My roots penetrate deep into the Earth, I grow strong and I gain knowledge from the nature that surrounds me. I am calm, I am collected, and I am strong.
My body grows up, it is hardened on the outside to protect me. It branches off into my many limbs. I stand tall, swaying in the breeze.
My emotions, my thoughts, my experiences are my leaves, my blossoms, and my fruit. They grow big, strong, and stable in the light of the gods, and the rain of the goddesses. When one fails, a new one takes it’s place. I am a tree, of love and of worship.
I updated my Altar to my goddess of ice and death, Morana. It still needs some items but that is okay.
I light the candles from the right. The first is to let her know i wish to speak to her. I light this while I’m getting ready. I light the second candle when I’m ready to begin. This guides her. The third candle is for my family and friend, that she turn her face from them, and i light this and place it behind her.
The water is mineral water from Germany since I’m currently in the US. It’s behind the first candle so she passes through it and does not burn. This is because it’s winter and she is abroad. In Spring, the water will be in front of the candle. She must die as ash and be placed in the water, to take the ash and water into the ground, to let her sister Vesna grow crops with it. I always offer her water - she needs it to make snow!
Juniper is her wood, thyme her herb and black walnut her oil. In her right hand she carries a mask as no one knows when she is coming. It is also personal, as i am a burn victim and wear a mask in public. In her left she carries the frost. At her belt is coral, once alive now stone. This incredible gift comes from @mitresquaremurder All of these are earrings and I have a single pierced ear so sometimes I wear the other one.
The dolls and heart are family heirlooms from Czech Republic and represent that all my family are dead in war.
The coin is Czech, the charivari piece is for the Roma who died in Holocaust, as I am Rrom.
The German flag is for all the Sudeten Germans who were killed in genocide in The Expulsion.
The modla, (the wooden statue), was my first one before the cornhusk.
The glass snake is my familiar because I’m a Slytherin.
The boxes hold the oils and my mood necklace, which I use to try to divine her wants, since they actually rely on temperature.
The thing on the left is my worship košile (traditional embroidered Czech shirt), picked out in blue and white.
This is just how I do things, I would be very curious to hear about how others worship Morana. Keep in mind, though, that it is said that if you ever tell someone bout exactly how you worship, you should always keep a t least one detail out, that way no one can worship and pretend to be you and make your god or goddess angry with you.
Occasionally I find myself out of the house - say, hypothetically, lurking in graveyards at 3am during the dark of the moon - in need of some aromatics, and a little burnt herb and tobacco don’t feel quite sufficient.
…And sometimes I want to burn incense in my work area, and I’m just extra as hell. A converted mint tin with a holder made out of a magnet, a bottle cap, and a bead; trimmed incense sticks partially wrapped in parchment paper to keep them neat, and a mini bic decorated with washi tape.
I also painted a little design on the lid because I wanted it to look nice, and to distinguish it at a glance from my other weird little boxes.
“The entire universe lives in a continuous dynamism of receiving and giving, as if caught up in a process of cosmic breathing…To live the covenant means to position oneself in reality, to align oneself with reality in a constant disposition of receiving and giving…Perhaps the whole secret of life consists in receiving that which is offered to us as a gift and responding according to the precise nature of the gift received.” ~ Sofia Cavalletti [Madeline with the Offering, 1892 - Paul Serusier]
• Sofia Cavalletti was a Catholic laywoman and theologian who received a doctorate in Hebrew and Comparative Semitic Languages from La Sapienza University in Rome and who was a biblical scholar. More: https://www.cgsusa.org/discover/the-cgs-method-past/history/
• The Nabis (from the Hebrew and Arabic term for “prophets,”) were a Symbolist group founded by Paul Sérusier, who organized his friends into a secret society. Wanting to be in touch with a higher power, this group felt that the artist could serve as a “high priest” and “seer” with the power to reveal the invisible. The Nabis felt that as artists they were creators of a subjective art that was deeply rooted in the soul of the artist. While the works of the Nabis differed in subject matter from one another, they all ascribed to certain formal tenets - for example, the idea that a painting was a harmonious grouping of lines and colors. More: https://m.theartstory.org/movement/les-nabis/
All of us are acquainted with suffering, be it a physical, mental, or emotional one. For those of us free from the trial of constant suffering, Lent presents us with an opportunity to embrace penances – we are invited to undertake little sufferings for our sanctification.
But what about those of us who are facing chronic suffering? For us, .
“It would be easy to become very bitter about having to suffer each day – but God is inviting me to something more. He is inviting me to embrace my cross, and to offer it always back to him – uniting it to his own suffering on the cross.”
