Thought for the Day

Christmas Madness!

The last two weeks of November and the first week of December are always the busiest time of the entire year for me. The reason is simple -- Christmas. These three weeks are when my holiday preparations come to a head: shopping, wrapping, getting cards ready to send, mailing packages, decorating. I like to have everything done by early December so I can relax and enjoy all the holiday parties, concerts and general socializing that fill the rest of the month. Because I work full time, scheduling everything that needs to be done for Christmas can be quite a challenge. So alas, I will probably not be doing much, if any, blogging between now and early December. But fear not -- I'll be back -- although probably trailing wrapping paper, scotch tape and a big tangled ball of mini-lights, with postage stamps stuck to my tongue.

Transporting Sacred Water

The Lion's Head is where pilgrims gather sacred spring water to take home and, for that purpose, Chalice Garden sells plastic souvenir bottles. When I went to buy one, the saleslady took note of my foreign accent, deduced that I would be flying home (not driving) and told me that I'd never get my water home in one of their bottles. Because of airport security, the bottle would have to go in my checked luggage, and the bottle tops were simply not watertight. The sacred water would all leak out during the flight, she said.

So off I went to the Glastonbury shops, where I found a metal Glogg water bottle with a good, waterproof, screw-on top. On the mystical morning of 09-09-09, I filled it full of sacred water and screwed the top on tight. For good measure, I put it inside a big zip-lock freezer bag along with a couple of the small (empty) Chalice Well plastic bottles. I'm pleased to report that the water made it back to Edmonton safe and sound! Once home, I decanted it from the Glogg bottle into the more decorative souvenir bottles.

At the October meeting of the Women's Drumming and Goddess Chanting Circle, we celebrated the Goddess of Avalon and had a special blessing with the Chalice Well water. Each woman received a tiny half-ounce plastic champagne flute as a Holy Grail stand-in. I poured sacred water into each flute from the Chalice Well bottle. Then we each thought of something in our life that needs healing, whether it be physical, mental, emotional, spiritual or financial. I recited the following blessing --

Daughters of the Goddess, may you be blessed and healed by this sacred water from Goddess's holy Chalice Well in Avalon. Blessed be!

Then we all raised our glasses to the Goddess and drank Her sacred water of life.

The Lion's Head

The Lion's Head is where one may drink from the Red Spring in Chalice Well Garden. It is essentially a spout which pours a steady stream of water over a couple of millstones in a small pool. (Note the heavy iron oxide build-up -- a reminder not to drink TOO much of this sacred water!) Our priestess and tour leader, Mara Freeman, led us in a beautiful ceremony at the Lion's Head. Each of us filled a pewter chalice to the brim with sacred water, thought of what we wanted to release from our lives and then poured the water back into the pool. Filling the chalice again, we thought of what we wanted the Goddess to bring into our lives and then we drank that water. Be it so!

Near the end of our stay at Chalice Garden, the Lion's Head acquired a stick-on diamond bindi on his Third Eye chakra! See it in the above photo? I suspect it was a gift from a hippy family that was in the Garden the previous afternoon. I thought it was a wonderful way to honour the Guardian of the Sacred Water!

Our Sunday Ritual

Every Sunday morning, my Rare One and I go for strawberry waffles at a nearby restaurant. It's our own special time. While enjoying our waffles, we try to answer the trivia questions in the local Coffee News. After that, we read our horoscopes for the upcoming week. Then we do the crossword puzzle in the newspaper.

In order to avoid any Sunday morning line-ups at the popular breakfast spot, we get there fairly early. We roll right out of bed and go. We don't even wash the stink off, as they say. Consequently, some Sundays we show up looking pretty much like this:

Ah, good times. Good times.

It's Friday the 13th Again!

This is 2009's third and final Friday the 13th, so enjoy it! If Friday the 13th is doubly sacred to the Goddess at the best of times, then a rare third Friday the 13th must be triply sacred!

Welcome, Knitty Kitty!

You may recall that last month I won a handsome Halloween Knitty Kitty (created by Thalia Took) in Mrs. B's 31 Days of Halloween contest. Well, he has now arrived in Edmonton after his long journey from the United States! We were overjoyed to meet him! All the household cats got together and threw a big party to welcome the newcomer. At first, Knitty Kitty was a little shy --

But soon he joined in with the others . . .

. . . and before he knew it, everyone was Best Friends Forever!!


Her Royal Highness joined the party as well and graciously extended the regal paw of welcome to her newest subject . . .


. . . and introduced him to the Lion Goddess Sekhmet, who fell for Knitty Kitty's charms immediately. Here they are, posing for the paparazzi --

Cat treats were consumed. Party games were played. Fun was had by all.

Knitty Kitty even went swimming in the pool with the Mermaid Goddess Yemaya and her Merkitty! Well, actually he just floated around in a lifesaver ring, but still!


Finally, the party wound down and everyone went to their various cozy corners and cubbyholes for a long catnap. Knitty Kitty finished his evening by getting a nice skritch behind the ears from Kwan Yin Herself. The Goddess loves all kitties.