Summer Solstice

OK I admit it, one of my favorite parts of this blog is finding interesting pictures. I am a visual and tactile soul what can I say.

This has been a busy but good weekend. Due to incredibly hot weather and awful air I moved the Noon Solstice celebration to the 8 am day after celebration. The universe and Beli will just have to understand. Actually that statement was sort of interesting yesterday.

We had a friend over and I was showing him the garden. My how it has grown lately! I was explaining that I tried to get out at 9:30 that morning to start the prep and thought that I was going to die. I stated that I made an executive decision (easy to do when you are the only one in the grove) to move it to tomorrow. I said "I am getting up at the butt crack of dawn to do this and Beli will just have to understand!" All of a sudden the oppressive day became a tremendous gusty wind. It was blowing through like a freight train. I knew IMMEDIATELY that I had made a faux pax. I shouted up to the sun in the sky and God of the sun at high zenith. "So sorry how about 8am. Does that work for you?" The wind immediately died down and was calm. I looked at my friend and he stated "It looks like 8 am works." And so it did and so my universe goes.

Earlier in the week I had been prompted to finish up the Hilaras Horn. I had purchased the horn a while ago but it had just sat idle in the craft room. After the huge alchemy experiment I was left with a pound of ritually charged sealing wax. The most logical thing magickally was to use that to seal the horn. I did some research and consulted a dear Asatru friend who has made many many beautiful horns. He graciously made me a lovely copper stand and gave me great tips on how to seal and polish the horn. On Thursday I put the mason jar of beeswax in the pot of hot water and melted it. At the same time I placed the horn on a cookie sheet in the oven on warm. Once everything was set I triple coated ( I did not want the glorious TASTE of cow in my horn o' plenty) the inside with the beeswax and gave the outside a light coat with the linen that I used for my robes. It came out rather well. Then came the arm breaking job of buffing off the outer beeswax. Here Frater POS saved me. He brought out the thrice holy Dremel and showed me the buffing disks. OH MY GODS! That was a life saver. It turned days worth of work into about a half hour of work. I was rewarded with a beautifully shiny horn.

My next technical challenge was Verbena. We don't have any. My neighbors do, but stealing a bit of it just seemed like REALLY bad mojo. I know that I could have asked for a cutting but it might have been a bit hard to explain. So I started the search for things that are close. In my garden I am growing variegated Mugwort. It has similar properties and just felt right. It was pressed into service. I am all about moving with flow and not getting totally stuck in the minusa.

At 6:45 this morning I got up and started my preparations. That included watering the garden and setting up the altars. Everything was very nice and smooth. I opened the grove with no issues. It was warm and bright and just felt wonderful. It must have been way too interesting for my neighbors young cat Sammy. He came over to see what I was doing and stayed for the opening. In fact at the consecration part of water he generously peed off to the side outside the circle. I couldn't help but laugh. I consecrate in my way, he consecrates in his. Nature is nature. The AODA Druid ceremonies are short, sweet and published. They are beautifully written and I just love being out in the grove.

As soon as the camera is charged I will put up pictures of the horn and stand.