The strangest thing happened tonight.  I usually cannot perform rituals outdoors b/c I live on a military base.  However, I celebrated the full moon tonight because both of my neighbors were gone.  My driveway has a perfect sky view and the concrete is pieced together in slabs. I chose the center of 4slabs to be the center of my cirlcle.  I use 4 stones, ruby, emerald, citrine and aquamarine.  i placed them at the four corners and went inside to grab tealights to light my circle.  In less than 5 minutes, all stone except the citrine were gone...and the citrine was on the wrong side.  I will admit that it was dark and I may have misplaced the citrine. However, I searched with a candle that went out.  After that, I had my husband search with a high powered flashlight (I thought I was crazy).  We found nothing, I had planned to bless a youth ointment and a herbs for protection, so I was planning on any exotic magick.  Can anyone help me understand this? I live in a WWII house.  At night, we can hear muffled conversations that make it sound like we left the TV on.  Once or twice, we thought that we had a cat in the room (we have two dogs...but one is a chihuahua mix.  She was in the bed, but maybe we were just expecting to see a little creature enter the room)  Can someone help?  I'm a little uncomfortable.  I have had objects diappear before throughout my life...but no in less than 5 minutes

My best friend is 38 years old.  Earlier this week he felt short of breath and went to the ER.  Apparently, his heart is enlarged and not pumping properly.  As a result of this, the vessels in his lungs have clamped down which makes the problem worse.  Right now he is not responding well to medical treatment and the next step would be a heart and lung transplant.  I really need a good healing spell that can be performed by a solitary witch.  There is nothing I can do for him in terms of conventional medicine and I am really desperate.  Thanks to all of you who take the time to read this.

Blessed Be!

Growing up in a predominantly Irish family, St Patrick's day was a time to celebrate Irish pride and for the extended family to gather. It was a long time before I understood that story of Saint Patrick chasing the snakes out of Ireland was an allegory for the church's attempt to extinguish paganism.  Several year later, I realized I was a pagan.  Today, I still celebrate Saint Patricks day with gusto.  Now I celebrate both Irish pride and that fact that 'snakes' are making a comeback.  It's proof that no one can destroy ideas and that no institution can thwart the journey of the human soul.

So enjoy your beer, soda bread and cabbage, but don't forget to wear something to commemorate the snakes!

I haven't been around much because work has been insane.  To add to my excitement, our post commander decided to enforce an old army regulation that states you must be married to live together on post.....engaged to be married in August is NOT enough.  As I have no choice but to live on post, this posed quite a dilemma.

So, in a week we planned the first handfasting ever to be held on the arsenal.  I am very grateful to my new husband and coworkers who really put together a nice ceremony and reception despite the time restraints. Matt arranged for the handfasting even though he doesn't share my beliefs.  My coworkers even came (and I think enjoyed) the ceremony even though my religion is completely foreign to them.

I am a very lucky woman! (Thanks Michael for rotating the photos!)

 !

I must apoligize for being absent for so long.  (of course, I guess that sounds rather presumptuous....like every covenspacer was waiting for my next entry with baited breath.....not going to bet that's the case). Regardless, I feel negligent and I miss hearing from my friends here.

Cohabitation.....not the easiest thing.  Combining two households of cheap furniture and nick-nacks, add two jealous female dogs (believe you me, proverbial hell hath no fury like a jealous 10lb chihuahua), and the stress of planning a wedding (when you would have rather eloped) and it makes for a rather strenous few weeks. Matt is trying to quit smoking, which is hard. Because he always forgets to close the front door when he goes out to smoke, I immediately know upon returning home when he's had a set back. Of course, I have to make a point of letting him know that I know.(I'm turning into a nag) On the flip side, Matt made the mistake of opening a package thinking it was an engagement gift, when, in fact, it was my over priced facial cream.  Damn receipts!  I think he made some comment about what could have been purchased for the same price......but I won't go there;-)  The hardest part is my job.  We found out at the end of October that we were going to be inspected by multiple organizations on 26 Nov....right after thanksgiving.  I have been working over 10hrs/day sometimes for 6 days/wk.  That's hard for both of us.

The good news is, despite all this, we still actually really like eachother and can laugh about our frustrations.  Our first Samhain together was wonderful.  The house had furniture and boxes everywhere but we still managed to build a fire in the fireplace and carve jack-o-lanterns.  After my ritual, I made a butternut squash penne and a drunken pumpkin.  It was the first time I had used either recipe and both were excellent.  If anyone is interested, let me know and I will post both.  We also made pumpkin creamcheese muffins which were out of this world!!  We sat arond the fire, ate, drank and chatted.  What a great start to the new year!

 There is one final part to this post and it is a humbling one.  About a week and a half before Samhain, a starving and injured stray dog showed up at my doorstep.  He was a mutt, probably a mix of a hunting dog and who knows what else.  He was barely a year old, sweet, full of energy, and completely untrained.  He had probably been someone's pet. I cried like a child.  Can't say that you see that ever where I grew up. Matt would arrive in a week with his dog and I knew that a third dog would be a stretch.  A third dog who required extensive training and attentition who have been impossible.  None of the local humane societies would except new animals and there was no service on post to take care of him. He was a good dog who didn't deserve this; I thought that I could find him a good home.

 He looked like he narrowly escaped the brush of death at the hands of some other animal.  As it was Halloween, I thought that I'd call him 'Jack' after 'Jack o lantern'.  Afterall, Jack tricked the devil and escaped.  Maybe this dog did something similar. We took him to the vet and put him on antibiotics.He was fed three times a days and given multiple treats to help improve his nutritional status.  I was nervous about letting him in the house, but I kept him in the backyard when the weather was nice and in a shed when it wasn't.  I walked him with my dog (and eventually Matt's dog when he moved in).  I guess I was feeling guilty because he wasn't getting everything that the other two dogs were getting.

About a week after I found him and about the same time Matt moved in with his dog, Jack started to change. He was no longer happy to see me when I came home from work or when I came out to feed him.  Jack instead was obsessed with chasing his tail.  He would start growling, and the chase would begin.  These 'episodes' started in the early morning and lasted into the night.  He left his tail a bloody mess.  He even had a pretty nasty bit mark in his flank from missign his tail.  The other dogs no longer wanted to play with him and I started getting scared that something was really wrong.  We tried benadryl in case his skin was irritation from allergies.  It had no effect.

Finally we took him back to the vet.  He wasn't comfortable putting him in the pound with the symptoms we were describing and really doubted that anyone would like him as a pet. We took his suggestion which was to put him down and have him tested for rabies.

I just found out this week that Jack didn't have rabies.  Not sure if he just had neurologic issues or if I just didn't give the poor dog what he needed.  I really think that I'll have to spend some time meditating, praying and soul searching to find out what the whole encounter meant.

 I hope everyone had a wonderful Samhain and is looking forward to Yule.  I am going to make a much better effort to spend more time here and I am very much looking forwardeing to talking with all my friends again.

 Brightest Blessings in the new year!

I'm including some photos.  One of our pumpkins and my costume.  It was inspired by a tornado that recently went through the area.  Fortunately, it didn't hit us.  I ended up drenched because I had to run home to rescue my little dog.