What a wonderful day I’ve had on the hunt for witchcraft books in the world famous book town of Hay-on-Wye. This beautiful, old market town is renowned for its vast array of second hand book shops.  It’s a real hive for collectors and general book browsers alike who can be seen buzzing about the place looking for the sweet nectar of that rare find.  At the time of the famous Hay festival there are veritable swarms of people who congregate to hear talks, attend book signings, read and browse whilst eating ice cream from the delectable Shepherd’s Ice Cream Parlour.  Their ice cream is made with sheep’s milk – very apt for this time of year with Imbolc just past (the word Imbolc is derived from ‘oimelc’ meaning ewe milk).

Hanging out in book shops is one of my favourite things to do and Booths on Lion Street is my favourite one of them all.  It’s big and it creaks!  The shelves are laden with with rare, old and new books.  The wide, wooden staircase leads to another floor with sofas to lounge upon with your pile of books.  I cuddled up with the extremely furry book shop cat and whiled away the afternoon with my wondrous witchy finds.  What bliss!

Witchcraft Books I Discovered

Of course, the section I always gravitate towards is the occult in the hopes of some previously undiscovered delights!  I wasn’t disappointed when I came across quite a few witchcraft books for sale.  The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Witchcraft and Practical Magic caught my eye and it turned out to be a rather exciting tome full of amazing fine art, spells and history of magic and witchcraft.  I can’t wait to get properly buried in it.

I also came across Rae Beth’s book Hedgewitch.  A Guide to Solitary Witchcraft which is a series of very informative letters she wrote to two of her new students.  I think this is one of the best witchcraft books for beginners as the letter format means the reader can gain deep insights and teachings of the life of a real witch who practices alone.  There’s a few pen-and-ink sketches too along with descriptions and spells for all the key celtic fesitvals.  It’s very interesting and informative reading for those desiring to learn witchcraft or simply to expand their understanding.  Plus, I think reading a real life witch’s personal accounts of her practise is always fascinating!

In the end, the cat set off my sneezing (I’m allergic to them unfortunately) so I took that as my cue to get going and headed for home with my new witchcraft books in tow.

I just adore Imbolc as it fills me with hope and feelings of renewal and promise.  My pent up, hibernating energy is just waiting to uncoil and spring into action ready to embrace the warmer weather and longer days.

This Imbolc festival I decided to wait until the 7th Febuary for the full moon to celebrate this auspicious festival.  The first signs of spring have sprung in my garden.  There are snowdrops aplenty whose courage in springing above the earth’s surface wasn’t dampened by the four inches of snow that fell on Saturday!  Not out of the woods yet it seems, in terms of the cold weather.

Well, I love snow and my spirits weren’t dampened as I headed out for a snowy walk with my son.  The sights were truly magickal.  Holly and hawthorn displayed resplendent, bright, red berries contrasted by the ivy, with its black berries as it roved in between the two, reminding me of the Yuletide now behind us.

Traditionally at Imbolc, the God who was reborn at Yule is now seen as a young man who is in hot pursuit of the Maiden.  In this new season, she puts aside her role of Wise Woman and dons the white robes of Maiden.

Imbolc is the first rite of spring and a fire festival.  In some covens, a maiden will be chosen and dressed in white and a crown of lights.  The presiding deity at Imbolc festival is Bride (or Bridgit).

Looking back over Imbolc rituals past, I am so encouraged to see how my intentions have born fruit.  In 2010 this is especially notable when my rekindled relationship is still the best ever, I now have a son and definitely a magickal garden and a lovely house complete with real fire. I have also maintained this blog and started two others.  It’s special to see how our intentions come to fruition.

My Imbolc Ritual 2012

This year I fully utilised the full moon’s power and did a ritual for my intentions for 2012.   I love to honour the Goddess and God at all the Sabbats so I made an Imbolc ritual cake offering to them – mini banana cakes.  I also offered fire in the form of a special candle, air by lighting incense I bought in India called Vrindavan Flower, a bulb I will later plant for earth, and a goblet of water.  We have our own water supply from a borehole in the back garden so our water is pure and sweet, making a lovely water element offering to my spiritual guardians.

Invite the Elements and Goddess and God

I then invited the elements and called upon the Goddess and God and offered them my preparations.  I bought Imbolc candles – one white and one black.  I lit the black candle and said loudly “This light represents the Wise Woman who presides over the dark winter months.  I thank her for her guidance and wisdom over this internal and meditative time. ”

Then I spent time thinking about what I’ve learned and achieved over this time period.

“Now the Wise Woman becomes the Maiden, full of youthful vitality, health and beauty and brimming with promise.”

I then lit a white candle and extinguished the black one, thinking about what I would like to begin this Imbolc.  I list these things on a special piece of paper and then bury the list along with my bulb I offered for the element of earth.

I have since planted the bulb in a pot so it will grow and bloom along with my new projects.

I then thanked the elements and Goddess and Gods’ presence and closed the circle.

This is a nice Imbolc ritual for solitary practitioners.

Please share yours by commenting below.

Yuletide greetings to you all!  This year for Yule I was determined to make a wreath for the front door and I did!  It is still on the front doorstep as I can’t bear to dismantle it and scatter the greenery away.

For Yule festival 2011 I organised a wonderful witchy gathering of eight women.  We each made festive food to share and ended up with a lot of yummy preparations!  Before we tucked in however, we gathered in a circle and recognised the time of year and absorbed the special, cosy, spicy and social, bubbly energy Yuletide brings.  We held hands, absorbed each other’s presence and cast a circle around the house, inviting the quarters and God and Goddess.

I spoke a little about Yule meaning and history before asking everyone to get out their tealights I’d asked them to bring.  These were for our Yule log.  Traditionally, each person lights a candle to represent and welcome the coming of the light and to make a wish for the days ahead.  In addition to the wish, I suggested the candle also be a light for those loved ones no longer with us and to share their memories.  This turned out to be a moving session as we each took it in turn to make our wish and honour our departed loved ones.  The Yule log was a beautiful sight at the end, glimmering in the dimmed light of the ceremony room, full of held intentions and shared memories.

Yule wouldn’t be complete without gifts, so we did a secret santa and each received something special.  My lovely material framed mirror is still hanging over my fireplace.

I made Yule incense too – frankincense, myrrh, cinnamon and dried orange peel which I burned to welcome the guests.

So this was my Yule ritual 2011.  Please share how you celebrated yours by commenting below.

A week or so ago, I posted about the plans I had for this year’s festival of Samhain or Halloween.

The magickal, dark and rainy Samhain night went very, very well indeed!  A combination of fun, serious sharing about our deceased loved ones, feasting and a very interesting psychic development exercise.

I discovered my Samhain costume from last year – my black feather boa, black dress and a purple hat which I donned for the evening until the fire I’d lit got too hot!

I made a special Samhain altar for our ancestors and each one of us brought photos to place upon the altar.  It was kind of like they shared the evening with us!  We each said a little something about our loved ones and it turned out to be a really lovely, moving sharing session.

Then came the psychic development part.  As I’d requested, each person brought an object to the group that held personal meaning to them.  We each held our object which was wrapped in cloth or inside a bag, then passed it to the person on our left.  Then we spent five minutes on each object intuiting anything we could about it.

The results were staggering!  My object was a little hand-knitted dog belonging to my son and knitted for him by my mother.  One person picked up spirals, going round and round and swirling which was the knitting action.  Another person said “your object has a nose and a red strip” – the red was the dog’s collar!  Also, a feminine energy  and lots of love were picked up.

Another object was a feather. As soon as I held it my hads buzzed with energy so I knew it was used for ritual.  Correct! I also intuited air, wind and flight as did the others. So there we go.

Another object was a ring.  We all intuited very different things for this object from happiness to sadness and loss, travel, a gift, somehow sacred, from deep in the earth.  It turns out this diamond ring was an engagement ring belonging to her great grandmother who emigrated to New Zealand.    Her father had given it to his wife as an engagement ring but she left him after some years.  So there are all the elements we intuited there in the story of that ring.  Amazing.

We all left that exercise feeling truly happy and satisfied with ourselves.  We also learnt not to limit what we write down for fear of being wrong.  Some of us did this only to wish we’d written it down when we were proved right!!  Also we learned not to let our intelligence get in the way – intuit, don’t guess!  And, very often the first things come in your mind are usually right.

Many of us want to learn how to be psychic and this exercise demonstrates just how we can accurately intuit many things correctly by just focusing and practise.  We all have it in us.

Then it was time for the feast of Samhain we’d all prepared.  The pumpkin soup and pie I’d made were delicious.

We did some tarot reading to end the evening to get some guidance for the new year ahead.

So all in all, a wonderful festival of Samhain.  Please share what you did this year – I’d love to hear!

There are tonnes of Samhain / Halloween recipes, but of course the main ones involve good old pumpkin.  There’s nothing I love more than cookin’ up a storm in the kitchen!  It’s part of my creative fun, pulling spices out of the cupboard and using herbs from the garden.   And I get to please others in the process by offering them the tasty treats I conjure in the kitchen!

For this year’s Samhain feast I’m going to make pumpkin soup with cream, with courgette and cheese muffins, yum.  For dessert, I’ll make pumpkin pie.  I’ll probably look like a pumpkin after I’ve consumed my fill, but that’s okay on Samhain!

Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
2 onions , finely chopped
1kg pumpkin or squash (butternut is wonderful). Chop into chunks, remove seeds and skin.
750ml vegetable stock (Marigold’s veg bouillon powder is yum) or any veg stock will do
130ml double cream

Method

Heat the oil in a large pan and fry onions for 5 mins until they’re soft.  don’t let them colour.  Add pumpkin chunks and cook gently for another 10 mins.  It will turn a wonderful golden colour and soften a little.

Add the stock and some black pepper (leave out salt as sometime stock is salty enough).  Simmer for 10 mins until soft.  Then add the cream to the pan, bring to the boil and then blend with a stick/hand blender.  Make some croutons to go with it if you like.  Also, it’s nice with toasted, slivered almonds on top.  Serve with garlic bread or crusty granary bread and butter.

Samhain festival wouldn’t be the same without pumpkin pie, so here’s a recipe I love.  Have fun making it!  I like to offer it to the God and Goddess and then offer it to my ancestors.

Sweet Pumpkin Pie

Pastry for a 9-inch pie dish.

1/2 cup plain flour

1/2 cup wholemeal plain flour

1/2 cup butter at room temp

1/2 tsp salt

5 – 7 tblsp cold water

Combine the lot minus 3 tblsp of the water.  Mix with your hands until it resembles breadcrumbs.  Add the rest of the water bit by bit if until you get a ball of pastry.  Wrap in a buttered plastic bag or put in a tub and chill for around 30 mins.  Then make your filling.  After filling is prepared, roll out pastry on a floured surface.  Place in your 9-inch pie dish.

Filling:

1 med size pumpkin or very large butternut squash

1 1/4 cups (310 ml) sweetened condensed milk

2 tblsp cornflour

1 tsp cinnamon powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp freshly ground whole allspice berries

1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

Chop the pumpkin in half crosswise.  Remove seeds and fibres and place cut side down on a lightly greased baking sheet.  Place in a 160 degrees C oven for around 1 hour or until it’s tender when pierced with a knife/

Scrape away pulp from the skin and discard the skin.  Place put in food processor and blend until smooth.  Do this in batches – easier to achieve smooth result.

Force through a sieve and measure 2 cups for the pie and reserve the rest for other purposes.  Combine the measured pumpkin puree with all the other filling ingredients.  Beat with a wire whisk until smooth and creamy.

Assemble and bake

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C.  Pour the filling into the chilled pastry case and smooth it out.  It should be barely 2.5cm deep.  Bake for 40 mins or until the filling is set.  cool and cut into wedges and serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.  Enjoy!

Enjoy!