Giving the Goddess Form

I know Little Dog still has her story to be told but today is not a dog day... Today has been a Goddess crafting sort of a day.

It began with a pack of epoxy putty stuff. You get two sticks and you mix them together until both colours are firmly mixed. It is sticky and odd stuff which I thought would be a little more like clay. It is harder to join two pieces together neatly although you can sand it and file it and cut it once it is harder. It took a long time to mix and then when I had I found it hard to model myself a little Goddess statue.

I wanted a fairly neolithic looking Mother Earth Goddess so I guess I am not far off then. She is a little blobby statue with the suggestion of a figure and arms. She has a very crude mouth but no eyes. I feel that all Gods and Goddesses are aspects of broader unknowable energies. These could be called Mother earth or Father Sky or any number of names. Because of this the Goddess I venerate mostly highly is this fundamental one who can have all faces and none. I have not felt drawn to a particular aspect as yet.

In the end I was quite pleased with her and I set her on my hearthstone to set next to my large white vanilla scented candle. To be honest I really like her there and she will probably stay. So one of my shrines / altars is growing. I have three, or rather I will have three. One in my kitchen with my hearthstone, large candle and little terracota Goddess. A second in the lounge around my electric fire with sits in a more traditional fireplace with slate hearthstone. This one has a bowl which currently contains nuts, pine cones and clove stuffed oranges. The oranges will be removed soon. It also had some daffodils but they have gone now to. The third was the one I intended to create first.

On the landing I have a small table that is unusually tall. I have painted my silk scarf to sit on it. I shall leave it out on Imbolc Eve to be blessed by the Goddess Bride. Above this table I have hung a mask I made at a class using papier mache. It is a feminine sort of a mask in blue. I have also hung my llewelyns calendar alongside. I have some cards I intend to stick up around the shrine to. I want to buy a new deck and hope to get the druid plant oracle. They will sit on this table so each morning I can draw a card for guidance. I currently do this with my tarot but I do not feel this best suits my current deck.

The second Goddess figure I have been working on will be made from papier mache. In papier mache you cobble together a base which has the rough shape you desire and then add the strips of paper over the top. I have finished the frame consisting of wire, card, toilet roll tubes and masking tape but I couldn't find any liquid glue. She stands tall and elegant waiting her paper covering. She shall then be decorated with threads and paper tissue and glitter. But again she has no features on her face but she may well get some hair.

The third figure I worked on today is this one.

This is my Brideog. A Brideog is a traditional small Bride doll made for Imbolc to be looked after. i made her with some peacock blue green raffia I had. I then twisted some silver edged white ribbon I had around her torso. I had some fluffy white thread that I used to wrap round her ankles, waist and arms. Upon her waist I secured two of the white shells I had found that had holes near the top. I had also found a shell with a larger hole which she wears around her neck. These shells came from Holywell Bay.

It is traditional to put the Brideog in a bed. I found a white dish into which I placed some nice comfy and warm blue fleece. I wrapped a smaller piece of this with a scrap of blue green rough silk to make a pillow. Having laid her in her bed I covered her up with a nice piece of white satin and tucked it in. She is all ready to put out tomorrow night now. I haven't quite decided which shrine to place her at. The kitchen shrine with it's link to fire and warmth? The lounge shrine by the true fireplace of the house? Or the as yet unstarted shrine on the landing?

I have many other plans and ideas for my shrines but I suspect it may be some time, if ever, before I consider them finished!