I spent the morning doing little odds and ends, some laundry, putting away dishes, that kind of thing. Then we went out to cut up the birch that went down a week or so ago to use as altar stands. Phoenix arrived while we were working on it and helped Tom load the 7 pieces into the back of the car. I didn't want to do anything to rehurt my back. We dropped them off at the Namesake Oak then went to calculate the appropriate positions for 7 points around a circle. We borrowed Phoenix' compass to find north. After carefully measuring and placing the first 6 we discovered that the last one would be in the wrong place so had to go back and correct them all. So we measured and remeasured and moved them and wiggled them back and forth and finally declared them done. We put the stone tops on them and they look pretty good. Now we have to move the fire pit - fill in the old one and dig a new one. Also the ground is uneven so we need to do some leveling so the altar stands are more stable. The birch will eventually decay and need to be replaced but I think these are the right things for now.
Tomorrow I am hoping to begin working on the ancestral altar by working on the birch bark mask. I won't have all of the decorations for all the altars done by BelSummer with other things that need to be done but I am planning on having the ancestral altar ready. Some years ago I was walking in the woods and designed a wand of transformation and endings that feels like it belongs on the ancestral altar.
I stopped writing this and went to look through my old journals for it. I knew that I had written some summaries when rereading some of my journals so I looked for that. Sure enough I had listed the date of the design. I never followed up and actually built it. Then I found the right journal and was able to find the entry for April '93.
***April 1993 -- There had been some endings between friends and us. We were thinking about doing a selective logging of our land because we were totally broke and were at risk for losing our land. I had a lot on my mind during my walk. I saw a vulture in the sky circling me. It flew off but came back and circled me again then flew off into the sun. I had an eerie feeling about it. Later I saw an eagle (in all the time I have been out here I have only seen an eagle a couple of times. It flew from west to east. Then I nearly stepped on some spread out deer bones before I realized it. Nearby a very white stone, bone of the earth, caught my attention. A little later something else white caught my attention. It turned out to be a dead, dried shelf bracken. Then I nearly stepped on a pile of ruffed grouse feathers. As I started home a hawk flew off to the north. It was a jumble of images but I went home with a bone of the earth (north), feathers from a dead grouse (air and east), bone of deer (possibly south?), a dried white shelf bracken. Later in the day someone called and casually mentioned to me that Scott Cunningham had died. I hadn't known that and it felt like a shock, especially in light of all the death images. It seemed important enough at the time for me to design an amulet/wand - black wood with the toe bone of the deer at one end pointing, feathers and bracken as decorations on threads hanging from directly below where the toe is connected and the stone attached to the other end of the wand. The purpose was to help in learning to let go of what needs to end and die, to transform, to change, for the magick. And I thought then that it should be made after the full moon.***
I know that at the time I thought of it as being related to the aboriginal pointing stick, though not in the sense of causing literal death but endings. Now it seems that it would be appropriate for the ancestors. It is odd how things come around. Tom thinks that it is just odd that I remembered the journal entry from 8 years ago and then was able to find it.
Copyright © 2001 Kyril Oakwind