Happy Lughnasadh! Our first food harvest of the year!

Good Afternoon,

It is such a lovely day. I want to get this discussion out and then I'm going to go sit under my Maple tree and enjoy the gardens. It's a perfect day for it.

This Saturday we celebrate Lughnsadh. This is an ancient Celtic harvest celebration that recognizes this time as the first food harvest. The first ripe grains in the fields are gathered and fresh, new bread is baked. Bread is a big feature for this Sabbat celebration. 

Tomorrow, August first is technically Lughnsadh. But, we will celebrate it on Saturday here at Enchantments.  You can also celebrate this holiday. You are invited to come to Enchantments, at 10 am and partake in our magick circle, to be followed by a feast of Thanksgiving. Yes, the harvest season is when the Thanksgiving feasts in ancient times were held.  We're even having a roast turkey! 

If you can't make our celebration you can have your own Thanksgiving feast,  served outdoors and make bread and bread products, like stuffing, a big part of your feast. Invite family and friends and enjoy your time with each other.

This is a time to give thanks to the Goddess and God for all of life's bounty, riches and abundance we have in our lives. A time of gratitude.  Be sure to leave a bit of bread out on the ground for the nature spirits and the birds. Also pour a small amount of libation, whatever drink you have on hand, on the ground while speaking your thanks to the Gods.

Celebrate outdoors as it's soon we will find ourselves forced to be indoors for six long months of winter. Our winter starts November 1st, and that's just a hands-breath away. Enjoy your Thanksgiving, each other and be well.


Peace and Happiness 




© 2010-2013 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.

Getting back to Nature doesn't necessarily mean meditating under a tree . . .

Good Afternoon,

So many people talk with me on a weekly basis, what with the shop and the various places I find myself week to week. Many mention how they want to "get back to Nature", as if it were a distant destination that they have to make a long trek to get there. It doesn't have to be that way.  As I titled this discussion, getting back to Nature doesn't necessarily mean you have to take a day off from life and sit under a tree meditating. Now, that would be nice if you could do it, but realistically many of us do not have the time or the inclination. Because, really, meditating under a tree is simply, to me, boring. Don't get me wrong, I love trees, but my idea of communing with Nature is more active. Take today for instance.

I woke up a bit earlier than usual and made a short trip to the neighboring town where there are several berry farms and I picked fresh blueberries this morning. I'm going to make pies later this week.  There I was, atop a hill with over 50 acres of blueberry fields surrounding me, birds singing, people quietly talking amongst themselves, all picking tender, ripe, big blue berries. To me, and I've said this before, this is the equivalent to going to church for me.  I was surrounded by nature and enjoying every moment of it. Today I picked a little over 10 lbs of berries, so that will make for a few lovely pies.While I was there I noticed many wild flowers such as loosestrife, yellow dock, wild morning glory and black-eyed Susans. The sky was a brilliant blue with fluffy white clouds floating gently along.

But my sojourn into Nature wasn't over with my berry picking. I came to work, opened the store then did some light weeding long the walkways of Enchantments. Then I mowed the lawn surrounding the gardens of Enchantments.  Nature was at her finest today.  Oh, I don't think I mentioned it to you, but just recently Enchantment's gardens received local recognition from the Manchester Garden Club for looking lovely and for "helping to beautify Manchester".  I am quite pleased that we received such recognition, an honorable mention actually in Manchester's Annual Beautification Program, to be precise. We've worked hard to make the gardens beautiful for everyone to see. Here's a few pictures of the gardens as they look today.

To finish off the day, I will place my Adirondack chair under the shady Maple tree in the front of our store and sit and read a bit. Well, .  .  .  Hmmmmm,   I guess I don't find sitting under a tree all that boring after all!

I hope you can get out and 'get back to Nature', just a bit this week. Remember, it doesn't have to be an effort at all. Just going outdoors and walking barefoot in the grass qualifies. I hope you have a beautiful week!


Peace and Happiness







© 2010-2013 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.

Auras . . . everybody has one, but what does it mean?

Good Afternoon,

Today's discussion will be about Auras. Everyone living has an aura. This is a light which emanates from their body and has a color. Everyone born has an aura and everyone's aura has a color or multiple colors which stays the same throughout their lives.

Although, some colors are not life long colors to be found in a person's aura, for instance red or black. Red is a color of excitement, extreme emotional energy expenditure or illness or damage to an area of the body. For example, I have seen Madonna in concert a few times. When she is performing she emanates a red aura from her body, which makes sense because she puts on a very physically demanding show. In another example I have seen red emanate around a person's elbow where that person had suffered physical injury to the elbow. This color is a temporary color and no one has a permanently red aura. 

The same can be said about black or brown. These colors appear when there is illness, sickness or disease affecting the body. They might appear as floating spots of brown or black within the aura. This also appears when the subject is taking drugs, regardless of whether the drugs are prescription or recreational.

Some drugs that a person can take, especially drugs prescribed for chemical imbalances within the brain can effectively mask the aura, making it difficult for others to perceive it. 

To see someones aura, the person being observed needs to be standing somewhat still for beginners to notice the aura. Lot's of fast movement can make it difficult to see the delicate, gentle color that surrounds the body.  Have the person being observed wear either white or black around the shoulders and upper body. This makes it easier to see the colors. Have the person being observed close their eyes and concentrate on 'making' their aura bigger and have them feel as if they are 'pushing' it out of their body. This will help the observer see the aura better.

Then stand several feet away from the person being observed and look at the perimeter of the person's body. Along the head, neck and shoulders work well. Allow your gaze to lose focus and get a bit fuzzy. For those who wear glasses, just take your glasses off, this will help you see the colors better. At first notice a bright white thin outline that surrounds the person's perimeter. Then try to distinguish faint colors.  Many people have more than one color for their aura. Some can have two and even up to three colors perceivable in their aura.

What do the colors mean?

Blue:  This is a color of a caregiver. Nurses, caretakers and those who care deeply for others can have this color. It is a color for mothers.

Green:  Someone who has a green aura is deeply connected with nature and may garden for a hobby or profession.

Yellow:  An intellectual. A life long student, could very much be a teacher.

Purple:  Someone who has purple as an aura color is concerned with justice, the law, fairness and has a strong sense of right and wrong. Could be in the profession of law or have a strong affinity for it.

Orange:  Dynamic, exciting. Many people are drawn to this type or color of aura. These people with orange auras tend to be very outgoing and vivacious, the 'life of the party!'

Pink: Pink is another color like red and black. It is a temporary color that shows itself in the auras of people who have recently fallen in love, new mothers, newlyweds. It tends to dissipate after time.

It is very difficult to see your own aura, have a friend help you by having them look at your aura and then you can look at theirs. Try to see or sense the color of the person you're looking at and you will eventually get better at seeing auras all around you.


Peace and Happiness






© 2010-2013 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.

Archery Night was a huge success!

 Good Afternoon!

Last night the Enchantment's Women's Spirituality Group met at Hall's Archery in Manchester to spend an hour shooting arrows at targets. A great time was had by all, and I want to thank the lovely ladies who showed up to participate. Many had never used a bow before but bravely stepped up to the black line and took a shot. Then they took another!

We were lucky that our Women's group even had a lovely lady instructor from Hall's, even though our group has had in the past men instructors and they are all fantastic at Hall's, no matter who we've had.

While we were shooting arrows and hitting bulls-eyes!!!, metaphors for life started to crop up and I wanted to share some of them with you.

• In life you don't always hit the paper target! It's true, sometimes in life one has to square off, aim and take another shot, and perhaps another but eventually you will hit the target, and if you try hard enough you will also get a bulls-eye.

• Just let it go! The biggest issue anyone had with shooting the bow and arrows was, when after pulling the string back towards the face, was then letting the string go. There's the fear the string will hit your face and hurt you, that you haven't pulled it back properly, that after you let it go something will happen that's not right, many things crowd into your mind. When in reality all you need to do is take a breath and let the string simply .  .  .  go. Let things in your life that you no longer have control over simply .  .  .  go. You can control the string like things in your life up to a point, but then you must let them go.  We found ourselves striking the bulls-eye more often when we got to a place where we could 'let go'.

• Don't over think things! There are several small things that need to be in place to shoot a bow successfully. But once those little things are applied i.e. having the right stance, pulling the string back properly, having the arrow notched onto the string in the correct manner etc., then just get along with the business of shooting the arrows. Over thinking things just mucks up the process. I found for myself, that when I put everything in place, took a breath and just let the string go, while keeping my mind calm and focused, the arrow found its way to the bulls-eye more times than not!

These are just a few of the metaphors that can be applied to life from a fun night of shooting with bows and arrows. Hall's Archery on Middle Tpke in Manchester, CT USA is a great place to learn, and to shoot there it's a nominal fee of $13.00 an hour. They provide all the equipment and the cost is pro-rated, which means if you shoot for 20 minutes, you only pay for 20 minutes. It's really one of the best deals in town! The facility was air conditioned (which we appreciated in the humidity and high heat waves we've been experiencing here in Southern New England) clean and the staff was professional, polite and really nice to work with.

I hope you have a happy, healthy and magickal Fourth of July holiday!

Peace and Happiness

© 2010-2013 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.