I apologize for not posting much – everytime I sit down and commit to be more productive with this blog, life ends up handing me a bunch of other projects to work on. The whole of my magical practices has been concentrated on the physical, mainly gathering plants, working on my groundhog skin (egg tanning + smoking) and earning money. In a little over a year we’ve gone from having no car and living in the middle of the woods with no income to renting our own place, having a car that needs constant maintenance and a kitten who needs to get fixed. Money is my main priority right now, and my gods and spirit helpers have been very supportive. (it helps that more income = more altar statues, plates of offerings and focused incense blends)
Fiddleheads and a Stag Wand in-the-making.
I’m also preparing for a Beltane celebration of epic proportion. My first Beltane with this group was a perfect sunny April day in the woods where I culminated the beginning of my relationship with my partner Green Bear. The next year was a torrential downpour that cut short the celebrations and flooded the land and led to a very important argument. The third year we skipped – too tired and worn out from the difficult attitudes of some of the organizers. But now we’ve had a sufficient amount of distance and time from the event, and there are no alternatives if you want 100+ dedicated, fully costumed and in-character people dancing around a 25 ft tall maypole harvested earlier that day.
The Fox Confessor tries to eat my wool dreads.
This year’s costume theme is Mash-Up, and we’ve been encouraged to combine two different ideas for each costume. Green Bear is building some kind of samurai-techno warrior hybrid from a cow pelvis, a broken chair and assorted doll heads. I went for a simpler costume with the cyberpunk raver Fox shaman priestess. Bright purple & blue + my fox skin + dread falls + a leather bandolier + tie dye socks + tribal face paint. I’m going to look really good or really messed up, but either way I’ll be dancing with the Fox Confessor around the may pole come the end of this month.
Rat skull and the remains of a bird trapped in an old tractor.
I haven’t felt the call to pick up any new animals lately. All we’ve seen on the side of the road have been possums and raccoons, two animals I’m not working with until I have a very large tub, a professional de-greasing agent and a sharper scraping blade. I have found some interesting bones and bits though, and one very well camouflaged bright bit of blue…
excellent fox skin! There are no foxes that i know of in my part of the state, so i am SUPER jealous!