Do you know this beautiful lady? Did you know that she created the artwork for the most used and widely dispersed Tarot Cards known to most westerners?

Her given name is (Corinne) Pamela Colman Smith, but her friends all called her Pixie.  She was an artist, illustrator, writer, singer of songs, teller of tales, and more. She was born in London, but growing up she spent much of her time between England and Jamaica and spent some time in America on the East Coast. Her mother’s side of the family were quite artistic and interested in mysticism and her father loved to collect art. Perhaps this explains her involvement both as an artist and her interest in the occult. Her mother died when she was 10, and was often separated from her father due to his work with the West India Improvement Company. In her early teens she had the good fortune of traveling with her dear friend actress Ellen Terry, and then discovered the magical world of the theatre.

She studied art at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn under the positively inspiring Arthur Dow. She worked as a theatrical designer, book illustrator and wrote and illustrated several books of her own, telling the folk stories that she learned as a child in Jamaica. She used to love to dramatically tell the tales to party guests at her flat, sitting upon the floor in the old dialect and using wooden figures she made myself to act out the parts. This was how she learned these stories and it made her heart glad to share the experience with her friends who begged for more! She had a party every week, in her flat in Chelsea, and all the great artists, actors, poets, and musicians of her time would frequent them! What great times, sipping Opal Hush (one of her favorite drinks) and telling stories, playing her grand piano, sing songs, talk about philosophy, art, literature, timely topics and nonsense as well!

She did so many things in her life, she designed sets for the theater, published her writings and illustrations, created fine art, was an occultist, she survived the blitz, joined the woman’s suffrage movement, and so much more!

She was a member of The Hermetic Order of Golden Dawn for a while, that is where she met Arthur Edward Waite. In the partnership with him, they completed a big job for very little cash that met with some popularity and continued to be a bigger hit after she crossed over into the Next World in 1951. You may have heard of it, when It was released it was called simply “Tarot Cards!” You probably know this as the Rider-Waite Tarot, or as she was so delighted to discover, as many are now calling it the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot!!! They finally added her black and white illustrations to the book in 1911 and I quite preferred looking at the black and white versions of these, because the lithography that was used to print the cards themselves originally was so badly done, although it is fun to see the old original deck is still printed from facsimile copies after all these years! At the time, she never knew how popular the deck would become, and she never really received much notoriety from it during my lifetime, too bad there was no way for her to receive royalties from future sales, when she left this life, her debts were paid off by selling off all my artwork and possessions. But now, as we glance forward into the future, as only a talented visionary such as herself may do, she would be amazed at the following the Tarot deck has received!! I am sure she would be  pleased that her artwork and writings are being re-discovered!

The Rider Waite Tarot…that most of us know and love. Pixie designed.

For more information on this lovely lady:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Colman_Smith

  Ingredients:
* Mason Jar
* Small mirror, broken into pieces
* Small black onyx stone
* Clean steel nails
* Black votive candle

* Note: It is believed that to break a mirror by accident is to bring bad luck. In this spell, you
are breaking the mirror intentionally and with the intent to bring protection.

* Moon Phase:
This is not limited to the moon phase. When protection is needed there should be no limits to
the time in which you perform such a spell. If you feel bound by the moon phases then
change your visualization work. If the moon is new or waxing, visualize protection growing
around yourself. If the moon is waning, visualize the psychic attacks dissipating. Full moons,
harvest the full powers to cast this spell.

* Gather the items needed for this spell.

When ready, begin by lighting your small votive candle, saying:
“Candle lit, burning down.
End the attacks, here and now.”
Now take the pieces of broken mirror and put them in your mason jar. Say:
“Broken mirror to reflect
All the harm that comes to wreck.”
Take a handful of nails, add them to the jar. Say:
“Nails of steel be true!
Let no evil pass on through.”

Take the black onyx stone in your power hand, the hand that you write with. Black onyx is an
extremely protective stone and will absorb all negativity. Visualize the onyx protecting you, or
actually ‘sucking up’ all the negative energies and psychic attacks being made upon you. Now
place it in the jar. By now the black votive candle should be burnt out or almost burnt out. If it
isn’t, use the extra time to meditate and work on creating a protective bubble around yourself.
To create a protective bubble, imagine that there is a silvery bubble surround yourself,
you are in its center. The bubble is transparent, you can see out of it, but it also has a silver
film to it, reflecting back the energies that you don’t want in your life. Once the candle has
burnt out, add what leftover wax there is to the spell bottle. Close the bottle tightly. The spell
is done.

Keep the bottle hidden in a safe place. Tuck it in the back of a closet, a drawer, the attic, or
bury outside your front door.

A carved ivory Female Figurine found in Germany

A carved ivory female figurine is presented in Tuebingen, southern Germany, Wednesday, May 13, 2009. The figurine, found in 2008 in a cave in Schelklingen, southern Germany is allegedly the world's oldest reproduction of a human with an estimated age of at least 35,000 years.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the link:

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Most-Recommended-Photos/ss/1750;_ylt=AgquoZ43ouTfMjmb3A6qQ6TlWMcF#photoViewer=/090513/481/dbeeaa2f38034147875cd0c59300079b

Autumn Equinox

This is a repeat post, although it is never too late to make rose hip syrup, Enjoy!

All my life I’ve loved wading through fallen leaves. At their best they have settled in frothy, tempting drifts on dull pavements. Crisp, wet, and waiting to be ruffled by any passerby. Just remembering the swish, the crunch and the smell; sitting here thinking about it gives me goose bumps. To get the best effect, keep your feet close to the ground and use a skiing motion. This has to be a solitary activity, unless you are under six. But if you don’t mind your friends giving a little laugh, but we all need a good laugh now and then.

I wanted to share with you my love of this time of year by giving you some ideas on activites, recipes and other ideas to make this time of year more enjoyable. I don't need any help with that, but some might. I discovered that homemade rosehip syrup is delicious and worth making. It is a good natural source of vitamin C. It also contains vitamins A, D and E, and antioxidants.

Lets prepare! First of all this time of year, in our ancestors eyes would have been the most tiring. Constant preparation for the upcoming winter would assist them in making sure to have sufficient food supplies, clothing and of course medicines (herbals). I wanted to share with you a recipe that was passed down to me for Rose Hip Syrup. My children love this delight and a daily spoonful of rosehip syrup heralds the start of winter, at least that is what my daughters say.

Rosehip Syrup Recipe

Ingredients:

4 ½ pints of spring water
2 lbs of rosehips, preferably organic and from a locale close to you
1lb of cane sugar (white can be used)

Directions:

* Top and tail the rosehips.
* Bring 3pts of water to the boil.
* Mince the rosehips through a food processor
* Transfer the fruit into fast boiling water and bring to the boil again. Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes.
* Pour through a sterilized jelly bag/or cheese cloth and allow the majority of the liquid to drip through.
* Return the pulp to the pan and add 1 ½ pints of fresh boiling water and bring to the boil. *Remove from heat and leave for 15 minutes.
* Strain through the jelly bag again.
* Pour extracted liquid into a clean saucepan and boil to reduce the liquid to 1 ½ pts.
* Add the sugar and boil rapidly for another 5 minutes. Pour into hot sterile bottles and seal immediately.

Tips and tricks:
* Use small bottles (we use recycled vinegar bottles) as it only keeps for a week or so once opened. If you don’t want to use bottles the syrup can be frozen in cubes.
How do I sterilize a jelly bag or muslin square?
* Both can be scalded with boiling water. If you are using a clean muslin bag or square you can iron them with a hot iron. This also works with tea cloths.
How do I sterilize bottles?
* The sterilizing method that I use is simple. Just before making the syrup, I thoroughly wash and rinse the bottles in very hot water and place them upside down in a cold oven. Set the temperature to 200°. When the oven has reached the right temperature I turn off the heat. The bottles will stay warm for quite a while. Sterilize the lids by boiling these for a few minutes in water.

If you don’t have roses in your garden there are lots of briar roses in the hedgerows. They are difficult to spot from a car so if you are somewhere rural and have half an hour to spare, it’s well worth walking or cycling along a footpath or a quiet country lane to see what you can find. Try and avoid busy roads as the fruit will have been exposed to exhaust fumes and nasty defoliants. Keep a couple of carrier bags in your coat pocket, just in case.