Druid Island Grove

About a year ago, I created a sort of fantasy Druid Grove on Second Life. [To get to the grove, open your Second Life program and use this link. Click the "Teleport" button and it will link to your SL program and begin the teleportation process.] It was my first real "project" on there and I had a lot of fun with it. It's a small grove in a clearing in the middle of what is meant to look like an extinct volcano. I didn't really have any plans for this spot other than as a place to go to practice my LSL (Linden Scripting Language) skills and as a home base for my explorations in SL, so I wouldn't say it is finished yet by any means, although it is usable as a meeting spot for friends. This is an overview of the island grove area from an overhead "flying" position.

Here is a picture of the beach landing area, where I generally will walk into the grove rather than fly and drop in from above.



Here is a picture of the oak tree, twined with ivy, that sits at the highest point of the crater rim, and from which point two paths into the crater diverge and enter the clearing.



Here is a picture of the trailhead on the right side of the oak tree. Until you get to this point, you can't really see the grove area.



Here is a picture of the left side trailhead.

Serendipity and the Solstice

Today my stepson and I began a new family tradition. We made hand dipped bayberry candles to burn on the Solstice. We had a lot of fun, and the little guy was amazed at how the candles seemed to grow visibly with each dip. We made a half dozen tonight, which will be plenty for us for the holiday season, although I'm thinking of making another half dozen as gifts to give to friends.

Bayberry candles burnt at this time of year apparently were once quite a popular tradition as there are several versions of a little ditty that is often recited as part of the lore of the bayberry. So far I've found about four different versions, but I forgot to copy down the last one I read, so here are three:

"This bayberry candle comes from a friend
so on Christmas eve burn it down to the end.
For a bayberry candle burned to the socket,
will bring joy to the heart and gold to the pocket."

or

"Bayberry candles burned to the socket,
puts luck in the home, food in the larder, and gold in the pocket."

or

"A bayberry candle burned to the socket
brings food to the larder and gold to the pocket."

At any rate, from the little snippets above it is clear that burning one as a holiday tradition certainly isn't going to hurt anything! Since bayberry candles made half and half with beeswax have a wonderful aroma and burn far longer and cleaner than bayberry wax alone, we added some lovely fresh beeswax to our dipping pot. The finished candles are hanging here near my desk, and ohhhhh, do they smell good. I keep taking the bundle down from their peg every few minutes to enjoy the scent.

So, here comes the serendipitous part...

Since my dipping pot is really just an empty spaghetti sauce can that's been cleaned out and re-purposed, our home-dipped candles weren't terribly long - only about six inches. That meant that they are also a bit narrower than commercial candles, since having candles that short but as fat as most commercial tapers would have looked a bit silly. So I decided to look through my candlestick collection for a holder that would hold a slightly narrower taper. I found two such holders already in decorative use on the mantle - a pair of brass calla lily candlesticks I bought a couple of years ago simply because I liked they way they looked.

As I was cleaning them up and polishing away the year's accumulation of tarnish, something in the back of my mind seemed to recall some sort of interesting calla lily lore I had run into earlier this year while researching something else that had caught my attention. So I did what I always do - I googled it - and here's what I found...

"The Calla Lily was the flower that the early Romans used to mark the passage of the winter solstice. The Romans planted the Calla Lily just inside the portal to their homes, timing it to bloom for winter solstice and giving the effect of bringing the light indoors during the darkest days of the year."

So my calla lily candlesticks have a bit more going for them than the fact that they fit the tapers we dipped tonight! And, I learned something interesting as well to pass along to the rest of the crew the night we light them to help guide back the sun.

Homemade Magical Cone Incense

I'm about out of my special cone incense, so it's time to get out the supplies and make enough to get me through at least the first few months of the new year. I think I'll make this part of my Summer and Winter Solstice preparations - that way I'll always have some nice fresh incense to use for my Grove ritual, which I perform any time I'm doing a holiday celebration or a magical working.

Here is the recipe I use.

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Ritual Incense of Peace, Protection and Purification

Gives many of the characteristics of resin incense with the convenience, cleanliness and portability of cones. Smells like a walk in the summer woods crossed with a campfire - spicey, piney, smokey, but with a clean hint of floral

Incense Base

9 good-quality unscented wood-based small incense cones
1 tablet of incense charcoal, 33mm size

Grind wood based incense cones to powder in a coffee grinder. Sift out any large pieces and regrind these until powdered. Place resulting wood powder into a small jar that's been fitted with an airtight lid. Grind one charcoal tablet in a mortar and pestle until powder, then add it to the wood dust in the jar. Mix thoroughly by shaking the lidded jar until the powder is a uniform color and texture. Allow dust to settle before opening jar to add more ingredients, and be careful not to inhale the powder. To this base mixture, also powder and add:

1 tsp. each of

Three Kings resin incense, or use 1/2 tsp each of frankincense and myrrh resins
Copal resin
Aromatic rose petals, dried

1/2 tsp each of

Pine, cedar or Spruce resin
Benzoin powder
lavender flowers, dried

Grind all of the above with mortar and pestle until these ingredients are also well powdered, then add them to the incense base and mix thoroughly. Add three drops of lavender essential oil, and nine drops of rose absolute or another rose essential oil to the dry ingredients. Mix oils into the dry ingredients until you can no longer see clumps.

To the dry ingredients add purified or magical water, a dropperful at a time, until the powdered ingredients begin to clump up and form a rather dry, somewhat spongy "clay." Use only enough water to enable the mixture to hold its shape when firmly pressed. Using your fingers, firmly knead and press teaspoonfuls of the clay into skinny pyramid-shaped, flat based "cones" of incense, approximately three-quarters to one inch tall by half an inch thick and tapering to a point at the top. (Circular cone shapes are difficult to do by hand, but a tall pyramidal shape is much easier to form and works just as well.) Dry on a flat surface in a warm room for at least three days before use. When completely dry, use non-toxic paint to paint an Awen, Air or other sacred symbols on the cone sides if desired, allowing the paint a little time to dry before using the incense. Store unused incense cones in a small airtight container to help keep them dry and to preserve their volatile oils and scents.

Makes 10-12 medium-small "cones" of incense.