ZOMGESBATS!!! Of the full variety... (Pagan Blog Project)

Hey hey hey!!

Esbats! Who doesn't love Esbats? I mean, seriously, not only is it more fun, but you can take a walk in the darker areas of your surroundings (i.e. no street lights) and actually see that tree before you run into it!

Anyway, so at 4qf, they hold full and new moon services for each esbat, which are fun, and totally member-run, and usually include dinner which is nice. However, it's a three hour drive over there, and making a three hour drive twice a month isn't much of an option.

I've never been big on rituals, though, at least not in the normal sense. The whole calling quarters, drawing a circle with the athame, and saying flouncy poetic words to incite some sort of magickal working for that month following, etc was never really my thing. I really take joy in simpler rituals. For example, there's something very meditative in pouring an offering of milk on the roots of your Heart Tree (yes I stole that term from a Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones, but I really love the term, and I use it as  referring to a tree you have a particular affinity with).

And sometimes you can customize these simple rituals (I like that, maybe that'll be my 'S' post - a list of simple rituals... Simptuals!!!!) to correspond with which moon it is. Full moons in a whole bunch of cultures have a specific name, depending on which month the moon falls in. And there's not just one system of naming moons, as you will see here: http://home.hiwaay.net/~krcool/Astro/moon/moonnames.htm. For me, it's fun looking at all the possibilities that any particular moon can be named, and picking one or two or even making up your own names! So, according to that list, the Full Moon last night could have been the Fish Moon, Sleepy Moon, Windy Moon (definitely, if you were in Southeast PA last night, haha), Big Famine Moon, Moon When Eyes are Sore from the Bright Snow, Moon of Winds, Chaste Moon, or Death Moon.

You know what's funny though? There really aren't any names for new moons. Maybe that's a fun project, make up your own names for the new moons!

So here are some ideas for Simptuals for Esbats!
 -- Lay out on the hood of your car, or in a field, and just moon-gaze. La romantique ;)
 -- Feed your grass Moon Energy! Take an ice cube or two, let it melt in a patch of grass where the moon is visible, and the ice will feed moon energies through it. You know, if your lawn sucks or anything. ;)
 -- Celebrate the fullness of the moon with a glass of honeyed milk or mead.
 -- Make Full Moon balls! Decorate a styrofoam sphere with glow in the dark paint, glitter, etc and make it pretty and moon-like! Awesome if you have kids.
 -- Bake cookies shaped like the moon.

...ok I'm out of cute ideas at the moment. I have a cold. It makes me uggghhhhhh so I can't think straight. I'm sure you'll think of something cute and creative. :)

<3 Sapphire Orchid<3

E is for Expressing Spirituality Every Day

Yeah, that's got two "E" words, next week I'll be out of "E"s.

In our world, day and age, there seems to be a separation of spirituality and secularity (is that even a word?!) that runs rampant. Organized religions present a very good example of this (I went to church, ok, that was my good deed for the week) but I'm sure the chasm between is probably also an issue sometimes for individual practitioners of any religion. It's easy to get disconnected.

And I mean, I do it too. I'm not constantly thinking about how to be a good Pagan when I'm at work, or working out, or any of that. I go to The Land to rest and reconnect with nature when I can, but the rest of the time, how do you drive like a Pagan? How do you do your job like a Pagan? How do you check Facebook like a Pagan?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Paganism for me isn't just a thing that happens when I burn some incense or meditate or go to Four Quarters. It's a way of life. It's a lens through which I can experience the world. I feel like part of being a Pagan, for me, is finding ways to express my spirituality every day.

For example, I love walking through Center City Philadelphia on my lunch break and just feeling the way my muscles move, feel the sidewalk under my shoes, watch squirrels and birds forage for food on the sidewalks. Is it nature? No. Is it a ritual or spell? Not really. Is it really that spiritual? Only really if you make it; only if you put the awareness into it, and say, this is what I'm experiencing now.

And you might say "well, feeling your muscles move and watching birds isn't really expressing spirituality" but it is... you're expressing it to yourself. There's nothing less expressive about expressing something inward, just because nobody else sees or hears or feels it.

Some ways I like to express spirituality to myself through awareness or pleasure:
--watch the sky for at least ten seconds whenever outside. It's simple, easy, quick, and grounding.
--blast music in my car, and just be a part of the music while driving
--eating an avocado by itself. I don't know why, this is just such a rich experience to me.
--playing in the snow, rain, or autumn leaves
--putting moisturizer, perfume or body oils on my skin and taking a moment to breathe it in
--writing or signing my name
--noticing the way light and shadows fall
--watching my boyfriend play a game
--feeling how fabrics feel against my skin, be it clothes, sheets, etc

It's all about awareness, and living in the now. Living and making life enjoyable is the ultimate expression of spirituality.

Love,

<3 Sapphire Orchid <3

I'm ready to talk about it.

It's been two weeks since we said goodbye to Coco, our dog whom we have had since 1998. He was really sick, and we had to put him down. It was really heartbreaking, and I don't think I've lost anyone this close before. It was hard trying not to cry when he died because I knew it was especially tough on my little sister, who pretty much only has memories after he came around, and I wanted to be strong for her.

Anyway, so I just wanna go through and write down some memories that I have of Coco, and immortalize him in a blog post which is pretty irrelevant as far as the internet goes, but it makes me feel better.

I wish my carpet actually looked like this. That'd kick ass.

Cocoa was a funny dog. He loved stealing sticks of butter off the table and hiding them throughout the house. One time there was a stick of butter in my bed. Another time we found one under his pillow which we kept under the kitchen table for him to sleep on (since he took to sleeping there anyway.) It's pretty disconcerting when you're sitting on the couch, your hand moves the wrong way, and you discover a stick of butter in between the couch cushions. It was clever of him, actually.

This is Coco's Vogue pose.

Coco also for some reason never went into the basement, no matter how hard we tried to get him to. We were thinking maybe the owners before him kept him down there when they were away or something.

He was a little bit lazy too, but that's ok.

Oh, and he never played fetch. Not often, anyway. Every now and then you'd catch him in the right mood and if you threw a ball, he'd go after it, but most of the time if you threw a ball and said, "Go get it!!" he'd just sit down and stare at you like, "You're the one who threw it. YOU go get it."

With my older sister, Jenni. And creepy demon eyes.

When we first got Coco, my little sister Molly was 3 or 4. Soon after he came home, she would often shove his hand down his throat to see what was down there. It was pretty gross, and eventually we got her to stop, but just in case you ever meet her, feel free to tease her about it.

Our favorite story to tell is the Russian Chocolate story. We hosted two Russian nurses who were on a several week exchange program learning some nursing stuff here in the US, and they brought with them some Russian Chocolate for us as a gift. The day after they left, COCO ATE THE WHOLE DAMN THING. All of it. This was like, three full-sized bars of chocolate we're talking about. And he didn't even throw up any of it. It's been a running joke ever since.

He was a really great dog; I couldn't have imagined a better dog to grow up with through high school and college. He was always happy to see people, always happy to see people's food, and always happy to be scratched behind the ears or on the belly. He was also a great cuddler, which is an excellent feature in a dog.

Sleep peacefully, old buddy.