OCCULT GUIDE is a new website created by myself and my wife. Join in and map locations of interest in your own city. Also, Occult Guide is a fully functional social media site, so join in and delete your Facebook account.
http://www.occultguide.com/
Attention Central Pennsylvania Pagans and Witches!
Wanna do something fancy this winter with some pagans and witches? Mark your calenders and join us this year for Yule Ball!
The event is for those 18+, with FREE wine and beer, as well as a cash bar, available. Must be 21+ for alcohol, obviously, and ID will be required to drink it.
There are 100 Yule Ball tickets available ($45 before Oct. 31, Nov. 1 the price goes to $55) so get them while they are hot!
You can find more information at the Reading Pagans and Witches Yule Ball page
You can contact me via my ask or email me at burlapwitch@gmail.com
Italian-American stregheria talk
Tonight I gave a talk to my local pagan discussion group (Reading Pagan’s and Witches, they have a facebook page, too) and while I do not practice Italian witchcraft, I am interested in it so I decided to volunteer to give the talk and dive in to researching.
It seems like much of (open) Italian-American witchcraft is flavored with Wicca. However, there are a lot of different ways of practicing stregheria, which mostly due to the regional variances of Italy, old or rural language barriers, and the preference of the Italian family members.
Here are a few things I’ve discovered if you are interested in learning about stregheria.*
Aradia: Gosple of the Witches is a very important book to the modern Italian-American witchcraft revival. Think what you will about Charles Leland, (love, hate, meh) this is the book people will refer if you’re an outsider and want to learn.
Italian American Stregheria and Wicca: Ethnic Ambivalence in American Neopaganism by Sabina Magliocco - Sabina Magliocco is currently a professor of anthropology and folklore at California Sate University, Northridge and she is a Chairman of the Department. She gives a fantastic history of the Italian witchcraft revival by Italian-Americans and by non-Italians as well. My favorite quote:
“…many Americans feel tremendous ambivalence about ethnicity: they want the feeling of belonging to an ethnic groupe without the inconvenience of belonging to the lower classes. Many positive representations of ethnicity are thus stripped of their class markers: sanitized, commodified and rendered non-threatening to a white middle-class audience.” (page 36)
Stregheria.com - Raven Gramissi’s website and his books. They are Wicca flavored and he admits that he can’t go into “true stregheria because of his oaths” but he fills in the gaps with either Wicca or Italian flavored magic.
The Trinacrian Rose Coven -another Italian-American magic site flavored with Wicca.
I also did enjoy this witchvox article
If anyone has anymore information involving stregheria or stregoneria, please send me an ask. I’d love to know more!
*There seem to be a few words revolving around Italian witchcraft. One is stregoneria, which is Italian for witchcraft. There is stregheria, which is an outdated term for witchcraft, but seems to be used often by modern practitioners of the Italian-American witchcraft revival.
skyclad.
stonehenge is my favorite “mystery.”
This isn’t Stonehenge. This is a henge, though, and this photo is from the original The Wicker Man movie. Does anyone know what henge they used in The Wicker Man?
According to The Wicker Man locations website, this henge was built on Castle Kennedy Gardens.
In view of the castle ruins is the circular topped hill which previously housed the stone circle. Although the standing stones were polystyrene props, the hill is clearly recognizable as the area used for the ‘fire leap’ sequence where we see the young girls of Summerisle jumping over fire naked.
(Source: weheartit.com, via pagannews-deactivated20130221)
Altar - June 9, 2012
Keeping it Simple
Note: Remember a few weeks ago when I really wished I had some ox-eyed daisies for my altar? I haven’t been feeling well recently, and yesterday my husband took my two-year old son for a walk. He said that my son ran up to some of those daisies during the walk and just started pulling them out. When he came home and ran up to me with them in his hand he said, “Here, Mum-Mum!” My husband doesn’t read this blog, and my son only really likes to pick dandelions, so…
Sometimes I stay up all night because I have an idea in my head that needs to get out. Last night was one of those nights.
Meet Lavender.
On June 1st, our local farm stand opened.
That means I’ll be making strawberry jam until blueberries come into season in July.
Pictures of the Elm wands, finally! I should have set up a bounce board to better show their beautiful yellowish color, but I’ll remember it for next time.
They are 12 (thin one) and 13 inches long.
apurpleskull asked: Hello~ Great blog! I've been having trouble finding any information online about the magical uses of a few plants, Musk Rose (or rosa moschata) and Arnica. Would you have any? Thank you very much!
Thank you very much!
I couldn’t find much magical information on musk roses, but since it is a rose, I would use it the same way I would a rose; love, beauty, romance, etc. This is where the color of the rose become important. Are you working a spell to bring more romance in your life? Use a pink rose. Need more passion for your loins? Use a red rose. Need to feel beautiful? Put some or lots of rose petals in your next bath and breath their aroma in deeply. You can use the flowers and hips (fruit) for a fine smelling potpourri or sachet.
I think for your next one, you are talking about Arnica Montana, also known as leopard’s bane. I do have some cautions about this plant which are do not ingest it and wear gloves when working with it. Some people can break out in rashes from the plant so be careful if you do, and ingesting large quantities of this plant can be very painful and deadly.
That said, there still isn’t much information on magical uses but what I did find seems to say that this flower is perfect for summer solstice and when it is believe to be even more potent. Surround yourself with this when working with spirits for added spiritual protection.
Last night I was able to almost finish two wands. This is them after sanding before applying the second coat of varnish.
I still have enough wood for another three, I think, depending on how much of a pain it is to take my knife to one.
Better pictures to come possibly tomorrow, when they are dry and the weather is better.
There is a pretty loud thunderstorm happening outside my house right now. I think it’s the perfect time to clean off my kitchen table (with my somewhat homemade cleaning wipes consisting of vinegar, fair-trade peppermint soap, and tea tree oil,) light some candles, and start working with the elm branch.
I should probably pick up some sandpaper and varnish tomorrow.
Though, I should really wait until my son goes to sleep before I use my carving knife on the wood… Hopefully this storm sticks around!
Elm tree
I’m trying to figure out if the tree behind my house is Slippery Elm or American Elm.
I guess it really doesn’t matter, since I’m 95% sure it is an Elm (I’m bad at identifying trees), but it left me gifts today when I asked the tree if it would drop a leaf for me so I could identify it at home. I didn’t get an answer, so I didn’t take anything from the tree, but a few minutes later, I stumbled upon the fallen leaves I asked for and a very large branch. I mean, really large. I’m thinking of making it into a wand or three. And maybe some small garden gnomes. Elm is a favorite of faeries and good for the garden after all, right?
I do feel some sort of power emanating from this tree. It is very beautiful. At the base of the trunk there is some red clover, white campion, and ox-eye daisies growing.
I’m going back to leave offerings and thank the spirit of the Elm in a bit. I think some yarn and a kiss will do the trick.
Now if there is only a way I can coax those daisies to let me pick them. I would really like for them to brighten up my altar.
