Jare

According to the pagan calendar, today is the Spring Festival of Ostara or, as Slavic people called it - Jare (you pronounce it 'yare'), the First Day of Spring.

In the past, the rituals consisted of getting rid of Winter (often with loud shouting, using the whips and rattles, singing and playing loud instruments, and drowning the hay doll symbolizing Winter in the river), and then greeting Spring - people thoroughly cleaned their houses and gardens, washed their best clothing and baked festival cakes. Young boys gathered willow twigs to decorate houses.


One of the most important tradition was painting the eggs (called "pisanki") and then giving them as a gift to bring luck, fertility and abundance into the household. The egg was also used to "charm" the illnesses and cure the sick. The oldest known Polish pisanki come from Xth century!


People created colourful processions to the sacred hills where they feasted and celebrated beginning of Spring.
On the next day they washed themselves in sacred water and visited the tombs of their deceased relatives, bringing them food.

Spring is the time to do some cleaning after Winter, to clean up our houses from dust and clutter, and our minds "weeding out worn ideas and out-of-date beliefs so I can move forward in my quest to follow my bliss, live my passions, and manifest my dreams", as beautifully says Carla from Wings For You blog, which I highly recommend.
That's what I've been doing for the past few weeks - I cleaned and dusted some places in my small shaggy unloved apartment that were not touched for a long time (really long time, believe me!) I even removed the dried up mistletoe I had under my lamp since Christmas... (yes, I know!...) Up till now I wasn't inspired, I didn't like the place so I thought and cared about it as little as I had to. But then I started to think that maybe if I change/clean/refresh/redecorate some small things here and there - my poor existence in this flat may seem a bit nicer.
And it suddenly stopped being such a poor existence after all! *^v^*
Okay, it still isn't my favourite place to be, but living here started to be better and nicer surroundings definitely bring nicer attitude towards, well... everything. *^v^*

As for the "mind sweeping", I love the suggestion made by Violette : "You might even want to buy a brand new eraser to symbolize erasing the past or negative thoughts which tell you you're NOT an Artist." Or thoughts which tell you ANYTHING that keeps you from living your dream life. I bought one. ^^


I've been fighting my depressive negative thoughts and I think nowadays I'm winning more and more. Especially when I see things happening, realizing, fulfilling. There isn't a better dope than the fact that something is working right in front of our eyes! *^v^*

Happy Jare/Ostara/Easter to you! =^v^=

Spiritual art journal

Father Christmas came early this year! *^v^*
I cannot believe but miracles do happen in the Yule time - I ordered some books from the Amazon (USA) and they sent them on Dec 7th. And today, 12 days later - 12 days over the ocean, with millions of other parcels that travel all around the world this time of the year!!! - they arrived at my door! *^v^*

These are:
- Claudine Hellmuth's "Collage Discovery Workshop: Beyond The Unexpected" - I quickly looked through it and I already know I'll be as much in love with this book as with the previous one by C. Hellmuth, yikes! *^v^*
- two books by Eric Maisel, "Fearless Creating: A Step-by-Step Guide to starting and Completing Your Work of Art" and "The Creativity Book: A Year's Worth of Inspiration and Guidance", I cannot decided which one to start with (not to mention the books that are already on my bedside table, being read or waiting in the queue!...), and I would really really love to exist in several persons at a time to be able to read several books at the same time (and knit! ^^), there are so many interesting books out there!...

The last book was purchased by my friend Kate but I'm also going to have a good look through it, it's "The Techniques of Sprang" by Peter Collingwood, which will be useful for our medieval reconstructions.


I decided to kill my Christmas ghost with some spiritual art activities, and I found some inspiration on Celestine Musings blog.
Okay, so all our art journals are spiritual, because they come from the bottom of our hearts and souls, but this one is special for me because I want to concentrate on the questions quoted from the Celtic Devotional by Caitlin Matthews.

Questions To Ask During The Winter Solstice Season

- What am I endeavoring to manifest now in my life?
- How can I change my thought patterns, to empower my goals?
- What old connections can I release now, for my highest good?
- What wisdom is seeking to reveal itself to me at this time?
- What new idea has seeded itself this winter, and how can I best nurture it to fruition, as the earth nurtures her seeds?
- What are the imprisoning fears that I feel ready to release?
- What part of me will awaken as the rebirth of Spring arrives?
- How can I best focus on my blessings this season?
- How can I turn negatives into positives?
- How can I make the best use of this lifetime?

For this I prepared a hand bound journal from the handmade paper I had in my stash, which I bound in a not-so-Coptic way. Why, you may ask. Well, everything went exactly to the instructions I found on YouTube, but when I reached the back cover I found out that this part wasn't included in the video, so I did it my way intuitively. It worked! *^v^* I then finished the covers with some decorations (will be working on them more).
I'm going to work in this journal from around the Yule time over to some time in January probably, whenever it's finished. I got also inspired for this by the works of Cat Sidh and especially her journals.
More to come. ^^

Pierniczki and bigos

I've been shopping today...
Oh, boy!...
Do people really need that much food? I saw a couple in the queue, she was guarding a huge shopping cart full of things up to the brim and he was disappearing among the shelves and bringing more and more jars, packets, boxes!... And one lady even lost a six pack of an expensive Perrier water from her cart on the floor because she stuffed so many items and had to balance the bottles on top of everything else. Total craziness!


I spent my time in the queue and came home to make some delicious things! *^v^*

First of all, gingerbread cakes (can you see the moose shapes? I bought the cake cutter in Karlskrona two years ago! *^v^*)
and kanelbullar - Swedish cinnamon buns (iHanna, you can be proud of me! They passed the husband test! *^v^*).

But the most important thing was bigos.
You may have heard about this one of the most traditional Polish dishes, probably not eaten by any other nation in the world (I think so). Bigos is a stew made from sauerkraut and meat, with lots of spices.
I call my version Bigos 1-2-3, because I always take 1 part of sauerkraut per 1 part of sweet cabbage per 1 part of meat for it.

The recipe goes like this:

In a huge pan mix together:
- 1,5 kg of chopped sauerkraut
- 1,5 kg of chopped sweet white cabbage
- 1,5 kg of different roasted meats (pork, beef, veal, ect), chopped into 1 cm cubes
- 1 bottle of semi dry red wine
- big handful of dried sweet plums
- 8 bay leaves
- 8 black pepper corns
- a big pinch of cumin seeds
- a handful of dried forest mushrooms
- 250 g of butter
- ground pepper and salt to taste

Now comes the best part - bring it all to the boil, cook on a low heat for about 2-3 hours, then cool it off, cover and leave it overnight on a balcony (minus temperatures highly welcome!). Repeat the cooking procedure on the next day, and on the following three or four days! *^v^* On the first day all the flavors are still rather separate, but with every warming up they mix together beautifully!

Bigos gets better and better every time you heat it up again, and it can be eaten for many days, with slightly different taste each time. The legend says that in the XVII c. during Winters Polish noblemen had huge barrels full of bigos in their courtyards and they often sent the cook to chop a bit of it off (it was standing in the frost so it was tough like a stone!) and warm it up for a nice supper after some horse riding in the snow. =^v^=


The last thing I made today was a jar of pickled lemons.They can be used in Moroccan meat dishes or oriental salads with grilled red peppers, olives and olive oil, and they are very easy to make.

For this jar I took 4 lemons to be put inside and 4 lemons for the juice (8 in total). I cleaned each lemon with hot water (of course I left the skin on), then I cut it with a sharp knife as if I wanted to make four quarters but I didn't cut through the top and bottom of the lemon - they stayed whole this way.
Next, I put a lot of salt into each cut (about a tablespoon of salt per lemon) and tucked each lemon tightly into the jar (this one took four lemons).
To finish it off I covered the lemons with fresh lemon juice - they must all stay under the liquid.
Then you put the lid on and leave them for about three weeks. Done! *^v^*

Smacznego! *^v^*

My husband smells of vanilla and honey!

Yes, it's true! *^v^* We have this Fa Vanilla & Honey Bathing Cream and whenever we have a bath we end up smelling so lovely, yikes! Give me anything with vanilla and honey scent and I'll love you forever!
But I digress.

It's all witchy today on my blog. ^^ Inspired by Lana's post I decided to show you some photos of The Craft items I have and write a bit about my Craft Path (which I don't do very often, because it's very personal for me, but sometimes people ask questions about the meaning of being a witch, so I wanted to shortly sum up my views on this).

Every witch should have a broom, so I have one - bought at the small village market some years ago (together with a big wooden moulding board ^^). Look how it is properly placed on my bookcase to grab it and use it right away if I needed it! ^^ It's a good sturdy well-made broom, very suitable for ritual as well as everyday sweeping. ^^

Then there is the blue wicker basket full of different supplies: candles, candle holders, scents, oils, pentacle, gems, etc. I have also another smaller basket with a selection of basic altar supplies, this one is my stash.

Let's not forget the Book of Shadows (my husband says that one should know better than to open the witch's Book of Shadows... ^^, but this time I'm opening it for you so that's okay) - I had this one made to fit my tastes, I went to a specialist with a box full of handmade paper and had them bound with a green linen cover, which I then decorated with a golden tree painting.
I like writing in it using different colours of ink - here are the example Samhain pages (some basics about this Sabbath). As I am what I call the 'kitchen witch', I put there mainly recipes for cleansing, healing, cooking, ect. ^^ I think I'll try to practice some drawing there too and make it look more like a proper witch's notebook = a scrapbook full of sketches, notes and birds feathers (how Fluffy Bunny of me, but never mind, this Book is just for me so who cares! *^v^*)

My book shelf - the middle shelf is full of herbal books, healing books (Reiki, meditation, shiatsu, ect) and other helpful witchcraft topics (like dream translations, powers of the Nature, ect).
Can you see the two big stones? I brought them from Sweden two years ago, when I saw them on the beach I felt I just had to have them at my home! ^^

What I'm writing now are my own experiences, opinions and beliefs, so please take no offence, whatever your beliefs and views are, because no offence or any religious preaching was meant here.

I was raised in a Catholic family of believers/non-practitioners. Of course my parents celebrated all the main holidays, but there wasn't anything spiritual in them, just a family gathering, lots of food, and children sent to Church to attend a mass because that's what you do and that's what the neighbours do (everything just for keeping up appearances). I didn't care much for them either, never agreed with the idea of a loving male God that punishes people to test their faith, telling your "sins" to some stranger in a confessional, going to hell after death, highly institutionalised church organisation. It wasn't logical, it didn't feel as a proper explanation of the spiritual part of our lives.

I started to walk the Craft Path several years ago, introduced to it by my best friend Anna. I looked for information on Wicca and studied it for a while. I felt that it was a good beginning, but I didn't stop looking for something more at that point. Wicca, being created in the first half of the XXth century was like a big melting pot for me, where Gardner put many symbols, gods, rituals and cooked up a religion with too many elements, as if he had to explain and prove every bit of the beliefs and celebrations with oh so ancient legacy. What truly appealed to me was the idea of the God and Goddess as manifestations of the Nature forces, living with the ever turning Wheel of the Year and the connection with the Universe through the spells/chants/simple rituals.

So, I am trying to be the witch in the basic understanding of this word - a wise woman, a woman who knows things, a woman with an open mind and heart. I light candles and scents, I meditate, I chant if I feel the need to do it, I observe the Moon, I'm interested in and practice natural healing (Reiki, Hopi ear candling, herbalism), my mind is open to astrology, tarot, psychic readings. I believe in self development, in the power of a thought, in a good organic food and the work of our own hands.
I don't have a specific tradition that I base my beliefs and gods pantheon on, I view named Gods and Goddesses from different cultures as many aspects of the masculine and feminine elements in the Universe. I don't care for the ceremonial magic but I believe in whispering to the trees. I celebrate the Wheel of the Year holidays, even if it happens only in my mind and heart.

I am a modern urban solitary witch and you can find every aspect of the Triple Goddess in me - the Maiden Magrat Garlick, the Mother Nanny Ogg and the Crone Granny Weatherwax. *^v^* (Pratchett's fans, unite!)

What's been happening...

... to my craft blog?
It's been getting more and more personal since the beginning of this year. Which doesn't mean I don't write about my crafts. I just write about other things as well and in bigger proportions than last year. *^v^*
My Morning Surf shawl is growing everyday, it's so easy to knit this pattern that I cannot put it away, it's just always in my hands when I land on the sofa. I believe in this pace I'll finish it even before Imbolc, not to mention it was supposed to be an Ostara shawl! ^^ Photos tomorrow.

Yesterday I bought a new issue of the Polish women magazine "Mirror" and it started with a citation from the book by Don Miguel Ruiz "Four Agreements. A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom (A Toltec Wisdom Book)", which I find very basic and wise, and I'm going to try to stick to these rules:

Be implicable with your word.
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word against yourself or to gossip about the others. Use the power of your word in in the direction of truth and love.

Do not take anything personally.
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their of reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

Do not make assumptions.
Find the courage to ask questions and express, what you really want. Communicate with other people as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement you can completely transform your life.

Always do your best.
Your "best" is going to change from moment to moment. It will be different when you are healthy ,as opposed to sick. Under any circumstances simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse and regret.

I've been also thinking about my 'piece of art' I feel I'd like to create, and I think I finally know what it's going to be. It came to me somehow when I didn't even try to call it to my mind. It's going to be a tree decorating my flat, my entrance doors, to be precise. More about that later, when I decide upon the design and the technique. ^^

And just for fun, my wardrobe remixes from the last two days. *^v^*

Happy weekend, everyone!