Subscription Box Review: Enchanted Crystal Subscription Box

Review: Enchanted Crystal Subscription Box

Four Stars

http://enchantedcrystal.com/subscribe/

Photo by Amy Blackthorn

     This box is delightful.  Simple. Real.  There's a note from Adam the curator for this box.  He talks of buying trips to find the stones required for the boxes as well as encouraging subscribers to let him know what kinds of stones folks are interested in so he can look for them on buying trips.  "Your feedback is valued! DM me on Instagram @enchantedcrystal ."

Photo by Amy Blackthorn

      Quartz, Amethyst, Chlorite Quartz, Green calcite, Pyrite, Aegerine, Sodalite Zeolite, Selenite, Hematite Lemurian Quartz.  Thirty stones in all at $28 plus shipping.   

Photo by Amy Blackthorn

     I arranged them how I would, but with no set directions you can do it how you feel drawn to. 

Photo by Amy Blackthorn

      I tried to get a better photo of the Aegerine but it is so dark it's like looking into deep space.  I'll get out my lighting rig and get some brighter photos of it soon.  According to Crystal Vaults, "A Stone of Integrity and Self, Aegirine is a most noble crystal, aligning with one's truest convictions in life and providing the courage and confidence to follow those convictions. It encourages acceptance of self and others, and to follow the heart."

Photo by Amy Blackthorn

     Look at that Hematite Lemurian Quartz. So nice.  I really love the grid I set up, and the crystals that Adam chose.  The only thing that kept me from making this a full five stars was the fact that most of the stones were so small.  The amethyst points were 1/3 the size of my pinkie fingernail.  I know they have value as stones, and in my grid.  I'd rather have 20 slightly larger stones than 30 teeny points.  

     I'm happy enough with this subscription box that I'll order a large box for next month and see what comes.  

Review: Enchanted Crystal Subscription Box

Review: Enchanted Crystal Subscription Box

Four Stars

http://enchantedcrystal.com/subscribe/

Photo by Amy Blackthorn

     This box is delightful.  Simple. Real.  There's a note from Adam the curator for this box.  He talks of buying trips to find the stones required for the boxes as well as encouraging subscribers to let him know what kinds of stones folks are interested in so he can look for them on buying trips.  "Your feedback is valued! DM me on Instagram @enchantedcrystal ."

Photo by Amy Blackthorn

      Quartz, Amethyst, Chlorite Quartz, Green calcite, Pyrite, Aegerine, Sodalite Zeolite, Selenite, Hematite Lemurian Quartz.  Thirty stones in all at $28 plus shipping.   

Photo by Amy Blackthorn

     I arranged them how I would, but with no set directions you can do it how you feel drawn to. 

Photo by Amy Blackthorn

      I tried to get a better photo of the Aegerine but it is so dark it's like looking into deep space.  I'll get out my lighting rig and get some brighter photos of it soon.  According to Crystal Vaults, "A Stone of Integrity and Self, Aegirine is a most noble crystal, aligning with one's truest convictions in life and providing the courage and confidence to follow those convictions. It encourages acceptance of self and others, and to follow the heart."

Photo by Amy Blackthorn

     Look at that Hematite Lemurian Quartz. So nice.  I really love the grid I set up, and the crystals that Adam chose.  The only thing that kept me from making this a full five stars was the fact that most of the stones were so small.  The amethyst points were 1/3 the size of my pinkie fingernail.  I know they have value as stones, and in my grid.  I'd rather have 20 slightly larger stones than 30 teeny points.  

     I'm happy enough with this subscription box that I'll order a large box for next month and see what comes.  

Three NEW Teas!

 Three NEW Teas!

     Just in time for my blog post to go LIVE on Samhain Sirens today I'd like to introduce you to some NEW members of the Blackthorn Hoodoo Blends Family!

Adam and Eve's Affair

This torrid affair in black tea blend is perfect for all matters of love, faithful partnership and attraction. 

http://blackthornhoodooblends.com/products/adam-and-eve-tea

Ingredients:
4 tsp Adam and Eve tea
6 ounces gin
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1/4 cup sugar
5 dashes orange bitters
Orange and/or lemon twists, for garnish

Directions:
Place a saucepan over medium heat, add 3 cups water and sugar. Reduce the heat and simmer until the mixture is reduced to 2 cups, about 10 minutes. Strain the syrup into a glass measuring cup; if you have less than 2 cups syrup, add hot water. Add the tea and steep, about 3 minutes. Gently strain the tea and cool the syrup to room temperature. Combine the syrup, gin, vermouth and bitters in a large cocktail shaker with ice. Shake vigorously, about 20 seconds, then pour into a pitcher filled with ice. Garnish with orange and/or lemon twists.

‘Juju’, Creepy Crawlies and Bad Omens

‘Juju’, Creepy Crawlies and Bad Omens:

 the Realities of Feelings

Black Salt, Good for Banishing Spirits & Protecting a Home

 
     A friend and former coworker tagged me in a comment on Facebook sometime during the night. I rolled over and checked my email as I wake up, the way I do every morning. (Hey, some people drink coffee, I read my email to get my brain in gear.) He had encountered an animal on his way home from work late and it left him with a feeling of foreboding. The discussion progressed to supernatural reasons for seeing such a thing. Without something to add, I moved about my morning.

     Once I’m at my office and settled in, I pulled up Facebook. Right now, my job involves a lot of hurry up and wait. So they allow me to occupy my brain, as long as I make sure the customers are taken care of. So, back to Facebook, I’m looking through my feed when I see an update from the same friend.

     “So update to last night's story- I had a flat tire this morning and I'm just waiting for something bad to happen. Creepy, eh?”

     I told this friend I’d be writing a blog post about our interaction because this is something I’ve seen more than once and it’s something I wanted to discuss.

     Amy Blackthorn: Fuck that waiting around shit. Don't allow it into your space. Do something. Dump a McDonald’s packet of salt into a cup of water and anoint yourself. Say a prayer. Say, "Fuck off!" Light a birthday candle. Cast a circle. Cast a Square. Don't just sit and wait for bad shit to happen. Well protected is good. Just remember what they say in martial arts, "No matter how good you are, somewhere there's someone better." We have those senses for a reason. Any time I've had that sense and didn't do something about it,

BAD SHIT happened.

(Hello Tractor trailer, 27 broken bones, 72 pins and years in a wheelchair).

     I’m trying to figure out where we are in our personal evolutions. Go to a gathering of Pagans or Witchy folk and you’ll likely hear a mention at some point about feelings, ‘juju’, or the like. Most people are quick to jump in with their experience, but that’s usually where it ends. People want to talk and share their experiences and occasionally they’ll ask for opinions, personal revelations or simply validation of their feelings on the subject.

     I’ve noticed this outside of our little world in one place in particular, “Reality” ghost hunting television shows. People hear something go bump in the night, and the next thing you know, you’ve got a bunch of yahoos in fatigues running around your house with night vision cameras strapped to their heads. Viewers see people attempting to antagonize the dead, using dramatic pauses and fervent “Did you hear that?” questioning. One of the issues I have with shows of this ilk is If they find something they feel is compelling evidence, they show the owner of the property, and then pack up and go home. “Yup, it’s haunted. Bye!” Wait. What just happened?

     Why do we stop there? Why acknowledge the fact that you feel something bad is going to happen, only to sit around and wait for the other shoe to drop? Magic is supposed to be a last resort, after all of the ‘real world’ things have been ruled out. That doesn’t mean we have to sit idly by and wonder at our fate. If it really is fate, that the other shoe drops, it will. However, if taking a step out of the way saves your bacon, I’d take that step. Wouldn’t you?

     If we accept that we have developed these feelings for a purpose, then it stands to reason that we were meant to DO something with them. So do it. Rearrange the furniture so that energy doesn’t have a place to lie. Smudge the house. Open the windows and let the fresh air in. Get rid of your clutter. Just do Something.

Boldness & Magic

Step Up!

     “Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. I learned a deep respect for one of Goethe's couplets:




Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.

Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!”

-William Hutchinson Murray (1913-1996), from his 1951 book entitled The Scottish Himalayan.

http://german.about.com/library/blgermyth12.htm



     I learned this as one of the belt creeds in my Martial arts training. (Even with the wrong attribution.) But the point for me wasn't the person who said it. It was this "stop living for everyone and everything else" mentality. Stop waiting to live your life. Grab life by the balls and do something with it.  

     When in my teens a dear friend once said to me,"If you're bored, you are boring."  I have lived my life since that moment, to never be bored again.

The Halloween Witch

Halloween Witch
Author Unknown

Each year they parade her about, the traditional Halloween Witch.

Misshapen green face, stringy scraps of hair, a toothless mouth beneath her deformed nose. Gnarled knobby fingers twisted into a claw protracting from a bent and twisted torso that lurches about on wobbly legs. Most think this abject image to be the creation of a prejudiced mind or merely a Halloween caricature. I disagree, I believe this to be how Witches were really seen.

Consider that most Witches were women, were abducted in the night, and smuggled into dungeons or prisons under the secrecy of darkness to be presented by light of day as a confessed Witch. Few if any saw a frightened normal looking woman being dragged into a secret room filled with instruments of torture, to be questioned until she confessed to anything suggested to her and to give names or what ever would stop the questions.

Crowds saw the aberration denounced to the world as a self-proclaimed Witch. As the Witch was paraded through town en route to be burned, hanged, drowned, stoned or disposed of in various other forms of Christian love all created to free and save her soul from her depraved body, the jeering crowds viewed the results of hours of torture. The face bruised and broken by countless blows bore a hue of sickly green. The once warm and loving smile gone replaced by a grimace of broken teeth and torn gums that leers beneath a battered disfigured nose. The disheveled hair conceals bleeding gaps of torn scalp from whence cruel hands had torn away the lovely tresses. Broken twisted hands clutched the wagon for support, fractured fingers with nails torn away locked like groping claws to steady her broken body. All semblance of humanity gone this was truly a demon, a bride of Satan, a Witch.
I revere this Halloween Crone and hold her sacred above all. I honor her courage and listen to her warnings of the dark side of man. Each year I shed tears of respect when the mundane exhibit their symbol of Christian love."