L. and the Surprise Tree

L.: sorry got distracted when getting coffee
on the other hand suprise tree is watered

me: . . . .?

L.: we got back from thanksgiving and found a tree planted out front

me: by a mysterious force?
or do we know by whom?

L.: fairmount park commision
we had applied last year to get a tree planted, heard nothing. spring came and went and no tree, so we figured our letter got lost in the mail

me: lol
omg

L.: tree was a surprise as well, i can't think of anyone who would plant a tree after there had been snow in the air

me: that's pretty awesome

L.: i just hope it doesn't die

me: to make sure it doesn't die, you should wassail it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassailing

L.: i think my singing at the tree might encourage its suicide

me: there's also something about bread and wool too i think
i did it once

L.: i think the tree spirits would be more inclined to listen to you than to me. also its not an apple tree

me: bah!
they still want attention
you could try hugs?

L.: ...you are just trying to make my neighbors think i'm all sorts of "special" aren't you?

me: when your tree dies i'll do the i told you so dance ;p

L.: when my tree dies it will because it was planted in the wrong damn season

Later . . .

L.: woot! i think i finally perfected the way i have to do things
/me is now happy and should make progress quickly?

me: . . .yes.
the tree said so.
it will be a quick way to determine if your new tree is a liar or not.

L.: you have a telepathic bond with my tree?

me: not yet.
but it im'ed me.
Tree: Tell Lisa progress will go well.
Me: How do I know if I can believe you, Tree?
Tree: Would a tree lie?
Me: . . . no?
Now it has an away message up about how it just leveled up in his game.
I didn't think to ask which one.

L.: ...its like a combination between the kite eating tree and hobbes

The End!

Songs as Spells: I ain't got much book learnin'/ but I've got charms to win the race . . .

So, here's where my Hollow Ones methods really come to light. True confession time, Charmers (that's what I'm calling you from now on readers, hope it's cool!), my biggest stumbling point with Hoodoo is the use of Psalms. It . . .just does not do it for me generally speaking and really doesn't do it for me with the Psalms typically used. They just don't resonate with me and if it doesn't resonate then . . .how do I complete the spell?

Sure, as a writer I can occasionally come up with clever rhymes of my own but . . .it's limited to a certain extent. It can be hard for me to really raise energy that way sometimes to put into the spell and to focus since I don't have much of a meditation background. Well, you know what helps? Songs. Preferably modern songs. Think about things like Bards and how powerful their words can be. A really good song writer/singer/musical arrangement can be uberpowerful and really add a punch to your spellwork. It also really helps me focus because the song (I usually either "play" it in my head, actually play it or sing it, depending on the work) keeps my monkey brain busy enough to really focus on the work at hand. And as the words really crescendo, so does the spell. My suggestions are going to be v. based on what I'm into, you can substitute whatever you like and whatever works for you.

If you give this a try, drop me an email or a comment and let me know how it goes!

Trancing
Florence + The Machine: Cosmic Love
Relevant Lyrics: The stars/ the moon/ have all been blown out/ you left me in the dark/ no dawn/ no day/ I'm always in the twilight in the shadow of your heart/ but in the dark/ I can hear your heart beat/ I tried to find the sun/ but then/ I was in the darkness/ so darkness I became/ The stars!/ The moon!

Florence + The Machine: Raise It Up (Rabbit Heart)
Relevant Lyrics: The looking glass, so shiny and new/ How quickly the glamour fades/ I start spinning, slipping out of time/ Was it the wrong pill to take/ Raise up it!/ We raise it up, this offering/ We raise it up/ This is a gift/ it comes with a price/ Who is the lamb and who is the knife?

Money/Prosperity

Hole: Doll Parts
Relevant Lyrics: Yeah, they really want you, they really want you, they really do/ Yeah they really want you, they really want you, but I do too/ I want to be the girl with the most cake

The Tiny: Everything is Free Now
Relevant Lyrics: I could get a straight job/ I've done it before/I never minded working hard/ It is who I'm working for/ Or I could get a tip job/ gas up a car/ or try to make a little change/ down at the bar/ Every day I wake up/ Am humming this song/ and I don't need to run around/ I can just stay at home/ and sing this little love song/ for the love in myself/ if there's something that you wanna hear/ you can sing it yourself/ Cause everything is free now/ That's what I say

Love/Lust Related Spells

Florence + the Machine: Drumming Song
Relevant Lyrics: Louder than sirens/ Louder than bells/ Sweeter than heaven/ And hotter than hell/ As I move my feet towards your body/ I can hear this beat/ and it gets louder and louder/ I run to the river/ I pray that the water will drown out the din/ But as the water fills my mouth/ It couldn't wash the echoes out/ But as the water fills my mouth/ It couldn't wash the echoes out/ I swallow the sound and it swallows me whole/ Till there's nothing left inside my soul/ As empty as that beating drum/ But the sound has just begun. . . .

Fiona Apple: First Taste
Relevant Lyrics: I do not struggle in your web/ for it was my aim to get caught/ but daddy longlegs I fear/ That I'm finally getting weary/ of waiting to be consumed by you/ Give me the first taste/ heaven cannot wait forever/ Darling just start the chase/ but you must make the endeavor . . .

Rasputina: If Your Kisses Can't Hold the Man You Love
Relevant Lyrics: Every time that I hear a woman cry 'cos her man has left her flat
I just feel like saying, "don't be such a fool, you fool."/ Better dry your eyes, can't you realize/ You gain nothing by that/ Well, that's no way to keep his heart warm, baby,/ When his love grows cool/ Don't cry for him or chase him/ Just go out and replace him/ With some good looking Tom, Dick or Jack/ 'Cos if your kisses won't hold the man you love / Then your tears won't bring him back

Hexing

The Pierces: Ruin
Relevant Lyrics: I do not want for you to be happy/ I do not want for you to be happy/ All that I want/ is for you to come to ruin/ all that I want/ is for you to come to ruin/ I want you to come to ruin/ I want you to come to ruin. . .

April March: Chick Habit
Relevant Lyrics: hang up the chick habit / hang it up, daddy, / a girl's not a tonic or a pill / hang up the chick habit /hang it up, daddy, /you're just jonesing for a spill / oh, how your bubble's gonna burst / when you meet another nurse
she'll be driving in a hearse / you're gonna need a heap of glue / when they all catch up with you and they cut you up in two / now your ears are ringing / the birds have stopped their singing /everything is turning grey . . .

Amy Winehouse: Back to Black
Relevant Lyrics: He left no time to regret / Kept his dick wet / With his same old safe bet /Me and my head high / And my tears dry / Get on without my guy / You went back to what you knew / So far removed from all that we went through / And I tread a troubled track / My odds are stacked / I'll go back to black / We only said good-bye with words / I died a hundred times / You go back to her / And I go back to black

Dresden Dolls: Backstabber
Relevant Lyrics: you always struck me as the type to take it lightly /but now you’re gonna have to shut your mouth or fight me/ backstabber, backstabber/ show us what you’re good for / stick it to the noise board / come on join the bloodsport/ backstabber, backstabber, backstabber . . .

Spell Sealing

The Pierces: Sticks and Stones
Relevant Lyrics: Seven times I pierce my heart/ and now you feel the magic start/ bind thy heart and soul to me/ As I do will/ so let it be. . .

Evanesance: Bring Me to Life
Relevant Lyrics: Wake me up inside/ wake me up inside/ call my name and save me from the dark/ bid my blood to run/ Before I come undone/ Breathe into me and make me real/ Bring me to life/ wake me up/ Wake me up inside. . .

Thoughts? Additions?

Recipe Monday: Back to Cooking with Company

Another retro recipe as last night Jow and I decided to make these drinks I had at an awesome speak easy in NYC last night so we're still waking up. As a bonus, I will include that as well! Next week, I will even write up one of my own (probably).

A random note, my job's final financial arrangements are still in progress (and it's a confirmed fact, my mom's accounting company does accounting for my company so there's nothing shady going on) but final tea was had. I find this arrangement frustrating, so to rebel for the first time ever I dyed purple streaks in my hair. I have worked for The Man since I was fourteen so I was never able to. Now that I will be a freelancer (and thanks for the vids, Gordon! That was happy making this morning), I can do what I want. Next on my list: a v. small nose stud piercing in my right nostril.


As usual, if you make this (ideally with pics), you get a guest blog spot for a Recipe Monday to describe your pain.

Chicken-Nut Casserole

A well-seasoned company casserole. Nuts and celery add crunchiness.

1 stewing chicken (3 1/2 lbs. or more), simmered, covered in water until tender
1 c. chopped celery
1 c. walnuts, pecans or almonds, chopped
2 tblsp. minced onion
1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 c. mayonnaise
2 tblsp. lemon juice
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
Fine buttered bread crumbs or crushed potato chips
Paprika

* Remove chicken meat from bones and chop. Mix with remaining ingredients, except bread crumbs and paprika.

* Turn chicken mixture into buttered 2-qt. casserole. Top with buttered bread crumbs and sprinkle with paprika.

* Bake, uncovered, in a moderate oven (350 degrees) until bubbly, about 20 minutes. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Note: This casserole may be wrapped and frozen before or after baking.

Nouveau Vodka Cranberry (based on a recipe from Madam Geneva)

6 counts vodka
1 teaspoon cranberry preserves
Seltzer

Pour the vodka. Mix the preserves into the vodka until dissolved. Top with seltzer. Enjoy with your chicken-nut casserole!

Thanks for all the fish!

Being thankful is something I'm often thinking about. It started in college actually, when my friend Dylan and I were mopey gothity kids and the world was of course too much to bear as it often is when you're twenty. Somehow, in our correspondence, we decided we would list three things we were glad about in each email. At first there was much flailing and posturing, but we started to mean it. When I told my friend April (who was also a proper gothity child of the late 90's) she sarcastically said, What are you? Playing the Glad Game? And I said, yes.

Somehow, we went from Dylan and I playing the Glad Game to our whole circle of friends playing through email. Sometimes we'd play a lot and sometimes we'd add notes about bad things going on. When something bad was going on, people would reach out to each other, even if they were a friend of a friend of a friend. We were tied together by the Glad Game. There would be dormant periods of course, sometimes for a long time, even a year or two. But we started playing again on Facebook, though we were in a dormant phase again until like a minute ago when I restarted it. Usually I find when we are most stressed and least glad, we need it most. So I send inspiring little messages to my Pollyannas like, "Hey Pollyannas, give us a shout out! Something must be making your miserable asses happy!"

Jason's post about thankfulness of course made me think too. Before my divorce, in a lot of ways I was a very different person. I thought more, more, more would make me happy - I thought more shoes, more expensive purses, more jewelry, more thin, more achievements, more living space would all make me happy. And . . .it didn't. It just got me more debt. I wasn't happy, I was stressed and exhausted and miserable with trying to keep up the facade of being the girl with the most cake. When my divorce happened and my financial situation dramatically changed, I learned to be thankful for much simpler things. And here's the thing, I was genuinely thankful for those things. Really and truly. And I became so much happier and more appreciative for what I had.

When I feel stressed, I give thanks to my gods for all that I have, all my first world things. My list includes:
* Being a homeowner and for my Goldilocks space that's just right, more over a roof over my head
* Heat
* A car that works
* Enough writing opportunities for a career
* All my clothes
* Enough food in my mouth
* My phone and my laptop and tv (and dvr honestly) and internet access
* My couch, dining room table and bed
* My loved ones

Sometimes, it's hard to be grateful for getting what you asked for. I asked for money, ideally in the form of a severance (it's still up in the air, long story) and I got called back to my day job for a couple days. While I'm sick and it's a major headfuck and making me a complete and utter neurotic mess because I'm trying to adjust to my new life, it's money. And I need to be thankful for it. So I am.

My Hearth Goddess: Parvati

Mrs. B just posted about working with Hestia on her blog, so I thought I'd discuss my relationship with my Hearth Goddess, Parvati.

I didn't instantly know I wanted to work with her, it was more like a long parade of failed dates with other hearth goddesses. A lot of my grove is totes into Bridget and I like her okay and all, but . . .we just never connected well. Sure we'd make polite conversation but that was about it. Frigga? Me and Norse do not gel well together and at the risk of offending readers, many of the people I know have not been treated kindly by the Norse pantheon and . . .I am not really a maschochist, I don't need you to hurt me to prove that you love me. Hestia? Well, closer, I'm more on the Greek (and later Hindu) side of the Indo-European pantheons but . . . she's v. no frills and not in a romantic relationship. Lakshmi? Closer as well due to pantheon, in a relationship but has Miss Martha standards I could not ever hope to fulfill.

My relationship with Parvati really started when Jow and I were invoking them for a Beltane a few years ago and the more I read about her the more I liked her and the more I started working with her, the more I liked her. Also, where Jow and I were in our relationship was similiar to how theirs seemed to work which really made it resonate.

From an old journal entry of mine on the matter:
Funnily, yesterday I got hit over the head with the Parvati stick. It started out as I was doing some research about her in her relationship with Shiva and it was just really resonating with me. I had long since longed to have a kitchen witch patron, none of the hearth goddesses I knew about (Hestia, Frigga, Bridget, etc.) ever really resonated with me which was a complete bummer since so much of what I do is housewifery, so you can imagine how excited I was to learn that there is a Divine Housewife!

I spent a lot of yesterday mangling processing things through my tiny human brain. Like her story about eating only wet leaves until Shiva noticed her. My initial kneejerk reaction was a dismayed, Really Parvati? All that? Over a boy god? But then I started thinking about how hardcore it was that she was so determined to get what she wanted she wasn't going to let anybody stop her. And well I tend to be similarly bent when I get determined about something and for a woman to be determined to make her own fate, that's pretty awesome to me.

The next hurdle I had to consider was that even after she went through all that, he still tested her some more. And I was like, that's crap! And then I thought, well . . .when Mr. Gray did it to Leigh in Secretary (. . .look, I told you that this would be a mangled process), I totally cosigned on that! Even when I was watching it with other kinked people who were all, that's a bit much. I thought to myself, not really . . .So if I think about it like that, it makes sense to me.

And then I started think about their marriage and how much I dig it. I have always been a proponent of having one's own life, and there's nothing like having eons without someone to make sure you're taking care of your own shit. And when you get back together . . .:: swoony sigh:: For this aspect, I thought a lot about my relationship with J. And Parvati sometimes gets aggravated with Shiva so again, click.


******

Reasons to Like Parvati:

1. She has realistic expectations of how neat one's house can be when you are living with a cremation grounds spouse who brings home his cremation ground friends and you have kids.

2. She is super super determined. If she wants something to happen, it's going to happen. What? You don't love me? That's cool. I'ma sit here UNTIL I MAKE YOU WITH MY SHEER FORCE OF WILL.

3. She is v. kind and v. nice about whatever efforts you make to do nice things for her.

4. She has her own life and her own shit to do.

5. She is not a surrendered housewife. She is not afraid to start shit with Shiva or yell back.

6. She enjoys sex! And a happy marriage! And motherhood!

7. Shiva's main thing is "being", her main thing is "doing". She is definitely inspiring to get your ass in gear to do.

***

If you would like to start honoring Parvati in your life, puja is the best way to do that.

A v. basic puja requires:

* a v. small clay bowl
* A picture of Parvati
* Kumkum powder
* Ghee
* A bell
* Sweets
* Cotton wicks
* Incense

1. Starting facing the picture of Parvati, turn in a circle clockwise, clapping your hands eight times for the eight directions.

2. Ring bell.

3. Thank Ganesha for being awesome (he always comes first).

4. Soak your wick in some ghee in the clay bowl. When lighting it, thank Agni for being fire and acting as the gate keeper.

5. Tell Parvati about the sweets and incense you got her. Tell her how awesome she is. Tell her why you want to work with her. Ask for her help, etc. Make sure to light the incense.

6. Put some kumkum powder on the picture (on her head and feet) and then take a little off the picture and put it in your hair.

7. Thank Ganesha for his presence. Thank Agni for his presence. Thank Parvati for her presence.

7. Ring the bell.

8. Clap your hands in a circle clockwise in all eight directions.

9. SUPER IMPORTANT!!! You *MUST* eat some of the food you gave them or they will think you gave them crappy food. If you give flowers, some flowers must be given to others, etc.

Recipe Monday: There are only two great foes to successful meal planning - Monotony and Fear.

So, my sister just had her baby boy (Logan Robert), Thanksgiving was had, job was mostly finished though I will be working a shift this week and hopefully having holiday lunch this week. Of course, that means that I'm exhausted, fibromyalgia flared up and have a cold.

So that means, Retro Recipe Monday! The line from the title comes from the book to give you a peek into what we're getting ourselves into. The book is called The General Foods Kitchens Cookbook (published: 1959) and has exciting subchapters like "When you have a maid. (with a silent understood) Bitch.", "Pamela's dieting again.", Saved by a salad! (subtitled: Is your husband clutching his chest a lot?) and "Good grief, we'll never get the yearbook out!"

Pros: They address possibly living alone (though there's the silent understood that you better be an old maid or a widow and not a slutty divorcee, Missy!) and that you may be a working gal (with the silent understood that you better get your ass into the kitchen because that dinner isn't making itself and it's not your husband's fault you can't be satisfied with the spending money he gives you), the fifties is actually when global cuisine started being brought into middle class homes so there's recipes for curry, lasagna (we were still ethnic then boys and girls!), sukiyaki, etc. which is cool and the best part imo is that there's a can do spirit about it. I know that's a complaint of the time but I *like* that they're like hokay, you need to make a wedding dinner including a wedding cake? You can do this, Sheila. Let's get organized. For all the unintentional irony and pre-second wave lack of choice, there's a very no nonsense let's get this done vibe and covers like every possible culinary emergency you can think of. Having just picked this book up for the first time in a while, I realize my Kitchen Witch outline unconsciously follows this outline with an updated modern spirit.

Cons: Oh lordess, where to start? Okay. The drawings of "ethnic" people are pretty bad (for the Southern cooking there's a "Mamee" style drawing to give you a taste), when shit goes wrong and/or your family is being mulish about trying new food, guess whose fault that is? The pictures, oh god the color photos of some of these horrors. And of course that the "ethnic" food is whatever is the most Americanized version of what that ethnicity has to offer.

Onto the recipe! If you get brave and make it yourself, you get a guest blog spot here. Pics or it never happened!

Glazed Pate

1 cup chicken liver pate
1 1/3 cups condensed beef consomme
1/2 cup water
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
Dash of pepper
1 package (3 oz) Jell-O Lemon Gelatin Dessert
2 tablespoons sauterne wine
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon tarragon vinegar
Stuffed olives, thinly sliced (optional)

Pack the chicken liver pate in a buttered mold and chill. Combine consomme, water, bay leaf, salt and pepper in a saucepan. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes. Then remove bay leaf and dissolve the gelatin in hot liquid. Add sauterne, lemon juice and vinegar. Chill mixture until syrupy.

Then unmold pate, garnish with olive slices if desired and pour on a thin layer of the gelatin mixture (if gelatin mixture becomes too firm to pour, let stand over hot water for a few minutes to soften). Chill until almost firm. Pour a second layer over pate. Chill again until almost firm. Add a third layer; chill until set. Makes 1 cup. (Double recipe to serve 10.)

Some More Self Promotion

As some of you may know, today is my last day at work. So Etsy sales would be awesome! If you need yarn or know a knitter or crocheter, it makes an excellent holiday gift!

Between now and Cyber Monday use the code: THANKSGIVING for 20% off!

Etsy sirenecorbeau