Springborn Altar

I got a new keyboard, yay!!

The above image is my first outdoor altar that I've put together just for myself. The table top is actually marble that a good friend brought over from his place of work; it was left over after an older building was torn down or renovated, I can't remember which. The wood is from our sycamore tree that The Great Ice Storm of January 2007 took out. Since sycamore is a soft wood these blocks won't last more than a couple of years but there are always trees coming down around these parts somewhere and I have an "in" with someone who has access to trees removed by city cleanup folks. So, it's not going to be an everlasting altar but is semi-permanent. It's hard to tell from this image but most of the rocks on the ground have little, or lots, of quartz or gypsum, or both. These are rocks I took from the little stand of trees down the hill from house; it was hard work but worth it! There are also some rocks with interesting fossil imprints, a few holey river rocks and a couple of (to me) unusual rocks from Minnesota. Since I'm such a rock hound I will, of course, be adding more as time goes by. The little black thing that kinda looks like a knife is actually an old railroad tie that I saved with rustproof black paint. Ever since I found it I thought it would make a great ritual tool perhaps as a stand in for a knife or wand. However, I don't really use either in my workings so I don't know what I'll use the tie for. Maybe I'll leave it there to add to the rustic look.

I don't know why it took me so long to finally put together an outdoor altar. I've been thinking about it for year and years. I've mentioned before my disinclination, or inability, to use fancy, store bought ritual items and it still holds true. I just don't care much for the expensive, or even expensive looking, ritual tools. All of that sterling silver and brightly polished stuff usually leaves me magically cold. Yeah, it looks nice and if someone gifted me something like that I would be eternally grateful. But I just prefer old, weathered things I find along the way. The rail road tie came from the bottom of box of auction items. And many of my magical items have come from an old pickup truck that was left to rot way back behind our house. It's a really old funky truck that's at least 70 years old and chock full of treasures. Inside it was a veritable shitload of horse shoes and the remains of a big 'ol glass thermometer which I plan to dig out and add to the outdoor altar.

The vase holds a few of our roses and a bit of honeysuckle and it's just a small sampling of the wonderful blooms and blossoms to be found in these hills. I simply love how all of our neighborhood flowers are opening up. Our compost roses are going wild and our other rose bush will be covered with blooms in another week. There's pretty, but scentless, honeysuckle next to the chimney and delicious wild honeysuckle along the driveway. The peonies, planted several years ago, have finally put forth two large and intoxicating blossoms over the grave of our dear, departed Dalmatian Missy. The multi-flora wild white roses are popping out too. I love them so much and still can't believe it when people go to great lengths to kill them. They have pretty foliage, gorgeous, copious white flowers and they seem very resistant to mold and bugs. And, as if that weren't enough, they smell heavenly! Once bush can perfume an entire country yard!

Since we were nearly drowning for a few weeks everything is growing by wild leaps and bounds. We just finished mowing the other day and will have to start again this weekend. Now that we've had some dryer days folks are cutting hay like mad. All of the grasses and trees and foliage paint the landscape with a multitude of gorgeous greens. There are deep, forest greens, and vivid emeralds along with bright, yellowy-greens and every shade in between! And the sky is so brilliantly blue that just stepping outside is like falling into a painter's palette replete with the freshest scents. It's absolutely heavenly. I'm so glad spring has finally taken hold; it's healing my battered and bruised heart and psyche. Spring; it does a body, mind and soul good!

P.S. We now have bats and lightning bugs, double yay!!

Lodestone and Lightning

Lodestones, or loadstones, are magnetites that have been intensely magnetized by the magnetic fields surrounding lightning strikes. They consist of two different minerals: wustite and the familiar hematite. They are the most naturally magnetic mineral on the planet and act as permanent magnets to attract and magnetize iron. (But if you want a piece of lodestone don't assume you can find it at your area's gemstone and mineral show; I learned that lesson. All they could offer me was hematite which is nice but not the same.) Lodestone has had a long, fascinating history of use among ancient pagans as well as modern scientists. Lodestones were an immense help to the ancients as they were used in compasses. They can also be utilized in the study of plate tectonics. Interestingly enough, they were employed in various ancient temple magic tricks.

You see, back in the old days, there were a lot of gods, via priests, vying for the attentions and donations of the public. And one of the methods of attracting worshipers was to have engineers design magnificent creations to be used in the temples. I learned about these amazing feats of gimmickry from The History Channel Ancient Discoveries: Machines of the Gods. From the site:

Alexandria became the centre of this temple trickery. Writers from all over the ancient world flocked to document the strange devices. There are tantalising glimpses from the ancient texts which reveal some of the types of temple machines which were in operation. One of the most famous illusions was to be found at the Temple of Serapis, where an iron chariot hung suspended in mid air. The spectacle appeared to be the work of the gods. In fact, it is believed that a giant lodestone was suspended from the ceiling which would have made the iron chariot appear to be floating by an act of god. The trickery worked, attracting many new visitors to the temple.

The tone of the show is slightly condescending in terms of the gullibility of the worshipers but I'm too fascinated by the ancient inventions to care all that much. There were doors that opened automatically when an individual approached. There were statues of goddesses that seemed to pour out life-giving milk. There were rotating dancers and dragons that moaned as water pressure forced an arrow to shoot them. And the list goes on. If you have the opportunity I highly recommend you check out the show; it's worth it!

Anyway, back to lodestones. Even though I find the ancient uses of lodestone interesting my main concern is their use within hoodoo. Lodestones must be "fed" periodically with magnetic sand to keep them from "starving", magically speaking. They can be used for a variety of different spells depending on their size and their "gender" (more on that in a bit). Single large lodestones are used draw luck or money. Small, gravel-sized stones are carried singly or in pairs in mojo bags to attract love and luck. The very smallest lodestones are submerged in oils to be used for later spellwork.

Paired lodestones, either female/male, male/male or female/female are used in love and fidelity spells. A "male" lodestone is pyramidal or pointed and a "female" lodestone is cubicle or rounded. Generally speaking, paired lodestones should be about the same size and should "fit" together. According to Lucky Mojo:

The matching process consists of sprinkling the lodestones very lightly with magnetic sand to visually reveal their magnetic polarities, and then, by trial and error, finding pairs in which two edges join together well along their planar, convex, or concave surfaces AND also have the proper positive-negative charges that allow them to "draw" or attract along these selected surfaces.

I've always had a thing for hematite as well as any kind of earthbound object produced or affected by lightning, like fulgurite. And, this just occurred to me, I guess this means I have ties to Zeus/Jupiter, specifically Jupiter Fulgurator, as he is the god of lightning. Perhaps I should look at him more closely. I've read that, according to some American Indians and others, it's bad luck to burn lightning struck wood in a fire or stove. But I wonder about using lightning struck wood to, for example, make a ritual tool? It's been touched by a bit of the heavens and, while it obviously wouldn't be magnetized, I figure it would still have some powerful qualities attached to it.

What do you think of lightning in terms of its magical effects?

Pietre Dure

Believe it or not but this isn't a painting. It's an example of pietre dure which, in Italian, means hard rock. A new exhibit of art from European palaces is showcasing this unique and amazingly beautiful art form. From the article: hard rock or hardstone, refers foremost to an intricate inlay of finely cut, highly polished slices of semiprecious stones: agate, lapis lazuli, jasper, carnelian, alabaster, rock crystal, amethyst.

Pietre dure could be flat. Fashioned into radiantly colored geometric patterns, floral designs, landscapes or mythological scenes, it was incorporated into tabletops, cabinets of all sizes, wall panels, portable altars, jewelry boxes and other furnishings. Such works could also be in the round: carved hardstone sculptural busts, statuettes, vases, snuff boxes, cameos, jewelry and miraculously thin-walled bowls.

I'm just loving this style of art, which had its golden age during the Renaissance. As a wannabe-artist and lover of semi-precious stones this seems the perfect blending of the natural beauty to be found within the earth and the ingenuity of the human creative spirit. And strangely enough, finding this article was very timely as I've just recently begun considering adding some stones to a wood burning or possibly to a collage. I couldn't do things like the above picture of the Parthenon as I'm not a lapidary nor do I have access to a great quantity of stones. But I'd still like to utilize the magical properties of gemstones in a creative way. I'm still figuring out the logistics of such a prospect but am greatly inspired by pietre dure and will pursue my plans.

Fulgurite

Fulgur: Latin for lightning

Lightning flashes at about 100 times per second and nearly one third of that lightning reaches the Earth. When lightning hits rock it creates rock fulgurite, a brownish-green glass. This less common form of fulgurite usually only occurs on mountaintops. The more common sand fulgurite occurs when lightning strikes sand. It makes a hole and around that hole is where the fulgurite forms. The lightning leaves a glass tube following along the branched path of the original strike. For this reason, sand fulgurite can be enormous. The largest piece of sand fulgurite was found in Florida. Its two branches totaled 33 feet!

As a product of lightning sand fulgurite has obvious correspondences with gods such as Zeus or Jupiter, supreme among the Greco-Roman gods, who is often portrayed with a thunderbolt in hand.

Ritual Tools: To Buy or Not to Buy

Within the framework of our little pagan group I've come to the realization that I prefer ritual tools of a more natural or rustic form. Don't get me wrong, I admire beautiful sterling silver chalices and jeweled wands just as much has the next witch. But being a perpetually poor person has led me to use what I have around already and only on rare occasions have I actually purchased a ritual item. I've also learned to be crafty in my shopping as you can find amazing things in garage sales and flea markets. I love occult and pagan-themed shops and I support them as best I can, but let's get real, they can be very, very pricey. Some of the once-mundane but now magical items I've found include the glass tube of a large thermometer that I've used as a wand. I found it in the ancient, rusty truck in the back of our acreage. I've also got an old railroad tie that, after a quick spray with black rust-proof paint, serves as a great athame. It came from the bottom of a box from an auction. And you know all those amazing crystals and big chunks of semi-precious stones you see in the occult shop? I never had the money for them so I just used what I had around me. And it's amazing the rocks one can find in their own backyard.

My most favorite rock in the whole world has the fossil imprint of an ancient snail, that's right, a perfect spiral. It's a permanent altar item and I found it in my garden. Also, every year in Springfield there's a big gem and rock show that benefits mentally challenged kids and they always have these great $1 grab bags full of discarded rocks and semi-precious stones. It's so awesome as the bags are chock full of over a pound of rocks; once I even got a bit of a low grade ruby! That's where my spell work stones have all come from as I just couldn't afford the big fancy stuff. I've also been lucky enough to have many ritual items given to me as gifts. My athame, a beautiful blue Depression glass knife, was a Christmas gift from my mom. My wand is a plain, clear glass towel rod that my dad found in the trash (he's a trash truck driver). My altar incense burner was a birthday gift from my friend V., one member of our little pagan group. I've been given countless candles and incense from friends and family as well, as has many an out pagan I suppose. So, even though I've never had as much money to spend on witchy items as I would like I've been lucky enough to receive and discover some great magical items. What I'm getting at with all this is my weird little theory that goes something like this: magical items are best when they come to you, as opposed to when you go into debt to buy them. Now just bear with me here, I'll try to explain it.

Now, as pagan we don't proselytize, that is, we don't preach. We don't seek converts. And the reason for this, as I understand it, is that if someone is meant to walk a pagan path, they will find it when they are ready for it. Well, that's how I feel about items used in ritual. Now, I'm not saying that it's wrong to go out and buy that beautiful cauldron you've been lusting after; I've bought a few things myself from time to time. What I am saying is: before you spend a chunk of change on something shiny go outside, dig in your backyard, dig through your garage or attic, dig through a neighbors garage sale boxes. You never know what treasures may be hiding just waiting to be found and cherished.