Waxing....And Other Witchy Things

[Labrys]

Yesterday afternoon I leapt into processing the 40 or so pounds of beeswax for the year.  The guys took a maul to it and chopped it up.  Then I boiled the chunks in water, letting hidden honey deposits, dead bees and other debris drop down into the water.  It had to cool and solidify again, be busted up again, melted, strained thru clothe and fiber filters into pouring pitchers (and into two big old Corning ceramic coffee pots I use when I make dipped tapers), and finally into molds and ice trays.  Now I have two big bins full of clean, ready to use wax, as well as pitchers to melt and make tapers. 

Tomorrow, I will make more of my magical pain balm.  This is always a task both magical and mundane each year.  I already updated my little drawer of magical oils to use for candle workings and anointing.   

But I am thinking of trying something new.  I suck at meditation and visualization---must have been years of being punished for "wool-gathering" and "day dreaming."  While I cannot accept the occasional suggestion to use various natural substances to aid me (yes, I AM the last un-stoned woman of my generation), I do think I will make an old fashioned "flying ointment" tomorrow.

I do not intend to use any seriously dangerous ingredients like datura or henbane.  But wormwood, hellibore, mugwort, and some other things I selected have been mulled in oil and are soaking still. Tomorrow I will strain this infused oil and blend it with beeswax and some other ointment creams I use.  I want to see if it helps me relax into altered states a bit easier...and helps me STAY there with less distractability quotient coming into play.

Has anyone else used ointments as an aid in such manner, or heard stories of doing so?
Oh...and some of the new candles:

[Labrys]

Well, there it is, made and cooled.  Still, untried---though a friend who came to learn how to make salves says she gets a "buzz" holding the tin, she says it makes her hair rise on her neck and a energy thrill go up her arm.

Sometimes, I am glad I am "in"sensitive, maybe?

[Lark]

I love the candles!  I'm really fond of beeswax candles anyway, they smell so nice...like a hint of summer.

I've never tried using anything like a flying ointment.  Generally I don't have trouble meditating and when I do I simply shrug it off as being a case where the party on the other end was out for the evening.  I have on rare occasions used mugwort tea.  And I have made up some oils specifically designed to open the senses more.  A drop of this just under the nose is sometimes helpful.

-Lark-

[Labrys]

Well, we will see...come full moon I will try it.  I wouldn't wait, but I am so damned busy just now that finding a half hour or so to be undisturbed is not going to happen till I batten down several craft/life/baking hatches between now and full moon!

If I get no effect, I am considering melting it down again and steeping broom blossoms, and maybe a couple rhododendron flowers into it for a bit more punch.

[Labrys]

Well, the moon is waxing full today. So, this afternoon, in separate locations a friend and I decided to try the new ointment.  I consider it a success---I tried a new method of approaching meditation as well, and here are my impressions of the time spent in meditation and working on astral projection.

Now, my impressions.

(1) I deem the experiment a success, I stayed in a relaxed meditational state for almost 40 minutes which is incredible for me---the woman who can barely sit still 15 minutes.
(2) First I was dizzy feeling, then it felt like I was in a rocking boat.
(3) I focused on the idea of getting out of my body---something I have never voluntarily achieved before---only by accident.
(4) I thought of my meditational partner--2 miles away, extended my hand and mentally called her name, but got no impression of her.
 (5) I felt the heat of my body moving upward....and chill climbed behind it.  My feet and ankles grew cold, then my knees and thighs.  Then I felt a great ball of heat in my chest.  Then I felt no more temperature variation at all.  There was a flash of green shimmering before me.
(6) I had a sensation of movement without motion, (no sense, I know) and there were impressions on the way, among them:  a figure seated bathed in green-gold light; a shine of light on a curving helmet---and I shouted (mentally) Athena!; a figure beside me in deepest blue cloak and hood---and I knew Hekate was with me.
(6)  I thought of the Labyrinth which I still needed to walk.
(7) Suddenly, beside me, a little gray dwarf, asking, in an aggravatingly ingratiating tone of  voice, to sit on my sheepskin.  I had a sensation of rearing up indignantly...I told him "No, you may not....get away from me!"
[8] That was enough, that last, I suddenly felt I was 'done' and was simultaneously freezing cold and hungry.

I got up, ate bread and butter and made coffee.  I had no clear concept of having left my body and gone 'elsewhere' with certainty until the "dwarf" appeared.  That jolt of awareness shook me out of the state I had reached.  But still, it was a successful effort.  I will repeat it.  I also came out of it feeling relaxed, no tension as such efforts usually evoke.

[Labrys]

Continuing waxworks!  Eight hours today of a disciplined breaking of my own usual rules and practices of candle-making.  Mostly, my tapers are hand-dipped only; but today I used a mold that makes three little twisty tapers, only about 4 inches tall.  Second, I colored my beeswax for a change, and finally, I scented the wax in batches using Imps' Ears from the Black Phoenix Alchemy Labs.  I have about a hundred of these little beauties now, in a tidy tin by the altar/hearth.  Friday it is back to hand dipping normal golden tapers!

[Labrys]

More beeswaxy bliss today.  I am making egg shaped candles to decorate for Ostara gifts...but as I wait for those to set, I had to make my shaped tapers....shorter and more slender than normal and with wee high breasts: The Spring Maidens!

[Labrys]

And then, something weird happened.  The waxworks Ostara bunny apparently found an absinthe fountain!  Or maybe it is Gothic Ostara....my experimental egg candles went a bit crazy:


They actually look blacker than this image, the reflective surface drove my scanner nutso!

[Labrys]

This morning I experimented with my spell pyramid candles.  I drew designs on them with my wax pens...which require more practice, they are a bit difficult to use perfectly.  Then I over-dipped those when dry, for an embossed effect that I will work more to develop.  Also, the one in the center is the wax pen work not covered in wax.  Oh...and a dragon egg candle, and experiment that got away from me, lol!



I like the pyramids.  They are great for focusing on the four elements in many kinds of work. 

[Brijrian]

You do some really lovely creative work!

*Brijrian

[Labrys]

Thanks, I still feel like such a putz, to be honest.  But I am enjoying my little waxy explorations.

[Still Kate]

Labrys,
        The candles are amazing, are you considering selling some as I'd love to buy some from you. (Though, me being in England, the shipping might be a pain.)
Please let me know.

Blessings
Kate. xx

[Labrys]

Labrys,
        The candles are amazing, are you considering selling some as I'd love to buy some from you. (Though, me being in England, the shipping might be a pain.)
Please let me know.

Blessings
Kate. xx

Well, I would not mind selling them, but as you say shipping will be costly. Even here in the U.S. I rarely sell wax products by mail because beeswax is heavy and the shipping easily equals the cost of the wax in some cases.  What was it you had in mind?  If it is only a couple pair of tapers of such it might not be too steep for you.

[Ara]

Might as well open a store, darlin. I want some too.  They're freaking gorgeous. 

Xo
Ara

[Labrys]

Well, to be honest, I am considering at Etsy store.  Last time I tried this tho' it was such a "burn" that I am gunshy.

Maybe when I get Beltane and all the early yard/garden stuff hashed out I will investigate more.