Beltane Eve!

You wouldn't know it by the storm clouds that have been hanging around. But tomorrow is May 1st and Beltane in the Northern Hemisphere, Samhain in the Southern Hemisphere.

To be good little Pagans, you should extinguish your fires tonight and relight tomorrow. And tomorrow there will be LOTS of fire! Don't forget to jump over the fire for good luck!!!

I'll be posting a new podcast sometime this Beltane Eve. If not sometime tomorrow for Beltane before I go to my own glorious fiery celebration!

• Colors: Dark Green for the God, Red for the Goddess and white.
• Symbols: Maypoles, baskets, crossroads, eggs, chalices.
  
• Flowers: bluebells, cinquefoil, daisies, lilac, marigolds, primroses and roses. Also, violets, buttercups and any springtime flower (though this does not include the early springtime flowers like daffodils, crocus, hyacinth and tulips).
  
• Herbs: ivy, angelica, hawthorn, rosemary, woodruff and yellow cowslip.
• Trees: Oak, hawthorn
• Other Plants: birch trees
• Animals: bunnies, bees, goats. Also: fairies, pegasus, satyrs and giants!
• Incenses: lilac, vanilla, rose, passion flower.
• Stones: Emeralds, Carnelians, Bloodstones, Sapphires.
• Food: Egg dishes (I make deviled eggs!), sweets, oats and honey!
• Deities: Appropriate Deities for Beltane include all Virgin-Mother Goddesses, all Young Father Gods (due to the cycle), all Gods and Goddesses of the Hunt, of Love, and of Fertility. Some Beltane Goddesses to mention by name here include Aphrodite, Arianrhod, Artemis, Astarte, Venus, Diana, Ariel, Var, Skadi, Shiela-na-gig, Cybele, Xochiquetzal, Freya, and Rhiannon. Beltane Gods include Apollo, Bacchus, Bel/Belanos, Cernunnos, Pan, Herne, Faunus, Cupid/Eros, Odin, Orion, Frey, Robin Goodfellow, Puck, and The Great Horned God.
  

Recipes:

Fried Honeycakes

These cakes were left in the garden to please Fairy visitors. If you plan to leave an offering to the Fairy, double the recipe to keep some for your family. They're scrumptious.

1/2 cup sweet white wine
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg
1 cup honey
2/3 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
Oil for frying
1/8 teaspoon salt

Beat the wine & egg in a medium bowl. Combine the flour, cinnamon, salt & sugar in a small bowl. Stir into the egg mixture. Let stand 30 minutes. Combine the honey & nutmeg in a small bowl.

Heat 1/2-inch of the oil in a frying pan until hot, but not smoking. Drop the batter into the oil 1 tablespoon at a time; fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Dip into the honey.

Yield: 1 1/2 Dozen.

May Wine

1 bottle of white wine (German is ideal)
1/2 cup strawberries, sliced
12 sprigs of woodruff, fresh

Pour wine into a wide mouth jar or carafe. Add the sliced strawberries and woodruff, and let sit for an hour or more. Strain and serve chilled.

Strawberry Cookies

3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup milk
1 egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon almond extract
2 1/2 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
red and green food coloring

Cream the sugar and shortening until fluffy, on medium speed if using an electronic mixer. Beat in egg, milk, zest, and extract. Sift flour and powder together in a bowl and gradually add to the other mix. Wrap dough in plastic and chill for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Half dough and put the other half back in the fridge. Form dough into flattened balls and roll to 1/8 inch on a floured surface. Using strawberry-shaped cookie cutter, cut out cookies, and cut out little indentations like strawberry seeds if desired.

Put 1 tablespoon of water into each of two dishes and add a few drops of each color of food coloring. Paint the cookies with a paintbrush using the colors, making the body of the strawberry red and the stem and leaves green. Bake them on an ungreased cookie sheet for 8 minutes, then cool on racks. Repeat the process with the other half of the dough.

Yield: 5 dozen

First Cast

Blessed Be! At least I really hope so.

I decided to start podcasting about Pagan things. Its something that is near and dear to my heart so why not? Podcast about things you actually know about. I know! What a concept?!?

It's available in 2 formats: .mp3 and .ogg. I'd personally LOVE to not post mp3s. Wondering why? Because mp3 is not a free file format. It is not open source and in fat, fees are supposed to be paid to use the format to produce files. Its basically a file tax. And in years to come, you may have to pay fees to use these files. Hence, I like oggs.

Episode 001: The Full Moon of High Spring

Ogg 31.7M
Mp3 34.9M

Let me know of any problems with playback. And if you want to contact me, there's an e-mail in the podcast.

MM

Misha