Hallows eve blog party...a fanciful twist

Wow its the 16th already!!!

Hello and welcome to hallows eve blog party..

What transpires in my mind of hallows eve?

Take a seat, a glass and come talk with me..

*cackles*

Let me prepare a special brew...

for old friends & new

Tis cooked & stirred like some kind of stew,

but magic is abound

and no other place can this brew be found...

There are tales of Absinthe

a green fae brew

but this potion I make is new for you

Hubble bubble

it whispers wisdom of old

it seems the message is love

Let me pour you a tipple

then see what your mind ripples

...taste the nectar of this green fae

Are you still with me?

Can you yet see a fine mist set before you?

Rays of light carrying your wishes to the source of empowerment..

Yes....tis hallows eve..

take another sip

of the bohemian potion

start all your wishes in motion

Do you see her yet?

The green bohemian fae?

She's almost ready to take you where your dreams lay..

There now ...feel her magic,

encompass her words..

sweet love & light

for you on this magical, mystical night

oxo

What else is brewing?

Visit again to find out

*hee hee*

A little lore for you

Norse Hallows Eve

álfablót

In the old Norse religion an event believed to occur around the

same time of the year as Halloween was the álfablót (elven blót).

The elves were powers connected to the ancestors,

and it can be assumed that the blót related to a cult of the ancestors.

The álfablót is also celebrated in the modern revival of Norse religion, Ásatrú.

The Álfablót or the Elven sacrifice was a pagan Scandinavian sacrifice to the elves towards the end of autumn, when the crops had been harvested and the animals were most fat.

Tthe álfablót was a local celebration at the homesteads

and they were mainly administered by the lady of the household.

Nothing is known about the particular rites because they were surrounded by secrecy and strangers were not welcome to the homesteads during the celebrations.

However, since the elves were collective powers with a close connection to ancestors and fertility,

it is possible that the álfablót concerned ancestor worship and the life force of the family.

The blót (Old Norse plural same as singular) refers to Norse pagan sacrifice to the

Norse gods and the spirits of the land.

The sacrifice often took the form of a sacramental meal or feast.

The blót element of horse sacrifice is found throughout Indo-European traditions,

including the Vedic Indian, Celtic, and Latin traditions.

The modern English language term bless likely derives from the 1225 term blessen,

which developed from the Old English blǣdsian (preserved in the Northumbrian dialect around 950).

The term also appears in other forms, such as blēdsian (before 830 and derived from *blōðisōjanan),

blētsian from around 725 and blesian from around 1000,

all meaning "to make sacred

or holy by sacrificial custom; to mark with blood"

The verb blóta meant "to worship with sacrifice",or "to strengthen".

The sacrifice usually consisted of animals, in particular pigs and horses.

The meat was boiled in large cooking pits with heated stones, either indoors or outdoors.

The blood was considered to contain special powers and it was sprinkled on the statues of the gods,

on the walls and on the participants themselves.

It was a sacred moment when the people gathered around the steaming cauldrons to have a meal together with the gods or the Elves.

The drink that was passed around was blessed and sacred as well and it was passed from participant to participant.

The drink was usually beer or mead but among the nobility it could be imported wine.

The old prayer was til árs ok friðar, "for a good year and frith (peace)"

They asked for fertility, good health,

a good life and peace and harmony between the people and the powers.

The autumn blót was performed in the middle of October,

the great Midwinter blót,

or Yule, in the middle of January.

Freyr was the most important god at the Midwinter and autumn blót,

and Christmas ham (the pig was for Freyr) is still a main Christmas course in parts of Scandinavia.

The Summer blót was undertaken in April at the vernal equinox and it was given to Odin.

Then, they drank for victory in war and this blót was the starting date for Viking expeditions and wars.

A building where the blót took place was called a hov.

Or at sacred places called Hörgr, Vé, Lund and Haug.

Horgr means altar possibly consisting of a heap of stones,

Lund means "grove" and Ve simply "sacred place".

The Christian laws forbade worshipping at the haug or haugr meaning "mound" or "barrow"

In the forest of Tiveden, Sweden,

local tradition presents a poem describing what appears to have been the last larger blót

at a mountain called Trollkyrka,

perhaps as late as the 19th century.

It also shows that the farmers in the area still knew how to perform such a rite.

Elden den "köllas" av nio slags ved,	The fire is lit by nine kinds of wood,
det är gammal sed.	that is the old custom.
Offer till andarna skänkes,	A sacrifice is offered [to the spirits],
med blodet sig alla bestänkes.	everyone is sprinkled with the blood.
Det bästa till andar föräras,	The best part is gifted to spirits,
det som blir över skall av männen förtäras.	what remains is to be consumed by the men.

The information that nine kinds of wood were used to light the fire is only found in this poem,

but it fits very well the significance of the number nine in Norse mythology,

and may simply have been overlooked by medieval sources.

Kormáks saga accounts for how a sacrifice to elves was apparently

believed able to heal a severe battle wound:

Þorvarð healed but slowly; and when he could get on his feet he went to see Þorðís,

and asked her what was best to help his healing.

"A hill there is," answered she,

"not far away from here, where elves have their haunt.

Now get you the bull that Kormák killed,

and redden the outer side of the hill with its blood,

and make a feast for the elves with its flesh. Then thou wilt be healed."

Skålgropar, a particular kind of petroglyph found in Scandinavia,

were known in older times as älvkvarnar (elven mills), pointing to their believed usage.

One could appease the elves by offering them a treat (preferably butter) placed into an elven mill

– perhaps a custom with roots in the Old Norse álfablót.

A more recent theory suggests that some skålgropar might have represented rudimentary astronomical maps.

Love & light

have fun tonight

Trace

oxo

Doll swap

An enchanted party where holiday dolls are swapped by all!

SO HERE ARE THE RULES

(PLEAAAASE Read carefully before contacting me if you are interested in this swap).

1. DEADLINE to JOIN THE SWAP: October 15th.
YOU SHOULD HAVE THE DOLL IN THE MAIL TO YOUR PARTNER: December 5th

2. The SWAP GOAL: Create a doll of ANY HOLIDAY of your choosing, to be swapped. What do I mean by this? Witches, cute snowmen, frightful snowmen, The Queen of Hearts (Valentine's Day), Monsters in the Closet, Santas, Angels, Happy Easter Bunnies, Vampire Bunnies...your imagination is the limit but the dolls MUST REFLECT A HOLIDAY THEME...

3. Swaps are open to doll artists and high end crafters. If you are not sure if I am familiar with your work-- PLEASE SEND AN EXAMPLE OF your work in your initial email so I can better match you with a partner.

4. All styles of doll making are allowed. If you create prims, great. If you are a dark artist, wonderful. We accept fairy, folk, clay, cloth and all doll styles in between. *WARNING* I've noticed it is hard to place straight-out GORE type dolls, so this may be the only caveat for those of you joining the swap.

5. Open to USA and overseas friends.

6. Please carry the badge (above) on your blog, etc, if you'd like, so as to invite more wonderful artists. More artists means a great, variable, fun swap.

If you join us with the idea that you will make a wonderful/creative piece to be given away in the spirit of fun, I find that swapping will be rewarding. Please keep this in mind when joining a swap.

Having said that, I will do my best to pair everyone up with a fun and creative partner!

your name, business name (if you have one, so I can put you on our blog list of members), what style of doll you prefer (prim/fairy/goth/etc), and possible colors you prefer in your doll.

If you are interested in this swap, please email
beyondvagabond@gmail.com

Love & light

Trace

oxo

Free art course online by Tam

Healing and Art for everyone! :-) ♥

18th October 2010

'Please spread the word'

See you there...

Love & light

Trace

oxo

Featured...

Linda over at Becklee Cottage Designs

about:

A lot of that has changed since I began over a year ago as a wedding jewelry designer,

but I have been gifted with Grandmother’s old jewelry and I up-cycle previously loved jewelry. Vintage items just seem to come to me when someone cleans out their jewelry

I am the happy recipient.

Of course I make new items as well but I do love taking something old and giving it a new life.

Linda featured my Etsy shop on her blog here:

Jasmoon

Linda wrote:

Today we talk to a new Etsy shop curator; Jasmoon from London.

Sharon from Plumrose Lane suggested Jasmoon as a possible candidate for a the Tuessday Feature.

I am so glad that she did.

I love the whimsy and dimension of her work.

I feel as if I have stepped into a fairy tale.

I can’t wait to see more from this very talented woman.

I wanted to say a big thank you to Linda & to

Sharon from Plumbrose Lane for forwarding my details for a Tue feature post...

mwah oxo

love & light

Trace

oxo

Butterfly project

If you would like to spread the word....

(Double Click pic , and then you will be taken to blog for sign up & more info)

A project underway called

"The Butterfly Project"

hosted by The Holocaust Museum Houston in Texas, USA.

Their mission as follows:

The Holocaust Museum Houston is dedicated to educating people about the Holocaust,

remembering the 6 million Jews and other innocent victims and honoring the survivors' legacy.

Using the lessons of the Holocaust and other genocides,

we teach the dangers of hatred, prejudice and apathy.

The Butterfly Project mandate is to remember

the 1,500,000 innocent children who perished as a result of the Holocaust

by collecting 1.5 million handmade butterflies.

In Spring 2013, these butterflies will then become a break-taking exhibition

to serve as a memory of this event.

Can you imagine?

1.5 million children translated into 1.5 million butterflies....?

If you wondering why a butterfly, the project is based on this poem -

I Never Saw Another Butterfly

The last, the very last,

So richly, brightly, dazzlingly yellow
Perhaps if the sun’s tears would sing
against a white stone....

Such, such a yellow
Is carried lightly ’way up high.
It went away I’m sure
because it wished
to kiss the world good-bye.

For seven weeks I’ve lived in here
Penned up inside this ghetto.
But I have found what I love here.
The dandelions call to me
And the white chestnut branches in the court.

Only I never saw another butterfly.
That butterfly was the last one.
Butterflies don’t live in here, in the ghetto.

Written by Pavel Friedman, June 4, 1942

Born in Prague on Jan. 7, 1921.
Deported to the Terezin Concentration Camp on April 26, 1942.
Died in Aushchwitz on Sept. 29, 1944.

Would you like to be a part of this?

Join in and make a butterfly?

We'll call it ....

The Butterfly Effect "OPEN"

...borrowing from chaos theory,

but much more importantly based on the wonderful notion that if enough people think enough healing thoughts,

then slowly our world will be at peace.

No one said it better than Gandhi -

Be the change you want to see in the world.

The power of the collective consciousness. Wouldn't this be a great place to start?

Consider yourself invited!

How it will work -

Follow the instructions as outlined by the Holocaust Museum highlighted in blue below.

When your copyright free butterfly is completed,

pop it into an envelope including your name, email and blog or web address and mail it to:

Two Dresses Studio
1554 - 20 Avenue South
Lethbridge, AB T1K1E9
Canada


Deadline - yet to be decided

~Here are the Instructions for Making the Butterfly ~

•Butterflies should be no larger than 8 inches by 10 inches.

•Butterflies may be of any medium the artist chooses, but two-dimensional submissions are preferred.

•Glitter and all glitter-related products should not be used.

•Food products (cereal, macaroni, candy, marshmallows or other perishables) also should not be used.

Is time an issue: Solved -

On the top butterfly framed pic - link to blog : there are images of butterflies,

save one, print it out and following the instructions above,

art it up, cut it out and mail it in!

I have posted two here.

Want to get others involved?

1. Double Click the image of the hand holding the butterfly above, add it to your sidebar and link it back here.

2. Or write a post about it, or post your butterfly to your sidebar.

Finally - here are a few links for more information:

1. Holocaust Museum Houston

2. The Butterfly Project

3. Butterfly Utopia (direct link to the black and white butterfly images posted above)

Love & Light

Trace

oxo

Halloween Party time....

No tricks here,

only treats

*cackles*

Two great parties for

Hallows eve celebration...

MERRY MEET MY LOVELYS

First we have:

Frosted Petunias tea party

Held on the night of the October full moon.

It's on a Saturday this year.

Anna says:

Have a witches tea party under a Hallowee

n moon.

With vintage lace and tarnished teapots set aglow by candlelight.

Wicked sweets and other tattered bits.

You're welcome to bring anything you like.

Bewitched teacups, singing pumpkins,

candy corn stripped cats, cackling ravens and of course wandering witches.

There might even be a ghost or tw

o.

Have your tea party for one or for ninety one!

You can have a real tea with real people.

Or one with your favorite magical friends.

Come and show off your Halloween art, crafts, decorations,

collections, stories, costumes and edible d

elights.

Pop over to leave a comment for Anna and place button your your blog ,

simple as that ;0)

Look forward to meeting you there

Blessed Be )O(

OOOoo more blog fun!!

Leaving my witchy outfit on !

Vanessa over at A Fanciful Twist is holding a

Halloween Tea Party!

All you have to do is leave Vanessa a comment on a fanciful twist,

with your blog link, stating that you want to join in...

Then follow these 4 bits of advice (err, rules)...

1) Share the flyer and/or the button on your blog as soon as possible and link to Vanessa.

She will then add your name to the "Halloween Partiers" list in her LEFT hand side bar, and link back to you.

2) On the day of the party, October 16th 2010, please make sure to post a Halloween Party post of your own, on your blog, linking to Vanessa. Other party goers will be visiting you on that date.

3) IMPORTANT - On the day of the party, after you have your own Halloween blog post up and running, please leave a comment at Vanessa's Halloween party post including your "Actual Party Link."

4) Blog hop with the other partiers on the day of the event and have a hauntingly ghoulish blast!!

Note: Please make sure you post a party post on October 16th if you signed up.

Last year several people did not do this...

(if you sign up and later find that you can't make the event,

please let Vanessa know and she will remove your name from the list)

Love & light

Trace

oxo

Design Team Sep' project triptych art

Hi everyone :0)

I will be decorating a triptych for Sep' design team project...

I wanted to stay with the same theme as

my practical magic blog party post so everything will tie in nicely...

unicornis horn Potion note ...to heal

For unicorn inspiration watch the magical tale of the last unicorns

....Anyone seen the film : Legend...

An amazing fantasy film...

little info:

A triptych (pronounced TRIP-tik, from the Greek tri- "three" + ptychē "fold")

is a work of art (usually apanel painting) which is divided into three sections,

or three carved panels which are hinged together and folded.

It is therefore a type of polyptych, the term for all multi-panel works.

The middle panel is typically the largest and it is flanked

by two smaller related works, although there are triptychs of equal-sized panels.

While the root of the word is the ancient Greek "triptychos",

the word arose into the medieval period

from the name for an Ancient Roman writing tablet,

which had two hinged panels flanking a central one.

The form can also be used for pendant jewelry.

Ok so here goes:

UNICORNIS TRIPTYCH

Right Panel reads:

unicorn of purity, unicorn of truth

unicorn of inspiration, unicorn of peace

Left Panel reads:

unicorn of legend, unicorn of myth

unicorn of mystery, unicorn of magic

Bottom message reads:

may your gentleness guide my way...

I will be listing in Etsy shop at the weekend ;0)

Materials/mediums I used:

Acrylic wash

pyrography tool

watercolour crayons

stamps

decoupage, pva

card

muslin for ribbon (tea dyed)

ink

pencil

rub on transfers

wax & seal

Wonderful goodies supplied to me by Lynne :

The Altered Element for design team

AND ABOVE ALL, WATCH WITH GLITTERING EYES THE WHOLE WORLD AROUND YOU BECAUSE THE GREATEST SECRETS ARE ALWAYS HIDDEN IN THE MOST UNLIKELY PLACES.THOSE WHO DON’T BELIEVE IN MAGIC WILL NEVER FIND IT.
~ROALD DAHL

(WONDERFUL QUOTE FOUND WHILE VISITING PLUMROSE LANE)

The unicorn lived in a lilac wood and she lived all alone.

She was very old, though she did not know it,

and she was no longer the careless color of sea foam,

but rather the color of snow falling on a moonlit night.

Her eyes were still clear and unwearied,

and she still moved like a shadow on the sea.

Via the sunbeams in the forest

a gleam echoed from a magical horn

....it has been found

It's a rare man who is taken for what he truly is …

There is much misjudgment in the world. …

We are not always what we seem, and hardly ever what we dream.

The last unicorn upon her lap

filled with love as it takes its nap...

The spiral horn endures,

for it is sovereign and adamantine and transmutes

through the ages into many unknown compounds.

— Michael Green,

On the history and truth of the Unicorn

She remembers the days

the last of the unicorns freely roamed

now memories just turned like dust to myth

but never to be forgotten

a horn hidden from view

if only myths critics knew

---

Legend is a 1985 fantasy film

The story is set "once, long ago" in a world of unicorns,

fairies, goblins, and demons.

Hidden in a dark lair, the antagonist,

the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry)

instructs his goblin servant Blix (Alice Playten)

to locate the two unicorns that roam in the nearby forest

and remove their horns.

If the unicorns die and their horns are removed,

the Lord of Darkness can ensure that dawn never again breaks, and sunshine never returns.

The Lord of Darkness laughs with his statement

that darkness cannot be completely destroyed

- it always exists to counterbalance light,

until the two merge into one,

transcending the bounds of duality.

Now go seek the Great Stone

Marked well with a sign,

That the one who shall find

Shall see it is mine,

And upon seeing, shall ponder and certainly know

as the Ancients have writ:

"As Above, so Below."

And I shall guard the Source of Greatness;

From neither joy nor sorrow born,

In silver bound, beneath the ground,

I am the Spiral Horn.

Love & light

Trace

oxo