This brings up some interesting questions for me which I am still mulling over. Is this simply an extension of animism? If I believe that non-living objects have spirits – and I do, though I think the degree of strength can vary significantly – can I imagine falling in love with one? It may seem weird at first glance, but is it any stranger than having a romantic relationship with a completely disembodied spirit, or a god? I’ve certainly felt strong and personal affection for entities that other people would class as “things” – such as caves, woods, and other natural places. What about the issue of reciprocation – how can one be sure the object feels something in return? (Does having a spirit even necessarily imply the ability to love, and lust?) And if it doesn’t reciprocate, is it wrong to “use” it sexually? I note that in the documentary, the truth of the object’s return feelings is never directly called into question, and from what they showed, these women seemed sure that every object they fell in love with clearly felt the same way. Also interesting to note that they were all polyamorous in their affections and relationships. The woman who married the Eiffel Tower, for instance, was also involved with a fence, a bridge, an archery bow, and several other things. Her relationship with the bow, by the way, led her to become a world-class competitive archer – until the relationship ended and she could no longer become one with it.

Pretty fascinating stuff, especially from a pagan perspective. Would love to hear other people’s thoughts on this. And go watch the documentary – it’s free and definitely worth 45 minutes of your time.

When we make an offering or sacrifice to the gods, we are in essence parting the veil and connecting the worlds. We offer a piece of Here to the realm of There. The act of dedicating the material to the spiritual creates a channel through which power flows. It creates the very sacred space through which the holy substance of the thing can be transferred to the spirit world, to the gods. Sacrifice literally does make sacred, as its etymology implies.

That arc of wine poured onto the earth in libation is a bridge between the worlds. And for those of us who are witches and shamans and mystics in addition to worshippers, it is a bridge we can tread. We can slip into that opening created by sacrifice to commune and communicate, as we wish, with the gods and spirits. When we see it for what it is, the act of offering itself can alter consciousness. If you consider it, it’s an amazing thing – through intention and ritual (both are important), we take some simple physical thing and hand it to the gods. Even if we can’t see Them take it, even if we can’t feel it, an exchange has taken place, the worlds have briefly touched. And we can, in fact, learn to see and feel it, and take full advantage of that holiness that is created through giving.

(And this adds another consideration to the act of animal sacrifice. To dedicate not just an object but a life to the gods opens a powerful channel, as the process of death itself blurs the boundaries between the worlds and lets a soul pass through. Which is yet another reason – and there are many – that any such sacrifice should be carried out flawlessly, with deep respect to the living creature and solemn dedication to the holy powers, by specialists skilled both in the physical and metaphysical elements. A channel of that magnitude should not be opened carelessly, or improperly, or with any stain of cruelty.)

Girls Underground: this is a little idea I’ve been obsessed with for ages, since I first noticed the striking similarities between many of my favorite stories, fairytales and myths. I identified a common archetype at play, and began looking for more examples. Variations on the theme of a young girl who enters an otherworld, is assisted by companions, opposed by an adversary, and reaches her goal while discovering she is something more than she had believed. Basically a “heroine’s journey” but with a lot of specific details that I keep seeing over and over. Alice in Wonderland obviously comes to mind for most people, but is is actually the movie Labyrinth that more closely fits the story, and was the original inspiration. Anyway, the website details the archetype in full, mentions fairytale and mythological predecessors, and has a blog where I post modern books and movies that fit.

Raven’s Bread: my blog dedicated to the Amanita muscaria mushroom and its ubiquitous appearance in modern culture. While the regular posts are mostly images from art, pop culture, old postcards, photography, etc., there is also a Resources page that gives links to some serious work on A. muscaria, and even a few uploads of scholarly articles. Amanita is one of my primary entheogenic spirits, and I  hope to write more about it in depth here on this blog in the near future.

imWalde: my crafts business, an outlet for my art involving bones and other animal bits. I started this on an inspiration from my spirits, and it has become a great way to combine my artistic and spiritual interests – the more public manifestation of my work with animal bones. The Bone Forest Collection is all jewelry combining bones with sparkling jewels (I just uploaded over 20 new pieces yesterday, so please come take a look!), and Goblinesquerie is an assortment of ritual items, jewelry, one-off crafts, and raw materials like pelts and skulls.  I also keep a related blog, Gifts of the Märchenwald, which includes a lot of my artistic and musical inspirations.

Wildivine is an older project, a website I share with my partner, covering Dionysos, Hermes and the Nymphs. We’ve been planning to post material on Pacific Northwest Polytheism at some point too. Hasn’t been updated in awhile, but there’s lots of good material in there. And on the topic of older projects, there’s also my book Kharis: Hellenic Polytheism Explored, a primer on the basics of the religion.

Should also mention there is a companion website for this blog, A Forest Door, with a few articles and links, although I haven’t updated it much since I started blogging, and may eventually combine the two.

There will definitely be some posts with more content in the near future here – am finally back on my feet but have a lot of catching up to do in all areas of my life.

However, the fact that I was still to some degree on the mend from a long, exhausting cold, and healing from a tattoo, and had not expected or prepared for the intensity of the experience, meant that I left myself susceptible and ended up catching the flu. While I am well protected spiritually in my Work, I obviously need to work on my physical defenses (just because I have been doing this for over a decade doesn’t mean I am perfect by any means, and ironically it is often the basics that I’m the worst with).

So between Work and recovery, I haven’t been up for writing. Or much of anything else. But stay tuned, because I have a whole list of ideas for upcoming posts, and also a Secret Project which will be announced soon.

I would further posit that sometimes a strong visual orientation can actually be a handicap rather than an asset. It is easy to mistake visualization (which takes place in one’s mind) with the actual visual manifestation of the spirit world (which is external to oneself). As Sarah Lawless says in her post Walking Between Worlds:

“I have to say this – visualization and guided meditations are NOT walking between worlds or trancework – they’re painting a lovely picture of doing so in your head. If you are still in your head, you are not walking between worlds. Any practice where you are using only your imagination and not actually leaving this reality or your body is not hedgecrossing.”

While it seems that the majority of people are primarily visually oriented, including in the context of trancework, there are definitely other senses through which we can perceive the spiritual.

Hearing is probably the next most common. Many people receive communications from their gods and spirits through “hearing” Their voices speak to them – I put this in quotation marks because it’s not always an external sound, indistinguishable from the voice of a person in the room with you, but often a voice in the mind, the way you can recall a voice or a song you have heard, without there being a current physical source of sound. Either way, it’s interpreted by the brain in the same basic way. (Just like the difference between seeing something manifest right in front of you like a physical thing, with eyes open – what we might term a “hallucination” – and seeing something in your mind’s eye, whether a memory or imagination or an actual spiritual entity or place. In both cases, the key to discerning its authenticity is in practice and experience and often confirmatory divination.)

While not as common, it’s also possible to smell and taste the otherworlds. I have heard of at least one person who primarily navigated spirit interactions by his sense of smell. There is also touch. In the post Communicating with the Gods II: Presence on the Lagutyr blog, the author writes:

“One way I experience the presence of a God or Goddess is by, quite literally, holding out a hand or hands and feeling the responding touch. This can be interesting, giving you a new, very immediate sense of the God or Goddess that goes outside the realm of meditation.”

This is something I have been doing for years, but had never seen described by anyone else before. It certainly doesn’t always yield strong results, but when it does, it is more memorable for me than almost any other encounter.

There are other physical senses as well, beyond the five we were taught in grade school. Sense of temperature, sense of one’s body in relation to the environment, sense of pain, sense of magnetic fields, sense of time, etc. These can all be ways in which spiritual forces might be perceived (especially that last one – many stories tell of time distortions related to certain wights, for instance). One way I often feel the sudden presence of my spirits is in a sharp disturbance in my equilibrium – more than simple dizziness, I am nearly pushed over to one side by an invisible force. This is as clear as any visual cue would be.

And then of course there’s that “sixth sense” – the alteration to consciousness that is difficult to describe but unmistakable, when Their presence kind of hits you heavily with a whump and you feel Them there without necessarily having any traditional sensory cues at all.

Even if visualization and visionary experiences come easily to you, these other methods can augment your practices, fill in some gaps, lead you in interesting new directions. They also can be tied in nicely with the various ritual acts we all do to connect with the gods and spirits, which involve our senses as well. Burn a particular incense often enough for a god, for instance, and you may start smelling it at other times when the physical herb isn’t present, but the god is – it can become a signature. In fact, doing the physical rituals is a really solid foundation for everything else, and can always be returned to when one’s “spiritual senses” aren’t open enough. Grounding the spiritual in the physical is extremely powerful in itself. As the Swamp Witch says in Visualization: Casting circles, grounding and centering:

“So what do you do if you still can’t visualize? Then you DO. You can call it low magic, you can call it cheating (yes I’ve actually heard this, senseless as it is) but we have magical tools for a reason.”

But it seems to me that all of this is missing the point. It doesn’t matter if some particular pagan-seeming custom can be absolutely traced back to origins in the polytheistic past. Regardless, it is a survival (or re-manifestation, if you will) of the polytheistic mindset, the animistic worldview. In fact, I would posit that it’s better if these customs re-emerged in new forms post-Christianity. Then they are simply newer variations on the same themes, proving the primacy of those themes in the human experience (i.e., our natural state is paganism). They are a genuine and fresh response to the continuous perception of spirits and the immanent divine in the natural world, one that cannot be eliminated by strong discouragement by the Church or materialistic society, even when the latter two things manage to squash specific activities. They just find a new expression again, rising from the same basic spiritual understanding that has existed for all of human history.

Take, for example, mumming. Most mumming traditions cannot be traced back with any certainty more than a few hundred years. Even the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, whose antlers have been carbon dated to the 11th century, was only first referred to in 1686. But anyone who watches it is seeing the world through pagan eyes for those few minutes, tapping into the same awareness of the spiritual forces at work in the world around us. Those families in Austria who gather to be gleefully terrified by the Perchtenlauf each winter do so because deep down, they know that winter is a perilous time, with spirits abroad that need appeasing.

Even in cynical, consumerist, Christian-dominated 21st century America, we’re seeing a small resurgence of Krampus – partly in response to the hollowness of the modern Christmas season, to be sure, but also because it fills a need some people didn’t even know they had. Krampus is inextricably linked to Saint Nicholas, and therefore ostensibly Christian; it is not technically a pagan survival, but instead a new iteration of certain core concepts and perspectives that themselves are inherently pagan.

I think for the most part, we can leave the hair-splitting to the historians, and instead embrace the spirit of these traditions – a spirit which is undeniably pagan at heart.

As I said in my post on Discernment, it seems that a bunch of pagans these days think that they can just bypass all the work and experience that has always been required to have deep contact with the divine. This isn’t a matter (as some have suggested) of simply differing personal experiences, everyone deals with the gods in their own way, YMMV, etc. I think a lot of new polytheists would benefit significantly from some serious study – not just of their own tradition’s history and mythology (which most will do, at least eventually) but of cross-cultural concepts and practices relating to ritual, spiritual specialists, mysticism, trance, etc. I was fortunate to have done this early on my path, as part of coursework for my BA degree. I think it gave me a broader perspective on these issues. It showed me the places of commonality between types of mysticism and spirit-work, and the many differences as well. It gave me a better sense of how humans, as a species, interact and communicate with the spiritual forces, as a whole. Some of this is dictated by our physical bodies, especially our neural pathways, and some by culture, which is of course more fluid. But I have never encountered a culture or sub-culture which thought that anyone, at any time, with no training or experience whatsoever, could launch immediately into a controlled, consistent, and deep level of interaction with gods and spirits.

Not until I encountered some modern pagans, that is. I think it speaks more to our cultural values of instant gratification and self-esteem, our rejection of anything smacking of elitism, and our plain unwillingness to do years of hard work if we can find a way around it, than it does to some special quality that has suddenly been bestowed on us but is unavailable to members of traditional polytheistic and animistic cultures. I fear that our religions will be doomed to stay at a very superficial level if we cannot entice more mystically-inclined people to deeply commit themselves to a lifetime of work – and the first step in that is even recognizing that it takes a lifetime! But why do all of that if you can take a weekend workshop and call yourself a shaman, or just chat with your spirits all day in your head without ever doing anything for them, or meet a deity for the first time and marry them just a few months later, when you haven’t even established a devotional practice yet?

Which brings me to godspouses. I find it utterly bizarre that this is a “trend” now, but it seems to be. Especially surrounding certain deities. I’m not going to get into arguments about whether this jives with “The Lore,” which is of course different in each tradition. I’m perfectly comfortable with the idea that some gods and spirits might occasionally take a human lover (that certainly IS explicit in the lore of Hellenic polytheism, at least), and I’m also comfortable with the idea that sometimes, it becomes something even more intimate, more permanent, a relationship that could be likened to a marriage.

But again, these are GODS we are talking about, not invisible friends. I wouldn’t encourage someone to even make a basic devotional oath to a god after only a brief time of knowing Them, much less a commitment of this magnitude. First of all, you have to be sure that you are in contact with a real entity and not a mental sock puppet. This takes a certain amount of experience to ascertain, and/or help of elders, unambiguous omen confirmations, “blind” divinations (i.e., where the diviner doesn’t know the situation and therefore is more objective), etc. Next, assuming it is an actual entity, you have to be sure They are who They say They are. Once more: experience, omens, divinations. (When you’ve had years under your belt of devotional worship, ritual and study, it will be much easier and quicker to get through these steps, which is exactly my point.)

Then – and here’s an important and really difficult step requiring a lot of brutal self-honesty – you have to ascertain if the feelings you’re having are mutual. You may be feeling a pull to this god, but are They reciprocating, and with the same tone and intensity? And if so, what do They want from you? Here’s another place where study of tradition helps – because thousands of years of people worshipping the gods has given us some basic guidelines that are unlikely to be thrown away by Them just because you’re so special and awesome (even if you are). Each tradition has some solid information on how one properly devotes themselves to a deity. If you are being drawn to a more intimate, intense relationship with a god, these requirements are actually MORE important, not less. You are not exempt from offerings, prayer, taboos, and sacrifices because you are so close to this god, in fact more will be demanded of you, in terms of quantity and quality.

And besides which, it will take a lot of time (there is no way around this) to build up a meaningful and consistent devotional practice, refine your rituals and festivals, learn what unique things may be asked of you and do them long enough to prove yourself, and practice techniques (whichever ones work for your body and mind, and are approved by your gods) of altering your consciousness in ways that allow you to more clearly communicate with the divine. Again, study the ways of mystics the world over, of ecstatic nuns, Indian sadhus, Tibetan monks, Inuit shamans, horses and oracles and cunning women and medicine men and all the rest, and you will find people who spend decades training for this before attaining deeper levels of intimacy with their gods and spirits.

Once you’re relatively comfortable with all of these elements of devotional and ecstatic practice, and have built a foundation of devotion, respect, love, trust, mutual giving, and awe for the divine, a shared history, once you have exposed your deepest self to your god, and through study and ritual and direct experience learned of Their nature and personality, in ways not reached by the more casual worshipper, then perhaps you might take it to another level. When you are ready and willing to do this with full comprehension (as much as possible) of the ramifications, when you would do it even if there were no other godspouses, no fun little community to share with, when you understand how isolating it can be, setting you apart even from other devotees… when you have seen the terrifying faces of your god (most have them) and not turned aside, when you are truly able to put Them above all others, human and non-human, when you have co-created a relationship that is both personal and sacred… then perhaps, for some, there is god-marriage (though this is far from the only such intense and intimate relationship one can have with a deity, and the other types should not be neglected – see Walking the Heartroad for more about these, and a powerful and wise discussion of devotion).

And if you truly have done all this, the marriage will be so much more meaningful, powerful, and surprising than you could ever imagine. It won’t be just like having an invisible boyfriend or girlfriend. It might involve some of the things we think of as traditionally “romantic” or “marital” – but this union will be so much more than can be encompassed by those words. It will be different, of course, for everyone, but you will never be able to fully prepare for it regardless because making that kind of oath, binding yourself in that way to a spiritual entity, is a game-changer. It will change you, and it will definitely change your relationship with Them (in ways that might be hard and painful at times). It may turn your whole life upside-down, mess with your human relationships, force you into things you’d never imagined, just the same as a shamanic calling or similar vocation. And it will be the most beautiful, blessed experience of your life.

Don’t rush it. Don’t jump on the bandwagon. Don’t risk the pitfalls, the self-delusion, the dangerous entities, the regrets and second-thoughts. But more than that, don’t deprive yourself of the depth and breadth of experience that can only be had after years of work. Don’t settle.

I imagine some might ask, what if a god truly proposes such an alliance, before any of this work has been done? I won’t say that’s impossible. I could imagine a number of reasons it might happen. But you know, you don’t have to say yes. And in fact, knowing you’re not ready and wanting to put in more time before making such a commitment might be what convinces the god you have the potential to really know Them, down the line. It could lead to something much more intimate than would have ever existed if you had been satisfied with a superficial and undeveloped level of contact.

This may sound harsh, but it is how things have always been between gods and mortals – we are not equals, we are not even quite in the same world, and crossing that gulf has never been easy. It’s worth the effort, though. I promise – what you can have, no matter how naturally gifted or favored you are, after six months is nothing compared to what you will have after six years, or sixty. I myself can’t wait to see what’s down the road, even after all this time. Don’t let our fast-paced, on-demand culture (which doesn’t validate your beliefs or practices anyway) trick you into thinking that this, too, comes without a significant expenditure of time and energy. It’s worth doing, and it’s worth doing well. Take your time, and enjoy the journey. Think of it as a long courtship, during which you get to learn everything you possibly can about your Beloved, and in the process become something even more worthy of Their love.

And for those who are already godspouses – this is just the beginning. All the same rules apply, regarding what you must put into it. How deeply can you explore this intimacy? You have a lifetime to find out.

Anyway, just wanted to hop on here quickly to post a few things related to the Krampuslauf I mentioned last week. First, you can see the masks I made for it starting here. The first one linked to is my own mask, based on a sort of generic animal skull with blood red goat-like horns. If you go forward in the set, you’ll see the sheep’s wool mask I made for Sannion, and a serpent mask I painted for our friend which did not end up getting worn (didn’t quite fit with the other costumes there) but which I wanted to share anyway because I like how it turned out.

Secondly, there is a video! It mostly just shows us all getting ready and assembled, taking photos, etc. But at about 3:30 you’ll see the procession begin, with the chanting, bell ringing, horn blowing, and all the amazing masks looking eerie in the fading light of dusk. Look for me in my mask (gleaming white, so it gets picked up well by the camera) and cloak adorned with animal bits. I’m so glad we have this to help remember our incredible time there.

But (you knew there was going to be a “but”)… it seems that a very crucial element of such practice is being neglected amongst this new crop of enthusiastic polytheists, and that is discernment. It is important to discern between what a god might like, or do, or say, and what They actually do like, are doing, are saying.

I read a lot from people who appear to be having constant conversations with the gods as if They were simply invisible friends, always near and always interested in everything we think or do. You get the impression that gods have nothing better to do than comment on one’s choice of breakfast cereal, or snark on a tv show, or tell you what to wear every day. These gods seem somewhat more like simple story characters – more personality than archetypes, but similarly limited and predictable in how They will act or react – than the awesome, complex, spiritual Powers that They are.

Now, this level of engagement isn’t without its usefulness. Any way one reaches out to the gods can be good – it keeps you focused on Them, and lays the foundation for deeper levels of communication at other times. Interacting with Them as a “character” can function to keep you at least lightly connected on a more constant basis than you could manage with true, direct contact (which would be hard to keep up while still working, driving, interacting with other people, or anything else that requires a lot of attention). It’s not all in your imagination, it just means that you’re mostly connecting with a surface layer of that deity, one which doesn’t require Them to be particularly (or at least, continually) active in the exchange. But doing this makes you more receptive when the god does fully manifest, which might happen at any time (yes, even while driving – I didn’t claim to be consistent).

Provided, of course, that you recognize the manifestation for the notable and exceptional occurrence that it is. The problem comes when you fail to distinguish between that sort of light contact and the type of intense communion with deity that marks a more substantial communication. Traditional shamans, mystics and witches – around the world and throughout the ages – wouldn’t have developed so many ways of altering consciousness and ritually approaching the gods if it were as simple as talking to Them in your head all day.

The gods are not just people who happen to be invisible and inaudible to most (despite our tendency toward anthropomorphism), and They are not limited to our ideas about Them. If the god you’re hearing never seems to stray (in appearance, tone, message, etc.) from what one would expect based on other people’s experiences, if They never surprise or even shock you, never challenge you, and if They are always there whenever you happen to turn your attention toward Them, then you are probably not touching the true nature of that god. To reiterate, you don’t always need to be doing so. But if you never go further, if you fail to recognize the limits of this everyday chit-chat sort of approach and thus fail to push yourself to access a deeper level of communication, then you will never really know the god you love as thoroughly as you could, and that is a shame, especially for one who aspires to that sort of mystic relationship.

I talk with my gods and spirits all the time (sometimes They even tell me what to wear – see above comment about consistency). I feel Their presence around me on a daily basis. I know and believe that is real, but I understand it isn’t the whole story. They have other things going on besides me. I see something that reminds me of one of Them, and think that They would like it… but I don’t then assume that They do like it unless I have an undeniable confirmation of such – a direct communication while in trance, a confirmatory omen or divination, etc. If I want to get Their full attention, I work for it – I do ritual, I put power behind my words and actions, I choose potent times and places, and then I shift my own consciousness to a receptive state in which I can listen and see more clearly. And I never, ever assume I have reached the end of this work to get closer to Them. There is always another level, both in the everyday connection (which can, to be sure, deepen in its own way, over time) and the more intense ritual times. But I know it is work, and it does not come of wishful thinking but of practice, experience, faith, time, trial & error, challenge, and sweat. The good thing about this is that there is always something even better to look forward to.

Saturday we drove up to Portland and went to a matinee show of the Christmas Revels, which had a Medieval England theme of King & Fool this year. Aside from being my default winter-holidays music since childhood (I knew what wassailing was from a very young age), Revels is almost like a ritual – the lush costumes, talented musicians with period instruments, huge puppets, mummer’s play, group singing with the whole audience… the classic battle of the king to retain his kingship as the winter forces grow strong… it was incredible, even better than the last performance we saw a few years ago. They even did the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance once again, quietly, on an almost dark stage, while a hush fell over the theatre. They may have included Jesus and Mary in their carols, but the overall gist of the thing was pure pagan. I cried, just so deeply moved to be witnessing it, and participating in my own way.

After the show, we got to spend some time with our good friend Thora at her lovely home, and then were persuaded to go out dancing at an industrial music night… at what turned out to be a club in an old theatre, named after a volcano, which meant of course that Dionysos had to show up. And show up He did, at the very end of the night, when – just as I was about to call it quits – the DJ played an unlikely song that incited me to a rather mainadic few minutes on the dance floor (it’s not really good until you get so dizzy you fall down).

The next morning we had breakfast with a lovely and interesting heathen couple we had not yet met in person. And then it was time to get ready for the Krampus Lauf! We had no idea what to expect from this group, not having met any of them or even really talked much online, but we figured it was worth a shot. I had made us some masks and we threw together costumes and headed down to a park to meet everyone. After some time spent getting everyone assembled, costumed, photographed, and familiar with the collective chant, the group of maybe 20 or so started our procession. People had really gone all out for this, the costumes were incredible (I will definitely have to step up my game next year). There were furs and goat horns and lolling tongues, birch switches and drums and giant bells, and I wasn’t even the only one with a hunting horn! (The two horns sounding periodically throughout were eerie and exciting, inciting everyone to shout and cheer.)

We paraded all the way down and back the busiest part of Hawthorne, which is a funky street lined with boutique shops and restaurants. We made an ungodly racket, chanting and screaming and ringing bells and blowing horns, some of the guys chasing passerby around, frightening or dumbfounding the folks who were quietly eating dinner or just walking down the street. The looks and comments were priceless. (“I don’t know what this is, but I love it!”) I would catch my own reflection in a shop window sometimes, the white of my skull-like mask a haunting blur, and feel like I was in two places at once, simultaneously in the midst of the devilish rout, and external to it, watching from a distance. To be a part of this amazing thing with such a rich tradition and history behind it, stretching back to old Alpine customs, this primal procession at the darkest time of the year, this motley collection of animal-headed monsters, was something I’d been craving for ages. What we do on our own here, our more solitary and quiet mumming, is extremely important and powerful in its own way, but I am so glad to have had the opportunity to participate in this other kind as well.

Still humming from that experience, we drove back to Eugene that night in time to get enough rest for our adventures on Monday, which included going on our annual trip to the ocean to greet loud-roaring, wave-crashing Dionysos. This time I did not get all the way into the sea, due to the frigid cold and the fact that I was already running on fumes after the events of the weekend, but I did go in partway despite the pain. I sounded the horn three times to call Him forth and then we poured out a long stream of dark red wine that ran in rivulets down the sand like a stream of blood. I walked into the waves and poured out more on my own, and talked with Him. We explored the beaches, the volcanic rock cliffs, the little tidepools. It was beautiful.

And as icing on the cake, before we headed home we hit our favorite antique store on the coast, where I found something truly amazing (bone-related, of course) that will be showing up in my shop sometime soon.

I am still processing the whole thing, because we did so much and all of it was very intense. And this is just the beginning! What a way to kick off Yule season. Still to come: honoring Holda, Perchta and Baba Yaga, nine nights of trancework with Odin, Yule proper with its vigil and Hunt procession, and our Turbe mumming with Dionysos. I’m also working on some special devotional projects this holiday to honor the spirits of all the animals who reside with me in the form of pelts and skulls, and also the living animals that reside in our city. And, will have to make time for a few more journeys with Amanita. I love this time of year, but I will be seriously exhausted come January.