Yvonne Aburrow's Blog, page 48

Happy Beltane

Happy Beltane everyone. Up the May!

Idylwild Morris performing Bonny Green Garters for your viewing pleasure!

[image error] My first public Morris dance

UPDATE: and here we are performing Hal-an-Tow, a traditional May Morning song from Padstow, Cornwall.

Books I read in April

Rabbits, a lovestruck curate, and the wonderful Nombeki.

The Mysteries of Glass, by Sue Gee

A heartrending and beautifully written tale of a curate who falls in love with the vicars wife. Its the third time I have read this book and I find something new in it each time. The book evokes the lost world of the mid-Victorians, their faith, and the first stirrings of doubt after the publication of Darwins On The Origin of Species. The descriptions of nature and interiors is exquisite. The only...

Notable and quotable 22

This weeks absolute belter of a post was Christopher Penczaks article Holding the door open.

Dont miss Julian Vaynes series of interviews, Our Magical Things.

And a lovely post on egg healing in Slavic magic on the Divine Multiplicity blog.

Really great post on being in mythological time from Kiya Nicoll (how was I not following Kiyas blog before now?)

And a guest post by Ing Venning on Nimue Browns blog.

Holding the door open

I see so many witches online (both Wiccans and other witches)...

Using the inclusive Wicca symbol

The inclusive Wicca symbol was devised by me, but other people are welcome, and encouraged, to use it. I would prefer it if people used it to represent genuinely inclusive Wicca. To that end, I am licensing it under Creative Commons.

The inclusive Wicca symbol by Yvonne Aburrow is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

You can download it from Wikimedia Commons.

The reason I am doing it this way is that I want people to think about what the symbol means.

[image error]

...

Our Garden

Since we havent been able to go anywhere at weekends during the lockdown, weve been very busy in the garden. Weve also seen lots of birds (cardinals, robins, a woodpecker, chickadees, and mourning doves) and squirrels (both black and grey) in the garden.

Here are some photos. Ive also been posting pictures on my Instagram account.

Im so glad we can get out into the garden. It must be awful being stuck in an apartment during the lockdown.

We are going to be growing lots of food in our raised...

Folklore Against Fascism

One of the highlights of my week is the Folklore Thursday hashtag on Twitter. Ive not had time to look at it for a few weeks though, so it seems I missed the occasion when some völkisch fascists tried to hijack it, much to the horror of the regular participants.

One of them accordingly started a second hashtag, Folklore Against Fascism, and several participants tweeted about their opposition to fascism and commitment to inclusive folklore.

Every culture has produced folklore, and every...

Notable and quotable: Earth Day

Its Earth Day today, and the significance of it being in the middle of a pandemic, when Nature is getting a brief respite from the depredations of industry and big oil, has not been lost on people, I hope.

Wrycrow has a great piece on Earth Day:

Can we begin to move away from an economy of profit over planet, to one that values life, sustainability and wellbeing for all, human and other-than-human lives alike?

To do so is the most challenging task, but also the most desperately needed....

A Witches’ Toast

Wherever the Wica may be

In air, on land or sea,

May the Wica blessed be!

WASSAIL!!!

Since we cannot be together in person, Id like to propose a toast, which can be said by all witches & Wiccans, of whatever tradition or path, whenever the hands of the clock make a 72° angle: two of the points of a pentagram.

The proposer of the toast can say the first three lines, and the rest of those present can join in by replying Wassail.

As you say Wassail (to which the traditional reply is Drinc hael)...

Notable and quotable: coronavirus (4)

Reflections on lockdown, the necessity of seeing trees, mending the cosmic egg, seeing the Earth from space, the ancient British mythology of plague, soul values, a poem that made me cry, and making meaning from the pandemic.

Nimue Brown reflects on the social justice implications of people being trapped in apartments for weeks on end with no access to green spaces, especially trees. I completely agree. I have a garden and I have a lovely tree to look out at from the study window while...

Cabin Fever

Its still pretty chilly here in Southern Ontario, and it has felt like a long winter. Ive been working from home most of the winter (driving in snow is okay with snow tyres, but Im trying to keep driving to a minimum so as to keep my carbon emissions low). Im fortunate that my job was classified as essential, so Im still working from home. No novel-writing for me.

I felt a bit down yesterday because it has been getting warmer and more spring-like and then it snowed. Im missing the English...