September Newsletter 2009

[Neamhain Riona]

September Newsletter



In Latin, septem means "seven" and septimus means "seventh"; September was in fact the seventh month of the Roman calendar until 153 BC, when there was a calendar reform from the month of the Ides of March to the Kalends, or January 1. In the Northern hemisphere, the beginning of the meteorological autumn is 1 September. September marks the beginning of the ecclesiastical year in the Eastern Orthodox Church.[citation needed] September begins on the same day of the week as December every year, because there are 91 days separating September and December, which is a multiple of seven (the amount of days in the week).

 

[Neamhain Riona]

September is called the Fruit moon or Harvest moon

Full Moon is on September 4th

This is a time when the Moon is at its most powerful, and the magic most potent. Performing any positive spell at this time will achieve good results. This is the ideal time for healing, guidance, and completion spells.

The full moon is referred to by a different name, depending on when it appears. For example, the “Harvest moon” is the full moon that appears nearest to the Autumn Equinox, which occurs in late September or early October.


Moon Protection for Amulets
Amulet Protection Spell
Place a jewel, that you regularly carry on you, in a cup of spring water a day before the full moon. The following day, on the evening of full moon, stir the water three times with your finger in a clockwise motion. Take the cup in your hands and in a clockwise, stirring motion, move the cup in a clockwise, circular, stirring motion three times. Then, repeat these words aloud:

Oh Light of the Moon,
Wrap me
Protect Me
Keep me from harm.

Raise the cup towards the sky and drink the water. Remove the jewel from the cup. You must carry it on your person to the next full moon in order to ensure your protection. Repeat this ritual every month to benefit from its influence.


Water Scrying
September 4th, 2009


This Full Moon night begins the Celtic month of Muin, or Vine, which represents the powers of prophecy. Take a dark-colored bowl of water outside and add a pinch of sea salt, blessing it under the Full Moon.
Shining mirror, white moonflower
Please bless this dish of sea
Fill the water with your power
Share prophecy’s gifts with me.
Take the bowl inside in a dark room lit by only two tealights. Set the candles on each side of the bowl in such a way that their light is not reflected on the surface of the water. Surround the bowl with vines or a grapevine wreath and moonflowers or moonflower seeds. Dip your finger in the water and touch it to your third eye. Ground and center and then gaze into the bowl. Look past the surface of the water, deep into the dark beyond. Concentrating on your question, you should begin to see vague images; allow them to form, don’t force them, just observe. On a paper nearby, write your impressions as soon as you can after you finish scrying. This divination technique takes practice, but with work, it can be quite effective.
 

[wicked_faery]

September Recipes


Leeky Chicken Soup

A twist on the traditional, I call this "Grandma's New Age Penicillin."

Fun Factoid:
Hippocrates, the father of medicine, prescribed the leek as a cure for nosebleeds.

Serves 6

Ingredients:
~2 tablespoons olive oil
~10 medium leeks, trimmed, sliced, and well-washed (approx. 2 cups)
~2 large baking potatoes, grated
~2 medium carrots, grated
~1 bunch parsley, chopped
~8 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth (There are some great brands now that are organic and low-sodium.)
~Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. Heat the oil in a 6-quart pot over medium heat.
2. Add the leeks, potatoes and carrots.
3. Sauté until softened, 5 to 10 minutes. (If you feel that you need more oil, try adding a bit of water instead.)
4. Add the parsley, broth, salt, and pepper.
5. Bring to a boil.
6. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, covered for about 40 minutes or until tender.


Baked Mushrooms Filled with Spinach and Blue Cheese

This fabulous side dish is sheer decadence with a powerful Popeye spinach punch.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
~4 large mushrooms, stems removed
~3 shallots, diced
~1 tablespoon olive oil
~4 cups spinach
~2 ounces creamy blue cheese, diced
~3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
~Ground pepper to taste

Instructions:
1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Put the mushrooms in a baking dish, gill-side up.
3. Fry shallots in oil for 2 or 3 minutes, then add spinach and toss until it wilts (about 2 or 3 minutes).
4. Stir in the blue cheese and watch it melt.
5. Add the breadcrumbs, then season with pepper.
6. Spoon the mixture onto the mushroom caps, then put the baking dish back into the oven until the mushrooms are tender and the filling is golden.


Pumpkin-White Bean Soup

A fun and easy starter that you can make now and for your Halloween dinner. Costumes are optional (now and at Halloween!), but highly recommended.

Fun Factoid:
Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
~2 teaspoons olive oil
~1 large Vidalia onion, coarsely chopped
~1 (15 oz) can of pumpkin
~3 1/2 cups fat-free or low-fat chicken broth
~1 (15 1/2 oz) can of white beans, rinsed and drained
~Pinch of pumpkin pie spice
~Salt and pepper to taste.

Instructions:
1. Coat a large soup pot with olive oil and set over medium-low heat.
2. Add onion, cover, and cook until tender, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes.
3. Stir in pumpkin, broth, beans, and pumpkin pie spice; simmer 10 minutes.
4. In a blender, process soup in batches until smooth.
5. Return soup to pot and reheat; season with salt and pepper.


Righteous Ratatouille

A soul-warming, guilt-free, gastronomical gift from on high.

Fun Factoid:
98% of the world's olive oil comes from the Mediterranean region, which has a 6,000-year history of olive tree cultivation.

Serves 6

Ingredients:
~1 tablespoon olive oil
~1 medium onion, finely chopped
~1 red pepper, chopped
~1 yellow pepper, chopped
~2 small eggplants, cubed (about 2 cups)
~1 small zucchini, cubed (about 1 cup)
~3 cloves garlic, diced
~1 bay leaf
~1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
~1 can Italian-style stewed tomatoes
~Salt and freshly ground black pepper
~1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
~1 lb. whole wheat spiral pasta

Instructions:
1. Heat the oil in a 4-quart sauce pot over medium heat.
2. Add the onion and cook until soft and translucent, about 5 minutes. Add both the red and yellow peppers and sauté for another couple of minutes. Toss in the eggplant cubes and cook a couple more minutes.
3. Add the zucchini, garlic, bay leaf, and oregano.
4. Season with salt and pepper and continue to cook for a couple more minutes. Add the tomatoes and simmer for 40 minutes, uncovered.
5. Boil and drain the whole wheat spiral pasta.
6. Serve ratatouille over pasta, sprinkled with Parmesan cheese.


Baroness Wine Sauce

The aroma and taste of this wine sauce will send cozy and relaxing vibes through the air, and through your body. Serve this on pretty much anything!

Serves 8

Ingredients:
~2 cups port wine
~3 cups red wine
~2 cups beef stock
~1/4 cup sugar
~1 bay leaf
~3 thyme sprigs
~10 peppercorns
~Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Instructions:
1. Place port, wine, beef stock, sugar, and aromatics in a medium stainless steel saucepan and cook over high heat until the sauce coats the back of a spoon.
2. Serve over lean meats, vegetables, or anything else you can think of! Get creative.

Moist Apple Cake with Butterscotch Sauce

Serves about 8

For the cake:
~4 large eggs, separated
~1 cup plus 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
~1/2 teaspoon plus 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
~1 cup melted butter
~1-1/2 cup all-purpose flour
~3 apples, peeled, cored and cut into thin slices

For the butterscotch sauce:
~3/4 cup brown sugar
~3 tablespoons water
~1/3 cup corn syrup
~1/3 cup butter
~1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk

Instructions:
1.Butter and flour an 8" square cake pan. Pre-heat oven to 375 F.
2.In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks, 1 cup of sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon for 3 minutes with an electric mixer on medium speed. Add melted butter. Blend in flour until the mixture is smooth.
3.In another mixing bowl, use a clean electric mixer to beat the egg whites until soft peaks form when you lift the mixer. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture to lighten it. Then repeat with the rest of the egg whites.
4.Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Arrange apple slices on top of batter, in an attractive overlapping pattern. Mix together the rest of the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle over apple slices.
5.Bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Meanwhile, prepare butterscotch sauce (see below). Remove cake from oven and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes.

To make the butterscotch sauce:
In a saucepan, mix brown sugar, water and corn syrup. Cook at medium heat, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes or until the brown sugar is completely dissolved. Stir in butter, stirring until butter is completely melted. Remove from heat. Stir in condensed milk.

To serve, cut slightly cooled cake into 2" x 4" slices and place each slice on a dessert plate. Spoon warm butterscotch sauce over each slice.

Pumpkin Apple Pie

Serves about 8

Ingredients
~1 9-inch deep dish pie crust, unbaked
~1/2 cup packed brown sugar
~1 tablespoon corn starch
~1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
~1/4 teaspoon salt
~1/4 cup water
~2 tablespoons butter
~2 cups green apples, peeled, cored and sliced
~1 large egg, beaten
~1 tablespoon lemon juice
~1 cup canned pumpkin
~1/2 cup granulated sugar
~1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
~1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
~1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
~1/4 teaspoon salt
~1 (5.3-ounce) can evaporated milk

Instructions:
1.Pre-heat oven to 450 F. Bake pie crust for 5 minutes, remove, reduce temperature to 375 F.
2.In a medium saucepan, combine brown sugar, corn starch, cinnamon, salt, water and butter. Bring to boil stirring constantly over medium heat. Stir in apples. Return to boil, cover, turn off heat leaving the pan on the burner.
3.In small mixing bowl, stir together egg and pumpkin. Stir in sugar and spices. Mix well. Stir in evaporated milk.
4.Stir lemon juice into apples, then place apples in pie shell. Carefully pour pumpkin mixture over apples. Bake at 40-45 minutes or until knife inserted in the center of the pie comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

 

[Neamhain Riona]

Mabon Ritual of the Second Harvest

Autumn Equinox, September 22nd

Tools for the Ritual:


· Russet and yellow altar cloths

· Golden God candle

· Silver Goddess candle

· White altar candle

· Quarter candles and corresponding stones

· Matches, taper and snuffer

· Simple feast - homemade bread and hot chocolate

· A small fallen tree branch - and other materials (see below)

· Cauldron or fire-proof bowl

· Sprigs of Ivy in a small vase

· An autumn incense, for example prinknash basilica blend




Tools for the Earth Healing and Peace Spell:


· Blue candle in a candle holder

· Lavender oil




Preparation:

Before the day of ritual take a small branch from the garden, or a fallen one found locally. Place it in a vase. Find items that represent things that you have begun, completed, or plan to begin soon. These items can be physical things or words written on strips of paper. You will also need some strips of paper that have been left blank. The blank strips represent things that you will begin this winter but have not yet planned. They are ripening possibilities. Also find some yarn or thread in autumn colours and cut it into enough 6" long pieces to fasten all the items to the branch.


Think of things that you have left undone. Decide why this should be so. Choose things that are no longer creative parts of your life. Write these on small strips of paper. These are to be cast aside during the ritual.

At the beginning of the ritual mentally cleanse and sweep the area moving in deosil fashion. Set up the quarter candles and stones symbolising the elements of the quarters. Decorate the altar with its cloths, and then the candles. Place the branch in the middle of the altar, the golden God candle to the right back of it, the silver Goddess candle to the left back of it. The cauldron goes in front of the Goddess candle. The white altar candle goes at the centre back of the altar between the Goddess and God candles. Place the items for the simple feast to one side and the ivy in front of the God candle.


Take a shower or splash your face with water for purification. Sit quietly and meditate for a while, then ground and centre.




The Ritual:


The ritual is begun. Cast the circle, calling the quarters and spirit centre. Invoke the Goddess and God. Bid them all Hail and Welcome.


I come before you, my Goddess and God as the wheel of the year turns to the time of the autumn equinox once more. Green Lady, the earth has been weighed down with the bountifulness of your great harvest. My God, your creativity has brought forth the burgeoning fruits of nature that I have seen all around me. Two that are one, your joining has produced life that dances in the light, may the harvest nourish and sustain all living creatures through the coming time of darkness and winter.


Many things have happened in the past summer, and many more will come in the autumn and winter. I stand in this place as the year balances between the dark and light times. I look back and remember, look forward and plan, and I balance the dark and light in my life.


Hold your hands lightly over the branch in its vase and say

You were grown in the time that is now past. You lived through the events that happened in that time.

You have been cast aside as dead in the present time but your continuing natural beauty and form live and work in this ritual.

You will go back to and re-nourish the earth in the time that is coming. In the future you will live again in the ever-turning cycle of life, death and rebirth.

While looking at you in the coming weeks may I remember the past, present and future which are represented in all living things as they continue on the cycle of the ever-turning wheel.


I look back as the past blazes in my mind. I see the things begun, the things completed and the things left undone.


I give thanks for the things that are begun and I hope for their continuing.

Take the items that represent the begun things and decorate the branch with them, tying them on one by one, using the autumn coloured yarn or thread.


I give thanks for the things that are completed and I offer them up as a harvest of my own creativity.

Take the items that represent the completed things and decorate the branch with them, tying them on one by one, using the autumn coloured yarn or thread.


I think on the things that have been left undone. I cast them aside now in the hope that their loss will create space for the new things that will be.

Take the strips of paper with the unfinished things written on them and, using the altar candle, set light to them one by one and drop them in the cauldron. Watch them burn. The ashes are to be scattered on the garden after the ritual.


I look forward as the future beckons with the coming time of introspection and continued inner growth. I see the things planned and look for the things not yet planned.


I give thanks for the things that are planned and look forward to beginning their creative cycle.

Take the items that represent the planned things and decorate the branch with them, tying them on one by one, using the autumn coloured yarn or thread.


I think on the things that are not yet planned. I hold myself open to new possibilities in the knowledge that I have made space for their existence.

Take the items that represent the unplanned things and decorate the branch with them, tying them on one by one, using the autumn coloured yarn or thread.


Arrange everything on the branch in a pleasing manner. When you have finished place the branch and vase back in their original position on the altar.


The warm time is passing, when the green earths creatures basked in the golden light of the sun. I remember times of bustling activity spent in the outer world of sunlight, and times of quiet exploration spent in the inner world of mind-light.


The cold time is coming, when the warm burrows of bed and fire-side beckon. I look forward to times of pensive and joyous reflection in the warmth of flickering candlelight, and busy activity in the safety and shelter of home.


Self Re-dedication

My life is consecrated to the Green Lady my Goddess and her consort the horned God. I offer myself once more to your service, Green Lady.


Crouch on the ground in a foetus position. Place one hand on the crown of your head and the other under you feet.

Everything that is between my hands is yours. I give it freely and with full knowledge and forethought. May everything that I am always be used honestly, truthfully, wisely and courageously in your service, Green Lady.


Uncurl yourself and continue

May I listen for and hear you,

May I look for and see you,

May I reach for and touch you,

May I wait for and find you.


Teach me what I need to know, and what I am now ready to know.

Your blessings are abundant, bless me abundantly.




Earth Healing and Peace Spell


Place the blue candle in its holder and anoint it with lavender oil moving from the top of the candle to the middle, then from the bottom to the middle, so that the whole candle has been anointed, but no part of it has been anointed in both upward and downward directions. Excess oil may be used to anoint your breastbone with the triple moon.


Raise energy by visualising that you are a tree. Extend your roots into the earth and feel the rich abundance of energy the earth gives to her children. Draw energy up through your roots, through your trunk and into your branches. Allow it to cascade in silver fountains back down to the earth.

Visualise the world as a place of freedom, peace, equality and plenty. Opinion and belief may be expressed by all people in an atmosphere of safety, tolerance and understanding. Nationality, wealth, ethnic and social background are all irrelevant in this place. Respect for all is the code by which we live. Everyones voice is equally heard and relevant. There is no need for desperate action here because the deep belief in the heart of each individual is that everyone is equal. There are infinite numbers of different types of people who naturally band with others who are similar to themselves, but each one is of equal worth to the larger group called humanity. Difference is valued for its role in the survival of the species - a sure antidote for stagnation and stubborn sameness.


Explore this world, explore the feelings of it and create it in your mind.

When you have finished exploring, direct your silver fountains of earth energy into the blue candle through your hands. Light the candle. Bind the spell, visualising a cord tying around the candle. Address the earth - I bind this spell by power of the three, may it harm none and bring good to thee.


Proceed with the simple feast to ground yourself.


The end of the Ritual

Thank the spirits of the quarters and centre, and also the Goddess and God. Ask them to go if they must but stay if they will. Bid them all Hail and Farewell. Open the circle. The circle is open but never broken. Allow the spell candle to burn down without extinguishing.

The ritual is ended.

 

[Neamhain Riona]

September 17th is Dark Moon

The dark moon is a good time to do protective magick and to banish things from your life.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Supplies you will need: two black candles, cauldron, paper and pen.


Place the cauldron in the center of the altar and put the paper and pen beside it. Cast the circle in a counter clockwise way. when it is cast, return to the altar and face the North. Light the black candles. Say:
The moon is dark. She hides her face from humans. Onley women can know the true secrets of the Dark Mother. Wise one, let me feel Your presence and power. I need Your wisdom of releasing and removing. If punishment be needed by those who work against me, I leave it within your hands.

Move counterclockwise to the East and say:
Remove all negatives from my thoughts amd mind, Dark Mother. Let them bear no fruit within my life.

Go to the North and say:
Remove all negatives from my body, Dark Mother. Let them bear no fruit in my life.

Go to the West and say:
Remove all negatives from my emotions, Dark Mother. Let them bear no fruit in my life.

Go to the South and say:
Remove all negatives from my spiritual life, Dark Mother. Let them bear no fruit in my life.


Return to the altar and stand facing North. Say :
I accept no negative thoughts, words, or deeds from others. They ase destroyed by the powers of the Dark Mother. If these negatives comefrom within myself, turn them into lessons ofgood. Help me to become balanced, a true Goddess-daughter/son of light and wisdom.

Face the altar now. Write down on the apaer negative things you wished removed from your life (ie..negative thoughts about yourself, bad habits, negative influences of people.) Read each one out loud to the Dark Mother to release them to Her. Light the paper from one of the black candles and drop it into the cauldron and watch it burn. Say:
I release these unto Your keeping. Show me how to move beyond these negatives into a position of light and power.

burn the paper until it is reduced to ashes. Raise your arms in reverence to the Goddess when the paper is finished and say:
Dark Mother, Crone Goddess, Wise and Elder One, teach me Your deep mysteries, the Ancient Goddess magick known to my foremothers and fathers. Guide and protect me, Dark Mother.


Now would be a good time to mediatate and see what insight you may receive from the Mother. Or do a spell of some sort. When finished, release the circle as usual. Bury the ashes of the paper somewhere off of your property.