The Alphabet

So, we are going to be using the Earthschooling curriculum for first grade, and we are starting with the August lessons (the very beginning of the academic year, the month deals with Language Arts and getting into the rhythm of school). I like some of the stories offered in the curriculum, but some of the verses, and the delivery, are lacking. Because of this, I decided to give Bran and Bryn some more face time with the kids, and they will be going on a quest to obtain all 26 symbols, place them in a magical book, and keep Wisdom in the world. The finished product will be The Tales of Bran and Bryn: The Alphabet. The tale is inspired, highly, by The Wise Enchanter by Shelley Davidow. The letters themselves will still be introduced by the tales and in the order provided by the curriculum (at least if I like the stories), but they will be introduced in the context of Bran and Bryn’s quest.

Bran and Bryn’s first symbols will be A and E (AH and EH). The book will not be in alphabetical order, so in its final form it will not work for traditional school (however, I don’t doubt that the resourceful Waldorf homeschoolers out here in Blogging Land, will be able to modify and adjust the stories to fit their needs).

I just finished the Prologue and AH-The Vowel of Wonder, and am starting to work on EH-The Vowel of Balance. I will post the tales each week, with the artwork that goes along with it (both my feeble attempt at chalkboard drawings, Sunstone’s MLB, and whatever else we decided to draw, paint, or make).

I’ve also written some verses for the vowels (currently need to work on EE and OO) with suggestions for movement/eurythmy for each line.

As you can plainly tell, I am super excited about this. I am anxious about not being prepared, but I am so ready to start! I am going to introduce the vowels with a story starting on Monday (last week of January) – the story is provided with the curriculum, and is called The Golden Key-Rainbow Colors. I will read it to the kids while we drink our chamomile tea before bedtime. It is a really long story, so it will work for the entire week, and then on the first day of school, we will read the Prologue I wrote.

I will leave you all for now, I have to work on these tales!

Oh, as a side note, I got some wooden People from Hobby Lobby and painted them yesterday! I have the Math Gnomes done, and I even made one of Bran and one of Bryn! I will post some pictures once I have their capes and other accessories finished!

The Tales of Bran and Bryn: Esbats

Alright, so I know I posted about this last night – I wanted to expound upon the topic of these stories a bit, and where I want to go with the series.

The Tales of Bran and Bryn: Esbats is a series of short stories that follow the adventures of the siblings Bran and Bryn each Full Moon. I believe that next year, come January, I will begin writing short stories to go with the Sabbats as well (as Sunstone and Moonstone will be older and more solid in knowledge of the seasons and the Wheel of the Year). Though we plan on working through the Sabbats starting with Imbolc this year, I will be using tales found on the internet. For all my studies these last 15 years, I am still at a loss for Sabbat inspiration! I am going to try and outline some ideas for the Sabbat series before January comes again, try to get a feel for what it should entail and such.

Though deities do have a role to play in the Esbats series, they may not play a traditional role as we adults would view it. They guide the children on their quests, and offer materials that will help them in their spiritual growth. In Storm Moon, the children meet Brigid of the Well, and she gives them a clear crystal that will summon her if their need is dire (it wont work for simple problems or mundane tasks, more of a life or death situation). She also gives the children a task – to find her three sisters. I know that Brigid is a Solar Deity, a Fire Deity, but the Sun and Moon are linked and therefor her three sisters are Lunar Deities: Diana, Arianrhod, and Selene.

Why did I choose Deities from different pantheons? Because I believe in providing my children a well rounded spiritual education, and they need to know that all deities ARE equal. I am not against those who focus on a single pantheon, I did for many years (started with Greek, then Egyptian, then Celtic) but realized that it didn’t matter who I called on for specific work or that I mixed Hindu and Greek deities in a job spell – it all worked for me, nonetheless.

Back to Storm Moon. Bryn holds onto the clear crystal. Diana gives Bran an enchanted Arrow that will guide the pair to her at any time – really what it means is that it will guide them out of the path of danger, but it uses Diana’s energy so an arrow may appear to direct them away from the danger, or her Stag may appear. Arianrhod gives Bran an owl shaped Moonstone pendant that will help the siblings to be wise and to find the answers to even the toughest questions. Finally, Selene gives Bryn her torch in order to light their way through darkness – whether physical or otherwise.

I just want to say that though I used traditional deities, they may not appear in any of the tales as how you might see them. The reason for this is because I write about my experiences with them, however brief they may be, not traditional experiences.

I really do hope that everyone enjoys these tales, and if you decide to use them in your own practice, I sincerely hope that you are yours enjoy them as well!

The Tales of Bran and Bryn: Storm Moon

So, instead of waiting to reveal the tale of the Storm Moon, I have decided to post it early in case anyone else wants to use it. I am doing this with some serious faith in the blogging/reading community. Please understand that this story is mine, and it took time to write.

If you use this, please leave a comment on this post telling me how it worked. I would strongly prefer that you only repost a portion of the tale, and link back here so that your readers can get the full version.

If you repost without credit or claim this as your own tale, I will probably get incredibly pissed off, send some strong words, and perhaps do some retribution work – though the first two are not too severe, retribution work is nothing to take lightly. Again, I am trusting you to be respectful of me as an artist and a fellow Pagan.

A note on Age Range: Though my children are 4 and 6, I believe this tale is good for any and all ages, even adults! 

The Tales of Bran and Bryn

So, I stated in my last post that we are homeschooling now. Well, we are starting in February, and the curriculum is a Waldorf one. This style of education is art centered, and very free in the academic department. It is wonderful, and with all the problems Sunstone has been having with traditional education, I truly believe that this is an appropriate educational method. I will talk about it more in a later post.

The Waldorf style allows for a lot of introduction into my faith, which is generally a Pagan faith. I am very eclectic, and though I am not particularly religious about my observances, I know that children benefit from having a faith. So, I’ve decided that Sunstone is old enough to start learning this path. We are going to start with basic Sabbat information – pretty much a story, a craft, and a meal will be our rituals. I am also going to get Sunstone and Moonstone into doing Full Moon rituals. They are going to be a bit more involved, but I will post our ritual once we perform the first one (for the Storm Moon in February).

For these rituals, I decided to write a story. I am going to write each story the month before, which means I just finished the story for February. I am of the mind of a Universal Pantheon, which means I draw deities from all over the world, and even mix deities in my rituals. I have never experienced anything negative from this, and I definitely do my research before hand.

These stories are called The Tales of Bran and Bryn, and are based on a brother and sister who go on adventures and meet Gods and Goddesses associated with the Moon and/or that particular Full Moon for that month. As Imbolc, or Brigid’s Day, is February 1st/2nd, this month they will be meeting Brigid who is in search of her sisters Diana, Arianrhod, and Selene – all of which are associated with the Moon.

I am going to sit down over the next few days and try to do some artwork to go along with the story, but I may just end up doing some little peg figures to represent the children and symbols for the deities. We shall see. I will post the story after the Full Moon ritual, with how it worked for the kids.

Life Attacks

Life attacks – that is definitely what it has done these last 2.5 months. It has attacked us. It has chewed us up into nothing but pulp and sinew, and it just continues chewing.

I kept up for a while, doing my daily tarot draws, posting them on IG, cleaning the house… But everything just wore me down after my husband left. I felt so alone, I had no energy to do anything (and my children definitely suffered from my depression on a weekly basis). I hid in my room, stayed in bed, didn’t get dressed… It was horrible.

When we learned of the troubles facing my husband at basic training (won’t get into the details, but he was placed in holding and is still there), the depression got worse. Yes, I was talking to him nearly every night – thanks to another person who let him use his cellphone to text – but the fear was still there that he would be sent home. There are no jobs here, at least none that would allow us to homeschool, or spend really any time together at all. This is a small town, opportunities are limited, and the prospects there are would mean we would both have to work, one of us two jobs are do at least 20 hours of overtime a week, and we would have to be on state aide. That is not life, that is struggling to survive. We are not robots…

But, aside from the fear and depression, I have worked incredibly hard to maintain a positive, sunny outlook on this entire situation. We pulled Sunstone (son) out of public school, and I have been working on a curriculum recently (I will talk about that a little later in a different post), and I have been watching our neighbors daughter, who has become Moonstone’s (daughter) best friend.

I fell off a lot of my routines – daily tarot, cleaning, watercolor, photography, even doing my makeup and washing my face daily. I am so discombobulated, and it just isn’t fair that my depression takes away so much of my drive to do pretty much anything.

I haven’t been very faithful to this blog, either, and I regret that. I hope, with an established routine coming up in February (when we start homeschooling), I will get into a better habit of doing the many things I enjoy doing.

Light and Love,
Tori

What Have I Been Doing?

Alright, so I know the little aside post from earlier gave an update on what I am doing… but I wanted to write a more in depth post about my current workings. As you know, I’ve been dealing with not having a charger for my camera battery – however, I received the charger in the mail the other day, and the battery is now fully charged. I am excited to get back to taking pictures, and I have two little girls that desperately need some pictures taken! 😀

I’ve been working tirelessly on Book 1 of the Erenon Chronicles – mostly just storyboarding and world building, but I’ve almost cleared the 8th chapter of the first draft. I’ve developed a bit of a an idea about where I want this book to go: 3 parts, each at least 100 pages long, and the POV character changes with each part. I think I am going to separate each book into at least 3 parts, in order to keep the length of the story shorter and not bore my readers with information. But it is already filled with quests and battles, and gorgeous scenery. Check out the Erenon Chronicles page for my storyboard on Pinterest, which shows the inspiration for the different places in the book. (Hours of work went into making the board, and I foresee many more hours spent procrastinating on Pinterest!!)

I’ll be posting an excerpt from the book here soon, hopefully within the next week. Stay tuned!

Update

After starting work, I feel like I have lost so much. I feel like I am a lazy, useless person right now… I spend most of my time laying in bed, watching Netflix. I haven’t practiced, I haven’t honored my Gods… I haven’t done any photography, barely any writing… I just feel so out of sorts recently.

Witchy Words: Esbat Goals Worksheet

Witchy Words: Esbat Goals Worksheet.

via Witchy Words: Esbat Goals Worksheet.

 

I really like this concept – a worksheet to do for the Esbats about what you want to accomplish. Good for smaller goals throughout the year, things that can be accomplished on a monthly basis – I think this could also be done for the Sabbats, for setting goals that might take a little longer than the others. Also, this kind of works for New Years Resolutions! 😀

I am thinking about doing this next month, when we are hopefully in our new place.

Life Update

Life gets away with us sometimes, and we forget to update those in cyber-land that we care about… Or just update the Universe, even though it doesn’t need an update.

Saturday 27 September Adventure

So, we decided to go on a short adventure on Saturday – we ended up at a few different places, the first being Fairbank, Arizona. It is a historical mining site down in the San Pedro Riparian area. Really remarkable place, I love the old buildings. So, I took some photos of the buildings there both for their beauty and for the prompt ABANDONED. Also, an interesting plant and something that I felt needed to be documented – a One Way sign with an old stool in the background.

Abandoned, I

Abandoned, II

Gorgeous green plant Fairbank Arizona

One Way sign with Stoolin the background

After Fairbank, we enjoyed the leisurely drive through the rolling hills of Southern Arizona. We wound up in the historic tourist town of Tombstone, and I got a few pictures, but these are the best.

Tombstone Court House/City Hall

An odd staircase to a door Tombstone Court House/City Hall