Blessed Eros Day! Year 2
Blessed Eros Day or Lupercalia to all of you out there (traditionally celebrated from the 13th of Feb to the 15th of Feb)! I hope you have a wonderful day, whether you are in a relationship, in between or single like me. Let today be a day of self love, celebration and pampering. If you like chocolate and wine you may be glad to know about the chocolate wines that are now available, personally I like both but not together! That’s food poisoning waiting to happen. Just to point out, Lupercalia was a time when evil spirits and bad energies were dismissed and sent away, and after those banishing’s as it were, the priests would perform rites for health and fertility for the land and for the people. I use this time to clear my heart of the negative feelings of love in my heart. It takes time, hence why I love the fact it takes a good three days to perform good magick.Now, for some years the money event that is Valentine’s is sadly misunderstood as the only time of the year you spend enormous amounts of money on your loved one, excluding wedding anniversaries, birthdays and Christmas. I am not one to talk about relationships or love since I have failed miserably and refuse to try again just yet, but I feel that relating one day to the love of your life is weird and a little selfish. I would celebrate love as much as I could, when I could with my love. However, I’ll contradict myself here as a lot of couples lead very busy lives and find it difficult to have a whole day dedicated to themselves, so Valentine’s is perfect. It’s that one time of the year they can recreate that excitement and declare their love to each other.
If I ever get into a relationship in the future I’ll like to bring the original idea of love on this feast day back by celebrating Lupercalia and honouring the deities of love like Eros. For the past year now I have lit a little red or pink candle honouring Eros, and thanking him for keeping my heart open and thanking him for my family and friends. Other than that, I have incense or an oil boiler burning and meditate. In the past I used to ask for love to come my way, but since they have never worked I have decided I shouldn’t chase after something I don’t need right now. I’ll put off the hopeless pining for the future… Hopefully next year or tomorrow I’ll post a photo of my altar set up =] The following I say with my hands open by the sacred fire on my altar either when the sun is up or at night to mark the end of each day, enjoy!
Hymn to Eros (Orphic Hymn 58)
“To Eros (Love), Fumigation from Aromatics. I call, great Eros, the source of sweet delight, holy and pure, and charming to the sight; darting, and winged, impetuous fierce desire, with Gods and mortals playing, wandering fire : agile and twofold, keeper of the keys of heaven and earth, the air, and spreading seas; of all that earth’s fertile realms contains, by which the all parent Goddess life sustains, or dismal Tartaros is doomed to keep, widely extended, or the sounding deep; for thee all nature’s various realms obey, who rulest alone, with universal sway. Come, blessed power, regard these mystic fires, and far avert unlawful mad desires.”
What do you folks do for Lupercalia or Eros Day? What other events do you celebrate on this day besides Valentines?
It’s a very short post today, but I don’t like discussing love for too long as I end up sounding like a lonely old boob and that’s a part of my personality I hope will never stand in a room for too long. At the moment (and I will show you all as soon as it is done – a new tattoo that is) I stand by Plato’s quotation “Love is a serious mental disease.” Love is one of those things… I shall stop; I feel love’s ugly head trying to borrow its way through to the surface…
Check out this post, we have been writing about Eros and Lupercalia since last year and we hope to get a few more people to blog about their celebrations too: Eros Day, Year 2.
This is last years post: http://sycalaelen.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/happy-eros-day-old-skool-valentines/
Happy Lupercalia x x
Memories Come Floating Like Incense
I love incense. I love the scents, the fluid motion as it delicately scales the walls. I love the way I make it coil around my hands, fingers and body. I love how something so small can mean so much when cleansing tools or the body. You’re probably wondering why I’m going on about incense, so let me explain in an odd way… this is a spur of the moment post, so excuse the mistakes and I totally understand if you don’t understand at first.
I have just finished up a late devotion for the day, and I love to light incense after everything is finished with in order to keep the sense of calm going around. I pulled out some incense that I haven’t used in a long time, and sadly I forgot what its scent was. It doesn’t matter what the packaging says, if it’s something I don’t use often I will forget. The scent was lemongrass. It is sweet, full of zest and very energising. The last time I burned lemongrass was way back in the early days of magick as a young girl. Lighting incense in the house as a child was like asking my uncle to give me a full bottle of whisky instead of mixing it with warm milk. It was allowed, but just spoken about. My aunt, the lady who raised me along with the nanny and a few cousins and friends, was stuck in the 60s and 70s era. No matter what I did to bring her to the noughties, she refused to live in today’s world. As far as I knew, we liked hippies and mini’s but that was it. I always associated incense sticks and such alike with hippies, rockers and the people in between. The closest I felt I could get to incense was scented candles. We had a beautiful dinner candle set for the dining room table, in various colours (depending on my aunt’s mood) but they weren’t scented. The Menorah was the same, white candles to symbolise purity and that was all. The adults used incense but the kids didn’t and that was the story.
When I started practising Wicca I used oils and coloured candles. I would spend some nights scribbling down new devotions, incantations and spells by candlelight and be happy. My crystals would sit on the windowsill and I’d sometimes watch the light from the sun or moon shine down on them. Magick was moving into my life very quickly, and I just lapped it up. There was a store down an alleyway which was off the High Street that was full of crystals, CDs, chimes, herbs and incenses that only lived for 6 months. Back then the New Age phenomena hadn’t quite grabbed the attention of the nation as quickly as other parts of the country. It was in that little shop that I bought my first pack of incense sticks in lemongrass. If I remember correctly, I went home to an empty house, opened one of my Wiccan books and began to cleanse my room with the lemongrass, chanting as I went along. I picked up how to cleanse tools, my room, altar and myself with incense within a matter of a week. So much so I wrote it in my first shadow Journal with terrible mistakes and bad grammar.
In the early days I experimented with various scents until I found one that appealed to my nose and my energy. I ended up settling on sandalwood, frankincense, Egyptian musk and the unknown scent for Leo and Libra (I am not sure what they are, but it’s those blue packets with the sky and grass on them?). I’ve stuck with those scents for almost everything I do, whether it be meditation, chilling, getting rid of nasty smells or cleansing the room. It is an odd feeling, to know that something tasty can take you back to the early days of life, and today my incense took me back almost 12 years. It was such a vivid recurring moment and it made me smile and think about how far I have come in life. If there is one thing that I find odd about it, it may sum up part of the reason why I love all things lemon scented, even lemongrass.
Like I said, I love incense. What things take you back to funny forgotten moments in your life?
Natural Sleep Aid Recipe [Videos]
Last night I uploaded a video on one of my favourite natural recipes for sleep, found in Grow Your Own Drugs by James Wong. I had been trying it for a good year or so and I just had to share it with you folks. The idea of using hops was new to me, as I don’t like to drink beer as it tastes funny, but after watching the clip (below) from the TV series I knew I wanted to try it. It’s a very easy recipe, so get your foraging kit ready and go get some supplies!
I’m off to buy new herbs for my shelf… G. Baldwin & Co. here I come!
Ending 2011 with a Bang
Image via Wikipedia
Okay, sorry, no explosives here!
A lot of things have happened this year, but for me definitely more so. I was living when Prince William and Princess Katherine. The 80s repeated themselves with riots in London during the summer. The ConDems have managed to cut even more money that we don’t have, and have also made it harder for poor folk like me to have a dream and obtain a degree in the future. Berlusconi has managed to run up a bill of 1.9 Trillion EUROs (I heard someone earlier laugh and say, “Thank god it wasn’t in Lira”). It seems I’m living in a very adult world that is slowly plunging back into the dark ages and it’s a scary place. I will have to spend my future earnings by paying extra taxes that will pay for the last generations mess ups. Thanks.
This year has been a year about me, or at least I tried. I’ve done my 108 Days of Meditation inspired by the book Eat Pray Love and enrolled in college as the universities I had applied for said no for the millionth time. Ugh. This year had been okay but not great. To sit here and assume that next year will be great is an expectation I won’t be listing on my New Year’s resolution or in my Filofax. There are a few ideas that I’ve listed that will be realistic such as, completing my English and Philosophy courses, reducing my intake of Snickers and buying the new Sherlock Holmes movie on DVD when it comes out.
On a slightly more serious note, I’ll be opening the New Year with my yearly ritual to Janus and relaxing in the circle. I do hope this year is a good year, I hope I become more confident and stronger. Those are the virtues I wish to capture and instil in my mind. I hope I’ll make friends with more people and actually get around to meeting them and at the same time I hope loneliness won’t hurt too much. I feel I’m at a peek in my spiritual life and it’s a wonderful acknowledgement. For now, I’ll finish this post wishing you all a brilliant and prosperous New Year.
Thank you for the support, blessings and love I’ve received, and a huge thank you to those who actually took the time out to read my blog and watch my videos, you 7 people are amazing =]
Sy x x
Ps. I shall watch more Johnny Depp films, but that’s a personal promise and a very realistic one!
How do I Come Across?
I worry due to many reasons, I’m loosing friends due to a lack of communication, loss of the internet and I seem to find it difficult to get into a routine in uploading videos or even coming up with fresh ideas. I hate copying people, it’s a ‘fear’ I have about plagiarism and copyright and all that stuff thanks to my film education. I try to talk to you folks about my experiences and what I’ve learnt from them with the hope that at least one person can say “Yes! I know what you mean!” I’m not a teacher, and neither do I want to be, but it is nice to know that some people have told me they find me inspiring. I didn’t think I was, hence why I’m so worried about my channel and it’s content.
I’ve come across a few newer faces who have made it very clear in their videos how much they dislike certain youtube vloggers and their content. They haven’t said any names but I wonder if my name is on their ‘dislike’ list. I try to be as honest as I can, but I have no intention of telling people what to do or how to live their lives. I merely share tips and suggestions that can make life a little clearer when we march through the fog. I’m curious as to how awful or okay I am.
This is just a short post… Tell me honestly how I am. The New Year approaches and I need some change and development!
Sy =] x
Solitary-hood – Videos
They are quite long videos and I do ramble in places, but I just had to share my thoughts… Daft cow =P
Sy x
The Dance of the Dead, Goethe
Goethe (Image via Wikipedia)
The New Year is approaching fast and I’m making notes here and there to look back on my year. Each year I make a list of what achievements and failures I’ve made, and I make a small realistic plan of what I intend to follow through for the New Year. One main goal I want to reach is publishing my first book. I’ve been working on it since I was 16, and it has expanded into 4 volumes – for me it literately is a never ending story. I just hope when New Year’s eve comes I can bury the negative problems under the earth, to be banished and sent away.
Today i flicked open my journal and read a poem about death by one of my favourite poets, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, one the most profound and astonishing poets from the romanticism movement. Tell me what you think! – It makes me think of Charles Dickens and the beautiful old churches of London at night…
The Dance of the Dead
The warder looks down at the mid hour of night,
On the tombs that lie scatter’d below:
The moon fills the place with her silvery light,
And the churchyard like day seems to glow.
When see! first one grave, then another opes wide,
And women and men stepping forth are descried,
In cerements snow-white and trailing.
In haste for the sport soon their ankles they twitch,
And whirl round in dances so gay;
The young and the old, and the poor, and the rich,
But the cerements stand in their way;
And as modesty cannot avail them aught here,
They shake themselves all, and the shrouds soon appear
Scatter’d over the tombs in confusion.
Now waggles the leg, and now wriggles the thigh,
As the troop with strange gestures advance,
And a rattle and clatter anon rises high,
As of one beating time to the dance.
The sight to the warder seems wondrously queer,
When the villainous Tempter speaks thus in his ear:
“Seize one of the shrouds that lie yonder!”
Quick as thought it was done! and for safety he fled
Behind the church-door with all speed;
The moon still continues her clear light to shed
On the dance that they fearfully lead.
But the dancers at length disappear one by one,
And their shrouds, ere they vanish, they carefully don,
And under the turf all is quiet.
But one of them stumbles and shuffles there still,
And gropes at the graves in despair;
Yet ’tis by no comrade he’s treated so ill
The shroud he soon scents in the air.
So he rattles the door–for the warder ’tis well
That ’tis bless’d, and so able the foe to repel,
All cover’d with crosses in metal.
The shroud he must have, and no rest will allow,
There remains for reflection no time;
On the ornaments Gothic the wight seizes now,
And from point on to point hastes to climb.
Alas for the warder! his doom is decreed!
Like a long-legged spider, with ne’er-changing speed,
Advances the dreaded pursuer.
The warder he quakes, and the warder turns pale,
The shroud to restore fain had sought;
When the end,–now can nothing to save him avail,–
In a tooth formed of iron is caught.
With vanishing lustre the moon’s race is run,
When the bell thunders loudly a powerful One,
And the skeleton fails, crush’d to atoms.
1813.
Sy x x
