tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-54063193566593441882024-02-26T08:43:48.713-08:00DomesticatedMusic, Arts, Crafts, Recipes and Fashion blogging from a Gothic/Dark Romantic perspective.The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.comBlogger309125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-67641515756753658092020-08-28T21:29:00.003-07:002020-08-28T21:29:39.734-07:00Romantic Goth: My first love in Goth style <p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Aesthetically, Romantic Goth is my first and most constant love. Yes, my hair is a fantastical set of neon colours, but they owe more to the myth of mermaids drowning sailors than to the CyberGoth hybrid subculture - although I like that sort of more danceable industrial too! </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyRKgNQd078s_RQmtkTEjXBOTwOrJgNOmqZMP68eGuoWd9bdDbOHoPIBtl0xFfuAPdvxrST9J9Z2aq4HrDBq1fEpFCVQ_QHV1EFhG79RmJocxRcNosRG2EncvlBbiUM0lfT0E9ECMZLv2h/s1380/PunkRaveGreen5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="A woman with neon-green to royal blue gradient hair, neon green at the top, fading through emerald green and aqua to the deep blues of the ocean. She has pale skin, and dramatic make-up. She is wearing eyeshadow in neon green, emerald green and bright blue, with metalic violet and black eyeliner in a 'winged' style, and black mascara. She has vines in a swirling design drawn on the right side of her face. She is wearing green metallic lipstick outlined in metallic violet. She is wearing a high-necked velvet top with a v-neck style mesh insert, and with one arm across her body she is showing that the sleeves of the top are mesh, terminating in a point at her hand. She is wearing a pewter pendant of a winged Grim Reaper from Alchemy Gothic. Her hair is long, with a fringe and a thin braid either side of her face. She is in a room with dark purple walls." border="0" data-original-height="1380" data-original-width="1032" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyRKgNQd078s_RQmtkTEjXBOTwOrJgNOmqZMP68eGuoWd9bdDbOHoPIBtl0xFfuAPdvxrST9J9Z2aq4HrDBq1fEpFCVQ_QHV1EFhG79RmJocxRcNosRG2EncvlBbiUM0lfT0E9ECMZLv2h/w479-h640/PunkRaveGreen5.jpg" title="Probably the best selfie I've ever taken" width="479" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">This top from <a href="https://www.punkravestore.com/" target="_blank">:Punk Rave:</a> has inner mesh sleeves.<br />The outer sleeves are velvet and split all the way to the elbow</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">The first time I saw a Goth was probably 1993; my family had gone to Reading - a town in Berkshire - for some shopping, but this happened to coincide with the Reading Festival, one of the UK's largest rock festivals. I think The Cure were playing that year, and a lot of Goths turned up. The one I remember most clearly, was a woman in a deep red crushed velvet fantasy dress with bleached platinum hair back-combed; a more colourful variant on the usually black version of this look. I thought this was beautiful, the prettiest lady I had seen, and unfortunately, being a small child with no appreciation for - or understanding of -what was taboo in my household, I think I said something excited about this, and got sharply chastised by my mother who dragged me away and gave me a lecture on how these were bad and dangerous people I shouldn't associate with... but I think the seed was sown, and that aesthetic imprint stayed with me. <br /><br /></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="A woman with hair that is a gradient from neon green through aqua to royal blue, wearing a velvet blouse with double sleeves, a faux-leather cincher (both black) and necklace of a winged grim reaper made from pewter stands infront of a silver and black damask pattern curtain" border="0" data-original-height="1715" data-original-width="1715" height="500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0M8W75Dg1113_eG-iifTDClN_nBFe00U1PobEHLCJKUlRp-pbGeIdkHGRm3ctWGLfDrVnOWP71wX8BIZWEW_2Oxazpx80M-P2QfMw75mCh60QtLqRV8gdIGw-dLMidEmyqAh4X4q5Ain9/w500-h500/20200827_195522.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Romantic Goth fashion in Romantic Goth decor: me in my study" width="500" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">Me in my study: my aesthetics aren't limited to my clothes.<br />The velvet top I am wearing the Saphira top from <a href="https://www.punkravestore.com/" target="_blank">:Punk Rave:</a></span></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div style="text-align: justify;">I've been a fan of the Romantic Gothic aesthetic ever since - that wonderful mix of the macabre, fantastical and historical, and this post is something of a paean to that. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Romantic Gothic aesthetic is certainly one that is enjoyed outside of the Goth musical subculture, and one that pre-dates it; it's that Hammer Horror, Elvira, and 'vampire' aesthetic of villains and supernatural creatures that has existed for centuries. It's not surprising that is has been adopted by fans of the Gothic in general as well as Goth, and being visually striking, it's also not surprising that a lot of people come to the aesthetic before the music (same with all Goth and Gothic styles). I was one of those people, and although I came to the Goth subculture eventually, it was a path that went via lots of Symphonic Metal and bands like Evanesence, Nightwish, and Within Temptation where that aesthetic was prominent. There were plenty of films with gorgeous costumes, too, especially older horror films and a good few fantasy films with more 'Gothic' looking villains and villainesses. I saw all that and I wanted to look like them. It was magical, romantic, otherworldly, and while I knew it was a costume, but every now and again I would see someone, maybe online, maybe walking through the Queensgate shopping mall in Peterborough or past some Oxford colleges, or maybe in Shrinking Violets in Bristol, who dressed that way, in ordinary life, and I knew it was <i>possible. </i><br /><br />The first Goth shop I went into was actually a Hippie shop called Rod & Maureen's in Peterborough, that had a Gothic section in its upstairs. I was more into fantasy-inspired hippie clothes at the time, but I saw some gorgeous purple velvet dresses in there... The second was probably Mystic Rose in the Harris Arcade in Reading, where I wanted everything Raven and Alchemy Gothic made, but could barely afford a pair of earrings, then I went to the indoor market - St. Nick's - in Bristol - while I was in my Steampunk phase, and I bought my first ever made-for-Goth item, a black frock-coat, to wear with a white frilly shirt from a mainstream store, and green velvet trousers, and whatever brocade waistcoat I could find, a monocle and a cheap costume-shop 'top-hat', or with a high-necked blouse, and a floor-length purple velvet skirt from a hippie shop... I still have that coat, although I'm a now a bit too busty to fit it. <br /><br />I wasn't allowed on eBay as a teen, and I didn't have PayPal, so I mostly relied on charity shops; mail-order catalogs and Goth shops were generally more than I could afford, and while my Dad didn't openly disapprove, he was hardly going to let me spend money on that sort of fashion. I rapidly learned that I wasn't going to find exactly what I wanted in Oxfam, and that I would have to learn to modify things, and rapidly learned to apply lace and better buttons to things, and how to do other simple modifications. With a limited budget, basic sewing skills, and a general lack of time and resources, I was a long way from looking like an evil sorceress-queen or a vampire lord, or really looking like anything that was vaguely put-together, but with patience, improving my sewing skills, and finally getting access to the great secondhand resources of eBay and the like, well as becoming an adult and having a full-time job, I could finally start to build a wardrobe that I really like. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisowTgc4zMLolARrUVL30emwKJHIDR2_DYv1LL1P-DndoJNJKeqgMzu_83vrZjW3ujvTwEiSwMd5PGXO51Vor27Dq2GxHWBZxlgTUWfvRJYx6yu6pweJM2RZTY_DYK2nqMMl9gEjc4QRzi/s1365/punkravereplacement.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A woman with hair that is neon green at the top, in a gradient to royal blue at the bottom. Her hair is long, down to her bust, and she has a small braid either side of her face and a fringe. She is wearing heavy dramatic makeup in colours matching her hair - neon green, emerald green and tropical blue eye-shadow with black and violet winged eyeliner, metallic green lips lined in metallic violet, and ornate swirling vines down the right side of her face. She is wearing a black velvet top with a high neckline and a mesh v-neck cut out. She is wearing a pewter Alchemy Gothic pendant of the Grim Reaper with wings" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="1014" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisowTgc4zMLolARrUVL30emwKJHIDR2_DYv1LL1P-DndoJNJKeqgMzu_83vrZjW3ujvTwEiSwMd5PGXO51Vor27Dq2GxHWBZxlgTUWfvRJYx6yu6pweJM2RZTY_DYK2nqMMl9gEjc4QRzi/w475-h640/punkravereplacement.jpg" title="Selfie" width="475" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">New hair-do required matching make-up</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">A decade and a half later and it literally is enough clothes for two wardrobes and several boxes, because I'm something of a clothes collector now. I'm slowly scouring the internet for all the beautiful dresses I pined over as a teen but which were then far out of my price-range, and finding them secondhand on the internet for about £15 -£20, and then customising them with lace and trims. There's a meme on the internet 'be the Goth queen your 12 year old self dreamed of' and while 'queen' isn't always the aesthetic I'm going for ('prince', 'pirate', and 'terrifying bog-witch' sometimes), it's something I feel strongly about; it might have taken many years to get there, but I've actually achieved a (fairly minor) goal; I look like the kind of person my younger self admired. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I went through a lot of style switches and hopped subcultures as a teen, but even when I was dabbling in Steampunk or a more 'Hippie' aesthetic, things with lace-up details, big bell sleeves, lots of lace, full skirts, brocade waistcoats, velvet trousers, etc. always ended up in my wardrobe. It appealed to my love of history and also to my love of fantasy - whether that was the graceful elves of Lord of the Rings or the decadent vampires of 'Interview with a Vampire' - it also always felt luxurious to be wearing this rich fabrics and fancy lace, and growing up very poor, I'd had very little luxury. At some point I would like to do an article on class dynamics and the 'fantasy aristocrat' aesthetic, but this isn't going to be it. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I think there's an element of escapism, in that Romantic Goth clothes let you dress like something apart from the regular world, but I don't think it's necessarily a pretense; there's a little of that when it starts getting into painting yourself an undead grey/white, wearing contact lenses and fangs, latex ear prosthetics etc. deliberately looking like a fantasy creature, but that tends to be reserved for the sorts of festivals where taking on a persona is part of the fun, or for photoshoots - one step down from LARPing, but for most people involved, we don't think we're literally vampires, demons, sorceresses and fae, nor are we LARPing - what we're doing is expressing our fandom, our enjoyment of literature, film, comics and art depicting fantastical themes. I can't speak for others, but I'm not trying to take on a persona (sometimes I do as a bit of a joke, but it's several layers deep in irony and campiness), I'm expressing what I love in those things.It's not about being the villain, it's about having their wardrobe; it's not about being someone else, it's about being enthusiastically and outrageously myself.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK_m4aIKDbtnl71DP7b7UtZvEe-JaSWBAn-YMhi2n52xpg5fQGKi-AvPb4MMctmAoD_tXikPBORTKp7TMgnzojyx7e6Kls20ystqVToCoI56a2gQL4EPgyHdH6YHJ7LuZjxl2J305BWs_q/s1382/punkravegreen3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1382" data-original-width="1038" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK_m4aIKDbtnl71DP7b7UtZvEe-JaSWBAn-YMhi2n52xpg5fQGKi-AvPb4MMctmAoD_tXikPBORTKp7TMgnzojyx7e6Kls20ystqVToCoI56a2gQL4EPgyHdH6YHJ7LuZjxl2J305BWs_q/w481-h640/punkravegreen3.jpg" width="481" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">My decor is stereotypically Goth in black and silver</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />To me, Romantic Goth embracing all the decadence, drama and fanciful things that many people only allow to be expressed in the realms of fantasy; there is no reason other than social acceptability to NOT to dress like that. Building my identity positionally to 'the mainstream' is something I think is pretty pointless, and I don't dress differently as some act of defiance, but it's not like I'm oblivious to the fact I stand out, that even many other Goths dress a lot more casually than I do, especially with the popularity of the more minimalist Nu-Goth aesthetic at the moment. I turn heads, and not always in a good way; I don't like attention even if it's positive, and while I disregard the negative opinions of strangers as irrelevant, it's a lot harder (and stupider) to ignore when that escalates to outright aggression. However, as I've written about before, I will never trade expressing myself for blending in.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">While a lot of Romantic Goth takes historical inspiration, primarily Medieval Europe, Baroque and Victorian, and more recently there's an increasing interest in the Norse cultures of the 8thC to 11thC, there's a wide variation from those who are interested in getting the historical attire correct for the period, with the right shoes, undergarments, and maybe some actual elements of antique dress, to those who are less interested in recreating history and more interested in being creative with the inspiration - I am certainly the latter; I love history (hence my second degree studies being in history & archaeology), and I also know how much time, effort and research it takes to do historical garb justice, and I don't have that time, sewing skill, or money to pay someone who does. I also <i>love</i> the creativity and aesthetics of the more fantasy orientated designs. I do like to borrow elements from historical dress, especially Edwardian and Victorian, sometimes a little 18thC stuff, but I don't want to recreate history, just use it for inspiration. <br /><br />I've noticed a slight decline in the Romantic Goth aesthetic - I think it was pretty popular in the '90s, and then with the explosion of Goth-specific manufacturers, became a lot more accessible in the '00s, but in recent years the Pastel Goth and Nu-Goth aesthetics have dominated, although the 'witchy' aesthetic that was previously characterised by white-on-black occult prints seems to be shifting to something involving more black dresses, with the same big black hats popularised by American Horror Story: Coven. There's also a lot of people into a Norse aesthetic at the moment - 'Vikings' 'Norsemen' 'Vinland Saga' and 'The Last Kingdom' probably contributing strongly to that! I think there's something perennial about Romantic Goth, and while which particular fantasy/supernatural icon or historical period dominate, it will continue. A lot of the older Romantic Goth brands seem to have dwindled, although some like Sinister and Dark*Star are still going strong, but new ones - like the sponsor of this post, <a href="https://www.punkravestore.com/">::Punk Rave:: </a>are filling that niche. <br /><br />I accepted the <a href="https://www.punkravestore.com/">::Punk Rave::</a> sponsorship because I've bought quite a few clothes from them in the past, and I've always been impressed by both the attention to detail and the quality. They're at the pricier end of the scale, so I tend to buy new clothes from them once in a while, but even secondhand they are well worth checking out because the clothes are durable enough that they'll still be in good repair. These are definitely clothes worth the money. I really love their take on the Romantic Goth aesthetic, as there's a lot of influence from Gothic Lolita and Visual Kei aesthetics, which is refreshing compared the usual Western fare. Unlike many Goth brands, Punk Rave actually show their factory on their website and have their clothes made within the company rather than outsourced to a supplier; this allows for a lot more oversight in quality, and my guess is that the better fabric choices came when they opened their own factory, as their very early garments had lace that really wasn't as nice as it is now. Punk Rave's lace is often FAR nicer than I see on many other brands - no scratch raschel lace! A $50 coupon is wonderful, and I will be putting it towards <a href="https://www.punkravestore.com/collections/gothic-cloak/products/dark-night-knight-heavy-metal-bat-cloak">::a lovely cloak::</a> from them, but my opinion isn't bought - I will only ever recommend brands I genuinely trust. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9kJx1eMtaJ0nM7tR6CdG3QD5Sw0__XTL2v5I3iOQCiTNS1IF62A_vwC_lEMtpCwFwJ59ZCXTuNQi3hjkfp573B8VltyaVR6rN9GPzp1gLqk9z9g0TVBUfiMJcmjsqQpsaTryUGGIzvJHt/s1374/PunkRaveGreen4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="A Gothic woman standing. Behind her is a dark purple wall with a poster of the phases of the moon/moon calendar for 2020. To her left is a black wall with an assortment of ornate silver frames, and a dark-brown wooden cabinet with glass front of several Gothic arches, on top of which is a silver and black damask table-runner and many ornate silver-coloured items. Behind her to the right is a stack of books on art, architecture and archaeology. She is wearing a close-fitting black velvet top with a v-neck mesh insert at the neck; the sleeves of the blouse have the outer velvet layer split from the wrist to the elbow so the droop down and reveal a mesh inner sleeve. She has an hourglass figure achieved with a corset. She is wearing a faux-lether waist-cincher over her clothes; it laces up at the front, but this is a false closure. She is wearing a black velvet skirt that is close fitting at the top, but flares at the bottom. It has mesh insert panels at the bottom and a 'hankerchief' hem" border="0" data-original-height="1374" data-original-width="1002" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9kJx1eMtaJ0nM7tR6CdG3QD5Sw0__XTL2v5I3iOQCiTNS1IF62A_vwC_lEMtpCwFwJ59ZCXTuNQi3hjkfp573B8VltyaVR6rN9GPzp1gLqk9z9g0TVBUfiMJcmjsqQpsaTryUGGIzvJHt/w467-h640/PunkRaveGreen4.jpg" title="Blooper real picture" width="467" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">What is that expression I've got??</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">As a bonus for reading this far, have a 'blooper reel' picture of me in an awkwardly imperious pose - it's an out of context image from me trying to film a room decor tour, but at least you get to see the whole outfit with faux-leather cincher and mesh insert skirt. I will try again at filming a tour of my study decor, which is just as Romantic Goth as my clothes are - my love for the aesthetic goes far beyond just fashion. Check out my Instagram account of @domesticatedgoth for more decor pictures. I'm wearing a corset in the photo; those elasticated cinchers don't give an hourglass figure. </div></span><p></p>The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-60505365005477351592020-04-01T07:48:00.000-07:002020-04-01T07:51:10.689-07:00Study/Studio Re-Decoration Part 4: Worktop & Workspace <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is the part of this room that is most used for the purposes of studying and art. I've shared a lot of my Book Nook and meditation space because it's probably the part I feel is most finished and which I am happiest with, as well as being most relevant to the Witchcraft-related topics I've been writing about recently. However, that is not really the primary purpose of the room; literally it's just a corner in an alcove off my study, and my study's main purpose is to be where I study for university and where I do things relating to art.</span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAaFytyzx7Iwh5oZl_eGWSU-3SIJRwMI4P7CZgPz919y4UTvCVvzGsDcsWNtq3gap-oOVwJ76K8KDZe7btV70AIMiweafGHmGwduqd8EIyrZ24tjcZmQPCCQJ1OcbPWaxFtdPyhUsXy4y7/s1600/desk1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A photograph looking along a faux-marble desk towards a window and corner. The window is so bright that it looks mostly white, with a purple pentagram lantern barely visible. There is a curly black wrought iron candle-stick on the window-ledge, with three small purple candles in sockets each slightly higher than the one before, and the purple candles are at slightly jaunty angles. There is a small purple vase on the window-ledge with incense sticks. Several wind-chimes hang in the window, indistinct in the bright light. The window-frame is off-white. Black moulded dado-rail runs from under the window-ledge and around to the adjoining wall. On the adjoining wall, into the corner, there are a set of shelves, three of which are visible; they are above the desk and dado-rail. The shelves are black on ornate Gothic style reproduction Victorian cast-iron brackets, and the front edges of the shelves have thin moulded trim along them. On the shelves are an assortment of tubs and boxes, ornate with predominantly black, grey, silver and purple as the colours. There are also several skull ornaments, and a lavender glasss orb hanging from the second bracket up, nearest the camera. In the corner is a black Lenovo computer, turned off; the monitor is obscuring most of the PC tower, and the keyboard and mouse are visible; the mouse has been left on the keyboard. The faux marble desk is mostly clear except a grey vintage-style desk-lamp, a tablet computer resting on a black swirly metal recipe book stand, and an object that looks like a book with an ornate purple and gold cover, but which is actually a Harry Potter theme lamp with the cover reading 'Liber Lux'; the Harry Potter book-lamp is on a silver recipe-book stand. The wall adjacent to the window, above the desk, is mostly a dark, rich purple. On the purle wall, nearer the camera, there is a mirror in the shape of a wide Gothic arch in a wooden frame; the mirror glass is subdivided horizontally into three thin Gothic arches, two shortm one tall one in the middle - with wire. At the bottom of the wooden mirror frame are three black metal hooks unused. Above the mirror, three purple glass hearts - two bright purple, almost fuchsia and one dark violet - are visible suspended, but what they are suspended from is cropped off at the top of the photograph. Under the dado rail that runs from under the window-ledge along both visible walls is a greyscale wallpaper of Gothic arches, a reproduction if an 1830's style, with a slightly crude wood-block effect. On top of the PC tower in the corner is a mostly wooden candle-holder; it is an ornately carved wooden Gothic arch with a mirror in, on a wooden base, with a purple taper-candle in a brass socket in front of the mirror; the candle-holder is at an oblique angle. Also in the foreground is a metal spice rack, in the same twisted metal tubing and spiral design style as the recipe-book stands; it is slightly thicker metal and powder-coated matte black. At the bottom of the spice-rack is a spindle supporting two visible rolls of tape, on the top shelf of the spice-rack, cropped from view, are art materials in shallow metal tray-tins. The re-purposed spice rack is in the fore-ground, at the far right of the image, and is partially cropped. The image is poorly lit as the room is dingy, and the window is much, much brighter than the room; the effect is dark, subdued and closed-in. The whole collection of visible objects gives a witchy, eclectic aesthetic, especially the purple walls and ornament on much that is visible. The photograph looks like it was taken in the afternoon." border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAaFytyzx7Iwh5oZl_eGWSU-3SIJRwMI4P7CZgPz919y4UTvCVvzGsDcsWNtq3gap-oOVwJ76K8KDZe7btV70AIMiweafGHmGwduqd8EIyrZ24tjcZmQPCCQJ1OcbPWaxFtdPyhUsXy4y7/s400/desk1.jpg" title="Desk and computer unit" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Work-top and too-small window, computer and shelves</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My computer is shoved in the corner by the window to minimise the glare on my screen and to maximise available worktop space, while simultaneously hiding the ugly PC tower as best as I could; modern electronics are completely out of keeping with my aesthetic. Eventually, probably after I upgrade my hardware, I would like to build a new case for the tower based off Gothic architectural aesthetics, and probably a matching screen for my monitor. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My study is dingy because my window is overly small and my walls are dark. Most of the time I end up working there after dark anyway, so it is not much of a bother as I rely on artificial light anyway, but it does make trying to photograph the room in daylight sometimes a tad difficult, especially in the low sun of early spring. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPS9JyUM32af4p35pZsC6OEzxzihRetxgvyxWyvVPXuC4OHcMzLUEg5xyLMjyntzcvFl1_yJY8uodbQVtZY_vTSaN4DzVAAelLEh5zcDdv1UU_a_QFndgkcf1gFGnMRGjh0yUDGI1moNvL/s1600/Desk2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt=" On the far left is a window ingo brightly illuminated but also painted a lighter shade of purple, stenciled with tile patterns in silver and green. Part of a purple pentagram lantern, and three sets of windchimes. There is a black Lenovo PC tower with a wooden Gothic arch mirror that is also candle-holder for a purple dinner-style candle. Above the computer are black shelves with moulded fronts and ornate brackets, full of art materials. The shelves are on a dark purple wall, above a black dado rail with greyscale Gothic architecture design wallpaper beneath. The desk is black marble-effect, and there is a grey vintage style desk lamp upon it, and a tablet computer in a black metal stand. Some Gothic arch candle-holders are visible on the wall to the right of the shelves. The light is defuse but dingy. There is a cast iron bat hanger behind the computer. The art materials include a purple box with silver strapping and latches and a black rack of Spectrum Noir markers, colourful caps visible." border="0" data-original-height="1069" data-original-width="1069" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPS9JyUM32af4p35pZsC6OEzxzihRetxgvyxWyvVPXuC4OHcMzLUEg5xyLMjyntzcvFl1_yJY8uodbQVtZY_vTSaN4DzVAAelLEh5zcDdv1UU_a_QFndgkcf1gFGnMRGjh0yUDGI1moNvL/s400/Desk2.jpg" title="Desk! " width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Desk and Computer</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My desk is a worktop of MDF wrapped in the sort of self-adhesive vinyl for covering kitchen worktops, and it is pretty good as a wipe-down surface. Archimedes has scratched it in a couple of places, but that is fairly minor damage, however if anyone wants to build a desk like this and does crafts involving blades I would definitely recommend a cutting-mat. Raven built the desk/worktop and the legs are re-purposed from the banisters of a stair-rail.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />Above the desk are shelves for the art-materials I use most often, so mostly pens of various types as well as my water-colours. The purple box is where I store technical drawing tools, the ivory drawers my stamping materials. For storage I like to try and find aesthetically pleasing containers as many craft items come in bright colours and garish modern packaging, so they get put in tubs and tins - especially vintage tins. On my desk I have used a spice-rack with a spindle for kitchen-towel as more art-material storage; things that come in shallow trays like paints and pencil-sets get put there, as they do not store easily on the main shelving. I use the spindle for tape (pictured) but also kitchen towel as intended. My tablet and my Harry Potter book-lamp are on recipe-book stands. Kitchenalia is useful for craft rooms! </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLry_m36yABDMcX29mVWdv7ZWJRARxHsv7bx2kAKRYU3XuYglZA5FDEoFrmh5Ua0Fm4qDyPWF9wFxwWyD44Hr-eDr0Fz3i9Vv7Eym_WbXjMYJjgB-eC9y6KGDq5jWTrM1z3oWnQm6D1mUY/s1600/desk3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Black shelves with ornate (but difficult to see) brackets upon which are art materials; skull tub with purple and green dragon-scale paint brushes, vintage tins, ivory drawers, a purple box with silver strapping and latches. Next to the shelves are a variety of Gothic arch candle holders. On the left is a tall, slim dark brown one with gold trim and a mirror, it is also a sconce for a purple dinner-style candle. Central at the top is a black metal arch with some swirls and three candle holders, but the candle-holders are being used to suspend three purple glass hearts. Bottom centre is a dark brown wooden Gothic arch, short and squat, with three metal wire Gothic arches inside it, a mirror and a Highlands & Islands Scottish Green Party sticker. On the right is a crescent moon mirror of black metal, also with three candle-holders. The wall they are on is dark purple. To the right there is a black metal shelf with trays of pencils and charcoals. The computer monitor is on the left. In the middle of the desk are a grey vintage-style desk-lamp, a computer tablet in a black metal recipe book holder, and what looks like a gold and purple antique book but is actually a Harry Potter book lamp. The desk is black marble effect. Behind the monitor, lamps, tablet and bottom of the metal shelves is greyscale Gothic architecture patterned wallpaper under a black dado rail. You are very patient listening to this description, thank-you." border="0" data-original-height="996" data-original-width="996" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLry_m36yABDMcX29mVWdv7ZWJRARxHsv7bx2kAKRYU3XuYglZA5FDEoFrmh5Ua0Fm4qDyPWF9wFxwWyD44Hr-eDr0Fz3i9Vv7Eym_WbXjMYJjgB-eC9y6KGDq5jWTrM1z3oWnQm6D1mUY/s400/desk3.jpg" title="Shelves above the desk" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shelves, art materials, Gothic arches & candlesticks</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">While storage is the primary concern, I do also like displaying ornaments on my shelves, and also sourcing ornamental containers, such as the skull tub. I have some of my Gothic arch candle-sconces on the wall next to my shelves, and the ones that are not too close to the ceiling do actually get used. All of them are secondhand; the two with wooden frames are from eBay, the metal Gothic arch was given to me by a colleague, and the moon sconce came from a candle-shop and is there by dint of being the wrong size for the Book Nook.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicacmkwAhFHm2l0XEfXRxLUGL9fYhyLFq_cQZ28G5RzguCSFEG50eGDx8dbvEw1MGPk06A6khqO6p0WaSYyX_DeIgVi1rmuLJv5Ak-0LNZ0Lr3ngoQN_1tgwHYl8nEmXr9CKSFTwjBNmtk/s1600/desk4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="A large, black and white long-haired cat sitting on my desk. His front is white, his back is black, and he is very very fluffy. He is sitting and facing left, The Gothic arch mirror on top of the computer tower is visible. The Gothic architecture wallpaper and grey desk lamp are visible behind Archimedes the cat. He is sitting in front of a black switched-off flat-screen computer monitor. The cat has very long whiskers that catch the light. He has an adorable face. " border="0" data-original-height="1056" data-original-width="1056" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicacmkwAhFHm2l0XEfXRxLUGL9fYhyLFq_cQZ28G5RzguCSFEG50eGDx8dbvEw1MGPk06A6khqO6p0WaSYyX_DeIgVi1rmuLJv5Ak-0LNZ0Lr3ngoQN_1tgwHYl8nEmXr9CKSFTwjBNmtk/s400/desk4.jpg" title="Archimedes on my desk" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Archimedes on my desk!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Archimedes is a cat, and therefore it is his prerogative to interrupt my work, so he spends a lot of time on my desk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />I have to at some point do an overview of the whole room, but I think that will wait until I have finished it. There's so much left to do on this room, but a lot of it hinges on getting contractors in; the ceiling is definitely something that requires a lot of that, and I can't afford it [at the time of publishing this article, which is approximately a month after actually writing it, we are now in 'lock-down' due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so even if I could afford it, it would not be possible to bring in contractors]. My ceiling requires first the attention of someone to replace the section that was put up incorrectly and has bowed and to patch the hole from the botched attempt at putting in a light fixture that was done for the previous owner by someone clearly not very good at that sort of thing, then it needs an electrician to put in two over-head lights in the long section, and one overhead light above the Book Nook, with new switches (and maybe a power-outlet inside my cubby), and not until then can I paint my ceiling, put up plaster stars, and add coving to my room. There's also little point in starting work on restoring the star-shaped ceiling lights I bought (very cheap) until I have something to mount them to when they are done. <br /><br />I have some furniture customisation/up-cycling projects that I would like to share next, but each of those has come to a stumbling block, so are currently incomplete, but when they are done, there will be a book-case where I replaced the wicker shelves with MDF painted with acrylic pour technique, a drawer mounted underneath my desk with a hand-painted drawer-front and skull drawer-knob, a set of miniature drawers for my calligraphy things, my painting the inner-face of my door in violet and viridian, re-painting a set of shelves in with glass doors, and eventually, re-painting a Gothic arches book-case.<br /><br />This blog will definitely return to some of its original purpose, looking at my Gothic home (hence it's name DOMESTICATED Goth) with more craft-projects, and maybe this year some spooky cooking! I have a back-log of photographs from trips to various spooky places from last year that I would like to share, as well. [Lock-down means no more spooky trips for the foreseeable future, but hopefully they will resume in a few months]. I also have some art of skulls, etc. that I would like to share, and I will be setting up some e-commerce in future so that I can sell my art online. </span></div>
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<br />The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-63675454577191262322020-02-29T13:49:00.000-08:002020-02-29T13:49:06.600-08:00Study/Studio Re-Decoration Part 3: Book Nook Update<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My Book Nook is in a state of constant evolution, and I've made some minor updates. The first and most obvious is that I have re-organised my altar yet again. I do this relatively regularly, so this is unsurprising. The other is that I've been re-arranging the book-shelves (which I have not shared on this blog before, but it has turned up in my Instagram stories; I'm @domesticatedgoth on Instagram too), where I've actually come to a bit of a sticking point. What I would like is to have a lovely book-case of books arrange into one of those beautiful rainbows I've seen on Pintrest and Instagram, but I tried this, very unsuccessfully, as most of my books are neutral colours: black, white, grey or brown. Currently they're organised by descending height from tallest to shortest, and in order of subject. Eventually I will be getting a larger book-case, with Gothic arches, and my book collection is always growing, so I suspect that I might be able to have this book-case eventually dedicated to colourful books arranged into a rainbow, and the larger bookcase for the majority of books which are black, white, grey or brown. Currently it just looks messy and the mismatch effect offends my aesthetic sensibilities. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQeWkeFLmiWcTMQ5SoluqWnRchk-gxi-EcTGPoiUVXe5MiFjeTtjh91lAJxrk_s-PBsSkxxJ0SfPBY8_XshPiYnwEDjreu3_XAm19SR6v8HCEHEJdUO-OK8g2LwoEvntRi2qtj5WYO3IJW/s1600/171F2E42-4969-41DE-AF97-CE3AE723CF9B.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img alt="A two-handed claymore sword is mounted on an ornate metal two-pronged mount screwed into a wall clad with black reptile-skin effect wallpaper. The image is looking into a corner. The wall on the right is a dark purple and is stencilled with silver and gold stars. There are three moon-design mirrors in a folk style from Indonesia on the wall, in varying shades of purple with black and gold accents. In the corner there is a three-tier black-painted glossy shelf with various witchy items on it including two resin figures of wizards, several ornate boxes and a statue of Bast. There is a book-case standing from the floor; it is gloss black, and it has a berry purple altar-cloth along the top of it. There is a Neo-Pagan altar set up with a black cast-iron cauldron, an incense censer in the shape of the Moon Goddess, a glass crescent moon candle-holder, several crystals, even more purple glass candle-holders, and a purple incense burner for joss sticks. There are two rolled beeswax candles, purple. The lighting is daylight, the image is relatively bright considering the dark space. Sunlight glints on the faux-reptile wallpaper. There are books on the book-case, disorganised and mis-matched, they are about architecture and include modern books and 19thC volumes" border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1504" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQeWkeFLmiWcTMQ5SoluqWnRchk-gxi-EcTGPoiUVXe5MiFjeTtjh91lAJxrk_s-PBsSkxxJ0SfPBY8_XshPiYnwEDjreu3_XAm19SR6v8HCEHEJdUO-OK8g2LwoEvntRi2qtj5WYO3IJW/s400/171F2E42-4969-41DE-AF97-CE3AE723CF9B.jpg" title="Book case, claymore-sword, altar and corner shelves." width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Book Nook does actually contain books</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I am still seeking more of these purple fair-trade moon mirrors. I nearly found a new one on Instagram, but it was out of stock. I prefer shopping second-hand, anyway, so I am still keeping an eye out for some on eBay or for one turning up in a charity shop. I would need to re-arrange the mirrors to open up a space for the next mirror. I can see myself in the large round one at the bottom; the others are just there for reflecting light around a rather dingy and dark corner. I really like the painting style, and the 'man in the moon' is one of my favourite artistic motifs. Speaking of which, if you look carefully on the corner shelves, there's a print of one of my drawings (the original is in my sketchbook, and I had it made into a print partly because I intend to get a tattoo of it). I's a crescent moon with stars, and I drew it for Inktober last year. You can see it properly on my Instagram. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxyvVhIyHCGVrCNJtSAVydY3XttLUaKxzYz7bbOO3DDOPUadUmC7x2mHFgHGcEnIWWL0xLLHSBEu_Rx0VIu3csLGypR9l2jpGj8FnFjrIR6DPmuAVxUadVVq2MdNKYqPeQdtd2dwPLd7tJ/s1600/FDAC01C4-BB09-453D-8054-0910327F96BC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img alt="An oval mirror is on the right flank of a black-gloss book-case. The mirror frame depicts a lavender-coloured crescent 'man-in-the-moon' design with a black section with three stars painted on it. It matches the circular mirrors depicted in the picture above. There is a berry-purple tassel hanging partly over it from the altar cloth above, adorned with two clear crystal-effect beads. To the right of the image, the wall behind the book-case is visible, and a little of some greyscale wall-paper depciting Gothic architecture, it is a reproduction of an 1830's design and is in a block-print style." border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1491" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxyvVhIyHCGVrCNJtSAVydY3XttLUaKxzYz7bbOO3DDOPUadUmC7x2mHFgHGcEnIWWL0xLLHSBEu_Rx0VIu3csLGypR9l2jpGj8FnFjrIR6DPmuAVxUadVVq2MdNKYqPeQdtd2dwPLd7tJ/s400/FDAC01C4-BB09-453D-8054-0910327F96BC.jpg" title="Purple moon-mirror on edge of book-case" width="372" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moon mirror on book-case</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">One of the moon-mirrors that is rarely appreciated because it's not on the wall with the others, and is often partially obscured by the portiere curtains is this oval one depicted above. It looked a bit odd next to all the circular ones, so I decided to put it elsewhere. Initially I intended on putting it on a window ingo, but I didn't want the UV radiation in sunlight fading the paint, so it's in this obscure place in the Book Nook instead. The tassel hanging in front is from my altar-cloth, which is too long for my altar (I should either cut it down myself, or get it done professionally by someone neater than me). </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG4qvX1XH6TCAtTG1C3aAtI1kHpM3b9oS6nQ6ptGIPE2J-VqbrmG9AbFG7riSbGp3bST0VKcOPYiYEuM26uSTg0uDxkJttYpym41pk6iXc9yzZwe_BfHALQfc4rP9mh6R1I4M38CG-AcS4/s1600/4A2AB1CC-561E-40E1-823B-C18CE4B39E02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Three purple and black moon-mirrors mounted on a rich, deep purple wall. The wall has some gold and silver stars stencilled on it visible in the top left. The top-most mirror is bright purple and depicts a man-in the moon with a halo of purple rays tipped with gold. There is a black section on the right of the crescent with three stars. It is medium sized. The middle mirror is to the right; it is a blueish purple and is the same crescent moon with halo of rays design, but much smaller and a bluer colour, again with three stars. Hanging off the small moon mirror is a filigree silver moon-pendant with simulated circular stone. The lower mirror is a large light purple mirror of just a crescent moon on a circular background, and there are three stars; the background is black. There is less gold. To the left there is a black gloss corner unit of shelves; on the bottom shelf is visible a black stone box with Celtic knotwork supporting a brass Nepalese singing bowl with wooden striker. On the middle shelf is visible a resin figure of a wizard wearing a blue robe with purple and gold and holding a staff; the wizard has long white hair, a beard and a hat. Next to the wizard, on the far left, a snowglobe is partiall in view, half of it cropped at the edge of the image. The snow-globe is a clear globe on a black turned pedestal and inside is a graveyard scene made of metal. The items on the top-most shelf are obscured, but part of a metallic foil print of a unicorn is visible - just the lower hooves and some of a purple night sky. A dark purple glittery skull, very small, is also just about visible but obscured by shadow. In the foreground there are two purple rolled-beeswax candles in silver old-fashioned Classical candle-sticks. The photograph is taken in daylight, and the lighting is neutral. " border="0" data-original-height="1457" data-original-width="1457" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG4qvX1XH6TCAtTG1C3aAtI1kHpM3b9oS6nQ6ptGIPE2J-VqbrmG9AbFG7riSbGp3bST0VKcOPYiYEuM26uSTg0uDxkJttYpym41pk6iXc9yzZwe_BfHALQfc4rP9mh6R1I4M38CG-AcS4/s400/4A2AB1CC-561E-40E1-823B-C18CE4B39E02.jpg" title="Three moon-frame mirrors on purple wall" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Three moon mirrors</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have re-organised the corner shelves, tweaking the display. It isn't a major change, but it's a change nonetheless. I actually feel like this corner needs to be more Gothic. I submitted these pictures to the Gothic Home Decor Enthusiasts group on FaceBook, and they gave some good advice about incorporating candle-sticks, and maybe some skull moons. I know some lovely creepy 'skull moon' design varients on the man-in-the-moon were available in the US last Hallowe'en, but I didn't see them in the UK. If I do include something like that, I'd not put it right near the altar as that's a sacred space, but I might put things like that on the black wall next to my sword, or hanging from the brackets of the shelf opposite (not pictured). </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfdi33mxjF8QmfJMnFVh5RVkSrd2QCKpTUrFO7KkCoPfq6rPrmnN9KaWIDSvHn7CBNoBx3C1jtRHTzLtnFL4eeYhprW13VXBMw9OqOL6e_zR5vCZlWcr8XrKTN3IcJAn_KSwvJCF5AwV3E/s1600/44124B70-EFC3-4C57-B9A7-C80CA42B2FA6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The same corner of the room as in previous photographs. On the left there is a wall with black faux-reptile textured wallpaper. Mounted in the corner, which is to the left of centre of the image, is a black gloss corner shelving unit with three tiers. The bottom shelf has a small carved wooden box, a medium sized black stone box supporting a Nepalese singing bowl with wooden striker. There is also a print in a glass clip-frame of a black and white image of the man-in-the-moon within a circle, with a field of stars on a black bacground, and a large ten-pointed star with an eye, all drawn in fine-liner. The second tier has two wizards figurines, one on each side; the one on the left is wearing purple and gold robes, the one on the right is wearing blue robes with purple and gold, both have gold staffs; the blue-robed wizard has a crescent moon staff, the purple robed wizard has a staff with a white sphere like the full moon. There is a snow-globe with a black pedestal and clear glass displaying a graveyard scene in silvery metal. A small brown oval stone box is between the wizards, in front of the snow-globe. The items on the top tier of the shelf are partially cropped out of the image, but three small skulls each painted purple in nail-varnish with different finishes - glittery, metallic and iridescent - are visible. A small black and gold statue of Bast is visible, the bottom half of a foil print of a white unicorn against a purple sky, in a black wooden frame, is also visible; the unicorn's hind legs are visible only. The legs of a figure of the character Sebastian from the anime Black Butler are also visible. On the right two thirds of the image the purple wall is visible. Two of the three moon mirrors are in the photograph; they are both round, one is light purple and has a crescent moon and three stars, the other is bright purple with gold accents and has a crescent moon, three stars and a halo of purple rays. Gold and silver stars are stencilled on the rich purple wall. In the fore-ground two rolled bees-wax candles in classical silver candle-sticks, a purple glass goblet, the lid of the cast-iron cauldron, a miniature treasure chest in brass over purple-stained wood, and the black and white decorated box for my witch's Black Book are visible. " border="0" data-original-height="1596" data-original-width="1504" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfdi33mxjF8QmfJMnFVh5RVkSrd2QCKpTUrFO7KkCoPfq6rPrmnN9KaWIDSvHn7CBNoBx3C1jtRHTzLtnFL4eeYhprW13VXBMw9OqOL6e_zR5vCZlWcr8XrKTN3IcJAn_KSwvJCF5AwV3E/s400/44124B70-EFC3-4C57-B9A7-C80CA42B2FA6.jpg" title="Corner shelf unit and two moon mirrors " width="376" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wanted to put two Gothic arch candle-sconces, a matching pair, either side of the sword. I was bidding on two tall, then almost lancet style ones being auctioned on eBay, but with faux-stone moulding of architectural details and a matching grey faux-stone paint effect. I am not keen on faux-stone paint effects, and would have painted them gloss black to match my furniture, but unfortunately I lost out on the bidding at the last minute. I am now trying to buy another pair of slightly plainer Gothic arch candle sconces, and I intend to keep looking until I can find ones the right size and style for this corner of the room. I like that it is witchy, and that it has been described as 'magical' but I would like to add more elements of the overtly Gothic into the decor, not just in the architectural sense, especially to tie it in with the rest of my study, which is more Gothic (especially in the architectural sense). </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw1dhRyKim_rUueQkL9KawDJE_sP0rp7V_Z9LFqCZ1r7EDkbxj_b3VnhtH_IFbmKxJJECBfN0etXl8ZBzGD9OHl8ki4135JyAkk2Bb7_47RuwGKxU1W6XOq-mjW-hx3KKw4a3SjwvgMA-o/s1600/41AAC857-AFA9-4CF5-A0A7-FC348967B61A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img alt="The altar is in the foreground, slightly out of focus; it is on a berry purple altar cloth with a crinkle texture that is on a diagonal to the plane of view. Two silver candle-sticks are upon it, in a classical style, with rolled beeswax purple candles. On the left of the altar is a black plaque displaying a purple pentagram, a small cast iron cauldron with a pentacle on the front, and a partially visible purple glass goblet, cropped out of frame. In the centre is a clear glass candle-holder with a crescent man-in-the-moon and star design moulded into the glass. On the left is an incense censer in the shape of a stylised goddess. Behind the altar and above it is the round crescent moon mirror, it is quite large with a purple crescent moon occupying most of the left of the frame, the right being black with three small stars; the mirrored glass itself is round. The mirror is in focus. To the left of the image the black corner shelving unit is partially visible; the bottom tier has a black stone box with celtic knotwork, a brass Nepalese singing bowl with wooden striker, and partially visible fine-liner print; the print is cropped at the edge of the photograph so the image of the print is not apparent. The second tier is partially visible, with the bottom of the figurine of a wizard in blue, gold and purple robes visible. The shelving unit is slightly out of focus, but the items are identifiable. On the right of the image, a small round moon mirror with a frame consisting of a blueish purple crescent moon and a halo of purple rays is visible, as is a filigree moon pendant with synthetic round stone hanging from it. At the top of the image the halo of rays from the bright purple medium mirror is partially visible. Only the large crescent moon mirror in the centre of the image is in focus, and deliberately so. The photograph is taken in daylight and the shine on metallic objects is quite visible; the black wall is visible in the central mirror, but the wall looks grey in bright direct sunlight. " border="0" data-original-height="1382" data-original-width="1382" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw1dhRyKim_rUueQkL9KawDJE_sP0rp7V_Z9LFqCZ1r7EDkbxj_b3VnhtH_IFbmKxJJECBfN0etXl8ZBzGD9OHl8ki4135JyAkk2Bb7_47RuwGKxU1W6XOq-mjW-hx3KKw4a3SjwvgMA-o/s400/41AAC857-AFA9-4CF5-A0A7-FC348967B61A.jpg" title="Large round moon mirror above altar" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Large moon mirror</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I would really appreciate both suggestions on how to better organise my books to be more aesthetically pleasing, and on how to make my Book Nook as Gothic (in all senses of the word) as the rest of my study, while maintaining the altar as a meditation space that is about religious practice rather than displaying my spooky stuff. </span></div>
The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-30852825054069368342019-12-25T17:38:00.000-08:002020-02-23T17:39:39.517-08:00Gothic Christmas<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I decorated my study with Gothic-aesthetic Christmas decorations. As has been explained in this blog already, I don't celebrate Christmas as a religious thing, more an honouring of family traditions. It's very much a secular Christmas in our household, with the big religious celebration being Midwinter's Day on the 21st of December instead. The decorations in my study centre around the 'Gothmas' Tree - something that's part in-joke, part household 'tradition'. The 'Gothmas' Tree started when Raven and I first moved in together, nearly 10 years ago. His family are quite traditional about Christmas, and so Raven wanted to continue that. At that point, I wasn't really into Christmas very much as I came from a home where it wasn't really celebrated because it held too many painful memories and too much anxiety, it was a very simple occasion with no turkey, a very briefly apparent Christmas tree, and usually a lot of sorrow. I went to Christian schools, so Christmas was a big thing there, and I sang with church choirs when I was younger, so I'd performed in many carol concerts, and so it wasn't a completely bleak and sombre affair (and even the worst Christmas of my life ended up with me falling asleep in glittering lights of the basilica in Rennes) but it just wasn't something I felt a deep connection to, at least not a positive one. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg2gSwgwXU-8TxymDxQFlAY_35KdBE5Cq017sjB5RqMMIdpEzG-A-8flq64b8W8Y_FwkBC8XnDzE6TK1-paNm01o6dWCczSinD4mTCjbkdb_j1aUrSWCdaYw8VEML4jllnBQRnQWLcqlxf/s1600/7DB7B0F2-4FD2-4C6F-8191-8C014E89AFEB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img alt="A photograph of Christmas decorations. The wall behind is purple, there is a black dado rail, and greyscale wallpaper of Gothic arches. There are three shelves on the right holding art materials, and the upper two shelves are garlanded with tinsel, grey at the top, iridescent green and purple in the middle. There is a 2 and a half foot tall black Christmas tree densely decorated, with a glittery snowflake on the top that is too large and leans slightly to the right. The tree is on a desk with a fake black marble work-surface. The bottom of the tree is wrapped in a Hallowe'en table-cloth of black lace. The tree is decorated in a purple and silver colour-scheme, with skulls and stars as the primary motifs; it has lots of tinsel. Behind the tree is an ornate black metal stand for a tablet computer. There is a grey vintage-style desk-lamp on the desk." border="0" data-original-height="1392" data-original-width="1392" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgg2gSwgwXU-8TxymDxQFlAY_35KdBE5Cq017sjB5RqMMIdpEzG-A-8flq64b8W8Y_FwkBC8XnDzE6TK1-paNm01o6dWCczSinD4mTCjbkdb_j1aUrSWCdaYw8VEML4jllnBQRnQWLcqlxf/s400/7DB7B0F2-4FD2-4C6F-8191-8C014E89AFEB.jpg" style="cursor: move;" title="Christmas decorations in daylight " width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 'Gothmas' tree & my tinsel on my desk. The snowflake is too big, so leans</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I wanted to go for a Gothic 'Christmas' that was just a second Hallowe'en (my favourite holiday, of course) so I could still be celebrating <i>something</i> when surrounded by the huge cultural pressure to do Christmas, but my partner is very much into a traditional Christmas. The compromise was that we'd do both; I could have my own Gothic tree, and we would have a big traditional tree in the living room, and I could watch 'Nightmare Before Christmas' and he could play old-time Christmas songs from the '40s and '50s, and we'd get together for roast dinner with the fancy black-handled ornate cutlery reserved for special occasions I brought back from Ireland. It was said in jest that my Gothic tree was so I wouldn't 'ruin' the Yule tree with skulls and bats when Raven wasn't looking because I kept trying to 'sneak' black baubles onto the Yule tree, especially when I found baubles that were very pretty but too big for my little black tree, and they are now permanent fixtures on the Yule tree (which has a lot of more unusual decorations).</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc2Ii2XGN2tcFhEoSES1jM6N-yP2uRzpg2_qP0K0fAtDRv28yfu-zwf9468mQwkakb67cvKF83iVYipkLzXqrkNual7GIygfazU0wwor_x73jO4ky4s6x-tMYeQLISL3KKcfFTgS1I57ph/s1600/5B9D2A70-3942-42D9-BBAC-E216BAC13C85.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img alt="A bauble in the shape of a jaggedly pointed star with many points, made of clear plastic with an iridescent rainbow finish that tends towards green and purple. The bail for suspending the bauble is two silver beads It is infront of the black Christmas tree and a dark purple wall. Bright purple tinsel is visible " border="0" data-original-height="1276" data-original-width="1276" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc2Ii2XGN2tcFhEoSES1jM6N-yP2uRzpg2_qP0K0fAtDRv28yfu-zwf9468mQwkakb67cvKF83iVYipkLzXqrkNual7GIygfazU0wwor_x73jO4ky4s6x-tMYeQLISL3KKcfFTgS1I57ph/s400/5B9D2A70-3942-42D9-BBAC-E216BAC13C85.jpg" title="Spiked iridescent bauble" width="398" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spiky iridescent bauble, I think from B&M or Tesco, on the 'Gothmas' tree</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I couldn't afford a second full-size tree on that first Christmas because I'd recently been made redundant when the shop I was assistant manageress of shut down for good a couple of months previous, so I bought a small tree, to bring a spark of spooky joy into what I feared would be a very bleak Christmas in a new country where I knew virtually nobody except my partner, hundreds of miles from my family, jobless, broke, and celebrating that festival that I usually hated. Christmas that year actually wasn't too bad, and I think I managed to even continue the pattern from our first Christmas where I bought Raven a hamper of unusual ingredients and favourite foods! Ever since then, there has been the Gothmas tree - in our old apartment it used to be in the bedroom, and now it is in my study, where being purple and black it matches everything else in there as the whole room is purple and black. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgrSbt1fyEbVKrXCFs_Kr7G3KxLq_3_qj9pQVXUH4Fsm0cy65FaqkVnJairDUmrNQENrA89EGVR7BVWlXY8dMid2j7iGUiMpB2iu4BxF790ebkioZz5b1paYF0x4K_wjpZFXmohiDlpvXi/s1600/85CC7737-0766-47B6-9C00-5BEF09CDEE36.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="In the upper left corner is a white foil stylised skull with a crack in its temple, it is attached to black tinsel. The whole thing is ensconced in black synthetic Christmas tree branches, but only the skull is in focus" border="0" data-original-height="1229" data-original-width="1229" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgrSbt1fyEbVKrXCFs_Kr7G3KxLq_3_qj9pQVXUH4Fsm0cy65FaqkVnJairDUmrNQENrA89EGVR7BVWlXY8dMid2j7iGUiMpB2iu4BxF790ebkioZz5b1paYF0x4K_wjpZFXmohiDlpvXi/s400/85CC7737-0766-47B6-9C00-5BEF09CDEE36.jpg" title="Skull tinsel " width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Skull tinsel - cracked skull tinsel, to be precise, from Poundland</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Apart from being very short, my little black tree is quite weedy, so I fill it with tinsel - purple, black, silver, and one that's purple and black with black cats, and another that's black and white with skulls. It looks a lot bushier once I've wound it around with all that tinsel - full length tinsel meant for full size trees, too! It's about all I can do to make it a passable Christmas tree and not a sad Christmas branch instead.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7lYAQ3-DjBGEiBEFo2uA1hnHn-SoRdRFDOZ33AUWcu83mCmdhpUtoNY84jiWFOMpSlo2dwpoW5jlLgKg6TJskBAuWAmxuTNxT-oNHYbbYdBJhxcsCRdC0EPIejOMcIjs706bKnBZWbTkN/s1600/836611CB-21B6-47B3-9218-7E70C0CA745C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A black gilltery tombstone-shape cut from acrylic, with a transfer in white stylised spindly letters saying 'Festive Fears', suspended in a black Christmas tree, with a white star bauble in the foreground, and a grey six-pointed star bauble to the left. There is skull tinsel in the background" border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1504" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7lYAQ3-DjBGEiBEFo2uA1hnHn-SoRdRFDOZ33AUWcu83mCmdhpUtoNY84jiWFOMpSlo2dwpoW5jlLgKg6TJskBAuWAmxuTNxT-oNHYbbYdBJhxcsCRdC0EPIejOMcIjs706bKnBZWbTkN/s400/836611CB-21B6-47B3-9218-7E70C0CA745C.jpg" title="Festive Fears tombstone decoration" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">'Festive Fears' tombstone decoration from SpookyBoxCo</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Some of the decorations like the glittery stars and black baubles are just ordinary Christmas decorations - it's quite common to find purple and black decorations these days, and silver is a traditional festive decoration for anything snowy. I quite like the spiky glittery stars, and there iridescent star shown at the top. I've also got decorations from SpookyBoxCo from when I used to be subscribed. Some are black tomb-stones with spooky mottos, and some are white skulls (pictured bellow). There's also glittery purple skulls tucked into the boughs, but all the photographs that I tried to take turned out blurry, unfortunately. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTvY8TgspM_mt9e_2BsOaX4bPnUMK12Z7rqPbc1dIacSmuVvDXY0I9Cv8ORbLcPQTIR6jWTcmG5RUWNRtodCtDAkJq4EP_ErrahGu3ikc43u0byAcZpakbky34_tv5B9hCBHZH9V2z92kt/s1600/CDA9E706-1D80-4030-A41B-AC6A2F811599.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A cartoonish white acrylic skull, very glossy, hanging in the black Christmas tree, with a clear bat-shaped LED string light, silver bead garland, purple tinsel, and black tinsel with white skulls. The shelve and lantern-styled string lights are visible in the background, out of focus, in the upper left " border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1504" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTvY8TgspM_mt9e_2BsOaX4bPnUMK12Z7rqPbc1dIacSmuVvDXY0I9Cv8ORbLcPQTIR6jWTcmG5RUWNRtodCtDAkJq4EP_ErrahGu3ikc43u0byAcZpakbky34_tv5B9hCBHZH9V2z92kt/s400/CDA9E706-1D80-4030-A41B-AC6A2F811599.jpg" title="White skull decoration" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Cute skull decoration from SpookyBoxCo</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As you can see in the background of the photograph above, the lights on the tree are bats. They glow a blue-ish violet, but all the photographs I've taken of them look purely blue. I promise they aren't entirely blue. They're Hallowe'en lights, I think probably from Poundland, but I can't be certain of that. I don't have many Hallowe'en specific string-lights in my house any more - I used to have several in my study when it had the more kitschy aesthetic, but I've now rehomed them to people who have more of that sort of aesthetic. I still have two strings of skull lights, one with small clear resin skulls, and one with blown mercury glass large skulls, but they are in our bedroom. I bought some purple bat miniature LED lights, which are on the edge of my shelves. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilTEWli8q5z2KQYqNixQUQH2Ne7p9RIwLQMFQi6aMWQXxOLqGbkx2M0voYc-Lu1Ors2JlL-tSEVH4vihV7WGf0NxU2aVb97Q1lqIMaXC1T6rMBnXRCzYgmgAC-p73k6AaWs07ZVEI9v6lw/s1600/745B121F-B7D3-44BB-88C4-A1866F6F0BCA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The black Christmas tree is illuminated by a light that appears blue; in the centre is a lit bat LED light, it is brightest in the middle, so bright it is almost white in the photograph. The rest of the tree is very dark, much is black. In real life, the bat glows a more purple-y colour." border="0" data-original-height="1503" data-original-width="1503" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilTEWli8q5z2KQYqNixQUQH2Ne7p9RIwLQMFQi6aMWQXxOLqGbkx2M0voYc-Lu1Ors2JlL-tSEVH4vihV7WGf0NxU2aVb97Q1lqIMaXC1T6rMBnXRCzYgmgAC-p73k6AaWs07ZVEI9v6lw/s400/745B121F-B7D3-44BB-88C4-A1866F6F0BCA.jpg" title="Bat string-light" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">A purple bat that looks blue. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The rest of the string-lights in the picture below are all permanent fixtures in my study, except for the ones on the tree. The festive period is probably the only time of the year when I have all of the string-lights turned on, although I do sometimes put a few one for things like ambience while gaming at my PC or mood-lighting for D&D. I also like to put a few on when I'm meditating, and don't want the bright over-head light or stand light. I think my study possibly has far too many lighting options, and I'm saving up to get an electrician in to give me even more lighting options, hopefully in summer, so maybe I'm just overly finnicky about lighting adjustability... The lantern string lights were originally clear plastic with brown frames and I used glass-paint to make them purple and green and nail-polish to re-paint the brown plastic frames black. The skull, lanterns and purple orb lights were all from Poundland. They run off batteries. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuclg2jaqx225wTa-z4KSAyZgm7YtwCMV9c27NaJ9Zx8Vr6JhyUlNoucXb7S89e099HLVTtHodzXCAC-eNrNSOSGHdGHaFpWwlE5VUkUpwO9JSx8HcPeJPupQpCH5bPMkGuRBR86I0aw1D/s1600/557F0A7A-B633-4F94-86F9-B648396D2690.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The small black Christmas-tree is just right of centre in the picture. The camera looks diagonally towards the shelves. There is a Gothic arch mirror behind the Christmas tree. There is also a lamp, turned off, in the shape of a book, with a Harry Potter themed cover that says Liber Lux behind the tree. The tree is on a shiny simulated marble worktop. A computer screen is just visible on the far left, but it is turned off. There is a grey vintage-style desk-lamp underneath the shelves. The shelves are black with ornate Victorian brackets. Hanging from the lowest shelf is a string of lantern-shaped string lights, quite small - the panes are green and purple. On the first shelf there are ornate boxed of art materials and a glass skull filled with small white LED lights. The second shelf is farlanded with iridescent tinsel that seems to be glimmering in the low light. On the second self there is a string of tiny purple bat-shaped lights reaching upwards and a rack with coloured markers. The small black Christmas tree has bat-shaped lights that seme very blue in the photograph. There is a row of round purple lights running under some black dado rail; it illuminates grey wallpaper depicting Gothic arches so it loos purple, and reflects off the glossy worktop.The image is dark, it is taken at night to maximise the effect of the string-lights. The wall is visible in the upper right and it is a very dark purple. There is a Highlands and Islands region sticker for the Scottish Green Party on the Gothic mirror behind the Christmas tree. " border="0" data-original-height="1559" data-original-width="1504" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuclg2jaqx225wTa-z4KSAyZgm7YtwCMV9c27NaJ9Zx8Vr6JhyUlNoucXb7S89e099HLVTtHodzXCAC-eNrNSOSGHdGHaFpWwlE5VUkUpwO9JSx8HcPeJPupQpCH5bPMkGuRBR86I0aw1D/s400/557F0A7A-B633-4F94-86F9-B648396D2690.jpg" title="Christmas decorations at night " width="385" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Lanterns, a skull, tiny bats, & glowing orbs are the tip of the lighting iceberg</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In both the first photograph and the one above you can see there's tinsel on my shelf. I think they're both from B&M, although one might be from The Range, I can't remember. I've got two more photographs of tinsel and I'm not writing two more paragraphs on the topic of tinsel; one is iridescent green and purple/pink, and the other is petrol grey, and they're thick with long fronds - that is all there is to say about tinsel. I think the iridescent one looks quite magical. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj31ZKZTBlqOTWIZGFz9rkU8JL4j1r7lfdu34bxsUMY8KsccZDjZUvtQqmLsjz-b7eFlQKv2XmCJ2AODk0GIwg2KrpYPVvDrewEevbOogp1JfmfSM9KpVnQe5bmXuUIwFWgTbiCgdmYM8fK/s1600/E40EC0CC-F071-4814-A111-631622E9EDA0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Iridiscent green and purple tinsel with almost transparent fronds, against the background of a dark purple wall. The image is very busy, and the tinsel takes up most of the image" border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1504" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj31ZKZTBlqOTWIZGFz9rkU8JL4j1r7lfdu34bxsUMY8KsccZDjZUvtQqmLsjz-b7eFlQKv2XmCJ2AODk0GIwg2KrpYPVvDrewEevbOogp1JfmfSM9KpVnQe5bmXuUIwFWgTbiCgdmYM8fK/s400/E40EC0CC-F071-4814-A111-631622E9EDA0.jpg" title="Iridescent tinsel" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Iridescent tinsel</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I think next year I will get two more strands of tinsel, so each shelf has one, as just two shelves looks a bit awkward. I'd like to get some really chunky black tinsel, and maybe some purple or some silver tinsel. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnI89D96GZzezcA0haCJ3QWhXTH_3SbHN0w4MFgJrhMVoFDEz8zNgl8UWu9upnfCBy-kbqoIi7oE2YwBD1nZclnUPOEixv7yHg7HTA4I5hvqLBaQVz63kBv5ADR2LGpVv8RfFcN_kQ2JiD/s1600/B206DCB7-54B6-4C5A-BB7B-3A16F989A628.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Grey tinsel above a blurred purple bauble and against the background of a dark purple wall. The fronds of the tinsel are quite chunky, the tinsel is dark grey and metallic" border="0" data-original-height="1504" data-original-width="1504" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnI89D96GZzezcA0haCJ3QWhXTH_3SbHN0w4MFgJrhMVoFDEz8zNgl8UWu9upnfCBy-kbqoIi7oE2YwBD1nZclnUPOEixv7yHg7HTA4I5hvqLBaQVz63kBv5ADR2LGpVv8RfFcN_kQ2JiD/s400/B206DCB7-54B6-4C5A-BB7B-3A16F989A628.jpg" title="Petrol-grey tinsel" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">Grey tinsel</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Another element of Christmas decorations in my study are foil garlands, spider garlands, and a foil star. They are the sort that come flat, and you fold them out to expand them. I know a lot of people think these decorations are quite tacky, but I like them, and they remind me of Christmas at my grandmother's house back in the early '90s, maybe even the late '80s. I liked Christmas at my English grandmother's house, but she passed away when I was a child. I tried really hard to photograph the garlands, but I could not get a good angle. I did get a good couple of photographs of the star that hangs from my ceiling however. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikZeYv_cI2S9z745B4BWoevmhEDTjjO09HyyGqbjKVav0vkWHIzcpVeFEYeRl3HFwQyVpt8avcy9XH_wwQKHiSwVzm9GS1WZQGZGIOCKm9XsmrdPiR5oiUuWJa8VNzexxXrSidJy4V9P0N/s1600/E1CBB618-CD97-4EBC-837E-94E8360B00CC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A star with alternating purple, silver and blue points, made of thin coloured foil, suspended in front of a dark purple wall" border="0" data-original-height="1359" data-original-width="1359" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikZeYv_cI2S9z745B4BWoevmhEDTjjO09HyyGqbjKVav0vkWHIzcpVeFEYeRl3HFwQyVpt8avcy9XH_wwQKHiSwVzm9GS1WZQGZGIOCKm9XsmrdPiR5oiUuWJa8VNzexxXrSidJy4V9P0N/s400/E1CBB618-CD97-4EBC-837E-94E8360B00CC.jpg" title="Foil star decoration" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A foil star with silver, purple and blue</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There's a spider garland that has a pretty similar concept - it's purple (six legged???) spiders made of tissue-paper strung along a cord - but I didn't get a photograph of that either. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKP_7_LD6Knppwr7W-1pofoFFfJWug0sFX1g8p-CAc_5bGX-PiviYUCM24QLyAa0C3YntypKTg4EafT3h1ZYbCTwAigjtIym7UebyZebitGyucIJX8jlpxcp3wYgBqonMkVHbIivT7DZ5C/s1600/C4DACF32-945F-45C6-8003-0EDAC264964F.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A foil star of alternating purple, silver and blue sections viewed from the upper right, looking down onto it, with a dark purple wall in the background and on the purple wall is the black metal frame of a former-mirror missing its glass - it is a black Gothic arch with swirling spirals and three candle-sconces on the bottom. Three glass hearts are hanging from the candle-sconces. The foil star is in focus, the black mirror frame isn't" border="0" data-original-height="993" data-original-width="993" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKP_7_LD6Knppwr7W-1pofoFFfJWug0sFX1g8p-CAc_5bGX-PiviYUCM24QLyAa0C3YntypKTg4EafT3h1ZYbCTwAigjtIym7UebyZebitGyucIJX8jlpxcp3wYgBqonMkVHbIivT7DZ5C/s400/C4DACF32-945F-45C6-8003-0EDAC264964F.jpg" title="Foil Star, viewed from above " width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My glass-less Gothic arch former-mirror for scale and position.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That was my Christmas decorations for 2019. If by next Christmas, I have my cornice up and sort out my ceiling (maybe with two new lights...) then you might get a half-decent photo of the garlands, too. </span></div>
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The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-27999660055121125562019-12-22T08:44:00.000-08:002020-01-01T08:54:26.614-08:00Neo-Pagan Solstice Part 2: The Tree<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDz6Uow6C8_aJXoJUSUps7ioLaEeQ7YSqXhswGKXB0e59awHg08_qKkVGVEHgPusuxXi3AC4DLdEOt2y9iWJjK1498jm9sVDk6uDd_Q07GtCv9ZgmEZgT04gPvKEoN2Zs4tkbNexeMklLu/s1600/yuletreeravenpic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: auto; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDz6Uow6C8_aJXoJUSUps7ioLaEeQ7YSqXhswGKXB0e59awHg08_qKkVGVEHgPusuxXi3AC4DLdEOt2y9iWJjK1498jm9sVDk6uDd_Q07GtCv9ZgmEZgT04gPvKEoN2Zs4tkbNexeMklLu/s200/yuletreeravenpic.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photographs by Raven, 2018</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We have a Yule Tree. Calling it that is a good compromise between calling it a Christmas Tree and calling it a Solstice tree, seeing as variations on the name 'Yule' are used to refer to Christmas in many languages, and Yule is also what a lot of Neo-Pagans call the Winter Solstice. As I mentioned before, our household does Solstice out of faith, and Christmas out of tradition. The decorations are mostly gold for the returning light, red for the kinds of food that last into winter, and white/clear for the snow and ice of winter. For the most part, it is like the average Christmas tree, as Christmas trees are themselves of Pagan origin - the only difference with ours is that it has a few more deliberately solar decorations. Most people these days put up a tree as an entirely secular festive ornament, an element of tradition that may be divorced from its roots in some ways (much like the average 'live' tree in that respect...) but I think it is a beautiful thing that we keep doing them, and I love how many people use their trees to express themselves, or as a creative medium on which family traditions are built. As such, I would like to share with you all our tree. It's possibly a bit self-indulgent, but as the tree is probably one of my favourite things about the festive season, and this is my blog, here we are!</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg113E8LhPyT3QmDTZQYOqjNF29GrGML-JZptvPBHP46CUcUT5SiHkpzckqnUTTsmDnZynv0dUGdOOvZdi4VMtxYYP3bjsZwY97v6TsvRvFQIHIgxRICU0E1uk9RcXflaLzzng7IFieTbSS/s1600/solsticetree+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="482" data-original-width="482" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg113E8LhPyT3QmDTZQYOqjNF29GrGML-JZptvPBHP46CUcUT5SiHkpzckqnUTTsmDnZynv0dUGdOOvZdi4VMtxYYP3bjsZwY97v6TsvRvFQIHIgxRICU0E1uk9RcXflaLzzng7IFieTbSS/s200/solsticetree+copy.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
2011 Yule Tree, </div>
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not sure who took the photos</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We have had our Yule Tree since Raven and I have lived together, always topped with the radiant sun. I think I made a post about our Yule Tree in 2011, or at least intended to, because I found an old collage of the Yule Tree from when we still lived in the apartment! Raven and I have been together for a decade now, and I like how we have formed our own mini-traditions for our mini-family. Every year we have celebrated Christmas day with found-family, some of whom have strained family relationships and painful memories of the festive period like myself. Solstice has often been celebrated with the broad group of friends met through the Highland Open Circle. The Yule tree has glittered through all of that, a symbol of both festivals, and of Raven and I merging our ideas. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1XqEGI1CYtsw7L8dLkFMLu5LX8QJdpy_R5cbeVhGcLbnGMQSRvLDATatuSFVxF5-RqZazjDhuL1x7JUagt4Y252gf-yCTr8UUtCSKzGBrcSkZucls6F28uZykldMpb7Uoq5dRMGgj1IqA/s1600/solsticetree2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="482" data-original-width="482" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1XqEGI1CYtsw7L8dLkFMLu5LX8QJdpy_R5cbeVhGcLbnGMQSRvLDATatuSFVxF5-RqZazjDhuL1x7JUagt4Y252gf-yCTr8UUtCSKzGBrcSkZucls6F28uZykldMpb7Uoq5dRMGgj1IqA/s320/solsticetree2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">2011 Solstice decorations. I think I took these photos</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have a second, smaller tree in my study, known as the 'Gothmas' tree or the 'Cryptmas' tree which is black, purple and silver with sklls, bones, black cats and tomb-stones, but it will get its own post as it is an entirely secular festive decoration - and very much an aesthetic suited to the main Gothic theme of this blog rather than a Pagan thing. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigsVCWCQ2D6TPhOVq9000eYlLdyVHCXBBimK2WHV6KyR_Ve0gKQj1Msi1V8qU7eHxPGK-M5I1rPbTnIDzAvU4iteM39KzCwCnENcHYiK1VR0uDSAA74R-aqg_HTNiLBqaIpkzdWaUUabQH/s1600/YuleTree2017.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="540" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigsVCWCQ2D6TPhOVq9000eYlLdyVHCXBBimK2WHV6KyR_Ve0gKQj1Msi1V8qU7eHxPGK-M5I1rPbTnIDzAvU4iteM39KzCwCnENcHYiK1VR0uDSAA74R-aqg_HTNiLBqaIpkzdWaUUabQH/s400/YuleTree2017.jpg" width="225" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Yule Tree, 2017. My photo</td></tr>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The main difference between our tree and the average Christmas tree are the solar decorations. As well as gilded plaster decorations of the sun and moon, there is a large sun on the top of the tree instead of a star. I think it was actually manufactured as a starburst, but being gold and amber, and with so many radiating points, it certainly looks very solar.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_983RpsA8hyphenhyphen6qGTUS9R8tOLX2glQkfefh2V-zTJCjNBfWJzUo83Lu0mwZ8Yos8NYzMp1cnN_6UUBsJESDcuDsrnws1t5XvQ3PXamo9ecswTqrS80qkeQ3sd1gvDC_qW_iawsYZB2y22cH/s1600/YuleTree2017Suntopper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_983RpsA8hyphenhyphen6qGTUS9R8tOLX2glQkfefh2V-zTJCjNBfWJzUo83Lu0mwZ8Yos8NYzMp1cnN_6UUBsJESDcuDsrnws1t5XvQ3PXamo9ecswTqrS80qkeQ3sd1gvDC_qW_iawsYZB2y22cH/s320/YuleTree2017Suntopper.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sun-burst tree-topper with gold & amber sparkles. 2017, by me</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijn_shIYipxpUqkCeSuUaGu1kaCCSWdpTs9lP7X9OFryGJeD40Ku1u4oAH38c2Yr2sxt55IiEhnXCW3QzLRbHeG9dbqt59jXw_Bcy-k2_so4737xjlpLJuwTHGRUT2H4uNknFunoi8NN6U/s1600/YuleTree2017Sunbauble.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijn_shIYipxpUqkCeSuUaGu1kaCCSWdpTs9lP7X9OFryGJeD40Ku1u4oAH38c2Yr2sxt55IiEhnXCW3QzLRbHeG9dbqt59jXw_Bcy-k2_so4737xjlpLJuwTHGRUT2H4uNknFunoi8NN6U/s200/YuleTree2017Sunbauble.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Glowing sun bauble, 2017, by me.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am on the look out for more sun-themed decorations for our tree, especially gold ones. It is not, as is to be expected, the most popular motif among mainstream sellers of decorations, however gold decorations in general are pretty popular.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Plain gold baubles can look pretty solar, as can translucent ones if they are the right texture and carefully illuminated - I think they are the most 'realistic' solar depictions on our tree.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> We also have the other kind of solar decoration, the sun-face design reminiscent of Sol made popular in medieval heraldry. It's an image that hangs on our tree, but is also in the Solstice decorations around our house and on our altar, as visible on the altar post. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHbcqdy43ZYLscBPEWou66FmoQqbjjphlTOvJGeuplKPFvfETRNeLy7qrn7aAi6RUowWm2IuyNIdugho0U3_lzZ1PXzrAXB0qXxmB6P5I_zVIKckYSkJueLHWsVwt0xhll2somoasfUxVz/s1600/YuleTree2017Sun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHbcqdy43ZYLscBPEWou66FmoQqbjjphlTOvJGeuplKPFvfETRNeLy7qrn7aAi6RUowWm2IuyNIdugho0U3_lzZ1PXzrAXB0qXxmB6P5I_zVIKckYSkJueLHWsVwt0xhll2somoasfUxVz/s320/YuleTree2017Sun.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sun decoration. Photographed 2017</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhht0z3clPWkfVygSZup6e7CynjPYDIowRvWGGjqaudJYHuMrlh-Q_wXewDdL95_XyWm6VkxA8jt2afcBDxDfA9DepXjfM9uceRN6OcQ5BTZJZBluVrrIqdG8G0Cozxm3lzWomU2wkl6Xaz/s1600/YuleSun1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1146" data-original-width="1146" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhht0z3clPWkfVygSZup6e7CynjPYDIowRvWGGjqaudJYHuMrlh-Q_wXewDdL95_XyWm6VkxA8jt2afcBDxDfA9DepXjfM9uceRN6OcQ5BTZJZBluVrrIqdG8G0Cozxm3lzWomU2wkl6Xaz/s200/YuleSun1.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sun bauble 2018, my photo.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I bought the sun, and it's twin - a gilded moon - secondhand on eBay. I buy a LOT of things secondhand, online on eBay, in charity shops, from Facebook sales groups, etc. mostly because it is cheaper, but also because it seems you find more unusual things, especially older things, if you shop in those sorts of places. I know folk are probably tired of hearing me yammer on about the environment, but it is very important to re-use the stuff we have already made, or recycle where possible, rather than constantly use up more and more of our natural resources to make new things by energy-intensive and polluting processes (it's also worth noting that some forms of recycling are high energy, too). If you are feeling crafty, there are plenty of craft projects for tree decorations that are also recycling projects; maybe next year I'll put some on my blog.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijpGveF381-cZ62QEcD5jDXE3DAalRAXfxBsdjZ79h8R36DJnu_uyBUL5ME4FNKxGkVRTNlhcUyKqQJ1jjy9TNvr_xfUSPAfckSWfhnV8JLYAHE17Guf4zKOgG2kc-yuJ6qdDYEcRBLGrx/s1600/YuleTree2017Moon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijpGveF381-cZ62QEcD5jDXE3DAalRAXfxBsdjZ79h8R36DJnu_uyBUL5ME4FNKxGkVRTNlhcUyKqQJ1jjy9TNvr_xfUSPAfckSWfhnV8JLYAHE17Guf4zKOgG2kc-yuJ6qdDYEcRBLGrx/s200/YuleTree2017Moon.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Moon bauble, 2018? My photo.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We have a moon bauble as well as a sun one, because while we celebrate the returning sun and coming of warmer weather, we also celebrate the longest night and those cosy evenings indoors, the snow on the hills and importance of winter in the cycle of things. The balance is important, and although there are a lot of harsh things about winter weather, that harsh weather kills off harmful pests and parasites, the frost can be what triggers some plants to grow, and snow-sports are a big part of the local economy in some regions of the Highlands. Winter is not inherently a bad thing, just as summer is not inherently a good thing; they both have their benefits and also bring problems (eg. summer can bring drought, wild-fires, sunburn, heat exhaustion etc.). In my form of Paganism I try and celebrate the seasons as they come, and while there is always something hopeful about the returning light in darkness, sometimes it's important to appreciate that darkness too (a familiar mentality for Goths!). </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOj8jN-V_Qjw9fIyhkJ4D4-RQrSTylACjDZTbW1s2VDC1Hjzyf805BtWMSwdGN3I9MRcmpuLJe8d3e9M9JwKzwFQxH4aN3MWRUl0gZmUPIBQ_TYBElBfY6Q10bbzXphgxYhtXBTKmf3J3r/s1600/YuleTree2017pentagramstar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="959" data-original-width="960" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOj8jN-V_Qjw9fIyhkJ4D4-RQrSTylACjDZTbW1s2VDC1Hjzyf805BtWMSwdGN3I9MRcmpuLJe8d3e9M9JwKzwFQxH4aN3MWRUl0gZmUPIBQ_TYBElBfY6Q10bbzXphgxYhtXBTKmf3J3r/s400/YuleTree2017pentagramstar.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Star decoration chosen for the pentagram of ribbons and sunburst centre </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Our Yule Tree has decorations that aren't solar, like owls (getting a new owl each year has become a tradition in our household, too), a blown-glass witch, some skulls, lots of tartan and deer, a fuzzy wolf to represent our friend 'Sarge' and a lot of pine-cones, some glass, some real, as well as snowflakes and snowy things of various designs; it's a seasonal tree at its heart; the ever-green pine (in our case because it's plastic and thus literally can't die) decorated with symbols of winter, much like most festive trees... and unlike my Gothmas tree, which is more a touch of Hallowe'en in midwinter! But the Gothmas tree will get its own post next! </span></div>
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The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-30890812181708461812019-12-08T20:39:00.000-08:002019-12-10T01:19:10.593-08:00Study/Studio Re-Decoration Part 2: Book-Nook<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">In my much earlier post about decorating my study ::here:: I showed some pictures of it with lighter purple walls, and vinyl decals of Gothic architecture. I felt the bright purple </span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">was a bit too kitsch, and was having doubts about the vinyl decals. As such, I became motivated to re-</span><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">decorate, firstly by removing the decals and re-painting the room a darker purple, and then by adding new flooring (finally!) and screening my meditation area/book-nook with curtains. There is quite a lot to cover, so I am splitting this between several posts. The previous post <a href="https://domesticatedgoth.blogspot.com/2019/12/studystudio-re-decoration-part-1.html">::here::</a> was about my gallery/display wall.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><u>Sensory Space</u></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My Book-Nook has been a part of the study/studio design plan right from the start. It's probably the most 'Hippie' rather than Goth corner, despite the dark purple walls and black furniture. Its purpose is to provide a quiet reading and chill-out space for me.<br /><br />I have Asperger's with sensory processing disorder, and one of the most difficult symptoms to manage is sensory overload. To mitigate this, I have deliberately created a calming sensory space. It is important that it is dark, with muted colours, because one of the major ways in which I get overstimulated is through too many bright lights, garish colours, etc. (envisage a supermarket or mall full of bright shop lighting - that will affect me badly, for example). I can gradually increase the light to reading level by using string-lights for dim light, then using the <a href="https://klevercase.com/">::Klevercase::</a> Harry Potter book-shaped reading light (bought in a sale!), or turning on a stand light that is just outside the Book-Nook.<br /><br />Double mesh curtains filters any glare from the window, and also adds a little sound insulation, although it is a quiet corner of the house, anyway, away from things like the kitchen and bathroom which might have noise. Loud noises and noisy environments are also very difficult for me. I can again gradually increase my sound exposure by putting calming music on with head-phones, or from my computer speakers. I find urban environemnts far too loud for me a lot of the time - too much traffic, all the H.V.A.C systems on buildings, the sounds of people, sirens, etc. all become quite overwhelming (especially traffic noise trapped between the hard surfaces of buildings so it becomes almost an indistinct rushing noise...). It's one of the reasons I moved to somewhere rural, and I am sad about how much busier and more developed where I live is becoming.<br /><br />I also have to recharge after socialising because the constant analysis and 'masking' required for me to function socially is quite exhausting, so this space provides a retreat and recharge space for that. Having this space is very important to me avoiding meltdowns, especially as I have to try and hold everything in when I'm out and about, so that release when I get home can sometimes be a gush as the dam breaks if I'm not careful.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: large;"><u>Meditation Space</u></span><br />I have a half-height book-case that I use for university books (not all of them; they don't all fit!) in there, and originally I was using the top of the book-case for photo-frames. I took down the photo-frames for two reasons; firstly I wanted a more permanent set-up for my personally altar, and secondly I haven't got around to having prints done to fill all of the frames. I don't have many photographs of friends of family, and this is something I want to work on - mostly printing out photographs I've taken myself. When I do fill all the frames, I'm going to put them on the radiator cover (more on that later). </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwXuVHi0QnxwVUjTmliLTHsufZ3deoe2SuEXO2b3AAr2ufpzS4GrSqG5Bd4JFVEEu6iqZBR9ili8auJ3VKk2zccn2MLkqOScy_4n3vVwTuNvdSLbQFdiok4wOPzqr1nffSsHreSqgOtzn9/s1600/IMG_20191119_175316_618.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwXuVHi0QnxwVUjTmliLTHsufZ3deoe2SuEXO2b3AAr2ufpzS4GrSqG5Bd4JFVEEu6iqZBR9ili8auJ3VKk2zccn2MLkqOScy_4n3vVwTuNvdSLbQFdiok4wOPzqr1nffSsHreSqgOtzn9/s400/IMG_20191119_175316_618.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div>
Darker purple wall with moon mirrors and stencilling. Gothic fairy.</div>
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Photo-frames with pictures of my Dad and Uncle. Dragon frame will be for Raven</div>
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I apologise for the quality of some of the photographs; where I have used the camera on my mobile phone the photographs are grainy and poor resolution, where I have used the camera on Raven's phone, the pictures are crisp and better quality.<br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One addition to my study has been replacing the photographs on top of one of the book-cases with a new iteration of my meditation altar/personal devotion altar. As it is on a book-case, and therefore effectively on a space that is more shelf-shaped than table-shaped, the arrangement of the altar is necessarily elongated. I like having somewhere quiet and tucked away I can practice privately without interruptions. The book-nook area is behind curtains, so it is even more secluded than my study, which itself has a door onto the upstairs hallway. There's no window facing directly onto the book-nook, so it is probably the most private corner of the house - perfect for not being disturbed while I'm meditating, as well as perfect for reading in peace. I am somewhat reclusive by nature, so hiding myself away in a corner is my idea of heaven. It's a little inner-sanctum in my house, a corner that is just for me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">These are some pictures from early September of my altar set up - I will show some more recent ones later one, so keep reading for those.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLbMjWOytfgYrdSIjMmBlqPYZye_iG53qy185vrbJABHrdcUkXseWVVZuQELgP5kctpXV_zbNqGy_LE0314TwZz_ATjwy7kzatchmkiR0mnp9wQgGbBENrsE-JzqYgeaNt4kQnGm6l9QzX/s1600/IMG_20190906_172324_856.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1054" data-original-width="1054" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLbMjWOytfgYrdSIjMmBlqPYZye_iG53qy185vrbJABHrdcUkXseWVVZuQELgP5kctpXV_zbNqGy_LE0314TwZz_ATjwy7kzatchmkiR0mnp9wQgGbBENrsE-JzqYgeaNt4kQnGm6l9QzX/s400/IMG_20190906_172324_856.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Personal Meditation Altar</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The two 'pink' candles are actually more of a fuchsia purple, slightly darker and bluer than fuchsia pink, however they look quite pink once lit - they are hand-dipped candles bought from The Maker's Mark in Newcastle Emlyn/Castell Newydd Emlyn in Wales. It is a fabulous wee shop, and whenever I'm in Wales, I try and make trip especially to that shop. The lavender jar-candle is one I made myself from the reclaimed scraps of candles I have burned at my altar in the past - the stubs of so many white tea-lights diluting the purples and blacks I have often used. As has been mentioned in other posts, I am now buying beeswax or soy candles, and this jar-candle of recycled paraffin wax stubs is the last of the paraffin wax used on an altar. I'm phasing out paraffin wax altogether, burning through the last of my stash of tealights, and replacing them mostly with beeswax. More recently, I have been buying rolled beeswax hand-made 'dinner' size candles. I will probably make a blog post all about candles in the near future. One of my main candle suppliers is <a href="https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/sweetlittlecandle" style="text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">::Sweet Little Candle Company::</a></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> because of the variety of sizes and colours.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqSWsKXorscfgF-0T6qtNtzsQhiOniTwfWcm1RVxFPMvGoh9WU3xWC9U9vOw447r-Y5yG2xBamSADiA-g2-WPR7CfpmvqB7NYu-ApnOzsTmQXAlNKd98OldDNOPUlOKfFNPoVlgLcQYl3b/s1600/IMG_20190907_182755_913.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqSWsKXorscfgF-0T6qtNtzsQhiOniTwfWcm1RVxFPMvGoh9WU3xWC9U9vOw447r-Y5yG2xBamSADiA-g2-WPR7CfpmvqB7NYu-ApnOzsTmQXAlNKd98OldDNOPUlOKfFNPoVlgLcQYl3b/s400/IMG_20190907_182755_913.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
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Close-up of my chalice, two spell pouches, the box for my Black Book and</div>
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candle-holders, pentagram plaque</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";"></span>The black and purple pentagram plaque was bought on eBay, it is hand-made, and I am not sure if it is secondhand, or made by the seller. It was originally gold and black, but I repainted the pentacle purple to better fit in with my décor, using some purple nail-varnish to get a high-gloss and durable finish. The moon shaped glass tea-light holder was second-hand on eBay and it was only £1 (excluding postage). The stack of skulls resin ornament is just there to weigh down the altar cloth, because it was quite light and sheer and kept sliding off the gloss-painted book-case. Not that long after this, some falling incense burnt a hole through the altar cloth, so I have replaced it (pictures further below). </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKHlILzQSJ7QgJ4wxFKNon_3E3jUNsKzGqbZ_w6K2hRiUKu4nJjlecK53tjtPMp7MVuiKvHhldxI0jDdLhcV5NEFiKN74I3JpbnIcQrjyqtBXztyuka9ImV-hIkrkSyRI1NyAE_JZ5EPqQ/s1600/IMG_20190907_175003_025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1184" data-original-width="1184" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKHlILzQSJ7QgJ4wxFKNon_3E3jUNsKzGqbZ_w6K2hRiUKu4nJjlecK53tjtPMp7MVuiKvHhldxI0jDdLhcV5NEFiKN74I3JpbnIcQrjyqtBXztyuka9ImV-hIkrkSyRI1NyAE_JZ5EPqQ/s400/IMG_20190907_175003_025.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Contextual image of my Book-Nook. Some colour distortion on right side.<br />
Corner shelves on left have travelled with me since I lived in England!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are stars stencilled all along the upper edges of my walls. I bought the stencils on eBay for £4.99 from a shop called 'The Stencilist' which is no longer on eBay. I also got an individual star-burst mylar stencil for £2.99 from Stencil Zone. All the stars were sponged on with acrylic paints, with a mixture of gold and silver acrylic used in the Book-Nook to give a shimmer effect. The mixed paint isn't quite as fun as colour-shift paint, but it does have an interesting mottled look, and how gold or silver they look depends a lot on the lighting conditions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I did the abstract painting in the middle - it is an acrylic pour painting done with metallic paints with colours inspired by the Aurora Borealis. I live north enough to see the Aurora from my house sometimes, although often the weather is too cloudy to get a proper look. At the time of writing this, the painting is part of an exhibition I am in at the Inverness Museum And Gallery (ground floor, in the Room to Discover), and I've replaced it with a large moon mirror. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj56GRQW38-TT979AjssFCIS6mGz796yPhRFpama8o6CJGUfBEUARFLF5uKDltNzTuD8NeCiZZQrh2Dr3cqGWrxdI1hUyL_cFodo2U8ERcf_yARnuqvePxwo4OzH5yGCxFRVTBjr_Zx5PBP/s1600/IMG_20191119_182402_245.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #0066cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj56GRQW38-TT979AjssFCIS6mGz796yPhRFpama8o6CJGUfBEUARFLF5uKDltNzTuD8NeCiZZQrh2Dr3cqGWrxdI1hUyL_cFodo2U8ERcf_yARnuqvePxwo4OzH5yGCxFRVTBjr_Zx5PBP/s400/IMG_20191119_182402_245.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Large moon mirror. Photo taken during full moon ritual. Purple lantern reflection</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I think the moon mirrors are made in Indonesia - one is certainly labelled as such (the smallest one), and I think as they are all so similar, that they are likely all made in the same place. I have three on this wall, an oval one on the side of the book-case, and a matching carved wooden wind-chime hanging over my window. All of the moon mirrors were bought secondhand, mostly on eBay. The large one was £3.95, the small one £3 and the medium one £3.73, all from different sellers, and excluding postage and packaging.* </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I think these moon mirrors might be made as tourist souvenirs, as it is relatively common to see them turn up second-hand. I haven't seen this specific sort of thing in import shops catering to the hippie demographic (like FarFetched in Inverness) but that is also a possibility. I display them because of the religious significance of the moon to me as a Neo-Pagan Witch. My meditation altar is where I do my moon-phase devotions, so there is a lot of moon iconography on that altar. I see a lot of similar mirrors on sale from American eBay sellers, but I can't afford postage and customs from America. I don't often buy things new, so wouldn't know where to look for one new. </span></div>
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Current collection of round moon mirrors, two with coronas, all three purple.</div>
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Stylistically all very similar: carved wood with a similar style of painting,</div>
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thin eyebrows, soft gradients of colour, three stars and similarly drawn eyes.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As I mentioned above, I recently got a new altar cloth. It's always a risk having incense or candles near fabric, and unfortunately some smouldering bits fell off a joss stick, and landed on the layered altar cloth over a rather more flammable plastic-based synthetic lace skull table-cloth I'd been using to keep my books less dusty, and a hole, rather noticeable, got burned into both of them. I've ditched the Hallowe'en table cloth idea entirely, and I'm going to make a curtain for the books that is under the lip of the top of the book-case, so less likely to come in contact with anything falling from incense on my altar. It is good that I was right there when it happened; this sort of thing happening unattended could start a fire. Always think of fire-risk if you use candles, incense or any other naked flame or source of ignition in your spiritual practice. Witch-burning is a bad thing!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New altar cloth, beeswax candles, candle-sticks, witchy boxes, etc.<br />
Ash next to incense burner rolled there once very much extinguished, and because<br />
I was faffing about with re-arrangement; it did not land on my new altar cloth.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I want to mention the candle-holders. Both the two small ones and the two taller ones are from charity shops. The two taller ones are the first altar candlesticks I ever bought, back when I lived in England, probably back in 2002 or 2003. I had misplaced one for a while, so they weren't on my altar because I don't like asymmetry. I try and source as much of my stuff secondhand as possible; there's no reason to spend a whole heap of money to put together an altar, or even to have intresting decor. I see a lot of expensive stuff being sold to the Pagan community and also to the Goth community and it's frustrating when I see people who feel like they NEED to have all these expensive things to be a proper Witch, or to keep up with all the Instagram Goths or Instagram witches,(of which technically I am one of both, so look me up at @domesticatedgoth that is where I put all of these photographs before they went up on here) and you don't need to spend a lot of money or have whatever item is trending on Instagram to be valid. Have a good rummage in a charity shop/thrift shop, look on eBay, Depop, your local sales group, etc. etc. There's plenty of very reasonably priced items out there, and they are often more unusual and unique than what is mass-produced.</span><br />
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<i></i>*I exclude postage and packaging fees from all eBay prices because it is something that will be so variable depending on location. Many sellers offer direct collection, which is very useful if you live in a large urban area with lots of eBay sellers, but I live in the Scottish Highlands, so not only do I rarely have anyone nearby selling, I also have to contend with a surcharge on deliveries sometimes, something I feel is deeply unfair as I still live on the mainland and we are serviced by a proper road and rail network. I am not on an island! It does not take a ferry or plane to deliver me post!. Also, a lot of sellers have a 'doesn't post to Scottish Highlands' issue. It's a pet peeve of mine - we're not as remote and isolated as people think.</div>
The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-37872463463415030152019-12-08T20:13:00.001-08:002019-12-08T20:13:33.051-08:00Study/Studio Re-Decoration Part 1: Feature Wall<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">In a much earlier post <a href="https://domesticatedgoth.blogspot.com/2018/08/domesticated-study-decor.html">::here::</a>, my study had bright purple walls, vinyl decals, etc. I felt it was too kitschy for my current tastes, and started redecorating. It has been a slow process, as decorating is costly, and there are other parts of our house that have needed our attention more urgently. The room isn't finished yet, but it's pretty close. As it's quite a complicated, multi-purpose room. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><u><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"></span><br />Featuring the Wall</u></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My feature wall, also termed a 'display-wall' or 'gallery-wall' is probably the part of my study that most embodies the aesthetic that I am aiming for with my study. It was initially a black wall with silver Valspar glitter for some sparkle. I repainted it after the initial surface got scuffed up by me reposition the pictures, knocking it with furniture etc. For the repaint, I wanted to have a slightly green colour, partly to balance the purple walls, and partly because I just like green. I couldn't find the shade that I wanted in the range my local DIY shop carried, and I had tried some testers, so I bought another of a more neutral black tester I liked and mixed it with a black that was more like a very dark blue-green and blended the two at home with more glitter to get a colour that I liked. The glitter shimmers somewhat green, rather than silver, because of the green dye. Yes, I am that finnicky</span>! </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The display wall </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My collection of frames are mostly from TK Maxx and Dunelm Mill, bought before I decided to drastically reduce my purchase of new items. The moon painting that I did was professionally framed by Riverside Gallery in Inverness, and the large mirror with the swirly frame was bought second-hand in in Inverness' PDSA branch. I like the silver gilt finish on these different frames because quite a few have some texture to them, more than just a metallic finish. Some of them also have some dark dry-brushing in the cervices, or a wash - things to make them have a little more life on them. I think things like texture, some variance in colour, etc. quite helpful for making the arrangement more dimensional and interesting. They're not all the same silver, not the same level of metallic finish, they're diverse, but also - hopefully - harmonious too. These ones were bought like that, but in our bedroom I've repainted and varnished frames to try and get the same concept.</span></div>
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Very terrible photograph of my wall with bad lighting (and wonky stars).</div>
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Terrible grainy photos are what happen when I take photos on my own phone.</div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I managed to align the dado rail along the bottom of the photograph, but because of perspective distortion, lens distortion, etc. there's more slope along the top of the pictures than real life, however the wonky stars are all my own fault; I haven't got the black paint all the way up to the ceiling partly because I can't reach up and partly because I know that along the top there will be cornice, however unfortunately I didn't leave that gap evenly, and I matched the stars to the wonky edge instead of the ceiling. I regret this. I will stencil in some more high up stars at the right edge, and more low stars at the left end and try and level this out. I will wait until I have the coving up, however, so I have a good visual straight edge to match things up to. It's really important to have a good visual marker, especially when you're dealing with something big and you're painting up close. Also, it will never be truly straight when working in a building like mine, and I need to give the visual illusion of straightness when the walls and ceilings aren't straight. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Antique sword. Also a close-up of the wallpaper and the orb string-lights. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I collect bladed weapons - what I really like are swords (there is another one in my study) but I have a couple of knives. I would like more fine daggers, especially antiques. Currently I don't have the income to collect antiques right now. I have considered selling off some of my collection because of financial situation, but there are complex laws about blade sales in Scotland so I'm keeping them, plus I remember how much work I put into saving up to buy them in the first place. There's something fascinating about the history behind objects: for example, the sword pictured is Italian, I think from the 1870s, perhaps later, and while it is displayed in its scabbard, there are beautiful engravings - somewhat scuffed - that tells a bit about the military background of the sword, and it also has dings along the spine of the blade that look like it may well have actually used in a sword-fight, or at least in defence of another bladed weapon (the context could be all sorts of things!). I also think it fascinating how much beauty and art that is often invested in embellishing what is primarily a weapon. I am interested in H.E.M.A, used to do modern sport fencing, as well having had a few kendo lessons, so I have an interest from a historical swordsmanship perspective, too. I think a lot of people think it's creepy, or that I have some murderous intent - I joke that I'd never use my collection to stab anyone because they're too precious to get blood on (true, honestly. Even skin oils are bad for them!) and 'creepy' is a subjective judgement. These are art objects to me, even if that is not what they were made as - but they were made with craft, care, and creative skill.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I repainted this moon. The camera angle is really awkward.<br /><div>
Good camera because I used Raven's phone instead of my own... </div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Moon iconography is a prevalent in my study - mostly in my near my Book-Nook and meditation space because one of my ways of remaining in tune with nature is doing devotions according to the lunar cycle at the meditation altar in my Book-Nook. My next blog post will have more details about my Book-Nook. This particular ornament was bought as a yellow glossy moon with the slogan "Sleep tight, sweet dreams through the night" painted on it, so I repainted it to fit in better with my study décor. The original ornament was £1.50 on eBay. I tried to make it a slightly adorable sleepy moon. It's hung up just by the entrance to the Book-Nook. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sword, mirrors, picture frames, art. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have, since these pictures were taken, got more pictures, and pictures I like better, to fill the frames. I'm aiming for more fine-art prints, as well as my own artwork. It is an ongoing process, but having the frames first means I can arrange the wall and then find pictures to fit on the wall, which I find is easier than when I have had the pictures first and then tried to find a place for them (situation with our living room). A lot of the prints are repurposed greetings cards and I'm eyeing up some Caspar David Friedrich and Salvator Rosa postcards.<br /><br />The moon-phase banner was a Winter Solstice gift from Raven. He bought it for me from someone on Etsy and I have been asked on Instagram where it is from, but unfortunately he can't remember where. The moon-phase garland along the top was from SpookyBox Club when I was subscribed, and I painted and assembled it myself. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq3gpbVrrQmdTTk3cziHESxCb9r0uvIN5VuChKoKUjrkfxd2K2TcL7bj7uXJOejYlfd9_v3QxHlLiQf_neLbKjdIA4_szJ2cdaBPpweWwfXiMth2jOFSv8dqAxoSCqdRrs1CykBhyZ9ukF/s1600/36949369-DFFC-4556-BE7C-9D6D70CDEBC3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1538" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhq3gpbVrrQmdTTk3cziHESxCb9r0uvIN5VuChKoKUjrkfxd2K2TcL7bj7uXJOejYlfd9_v3QxHlLiQf_neLbKjdIA4_szJ2cdaBPpweWwfXiMth2jOFSv8dqAxoSCqdRrs1CykBhyZ9ukF/s400/36949369-DFFC-4556-BE7C-9D6D70CDEBC3.jpg" width="398" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Moon phase banner. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I think the picture above is pretty useful for illustrating how the curtains tie together the aesthetic for the main area of the study/studio. and screens off the Book-Nook. I am not always proud of my decorating decisions, and often it takes more than one go to create what I visualise in my head, or for me to realise that what I visualised doesn't work out so well in real life, but I really like how the damask voile curtains go with the wallpaper and monochrome wall. Also, this is possibly the only photograph I have with the stand-lamp in it.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFbuQHYopO-PjfBEOFNx2LClnLIjq3UTXO-VmqDAGa4n0sJtou7OBZuHwQNdQb4sh3ZfL-sBd1QxKEmZOtdQGT17vZs_5YtE9gXS3HST27gz0toLgjXTvVQMO6qHqujT2rocGxAbJRzx3O/s1600/IMG_20191127_140050_076.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFbuQHYopO-PjfBEOFNx2LClnLIjq3UTXO-VmqDAGa4n0sJtou7OBZuHwQNdQb4sh3ZfL-sBd1QxKEmZOtdQGT17vZs_5YtE9gXS3HST27gz0toLgjXTvVQMO6qHqujT2rocGxAbJRzx3O/s400/IMG_20191127_140050_076.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Terrible, terrible photo; why I'm part-exchanging my phone for a better one.<br /><div>
If you can see anything at all, it's an old photo of the Book Nook before the altar</div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I will be doing a few more posts about this room specifically, and then more about specific projects, especially furniture repaints. I will also chart more of decorating the rest of the house, although not all of the house is in a particularly Gothic aesthetic, so I will be focusing on the more Gothic-looking rooms. As you can probably tell from the square photographs, most of these pictures are or were on Instagram, where my accounts are @domesticatedgoth for this sort of content and @architecturallygothic for ruins, cathedrals, churches, monuments, and other spooky or pretty buildings. </span></div>
The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-29761310271801916772019-10-31T08:44:00.001-07:002020-10-08T07:57:56.192-07:00Samhain/Samhuinn: Our Home Altar<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC0ObLEET-F3kBEfKo2DKOw60axoPD14fheiV-5kAveSUQVv8FtIhsCtaGTAQKXyN9caWwwVfBYpvgKxgL_3iEIw-ElAT-xoyXU5lkFUzuz6OumVk5DSVtIU-7JLeCrdUQdfDvgf_oXA8t/s1080/IMG_20200203_183745_686.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="A statue of Badb, made by Nemesis Now. It has large black out-stretched wings, and is wearing a long flowing black robe. It is entirely black. The statue is placed on a stand draped with an altar-cloth that is black with white pentacles. It is against a white wall with green paneling at the bottom and white dado rail. The statue is candle-lit. The image is taken looking from the left across the statue, with the paneling and dado-rail giving an indication of the angle of the wall relative to the camera, as it runs diagonally from the bottom left third of the image to the upper right. The image is square. The points of the crown worn by a resin skull are visible on the far side of the statue." border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC0ObLEET-F3kBEfKo2DKOw60axoPD14fheiV-5kAveSUQVv8FtIhsCtaGTAQKXyN9caWwwVfBYpvgKxgL_3iEIw-ElAT-xoyXU5lkFUzuz6OumVk5DSVtIU-7JLeCrdUQdfDvgf_oXA8t/w200-h200/IMG_20200203_183745_686.jpg" title="Statue of Badb on Samhuinn altar of 2019" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Statue of Badb<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Samhuinn is a complex holiday - an old one, but one that has changed many times over the centuries, and the Neo-Pagan version is in many ways as different from the historical version as the contemporary commercial version of Hallowe'en. For a historically informed account of the British calendar of festivals, I suggest looking at Prof. Ronald Hutton's book 'The Stations of the Sun' which is very educational and well-researched. While I draw from historical traditions, I don't emulate them entirely, and I don't strictly follow the rituals for Samhain of Wicca or any other Neo-Pagan groups that use the Gardner-Nichols eight-fold year; in this respect I'm somewhat eclectic.</span></div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">There are two specific and distinct aspects of Samhuinn for me; one is the aspect of ancestor worship, paying respects to the honoured dead, and contemplating both familial and ideological ancestors, and the other is seeing Samhuinn as the start of the Dead Time until the Winter Solstice, where light and lengthening days return. I don't think there's any historical precedent for the concept of the Dead Time, but I've seen similar ideas in other Neo-Pagan writing, although it doesn't seem that ubiquitous. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGz3qC8nTGdsIbdaCuF4Jrp2931rugJ7HXTVHVrKG8g8KGN8BNluHFQ_bgp_OUVadnQ3CdN46jGaRUFZYH4Oze9o6S05UfzS_gOaRs6_BcJGGtXkUOY7DnmWWbnzcT-VCzPWRHmOPIkszJ/s1080/IMG_20200203_183745_687.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The top two skulls of a stack of three resin skulls, large at the base, medium in the middle, and smaller at the top. They are much smaller than human skulls. To the left of the image is a silver-plated candle-stick covered in wax drips of various colours holding a black candle with a silver damask design on it. In the background is a leaf-green paneled wall with white dado rail. It is a close-up image. The image is dark and candle-lit." border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGz3qC8nTGdsIbdaCuF4Jrp2931rugJ7HXTVHVrKG8g8KGN8BNluHFQ_bgp_OUVadnQ3CdN46jGaRUFZYH4Oze9o6S05UfzS_gOaRs6_BcJGGtXkUOY7DnmWWbnzcT-VCzPWRHmOPIkszJ/w400-h400/IMG_20200203_183745_687.jpg" title="Skulls on the altar" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;">Skulls on the altar</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">For most people reading this, some concept of ancestral practice will already be familiar, so I won't explain that in too much depth, especially as that isn't something represented on this altar. Effectively, the ancestral practice is about reaffirming the link between those in the present and those who came before both in terms of being mindful and thinking about them, and in terms of reinforcing a spiritual connection at a time when the boundaries between this world and the Otherworld are particularly thin, which will have different connotations depending on personal beliefs as to the nature of the afterlife/afterlives, whether they believe in reincarnation or not, etc. I personally do believe in reincarnation, but other Neo-Pagans and Reconstructionalists have different concepts of an after-life with different ideas about how fixed after-life states can be.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIenhpt743FjHHPA2HMXTNC1q3kZrPpbKIMwSrDIeyWzNvbW7dOaYVBMLUnlfjJ-mlN17-Kv1AjhzL0stx2gNCMrmPEDPzIw8ZA2LDIvElW0sK-IaUk09N6DyO4X2vpxR69F3NdVriPUON/s1600/20181101_174300.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><img alt="An altar with several tall black dinner candles in grey ceramic holders. The base altar cloth is black with white pentacles. On the left side of the altar is a statue of the Goddess Badb with black out-stretched wings and black robes. Beside the statue of Badb there is a black stone dish of white salt with a raised pentagram in the dish. At the front of the altar is a wand carved roughly from oak. On the left side of the altar is a large, life-size resin skull with a crown, being used as a candle-holder for melting white candle. In the center of the altar there is a wooden stand with a blood-red damask brocade cloth on it; on the stand is a bronze-effect resin statue of the Morrigan with great wings rising up behind her, and at the feet of the statue there are two pewter Celtic knotwork/insular interlace design candle-holders for tealights, a pair of lit tea-lights are in them casting a soft glow across the statue. At the base of the stand is a greetings card for Samhain with red and black artwork depicting crows and the Morrigan. The altar is infront of a white wall with green paneling with white dado-rail. On the wall are a plaque of the Green Man and a female equivalent 'green woman' as a wall-pocket. The image is candle-lit. At the very left edge of the image a green candle is visible" border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIenhpt743FjHHPA2HMXTNC1q3kZrPpbKIMwSrDIeyWzNvbW7dOaYVBMLUnlfjJ-mlN17-Kv1AjhzL0stx2gNCMrmPEDPzIw8ZA2LDIvElW0sK-IaUk09N6DyO4X2vpxR69F3NdVriPUON/w213-h284/20181101_174300.jpg" title="Samhuinn Altar 2018" width="213" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;">
Samhuinn 2018. </span></div>
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</tbody></table><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">In the past I have had a more Morrígan based Samhuinn altar set up - the one from 2018 is pictured, with my victorious Morrígan/Macha statue centrally, on a pedestal clad in red (a colour associated with the Morrigan, being the colour of blood) brocade cloth. Badb is on the left, hard to make out in these darker pictures as all the candle-flames are above Her statue. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">In front of the cloth-covered pedestal is a Samhain card with overt iconography of the Morrígan that stays permanently the rest of the year at my multi-aspect shrine to the Morrígan on the mantle-piece. I now focus more on Badb as a psychopomp than on the victorious war-Goddess aspect of the MorríganThe crowned skull is on the right, my best approximation at the time of (Brythonic/Welsh deity rather than Goidelic/Gaelic deity) Arawn, King of the Underworld/Otherworldv (in Gaelic mythology, who is King of the Otherworld changes, and each King serves a term, in Brythonic mythology Arawn is the constant King)<br />. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3JukZkIJ69g3XyTWdu9a-Bicoco0zVv3pHFMMCjINIiJMIy8_GIu-zI1H0yI-sqdE2GJ7mdsHZGITybu7Ghd_r8yrBhWXrDd7lqyjWmQPzSXaB-vjmtjbQR0GRaWonbWV-Twf6A7V33c_/s1200/IMG_20200203_181802_194.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img alt="A photograph of 2019's Samhuinn altar taken from an oblique angle. At the left of the altar is a stack of three resin skulls, at the right of the altar is a large resin skull, approximately life-size, which is crowned and the crown serves as a candle-holder for a large-ish white candle. In the centre of the image is a stand with a black altar-cloth with white pentacles, upon which is a black resin statue of the Goddess Badb with flowing black robes and large out-stretched wings. At the front of the stand is a purple card with a sigil on it. At the front of the altar is a small black skull-shaped candle-holder with ornament and in-set glass containing a light grey tealight. The base altar-cloth is silver, black and grey - a scarf with a woven leaf pattern. At the right side of the altar is an athame dagger with a brass leaf-shaped blade and a wooden handle." border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3JukZkIJ69g3XyTWdu9a-Bicoco0zVv3pHFMMCjINIiJMIy8_GIu-zI1H0yI-sqdE2GJ7mdsHZGITybu7Ghd_r8yrBhWXrDd7lqyjWmQPzSXaB-vjmtjbQR0GRaWonbWV-Twf6A7V33c_/w400-h400/IMG_20200203_181802_194.jpg" title="Samhuinn altar 2019" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;">Samhuinn altar 2019 - note the lack of a statue of the Morrigan</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;">My altar for 2019 is blacker than the previous one, with a grey and black scarf at the base and the black and white pentacle altar cloth moved to Badb's pedestal. I wanted the altar to be sombre, funereal, a memento mori. Bloodshed isn't really the sort of death I want the altar to represent, more for it to be reflective, to be a place to contemplate our own mortality and the finite time all things have, as well as the cyclical nature of things. <br /><br />Next year I would like to incorporate my figure of an Ankou - a type of psychopomp spirit, very much like the Grim Reaper, but also like a Dullahan in some ways - a corpse (skeletal, usually, but sometimes as an undead old man) that drives a cart or wagon. Like a Dullahan, an Ankou is not a personification of death, or a death deity, but a psychopomp spirit that is subordinate to Death itself. There are various different stories about who became an Ankou and why. The Ankou figure I have is hand-made clay, quite simply designed, and is also a cone-incense burner, where the incense smoke comes out from under the hood, and he holds a 'soul' (a greenish marble). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Z7d6MnuQ3_0QX3BKs-oL0DXHKnFtwv932tC3JDebLXZsBPULnjTr8Iq2C9UgHoPWtNhMTF9qmCGQZN4OEOEUfDbOwRLZc9EqhHL3aZ66hpEJjTY6LCpjIHdeh6SnzdFAm33FJII5G_Vx/s1128/IMG_20200203_180948_772.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="An altar with two silver and black damask candles at either side, a stack of three pewter-coloured resin skulls on the left of the image, a black dish of white salt with a pentagram as part of the stone dish on the left of the image, a life-size silvery resin skull with a crown on the right side of the image. The base altar cloth is silver, grey and black. There is a stand in the middle covered in a black altarcloth with white pentagrams, in front of the stand is a purple card with a sigil on it, and on the stand is a figure of Badb with black out-stretched wings and black robes. At the bottom right of the image, there is a brass-bladed athame dagger with a leaf-shaped blade and a wooden hilt. At the very front of the altar is an ornate black skull-shaped candle-holder containing a grey tealight. All the candles are lit. The altar is in front of a white wall with leaf-green paneling and a white dado rail. The image is candle-lit." border="0" data-original-height="1128" data-original-width="1128" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1Z7d6MnuQ3_0QX3BKs-oL0DXHKnFtwv932tC3JDebLXZsBPULnjTr8Iq2C9UgHoPWtNhMTF9qmCGQZN4OEOEUfDbOwRLZc9EqhHL3aZ66hpEJjTY6LCpjIHdeh6SnzdFAm33FJII5G_Vx/w400-h400/IMG_20200203_180948_772.jpg" title="Samhuinn altar" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small;">Samhuinn altar, frontal view</span>. <br /></td></tr></tbody></table></span><br />I would also like to put a representation of The Cailleach on my altar next year, as she is the Gaelic (especially Scottish) Goddess of the winter, who spreads her cloak of snow across the hills, and we get ice and snow from November through to February in varying amounts (it's actually between Winter Solstice and Imbolc that we get the most snow, and there's sometimes still snow on the hills in April and May!). Samhuinn marks the transition between autumn and the depths of winter. In the last decade, it's been noticeably wetter, warmer and less snowy in the Highlands, a result of climate change; putting a representation of the Cailleach on my altar will also be a reminder of what we as a species are doing to our planet. <br /><br />The purple card at the front of the altar has a sigil a friend within our Open Circle designed to reflect our group being connected, even though we couldn't actually meet up on Samhuinn for a ritual this year due to clashing schedules. <br /><br />As I am Goth, it is very easy for me to decorate my altar for this holy-day of death, as skulls and black fabric are part of my normal household decor for other parts of our home. As a Gothic person, I probably contemplate mortality and death more than the average person, and have a fascination with the macabre, which I think makes it easier for me to connect with this holiday in the abstract sense, rather than as grieving or honouring anyone specific, although some of my deceased family that I knew as well as ancestors who died before I was born and the historical people who have inspired and influenced me are honoured elsewhere. </div></span>The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-36476557013059500562019-09-23T17:45:00.000-07:002020-02-03T17:50:51.661-08:00Mabon/Autumn Equinox: Our Home Altar<br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Autumn Equinox is easy to explain; it is the point halfway between the longest and shortest days, when day and night are equal. Mabon is a little more complicated. Calling the Autumnal Equinox 'Mabon' is an innovation of Aidan Kelly; while Ostara and Lammas were part of the Anglo-Saxon calendar, and Beltane, Samhain, Imbolc and Lughnasadh were part of the Celtic calendar, and the two Solstices were parts of lots of calendars (including most famously that of the prehistoric megalithic architects), Mabon is more enigmatic. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Anglo-Saxon calendar is complicated, with lunar months orientated by solar markers, and the closest historical analog to Neo-Pagan 'Mabon' is what still remains as British Harvest Festival - a moveable feast on the first full moon after the Equinox (it is likely Ostara, or 'Eostre' was also on a full moon next to the vernal Equinox). It was not called 'Mabon; as mentioned, that is a modern innovation naming the Equinox festival after the Welsh/Brythonic deity/mythological figure of the same name. Effectively, in a Neo-Pagan context, it is a second harvest festival - one based around fruits as Lughnasadh/Lammas is the agrarian harvest, and among other things, Samhain/Samhuinn historically involved the slaughter of livestock (for those reading about that for the first time; we don't do animal sacrifice, and historically it was about slaughtering livestock for winter meat). </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">Raven's jian sword in the corner, and the right side of our altar</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The altar-cloth is orange tie-die, with a leafless tree on it -I think this is a suitable autumnal scene. Unusually, I did not layer my altar-cloths, but this was simply out of forgetting; I had intended to use a purple scarf under it, but I just didn't remember until I had started putting all the rest of the items on it, and did not want to take them off. Perhaps a touch lazy... </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD0kxJM0KbP7zlR_wY2C8IWzniRnpJ9DZLaJny2IYgx2v4P8juwes0BJpS8QwDpF_BKe7geAjl9TK0d5iK7H9jxGc2aX8xwbfndswd8Nvdmdo1mgx9Aj8meOm4z7bOkGS-iBHf5En99yZP/s1600/IMG_20191109_182301_302.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="752" data-original-width="752" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD0kxJM0KbP7zlR_wY2C8IWzniRnpJ9DZLaJny2IYgx2v4P8juwes0BJpS8QwDpF_BKe7geAjl9TK0d5iK7H9jxGc2aX8xwbfndswd8Nvdmdo1mgx9Aj8meOm4z7bOkGS-iBHf5En99yZP/s400/IMG_20191109_182301_302.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our Mabon altar, front view. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have discussed the pentagram candle-holder in my previous blogs on the Wheel of the Year. The incense burner is a pentacle, but it only has three out of five possible incense sticks. My athame with the leaf-shape blade is a brass letter opener salvaged from a building that was to be demolished. The wand is oak, and was carved for me by a friend. The oil burner has a pentacle on it too - I love how it glows amber through the stone itself when it is lit. I felt the round shape and warm colours were reminiscent of a fruit, which is why I selected this specific oil-burner. The offerings are self-evident, each in a dish purchased from a charity shop. The round plate is hand-made. I'm missing the lid for the cabbage-shaped jar (which ended up with nuts in it).</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chalice and fruit in front of pentagram candleholder</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I really enjoy the replacement chalice; it feels very earthy - technically all ceramics are earthy in that they are made of clay, but being earthenware, glazed brown, and chunky makes this feel very organic and natural. It really makes me happy to find all this nature-themed crockery in my local charity shops. The grapes are in a dish shaped like an autumn leaf, too! The chalice concept is from Wicca, where chalices are used for the symbolic Great Rite, where a phallic athame and round receptacle symbolise the genitive process, and for the 'cakes and ale' (shared consumption of food and drink as community bonding) - however, I am not Wiccan, and don't adhere to the fertility model that emphasises sexual reproduction as metaphorical for natural fecundity; nature's mating habits are far too peculiar - from parthenogenesis in stick insects to pregnant male sea-horses, to entire forests where trailing mycelium connects every patch of honey-fungus, nature is rather broader than the habits of mammals. Communal eating from the same plate is one thing, but for group rituals there's a common pitcher and separate glasses for hygiene reasons. My chalice is for eating and drinking as part of the grounding process after completing the main body of ritual, a way to maintain a mindset in the material after meditation, trance and the like. A chunky goblet is useful for not being easily broken by my dyspraxic self.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Apples and grapes to consume as part of the ritual, <br />
and also give as offerings to the birds</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Fruit was store-bought; my back garden is a work in progress and doesn't produce fruits, plus I am likely too far north for grapes. Crab apples grow locally, and my garden is more sheltered than my father's small holding on a Welsh hillside that produces a good crop of apples, but our last attempt at an apple tree ended with a sapling that did not survive winter.<br /><br />I hope you have found this blog article informative. I intend to post in depth about Samhain/Samhuinn and Yule too.</span></div>
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The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-14291825573126685452019-08-01T18:16:00.000-07:002020-01-26T18:20:48.043-08:00Lughnasadh/Lammas: Our Home Altar<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Lughnasadh and Lammas are two names for holiday between Summer Solstice and Autumn Equinox on the 1st of August. The name 'Lughnasadh' relates to Lugh, the Irish deity and 'Lammas' is an Anglo-Saxon term for the 'loaf mass'. They were two different celebrations as Gaelic and Germanic cultures were different, although they had similarities.<br /><br />In the Gaelic festival, it was a festival of the god Lugh (the name literally means 'Lugh's gathering'), in memory of his foster-mother Tailitu, or in modern Irish Gaelic 'Tailte', who died from exhaustion in clearing the plains of Ireland for agricuture. The modern Scottish Gaelic word for both the festival and the month of August is Lùnastal. Traditionally it was a day for sporting events, as well as feasting. I have my own interpretation of Tailte and the sacrifice of the wild order of things to agricultural order of things, but that is a topic for another blog entry, maybe next Lùnastal.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Lammas comes from 'hlaf-mas' in the Germanic language of the Anglo-Saxons, the loaf-mass, and a harvest festival, the first, celebrating the wheat (grain) harvest. In what is now England, according to dark-ages Christian syncretism, a loaf blessed at this festival was thought to have beneficial properties.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIWyeYcWpBKjVyEcH6jYeBdb4MvNX1AOBsIGxmLysZOe2FvvZWsEB2aKGLLMFIYKFFF7N5Y-teiOQfye_972snA935g1Pkez6OZunzu3JCKM1HVL6V8GnLROuxeyS6GKgXnUdmwmiNwdKZ/s1600/IMG_20190909_173810_760.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Green painted paneled wall with white dado-rail. Leaf-green curtains of synthetic satin. The altar-cloth is yellow, and on it are two gold place-mats with La Tène style designs, a pentagram candle-holder, an earthenware chalice, a pentacle dish with salt, a gold candle in an earthenware dish, two white soy taper candles in off-white candle-sticks, and a loaf of home-made bread" border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIWyeYcWpBKjVyEcH6jYeBdb4MvNX1AOBsIGxmLysZOe2FvvZWsEB2aKGLLMFIYKFFF7N5Y-teiOQfye_972snA935g1Pkez6OZunzu3JCKM1HVL6V8GnLROuxeyS6GKgXnUdmwmiNwdKZ/s400/IMG_20190909_173810_760.jpg" title="Lammas Altar from above" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Lammas altar, with home-made bread from Raven! </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I am living far enough North that even with climate change and milder weather, the fields aren't always harvested already by the actual August 1st date of Lammas; it is important to note that English summers are much warmer (these days often reaching 30C, sometimes quite a bit above that), and especially in Southern England where I grew up, things are harvested earlier. The thing to note about any agricultural calendar is that it will vary according to local conditions, and the Neo-Pagan version of the Wheel of the Year is effectively an adapted mixture of Germanic, Celtic and solar agricultural calendars. Another thing of note for Neo-Pagan celebrations in comparison to historical festivals on this date is that before the industrial revolution, a LOT more people were involved in farming, and mixed livestock and agrarian farms were more common than modern farming where farms often specialise in one type of produce. Even amongst Neo-Pagans who garden for food, few will actually be growing grains themselves, as the land required to cultivate enough grain to make something is usually more than those who don't actually farm have. (I have one patch of something that's probably rye from where some bird-seed was scattered by accident, but it's barely big enough to make a corn-dolly or Brigid's cross!). This leaves a question: what do agrarian harvest festivals mean to a contemporary Pagan?<br /><br />The most obvious thing is that while we may not individually <i>grow</i> wheat (or barley, rye, oats, rice etc.), most of us consume them. There is now a complex industry that grows, mills, and bakes, and that industry massively impacts the planet. Remember Tailte? In medieval myth she was a queen, but this is likely the mythological reinterpretation of a deity from a Christianised perspective, as a Goddess that dies so that the wilderness may be cleared for agriculture to flourish, she seems like someone very relevant to a time when we're becoming increasingly aware that human intervention needs to be in balance with the natural world, and also the awareness that with all forms of agriculture, some things must die so that what we want to eat my thrive; even organic farms require pest management.<br /><br />To me, it is an important time to give thanks to all the people who work hard so that we get to eat, to conveniently buy food from shops (although I'm slowly trying turn my back garden into a vegetable garden!), and to especially think about the impact of agrarian farming, good and bad. Nothing in this world can be fairly glosses into simple generalisations, and it is a good time to look at those complexities, to reflect on how to be more compassionate and ethical as shoppers, thinking of both the ecological impact of what we buy, and the impact on the people who grow things, thinking of the governmental policies that help and hinder farmers, and help and hinder the environment, about the careful nuances and balances that need to be made so we can support people whose livelihoods are about feeding us, and simultaneously support the planet that sustains us.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">[It is interesting that the first Eco-Village in Wales to usher in the One Planet Development system is called 'Lammas' and that the local planning rules say that the inhabitants needed to have sustainable land-based enterprises.]</span><br /><br />In more symbolic terms, it's the first harvest festival, and like Mabon (where we also celebrate the metaphorical fruits of our labour alongside the literal ones), it's a time to celebrate out achievements (personally, I think it's a good time to celebrate sporting achievements, especially). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Now I have introduced what Lughnasadh and Lammas are, I will describe and explain the altar I built to celebrate it. The most obvious thing on the altar is the large pentagram candle-holder. Pentacles and pentagrams are the primary symbols of Wicca, but I am not really Wiccan any more - however, their symbolism in Wicca is a representation of the five Classical elements, which I do not take literally as elementals, but use as a framework to appreciate the natural (and sometimes arteficial) world - whereas traditional Wiccans invoke the 5 elements, or the Watchtowers, often as literal elemental spirits, for each element I write a paragraph about those things in the natural world - eg. writing about how I can see the sea/firth from the top of the hill, hear the nearby stream, feel the rain that falls, etc. for Water, talking about the stones of the mountains, the quarried stones of the local architecture, the earth in my garden, etc. for Earth, the flames of my fire-pit and the warmth of the sun for Fire, the breeze the rustles the leaves, the breath of my meditation, etc. for Wind, and the energy of the ritual itself, my soul, and that of every living thing for Spirit or Energy, etc. I like this framework, it's a good starting point for thinking about things around me, a set of arbitrary categories that make a good format for reflection.<br /><br />Another thing that's likely obvious, especially from the first photograph, is that the altar is full of gold and yellow - a bright yellow altar-cloth with two golden-yellow napkins with the sort of spiraling circular art that spans the cultures broadly categorised under the umbrella of 'Celtic' from La Tène metal-work to the Book of Kells, a golden candle in a dish that is glazed from olive to almost amber like the shades of ripening corn, and although it is hard to see in the photographs because the brightness makes them appear white, the tealight candles are yellow beeswax. Yellow is a colour associated with agrarian harvests, from fields of ripe wheat and barley, to yellow maize. It is also associated with the sun, something the god Lugh is also associated with (although he is not a direct parallel of Apollo, there is a reason he was often associated with him in 19thC late-Romantic thinking; they are both associated with the arts, poetry, athleticism, light, and truth).<br /><br />The main feature of this Lughnasadh/Lammas altar is a loaf of home-made bread baked by Raven. He has been experiementing with different types of bread, inclding trying to make gluten-free bread that's still crusty, and this is his most recent attempt at the latter. Eating this bread was an important part of our ritual. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New chalice!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have a new chalice! I picked it up in a charity shop, and it was either £1.50 or £2.50; either way not much. I liked that it is ceramic - earthenware - and that the abstracted dark designs in the glaze remind me of ravens. It is a wine-goblet, so food-safe unlike some of the decorative metal chalices that exist. My previous chalice - the red glass one that was on the altar for Beltane - has unfortunately become too chipped to use, so was put in the glass recycling. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The pair of off-white candle-holders are Raven's. I think there's either three or four in total, but we only used two this time, mostly for practical lighting rather than symbolic reasons. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Home-made bread, candles and chalice</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The wand you can see on the right of the altar is mine - it is made of oak, and was carved by a friend of mine as a birthday present about 12 or 13 years ago. I wrapped it with threads. I am actually thinking of getting a new wand made, one that is thinner and lighter, slightly shorter - basically, one slightly less chunky for home rituals, reserving the larger one for group rituals where I wouldn't want a thinner wand to be damaged in transit. I am also thinking of getting a stave made, or even carving one myself (although carving and 3D art in general is not something I am particularly competent at). </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi07BF_M12Tt59q8LdkAP75vHCk0H3hug3Scmh4O2KmpAWMPyg94Owf10EYhqoqsr2ZVt98lAJUb4_3T3o_9dS_JIQy9P9i7KgPJmmCPQ6EYewlN0Ye80hFJ_1fd1cwnrZtuiwHlv9JjahT/s1600/IMG_20190909_165311_501.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi07BF_M12Tt59q8LdkAP75vHCk0H3hug3Scmh4O2KmpAWMPyg94Owf10EYhqoqsr2ZVt98lAJUb4_3T3o_9dS_JIQy9P9i7KgPJmmCPQ6EYewlN0Ye80hFJ_1fd1cwnrZtuiwHlv9JjahT/s400/IMG_20190909_165311_501.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wand, leaf-blade athame, and and pentacle oil-burner</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Another thing I retain from when I was Wiccan is the use of an athame. My athame is not black-handled or steel-bladed like the traditional Wiccan ritual knife, but instead has a varnished wooden handle and a brass blade in a leaf-blade sort of shape. It is an old letter-opener that I got from things being thrown out of a building about to be demolished, with a blade shape reminiscent of Bronze Age swords from Ireland and other parts of Europe, and being brass (a copper-zinc aloy) it is not too dissimilar from bronze (a copper-tin alloy). If I were a rich witch, a replica of a Bronze Age sword would definitely be something I would definitely commission, but currently that is out of my range of affordability.<br /><br />My altar for Lughnasadh/Lammas is relatively simple compared to altars set-up for the other holidays so far, but hopefully it is a helpful example of an altar for the festival. I will continue the series with altars for Mabon, Samhain/Samhuinn and Winter Solstice. I endeavour to be educational with these posts, and to both inform the curious who may be new to Neo-Paganism and Witchcraft, and to dispell misconceptions about these practices being something 'dark' or 'evil'. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><br />The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-87306777214412578522019-06-22T09:05:00.000-07:002019-12-21T09:06:57.456-08:00Summer Solstice: Open Circle Ritual<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm still working on my series of posts on the Wheel of the Year, used as a seasonal ritual framework by various modern Pagan/Neo-Pagan groups, including Wiccans and Druids. The celebration that is probably most famous as a Pagan holy day is the Summer Solstice. I attended more than one Summer Solstice celebration, and this post is about the one I attended as part of the Highland Open Circle/ It was a small private gathering at one of the member's home. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjc8wYzizSqPd0TVkiMhXIunT8ipqOm7DAr3OzK47BGVFrE2It7VuckiVOhLBbJv-kNWpuzjHoymdZinKv_bqdoKGhBT0wafHVUXitwTrF2Pz2m49VgFpNw_-10hktoOFTM541BZjYUDinz/s200/LynieSolstice1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="150" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Solstice Altar<br />
Photo by Lynnie K</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Midsummer is the celebration of the longest day - in the Northern hemisphere, this is June 21 or 22 (as our calendar year is imperfect in relation to the solar year, it is not always the same day). While Beltane is the start of summer, Midsummer is the season's peak. In Scotland, the warmest months are usually actually July and August, making Lammas, the next holiday, closer to summer's peak in terms of weather, but late June is pretty warm too. There's different terms for the Midsummer Solstice in different traditions and languages. I call it Midsummer's Night (quite traditionally English; you may recall the Shakespeare play) and it's linked with St John's Eve in much of the British Isles; a common case of a local holiday being linked with a Christian one. I've seen the Scottish Gaelic term for the holiday being Féill Sheathain, and the Druidic term is Alban Hefin (Light of Summer) and the Wiccan term, taken from the Anglo-Saxon, is Litha. Ancient cultures also had a significance for the Summer Solstice, as can be seen from the building of megalithic architecture aligned to the Summer Solstice, most famously at Stonehenge. We have comparatively little on the religion of the ancient pre-Roman Celts, let alone the cultures before that who built megalithic monuments; archaeological evidence can only tell of some of what happened physically, without the written word, it is difficult to interpret the meaning and mindset that accompanied the actions.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmjbQD0302hWf4W7YpFDoo-2-Lba6DU5kSlC1CVmmV9TlDY1UGOGpBBwhjIBmmGJr32kSzgHO96yVZaljW0WIWp84aggZtX5l3mu-G8KUMvGabNwbIZI6Px9Z9Z9A9NH1BBuy79JE3IBRw/s1600/LynieSolstice2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmjbQD0302hWf4W7YpFDoo-2-Lba6DU5kSlC1CVmmV9TlDY1UGOGpBBwhjIBmmGJr32kSzgHO96yVZaljW0WIWp84aggZtX5l3mu-G8KUMvGabNwbIZI6Px9Z9Z9A9NH1BBuy79JE3IBRw/s400/LynieSolstice2.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Solstice Altar. Photograph by Lynie Kutler</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">One of the most interesting things about the Open Circle is the diversity of traditions and backgrounds of our members. We're inclusive of many forms of occultism, witchcraft, Paganism, Neo-Paganism and pantheism/animism, so our celebrations tend to be a mixture of cultures and traditions reflecting the attendees' paths. Not everyone in the group is out as Pagan, so I can't comment too much about who believes what, but there are Norse Pagans, Wiccans, Druids, Chaos Magicians, traditional Witches, and even a Christian witch in the group, and we've had people from non-European traditions/non-Western traditions join from time to time, too. Our altar reflects a mixture of traditions, and also sometimes items that are souvenirs from the travels and experiences members have had that have influenced their spirituality, but aren't part of their tradition directly, or which are connected to the season we're celebrating. The gathering allows us to discuss our different experiences, and to have a collective altar that has elements that are deeply meaningful to all of us, as there is something special from each of us on it, and many things that become meaningful through their ritual use.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Elemental Ritual Masks and altar from above. Photo I took myself.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I brought the small sun plaque underneath the sun candle-holder at the front of the altar, and the elemental ritual masks. In many forms of Neo-Paganism, especially those that are Wiccan-derived, the Classical elements are honoured in Aristotle's form as Air, Earth, Fire, Water and Aether, or as it is more commonly termed 'Spirit'. In Wiccan ritual structure, part of the opening sequence is to call the elements, either to invoke spiritual entities seen as Guardians of the Watchtowers (a concept brought from the Golden Dawn occult framework, but simplified and altered to fit in Wiccan ritual), or as a way to acknowledge the different aspects of the natural world. Personally, I prefer the latter method. I made the masks for participants to better embody the elements they were honouring, and to take the self out of the equation a little for those who are nervous about speaking in front of a group. For the element of Fire, I painted a mask to look like flames, for the element of Water, I painted it to look like a tropical sea, using dimensional paint to make cresting waves for the hairline, eyebrows and nose, for the element of Earth I tried to make the mask look like geological strata, for the element of Air I painted it with shimmery silvery paint and then used more dimensional paint to make little clouds for the eyebrows, and for the element of Spirit (or 'Energy' in my practice) I painted it with metallic dimensional paint over purple, with metallic shimmer paint too, to try and make it look like lightning. You will see a sixth mask, this is a Nature mask I made for the Beltane ritual which I was asked to bring this Solstice</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> too. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sun bowl , mirror plaque and orange candle. Photo taken by me.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As our ritual was indoors (it was predicted to rain), and the host does not have a fireplace, we had a large orange floral candle as our ritual centre rather than a bonfire. Many of our rituals have had an outdoor fire, especially as several of those who regularly host, myself included, have fire-pits. The fire or candle in the middle represents the sun, and remains lit for the whole of the ritual. It's ina nice big brass sun bowl for fire-safety reasons - candles have a tendency to melt and drip, and their wicks can shift. Always be careful when you use candles in your rituals. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gecko image next to the sun bowl. Photo taken by me.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was nice to get together as a group - the Open Circle has been difficult to organise this year as we've all had a very hectic time, and those of us who usually do most of the organisational work, running the rituals and moots, etc. have had problems with our health (I mentioned that in May I had significant issues with my mental health). We've not been meeting up as a Circle very regularly, let alone me for many workings or rituals.<br /><br />In my next post I will write about my visit to Druid Temple stone circle - a circle formed by the remains of a cairn. I went there in the evening after this ritual, and did some meditation. </span></div>
The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-16711778659526978772019-06-21T17:51:00.000-07:002020-01-01T17:55:39.438-08:00Summer Solstice: Our Home Altar<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As with every spoke on the Wheel of the Year, I change the household altar to reflect the season. I find building a seasonal altar is a good way to connect to the changing year, to what is going outdoors in nature. I have a personal working altar in my study, which is more static in overall layout, and the altar I am showcasing in these pictures is our household altar in the living room. It's on wheels so I can roll it out into the middle of the space for group rituals, which is useful!<br /><br />The two main aspects of Summer Solstice are 1) how the natural world is verdant and blooming in the height of summer and 2) celebrating the warmth of the Sun at it's peak (and also acknowledging that the days will then be drawing shorter again). The altar is set up to reflect those two things.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjOAk36klMW25mRoCN61VX4eFmJ7MvsDntatWmqNrAszggmyjsbYQ2RubgTAuaAJ6vTYPWb1gcSOX_hvAK3NQpq6CHDoBcV9XKclggztB4FmlOvFzPrgsDPQHU8XCMm2jyQY7laS2JJ2vo/s1600/1B5390E1-E2BA-48E4-ACD2-D73B04EE9A5C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Green paneled wall, yellow altar cloth, pentagram candle-holder with sun plaque, home grown roses. Two green candle-holder jars. goddess shaped incense burner at the back. Two taper candles in green holders. The altar is a mostly symmetrical arrangement. Three incense sticks in a pentacle shaped flat incense burner. " border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="1512" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjOAk36klMW25mRoCN61VX4eFmJ7MvsDntatWmqNrAszggmyjsbYQ2RubgTAuaAJ6vTYPWb1gcSOX_hvAK3NQpq6CHDoBcV9XKclggztB4FmlOvFzPrgsDPQHU8XCMm2jyQY7laS2JJ2vo/s400/1B5390E1-E2BA-48E4-ACD2-D73B04EE9A5C.jpg" title="Diagonal angle photo of Summer Solstice altar" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Summer Solstice Altar. Incense sticks are on a pentacle incense holder.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The altar-cloth is yellow to symbolise the bright summer sun, but yellow is also the colour of many of the flowers blooming at this time of year. I also have the yellow altar-cloth over a green knot-work and pentacle altar-cloth, but it isn't visible from this angle. I put down two altar-cloths to make sure the top of the trolley I use as an altar cloth is protected, as it's a vintage item of furniture and has already got minor damage to the surface that I don't want to get any worse. For printed altar-cloths, I buy them from a local importer that sells Fair Trade hippie goods, and for plain ones, I use scarves I've bought, usually secondhand on eBay or from charity shops. The yellow altar cloth is a scarf (and the same one I used for Imbolc).</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinEcR9nTE11a8B9oOKguh3eiM9RTCgdFJiEwi_lZ_iKxJlmrdHQDEX5rZBgna9cC8-7B0htyEcRMMffRZ12g90zNIQzqDKwujnfmvb-5cPe13U_CZQzM496nXCroI1FP8og8ohvzYH04gd/s1600/2B08A831-891F-4164-B08D-BD43672B7386.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img alt="The wall behind is white with white dado rail, then green painted paneling. The altar has two white soy candles in green-glazed chunky candle-sticks. In the middle there is a pentacle candle holder with a purple soy votive candle at the top, a blue soy votive candle at the upper left point, a yellow soy votive candle at the upper right, a green soy votive candle in the bottom left, and a red soy votive in the bottom right, and there five tea-lights in the middle of the pentagram holder at the junctions. A sun plaque in red and yellow is hanging off it. There is a bouquet of mixed roses, peach pink and red, in the middle of the altar. On each side of the roses there is a green candle-jar, mottled with a leaf-shaped tag hanging off it. On the left of the altar there is a Goddess shaped metal incense sconce, on the right there is a pentacle-shaped flat incense burner, three incense sticks are visible. The altar cloth is bright yellow. In the foreground there is a sun-shaped ceramic candle holder with gold leaf and a tea-light. The image has a warm ambiance and was taken in the evening." border="0" data-original-height="1491" data-original-width="1491" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinEcR9nTE11a8B9oOKguh3eiM9RTCgdFJiEwi_lZ_iKxJlmrdHQDEX5rZBgna9cC8-7B0htyEcRMMffRZ12g90zNIQzqDKwujnfmvb-5cPe13U_CZQzM496nXCroI1FP8og8ohvzYH04gd/s400/2B08A831-891F-4164-B08D-BD43672B7386.jpg" title="Front-on view of Summer Solstice altar" width="400" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Summer Solstice altar. Sun candle-holder in foreground. </span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I like going for a symmetrical arrangement on my altar; I think the beautiful altars from the churches I went to in childhood have inspired me, as has the traditional Wiccan arrangement for an altar, and just my own enjoyment of symmetry and order. I like that sort of formal arrangement, I feel it's a balanced aesthetic. I am not so much into seeing half of the altar as 'feminine' and half as 'masculine' because I am not into the duotheism of Wicca or the gendering of arbitrary traits - the Goddess incense burner is on the left but as is the Green Man above her, and the Green Woman plaque is on the right (you can just see a corner of each in the image above). Instead, I'm going to be shifting the imagery to fire and air on the right, and earth and water on the left - I will be switching the Goddess incense burner to the right side next time, but I have salt (in a stone dish, representing earth, on the left) as well as the green lotus leaf incense holder, which I've categorized as earth/water due to the lotus, rather than as fire/air due to being an incense holder.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEzX_t6WuN_yiGJZFlrFPn3nrJgae5UCQjQtVgFMy1rhpeSBmxkvW_ZsvCPPm2yQZL_zaXrqtHNovr5-CVN1oSsxHCFNMhdpDiSf8TRanE8zij-wrEKFes_sUU7HJrtH2FFRRzMEE1FJgr/s1600/200FBC59-B334-4D79-BD98-C7DAC1514950.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Green paneling and yellow altar cloth. Pentagram candle-holder, with soy votive candles. Either side of the pentagram candle-holder are green ceramic candle-holders with soy taper candles. In the middle-ground is bouquet of roses with a peach rose facing the camera. On the left there is a grey stone pentacle dish with white salt, a green lotus incense burner with a traditional incense stick" border="0" data-original-height="1511" data-original-width="1511" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEzX_t6WuN_yiGJZFlrFPn3nrJgae5UCQjQtVgFMy1rhpeSBmxkvW_ZsvCPPm2yQZL_zaXrqtHNovr5-CVN1oSsxHCFNMhdpDiSf8TRanE8zij-wrEKFes_sUU7HJrtH2FFRRzMEE1FJgr/s400/200FBC59-B334-4D79-BD98-C7DAC1514950.jpg" title="Altar from a gentle angle" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Roses from my garden.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I like putting plants that are in season on my altar, so I picked some of the roses blooming in my garden and put them in a little glass bowl. I actually grow a lot of colourful flowers in my garden; not a very Gothic thing to do, I guess, but I enjoy gardening, and the front garden is tiny so just has flowers in it. The front garden is actually looking a bit scruffy at the moment, so I have a plan to tidy it up in the near future, with some bark chippings in the flower beds to help keep the weeds at bay (although weeds are just flowers growing in the wrong place - I actually put pretty 'weeds' in pots; they grow happily with little attention, and some have rather nice flowers on them, like wild pansies). Some more solar flowers would be sunflowers or marigolds, if you wanted to put something really big and yellow on there and they're flowering at the right time for you. I don't like buying flowers when I can grow my own ones. Having real flowers that inevitably wilt is a good metaphor for many of life's transient things, including remembering that summer isn't forever. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The two chunky green candle-sticks at the back are glazed in a wonderful rich green. I bought them secondhand in a charity shop. The two mottled looking candle-jars in the middle were gifts from a friend and they have little fabric leaves and charms on them. The Goddess incense burner was a gift from Raven. The sun candle-holder with a tea-light in it is another altar item that I have had for a very long time, probably nearly as long as I've been a witch. The pentagram candle holder was bought in the January sales a while back. I will soon post about our Open Circle ritual. </span></div>
<br />The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-77120759431074671782019-05-01T16:58:00.000-07:002019-09-21T10:37:52.825-07:00Beltane: Our Home Altar <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I am posting this very late; the scheduled date will be May 1st, but the actual date I'm writing this is Sept 18th. The delay is throughout May and into June I had final exams and final projects, which really did not do my mental health any good, and I had to take some time away from things to recover. I have now finished my architectural technology degree! However it does mean I was really rather busy and didn't get this blog post about my altar up on time. My graduation ceremony will be in October. I am still studying, however, as I'm doing a second undergraduate degree - History & Archaeology joint honours degree (with some electives in things like Cultural Studies... more in that in a different blog post). I will also be posting up stuff about Summer Solstice, Lughnasadh, and Mabon.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The household altar dressed for Beltane</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is the household altar again, and as there are already shrines and statues to specific deities and spirits elsewhere, this altar is used for working, and is seasonally decorated. The arrangement for this design is a very Wiccan interpretation of Beltane, and I'm not entirely comfortable with that. Wicca was my entry to the realm of Neo-Paganism, and in recent years I have become more and more interested in traditional practices and Celtic (a broad umbrella term that I don't like too much as a historian, but I know communicates the concept well enough) practices. That's not to say I dislike this altar set-up, but that it embodies a few things that don't necessarily reflect what I want out of my spirituality.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">The most Wiccan thing about it is the red and green colour scheme. In Wicca, Beltane is associated with the colour green, especially vibrant greens, for the fresh green foliage coming into the fullness of summer, and red for fire, but also for passion, lust and sexuality. Beltane is seen as a fertility festival, and the May Pole seen as a phallic symbol. There's a really interesting </span><a href="https://cailleachs-herbarium.com/2016/04/la-bealltainn-the-gaelic-end-of-winter-festival/" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">::article::</a><span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"> from Cailleach's Herbarium why yellow flowers and yellow birds, and possibly the colour yellow in general is a more traditional colour-scheme than the red of Wicca.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">A lot of Wiccan practices surrounding notions of things like pan-European Paganism, or fertility rituals as the basis of the Wheel of the Year is based off Romanticist interpretations of folklore from the 18th and 19thC, rather than historical practices, and for a while I wanted something more 'authentic', by which I meant older and historically accurate, but the pendulum of my opinion swings, and I think that perhaps embracing these later interpretations, but understanding them as what they are - slightly fantastical re-imaginings of an earlier past by people not in possession of all the facts, and with a yearning for some mystical former golden age (that never was in actuality) is valid in its own way - Beltane may never have been some phallic festival of sex in actuality, but in a world where sex is often either demonised as sinful lust, or commercialised in objectifying hyper-sexuality, having a celebration of sexuality can be a very positive thing. These re-imaginings often sprang from a need for something that was missing in culture at the time, sometimes things that are still missing from culture now, and I don't see a problem with adapting practices to face changing needs, as long as we are honest and open about those changes, and don't try to pass off something merely old (even Gerald Gardener's work has been around for well over half a century now, and a lot of what he did was built off earlier 20thC, 19thC and even 18thC ideas) as something ancient.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; text-align: start;">[Aside: a celebration of sexuality is a good thing, however some people's idea that they're somehow entitled to sex on Beltane and you're not a good Pagan unless you're participating in some orgy to which they are invited needs challenged; you'd think this would be a rare phenomenon, but I've come across this attitude more often than I would like! Usually from older Pagans who think this is still the '60s and '70s free love scene.] </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm still not really Wiccan any more, as I've moved away from the duotheism of Wicca and a lot of its liturgy, and I'm more of a pantheist/animist exploring notions of polytheism now, and while I like a lot of Wiccan ritual structure, I've been incorporating other elements into my practice for quite a while now. One of the great things about Paganism is that as an umbrella for many faiths, it tends to allow for a lot of personal spiritual exploration - the notion that we all have our own individual paths is quite prevalent, so there's not really a sense of orthodoxy and heresy as with some other faiths. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikdLOYqtw1sLLctruLPtsen71xfzUWi5mwvp7ZvbyEyoXCXMgXF1CicKpZpZJqnY57sT8Cjk_E0bmAdLs4CeGSaBYXcVNxjXScK2OOWfF2h6q0Ib1SBTIjiR1H8zRuTVumUicsbrvmAQGQ/s1600/Beltaneflowers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikdLOYqtw1sLLctruLPtsen71xfzUWi5mwvp7ZvbyEyoXCXMgXF1CicKpZpZJqnY57sT8Cjk_E0bmAdLs4CeGSaBYXcVNxjXScK2OOWfF2h6q0Ib1SBTIjiR1H8zRuTVumUicsbrvmAQGQ/s400/Beltaneflowers.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flowers from my garden</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One of the things I love to do with my altar is to decorate it with flowers from the garden that are seasonal - not so much in autumn and winter when it's not the time of year for many flowers, but certainly for spring and summer. All of the flowers were picked from my garden, with the cherry blossoms wreathing this little posey vase from the cherry trees outside my house. Early summer is when my garden is most colourful, and as this summer I planted a lot of bulbs, it is likely that next spring I will have even more flowers to dress my altar for Vernal Equinox and Beltane. I live in the Scottish Highlands, so some of the spring flowers bloom a little later here than they did when I lived in England because of how much further North we are and the colder winter, shorter days, etc. Pansies bloom from spring to late summer here, however. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZa67IzXcwNQ6GXPS3hov1FZhmZhEzuVBhR8MlVK63YDFRRBfOiQccZ0B7TKsBBveC31aPlX9GWnMHgASkFldSK-B3x6Ne-jjmTSpwpjhFbB8KplpXfm3pSkCGax6dviihia1tlqQgmlVv/s1600/Beltanechalice.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZa67IzXcwNQ6GXPS3hov1FZhmZhEzuVBhR8MlVK63YDFRRBfOiQccZ0B7TKsBBveC31aPlX9GWnMHgASkFldSK-B3x6Ne-jjmTSpwpjhFbB8KplpXfm3pSkCGax6dviihia1tlqQgmlVv/s400/Beltanechalice.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ornate chalice</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is the last time I used this particular chalice. It is glass with some sort of red lacquer, and I bought it in Homebase in their January sale a few years back, for a very reduced price. Unfortunately, the red has started to flake, so I am concerned it is no longer food-safe, and I will be retiring it. It has been very pretty sitting on my altar with its ornate red moulding, but its time has passed, and it will go into the glass recycling.<br /><br />In Wicca, the chalice is used for the Symbolic Great Rite, representing the reproductive/creative union of masculine and feminine energy, which for a lot of Wiccans will be an important aspect of Beltane, however this is not what I use mine for. Mine represents the element of water, and is also used for drinking a toast to the departing spring, and to the incoming summer. My toast is non-alcoholic as I cannot drink alcohol with my medication so am tee-total now. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rock-salt in a soapstone dish and tiny cauldron</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This soapstone (I think; it's definitely carved stone, anyway) pentacle dish is full of rock-salt, both which are used to represent the element of Earth, which to me is the literal, mineral ground rather than nature, plants and leafy things (I see all living things as a combination of the elements). I use salt for consecration and representation of both life and death - without salt we would die due to the lack of transmission through nerves, and with too much salt we, and a lot of other things, die.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The small cauldron behind is the terracotta container from a tiny candle the equivalent of a tealight in size that I bought in a Fair Trade import shop in Wales and lit for the full moon during spring last year. It is made by <a href="https://www.dalit.co.uk/">::Dalit Candles::</a> who are a social enterprise that employ people from the Dalit ('untouchables') in India to make the candles and their holders, and who help fund schools and hospitals in districts with severe poverty. The terracotta cauldron is a perfect size for inclusion in my travel altar, where it is also a symbol of water, and of fecundity. It was on the household altar at Beltane because the altar was otherwise crammed with candles, cherry blossoms, and other things, and it was small enough to cram in between everything else.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Candles on the altar</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This altar had a lot more candles than any previous altar from this year. This is because after I had consecrated their use on the altar, I extinguished them and then arranged them, and some more candles in candelabras too large to put on the altar, into two groups on our living room floor (cats safely shut out the room!) and used it as a way to have the two Beltane fires for blessing and purification indoors, without setting our house on fire and without setting off all the smoke alarms. Usually I only use beeswax and soy candles, but I was bought some red dinner candles - the three at the back - made from paraffin wax (unfortunately a petrochemical) but which as they are already made and purchased and given to me for the purpose of Beltane, I would use anyway. The two really tall candles are vintage candles decades old made of stearin, which is an animal by-product (definitely not vegan-friendly), and which are older than I am. They are looked after very carefully and only burnt on special occassions. All the tea-lights are beeswax, and the votive candles in the pentagram candelabra are soy. The red rolled candles in the curving metal candelabra are beeswax. I am trying to reduce my use of petrochemical-based materials, especially single-use plastics and candles which are effectively single-use plastics I set on fire. Due to the deforestation for soy plantations and the methane generated by livestock, currently beeswax seems like the most sustainable alternative.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Also on my altar are some items not individually photographed; the rectangular Celtic knotwork lantern belongs to my partner Raven. I bought it for him as a Winter Solstice gift last December. I have two incense burners. One of the burners is a censer held up by a Goddess figure, made of metal and bought by Raven as a souvenir from one of his trips to Glasgow, from the independent occult retailer <a href="http://www.23enigma.scot/">::Enigma 23::</a>. The other burner is a wooden pentacle, which is the one I use most frequently on the altar to burn incense as offerings. Neither wand not athame are present on the altar due to space; they were temporarily put on the shelf under the altar for this ritual. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Witching corner; the altar in context</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The altar is on wheels, but when not brought out into the middle of the living room for group rites, it remains in this corner, where I have a Green Man figure from <a href="https://www.themakersmark.co.uk/anything-else/rose-terry-barter">::The Maker's Mark::</a> in Castell Newydd Emlyn/Newcastle Emlyn in Cymru/Wales. I make sure to visit every time I go through the town, especially as it is near a very picturesque castle. I have unfortunately forgotten the sculptor's name, but the plaque is based off an old London church's Green Man. The Green Woman plaque is also hand-made, and was a gift from a friend in Peterborough, many years ago. It is signed, with a mark rather than a full name but I don't know whose mark it is. The pentacle shelf above is a custom piece from CAS Design in Berlin, and has been reviewed in the past on this blog. I think it is an excellent piece of furniture, and thoroughly recommend them.</span></div>
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The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-36641306257570416402019-03-19T11:50:00.000-07:002019-03-19T11:50:19.579-07:00Vernal Equinox 2018<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As I've mentioned before on this blog, I've decided that in response to the popularity of Witchcraft in the Goth community in recent years that I would chronicle what I do as a 'Celtic' Witch (for lack of a better term... I'm an ex-Wiccan, gradually re-embracing the term 'witch'. I'm also interested in various magical and folk traditions from the British Isles and Brittany, at many different points in history from prehistory to Druids to medieval, renaissance, 18thC, Victorian to present) in order to show people who might be new or just curious what it is some of us do. I'm only an example for me, but I share a lot of practices with many Neo-Pagans. As it is a few days in advance of the Equinox, I'm writing about that spoke on the Wheel of the Year.<br /><br />Before I go into what I'm going to be doing for the Equinox this year, I want to explore what I did last year. For the last Equinox I attended my first ever Pagan event hosted by Highland Fire Gatherings. I have helped run group events with the Highland Open Circle, and celebrated the Sabbats with them, but this was the first time I'd been to an event hosted by this different group. The Fire Gatherings are not formal ceremonies like the Open Circle run, they are - as the title states - gatherings with fire. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />I have organised many of the rituals I've participated in with the Open Circle are ones I've been leading and/or organising, and that is a lot of responsibility, and despite being Neo-Pagan for close on two decades now, I don't feel like a Priestess, I don't feel like I have got to the spiritual stage for that. I always struggle to write rituals that cater to our eclectic group, to pick the right words that don't sound contrived or pretentiously theatrical, to organise the ritual to work practically... I have the ability to speak in public and to adapt to alterations in situation, but I feel more like the 'mistress of ceremonies' than an actual Priestess. I get so caught up in trying to make a functional ritual on a practical level that I struggle to do the key, core element of any Neo-Pagan ritual; to engage in spiritual practice. Being part of someone else's gathering or ritual is something I much prefer. I'm happy to work as a solitary witch/Neo-Pagan, and I'm happy to be part of a group energy, but I don't want to be the group leader.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Corn-dolly, eggs, and candles on the altar. <br />
Photograph courtesy of Highland Fire Gatherings and used with permission.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The gathering was outdoors, in a deciduous woodland grove near to a pine-woodland, on a hillside overlooking the Moray Firth. Spring can be late and slow to emerge here in the Highlands, due to the northerly climate, so instead of somewhere green with new growth, the trees looked quite bare, and the autumn leaves still lingered over the grass. One of the benefits of celebrating outdoors is that you end up appreciating the seasonal changes at their pace, not one of the artificial calendar of the Wheel of the Year, which is only approximate because the weather fluctuates yearly, weekly... multiple times a day because this is Scotland and the weather is best described as 'changeable' and 'damp'! In Southern England it was likely a time of flowers and greenery, and that is probably what Gerald Gardner saw when he celebrated with his New Forest Coven in the early 20thC, but firstly I'm a long way North of that, and secondly climate change is noticeably affecting seasonal patterns. It ends up that the Sabbats are day to take the time to see how the wheel is turning, rather than expecting it to have turned exactly to a specific point on a specific date. The seasons should turn the wheel, not the wheel turn the seasons.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spiderweb woven from yarn and string-lights, made by one of the organisers.<br />
Photograph courtesy of Highland Fire Gatherings, used with their permission.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Those attending brought their own materials to make shelter, and their own contribution. I didn't intend to stay the night, so instead of a tent, I brought a purple Celtic (well, Insular) knotwork blanket, and built a shelter out of fallen branches, propped up against two trees, and with the base filled with an extra layer of gathered dried leaves for insulation. With the large purple blanket acting as a windbreak, and my tote-bags acting as something damp-proof to sit on, it was actually quite cosy in my shelter, and I spent a lot of time in there during the gathering. I am not the most gregarious person, actually quite introverted in person, so I needed my own little space away from the gathering proper, and so my little shelter on the periphery was quite useful to me, I could retreat to it between moments of being social and friendly. I also hung my little silver lantern on the end of a branch to light my shelter, as I stayed with the group well into the darkness of evening. I didn't bring a camera, as I didn't know if that would be considered impolite, so I don't have any of my own photographs, and I'm most sad that I didn't take any photographs of my little shelter. It was a lean-to, with one ridge-pole branch, supported at either end in forked branches rammed into the ground, and then numerous branches lent against that, with the blanket over it all, tucking in the edges and partially under the rear to keep the wind out. At the front, I made a slightly higher entrance way with two more forked branches creating a triangular opening, and the blanket pulled down low either side. My shelter was against a slope, so it seemed quite low at the front, but with the ground dipping towards the back, it was actually quite roomy inside.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">An eight-fold woven spiral frames the forest beyond.<br />
Photograph courtesy of Highland Fire Gatherings.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me singing in my black robes. <br />
Photograph courtesy of H.F.G</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The gathering itself was quite informal in structure, and there was a blessing, but there was also lots of drumming and communal music, which had a really good energy. I'd brought some recorders and whistles with me, and I played a lot of music that day - sometimes in the circle (where I used two plastic recorders knocked together as a percussion instrument as well as playing them the conventional way), sometimes just playing tunes while sat in my little shelter. I find music is a good way to express the sort of spiritual feelings that just come out awkward when expressed in words - if the best I can do with language is cringe-worthy attempts at poetry, I will stick to wordless sound. I did attempt to sing at one point, but singing publicly is not something I comfortable with so I was nervous and thus did not do so well at that.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="231" src="https://scontent.fman1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.15752-9/51993319_2044157399030739_6399620121375014912_n.png?_nc_cat=105&_nc_ht=scontent.fman1-2.fna&oh=558d60b6ffdb38b88fb934e963a9fac5&oe=5CF0D8A5" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My purple shelter is on the right. I think I'm inside it! Photo courtesy of H.F.G.<br />
Faces are obscured because I don't know who might be 'in the broom closet'.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As you can see from the photograph above, there was a reasonable but smallish group. I think I was in the shelter when this photograph was taken, obscured by the lady sitting in front, and there were a couple more people not in the shot. We gathered firewood communally from fallen timber to build our little fire - which was built on a bed of stones as not to damage the ground. On the tree behind us is an ancient sun-wheel symbol which exists in cultures worldwide and may be very, very ancient indeed - it's certainly simple to draw; a circle with an equal-armed cross, which occurs in ancient carvings across Europe, might well be the heritage of the Celtic cross, and which is also similar to the Medicine Wheel. It can be the four elements, the four directions, the sun the cross of the solar year within the eight spokes of the Wheel of the Year (appropriate for an Equinox which is part of the solar cross), etc. It's Earth in Astrology, copper alloys in Alchemy and Odin's cross in Norse Paganism. In its centre is a stag's skull. I don't know what that skull meant to the person who made the sun-wheel, but to me the horns are that of Cernunnos. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg55ZWTitVyvuEUOMKHa1Sg3pit3z7N-uRzGDy04QjoaUJSm9h8on-QyjhS9FNcOpUm_z5XJ8lx9TTKCpYcSi2d7fgIm2hgCby7sy8Dgy8k1jIPgdrehQRcgv7xo3k81yRxg_xRaTtFJJcc/s1600/drumdrumdrum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg55ZWTitVyvuEUOMKHa1Sg3pit3z7N-uRzGDy04QjoaUJSm9h8on-QyjhS9FNcOpUm_z5XJ8lx9TTKCpYcSi2d7fgIm2hgCby7sy8Dgy8k1jIPgdrehQRcgv7xo3k81yRxg_xRaTtFJJcc/s320/drumdrumdrum.jpg" width="177" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Celtic Bodhran</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I really enjoyed the way music flowed in and out of the group. There was a planned drum circle, but there were also moments where music seemed to spontaneously spring up, and we would just jam, with a variety of instruments present. A lot of the people brought frame drums and bodhrans (traditional drum from Irish and Scottish music), and apparently they know each other from a drumming group for those specific types of drums. I nearly bought a bodhran many years ago, while visiting Ireland with my great aunt Judith, but it was just outside my price range, and instead I bought a whistle. After this bodhran-rich music group, I went and bought a half-size 'mini-bodhran' with Insular style knotwork painted on it. It's nothing as beautiful as the one covered in beautiful Celtic spirals pictured with the firelight through it. The owner of that drum is a lucky person; it's a beautiful drum with a beautiful sound. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A row of lanterns hung with garlands at the entrance to the grove.<br />
More distant lanterns as specks of light in the distance. Courtesy of H.F.G</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I stayed with the circle late into the evening, until it was quite dark indeed. I spent a while as a self-appointed lantern-lighter, stringing lanterns up into the trees and lighting the tealights - often relighting when the wind extinguished them. I actually found out afterwards that my attempt to secure them from the wind taking them down was a bit too successful as it made the lanterns difficult to get out of the trees, especially the ones hung over high branches. It is something I have learnt not do again. I have felt there's something particularly magical about lanterns for a long time, especially after a dream I had, where I was riding a white horse through a dense deciduous forest all hung with coloured lanterns. Another young lady from the group joined me in cooperative lantern lighting. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoDy-9nBt8JOyPq1e_PvWfIrXNE_tiakdw1AyL2943CsXJOSC524hle_JdvoBxxUIleOiCU9IcM0GT8BExndSAyE6Nv8TSQk5dZ25eGbyxVdpLEmHjiaBZpMhLztMbhJdy9iRjeXLnbYMh/s1600/Equinoxlightsdusk.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="752" data-original-width="752" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoDy-9nBt8JOyPq1e_PvWfIrXNE_tiakdw1AyL2943CsXJOSC524hle_JdvoBxxUIleOiCU9IcM0GT8BExndSAyE6Nv8TSQk5dZ25eGbyxVdpLEmHjiaBZpMhLztMbhJdy9iRjeXLnbYMh/s200/Equinoxlightsdusk.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Dusk, looking back towards the path.<br />
Photo from H.F.G.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Eventually we got to the far end of the camp, and I looked back and it seemed truly special seeing all the lanterns glint and glimmer through the trunks of the trees, the woven wheels at the far end bright with LED string-lights. It really inspired me, and since then I've nearly doubled my personal collection of lanterns, and brought them with me for the Open Circle Beltane Gathering I organised that was an outdoor event, to the Summer Solstice (although it was still light when I left that! The sun lingers long on the Solstice this far North!) and even to the Winter Solstice ritual in the garden of another Circle member, each time finding a few more lanterns. Eventually I will have enough lanterns to recreate the vision from my dream, of the trees hung with lanterns as jewels. It was seeing lanterns in the trees in actuality that made realise I had to make what I'd seen in the dream a reality.<br /><br />I stayed until it got truly dark, but as I had to be at college the next day, I went home late, but not too late, and didn't camp. I really enjoyed attending the event, and I went to other events hosted by the same group last year, including their Summer Solstice event, which I will post about nearer this year's Summer Solstice.<br /><br />The Highland Fire Gathering group has a Facebook page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Highland-Fire-Gatherings-1218892838243694/">::here::</a> if you're local and interested. The Highland Open Circle has it's Facebook page <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/659927317461668/">::here::</a>, too. </span></div>
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The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-90699699277191026172019-03-18T13:15:00.000-07:002019-03-18T13:15:44.575-07:00Spring & Equinox Altar<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As I have mentioned before, this year I will be blogging about the Neo-Pagan festivals of the eight points of the 'Wheel of the Year', celebrations shared by Wiccans, Druids, and some other Neo-Pagan paths, based off four solar festivals which, being based on celestial events, are common celebrations many cultures (the two solstices and two equinoxes), and the four 'fire festivals' or 'cross quarters', which are tied to folk festivals of Britain and western Europe. The Vernal Equinox is when day and night are equal, in spring. Many Neo-Pagans celebrate it as 'Ostara', named after a celebration mentioned by the chronicler 'the venerable Bede', and which may be named after a Germanic dawn goddess, and which is likely the root-word for 'Easter' in English (most other languages have a name deriving from 'Pascha'). I just celebrate it as the Vernal Equinox. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiab9Li-mxYurhdaaNobbtVWo0Mkd1JZqsPZytGOJo0g1PYLF4i7acMtlOkuh2NickcCQHYUYUvIYd2SOsl5ZZYlWMjfGqC4ycDUk572ntmIUG8RNcMYn6Gv7oOV32fgqKtOrckREGTqE-L/s1600/EquinoxAltar1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiab9Li-mxYurhdaaNobbtVWo0Mkd1JZqsPZytGOJo0g1PYLF4i7acMtlOkuh2NickcCQHYUYUvIYd2SOsl5ZZYlWMjfGqC4ycDUk572ntmIUG8RNcMYn6Gv7oOV32fgqKtOrckREGTqE-L/s400/EquinoxAltar1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Full Equinox altar.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I think I do the Equinox a bit differently from many Neo-Pagans as I don't incorporate rabbits, hens and eggs. Neo-Pagans now regard these as fertility symbols, and I think that's a very valid perspective, but their association with Easter had more to do with which food were restricted during Lent - meat was forbidden, as were eggs and dairy (Thomas Aquinas wrote against consuming these), and so of course once the fast was broken on Easter, people wanted to consume them. Lambs are very much an important Christian symbol, with Jesus as the Lamb of God, and I can't help but think of the rather beautiful Pre-Raphaelite inspired mural that graced a church I used to go to of the adoration of the lamb when I see lambs in a religious context. My rejection of these symbols because of their Christian (and particularly Catholic) associations is not a protestation against Christianity or an act of my disliking Christianity, more that I wish to separate my current faith from my old faith, and I feel awkward doing things that remind me too much of Christianity; I feel like I'm misappropriating, or somehow trying to Paganise things, which may or may not be a valid concern or just a manifestation of my anxiety and over-thinking.<br /><br />Instead of thes</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">e animal symbols, I prefer floral ones - picking what is in bloom in my garden at the time. I don't rear chickens, rabbits or sheep, so it seems a bit disconnected for me to celebrate lambing (which is often quite a bit before Easter in the UK, anyway), or their lifecycle in relation to the agricultural year. The birds nesting in my garden are more seasonally appropriate to me than chickens. [Interestingly, chickens need about 12 hours of daylight to signal the summer period for laying eggs - so the Equinox is actually directly relevant to chickens. Some will lay in winter even without an appropriate light source, but egg production goes up with daylight hours. </span>I do, however, grow flowers (and vegetables, herbs, etc.) so I feel more personally connected to flowers. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpRuCXeq8bvX5KsQgjZkA-3YKelT4s4b4ZHrMRk9mC54UPxe6NmiSCz-7WaAyY8EV2NNJsfp1bvBbTRpkK6d-I580k2xhQOlt4_UoGgixWISAyxByuS_QY0okl1Xo29IS0GSFkgswmav2U/s1600/EquinoxAltar6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpRuCXeq8bvX5KsQgjZkA-3YKelT4s4b4ZHrMRk9mC54UPxe6NmiSCz-7WaAyY8EV2NNJsfp1bvBbTRpkK6d-I580k2xhQOlt4_UoGgixWISAyxByuS_QY0okl1Xo29IS0GSFkgswmav2U/s400/EquinoxAltar6.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Another photograph of the altar as a whole </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHivD32s17_QhFQLneP-XTI63yJZ8QmrtRr3xgP5ZAAQNg2g3wOO5DlZBb2BiJ5FKZH15J75bjU7YdiGcjVjuBWVvB0mFem-tWHc5fAaXDrQCS8iBc0gPF2NUq2ffTAE3-oB3F6FPd7HVY/s1600/53690295_312254106160846_6998348080084942848_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHivD32s17_QhFQLneP-XTI63yJZ8QmrtRr3xgP5ZAAQNg2g3wOO5DlZBb2BiJ5FKZH15J75bjU7YdiGcjVjuBWVvB0mFem-tWHc5fAaXDrQCS8iBc0gPF2NUq2ffTAE3-oB3F6FPd7HVY/s200/53690295_312254106160846_6998348080084942848_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daffodils</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">You can see on my altar a bunch of hyacinths and daffodils in the centre. I changed my altar set-up from its Imbolc set up to this pre-Equinox set up at the start of March, and it is definitely geared more to a visual celebration of the changing seasons and the greenery and flowers of spring. Daffodils and hyacinths are both poisonous to cats, but this set-up was before Archimedes arrived, and was dismantled before Archimedes left his acclimatisation period in the spare room, with any pollen hoovered up.<br /><br />I have two altar cloths again, layered over each other. The bottom altar cloth is a printed light green one with a leafless tree, an image that makes me think of a tree about to spring into life, rather than a dead tree. The upper altar cloth is actually a vintage table-runner I bought on eBay because it reminded me of my grandmother's handicrafts. She used to make things very similar to this, and as the item seems entirely handmade, I can picture someone else's grandmother making this the same way. I wish I had inherited some of my grandmother's embroidery, but I was a child when she passed, and did not end up with anything like that. I found some daffodil doilies secondhand that I tend to use for tea-parties, but I put one under each of the candle-holders to protect the altar cloth from any wax drips that ran off the candle-holders, because it is an old and fragile embroidery, sold to me as being from the '50s, and I don't want to damage it. The embroidered flowers are somewhat stylised, but they remind me of marigolds, which are currently flowering in my garden.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Daffodil doilies to protect vintage altar cloth.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">The wreath at the back is a hand-made house decoration some students at my college were selling as a charity fundraiser. It has lovely spring colours, so I use it as an altar decoration each year. I really like using circular symbols for solar festivals, simultaneously representing the sun and the cycle of the seasons. I don't have space on my altar for both the pentagram candle-holder and the wreath, so the pentagram candle holder has been moved to in front of our fireplace. To represent the elements, there is a jar candle on the altar; it has five layers in different colours, made from the melted down stubs of past elemental candles used on our altar. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pink candle, daffodils, wreath, Goddess censer</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The left side of the altar is used primarily for the symbols traditionally associated with the Goddess in Wicca once again as with my <a href="http://domesticatedgoth.blogspot.com/2019/02/imbolc-ii-our-home-altar.html">::Imbolc altar::</a>, but this isn't a strict attribution. Incense is used to symbolise the element of Air (and to be burnt as an offering, and to create a ritualistic atmosphere through scent), and many traditions see Air as a masculine element, associated with 'masculine' attributes, but I don't see the point in gendering an element, or even more so of gendering characteristics like logic, clarity of thought, communication, etc. I have an incense holder with a Neo-Pagan style Goddess figure holding up the incense censer, but that does not mean I see the element of air as feminine, either; I just like the figure as a sculpture representing the divine feminine, and it happens to also be a perfectly good censer at the same time - I have another incense burner that is a pentacle (visible in the photographs of the full altar). I think it's probably a bit cliché to attribute pink to the divine feminine - especially as a girl that hated the colour pink growing up - but I chose it to represent Bloduweudd, who was made of flowers, specifically oak, broom and meadowsweet.. Now, I somehow thought oak flowers were light pink, which I am quite wrong about; they're a greenish yellow. Broom flowers are yellow, and meadowsweet flowers are white, so I would have probably done better with a pale yellow candle, in retrospect!<br /><br />The daffodil picture is not a Goddess symbol at all, it is actually a card I gave Raven for St. David's Day - the saint day for the welsh patron saint, who is St. Dewi in Welsh. St. David's Day is seen more as a national celebration than as a Celtic Saint's day by many, including Raven. I have mentioned before that he is Welsh-Irish. Daffodils are Wales' national flower; the national plant symbol is a leek, and daffodils are 'cennin Pedr' or Peter's leeks in Welsh, which is presumably where the connection comes in between the two plants. Anyway, the card was placed on the altar as another mark of the passing seasons, and a nod to Raven's Welshness. <br /><br />I have a light green candle to represent the Green Man, a vegetative spirit (or even deity to some) that I associate with the changing seasons as visible through plant life. New spring leaves are slowly emerging, light and vibrant, not yet darkened to the richness of summer. I light the pink candle when invoking the divine feminine, and light the green candle when invoking the divine masculine. The central, multicolour candle is represented of the divine as simultaneously transcendent of material existence and immanent within it. I am a pantheist that sees individual deities as spiritual aspects or manifestations of the greater divine that is in all things, and that candle made of all colours seems like a good representation of that. It is a lovely hand-made textured candle, but I can't remember where I bought it. I think it might be from 'The Maker's Mark' in Newcastle Emlyn, but it could be even older - a souvenir from a lovely witchy shop I found behind a record shop in Henley on Thames over a decade ago. I have kept it safe in my wicker basket store of candles for a long time, but felt like this is the right time to burn some of it. I must admit I'm sort of clingy about candles, and don't like burning the prettiest ones, especially all in one go - I want to stretch it out so I can appreciate them for longer! Quite silly when candles are intrinsically transient, made to be burnt. Perhaps I'm a sentimental fool.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ceramic cauldron over tealight.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The blue cauldron hanging over a flame is Raven's. It's meant as an oil-burner, but as many oils are toxic to cats, we are no longer using the oil burners for their true purpose. However, watching the water evaporate off as misty vapour is rather aesthetic, so I am still putting water in them. We will need to look further into what oils can and can't be used around cats, as we don't want to poison Archimedes. I chose this blue cauldron to represent the element of water on my altar. It's purpose is more symbolic than practical for my Equinox ritual, unlike the bigger copper cauldron I used as a temporary planter, and as a receptacle for any drips after I watered my snowdrops from the Well of the Spotted rock for Imbolc. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marigold and salt in pentacle dish.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have a carved stone dish for salt, to represent the element of Earth. It is interesting that salt is what we use when 'salting the earth' is something done to make it infertile. Salt is sometimes used for drawing a circle on the floor, but I think that's a waste of good salt. I am thinking of replacing the salt-as-Earth-representation with sand, fine gravel or soil. Salt as ritual ingredient is still useful, but I associate it more with sea-salt (I know rock-salt exists) and the ocean, and I want to change things around that I no longer connect with. Neo-Paganism is -in general - quite a flexible path, and while we practice similar things, there is room to alter things in accordance with what works best for us. We're a non-dogmatic religion, with each Pagan being their own Priest or Priestess. We tend to be closer to orthopraxic ('right practice') than orthodoxic ('right doctrine') in that we are more connected by ritual practice than theology or cosmology, but even within ritual practice there is plenty of scope for variation. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I hope this blog entry has been useful and informative as an example of one Pagan witch's practice. There's a lot more I could say about each thing, but I think I am rambling on quite a bit already. As I have said before - I'm just one person, and I will do things differently to other witches and other Pagans, but I don't consider myself much of an outlier in terms of my practices. I am doing this to counter some of the stereotypes about Neo-Paganism and witchcraft - especially those about it being a dark or evil practice. Most of what I do is making a ritual of ways to connect to the natural world and changing seasons; mine is definitely an Earth-based spirituality. <br /><br />My regular readers might be surprised at the colours - especially green wall paneling in my ritual space, and plenty of yellow and pastels for this seasonal celebration, but I don't think my religious practice necessarily has to reflect my Gothic aesthetic - some of it does, especially my work with the Morrigan and Her aspect as Badb, and with the Cailleach of winter - and these are things you will see on my Samhuinn altar and my altar in the 'Dead Time' between Samhuinn and Winter Solstice, but for the rest of the year, the colours reflect the seasons more than they reflect me - after all, my spiritual practice is more there to connect me better with nature, rather than for me to express my personal style or aesthetic.<br /><br />The pentacle shelving unit is by CAS Design and I reviewed it <a href="http://domesticatedgoth.blogspot.com/2017/02/pentacle-shelf-review.html">::here:: </a></span></div>
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<b></b>The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-26793009505615284462019-03-09T11:40:00.003-08:002019-03-09T11:51:32.558-08:00New Cat: Meet Archimedes <br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We've adopted a new cat. who arrived today. He's also a shelter cat, and an older cat. He was rescued from an animal hoarding situation where someone was keeping at least 18 cats in a small apartment, so he is quite nervous. At the moment Archimedes is hanging out in the spare room as he's too scared to go any further. He's being checked in on, but given his space, with gradual interaction from us until he is more settled. He is likely to be an indoor cat as he is quite timid and not used to the world outside (I think he was kept within the apartment and not allowed out), and already an adult cat of a few years, so it may always be too much for him. We're a quiet household with no other cats, which is ideal for him as he doesn't like being around other cats after being crammed in a small apartment with so many of his extended family for so long. He got called Archimedes because he looks like a smart cat, so I was trying out classical thinker names, and he looked up at me when I said Archimedes. We're calling him 'Archie' for short. When we got him, he was called Oreo, but he's not a biscuit.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Archimedes in his 'blanket fort'. We're replacing the beige carpet soon.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I've mentioned my previous cat, Kuro ('Black') before. Kuro moved with my Dad to a rural small-holding. My Dad is still mildly allergic to cats as he has always been, but with antihistamines and the cat spending a lot of time outdoors, they are doing well. My Dad has become very attached to Kuro, and I still live a very long way from my Dad, and as Kuro is getting older, we think the journey up to Scotland would just be too stressful for him. I still get to visit Kuro, and I do miss him, but I think Kuro would not be happy as an indoor cat, and we live too close to a busy road to let a cat that likes to wander some distance roam free. Kuro lives in the middle of nowhere, with acres and acres of car-free land to roam about as my Dad's small-holding abuts farmland. I think a quiet retirement in the countryside is good for both my father and Kuro. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Interestingly, my Dad is only allergic to cats with a specific fur type, and he got a second cat, with a much finer, sleeker coat, called Yami ('Dark') which he is not allergic to! Yami is a black cat that had escaped from a temporary foster cattery and followed Kuro home. After taking the cat to the vet, and noting he was microchipped, my Dad went through the process to adopt Yami because Yami just wouldn't leave my Dad alone!</span></div>
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All of these cats are rescue cats - please, adopt - don't shop. There are so many cats wanting homes, especially as they breed pretty rapidly. I've written about Kuro and cat adoption before ::here:: and my advice remains the same - if you're thinking of getting a cat, please consider adopting an adult cat. Archimedes had been with the shelter quite a while as timidity causes some minor behaviour issues (he gets scared of people, and hisses, will scratch if he feels crowded) but it's something is highly likely to work itself out with time and patience as he gets used to being around humans.</div>
</span>The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-90845032306719634842019-02-09T06:07:00.000-08:002019-02-09T06:07:10.751-08:00Clava Cairns Revisited <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Another instalment of my 'Gothic Travels', which is something I want to focus on this year. Today's visit is to a 4,000 year old burial ground in the valley south of Culloden. I've been there before, and you can see the previous post (with really terrible photographs!) about when I went there for a Pagan gathering <a href="https://domesticatedgoth.blogspot.com/2013/07/clava-cairns-ancient-tombs-and-pagan.html">::here::</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />On February 4th, my partner Raven and I visited Clava Cairns near Culloden. We drove there, and parked up at the carpark on the site, which only had a couple of other vehicles. I was surprised that there was anyone else there at all on such a cold and frosty Monday afternoon; the carpark was iced over with compacted snow for the most part, and while it wasn't utterly freezing, it was cold enough not to melt the settled snow particularly fast, and even in what is a sheltered valley there was as a certain chill - perhaps the damp air from the river that runs under the viaduct further along. [The viaduct is pretty impressive, similar to the Glenfinian Viaduct made famous in Harry Potter, and it too has a railway crossing a valley, but this one is pink rather than grey; I will give it its own post]. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Long shadows from a low sun beside the ring cairn; photograph by me.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I apologise for the lack of clarity and resolution in my photos - my camera broke last summer and I haven't been able to afford a replacement since then, so I'm just using the camera on my phone, which is average at best. Please click on photographs for expanded versions, especially the thumbnails.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "georgia" , "times new roman" , serif;">Pile of rocks in the carpark. Photograph by myself.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There's what appears to be a small cairn in the carpark, just outside the boundary to the main complex of cairns. As it's not listed on the maps, and it's not in the enclave, I think it might just be a pile of rocks from levelling a flattish plot to make the carpark, or maybe an 19thC folly addition, or even stones removed in the 19thC excavations of the cairns; basically I don't know what it is at all.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR2FRZj0ENgN9nHsnVYv6bJfhwTfQz4jz2NfpR6nIu4dysg5CQkIVgxMai_ju_TP28Up1dzbqq_Ws-lX-bieTY_rBcug4O6WgjLSMFv1Zhm6-TG3sl22udkz7AXdIYl5G2gV7ov0JNkAxJ/s1600/51165067_421374525069623_1353425030549078016_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1599" data-original-width="1599" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiR2FRZj0ENgN9nHsnVYv6bJfhwTfQz4jz2NfpR6nIu4dysg5CQkIVgxMai_ju_TP28Up1dzbqq_Ws-lX-bieTY_rBcug4O6WgjLSMFv1Zhm6-TG3sl22udkz7AXdIYl5G2gV7ov0JNkAxJ/s400/51165067_421374525069623_1353425030549078016_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Frozen meltwater in a depression. Photograph taken by myself.</span></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Raven and I; cooperative selfie.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Clava Cairns is specifically 'Balnuaran of Clava', as there are other groups of cairns known as 'Clava Cairns'. There's also a ruined chapel and another cairn at the far end of road, which I have visited before in the past, but didn't visit that day. Nearby there are two other cairns in an overgrown field across the road from the enclave run by Historic Scotland, and also a standing stone in a field that sometimes has I think cows in it. Either way, the other two monuments and the standing stone are not open to the public as monuments, and while there is some freedom to walk in Scotland, these fields often have livestock, so going in them could cause a problem (Highland Cattle/Heilan' Coos are very cute but they are large animals with big horns! Be considerate of cattle and farmers if visiting.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbpjOl1A5Eoy1arhhfh0djR5c4mJDVnSUgJbu2WUlTTYvlptfRP1wShwVEKY70wNlz3qf7o1m3eqVLdA4AlbQq3NfURsOhVRJcm_QuRRwGAySrNzkkXNSwhwZbGU4ffVkG6-n7b_6u0IA5/s1600/51279131_232812724265022_5898442221555810304_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbpjOl1A5Eoy1arhhfh0djR5c4mJDVnSUgJbu2WUlTTYvlptfRP1wShwVEKY70wNlz3qf7o1m3eqVLdA4AlbQq3NfURsOhVRJcm_QuRRwGAySrNzkkXNSwhwZbGU4ffVkG6-n7b_6u0IA5/s400/51279131_232812724265022_5898442221555810304_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The setting sun makes for a beautiful light over the cairns.</td></tr>
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Reflected sunlight on ice.</div>
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Photograph by myself.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The enclave around the cairns is of old trees, planted between 1870 and 1871 by the land-owner at the time, who had the Romantic notion of the cairns being a 'Druidic temple' so wanted to plant it into a 'Druid Grove' - I think there are a few Neo-Pagans (Celtic, Druidic and otherwise) who are quite grateful for that, because it really does give the site a beautiful atmosphere of being encapsulated by nature, something simultaneously apart from the world and deeply within it. I'm certainly neither the first nor the best photographer to take advantage of the late afternoon light streaming between the branches and trunks of the trees, and I felt that the melt-water and ice from where the snow had been defrosting certainly did something to make that extra-special.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sunlight streaming through the trees across where the snow has melted.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Near-to-carpark cairn. My photo.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The cairns are approximately 4,000 years old, and they were used as mausoleums of a sort. There are three large cairns and one small kerb cairn. Two of the large cairns have passage entrances aligned with the setting sun on the winter solstice, and the centre cairn is a ring cairn - a central sealed chamber with no entrance, a sort of stony donut. I've read that the stone circles around the cairns were set after the cairns ceased to be used for new burials. The ring cairn in the centre of the three is almost a wheel design, with the ring cairn as the hub and low stone walls as spokes out to the standing stones beyond. I think the standing stones are also on a celestial alignment.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAJX_IFvvUDWKki48uZQjy1Np0fg9BwtDY63mnFbTAHuhOeg04Y9EgSpdCugwgV-45V8s6fd5TqELUUIKFf2z7J7GYkuofR74Arjww2cfrTgaGjpwP7_RKCbTbHNHm1NBLp-9WE_Q_CLb0/s1600/51398941_1540048649472815_3411711764113391616_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAJX_IFvvUDWKki48uZQjy1Np0fg9BwtDY63mnFbTAHuhOeg04Y9EgSpdCugwgV-45V8s6fd5TqELUUIKFf2z7J7GYkuofR74Arjww2cfrTgaGjpwP7_RKCbTbHNHm1NBLp-9WE_Q_CLb0/s400/51398941_1540048649472815_3411711764113391616_n.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
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A cleft stone - was it split by time and ice, or is it a pair?</div>
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Photograph taken by myself. </div>
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Scarf to keep my ears warm.</div>
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Selfie by the larger cairn.</div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The far cairn is the smallest full cairn other than the kerb cairn. There used to be an infographic explaining the sunset alignment at the cairns, but I can't remember if it's still there, and if it was, it was buried under snow. I think the far corner cairn has a cup-mark in a stone within it, and was re-used as a columbarium around a thousand years after they were made, in approximately 1,000BCE. It was excavated in Victorian times, but it wasn't excavated with the modern techniques of archaeology, and a lot of data was missed, lost, or destroyed. I don't know if they disinterred any remains, and if so, what happened to the person who was buried there, but from what I gather, the cairn was the victim of overenthusiastic dilettante archaeology in the 1870s</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The far cairn, aligned with the sunset. Photo by myself.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In South East England, where I grew up, there was a theory relating the placement of barrows to either be prominent on the brows of hills, or to be near rivers, and while I think the builders of the cairns at Clava may have been culturally different, the cairns are hardly on a hilltop, but they are in a valley with the River Nairn flowing through - but I'm not an archaeologist (yet... I'm doing my second undergraduate degree part-time, studying joint History & Archaeology), and it is something I would have to read up on. There's been some interesting papers on the placement of chambered cairns on the Isles, but I don't know about the mainland. Definitely something I need to look into. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Frosty ground. Photograph by Raven.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Cairns are very popular in recent years due to the success of the show 'Outlander', as apparently there is some connection to the series. I haven't watched much of it, and the opening scene with early 20thC 'Druids' was filmed on a set on a hillock with foam stones, and Clava Cairns is apparently not the site mentioned in the books (a better candidate for that would be the stones that remain of the cairn at Dunain, which I mentioned in my previous blog entry about Ostara), so I'm not sure what the exact connection is, but it's something to do with magical standing stones as part of the time-travel in the story, from what I gather. They've actually become too popular, and have been damaged by people climbing on the stones, and on the cairns, dislodging parts of the rock walls of the cairns. Large coaches and heavy traffic have also caused an access issue for the garage that runs recovery/road-side assistance from a little further down the road - and therefore for the clients they were off to rescue from mechanical trouble. If visiting during busy season, I would suggest parking elsewhere and walking down, as it is a pretty and pleasant walk (there are also several B&Bs, chalets, etc. nearby for accommodation.).</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A rather rectangular stone. Photo taken by myself.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwtKRB1kDF8QOLB0nUy_0vJqp3VqZKk7n6GW2kui-sV9reeeB8rUpJZURWZHs2e2r-6xlC3oLPt5blij6cDaFR7FIsGUTIaBYcnKE16IX2_zEXP4p_WU3NH0QMs7-6JRjCIr35ehmRqUo/s1600/51216270_331088704174433_4891404606917050368_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1599" data-original-width="1599" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDwtKRB1kDF8QOLB0nUy_0vJqp3VqZKk7n6GW2kui-sV9reeeB8rUpJZURWZHs2e2r-6xlC3oLPt5blij6cDaFR7FIsGUTIaBYcnKE16IX2_zEXP4p_WU3NH0QMs7-6JRjCIr35ehmRqUo/s200/51216270_331088704174433_4891404606917050368_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Raven. Photo by me.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The ring cairn was buried under snow, as was a stone with cup-marks tooled into it. When we got to the far end of the cairns, a tour-bus arrived with a medium group of tourist, and the peace of the place felt broken, so we walked off to get a better look at the viaduct instead. I must go back there again this year, and take photographs in different weather and seasons. I follow #ClavaCairns on Instagram, and a lot of beautiful photographs turn up in that hashtag, which is quite inspiring. Hopefully I'll be able to afford a new camera soon, and thus able to work on bettering my photography. For now, I am doing my best with my smartphone and some basic editing software. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snow in the dying light; photograph by Raven </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As a historical site, I thoroughly recommend visiting them, just to get a sense of the size and scale of these cairns. As a Neo-Pagan, I visit to reconnect with the sense of place, with spiritual ancestors and those past practices that inspired me to a nature-based spirituality. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">We made a tiny snowman made from two snowballs with twigs for arms. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's also just a pleasant place to be. There are some picnic tables near by, plenty of wildlife lives in the area, and the trees are rather lovely. Apart from solemn contemplation, it's nice to enjoy yourself, and I don't think it is any disrespect to those who were buried there thousands of years ago - as long as that doesn't spill into the sort of exuberance that could damage the monuments or make it so other people can't enjoy their time there too.<br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif;">[My apologies for the formatting errors with the pictures; the blogging wizard keeps putting breaks/paragraphs where I don't want them, even when I remove them in the HTML editor...]</span></span></div>
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The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-49057622979093507982019-02-08T15:00:00.000-08:002019-02-24T17:45:55.388-08:00Imbolc II: Our Home Altar<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8n4dlAXkznFBSpaSX065T_hHKJj7j9h5Rh_5tsHbTyi2blPyf3zm0fDHdcYSkOrRpMcqR1qMFKi6gaj0Bj4zkzSoC-lLSDKmNs5mVmX4lxC5uRfPO2JfA9KZgb6RgvxSw1OuM6-Rux6Ti/s1600/imbolcaltar6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; clear: left; color: #0066cc; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8n4dlAXkznFBSpaSX065T_hHKJj7j9h5Rh_5tsHbTyi2blPyf3zm0fDHdcYSkOrRpMcqR1qMFKi6gaj0Bj4zkzSoC-lLSDKmNs5mVmX4lxC5uRfPO2JfA9KZgb6RgvxSw1OuM6-Rux6Ti/s200/imbolcaltar6.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Detail of a watercolour painting I did.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Sprouting seed in the nook of a statue.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">This painting is next to my altar.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I know Neo-Paganism, Wicca and Witchcraft aren't inherently Goth or Gothic topics, and this is a Goth blog, but it's also my personal blog, and these things are a big part of my life. There are also a lot of Goths interested in these topics, and I would say that in terms of percentages, a greater percentage of Goths are interested in these topics than of mainstream people. Witchcraft is also trending in younger Goth circles, and a lot of younger people are thus being introduced to Witchcraft through Goth, so I'm trying to show what this witch actually does, to counter some of the misconceptions and to inform people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I practice a mixture of 'Celtic' spirituality (from a range of 'Celtic' regions and time-periods, hence the umbrella term), Druidry and Wicca. Wicca was my introduction to Neo-Paganism, and I like the Wiccan formats for a lot of the ceremonial aspects, but I'm not Wiccan. I currently use the term 'Celtic Witch' as it's nebulous and ill-defined enough to cover a lot of what I do and my interests, especially as my attitude to spirituality is organic rather than dogmatic, so those things and the balance of them both shift. I have been a Dedicated (as in went through a rite of Dedication) Pagan for 17 years, and had an interest in such things since I was a child, so this is something that has been an important thing to me for a long time. I've been Pagan longer than I've been Goth!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Imbolc altar, mostly in full. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">In our house, we have a permanent altar - it is on a wooden serving trolley that has wheels and a drawer (presumably for cutlery) under the table top, with a shelf half-way down its legs. It's pretty useful because we can wheel it into the middle of the room for rituals. Around it are various bits of Pagan iconography, and the pentacle shelving unit I ordered from CAS Designs (review of that <a href="https://domesticatedgoth.blogspot.com/2017/02/pentacle-shelf-review.html">::here::</a>). While the altar is permanent, what is on the altar changes with the seasons. This post is about what I put on it for Imbolc, and why.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />I will start from the bottom up. I have two altar-cloths layered - partly because I know I will spill at least a little wax, and I'd rather not glue my altar-cloths to the wood, especially as it has old varnish. Beyond the basic practical purpose, they have an aesthetic purpose and a symbolic one. The aesthetic purpose is simple; they look nicer than the scruffy table-top of the trolley. The symbolic purpose is multiple. Partly, the act of placing a cloth on the trolley is marking it as something more than an old bit of wooden furniture I salvaged from the discounted section of a charity shop, it's an act of respect, it helps signify that this is an altar and not a wheeled table. The second part of the symbolic aspect are the colours - the light yellow represents returning light, life, and the future daffodils that will bloom in a few weeks; it is a lively spring-like colour, but not as rich as gold, not quite as vividly solar as amber. The darker green represents the sort of foliage that is emerging - it isn't bright luscious green like the leaves of later spring plants, it is the darker green of snowdrop stems and buds that have yet to open, of pines that have been green all winter but are now starting to put forth some new needles. This altar-cloth was actually spring green and solid black on solid green when I bought it, but the first time I washed it, the green faded dramatically, so I re-dyed it. I tie-dyed it, with the ties arranged to match the print - I feel the varied colours are a little more organic. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The third aspect is the knotwork print I selected. As I mentioned above, my practice involves a lot of Celtic deities, spiritual beings (faeries/sidhe/sith) and the like, as well as connections to the land (I am in the Scottish Highlands, land of both the Gaelic folk that came with Dal Riada and the Brythonic Picts) and my ancestors (English and Breton) and my wider family (Welsh and Irish). The design is knotwork, and anthropomorphic, a style that was a fusion between Celtic art and Norse art, common in Ireland and Scotland in the early medieval, and which emerged from the positive interaction between the two cultures - it wasn't all raiding and pillaging by Vikings! The Norse element reflects my partner's heritage and beliefs (although he is not a Heathen).<br /><br />At the back is a large-ish pentagram candle-holder. It holds two sets of 5 candles - at the points are soy-wax votives in purple (top; Spirit/Energy), yellow (middle right; Air/Gas), red (bottom right; Fire/Plasma), green (bottom left; Earth/Solid) and blue (middle left, Water/Liquid). I've listed both the four elements as commonly conceived in Neo-Pagan cosmology, but also five states of matter and energy, as a way of linking that to something more tangible than the usual correspondence tables. There's something a bit more literal and concrete about four states of matter and energy - those things are all observable, solidity is am observable quality whereas the idea of something being 'earthy' is often more reliant on association and metaphor. I have both because I like both the mindset of recognising things as they are, and of being poetic about them, and I feel that these two things - the scientific and rational, and the poetic and spiritual - are best in balance with each other. So far, I'm the only Pagan that I know that has this dual approach to the 'five elements' idea.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lantern with my Sacred Flame.. and a lot of waxy bits.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The lantern is my 'sacred flame' of Brigid - the same candle as I had up on the brae by the cairn at Dunain, but unfortunately not the same flame. For safety reasons I had to put it out when boarding the bus. Maybe next time, I will not venture quite so far. The glass is not crackle glass, it's just covered in little waxy flakes because as I carried the lantern down off the hill, it was a rough walk over uneven ground, with my slipping on the ice a couple of times, and the molten beeswax in the tealight splashed and splattered onto the inside of the glass. I have no idea how I'm going to clean it because it's a top loading lantern, and there's only a narrow tea-light diameter opening at the top. Maybe I will soak it in hot water and try and melt the wax out, but I imagine that will still leave a residual film! I use that lantern a lot - I took it with me on several Pagan gatherings in the last couple of years!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The association of flames with Brigid starts with a more concrete attribution to St. Brigid of Kildare, who started a sacred fire or flame (not sure if a candle or hearth fire) at the convent she founded in Kildare, where the Brigidene Sisters maintained the fire for years after Brigid herself. St. Brigid was Christian convert, and she was likely named after the pre-existing Goddess of the same name, and in the way Christianity often ended up syncretic with local traditions, it seems that there was some conflation between the saint and her pre-Christian namesake. Sacred flames have existed long before Christianity reached Ireland - and chaste nuns tending a sacred flame has definite echoes of the Vestal Virgins in Rome. Whether it was a similar idea that just happened twice, or whether somehow the concept got transmitted from Rome to Ireland - either from tales of ancient Rome brought by those who came from the Roman church, or through some earlier syncretism (Romano-British paganism often mixed the local gods of the 'Celtic' tribes with similar Roman deities, and it is possible that this approach crossed the sea to Ireland with some notion of a Vesta-hybrid goddess), I do not know. My knowledge of the history of this is muddier than I would like. It's one of those things that a lot of non-scholarly Neo-Pagan books mention, but not something I've yet read more scholarly material looking into - neither the history of St. Brigid (or St. Bridget as she is sometimes Anglicised) or the goddess. </span><br />
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At the very front of the altar is a little yellow beeswax roll candle. I burnt the candle all the way down as part of a spell for renewal and recovery with some mental health issues I have been experiencing recently. Many practicing witches will probably recognise the type as the sort commonly made for spell-candles. All the candles I use for my ritual practice are from natural materials as I think it goes against the spirit of a nature-orientated path to use candles made from paraffin wax when paraffin is a petroleum derivative; i.e a non-renewable fossil fuel. I currently prefer beeswax to soy, as there are issues with over-cultivation of soy, but also a problem of a lack of bees - and more demand for bee-keeping means more bees, even if they aren't wild bees, but a lot of bee-keepers let their bees buzz where they want, or have them at farms to help pollinate specific crops. A lot of the beeswax candles I buy are from small businesses, and there's some you can get in Wales where the supply chain is very local; the beeswax comes from small-scale apiary/hives just outside the village where I buy the candles. The candle is in what is actually an incense burner in the shape of a five-point star, but the recess for an incense cone was just the right diameter and depth for the stubby little candle.<br />
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Behind the spell candle is my cauldron. Cauldrons are associated with the Welsh witch/goddess Ceridwen, who in the Mabinogion made the potion of poetry and wisdom in her cauldron. The Irish goddess Brigid is also connected with poetry, and in modern Neo-Pagan art at least, there's some syncretism between the two; Brigid is often depicted much like Ceridwen, with a cauldron. My cauldron of hammered copper and iron is fitting to Brigid's association with smithing. The cauldron as a symbol of the pregnant belly, or the swollen seed, is very in line with the celebration of Imbolc as the time when the dormancy of winter gives way to germination - and for Imbolc my cauldron is not a cooking pot but a flower-pot, with snowdrops bought that afternoon at the farmer's market. </div>
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The oil burner I chose (I have a few that I have collected over the years) was also selected because the shape made me think of that pregnant-belly cauldron shape, and it is also a warm-hued stone that has a cheery sort of glow when lit. The pentagram motif is pretty obvious in its selection.</div>
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My altar is approximately laid out in the traditional Wiccan way (particularly influence from the set up in Janet & Stewart Farrar's <a href="https://www.goddessandgreenman.co.uk/shop/books-music/shop/product/a-witchs-bible-by-janet-stewart-farrar/611/">::'A Witch's Bible'::</a>), with Earth and Water attributes put on the left side, and Air and Fire attributes put on the right side. Traditionally, this is seen as a feminine/Goddess side on the left, and a masculine/God side on the right, but personally I feel that this doesn't align with the nature of the Celtic deities, plus I think some of the attribution of 'feminine' and 'masculine' to objects and attributes reinforces gendered stereotypes (women are nurturing and emotional, men are active and intellectual). I'm not designating a sword (or athame) as masculine when the Goddess I have the greatest connection to is the Morrigan, who herself very much carries a sword, especial in her aspect of Nemain the battle-fury, but also as Macha the sovereign queen. This is where I diverge from Wicca, as in Wicca the athame and chalice become part of the symbolic Great Rite, where the athame represents a phallus, and the chalice a vagina. I don't see sexual union (symbolic or otherwise) as the core of the generative, creative universe - especially when the universe is much more than the animals that reproduce by mating in that manner. It can be a useful metaphor, but there's something of the parthenogenic Earth Mother, too. I do also have an appreciation for the metaphorical union of the Earth and the Sun, too, but it's not something I'm going to work into the basic structure of all my workings - just those where I feel that exploring that concept is relevant (eg. Beltane). I don't think a cauldron is inherently feminine either, but I feel it is useful to use it that way for Imbolc - it can be associated to masculine things, too, as it was the boy Gwion Bach that ended up as the bard Taliesin through the process of transformation that started with three drops of cauldron potion, even if it was Ceridwen who prepared the ingredients, Gwion was the one attending to it (and got splashed by it). </div>
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As mentioned above, I do still use the left and right arrangement for Earth/Water and Fire/Air, but just not as specifically gendered. The chalice is an elemental tool for me (attribution being water), but it is not inherently feminine. In this case I'm using a green one - that same deep green as the altar-cloth - and rather than wine, it had elderflower fizz, because I can't drink alcohol. I used it to drink a toast to the coming spring. On the left side are both mine and Raven's wands. I used mine for casting circle for my Imbolc ritual.<br /><br />I haven't detailed my ritual here; that is personal. Some of what I did is hinted at here, and in my account of my trip to Dunain and the cairn that is in my earlier post <a href="https://domesticatedgoth.blogspot.com/2019/02/imbolc-i-ruined-cairn-well-of-spotted.html">::here::</a>. There are plenty of ritual scripts available in many of the better Neo-Pagan books, but I like to craft my own personal ones, and I write a new one for each celebration, each year (although there are certain poems and elements that I re-use). I think writing your own ritual makes it more personal and connected. Neo-Paganism is for the most part non-dogmatic, with no orthodoxy; some traditions have a set way of doing things, but many don't, and many Neo-Pagans walk their own idiosyncratic path because a strong element of Neo-Paganism is that it is an experiential religion, based on your own spiritual practice. In that manner, what I have on my altar is just the way I personally set things up, this particular time - there is no singular way of doing things, just a lot of things we do in common, or similar-but-different. There's no heresy in Neo-Paganism, well maybe except if someone twists it into something with an ulterior and evil agenda (eg. running a sex-cult, or using it for racist propaganda). </span></div>
The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-46149337827847605572019-02-08T07:30:00.000-08:002019-02-08T16:40:50.529-08:00Imbolc I: The Ruined Cairn & The Well of the Spotted Rock - Ritual At Dunain<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-NcIye_SggHg7oxKvOXu3_aB_stU2bsUqrBpMa0PQGr4wvYhF8G93M8yZI6cMID-cBs78X1Ayem2W5OMjkYLulPkGUDhHn9yK85jKn2vyvn4RQcKBi2RhAkbnKpz2oAAwDI8ciylziyun/s1600/52551349_427288158012945_8552979769967247360_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-NcIye_SggHg7oxKvOXu3_aB_stU2bsUqrBpMa0PQGr4wvYhF8G93M8yZI6cMID-cBs78X1Ayem2W5OMjkYLulPkGUDhHn9yK85jKn2vyvn4RQcKBi2RhAkbnKpz2oAAwDI8ciylziyun/s200/52551349_427288158012945_8552979769967247360_n.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cairn stone.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This Imbolc I celebrated alone. Initially I was going to go to a semi-public ritual, then I was going to go to a group gathering, then the group gathering fell through and I missed my chance to sign up the semi-public one, so I ended up heading up Dunain hill alone, high above Inverness, near the Pictish fort of Craig Phadraig, and above the building works currently converting the old Craig Dunain Asylum. I mention the old Craig Dunain, because the turning circle/roundabout outside it is the bus stop to get off at if you're heading there from somewhere other than Leachkin/Kinmylies suburbs of Inverness (I took the bus to Inverness then took a local Inverness bus from the city centre up to Craig Dunain), although if you're happy to walk up a steep hill through suburbia (that admittedly does offer some nice views) I guess it is a couple of miles out from the city centre. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Victorian asylum had pre-empted the notion of occupational therapy, and had parkland, gardens and even apparently a small farm to keep the patients occupied and help them recover through meaningful work. I took part in several gardening and conservation work schemes when I was really suffering with my mental health, set up to help people through doing meaningful, rewarding work, and it definitely helped me, but I don't know how these things were run in Victorian times. The estate stretched part the way up the hill, and included a pond, cemetery for pauper residents (which I have blogged about <a href="https://domesticatedgoth.blogspot.com/2014/12/craig-dunain-cemetery.html">::here::</a>) and quite a bit of land that is now housing estates. I headed a lot higher than that, and already from near Craig Dunain you have an amazing view out across the city. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />The first path is used is also an access road to both the old water tanks and reservoir pressurising Inverness' water system, and to some of the new water tanks. The hill works as a natural water-tower through its height and steepness, one of the last hills of the Great Glen Way before the Moray Firth opens out. There's a reservoir that serves also as a pond right near the top of the hill (which I will talk more about later), and a small reservoir pond from the old system that makes a tiny pond that seemed quite thoroughly frozen. The access road also passes a pair of abandoned cottages and several broken and ruined street lamps that are quite eerily bent out of shape, like they were snapped by a huge monster.<br /><br />Beyond the access path I was onto footpaths, which as I got up the hill became snowier and snowier. It was a Saturday afternoon, and I think a lot of children had been up the hill to go sledding and dog-walkers had headed up there too, and the snow had been compacted into slippery ice. I was glad I had good boots and my walking stick with me! There were some interesting stones, including something that might have been part of the old fort, but it was cold and I didn't want to stop for photographs until I got to the cairn. The area is managed by<u><span style="color: #000120;"> <a href="https://www.dunainwoods.com/">::Dunain Community Woodland::</a></span></u> project, and they have built steps, paths, etc. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The view from Leachkin Ridge at Dunain</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The cairn is a ruin. There is not much of it left - it is a few standing stones from what was a centre chamber. According to the Dunan Community Woodland website, it used to 70 feet in diameter, but now there's nothing left of that. I wonder what happened to the stones used for it, whether they were recycled into the fort, into field walls, or what. Unlike Clava Cairns and the cairns on the other side of the Ness, it is of a different design, built on a hill and of the type found around Cromarty, but also on Orkney. It would have been a passage grave, angled North East, perhaps to the winter Solstice, and would have had two chambers within it connected by passages. I would imagine entering it would have been quite a magical experience. I have been in the West Kennet Long-Barrow, but that is quite a different sort of burial mound, and I haven't been in anything like it might have been.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The remains of the cairn. Only one stone remains as an upright.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />There are no remains left in the cairn - and I don't know what happened to whoever was buried within it. It makes me sort of sad, that there's this trace of what was once a memorial that had considerable effort put into building it, but who it was meant to commemorate is gone, and any notion of who they were. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sacred Flame for Brigid, wand, cauldron, incense stick, and yellow candle.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My 'ritual' wasn't much of a ritual, it lacked ceremony. All I did was sit by the cairn ruins, with some snowdrops that I had bought just before in the Inverness Farmer's market (a lucky find) which fit perfectly into my little copper cauldron, and play a short improvisation of growth and emergence on my recorder, a beeswax tealight in my lantern and a beeswax roll candle tucked into the earth of the cauldron. I folded my bright yellow scarf (useful if you wear mostly black and don't want to be hit by traffic) as temporary 'altar cloth', folded double to pad beneath the iron feet of the cauldron and whatever much lighter metal the lantern is made of, so that I wouldn't scuff the stone. Children and animals climb on them and they're exposed to the elements, so maybe it's futile really, but I felt this was more respectful. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Close-up of tools</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">People walk their dogs there, and I expected to be interrupted, so I had to keep things simple. I played my tune when I couldn't see anyone about, and spent the rest of the time contemplating quietly. My cauldron went back in the tote bag when I heard someone approaching, but I suspect that I still looked peculiar (especially in my long black woolly coat and winter hat) walking off with a lantern instead of a battery torch (flashlight). </span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The tree seat. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After my little 'ritual', I walked down to a wonderful bench built around a big tree. I would imagine it is particularly nice in summer, a good shaded spot and with an excellent view all year around. I sat down and set down my cauldron as an object of meditation, a focus and symbol - the cauldron as the 'womb' of the earth, the snowdrops growing from it the coming spring. Imbolc is Brigid's day, and I know that cauldrons are more associated with Ceridwen. Snowdrops are a common symbol of the new spring as they are one of the first flowers to emerge and bloom - there are some 'wild' ones growing and blooming in the park in Inverness, so some cultivated ones are not too far off in their timing! </span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hard to make out, but the lantern is suspended in a tree.<br />The dark area at the bottom is the water of the springhead.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On my way down from the seat, I walked over to the reservoir, which was frozen over with a good layer of ice, and very picturesque. There were still birds on around the small 'lake' that it forms, and it has an island in it and trees around it, so it looks quite natural - apart from having at least one straight side! Near the far corner of the reservoir is a springhead, and that springhead is 'the Well of the Spotted Rock', a fairy well, and once a clootie well, with a stone surround, but the stone surround was deliberately smashed a few years ago. Last time I was the well, people had left glass pebbles, trinkets, and a few clooties on the tree above - I left something myself, too - but when I was there that evening, I couldn't see any of the objects remaining. Admittedly, as the photograph shows, it was getting quite dark. The spring had obviously been flowing quite profusely recently, so perhaps some of the things left there were just washed down stream. I anointed myself with some of the 'well' water, and used a little to water my new snowdrops, then headed downhill. Conveniently, there was a bus waiting at the turning circle when I got there! </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My next post will be about my Imbolc altar at home. I have a post about Clava Cairns coming up soon, too!</span></span></div>
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The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-34311488972254989742019-02-07T10:52:00.000-08:002019-02-08T11:14:35.212-08:00The Sacred Well and the Howling Moor <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This year I hope to put up more posts based around Gothic tourism - visiting places such as ruined castles, ornate graveyards, ancient monuments, great cathedrals, etc. Today's post is of a windswept moor - which if you have read 'Wuthering Heights', you'll know is a very Gothic sort of landscape. To get there, I went up through Culloden Woods, which has a clootie well now dedicated to St. Mary. Culloden Wood also has a ruined mausoleum once home to the </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">remains of various members of the Duncan Forbes family of Culloden House, but I forgot to walk to that part of the woodland and take photographs - this I apologise for. As usual, click to enlarge thumbnails.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My intention was to walk all the way up to Culloden Battlefield, but I left too late in the day, and it was getting dark by the time I was up near the Battlefield, and I wanted to get back to the city before dark (especially as I didn't want to wait around in the Battlefield carpark for a bus, as it is windy and exposed up there, so quite chilly). Culloden Woods is easily accessible from Inverness City Centre by bus. There is also a bus up to Culloden Battlefield directly, as implied earlier. The weather was wet - drizzle and sleet down in the city, but snow up on the hill with the moor. The precipitation came in patches and flurries, with still moments in between. The skies were low and grey, and the sun seemed dim and always closer to the horizon than I wanted it to be.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bridge with the oak tree growing on it.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Culloden Woods is forestry pines - cultivated for timber, but it seems to be transitioning to more natural woodland, with areas of birch and more native pines, as well as the new 'Douglas Wood' section that is intended for children and is dog-less (hence the name; naming things with puns is pretty common up here!). There's a railway line cutting the woodland in half, and over that railway is a handsome Victorian railway bridge... with an oak tree growing on it!
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">St. Mary's Well in the rain.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clootie well. Click to enlarge.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">What I wanted to visit in the woods was the clootie well. A clootie well is a well where 'clooties' or cloth strips are hung around the well for some folk-magic or quasi-religious purpose. With St. Mary's Well at Culloden, the water is supposed to have healing properties, and to use them, you must tie a clootie dipped in the water to a tree above the well, with the sickness or disease disappearing as the cloth decays - I hope all those who hang non-biodegradable things on the trees around the well don't hope for healing! (I imagine there are many that are tourist mementos). There's more to the 'ritual' -if you would call it that - than this, but I can't remember all of it. I think there was once a plaque explaining how to 'use' the well, but it's now gone. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clooties on a tree near the well.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">St. Mary's Well is not the only clootie well near Inverness - there's also the Well of the Spotted rock above Craig Dunain on the opposite side of the city, and a few others a bit further afield (Munlochy and Avoch both have one), plus there are other springheads with cultural distinctions of one sort or another - bits of history or folklore attributed to them. Clootie wells seem quite common in Gaelic countries - plenty in both Ireland and Scotland - but there are a few in England too. Wales has sacred wells, too, but all the ones I have come across do not have the practice of tying cloths near them, and are more specifically attributed to saints - usually 'Celtic saints', early saints from the Christianisation of the area. Perhaps I will visit more of the local sacred/special wells, and write about them on this blog. I already have a brief mention of the Well of the Spotted Rock planned for my next blog entry.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Blurry photo of a burn (stream)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There's several burns running down crags, which are both rather beautiful and fill the forest with the enchanting sound of running water. When I was there, it was raining, and very slippery, so I didn't get to photograph the crags well as I was slipping and sliding all over the place, hence there being only one rather mediocre photo of the burn near the path up the hill. Maybe if I go back up there, I'll take some more pictures of the forest itself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I headed back down from the clootie well to the path along the forestry track, which leads out into cleared land that has reverted to a sort of moorland. It's windy and open, but quite beautiful. It had snowed a few days before, and the drainage channels redirecting burns through the land had frozen, and then started thawing, so there was fractured ice floating. It snowed again properly a few days later. There were a few patches of snow on the cleared land, but I didn't get any pictures. The low shrubbery and wild plants seem to close in around you, despite the wind blowing across and the distinct lack of trees other than a few lonely deciduous trees, birches mostly, stand scraggly and stranded out in the open.</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">View out of Culloden Woods into the cleared land.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One thing out on the open land that I don't want to either romanticise or sensationalise, but I feel should be mentioned because it is a part of the history of that land is the Prisoner's Stone. This isn't something I want to promote as something to visit because it's 'cool and spooky' or something, it's a place to pause and reflect on an atrocity that may have happened over 200 years ago, but which a lot of local people still feel strongly about today. It's a site where something really horrible happened in the aftermath of the Battle of Culloden - 17 Jacobite prisoners were executed there, for being on the wrong side an 18th man was spared to spread word of what had happened. There's a bench, inscribed in both Gaelic and English; 'Murder of frozen souls here - marvel that I remained alive, to tell' is the English translation. I don't know if being killed on the moor was better or worse than the fate of those taken prisoner and forcibly marched to be 'tried' and executed in London, many of whom died on the journey. All of it is awful.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Prisoner's Stone</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The same surnames on the clan markers on the Battlefield are the surnames of co-workers, friends, and neighbours; there are still people for whom the dead are names in the family tree. It wasn't something I knew people felt very strongly about until I met some of these people at a protest against luxury housing being built on land that was part of the battle and likely has corpses on it, who were very upset because it was members of their family who died in the battle, and who couldn't collect their sons, brothers, husbands etc. after the battle because of fear of the Hanoverians, even if they died centuries before and had never met. They spoke quite passionately, and before that I didn't realise that it was such a personal thing for some still. Ancestry is very important to some people, even if it's not something that's as meaningful to me; I've always felt sort of detached from my long-dead blood ancestors, but a deeper connection to figures in history who align more with how I think, some of whom I am quite sad I can't write letters to! Since meeting those people, I've felt like it's important to treat it as a the site of something nasty in history, and while I think tourism is an important part of transmitting history, it shouldn't make the nastiness seem 'fun' - I think the bench is a good idea; gives people somewhere to sit and reflect on what happen, and what can get people to feel justified in killing each other</span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Gaelic inscription on the simple bench.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span>Beyond the Prisoner's stone is plenty of cleared forestry land, leading up to the road. The path I took wasn't that one, however, as I went between some leafless fruit-trees along a more sheltered footpath that runs alongside a farm track to the main road, and is part of the official Culloden hiking/walking trail. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Walking towards the clouds on the moor.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After crossing the main road, I took a path continuing the hiking trail that leads past some houses to more cleared forestry land, windswept and dreary with snow-clouds closing in. There are stands of pines still (mostly) standing, except for those blown down by the wind. I continued out, and every now again the forestry path turned walking trail would open out onto glimpses of the valleys and snow-covered hills below. This far up the hill, there were plenty of patches of snow left and even when the breeze was light, it felt chill. The clouds were not just dimming the sun, but faint hues in them made me suspect that it wasn't rain, but more snow that was to fall.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The sun begins to set over the dregs of snow.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Along one path I took, all the trees that had been the exposed edge of the stand of pines had blown over, and the craters left by their roots had filled with water - meltwater, I would guess. The land there is moorland, crossed by a multitude of burns that I could hear, but could not see through the dense scrub (mostly whin bushes, a type of gorse, but with all sorts of other more damp-loving plants between, and then the odd young and bushy pine), and a mixture of hard and rocky patches of uneven glacial land and wet ground that tried to steal the boots off my feet each time I stepped in it (I tried to circumnavigate a section of path that was flooded, ended up taking a detour that led nowhere useful, and headed back). It's an eerie place to be.</span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I had headed off in the opposite direction to the battlefield to admire the scenery first, and maybe find a shortcut to Clava Cairns, but my detour delayed me and between the heavy cloud and the rapid decline of afternoon into evening, I was loosing daylight so I headed home - or at least to a bus stop first!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have several more posts in the 'Gothic Tourism' category to go up - Clava Cairns, Brodie Castle, and several graveyards, ruins, etc. that I visited last year but never had the time to process the images from. </span></div>
The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-7368346778786863742019-01-11T18:07:00.000-08:002019-01-11T20:19:46.808-08:00Mass Produced Witchcraft, Witch Kits, and Sourcing Witchcraft Supplies<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I wrote this months ago, when it had just been announced that Sephora would be stocking a kit made by Pinrose that includes some rose quartz, some white sage, a 'Tumblr aesthetic' style Tarot deck, and a set of perfumes, and that is being marketed as a 'starter witch kit'. The witch-kit was apparently withdrawn from sale, something I am happy about as for various reasons that have now been made irrelevant (although I wrote them up at length) I had issues with the witch-kit. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The Sephora/Pinrose witch-kit issue irked me, but it is nothing new. The commercialisation of Witchcraft and Wicca has been a problem within the community for decades, this is just a particularly egregious example because it is coming from a mainstream retailer. When I first got into Wicca and Witchcraft in 2001/2002, one of the first things I came across were people imploring me to avoid being an 'Insta-witch', which before the dawn of Instagram, meant someone who just bought a pre-made kit and declared themselves a witch, with no dedication to the craft itself, no process of learning, and in relation to Wicca, which is a religion, no </span><i style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">faith</i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">. I read warnings against this in books published long before I took an interest in the topic, and I think there have been phases of popularity for Wicca and Witchcraft before, especially in the '70s and in the late '90s after The Craft came out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">[<i>I think I came across Wicca at the end of that phase of popularity, but I didn't come to it through it being a 'cool' thing for teens, I came across it through finding an expose book that was full of misinformation, but seeing through the nonsense to realise that there were other people who thought and felt and experienced the world the same way I almost always had</i>].</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Each time something 'witchy' becomes prominent enough in popular culture to spark an interest in Witchcraft as a practice, there are people who will try and cash in on that popularity, but in the past, before the modern internet allowed us to have a voice to explain why this was insulting and a problem, our complaints were left to admonishments in books on Witchcraft, letters to the editors of magazines and newsletters within the community, and maybe a few internet forums. Now we have more of a platform to explain why this is an issue.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One large issue is that many commercialised 'witchy' things are made by people who have not done their research, and in a community with no central authority, no central text to refer back to, this means a lot of people get a very confused, inaccurate, and sometimes offensive portrayal of Witchcraft, including those trying to learn about it because they are interested in doing it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There's a whole raft of books about Witchcraft that still perpetuate the notion that Wicca is the survival of an ancient pan-European matriarchal 'witch-cult', who talk about the witch hunts of Europe and the Americas as 'the Burning Times' and as a persecution of actual witches although for the most part it was religious mass hysteria, more akin to the 'Satanic Panic' of the '80s and '90s, giving downright dangerous herbal medicine advice, and conflating a elements of other practices as 'Wicca' or 'Witchcraft' when they are not, and without siting what cultures or belief structures they actually come from. Some of the authors just wanted to make money fast and churned something to appeal to a demographic of neophytes without care, and some of them are just repeating what they have learned from this miasma of misinformation, especially as it takes a lot of research to pick through it. Thankfully for me, I am a nerd, and I like reading about the things I am passionate about, including books written in often stuffy and stilted ways, academic papers, and actual old occult texts (or at least translations thereof), because if I had stuck with what I read in the first few high-selling 'witchy' books I had read, I would have remained quite ignorant, probably believing in over-inflated figures for those executed in the witch hunts (and believing that those executed and accused were actual witches, when very few had connections to folk-magic), and that Wicca really was an ancient faith - not a modern faith inspired by ancient things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">For years, I have gone into discount book retailers and found tarot kits as tacky as the one that was going to be in the Sephora kit. I've also seen independent Witchcraft/occult shops sell pre-made 'spell kits' and 'witchcraft starter kits', and while some are carefully put together by practising Witches, some of them are clearly mass-produced nonsense (I know that there will be non-Witches reading this saying 'but it's ALL nonsense!' but I am talking as a believer to other believers). In some places I've also seen items purporting to be relating 'Voodoo magic' with no true connection to those cultures, and probably culturally inaccurate packaging - similar is invoking various 'ancient powers'; at one point there was a fad for 'Ancient Egyptian' stuff with nonsense hieroglyphs and only a passing association to Kemeticsm or historical Ancient Egyptian beliefs! This is misappropriating Witchcraft, and whatever culture they've themed a product by, just as the Sephora/Pinrose kit was misappropriating Native American beliefs with the white sage. These things are ripping off the ignorant and confusing the new.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The other major issue is that most of these mass-produced items are made by companies not run by Witches or Wiccans, and that they are competing against the people within the community, and often out-competing them because it is simply a lot cheaper to have things mass-produced (often abroad, and I do wonder about sweatshops, health and safety and the environmental impact of production on this scale) on the cheap than it is for an individual to sell their time as a craftsperson, the cost of materials bought in small batches (and often at higher quality) and who has to cover their overheads for a niche business, rather than it just being another product from a conglomerate that sells a broad variety of items. The commercialisation of Wicca and Witchcraft makes it ever more difficult for people within those communities to sustain businesses within their own communities, unless they join in and become re-sellers of these mass-produced items.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One of the reasons a lot of more experienced witches have such an emotional reaction over the Witch-kits is that for many of us, we have a long history of our religion being met with hostility or mockery from the mainstream - a bit like why Goths get grumpy when they see the same people who mocked them suddenly wearing a similar look because it's now cool. A lot of people have had some very negative, sometimes even violent, experiences over intolerance of their faith, so seeing it surface with shallow mainstream popularity can be quite irksome.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Two elements from the Sephora/Pinrose kit are items very popular in magical and spiritual/mystical practice currently, but which can have issues with sustainable sourcing. The kit was cancelled, so this is no criticism of Sephora/Pinrose, but a general discussion of some of the issues around crystals and white sage. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /><u>Crystals</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The stone in the kit was going to be rose quartz. It is very popular in crystal healing and crystal magic (and quite pretty if you like pink). Rose quartz is a mineral, and it has to be mined, and it is a finite resource - just like coal or oil - and while some quartz mines are in America or Europe (a specific type of smoky quartz was mined in the Cairngorms, here in Scotland, and Morion quartz comes from Eastern Europe). Rose quartz is often mined in the Minas Gerais region of Brazil, and is secondary to gold mining, and while it is mostly regulated, there are issues with miners working outside the regulations, and with environmental problems. Mining for crystals in general can be an environmental issue, and encouraging a high popular demand is not helping the situation. There are definitely other crystals that are being mined primarily in ways that are either ecologically harmful or with unethical labour practices.<br /><br />Crystal healing is a New Age practice, not one originating from either traditional Witchcraft, Wicca or Western Occultism, and the mystical lapidaries of historical European occultism focused on correlations between astrology and precious stones, not the semi-precious and non-precious minerals common to modern crystal practices. I've read that the Hopi of what is now Arizona had a lapidary healing practice, but this is again different to the New Age crystal healing practice, which borrows eclectically from Asian beliefs (it's hard to attribute concepts like chakras to a specific religion; I know they come up in quite a few, especially Hinduism and some versions of Buddhism, and it is likely that these concepts have been incorporated from contact with both Yogic and Buddhist beliefs), mystical interpretations of concepts such as energy, vibration, resonance and crystal structures which are markedly different from the scientific use of these terms, etc. <br /><br />There are definitely plenty of Witches that have adopted the use of crystals, particularly in terms of symbolic correspondences in spells, but I think it is important to know that this is an adjunct, and that there are plenty of people who believe in the mystical or healing properties of crystals that would never consider themselves witches, and while there is overlap in the use - specifically in the way crystals are given correspondences to certain issues - in how crystals are used in spells, and how crystals are used in healing, they're not quite the same thing. I don't judge anyone for believing in the healing or magical properties of crystals, although personally I don't believe in crystal healing, and think more of ritual crystals as symbolic than inherently powerful; all I am writing about this for is to a) explain the origins of the use of crystals as an adopted practice, and b) encourage people to source their crystals ethically (more on the latter), and if you do believe in those things, that's as valid as any other spiritual belief, even if I don't share that belief. I think the point I am trying to make is that using crystals isn't inherent to Witchcraft, so don't feel like you need to use crystals to be a Witch, or that you aren't a proper Witch without a large collection of crystals. You can certainly use them if you want, but it's not a core requirement.<br /><br />Since writing this article, I read an article on Patheos called <a href="https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keepingherkeys/2019/01/why-crystals-are-problematic-ways-to-practice-real-stone-spirit-magick/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=FBCP-PAG&utm_content=keepingherkeys&fbclid=IwAR1RgfD-o-TZVFfnVBz6QV4ggJxfgyWGA7adDGXuhptLL5MhlckaJR4Zvw4">::The Toxicity of Crystals and Ways to Practice Real Stone Spirit Magick::</a> that I agree with in places, don't fully agree with on several points, and disagree with on others, but which definitely has again highlighted the importance to source crystals responsibly. Options for responsibly sourcing crystals include buying them secondhand (presumably with ritual cleansing), and buying them from a seller that has a very good grasp of their supply chain, knowing the sort of conditions that the miners work under and the environmental sustainability of the mining </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /><u>White Sage</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">White Sage for smudging is a practice from indigenous American groups, so attributing it to Witchcraft is inaccurate. Again, plenty of Witches now use white sage, but usually for smoke cleansing, not as an invitation to spirits. The other issue, which I cannot find a clear answer on, is whether or not there is a problem with over-harvesting. White sage is a plant native to the southern states of the USA and to Mexico. Gathering wild white sage is apparently illegal in Mexico (presumably for ecological reasons), and the information I have found on its cultivation in South America, and people circumventing legal restrictions on wild gathering to meet demands have been conflicting, as well as if there is an issue with high demand as an export product causing issues locally. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Smudging and smoke or incense cleansing are not synonymous, so the calling cleansing a space with white sage 'smudging' is an inaccuracy. There's a lot of debate over whether it is cultural misappropriation for European Neo-Pagans to use white sage for spiritual cleansing, and I think a lot of that depends on whether you're doing it because you think it's some mystical 'noble savage' practice with inaccurate and romanticised pretensions to Shamanism or not, whether your white sage is ethically sourced (and if it's profiting off Native American imagery without being a Native-run business), and a lot of other factors; from what I've read, some sort of botanical cleansing incense, often including sage or similar, has existed in most cultures, and I don't want to be claiming offence for a group I don't belong to, plus I think opinions are likely to be mixed amongst different Native American groups, people within those groups, etc. (Just like not all Witches agree with me or were upset about the Sephora witch-kit! A lot were, but it's not unanimous; groups are always made up of individuals, and it is important not to assume any group is entirely homogeneous and monolithic.)<br /><br />Sustainable sourcing of sage can be from several sources. I think a lot of people can grow their own; I know people even in the Scottish Highlands who have managed to grow it in their gardens - a far cry from the sunny climes of South America and the southern states of America! (This is where my bundles have come from - grown and gifted to me). Another option would be to source fair-trade and ecologically-soundly grown white sage. I don't know if there are indigenous groups preparing and bundling it who are selling it to the Neo-Pagan, Witchcraft and alternative spirituality community, but if there is a way to buy from them that supports their local businesses rather than competes or obscures the native traditions, then that might also be an option. Sage incense cleansing isn't something I really work with; I prefer to cleanse a space with a broom, and objects with ritual waters. (To their credit, Pinrose did say they wanted to source their sage from sustainable Native-run businesses, but this was in response to the criticism.)</span><br />
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<u style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">An Alternative Wiccan 'Starter Kit'</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Witchcraft, as I will explain later, is broader than Wicca, and includes a lot of different things, so listing the contents for a unifying starter set would not be possible. Wicca is the most common form of modern Witchcraft, and the one I am personally most familiar with, so I will write a little of what someone who wants to become a Wiccan should do in terms of sourcing their first items for personal practice.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The first thing I will say is that the items are tools, and while they help enacting the symbolism of Wicca for spiritual purposes, they are not completely necessary - however it does make it easier, especially for those who are new, to use tangible objects. <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you make your tools, you have more of a personal connection, so this is always the best option if possible!</span>The main tools are an athame, a wand, a chalice, a cauldron and an altar to put them on.</span><br />
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<u style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Athame</u></u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">An athame is considered a masculine symbol due to its vaguely phallic shape, and is representative of the element of Air. It is used symbolically only, and there is some debate as to whether it should be sharp or not. Gerald Gardener took the term from the Key of Solomon, and was deeply moved by the ritual blades of many indigenous cultures, such as the kris of the Malay. Traditionally an athame has a black handle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My first athame was a secondhand letter-opener that happened to be in the shape of a leaf-bladed sword, with a historically inaccurate hilt, and in brass, which to my under-educated teenage self aligned well enough with my impression of a Bronze age 'Celtic' sword. Any dagger or dagger-like bladed object (such as my letter opener!) will usually do - the easiest to get hold of in the UK are decorative daggers made for people who either like blades from a Fantasy fandom perspective, or a historical weapons perspective, or both. Be careful, however, as a lot of the ones made to look like the traditional notion of a dagger, especially with black handles, are reproductions of Nazi weapons, sometimes with the insignia left off, making them less discernible as related to Nazism (I know some people just want their WW2 historical weapons/reproductions to accurately include both axis and allied forces, but any Nazi-related regalia makes me deeply uncomfortable, and are also very popular amongst actual Neo-Nazis and their ilk. I doubt I am the only person who is uncomfortable around that sort of thing.)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you are not interested in having one that is metal (or sharp), or you are very good at metal-work, you can either make your own symbolic athame, for example whittled out of wood, or if you're good at metal-work, and amateur knife-making is permitted in your location, then you can do that, too. I know two people who have made their own athames from cutting and grinding a metal bar into shape and then making a wooden handle - as they are not functional knives for actually cutting anything physically, things like differential hardness, forging a blade and the steel being able to hold an edge are not important, making building your own athame an easier project that making a functional knife.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The option for purchasing an athame which would best support those within the community itself would be to buy one hand-crafted by a practising Wiccan or Pagan, through a shop run by Wiccans or other Pagans, or directly, but this is expensive (forging is a labour-intensive process, and good steel is expensive!), but this it outside of the price-range of many. I certainly have designs, and know someone who could make what I would like, but I can't afford something like that just yet. Custom made knives are pretty expensive in general; I have antique swords more affordable than a lot of contemporary hand-forged blades, but to reiterate what I said: making knives, especially beautiful ritual objects, is time consuming work, good steel is expensive, and if you want special woods, silver, actual crystals or anything else in your item then it will be even more expensive - and this isn't a complaint, just a warning to beginner witches and those on a budget that while it might be excellent for craftpeople in Paganism to get new customers, it might not be a very affordable option, and not because of overpricing.</span><br />
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<u style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Wand</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A wand is a short stick, preferably made of wood, but sometimes made of other materials, used to direct energy and represent the element of Fire. It is also considered masculine. Wands have a huge history predating Wicca, far more than I can reasonably put in one paragraph. You could do years of research on that topic (maybe there's a thesis in there somewhere... hmm...).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The best way to get a wand is to make one yourself. This does not necessarily mean hand-turning it on a lathe (although I'm working on that!), but usually just means whittling the bark off a short branch. In sourcing that branch, try to pick dead wood that has fallen naturally, rather than cutting a living tree. If you want to make it from commercially available timber (like a wooden dowel), make sure that it is from a sustainable timber source. If you take a stick from nature, be mindful not to take something that has already become a home for other living things; firstly you don't want wood-boring insects in your home, secondly fungi may have started to rot the wood, and thirdly, those creatures don't need to be disturbed by meddling humans! If you have your own garden, with bushes and trees, you can probably find a suitable stick there. Once you have your stick, customise it to make it into a wand.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Do not buy a Harry Potter fandom wand or similar LARP or fantasy roleplay wand; those are often resin (and thus sometimes brittle display-only items), or even worse cheap plastic, and they're not intended as religious artefacts. Real Witchcraft is not LARP.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you want something particularly pretty, there are Pagan wand-makers out there, but again you go into the territory of more expensive handmade crafts - however you can get turned wooden wands made on a lathe relatively inexpensively, usually around £20 in the UK. They're usually spindle-style, made of one type of wood, and have some decorative turning along them, quite nice for the price.</span><br />
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<u style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><u>Chalice</u></u><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">A chalice is a ritual cup set aside specifically for that purpose. It is often used to hold wine or other beverages, so needs to be food-safe. It is considered feminine, and represents the element of Earth, especially the concept of the 'womb of mother Earth' in many variations of Wicca.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Just use a wine-glass. My first chalice was not food-safe because I bought some fancy brass thing, then I was given another metal one that wasn't suitable for actually drinking out of, and now I have a pewter one from Alchemy Gothic that I never use for actual rituals because I don't know if it's food-safe either. I do, however, have a purple glass wine-glass that I picked up in a charity shop. It IS food-safe, and I use that one pretty regularly. It cost me 50p, and it is goblet shaped and looks nice. A lot of charity shops struggle to sell individual wine-glasses as people usually want a set, and only buy a single one if it replaces a broken one from a set they already have, and while glass is widely recycled, it is saving one from being thrown away, and then melted down and all the other energy intensive processes, so I definitely recommend getting a lonely wine-glass from a charity shop or other secondhand seller. You can get some really, really pretty ones quite cheaply!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I advise personally against the resin decorative cups widely available online; while they often feature Pagan and Wiccan themes like the Green Man, or pentacles, they seem more like decorative fantasy objects, and they are again mass-produced items. This is just my opinion, however, and reflects mostly my personal tastes. They also usually cost upwards of £15, whereas you can probably still find a nice secondhand wine-glass for 50p, especially in charity shops and car-boot sales!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are food-safe and ornamental chalices made by independent Pagan craftspeople, too. Most of the ones I have seen are made by potters and are thus ceramic rather than glass. Always inquire about the use of food-safe glazes if you intend to drink from your chalice!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u>Cauldron</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Most of the time, you don't actually need a cauldron. The chalice is often a good substitute in terms of ritual symbolism, and there are practical alternatives if you need a vessel to burn something in, or brew an actual potion - in fact, many cauldrons sold are fine to use for burning spell components, but not safe for brewing any potions that are to be consumed or applied topically. Many are entirely decorative, too, and might crack if you burn something in them or heat them. Most of the time, if you want to make an actual 'potion', then you're better off doing the same as you would for cooking anything else, and using a pan on your stove. If you're making a potion that is not intended to be consumed, and may have ingredients that are poisonous, could damage your pan, etc. then you might want to have a separate pan for that. I've been a witch over 15 years and never had that problem personally!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you really, really, REALLY must have a cauldron you can cook up an ingestible potion in, look at reenactment camp supplies, potjie pots - as suggested to me many years ago by a friend from South Africa, which is where potjie pots are from. They're not cheap though.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u>Altar</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It's a table. You don't need some special mini-table you probably can't fit most of your tools on, carved with pentacles and triquetras - you just need a table, and to consecrate and decorate it, to set it apart from mundane uses. My altar is on a wheeled trolly. It usually sits in the corner of my living room, but the wheels mean I can easily move it to the centre of the room for group rituals, or those that require me to circumambulate it, or whatnot. I think the trolly was £15 in a British Heart Foundation charity shop. It has a drawer beneath the 'table top' in which I keep incense, and beneath there's a shelf I use to store ritual supplies. My altar cloths are usually fancy scarves, again from charity shops. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">If you want something fancy, and are willing to pay for the art, dying and printing process, you can get some nice altar-cloths made from upcycled textiles with beautiful prints from <a href="https://poison-apple-printshop.myshopify.com/">::Poison Apple Print Shop::</a>, for example. Got to admit, I have been admiring their work via Instagram for a while now...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Other objects, like a different dishes for salt, water and offerings, incense, candles, and the like are pretty easy to come by and aren't seen as Neo-Pagan/Wicca/Witchcraft speciality items, so I haven't listed them here. One of my upcoming craft projects will be making my own besom/broom, and I hope to post the process up here, so I will leave brooms until then.</span><br />
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<u style="font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: x-large;">Wicca and Witchcraft</u></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I would like to disambiguate Wicca and Witchcraft briefly; Wicca is a Neo-Pagan religion that sees the Divine as having both male and female attributes, and has a belief in being in tune with the cycles of nature, seeing that related to a cycle of birth, death and reincarnation, and has a belief in magic (</span><u style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><i><b>not</b></i></u><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> in a flying on brooms, turning people into toads sort of way!). It was founded by Gerald Gardener, who pieced together material from various sources including the works of Aleister Crowley, his experiences with native peoples, especially the Dusun of Borneo (but he was widely travelled and had contact with other groups), Spiritualism in a post-Victorian context, Free Masonry, Rosicrucianism and a lot of other stuff including Arthurian mythology, the historical beliefs contemporary to him about Avebury, Stonehenge and Druids that were later disproved, etc. A lot of modern Witchcraft practices, even by non-Wiccans are derived from Wicca, but there are a lot of Witchcraft practices that come more directly from traditional European folk-beliefs, and are not Wicca-related at all. These often focus more on practical spell-craft, local folklore, the Fair Folk, and on traditional herbal remedies, and sometimes overlap with Christian beliefs. (I apologise if I am missing out elements of continental European practices, as I am most familiar with those of the British Isles, as that is where I'm from).</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are also magical systems in other cultures that get called 'witchcraft' and have been referred to as such by English-speakers for centuries, but that is putting a European framework on completely different cultures, and these practices have proper names in their own cultures, and some find being called 'witches' disrespectful, especially in places and cultures that for which the term 'witchcraft' means some sort of evil anti-Christian or 'Satanic' practice involving demons, or pacts with the devil, or possession by evil spirits.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On a related note, it is also important to distinguish that sort of idea from Wicca, modern Witchcraft, especially as accusations of anti-Christian activity, human and animal sacrifice, and 'black magic' are often used to oppress Witchcraft and magical practices. This is not to say Satanists practice these things either. There are several types of Satanist, and also Luciferans; neither of them seem to resemble the diabolical witchcraft conspiracy of human sacrifice, infanticide, sexual perversion and black magic that was written about in tracts from the late Medieval period onwards, and which has coloured a fear of witches in Christianity from the witch-hunts onwards. Occasionally acts from vandalism through to actual violence have been inspired by this myth of diabolical witchcraft, but it is not related to any established Satanic or Luciferan belief systems I have encountered. Some people practising branches of western occultism do have positive beliefs relating to Lucifer as an angelic figure in a religious framework that includes elements of Judeo-Christian cosmology but in a different theological context, and view Lucifer as the light-bringer, a figure representing illumination and knowledge, but this is distinct from most Witchcraft paths, and from Neo-Paganism, which is usually more focused on pre-Christian polytheistic religions. Satanists tend to view Satan as an archetype of rebellion and hedonism rather than a deity/entity, nor as a symbol of evil, and from what I gather, many see each person as their own 'god' or 'goddess' and have an emphasis on free will. There are a small number of Satanists who also practice Witchcraft as a magical practice, but the majority of Satanists I've met are actually quite sceptical about any magical or occult practices. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Wicca and Witchcraft are niche communities, and Wicca has come to be such a major factor in modern Witchcraft that Traditional Witchcraft and other non-Wiccan practices are sometimes swamped. Even a lot of the practices that are not directly Wicca take a lot of elements from Wicca, or at least from the same sources as Wicca and in a similar framework. There are also forms of European occultism that are not Witchcraft, but types of Ceremonial Magic, spiritual Alchemy, etc. Also, as New Age practices are generally quite a bit more popular, there's been a lot of cultural diffusion, often because New Age spaces were often the only places that were willing to host events or sell Wiccan, Witchcraft and Neo-Pagan items, etc. A lot of Eclectic Wiccans especially blend the two, and I don't condemn this, I just think it's important to remember that it's a blend and acknowledge the origins of the various components of an eclectic path.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Just as a lot of Witches are also Goths, but you don't need to be a Goth to be a Witch, or even to be Gothic in the broader sense of the word, a lot of Witches are also Hippies, or into New Age beliefs, but these are also overlapping groups rather than intrinsic to Witchcraft. Witchcraft, Wicca and Neo-Paganism do account more than the average amount of subcultural and counter-cultural people, but it's not a prerequisite to being Neo-Pagan, Wiccan or a Witch. </span></div>
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The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-19248970441906394052018-08-12T08:41:00.000-07:002018-08-12T08:49:13.292-07:00Cardigan/Aberteifi - Castle and Historic Church <div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As I mentioned in my previous post, I was in Wales a few weeks ago, visiting my Dad. While I was there, I visited three castles and a few old churches. I'm not sure quite how 'Gothic' in the spooky sense of the word this is, but it is Gothic in the architectural sense. It's hard to feel spooky on a day with such bright sunshine - glorious for many, but too warm for me!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This post does include a spider photograph, so if you're averse to spiders, then don't scroll past the ornate door. I have put it as the last photograph so you can still appreciate the others without having to look at spiders. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAr4H_aoq6YqdNcEjCLL-YuCea994I3wCmnzeIJo1uSp7-nRe2WNvv4x5qJmSCI3jSmQ85EwFjk0t2eKRibFVjw8falrY_n3OFhAqzL9pbpmGMbBp61FS4jrld18pDF-VWbgvG-297QBhg/s1600/20180604_144649.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAr4H_aoq6YqdNcEjCLL-YuCea994I3wCmnzeIJo1uSp7-nRe2WNvv4x5qJmSCI3jSmQ85EwFjk0t2eKRibFVjw8falrY_n3OFhAqzL9pbpmGMbBp61FS4jrld18pDF-VWbgvG-297QBhg/s400/20180604_144649.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Restored curtain wall, Cardigan Castle. Photo by me.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cardigan/Aberteifi is on the River Teifi, and we went there to visit the indoor market, and have a look around. I had had been there before, and knew it had a castle, and it was restored in 2014 (which I had read about). The first time I had been to Cardigan was before that, and while I think local council owned it at the time, it was in disrepair after having been neglected by its previous owner and inhabitant for many decades. Unfortunately, while the entrance fee was modest, I didn't have enough money on me, so I didn't get to go inside the grounds. From what I gather, most of the buildings on site are later, but it has nice gardens, and I was hoping to at least look at the gardens, but it was not to be. I did take a couple of photographs of the exterior, however.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifM-BRoC5K7IbZFjqBcgpl_BQ1TxOIAstsu7HM4BQMXCD75NNaX_3kss1E0ia5cbas3INYKoxRH5QUArsdmtkhL1BOkn05PUlPnapwPZFvfzVyBYDL0fWZL8Aeb8UDFPcEHnC4DTZRg97k/s1600/20180604_144821+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifM-BRoC5K7IbZFjqBcgpl_BQ1TxOIAstsu7HM4BQMXCD75NNaX_3kss1E0ia5cbas3INYKoxRH5QUArsdmtkhL1BOkn05PUlPnapwPZFvfzVyBYDL0fWZL8Aeb8UDFPcEHnC4DTZRg97k/s400/20180604_144821+%25282%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Secondary wall, embankment, and then primary wall with tower...<br />And a much later additional house/cottage, affiliated with the castle. Photo by me.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Another gem was a rather lovely medieval church that has been extended several times over the centuries. The church is The Priory Church of Our Lady of Cardigan (I don't know what that is in Welsh, although I did read it and I've since forgotten it). It is in a very beautiful graveyard, and next to a hospital but also next to a busy road. I did take some exterior photographs, but they didn't turn out very well. I apologise for no good overview photographs. My partner Raven also took some nice photographs, so with his permission, I have included those too. </span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaqkHv7m1TKS3T7qUFwLnn-zkOXp3Po2auE9i47JMS-i6SqPO5OhRiuUswd7Zcuxx6J2Zru2ahbvVxBPOp5ngAG0qwd8hbpPxcNJFbKJKUES8au3negREhWxQwL4dksbQLTtz2FlAnD9JT/s1600/20180604_145529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaqkHv7m1TKS3T7qUFwLnn-zkOXp3Po2auE9i47JMS-i6SqPO5OhRiuUswd7Zcuxx6J2Zru2ahbvVxBPOp5ngAG0qwd8hbpPxcNJFbKJKUES8au3negREhWxQwL4dksbQLTtz2FlAnD9JT/s400/20180604_145529.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photograph by myself. Gravestones in rows through yew trees.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The graveyard is mostly older graves, although I did not go around and get a particularly good average for the estimate age - looked like mostly 1700s and 1800s gravestones.They are almost all made of the same sort of grey stone as the church and the castle, and most are a slab given a roughly arched shape with text - not like some of the Protestant chapel yards, full of urns and obelisks, or a chapel on a hill we visited, which had a much wider variety of stones. (Unfortunately I accidentally deleted many of the photos of that particular chapel! )</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5sniRQqVbUn69CGtnhJUDuRmAU4mXoMZk26ZxLrHqNgi7dOsbmDE8kmh7qTPqtvMKbG13YEowJEPlX3o-GH5ZP0rMFuxG6ndeYQAWi-88xLODLL43UPg8bGU8yo8J_EmDdSVPFYeGtO3g/s1600/smallgrave.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="551" data-original-width="559" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh5sniRQqVbUn69CGtnhJUDuRmAU4mXoMZk26ZxLrHqNgi7dOsbmDE8kmh7qTPqtvMKbG13YEowJEPlX3o-GH5ZP0rMFuxG6ndeYQAWi-88xLODLL43UPg8bGU8yo8J_EmDdSVPFYeGtO3g/s200/smallgrave.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Raven. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This is the far corner of the graveyard. All along the back wall are grave-stones laid vertical, with the climbing plants sort of taking over in places. I don't know if they are memorials from plots that were re-used, or if this is just where fallen-over stones got placed, or if there were just a lot of people buried along the wall. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I also think this photo goes to show what a bright and sunny day it was - very hot, a few wispy white clouds, and scorching brightness. Personally, I found it too hot; I overheat easily and get sun-burnt just as easily, so I prefer cloudier, cooler days. Some people love the sun, but I have to hide under hats, long-sleeved floaty clothes and lots of sun-screen. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6V31TC_qCX0R2ATGhOjmGUFqv_G4S0OSMsatxO-I5bMNEkrqCdSqc5ngtnDM-rgdX3mfk0Z6Tj6ap6-6xxR4j43OZDq8c0RXFtYHMJ5uixADjCoM3suXbtPNWUx8EMYqeAsyhDWvbVyhk/s1600/DeadTree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="975" height="285" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6V31TC_qCX0R2ATGhOjmGUFqv_G4S0OSMsatxO-I5bMNEkrqCdSqc5ngtnDM-rgdX3mfk0Z6Tj6ap6-6xxR4j43OZDq8c0RXFtYHMJ5uixADjCoM3suXbtPNWUx8EMYqeAsyhDWvbVyhk/s400/DeadTree.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Dead Tree. Photo by Raven </span></td></tr>
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I'm not sure what kind of tree this was when it was alive. There were plenty of yew trees, but yews are poisonous to other plants, so I doubt that there would be other plants growing from it if it were a yew. The tree stump felt almost sculptural, and its timbers bleached grey-white seemed fitting with the stone and almost skeletal itself. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4XO0BuluClcn19y_b43FX9dQafzeuTmbfnWUJQDG5iBrRKnPnh5noscTk7-uPnpv_8SdSuiEL3JzMD1iCtw0EoNM86qG1VRVbSNDbxzBLqaX9jACDqAB8Xi0pcmZqK2C3dR-q2XD-TrDr/s1600/IMG-20180714-WA0008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="678" data-original-width="1006" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4XO0BuluClcn19y_b43FX9dQafzeuTmbfnWUJQDG5iBrRKnPnh5noscTk7-uPnpv_8SdSuiEL3JzMD1iCtw0EoNM86qG1VRVbSNDbxzBLqaX9jACDqAB8Xi0pcmZqK2C3dR-q2XD-TrDr/s400/IMG-20180714-WA0008.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Grave with ornate carving. Photo by Raven.</span></td></tr>
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This gravestone near the entrance was interesting - it had some sort of crest surrounded by a laurel wreath or other foliage, but it has suffered the ravages of time - the central design, presumably a monogram, is pretty much illegible, and any motto or similar on the banner beneath the leaves has long since de-laminated. I think perhaps the topmost leafs have lost some mass, too. It's interesting to see a headstone carved in the shape of a Dutch gable, too. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdThkrKWOy0E5M7oF1dyi7lMRpXgQrPZKjZ7xPSrBhPyqXd9bnFsteGGx-U83oat2G0-InKxcFTd4cr-cdIfQ4eBibOK4QFWPVUMiH6qv4vFSHmzNrraZHKYiRMOS8Lj58fc8BWa6miLuO/s1600/37109689_10217167149081034_7436106823523893248_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdThkrKWOy0E5M7oF1dyi7lMRpXgQrPZKjZ7xPSrBhPyqXd9bnFsteGGx-U83oat2G0-InKxcFTd4cr-cdIfQ4eBibOK4QFWPVUMiH6qv4vFSHmzNrraZHKYiRMOS8Lj58fc8BWa6miLuO/s400/37109689_10217167149081034_7436106823523893248_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Architectural salvage. Photograph by Raven.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I'm not sure which part of the building this detail came from - I couldn't even figure it out by looking at it - it's some part of some Gothic details, but it's also a broken jigsaw piece of architectural history. Raven took this photograph of it - I guess it looks sort of abandoned in this corner of the porch, but really it's a sign that someone's put it there so it doesn't get discarded. I don't know where on the building it used to belong - perhaps part of something that has since been altered, so it can't go back - but whatever it was, it is put there where it is not forgotten. It's almost on display. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuoxUePTDn7FBid5KBMRWQ9jN4vSeHYRhTDFWgF7ip1K-ZxUA_MawOlVyeu1D9_Ho91_85MPUW0TY7twZdzzvcVl-ySLFSQHmL3RfrDVOU3F85SV53bi1iwv4lrD2q4GtljEUgrEs7TzgL/s1600/IMG-20180604-WA0020.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuoxUePTDn7FBid5KBMRWQ9jN4vSeHYRhTDFWgF7ip1K-ZxUA_MawOlVyeu1D9_Ho91_85MPUW0TY7twZdzzvcVl-ySLFSQHmL3RfrDVOU3F85SV53bi1iwv4lrD2q4GtljEUgrEs7TzgL/s320/IMG-20180604-WA0020.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Monk. Photograph by me</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">This monk's head terminates the arch over the porch. It looks like one of the more recent additions to the church. From what I gather of the church's history, I think at some point it was connected to a monastery as well as a priory (I'm really no expert on this), which I guess is why they used monks as a decorative motif. There's one at both ends of the archway, looking solemnly upon all those who enter the church. I don't know if they are representative of specific people or not.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoqK0v4pm3Id4S_zJjhutPQ6SUDTRIEt1Q4AP1fqXhmi9tlpL2_NGvOXU5IzjZ85qsu7inX0BFlYSw0bvoGhiHLlSZI3GeJE5m8h_6rX39SbR0V_nGgjflUjK8xXRi8ZE19CesbiYQ-eup/s1600/IMG-20180604-WA0025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoqK0v4pm3Id4S_zJjhutPQ6SUDTRIEt1Q4AP1fqXhmi9tlpL2_NGvOXU5IzjZ85qsu7inX0BFlYSw0bvoGhiHLlSZI3GeJE5m8h_6rX39SbR0V_nGgjflUjK8xXRi8ZE19CesbiYQ-eup/s320/IMG-20180604-WA0025.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ornate ironmongery. Photograph by me. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Both Raven and I admired the ornate doors - I don't know how old they are, perhaps Victorian, perhaps earlier, but they have the most fabulous swirling ironwork on them. I have a thing for doors and windows - maybe it's liminality of them. I also really appreciate when something that doesn't need to be ornate gets an artistic treatment. Plenty of church doors have much simpler hinges, some have fancier, but it's nice to see something like this. Someone put enough time, money and effort in for this to be not just an ordinary door - probably several people; someone to make the timbers into a door, someone (or some people) to do the metalwork, someone who designed it, someone who paid for it... Someone who checked that it would fit in the aperture of the door frame! It's not as common these days, to have such things made, and I think we're losing out. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">There are several stained glass windows in the church - framed by stone tracery that looks very, very old indeed - but maybe not as old as the apertures in the walls, as they look like they once had larger arches and arched tracery rather than arches in rectangles. I don't know exactly how many phases of construction and alteration there have been (I counted at least 5) but it's got so much history built into the walls. It was really quite fascinating. </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spider, photograph by me.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">I really like spiders. Raven, not so much. I saw this spindly one on its thread in the porch window. </span></div>
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The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-35712725509131707212018-08-11T13:27:00.000-07:002018-08-11T13:27:40.185-07:00Domesticated: Study Decor<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Originally, when I set up Domesticated Goth, I intended it to be about crafts, homemaking, cooking and decorating - a blog to give people ideas on how to make Gothic things for their house, small art projects, etc. Unfortunately, I moved into a rental apartment that had strict rules on decorating, and that put a real dampener on that idea, and instead the blog evolved into a more general Gothic & Goth lifestyle bog, with Gothic tourism, art projects, accounts of my involvement with Gothic Lolita, photography, the odd musical post (I am terrible at writing about music intelligently) and discussion of the Goth subculture itself. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Three years ago, however, Raven and I bought a house - we didn't buy it outright, we have a mortgage on it, and it's not a very big house, but it's where we call home. Over that time, we've been decorating. Not all of the house is Gothic (the living & dining rooms are open-plan with each other, and have a more earthy, slightly witchy sort of feel, with lots of greens, dark wood and natural and Pagan motifs) and some rooms are more Gothic than others. There's also still a lot of work to be done, so many rooms are still very incomplete; we don't have much money, so we can't hire people to decorate for us, and we barely have the time and the money to do it ourselves, so it has been dragging on. However, my study is the smallest room that isn't a bathroom, and therefore it's one of the more complete.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spiderweb candelabra and skulls are still quite 'Hallowe'en'</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">My initial idea was to decorate it in a deliberately kitschy, Hallowe'en-esque sort of way - LOTS of skulls, cartoon bat decals on the windows and ceilings, and quite a vivid purple (Valspar's 'Purple Storm'). However, having had the room for 3 years, I feel that style both feels a bit overbearing and doesn't really reflect my personal aesthetic any more, as I've definitely got further and further into a Romantic, Gothic and very Victorian/anachronistic sort of aesthetic, and I want my study to feel more like it is inhabited by a vampire from an Anne Rice novel than one from a Tim Burton movie. I've still got the vinyl decals on my window because I simply can't get them off, and I think I'm going to have to use a heat-gun to remove them!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My window, with its bat stickers as well as SunSeal mandalas<br />
There are a lot of pentagrams and stars hanging up in my window.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Some of the vinyl decals, those of Gothic architecture and Gothic arches, I will keep. I feel like it's still in keeping with the reproduction 1820s Gothic Revival wallpaper of window tracery, especially the arcade of grey/silver arches - something I need to get a good photograph of! I'm in two minds about the vinyl decals of buildings. I'm not sure if they are too cartoonish to look good, or if their simplicity is a good thing, or whether they should go entirely, or whether I should carefully take a scalpel to them and give them a few more details to make them a bit classier (including making some of the Romanesque arches into Gothic ones!). I don't want to make my study too Victorian either; my 1960's house doesn't have high enough ceilings to really pull off the Victorian look without feeling claustrophobic; the spaces are too horizontal. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7avnl9LGUzeBHxeI2S6ME8CKFZuIkf5ortT-SDHtFEJ5Zj4i5aqwQ5rPkmr8ZrneBiMjKKf7OhbTJXE81kSXdx6QzI7KJO3C6v9FaPRWG3Ze3_Rg7eaQ3RNIL4jdye0rkRy7bNj2fSDFF/s1600/38926585_647274558971710_4126462775356555264_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1599" data-original-width="1599" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7avnl9LGUzeBHxeI2S6ME8CKFZuIkf5ortT-SDHtFEJ5Zj4i5aqwQ5rPkmr8ZrneBiMjKKf7OhbTJXE81kSXdx6QzI7KJO3C6v9FaPRWG3Ze3_Rg7eaQ3RNIL4jdye0rkRy7bNj2fSDFF/s400/38926585_647274558971710_4126462775356555264_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The rounded arches and lack of details annoy me!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I have two favourite sections of my study so far, my 'book nook' reading corner, and my feature wall. My study has a weird L-shape, with a short stubby bit over the staircase, and an above-the-stairs cupboard that I store manga and art materials in. In the stubby area, I have a book-case, a corner unit, a wicker peacock-back chair (inspired by Morticia Addams) and a two-handed broadsword! The broadsword is a claymore, the distinctive variation from Scotland. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My book nook. Chair pulled out to get a good photograph.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The bookcase is all non-fiction. The top shelf is architecture books, the middle shelf history, culture and anthropology, and the bottom shelf is for big A4+ size books, mostly art, but a few history ones too. It's not big enough for all of my art and architecture or history books, but it's got a few. More shelving is actually something my study desperately needs, and is something I've been working on. Some friends of mine are moving to Scandinavia, and have a lovely double-Gothic-arch bookcase that I would like to buy off them, and I've put two new above-door shelves up in my study, one above the main door for ornaments, and one above the cubby door for notebooks (you can see a bracket for it, sans shelf, in the photo above). I'm awaiting some more shelves in our bedroom, so that I can move all my fiction books out of their stacks under my study desk! I've also got a stack of art books under my study desk, and another stack of art books next to the book-case, all of art books too big to go on the bottom shelf of the bookcase. I've got a few shelves above my desk, but they're for art materials, not books. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLgk8c0Rca3FAgom7rUNHTg1tE8EhFQ61Etwrnb6223ve9VIlIOT2b2La5Tle_ZLc1dW3_jTvQqTGFZc5drZkiyxEx4IvdgOd8dGDXO2ltqEfz25X4p_-80ZoAm5K2-SZiIcqq_OubOBzR/s1600/38904794_300230687193671_8820816627785269248_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1134" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLgk8c0Rca3FAgom7rUNHTg1tE8EhFQ61Etwrnb6223ve9VIlIOT2b2La5Tle_ZLc1dW3_jTvQqTGFZc5drZkiyxEx4IvdgOd8dGDXO2ltqEfz25X4p_-80ZoAm5K2-SZiIcqq_OubOBzR/s400/38904794_300230687193671_8820816627785269248_n.jpg" width="282" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cubby visible in mirror!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My cubby needs a lot of work; it already has shelves, but they're too broadly spaced out, but too close to simply put an additional shelf in between - I need to take the existing shelves out and put new ones in. There's also a crack where the back board of the cupboard has come away from the wall, and I'm not sure what the best way to deal with that is, as the problem appears to be lack of an allowance for the expansion and contraction of the building. I think perhaps an L-shaped piece of wood, attached to the brick wall and not the board, will cover the gap while allowing the different materials to expand and contract sensibly. I'm not sure whether the back wall of the cubby should have wallpaper or be painted, and if so, what colours. I also want to save up to get an electrician in, both to move the main overhead light at the conjunction of the two parts of the study, but also to install an additional light in the ceiling of the cubby, so I can see what's in there better. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The purple and gold book is actually a Harry Potter themed lamp! They're available <a href="https://klevercase.com/products/magic-mobile-reading-lamp">::here::</a> and at the time of writing, they're on sale below half price at £35 (hence why I could afford one!). I'm a bit of a Harry Potter fan, so this was perfect. If there had been a silver on purple version, I would have loved that even more. I had the cover text customised to 'Liber Lux' - book of light (probably slightly wonky Latin; it's been over 12 years since I studied Latin!). When you open it up, the pages light up, and create a lovely ambient glow. I put mine on a mini-lectern/book stand so I can use it while I'm letter-writing or whatnot.</span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5AUqBElXt4cqOIPyy21drIDSwOXqkbTzapf7c_e_s5VY_EBKJQXYTqt2TPQfIFLAQimmo5nYp5yrFPRe9_hDsYnBFlIKtXUsoZ81z-uKjKF_RWRJ6ETyIjoEOglFsb5SwdK56VyXChHtA/s1600/38935478_2162796153936086_2192565278301224960_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5AUqBElXt4cqOIPyy21drIDSwOXqkbTzapf7c_e_s5VY_EBKJQXYTqt2TPQfIFLAQimmo5nYp5yrFPRe9_hDsYnBFlIKtXUsoZ81z-uKjKF_RWRJ6ETyIjoEOglFsb5SwdK56VyXChHtA/s400/38935478_2162796153936086_2192565278301224960_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">My mini-bodhran and a Gods' Eye weave.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Another thing I use my study for is music practice. I have my bodhran and my doumbek, my fiddle and a whole lot of recorders (flûte à bec, not for recording music), whistles and flutes. Eventually I wish to move my harmonium (pedal organ) up into my study, but my staircase is steep and winding, and Raven and I alone are not strong enough to carry it upstairs; I think it's a four-person job, but not a four-person staircase! I'd like to get a piano for the living-room to sit where the harmonium currently is; I used to play, and my nice piano is at my father's house. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBGjBSZ60E5WOQv35jsZ_Rh_g5Yu9GAlKOSCM3YecRr4L4akc0wu6sGYWvVQXece7Y9ihzvbd3H6afRY4C3dONZtejAXzl7FKA3tJmjCY1sgn0yo2G2Haa5MyJ_yOyxWrwIZKOz_3cG4If/s1600/38882863_1895950057133153_5605869401539608576_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1599" data-original-width="1599" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBGjBSZ60E5WOQv35jsZ_Rh_g5Yu9GAlKOSCM3YecRr4L4akc0wu6sGYWvVQXece7Y9ihzvbd3H6afRY4C3dONZtejAXzl7FKA3tJmjCY1sgn0yo2G2Haa5MyJ_yOyxWrwIZKOz_3cG4If/s400/38882863_1895950057133153_5605869401539608576_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Raven, in front of a resin crow figure from TKMaxx<br />The silver and black damask bag behind has love-letters he sent me.<br />The silver and black box below has letters from friends and family.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also have a desk, which is where my computer sits, and where I do a lot of my art-work. I haven't taken any proper photographs of the desk itself, because currently my desktop is just some MDF (medium-density fibreboard) and I'd like to get something like some black sparkle formica to make desk-top. I've been looking at the wonderful geode-inspired resin art-work of <a href="https://www.mrscolorberry.com/">::Mrs ColorBerry::</a> (which is totally incredible; I seriously recommend checking it out!) and I'd like to learn to do something similar to make a cool poured-resin worktop for my desk, although I wonder how heavy that would be! Raven built my desk, and to get ornate table-legs, he cut some banister spindles down to size! </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Y2Pmk_vBCQ-kmB_-5L7iS1zDnLp9KvTA46QamFgKUCR5k5fgxONB92R_2viYrdVB97NvEI54y7Zwo5aEfS_kfZVWG1PqJxKMsj-ljBM9GuHqHhKXplE7g8zzOgZXoMoUQlIdB4GDxz_W/s1600/Skully+pic.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="590" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2Y2Pmk_vBCQ-kmB_-5L7iS1zDnLp9KvTA46QamFgKUCR5k5fgxONB92R_2viYrdVB97NvEI54y7Zwo5aEfS_kfZVWG1PqJxKMsj-ljBM9GuHqHhKXplE7g8zzOgZXoMoUQlIdB4GDxz_W/s400/Skully+pic.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hand-painted skulls, and easy DIY project. Just prime then paint!</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I do like skull motifs, even if they are sometimes a bit kitschy. These three are small skull decorations from Hallowe'en - £2 for a pack of 9 - which I repainted using nail-polish, to immortalise some of my favourite nail-polish combinations. The iridescent green and purple one is my favourite. These skulls are tiny, about and inch and a half high each. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSU9qXh6zqwE4A-wBtbU0u9XP0wmrWd-lPRJyoHGRYTBlYjEHMjRDoPBvi2dSZ8bDuydcNRguywc4Scu89FDVg2G29Bg1ILt4Qs7oSIVfTkn-bFKcTKLVYE9TzUEdYpamm7Oxisp2gAAjW/s1600/39040904_1844747738943668_5282588986991181824_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSU9qXh6zqwE4A-wBtbU0u9XP0wmrWd-lPRJyoHGRYTBlYjEHMjRDoPBvi2dSZ8bDuydcNRguywc4Scu89FDVg2G29Bg1ILt4Qs7oSIVfTkn-bFKcTKLVYE9TzUEdYpamm7Oxisp2gAAjW/s320/39040904_1844747738943668_5282588986991181824_n.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I love the Art Nouveau packaging</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I love burning incense in my study, although it tends to leave an ashy, dusty mess around the burner. I keep the incense for my study (which has cheesy names like 'Werewolf's Bite' or 'Gothic Prayer') in that purple vase. I used to have dried roses in the vase, but they just disintegrated entirely. I love the Art Nouveau packaging for the 'Yesteryears' incense, so I keep that particular incense out on display. The wall faces on the window aperture are painted a lighter purple (I think it's called either 'Lightning Bolt' or 'Haunting Melody'; I can't remember which of those two I eventually settled on. More Valspar paint.) </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">My favourite part of my study is the wall behind where I sit at my desk. I painted it black, with silver glitter dusted into the paint, and it is the feature wall I use to display art work. The art work is on rotation. Currently I've got a lenticular image of a crow on a skull, which I think is from Alchemy Gothic, and a postcard of a cat as Moriarty (having stolen the crown jewels). Half of the picture frames are from TKMaxx and Dunelm Mill, and the other half are thrifted. I'm starting to swap out the artwork for fine art images. Not really visible in this picture, but the image in the concentric rectangles frame at the upper left is a postcard of a Edward Burne Jones sketch (it is of a woman looking down to her left, with a crown of golden leaves, done in chalks or pastels on a purple background, you can see a version<a href="http://www.museuma.com/sir-edward-burne-jones/head-of-a-girl.jpg"> ::here::</a>). I'm going to hopefully fill all the frames with classic art soon, just need to accumulate prints/postcards at the right size. The picture of my father (at work, he's an archaeologist) on the far right is going to be re-framed in a black frame and moved to our bedroom, where we have a wall of friends and family pictures.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRYHn5tHQlAfgkmDtJTU-1i9NMBrGPS4A0P6exwL8fNrG4DRhdTZ75oWBYSaKvcWv3I-6TvnTHBKq_5Gp3E6vOJCaXRc9sRo88sxEmmfx3oNCt8OPYWySH9pp9HQiddIVsNuiHBt3qzy5B/s1600/38940396_2154678391522169_2490087068873523200_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1097" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRYHn5tHQlAfgkmDtJTU-1i9NMBrGPS4A0P6exwL8fNrG4DRhdTZ75oWBYSaKvcWv3I-6TvnTHBKq_5Gp3E6vOJCaXRc9sRo88sxEmmfx3oNCt8OPYWySH9pp9HQiddIVsNuiHBt3qzy5B/s400/38940396_2154678391522169_2490087068873523200_n.jpg" width="273" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Display wall from the other angle, with sword.<br />Also note the Gothic Revival wallpaper in grey.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You may have noticed I have another sword. I collect them, especially antiques. The sword on my display wall is an antique officer's dress sword from the 1870s-1880s, from Italy, with a beautifully engraved blade. I love the duality of beautifully made weaponry; both artistic and aesthetic, yet designed for a lethal function. There are dents along the spine of the dress sword that indicate it's been used in some form of combat, and I wonder if someone fought a duel with it. It's definitely not a battle weapon (unlike say, a cavalry sabre). </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7rJbyUDPFi2VB1uuNhLzU5epwu7YUJSIQhyX2KfZLNffSuAuXO_kHnyIild2qEh3hY3-O5d4iOc-ehDUTQL_fvZOkoici6cb8e2JxfGRw8kteDvzgZebDjf9RMrbO5hb7EsToDLHvT1J2/s1600/38802524_248486909112850_7747550741996240896_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1599" data-original-width="1599" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7rJbyUDPFi2VB1uuNhLzU5epwu7YUJSIQhyX2KfZLNffSuAuXO_kHnyIild2qEh3hY3-O5d4iOc-ehDUTQL_fvZOkoici6cb8e2JxfGRw8kteDvzgZebDjf9RMrbO5hb7EsToDLHvT1J2/s320/38802524_248486909112850_7747550741996240896_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Unfinished wall with broken sconce; the mirror got shattered.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">As you can see, this is not a complete over view of my study, and there is much left to do. I'm going to put a Gothic arched cabinet over my radiator, and I've got facings to put on the shelves over my door. I need to take more pictures of things I have added to my study, like the two new shelves. I still don't have a final floor covering; I've got a rug over floor-boards as I can't afford enough laminate flooring to cover my study yet (however I do have a roll of underlay!). I'm going to try and 3D print a single tile of cornice, then make a mould, and then use that to make dozens of foam ones, in order to get a repeating Gothic arch design to go around where the ceiling connects to the walls. I've already painted skirting board gloss black, but I can't put that in until I've got the laminate floor down. I still don't have enough shelving, as detailed above, and I still have lots of stuff in boxes. </span></div>
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If my readers are interested, I can update the blog with progress on my study, and with how other rooms are decorated. Please comment if you want to see more of the Gothic décor in my house. There's the witchy living & dining area mentioned before, a French belle-epoque inspired aesethetic, just with added skulls, for our main bedroom, a more modern take on Gothic decor for the spare bedroom/games room and the kitchen. The upstairs hallway is going to be quite opulent, with some really fabulous wall-paper, but I'm still currently stripping the original wallpaper! </div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I also suggest checking out two Gothic DIY blogs: <br /><a href="http://www.gothityourself.com/">::GIY: Goth It Yourself::</a>, which is currently on hiatus, but which has an archive of PLENTY of projects worth reading and looking at, and</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.meandannabellee.com/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">::Me And Annabel Lee:: </a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">which is also full of wonderful Gothic decorating and craft ideas and tutorials. </span></div>
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<br />The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-62434730381139277112018-06-26T14:32:00.000-07:002018-06-26T14:34:32.369-07:00Castell Arberth/Narberth Castle <span style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: justify;">A few weeks ago, Raven and I went to stay with my Dad. I came across this castle by accident - My Dad got Raven to drive him on an errand, and the route went past this castle mound, which was partially obscured by how the road goes down a deep cut in the hill below it. I asked if we could visit the castle on the way back, and we did. If any of my readers are familiar with the Mabinogion, then they will recognise Castell Arberth as one of the chief courts of Pwyll, father of Pryderi. </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;"></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1pU3HAGbEHBrh2iB-Re5s61QEmfuxUv4ZRHnvA0OTBuy60o4VK8n3IkFzMqnbWE99mIFQkGgu3LVQdxZdMzbHjT2m8l_QLnI6ZpbVr79jpxZdhNra1MSF-4RmtCfLA93PRTvVx6ZmHkSW/s1600/LRM_EXPORT_20180626_162022.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1pU3HAGbEHBrh2iB-Re5s61QEmfuxUv4ZRHnvA0OTBuy60o4VK8n3IkFzMqnbWE99mIFQkGgu3LVQdxZdMzbHjT2m8l_QLnI6ZpbVr79jpxZdhNra1MSF-4RmtCfLA93PRTvVx6ZmHkSW/s320/LRM_EXPORT_20180626_162022.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Narberth Cemetery</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">On our way to the castle we went into a cemetery by mistake - we were looking for the path up to the castle mound, and thought this might be through the cemetery, as the graveyard path initially seemed to slope up. The cemetery was founded in the 1930s, so most of the graves are 20thC, I think with some more recent ones. As it is quite a recently used/active cemetery, I only took one picture of the general cemetery area, rather than any of specific graves, and certainly no posing with the gravestones. </span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWPhKiXwd9u8ewlek2MTdk21qHt0xI9Yrp6qwXoxCHKSDOtfJAjPgZ_Wrt-II5nw748dBD85ic5BLsWRhXJXn-cg3ydjGff6CMhUUQzhriI3DIfzzFeVekCBMtVRs7_ms27yLw8btZB8RP/s1600/LRM_EXPORT_20180626_133540.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="298" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWPhKiXwd9u8ewlek2MTdk21qHt0xI9Yrp6qwXoxCHKSDOtfJAjPgZ_Wrt-II5nw748dBD85ic5BLsWRhXJXn-cg3ydjGff6CMhUUQzhriI3DIfzzFeVekCBMtVRs7_ms27yLw8btZB8RP/s400/LRM_EXPORT_20180626_133540.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Remains of the castle sticking up like fangs from the ground</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: justify;">The castle was up a different path. You can't see much of it from the road, only one of the towers, but once up there, a lot more of the castle is visible. It is hard, from what is left, to visualise that it was once a mighty fortress, at least the second built on that site, and was built sometime after 1246 (you can read the CADW page </span><a href="http://cadw.gov.wales/daysout/maps-and-itineraries/magnacarta/narberth/?lang=en" style="text-align: justify;">::here::</a><span style="text-align: justify;">). There were signs around the place with artist's impressions of the original castle, but I think the windows in the paintings are a tad more Gothic than might have been based on the actual window shapes remaining. However, there may have been more pointed tracery in stone frames now long gone. </span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is just part of a broken tower, once attached to a building</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">It was a damp, muggy day, with a dull grey sky, so I apologise in advance for the photographs being hazy and the skies being boring. I took all the photographs on my phone, as well, as I still haven't got a replacement camera. I'm currently unemployed, so it will be a while before I can afford a decent camera.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9E-7fEXEMiPNaBrMR-DJGS25mmqyxWMLYIXxsZUdRfcZUogbicaLxhrJ3D-eDfTHegTr_SHQ5YetwkF3l18KMCBzB0dg_rhv-zw3q2KZf6Wbfi6TVI9ZeK1WlILUMb96qKjQKa_fI2P1q/s1600/LRM_EXPORT_20180626_153304.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9E-7fEXEMiPNaBrMR-DJGS25mmqyxWMLYIXxsZUdRfcZUogbicaLxhrJ3D-eDfTHegTr_SHQ5YetwkF3l18KMCBzB0dg_rhv-zw3q2KZf6Wbfi6TVI9ZeK1WlILUMb96qKjQKa_fI2P1q/s400/LRM_EXPORT_20180626_153304.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Raven was there too, and he took a couple of pictures of me.</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Window into the cellar</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The most complete part of the building is the pantry/kitchen cellar, with its tough barrel vault weathering the test of time. It's the building that Raven's standing in front of in the picture above. A lot of the stone from the castle was reused to build the town/village of Narberth (Arberth in Welsh) that surrounds. It's a very craggy-looking ruin, and the exterior walls, which would have likely been rendered and whitewashed to avoid the stone walls providing hand-holds, and to add an extra layer of protection from the elements, are now bare, with much of the walls' cores exposed. </span></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4CYlZNd0DLhcF3HmDFjqpLaxPs-THPiRKlS2FJ6hD-TUgufKLOTXk4jRyTdnX5OIJZeQCLz-BtWCrVGOKop7MmknBeY0lnFeO-f-4Ho7vidKLUcslUZJX4GOEZnhSg1Vruagyq9kJiPSU/s1600/LRM_EXPORT_20180626_153510.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4CYlZNd0DLhcF3HmDFjqpLaxPs-THPiRKlS2FJ6hD-TUgufKLOTXk4jRyTdnX5OIJZeQCLz-BtWCrVGOKop7MmknBeY0lnFeO-f-4Ho7vidKLUcslUZJX4GOEZnhSg1Vruagyq9kJiPSU/s400/LRM_EXPORT_20180626_153510.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">What is left of the great hall. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The castle was built on a promontory, with a steep drop down to the graveyard below, and even further to the current road level. Geographically, it's quite a defensible location. I think the castle walls merge into a deliberate escarpment to the right of the buildings pictured above. Looking out over the trees now is quite magical. The vegetation there is very lush - West Wales is where parts of what is known as the 'Celtic Rainforest' grows - dense and green, watered by the decidedly soggy climate and warmed by the warm air currents that pass the West of the British Isles, brought by the Gulf Stream. </span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Through the windows</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">The buildings were stabilised in 2005, after an extensive project to stop further ruination of what is left. Unfortunately, there has been graffiti since then, limiting what I could photograph (I don't want to put swear words, crudely drawn phallic images and suchlike on my blog) and also damaging the stonework as it would be difficult to remove the spray paint from the walls without also damaging the surfaces of the stones. It saddens me that I often go to castles and other ancient monuments and there's litter, beer cans (and sometimes worse) and graffiti - the results of people disrespecting their heritage. Ones that charge for entry tend to have less, but I think it's more the supervision of stewards than the price that changes things. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhViLNkV9Pn4OGcpds7LjZEAwWIjZjJwWvpP4cHWt-CoZuh2FM0c5NH-NenRUSX9NIIPfMYUmemErAzGkuihJAtbOfXRaxz4_6v_DQQX_241-oVYxpuFSew_SbubeEg0D_UjAMdESOzmtjS/s1600/LRM_EXPORT_20180626_153342.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1086" data-original-width="1600" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhViLNkV9Pn4OGcpds7LjZEAwWIjZjJwWvpP4cHWt-CoZuh2FM0c5NH-NenRUSX9NIIPfMYUmemErAzGkuihJAtbOfXRaxz4_6v_DQQX_241-oVYxpuFSew_SbubeEg0D_UjAMdESOzmtjS/s400/LRM_EXPORT_20180626_153342.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I went through that doorway.</td></tr>
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I did see a family taking their children for a stroll, which is a good thing - nice to see children being taken to such things at young age, hopefully to grow up more respectful of the castle than those who spray-painted the graffiti. I get really angry about people damaging historical buildings.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Inside what's left of the great hall</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">You can see corbels jutting from the walls where once sat the joists for the first floor. I don't know if there was a second storey on this part. The towers definitely had ground floor, first floor and second floor at least, probably with battlements behind crenelations. All of that is gone now. You can also see where they changed their mind about a window and walled it up into an alcove. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Note corbel and hole in the wall where a beam once slotted in</td></tr>
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I probably spent longer exploring and taking photographs than we really had time for. I find such ruins quite captivating. 800 years is pretty ancient in many ways, but it's actually relatively recent in Welsh history. Near Narberth/Arberth is a truly ancient hill-fort that is <i>thousands</i> of years old. It's somewhat overwhelming at times just how much history there is, layered all around us. I'll have to visit more of the really ancient stuff and blog about that, too. </div>
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The arches are roughly Gothic, but it's hard to tell what the windows looked like with any more detail than that. The castle, like most medieval castles, also had a chapel, which I would expect to have church-like Gothic windows, maybe once having stained glass. Now there's just a hole in the wall. I wonder what happened to the glass. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">The hat and cloak make me look particularly severe.</td></tr>
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Raven took a picture of me looking very serious by a window. I'm such a tourist sometimes - I want an 'I was there' picture of me at the places I visit. You can see how much better the resolution is on Raven's phone camera than on mine. I visited two other castles while I was in Wales, and I'll update my blog with those in the near future. </div>
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</span></span>The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5406319356659344188.post-13048322250992601172018-06-23T16:08:00.000-07:002018-06-23T16:08:01.014-07:00Cawdor Castle - 2017 Visit<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">Last year, Raven took me to Cawdor Castle for my birthday. I wanted to post about it nearer the time, but I lost my SD card with the photos I'd taken. I've been there </span><a href="http://domesticatedgoth.blogspot.com/2013/07/cawdor-castle.html" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif; text-align: justify;">::before::</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; text-align: justify;">, and the first time I was there, it was with the HTC smartphone that didn't have a good camera at all, no proper camera, and in dreary weather. This time, it was May, the weather was bright and sunny, and I made sure to bring a camera with me. Raven also took a lot of photographs while we were there, so there's plenty of photographs from him in this blog! If I find my SD card, I'll do a second post about this trip with my photos on it. I'm really grateful to Raven for letting me use his photographs; I'm really sad about having lost my SD card, especially as it had more than just Cawdor Castle on it. I took a LOT of photographs of the castle building itself, and I really wish they weren't lost.<br /><br />Photos in this blog-post are in a carousel gallery - if you click on a photo, it will enlarge, and you can navigate between photos with the arrow keys. I've had a couple of messages about 'tiny pictures' so I thought I would clarify. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioKjq1VK0Qlg0LFRADk_bsDQpJJPV0NTAZeAonWXATSPhZlEa7-ez-vk8wiRnPXwg12aKx0YotAr6rSSI-hy0OD_rYwZOsCQF-e-8ynoY-L9u0jomtifpOy6UOwMv1oaU_Wv_zHUGBR8vD/s1600/CawdorApproach.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="971" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioKjq1VK0Qlg0LFRADk_bsDQpJJPV0NTAZeAonWXATSPhZlEa7-ez-vk8wiRnPXwg12aKx0YotAr6rSSI-hy0OD_rYwZOsCQF-e-8ynoY-L9u0jomtifpOy6UOwMv1oaU_Wv_zHUGBR8vD/s400/CawdorApproach.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Raven of me walking up to the castle</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cawdor Castle was initially built as a defensive castle in the 14thC by the Thanes of Cawdor. It's since become more of country mansion house with later, less defensible extensions, but it has a rich and interesting history. This time, we went inside the castle as well as seeing the grounds, paying the extra entrance fee, so I got to see more the castle and learn about the castle history - which is my favourite reason to visit castles! You can visit the official Cawdor Castle website <a href="https://www.cawdorcastle.com/welcome-to-cawdor-castle/">::here::</a>. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">When I temporarily had blue hair! <br />
Selfies by me. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I went on the trip during the time I had <a href="http://domesticatedgoth.blogspot.com/2017/05/hair-adventures-2-feeling-blue.html">::temporarily blue hair::</a>. I keep ending up with unintentional blue hair - I've currently got unintentional blue highlights in my black hair because the black dye is not quite as opaque as I imagined, and also doesn't adhere so well to where my hair was previously green. However, in this instance, my hair turned blue after I washed it, and had originally been green and purple. My current theory is that it's because I'd been using dandruff shampoo, and some ingredient in that caused it to wash out certain pigments from the dye, leaving the blue. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The first thing I did at the castle was go and get a hot chocolate, and I think either a pain-au-chocolat or a savoury muffin - </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">it's been over a year, I can't remember what I ate. I do remember that whatever it was, it was tasty! The hot chocolate was rather yummy, with frothy cream and marshmallows - a more luxurious hot drink than my usual tea as a birthday treat. </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My hair nearly matched the cup. Photo by Raven </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtKD2nbNc9WQPj5Mod8d08DYILRSHJpaqRfHILerjkP3o8QHIRa8yK2MnhaBtJHMj2Cw4k6DE-11J3-WLd6pn33PBVK6-dxHvP09sSiUYDLNjTb4d1ir8kfucSUepxFBdpyfuAUQPXdyxG/s1600/CawdorWallwindowalcovethingy.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="656" data-original-width="455" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtKD2nbNc9WQPj5Mod8d08DYILRSHJpaqRfHILerjkP3o8QHIRa8yK2MnhaBtJHMj2Cw4k6DE-11J3-WLd6pn33PBVK6-dxHvP09sSiUYDLNjTb4d1ir8kfucSUepxFBdpyfuAUQPXdyxG/s320/CawdorWallwindowalcovethingy.png" width="221" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">Photo by Raven, edits by me</span>.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Once thoroughly refreshed, we went for a wander around the castle. Near the entrance to the cafe, I spotted this alcove. As well as looking out of the window at the castle grounds, and being impressed by the immense thickness of the walls, I persuaded Raven to take some aesthetic pictures of me.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The gatehouse has had to repel those who would attack the castle, so its sturdiness is not just for show. One of the daughters of the clan at Cawdor - 9th Thaness Muriel - was at the centre of a lot of clan dispute when as a teenager she was married off to Sir Campbell. It got very 'Game of Thrones' with battles, kidnaps, plots and Thaness Muriel surviving her husband, living 30 years longer than he did. (You can read about that </span><a href="http://www.scotland-inverness.co.uk/Chatelaine/CALDER.HTM" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">::here::</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, just scroll down to Muriel Calder). If you think the fiction of Macbeth is dramatic, then just look what was actually happening in Cawdor a few before Shakespeare.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I actually don't remember this part of the castle, but it's pretty<br />Photograph by Raven </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">We went around the castle interior first. The castle is still lived in - by the current Lady Cawdor, so not all the rooms can be visited. There's a route through some of the castle that is opened up, with guides at various points who can be asked questions about the castle. I remember we bumped into some American tourists who were just as excited about the castle as I was (and who liked my outfit; I think I got called' Lady Macbeth' in a complimentary way.) and both they and I asked the guides plenty of questions. There was an older chap as a guide and he was incredibly knowledgeable about the castle. I perhaps asked too many questions, but I'm a glutton for knowledge.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px; text-align: center;">Palantir-esque orb<br />
Photo by Raven.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There are a lot of spherical ornaments in Cawdor Castle - I think this is an aesthetic choice of the current lady Cawdor, as she commissioned several of the spherical statues in the castle grounds, and it is by her desk that one of the larger stone/crystal orbs resides. Raven took a photograph of it (to the right, click to enlarge thumbnail image). There's also one in one of the visitable bedrooms that is in a stand that makes it look like Palantir from Middle Earth. There's also an ORIGINAL Charles Addams drawing which I got completely over excited about. I don't have a photograph of that. (Lady Cawdor's art collection is intriguing, and I have so many questions in my head from it!)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There's a really fabulous room, with a tree growing in it, and an adjoining 'secret' other room that had been walled up for a long time. I don't have a photograph of it - it's something I tried hard to photograph, and there might be pictures of it on my SD card, but in the meanwhile there's a picture of it on the <a href="https://www.cawdorcastle.com/welcome-to-cawdor-castle/">::Cawdor Castle website::</a>, second one along, click to enlarge. The tree is part of a legend about the founding of the castle. The Thane of Cawdor, whose earlier medieval castle was not too far away, wanted to build a bigger and better, stronger fortification. He had a dream in which he was instructed to put a chest of gold upon a donkey's back, and then to follow it to where it lay, and build his castle there. He did this, and the donkey went to lie down under a hawthorne tree, which the castle was built around - the tree is still there, growing through the castle basement, protected as the family's prosperity is thought to be linked to the tree. I keep saying British history is very much like Game of Thrones, but in this case it's more like the Shannara Chronicles.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Historic Kitchen at Cawdor Castle, photo by Raven</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdqq1kVFUhattz2s9ORTAHATVfl8XRL7bkZkf2tNxRJUkuluX5octJETrS8OoTLY9Qrcl2LEF_Ze2Msvq2KxDmnIjXpqNHQ9Zycmvz5iGNaTHWnhomwaTbrIaiKkHSyTmyfx6yYFR75G4H/s1600/CawdorKitchenSmALL+.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="581" data-original-width="303" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdqq1kVFUhattz2s9ORTAHATVfl8XRL7bkZkf2tNxRJUkuluX5octJETrS8OoTLY9Qrcl2LEF_Ze2Msvq2KxDmnIjXpqNHQ9Zycmvz5iGNaTHWnhomwaTbrIaiKkHSyTmyfx6yYFR75G4H/s320/CawdorKitchenSmALL+.png" width="166" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Raven. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Looking at the historic kitchen was interesting. All those copper pots and pans! It's intriguing to see what utensils they had then compared to now - some things I have no idea what their purpose is, some things that haven't changed much, and some things that seem obvious by their absence. What was even more interesting is that one of the last things you go through in the castle, once you've been through the historic kitchen, is the modern kitchen - presumably for when there are private functions (I'm going to guess Lady Cawdor doesn't let hundreds of visitors walk through the same kitchen her dinner is cooked in each night!). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I really like the recessed windows from an aesthetic perspective - I'm guessing they are small and in such deep alcoves because the kitchen is in the basement, and the castle needs really thick, sturdy walls at that level to hold up everything that is above it, especially as it was defensive. Small windows means less of a void in the wall, and less of a space someone could climb in through - however, wide alcoves means more light as light can enter the room from a variety of angles in relation to the window.</span>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2jmBNI-KNYQMFonA23eEVlRcqGBuEkAnVUDMIHrIIDt0CFxLkhNZvavYarqrLmwgBTBJAgysC5ndLj0Az0C6im3u5x5J0_4fDTY_XcdrXH54evEWo-uKOCyOZxheb2ZiiIr-anqdH6JJY/s1600/CawdorModernKitchen.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="539" data-original-width="966" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2jmBNI-KNYQMFonA23eEVlRcqGBuEkAnVUDMIHrIIDt0CFxLkhNZvavYarqrLmwgBTBJAgysC5ndLj0Az0C6im3u5x5J0_4fDTY_XcdrXH54evEWo-uKOCyOZxheb2ZiiIr-anqdH6JJY/s400/CawdorModernKitchen.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;">Modern Kitchen at Cawdor Castle, photo by Raven</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV0vYtOgGj2XVwVXwNM1A0kraRpK4TZ5zgJMPcx6pxBfQtA7Yo8zQlqnzMFNehc-ahFvn1nkhyphenhyphenQDQIBmJYSsvmMCpffRArWOk_mT-xWbU1T0JpI_A-V6R3XQvGmtj2o86Vhh8CJcP-4tKt/s1600/Cawdorinthekitchen.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="578" data-original-width="801" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV0vYtOgGj2XVwVXwNM1A0kraRpK4TZ5zgJMPcx6pxBfQtA7Yo8zQlqnzMFNehc-ahFvn1nkhyphenhyphenQDQIBmJYSsvmMCpffRArWOk_mT-xWbU1T0JpI_A-V6R3XQvGmtj2o86Vhh8CJcP-4tKt/s200/Cawdorinthekitchen.png" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by Raven. Click to expand<br />
In front of historic kitchen window</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The comparison between the two definitely makes you think about how much the functional aspects of the castle have changed, and the expected requirements for a kitchen. As an architectural technologist, and one that would like to work on residential properties, things like the types of room that have been used for kitchens over the centuries is something that interests me - for example, the historic kitchen is long and linear, almost in a basement, and with the well in the room, (Not visible in the photograph, Raven would have had his back to it when he took this picture) whereas the modern kitchen is in a much squarer room, and a storey up from this kitchen (I think? It's hard to judge when the various phases of the building aren't all on the same set of levels) - both rooms are relatively bright, with lots of white, but the modern kitchen seems much airier, even though it has dark wooden panelling - perhaps because the ceilings are much higher (high enough to be out of shot!). It's also interesting to note the HUGE copper canopy for the extract fans in the modern kitchen - no such thing centuries back, so it would have been much steamier to work in! </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br />Raven's <i>really</i> into cooking, so I think he also found the two kitchens quite interesting.</span><br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ2vv6rQuuHiamqPioahrWT1kFRxo7u3GQ3vG8-pxAjSPF5F8E9VbZz49EkJqIi42-IYNE08HFBqTG0PCXZQ5WAcBfeEaS0p5N6slXicJobrf63htUN6xirl0EBgJXM1PSBcU_PxbU7i9v/s1600/Cawdor+Maze.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="701" data-original-width="1004" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ2vv6rQuuHiamqPioahrWT1kFRxo7u3GQ3vG8-pxAjSPF5F8E9VbZz49EkJqIi42-IYNE08HFBqTG0PCXZQ5WAcBfeEaS0p5N6slXicJobrf63htUN6xirl0EBgJXM1PSBcU_PxbU7i9v/s400/Cawdor+Maze.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Maze with minotaur (left) and castle (right). Photograph by Raven.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There's a hedge maze (or labyrinth?) at Cawdor, but when we were there, it was closed to visitors because the roots of the shrubbery needed to recover from repetitive trampling. However, it was visible from outside, as was the mythologically suitable minotaur in the centre!</span><br /><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb9mFKtIxO_laECciv3WW4q2ghIoIvuIacPjdLDigq4qbizA0gfTJNjRJZiRXlDILrCoxakZU6TNAbj9F35wH9o89i5B7ZQ4v36ghbwAVYfNFf-5pmX_NZAsArX_55zcQskUV-tFsy9Vvh/s1600/CawdorGardens1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="566" data-original-width="927" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb9mFKtIxO_laECciv3WW4q2ghIoIvuIacPjdLDigq4qbizA0gfTJNjRJZiRXlDILrCoxakZU6TNAbj9F35wH9o89i5B7ZQ4v36ghbwAVYfNFf-5pmX_NZAsArX_55zcQskUV-tFsy9Vvh/s400/CawdorGardens1.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Formal gardens, before their peak, in a cloudy moment. Photo by Raven.</td></tr>
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<tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeA7Bdhn8-hmnTPOzOXACAj9CyT-7umq-eA3GhdIEh4lEYwLG2YtMDIzlvad4bKrgC6BVYObKAnTUcKtnJ42HKENVRyNRSHqaAYcQG5rEkfAIPyzVsSOcMb0qBSsTS90neh_za5lgfKku9/s1600/Cawdorgardenparasol.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="701" data-original-width="404" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeA7Bdhn8-hmnTPOzOXACAj9CyT-7umq-eA3GhdIEh4lEYwLG2YtMDIzlvad4bKrgC6BVYObKAnTUcKtnJ42HKENVRyNRSHqaAYcQG5rEkfAIPyzVsSOcMb0qBSsTS90neh_za5lgfKku9/s320/Cawdorgardenparasol.png" width="184" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 12.8px;"><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif; font-size: 12.8px;">Walking with parasol</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;">Photograph by Dave</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">After we looked around the castle as much as we could, we then went out to the grounds. Last time I went to Cawdor Castle gardens, we walked mostly through the woodland walk area and didn't go through all of the gardens, but this time we went to the gardens. In the Highlands, early May is more springtime than summer, so the gardens aren't as green and luscious as they probably are in later months. I should probably actually go there around this time of year to best appreciate the gardens! That's not to say that there wasn't greenery - as there was, it's just that the trees, hedges and shrubbery weren't at their maximum foliage. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The weather was quite bright - not hot, but warm enough that a lacy shrug was enough to keep away the chill. However, it was definitely bright enough for sunglasses and parasol (well, to me at least, but I think I have a low tolerance for bright light.) for most of the day. There were cloudier moments, too, but when the sun came out again it was really quite bright.</span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirfYay4T1KSGjkFIUgYBDVrQX2nSAS4ng2CgzGu70d5M8Gn-ihHQWrUI_QSHsSHRU4gdOuGV1ZmyEHTraFurqNJGgo3Hk8QfBiBV4UZ4VqqU8klHFKSWsyE7lbFH5I1cCLAXp6pGmnKI4C/s1600/CawdorSphere.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="702" data-original-width="702" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirfYay4T1KSGjkFIUgYBDVrQX2nSAS4ng2CgzGu70d5M8Gn-ihHQWrUI_QSHsSHRU4gdOuGV1ZmyEHTraFurqNJGgo3Hk8QfBiBV4UZ4VqqU8klHFKSWsyE7lbFH5I1cCLAXp6pGmnKI4C/s400/CawdorSphere.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spherical fountain, photograph by Raven. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As mentioned before, there were several spherical garden statues/fountains at the ground. A really interesting one was made of shards of stacked glass, but I lost the photographs I took of that. The stone sphere fountain in the photograph was made by a Japanese sculptor, and there was a matching crescent moon shaped statue - I think the fountain represents the sun. It's an interesting mixture of modern art and a historical castle and grounds. I think the natural stones helps keep the fountain fitting to the site. </span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEluK3UpbcxmIyo2lKw5oY1OK0UXin6v2fUQidVWM0G8brflrJE8tav7IWDUt27wkB1jkFHyMjkDOcRqkNVpBCl61xyVlt9Nc5MmmGJpn1zHJgHSiMD1JQAYnmhOkLd3EC4PAlvuG_iCdy/s1600/CawdorPond.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="1105" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEluK3UpbcxmIyo2lKw5oY1OK0UXin6v2fUQidVWM0G8brflrJE8tav7IWDUt27wkB1jkFHyMjkDOcRqkNVpBCl61xyVlt9Nc5MmmGJpn1zHJgHSiMD1JQAYnmhOkLd3EC4PAlvuG_iCdy/s400/CawdorPond.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pond opposite ticket booth/entrance. Photograph by Raven</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Cawdor Castle has two main areas of laid out gardens, and then plenty of grounds, wooded and more pastoral, beyond that. There is a lovely pond near the drive and ticket booth, which Raven photographed. It looked most picturesque, a wonderful capture of springtime, especially with all the white tree blossoms. There are more ponds in the woodland area, but I didn't go there that time - they are also very pretty, especially when viewed from the wooden bridges. </span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMoQlm9QFjTv_fmbsdzVcSrLSuvZTDycvtWMiiWTFkiNcMIyTV3KXKnTzRscA5AUoAV35CXzNJWkIuJF1NIyWZlsZwY_Vo7wY0qctQMHIN-VjyHxWu2kLh4Tw4HlTqOZ5k_hymdYsjwnSF/s1600/35923458_10156279322597752_5391535243385634816_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="730" data-original-width="764" height="381" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMoQlm9QFjTv_fmbsdzVcSrLSuvZTDycvtWMiiWTFkiNcMIyTV3KXKnTzRscA5AUoAV35CXzNJWkIuJF1NIyWZlsZwY_Vo7wY0qctQMHIN-VjyHxWu2kLh4Tw4HlTqOZ5k_hymdYsjwnSF/s400/35923458_10156279322597752_5391535243385634816_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photograph by Raven, edits/filters by me.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The last photo from the Castle is me sitting at a small picnic table near the ticket booth, I think having just finished a carton of apple juice or something, and discussing with Raven what the rest of our plans would be. For some reason, sitting there was probably the thing that stuck most clearly in my head. I think it was because I looked up at the new leaves on the tree above me, and the sun, which was quite bright, was glowing through them, so they seemed so incredibly vibrant, almost glass-like. It was later in the afternoon by that point, as we had spent a good few hours at Cawdor Castle, and I tweaked the colours in the photograph just a little to try and best capture what the light felt like when I was there. Sometimes you have to bend reality a little to capture what something <i>feels</i> like.<br /> </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW8j_yatS9qZ40nH6seZ3pUuA3ue_13oX25iG5YxESWidcJSjrLsfpYJvPEC4iLbevcGEwfhNnkf8pbxhkDgsUfvpfUPVEnuWA_ml6kLsdrdm6udd1SQbvK0_17UOEpsRMU3n5Ds472Cv5/s1600/19221584_10155288589612752_6717148808272033279_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW8j_yatS9qZ40nH6seZ3pUuA3ue_13oX25iG5YxESWidcJSjrLsfpYJvPEC4iLbevcGEwfhNnkf8pbxhkDgsUfvpfUPVEnuWA_ml6kLsdrdm6udd1SQbvK0_17UOEpsRMU3n5Ds472Cv5/s200/19221584_10155288589612752_6717148808272033279_o.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Raven and I together, phone pic by me. </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As far as birthdays go, I think last year's was one of the best. Sometimes a trip out is better than a party (especially if you're more introverted like me. I end up poking my phone at my own parties because I get 'peopled out'!). Going to Cawdor castle was Raven's treat, so I'm very thankful to him for taking me (even over a year on!). He took me out to dinner, too (which, just before, is when I took the selfie of us together - hence the different makeup and outfit). Raven is very much the romantic, and I'm eternally grateful to him for all these years together - as well as Birthday trips out! <br /><br />Also, this blog would be much less aesthetically pleasing without his photographic talent! Not just this specific entry (which would just be a big wall of text about how much I like Cawdor Castle otherwise), but in general - he's taken so many of the photographs of me for this blog over the years, and they're always really flattering. I don't look half as good in my own selfies - let alone real life - as I do in Raven's pictures of me. He's got a knack for composition and posing that does well to minimise my many physical flaws and highlight my better features (so, less turkey neck, more cheekbones) and even manages to take pretty pictures of me when I'm not trying to pose (those probably turn out <i>better</i>; I pose awkwardly when I know I'm being photographed) </span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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The HouseCathttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07783576090040274742noreply@blogger.com5