ChamomileCoyote

VIDEO FROM THE SURFACE OF A COMET

This is truly incredible.

Details:

Thanks for asking! For me, there isn’t really a difference in the process, except that for Named gods I can look up historical references of commonly used colors for jewelry in that time period and if there are any colors in particular associated with that god. For instance and off the top of my head, I’ve never seen truly purple beads used in Ancient Egyptian art or jewelry (I’m not a historian, I’m just making observations based on museum photos), so I’m unlikely to bother using purple in their necklaces.

For the rest of the process, though, the steps are exactly the same: 

1) Choose beads that have a color, size, weight, and texture that feels right for whatever the necklace will be.

2) Determine the length the necklace will be. Many of mine are the right length so I can either fit it over my head and wear it as a necklace, or wrap it around my wrist a couple times as a bracelet.

3) Start beading. I don’t make a lot of really thought-out decisions here. Like a lot of my practice, if a pattern of beads is in the right spot, it will feel like it just clicks into place like a jigsaw puzzle piece. I do a lot of “telling stories” to the beads. Some of them I remember afterward, most I don’t. For example, there’s a section in my California necklace that talk about the state flower and another about fires. My Ra necklace has been remade a few times, but always contains a sun disk in there somewhere.

Here’s my necklaces for various Named gods:

And these are the ones for the Dead and the area of California that I live in:

Sorry for the awful photos, the phone camera is on it’s way out. 

Today’s Tarot of Bones daily draw is the Ace of Swords, reversed. Today is a good day to check your pace. Yesterday’s Magician was all about adaptability, but in order to adapt you need to know where you are first. So be mindful of whether you’re pushing yourself too hard, or not hard enough–or perhaps both, but in different areas of your life. Once you have that information adapt as best as you can. You might not be able to get the balance right immediately, but do the best you can with what you’ve got.

Allow me to introduce you all to Caitlin Doughty: The world’s most upbeat, cheerful, funny, and charismatic mortician.

Yes, you read that right.  Mortician.

Aside from her day job, she is the founder of “The Order of the Good Death”, which is an organization devoted to death acceptance and embracing human mortality, hoping to bring to western funerary practices the same reverence, celebration, and demystification of death found in other cultures.  Caitlin is also the author of two bestselling books about her work, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons from the Crematory (2014), and From Here to Eternity; Traveling the World to Find the Good Death (2017).

On her Youtube channel, she tackles various death-related inquiries in her “Ask a Mortician” series, as well as covering other morbid topics, and occasionally chronicling her life and travels as a mortician.  Her videos are highly entertaining and informative, and presented in a casual manner suitable and accessible to all ages. Those further interested can also check out her website.

But we name those storms. We personify and anthropomorphize them. We hail them as beings with their own energy and presence. Even people who claim no belief in any higher power will do this.

“Remember Andrew? He was a bastard.”

“Irma’s angry; she’s going to hit us hard.”

The strongest? We never call another storm by that name, and in the areas heaviest hit, you see a sharp, sharp decline in children bearing that moniker. Around here we know–you don’t give a kid that name, it has too much power and rage behind it. It’s ill luck.

So I offer to the storms, too. To tell them, hey–I see your power, your might, your rage. I see your majesty. Please, slow down. Please, be calm. Transform your rage into gentle showers and winds that are just strong enough for us to know it’s you. 

DIY Gemstone Necklace

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You ask Ullr to bless your hunt. You get one buck with an impressive rack. 

You ask Freyr to bless your hunt. You get a few fat does that fill your freezer, and a few skinny ones that wouldn’t have survived the winter.