Ever go for a good portion of time believing something and then find out it’s just a misunderstanding, a lack of appropriate information, or the result of an outright lie -sometimes all three?  With the exception of the last, most times it’s harmless and easily correctible, but it can be embarrassing if you have passed on the information thinking it was true when it was not.  It can also be harmful.  In today’s world misinformation, misrepresentation, and outright lying rule the day.  Everything from the ingredients on our food to the headlines on news sources, all lies.   And we let them get away with it because we are too lazy to hold these purveyors of lies accountable.  The only power we have left is in the way we spend our money.   That’s the only way to make the lies stop.  Stop feeding them with money.

I have a deep, abiding and loving relationship with the green world.  Like many who follow a Green path, I call them Green Allies, Green Things, Green World, etc.  My favorite color is… you guessed it, GREEN.  It is the first color of creation.  No, it’s not elemental really, though it has it’s place in our rites in that fashion.  But it is the color of the first creation of life.  Red – Blood, Blue = Water, Yellow = Earth (I know, but it’s really true, and is the Golden Dawn representation of the Earth).  When you mix the colors in paint, you mix Water and Earth and it makes life…gives live, creates Green.  So in many ways you can say I worship Creation on a base level.  Everything I do has it’s roots (there’s that Green euphemism again!)in that mindset.  Once Creation happens, it should be protected at almost all costs.  Sometimes a bit of culling is called for; the sucker on the rose bush, the too-low hanging branch on a tree, we cut or dig out weeds.  Abortion is yet another form of culling.  It’s sad that it has to happen.  But there are times when abortion is very like removing the sucker from the rose bush.  No one can dispute that it is alive and is part of Creation, the only snag just that it is growing in such a way that it will ultimately harm that which gives it nourishment.   Red is the first color of the death process.  It is the last element that gives physical manifestation, but it is the first element to be absent in death.  The ‘lifeblood’ flows no more.  It cools; it coagulates, then dries up and disintegrates.  The amount of blood shed determines if the act of drawing it will be a culling or a killing.  Sometimes, it is both.

I have delineated all of that to tell you this.  You are being lied to every single day.  By everyone you know, everyone you love, even those you have no interest in.  They are all lying to you in one way or another even if it is only by omission.   One of the most harmful ways we are being lied to is by the medical profession.  I hesitate to call it a ‘profession’.  It’s more like organized crime, really.  You can’t infringe on the territory of it without endangering yourself, even risking imprisonment.   Add to that our government and it’s interference in medicine, our bodies, our food.   It’s all about control.  And they have it.  They are processing humans just like they are processing foods – with poisons.   Pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, drugs  and other stimulants are so ingrained into our food chain many of us are walking toxic dumps and our bodies are telling us “Enough.”  We won’t listen.  We’ve become addicted to ‘easy’ or ‘time-saving’.  Fast food lives, fast food spirituality,” give it to me now because I want it and deserve it even though I haven’t earned it” lives.   We are dying the moment we are born.  With our obsession with death and what comes after, you would think we would do all we can to avoid death by our own hands.  Yet, we cannot summon the gumption to think for ourselves.  You can choose at anytime to be mindful, to choose to 'see' what you are doing.  It's your choice.

The Green World will not ever fail you.  NEVER.  It will not lie.  It will not give you what you want just because you want it.  It will not give you what you want fast either.  It has its own time, the Green World.  Man has learned to manipulate it in so many ways it is no longer recognizable as a living, self-regulating organism in some places.  But in the wild places, the forgotten places where things grow unhindered, you can reclaim your soul. If I died tomorrow, that’s what I’d want everyone to know.  That’s the one bit of truth I think valuable enough to spend my last breath in telling you.  It’s important. 

 Be like the Green Things.  Be wild.  Be boundless and boundary-less when it comes to learning and doing.  If you won’t think for yourself, observe nature.  Pattern your life after it.   Organize your life, your activities, your chores, the way you eat, play, love…all with nature as a model.  It will not lead you astray.

Well, not exactly quilting yet, there’s more to it than cutting out fabric and sewing the pieces together.  I’m learning short cuts too.  I haven’t been this excited about something since I started knitting and spinning with yarn and fiber. Running across pictures and books can be hazardous to your bank account!  Going through old totes of fabric can yield treasure.

This morning Robb was home studying for finals and I got up at the normal time and decided to make a block before going to work.  I was up at midnight because I took a nap as soon as I got home last night (my favorite hours to sleep are from 7am to 10am – SO NOT a morning person!)  and was on the phone app for Pinterest™ and found something called a “Disappearing Four Patch” that I fell in love with immediately.  It looked easy…and it was for the most part.  I don’t know what freak of nature did this to me, but even with rulers on the cutting pad, several straight edge rulers, AND a razor rotary cutter I STILL can fuck up a straight line!  I’m so crooked, drawing or cutting – hell even walking in a straight line is practically impossible.  It’s like there is some perverse part of my nature that will not allow me to draw, walk, cut or do anything else in a straight line. Let’s hope I don’t get pulled over for weaving!  Heh, weaving…maybe that’ll be next.   (insert giggle here)  Sometimes, I kill me.

But I saw this quilt block on Pinterest and couldn’t get the app to open on my phone (remember, I’m already in bed but can’t sleep so I’m cruising Pinterest on the Iphone app.) and I SQUEAL….and that woke him up. 

Robb:  What the hell are you doing on the phone in the middle of the night?

Me:  Can’t sleep.

Robb: Told ya not to take a nap.  But hey, you got free dinner out of it! (This was his reference to the fact that HE cooked dinner last night).  We switch off on that now that I’m working, but I will have to put up with canned corn and macaroni and cheese too often for my liking. 

Me:  I can’t get the app I’m on to work right.

Robb: Does that mean you’re getting up? 

Me: Um…maybe.

Robb:  Good, take your phone with you.

Me:  Actually my computer is right here.

Robb:  grumbles something about ‘blessed darkness’ and pulls the cover over his head and is snoring in 45 seconds.  I really envy him that ability.  Really, I do.

So I was so excited when I saw this last night that I just had to make sure I’d saved it where I could find it later.  And this morning, after I accidentally got up a whole hour early, I thought why not.  I made it with about two minutes to spare. 

Here’s a pic of it:

And here are the others I’ve made.  I’m not really aiming at a quilt right now, I’m just learning techniques. 

I should mention here that what got me going on this were two events that were totally unrelated except by peripheral subject.  One of my students brought me all the books in the Jennifer Chiaverini Elm Creek Quilt novels and I started reading them and got hooked.  Then I changed out my altar and opened the trunk I keep my altar on looking for something else and found, at the bottom, something that I had not really looked at when I first got the trunk from my mother’s place.  This trunk was my grandmother’s trunk, depression era, painted black…you know the type.  Anyway, there was this folded up thing at the bottom, I’d thought it was nothing more than a furniture blanket.  Boy, was I wrong!  It’s beautifully made…and sadly very much frayed in places,,QUILT!!.  That said, whoever made this quilt was excellent at the art of ‘quilting’ but not so much at the art of design when it comes to color and fabric.   For the most part it’s okay, but there are some really incongruous blocks in this quilt.  They are all the same design, what looks like a Mystic or LeMoyne Starburst, with sashing, a border and Nine Patch blocks on the corners.  The SHAPES are great, well put together and all, but the materials and colors left something to be desired.   This tells me that this was one of my grandmother’s ‘depression era’ quilts when they used what they had and couldn’t afford ‘nice’ fabric.  The sashing and border fabric look very much like flour sack designs from that time.  The design, from what I’ve been able to find out, looks like a Blazing LeMoyne Star, or Mystic Star.  Here’s a pic of some of the blocks of it:

As you can see, some of the fabric has disintegrated.  But it made me want to learn about quilts even more after I’d been reading these novels.  So I tried to see if I could find the pattern of the quilt online.  There were some similar ones, but not this one.  It has a nine patch on each of the corners and long sashes on the border and between the blocks.  But the center blocks look like stars made from what I had thought were ‘flying geese’ blocks and triangles.  That got me to thinking about another quilt that my sister and I had had on our bed when we were girls.  I can still see it – even remembered the name of the pattern…”bow tie”.   So I found some of those too.   Then…I drug out “The Tote”.  I have been hoarding fabric for more than a DECADE!!!!   I actually took the time to go through the quilt tops  I had stored from the trunk.  There are 54 blocks total…and they are some of the god awful ugliest things I’ve ever seen in my life.  However, that’s what makes these so special.  They were made in the early sixties from material collected when my aunts were teenagers. 

They say your first quilt should be a ‘sampler’ because it teaches you how to make nine to twelve blocks or twenty blocks as well as the various techniques used in quilting.  As usual, I don’t do anything by the book.  I’m having fun just figuring stuff out on my own.  I could do this by reading books on quilting, and I may do that as I go forward.  But it excites me to figure out how certain designs are accomplished and makes me feel all smarty pants when I see instructions and realize I was right….or even better, when it teaches me something I didn’t ‘know’.  I do a lot of things like that.  Just jump in without reading the instructions or directions and figuring out with my own brand of Zen, or maybe it’s osmosis, whatever, but this method of ‘hands on learning’ aggravates some people, but it's how I approach everything and it works for me.

I can’t wait to go through ALL my stored fabric and sort it out and see what I can come up with.  I know beyond the shadow of a doubt I have enough denim for blocks, borders and sashes. 

I also have other fabrics, some silk, leather, and other materials…there’s no telling what treasure lies in those totes just waiting to be born.   Here are some of the leftovers from the ‘neck buddy’ days:

These fabrics are more than twelve years old and I still find them gorgeous.  I’m a jewel toned paisley kind of person, but I also like the simplicity of gingham as well as delicate florals so there is a lot of possibility in these pieces. 

Can you tell I’m excited?  I haven’t been this on fire since I learned to knit and then learned to spin fiber.  Speaking of which, I need to start sorting out my time so I can pay attention to those projects as well.   I still have fiber to spin into yarn which will most likely be sold, since knitting anything more complicated than garter stitch or simple knit and purl, and I start screwing it up.  I’ve seriously considered getting some Adderall, to see if it will help me stay focused.  I’m afraid of the strain on the heart valves though.  So if I can figure out how to budget my time so that I can do all this stuff, I’d like to do that without drugs.  I’ve even found an online quilting course for beginners!  ‘Course I might be found curled up in the fetal position in a corner of the room one day just as likely.

And....at the bottom of the tote, in a plastic bag that I had never opened was this...

So...overnight, I can haz QUILTS!!!  This is a fully assembled top, with a piece of newspaper backing one of the blocks from 1961...before I was even born.  This is definitely a crazy quilt, no rhyme or reason on the fabrics, but all put together, they make a nice abstract design.  Not my cuppa really, but I'm still tickled.

I have a feeling this is going to be one helluva an adventure.

Garden Variety Banishment and Blessing

Before I move into a place I go and do a 'banishing and blessing'.  This takes care of latent energies but it does not address 'spirits of place' that may predate my habitation.  Those are accepted as part of the house and no attempt is made to 'banish' them...but in some cases the energy surrounding the circumstance that trapped them there or that they are attracted to is lessened enough for them to depart on their own or at least to not be malevolent if they have been in the past.

Apart from that cleansing/banishing I also bless every conduit in the house from which outside energy enters it.   This means doors, windows, attic access, and all the electrical, cable, water and gas lines into and out of the house.  Humans are generally only sensitive to energy that seems to 'move' - for instance I have had friends that thought their Circle was situated on a 'ley line' when in actual fact, it was situated over the drain for their entire subdivision!  In other words they could feel 'movement' but not ascertain the origin or makeup of this 'movement'. 

Placement of Guardian Herbs

Here's where the herbs come in.  Rue needs to be by a door, and it has to be a gift from someone.  It protects from theft, is sacred to both Diana and Aradia, and it has a long history of usage both by Witches and protection against enchantment. The same with Myrtle, only it has more of a reputation as a 'love herb' with its waxy berries and sweet scent.  Rue's fragrance is bitter and astringent, signifying it is for 'tightening up' energy fields rather like closing a screen over an open window. 

Rosemary, planted by the 'head of the household' - which in my case has always been myself, my husband wisely allocating the 'keeping' of home to me (lol) and it should be close to a door as well so that all who come and go pass by it.  It will 'program' the energy of gatherings to be welcoming and peaceful.  The more Rosemary you have planted, the better.  People are likely to remember your Rosemary if planted in this way and associate nothing but pleasant memories with your home.   It is also an effective filter for all but the deepest seated angst.  It is also known for memory enhancing properties, and it's one of the ingredients in my 'study oil'.  I also use it when I am copying things into my BOS because the things put in one's BOS should also be memorized as much as possible so that if your book is ever destroyed or otherwise parted from you, you will be able to remember a good bit of it when writing out another. 

Connection with the Land

I don't plant herbs immediately...but very soon after moving in.  The act of plowing, digging or otherwise disturbing the soil in your homestead is the act of claiming ownership, read STEWARDSHIP, of your area.  You are communicating to all the Green Ones that YOU are the one who rules there, protects them, and requires their allegiance.  This simple act, undertaking in the right mindset, will bind you to your land and immerse you in 'messages' from the Green contingent about anything you wish to know about - and no, I am NOT kidding.  You wouldn't think Trees could gossip but...anyway, I digress.

Move Before You Move

Inside the home, before you move even one piece of furniture or box of belongings inside, it should be 'washed' from top to bottom in that all flat surfaces and corners (both are repositories of energy) should be smudged,… EVERYWHERE.  If you have a basement, start there.  Move the smoke into all the crooks and crannies and move it either out the door to the outside or up the stairs and immediately out the BACK door of the home, even if the front door is closer.  This sets up a banishing field, a current for the negative energy to flow out.  If you have a compost pile it's good to continue that path until you get to the compost pile. 

Compost is a natural 'energy sewer' and the energies put into that, just like food, are broken down and returned to the Earth to be transformed into garden gold for your garden space.  This should be the only time you intentionally put something negative into your pile...try to eat clean and keep your compost pile for only the cleanest waste you have, things that are not processed or modified, free of preservatives and so forth.  Some folks keep two piles, one for the 'clean' stuff and one for the questionable stuff.  If you don't have a compost pile, think of disposing your trash off site...move your trashcan to the road at the earliest possible opportunity and carry away to the recycling place anything you can.  These small acts are also acts of banishment.

Clean Sweep

Your broom can be your primary tool here once all the surfaces have been wiped down.  Use the sage smoke and the broom, or you could use a large feather, it’s up to you.  Brooms are a traditional tool of the Witch and you usually won’t find a Witch without a broom.  I could also add here that you never carry an old broom into a new house.  Always buy or make a new broom for your house.   If an old broom is kept, it should only be used OUTSIDE the house, sweeping walks and patios and so forth. 

Now - for the 'wash'.  There are any number of 'household washes' available for purchase.  And if you're an urban pagan, making your own can be difficult if not impossible.  Try if you can to get some loose hyssop.  The common 'hyssop officianalis' is not necessarily the one I am talking about but it will do in a pinch.  Much more suitable for these purposes is Syrian Oregano...or (origanum maru).  If you cannot find Syrian Oregano at a Middle Eastern market, Greek oregano (origanum dictamnus) or Dittany of Crete is second in selection.  Common hyssop can be used, but you will have to charge it with the cleansing and banishing energies these others possess as part of their 'herbal purpose'.  Hyssop officianlis as we know it was unknown in the ancient world where many texts mention the use of Hyssop as primary for cleansing.  Even the water should be boiled with flame that has already burned some hyssop when making holy water. Yes, that is a Catholic reference, but we owe most of our knowledge of ritual and tools and herbs from their preservation of pagan practices of the time antecedent to the formation of the early Church.  Make the effort to find the correct variety if you can.  It is known for this purpose for good reason.  Dittany of Crete, or rather the smoke thereof, is used by Ceremonial Magicians to summon spirits, the smoke giving the spirits a tool for manifestation.  If you are so inclined, using Dittany of Crete in such a manner should offer capital protection from just about anything, energy or entity, that doesn't gel with the energetic purposes of your home.   It would also make it uncomfortable for people with questionable intent to be in your home for long. 

Using this dried herb, or fresh if you grow it, make an infusion.  This is done by boiling clean water; I use Spring Water, and then steeping the herb in it overnight.  Then you strain the resulting liquid and add it to your mop bucket for floors or to a basin to wash countertops.  Windows can be washing in this manner as well, but glass is a conductor, and just like on this plane, on the astral it can be used as a reflective surface OR as a window for viewing.   This means that all the flat, vertical, reflective surfaces in your home can be used by someone else for remote viewing.   What?  Not possible?  Think again.  Just because one doesn’t engage in those type activities oneself does not necessarily mean others have the same moral fiber.  A Witch that cannot curse cannot heal.  If you have no understanding of what is magickally possible, how then, are you to protect yourself?

Bringing the Energy to Zero Charge

I use a hyssop wash on the floors and countertops and I have another recipe I use for the other surfaces mentioned.  Develop your own recipe for such purposes and keep the recipe handy for new purchases. This helps to bring the energetic vibration of your home back to zero.   Neutral.  This gives you pretty much a blank slate to work with and build up that welcoming positive energy you want to share with guests.  

Please don’t forget your appliances!  If you ever buy the ‘display model’ of a television or computer or camera, or any other appliance from a store, it is wise to cleanse it completely before use…after all, electronics ARE magnetic and everyone and their brother has been walking by, touching, talking about and looking at the piece that now is inside your home.  What did they leave behind?  Perhaps not much singly, but that energy - because it is magnetic, is cumulative.  

You also should never buy one of those items or appliances during a void Moon or retrograde Mercury.  You can find out more about those terms in your own research.   ANY network activity, setup, repair/replace, maintenance, upgrades, etc., should never take place during Mercury retrograde.  I have several personal anecdotes about this activity done in places where I have worked, and trouble ALWAYS shows up during Mercury retrogrades.   If you start out with a neutral and take steps to maintain a positive charge in your home, you will be less affected by these energy fluctuations when they do occur. 

Warding

Once you have banished and cleansed your new abode, it is important to ward it to repel what you have just banished from finding its way back in.  A certain amount of that happens anyway, it comes in on us as we enter and leave our homes- how can it not?  But you can minimize the disturbances from this source with a few simple activities. 

One should always have a daily spiritual practice.  I cannot stress this enough.  If you are a magickal practitioner, you cannot remain effective without this daily practice.  A daily cleansing and renewal, don’t most of us shower or bathe daily?  This is the perfect opportunity to engage in a little personal spiritual housekeeping.   Once it becomes a habit, you will notice the difference right off if you skip a day or your routine is otherwise changed by travel or a change in location.   This is good.  It means you are paying attention subconsciously as well as consciously to your environment.

The Astral Screen

Another effective barrier to unwanted outside energies is what I call the “Astral Screen”.  If you hold open activities where large groups gather in your home, you don’t always have the best control over who comes in or out.  If you entertain where there is a great amount of alcohol or other mind altering substances being consumed, it will make this more difficult.  I will spare you my preachy opinion about keeping the body clean of pollutants.

To create an Astral Screen, you cleanse your doorways, both inside and outside, so there is a space between that rests on the threshold.  This is a ‘repository’ or ‘coat check’ space where the nasties people can habitually carry around with them will reside rather than coming into your home.   When performing this screening process, it is important to remember that people be able to retrieve what they leave and program the space between accordingly with incantations specific to that purpose.   You can use an oil for the inner and outer door-facings, anointing them with symbols or sigils as you like.  But the main activity is creating a screen of energy through which people will pass and deposit any riders or astral nasties they have therein; to be reclaimed as they leave.  It’s important that the people leave the same way they came in, so you will need one of these Astral Screens on each doorway and take care that you host well and gently guide your guests out the door by which they gained entry.

To construct the screen, I stand before the doorway, and I envision a white patch over the doorway.  This can be misty or solid, but I prefer the general consistency of heavy fog or smoke.  You could even program it as sage smoke.   Make sure that nothing can be seen through it from either side and then from bottom to top and from top to bottom place strands of red threadlike light – almost like a continuous strand from bottom to top and again to the bottom going across the doorway as you do so.  When you have completed this step, envision a blue threadlike light doing similarly but from right to left and left to right, this time from the top of the doorway to the bottom.  When you are done, you should be able to ‘see’ your handiwork and see this basket weave of red and blue against a white backdrop.   It is also a good idea to repair this screen on a regular basis, such as at the Full or New Moon.   When you do your Spring cleaning, you should completely erase this screen until you are finished and then reconstruct it again the same way you did before. 

This screen helps keep your dwelling clean energetically and keeps it feeling like a welcoming place to gather.   I have lived in several homes, and have only heard good things like “It feels really nice here.” Or “Your house has such a nice feel to it. It’s very welcoming.”  And I just smile and thank them, giving a nod to the spirits of place and the guardians who help maintain this atmosphere to share with those I invite to my home.

YOU Are Your Home’s Keeper

I am sure that the case could be made for many of these actions to be thought ‘manipulative’.  And it’s true, they are.  But this is your HOME… you are the protector and it is up to you to care for those within in a manner that leaves them unmolested by unwanted energies.  You are not doing anything they probably don’t do for themselves or would not do for themselves if they gave sufficient thought.   This does not mean you assume ill intent all the time.  It means that you are prepared for the worst and can sit back and enjoy the relief when only the best things happen when people gather at your home.

Threshold Wards

Some of the herbs you can use in anointing your doorways are:  hyssop (with the caveat previously mentioned about origins) basil, parsley, asafetida (very smelly!) frankincense, myrrh, sandalwood, sage, wormwood, lavender, rosemary, rose, jasmine, etc. according to purpose.  I say this because you would not always use rose or jasmine for your front door, but perhaps the door to your bedroom or to the bath.  Get creative.  A creative Witch is a well-practiced Witch, and the better you are at recognizing opportunities to cultivate good energy, the better you will be at spotting the bad stuff when it appears.

Another anti-theft and supposedly anti-lightning tactic is to take the twigs of a honey locust, mock orange or even the very thorny stem of a rose bush, wrap it in hemp twine or red and black thread and place a twig of this above every door to the outside.   I should mention here that there is a reason why people like to plant prickly things under windows and around doors….think of those climbing roses over a gate or door and those prickly holly bushes that are planted nowadays under windows.  They aren’t just ornamental, they’re protective and all living things like appreciation.  So take some time to appreciate and ‘remind’ these green guardians of their basic purpose…protection of the homestead!

This is a very basic guide for a house blessing and isn’t a hard and fast rule or whatever, certainly not set in stone.  The principles, however, have been used for many thousands of years and for Witches, warding and sealing and blessing are time honored traditions.   You would do well to take a page from the practices of the Witches that have gone before and make use of these practices as you can.  I have purposefully NOT included recipes because when it comes to your home, anything you use for protective purposes should be something YOU devise and come up with.  Kudos if you can find a ‘new’ use for something no one else will think of.   Your home is your castle, and you are Master or Mistress there.  Treat it like it means something to you and guard it well.