I removed the electrical hardware and now put votive candles in and light at twilight.  The candle flames in the right lighting appear to float over the garden adding a bit of magick to this 'witches garden'.
 More Blazing Star Liatris. This loves full sun and its root base slowly thickens and develops a multi-shoot display after a few years.
 This is the 'upside down tomato experiment!"  So far I've picked a half dozen miniature tomatoes and they are a burst of summer in your mouth. On top is a begonia.
 My long garden planted with perennials - plantings that come up every year.




  A Red Monarda Bee Balm  shown in its singular glory and below in the long garden of perennials.

 Mexican marigold, loves the sun and adds spots of happiness where ever you plant them.
 This is my medieval herb garden with the May Pole which I decorated at Beltaine, May 1


 I've eliminated grass in the rear of the cottage and replaced it with small pea gravel that is comfortable to walk bare foot on and adds a camp ground like feel to the back yard. 

Peace and Happiness

 
© 2010-2011 Enchantments, LLC Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” 

For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website. If you know someone who would like my work, please send them this link. If you or they would like to be included on our daily email distribution list send me an e mail with your email address to be included. If you ever wish to unsubscribe to this blog, please contact me and you will be immediately removed from our list.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Enchantments has a new look! Come by and check it out!!

 Good Morning!

Well, I've certainly been a busy witch of late!  So busy .  .  .   fixing, cleaning, primping and making beautiful. The shop entrance at Enchantments that is.  I spent a good part of the weekend painting the front entrance of the shop and the results make me happy.  We first needed to address some graffiti of a very naughty nature that someone had besmirched our front entrance with.  We tried to clean it off, scrub it off and then hide it! I assessed the situation on Saturday and decided that we needed  a new look and some color.  Sooooooooo, off I went to the home improvement store and looked at paint samples and settled on some colors in the Disney(RT) catagory of paints. 

I chose 'Enchanted Violet' (how could I not!?) for the front door and 'Green With Envy' for the aluminum siding walls on the front porch.  I was excited because the two colors together look really good on a Victorian Era house, ours was built in 1899 and it really makes the front entrance to the shop 'POP'.  The color of the front door is also the exact shade of fuchsia that a purpe loosestrife  growing in the front yard is sporting right now.  I painted and then put our signature witch back on the wall (she's there to welcome all visitors) and voila!  The store front looks totally different but beautiful and I hope it will catch people's eyes as they are driving by.  Tell me, what do you think?







Purple Loosestrife growing in Enchantments front garden




 Peace and Happiness! 


  © 2010-2011 Enchantments, LLC Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website. 

If you know someone who would like my work, please send them this link. If you or they would like to be included on our daily email distribution list send me an e mail with your email address to be included. If you ever wish to unsubscribe to this blog, please contact me and you will be immediately removed from our list.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

The Gardens of Enchantments - A Pictorial Discussion


Good Evening,

I've been a bit quiet lately, because of the lovely work to be done in my gardens. Tonight I thought I'd let the gardens speak to you. They are coming along really well, and they are growing and becoming just beautiful. I am enjoying the watering, dead heading,  pruning and harvesting to be done.  Let me share the gardens with you, and of course you are always invited to visit in person.


 The front garden of Enchantments at 349 East Center Street, Manchester, CT. Stop by to enjoy the gardens yourself!

 The back stairs allowed me to practice my arrangement abilities by creating some pretty potted designs. It's important to remember to water, sometimes twice a day in hot weather, but their smiling faces make it worth it!
 A Yucca plant in full bloom. So quiet and subdued most of the year, and then it blooms and is a garden diva commanding 'Look at me! I'm beautiful!' 
 A cauldron planted with sun loving coleus, begonia and salvia.

 A bed of red salvia encourages hummingbirds, butterflies and bees to drone about on a lazy summer day.
 The latest bunch of late annuals that need planting and a place to shine. Tomorrow's fun work to do during my day. 

 I use mulch, natural brown cedar to keep the precious moisture around the roots of my plants, to discourage weed growth and to make everything look nice.


 A new garden bed just planted by the students of Enchantments last Saturday. Plantings of impatiens grow well in the sahde of a maple tree. Some dahlias are just sprouting in the foreground of wet soil.
 New pots of petunias, eucalyptus, begonia and sweet potato vine make a pretty welcome spot at the front entrance to Enchantments.

 Our pumpkins! Getting pretty big and small blossoms are just setting.
 A fun, (works better than I expected!) upside down tomato planter with an open top to plant a happy begonia.

 Our newest display inside Enchantments. I have been harvesting and drying herbs and we have many herbs for sale on the center table in the middle room. 
 Now is the time to buy your magickal herbs. Many of the herbs for sale at Enchantments I have personally harvested from my gardens at home and at Enchantments.
 What herbs are you needing right now? I just picked today Lavender, rose petals, sweet woodruff, cinquefoil and fern fronds.  They will be hung up to dry tomorrow. 

Have a wonderful evening,

Peace and Happiness



 © 2010-2011 Enchantments, LLC Portions of this blog posting may include materials from my book “Enchantments School for the Magickal Arts First Year Magickal Studies.” For more information, see www.enchantmentsschool.com or go to the title of tonight's discussion and click, it will link you to my school's website.

If you know someone who would like my work, please send them this link. If you or they would like to be included on our daily email distribution list send me an e mail with your email address to be included. If you ever wish to unsubscribe to this blog, please contact me and you will be immediately removed from our list.