New Product Giveaway~Winter Solstice Swag

Juniper and spice, and everything nice. That is what you will be getting with my latest giveaway.
My Witchlet and I had a busy weekend creating. Saturday was a rainy day here in New England so we spent the day drying apples, oranges and lemons. We sprinkled the apple slices with a blend of cloves, allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon before baking. We put them on wire racks on top of a baking sheet in a 250 degree oven for two hours. They came out perfect and my house smelled fabulous all day!
We also strung cranberries and wired them into hearts and circle shapes for ornaments.

Sunday turned out to be a beautiful day so we grabbed our collecting bag and headed to the park. Our collection bag is one of those green bags you buy for the market so you do not use the plastic bags. I have tons of those so we turned one into our collection bag. In this bag we have two pairs of scissors, a marker, two small glass jars with tops, and paper lunch sacks. This bag is great and having the separate bags allows us to collect and label our goodies.
We collected juniper, pine, pine cones, berries, grapevine twists, and acorns. We were at the park for about 3 hours and we had a wonderful time my Witchlet and I. It was a peaceful day and we even saw a little baby chipmunk with his little cheeks fat with nuts.
After our collecting we went for lunch at Burger King, Bella's choice, not mine..:)
Of course driving home I felt this tickling on my neck and pulled a lovely bug off of myself. It is amazing that I didn't get into an accident with the screaming and checking myself while driving for other members of the bugs family that were in my mind making a home in my scalp! Luckily it was only a 3 minute drive to Burger King where I almost stripped naked in the parking lot checking for bugs.
When we got home we soaked our acorns and pine cones in hot soapy water and scrubbed them clean. I also cleaned off the pine and juniper with lukewarm water.
Once our goodies were dry we created these lovely Winter Solstice Swags.
I created three, one for my shop, one for me, and one for the winner of this giveaway.
Your Winter Solstice Swag is made up of Pine and Juniper for it's base. I then added three cinnamon sticks, acorns, and pine cones. At the top is a spiced dried apple slice with a dried lemon slice and a lovely metallic bead in the center. I added a green crescent moon, a green star, and a gold star, which I glued on in different places on the swag. At the very top is a bow of green ribbon with a lovely green lamp work bead in the center.
The total piece measures about 10 inches long give or take.
This piece smells lovely and would make a lovely addition to your holiday decor.

Here are the magickal meanings of the objects in your Winter Solstice Swag:
Acorn:
Plenty, prosperity, good luck, birth, patience, and fruitfulness.

Cinnamon:
The masculine principle, power, love, spirituality, success, wealth, and healing. Associated with the Sun, and the element of fire.

Clove:
Strength, courage, and protection. Associated with Jupiter and Uranus, and the element of fire. Used in magical works for cleansing, protection, to bring prosperity, and to keep away negative forces.

Juniper:
Courage, protection, purity, and confidence. Associated with the planet Mercury.

Lemon:
Harvest, passion, discretion, luck, uplifting, energy clearing, and pride. Associated with the Sun. Said to bring protective spirits.

Pine:
Honesty, strength, fertility, generosity, silence, hope, solitude, and immortality. Pines cones were carried to increase fertility and for longevity. Pine needles have been burned as an incense to purify and cleanse. Branches were placed over beds to keep sickness away. Associated with the planet Mars and the element of air.
Pine Cone have been powerful, and ancient, symbols of Eternal Life

Apple:
Love, fertility, divination, luxury, knowledge, and romance. The apple has been associated with sexuality in most cultures.
Celtic: Fruit of knowledge, prophecy, and magic. The Silver Bough. The ancient Celts believed the apple had strong magic powers. It is also associated with the Other world. In many Celtic myths, people who travel to the Isles of Women and enter the Land of promise are met by a beautiful woman who carries an apple branch and promises to grant them their heart's desire. The apple was used to symbolize the goal of a quest.

To be eligible to win this enchanting Winter Solstice Swag you must:
1. Be a follower of my blog.
2. Comment on this post.
3. Tweet or blog about this giveaway and leave me the link to wear you have done so.
4. Please make sure I have a way to contact you if you are the winner.

Thanks to all and good luck!

Grab your Besoms My Fellow Witches!

Last night I grabbed one of my old Magical Almanacs to read. I love my Magical Almanacs and I have them going back to 1999. They are filled with information on various areas of the craft and I never lack for reading material.

The article that I opened up to was one about brooms and how we Witches often overlook how effective they are in magic. I am also guilty of this and tend to save my broom for magical house cleanings and for clearing my sacred space. Shame on me however, I should know better. A broom is so much more than that. After all, we Witches are known for having magickal brooms so why aren't we using them more?

The broom itself functions as a symbol of the sacred marriage of the God and Goddess, a rite that has been symbolically reenacted each spring by followers of earth religions for thousands of years. The pole portion represents the phallus of the God, and the bristles symbolize the mound of Venus that guards the opening to the Goddesses reproductive organs. When both parts are united in a completed broom they form a potent magical symbol of wholeness and creative potential.

This sexual imagery makes the broom the perfect choice for a magical tool to use in fertility rites of all sorts. It is also used at the conclusion of many Pagan marriages (called Handfastings) as the couple "jumps the broom" after exchanging their final vows.

In the distant past women would ride their brooms hobbyhorse style over newly tilled fields to encourage growth, and through barns and pasture lands to encourage the reproduction of animals.

Because brooms represent the totality of the deity-both male and female aspects- they have been used as talismans of protection. They have been placed under beds, across entryways and windows, at the entrances to sacred space, and they have stood guard at hearth sides.

The sweeping action of the broom itself, its ability to cleanse any area through which it is taken and to take whatever debris it collects to someplace else, is so obvious that the magical potency of this simple action is to often overlooked.

In the article I read last night which was written by Edain McCoy, she tells us about a well-to-do Irish lass named Alice who owned a magic broom that got her into big trouble.

A seventeenth century Irish widow named Dame Alice Kyteler knew the secret of the broom, and was apparently adept at using it to good effect until she was caught in the act and condemned to death for practicing Witchcraft.

Alice loved her children and was willing to use magic to help them succeed. She would take her broom out into the streets of her native Kilkenny late at night and begin a methodical sweeping action that was aimed toward her home. While doing this she would chant a magical rhyme in which she bid all the wealth in town to come to her eldest son William who lived with her.

No one knows just how long the very prosperous Alice had been working at this spell when she was discovered by a neighbor and reported as a Witch, but we do know that she was able to escape her persecutors and flee to England with most of her considerable wealth in tact.

Do you think she used her broom to escape her persecutors? I like to think so..:)

With the economy the way it is, I expect all of you to grab your besoms this evening when the moon is high and start your methodical sweep to bless your home with prosperity. You know that I will be out there!

So my fellow Witches, grab your brooms and start using them like they want to be used...:)

Brightest Blessings,

The Celtic Witch

Note, I would also like to add that especially at the holiday season our homes get bogged down with stress and negative energy. This is supposed to be the season of good will.

A good way to cleanse your home of negativity is to grab your broom and starting at your front door move in a clock wise motion through your home sweeping out all negativity. Be sure to get under beds and all closets and corners. While you sweep you can chant something like this or use your own words:

"Sweep, Sweep,

With this broom.

All bad out of this room.

Sweep, Sweep,

All good in.

The bad to never return again."

Be sure your magickal broom never actually touches the floor. Keep in mind that this is a spiritual cleaning and should be done after your regular cleaning for maximum effect.

Ta~Da, My New Wand!

I have finally completed my wand! I am so excited about it. When we went apple picking last month I collected some very nice apple branches. Once home I went through the braches and picked out a nice branch that felt just right in my hand. I peeled and sanded it. With a pencil I then drew some symbols on it that I wanted to wood burn. I am not an artist in any way so I kept the symbols simple. I am also new to wood burning so I was so scared to death to take that tool to my lovely wand that I almost didn't do it. I finally got up the courage last night to try it and I am quite pleased with the results seeing that it was my 1st time wood burning. I drew a pentacle at the top of the wand, a bit under that a Goddess with two crescent moons on each side of her, under that a triple moon, and at the bottom a god symbol. I drew swirls coming out of each symbol to run around the wand at a curve.
I then placed a lovely quartz point at the top and used a pretty purple ribbon at the top and bottom.
I chose my favorite charms and beads to adorn my wand and then used purple and white ribbon to hang down the side.
I am so happy with this wand that I can't put it down, lol. It feels so good in my hand, it was meant for me. I also burned my initials on the very bottom of the wand.
Here are some pics:

I would love to hear your thoughts and stories of how you all made your own wands.

I hope to get around to making one for my shop soon. I also have some lovely white birch branches that I collected a while back intending to make a wand from them as well.

Wishing everyone a bright and blessed weekend.

p.s.

I added some new items to my shop if anyone would like to take a peek. I created a Peaceful Sleep Kit, a Peaceful Sleep Spell Candle, and some Sleep Incense that I will be listing this weekend.

www.TheCelticWitch.com

Blessed Be!