The Pendle Craft Issue 16

T he he P endle endle C raft raft October 2018 Issue 16

TPC D igial M agazine L td ©

C ontents

Pg 02 M odern M anoan P aganism : A H ow T o

By Laura Perry

Pg 08 A Magical Nature: 1 Grounding The Magic

By Sheena Cundy

Pg 12 G rounding

By Leesha Lou

Pg 14 TO U nderstand L ife , Y ou F irst M ust L ive I t .

T omorrow I s N ever P romised

By Aurielle Sage

Pg 18 S ahmain S pirit

By Helen Libby Davidson

Pg 20 D arkness

By Stacy Grech

September 2018 Issue 16

Pg 22 B ook O f T he M onth

By Laura Perry

Pg 40 F rustration

By Kathryn Critchley-Fowler

Pg 26 T raditions A round

Pg 42 A T aste O f S amhain

T he W orld : P hillipines

By Thora Dorn

Pg 52 P recision E ngineering

By: Mae Molen

By Jon Mikl

Pg 30 M y B ody , M y T emple

Pg 54 H ow T o : M ake Y our

By Sophia Adlucem

Pg 30 M abon E quinox : H arvest and I nterconnections

By Elen Sentier

Pg 34 A T aste O f L itha

By Thora Dorn

Pg 36 A P agan P rayer

By Moira Hodgkinson

Pg 38 A J ourney O f T he S oul

By Deniece Morgan

O wn S pell C andles U sing T ea -L ights

By Monique Reichert

Pg 56 C atch T his B lindin ’ T heme B efore , I t H its I ts P eak

By Thomas Shelby

Pg 58 D o Y ou S uffer F rom M agickal R itual P erformance A nxiety ?

By Soror Seshat Aubi OM

C ontact D etails D isclaimer : The opinions expressed in this magazine by writers are not necessarily those of TPC or its staff. Please note, some articles may contain trigger warnings. All articles and artwork remain the copyright © of the author or artist. We here at TPC retain typographical copyright © on all articles, photos and adverts typeset by TPC or its staff. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine can be reproduced, except for short passages for critisicm or review, without written permission from the Editors. Layout Design by Tasha Clark, Monique Reichert & Aaron Field

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By Ora North

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H oney C hamomile P opsicles

because it triggered a staff member while reviewing

By Monique Reichert

Pg 66 T rans -A llegheny L unatic A sylum B y L o F n O renda

Pg 69 E l P aso T exas H ighschool P aranormal C ase Pg 70 S tation H otel D udley P aranormal N ight

By Aaron Field

Pg 80 A nd T he G uns F ell S ilent By Aaron Field F ront & B ack C over I mages : Photographers: Amy Adamson - AskaPhoto Model: Ikey (front) ,

R oyalty F ree I mages : By: pixabay.com & pexels.com Unless Otherwise Stated

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r e t t e L e h T From ors Edit Hello everyone, We have hit our 16th issue for our October 2018 digital magazine. We have to thank all of our writers and contributors to the ongoing and continuous success we have been having. Thank you to the Birmingham Peaky Blinders for allowing us in behind the scenes of your events. With the Northern Hemisphere going into the cooler months and the storms and hurricanes please stay safe. To our Southern Hemisphere readers, enjoy the warmer months ahead and also please stay safe and remember to stay sun safe.

Aaron & Tasha

Modern Minoan Paganism: A How-To

By Laura Perry

There are lots of religions out there, each one with its own “rules and regulations” about who’s allowed to join and what they have to do to practice the religion properly. Even within the Pagan community, there are many traditions with firm directions and procedures for joining and participating and some that are less rigid. And they all vary from one path to another.

Modern Minoan Paganism falls toward the less rigid end of the scale. That’s partly because it’s a path that’s still being created collectively by a group of dedicated and inspired people. And it’s partly because we simply don’t know the exact details of ancient Minoan religion. We can’t read Linear A, the script the Minoans used to write their native language. So we can’t reconstruct their ancient religion, or our modern version, with any kind of hard-and-fast rules.

A friend commented to me the other day that the group of us who are collectively creating Modern Minoan Paganism are working like a circle instead of a pyramid: no hierarchy of layers but instead, everyone has a seat at the table and a voice in the process. That means there’s a certain amount of variation in personal practices. Some of us come from formal Wiccan backgrounds, some from eclectic

02 The Pendle Craft

Pagan paths, and some even from Christianity or atheism.

But just as we’re creating our spiritual path through a process of sharing, we’ve also ended up with quite a few shared practices. It’s these practices, along with the pantheon that I described in the previous issue of this awesome magazine, that make up the core of Modern Minoan Paganism. These are the things that bind us together as we walk this sacred path.

So what do we all do as Modern Minoan Pagans to practice our spiritual path?

The first and most common practice is to keep a personal altar. This is something the ancient Minoans did; archaeologists have found lots of home altars and shrines in the ruins of Minoan cities and towns. So it’s not just a way for us to connect with the goddesses and gods of Minoan Crete – it also helps us connect with the Minoans themselves, since it’s a practice we share with them, a thread that binds us across the vast reaches of time. Do you keep an altar of some sort at home? That’s something you have in common with Pagans throughout history (and probably prehistory as well).

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Our altars tend to grow up around devotion to a particular deity or deities, so we often have a figurine or piece of artwork as the central focus. When we can, many of us like to use copies of ancient Minoan artifacts, but sometimes they’re hard to find so we also challenge ourselves to dig into the arts and crafts and make our own. These pieces aren’t always as fancy or polished as the store-bought ones, but they can be quite powerful from a spiritual perspective because of the intent that goes into making them. Have you ever made any of your own ritual items?

While some of us pick a single god or goddess such as Ariadne, Dionysus, or the Serpent Mother as our focus, many of us will devote an altar to multiple deities. Many of the Minoan deities “play well together”

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which can make it a lot of fun to construct an altar. My altar currently holds a collection of objects that represent the Three Mothers: the Sun goddess Therasia, the ocean goddess Posidaeja, and the Earth Mother goddess Rhea. I’ve occasionally honored Ariadne and Dionysus together, and once or twice I’ve even given the Minoan midwife-goddess Eileithyia her own little corner of the altar, no matter who else was represented on it. It’s always a good idea to meditate and ask the deities if they’ll be happy being included on an altar together. Some will be and some won’t. Listen and let your intuition guide you.

As with the rest of Modern Minoan Paganism, there are no hard-and-fast rules for setting up an altar, but there are some basic guidelines we like to follow. The

classical elements (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water) date to a much later time than Minoan civilization so we don’t usually include those in our altars – or our rituals, for that matter. But the Minoans did honor the four cardinal directions – East, South, West, and North – as well as the special points along the horizon where the Sun, Moon, and certain stars rose and set on particular days of the year. They were especially interested in the ways these celestial objects rose and set over the sacred mountains of Crete.

These kinds of directions were so important to the Minoans that they went to a lot of trouble to orient their temples and peak sanctuaries to them. Can you imagine designing a whole building just so the first rays of sunrise on Winter Solstice hit a certain spot in a particular room? The Minoans did just that, along with

lots of other alignments to the cardinal directions and celestial events. So many of us like to include some kind of markers for the four directions on our Minoan altars. And if we happen to have a direction that’s sacred to us locally – maybe a hill or even a building that the Sun rises over on Summer or Winter Solstice or one of the Equinoxes – we might include a small object on the altar, or on the wall over it, that honors that direction.

What do we do with the altars we spend so much time setting up? We use them as focal points for prayer and meditation, and sometimes for ritual with a few friends.

One of the most popular things to do with a Minoan altar is to make offerings of all sorts. That’s another thing we have in common with the ancient Minoans, and many other ancient cultures as well. And of course

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it’s a familiar practice in many other modern Pagan traditions. Do you make offerings to the gods?

In Modern Minoan Paganism, we offer gifts to the gods to show our appreciation for their presence in our lives. Offerings aren’t payments for favors. The gods aren’t cosmic vending machines: You don’t put in an offering and out pops a goodie. It’s about relationship, in much the same way that you might bring your spouse or romantic interest a little gift every now and then, or how you might make tea and cookies for dear friends when they come to visit.

Offerings are a way to exchange energy and build a relationship with a deity, to encourage their presence in our lives so we can learn from them and grow spiritually.

of special dishes just for offerings.

What kinds of offerings do we make? That depends on the deity. For instance, the Sun goddess Therasia likes fiery offerings, especially actual flame: Oil lamps and big wood fires are her favorites. Fiery incense like frankincense and fiery wine like retsina are also good choices for her.

Dionysus, in contrast, prefers plain wine, preferably red, or beer or even mead. I’ve found that he especially enjoys the actual pouring part of a libation offering, the part where the liquid streams out of the cup or bottle and into the bowl that’s receiving it – or onto the ground, if I’m making a libation outdoors.

Other common offering items include honey, poppyseeds, milk, saffron, and fruit.

Of course, which one(s) we choose will depend on which deity we’re honoring. And because the world has changed a good deal since Minoan times, we sometimes make offerings that the Minoans didn’t have.

For instance, lighting a candle is a lovely offering that many of the Minoan deities enjoy, even though candles weren’t invented for many centuries after the collapse of Minoan civilization.

We often like to set our offerings out on our altars, or occasionally in special spots outdoors. I have a couple of spots in my back yard that I use regularly for this sort of thing.

Sometimes we choose special dishes and platters to set solid offerings on, or fireproof vessels for incense offerings, or pitchers and bowls for libations (poured offerings of liquids like wine or milk).

I think the gods understand And sometimes we choose that the world changes with a pretty dish from the time. As long as you’re careful Images Provided By Laura Perry kitchen, consecrate it for to listen and discern whether its temporary purpose, and or not the deity has approved then put it back in the kitchen when we’re done. It’s and accepted your offering, it’s possible to offer an likely the ancient Minoans did the same thing, at least array of foods, incenses, and other substances that the when they were making offerings in their homes. The Minoans never even heard of. temples were probably more formal and had whole sets 06 The Pendle Craft

Another big part of Modern Minoan Paganism is the labyrinth. I’ll expand on this aspect with more details in a later article, I promise, but just briefly I can tell you that many of us include the labyrinth in our regular spiritual practice in one way or another, from incorporating labyrinth images on our altars to walking full-sized ones. I have a finger labyrinth that I made and I often “walk” it with my finger as a quiet meditation at my desk. Some of us get together with friends and build temporary labyrinths of rope or other materials to journey through in collective rituals. Others travel to full-size public labyrinths to walk them in meditation and prayer. It’s also lovely to do a guided visualization of a labyrinth journey – no physical labyrinth needed!

help with that sort of activity. Regardless, scrying is a powerful tool to add another dimension to modern Minoan spiritual practice.

As for ecstatic dance, that’s a tradition that probably goes all the way back to Paleolithic times and is common to cultures all over the world. It shows up, among other places, on the gold seal ring from the Isopata cemetery near Knossos, one of my favorite pieces of Minoan art. The ring depicts a group of four priestesses dancing, with bells on their skirts, visions floating around them, and the goddess descending to join them.

Those of us who are lucky enough to get together with like-minded folks have the opportunity to dance to live drumming. The Minoans also had sistrums, so sometimes we add those in as well. The rest of us rely on recordings of drumming in both modern and ancient styles. Any kind of rhythmic sound, like drumming and rattling, will induce a mild trance state in most people. You don’t need any kind of formal dance Scrying is a form of ritualized divination that involves training; just move the way the rhythm makes you feel looking at a surface, usually a reflective one, in order to like moving. This is a wonderful way to release the see visions of some sort. There are a variety of possible bonds of everyday life and commune with the gods. goals: seeing the probable future, clarifying something Sometimes we even call on our favorite deities to come that’s happening in the present (even if it’s at a great dance with us. distance), or receiving messages from the gods. The most commonly-known form of scrying these days inUltimately, I think that’s what spiritual practice is like: volves crystal balls, but in ancient times, mirrors and the one long, extended ecstatic dance with our fellow husurfaces of liquids were more popular focal points. man beings and the gods and goddesses we feel connected with. In Modern Minoan Paganism, rules aren’t The Minoans were a Bronze Age society so you can nearly as important as sharing with each other and probably guess that they had polished bronze mirrors. finding what works for each of us. That way, we can all That sort of thing is hard to find these days, but mod- reach out and connect with the deities of ancient Crete ern glass-and-silver mirrors are a good substitute, as in the modern world. are “black mirrors” – either homemade by painting the back of a piece of glass black, or a purchased one made of polished obsidian.

In the name of the bee, There are a couple more practices that many of us share, that involve altered states of consciousness. No, I’m not talking about partying with illegal substances.

I mean two ancient methods of touching on parts of existence we can’t reach in our normal, everyday mindstates: scrying and ecstatic dance.

Many of us also like to scry in liquids, especially in a And of the butterfly, darkened room by candlelight, when the visions come more easily. Red wine is a good choice; lots of the And of the breeze, amen.

Minoan deities like it, though Dionysus is probably the most obvious choice here. It’s also possible to scry with plain water if you use a bowl with a dark interior. Then the surface of water becomes a dark mirror. There are also a few of us who like to scry in flames, anything from a single candle flame to a bonfire. The Minoan Sun goddess Therasia is a good choice to call on for

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Your Magical Nature...

Grounding the Magic

By Sheena Cundy We are made up of energy that is both visible and invisible… the earthly and the unearthly. This is the basis of our magical nature and power source to the subtle realms of spirit and otherworldly dimensions. Those who walk between these worlds - the Witches, the Shamans and the Healers – are the magicians. Connected to the earth and her wisdom, they work in harmony with their magical nature to transform and heal, holding sacred space and guiding the souls of those who need it. Our energies must be grounded if we are to honour and fulfil the role of the walker between the worlds. We perform our most important act of magic when we tap into the true power of our spiritual nature and work to blend and align this energy with our human nature… for then we are taking the first step to grounding ourselves from the inside out.

When we care for others we have a duty not only to them, but ourselves also. And when we are working in this capacity - as instruments of the spirit and transmitters and receivers of energy - it is of great importance to protect and look after our own energy. In fact, it is a vital part of our role as wisdom keepers as well as plain old common sense… we are far lesser beings without it!

As well as in the work we do, being grounded gives us a solid foundation to grow from and build on in our daily lives.

What is it?

Groundedness is connection. It is awareness of being here, on the planet, fully in our bodies. It is the art of connecting to the energy of the earth and maintaining that connection in everything we do. It is an attitude which keeps us stable in our outlook and gives a firm rootedness in our lives. By living fully in the body we can realise our full potential as creative beings and grow and flourish… this in turn connects us to our true

purpose.

When we are focused on nourishing the body, we enjoy good health because our energy is working at optimum levels. With a physical discipline of a healthy diet, enough sleep and regular exercise, our grounded state becomes fundamental to our health and by honouring the body in this way it truly becomes a temple of the spirit.

Groundedness is relatedness. How we relate to others and the outer world is a reflection of the relationship we have with ourselves. Living authentically and being true to ourselves strengthens and supports our self-worth and provides us with solid foundations.

Groundedness is earthiness and maintaining a realistic perspective. It is paying attention to the practicalities of life, not taking ourselves too seriously and seeing the funny side of difficult and challenging situations; we all have them! Laughter is a grounding medicine and reminds us that humour is the salt of the earth… without it we are an unsavoury bunch. When we are light-hearted and enjoying life, every day is a celebration.

Groundedness is protection. We are sending out, picking up and holding energy all the time and our bodies are bombarded daily with sensory overload.

With grounding techniques we can drain off that excess energy back into the earth, keeping our minds clear, our emotions balanced and our bodies relaxed.

Why do we need to be Grounded?

Our emotional health is vital to our well-being.

We are influenced by energy all the time, more by the interaction of others than we realise. As sensitives and healers we need to be mentally aware and observe the effects of other people’s energy and not absorb it emotionally. If we are sponges and soak up the pain and suffering of others unconsciously, they will deplete our energy levels and we will be left carrying their burdens.

They will drain us, literally. Focusing on balance in all Email: tpcsubmissions@hotmail.com 09

our exchanges will keep us grounded in the heart centre – so we can show true compassion and empathy – without compromising our own needs.

When we are grounded in our bodies, we give ourselves stability.

When we are stable, we are centred in our energy which gives us clearer access to the power from spirit (above) and we can use it to create what we want into the physical (below). Before doing any kind of work between the worlds it is important to ground that high voltage energy just as an electrical circuit needs to be earthed for the power to be safe. Exposure to the higher vibrations of the subtle realms can literally overload our nervous system if we don’t take the necessary precautions. Guarding our energy through awareness becomes our protection and a necessity.

How to be Grounded Being present, in the moment helps us to ground and centre our energy. It is in the NOW that our power lies, and it is the choices we make in this moment that will influence the future. In my work as a spiritual reader and teacher, this is one of the most repeated phrases I find myself saying to people when they ask what is going to happen to them. We create the future in the present, by giving it our full attention and by focusing on that which we want to make or, more importantly, allow to happen. It becomes something that ‘happens to us’ when we stop doing that, when we give our power away to anything or anyone else. Magic is transformative energy and we can make changes easily by using that power to alter our 10 The Pendle Craft

thinking, which in turn will affect our feelings and this emotional fuel will drive our actions. But if we are spending too much time in the past or the future it will drain our energy and we cannot afford to do that. It will throw us off

balance and leave us fragile.

Get down & earthy:

• Relax. Learn to let go of anything which holds you back… it may be tension in the body, a job or a relationship that is no longer healthy.

• Simplify. Our energy becomes scattered and weak when we spread ourselves too thin by doing too much! To prevent burn-out, prioritize and prune off where you can.

• Set healthy boundaries.

Creating more time and space by saying ‘no’ more often will free your time and energy up.

• Attune to the earth. Get out in the fresh air, walk the land and embrace the natural world.

• Work with the stones of the earth. Anything you find on the ground and connect with will have just as much value, if not more, than any expensive crystal.

• Align with the seasons and be in harmony with them:

Rest in the winter, plan in the spring, embrace opportunity in the summer, enjoy your accomplishments at harvest time and release all you have outgrown in the autumn.

• Move! Walk. Dance. Do a sport. The body was built to move and needs to do it.

• Be creative with your hands. Craft, cook, clean - get domestic!

• Retreat. Switch off in every way… go offline, off your phone, off with the telly and off grid! Camp out. Time out or away recharges depleted energy and grounds you.

• Spend time in ritual and in ceremony. Holding sacred space to connect with land spirits and ancestors will ground and centre your energy on all levels magical.

• Practise non-resistance. Struggling against the natural flow of life is draining.

• Meditation and Yoga. Consciously working with the breath grounds and centres our attention in the body.

• Spend time with animals, they have so much to teach us and are wonderful grounding companions.

• Sit, lie or sleep on the ground as much as possible.

• Laugh… a lot.

You probably do most of these things quite naturally anyway which is just how connected to your sense of earthiness you really are. The soul knows what grounds us better than anything, it is our magical nature at work… we just need to listen.

A grounded awareness will guide us back to the earth every time. It will direct us to ever more natural ways of being that help us to diffuse and transmute negative energy - which is destructive - into positive energy, which is creative and life enhancing.

The more we learn to connect with the earth and her wisdom, the more she will reveal her mysteries and lead us to fulfil our true, creative potential. And when we are doing what comes naturally, acting in our power and sharing the gifts bestowed upon us… we are truly, grounding the magic.

Earthy Blessings to all, Sheena )O( Artwork ~ Badger from www.themagicofnatureoracle.com © Sheena Cundy 2015 www.sheenacundy.com

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Grounding There she stood, The lady of the woods, The roots reeling her in.

Ever so longing To feel their embrace, Grounding her Deep within.

Repairing and cleansing, From her soles to her crown, Emotions so sombre and dim. ~ Leesha Lou ~ Photographer Peanuts

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TRIGGER WARNING

“To understand life, you must first live it.

Tomorrow is never promised.”

By Aurielle Sage

Typically, I write light fluffy pieces, about my day to day life, my personal experiences with the world as I see them, or about being kicked out of the broom closet. This month, I write about something so much deeper and serious, that I have fought with the subject of this story for three weeks, knowing I had to write it, but not wanting to come to grips with the harsh reality of it. This won’t be one of those happy go lucky articles, no how-to’s on how to prep for the upcoming holiday. No, this one actually requires a trigger warning, so here it is, for those who are sensitive to discussion of bullying, as it pertains to children, and suicide and suicidal ideation, stop reading now.

My little Tabby cat, is a beautiful old soul. At a young age, very gifted in the arts, and craft. She is extremely empathic and in tune with her surroundings. She loves animals, and has a way with them. Animals that no other soul can put a hand near, go to putty in hers, doing whatever she asks of them. Dogs that cannot be leash trained, will never pull on hers. Cats so afraid of hu14 The Pendle Craft

mans that they run at the sight, will curl in her lap. Her soft little short chubby fingers, hold so much potential, and one look in her eyes, is like taking a long visage directly into the universe. Because of this, her middle name, is not taken lightly, for I am sure she possesses all the potential greatness of the Morrigan herself.

She is kind, and gracious, well she was. Nearing the end of her third year in primary school (2nd grade) she was constantly somber at the end of the day. Yet another child had picked on her, and made fun of her, and had other children join in on the mockery. One day, she’d worn her tree of life pendant to school, and was tormented. Tabby has never been afraid to tell anyone that her family were witches, and that she herself was one.

Not long after this I was approached by her teacher, who informed me that they were not going to allow her to move on to the next grade. They cited a variety of reasons, mostly blaming it on her reading level.

Now, my child can read, she reads with me every day at bedtime, she reads spells on sabbatt, she reads epitaphs on stones when we visit cemetaries. So I attempted to find out what was wrong. Long story short, it comes down to three teachers pushing to have a child study and speech evaluation done, and every time, being told by an administrator that it wasn’t worth worrying about, it was developmental.

I raged, like no one had ever raged before.

I lost my job because of said rage. I lost my home, and had to move back in with my parents, and change schools, which in the long run, ended up being better for her.

Then Tabby started getting clingy. And angry, and violent, and withdrawn. I called the local community services board and asked for an intake appointment, because I felt with all the bullying and stress, she just needed a therapist to talk to. Someone that could help her through this situation, that could give her some coping skills to deal with the bullies and her abandonment issues that come from dad.

Boy was I so so very wrong.

In intake, three weeks later, my beautiful old souled baby, my first born, the light of my life, gave a very heartfelt cry at the fact that she wanted to end her life, and had a very detailed plan for how she would do it. She admitted to stealing and hiding knives under her bed, so that she could cut herself, as she was testing to see how bad it would hurt when the time came. She stated multiple times about how she wished she could kill that one bully at school, and how she planned to do it in the girl’s sleep, with a long knife. She talked about how much she hated people, how much she hated me, how much she just wished she’d never existed. She’s eight years old.

I was suddenly reminded of a news story not to long ago, where a nine year old child committed suicide after being bullied at school, and the terror set in, when I realized how close to

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that my baby had come.

Immediately, the board set a safety plan into motion. We now keep all knives and scissors in a locked cupboard, and they have to be accounted for every night after dinner. We had to remove all weapons, guns, knives, etc from the home. I’ve had to remove original door and window locks and equipment, and exchange them with keyed locks, to keep her from trying to escape the house. They began sending a counselor, to our home, every day, for three hours, to assess her situation, and evaluate our family. At this point, a case manager was brought in, who happened to have a master’s degree in psychology, and was a board certified developmental therapist. His initial evaluation of her is very complicated. He believes she is extremely depressed, and he also believes that she is on the autism spectrum.

I never saw it. I, someone who taught in a public school system setting, who was trained and took certification classes in special education, never saw the signs of Asperger’s Syndrome in my own child.

Maybe I didn’t want to see it, even though I suspected her father had it. Yet, she hits all the hallmarks.

She has extremely sensitivity to sound, light, and touch. She doesn’t process words correctly when she reads. She is a whiz at math, often giving the answers to problems in her head without ever touching pen to paper. Well, this doesn’t mesh well with traditional public school curriculum. She is expected to do it the teacher’s way, or it is incorrect. She is supposed to be able to read a book, then spit out a test. My baby can read, she can do math, she just doesn’t do it like the state curriculum says she has to. She hates school.

Now we know why.

I am happy to say, that coming from the bowels of hell it felt like, for over a month, she is finally happy again. She is in summer school, but she will advance to the next class next year. She is currently in therapeutic day treatment camp at school, and her case manager is looking into finding a different educational setting for her. Right now the class size is very small, she’s the only girl, and she’s the one that behaves, so she is the teacher’s pet, which makes this particular situation better for her, but now I gearing up and preparing for what happens come this fall, when regular classes resume.

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So with this said, I have a request for you, dear reader. Especially if you have young children in your life.

Talk to them, often, about anything. Just get them talking. Take the time to get to know them, so that when something changes, you notice it, and please; 1. Do not ignore changes in behavior. If a child becomes clingier or angrier, do NOT write it off as simply a “phase.” If you realize it is a break from normal behavior, then seek help from a professional.

This does not make you or your child weak.

2. Avoid using derogatory words when addressing your child’s behavior and moods. Words like “brat” and “punk” cause more harm that you know.

3. Do not ignore temper tantrums, especially if they are new. I always give my children two minutes to calm down, and then we try to calmly talk through it.

I don’t let them just scream it out. This tells a child psychologically that when they hurt, not just physically, but mentally and emotionally, that you are not there to help protect them.

4. Violence is never okay. Always break up fights, especially if they escalate to the point of one party attempting to do actual physical harm.

5. If your child ever tells you that they wish they were dead, want to hurt someone or themselves, is actively pursuing risky behaviors, or anything else that seems extreme and out of the range of normal, do not hesitate to contact a professional.

If you yourself, have feelings or thoughts of suicide, please seek help.

USA HELP LINES: National Suicide Prevention Hotline : 1800 273 8255 suicidepreventionlifeline.org or follow TheLifeline on twitter @800273TALK Anxiety Helpline : 1 866 971 7951 anxietydisorderhelpline.com UK HELP LINES: www.themix.org.uk Suicide Prevention Hotline: 0808 8084994 www.samaratans.org Samaritans: 116 123

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18  The Pendle Craft

SAMHAIN SPIRIT.

By Helen Libby Davidson This really is my favourite season, Seeing the colours change on the trees and the coolness that autumn brings with it. Taking walks wrapped up warm, while the wind blows the leaves dancing around your feet.

I feel this is the greatest time of change, we have collected from the abundance of herbs and plants to stock up over the winter months, we start to see that abundance wilt away under the cooler temperatures of the season. Yet there is life everywhere you look, as my journeys take me to many different habitats you do soon notice that each has its part to play within the energies of our Mother Earth, when I go into woodland and I find fungi creating its own life out of the dead wood it grows from and with over 15,000 species in the UK alone,it's a small reminder that nothing in nature is wasted, anyone who calls themselves a witch will have their own way of following the changes within nature and the cycle of the year. There is beauty to be seen in every season. I have prepared the herbs I collected through the summer and now i have jars with cold infusions of oil that will be ready for Samhain, the magickal properties of them captured in oils.

Closer to home Samhain is just around the corner and this is the perfect opportunity to connect with our ancestors and loved one that have passed over. My loved ones are never truly gone as they remain in my heart forever, but I will call them to me over this time as its much easier to connect with them. By loved ones I really do mean all oved ones which includes pet loved ones. For this past week now, just out the corner of my eye, my beloved cat Swifty sits on the windowsill, we lost him at the tender age of two he never seems very far away it makes me smile tinged with sadness as his loss will always hurt.

Of my gran who came and said goodbye the very evening she passed, a wonderfully wise woman who taught me so much, and yet I still wish I had asked her more. I will always offer her a chair beside me so that her energy comforts me. Thinking about our lost ones will always be a bittersweet between sadness and fond memories, we also honour them by having them in our minds and hearts carried always.

My altar this time of year is covered in seasonal colours, my altar cloth a deep earthy brown, I will place fallen leaves of red and orange, pine cones and acorns lie alongside pictures of those who I have lost, on the night of Samhain I will gift my acorns to my witch friends, a traditional gift at this time.

Samhain may at first glance look like a morbid affair but it really is not, it is the acceptance that all must move beyond this mortal plane, but that our memories of loved ones warms our heart, we smile as we remember their quirks, the scent of them, the way they laughed, the tone of their voices imprinted in our minds. How can we be truly sad when they have shown such love for us and we for them. It is with this love that we remember. Make an extra plate of food, pull out an extra chair, ask them to join you as you celebrate their lives as well as the lives of our ancestors. For at the end of October it will usher in a new year for us. New hopes, new goals, our dreams always fresh in our minds. Ask the ancestors to join you on your path, to guide you.

Light a candle in your window so that your loved ones know you are thinking of them.

Above all no matter what, know that they will always love you as you do them.

Blessed are our ancestors. Blessed are you.

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Photographer: John Robinson

20  The Pendle Craft

Model: Stacy Grech

D

Close your eyes let the darkness in forget everything else plug your ears from the din

A

Your mind can wander don't worry, it's safe here No one can see you no one can hear

R K N E

Let out all the things you've bottled up inside there is no shame in crying there is no reason to hide Tears are not the enemy nor is all of your pain No one will judge you here let loose and stay sane Darkness wraps around you like the arms of someone you could love its warm and safe and strong dark angels from above Now softly whisper with me these words that run deep and true "I am not always going to feel this way someday I will be free too

S

"I won't have to fear I won't have to cry I won't feel the pain that makes me want to die

S

"So I will rest awhile in the darkness of my heart and let the emptiness swallow all the things tearing me apart"

By Stacy Grech

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Book of The month

By Laura Perry

We have given you a taste of Minoan Paganism throughout the last couple of issues. Here is a book from the wonderful Laura Perry, giving you an introduction to that path..

People are constantly amazed at the naturalistic beauty of Minoan art. But once they catch their breath, the next thing they notice is all the symbols.

You’re probably familiar with a lot of them: labryses, horns, lilies, griffins, spirals, stars. So what do all the symbols mean and which ones are used for what?

Each of the gods and goddesses listed in the next chapter has their own symbol set. From Ariadne and her labyrinth to the horns of the Minotaur, each of these symbols can help you connect more closely with an aspect of the deity it belongs to. You can find examples of these symbols in Minoan art and artifacts as well as in modern art and jewelry. But what if you’re looking for an emblem for modern Minoan Paganism in general and not for a specific deity? I can offer you a few possibilities.

Image Provided By Laura Perry

22 The Pendle Craft

One option is the labrys-and-horns combination. This symbol is found all over Minoan art in the frescoes, seals, and fancy goldwork. The versions above and on the book cover use the stylized Sacred Horns but this symbol pair can also be found with realistic bovine horns as well.

The labrys-and-horns combination unites goddess (labrys) and god (horns) iconography in a way that reminds us of the egalitarian nature of Minoan religion and society: men and women, gods and goddesses as equals. This symbol is not used by any named tradition that I’m aware of so it’s a good choice for your own personal spiritual path.

There are a lot of different interpretations of the labrys-and-horns combination. I suspect it has multiple layers of meaning and not just a single definition. That’s often the case with religious and spiritual symbols. For me, that’s part of what makes symbols magical—they can be more than one thing at a time.

The labrys is associated with the sacred feminine because its shape is similar to the vulva (blades = labia).

It’s also connected with the earth and the cycles of the seasons, particularly the agricultural cycle, since it’s the shape of the hoe-axes the Minoans used to work their fields. On top of that, the labrys can represent the human soul and the concept of reincarnation if you see it as a stylized butterfly, a beautiful creature that undergoes metamorphosis as part of its life cycle. Around the world and across time, the butterfly has long been a symbol of the soul.

The Sacred Horns are a well-known emblem of the horned gods: the Minotaur, the Minocapros, and the Minelathos. They can also represent the horizon, like the similar Egyptian aker symbol. There are several well-known double-peaked mountains in Crete. The Minoans considered these mountains sacred. They used them as horizon markers for watching the rising and setting of the sun, moon, planets, and stars between the two peaks. So the horns are a doorway between the worlds—the upper (daylight) world and the Underworld. This adds an interesting dimension to their meaning, since shamanic journeying was part of Minoan spiritual practice and quite a few Minoan deities have shamanic characteristics.

Taken together, the labrys and horns embody a wide range of meanings that give us a vivid snapshot of the Minoan belief system: masculine and feminine in balance; the Upperworld and the Underworld as two parts of the whole; doorways and cycles and metamorphosis; the human soul.

Another well-known symbol of ancient Minoan culture and religion is this Snake Goddess figurine from Knossos. There’s a lot of controversy over who or what she actually represents and whether she has been reconstructed accurately. Even Sir Arthur Evans wavered as to whether she was a votary (a worshiper or priestess) or a goddess. But I think we can all agree she’s an icon of ancient Crete. Some people see her as a goddess whose form includes the wisdom-serpent.

Others see her as a goddess whose consort takes the form of a snake. She could also be a priestess performing a ritual or even a specialist snake-handler.

However you view this fascinating artifact, she brings ancient Minoan society and spirituality into the modern world in a very real way. Here is a real woman taking a central role in a spiritual tradition that goes all the way back to the Bronze Age. This is no shrinking violet, and I doubt anyone sees her as submissive or weak.

This is one of two women-with-snakes figurines that Sir Arthur Evans’ team found at Knossos. There are also several snake-goddess figurine forgeries that have shown up in museums over the years. If nothing else, the forgeries show us just how popular the snake goddess is as a symbol of Minoan religion—every museum wants one. The ‘snake goddess’ type of figurine, and whatever kind of religious practice she represented, lasted beyond the end of Minoan civilization and into Mycenaean times on Crete. We know this because of the terracotta goddess figurine (one of the kind that have bell-jar shaped skirts) who’s holding snakes in her upraised hands and whose hair looks like writhing snakes.

Another interesting symbol that’s found throughout Minoan art but that isn’t quite as well-known as the others is called the sacral knot. This is not the same as the tyet knot associated with Isis in ancient Egyptian religion, which is a short length of cord formed into a looped knot. Instead, the Minoan sacral knot could more accurately be called a sacral scarf. It’s a length of woven fabric, fringed on the ends and looped around into a distinctive shape.

The sacral scarf comes from a unique Minoan practice: the worshiping of the priestess’ clothes after a ritual.

The people who served as priests and priestesses Email: tpcsubmissions@hotmail.com 23

in ancient Crete took part in rituals that involved trance possession. In other words, the gods and goddesses descended into the priests and priestesses during the rites.

So a priestess would be considered the goddess incarnate during a ritual and the clothes she was wearing would have been literally touched by the goddess. After the ritual, her clothes were hung up on special stands where people could worship them. I suspect people came to touch the clothes and ask for healing and other kinds of help from the goddess. We don’t have any evidence of the priest’s clothes being worshiped in this way but it’s certainly possible that happened. Future archaeological discoveries may give us more clues about this interesting practice.

The sacral scarf represents the healing and helping presence of the goddess in the clothing even after she has ‘flown’ at the end of a ritual. We find images of the sacral scarf on Minoan seals and frescoes. The people of ancient Crete also made little plaster replicas of the sacral scarf which were hung up in people’s homes or placed in their graves.

Whether you choose one of these symbols, a representation of your favorite deity, or something else entirely to represent modern Minoan Paganism, the choice is up to you. This is your path to walk in the company of the gods. As my first priestess used to say, “Does it work for you? Good. Then do it.”

Who is Laura Perry??

Laura Perry is a Pagan artist and author with an abiding interest in the ancient Minoans. She walks the path of Modern Minoan Paganism every day of her life while also honoring her ancestors, on whose shoulders she stands. You can find her online at LauraPerryAuthor.com and leading the Facebook group Ariadne’s Tribe.

24 The Pendle Craft

Traditions Around The World:

Philippines

By Mae Molen

Here we explore the traditions of a very sacred and traditions of the old, through the words of our newest contributor Mae

The Philippines has 7614 islands. A place where there are a lot of wonderful beaches, food and also rich in customs and traditions.

In the Cordillera region, there are a lot of indigenous tribes living in its mountainous areas until this day. Especially on the part of Mount Pulag, Benguet. It is a hiking area however locals would often warn visitors that it is bad luck if hikers would come across tribe members and would pass them off. They say that if any hikers would encounter them, they would ask the tribe members to pray for them since they are the ‘guardians’ of the mountains. These are the people of the Ibaloi Tribe. The name Ibaloi means "people who live in houses." This ethnic group inhabiting the province of Benguet is concentrated in the municipalities of Kabayan, Bukod, Tuba, Itogon, Tublay, Sablan, Atok and La Trinidad. They have a rich culture that existed long before the Spaniards or any other foreigners stepped foot on the Philippines. Famous for their ancient tradition of mummification, the Benguet people believe in supreme beings and spirits that guide their way of living as well as their future.

The temperature drops once you get to the mountains however these tribesmen are only wearing 26 The Pendle Craft

their ‘bahag’ . It is a myth that their songs can

Bahag image

hypnotize strangers, and the effects would be by going back to the mountains. For the Benguet people, they believe that spirits can be fatal and can be good to man. They are, thus, classified in two: the benevolent and the malevolent. However, they say that humans can charm and manipulate spirits to their advantage.

Because of this, the people offer and perform rituals either to win the favor of the spirits or appease those who were angered. Apparently, rituals are not only a process but also a gift to the spirits for good fortune, curing an illness, and ensuring prosperity in the family. To those who amassed good fortune, a ritual for thanksgiving is also done. This is called caĂąao.

These thanksgiving rituals are regarded as fulfillment of aspiration, which require the offering of animals, rice wine, known as tapuy, and other material gifts.

Other kinds of caĂąao would only require a few animals to butcher as sacrifice without any festivity while the others would entail inviting the whole community for a merrymaking that could last for a week.

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Pesshit (10 sacrificial pigs) image.

During this event, the people not only feast on the offered sacrificial animals but also sing and dance until they drop.

In Ibaloi culture, the Pechit or Pesshet is known to be the biggest and most lavish caĂąao celebrated. Originally, this was only done by the rich families, who can afford to share their wealth to the community. 10 or more pigs are usually butchered for this event.

cooking the sacrificial pigs image

The tribe is only known for their mummification rituals. Tribe members, especially the affluent families, have an ancient tradition of preserving a loved one's dead body through mummification. It is a complicated process that takes about weeks or months and sometimes even years to accomplish.

The corpse is properly cleaned and covered in salt and herbs before it is placed over a fire in a seated position. Meanwhile, tobacco smoke is blown into the cadaver's mouth to dry its internal organs.

This process helps remove fluids from the body.

During the early 20th century, several mummified remains were found enshrined in different caves in the Cordillera Mountain. The remains were enclosed in oval-shaped coffins estimated by scientists to date back between 1200 and 1500 CE. The mountain is considered sacred and believed to be inhabited by ancestral spirits. To appease these spirits, the locals pay respect through offerings and rituals. The municipality of Kabayan houses the mummies for the deceased Ibalois and is recognized as the center of Ibaloi culture.

Ibaloi Mummies image.

This tradition is still practiced until this very day but it is only applicable for the datu’s family members.

Best, Mae

All Images provided by Mae

28  The Pendle Craft

Ibaloi Mummies are positioned in an upright sitting position.

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my body is a temple

By Sophia AdLucem Many people seek magic from external sources but in practice, how is this integrated into everyday life?

There is a common misconception that magik is an easy way to manifest desire, were as the truth of the matter is that it is a complicated journey encompassing a voyage into self, communication with varying aspects of consciousness and the manipulation of energies which to be understood warrant deep inner workings and meditative practice. Pure belief can take a witch pretty far and ritual or deity honouring is itself a form of meditation if practiced often, it will take the witch as far as her inner sights will allow but the paths are the testaments to how we live our lives, and for the magikal, a great part of life is known and lived beneath the surface.

A well used but little understood phrase of our time is “my body is a temple,” whilst the fitness buff understands this vaguely and offers respect to the body nourishing it well with physical health and vitality, the sorceress or the adept witch understands this on a deeper level.

The body is a temple, and indeed it is sacred. The Temple is reached through a doorway of mind and many rituals are conducted here.

The spirit roams through wastelands until it builds a structure in which it can continuously interact with the power of the gods. Until this state is achieved then the magikan is purely playing dress up with toys and results will vary, no doubt being similar statistically to “the power of positive thinking.” Of course some people will enjoy this aspect, leaving

30 The Pendle Craft

the results to the hands of fate, or to the will of the gods, the roulette of outcome, but for those who wish to control the currents that permeate the essence of time and space, to live through self will and achieve consistent success and power - to become adept, live their lives specifically through certain practices and philosophies to integrate the currents into their everyday lives. I shall outline the essential practices to success.

The yoga of rising. (*yoga meaning “union between the subject and the object, the observer and the observed.”)

Rising should be achieved daily with purpose, there should be a notebook by the bed to write down any dreams achieved through the night to be analysed at will, but preferably on the same day, after which any dulling perspective such as “I don’t want to… (exercise/ get to work/ chore etc,) should immediately be replaced by a more pleasing perspective and subsequent emotion such as “I immediately want to….” This is the first conversation of the day between the conscious and the sub and you do not want your subconscious to get off on the wrong foot, if it must be done then do it well with a great attitude, your energy centres will thank you for it and you will quiet the war within. This is fake it until you make it, only a couple of weeks into this practice can achieve great success.

Exercise is essential to awaken and align the lymphatic system in which we release any negative energy. Daily. This can be as gentle as Tai chi, or as

rowdy as high intensity aerobics. After exercise is the best time for a banishing or protection ritual as the lymph is in full flow. Ritual means to repeat and must be done daily. A personal favourite banishing ritual that I enjoy was created by A. O. Spare and can be found in laymans terms in a book called “Stealing the fire from heaven,” by Stephen Mace. The banishing ritual is done daily to align the consciousness within, to train the mind for daily magik. The yoga of cleansing is also an important banishing as we wash away and brighten up, ritual continues as we bathe.

OK we are awake, we have set our intentions, we have awakened the body and mind and our systems are empty and ready to accept the day.

The yoga of consuming.

Mindfulness (another overused and less understood phrase,) is about living in the moment, how we do this? By feeling. Emotion is understood foremost by the centre of the self, it is another link between our conscious and sub, but how conscious of it are we minute to minute?

What reactions are we having, and how are they affecting our behaviour? As in the yoga of rising, we can train our emotions using perspective in order to satisfy our inner needs?

In order to have absolute control over our energies, and the energies that pass through our body, for a time when magik will become as natural as emotion, we need to thoroughly understand ourselves and the energies we align with. Mindfulness will reveal many secrets in waking consciousness.

The food we eat is of course consumption, we should consider food as sacrifice to our temple and think deeply of the process it has travelled to make it’s way to our plate. Is it a worthy sacrifice? It is pleasing to the eye? Was this sentient at one point? How many hands has it passed through? is it aligned with nature?

What has been added to it? Am I consuming positive or negative intent? This teaches a respect for self, and

begins to eliminate those poor choices that we can be inclined to make. It can also flood the system with pranha and the energies again should be considered mindfully.

Whilst we can mindfully consume, eat well, feed our minds with knowledge and nourish eyes with beauty, explore a multitude of wonderful energies, we can also consume toxicity in physical and energetic form.

Toxicity should also be consumed with mind, no one is expected to never imbibe in alcohol, cake, or a ranting raving humdinging row! For substance or food the power of will is created by aligning emotion with the mind, perspective is everything. Decide how much you wish to consume and feel blissfully satisfied after two drinks, or after two bites. Teach the inner self through emotion and both your wallet and waistline will thank you and you will gain acceptance and responsibility. Your temple can house a Bacchus, and you can also banish Bacchus whenever you choose with quick ritual whenever you choose. Replace any craving quickly with a goal and align your perspective.

For toxic energy first ask yourself if you need to participate. If so, I personally have a space in my temple that stores toxic energy, it lives within the orange chakra underneath the navel. I take time after upset, if feeling anger to feel the emotion, consume it, and store it for a time in which intense emotion can be used to power will. It is welcomed, locked away and only accessed for appropriate circumstances such as during intense exercise,(the transcendence of the energy,) or baneful magik (the use of the energy in its pure form.) If you have mastered yourself at one point anger will rarely come from self, there are techniques in which you can consume anger that is dedicated towards you for these purposes also. This is Email: tpcsubmissions@hotmail.com 31

for another article however.

Pathworking - dedicate yourself to half an hour of learning one particular skill daily for a year. Examples being tarot, scrying, lucid dreaming, invocation, evocation… and of course there are a plethora of other options out there, this serves the purposes of strengthening the will, understanding the self, and gaining a magikal skill and the ability to access an alternate state of consciousness with ease.

The yoga of resting.

Stillness of the mind. What is it, and why is it important? Stillness is that brief acceptance that we have before an emotion is switched in the perception techniques above. It is the ability to keep control when the world around one is under chaos. It is reached and understood in its most potent form through meditation and meditation is perhaps “thee” most important practice in relation to magic and the self, for greater understanding of the powers available through medi-

32 The Pendle Craft

tation after stillness is achieved then the suddhi powers will make for an interesting google search. Of course this can all translate to the powers reached within the Sabbat. Stillness in meditation is reached before communication with deity, before venturing into the collective consciousness, before siddhi is acquired and should be achieved at first for fifteen consecutive minutes with the eyes closed and this skill can also be achieved later with the eyes open for complete access to the otherside in any given situation. 15 minutes meditation per day is the absolute minimum for any potential adept.

And finally we reach the petite morte of sleep. Mindful until the end and content that the will is strong and still, it is wise to prepare for a divination, an adventure, a truth, or preperation for events in lucid state, or we enter into the astral in any form we desire and continue our magical ways.

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Mabon Equinox Harvest and Interconnectedness

By Elen Sentier

Autumn equinox … the time of Mabon, is the middle harvest. First harvest is Lammas and the last is Samhain. The time of Mabon is a turning point, the equinox, a moment when there is equal light and dark for just one day, it marks the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.

Harvest is a time to reap what you have sown, so what does that mean for us now, in the 21st century when we are destroying our Earth? How can Mabon help restore balance?

Balance is a threshold point, a liminal time … and all thresholds are where we truly stand, always, all the time. We are always here-and-now. We may dream of the past and of the future but we are never truly in the past or the future, we are only here, in the now. I love these lines from Brunt Norton by TS Eliot …

Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past.

If all time is eternally present All time is unredeemable.

What might have been is an abstraction Remaining a perpetual possibility Only in a world of speculation.

What might have been and what has been Point to one end, which is always present.

34 The Pendle Craft

For me, this is always something to ponder on and sit with at the equinoxes. And it’s so much more than most mindfulness teachings. Once you get this, get to understand what standing at the eternal threshold is, your whole perspective on life changes. You look at everything differently – your relationships, job, family, children, where you live, what you buy, who your friends are … every single thing.

If everyone truly did this, 24/7, the Earth would be a different place. Our own lives would not be the mess that most of them are, our worries would completely change and our selfishness and fear would disappear.

Some folk actually do live like this, if you know any you’ll also know, see, feel, just how happy, contented and joyful they are, despite all the horrors around us in the world we’ve all helped to create.

We hear a lot about the interconnectedness of all life – pretty words, but how many of us understand them?

How many of us really know in our bones that we are connected to every other thing in the whole universe?

There is no separate. Each action, thought, word, emotion, desire, we have affects everything else. Way back in the 1960s a British physicist, John Stuart Bell, did a whole load of work on what we now call entanglement theory. Bell had worked at Rutherford and CERNE, was really top in his field, working on the edge.

Quantum entanglement may sound way off for many who follow spirit-paths but it’s not. Very basically, it’s a is a physical phenomenon which occurs when pairs of particles interact together, always, no matter where in the universe they are. For instance – and this really is basic – if a particle here on Earth is currently negative its co-particle on Sirius will be positive. Then, if the earth particle flips its polarity, becomes positive, its co-particle on Sirius will instantly flip its polarity too and become negative. No speed-of-light, it’s instant! Pretty stunning, eh? I’m not going into how Bell showed this, you can look it up, but it’s a standard part of physics now.

Think about that … many of us know that we can receive and transmit thought instantly, we do it. Some of us can do it with animals and plants not just other humans. This is just like those particles.

Take it further … if we can do this with ideas and information, how do we know it’s not happening with emotions and thoughtforms, negative ideas as well as positive? Looking back at those particles, we can guess it almost certainly is. So, what does that say about how we live, how we affect everything around us? Hmmm, quite a lot when you think about it. we often hear, glibly, about negative energy, bad vibes, etc, but how many of us really know in our bones that energy does work like that? Particles are energy – another way of talking about spirit. I love it that Einstein said, “Matter is compressed energy”, doesn’t that make sense!

So how does this connect to our thinking about harvest and equinoxes? How might it help us to sow the seeds of joy in ourselves, and in all those we touch?

Oooof! All those we touch … that just took on a new meaning if we take on Prof Bell’s thoughts on quantum entanglement. There is nothing, nothing in the whole universe we don’t touch, maybe across all and every universe there ever is or was or may be. Phew, another huge thought. We are not alone, we truly are interconnected with everything, what we think, how we act, what we feel, our emotions and desires, all make a difference.

If we care mostly for ourselves how does that affect the universe? If we hate wasps because they may sting us, or rats because we’ve been taught they’re filthy, or germs because we’ve been taught their bad, or wolves because we’ve grown up thinking they’re mean and evil, how does all this affect the universe? I suspect you’re getting the idea.

We do indeed harvest what we sow. If we sow nasty, fear-filled thoughts, what do you suppose we’ll

get back? One of my favourite writers once said, “Everything always comes up to, or down to, your expectations.” Spend a moment with that. It really is true.

Once you get it, it doesn’t half change they way you think if only for self-preservation. But once you get over this selfish need for self-preservation and begin to learn some compassion you also begin to care how others feel too, others way beyond humans. And that’s the way to begin the road of joy.

Autumn, Mabon time, is a great time for sowing seeds, this is how nature does it, much better than most of our gardening books. Look around you, all the plants are going to seed, the seeds are falling, being blown by the wind, eaten by birds and animals, and so they are spread on the ground, planted, able to dig themselves into the soil over the winter. when the light turns again, first at midwinter and then at the spring equinox, they will sprout and grow. And so can we.

Most folk don’t live like this. They mostly live very disconnected from the natural world, locked up safely in houses and flats, in cities and towns, rarely seeing or noticing anything but other humans and human stuff like cars and buses, roads and fridges, supermarkets and schools. Stuff. But not nature, not the natural world.

The only way to change this is with our thinking, that will change our feelings and so our behaviours.

Those who have found their own way to live-with nature and everything not-human, don’t feel disconnected. They work like those particles, flipping and flopping across space-time, in tune with each other and everything around them. How about giving it a go?

Make yourself a meditation on the instant flip-flop of those particles. Ask them to show you how it is for them, allow them to take you on a journey. All you need to do is still yourself (as far as you can manage) and ask them to show you. You don’t have to devise anything, just be, just sit with the particles, and allow the journey to unfold. Bet you love it!

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Pagan Prayer

By Moira Hodgkinson

What is a prayer and should pagans pray? *Prayer, Noun: A solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or another deity.

Paganism is not the first religion anyone is likely to think of in relation to prayer and the act of praying and yet pagans tend to profess a deep relationship with their Gods. How is it possible to create a relationship with deity without praying? Growing up in Britain in a family who belonged nominally to the Church of England, I equated praying with kneeling, bowing down in supplication and asking God for help. Religious activities were reserved for Sunday and praying was a way of talking to God. I would kneel down in the dark recesses between my seat and the back of the pew in front of me and, knees aching from the hard, worn surface of the prayer cushion, I would dutifully close my eyes, bow my head and maintain an uncomfortable silence with my hands held tightly together inches away from my face. Sunday school had taught me, when I was 36 The Pendle Craft

very small, that we should only ask God to help other people and not ourselves. Prayer was obligatory; it certainly wasn’t something I would have actively engaged in if I had ever been given a choice.

The relative freedom of paganism allows us to cherry-pick our deities and the ways in which Prayer Beads we communicate with If you don’t have much spare them, often going time, a string of prayer beads in into nature to be at a pocket or tied round a wrist will one with trees, encourage you to recite a single wildlife, wind or river.

Rituals in the natural line or two of prayer like a manenvironment can be tra to honour the divine. quite awe-inspiring, leading us to create a sense of kinship with the rhythms and cycles of the world around us. However deeply we may feel about this relationship with the organic world around us, no amount of sitting in meditative tranquillity while we commune with trees is going to automatically or intuitively form a connection

Obsidian Witch Prayer Beads by grimdeva

to between us and our chosen deities. That is something we actively work towards, if not daily then at least with a dedicated regularity, striving to find that spark of life outside ourselves, greater than everything we can possibly comprehend, that is the very divine itself. Prayer, then, becomes important once again, though as pagans we may not want to bow down between cold, wooden pews in order to do it. Think of prayer as a way of talking to your Gods, a way of acknowledging their presence, their divine magnificence and wondrous beauty; of acknowledging that our Gods deserve praise and honour and to be showered with gifts and offerings and poetry and dance.

Pagan prayer can be a flattering verse in praise of the powerful, forgiving, mighty and benevolent Gods that we worship. It has oft been said that deities diminish without worship and adoration so deliberate communication with them can show our appreciation of them, keeping them alive and vibrant.

Oh hail to thee, magnificent Odin, all-powerful, all-seeing, all-father. Thanks to thee, divine one, for blessings us with Runes that we may use them in our rites.

http://fav.me/d4m0i6v

Selfless and giving and protective thou art and for this, I honour thee!

We can pray as a litany, asking for the blessings of our chosen deity and assuring them of our devotion and love. A daily mantra to remind us of their importance in our every day world.

Mother of All, we praise and honour you Mother of inspiration, we praise and honour you Mother of creativity, we praise and honour you Mother of healing, we praise and honour you Mother of All, may your blessings be upon us Prayer can be an off-loading of problems and upsets without any specific request for help but instead, asking for comfort: a way of sharing our deep thoughts and concerns in order to let go of them so that we may carry on with our daily lives unburdened. The old adage is true that a trouble shared is a trouble halved,

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A Journey of the Soul

By Deniece Church I would like to tell you a story about an adventure that would change my life and they way I see the world. About two years ago I decided to take a road trip by myself. So I headed toward Savannah, Georgia.

When I got to Alabama I read there was an underground cavern. I wanted to see it. The only problem was that I was freaking terrified to go into a big dark hole in the ground! But I wanted to see it and my fear wasnt going to stop me. So the three hours it took to drive there was beautiful. It was a lovely drive down country roads. But all the way there Im talking to myself and trying to convince myself that I could do this….( I was shaking the entire way).

I get there and Im the only person there. It was off season and the few people who had been there had just left and there were no more tours for the season. I thought to myself that there was no way I was leaving without going in that cavern.

So I put on my best Southern charm and told the man how far I had driven. It worked! He was going to take me himself through the cavern.

I told him how afraid I was. This was a 300 million year old cavern and it was DEEP. The shocking thing was that as soon as I crossed the threshold I was no longer afraid. I was very calm. This man and I (cant remember his name) crawled around the inside of these caves like two kids. I was mesmerized by the beauty that had been created by Mother Nature alone.

There were carvings of animal heads coming out of the walls as if someone had done it. But water had done it. He told me that this cavern had 38 The Pendle Craft

never been mined and the farther down we went the more it looked like someone had sprayed the walls and ceilings with diamonds. It was breathtaking! At one point he said that when we got to the bottom I would be able to see the Tree of Life. When we got to the bottom of the cavern he reminded me about the tree of life and told me to look up. Rising out of the floor of this place a perfect carving of The Tree of Life Its trunk was huge. The branches stretched across the ceiling. I literally stood there and silently wept at the awesome beauty.

He told me that back in the 60”s the government was going to use the cavern as a hiding place during a nuclear attack ( which during the 60” was an ever present fear). He even said the government had stocked it to hold up to 15,000 people and all of the supplies were still in there.

Well, of course i had to see it. We literally had to crawl under arches and through a small tunnel to get back there. It was astonishing!! There were thousands of containers for survival on a wide scale. It looked like I had walked through a door in time.

As we continued through the cavern he told me this was one of only three places on earth that you could experience complete darkness and asked if I wanted to. I was thrilled. So he sent me across this enormous room and told me to sit on this flat rock and he went to the other side of the room to control the lights. He told me to get ready...and then he turned them off……..

Something amazing happened. In that instant the ceiling went away...the floor went away and the walls went away. It was like floating. It was the saf-

est feeling I had ever known. I embraced it. After a few minutes he said when he turned the lights back on he wanted me to close my eyes and open them slowly. When I opened them The entire place looked like I was in an ocean of glittering stars. It took my breath away!

As we were nearing the bottom of the cavern he started pointing out fossils in the walls. 300 million year old fossils protuding from the rocks so much that I could feel the details of their structure. Fossils of creatures and plants from when this planet was new. Then he pointed out the fossils that were the first to exchange carbon dioxide‌. The beginning of LIFE!.. I got to touch the very beginning of everything around me!

The very beginning of life on this planet was in front of my eyes and I could feel it. I could smell it.

Then the most amazing of all!! We were in places that the regular tours werent allowed to go.

So I was experiencing this cave like it was when first discovered and untouched. We walked past what looked to me like sperm on the ground. I asked what it was and he said it was a stalagmite and above it was what looked like a breast

with a mothers nipple and on the tip of that nipple was one drop of water...which is how they form. I stood there for a long time waiting for that drop to fall. He told me it could take a hundred years for it to fall.

In that moment I suddenly realized how unimportant everyday worries are. How vast and wonderful creation itself is. I came out of that cavern several hours later a changed person.

Everything I saw had wonderment to it again. Colors were richer somehow. That was the beginning of a change in me. And Im changing still. I see the wonders of this earth’s quiet beauty in absolutely everything I see.

Embrace everything!!!

Love and Light Deniece Church (Mooncaster)

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“Frustration”

By Katherine Critchley-Fowler

Imagine you are standing in front of a large rectangle.

The top left hand corner is point A. The top right hand corner is point B. The bottom right hand corner is point C The bottom left hand corner is point D. The rectangle is a double bed, and in your hands you are holding a clean fresh fitted sheet, mattress, double bed, for the use of.

Carefully, you slide one corner of the fitted sheet over point B. Then you do the same for points C and D. Then, ever so carefully, you slide the remaining corner of the fitted sheet over point A, and as you stand back to admire your handiwork, the mattress rejects the fitted sheet, which leaps up into the air with a VOOMPH, and floats down like a parachute.

You try another tactic, taking the rejected fitted sheet in both hands, you give it a good flap, and then fit a corner of the bloody thing over point A, followed by point C then point B and finally point D. At this point, the fitted sheet doinks off point A and the bits of it on points C and D go all saggy and the bit on point B half comes off.

You pull the sheet off, give it another good shake, and try another tactic.

First, you slide a corner of the fitted sheet over point C, then point A then point B and - as you are about to sneak up on point D, the fitted sheet goes doink again, and point B comes adrift, shortly followed by point A. 40 The Pendle Craft

You admit tempoary defeat, and go and make yourself a coffee.

A custard cream makes you feel a bit better, several custard creams make you feel a lot better.

OK. This Time It Will Be Different.

First you slip point B into a corner of the fitted sheet, then point D. Then you sneak up on point A and fit the fitted sheet when it is not looking. Only one more corner to go. Carefully does it, you take the remaining corner of the fitted sheet carefully in your hands, and just as you have got it to slide into place, you notice, out of the corner of your eye, that point A is preparing to doink. Quickly, using a manouver that a Marine would be proud of, you drop onto the bed, and do a sideways vertical roll, getting to point A just in time to prevent the doink from happening, and you slip that corner back over point A, and then you roll over and fall off the bed exhausted, hoping that anyone who just happenes to be watching through the window or from over the road with binocculers, thought that you were a gymnast rehearsing for a contest.

After that, putting a clean duvet cover on the duvet is a doddle, and clean pillow cases easy peasy.

Job done - until next Friday bed-change day !

P.S. Flat sheets ? No, absolutely not ever in a million years would I ever use a flat sheet.

They are 100 times worserer, even on a good day.

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A Taste Of Samhain

By Thora Dorn

42  The Pendle Craft

S

Food M agick

amhain is one of our most beloved Sabbats. Even muggles can get in on the act.

This is a time to honour and remember our Beloved Dead and Ancestors. The Wheel has turned and the earth slumbers in a semblance of death. The leaves may have fallen where you live, and all the harvest has been collected and preserved for the shorter days. The thermometer has plunged. Some areas may be covered in a pristine blanket of snow. The Goddess is sleeping.

Our house celebrates this time of year with a Dumb Supper, a special meal during which our Beloved Dead are remembered and honoured in total silence. It is held late, after all the trick or treaters have come and gone. The table is set on a black cloth with our best dishes. Symbols of the season adorn the table and tiny photos of the dead are laid across the table. The Gratitude Tree we created at Mabon is nearby, too big to set on the table itself. A place is set for the dead at the foot of the table. A feast is served of the favourite dishes of those who have left us – this year it’s homemade bread for my mother to go with my father’s favourite stew, and beer for my brother and father-in-law.

Gruesome desserts give a nod to the darkness of the season. We do not cast a Circle for this activity; that is reserved for my Samhain ritual, which I usually do alone.

We enter the room chanting a non-denominational prayer to the Ancestors. We are, after all, a multi-faith household. As each person enters, they touch the chair where the Dead sit. From that point on, the meal is held in total silence. The candles are lit. We think about our Beloved Dead, and of them eating the food we have before us. A portion of that food is served to the Dead at the place set out for them. We silently toast them. After the meal, we leave the room, silently saying goodbye and touching the Dead’s chair, and gather to remember. We exchange memories and stories, usually with much laughter. Sometimes we look at old photo albums.

After everyone leaves, I clear off the table, looking at each photo. The candles are extinguished. The offering dish is removed from their place, and left outside on the doorstep for the Fae. Tomorrow I will dispose of it respectfully. Each item on the table that is only brought out for this occasion is returned solemnly to its special place.

If we are very lucky, our Beloved Dead will use this night to try and send a message. It could be as clear as a voice, or a scent in the air, or an appearance in a dream. The veil is at its thinnest on this night. During my ritual, I pick one method of divination (which can vary from year to year) to try and communicate. I am not always successful, but it doesn’t stop me from trying. This time is bittersweet for me, since I miss the physical presence of those I loved in life, even though I know they are settled and well in the Summerlands.

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SAMHAIN

Makes 1 loaf

BREAD IN A DUTCH OVEN

Prep: 12 to 24 hours plus 30 mins Cook: 45 mins Cool: 20 mins Total time: 12 – 25 hours 35 mins

yeast. Add water warmed honey and stir until a shaggy mixture forms (mixture will be loose and sticky; this is what you want). Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 - 18 hours (up to 24). Overnight works great.

This yummy bread is simple to make; let rise over night.

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose or bread flour 1/2 cup steel cut, rolled oats, ground to a flour (not Quick oats) 1 tsp yeast (1 envelope) 2 T. raw honey, warmed until liquid 1 tsp salt 1-1/2c warm water 2 T. melted butter

Preheat oven to 450. Place a cast iron Dutch oven, with a lid, in the oven and heat the pot for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, pour the risen dough onto a heavily floured surface (mixture will be sticky) and lightly shape into a round loaf. Brush with melted butter.

Remove hot pot from the oven and carefully place the dough inside. Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes. Then, remove the lid and bake an additional 10-15 minutes. Turn bread out onto a cooling rack. Brush the hot loaf with a little more liquid honey and sprinkle some toasted rolled oats on top (optional). Let cool at least 20 minutes before In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and serving, if you can wait that long!

44  The Pendle Craft

THE Feast

THORA’S BEST BEEF STEW

(Based on a recipe by Martha Stewart) Serves 4 1 tsp. Sea salt 4 sprigs fresh parsley, chopped or 2 1/2 tsp. ground black pepper tsp. dried parsley Prep: 20 minutes 1 tsp. cumin, ground (optional) 2 T. onion soup mix Cook: 4 – 6 hours 1/2 tsp coriander, ground (option2 tsp. cornstarch Total Time: 4 – 6 hours and 20 al) 1/2 cup cold water minutes 1/8 tsp. cinnamon or add 1 inch stick cinnamon Put ingredients (except the last two) The spices bring out the flavour 2 medium yellow onions, cut into in the slow cooker in the order listof the beef in this dish. Make sure 1-inch chunks ed, then stir gently. Set for 6 hours the wine you cook with is one you 4 large white or red new potatoes, on low or 4 hours on high. If you like to drink. Cooking concentrates well-scrubbed, quartered (about 1 want to have thicker gravy, transfer its flavour. If you don’t want wine, lb.) solids to a covered bowl and pour replace the wine with beef broth.

4 carrots cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces gravy liquids into a saucepan. Add 2 parsnips cut into 1 inch pieces 2 tsp. of cornstarch to ½ cup water, 2 1/2 pounds chuck roast or steak, 6 garlic cloves, smashed then whisk into liquids. Cook over trimmed of visible fat and cut into 2 fresh bay leaves (these can also be medium heat until thick. If you 1 1/2-inch cubes dried, but fresh tastes better) like more gravy, add an additional 1/3 cup tomato paste, ketchup 1 cup beef broth cup of beef broth or wine to slow or Chipotle in Adobo (if you like ½ cup good red wine (optional – I cooker before cooking. Once the spice) like a Pinot Noir, but you can use gravy is thickened, return the solids 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar broth) to the cooker.

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 tsp. thyme, dried Email: tpcsubmissions@hotmail.com 45

IRISH

BARMBRACK Makes 1 - 9 inch Bundt pan Prep: 2 hours 15 minutes Cook: 1 hour Cook: 2 hours Total time: 5 hours 15 minutes This is something my Grandma Mahon used to make. Now I make it around the Autumn and Spring Equinoxes and at Halloween. Barmbrack is a traditional Irish cake eaten on holidays. After pouring into the prepared pan, it is traditional to add objects to the barmbrack which symbolize certain things for the people who will be eating it. Thoroughly clean any objects before adding them to the barmbrack. These objects can be pressed into the bottom of the loaf after baking instead: coin - wealth or good fortune; ring - will marry within the year; bean - poverty; pea - will not marry within the year; matchstick - unhappy marriage; thimble - single for life.

2 1/2 cups chopped dried mixed fruit (I add 1 cup of currants to mixed peel to make up my fruit) 1 1/2 cups hot brewed tea 2 1/2 cups flour 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 egg 1 1/2 cups sugar 1/4 cup lemon marmalade 1 teaspoon grated orange zest Icing sugar to sprinkle over cake Soak the dried fruit in the hot tea for 2 hours, then drain and gently squeeze out excess tea.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease a 9 inch Bundt pan or springform pan (I’ve even used a bread loaf pan). Stir together the flour cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda; set aside.

Beat the egg, sugar, marmalade, orange zest, and tea-soaked fruit until well combined. Gently fold in the flour until just combined, then pour into the prepared Bundt pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour or until the top of the cake springs back when lightly pressed.

Allow to cool in the pan for 2 hours before removing. Continue to cool to room temperature on a wire rack. Press the objects of choice into the cake through the bottom before serving. Sprinkle top of cake with icing sugar using a fine mesh sieve.

46  The Pendle Craft

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48  The Pendle Craft

WITCHE’S FINGERS

& OGRE’S TOES COOKIES Based on a recipe by Clare Crespo YIELD: Makes about 50 fingers Prepare: 75 MINUTES Cook: 20-25 minutes Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes Cookies: 1 cup butter, softened 1 cup powdered sugar 1 egg 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 tsp. almond extract Flesh or green gel food colouring 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup sliced almonds Icing Glue (see below) Icing Glue: 1/4 cup powdered sugar 1 teaspoon water Red gel food colouring In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until smooth and creamy.

Preheat the oven to 325°F. With your hands, roll a heaping tablespoon of dough into a finger shape for each cookie (a scoop will ensure your cookies are all the same size). If the dough gets sticky and hard to work with, put it back in the refrigerator for a little while. Place fingers on an ungreased cookie sheet about 3 inches apart.

Use a butter knife to make knuckle marks on the finger cookies. Slightly flatten the front of the finger to create a nail.

Bake 20-25 minutes, until fingers are slightly golden. Remove from the oven and let cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the Icing Glue. Mix together powdered sugar, food colouring and water in a small bowl until the consistency is similar to that of a paste.

Attach almond slice fingernails to the tips of the fingers with Icing Glue. Let glue dry for about 30 minutes. Dip opposite ends in the icing to simulate blood.

Note: You can make Ogres’ Toes by shaping Add the sugar, egg, and extract and mix well. the tablespoon of dough into an oval. Make Add food colouring a drop at a time until you appropriate slashes for the joint. Place nails as are satisfied with the colour. with the fingers, and dip the opposite ends to simulate blood. If you like, make a separate Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and batch and tint the toes a light green. Gel icing beat until completely mixed. also makes a great icing glue and is a little more realistic.

Cover the dough and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

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MAGICKAL

ATTRIBUTES Samhain Bread Flour - revealing hidden matters, consistency Oats - Money, Prosperity Yeast - grounding, purification Honey - happiness, healing, love, lust, purification, spirituality, sweet things in life, weight loss, and wisdom Salt - purification Water - purification Butter - smoothing relationships, spirituality, and tenacity

Beef Stew Chuck roast or steak - grounding, prosperity, protection, strength Tomato paste, ketchup - anti-negativity, creativity, healing, love, offerings, passion, prosperity, protection, repel evil or Chipotle in Adobo - energy, strength, vitality Balsamic vinegar - protection, purification Flour - revealing hidden matters, consistency Sea salt - purification Ground black pepper - banishing, cleansing and purification, protection Cumin, ground (optional) - anti-theft, happiness, fidelity, peace, protection Coriander, ground (optional) - healing, love, lust, mental powers, serenity, health, longevity Cinnamon - healing, love, luck, lust, peace, protection, psychic powers, strength, success Yellow onions - Protection, Healing, Exorcism, Money, Prophetic dreams White or red new potatoes - energy, healing, hoodoo, luck, money, poppet (image magick), stability, wealth, compassion, grounding, protection Carrots - desire, dispel illusions, grounding, luck, fertility, healing, lust, sexuality, protection, visions Parsnips - desire, fertility, lust, sexuality, grounding Garlic cloves - anti-theft, banishing, cleansing, purification, healing, lust, prosperity, protection, repels negativity, Courage, Good weather, Exorcism, Relief from nightmares Bay leaves - Protection, Psychic powers, Healing, Purification, Strength, Success, Wisdom, Repel negativity Beef broth - New beginnings, femininity/female power, fertility, strength, balance Red wine (optional) - celebrations, joy Thyme - courage, healing, love, psychic powers, purification, sleep, strength, energy, ward off negativity Parsley - domestic tranquility, energy, luck, lust, prosperity, protection (especially of the 50  The Pendle Craft

home and from accidents), purification Onion soup mix - protection, keep evil away, healing, banishing, stability, exorcism, money, lust, and ends bad habits Cornstarch - Protection, Luck, Divination, Money Water - purification

Irish Barm Brack Dried mixed fruit peel / currants - Cleansing, Purification, Love, Blessings / mental powers, sun energy Tea - courage, mental powers, prosperity, restfulness, strength, riches Flour- revealing hidden matters, consistency Cinnamon - healing, love, luck, lust, peace, protection, psychic powers, strength, success Nutmeg - confidence, emotional openness, fidelity, healing, luck, prosperity, social interaction, relief from nightmares, courage, clairvoyance Baking soda - raising energy or expectations Egg - fertility, lust, protection, spirituality, strength, healing, removing negativity Sugar - love Lemon marmalade - Cleansing, Purification, Love, Blessings Orange zest - fidelity, healing, love, luck, peace, prosperity, purification, fertility, divination, energy (personal experience) Icing sugar - love

Witches’ Fingers and Ogres’ Toes Co okies (Biscuits) Butter - smoothing relationships, spirituality, and tenacity Powdered sugar - love Egg - fertility, lust, protection, spirituality, strength, healing, removing negativity Vanilla extract - joy, love, luck, lust, mental powers Almond extract - healing, prosperity, wisdom Flesh or green gel food colouring – no attributes, use colour correspondence Flour- revealing hidden matters, consistency Baking powder - raising energy or expectations Salt - purification Almonds - healing, prosperity, wisdom Water - purification Red gel food colouring – no attributes, use colour correspondence Food Image Provided By Thora Dorn

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Precision Engineering

By Jon Mikl

When you think of precision engineering what is the one item most likely to come to mind? I’m betting it’s the proverbial ‘Swiss watch’. In the United States we have multiple and contradictory opinions about who is more precise. Old world craftsmanship is respected and revered by collectors of objects d’art and antique implements and mechanical devices. One of my favorite possessions is an 80 year old German drafting set, complete with fitted felt-lined case, that my father left me. Another prized possession he left me is a 100year old Colt 45 automatic, manufactured in Connecticut 3 years before he was born. He carried it in WW2 but it has never been fired in anger. Instead it’s a link to our 2nd Amendment heritage and not only to my father who owned it but to his father, whom I never met, who gave it to him when he enlisted in 1942.

never have been able to carve out a market for their products in post-war America if Detroit hadn’t rested on its laurels.

Precision engineering. It’s something to be proud of.

To celebrate. Something that we as Americans have come to expect out of our goods and services, but that has not always been the case. Indeed it’s not always the case today. Sometimes you have to prove it to the world.

In the earliest years of the automotive industry innovation and ingenuity ruled but as time went on a clear stumbling block emerged. Even on the rudimentary assembly lines then in use there was a significant amount of hand-fitting. This means that when something didn’t fit quite right – use a hammer. No matter how well-engineered parts production on a grand scale was at best a dream. And then one engineer needed to prove the value of his theories about how precise parts needed to be. Few people today know the name Henry Leland but he was an important figure in the nascent car building business. In fact he has important links to several businesses. As a young engineer he acquired his appreciation for interchangeable parts while working for Colt Firearms. His tale interweaves with several companies but he was responsible for the birth of the Cadillac Motor Company from the ashes of one of Henry Ford’s early failures. Him I assume you’ve heard of.

The American automotive industry has had a hit-ormiss history with manufacturing but not so much from a lack of precision engineering as a lackadaisical attitude towards quality. Decades ago we had gotten to the point that our expectation was that cars were built so well that we could slack off during the building. Don’t believe me? Look at what came out of Detroit for a generation. Japanese and European car makers would

As noted automobile manufacturing at the time used mass produced parts that rarely yielded continuous quality. Interchangeable parts were designed but the manufacture of those parts was simply inconsistent.

Leland did not accept this and his refusal to accept delivery of what he considered substandard parts from vendors was legendary. Unfortunately one of his flaws was to pile up parts that were received before defects

52 The Pendle Craft

were discovered. He could be lauded for refusing to use substandard parts but somehow those piles of rusty components had to be paid for and eventually he would lose his company, twice, while holding on to his principles.

To prove that his methods were not mere madness he chose to enter his Model K in England’s Royal Automobile Club Dewar Competition. This was a distinguished engineering competition dedicated to the furtherance of the automobile. Already exporting cars to the U.K. three cars were chosen at random from stock in London. Note that all three were different colors.

This will be important later.

The cars were delivered for examination and testing including a 30 mile closed course to confirm they were viable and fully functional. Then they were taken apart. Over the next three days separate teams disassembled the cars, jumbled the components, and reassembled the cars. All of this using only standard mechanics tools – wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, but no hammers or crowbars. The mixing o parts included the already painted body parts which is where the importance of the colors comes in. They now bore a distinctly patchwork appearance. Then it was time for

the first big test. All three vehicles were driven 500 miles at the track to prove that they still worked. One vehicle was locked away for several months till summer weather arrived and was then driven on a 2000 mile final test. And Cadillac was finally awarded the 1908 Dewar Trophy (presented in 1909) for proving that cars, American cars in particular, could be built with as much precision as anything else in the world.

Leland was an excellent engineer but a lousy business man. He would end up selling off Cadillac to Alfred P. Sloan’s General Motors. Sloan had previously been president of a ball bearing vendor that did business with Leland. Unsuited for leisurely retirement Leland would eventually found a new company to compete directly against Cadillac, the Lincoln Motor Company. But his business sense never improved and before long he went into bankruptcy only to be bought out by none other than Henry Ford who had begun the failed enterprise that Leland rebuilt as Cadillac.

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How To...

MAKE YOUR OWN SPELL CANDLES USING TEA-LIGHTS Wondering what else Tea-lights can be used for? Editorial Manager, Monique, brings us spell candles made from tea-lights.

method for making your own spell candles using tea candles: 1 Melt the candle using a warmer (instead of burning the wick).

2 Add in herbs, flowers, or essential oils.

3 Cleanse and/or consecrate your candle.

4 Turn the warmer off and let the wax harden with all of the ingredients inside it.

Now you have a beautiful custom tea candle ready for spell casting!

Safety Warnings: *If you’re going to make your candle in a new vessel, make sure it is heat safe—you don’t want your candle to explode while you’re using it.

Candles have been used to worship deities since the early Greeks. They are also one of the most accessible tools, as you can find candles in every shape, color, and size, in thrift shops, yard sales, and dollar shops, for next to nothing.

You can easily modify store bought candles by carving into their sides, painting on them, adoring with ribbons 54 The Pendle Craft

and twine or rubbing them with oils.

Supplies to make your own candles can easily be purchased at most craft stores or on the internet.

You can recycle/reuse and melt down your old candles to make a new one, you just need a new piece of wick.

Here is a very simple

*Never leave a burning candle unattended. If a spell calls for you to let a candle burn all the way out, you should use a small candle that will burn out more quickly.

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Model: PB Paul

Catch this blindin’ theme before it hits its peak

By Thomas Shelby

Chances are that if you haven’t already seen the Peaky Blinders TV period drama you have definitely heard of it. Based on a group of brothers returning from the trenches in the first world war this epic drama is based in Birmingham and follows a working class family’s fight for power in the gangs of Birmingham. Reminiscent of the gangster dramas like the Sopranos but based in Britain, its no wonder that this thrilling drama has now been sold all over the world and is now a big hit in America.

Unlike American Mob dramas that are glitzy and gold the Peaky Blinders is a gritty, dirty drama with a backdrop of modern grungy hard hitting music based in working class 56 The Pendle Craft

England with 1920’s styled three piece suits, boots and newsboy flat caps. The flat caps giving the programme its memorable name due to the razor blades supposedly sewn into the cap peaks that were used to blind enemies in street fights. It is hard to believe that a TV drama series that started five years ago would only just start to influence the event industry now.

We spoke to Thomas Shelby (not his real name!) about his interest in the dramas theme and why he decided to base his events company soley on a 1920’s Peaky blinders theme.

‘I was drawn to the theme as soon as I saw it advertised five years ago’ he told us. ‘I had always loved the 1920’s style especially the suits and as a theme the 1920’s has so many great themes within it. It can be mixed up with themes like the Great Gatsby, the Cotton Club, Gangsters and molls and so many backdrops from Art Deco to Oscars influenced sets.

The music in the drama is quite dark but the light and shade of the musical background lends itself to so many different genres that can be livened up for an event theme.

After over thirty two years managing and performing in a very successful corporate event group I decided it was time for a change and this theme came along just at the right time. The theme has so many important traits running through it that appeal to the corporate events sector and venues. For instance with have the glamour of horse racing, boxing, the decadence of the London night club scene of the 1920’s, the costumes, the music, the set designs, casinos and gambling.

Everything a great event looks to create can be found one way or another in this fantastic theme.

I have attended expos like Confex and the Event show for many years and earlier in 2018 decided to trail the idea as an events concept to a very enthusiastic reception.

Bearing in mind that with events ideas everyone is looking for something new all the time it was a great success. The main problem l found is that I needed to come up with real ideas that could give event organisers the information they needed to persuade their clients this was a great theme to take on board. Understanding the concept and conImages By: Amy Adamson

veying that to a client is key.

Over the past couple of years I have attended hundreds of Peaky Blinders styled events and formulated a timeline for an event and group of suppliers that fit into my theme style.

From Horses to Vintage cars, actors to lookalikes, Casino tables to Boxing rings, musicians and dancers I have everything needed to create the perfect Peaky blinders/1920’s themed event.

Lookalikes perform entertaining meet and greets and mingle at pre reception cocktails before announcing dinner, We have musicians and singers like ‘Johnny Dogs sings jazz’ and our compressionista who narrates Peaky blinders themed scenes customised to include the clients company or staff members in the voices of the characters from the show. Feathered Flapper girls perform 1920’s themed dances in stunning costumes.

Awards winners are escorted to the stage by Peaky Blinder Characters. Music is provided by the Cheaky Blinders, A peaky Blinders tribute band dressed in Peaky Blinders style costume that start the performance with the shows theme tune before launching into a party set that is guaranteed to have your guests dancing with the mingling lookalikes.

For bigger events we even have a horse to parade outside a venue with a Peaky Blinder character astride it just like in the drama or a 1924 vintage car the can drive the CEO or special guest into the building escorted by characters to create that magnificent entrance.

Props and backdrops help create the theme. For those events that require real authenticity we have three actors from the actual show who can appear for meet and greets or compare awards, one of those actors is also a fantastic singer that can join the band in their performance.

Season five of Peaky Blinders moves from BBC2 to hit main stream BBC1 next spring and you can be sure this is only going to make this exciting and fabulous theme even more popular.

Its always better to stay ahead so catch this blinding theme before it hits its peak!

Before you book your Peaky blinders themed event contact peakyblindersevents@gmail.com or contact Thomas on 07831 561012 for more information on checkout the website www.peakyblindersevents.com

Email: tpcsubmissions@hotmail.com 57

Do you suffer from Magickal Ritual Performance Anxiety?

By Soror Seshat Aubi OM

Have you ever gotten so excited about a new ritual, prepared, primed, and timed it, and then just couldn’t get around to doing it?

Why? Is it that the timing isn’t quite right? The stars?

That special place you’ve decided upon may pose a problem?

You are afraid you might make a mistake and cause a major calamity?

Do all of these excuses come to mind at one time or another?

I would like to suggest that your delay in execution is something else entirely.

I have experienced this kind of procrastination too.

I get excited about an experiment and after through preparation (I am a bit of a micro manager), I find every excuse in the world not to take that final step and just do it.

Logically I know that I am procrastinating, and maybe just a little bit scared of the results.

Sometimes I even sense that if I succeed it may change me in a way that I am not prepared for.

For me the feeling is somewhere between stage fright, and performance anxiety, for other Magicians it may be closer to erectile dysfunction. Slow to start and fast to the finish.

I like to call this phenomenon “Magick Ritual Performance Anxiety” (MRPA).

Sure I made this up for a point of discussion, but I believe its symptoms are characteristic of similar phobias.

The exception being that no one has taken the time 58 The Pendle Craft

to truly investigate this form of anxiety as it relates to Magickal experimentations.

I chat with many Witches, Magicians, Psychics, Oracles and Clairvoyants who often stall on taking that next big step in their practices and they have a dozen really good reasons why they didn’t.

At the same time they don’t understand why like the Fool in the Tarot they just don’t step off that ledge.

Any form of procrastination or delay in performing a necessary ritual can have devastating effects on the Initiate and their practices.

It can prevent us from exploring our craft, and experiencing our abilities to effect meaningful change in our lives and the world to its fullest.

How would you know if you have MRPA? Here are four self-analyses questions I would like you to answer honestly and decide if which best describes your circumstance.

1. After weeks of research you finally come across that special ritual that you really want to work. So you…

A. Start the planning stages of what you will need to perform the ritual, then you place all of the items in a box and place it on a shelf to be forgotten.

B. Begin passionately looking for more books to read so you will be sure you understand this ritual completely, and begin shopping on Amazon till the wee hours of the morning.

C. Write the ritual down in your Book of Shadows and then decide it is too difficult to do

because you do not live near an open wood, so you place a post it note on the page so you will remember to perform it some other time.

D. Grab some matches and look for the right colored candles 2. You really want to scry and talk to your Guardian Angel, and you’ve been imagining what that would be like for weeks, you’ve even jotted down your questions. You read that full moons are the best time to make Celestial contact, coincidentally the Full Moon is tonight! You...

A. Look up the next scheduled full moon and put it in your calendar because tonight Supernatural is on.

B. Realize that you are out of Frankincense & Sage and decide to order some from Amazon for the next full moon.

C. You can’t figure out from Barton’s Angelic Days & Hours chart which hour your planetary Angel governs based on your time zone, so you text a friend for the answer and wait for Supernatural to come on.

D. You grab your list of questions, matches, some Pink candles and set up your Altar.

3. You have been saving up to buy a pellucid clear crystal for your Enochian Practice Table so you can try Trithemius: The art of drawing spirits into crystals experiment. The crystal arrived in the mail today, so you…

A. Go to the local crystal store to buy a special lighted stand so you can set it in your window.

B. You decide to read a Kindle book on Crystal Gazing so you will know how to look upon the crystal.

C. You excitedly take multiple pictures of your new crystal, post them on Instagram and then return the crystal to its box and put it on your dresser.

D. You excitedly grab a copy of the ritual, matches, your candle holders and begin preparing the dining room for your ritual.

4. The Moon is at 90% waxing and you have been meaning to go to the park and snag some Goldenrod for your prosperity spells. The Moon is rising and you…

A. Can’t find your white handled knife so you decide to wait until Email: tpcsubmissions@hotmail.com 59

tomorrow.

B. Are worried that you might get caught so you decide to order some Goldenrod from some specialty store on eBay. C. You friend calls to chat about the last episode of Supernatural, you argue over who is cuter, Dean or Sam you can’t come to a decision so you decide to watch last night’s episode again on Youtube.

D. As soon as the Moon rises you grab your white handled knife, black hoodie, and drive over to the neighborhood park.

If you answered ‘D’ to 2 or more of these questions, Congratulations! You tend to finish what you set out to do. You also have a healthy curiosity for the occult, and a positive attitude about your rituals.

If you answered A. B. or C. to 3 or more of these questions you will want to finish reading this article because I can suggest some ways that you can kick this ‘phobia’ and move forward in advancing your magickal skills.

First rest assured that feelings of anxiety or avoidance is normal in the craft. You are learning a new way of perceiving reality and you are unlearning certain behaviors that albeit may be more in your comfort zone but they are not serving you well in advancing your chosen lifestyle. The difference here is that when someone starts to feel that sensation of being nervous, scared or a little anxiety they begin to create diversions to avoid the act altogether, instead of addressing the concern, removing the obstacle and moving forward.

According to a Harvard Mental Health Letter, “Anxiety usually has physical symptoms that may include a racing heart, a dry mouth, a shaky voice, blushing, trembling, sweating, lightheadedness, and nausea. It triggers the body to activate its sympathetic nervous system. This process takes place when the body releases adrenaline into the blood stream causing a chain of reactions to occur.

This bodily response is known as the “fight or flight” syndrome, a naturally occurring process in the body done to protect itself from harm. The neck muscles contract, bringing the head down and shoulders up, while the back muscles draw the spine into a concave curve. This, in turn, pushes the pelvis forward and pulls the genitals up, slumping the body into a classic 60 The Pendle Craft

fetal position”. -”Beyond shyness and stage fright: Social anxiety disorder”. Harvard Mental Health Letter.

4 April 2010. Retrieved December 8, 2012.

Now the symptoms of my created ‘phobia’, MRPA are not as intense as Stage Fright but they do have similar symptoms.

And the effects are the same, we want to push back, or avoid the ritual, ceremony or craft altogether.

In addition, those experiencing MRPA can have physical ‘episodes’ similar to those experienced in stage fright. *An increase in blood pressure, in response to the “fight or flight” instincts. This, in turn, causes the body to overheat and sweat. *Breathing will increase so that the body can obtain the desired amount of oxygen for the muscles and organs. *Pupils will dilate giving someone the inability to view any notes they have in close proximity; however, the long range vision is improved making the speaker more aware of their audience and their non verbal clues. *Lastly, the digestive system shuts down to prepare for producing energy for an immediate emergency evacuation. This can leave the body with the effects of dry mouth, nausea, or butterflies.

“Beyond shyness and stage fright: Social anxiety disorder”. Harvard Mental Health Letter. 4 April 2010.

Retrieved December 8, 2012.

So how do we work to overcome these symptoms so we can fearlessly dive into our craft and experience the amazing phenomenon and magick associated with it?

Here are my suggestion to help you get over that dry lump in your throat.

Practice Daily Rituals- Daily practice of the basic rituals will help you feel more at ease in your surroundings, with the hand gestures, tools, and what you can expect removes some of the mystery that may be making you feel more than normal anxiety with the approaching that new ritual that you want to try.

Daily rituals like the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, or the Middle Pillar Exercise can help you feel more relaxed, in control and bring clarity to your mind.

These exercises should be practiced every day until you know them by heart and can recreate that relaxed feeling in your body at will.

The Ritual Bath- Many of my friend’s report that the ritual bath before their rituals makes them feel more relaxed, beautiful, powerful and connected with nature.

A ritual bath is a simple yet effective way of training the body for magickal operations.

Prepare your bathroom with soft towels, candles, your favorite oils.

Draw your bath, and add 1 cup Epsom salt, 10-20 drops each of Lavender, Frankincense, and Rose. Slide in and relax, work on your breathing exercises, imagine drawing the clean scented Light colored air in, and exhaling the gray dark polluted air and fears out. Release anything that may be on your mind.

Don’t even think about the ritual just center your mind in your body and breathe.

Sit in the tub while the water drains out taking all of your tension with it.

This is a life enhancing ritual that once you are doing this regularly you cannot imagine performing a ritual without it.

Turn on the Lights- There is no steadfast rule that you have to sit in the dark. Rituals can be performed during the day or in a well-lit room. It is not the darkness that enhances your ritual it is YOU. And if you feel move comfortable in the light then turn on that lamp.

Play Music-I once had a friend tell me that she stopped meditating because she didn’t like ‘New Age’ music.

It is ok to play whatever music you resonate with, if it keeps you relaxed and doesn’t distract. You can do your rituals to Led Zepplin or Metal as long as you do not find yourself humming the lyrics, then it is a distraction. Knowing that you are going to rock out your ritual may make you feel better about executing it.

Personally I prefer a quite space to work my rituals or meditation, or the sounds of nature. I have also performed rituals with New Age, classical music, and soft rock too with good results.

Mental Walkthrough- Sometimes imagining the best outcome is the best thing that you can do. Envision your success, what mysteries that spell will reveal, your love of nature, the good feelings you always have after you performed a ritual successfully.

Success begets success, so imagining a successful ritual and that will bring you confidence.

And Lastly…

Don’t over think it- Sometimes we can get so excited about our rituals and spiritual progress, that we begin adding new skills and knowledge, more tools, more Tarot cards, more herbs, more more more so quickly that we can encumber our minds in minutia.

In attempt to make our next spell perfect, it becomes overwhelming and that can fill us with anxiety.

Once you know what it is that you are going to do, you resonate with it, it feels right on the surface, go ahead and create a loose plan, know that you will be successful.

Take a ritual bath, and meditate briefly on it, keep that appointment with yourself and execute it! Have fun with it, magick is a beautiful phenomenon that has the potential to color our lives with joy, expand our minds with knowledge, and provide connectivity, security and a deeper relationship with Spirit, don’t bog it down in procedure.

Seshat N Aubi holds a B.A. in Sociology; she is a Non-denominational Minister, Ceremonial Magician, Public Speaker, Herbalist, and owner of ROTA Magic Wands, a new kind of electromagnetic magick wand.

She practices all forms of Divination, Solomonic and Enochian magic, and is dedicated to helping others better understand theurgy and magick believing that this renaissance will lift the human condition to greater heights.

TRIGGER WARNING

I Sleep On the Mattress I Was Raped On It wasn't until I saw the naked mattress on the hardwood floor in my new bedroom that I realized.

After the buildup of triggers. The hearings. The jokes from stupid people. The headlines. The conversations.

I still sleep on the mattress I was raped on.

Because I'd forgotten in my attempts to move on with my life.

Because it had followed me from place to place, bedroom to bedroom, like a ghost that lives quietly just beneath my skin, and I was used to being haunted.

Because why should I have to get rid of MY bed because of HIM? Because I'm scrappy. A survivor with stubbornness in her belly.

Because if I had to blow up my life and get new things every time it happened...

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At 17. Then 18. Then 19. Then 20, 21, 22.

Well that would be a world of things.

And it's not that I don't want to burn it sometimes.

Burn it all and feel the warmth from the fire. Put his name in the flames and watch it rise into the sky for everyone to see. So everyone would know what he had done.

But we've seen what happens haven't we? The president calls you a liar. The entire world asks you why you didn't report.

I didn't report because I loved him. Because he was a schizophrenic using drugs and he didn't always realize his violence. Because he was physically abused as a child and I worried more about his trauma than mine.

Because he held a knife to my throat and threatened to kill me if I ever left or fucked another man. Because I didn't realize reporting was an option. Because no one had ever advocated for my safety or truth. Because I was ashamed that I wanted the cliche "first time" with

rose petals and candles and Coldplay playing in the background, and what I got was markedly...not...that.

Because I legitimately thought that the only way out was to kill myself.

And that was just that man, but there were others, too.

And the world wants the stories of sexual violence to be simple. Clear cut. Black and white. Something happens, you report it right away, a witness saw, and then you distance yourself from it as a show of empowerment. Otherwise it probably didn't happen. Especially if you were raped by a white man with a "future".

But trauma doesn't work that way. You can't cut it off, destroy it, distance yourself from it, without losing the beauty and innocence that was taken from you.

Trauma becomes a creature that you're forced to live with, one that you've unwittingly adopted, and now you have to care for it. And the strange thing is, there's a comfort in having this creature around. After all, this creature is the only thing that truly understands what you've been through and what you've seen. It knows you're not lying, it

doesn't question you. It witnessed what happened.

It becomes a constant and moody companion. Sometimes, it's a roaring destructive lioness on the hunt, using its teeth to cut into you as you try to run away.

And sometimes, it's a soft little kitten quietly curled up next to you on a sofa cushion.

And I don't know how to end this story because I don't know how it ends. I don't know how to change how people see sexual violence and trauma. I don't know how to find the strength to speak when the people who need to hear it put their hands over my mouth. When there's such little payoff to lay my pain bare. And so this ends, without a clear conclusion.

And how unsatisfying it is. #whyididntreport #rapeculture #trauma #shadowwork www.oranorth.com https://www.facebook.com/profile. php?id=294900358

By Ora North

Image Provided By: Ora North

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“no means no” if you or someone you know has been the victim of sexual assault, there is help

UK: www.rapecrisis.org.uk 0808 8029 999 www.womanagainstrape.net www.survivorsuk.org Victim Support: 0808 168 9111 USA: http://rapecrisis.com CRISIS HOTLINE: 1-800-653-4673 https://www.rainn.org

64 The Pendle Craft

Honey Chamomile Popsicles Refreshing and soothing, these Honey Chamomile Popsicles are quick and easy to make using fresh or dried chamomile.

Ingredients 3 C Water 1/3 C Raw Local Honey 4 Tea Bags of Chamomile Tea or 1/4 C + 1 Tbs Fresh Chamomile Flowers 3 tbsp catnip (no you cannot take it from your cat) Instructions 1. In a small saucepot bring water to just under a boil. Remove from heat and stir in honey. Add tea bags or flowers, place lid on pot and steep for 10 minutes.

2. Strain if using fresh flowers. Fill popsicle molds, leaving about an 1/8" (3mm) head room at the top. Wipe the top of the mold dry, place lid on popsicles and insert the popsicle sticks. Freeze overnight or at least eight hours.

3. To release the pops, I turn the mold on its side and run water over the mold on both sides. Gently wiggle the popsicle stick to remove the popsicle.

Note: despite being something that drives your cats insane, catnip is a soothing herb for humans and is exceptional as a calming aid in children.

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TALES FROM BEY 66  The Pendle Craft

YOND THE VEIL Email: tpcsubmissions@hotmail.com  67

Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum West Virginia Tucked away in the mountains of West Virginia, in the remote city of Weston, sits America’s largest handcut stone masonry building. It is the second largest building of its kind in the world. But that’s not all that makes this building unique. This is the former home of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum, that was run by the US Government. The asylum was in operation from 1864 to 1994.

A TRUE AMERICAN HORROR STORY: The asylum depicted the treatment patients received in places like Trans-Allegheny with frightening accuracy.

Although practices such as hydrotherapy, electroshock therapy, and lobotomies were commonly used, the true problem was overcrowding. Designed to hold 250, Trans-Allegheny housed 2,400 patients. The inability to handle a population of that size led to an increase in violence. Several cases, both reported and unreported, describe incidents of patients killing other patients.

One example describes two patients that hung one of their fellow patients using a set of bed sheets. When that failed to kill him, the pair cut him down and used a

USA

metal bed frame to crush his head.

Not even the staff were immune to the violence.

Numerous former employees reported being attacked while on duty. One evening a nurse even went missing, her body was found two months later hidden at the bottom of an unused staircase.

The hospital’s doors closed in 1994 due to changes in medical practices from the previously antiquated, treatments, many of which we now consider torturous.

Since it’s closing, it’s has become a hotspot for paranormal investigators. Investigators and visitors alike, report seeing figures walking the hallways at night as well objects moving about on their own accord. Thousands of patients once walked the halls of Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum prior to it’s closing the doors forever. Leaving behind a horrific legacy and tormented souls, to walk these now infamous hallways. source: DAVID MCKENDRY 12/15

Image from: Flckr - https://www.flickr.com/photos/patrickrohe/34531715261

68 The Pendle Craft

House of Dun Scotland UK Beware the Headless Horseman who roams the lanes of Dun at night, seeking retribution on unwary travellers. This stunning Georgian mansion and its surrounding estate hold many a dark secret, including that of the harpist murdered at the Den of Dun on the very spot where his ghost has been seen playing musical laments. You may also encounter the phantom of the knight who, upon returning from the Crusades, discovered his wife had been tricked into marrying his friend. A sword fight ensued, and the usurper was run through and impaled on an ancient yew tree.

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70  The Pendle Craft

Williamsburg, VA Lofn@cox.net

El Paso Texas High School Paranormal Case

The high school in El Paso, Texas, is one of the oldest and most infested buildings in the city, the scene of horrible stories. Most of the testimonies concern the fourth floor, it is said that it is invaded by a thin ectoplasmatic fog that drips from the ceiling.

The ghost stories began 35 years ago, when a student cut her veins before throwing herself off the fourth-floor balcony. From that day on, she was seen greeting people from the balcony or recreating her fatal leap. She was also seen wandering the corridors crying.

In 1985 a class photo was taken where the image of a blurred girl appeared, after the photograph was devloped.

Many believe it is precisely the girl who years before commits suicide in the Lycian El Paso.

Some researchers who were investigating inside the school entered an old class that had been sealed many years before. Inside they found many objects belonging to the students of the past, was also found a love letter and a suicide note written by a girl.

By Lofn Orenda

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Haunted Hotel: Murders, Mysteries & Witchcraft

By Aaron Field In September, John Robinson and Amy Adamson, our resident photographers doing a shoot at the historic hotel, the Station Hotel, claimed that they had had an experience down in the cellars as they were being shown around. Always the sceptic, John was shaken up when he felt the hairs on his neck and arms stood up in what is called the “tunnels”, a long and dark corridor used to bring in the barrels of beer for the hotel’s bar. John and Amy were not the only one’s to have felt something in this area; some fifteen years earlier, long-running paranormal TV-show, “Most Haunted”, ran their own investigation and picked up barrels moving in the barrel-run.

Anything to do with history always catches my attention, but even more so when there is supposed paranormal activity. I reviewed the photographs that both John and Amy sent across and immediately I could feel the energy of children linking to a nearby school; There was also the feeling of murder that was overwhelmingly strong. After speaking with both John and Amy, getting their thoughts on what was there, it was initially thought that we would go down in the November, but after talking with Tasha, we realized that it would be good for the Halloween edition.

A date was set, the hotel booked through John and hotel-manager, Donna Blundell, and it was decided that we would break up the long journey from our home in Forfar, Angus, to Birmingham, staying over-night in 72 The Pendle Craft

Burnley, Lancashire.

And so it was that a few weeks later we found ourselves, one Thursday afternoon, stuck on the M6 motorway heading for Burnley, before being stuck on the same motorway the following day heading for Birmingham. **** When preparing for a paranormal article, Tasha will investigate history, activity and images, however there is a lot of stories about the hotel, and Tasha had to sort through what was fact and was indeed plain fiction.

What Tasha learned was that the hotel had been built back in the late 1800’s.

With a history dating as far back as the Anglo-Saxon times, Dudley, formerly known as Duddan Leah, or Dudda’s Clearing, and one of the town’s churches had been built and named in honour of the Anglo-Saxon King and Saint, Edmund.

Dudley had been mentioned in the Doomsday Book as Dudelei, in the hundred of Clent, Worcestershire.

The town was listed as being a medium-sized manor owned by Earl Edwin of Mercia prior to the Norman Conquest of 1066, with William Fitz-Ansculf as Lord of the Manor in 1086. William’s father, Ansculf de

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Picquiny, constructed Dudley Castle in 1070, after his acquisition of the town. The castle serves as the seat of the Barony of Dudley, which possessed estates in eleven other English counties.

In 1138, during what was called The Anarchy, or the first English Civil war between King Stephen and his cousin, Empress Matilda, the town was attacked after a failed siege of the castle following the Baron’s decision to side with Matilda and her claim to the English throne.

Dudley castle was the centre-piece around which the town and borough grew, establishing itself as a large market town during the Middle Ages thanks to its coal and iron workings, selling not only agricultural items but also iron goods at a national level. Working iron and coal mines was in practice as early as the 13th century, and it was at this time that Dudley’s status as a borough was first mentioned, when the then Baron of Dudley, Roger de Somery, approved the raising of a market in the nearby town of Wolverhampton. An inquisition after his death further established the value and importance of the borough, with mentions of the town’s growing coal industry.

This all changed in the early 16th century, when the Dudley Estate, now owned by the Sutton family, had to be sold and mortgaged to the Sutton’s distant relative, John Dudley, the Duke of Northumberland, before 74 The Pendle Craft

being sold outright in 1535.

During the English Civil War, Dudley served as a Royalist stronghold and besieged twice by the Parliamentarians and the castle was partly demolished on orders of the Government after the Royalist surrender.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, Dudley became severely impoverished but the advent of the Industrial revolution soon turned this around. In the early 17th century, Dud Dudley, illegitimate son of the 5th Baron of Dudley, Edward Sutton, and Elizabeth Tomlinson, devised a method of smelting iron ore using coke at his father’s works in Cradley and Pensnett Chase, but due to the circumstances of the time, his trade was unsuccessful, and it was not until Abraham Darby, descendent of Dud Dudley’s sister, Jane, produced iron commercially using coke instead of charcoal at his works in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, in 1709.

During the 18th and 19th century, Dudley’s population grew dramatically because of its increase in industry and the migration of inhabitants into the town from the country. The main industry was of course coal and iron, but other industries included steel engineering, metallurgy, glass cutting, textiles, and leather-working.

Part of the anchor chain for the infamous Titanic was build here.

As the town grew, living-conditions worsened, to the point that Dudley became know as the most unhealth-

iest town in England, which led to the installation of clean water supplies and later the, during the early 20th century, the establishment of council housing estates to re-home residents of poor slum-housing In 1850 work started on the establishment of a railway station as a collaboration between the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton Railway companies, and was not completed until 1860. Even though the station began to decline in the latter part of the 1800s and early 1900’s, passenger numbers were still high, and a new hotel was discussed to aide the main hotel of the time, the “Castle”. The Wolverhampton and Dudley Brewery proposed the new hotel be built on the corner of Birmingham Road and Trindle Road. The Station Hotel partly opened in 1898, a black and white property with courtyard and stables.

We arrived at the hotel at 6 O'Clock Friday evening, tired and hungry.

We had been stuck on the M6 motorway since two in the afternoon, crawling along at 20 mph due to roadworks.

In 1899, the “Opera House” opened, bring the rich upper-classes to Dudley and the Station Hotel became a popular place for both actors and members of the public alike. In 1933, however, the Opera House burned down, bringing the end of an era; soon after, the Hippodrome was built and soon received large crowds to see stars such as George Formby, Bob Hope, Laurel and Hardy, and Jonny Ray. Stars that would not only perform at the Hippodrome, but also stay at the Station Hotel.

Checking in, we were greeted by a warm and friendly receptionist, which set off how our weekend should have been. We were given our key for room 111 and took the lift to the first floor; the décor, the smell, and the sounds that greeted me shouted “old”, and as I opened the door to our room, an elderly gentleman in early 1930’s attire, welcomed us into his room. Our stomachs growled their malcontent as we showered and changed, before heading back down to reception to ask the location of the hotel’s restaurant and was greeted by Donna, the hotel manager who had helped book our stay. Small with a large personality, that was my first impression as soon as we began talking. Professional, yet at the same time, it was as if Tasha and I had known Donna for years; Donna asked whether we liked our room and if I picked up anything from what I had seen so far. After chatting for a bit, Donna told us that Sue Latham would meet us in the bar after our dinner and then we would join the group that were gathering for an investigation of the hotel’s cellars.

****

Part way through our meal, Donna brought through Email: tpcsubmissions@hotmail.com 75

Sue Latham, owner of Team PHI, and after a brief discussion and a lot of laughter, we were left to finish.

What I will say here is that for anyone either going to stay at the Station Hotel, or even just passing through Dudley, make sure you stop at the hotel, even if it is just to have a meal. Very well worth the price on the menus. Delicious food that was served with a friendly smile and a chat.

With dinner over, we met up with Sue and her colleague Dawn in the bar.

After introductions we made our way through the pastoral room, through a door and down into the cellars.

It was here that I first felt anything connected with what John and Amy had told me. A wave of anger hit me hard, passing through me before circling and coming back. At the bottom of the stairs we turned right along the corridor and then into a room on the right that was nick-named the “Old-Folks” room due to the style of the chairs that were sat inside.

The room was lit by a single bulb, and a long dining table which we were invited to sit at; the evening was to be split into two halves, the first would be with every-

76 The Pendle Craft

one together and the second with the group being split into two and sent to different parts of the cellar.

After brief introductions and K-2 readers set on the table, the light was switched off and the invitation for the spirits to come forward sent out.

For the first twenty minutes, it was just general readings, messages passed on from spirit to someone sitting at the table, but then the atmosphere quickly changed as something nasty and malevolent entered the room.

It circled the table making it’s presence felt then came back to where I was sitting. I was expecting her to force herself against my aura and speak out, instead a male spirit came forward. This spirit, called William, had once supposedly worked as one of the hotel managers and had murdered a female chambermaid before shoving her body into a barrel.

Suddenly, someone asked if Tasha was alright as she looked far away, as if her chair had stayed where it was and the table moved several feet away. I could feel the spiritual energy as it tried to force its way in. Tasha sat back before suddenly being thrown forward in her seat; Myself and a gentleman called Tony tried forcing her

back in her seat but it was a futile effort. Finally Sue came over and swapped seats with the person to my right, she knelt before Tasha and coaxed her back. As fast as it had happened it was over.

Sue stayed sitting beside me as the atmosphere calmed down and we went back to picking up spirits coming in to speak with their loved ones. Suddenly one of the paranormal investigators let out a scream as an object was thrown and hit her arm. Immediately Sue suspected someone from a group of women at the top of table. On the night they all swore that none of them had thrown it, but on further digging, the culprit was found, claiming she was bored and wanted to liven things up a bit.

The first half of the investigation was brought to a close and people allowed to go and freshen up, before being split into two large groups, one of which would go with Dawn and another, which included Tasha and I, went with Sue. Sue’s group moved on into what was called the “book” room, so-called due to the number of books left lying on the shelves. In the centre of the room sat a small coffee-table which had been turned into a make-shift Ouija-board. After calling out for any spirits to come forward and talk to us, the room went completely dark and an entity came in and showed itself to Sue and I as a High Priestess. Sue began to trance and immediately I began to bind and banish and as I began working on getting this thing away from Sue, I was told that they had tried everything I was doing, forcing me to change tactics.

Finally it was over…

Or so we thought…

Once Sue and I had got ourselves together, took another five minutes out, I felt a tug at knee-level on my trousers.

At first I ignored it, fearing that what we had just dealt with was back.

Then, as Sue was talking there was a second, more persistent tug, that made me look down.

There, on the floor, was a West Indian gentleman

who’s legs no longer worked after those who worked for his master had taken a club to his knees as punishment. His name was Caleb and it was time for him to move on and be with his family. Sue and her sister Christine helped guide him to the light to his loved ones waiting on the other side; I felt tears at the corners of my eyes.

Another break, another breather.

All evening people had been talking about the “tunnel”, which is a corridor of some twenty or thirty feet in length that was used to bring in the beer barrels.

Now it was our turn to go and sit in this cold and dark passageway.

I was offered a seat by Sue who sat opposite me and again a call was put out for spirits to come and join us.

We didn’t have to ask twice. Up and down this passage people reported hearing taps, footsteps, breathing and even at one point, a growl. Then Sue and I both saw at the same time, a procession of monks with their heads bowed, walking towards the book-room where we had just come from. Within a couple of minutes of seeing the procession both Sue and I began to trance at the same time.

From what we have been told, the High Priestess had decided to force the issue with Sue while for myself it was the infamous Intergenerational, Matthew Hopkins.

Yet what I felt was that it was an entity far higher than a spirit and what is often referred to as a grey.

Both Sue and I had a go at each other while in the trance and at one point, Sue slapped her sister across the face as people tried to bring her back, force the High Priestess away.

One of the things that kept being said by Sue as she was in the trance was that I only had a third of her power. This was said as I was binding her and getting ready to banish her. On the evening it was said that the meaning was that the High Priestess had more power than me, but on further discussions afterwards, and after I had had discussions with my High Priest, the question was put across of, was she saying I was weaker than her or was she saying as I was binding her that I had taken away from her only a third of her power. In either case it begs another question.

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Just how powerful is this High Priestess?

We will let you decide.

Book a stay at the Station Hotel you won’t be disappointed.

My thanks go to: John Robinson for finding the hotel, Amy Adamson for taking some fantastic photos with John, Donna Blundell for arranging our fantastic stay, and Sue Latham, Dawn Cherrington, and Chris Grimshaw all of PHI for making us feel welcome at the

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investigation.

Will there be more?

Let’s hope so and if there is, you all will be the first to know what happened.

Images were gathered from: Station Hotel Fb page & Public Domain Images

Interview With Sue Latham Owner of Paranormal Hauntings Investigations Hi, I’m Sue Latham, and Paranormal Hauntings Investigations, or PHI, was created back in 2005, by myself. I have been experiencing things to do with the paranormal all the way through my early years as aa child, which lead me to start PHI. Its been a big part of my life, trying to prove there is another side to life out there.

PHI consists of myself, my sister, Chris Grimshaw, and very good friend, Dawn Cherrington. We have been all over the country in search of whats out there and its had its ups and downs along the way in the sense of frights and light-heartedness - from things being thrown at you to a table moving on its own. But its all part of investigating the unseen. There are lots of times when you don’t capture anything, but then there are others with you who may experience a lot of things. It drives you to want to find out more.

There have been times that I have been doing an investigation and I will just go into a trance, in what is called trancemediumship, which a lot of people have see to believe, but its when you can get the best and most accurate information.

In all, I find the paranormal very interesting, its my passion in life.

One it will all be known to everyone, that there’s life after death, and I hope I am still around to see it all.

Far Left: Chris Grimshaw Middle & above: Sue Laham Left: Dawn Cherrington Right: Group Image of The Team Below: Sue, Chris & Dawn Images Provided by Sue

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And The Guns

80  The Pendle Craft

Fell Silent…

By Aaron Field

Every year people gather around the world in remembrance of those who gave their lives during World War I and in conflicts since then. We do not celebrate or glorify the war, we did that as children when we did not understand the futility of the loss of life. This year, being 2018, we celebrate 100-years since the end of the ‘Great War’, a war that saw the death of some sixteen-million lives, civilian and military alike. A war that lasted some four long years.

When we try and explain the main cause of World War I, other than the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife in Bosnia-Herzegovina, we have to look at the European alliance system at the time and smaller political conflicts that added to the growing tensions of the time. On one side, you had the dual alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary, and on the other you had the Triple Entente between France, Russia, and Great Britain.

Europe was a political minefield that politicians stepped through on a daily basis, knowing that one wrong move would bring about an explosion of such a magnitude it would be felt worldwide. Prior to the outbreak of war in 1914, a major agreement, the Entente Cordiale, had been signed in April 1904. Having been involved in three rounds between 1898 and 1901, Britain had decided not to join the Triple Alliance.

When the Russo-Japanese War was about to erupt both Britain and France found themselves being dragged into the conflict on the side of their respective allies.

The Entente Cordiale marked the end of nearly a thousand years of intermittent conflict between the two countries.

Another agreement was reached in August 1907, this time including Britain and Russia, which thereby firmed their stance against the Triple Alliance. In reality however, there was no Triple Entente - the 1907 treaty was specifically between Britain and Russia to stop their rivalry in Central Asia, and there was no three way agreement as there was with the Triple Alliance.

But why was Archduke Ferdinand assassinated?

In 1908 Austria-Hungary annexed the Balkans, infuriating the Serbian nationalists leading to the formations of several nationalist groups as they believed they should be allowed to join the new independent Serbian nation.

Because Archduke Ferdinand was heir to the Austria-Hungary throne, one particular gang, The Black Hand Gang, decided that Ferdinand had to be murdered.

On the 28th June 1914, as the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie travelled around Sarajevo in an open top car, Nedjelko Cabrinovic threw a bomb at their car, which bounced of the back of the vehicle and into the crowd, injuring many bystanders. After being taken Britain was allied with Japan, having signed the Ansomewhere safe, the Archduke decided that he wanted glo-Japanese Alliance, while France was allied with Rus- to go and visit the hospital where the injured were besia. In order to avoid war, both sides negotiated many ing treated. Unsure of the area, the Archduke’s driver long standing issues - mainly their differences in Africa, took a wrong turn into Franzjosefstrasse where Black particularly British control of Egypt and French conHand Gang member Gavrilo Princip was buying lunch. trol of Morocco.

Spotting the Archduke’s car, Princip took the opporEmail: tpcsubmissions@hotmail.com 81

tunity and fired a pistol at the Archduke and his wife, killing them both, and setting off a chain of events that brought Europe into a world war. Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the attacks and sent them an ultimatum - admit to the clauses of a document sent to them. Serbia accepted all but one of the clauses and on July 28th, 1914, Austria declared war. When Kaiser Wilhelm II publicly supported the Austrian Cause, Russia declared on the side of Serbia. France and Britain joined the Cause after Germany failed in its Schlieffin Plan.

There had been a revolution in military technology from 1871 with the introduction of the breech-loading rifle, fast-firing artillery, and battlefield fortifications such as barbed wire.which prevented fast paced frontal assaults.

On the British home front, war came as quite a surprise not only to the government but to the general public as well. Very few British citizens actually knew what was going on politically in Europe, other than what was being published by the media of the time. *** When we think of World War I, we picture men in trenches waiting for the whistle to be blown and the shouted order for them to go over the top and push on towards the ‘Hun’s’ trenches. We also envisage battles such as Marne, Ypres, Passchendaele, Verdun, Somme, Gallipoli, and many others.

Many of these battles were like cattle going to the

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slaughter for both sides due to a lot of tactical errors, scientific breakthroughs, and poor communications.

At the outbreak of war in 1914, army’s on all sides still thought that it was best to use tactics that dated back to the Peninsular Wars against Napoleon, and the Crimean. At the First Battle Of The Marne. French troops in bright blue jackets and red trousers stood shoulder to shoulder, expecting the Germans to do the same. Instead what met the French was entrenched German troops with machine guns and heavy artillery.

But the war in Europe did not just affect the Allied forces or the Central Powers, countries as far away as Australia called men to arms, as did Canada, USA, India, Japan, China, and many many more. By the end of the war, the total death toll of Commonwealth countries stood at some two-hundred thousand military combatants.

As children we played cowboys and indians, soldiers at war, and other shooting games, not yet able to understand the futility of war. As adults we come together to remember the loss of life in the Great War and other conflicts since then - World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Gulf, and so on. We are able to see how futile it really is to send our troops off to war knowing that some will not come home again.

I ask our readers to please remember those that gave their lives so we could be free from tyranny and terror.

So, at the 11th hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, please bow your heads and give a silent prayer to those in our armed forces past and present..

‘THE DUG-OUT’

BY SIEGFRIED SASSOON

Why do you lie with your legs ungainly huddled, And one arm bent across your sullen, cold, Exhausted face? It hurts my heart to watch you, Deep-shadowed from the candle’s guttering gold; And you wonder why I shake you by the shoulder; Drowsy, you mumble and sigh and turn your head…

You are too young to fall asleep for ever; And when you sleep you remind me of the dead.

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The Pendle Craft October/November 2018 Issue 16

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