Beware the Ides of March! Yes March is like an enigma, it is still winter but spring wants to have her way too.
The besom I ordered from Etsy and that flew in from the Ukraine is truly magickal. The besom is still standing up on end perfectly straight. Wow. The besom named Raven is black and beautiful. Well it came from Russia, yeah so, it’s magickal. I love Raven. The besom is just made for this witch’s abode.
I plan to start my seeds soon. I wanted to get soil today but the freezing cold temperature – minus 21 C% windchill, keeps me indoors. I may go out just to do laundry but that’s all. I guess I will head out tomorrow. It is too cold to leave the house today.
I ordered the Tauriel Maxi Overdress in black this week. I can’t wait to get to wear it with everything I own almost. Black matches everything. I already can think of several dresses I can wear with the overdress. That’s why I don’t regret buying it. It is better than buying something and then discovering too late nothing matches. Here is the enchanting description of the overdress from Holy Clothing:
“Named for the free-spirited elven warrior from The Hobbit, our Tauriel Overdress truly is a magical piece. There’s something really fantastic and awe-inspiring about this hooded overdress, from the falling vines of leaves to her mysterious oversized hood.
This overdress is a single piece that is made up of a lace-up bodice, asymmetrical hem skirt, and a hood. It’s also an underbust design, which gives the wearer a lot of looks to play with when they’re deciding which pieces of their closet to add to the outfit they want to create.
Tauriel isn’t just a fantasy dress for costume play or LARP. It’s so much more than that. It’s a dress that allows you to bring a spark of magic into your everyday life without being a huge statement piece. This is a dress with a subtle and lovely flare, and one that would look perfect while worn during a Sunday market excursion or donned for a day out in your nearest big city.
Live magically. Live romantically.
About this overdress:
Metallic silver nature-inspired embroidery.
Pockets for keeping your favorite shiny rocks safe.
Brass eyelets.
Bodice designed with two layers of rayon and interfacing.
Crepe godets.
Double layer of rayon for the hood.
Exclusive HolyClothing design.
Ethically handmade in India.” Credit to Holy Clothing.
How can you turn that away? I can’t. I ordered it for a reason. I can’t wait for winter to end so I can strut my stuff. Here is a photo of the overdress shown below. https://holyclothing.com/collections/overdresses I have included the link if you want to order one for yourself.
I hope this inspires you to try enchanting your own style! Blessings Spiderwitch
Mabon is almost here. The leaves are turning. Last night I roasted pumpkin seeds and spotted more pumpkins at the grocery store. A chill hovers in the air, and those are the sure signs of fall. My favourite time of year is here and I am under its spell. I froze the rest of the pumpkin and gave half of it to my Mom who stored some in her freezer. I can’t possibly use it all and sharing is good.
That is the gift of the fall season. The abundance that we receive in the fall. The month of October is already scheduled for me. The much anticipated Paranormal Symposium occurs on October 7th and my demonology course begins on October 16th. Also October means Samhain. I have my herbal courses and preparing for Samhain. I will be busy! I just successfully completed Unit 4 of the Advanced Herbalism course. I am so relieved to have gotten this far. Unit 4 was very difficult. Now on to other news…
I am obsessing right now on what I want to wear at the Paranormal Symposium. The hotel where the Symposium is taking place is very prestigious. My witch boots are at the repair shop waiting for when I am finally rich enough to pay for them. I mended the maxi black lace skirt. I want to look amazing. I mean the hotel was swanky and classy. I felt like a hoodlum when I came in asking if that was the correct location for the hotel. It was. OK I need to get dressed!
I spent hours studying witchy outfits on Google and Pinterest. I can waste hours doing that. I have no desire to buy something new to wear. Instead I took my inspiration from Mori Goth and such. The outfits look so complicated, inspired from nature and so effortless. Right. I have cool black clothes from Killstar. I am sure I can put an outfit together for the big day! I shall dive deep into my closet!
I want to wear an outfit inspired by what I saw on Pinterest. I love Pinterest, it’s one of my guilty pleasures. I have a few options: I mean, black goes with everything.
#1 My black blouse with drapes sleeves paired with the black lace maxi skirt, a black corset I wore with a black cardigan and wear the blouse and black cardigan under the bodice. I want to show the long lovely drapes sleeves but have the cardigan sleeves pushed up to help with the reveal of the sleeves. I sewed the bodice myself so I will feel comfortable in it. I have a short sleeve black tie front top I can wear with the dress. I think I am liking option #2 more:
#2 I wear the black lace dress over the black lace maxi skirt and a cardigan. I want to look alluring, haunting, bewitching. I would still wear the bodice and belt with it. I want to look like I can handle prestigious while being true to myself. I have chosen a few accessories for these outfit options: a witch hat (of course), the black lace up boots, my spider choker, pentacle belt, a shawl, the skull ring and spider tattoo. Oh yeah I can’t wait. I want to paint my nails both silver and black. I have waited months for this so I want to make it all worth the wait. I can get some perfume from the drugstore and I want makeup that doesn’t wear off fast. The black lace dress has pentagrams on it. I love it, so meant for me. I may even add the black lace gloves. Or it may be too much, I will know soon. Or I could wear the gloves there then remove them when I arrive. I have a lovely silver crescent moon necklace to wear too.
#3 I wear the black lace maxi skirt and the black blouse with the lovely drapey sleeves and the short sleeve tie front top. I think I like this option too. I can bring in all the above elements. I think that lace is so bewitching, and best in black. I would still include all the accessories.
Then I will put my intention into the outfit and empower it with my energy. I have to feel comfortable but alluring at the same time. I have never attended a symposium before but I am sure I will have fun. The photo above depicts my backyard. It conveys the image, like the mood I am in. I have seen videos of women who traded in their signature goth dreads, tattoos and goth clothing look and sacrificed their individuality to look all princess. I know in my heart that is a decision I could never make. I can’t even feel comfortable in a business suit. I need my bohemian witchy look or nothing. It is how I feel my best. October is not a warm month but I will be indoors most of the day. I have to consider that factor too.
I have no issue with telling someone flat out what I think of them. I am sure it won’t come to that. But I have fought long and hard for Witches to be accepted. We are not the monsters depicted in Hollywood movies or deserving to be burned at the stake. We are the healers, the midwives, the lovers, the tarot readers, the herbalists, and the moon worshipping badasses.
I’ll polish my boots, mend the fishnet tights, and I sprayed a preserving oil on the black purse I am bringing. It only costs cents to repair something yet it can take you so far. Clear nail polish repairs tights and it is good to have a sewing needle and thread at hand. I may even make a new black slip to accompany the shirts and dresses. Yes I plan to forgo the backpack for a purse. This hotel is ritzy so I want to look as pulled together as I possibly can. This is going to be amazing! I can’t wait.
I know, I know, as if Covid wasn’t bad enough, it is also the middle of winter and spring seems a way off. Snow frosts the yard and garden here. To cheer myself up, this is how I have spent my time. A copy of Lisa Morton’s book Ghosts: A Haunted history. I am sure it will be an awesome spooky read. I polished an article about Paranormal paganism for the editor of Witches and Pagans magazine at her request. I am still slogging away on my brown wool winter coat. My lining material has strangely vanished from my apartment. I have no idea where it went. It’s been nearly a month and it hasn’t turned up. My Mom bought the last of the brown wool online as the fabric store had discontinued it. I would not have been able to sew the sleeves. I am buying new lining fabric in a different color by the end of the week. I am also slowly slogging away on a new novella story.
I have been busy. On top of slaving for my cat, as per protocol, I conducted a Sherlock Holmes worthy investigation of where the fabric could have vanished to. I did bring home a new mirror. I never saged it when I brought it home. Now I have smudged my apartment, spritzed holy water onto the mirror and smudged the mirror. I plan to sew a long white cloth and empower the cloth with a blue rune symbol like Eolh as a binding symbol for protection.
Mirrors are known to be portals for spirits, especially unsavory spirits. Some people believe that if you have a mirror in your bedroom, your partner will cheat on you. Ouch! Others believe that you should cover the mirror with a white cloth at night if you do plan to have a mirror in your room. Right now, the long mirror is in my bedroom with the back of the mirror facing up. I am broke right now and as soon as I can, I will cover the mirror at night. I want to buy a bagua. I believe in Feng Shui. Maybe incense too!
However, I can’t explain how my fabric managed to VANISH from a tiny, cluttered apartment. It is nowhere to be found. I blame the new mirror. I have to blame something. It is truly weird that fabric can disappear. It never left the apartment. I have waited all month for it to return to me and no luck. I beleive now I can’t use that lining fabric for my coat. I have to buy new lining fabric that has good energy in it. I am now not in love with the color anyway.
Some day I might find that fabric and then kick myself for the rest of my life. It will turn up in the most odd or unlikely place. In the meantine, I have sewn the hood for the coat, the belt and the outer shell of the coat. I have yet to sew the sleeves and set them in the coat, and line the coat and sew on the carriers for the belt. I am pleased with how beautifully the shoulder seam sleeves and the under collar turned out. I stitched a perfect brown wool belt too and the buckle is a gold color. The gold perfectly enhances the brown wool. Wool can be turned right side out. It just takes patience and being gentle with the wool.
Eventually, the winter coat will be completed and look just beautiful. I can’t wait. I know my strawberry blonde hair color will be enhanced by the brown wool. The gold buckle looks beautiful on the brown Kashmir wool. I borrowed a book about couture sewing and a book from the library about sewing. I also bought the Vogue fashion sewing book from Thriftbooks. I chose Thriftbooks because it is much cheaper than Amazon and more reliable. I was scammed by a seller on Amazon.
I invested in a thread box that stores thread- no more searching!, and a tailor ham, tailor’s chalk, new sharper scissors which hugely helps and are only for sewing. I do plan to buy a sleeve roll so I can perfectly sew the sleeves. I plan to interface the sleeeves and add a sleeve head. That is so the wool fabric is smoother and more professional looking. My Mom has offered to sew the buttonholes. I have never done that before and I am terrified. I have a button hole foot but she can do it better than I can. With a wool coat, there is no room for error. I plan to sew the buttons on by hand. The sewing needle might hit the button part itself, not the hole or break. I can’t wait!
Production or should I say, construction of my dreamy winter coat has been postponed. The lining material has strangely vanished. I can’t explain it. Besides, I want a new colour for the lining material. The red I chose is in my opinion, the wrong colour. Since I have to live with the shade of brown for the rest of my life, I am purchasing a tan or camel colour at the end of the month. The ling material that I have now is too red, more like a wine or a burgundy color. I can’t wait to get back to work on it.
Imbolc is here! Imbolc is the first of the three spring Sabbats. It doesn’t look like spring today. The sky is dark and overcast, and rain batters the houses and streets. Spring is a while yet in coming. mbolc is a pagan holiday celebrated from February 1 through sundown February 2. Based on a Celtic tradition, Imbolc was meant to mark the halfway point between winter solstice and the spring equinox in Neolithic Ireland and Scotland.
Imbolc, or Imbolg, is one of the lesser-known festivals of the ancient Celts, but it was one of the four most important festivals in the Celtic calendar. For this ancient society, the year revolved around two main points; on the one hand, since the Celts were an agricultural society, everything was based around the harvest.
On the other hand, they also had an in-depth knowledge about the alignment of the sun and stars, which history suggests had great significance for them. So their calendar was neatly divided up into four quarters, with a festival to celebrate reaching each one. The year started with Samhain at the end of October, when the harvest was in full swing, to prepare for the onset of winter.
In Celtic philosophy, light must always follow dark, so this is why their year began on such a somber note. Bealtaine at the beginning of May marked the coming of summer, the beginning of sowing crops, and the light half of the year, and was the biggest and happiest celebration. In between were Lughnasa in August, marking the beginning of the harvest, and Imbolc in February, to celebrate the beginning of spring.
What was Imbolc about?
Simply put, Imbolc was a celebration of the end of winter and the impending light half of the year.
The hardest part of the year was over; adverse weather, cold temperatures, food rationing, and of course, no warfare (an integral part of Celtic society) would soon be a thing of the past.
Farmers were getting ready to go back to work, preparing animals for breeding, warriors were picking up their weapons again, and the political and social aspects of life that had been put on hold for winter were also beginning again.
The name Imbolc originates from ‘i mbolg’, which translates as ‘in the belly’. This refers to livestock breeding season, particularly the pregnancy of ewes, which was one of the focal points of the celebration.
Because the festival was so associated with this, it’s timing often varied – it could be anywhere from mid-January to mid- February depending on the weather and the animals’ behaviour.
It also appeared to have a more spiritual significance for the Celts too, as it’s no coincidence that more than a few megalithic monuments around Ireland are perfectly aligned with the rising sun around the dates of Imbolc and Samhain.
Imbolc was celebrated all across Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man, with each region having slightly different variations in name and customs. Wales also had a remarkably similar version of the festival known as Gwyl Fair y Canhwyllau.
After the onset of Christianity in Ireland, the festival was tied in with a celebration of Saint Bridget, and transformed from a pagan one into a Christian one.
Christians used Brigid as the focal point of their celebrations to smooth the transition, as Imbolc had previously been associated with a goddess of a very similar name, Brighid. Essentially, Bridget and Brighid were the same person! As with all Celtic festivals, Imbolc involved a host of unique customs and rituals to welcome the spring, say farewell to the winter, ward against evil and promote health and wellbeing.
Imbolc was similar to Samhain and Bealtaine in that fire played an integral part of the celebrations, although not on the same scale. While at Samhain bonfires were lit to ward off evil spirits and at Bealtaine they served to offer protection and growth, at Imbolc they were symbolic of the sun’s return.
Rather than a huge central bonfire at the centre of the festivities, Imbolc was more about the home and each home’s hearth. Every home in the community would have their own fire burning right through the night, and during medieval times when homes consisted of actual wood and stone buildings rather than the wattle and daub huts of the Celts, all of the fires in the house were lit for the night. If for some reason that was not possible, it was sufficient to have candles lit in every room instead.
The Celts were always concerned about the weather (something that has lasted up until the present day with modern Irish people!), so Imbolc was an important time to read omens and attempt to predict the weather for the summer. An unusual but widely popular omen was if the weather was especially bad on the day of Imbolc, which meant a great summer was on the way. This is because one of the more malicious creatures in Irish folklore, the Cailleach, would spend the day of Imbolc collecting firewood for herself if winter was to last a while longer.
To do this, she would obviously need a bright and dry day to collect her wood, so if Imbolc was wet and windy, that meant the Cailleach had gone to sleep and winter would soon be over.
Visiting wells was another important custom for Imbolc, particularly holy wells. Visitors would walk around the well in the same direction as the sun traversed the sky at that point on the land, praying for health and wealth for the year.
Offerings were left at the well once this was done; usually coins or ‘clooties’ (pieces of cloth). Special foods were also part of the festivities, usually consisting of bannock – a flatbread cut into wedges – as well as dairy products and meat.
The early Celtic version of Imbolc was not all that different from the festival in early medieval times when Christianity was taking hold in Ireland. One of the goddesses the Celts worshipped at this festival was Bhrigid, the daughter of Dagda (the chief Celtic deity) and one of the Tuatha De Dannan, the first inhabitants of Ireland.
She is associated with many things, most significantly poetry and fertility, but such activities as healing, smithing, arts, and crafts, tending to livestock and serpents also make the cut. She is credited with creating a whistle for people to call to one another through the night.
Some legends claim that while one half of her face was beautiful, the other was horribly ugly. She is thought by many to be the Celtic equivalent of the Roman goddess Minerva and the Greek goddess Athena.
Saint Bridget, on the other hand, was not a mythical goddess but a real woman, born in Dundalk, County Louth, around the 5th century AD.
During her lifetime she became a nun, founded numerous monasteries and performed her fair share of miracles, becoming one of the foremost advocates of Christianity in Ireland. After her death, she was made one of Ireland’s patron saints (and the only female patron saint), along with Patrick and Columba. So it was a natural progression for Imbolc, the pagan festival worshipping the goddess Bhrigid, to become the Christian festival in honour of Saint Bridget. February 2nd was chosen as the permanent day of celebration.
For the Celts, Bhrigid represented the all-important light half of the year, so her presence was much revered during the festival.
On Imbolc Eve, it was claimed that she would visit the most virtuous homes and bless everyone who slept in them, so people would leave pieces of clothing, food, or other tokens outside the entrance for her to bless, or to entice her into the home, It was Bhrigid’s role as a fertility goddess that was most important here, but for the medieval people of Ireland, her healing powers and general protective sense were as important as well as her fertility.
The majority of Imbolc traditions regarding Bhrigid or Bridget come from this time. While the tradition of leaving small tributes to Bridget on the doorstep continued for several centuries, several others sprang up too.
Celtic Inspired Torc Pendant – Celts believed the ancient Torc provided the wearer with a mystical form of protection
Ashes from the fire that was left to burn all night long would be smoothed out and left to see if a mark from Bridget appeared, to confirm that she had visited the house. Sometimes a makeshift bed would even be made up next to the fire, in case the saint wanted to rest a while.
This tradition was particularly popular in the Isle of Man and Scotland, where there were several short rhymes to go along with the tradition, acting as a call to the Saint to come and visit – generally, they were some variation on the phrase ‘Bridget, come in to our home, your bed is ready’. In some areas across Ireland and Scotland, women played a very important part in the festivities. They would make a doll figure from rushes known as a ‘Brideog’, dress it in white and with flowers, and carry it in a procession while singing hymns and poems in honour of Bridget.
At every home they passed, they would receive more pieces of cloth or small bits of food for the Brideog. Once the procession was finished, they would place the Brideog in a seat of honour and have a feast with all of the food, before placing it in a bed for the night while they began celebrations.
The most well-known tradition, however, and one that is still practiced today, is making a Saint Bridget’s cross and hanging it in the home. These crosses were a unique symbol of the transition from Paganism to Christianity. Before, bunches of rushes were tied together and hung at the entrance to homes to welcome Bhrigid. One of the stories of Bridget’s lifetime, however, recounts how she wove a cross from rushes and placed it above a dying man’s bed.
He roused from his delirium to ask what she was doing, and on hearing what it meant, he asked to be baptised before his death.
Since then, the cross has been a symbol for Bridget, and was also a familiar symbol for the Celts, making it the perfect transition symbol for Imbolc. The cross is distinctive, with a square in the middle and each point of the cross placed at a corner of the square. Somewhere between then and now, placing a cross in your kitchen came to mean that your house would be protected from fire.
Imbolc today
Unlike Samhain, which transformed into the much loved night of Halloween, Imbolc is one Celtic festival that hasn’t quite survived through history.
Although Christians still celebrate St. Bridget’s Day in Ireland and children still learn how to make crosses at the start of February, little else remains of the ancient Celtic spring festival. However, Saint Bridget’s cross, made from rushes and hung around the home just as the Celts would have done, is as good a reminder as any to the festival’s ancient and mythological origins.
I am bitten by the sewing bug once again! My next sewing project is a wool coat. Inspirations seized me! I wish the muse would arrive and help me with writing the same way but that’s another story. The coat will be tons of hard work. I am nervous about sewing it so to combat my anxiety, I have researched how others have done it and how it is done. I have been lucky so far. The pattern is vintage and has lots of details: a lined hood with darts, buttons and buttonholes, facing and interfacing, upper and lower collars, a centre front and back with middle fronts and backs, and side front and side back. It is enough to scare the most seasoned sewer.
This project will not be an instant overnight effort. It may take me a week to a month to sew the coat. I have the lining fabric, I have cut out the pattern tissue, the pattern pieces. I want to do a mock up of the whole garment but I can’t afford it right now. I did a mock up of the sleeves. I am really glad I did for two reasons: I realized I needed to add an inch to the lower hem of the under sleeves on each arm and I learned how to sew the under sleeve to the upper sleeve. I also learned how the sleeve would feel on my body. I can easily move my arm up, down and in a circle. Making adjustments early on in the construction of the coat saves a person so much pain later on. When I cut out the pattern pieces (of the wool), I laid the whole 4 meters down on the floor and cut each pattern piece out in a single layer. I had to sweep and mop the floor – cat hair much? Then I flipped over the pattern tissue to cut the pattern on the left side. The fabric covered the kitchen floor.
I like the colour of the lining for the coat. It matches the coat and has a brown reddish colour but it will do. The interfacing is black except for the belt. The black interfacing will match the brown wool coat. The fabric for the coat is a gorgeous brown soft wool/polyester fabric. I love it. Oh so beautiful! The interfacing for the belt is white but it will be concealed. I have the threads, a belt buckle, the belt pattern is cut out and ready to go and I cut out the pattern too for the belt carriers. The belt does not go with the McCalls 6800 pattern B, but I love how couture it looks. So the belt stays.
I pinned the centre front, middle front and side front patterns together and tried it on. The centre front pattern piece stops just above my knee. The pattern of the coat has a high and low hem. I hope it all fits me correctly. I might get a bit of fabric from Fabricville so I can do a mock up of the rest of the coat. Or if that isn’t possible, I can pin all the pattern pieces together and try it on and see how it fits on me. I don’t own a full length mirror or a dress form (at least not one that truly mirrors my figure), so I have to wait until I can get a mirror. In the meantime, I will pin all the pattern pieces together then see how it fits on me. Again, if I am to make a mock up of the left side of the whole coat for myself, I need newspaper, tracing paper, muslin etc, to do it.
I still have to cut out the lining and the interfacing for the coat. After that, I need to transfer all the markings and notches to the wrong side of the pattern on the wool fabric. I am going to make my own press cloth. I don’t want to scorch the wool and so I will not be pressing on the top right side of the garment, only on the wrong side. I sew the facings to the lining and sew the lining and facing to the coat. That is so just nightmare inducing. I can’t get my head around how I turn the facing and lining to the inside of the coat. But I am not at that stop yet. I am grateful that I had enough fabric for all these pattern pieces. I searched for the fabric at Fabricville but I didn’t see it there. I purchased 4.5 meters of the beautiful soft brown wool. There was not much remaining on the bolt after that. I also bought the wool on sale – 50% off a meter! Excellent.
Anything that is worth doing is worth all the hard effort. I am confident I will turn out a beautiful brown wool coat. This investment has to last a lifetime. Wool is a resilient fabric! I completed the bodice corset that I sewed to accompany the awesome black witchy top I bought from Killstar. I need to add on a black bias tape so the lining of the corset doesn’t show on the outside or top side of the bodice. I need to stock up on extra bobbins.
This may be extra ambitious of me well, anyone hoping to sew a wool coat is ambitious period, but I’m sewing my own press cloth. I just laid two pieces of white cloth together and tucked in the raw edges. I ironed and pressed it. I will sew it once I have an extra bobbin. I was hoping to go to Fabricville today but I have to wait the delivery of a parcel- a bad ass hoodie from Wish. I have muslin for a press cloth fabric but the sewing machine won’t sew muslin. Argh! I am not the patient type but in order to make the coat, I shall have to try.
The next turn in the Wheel of the Year is Imbolc! I shall keep you posted!
Please do not steal or copy from this blog. If you do, be prepared to be stomped on by the Fates and karma for your bad character. I can be reached at :
heddyjohannesen @ gmail.com
The Paranormal Quill 