may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile

e. e. cummings

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)

Martha's Vineyard Glassworks in West Tisbury is not far from where I was renting a cottage during my recent vacation on the island. Every day, they write on a chalkboard sign out front to let people know what they are making. One day while I was there, the sign said Pumpkin! Pumpkins! Pumpkins!

Just in time for Mabon and Samhain!

It was fascinating to watch.

Taking the molten globs of glass from the fire at the end of a long, hollow metal wand, one of the pumpkin makers blows the glass, dips it into a ribbed cylinder, and then holds the pointy corner of a steel square against the bottom as he twirls the wand. After a few seconds of this, the glass curls in and flattens at the bottom to become the shape of a pumpkin. The pumpkin is placed on a thick bed of cotton batting and snipped from the wand at the top. A second pumpkin maker has a thin piece of molten glass on another metal wand, which he has just spun through a pile of different colored green glass glitter. He plops the glass on the top of the pumpkin, pulls it up like taffy, cuts it with pliers and then twists it around to form the spiral stem. Voila! A pumpkin is born.

The newborn pumpkin goes in a big metal cabinet with the rest of the day's creations. They have to cool for 14 hours before they can be handled and sold. The pumpkin makers tell me to come back the next morning around 11 because, despite what the saleswoman told me about getting pumpkins in the afternoon, they'll be out in the late morning - and they won't last long!

Sure enough, the next morning at 11:30 the Glassworks is filling up with pumpkin seekers. Word is out and it's that time of year! They only make them once for the season and then they're gone until next Autumn comes. At that early hour there are still plenty to go around. Elegant clear glass in traditional pumpkin oranges with bright green corkscrew tops. Funky pink pumpkins with purple stems. Harlequin pumpkins. Polka-dot pumpkins. And beautiful pumpkins with marbles and bubbles and speckles. Oh my!

I deliberate, but finally choose a pumpkin that is traditional orange in clear glass as a base but shot through with drops and veins of opaque bits and darker purple. They wrap it up in tissue for me and I carry it out amidst the other deliberations and happy choices going on around me.

On my way down the driveway, I stop to snap a photo of a witch ball peeking out from behind the grass at the edge of a flower bed.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 9:28 PM | Comments (0)

As I've been learning about witchcraft, I've also been getting back into knitting. For a long time I've wanted to knit something with some scrumptious Debbie Bliss yarn so I bought a pattern and some great purple Cashmerino Superchunky. Purple because 1) I want a sweater to match a pair of purple suede shoes I bought last fall and 2) because purple is magickal and I feel like I'm working magick with every stitch.

Being creative ladies in general, there are a lot of knitters who have beautiful blogs. When I was looking for samples to base Blogickal on, these knitting blogs were my favorites. One of them, Knitty Gritty, had an "Email Me" link, so I did and asked who designed the site. Annie sent me the email address of her designer, Mary. And Mary, a knitter and sister blogger (Knitting Notes), has designed this great site.

As it turns out, Mary and I have a lot in common. She lives in Ohio; I was born there. Mary vacations on Martha's Vineyard every year and likes to go to Lucy Vincent Beach and so do I! In fact, I was just there a week ago. Here is a picture of Lucy Vincent Beach for Mary:

So you see, there is a magickal, purple thread running through this story that will one day soon be a great purple sweater, but also a symbol to me of how the universe sends people to you when you need them and how beautifully connected we all are.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 4:50 PM | Comments (0)

My mother comes from a family of Southern Baptists. I have seen a lot of hypocritical and sometimes downright hateful stuff coming from them under the guise of religion. That, and numerous intellectual inconsistencies, turned me off Christianity at a pretty early age. For a very long time I have been agnostic. I believed that there was some sort of force/power/energy in the universe but I wasn't sure what it was exactly - and to be truthful, I didn't spend an awful lot of time thinking about it. Over the past couple of years, I have grown more and more interested in pagan ideas of spirituality. I have done massive amounts of reading and have begun to study witchcraft. I consider myself a student and am still searching for my path.

There have been a few deities to whom I have felt a connection - Ganesh and Brigid being the two most meaningful (you see that I'm pretty cross-pantheon at this point). But right now, I don't have faith in any gods or goddesses in the sense of faith that most Christians feel for their god or that some other posters say they have for their gods and goddesses. In fact, I feel a bit squeamish about the idea of the God and Goddess as creators of the universe. I think this is due to my very negative feelings about Christianity and organized religion in general. Maybe my feelings will change as I advance through my studies and practice.

Right now, for me, deities are the energy of the universe manifesting as beings who hold domain over certain aspects of life. I want to embrace an eclectic pantheon of gods and goddesses to support me in my magickal arts. I believe that Ganesh, as the remover of obstacles, has guided me and helped through some difficult periods over the past couple of years. I invoke him a lot. Brigid, as the goddess of creativity, seems to have been guiding me throughout my whole life, as I am a creative person and feel that part of myself to be one of the most important parts of my personality and character. As I get further into my magickal studies, I'm feeling more and more drawn to her.

On the question of faith, I do have faith that the universe is supporting me. There have been too many things that have happened to me - instances of "coincidence" or "fortune" - for me to believe otherwise. One of the reasons that witchcraft appeals to me is that it is a way to connect to the energy of the universe in a meaningful, directed and intent-filled way.

A question that I have been asking myself is: am I a Wiccan? I think it's too soon to tell. As I said, I'm still not comfortable with the "religion" label. To take a description I've read that feels most appropriate for me, I would say that I identify as a Green Witch - at this stage I see myself more as a practitioner of folk magick than a follower of Wicca as a formal religion.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 3:50 PM | Comments (0)

My first Tarot reading was in Salem, Massachusetts. I went in a skeptic and left a believer. Several years later in San Francisco, I sought another Tarot reading because I needed some answers to some really big questions. I got them and more. The reader I found lived a block and half away from me – there are no coincidences – and she was to become one of my dearest friends. I took a Tarot class of hers and discovered that I was an intuitive reader myself. Rich as it is in symbolism, the Tarot was a natural extension of my interest and study in art historical iconography. It was the beginning of my path to magick.

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 3:27 PM | Comments (0)