Clearing My Desk

 Now you wouldn't think this would merit a blog entry, but you haven't seen my desk!

    To be honest I don't think it has ever been clear of stuff since the day we put it where it now stands, in the corner of the living room, and it was put there around 30 years ago.

    Over the years more and more stuff has got piled on it, and I mean piled! Until I would have to clear a few square inches to do anything on my desk, and I worked at it a lot!

    I did my paperwork there (how?) I did all sorts of craft work there. Making wands, making magical oils and incenses, painting things, making talismans, making jewellery, everything from wood to metal work. And things very often just got left, or piles were added to.

    I knew where things were, I knew paperwork was in that pile to the right, recipes were in the files behind that box with essential oils in it. Gemstone beads were in the box with a drawer, other beads were in one of my plastic boxes with compartments. Another one of those had jewellery findings in (the bits of metalwork you need to create a necklace or earrings). There was a weighing machine at the back there with a calculator (usually) on top of it. A pot with brushes and dip pens in stood at the left, with the phone in front of it. The current calendar was somewhere towards the left corner, probably on top of the extension lead thing, which I had to feel underneath the pile to find. Various pairs of glasses of a variety of strengths were dotted here and there about my desk along with many pens, rulers, hole punches, spoons (?), at least one teddy bear and a single sock (why?).

    Oh and my desk light in the middle, although I usually had to hunt to find the on/off switch thing which would be buried somewhere nearby.

    The only bit of my desk that was clear, would be the bit I was currently working in. If I managed to get a space around the size of a paperback book, that would suffice.

    So since we stopped the business, one of my major, on-going projects has been to Clear My Desk!

    I have been at it for weeks - and I mean that literally.

    I have managed to get rid of loads of stuff and still my desk was piled high!

    When Mike visited on Sunday he commented that he could see more wood (my desk is an old fashioned oak one) than he had done for some time. But it seemed to be a never ending task.

    Then Graham suggested we get a large box and just put everything that was left, in that for the time being, and at least that way we could see to give the desk top a good clean.

    So we have managed that this morning. AND the desk top has been given a good clean with various household cleaning products - actually washing-up liquid seemed to be the most effective.

    I was so proud of the result I took a photo (I wish I'd thought to take a 'Before' pic)

    I still have to sort out what is in the box and then it will be on to having a go at the shelves above, but things are gradually improving!

Raven Recipes - Ruthvah

 Since we closed the business down I have had a few letters from people asking if I would let them have recipes for magical oils and incenses that we used to produce.

    I am quite happy to pass these on, as it feels nice that people enjoyed them, and want to go on using them.

    I actually have two very fat files of recipes and I have wondered about making these available somehow for people to have a go at. I know how difficult it can be to find either a recipe for a particular magical incense or oil, or to find someone who sells these things.

    I have to just mention that my recipes are unique. They will not be the same formulas as anyone elses, simply because makers have been very wary about passing around recipes, in case they do themselves out of business, so a lot of the time I have had to devise a recipe based on my own knowledge of the magical uses of plants, plus planetary magic and even numerology and astrology.

    Thankfully people have been kind enough to let me know that their spell workings etc have been successful using my oils, incenses and powders - and the number of repeat orders also tells me that.

    Some of my recipes (well most of them actually) have changed over the years, simply because there have been times when certain ingredients become harder or impossible to source, so I have had to find a substitute or in some cases rewrite a recipe completely.

    One that I was asked for recently was my recipe for Ruthvah.

    Now, Ruthvah was created originally by Aleister Crowley and his recipe is relatively easy to find and is:

Ambergris (Kether) 1 part

Musk (Chochmah) 2 parts

Civet (Binah) 3 parts

    Now I have a bit of a problem with this recipe in that all of the ingredients are animal based and in the main the animals have to be killed to obtain the perfume - Civet cats can be 'harvested' for their perfume, but it is not a pleasant experience for any involved.

    I know you can get artificial versions of Ambergris, Musk and Civet, but even these are not easy to find. So I chose instead to look at plant based essential oils, and my recipe is:

Benzoin 1 part

Patchouli 2 parts

Vetivert 3 parts (you can use Valerian as some or all of this part instead if you wish)

   Another problem you might spot is that there are no exact measurements here, all the ingredients are given as 'parts'. This is the old way many recipes were written whether for oils, incenses or medicines. This actually gives you some leeway about how you measure the ingredients.

    You could use spoonfulls. You can choose which size of spoon you use, but in the above recipe it is an easy one, two or three spoons. You may find that this gives you far too big a quantity. So instead I chose to use a measurement based on the numbers of drops and the size of bottle I was going to put the oil in.

    After some experimentation I found that in general 25 drops of essential oil is about 1ml, and the bottles I mainly used were 5ml bottle. So I would use around 40 drops of essential oil and top it up with a neutral carrier oil. So the Ruthvah recipe becomes:

Benzoin 6 drops, Patchouli 12 drops, Vetivert 18 drops - 36 drops of essential oil in all.

Clearing The Gods

 I must have mentioned that Mike (our son) has arranged for an auctioneer to collect all our remaining Raven stock - when we have managed to get it all sorted out.

    So this last Saturday Mike and Eden (our grandson) came round to give Graham a hand clearing out The Gods (the loft).

    Now I haven't been up in The Gods for a few years - I can't manage the loft ladder - so gradually more and more of our day-to-day stock has been left in our bedroom, where it is more accessible to both of us. So I didn't think there was much stuff left up there.

    I knew the joss sticks were there, and a box of Egyptian statuettes and a box of silk squares, but I thought that was about it.

    Oh no!

    That wasn't about it!

    Graham and Eden went up in the loft. Graham moved boxes to the middle of the floor, Eden picked them up and passed them down the ladder to Mike.

    We'd already decided to stack them in our bedroom, with the rest of the stock we had already sorted. I was keeping out of the way - well playing World of Warcraft really - but as the 'Games Room' is next to the loft ladder, I couldn't help seeing the number of boxes coming down and being ferried into our bedroom.

    Soon the boxes were up to the ceiling and the bedroom window was blocked out.

    And still they kept coming!

    I was starting to get worried that we wouldn't be able to get to our bed, as the pile of boxes filled the floor and advanced on the door.

    'Don't worry, ' said Mike, 'They aren't all full!'

    But still they kept coming!

    I tried to ignore what was going on, but it seemed never-ending!

    Would the house fill up with boxes?

    Would we ever see the floor again?

    Would we have to sleep on the table in the living room as the only flat surface not covered in boxes?

    Eventually Mike declared that he had the last box and Graham and Eden climbed down the ladder to freedom.

    We thanked Mike and Eden for their help - it would have taken Graham days to do it on his own - had fish and chips for lunch, then Mike and Eden went off to the cinema, to see a 'Minecraft' film - Mike said he expected to sleep through it.

    After lunch Graham and I went to inspect the heap of boxes. As they were even piled up on our bed, we decided we had to make a start on sorting, just to try and get the number of boxes down.

    So that was our afternoon.

    Happily Eden understood 'box' to mean any size of box, big or small, full or empty! So we were able to quickly get rid of several empty boxes for a start.

    Most of our stock has been stored in old-fashioned cardboard fruit/vegetable stacking boxes, so that made keeping the piles neat much easier. And we were able to move bits from one half empty box into another, cutting down the number of boxes even further. So we did manage to clear the bed and enough floor space to be able to put the dog's beds down too!

    It took us a couple of days to sort out all the boxes - stuff to keep, stuff to go the auction, stuff that was just rubbish. But we came across things we hadn't seen for twenty years or more

Some Boxes

A lot more boxes

Shabiti

    Including a box of Shabiti figures Graham had made and I had painted a long, long time ago.

(Shabiti are ancient Egyptian spirit servants, designed to do work on behalf of you - rather like the idea of the Western magician or Witch's familiar).

Moon Names

 On our Facebook page I try and mention New Moons and especially Full Moons, and I have seen that these days there is a tendency to give the Full Moons names such as for the April Full Moon we find it listed as The Pink Moon.

This name is not a traditional one in any sense of the word. In the 19th Century the US Yankee Magazine  decided to create a list of Moon names for their 'Old Farmer's Almanac', in other words the journalists made them up, and for some reason these names seem to be ones that we are getting stuck with.

There are actually many truly traditional names, some dating back to Anglo-Saxon times and even Celtic beliefs and over the years I have compiled a list of these, which I use on Facebook to try and keep them alive. I have recently been asked about this and so I have decided to list them here, so that at least they are somewhere that people have easy access to.

Full Moons do move about each year, so some years some Moon names are more appropriate than others. Anyway here is my list:

January: Wolf Moon, Stay Home Moon, Moon After Yule

February: Storm Moon, Ice Moon, Snow Moon this can also be Wolf Moon same as January

March: Plough Moon, Wind Moon, Lenten Moon (Lengthening Moon, referring to the lengthening days) Chaste Moon

April: Budding Moon, New Shoots Moon, Seed Moon, Egg Moon

May: Mother's Moon, Bright Moon, Milk Moon (the Saxons called this month Thrimilch, because the rich new grass meant cows could be milked three times daily), Hare Moon

June: Mead Moon, Horse Moon, Dyan Moon, Rose Moon, Flower Moon, Honey Moon (where we get the wedding holiday name from).

July: Claiming Moon, Wyrt Moon (herb collecting moon), Herb Moon, Mead Moon (Meadow or the drink made from honey), Hay Moon

August: Dispute Moon, Grain Moon, Corn Moon

September: Wine Moon, Song Moon, Barley Moon, Harvest Moon (this is usually the name given to the Full Moon nearest to the Autumn Equinox)

October: Blood Moon (this was when herds were culled), Seed Fall Moon, Hunter's Moon (this is usually the Full Moon nearest to the feast of Samhain).

November: Mourning Moon, Darkest Depths Moon, Blood Moon (again), Snow Moon (rarely snow for us these days)

December: Oak Moon, Full Cold Moon, Moon Before Yule.

Hope this helps.

When is the Festival of Easter?

 This might seem a daft question, but for many Pagans and Witches this can be very confusing - and even contentious.

The eight main festivals of the Witches year are spaced roughly every six weeks or so throughout the year. The four main festivals are called the Cross Quarter Days - Samhain, Beltane, Imbolg and Llughnassadh. The four minor festivals are timed by the Sun, so they are the two Solstices at Midsummer and Midwinter and the two Equinoxes at Spring and Autumn.

The Spring Equinox falls around the 21st of March and (surprise, surprise!) celebrates the re-awakening of the Earth and the return of Spring.

The Spring goddess is known as Ostara, Eostre or Easter. So her festival is obviously the Spring Equinox.

But hang on a minute, there is another festival around this time which also bears the name of the Spring goddess. 

Yes, we are talking about the christian festival of Easter, which moves about each year because it is timed, not by the Sun, but by the Moon.

Now this starts to get messy as the christian festival is dealing with the death and resurrection of Jesus. That is: the death and resurrection of a god, but it has been given the name of the Goddess who welcomes the resurrection of the Earth.

So is this a christian festival, timed by the Moon?

Or is it a Pagan festival, originally timed by the Moon, which has been hijacked by the early christians?

Now I must admit, I don't have a problem with there being two festivals of Eostre, because I believe 'The more the merrier!'. That is why my facebook page is dedicated mainly to listing festivals for as many days of the year as I can find something for!

I am all in favour of a party and if the christians want to celebrate Eostre with eggs (ancient Pagan symbol of resurrection) and bunnies (messengers of the Moon Goddess) then I am all for it!

Traditional Witches (and I am one) have always celebrated both Witchy festivals and festivals of other religions too. Largely, I must admit, as a means of self-preservation in times of Witch persecutions - you are less likely to appear to be a Witch if you attend church regularly and participate in christian festivals.

But why limit yourself to four festivals, or eight or even twenty-four, when you can have something to celebrate every day of the year?

Spring is a Season, not a day.

So I reckon our Goddess of the Season is entitled to be celebrated more than once.

Happy Easter!

Retirment is Looming!

 We cleared out the last of our orders from the last Mail Shot last week, and it felt really wierd.

Normally at this point, as the orders are thinning out, we are starting work on the next Mail Shot and Newsletter. Now, for the first time in well over thirty years, I have nothing to do!

Well that isn't strictly true as we have a little trickle of orders still to sort out and odds and sods of admin all to do with closing down. But we have decided to take things a bit easy, just for a week or two, before we throw ourselves into the next phase of stuff!

As we have worked from home all this time, our home has been both our workshop and warehouse. Everything we needed to run our business has been stored somewhere in the house.

I know this would be a nightmare for a lot of people.

I have seen houses where there isn't a single book to be seen, let alone any ornaments - and certainly not a heap of boxes over there and a bed you can't get into for all the stuff piled on top of it. So our house is generally organised chaos.

We have a rough idea where most things ought to be, but if they aren't where we think they should be, then there is an awful lot of searching through boxes which goes on.

So now we are going to have a clear out.

This is quite exciting! But a bit daunting too - if you could see the amount of stuff ....!

The thing is I know that no matter how much stuff we manage to shift, our house will never be minimalist.

I mean, for a start my wool stash is going nowhere. But there are an awful lot of boxes of stock in various places around the house and we hope to clear all of those.

At one time we were quite organised and got most of the stock up into loft. But the odd box would be left downstairs to make it easier to get at. This has increased as we have got older and it is more difficult for us to get into the loft. I can't manage the ladder at all, and it is getting more awkward for Graham too.

Anyway soon. Yes, soon! We shall be sorting out all of our stock into a big heap which will be taken away by an auctioneer!

We know it won't raise much money, but to be frank we shall just be glad to have some space at long last. 

Graham's ambition is to be able to walk around the bed!

Restarting the Blog and Shutting Raven

 Wow!

It is two and a half years since I last wrote a post for this blog! Things have happened, Betty is 2 and a half years older, me and Graham are getting more decrepit.

But the thing that has prompted me to start blogging again is that we are, at this very moment, printing out our very last Raven Mail Shot.

After nearly 36 years we have had enough.

To be honest, this process started in January last year, when our bank decided that after dealing with us for over 34 years, they did not know who we were. So we had to go through the whole setting up security process from scratch.

As I managed to get this wrong .... twice! It prolonged this process and ended up costing me over £100 in telephone charges. They asked me questions like 'Have you got an overdraft facility on this account?' - yes, I knew that one!

'How much is it?' I dunno, we get a letter if we go over it!

Start again.

And each time you have to give them three security words which they will ask you randomly if you ring up, to see if it is really you. The first one is usually Mother's Maiden Name - but as I had to do the process three times - the names I ended up with are a lot more obscure.

And yes, I have written them all down, because I would forget them if I didn't!

So anyway, we eventually got through the process, they decided we were who we said we were, and all is lovely in the garden. Only it wasn't, it reminded us how little we actually do online. We are not permanently attached to social media. I do have a mobile phone, but only so I can let Mike (our son) know each day that we aren't dead yet, and in case we break down in the car, I can get hold of the AA.

Things have moved on. I have actually had people ask me what 'Mail Order' is. People order online, they don't sit down with a cuppa and read through a lovely papery catalogue that comes through the post - well I do, and our customers do too.

So we decided that it was probably about time we thought about closing the business down and retiring properly. So we have been getting our customers used to the idea over the last year.

Then on December 17th our Credit Card machine stopped working. I rang up the provider and they told me that they couldn't mend our machine as it was too old. So someone would be in touch and a new machine would be sent out. As you might guess, that hasn't happened, so we decided that was yet another sign that it really is time we shut up shop.

I must admit this last flyer is not my best and has taken me far longer than normal to get together. This is for two very distinctly different, but linked reasons:

One: I really have had enough, and for once I have not found writing this flyer fun or exciting

And TWO: I have been putting off sending it out as it is our last one.

Raven has filled our life for nearly 36 years. We have loved finding new and magical things to show our customers. We have loved talking to our customers whether they ring up or write to us, and a number of them have become friends too, which is lovely.

We shall miss them all, and frankly our life will contract, our social life will shrink. We shall have to find new ways to connect with people - oh heck, does this mean social media?

Well I suppose this blog is 'social media' and I shall have more time to share my thoughts - oh dear, poor you!