Incense Box

This is a project I’ve been working on for ages, finally done! Remember when I made all those herb/plant incense bundles from harvesting around the property here? I decided pretty quickly that I’d need somewhere to store them afterward, especially as they became drier and started dropping crispy leafy bits every time I moved them about.

So back over the Thanksgiving weekend, I got some help designing the simplest of wood boxes and cutting some old cedar plank I had left from a couple of other projects several years ago. I glued it up and shot nails in, bought some super simple hardware for it. I finished the outside to protect it and try to keep down the moisture, but I left the rough-cut inside raw since cedar is often good at discouraging bugs.

I finally finished it! And my little bundles fit in so well and leave tons of room to make more as the seasons turn back around and things are growing again. Just in time, around here.

The Runes Choose The Reader?

This is a strange little story of weirdness from over the holidays. It was what I was working on writing before January 6^th turned so exciting.

I make runes, hand-engraved and painted on glass, and sell them in my online shop. These were some I made last year and I really liked them at the time, almost kept them for myself, but I try not to do that on impulse or I’d become attached to everything I create and never list anything. So when the time came, I was going to put them up for sale.

I always do a final check and count for photos to make sure there aren’t any missing, etc, just in case, and…I found one was missing. I looked everywhere because I knew I had it and nope. And I had this strange vibe or energy about it, almost clinging, like they didn’t want to go.

After maybe thirty or forty minutes’ searching, I finally just put them aside and listed the others only. Maybe the missing one would turn up or I’d get a sign or something. Weeks went by, busy over the holidays, until I sold another set and went looking for them to mail and saw these over to the side still and told them: If you want to stay with me, let the one turn up and if not, I’ll see if I can replace it and list now. I moved one piece of paper on the work table and *poof* there it was, obvious as anything, right where I had looked for forty minutes.

So…guess I have a new set of runes.

I’m honestly surprised. I haven’t worked with runes in years for myself personally and I already had two gemstone sets, a blue onyx and a mixed/rainbow assortment. Both of those, though, feel very tied to certain People or purposes or aspects of my journey in the past I don’t want to get caught up in again. I always figured at some point I would get back into rune studies, but it’s never felt right yet.

Maybe this is the year. And I think it’ll make a big difference that these runes are new and that I created them myself from scratch and that I don’t plan to dedicate them to Anyone or include any other Beings in whatever empowering/getting to know ritual I decide to do, so they’ll only be tied to me. Besides, they chose me. And while I love my other sets, they feel like they were picked out for me by the Gods and spirits who wanted to work with me through them whereas these I liked and chose for myself.

By the way—anybody have any favorite books or resources on the runes? I think I’d like to learn from something new instead of returning to the same books I’ve studied and started before as well. Fresh start and all that.

Into 2021…With a Bang

I had so many plans for this year—and one of them was to get back into the habit of writing here more and more freely. Which…yeah, not so much thus far. But for a good reason. The night of the 6^th my (mortal/corporeal) dad collapsed and before sunrise the next morning had emergency open heart surgery for an aortic aneurism and dissection.

(Me, waiting outside the ER—thanks to COVID rules—still oblivious before the diagnosis.)

That’s a very serious condition and it was completely unexpected. He did so well, though, and was released the 11^th evening, but it’s 6-8 weeks rest with no activity to heal. That changed my whole start to this year.

(Sunrise after the first night, still waiting, and it was lovely and felt like all the hope.)

Something urged me that night when I grabbed wallet and keys and phone to also grab my prayer beads for Anubis and drop them around my neck. When dad was transferred from one local hospital to the other to rush into surgery, I begged as I walked to my car to follow and broke my own rules about taking advantage of my closeness/intimacy to ask for a miracle if Anubis could bring me one like He has before. Once I was in again and sent to a dark waiting room alone (I appreciate the COVID restrictions on one visitor, one patient, one visit, but it still sucked to live through it) I prayed those beads.

(I made these back in 2015 and I don’t use them regularly, but when I do use them, it matters.)

I didn’t even get through the intro before Anubis reached out overwhelmingly, said He was near and watching over, and I saw like a vision this room and people in masks and gowns before He cut it off. I trusted Him, prayed my beads then for intent and energy to Him, bringer of miracles; for Isis, great of magick; for Hathor-Sekhmet (who I usually honor separate but it felt right) as a healer.

(Later, after getting home I thanked Them and beyond the promised offerings.)

I’m so grateful. Always, he was a step ahead and a bit early, and he’s strong and I wasn’t the only one praying and maybe it was all those things together, but the miracle I asked for came. ❤

I wish I had some record or pictures, but every day after driving into the hospital I had signs and presences and support—in music and all the crows (that my Ravens ride since that’s the biggest corvid here) and more. I was never alone.

And there have been shenanigans since…my Gods, the shenanigans and weirdness I’ve seen since, and even a lot that has not been so positive. But I’m still not alone, I’m still around—and as far as I’m concerned, all the rest can wait for the moment and just get in line. I’ll get to it soon enough.

New Year

Happy New Year, everyone! The calendar new year doesn’t really have any special significance to me spiritually, but I do feel the energy of change out there and so usually make a practice of a bit of divination and measuring mundane life and goals and accomplishments (in part because I both opened the Mixed Mythologies shop and started real work on my camper in January past years) and it’s a convenient count.

I decided to do like I did last year, when I decided to skip any long full-year reading and instead just look for advice to start off with and then do other readings later as time went on. I asked for Anubis to help guide and work through the signs of the cards this year.

What good to look for: The Mime – Magick and messages, recovering and reawakening past or repressed memories, especially Otherworld connections. For a long time, this was a card that filled me with a certain dread because every time it came up it meant Before (this lifetime) was about to catch up with me again and that true self stuff was always so intense. But now? The prospect doesn’t scare me so anymore. I know the shape of those things already and I’m guided to the conclusion it’s more about my whole person and a continuation upon that path than any particular memories or aspects of identity I’m not aware of yet.

What bad to be cautious for: Wheel – Choices and consequences, and a critical juncture that will determined by choices. It’s an odd card for a warning because I’d usually read it positive, but I suppose the wheel can turn either way. As I meditate on it, perhaps the caution is not to forget that it’s decisions that turn the wheel and to not let the wheel just spin me into being a product of circumstances.

What lesson or opportunity to prepare for: Papa Legba – Strength in most decks, but this one not only focuses on the inner resilience of it but also draws a connection to liminality, gateways that must be passed. It’s the strength to keep going and pass along further and further.

Any other advice or vibe to know about: Ace of Scrolls (reversed) – As soon as I saw this card, I knew what it was saying. Pondering, meditating, asking for guidance, and reading from the little book all confirmed it: it’s to do with knowledge and with creative energy that brings transformation. It also warns of the price, and reversed…the cost is real and as big as I thought. Honestly, I have a sense like this last card is almost an aside, a direct message, that even if I read the signs and follow all this advice and get it all right, it still won’t change that.

–

It’s been one of the eerily incisive readings that exactly speaks to my questions and doubts and all. I might write some more about what it means for me and the path ahead, but I want to just think on it a bit more first.

Anyway…so long 2020 and hello 2021!