The Lucky Dragon

新年快樂

Happy New Year!

And happy new moon.

Today is the first day of the Lunar New Year. And last night was a new moon. So tonight we celebrated.

We had eleven in our circle tonight. We honored the Goddess Fortuna and we made good luck bags.

Fortuna is the Latin goddess of luck and fate. In her honor we made these bags to carry for luck.

Each bag contains…

Ivy- Representative of the element of Earth and the color Green

Earth= health, wealth, prosperity, employment and fertility

Green= love, fertility, abundance, money, prosperity, luck, resurrection, rebirth, jealousy, teaching, learning, changing attitudes, environmental issues and peace.

Cinnamon- Cinnamon can be used to make charms to draw love, happiness, and money.

Cloves- Cloves bring good luck and prosperity. Cloves keep good friends close and stops malicious gossip.

All Spice- Allspice can be added to sachets to aid in attracting money and/or luck.

Clear Quartz- Clear quartz is a stone of manifestation. Hold the crystal with intent and focus. The crystal will remember and permeate any environment it is placed.

Whole Nutmeg- A whole nutmeg seed can be carried to bring luck during all games of chance from cards to Bingo to roulette. Nutmeg can also be carried as a charm to encourage a favorable decision in court cases and success in other legal matters. Nutmeg carried will also help to ensure good luck while traveling.

Once that was finished, a new member of our group, who is also my daughter, offered a seeker oath, binding her to learn for at least one year. If she has not committed after that she can part ways with the craft or choose to seek again. It is her choice. No one is forced into the craft. Not even my kid. Besides, she is 17 and does tae kwon do, she could probably take me if I tried to force her. And as a gift, she was given a red journal to use as she sees fit. It has dragons on it.

And since it was Lunar New Year, an Asian celebration, I made beef and broccoli and rice as well as egg drop soup.

Thank you all for coming. May the lady Fortuna follow you where ever you go.

Blessed be.

Book Review: To Ride A Silver Broomstick

To Ride a Silver Broomstick: New Generation Witchcraft by Silver RavenWolf

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


You know, I like this author. I feel like we could be friends. But this book, while informative, was kind of all over. I know it is written for new witches so I was probably a little bored because I am old. But I think for new witches, it was a lot. There were too many topics. Not enough information on each topic. If you can't fully go into each topic, maybe you should have left those to other books. And since she has written other books I will look into those.

If you have no idea what a witch does or is and you want to get started, it is a good book for you. As long as you take it slow and read other things in conjunction. Do not read it right through. She gives you lots of suggested reading and I suggest you get into some of those.

I did get some great and useful information. Some good ideas for more books to read and some practical ideas to use in my own life.

Finally, it was a little dated. Like she is talking about letters and phone calls. Who does that? Facebook and cell phones are the way to go. And also Google. :)



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Book Review: Teen Witch

Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation by Silver RavenWolf

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


If you go into this book thinking it is for mature adults, you will be disappointed. This book is clearly written for the 11 to 16 age group, depending on their maturity level. Which is fine, because I didn't buy this book for me. I mean really, at my age I would not buy a book for me titled "Teen Witch". I bought it to share with the younger members of my group. But I decided to read it myself first.

I like this book. It was a good way for a kid to get started without providing them too much at once. Yes, it is a little hokey. Yes, it can be a little patronizing. But you know what, at that age and at that level, that is what you need.

It has a bit of a Christian overtone, but the author clearly wrote it for teens who do not come from Pagan families. It is also a little dated. It was written in 1997. So technology has certainly changed since then. Actually, the whole world has changed since then. The author laments that teens who are interested maybe discriminated against. While that certainly may still be true, I believe that it is way less of a problem than maybe in 1997.

I thought it was a good start. I have not read other books by this author, but now I would like to find out what she writes for adults. Should be interesting reads.



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The Witching Hour

A Blessed Samhain to all my witches.

Did you just say that SAM HANE? Don’t do it! It is pronounced sah-win, or sow-in or sah-ween.

Hence…

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I hope you all celebrated and had a great night. I know I did.

But before I regale you with tales of my night, let’s talk about, just what is Samhain?

Is it the night you finally get to ride that broomstick?

Nope.

Are zombies coming?

Only if you are playing Plants vs. Zombies. Then yes, Zombies, they are coming.

Samhain is a cross quarter festival on the Wheel of the Year celebrated by Wiccans and Celtic witches as well as some other neo-pagan groups. And super awesome witches like me. It falls approximately half way between Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice and is the last harvest festival of the year. Some people call it “The Pagan New Year”. Not for me though. New Year’s Day is still January 1. But it does mark the beginning of winter.

So many of our current Halloween traditions come from these long ago pagan Samhain celebrations; from costumes and going door to door for treats to apple bobbing and carving pumpkins. All can be traced back to Samhain. There is so much I could write on the subject.

This is one of the “Spirit Days” when the veil between this world and the other realm is the thinnest; a time when spirits and fairies cross over and visit. This is a time of remembrance. People visit cemeteries and set up ancestral alters leaving favorite items or other offerings to those who have gone ahead. We share stories of them, maybe even set a place for them at dinner.

Most Samhain celebrations include communal bonfires. They serve to bring together the community. Ages ago, our ancestors would put out all the fires in the villages and relight them from the communal fire to bring unity.

This year we carved pumpkins. We set them on the porch to welcome our ancestors home. I made a nice beef stew and butternut squash ravioli. (I got the stew recipe from a pagan book titled “The Magical Year”.) We set up an alter with seasonal fruits and veggies. We added sage and incense and candles. Also added were items special to those we have lost.

One member of our group was the fire tender and started the fire at sunset and kept it going until the sun came back up. We burned sage and cleansed our souls. We wrote down out affirmations for the year and put them in the fire.

It was a great night.

Until we meet again…

Blessed be.