The Whetting Stone

Just to get the juices stirring on our topic of keys, here is a favorite little tale of mine from the collection of the masters of folk and fairy, the Brother’s Grimm:

The Golden Key

In the winter time, when deep snow lay on the ground, a poor boy was forced to go out on a sledge to fetch wood.  When he had gathered it together, and packed it, he wished, as he was so frozen with cold, not to go home at once, but to light a fire and warm himself a little.  So he scraped away the snow, and as he was thus clearing the ground, he found a tiny, gold key.  Hereupon he thought that where the key was, the lock must be also, and dug in the ground and found an iron chest.  “If the key does but fit it!” thought he; “no doubt there are precious things in that little box.”  He searched, but no keyhole was there.  At last he discovered one, but so small that it was hardly visible.  He tried it, and the key fitted it exactly.  Then he turned it once round, and now we must wait until he has quite unlocked it and opened the lid, and then we shall learn what wonderful things were lying in that box.

Here’s to the key of possibilities, the key of imagination… Knowing to look for something to be unlocked, and knowing that it can be.

Yours,
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Beauty and the Feast

I love this time of year!  Tonight I attended a pumpkin carving party complete with hot apple cider and roasted pumpkin seeds.  A few days ago we had stuffed squash with sage dressing and cranberry sauce for dinner.  Yum!  It also happens to be the best time of year for harvesting black walnuts – for hair dye!

I have been on a mission for about a year now to find a suitable herbal hair dye, and I have made many messy attempts.  Tonight I think I may have just confused my hair because I used more herbs than ever before in my mixture.  I started by making a clove and rosehip tea for red highlights.  Then I steeped some black walnut hulls, rosemary, sage and nettle for a deep brown color.  The blending was very fun, and the dye was an inky black color.  I managed to get through it without staining everything in my bathroom, too!

I will say that my hair smelled vaguely of tobacco when I was done, but I love the color – surprisingly subtle, given the look of the liquid – and the whole process was really pretty simple.  My hair also feels thicker than it typically does, which is a nice plus.  I plan to do a few more doses with the rest of the batch over the next week or so to deepen the color, and then I’ll have to come up with some new experiments to try.  I’d love to hear suggestions if you have them!

Enough about hair, though…  For the next few posts, I’d like to spotlight one of my favorite collections: keys.  I love the aesthetic and the symbolism of keys, and I also like to integrate them into my magical practice.  We’ll take a look at some stories, folklore, and a few ideas for using keys in ritual and spell work.

Best wishes in this lovely season.

Love,
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Hunter’s Moon

Here are a couple of pictures from my Hunter’s Moon ritual.  I’ll be posting more about some of the items below in the near future!

Autumn Love

♥,
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