I think I’ll say very little this month. I’ve added a bit from ECO-Pagans, and we have been gifted with a loving tribute to Pauline Campanelli.
Blessed Be.
—Alia
The February Open Full Moon will be on Friday, February 22, 2002, at 7:30 PM, at the First Unitarian Church, 1400 Lafayette, Denver, CO. The doors of the church open at 7:00. We like to begin at 7:30.
The Coven of Thistledown Keep will be presenting a personal growth ritual. This is the time of year when agrarian communities plan their fields and gardens. Seeds are bought, fields are marked for usage and longer-range projections are made. The plans include the questions: what to plant? Where to plant? How much attention i.e. weeding, watering, feeding, will the various parts of the garden need to develop their full potential? What are the necessary steps to get to a successful harvest?
As you come to this ritual, think about goals you may be setting for yourself and the steps to bring that goal to its fruition. We will be assisting you in planting the seeds of that goal in your heart. As we energize each other in personal development we will be sharing and multiplying the energy for growth and empowerment.
For the next several months, we will be sharing the church with the CUUPs drumming circle. We will occupy the community room, and the drummers will occupy the sanctuary. We are welcome to join the drumming after the ritual. Joan informs me that they usually drum until 9:30 or 10, but if there is interest, they can stay later. However, in March, the drumming circle will be scheduled for Saturday, March 23rd, and preceded by an Ostara ritual. More details in the March newsletter.
Thanks and a Tip of the Hat to Steve and Shari Storm and the Boulder CUUPS for our lovely OFM in January. Narrated by a magician, a young solitaire witch enacted her self-initiation. As she called the Quarters, the Elements came to life. The attraction that each Element has for another was taught with dance and with sacred gifts containing the essence of each. For example, Earth gave Water the gift of mud to show her adoration. When the witch completed her Oath of Dedication she embodied Spirit, and the four Elements danced their enchantment with this new fifth element. The essence of Spirit is Love, and this Love transformed the witch and stayed with her forever.
Thank you, Steve, Shari and B-CUUPS for a ritual that was reverent, beautiful and still lighthearted, and so rich in content that we left out more than we could describe in this short article.
May Love transform us all. Blessed Be.
—Arynne and Mary
We have determined that our break-even point is about $3 per person.
We aren’t going to start collecting at the door, and no one will be turned away for not having a donation. However, we would like to suggest a donation of 3 to 5 dollars per person. (The extra is to cover the pagans that can’t swing $3.) If you can’t afford it, you are still welcome – if you can afford more, we’d be delighted to accept it.
NOTE: Hearthstone is a church and your donations to Hearthstone are tax deductible. If you would like to write a check so you can keep track of your donations, we can certainly handle that as well.
ECO Pagans has an outing planned to the Butterfly Pavilion for February 24th. Meet at the Butterfly Pavilion at 1pm.. If there are ten or more the cost will be $4.95. The cost will be $6.95 if there are less than ten.
The Food Bank is currently in pretty good shape. It could use some more soup (no minestrone), canned meat (chicken, turkey, ham or beef), and stews.
Long ago, a sad woman remarked, “You come into this world alone and you go out alone,” to which Pauline added, “But it’s nice to have someone help with the doors.”
Pauline helped so many of us with the doors; to fine art and to Wicca with Ancient Ways, Wheel of the Year, Circles, Groves, and Sanctuaries, and finally with Rites of Passage.
At her burial, with her ashes lovingly deposited in the herb garden outside her kitchen door, “The Final Passage” was used to usher her into the arms of the Gods she loved.
Born in New York, Pauline was stricken with crippling polio at age 3. She was barred from grammar school because of her crutches. She avidly studied art and nature, eventually reading college textbooks. She did attend junior high, high school, and art school in Ridgewood, New Jersey.
Pauline and Dan Campanelli met through their mutual admiration of each other’s artwork. They fell passionately in love and spent 34 years together as true soulmates.
They lived in the 18th century at Flying Witch Farm, pressing 100 gallons of wine a year using grapes from their vineyard, an 1860 wine press, and their own label. Each year she canned 400 Mason jars of fruit from their orchard.
Every morning, Pauline would paint in her small upstairs studio, with walls lined with books on the Craft. Her subjects were objects from around her home: a quilt, a basket, an antique decoy… Through the New York Graphic Society, her paintings went into print. “Wild Rose Berries” alone has sold 1,100,000 copies. She elevated the level of popular art from schlock to super-realism. This door she opened with her keen attention to detail, evident also in her writing.
She was an environmental activist, leading a Riverwalk that ultimately blocked a developer from destroying the aquifer of their town. She and Dan composted and recycled, generating only one kitchen bag of garbage a month for pickup.
Together, though battered by hate mail from Christian extremists, the remained true to their beliefs, marking all the moons and Sabbats, truly living the magickal life.
Dan and their dog Samhaintha were with Pauline at their home when she passed over. The polio had revisited, with deadly force.
Artist, naturalist, author, friend, Pauline was sublimely wise, funny, and a Gift to us.
—© 2002 Virginia Sisbarro
(Additional information about Pauline Campenelli’s passing can be found in the New York Times edition published on 12/14/2001 on page D13)
When I first moved to the Pacific Northwest I thought two things would happen. I expected that my skin would stop being all dry and crackly in winter, and I expected my bread to always rise as the recipe said it should. Neither proved to be true.
The bread problem is one I’m still working on. The skin one, however, I was able to resolve but it took some doing.
In winter here, there is sometimes a humidity reading in excess of one hundred percent. And a lot of that humidity is solid, or at least liquid, and hammering on the roof or car windows. In between bouts of downpour there are lulls in which it merely drizzles, or mists, or is extremely foggy. I’d figured I would have no trouble keeping my face and lips moisturized. I thought the environment would take care of that for me. Boy, was I wrong!
All that moisture in the air stays in the air. And water, while a fine moisturizer in general, does not stay put on the skin. It evaporates and seems to take the skin’s natural moisture with it. So instead of needing LESS moisturizer than I needed in Denver, where it’s bone dry all winter (and much of the summer as well) I ended up needing, not so much more moisturizer but a more efficient one as in a northwestern winter the applied moisturizer has to be able to stay put while the elements try to dislodge it. (Bad metaphor, but bear with me; I think you got the idea.)
After trying nearly a dozen different moisturizers from as far removed sources as Safeway to the Body Shop, with stops at Clinique and Nature’s (the local name for Wild Oats) along the way, I even consulted a dermatologist, who prescribed a cortisone cream, to which I proved mildly allergic and which did nothing for the dry skin anyway. I was pretty well stumped. I had switched to a moisturizing facial cleanser, I applied an apricot/almond oil combination three times a week, and I never wore makeup. Eventually, though, the dry skin managed to appear even on my eyelids.
Then, last summer, someone mentioned to me in passing that sage is a good moisturizer. I’d always heard of it as an astringent so I had some doubts, but I was desperate. I also had five very healthy culinary sage plants in the garden. I also had what amounted to a lavender bush and enough mint to almost go into business. I decided to give the combination a try and I made a moisturizing cream out of infused oils of sage and lavender. Lacking the standard oils used in cosmetics (the usuals include almond, olive, coconut and a few others) I used canola oil. And in the end I had an amazing moisturizer. It doesn’t have the nice smell of the expensive brands, and it doesn’t have the bland scent of the “unscented” versions. It smells a little of my garden and I’m quite happy with it. Once a day (even on my eyelids) and I’m fine for the day. Now if only I could find something that would do so much good for my hair!
I only used a cup of this in making the cream. There was about a cup and a quarter when I was done making it and I used to remaining quarter cup in a melt and pour soap (well, in three of them but my molds make large bars) so that I could have a matching soap.
The following recipe is obviously not to be eaten but I definitely think this is food for the body.
Gypsy’s Moisturizing Cream
Warm the oil in a non-reactive saucepan. When it is hot but not sizzling (you should see swirls of oil coming up from the bottom of the pan) add the herbs and stir with a clean wooden or plastic spoon. Cover and simmer over very low heat for forty five minutes, or as long as an hour and a half if you wish. Stir occasionally. Remove from heat, stir, and strain out the herbs Return infused oil to pan. Over very low heat, add the beeswax, mixing thoroughly with a plastic spoon (not the cheap plastic kind, but something you’d use for high heat cooking; the wooden spoon at this point might prove difficult to get clean afterwards.) When all the beeswax has melted, pour the mixture into the intended container (if the container is not the sort that will stand up to high heat, allow the mixture to cool to lukewarm in the pan but try not to let it totally solidify in there.) This has kept on my bathroom shelf for close to six months.
With a flavored oil, like peppermint, added (remember, a little dab’ll do ya) and additional beeswax, this might be a very nice lip balm. You may vary the herbs to suit what your skin needs, although I recommend leaving the lavender in whatever you make. Next year I’m hoping the comfrey will survive long enough for me to get some comfrey leaves into the mix, and I might remember to add some calendula as well.
Next month I go back to making edibles, but this month I am ever so grateful to my herb garden for saving my skin.
Night blind elder Wiccan living in SW Denver needs a dependable ride for the OFMs. Will contribute toward gas money. Lives near Hampden and Sheridan. Contact Virginia.
If you have something to say, and are willing to let Alia edit it slightly, (generally for grammar – I have the soul of an English teacher) please feel free to submit your writing. Content will not be edited. We can usually make room for more voices.
Please note that information and opinions contained in the articles in this newsletter are the responsibility of the authors only. No endorsement by Hearthstone Community Church, Inc. is implied.
All writings are copyright to their respective authors. Please obtain permission before reprinting anything here with the exception of the Open Full Moon Dates. Those may be copied and transmitted as needed.
2002
February 22
March 22
April 26
May 24
June 21 (summer Solstice)
July 19
August 16
September 13
October 18
November 15
December 13
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