Spring Rain

We had some rain today, this was sunset at our place... you don't get this kind of sky in a big city often! I have found that since moving to our little town I have been blessed with the ability to see more of the Natural world! The more I see, the more in awe I am!

 

View from the side door:



 

Off the back porch! Look at the colours in the clouds! I wish I could share the smell of the rain, so fresh!

 

 

 

My Top Ten Favorite Cauldrons... Part 3

4. Kitchen Aid: Ahhh, the modern day wonder of the Kitchen Aid Mixer.... The marvel of the device, that mixes, makes pasta and a billion other things I have yet to figure out. The mixer is one of the newer additions to my cauldron lists! My husband and I bought our house a little over a year ago. Prior to living where we are now we lived in a postage stamp sized basement suite. You had a stove, a sink, about 50 inches of counter space and the fridge. I was happy to be able to have my toaster and coffee maker on the counter every day. 

With so little kitchen space neither my husband nor I did much in the kitchen. We hardly had room for the basic utensils so having any specialty items was out of the question. If one person was cooking the other had to stand in the living room as two people would not fit in that space. Then we moved and got a kitchen with more cupboards and counters that I had ever had. My husband’s mother gave us some new pots and a I shopped diligently at places like Wal-mart and Costco for new frying pans, skillets and other kitchen tools. When we got married we bought ourselves a bread maker that paid for itself within the first two months! Then for Christmas/Yule my dad and his wife gave us a Kitchen Aid Mixer.

I was overjoyed and remarkably intimidated. You see I normally did not cook. In the old apartment it was a basic roast or grilled chicken, BBQ in the summer. I might have some roast beef with potatoes and frozen vegetables, but that was it. Any cookies or pies in our house were store bought. But with the new mixer I talked learning to bake. I went through multiple cookie recipes, with the mixer humming along, we tried different muffins, I even used it for mixing homemade sauces. My ultimate achievement was learning to make pie crusts!

The mixer did more than just transform my food from a pile of ingredients to a dough, it transformed our health. By learning to bake I was able to control the ingredients in our food, I was able to invest in my local farmers by buying farm fresh eggs and produce. I knew exactly what we were putting in our bodies, and without all the chemicals we began losing some flub (even when I was eating more cookies than normal). I was also able to share something of my work with friends and family when they came to visit, or take a plate of cookies to a staff meeting to share.

But most of all it helped me transform myself. I had spent a long time toying with the notion of doing more cooking and baking at home, but figured I did not have the time or the skills to do so. Having the mixer took away my excuse of no time, it was so incredibly simple and quick to throw the ingredients together, and then I could do a load of laundry while the cookie baked or the sauce warmed up. The ease of the mixing showed me that I could in fact follow a recipe and make delicious treats and meals for our family. While this may sound trivial to many, this means a great deal to me, boosted my confidence and has granted me a beautiful growth opportunity.

3. Popcorn Popper: I will confess, I am addicted to popcorn. Badly. In college I would often eat nothing but popcorn during my long study and paper writing sessions. It was quick and easy to throw a bag of popcorn into the microwave, grab a drink and then go back downstairs for another three hour marathon of cramming my brain full of facts, dates, diagnostic criteria and theories of human brain development. In fact most of my meals were like that, pre packaged, microwavable and quick. Thanks to my diligence, hard work and gracious gift of free room and board from my father, I graduated.

I moved out into my own place and began to make my own way in the world, but my eating habits stayed right in college. I kept eating convenience food, lots of coffee and pop, and of course, the microwave popcorn. I paid no attention at all to what I was putting in my body and my weight suffered. In two years I went up six dress sizes and put on a good 70-100 pounds. NOT GOOD! I noticed that none of my clothes fit anymore and I was out of breath just walking to the photocopier. Time for a change

For the next six months I read up on what the food I was eating actually had in it, and I would like the term food for these items to be revoked. I read on what it was doing to my body (besides the obvious signs of weight gain). I realized just how suicidal my eating habits had become and began the long process of making a change. It was hard, I had to change everything I did and thought about food. Add to that we had a very tiny kitchen at that time and so preparation space did not exist. Luckily we were able to buy our own home and it came with a huge kitchen. I began cooking and eating better... except that damn microwave popcorn! It seemed to be a stumbling block that I could not surmount.

Then one day at Lee Valley (watch out, Lee Valley is like crack) my husband picked up a stove top popcorn popper. I thought he was crazy, but he promised to make me the best popcorn I had ever had. So that night at home he made popcorn on the stove, drizzled a little olive oil and some sea salt on it, and gave it to me to try. He did not lie. It was amazing! Way tastier than my microwave popcorn, and I didn’t feel gross after munching on it. What’s more I seemed to need to eat less of it to curb the craving!

He showed me how to use it and I became a stove top popcorn making maniac! I can eat the stuff straight or with the drizzle of olive oil. And something else interesting happened, I stopped wanting a lot of the junk I was eating. I still occasionally indulge in some chips and pretzels, but I find I want less of them, and my body is very happy with me. In seven months I dropped a ton of weight (when we went to get married I had to take in my wedding dress 2 ½ inches on both sides) and have become a mad gardener, growing food for my family.

It sounds very silly to say, but before the popper I felt like I was doomed to forever be fighting off cravings for unhealthy food and doomed to be a larger woman. With the microwave popcorn thoroughly kicked (I can’t even stand the smell of the stuff anymore) I felt like I could take on the world and accomplish any and all weight loss goals I have, I have been transformed. I still have a long way to go, but I am on the right track!

2. Pentagram: My hunt for the perfect cauldron has taken me all over the place, from places like Wal-Mart and Value Village, to online pagan shops. Bass Pro and other outdoor stores have also been my hunting grounds. I had settled for my brass Value Village Flower Planter cauldron (it now serves as my portable fire bowl), I then found my mini cauldron’s on eBay. They had the look and the feel I wanted, but their size was a problem at times. When I wanted to do larger workings, or use my cauldron to burn papers in I ran into some troubles. The larger papers did not get enough air to burn properly in the little ones. I would have to sit there and tear my paper up into little pieces.

I also found that for some rituals the size of the little ones made them really hard to find on a dark altar cloth in the middle of the night! The brass one was doing ok, but the feel was just all wrong to me. I know that tools really are not necessary but when you are rather new to the game (as I was back then) you don’t really get that. After all you want to be a real witch, cast great spells, do moving rituals... everything has to be just right! So I moped and griped to myself about the cauldron and bided my time.

One day after a ritual I had to leave the area rather quickly (some of you may recall my top ten stupid list that involved a fire on a hilltop) and so ended up having to kick my brass cauldron (former flower pot) and stomp out my fire, then singed my hands a little when I tried to pick it up. I ended up having to wrap it in a blanket to be able to carry it home. I was very frustrated by the lack of lid and the fact that I did not have a carrying handle (my hands were not pleased with that one in particular).

I went to work out of province for two months where I had a very difficult experience. I faced my first, and only, case of persecution because of my religion. It was not easy, actually I was downright terrified. Luckily for me the group I was with was very supportive and the individual was reprimanded and invited not to return because of this (and a few other incidents of religious persecution against others of differing faiths). While the incident had definitely left me feeling very shaken and vulnerable, it had also restored some of my faith in my fellow humans and had given me the opportunity to do some deep soul searching.

You see at this camp my space was limited so I had left almost all my tools at home. I had only brought a handmade God and Goddess statue and some prayer books I had bought. So I went to a local park, I sat myself down and had a long heart to heart with myself. I prayed for guidance, for wisdom and healing. No tools, no props, no candles or robes, just me and the Gods. While sitting in this park, my back against a tree, I felt all my feelings of anger, hurt, betrayal and fear slip out of me and into the earth. I felt the cool breeze of the evening, listened to a few bird and felt calm and at peace.

I found within myself the strength I needed to get through the next few days and the courage to show my face again with my head held high. Whenever I felt my strength wane I gave a silent prayer and found myself restored. I had finally figured out that the tools mean diddly squat. That what is truly powerful is the connection I make within myself and with my Gods. A few months later I was with a friend at a local Pagan store when I came across a display of Cauldrons. They had every shape and size imaginable, including three that were exactly what I had been looking for. I picked each one up and held it in my hands. When I lifted the third one it felt warm in my hands and I could feel my body tingle. I knew it was the right one.

As we drove home I was looking out the window, marveling at my new cauldron, and wondering why the heck it took me so long to find it. I don’t know if I figured this part out on my own or if it was inspired within me somehow: If you were never powerful enough to work magic without it, what on earth made you think you would be enough with it? I found that cauldron after I stopped relying on tools to make my own magic. I found it after I learned that tools certainly enhance my practice, but do not determine it. Finding this cauldron felt, at least to me, like a signal that I was learning and advancing in my craft. I still have a hell of a ways to go, and will never stop learning, but when I look at that cauldron I remember just how far I have come.

1. Bathtub: Yes you read that right, my favorite cauldron of all times is the bathtub! It is the only cauldron I know that I can fit my whole body into! A bathtub is truly a wondrous tool, and a fairly recent modern addition. Think about this for a minute: up until indoor plumbing in the modern era (like the past 100 years) if people wanted to have a bath they had to haul the water, heat it up on a stove and then pour it into a wash bin of types for you to have a bath. Not exactly convenient is it? Most people probably only bathed ever week.

Earlier than that people bathed less frequently, for example do you know why June was the marrying month? Because people had their annual... yes annual... bath in May, so in June they were not as stinky! Some historians theorize that flowers for the bride was to cover the smell of body odor (I don’t know if that is true or not, just something I read). Could you imagine standing next to somebody who does not bathe regularly?!? I know after two or three days of camping I am pretty ripe and need to wash off quickly if I want to be able to stand myself! Now imagine a village full of it! I am very grateful to be born in a time when people bathe regularly (and discovered the joy of deodorant).

Advances in overall hygiene is definitely one of the reasons that the tub makes it to the top of my list, but there are a few other reasons too. I have a bad back, some of it is general spinal structure (I have a few very small curvatures to the spine that cause discomfort), and some of it is because I am a bit overweight. I am working on getting to a healthier weight and strengthening the muscles of my back but this is a process that takes time. In the meantime when I am working at moving and lifting items I sometimes over do it and hurt myself. Other times I have hurt myself doing some exercises (I do not bend well at this time).

When this happens I poor a hot bath with and just let the heat melt the pain and tension away. If I get a soak in early enough I don’t have to use painkillers to help me sleep, which means less toxins in my body! I also use the hot soak method when I am beginning to get a cold. I also use some eucalyptus oils to steam out the cold (and the sinuses). Again it helps me get my body back in order without the use of chemicals. If I trade up the eucalyptus oil for a few drops of Lavender oil after a long day at work I can feel all my tensions melt away.

And finally the cleansing powers of a bath cannot be denied! Anytime I am in a bad mood, or just feeling icky I draw a hot bath, light some candles and incense. I pop in a bath bomb and handful of sea salt and soak away. I have sometimes said a prayer over the water or as the water drains out I thank it for taking away all that ails me. Afterwards I usually am able to get a great night’s sleep and feel 100 times better the next morning. Never underestimate the healing power of water!

So there you have it, a mix of magical and practical (or the practical made magical) that makes up my top ten favorite cauldrons!

Yours Humbly

The Redneck Pagan

*Note:

Apparently I have been told that the use of flowers to cover BO is a myth because people have bathed regularly in history. If the history professor who told me this eight years ago when we were discussing medieval British and Celtic (who told me about the annual baths, as opposed to swimming) was alive today I would be sure to have informed him that his fifty some years of study was all a myth.

My Top Ten Favorite Cauldrons... Part 2

7. Mini’s: When I first started on the pagan path I went a little nuts. You see in one of the first books I read it gave a list of the basic Witch’s tools, and a list of optional tools. Now I have to be honest, I was a little insecure at that age. Ok, I was a whole lot insecure back then (I still am from time to time). When I started studying Witchcraft I had to make sure I was doing things right. I read what I perceived to be the best books (well the most recommended books), I wore tons of gemstone jewelry (thank Goddess I never fell into a body of water, I would have sunk) and made a general fool of myself. But the biggest thing I had to do was collect all the right tools. I could not find a good broom so I made my first one, I bought a knife to use as my athame, and I burned pounds of incense and candles (still guilty of that one). The hardest thing for me to find was the cauldron.

I searched all over for a proper cauldron, but had no idea where to look. Eventually one day while cruising Value Village for a 50’s style costume. I was looking at the sweaters when I looked up and to my amazement there was a brass flower planter above me. It was shaped exactly like a cauldron! It wasn’t cast iron but it would do. I took it home and used it. It wasn’t a bad cauldron but I desperately wanted a Cast Iron cauldron. Then came the day I discovered the magic of ebay! It was like a whole new world for me. After finding a nice little goddess statue and a pentacle necklace I decided to try my luck and search for a cauldron.

I was blown away at the sheer amount of cauldrons they had available! It was unbelievable to my little mind that so many varieties could exist and I was like a kid in the candy store. I searched and searched until I found it, the perfect one. And for an amazingly low price. There were two of them, one with a pentagram and one with the triple moon symbol. I bid on both, figuring that somebody would outbid me on one. I won both. I was a little surprised but they were low enough in price that I wasn’t worried. I waited with bated breath for my new perfect cauldrons to arrive. Then one day two tiny boxes arrived in the mail… it was my cauldrons.

I opened them and my heart sank. They were miniscule, like three inches high! I was expecting something like four times their size. I checked the purchase records on e-bay and realized that I had indeed bid on two miniscule cauldrons. Well aren’t I a little bunch of brains! I felt utterly dejected. While they looked right they were not my perfect cauldrons. I debated sending them back or giving them away since they were wrong and I didn’t really think that I wanted them. A few days later I wanted to do a ritual I had read about and having nothing else I grabbed one of the little cauldrons, and to my utter amazement it worked perfectly.

I used each of them multiple times in ritual, they were perfect to take with me to outdoor rituals, they came with me to work at summer camps, or to do rituals when I was travelling. They have held candles, incense, ingredients for my spells and when my husband and I bought our wedding rings we placed one in each cauldron until the day we were ready to wear them. The little cauldrons that I never thought I would ever use still now sit on our shrine, on either side of our statue of the Goddess Danu. I still use them every couple of weeks.

7. Turkey Roaster: The Turkey roaster, I am sure this has left some people scratching their heads. And others are probably nodding in agreement. For many people the turkey dinner holds a special place in our hearts. The traditional feast of Christmas and Thanksgiving for millions, a meal that is shared amongst those we love best, or those or mom tells us we have to get along with best. The meal that we gather around to celebrate, to count our blessings, to catch up on family news and sometimes argue with each other. So it seems almost natural that this be on my list.

However I am not talking about any old turkey roaster here. I am talking about a very special family heirloom. You see two months ago I inherited this turkey roaster from my Mother in Law (I am sorry to report she lost her battle with Cancer). When my husband asked me if there was anything in particular I wanted from his mother’s house I asked for her baking tools (such as pie plates and measuring cups, as I have recently learned to bake) and the turkey roaster. He looked at me for a moment and said ok. We were driving to do a check on his mom’s house one day when he asked me why the roaster.

You see my husband was married once before me for several years, they had a child together. Over the years his ex wife had been to many family gatherings and dinners. They separate and began their divorce proceedings. During that time my husband and I began to date and eventually I was invited to his parents place for Christmas dinner to meet the family. GULP… the whole family? Well most of it… his aunt, his brother, his niece and nephew… can we say stressed!!!! I was terrified. I worried that they would not like me, that they would be mad that he brought me, that I was there and not his ex wife, and that they would not approve of me.

So the big day rolled around and away we went to meet the family. I walked into a whirlwind of activity. My husband’s father and brother were in the living room with his nephew and his niece’s boyfriend. His mother, aunt and niece were in the kitchen, whipping up a storm. Not knowing what else to do after I was introduced I offered to help in the kitchen… and I was put to work right away. Conversations flew as the meal was prepared. I made the gravy in the Turkey roaster and at dinner time it was a hit. After the meal I helped with the clean up and washed dishes when it hit me. I felt at home, I was no longer scared.

Over the next four years I came to many dinners, and we used the roaster almost every time. We gathered together every year at Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving. Even after my husband’s father passed away we still gathered with his mother. When she became ill the family came together to ensure she still had a wonderful dinner with us all. Now that she is gone that roaster to me has symbolized the power and magic of sharing food. It makes strangers friends, and scared new girlfriends part of the family. Over Christmas dinner, stirring gravy in a simple turkey roaster I transformed from a stranger, to a welcomed member of the family.

5. Farmers Market: In the bigger city near where I live they have a Farmers Market every Saturday from May until September. My husband introduced me to them a few years ago and I am thoroughly hooked! I am not a morning person; I will often sleep until late in the morning and wake up very slowly, I then will stay up way to late at night. But for the Farmer’s Market I am up, out of bed, dressed and with a cup of coffee in my hand before my husband has been able to perceive that it is morning!

If you have not had the chance to go to the farmer’s market I highly recommend it! The one that we go to has a little bit of everything, you have people selling fruits, vegetables and garden plants. You have people with amazing fresh local cheeses and meats, breads of all shapes and sizes. Then there are the honey farmers... hello clover honey addiction! People selling jewelry, furniture, toys, handcrafted clothing and pottery. We even had some Amish (yeah, apparently there is Amish in Alberta, totally news to me) selling handmade furniture. Have you ever seen Amish Furniture, those people are amazing craftsmen!

They often have live performers at the markets. I have had the delight of listening to a Peruvian Piper playing some beautiful melodies on pan pipes. Another time there was a folk singing group with a melody that made me want to jump up and dance. And the one time there was a Celtic harpist, playing a melody that seemed to creep out from the mists of time and arrest your attention as it wove its spell upon you.

One bright sunny morning I hauled my backside out bed and met my husband (then boyfriend) at the market. We wandered through the rows upon rows of people, finding all kinds of treasures. My husband found a piece of oak with a Raven carved into the top with Ogham writing, which was very fitting for a Celt like him. We picked up some nice sausages for breakfast, along with some cheese and fresh honey. I picked up a few groceries for the week, and we stopped for a long time to listen to the Harp.

We were getting ready to leave when we stumbled into a booth selling antiques. Sitting off to the side, all by its lonesome was an old cast Iron pot. It had three little nubs for legs, the lid had been lost ages ago. The inside had some rust from years of neglect and it was covered in soot on the outside. I walked over to it, drawn by it and picked it up. When I asked the lady at the booth about it she said “found it after I bought some boxes at an estate sale on some acreage. Ten bucks sounds fair?” I bought it, took it home and cleaned it. Even before I cleaned this new cauldron it seemed to gleam! I could just envision it, sitting on a woodstove, keeping supper warm. The antique dealer figured it came from sometime between 1900-1920, a staple item in most households at the time, very common item.

But it was not so common to me, it felt warm, cheerful and strong. It reminded me of the women who build the province and the country I live in. Who kept the houses clean, the men fed and the families at peace. The women who had the independence of spirit to launch this province into being the first in Canada to give women the vote in 1916 (two full years before Women won the right to vote nationally). The women who held families together when their men fought in wars far away. In my hands, I was holding not only a representation of the Goddess, but a representation of the women who went before me, who sacrificed much for the future generation. It sits in my house, near the fireplace, guarding the Hearth and Heart as women have for generations.