Omorka's Lair

Looks like I'm going to be celebrating Autumnal Equinox/Akitu/Mabon by myself this year - Equinox proper is in the middle of the week, and half my social circle, including most of my circlemates as well as the Spouse, are going to a con in Dallas this coming weekend.

Having said that, I have some new deity images from this summer that need to be dedicated, and the altar certainly needs cleaning/purifying/re-consecrating. It's not that there isn't plenty of Akitu-related stuff to do; I just won't have anyone to do it with. I'll probably see my circle elders the night before Equinox proper, but that's more a monthly dinner thing than a ritual occasion.

I did buy some new altarware - plain white ceramic this time, since the local feral cats and the organized crime mob of raccoons and squirrels keep drinking out of the water and wine cups when I leave the altar alone for an hour and occasionally knocking them off. I also got new, less-easy-to-knock-over candles for deity calls and the ancestors, in the hopes that they'll last until decorating the altar for Samhain is truly appropriate.

Haven't been doing a good job keeping up with the altar log, either online or in person. Probably ought to work on that.

After having let the last set of candles burn out just after equinox, I hadn't replaced them until tonight. Right now I have a pair of tealights for Al-Lat and Baal-Shamin of Palmyra, and a lavender votive for the Beloved Dead and especially Prince. I need to clean out the offering bowl; it's full of old joss sticks and ashes.

My luck trying to grow rosemary continues to suck; the last one I planted died of transplant shock. I do have an apple mint that died back but seems to have survived at the roots coming back nicely, but it's not as magickally useful. (Nice for juleps, though.)

My outdoor altar has been ransacked. The three candles were all knocked over and off of the altar, smashing one of them - the glass jars on the other two are intact. There's a smear of molten wax from the one that broke, but I think that's from it being in direct sunlight for part of the day before we found it. Both deity images (since this deity set was An and Ki, who are rarely if ever actually depicted in Sumerian art, they were printouts of a NASA Hubble image and a Mother Earth statue in a public park in Georgia) were tossed off of the altar, and one was slightly crumpled.

I have set up the two surviving candles on the folding camp table on the porch, swept up and unceremoniously disposed of the broken candle, sacrificially burned the desecrated images, and am laundering the altar bunting. I'll have to re-consecrate the altar and set out new images; under the circumstances, I might just choose a new deity set.

I don't know if this was accident/random vandalism, deliberate desecration, or the result of our neighborhood squirrels and raccoons (who I know do occasionally steal the food offerings) investigating whether the candles are edible. For the moment, I'm inclined to guess the latter, on the grounds that a deliberate desecration probably would have involved tearing up the deity images and we'd have likely heard it if a delivery person had knocked it over accidentally.

The bright side is that the offertory altarware - the cup, libation bowl, and plate - were not on the altar at the time and thus are safe. I removed them yesterday to wash them and decided to let them drip-dry instead of replacing them immediately; solid intuition on my part, there. But - uggghhh. This is so frustrating!

The bowl I've been using for my water-offering bowl on the outdoor altar got broken during the cleansing step between the last set of deities and the new set. I don't know whether to blame the drug-dealing squirrels who live in the live oak next door, the contractors who have been finally fixing the windows that had dry-rot, or the neighborhood feral cats (who I'm pretty sure have drunk from it before). But now I need to find a replacement; pretty much every source is adamant about a proper altar having a water offering in almost every culture I'm drawing from.

The last deity pair was Inanna and Enki. Most of the deities I've been working with, with the exception of Astarte, are fairly obscure by Western NeoPagan standards, so they often seem appreciative of practically every offering I've given. Inanna gets a lot more attention, and Enki is not as obscure as many of the others of his pantheon, so they were a lot pickier. Fortunately, they both seemed to like nag champa incense, cheap white wine, and strawberries. The outdoor altar also sort of took over for a little while; they were being demanding and didn't seem to want to split my time with the broader polypantheon at the indoor altar.

I'm thinking of doing Anshar and Kishar for the next pair, but between the bowl getting broken and us not being here for most of the next weekend due to the con, I may just put out a new ancestor candle for the moment and re-make the altar just after solstice.

I'm also doing what is likely to be my last CUUPs ritual for a while this weekend. I'm doing the story of the Gracious Gods again; that seems to be my go-to for Summer Solstice, partly because I like the story and partly because the act of magick that goes with it is pretty obvious.

Removed the burned-out candles for Shapshu and Eshmun from the altar, and ceremonially burned the paper images I'd been using for them. Cleaned out a ton of ends of joss sticks from the burn bowl. Am letting the outdoor altar sit with just the ancestor candle on it for a night before setting out new images and candles.

Bought some grape juice to use as libations, because I don't know a damned thing about wine. Am contemplating whether offering chocolate to old-world deities is appropriate or not.

Have fallen a bit behind on keeping an altar log. The outdoor altar's candles for Shapshu and Eshmun are nearly burned out, and I should plan on whom I will place on that altar once they're gone. I am currently contemplating Yarikhu and Nikkal, but that would almost make the outdoor altar the Syrian one and the indoor altar the Chaldean one. (On the third hand, perhaps the Canaanite gods are more used to outdoor shrines?)

I need to find a reliable supply for good stick or cone frankincense incense, redundant as that sounds. It seems to be pretty reliable, although so does the cedarwood/lavender combo that the local Pagan shop sells in stick form.

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Never did make it to CMA; the flooding out there was just too bad for them to let anyone onto the property. First festival I've missed since '97, and honestly I'm pretty bummed about it. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that the overlap between what I'm looking for and what the average festival-goer at CMA is looking for is significantly smaller now than it was ten years ago. It may be time for me to step back a little from CMA and focus my energies on building the Chaldean tradition, although I'll certainly still attend festivals.

Whoa, have I not been keeping up the log properly. Have been lighting the ancestor candle daily, lighting the outdoor altar for a few hours per evening every day bar one, & have been lighting incense indoors (usually for Tiamat, Lahmu & Lahamu, and Anshar & Kishar, but occasionally for Asherah, Astarte, or other deities) whenever we did not have guests and outdoors every day.

The incense donated by JK has a lot of trouble staying lit. It must have gotten damp at some point.

I went on a candle restocking run this weekend and now have plenty of candles. I do wish it was easier to find colored non-scented candles, though.

I sent a description of the votive statues I want made to JK to forward on to his artist. Apparently the description confused her. I'm putting a copy behind the cut for my records & in case anyone else has an artist friend who might want to take a crack at it.

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14 Nisannu: Didn't do much at house altar because I was running a Full Moon ritual, which will go in an f-locked post (although I will say, all y'all need more Eshmun in your lives). Fished out the Sacred Geometry deck and removed it from its box; I'm going to try and work some with that one for a while (it's a non-Tarot cartomancy deck).

15 Nisannu: Refreshed water, lit ancestor candle, lit incense (amber) for Tiamat, Apsu, Mummur, Lahmu, Lahamu, Anshar, and Kishar. Managed to drop the incense stick all the way into the burner, but so far it's staying lit so I guess it's okay. Lit candles on outdoor altar (still set up from last night) for Shapshu, Eshmun, and the Beloved Dead and left two sticks of the donated incense as an offering.

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Am really liking the use of images for the deities, and am less hostile than previously to the idea of 2D/painted images as opposed to 3d/sculpted ones, although the latter are still preferable. Aniconism can go jump in a well (preferably a dry one).

Replaced ancestor candle with the remaining Dia de los Muertos candle for the moment. Lit with the Brigid candle from Imbolc, since a significant chunk of my ancestors would have at least revered her as a saint. Did brief grounding & centering. Lit incense (dragon's blood & patchouli) for Lahmu & Lahamu, asked them to open up channels of communication & felt like I got a decent nibble, at least.

6 Nisannu: Lit incense for ancestors of blood and culture, changed water, lit ancestor candle. Do not remember if I did any meditation.

7 Nisannu: Did brief grounding/centering at altar, did not light incense due to potential guests with sensitivities. Had left ancestor candle burning overnight, which was probably not wise; I need to get a 7-day jar candle if I'm going to do that, not a pillar candle. Have found a piece of fired brick for altar; am leaving it on the altar for a week to cleanse it.

8 Nisannu: Spent evening helping Cheshirebast and then watching silly internet videos; did not have an appropriate time to tend altar.

9 Nisannu: (Late) Changed water on altar, lit lunar incense for those in my blood and cultural lineage who walked this path or related ones, lit ancestor candle. Did brief grounding and centering. Still no word from the friend with the artist friend; I should text him.