Categories
Sabbats, etc.

Imbolc 2025

Celebrating halfway to Spring, and the Day of Bridget!

Well, here we are…8 days after Imbolc, and I am finally uploading my cover photo for the Sabbat. Typical! And how is your Winter Season holding up? We’re halfway through it!

As always, Imbolc is a very special Sabbat for me. It was my name that lead me to read up on this particular Sabbat, which lead me to realize that all the organic thoughts I’d had about spirituality aligned so very closely with modern paganism and modern witchcraft.

This year, I channeled the healing spirit of Brigid to help during a health emergency a stranger was going through at a restaurant I was having dinner at with my mother. I stayed on the line with 9-1-1 and helped the father and son with taking care of the mother until the ambulance came.

I do not know what it is, but somehow during an emergency I get a calmness-rush. Things for me get very steady, clear, slow, deliberate, and decisiove, and I manage everything within me and around me until the situation is under control.

Then I crash and I’m all kinds of freaked out and buzzed after the fact, but that’s a different story.

In this year’s Imbolc graphic, I’ve included the Sun & Moon at the center, a corn doll, a cross of St Brigid, a candle, a crocus, a bonfire, and sunbeams.

Stay warm with the rest of the season, Northern Hemisphere friends. 

Categories
Sabbats, etc.

Mabon 2024

Happy Fall to Everyone in the Northern Hemisphere and Happy Spring to Everyone in the Southern Hemisphere!

Happy Mabon to all who celebrate! Happy Autumnal Equinox to people of the Northern Hemisphere! (Happy Spring to the Southern Hemisphere people!)

We read fall poems and sang fall songs at Bell Street Chapel to mark the occasion. I have joined the choir, plus I suggested a couple of the poems to read, so I ended up getting up 6 times during the service. Busy, but very fun!

Then MumBetty & I got crepes and tea from Schasteâ. I tried a new-to-me delicious Pu-erh Tuo Cha Tea, and the Eggs and Tapenade Savory Crepe. Delicious!

Next the Boston Austen Book Club had our Summer meeting (one day after summer). As noted, it was an “easy one,” where we just discussed screen adaptations of Austen. I still haven’t watched Fire Island. I have to get on that! Next month for the Fall 2024 meeting, we’re discussing a murder mystery, just in time for spooky season, with Halloween and Samhain coming up. The titled is “The Murder of Mr. Wickham” by Claudia Gray. I’ll have an event page up soon!

And finally Betty and I watched football, and I helped her with her chores. I bribed Baby with a bunch of Greenies and peanut butter, and was able to do a dry shampoo, tail hair clipping, dingleberry removal (gag), and a thorough eye gunk wiping (also gag but not as bad).

Additionally I made a seasonal playlist of fall-ish feeling Tori Amos songs. You can find the playlist on my YouTube Channel, and the playlist is called “A mos, Tori for Fall.”

(YouTube Music only sorts alphabetically or by recently saved and you can’t choose the letter you want to go to from the list, you just have to scroll. Since I listen to Tori so much, I manipulated the listing for her so it would appear at the top by using her last name with a space after it. Silly but it works!)

And I mixed some of my body oils to create two new, lush scents for Fall: Vetiver, lavender, and patchouli for one; and rose, patchouli, and amber for the other.

And you bet I am well stocked on Pumpkin Spice flavored things for my coffee, because I am a Pumpkin Spice kinda witch. Heh heh heh.

I also made these graphics on time-ish, for a change!

Including this one to use as a YouTube banner…

A very busy sabbat!

Have a Happy Fall, Y’all!

Categories
Activist Witch Sabbats, etc.

Lughnasadh 2024

Happy Lughnasadh! I am celebrating by taking a trip with my Witches of Weymouth to Salem at the end of the month.

I’m also working on my “Liberty Spell” from now until about 5 days after Samhain AKA doing what I can to volunteer time for the Harris / Walz campaign.

If you’re interested in supporting the Kamala Harris Kamala HQ campaign, here’s some helpful links!

Categories
Sabbats, etc.

Litha 2024

🌞 Summer Is Here!!! 🌞

Happy Litha to my fellow Northern Hemisphere modern pagans and witches. Happy Yule to the Southern Hemisphere ones!

As a Cancer, you know I’m jazzed for summer.

As a triple water sign (Cancer-Scorpio-Scorpio), you know I’m jazzed for beach time.

I’m always a little late with my Sabbat posts. It’s its own tradition now 😆🫣😜 But then once I get on it, I end up making a bunch of other updated graphics for the site, such as this new banner.

Anyway, I do have a long hybrid vacation/staycation coming up. I don’t know if I’ll have time to post more as a result, but who knows?

Hope you have a great summer, all!

Categories
Other Holidays

Please Do Not Wish Strangers a Happy Mother’s Day

A Public Service Announcement for Mother’s Day

Repost from An Arts Notebook, Bridget Eileen Madden’s arts, culture, and entertainment blog

As we approach Mother’s Day, I would just like to give the following advice: please, do not wish *random women* a “Happy Mother’s Day.”

Of course, for any person who you know for certain is a mother and will be happily celebrating mother’s day with their family and loved ones, definitely *do* wish them a Happy Mother’s Day.

However, for a lot of women this is a complicated and not necessarily celebratory day. A person may not be able to have kids, or may have recently miscarried, or may have sadly lost a child, or–in my case–may have never met the person with whom they’d like to settle down and have children. They may have recently lost their mother, or be estranged from their mother, or never knew their mother. In such cases, hearing someone, however well-intentioned they may be, say, “Happy Mother’s Day!” gives a stinging, painful tug at the heart.

For a long time, while my mom lived in New Orleans and I in New England, I stopped going out in public on Mother’s Day. Having no kids, I just didn’t feel like being around those who were celebrating. And I don’t want to ever be subjected to any strangers who might wish me a Happy Mother’s Day again, like those times it happened in the past, which precipitated my desire to stay in for the day.

Now that my mom is my downstairs neighbor, and she is getting on in years, I do love celebrating Mother’s Day with her. But there are a lot of people for whom this day is complicated and perhaps painful. So, best not to make assumptions, however well intentioned.

If you want to be nice, saying something like, “Happy Springtime!” should do the trick just fine. The purpose of your desire to wish someone a “happy something or other” is to show kindness & manners. For some, skipping the assumption of their happiness in motherhood is the best way to do so.

…for some, skipping the assumption of their happiness in motherhood is the best way to show manners and kindness during Mother’s Day…

So, if you know of people who could use this very kindly given advice, please spread the word! Thank You and Happy Springtime!

Categories
Sabbats, etc.

Happy Beltane 2024

I’m a bit late with my traditional Sabbat Graphic, but I made a Beltane one, finally. This holiday comes at the second busiest time of year at work, so my celebration is usually delayed, and this year was no exception.

This weekend I will start what I am hoping becomes a long-standing tradition, where two of my friends from high school and I get together at each other’s houses for the sabbat to talk witch-y stuff, and life stuff.

We have gone out to events and such, but we wanted to start going to each other’s houses, so that we don’t have to spend and arm and a leg to do witchy things. Plus, I have so much stuff at home–crystal ball, crystals, tarot, books, tea, plants, decos. I just want to be able to appreciate all that I already possess, and share it with my dear friends.

I am looking forward to the weekend celebration. I hope your Beltane has been a good one!

Categories
Sabbats, etc.

Happy Ostara 2024

Happy Ostara!

I hope your first few days of Spring are going well.

The blustery wind actually blew my storm door open until it broke 😳🌬 Guess we’re still in the “lion” portion of March — I’m ready for som lamby weather! How about ewe? (Ah but I love a terrible good bad dad joke.)

Ostara Blessing for the start of this new season 🐇🥚 

Happy Equinox to all!

Categories
Sabbats, etc.

Happy Imbolc 2024

Imbolc Is My Favorite Sabbat, and It IS Because I Am Named Bridget — Sort Of

Imbolc is my favorite Sabbat, and it IS because it’s in honor of the deity I was (in a sense) named for—but there’s more to it than that. The bigger story is that because I am a Bridget, I learned about modern and Celtic paganism, the alleged syncretism of Brigid/ Bridget, and the feast day/ goddess day in honor of this Celtic figure when my friend wished me a Happy Bridget Day on February 1, 2011.

After Kara did that, I went down a Wikipedia click-hole while working at the library that night, and the more I learned about modern paganism, the sabbats and modern witchcraft, the more I said to myself, “Yes! Exactly! This is what I have always thought!”

Whether about reincarnation; the fact that sexuality in absolute terms has no morality tied to it; the sacredness of nature; the connection of spirituality and smashing the MFing patriarchy/ kyriarchy; the prevalence of pantheism; and many more aspects that fall under the umbrella terms of modern pagan and modern witch, I found myself finding 🔥myself🔥 with each new click and read through.

Within a year, I had come to wholly embrace this identity. A year after that, by summer of 2013, I was fully out of the proverbial broom closet and openly expressing my modern paganism.

And today, lucky number 13 years later? I have this project: this slow-growing blog. Writing is how I process my thoughts and express myself. I do a lot by long hand, hence the moniker “Notebook Witch.”

I’m also grateful that I have made more friends in the witch community, and become closer to existing friends, knowing we share similar witchy ideas. And I am a Unitarian Universalist witch, so I have that community as well.

Happy Imbolc to all who celebrate. May the spirit of Bridget and Brigid be infused with this wintry time and the fire of the goddess bring hope for community, communion, and connection for us all. 

Categories
Other Holidays Sabbats, etc.

Merry Yuletide and Holidays 2023-24

Merry Yuletide! Season’s Greetings! Happy New Year!

What do Hannah Waddingham, Snoop Dogg, Blossom Dearie, Bad Religion, Leslie Odom Jr, Tori Amos, Ella Fitzgerald, Zooey Deschanel, Fred Schneider from the B52’s, Louis Armstrong, Weezer, Sam Smith, Run DMC, Diana Krall, the Living Sisters, The Teskey Brothers, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings…to name a few people…all have in common?

My epic holiday playlist!

My gift to you all is “Yule Love This Playlist 2023” available on YouTube Music:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7oN6qUdxYpMTtQlVEOk6F87k17W_gM7j&si=TXy17FqJuryBnHbm

Categories
Sabbats, etc.

Ostara 2023

Ostara sabbat graphic for Facebook cover, Twitter post, and other social media. Feel free to use on your social media as well! Please credit NotebookWitch.com.

Spring Is Here

Happy Spring Equinox, northern hemisphere friends! Hope you’re having a lovely early autumn, southern hemisphere folks.

I felt like making a sabbat banner with a vintage vibe this year, for no particular reason.

It was a relatively mild winter in southeast New England. How about you? What things are you excited for, for Spring?

My Spring Plans

I’m looking forward to planting a stellar, burgeoning herb garden this year.

I’ve got ideas in mind for my container garden: LOTS of lemon balm, since Sweet Melissa is good for so many things but can really overtake a garden, trustly old chive and scallion since they’re first to arrive to the party and one of the last to leave, and low maintenance.

And then I hope to do a raised bed in the side yard, with a lot of different varieties of herbal plants. I was looking at past photos from my patio garden in Federal Hill Providence, and it was so abundant! I want that again.

We shall see! Happy planting and planning, gardeners! Spring is here!