Real World Wicca

Now when my eyes flew open at 17:47 EST, I had a feeling of impending doom. I had just overslept by 5 hours and ritual was at 20:00. I hadn’t a dollar on me, the bank closed in 13 minutes, I hadn’t bought apples for Epona, and I hadn’t reserved the campsite. And I had to reserve the campsite and drive back from Ellicot City to the Greater Barrens in order to post the gate code to the park on Joy and Sorrow’s Yahoo Group.

I pretty much figured I was hamburger, but there was a slim chance it might not matter. People had been emailing cancellations over the course of the weekend and it was beginning to look like I might not have anyone to let down left. So I threw on my jeans, found my flip flops and flew on down to my trusty car. Realized I was sans Victoria Secret and had less caffeine in my blood stream than you find in straight water.

The bank closed a whole two minutes early, just so the tellers could have the pleasure of pursing their lips at the several of us and mouthing “we’re closed.” BBT sucks and I really should change banks. Really. Just as soon as they cough up my new bank card, which they swear is in the mail. I go over to Giant and write a check to get cash and apples and caffeine. Campsite, code and back to the computer, an hour later to find that I’m now down to two other people.

Mystery beats me to the campsite by a few minutes, trailing along her bf and some very lovely baked bread. We scrounge around the woods for enough dead fall for a fire, and I get to see some deer feeding in a small meadow. The fireflies are out and the evening is looking good and my altar board is going over well. The altar is a section of tree trunk about two inches thick, from an oak, that has an inlaid wood pentacle that’s from a paper mulberry.

Since the full moon was not set to rise until much later, I decided on a ritual for Epona, who is the goddess of roads and trade, who brings food and cheer to the Celtic grain god Goronwyn, who is watching over the grown grain in the fields until it is ready to harvest and be eaten. We offered Goronwyn seeds of the earth in trade for future seeds from His fields, which were large pine cones I had gathered at Beltane after they were thrown from their trees by a storm.

Then we offered granny smith apples to Epona, and I had the joy of showing Mystery and her bf how to cut the apple to get the secret star to appear. I always love sharing that with people who have never cut an apple to find the star before. Then we mixed oil and water to bless our car keys and driver’s licenses, and to ask for Epona’s mercy and patience dealing with the rising cost of fuel and keeping safe on her roads. We shared Beer and Bread, and gave that and apples to the fire and Mystery’s faeries.

2200 and I’m on my way back to the Greater Barrens. Even though my windows are rolled all the way down, all I smell's only the mixture of sweet cherry oil and wood smoke and rosemary bread and bug spray. To the East there has risen a tangerine moon, which as I take the exit to home is swallowed by a velvet blue bank of storm clouds. I may be poor and frustrated and single and lonely, but tonight I am a witch and by the gods, I really am happy.

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