The old Adopt-a-Deity post from Reflections in the Pond are now available here on The Lotus Pond. You can read short entries on Athena, Heqet and more.
If there is a deity you would like me to research, please contact me.
The Lotus Pond
Seeking a spiritual path through writing
30 Jun 09
Breaking in a Tarot Deck
Learn some methods for breaking in your stiff new Tarot deck: Breaking in a Tarot Deck.
Filed in Site News
16 Jun 09
Knitted Meditation
I think I’ve mentioned before that I tend to find myself attached to my hobbies in cycles. One week, or month, I may find myself all about cross stitch. And then I’ll start obsessively knitting a sock. In the good old days before Baby Man came along, I would also obsess about Tarot or other “magical” studies. Now I just don’t have the mental energy or ability to concentrate on those sorts of things. I’ve got a lingering case of baby brain brought on by not quite enough sleep and trying to keep up with the boundless energy of a toddler.
Now, I really miss working with my Tarot cards, doing meditation, and all of that. I have a couple of new decks, the Mystic Dreamer Tarot
So, I think I’ve given myself a new experiment. Maybe I can keep up my obsessive knitting and still get myself back into my old mental shape. I’d really like to return to some of my old pursuits, and I came across a quote in Mason-Dixon Knitting that just might provide me with the drive:
No project is too ambitious if you crave the results enough.
I think that cross stitch takes too much mental energy, though. Especially since I seem to keep picking charts with errors (I’m looking at you Once Upon a Tree!) or complicated speciality stitches. And that’s okay. Sometimes I think I want to just be able to mindlessly (or mindfully) knit away on a sock, but other times I want to be challenged by a great cross stitch design. Both acts, I think, will help me mental, if I choose to use them that way.
3 Jun 09
A Fairy and Some Thoughts on Crafting
It is time for a happy dance! Over the weekend (yes, I am behind on my posting, why do you ask?) I put the final beads on Letters from Nora – H, also known as the H fairy and Heather. She has turned out so beautifully thanks to the help of my nsLNS owner’s advice when it came to changing so many of the colours.
Letters from Nora – H by Nora Corbett
Fibres: Crescent Colours and DMC
Beads: Mill Hill
Fabric: 28ct Silkweaver Solo
If you are interested in the changes I’ve made, you can find out more here. I’m curious though, does anyone have an suggestions for the grapey-purple beads I used for the flowers? You can see them better below.
The sock knitting goes well, although I am beginning to think that I have angered some knitting god who is in charge of colour changes. Behold the Super Simple Short Socks by Meghan Holcomb, knit using Yarn’s Plus 3/5 Hand-Painted Tencel in colourway English Garden.
See how it started out with the green, blue and two shades of purple moving along nicely. Now all the green and blue is on the sole and the two shades of purple are along the top of the foot (which you can’t see in this picture). It is a lovely colourway though. It is sort of along the lines of Gloriana’s Victorian Garden silk, but without the yellow. (I got some of the Gloriana in the mail the other day, which is why that comparison comes to mind. What will I stitch with it? I don’t remember what I bought it for… maybe Chatelaine’s Japanese Box?) I’m glad this has no yellow in it though, since that is one of my least favourite colours. And with the way the knitting gods are treating me, I probably would have ended up with a yellow stripe right down the top of the foot!
I’m also ploughing my way through a pile of dishcloths. (Shhh! That’s one of the secret gifts. I don’t think the person who is getting them reads my blog, though. And if she does, just pretend to be surprised and know that they take a lot longer than you would think to knit, especially when you have a toddler “helping” you.) I’ll have pictures of them to share in a few weeks.
To close things off today, I thought I would muse a little bit about what crafting means to me as a Pagan. I mean, this is/was a Pagan blog, even though I’m writing a lot more about my cross stitch and knitting. So, here’s what I think: I don’t generally do Pagan-y designs. (Although, I love, love, love Joan Elliott’s Wheel of the Year design in her latest book.) I don’t see crafting as part of my Pagan identity. Cross stitch and knitting are part of who I am, just like being a Wiccan is. They are often a form of meditation, especially now that I am apt to fall asleep if I try to do a formal meditation.
I think for anyone who is part of any religion the things they do that they love, be it knitting, cooking, housework, or what-have-you, in some ways become part of their faith. You may think on the Bible while you stitch while I meditate on the changing of the seasons and someone else puts down their needle for a few moments to say their daily prayers to Allah. And even though we may believe different things, we can all relate to one another through our love of family and our hobbies.
And finally, a reminder that I am holding a draw. Leave a comment on this post before midnight Sunday to be entered to win some Enchanting Lair charts, Dinky Dyes silk and a one card Tarot reading.
1 Comment
Filed in Spirituality
1 Jun 09
Thoughts on the Rede
Finally, a new article for the Wicca Section! You can read about my take on the history of the Rede and how we can live it every day in this essay: An Examination of the Wiccan Rede.
Also, if you happen to be interested in cross stitching, head over to my blog and check out the draw I am holding. Leave a comment on this post before midnight Eastern on June 7, 2009 to enter.
Filed in Site News
26 May 09
Gardening in the Sky
Yesterday was an exciting day for Baby Man. First, we took his second ever subway ride over to Bloor West Village so I could pick up some DMC. (Yeah, after all of that shopping on Friday, I was still short a couple of DMC colours. ) quanta and I used to live in that area, so I know the shopping area well. It was a quick trip, because in my haste to catch the bus I forgot Baby Man’s juice and a few other baby necessities.
After his nap, I introduced Baby Man to the wonderful world of gardening. Well, what we actually did was plant some pansies and petunias in the planter on the balcony where my juniper grows. And when I say “we” I mean “me”, while Baby Man watched, tried to eat handfuls of dirt, and banged his little plastic shovel on the ground. I think he’s already eaten his prophesied peck of dirt.
The planter on the balcony is my little piece of greenery. There is a park in front of our building, but I feel like it is too groomed and too tamed to be nature. Children play there and neighbours walk their dogs, there is no wildness. Now, I don’t think my little planter is real wildness either, with its pansies and petunias neatly planted side by side. But because it is planted by my hand and because I water it, deadhead the flowers, and allow them to grow as they please, I feel like it is more free. It is my mini-sanctuary. It is practise for the garden I will have someday when we move into a house.
So, this sort of gets me thinking about what Nature, with a captial N, means to me. I’m a very fair person with bad Spring and Summer allergies. I don’t really like to be outside all that much because I burn and sneeze. And yet I love trees and flowers. I love green grass and hearing the leaves of the trees blowing in the breeze. Downtown Toronto drives me nuts because there aren’t enough trees, and I find this neighbourhood a little lacking too. It is like if I don’t have green outside my window then I feel like part of me is off-balance. It is really strange, but I’m also kind of comforted too. I mean, isn’t it right that we are all attached to nature in some way since we are part of it?
5 May 09
Letter H Conversion Added
I’ve added my blue and purple colour conversion of Nora Corbett’s Letter H fairy to the cross stitch section. You can find it here.
Interested in what else I’m up to? You can follow me on Twitter. My user name is @silverlotus152. Or check out the Twitter feed in the sidebar.
Filed in Site News
20 Apr 09
New Tarot Articles
This evening I posted two new Tarot articles:
- Getting to Know the Cards – an exercise you can use to introduce yourself to all the cards in your new Tarot deck
- Selecting a Tarot Spread – hints for picking the right spread to give your sitter the best reading possible
I’m also working on an article about the Wiccan Rede, but my notes seem to have gone missing. The last time I saw them was Earth Hour, so I’m starting to give up hope. With luck, though, they will turn up soon.
Filed in Site News
20 Apr 09
Spirit Free of Religion
The Seeker’s Guide
One of the first chapters discusses spirituality and states that we don’t need to be part of a religion, or to be religious, to be spiritual. I’m not sure if the younger me would have agreed with that, but this older me currently does. Although I self-identify as a Wiccan, I freely admit that I’m not particularly religious. But I do think I am a spiritual person, trying to find the beautiful and meaningful in ordinary things.
I think I am very lucky to have a young child, as they seem to have a way of helping you find the spiritual in life even when causing chaos. Baby Man takes such joy is playing on the swings in the park, and even in the simple act of running around the condo. He provides a good reminder that life is pretty amazing.
Yeah, I do still get caught up in the daily grind. I get annoyed when I get an email from work giving me another dumb assignment. I want to throw up my hands and throw away my yarn when it gets tangled. (Honestly, I need a swift, I nearly ruined a $25 ball of yarn in my first attempt to use my ball winder.) And, like everyone, I get caught up in the consumer drive (see the last aside). But, when I slow down, my spirituality is there is reign me in and ground me.
Can you be religious without being spiritual? I think so. Can you be religious and spiritual? Absolutely. Do we need religion? Probably. Do we need spirituality? Absolutely. I know that some day soon I will return to practicing my religion more fully, and I hope that I will never lose my spirituality.
12 Apr 09
Man, Myth or Pretty Cool Guy?
With the Easter holiday finishing up in most of the Christian world, I decided to ask my family members a couple of questions this weekend. A bit of background first, though. I was raised Christian by parents who are believers but not strong church goers. My maternal grandfather, on the other hand, was a very dedicated Christian; almost a Canadian version of the Fundamentalists that the Americans have. My husband is essentially a lapsed Catholic, and I’m me: mostly Wiccan, and maybe a little bit Agnostic.
Anyway, this weekend I asked my family if they believed in the literal divinity of Jesus. An interesting question I think, because it is one of the underlying principals of the Christian faith, yet it wasn’t something that the earliest Christians believed, apparently. The answers I got ranged from “Yes, he is” to “No, but he was probably a pretty interesting teacher and political figure.” I wasn’t really surprised by the answers, but I was surprised by who answered what.
With the lead up to Easter, I had been questioning my leaving of Christianity a little bit. I mean, when seems like the whole world is getting ready to celebrate something, you can’t help but wonder if you might be missing out. One of the things I was thinking about was the divinity of Jesus. But I came to the conclusion that if you can’t believe in some (or in my case almost all) of the fundamental truths of a religion, then you can’t honestly be a part of it. The answers I got this weekend more or less confirmed that conclusion. They also made me very happy to be part of a family that is open-minded (most of the time), and thinks at least a little bit about what they believe and how it fits with what they live.
About Silverlotus
I'm a mom, wife, needleworker, knitter, wannabe writer, and most of all a spiritual seeker. I'm not sure yet what I believe, but I sure as heck know what I don't believe.I blog about my adventures in needlework, knitting and other crafts at Stitching Lotus.