The Gift of Friendship and Sage

Early last fall, the University of New Mexico offered a 100% free online course on Curanderismo.  Curanderismo is the tradition of Mexican, Latin American, and indigenous folk magic, medicine, and healing practiced by many throughout the Americas.  UNM offers an intensive class every summer on this same topic at its Albuquerque campus, but 2014 was the first year it offered an extension of the class online. 

It was a great class, and very informative.  We learned about cupping, juicing, herbs, shawl massage, the sacred uses of tobacco, and many other interesting and enlightening topics.  Even though I spent a good deal of my youth in New Mexico, I was (unfortunately) very disconnected from the culture.  It’s something I regret now that I’m an adult, but to make up for lost time I make a point to study and appreciate the culture and heritage now, even though I took it for granted then.

My friend, The Feisty Witch, created a study group for us on Facebook, to help us work through the material and share extra resources.  What started as just a few dozen of my friends and family quickly grew to friends inviting friends, strangers finding their way to our little group and strangers inviting their friends.  And then suddenly, the group had exploded and I had no idea who any of these people were.  But that’s okay!  Because as soon as the class got underway, we shared thoughts and insights, asked questions, and reminded each other of due dates and deadlines for the online course.

Since then, the group has grown in ways I never could have imagined.  What once was a small group of friends has grown to a group of over five thousand people from all over the world.  Some of us are witches and Pagans, others are Curanderas and Curanderos, healers and helpers, nurses and mystics, teachers and students.  The group is active with questions, links, articles, pictures, and videos.  I’m a bit amazed by it, to be honest.  I’m not at all a Curandera.  To be honest, I’m not even a healer and I’m certainly can’t claim Hispanic or Latin American heritage!  I’m just a kid who spent some time in New Mexico and likes to meet others.

 

That’s been my favorite part of the group, to be honest. Sure, I love the information about herbs and magic and medicine.  But really, I’m in awe over the great people I get to interact with each and every day, people who help one another and love one another, people who have wisdom and experience to share, and are more than happy to do it.  Our little study group has grown, and while it’s nearly 5.5K strong, it’s still intimate and familiar.  It still feels like a family.

Recently, one of the members from the group sent me a little care package from New Mexico.  One downside of the Curanderismo study group is that I sometimes get a little nostalgic for the South West.  Sure, I adore living in North Carolina, but New Mexico has its own special charm.  I was so happy when I opened my package of wild-gathered desert sage (and other goodies!).  The scent brought me instantly back to New Mexico, and even further back to my childhood as a kid in Montana.  Holding these lovingly crafted bundles in my hands, I remembered wide open skies, the Milky Way, epic sunsets, rolling prairie, flat and colorful deserts.  I was in, just for a wonderful, brief moment, the places that I once called home.  Because no matter how much time has passed, no matter how far away I am, that soil and those waters are part of me, tugging at my roots in that place.

So, despite not being a Curandera, or Hispanic, or a healer, I still very much enjoy our little (growing every day!) study group.  I enjoy the friends I make and the wisdom that is shared. I enjoy the gifts I am given – gifts of all types.  The sage is just wonderful and very thoughtful, but the gift of such vivid memory is priceless.  I hope I have been able to adequately share my gift of gratitude for the herb bundles, and all of the other blessings this group has given with me.

Curanderismo: Traditional Medicine (study group)

http://www.facebook.com/groups/CuranderismoTraditionalMedicine/

Folk Medicine and Magic Marketplace - buy/sell/trade

http://www.facebook.com/groups/905763112827007/

Arts and Crafts of the Southwest - My friend Andrew, who gathers and crafts beautiful and powerful sage bundles

http://www.facebook.com/groups/147697708897197/

Curanderismo Class at UNM

http://www.facebook.com/curanderismo

Pagan Blog Project - Week 15 - H#1 – Hestia

http://www.majorolympians.com/hestia01L.jpg

a repost from PBP 2013

Pagan Blog Project - Week 15 - H #2 – Hestia

My house is falling down.

We're renting, thank goodness. But since we moved into this place over five years ago there have been serious foundation problems: backed up plumbing, cracks in the wall and ceiling, damp spots on the floor, dirt in the bathroom...

I've had a strange relationship with this house. At first I was indifferent and uncomfortable. Haven moved from a really great place in Texas, North Carolina was weird and foreign. A friend visited with us a few months later and he said "oh, you have such a cute little witchy house!"

Hmm… maybe.

The indifference continued until a few years ago when I decided I hated this place. I was tired of it and all of its quirks. I wanted to leave, to rent or possibly by a new place. So, we shopped around for houses, looking at prices and financing. It was just not possible. Moving to another rental was also not really a good idea, either.

I'm not sure what happened first. Was it cocktails with my girlfriend, or my at-the-time Coven's ritual devoted to Hestia? But something changed in both my perception and relationship with my house. Slowly, but surely, it became my home.

As a group we devoted a ritual to Hestia/Vesta. I did a lot of studying on her before the ritual, and included a little lesson for the ritual itself. Though the ritual was focused around creating foci (in this case, a tool of devotional focus), looking back now I realize something else happened, at least for me. I finally bonded with my home. Most of all, I realized my physical space was not the source of my dissatisfaction, but I was depressed about more meaningful areas of my life. Changing my house wouldn't make me happy. I would have the same old problems but in a different box.

I needed to change the focus of my life.

In the center of my crappy little home is a huge fireplace, and while the Coven did rituals together in my living room, the fireplace was a natural center staging area, with the mantle and hearth serving as the perfect altar tables. I had always decorated the mantle with flowers and kitschy holiday decorations. But I found that over the years the mantle was less of a mundane seasonal piece of home decorating, but had become a seasonal shrine. And at some point I had begun using it as an altar, charging items or creating little charms. Over the years, my Pagan tools and paraphernalia weren't just hidden and tucked away, but were slowly migrating into the house and into my mundane life.

It wasn't just this refocus on my hearth that shifted my perception of my home, but the ritual itself and learning about Hestia. One of the ladies in the group was going through transitions in her own life and had suggested we do a ritual and lesson regarding reconnecting to our habitats, and Hestia was a natural choice for this.

Hestia’s domain is within the home. But she’s not just about cooking and cleaning, but about protection and nurturing energy. She’s about keeping our focus, and she’s about making sure our domestic energy translates easily into our public lives, and vice versa. The Vestal Virgins in Rome were priestesses who guarded the hearth and flame (may it burn forever!). Their energy in both a literal and a magical sense were devoted to the protection of Rome as both a micro and macrocosm, and this devotion and attention is a useful reminder to anyone who might be feeling a little scattered, a little discontented, a little out of sorts. In my experience, Hestia’s energy is useful for anyone who is looking for something with which to devote themselves.

After spending some time to Hestia, a shift happened in my life. I began to reconnect with and love my home. There was magic there now, in ways I hadn't realized. (Though to be fair, it's not like magic came out of nowhere. The magic had always been there. I just hadn’t really noticed it yet.) And an added and serendipitous bonus of working with Hestia was starting communication with Hermes, who is Hestia's total bff forever.

Most of all, this moment was a catalyst for meaningful change in my life. I got a promotion at work. I was given a car. I applied for graduate schools and was eventually accepted. I have a room now devoted to my Pagan tools and altar. Now I might even love my little house, even though the molding is coming down and my bathroom wall is rotting out.

Working with Hestia totally and literally change my focus, and that's powerful magic

Life's So Sweet

 Ever since my last visit to New Mexico in 2012, I’ve had really strong, nostalgic feelings for the desert. That trip was healing for me in a lot of ways, giving me the chance to reconnect with family and friends, to really feel and experience the energy and magic of the landscape, and to really appreciate the land, the culture, and the people in ways I hadn’t been able during my depressing teenage years. That trip home even inspired me to write a short little article for Witches & Pagans magazine for their Element of Fire issue, and I've even begun to honor the desert in my own personal practices.  

You can’t go home again, and I’m glad. I wouldn’t want to. But I do like having home come to me, in little things like Hatch chilies, Kokopelli all over my house, and most of all, with food. Food is so tied to culture and place, and it can be hard to get good southern New Mexican style food in this area. Luckily for me, though, since my sister has been here she has made green chili stew, sopapillas, and bizcochitos. Oh yes.

Bizcochitos are the state cookie of New Mexico, and these little guys date back to the Spanish colonists of the region, hundreds of years ago. They’re made of lard and wine and anise and are really just amazing, and can be very similar to ginger snaps. My sister made them for the 2013 holiday celebrations – Yule, Solstice, Saturnalia, Christmas, New Years, etc. They’re often eaten during the Christmas season, but also popular for baptisms, funerals, and weddings.

What’s great about these little cookies is that they bring with them the magic of place. I’m not in New Mexico, but I can bring New Mexico to me. I may not be the descendant of a Spanish conquistador, but I am New Mexican, and I can share this unique culture with my North Carolina friends and family.

Some people don’t care for anise, but it really is a wonderful herb. Anise is great for the cold holiday months. It brings the properties of youth, protection, and purification. It spreads greater awareness and happiness. These are perfect for the time of the birth/rebirth of the sun/son, for shelter and security during the uncertainty of winter, and for bringing in the New Year. Anise brings with it mindfulness of flavor, of place, of being, and it is tangy and unique and sweet and joyful.

As many know, cooking and baking can be magical acts. My sister was so excited to prepare bizcochitos, and she made them with love and nostalgia, remembering her own experiences back in the desert. She was adorably eager and nervous to share these regional cookies with my friends here in North Carolina, but we figured that even if people didn’t like them, that would just mean more for us.

So even here on the cold and wet east coast, we can enjoy the taste, flavor, and memory of the desert. I was honored that my sister wanted to share these cookies with me, and we were both happy to share them with others as well.

 

Bizcochitos

1 ½ cup lard

1 ½ cup sugar

3 eggs

3 teaspoons anise seed

6 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

½ cup sweet white wine (plus ¼ extra if needed)

½ cup sugar + 1 tablespoon sugar

Plus plenty of cinnamon and sugar

Cream together lard and 1 ½ cup sugar. In separate bowl, beat the eggs and wine together. Add the lard and sugar and mix well. In separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the dry and wet mixture together. Your dough should be slightly sticky. Divide the dough into three large bowls and keep in the fridge overnight. Preheat your oven to 350. Roll the dough into little balls and roll these balls into a cinnamon and sugar mixture. Cook the little balls for 10-15 minutes in the oven. After they are done cooking, roll them again in cinnamon and sugar so you get a double coating. Enjoy!

(My sister doesn’t remember where she got this recipe. It’s written in her journal. But if you own this recipe, let me know and I’ll give you credit! Other recipes and variations can be found all over the internet, and they’re really super easy to make!)

Rock the House

While taking my sister around town, we stopped by one of my favorite places on our way to get coffee. This little, cute, new agey store is right around the corner from the coffee shop I used to manage, and the owner is this super sweet lady who always has the best crystals and gemstones in town. 

Digging through a little bowl of hidden treasures, my sister found little points of smoky citrine. I’d never heard of this gemstone before, and knew right away that I needed to have one to keep on my keyboard. At the advice of a friend many years ago, I’ve been keeping a piece of smoky quartz on my keyboard to boost my writing, creativity, confidence, and to prevent writer’s block. These days I cleanse it on my altar between semesters or when I’m on holiday or break, and keep it up on my keyboard when school is in session or when I’m working on something creative (which is most of the time, to be honest.) I’ve really come to enjoy having a piece of smoky quartz around me. It’s a calm, steady, grounding, and gently enlightening stone, at least in my experience with it over the years.

Citrine has always been one of my favorites. I have a lovely citrine necklace that was gifted to me back when I lived in West Texas. It’s a sterling silver flower with five petals and a large, glowing citrine stone in the middle. Back when I was a Baby Pagan in the Bible Belt of West Texas, I’d wear it rather than wearing a pentacle. (five petals, five points… and isn’t a flower a lot like a star, anyway?) These days I don’t wear it as often as I used to, but I love wearing the citrine when I need something bright, happy, uplifting, and invigorating. A good piece of citrine is so warm and inviting and solar. It has almost buttery quality about it, and I particularly love it during June and December – that is, during the summer and winter solstices.

When we moved into this new home in August I knew I needed to set aside a special place for a household altar, since this new place doesn’t have a mantle like the old house did. And while establishing this new household I also felt strongly drawn to Ganesha, probably due to his ties to family, community, and loyalty (as well as marking new beginnings). So I went to my favorite little new agey store because aside from crystals, she always has great statuary from India. I found the household a little golden Ganesha, and for some reason was drawn to these large, beautiful citrine points. So bright! So happy! So our Golden Ganesha sits on the household altar near our hearth/focus/chimenea, along with a few other stones.

Right now my keyboard smoky quartz and brand new smoky citrine are sitting with Ganesha and getting some good energy before I start my fourth and final semester of graduate school. Ganesha is also helpful in terms of the mind, study, and intellect, and he brings blessings to busy students. (like me!)

I read that many citrine pieces are actually just amethyst or smoky quartz that has been heat-treated to enhance the lovely golden yellow color. So it makes sense that smoky quartz and citrine would work well together and have complimentary qualities. 

In addition to the qualities of smoky quartz and citrine individually, smoky citrine is said to be a stone of transformation, helping with transitions and gaining access to deeper self-knowledge and intuition. It is smooth and gentle and kind. It takes negative and unwanted energy and transforms it into something that can be useful and positive. 

These all sound like great energies to bring into my life, especially when I return to school later in January. But most of all, I’m just excited to have something so lovely to decorate my working space!

Nearer

Last night with a sparkler in each hand, I drew huge banishing spirals into the air, thinking about the year that had just passed.

“Out with the old” I whispered, over and over again.

When the time felt right, I reversed my spirals, spinning inward, with the hopes to bring luck and love to me in 2014.

“In with the new!”

As the sparklers began to burn out out I went crazy with my magic, dancing and looping large streaks of burning color into the air.

“Out with the old, in with the new, out with the old, in with the new, out with the old, in with the new!”

When the light finally died, I released my intentions into the cosmos with a cheer. “Happy New Year!” My friends, enjoying their own magical moment of sparklers and nighttime joy, shouted with me. “Happy New Year!”

That was my last bit of magic for 2013, and my first bit of magic for 2014. Not bad for a year of intense ritual experiences and divine revelations… I’m not much of a resolution type person, but I really hope 2014 has just as much magic as 2013, if not more. 13 is a witch’s number, and I’d really say that 2013 was the Year of the Witch for me, but 4 is my number, and I’m really hoping that 2014 is The Year of The Space Witch.

Last night, home and slightly tipsy from champagne, I drew a card from my new deck, gifted to me from a dear witch friend. For this first reading of a brand new deck, Le Tarot des Femmes Erotiques, I drew the seven of pentacles. “Wait for the Moment” it tells me. Whereas 2013 Space Witch would have been annoyed and impatient, 2014 Space Witch is wise and understanding. I recognize the advice to wait wait wait as the current theme in my life.

Wait. The Cosmos have been telling me for months. For years. Wait. Now is not the time.

So I get my seeds and soil ready and I wait and do all the work I can for when the time is right, because I know when the time comes I need to be ready.

Wait.

So I started the day of 2014 with some more magic, making monkey bread and bacon and drinking champagne. (The Space Witch is a classy witch, for sure.) As I roll balls of dough I whisper into the food “Out with the old, in with the new, out with the old, in with the new, out with the old, in with the new!” I add a pinch of nutmeg for divine inspiration, cloves for a spicy kick, and cinnamon for an extra oomph. I can’t wait for this hot, goey, breakfast treat. So of course I take it out of the oven too quickly. The inside is still raw. “Wait!” the Cosmos remind me with my uncooked breakfast.

Oh yeah. Right. Maybe I still have some work to do on this whole patience thing, after all...

And later we get to enjoy pork loin, cabbage, and black eyed peas. I do live in the South, after all, and I can use all the luck I can get, and black eyed peas are lucky indeed. I’ll probably give some to the nature and land spirits later, or to the house wights.

But today isn’t just the New Year. No! It’s the new moon as well! How fortuitous! So I’m thinking about making some incense or oil later today, too. Maybe tonight with the darkness is deep and the night is cold.

The oil will be a mix of lavender, jasmine, sandalwood, cypress, and myrrh. The incense perhaps a bit complicated as I work out the perfect recipe. But I’m hopefully for the magic of this day to carry me through the next year, to capture it into a little jar of scent and energy.

2013 was rough for many people, and 2014 won’t be without its challenges. But aren’t you so excited?