2011 Rapture! Well still here, what happened?

Well the end of the world, and judgement day came and went without any huge earthquake or people flying into the air leaving their shoes behind. Once again a christian has managed to dupe millions into giving up their money and other possessions just so that he can live a life of luxury. And according to the latest news, Mr. Harold Camping the man who made the prediction is in hiding, no surprise there. 

Mr Camping is but one of the reasons I turned to paganism years ago. The christians love to preach about loving thy neighbor and helping those in need, but when it comes down the actual work involved in loving thy neighbor and helping the needy, they don't or won't get their hands dirty. They turn their backs on the needy and criticize their neighbors. Hypocrites the lot of them, and when one points all this out they use same tired old excuse, we aren't perfect, we are all sinners but we must ask for god's forgiveness everyday. 

I prefer not to believe in a god that would punish honest hardworking people and reward lieing, cheating scoundrels. No the gods I believe in would never do that. 

Oh well another false prophet put in his place, I only hope that all those people who were duped by him will sue him to get their money back.

May Day or Beltaine

 May Day (May 1st) is celebrated in many places around the world. The traditions and stories surrounding May Day vary from place to place. There is, however, one thing that is similar in most celebrations - the use of Flowers!

Make a May Day Cone Basket or a Mini May Day Basket
One of the most popularly known May Day traditions is to hang a basket full of spring flowers and/or other small gifts on a neighbor's doorknob. The trick is you don't want the neighbor to see you! If you get caught, you are supposed to get a kiss.

Materials Needed:
•Construction Paper
•Cellophane Tape
•Home-Made Flowers
•Scissors

Instructions:
Cut a triangle shape out of bright colored construction paper. Make the point flat. Roll the triangle into a cone shape and tape the 2 sides together. Trim off any extra paper around the top of the cone to make it even.

Cut a strip of construction paper that is approximately 12-inches long by 2-inches wide. Tape this strip onto the top of your cone to make a handle.

Now you can fill the basket with flowers and/or treats. Once your May Day cone basket is done, try to hang it on your neighbor's doorknob without getting caught!

Make your own Tabletop May Pole
A popular activity on May Day is to decorate a pole with brightly colored ribbon or paper streamers. Some also add flowers and balloons. The pole is usually carried in a parade and then placed in the ground at a designated area. People then dance around the May pole, holding the ends of the streamers or ribbon in their hands.

Materials Needed:
•Paper Towel Roll
•Cardboard Piece
•Paint
•Ribbon
•Cellophane Tape
•Paint Brush
•Scissors

Instructions:
Tape one end of your painted paper towel roll onto a small piece of cardboard so it stands up straight. Paint the paper towel roll and cardboard a bright color. Set it aside to dry.

Wrap colorful ribbon around your May pole and secure with tape. Cut lengths of ribbon to hang on the outside of your May Pole. Tape these on the inside of the top edge of the paper towel roll. If you like, you can also decorate your May pole with flowers!

Make your own Wishing Well
In London, May Day is celebrated with the children going from house to house. They bring flowers and get pennies in return. The pennies are then thrown into a wishing well. The pennies are then donated to charity.


Materials Needed:
•Craft Sticks
•Tin Can
•Rubber Bands
•Craft Glue

Instructions:
Glue craft sticks around the outside of the tin tan until it is completely covered (figure 1). Once you are done, wrap a few rubber bands around the can to hold the sticks in place until the glue dries. Glue 2 more craft sticks on the can as shown in figure 2. They should be directly across from each other. Wrap rubber bands around these also.

While the can is drying, you can start constructing the roof of your wishing well. Lay 2 craft sticks down as shown in figure 3. Put a dab of glue on each end of another craft stick and lay it across the other 2 as shown in figure 4. Repeat this until yours looks similar to figure 5. Repeat these steps so you end up with 2 pieces that look like figure 5. Also, glue together a set of 45 degree angles out of crafts sticks (figure 6). Set all these pieces aside to dry.

Once everything is dry, you can start gluing the pieces together! Glue the two 45 degree angles on the can as shown in figure 7. Place a clothes pin on them and set aside until it completely dry. Once these are dry, glue on the roof pieces you made from above (figure 8). Top it off with one craft stick glued across the top of your wishing well's roof. Once again, position clothes pins on the pieces until dry.

Once all the glue is dry, your wishing well is ready for pennies or whatever else you want to do with it!

Make a Cow Puppet (Add a flower to its tail and put on a parade!)
In France, cows play an important role in May Day. The cows are led in parades with many flowers attached to their tails. The people watching the parade try to touch the cows; it is believed to be good luck

Materials Needed:
•Paper Lunch Bag (preferably white)
•Black Paint
•Circle-Shaped Sponge
•Construction Paper
•Craft Glue
•Scissors

Instructions:
Use a white paper lunch bag if you can. Use the construction paper or markers to make a face on the bottom of the paper bag. The mouth will be on the bottom edge where the bag is folded. You can also use felt and cut out eyes, nose, etc. Cut small, pointy ear shapes out of construction paper and glue them to the side of the bottom edge of the paper bag.

Once your face is done, you can finish making your cow by giving it black spots! Dip a small, round sponge into black paint and dab it on the bag. Set it aside until the paint dries.

Make a May Tree
In Germany, one tradition is for boys to secretly plant a May tree in front of the window of the girl they love.

Materials Needed:
•Construction Paper
•Crayons
•Miscellaneous Craft Supplies
•Craft Glue
•Scissors

Instructions:
On the large piece of construction paper, trace your hand and forearm all the way up to your elbow. Make sure your fingers are spread apart. The tracing of your forearm will be the tree trunk and your fingers will be the branches! Color it in with brown crayons (you can also use paint or markers).

Using whatever craft supplies you have on hand, cut out leaf and flower shapes and glue them all over your tree's branches. Try some of these suggestions:
•Construction Paper
•Tissue Paper
•Cardboard
•Crepe Paper
•Wallpaper Samples
•Scrap Material
•Buttons
•Felt
•Pieces of Real Leaves and Flowers
•Anything else you can find!

You can also use paint to make the leaves. Pour a little paint on a paper plate, dip your finger in it, and then make fingerprints on the tree branches. Then you can make flowers for your tree using any of the items above.

Make a Hawaiian Lei
On May 1st, people in Hawaii celebrate their own version of May Day; they call it Lei Day. People give Hawaiian leis to each other. They put them around each other's necks and sometimes give a traditional kiss.

Materials Needed:
•Colorful Construction Paper
•Colorful Straws
•Yarn
•Scissors

Instructions:
An easy project! Cut a length of yarn to hang loosely around your neck; make sure you cut it a little longer than you want it so you have room to tie the ends of the yarn together. Cut the straws into 1-inch long pieces.

Cut many colorful flower shapes out of construction paper. If you like, you can reduce the size of this flower pattern and use it. Use a hole puncher and put holes in the center of all your flowers.

Now that you have all your pieces prepared, you can start making your lei! Tie a small piece of straw onto the end of your piece of yarn. Start stringing your flowers and straw pieces onto the yarn. Alternate between flowers and straws. Once you get the design you want and the yarn piece is full, tie the two ends of the yarn together and wear your lei with pride!

Easter, It's Pagan Roots
Myth Busted
Personally I believe the article on the religious tolerance website, what do you believe?

Tomfoolery is afoot!

The origins of April Fools' Day are obscure. The most commonly cited theory holds that it dates from 1582, the year France adopted the Gregorian Calendar, which shifted the observance of New Year's Day from the end of March (around the time of the vernal equinox) to the first of January. 
According to popular lore some folks, out of ignorance, stubbornness, or both, continued to ring in the New Year on April 1 and were made the butt of jokes and pranks on account of their foolishness. This became an annual tradition, according to this version of events, which ultimately spread throughout Europe.
A major weakness of the calendar-change theory is that it fails to account for an historical record replete with traditions linking this time of year to merriment and tomfoolery dating all the way back to antiquity. 

The Romans, for example, celebrated a festival on March 25 called Hilaria, marking the occasion with masquerades and "general good cheer." 
Holi, the Hindu "festival of colors" observed in early March with "general merrymaking" and the "loosening of social norms," is at least as old.

It seems reasonable to speculate that the calendrical changes of the 16th and 17th centuries served more as an excuse to codify the general spirit of frivolity already associated with the advent of spring than as a direct inspiration.

Merry Beltaine

The Return of the Sun
Beltaine is an anglicization of the Irish "Bealtaine" or the Scottish "Bealtuinn." While "tene" clearly means "fire," nobody really knows whether Bel refers to Belenus, a pastoral god of the Gauls, or is from "bel," simply meaning "brilliant." It might even derive from "bil tene" or "lucky fire" because to jump between two Beltane fires was sure to bring good fortune, health to your livestock, and prosperity.

When the Druids and their successors raised the Beltaine fires on hilltops throughout the British Isles on May Eve, they were performing a real act of magic, for the fires were lit in order to bring the sun’s light down to earth. In Scotland, every fire in the household was extinguished, and the great fires were lit from the need-fire which was kindled by 3 times 3 men using wood from the nine sacred trees. When the wood burst into flames, it proclaimed the triumph of the light over the dark half of the year.

Then the whole hillside came alive as people thrust brands into the newly roaring flames and whirled them about their heads in imitation of the circling of the sun. If any man there was planning a long journey or dangerous undertaking, he leaped backwards and forwards three times through the fire for luck. As the fire sunk low, the girls jumped across it to procure good husbands; pregnant women stepped through it to ensure an easy birth, and children were also carried across the smoldering ashes. When the fire died down, the embers were thrown among the sprouting crops to protect them, while each household carried some back to kindle a new fire in their hearth. When the sun rose that dawn, those who had stayed up to watch it might see it whirl three times upon the horizon before leaping up in all its summer glory.

The Rites of Spring
Beltaine was a time of fertility and unbridled merrymaking, when young and old would spend the night making love in the Greenwood. In the morning, they would return to the village bearing huge budding boughs of hawthorn (the may-tree) and other spring flowers with which to bedeck themselves, their families, and their houses. They would process back home, stopping at each house to leave flowers, and enjoy the best of food and drink that the home had to offer. In every village, the maypole—usually a birch or ash pole—was raised, and dancing and feasting began. Festivities were led by the May Queen and her consort, the King who was sometimes Jack-in-the-Green, or the Green Man, the old god of the wildwood. They were borne in state through the village in a cart covered with flowers and enthroned in a leafy arbor as the divine couple whose unity symbolized the sacred marriage of earth and sun.

To Celebrate Beltaine Today
Arise at dawn and wash in the morning dew: the woman who washes her face in it will be beautiful; the man who washes his hands will be skilled with knots and nets. 

If you live near water, make a garland or posy of spring flowers and cast it into stream, lake or river to bless the water spirits.

Prepare a May basket by filling it with flowers and goodwill, then give it to one in need of caring, such as an elderly friend.

Beltaine is one of the three "spirit-nights" of the year when the faeries can be seen. At dusk, twist a rowan sprig into a ring and look through it, and you may see them.

Make a wish as you jump a bonfire or candle flame for good luck—but make sure you tie up long skirts first!

Make a May bowl —wine or punch in which the flowers of sweet woodruff or other fragrant blossoms are soaked—and drink with the one you love.

Oshun Spirit Doll

 

I, like many of you have found myself in need of some financial help, so I was doing some research on money/prosperity spells and came across a spell that mentioned Oshun, Goddess of love, intimacy, beauty, wealth, and diplomacy. Upon reading a bit about her, where else but wikipedia of course, anyway from her story I felt an immediate connection to her, and decided that my money spell would involve her in some way.

Then I was reading a spell about a money doll that you could make and carry with you to bring you the finances you need. So I combined them both and wanted to share it with you. So here are the pictures and the instructions if you are so inclined to make one for yourself.


Supplies: Wire (I used 16 ga. for this doll), Hemp Cord, Tacky Glue, & Small square of fabric, some pliers - with cutting edge, and some patience.
Start by cutting 4" of wire, and another 2" for the arms. Fold the 4" wire in half and squeeze it tightly together as shown.


To hold the hemp in place while you begin wrapping it I just squeezed it between the two legs and held it there. I began wrapping the neck, and then went into the head area.


But before you begin wrapping I found that the entire strand of hemp was too thick so I was able to split it into two strands, as shown here.



Once you have the wrapped, move down to the arms and lay the 2" wire across the chest and wrap them on using an X pattern. Once the chest is wrapped go down the legs, I wrapped the legs with a couple of strands to make them a bit thick. Then I wrapped the arms and I went back and forth over the chest a couple of times just because I felt like it. :)

I used a bit of Tacky glue to keep the ends down, and then I used the pliers and curled up the hands and feet. Ta Da! My spirit doll was done, sort of.

Now for the dress, I cut a bit of fabric and just used Oshun to measure the size, then I folded the fabric in half and cut a small opening for her head to fit through. Next I put her dress on her folded the front around her body and brought the back around her front. To hold it in place I wrapped a different color of hemp cord around her waist for a belt.

And now she is done!