I Made A Goddess Candle-statue For My Altar, I'm Really Pleased With How She Turned Out! (the Rocks In

I made a goddess candle-statue for my altar, I'm really pleased with how she turned out! (the rocks in the bowl are all wishing stones)

Thank you!!! I'm always sad when I see a great non-vegan spell and I can't come up with an alternative. This is so great!

Vegan Replacements In Spells

Eggs for rebirth- pennyroyal, tansy, ivy, or honeysuckle.

Eggs for general protection- acorn, basil, bay leaves, lavender, cinnamon, rosemary, clover, coriander, ferns, heather, mistletoe, mullein, vervain, st. johns wart, or peony.

Eggs for protection against evil, magic, and psychic attacks- onions, rosemary, yarrow, pennyroyal, ivy, holly, garlic, dragon’s blood, cactus, clove, dill, mugwort, cayenne pepper, or black pepper.

Eggs to protect from nightmares- mullein, lavender, rosemary, anise, dandelion, lemon balm, or catnip.

Honey- honey is used to “sweeten” someone’s feelings towards you, so using sugar, apple honey, stevia, or agave would work just as well and it’ll help save our bee friends!

Milk- almond milk, coconut milk, rice milk, or soy milk. Any of these will work in place of dairy milk. If you want to be more specific in your spells though almond milk can be used for money, prosperity, luck, and wisdom. Coconut milk can be used for protection or spiritual cleansing. Soy milk can be used for prosperity and amplifying psychic abilities. And rice milk can be used for protection and attracting rain.

✨Make sure to be safe and research herbs you want to use if you plan on ingesting or burning them!!✨

Feel free to add on to this list pals!

Paris Smart City 2050

by Vincent Callebaut

'fish out of water' This was a self portrait for a mixed media arts class, I really love the feeling of this painting.

Natural Colored Rainbow Cake with Edible Flowers for Beltane!

Beltain in my family’s Celtic tradition.

As many of my followers know by now, I was raised observing the Celtic year and traditions (for the most part). My family has a long history in the old ways done in countries where Celtic people flourished (Ireland, England, and parts of France in our case). I’m seeing people getting geared up for “Beltane” in largely Wiccan and neo-pagan ways, which is cool too, but I wanted to post some information about the way my people did things.

Here’s a brief description from the site The Celtic Year (click the title).

Beltain, celebrated around 1 May, was another fire festival; but whereas Samhain was associated with going to ground, and withdrawing, Beltain burst forth with an abundant fertility. Cattle were let out of winter quarters and driven between two fires in a ritual cleansing ceremony that may have had practical purposes too. It was a time for feasts and fairs, for the mating of animals, and for divorces - possible arising from trial marriages entered into at Lughnasadh. Like Samhain, it was a time for boardgames - as well as for travel between the worlds: the legendary poet Taliesin is said to manifest at Beltain.

Beltain was sacred to the god Belenos, the Shining One, whose name survives in placenames such as Billingsgate, and in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline - Hound of Belenus. In fact the word ‘Beltain’ derives from Bel-tinne - fires of Bel. As noted above, for the Fianna, Beltain heralded the start of the ‘fighting season’. De Jubainville, in his Irish Mythological Cycle, writes :

It was on a Thursday, the first of May, and the 17th day of the moon, that the [invading] sons of Miled arrived in Ireland. Partholan [chief of the next race of invaders] also landed in Ireland on the first of May … and it was on the first day of May, too, that the pestilence came which in the space of one week destroyed utterly his race. The first of May was sacred to Beltene, one of the names of the god of Death, the god who gives life to men and takes it away from them again. Thus it was on the feast day of this god that the sons of Miled began their conquest of Ireland.

Beltain is the origin of pagan May Day festivities such as that of the Padstow Hobby Horse, and maypole dancing, of the ‘Queen of the May’, and of ‘well dressing’ - decking holy wells with flowers, as still practised in some rural communities.

As with every other sacred day of the year, my grandmother never used words like Beltain, Samhain, etc. At most, she used words like equinox, solstice, May Day, and so forth. I know now that my family hadn’t been using language for a few generations that could be interpreted as “witchcraft” out of fear. It’s a long story but my family lived in fear for generations that we’d be judged and ridiculed for living in the old ways. So I’ve been piecing things together one sacred season at a time and comparing my childhood teachings with what I know now as Celtic polytheism mixed with American folk magick.

The last week of April and the first week of May was very important to my grandmother who was what we’d call a hedge witch or maybe a cottage witch today. I remember making flower crowns with her around May Day when I was a very small child. Since I wasn’t big enough to master gardening yet, the tradition was for me to make a basket of spring flowers out of construction paper and give them to the other women in my family. My grandmother, the matriarch, always got the biggest most grand basket of construction paper flowers. She told me every May Day to close my eyes and will the paper flowers to be real, and then one day I’d have a big garden like hers. I was never very patient about learning plants and agriculture, so I didn’t pay attention as much as I could have, but I’m making an effort to write everything down now that she’s gone.

My grandmother did a lot of transplanting around the full moon closest to Beltain and gave plant clippings to friends and family for their own gardens. She told me very early on that transplants at the full moon were stronger and made the plants thrive better in their new homes. She taught me how to make clippings, which plants could grow from clippings, and the importance of choosing the right plants for the right people.

Beltain was not, in our family, as steeped in tradition as Samhain but what I do remember comes in bursts of color and light. It was a celebratory part of our year. I was encouraged to be outside, to be creative with color and art, and to be generous with my knowledge. Looking back on it now, Beltain was the time of year when I followed my grandmother around while she helped other people with their gardens - people who never knew they had a witch making their gardens burst into life. It’s what she was known for.