Come Celebrate Lughnasa with us at Enchantments!

Good Evening,

Lughnasa. Translation: "The Games of Lugh" The ancient pagans celebrated a thanksgiving feast around the first food harvest, which is traditionally held on August 1st.

Lugh was a God of war, light, and the harvest for the ancient Celts. In ancient times when the men and boys were off waging war to defend their territory and boundaries from warring invaders, and the women and elderly were left running the tribes, clans and villages, this was known as a matriarchal-run society. These were an agricultural farming people, the Celts. Yet they were known to fight when their land and people were threatened. All across Europe, cultures sent to war their men and strong boys to protect their lands. And, all across Europe, when the harvest was upon them and the food needed to be brought in from the fields, everyone declared a cease fire and all went back to their farms and villages to bring the harvest in. If this wasn't done, there would have been nothing and no one left to go back to.

Even so, when the harvest was in, the men and boys still practiced and engaged in war games to keep up their fighting form. They would hold, what we could call the forerunner of the ancient Greeks Olympic Games. Feasting, giving thanks for the bountiful harvest was also an important part of this Sabbat celebration.

Lughnasa is right around the corner. At Enchantments this is our Thanksgiving Sabbat. At Enchantments we will be celebrating our Thanksgiving Lughnasa ritual and feast on Saturday August 4th at 11 am. We will have a Sabbat ritual first and then follow it up with a Thanksgiving feast.

For this holiday we celebrate the spirit of the harvest, with foods to commemorate the harvest season.

We will have rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, vegetables, pies, bread and stuffing. If you will be attending please contact Enchantments to find out what we will need for the feast. It is pot luck with everyone bringing a dish to share, and typically we encourage people to bring what they like, but for our Thanksgiving celebration we try to stick to a specific menu.

It would be wonderful if you could make it! I hope to see you there. And remember this Sabbat will start at 11 am.






© 2010-2012 Faith M. McCann. 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. Please note that the copying and/or further distribution of this work without express written permission is prohibited.


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.

Janet Farrar & Gavin Bone to conduct intensive workshop at Enchantments!

Good Evening,

I have some exciting news! Internationally renowned magical practitioners, teachers and authors Janet Farrar and Gavin Bone will be holding an 'Inner Mysteries Intensive Workshop' on Saturday and Sunday August 25th and 26th at Enchantments.

This workshop will include; working with core magickal energy, the magic circle and the group mind, cosmology, path-working, working with polarity magic, magical laws, The Mysteries, finding your guides and Guardians and much more!

Ms. Farrar and Mr. Bone are authors of 'A Witches Bible', 'The Witches Goddess', The Healing Craft' and 'Progressive Witchcraft' and seldom will you have the opportunity to learn directly from teachers as experienced as these!

I myself am signed up for the workshop and I'm looking forward to learning from these wonderful instructors.

The Friday before, August 24th, they will be at Enchantments performing readings and healings for those who wish for an entire magickal experience! Be sure to sign up soon, because we have limited space available and the spaces are filling up!

The two day workshop scheduled to run from 9 am until 5 pm each day costs only $100 per person and includes all listed above and more. The tarot readings on the 24th will be conducted by Ms Farrar and costs $50 each, with Mr. Bone doing healings the same day at a cost of $40 each.

You must sign up in advance for the workshop,the readings and healings at Enchantments Witch Shoppe and they must be paid for in advance. Please remember that we have limited space so if you're interested, don't wait! This opportunity comes infrequently and you certainly don't want to miss it!

Please call Enchantments at 860-791-6033 if you have any questions that I haven't answered here.


Peace and Happiness








© 2010-2012 Faith M. McCann. 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. Please note that the copying and/or further distribution of this work without express written permission is prohibited.



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.

My latest project, a YouTube Video on 'Anatomy of a Spell'

Good Evening!

I have some exciting news for you! My latest project is a YouTube video. 'Anatomy of a Spell' is an 8 minute video with me teaching the concepts of my understanding of the anatomy of spell-casting, 5 simple steps.

To view this video, curser over the title of this blog post and click, its a link that will take you straight to the video. I hope you enjoy it! Comments are welcome! Ms. Faith







© 2010-2012 Faith M. McCann. 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. Please note that the copying and/or further distribution of this work without express written permission is prohibited.

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.

The Mortar and Pestle

Good Evening,

Have you a mortar and pestle? It's a very useful tool and a must have for all well stocked witches cabinets! A mortar and pestle pictured here:

is a tool that is made up of two parts. The bowl being the mortar and the grinding handle that is the pestle. It is the ancient version of the food processor or food grinder. It has long been used to break up and pulverize all sorts of foods. Meats, vegetables, spices, herbs and grains have been broken down using the mortar and pestle in a practical sense. This ancient tool also has magickal properties attributed to it.

It can be a symbol for the unity of the Goddess and God with the mortar, bowl, being representative of the Goddess and the pestle, grinder, being a symbol of the God. The two together, the pestle resting in the mortar is a symbol of the Great Rite, the union of the Goddess and the God.

I instruct my students to use a mortar and pestle instead of the easier, more modern food processor to process and grind down ingredients for spell mixes and incenses simply because you put more of your own physical energy into the mix with a mortar and pestle. Yes, a food processor is much easier but with magick you get out of it what you put into it.

I remember a few years ago, I had signed up for a hearth cooking class at a local Historical Society property from the 1700's. It was a homestead for a famous Revolutionary War hero from the area and around Thanksgiving time they sold tickets for a small group of people to gather in the ancient kitchen with a huge open hearth fireplace and to cook a complete meal using nothing but the tools and supplies available in the 1700's. We made butter from scratch in a butter churn, apple pie from scratch, a chicken stew and vegetables all cooked over the open fire. Part of the meal required cinnamon. They had a very large, granite mortar and pestle at least a foot in diameter and sticks of cinnamon that needed to be ground into a fine powder.

When I saw that mortar and pestle, I fell in love!!! I politely let everyone have a chance at grinding the cinnamon rather than give into my secret desire of pushing everyone aside and grabbing it for myself, but soon everyone tired of the seemingly tedious job of endless breaking down of the sticks of cinnamon and the grinding. Soon the beautiful mortar and pestle lay in my lap and I was grinding away, so very happy and content! I offered everyone another go at it, but everyone was more than happy to let me continue and I did!! Far too soon the cinnamon was a fine, beautiful powder that was to be used to spice the apple pies. The mortar and pestle was property of the Historical society but I still remember it with fondness.

The meal came out delicious and everything was cooked perfectly, all over an open hearth. If you ever have the opportunity to try open hearth cooking with authentic 18th century tools and supplies I highly recommend it!

If you are planning on purchasing a mortar and pestle be sure to get one that is functional rather than decorative. A functional one has a slightly rough inner surface to the mortar and to the end of the pestle for grinding purposes. They can be made out of many materials such as ceramic, stone, even glass. There are some made out of metals that do not have a rough inner surface, but are used primarily in the formation of medicines and the pestle is used to break up ingredients by a gentle pounding rather than a grinding.

Mortar and pestles that are completely smooth I consider decorative. They can be used as described above like the metal ones, and used for pounding and breaking up ingredients but I use mine primarily for grinding herbs so a rough surfaced one is best for my needs. I collect mortar and pestles and have some around the house, on my office desk at work and of course ones in the potions room at Enchantments.

I have even used the mortar and pestle as the center piece instead of an altar pentacle on my altar. Especially when doing 'green witchery' and crafting potions and herbal simples.

If you don't have a mortar and pestle I would recommend spending some fun time this summer searching out the right one for you. Even if you don't use it, it is an ancient symbol of the witch who was amongst other things the physician, surgeon, pharmacist, midwife and herbalist. I find the mortar and pestle as important to have as a pentacle, at least for me!

Peace and Happiness



© 2010-2012 Faith M. McCann. 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. Please note that the copying and/or further distribution of this work without express written permission is prohibited.


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.