Yvonne Aburrow's Blog, page 38

Memories of Art Quester

My dear friend Art Quester is gone. I can’t believe that he’s gone. He was so full of life. Brilliant artist, utterly magical being, and so much fun to be with.

I first met Art in 1987 during my first year at the University of Lancaster when I worked at the Three Mariners pub (I think it is the Carpenters’ Arms again now). I was involved with the Sealed Knot battle reenactment society and he founded a Dark Ages reenactment group on campus. The guy I was going out with at the time voluntee...

Books I read in April

I’m still reading Gerald Gardner’s The Meaning of Witchcraft and it’s taking ages (it’s my bedtime reading and I am only getting a few pages read at a time. I very much enjoyed Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern-loved Gully by Amy Hale.

Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern-loved Gully by Amy Hale

I first came across Ithell Colquhoun as a child, as one of her paintings, Rivières Tièdes, was in Southampton Art Gallery. I was very drawn to the painting and I once had a significant Jungi...

How I discovered the Craft

From a writing prompt by Mat Auryn.

My very first witchy book as a child was Gobbolino the witch’s cat and somehow I instinctively knew that witches were nice.

I went to the leaving party of my primary school dressed as a witch (I had somehow — incorrectly as it turned out — got the idea that it was a fancy dress party).

It was about this time that I read the Noggin the Nog books, which got me interested in Norse mythology.

In the second year of middle school, I was introdu...

Spiritual bypassing

Recently there has been a pattern on social media of BIPOC people expressing their completely valid pain and anger and sadness over the continuing murder of Black people by police, and getting pushback from “spiritual” people claiming that their anger is too much, or somehow misplaced. I have also experienced this phenomenon. I used to call it “spiritualler-than-thou” syndrome, until I discovered that it already had a name, spiritual bypassing.

The following is an excerpt from my book, Th...

Earth Day 2021

The earth is a living, conscious being. In company with cultures of many different times and places, we name these things as sacred: air, fire, water, and earth. Whether we see them as the breath, energy, blood, and body of the Mother, or as the blessed gifts of a Creator, or as symbols of the interconnected systems that sustain life, we know that nothing can live without them. To call these things sacred is to say that they have a value beyond their usefulness for human ends, that they ...

The melancholy of lost spaces

There are spaces that once existed that we can no longer visit. The bedroom I had as a child is gone. I went to university. My parents sold the house and relocated the remainder of my stuff to the new house. That was a cute room, too. Various apartments I’ve lived in over the years, creating cosy spaces — those spaces can never be exactly recreated. Even if your parents still live in the same house and didn’t redecorate your childhood room — you still see it through different eyes as an adult.

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Writing tips

I’ve been writing for most of my life, so it’s hard for me to analyze what I do. Most of the time I just write. However, even for the most experienced writer, it’s helpful to practice different styles and types of writing, as that’s a good way to improve.

Find your words. Practice writing frequently. Use writing prompts (Write for your life, Small Beauties).

Write for your life is a series of prompts for writing daily reflections and prayers by Merle Feld.

Small Beauties is a prac...

Names for Pagan Festivals

You might be wondering where the names of contemporary Pagan festivals come from, and why some of them them are controversial. Here’s a brief history of where they come from, and why it matters.

Beltane and Imbolc and Lughnasadh and Samhain are Irish and Scottish Gaelic names (the English names are May Day, Candlemas, Lammas, and Halloween or All Hallows Eve). Yule and Litha and Eostur are Anglo-Saxon names.

Imbolc or Candlemas

The name Imbolc is Irish and Scots Gaelic, and refers t...

Books I read in March

I’m trying to read more books this month as January and February have been a slow start. Currently reading The Meaning of Witchcraft by Gerald Gardner, which led me down an interesting rabbit hole about spiritualism and witchcraft.

Mr Rosenblum’s List by Natasha Solomons

This is a lovely book. I had read it before but I like reading things for a second time as you get more details. My favourite character is Sadie. She wants to remember their life in Berlin and her relatives who died in...

Writing a ritual

A step by step guide to creating a ritual.

1. Are you writing a seasonal ritual? What symbols are associated with the season?

Example: you are writing a ritual for Beltane, so you write a quick list of symbols associated with Beltane: Hawthorn, May blossom, May poles, Morris dancing, the Beltane fire, creativity, lust, joy.

2. What are your goals and intentions for the ritual? What concepts do you want to get across? What symbols would help with that?

Example: we want to be inclu...