loreleiranveig’s blog

Hi all!
I know I'm normally a bit of a lurker, but I wanted to post here today. If this post is inappropriate, I apologize for putting it up here, and please feel free to delete it. =)
I've been running a Pagan shoppe now for a few years, but recently I've decided to close down the doors permanently. I'm nearing graduation, and will soon be exploring career possibilities to becoming a Naturopathic doctor, and would like to focus my time on that, and my hobbies (which is sewing alternative style clothing, reconstructing from older clothes, quilting, and weaving/dyeing).
That said, I wanted to give the community the first chance to look at what I have left before I just toss everything away to a donation center (maybe in hopes of helping someone who's been thinking of starting a store, to get on their feet?). I'm selling it all waaaay below the price I paid (about 40 cents a piece, lol), I just want to see them go to a good place.
Click Here for the Items
Again, I'm sorry if it's inappropriate to be writing this here. =)
Thanks!

In Frith,
LoreleiRanveig

I wrote to one of the directors at the University of Bridgeport this afternoon, because I wanted to inquire about my educational path with them. Their Naturopathic Doctor program is very difficult to get into. Among the requirements to even apply are a bachelor's in some sort of science, a long medical background, strong grades (a gpa of no less than 3.0, which I have in the bag), and so on. Some of these are actually optional...but considered a "requirement" because in addition to this, they only accept applications once a year in the fall, and of the hundreds of applications they receive, only somewhere around 40 lucky ducks get in a year. I was curious to find out if I was on a really good track, or to see if I should change things around a little.

Today, March 29th, Haukafell Kindred held our Ostara blot at the Radcliff's stead.

Among those who attended was Eric [our Kin-folk] (unfortunately Jen couldn't make it because she is under the weather...get better Jen!!!), the Fink family [Greg, Sascha, and their two wonderful girls], the Paganotti family [Erich, JoAnna, and their two beautiful girls], Jill, Tim, and their daughter Melissa, Pat, Deborah and her son Travis, Rob, Sara, The Walsh family [Melissa, Mike, and their two boys], and Jess & Keith [a nice couple Jesse and I met at a RPW meeting this past week].
What a full house we had! It was absolutely wonderful!! Thank you all so much for coming!
In addition, I would like to thank Tim, Greg, and Eric for their mead contributions. Tim and Jill for the beautiful gift of Tulips, and Pat for the beautiful gift of Mums. I fully intend to plant both of them in our garden this week (which would also hopefully be symbolic of a growing friendship to all of you!). =)

Folks started arriving at 2pm for the egg dying. Mostly those with kids. Though I'm sure some of you wanted to dye them yourselves!! =P
The kids and parents dyed the Easter eggs together...about 4 dozen I would guess. Afterwards, the men took them out and hid them for the hunt. The kids had an absolute BLAST! When finished, they came in and started feasting on their newfound treasures. Lots of luck to go around for them! The remaining eggs I set aside for the Blot.

Our pre-Blot discussion was pushed off almost an hour later, which ended out working a little better after all (4pm really came in FAST!!). So at 5pm we sat down to talk about why we had all come together. We discussed how each of us celebrate Ostara, what it means for us, and the renewal of spirit, and of body at this time of year,as well as the Blot itself, and who we chose to include in the Blot [Idunna, Freyr, and Thor]. About 20 minutes later, we began the Blot. This is the first time that I (Rebecca) had really grabbed the reigns of a Blot [from planning it out to it's execution]. It was loads of fun...but my goodness was I nervous!!

With as many children as we had there, I decided that instead of making an old man Winter from last years left over wheat, we would have a "human" old man Winter (which Eric so kindly volunteered himself for!). HOWEVER...we did not tell the bulk of our guests, LOL.
During the short focus we typically have in the beginning of our Blot's, I rallied the children and armed them with some Forsythia branches. I asked them if they wanted Winter to stay...or if they were ready for Spring. Of course they were ready for Spring!! Then I told them to keep an eye out for old man winter...because he might try and bring back winter again. And that if they were to see old man winter, that they were to chase him out of the yard with their branches! And...at the cue of "and winter has now passed with Spring's arrival..." Eric came dashing out of the house in a dark blue cloak and long white beard running and leaping and growling...and all the kids came barreling out towards old man winter and chased him out of the yard, whacking him with the branches, and away he went indeed...ensuring Spring's return!
Oh it was so much fun...I think everyone really enjoyed that. =)
Once the surprise drama settled down, Jesse proceeded to do the Hallowing. Next we invoked Idunna, Thor, and Freyr. Then I filled the horn, blessed the mead (which Tim brought from Greg's brewing, a strawberry melomel - delicious!). We passed the horn offering our words, prayers, and blessings. We poured that into the Blot Bolli. Then Eric came over and used one of our stalks of wheat to bless each guest, the eggs, and the chocolate hare sacrifice with the mead as I read the following poem (which I wrote specially for this Blot):

Before I go on, I want to apologize for not getting this out sooner. We have been so busy here and the world has been spinning so fast I barely had time to see my shadow!

I returned to school officially this winter, taking Contemporary business and Math right now. Despite my education going towards medicine, I am making up my contemporary business grade (I'm a little stringent about my GPA). It was what I had been taking when I dropped my classes (had a month to do, and I had given labor almost month earlier than expected!). It's going good...but I have A LOT of work to do. So far I have completed 3 reports, one major one, two smaller case studies. I have an oral report this Friday regarding business news. Two more case studies, and two MAJOR reports due in mid-March. They're a huge chunk of my grade. In all honesty, though, they've been fun. Call me a nerd if you will, but I like my homework. LOL.

I've also been helping out the Reading Pagans and Witches organization recently. This past Saturday was their annual Imbolc festival at Riveredge. I do not recall if I mentioned it before, but I'm one of the officers for the group (Field Trips Coordinator). I had to put together some workshops for the event, which was fun. =)
It was very small and intimate festival. We met many new faces and reconnected with those we haven't seen in a while.
One woman, Jackie, I had contacted regarding a workshop was from Baltimore. It was the first time I'd met her, and she was just wonderful. Some of the workshops I tried to get together were Art in Paganism, Pagan Reconstructionism (which our Kindred did together!), and "OK. So I'm a Pagan...What do I do now? (presented by Jackie).
While the festival was great, we did have a small issue with the workshops, though. The workshops were held in the second floor of this big convention center (with various rooms). There were no signs for the festivals. When I drafted the programs for the event, I didn't know where the workshops were going to be held, so they weren't included in there. That was probably my own mistake. I should have pushed the issue. The overhead announcement system wasn't even up and running until half way through the day. There was also a cat show next door which confused things because the stairs was pushing through their crowds. On the positive, we attracted folks in from the cat show, also!

With all the aforementioned said, the workshops didn't all work out so great...Jackie's workshop had NO attendance (I stayed with her for conversation while Jesse tended to our table - we were also vending that day). The other workshops had 1-4 people attending them. I am trying to keep in mind all of the combined factors. I took notes on all of the issues, and will make sure this doesn't happen again. At least for Jackie, she was reunited with an old friend (she used to live up here), and that was huge for her. She also understood and despite the lack of turn-out, she's still going to help out with PPD! Awesome.

They also had a Wiccan ritual there held by members of Stone Circle coven and Silver Garden coven. I'm not personally Wiccan, and I admit to not having seen such an elaborate Wiccan ritual before. It was really beautiful. Very ceremonial, but beautiful. Most of the Wiccan rituals I have been around were all about ceremony and had nothing to do with community bonds or frith. But their ritual, I think, had that feel. The turnout for the ritual was very impressive. The entire festival stopped to watch it. Our booth was pretty much right next to the area where it was held, so we got a nice view of it all. To Rosemarie, Pete, Matt, and the others who put it together, you did a wonderful job! Thank you!!

So onto the part that some of you might want to hear...Haukafell's first public appearance! =)
After the ritual we ran a workshop titled, "Gimme That Old Time Religion!" (pagan re-constructionism).
We studied for it, and the four of us were going to present different aspects of it. colmunson  was to present origins and the beginnings of the recon discussion. I would discuss the various paths in reconstructionism (as well as the overlap in cultures with agricultural celebrations, ancestor worship, and the worships of Spirits of place [land wights, earth spirits, etc.], and reverence for the land). anne_liese_w  was to speak about rituals and some of the culture (mostly in Asatru), and ltlviking  would bridge the commonalities of neo-Paganism and Re-constructionism, as well as the differences among them.
We started out with one guest, daisyankh  . She's a Kemetic recon...and a wonderful personality! Half of our conversation actually became us asking her questions about Kemeticism because most of us didn't know much about it. I used to read up a little before I found Asatru, and love to learn about it. Thanks daisyankh for explaining so much to us! It was a learning experience for us, as well! We did have some other guests, also. One was a Latvian woman. I'm not sure what her path was, but she came off as a catholic who was interested in what reconstructionism was. She had a deeper interest in Celtic/Druidism and in the Latvian recon path (which isn't really *recon* per say, because most of their traditions, language, and lore were never really lost in the first place). So we discussed that a little. We also had a couple join in. She was an eclectic Wiccan from San Diego (I think she said she was raised both christian and pagan...though I'm not sure because I was greeting another incoming guest with papers...can anyone else confirm that?). Her fiance was a Celtic Wiccan, I think. He was trying to come off as a recon it seemed, but was throwing out really wacky information (for example, I *think* he implied that the "true Norsemen" didn't really exist anymore because they bred with his Irish ancestors [and others] too much?). You always get one I guess. They left half way through. We also got Pete from (I think) Stone circle coven. He was there briefly and showed interest in what we discussed. He's a traditional Wiccan, so it was nice hearing his input, as well. The other man that attended I didn't get a name from. He was also one of the folk from the Wiccan ritual. He put in some good info too, about Wiccan rituals.
The gist of our workshop ended up becoming more of a discussion among everyone rather than us teaching..but it was great! We discussed Baltic recons, Celtic recons, Norse history, rituals among recons vs. neo-Pagans, ancestor worship/worship of Spirits of place, Kemetism and more. We had loads of fun!

After the festival, Haukafell decided to take a trip to a nice restaurant to ground ourselves and hang out. We got to relax, enjoy some simple conversation. By the time we parted ways, it was nearly 9pm.

(re-posted from my LJ blog from Feb. 8th)

Jesse and I decided that while we were tired, we weren't ready to go home. The children were at his parents for the weekend, so we decided to go somewhere calm: Borders! =)
Despite being nearly 10pm at that point, we enjoyed small cappuccino's together and went exploring. I looked at some nice D-I-Y magazines for home and fashion, and got loads of inspiration I had to jot down for future projects. I also picked up two wonderful books, the Trees of Pennsylvania, and one called Altered Curiosities: Assemblage & Techniques. The dark, creative, and Nature-inspired work is a star from my own mind. I bet this lady hung her barbie dolls from rafters and hog-tied them to basement railings, too!! =P
Jesse browsed at a bunch of different things, but didn't get anything (he's got his eye on something elsewhere).
I find myself aching to sew lately. I haven't done so since December...that's a long track!!!
I'm also having a new inkling to delve into the world of quilting. I know, I know. Granny stuff, right? No way! You should see some of the pieces and ideas that have inspired me from opheliaspins  (who will also be showing me the ropes), as well as other internet searches. The possibilities are endless. I'm currently brainstorming something relating to Frigga for my children.

So those are the highlights of our weekend! I'm going to try and catch up on some of your blogs now. =)
Then I'm off to help prepare the PA May Faire and PPD here in Reading. As well as Draven's kindergarten Valentine's day party, my homework...my sewing projects...oh...and perhaps celebrate my birth day this weekend...which was the 5th, lol. I'm a whole 25 years old now. =)
Valete!

Burry Man solves the very prickly problem of toilet stops

John has to keep his arms outstetched for 11 hours
Picture: Julie Howden

It's a mystery as old as the ancient tradition itself.
Every year, the Burry Man is plied with whisky as he plods the streets of South Queensferry to help ward off evil spirits.
But all that drinking leads to one big problem - how do you go to the toilet when you are sewn into a suit made from 11,000 spiky seed cases?

Now some of the mystery surrounding the tradition, which is said to be more than 900 years old, can at last be revealed.

Current Burry Man John Nicol, 32, finally dispelled rumours that he relies on a catheter to see him through the 17 to 20 drams.
On the eve of yesterday's event, the Leith man, who was brought up in South Queensferry, revealed the solution was much less sophisticated - a pair of scissors.
The Burry Man walks for 11 hours with arms outstretched visiting pubs and friends in the town on the second Friday of August each year.

A group of helpers stick the burrs - seed cases of the burdock plant - all over him, just leaving small holes for his eyes and at his mouth so he can sip whisky through a straw.

People who meet the Burry Man along the way traditionally offer him a glass of whisky, which is said to bring good luck.

Mr Nicol wears several protective layers of clothes along with a full-face balaclava, over which panels of burrs are stuck.

He said: "Going to the toilet is a bit of a problem. There would be no shame if I needed to wet myself, but I've never done that and would feel uncomfortable with it.

"If I need to go my dad will have a pair of scissors and will cut through. In the past he has cut through my long johns a bit and then patched me up with burrs."

During yesterday's event John Nicol sr, 59, from Sommerville Gardens in South Queensferry, confirmed that he had indeed been called upon to get the scissors out.

He said: "We did cut him out at one point. We cut seven or eight inches and pulled his long johns down and we carried a bag of burrs about with us to stick him back together again. Nobody saw it."
Mr Nicol, who works as a graphic designer for Hibs where his duties include designing posters for the stadium, has been the Burry Man for Ferry Fair for eight years ever since the previous incumbent retired from the role.
"I grew up in Queensferry and I used to work in the Anchor pub where many of the committee used to drink. They wanted somebody suitably sensible and idiotic to take it on - and someone who can take their drink," he said.

The Burry Man said the weather was one of the biggest factors in how the day went, since if it gets too hot the suit becomes particularly uncomfortable. But his father said this year had been one of the easier events because the weather had been almost ideal.
He said: "The weather's been good, not too hot and with a nice breeze. The house is jumping and we have a marquee in the garden. We won't know till the end how many scratches he has."

The facts

The Burry Man has existed in some form or other for the past 900 years.

The character is shrouded in mystery, but has become an annual fixture in the South Queensferry calendar, putting in an appearance on the second Friday of August each year.

The most likely historical explanation for his appearances is that South Queensferry used to have a seasonal herring catch and the Burry Man would travel about the town covered in burrs which would attract all the bad luck, thereby ensuring a good catch.

To prepare for the ritual, the Burry Man dresses in trousers, T-shirt, long johns, long-sleeve vest and a balaclava, before being covered from head to toe with 11,000 of the sticky seed pods from the burdock plant.

He then parades around wearing a banner bearing a lion rampant stitched round his waist and carrying a bunch of flowers, accompanied by two supporters.

Soooooo you've heard about it....inklings and whispers that blue hair was on it's way.....
Now it finally is!!!
See as example below:

I think I look cross-eyed in this one, but it wasn't intentional...but made the picture better nonetheless!!

Ahhh....the wonders of the mundane....

Glad to have the amateur photo shoot over! =)

I have this icky cold right now...really getting me down...and you can kind of see it in last image. Dyeing the hair was fun...and the looks from it are an interesting mix. The kids at Draven's school think it's great, though. Glad I can entertain someone!!