shrines – Author M. A. Phillips

Three Things Thursday: Keep Making Offerings, A New Excerpt, and ‘Slow Seeing”

Here’s another installment of Three Things Thursday – three mini posts nestled together in one for your viewing pleasure! Three is a magic number, right? Keep Making Offerings: The sun is shining, but if you go outside, the bitter cold will slap you in the face. Still, I felt compelled to put some offerings atContinue reading “Three Things Thursday: Keep Making Offerings, A New Excerpt, and ‘Slow Seeing””

First Bealtaine at Our New Home

For the last decade or so, my Bealtaine celebrations have been punctuated by an explosion of green. Every year, I dance the Maypole, all the while taking note of the leaves finally reaching out in praise of sun and rain. This year, I did not dance the Maypole until the weekend after, but I spentContinue reading “First Bealtaine at Our New Home”

Welcoming Spring with Yoga Retreats and Starting (Some) Seeds

March melted away like all the ice we had. Spring is officially here, but it doesn’t yet feel like it. In fact, a chill remains in the air, and we had more snow this afternoon. I find that these transitional times are always a bit messy around Upstate NY. It can also be draining asContinue reading “Welcoming Spring with Yoga Retreats and Starting (Some) Seeds”

Warrior Shrine

Many ADF Druids participated in the recent Shrine a Day Challenge facilitated by Rev. Jan Avende. While I did not create a shrine every day, I did participate. I intend to post a gallery of the altars and shrines I submitted, but for now, I want to share one I forgot to upload previously. I’mContinue reading “Warrior Shrine”

Samhain in Our New Home

I’ve been pretty quiet lately, and it’s largely because I’ve been so busy with projects. For one, I’m all about costumes. As a large part my family’s celebration involves dressing up, I put a lot of time and energy into costumes for my daughter and myself. I’ve also needed to finish editing and revising theContinue reading “Samhain in Our New Home”

My Autumn Harvest

Today is the Autumn Equinox. It was chilly when I went outside to perform my morning devotional. The leaves are changing. Apples are ready to harvest in Upstate NY. Be that as it may, our afternoons have felt particularly summery lately. It’s tempting to run off to the beach this weekend, but I think we’llContinue reading “My Autumn Harvest”

Forest Memories

We’re in the process of buying a home! We’ve been looking for a few months, and it seemed like we weren’t going to find anything for awhile. I had a vision of what I wanted, and many homes just didn’t have the right layout (or a dry basement). One property seemed to have what IContinue reading “Forest Memories”

In Which I Gush Over My Beloved Pagan Community

In my last post, I briefly mentioned that the ADF group I founded a few years ago grew into an official Grove. I’m so proud of my grovies. We have all worked so hard to get to this point. I definitely could not have done this by myself. Whenever I lead rituals, I make aContinue reading “In Which I Gush Over My Beloved Pagan Community”

Fun Find

With Samhain right around the corner, stores are full of decor that makes many of us excited. While I usually prefer supporting artisans or making my own tools, I saw this ceramic cauldron at Target and it was exactly what I wanted for my Ancestor shrine. I like to give offerings of beverages, usually tea,Continue reading “Fun Find”

2016 Garden Update

Another year, another lovely garden. Each year I learn more about and from the Nature Spirits. This year, my husband joined me in the adventure as he experiments with hydroponics. Once more, we are renters who largely rely on containers for our gardening. It has pros and cons, and I definitely look forward to havingContinue reading “2016 Garden Update”