#hagging out

[prairiefirewitch]

Mugwort Rose Elixir - Hagging Out

Packing up to head to my last ever Dead & Co. show but have a few minutes for a mini hag out.

My mugwort is having its most prolific season ever so I want to use it in everything, and the roses are old fashioned tea roses so they actually smell rosy. I’m infusing them in brandy, and later I’ll add honey, which is what makes this an elixir and not just a tincture.

Besides being a very effective dream herb, mugwort has some analgesic qualities, and is especially good for period cramps and to bring on menses. It’s not an herb for pregnant folks, because it’s also an abortifacient.

I paired it with roses just on intuition; rose is soft and sensual; sort of the Aphrodite of the plant world. Mugwort is hidden knowledge and liminal spaces, maybe akin to Hekate, though of course it’s an herb of Artemis. I just liked the juxtaposition.

Thank you again to @graveyarddirt for pulling these collective exercises together. 🖤

[pagan-stitches]

Hagging Out May — Dandelion Salve

Disclaimer: some of the pictures are from a couple years ago.

Well, after several infusion experiments didn’t turn out I turned to a trusty recipe that I’ve done before but hadn’t ever published for hagging out.

Luckily, though dandelions aren’t as plentiful as they are earlier in the spring, I found enough for the recipe.

I infused the dandelions in oil for about a week and a half and then followed the above recipe.

I love the feel of this salve on my chapped lips and dry skin and also use it for anointments in Kupala rituals.

Happy hagging out everyone, and thanks as always to @graveyarddirt for hosting!

[friend-crow]

Hagging Out, May 2023: Infusions pt. 2

My first idea was to make Four Thieves Vinegar, which I find historically fascinating, and I thought might be fun to experiment with in spell crafting.

This infusion of herbs in vinegar was thought to prevent plague when worn on the hands, ears and temples. While this is unlikely, there is some thought that the use of wormwood could have acted as a flea repellent, which might have offered some limited protection.* I am doubtful, yet intrigued.

Originally I had planned on making a traditional recipe for it. Then I looked at the ingredient list for one and went, "I'm not tracking all of that down."

Instead I made a more modern version, using rosemary, sage, thyme, and mint (I considered throwing some wormwood in, since I have it, but decided I might prefer the version without for salads).

Due to lack of organization and time management skills, I failed to take my own recently stated advice on drying herbs for infusions, and given the time crunch, just wilted some for a few days. With the exception of the thyme, which my mom grew (my plant didn't survive last winter), I grew all of the herbs.

The traditional recipe called for white wine vinegar, but I didn't want to go buy that, so continuing in the spirit of just using what's on hand, I used apple cider vinegar, which I buy by the gallon. I'm lowkey obsessed with vinegar, so this is not the only type I have been known to buy by the gallon.

*source: wikipedia on the subject, which includes a recipe

I also wanted to try making rose water, since I have a rose bush in bloom. There's a couple of different methods, but I went with a simple one, in which you simmer clean rose petals in water until they lose their color, then strain.

I thought it would look nice in bubble tea, with the multicolored tapioca pearls I have. While the rosewater did turn out a beautiful color, it's basically flavorless, which is unfortunate as I have two jars of it. The vinegar, on the other hand, is already delicious, despite needing to infuse for another week or so.

[thedosianexplorer]

HAGGING OUT: MAY

I spent the festivities enjoying decadence that was gone too quickly to photograph but some highlights:

Spiked ice tea (hibiscus/cherry/rosehip/berry tea and Queen Charlotte rum)

Chocolate croissants and cream puffs

Brioche French toast

Bread drizzled with hot honey and spices

Basically if it was a rare treat, an indulgence, or intoxicating in some way, we partook and delighted in the transition to a new season. It coincided with some truly lovely weather, some of the first we've had this extremely fickle year.

April is a hard month for us here between the inevitable (taxes) and difficult anniversaries, so we cut loose on the 30th and put it behind us for another year. Thanks to springcleaning I had time to create a new devotional piece:

This is for Freyja's shrine and is the box lid for containing objects offered or dedicated to Her. I painted it to look like an amber gem bordered with amber beads. Everyone at my altar gets a themed box and I'm working my way through all of them. Painted with Arteza acrylic paints (highly recommend, great pigmentation, blends well, and dilutes without being grainy).

[crazycatsiren]

Hagging Out: May [🍵]

"Infusions"

Not so much an infusion, more of a base: my newly collected rain plus storm water of this spring season.

Moon water can be added for charging, vinegar can be added for cleansing, rusted nails can be added to make war water for cursing, herbs, dirt, and rocks can be added for protection, other types of water can be added for various spell work, the possibilities are really endless.

[passifloramoonlight]

Cacao to warm your Heart prior to getting witchfaced 🍁✨🫖

[stormcrow513]

Hagging Out April/May Hexennacht/May Day/Beltane 2023

@graveyarddirt

So I actually managed to celebrate both Hexennacht AND May Day/Beltane this year! Go me!

So I spent the 29th 30th and 1st completely Witch faced high, lol

I got a shit load done, I did some cleaning, smacking out a lot of dead/shitty energy,

Combining that with a road opening and shit ton of blessing work,

I also thoroughly gave Offerings, April was such a fuck awful month I wanted to forcibly shove it out the door and lock the door behind it, I was so tired I was actually dreading Hexennacht this year cause I hadn't had time or energy to really plan anything or set things up well,

But somehow *cough* cannabis *cough* I became a fucking whirlwind and got everything done, and had a fucking blast,

I have to make do with a candle on my bedroom floor as a fire, but frankly it works just as well as when I was able to do outdoor rituals when we first moved here,

This was my second year with my Mighty Steed and Snakey Wand,

Though I've had that Steed since I was a little girl, you ever have something from before you started a magic path and one day go 'oh hey', that was me with that horse head cane,

See as a kiddling I fucking love collecting two things, rocks and sticks, I had a whole area in my basement 'playroom' (it was half done fucking dungeon, cause my father never finished shit, and it creeped me the holy hell out, but it was where I kept my sticks,) I had em all nicely sorted,

Anyway this gave me an appreciation for walking sticks and canes, my ma had her uncle's old cane I was always trying to play with, but dude was a big fucker, and cane was good deal bigger then me and ma knew I'd never grow into it like I'd been hoping, she found this horse head cane the head snapped and therefore adorable for her, she grabbed it up and brought it home to me, with plans to fix it up I was delighted I spent hours sitting in her closet rubbing my little hands over it,

Ma never was able to fix it up, but surprisingly through all the moves, and that time we asked my sister if she could store some of our stuff and she agreed and then went through it all and tossed and sold most of it,

Horse somehow made it, and I'd been keeping it in my closet,

Also funny enough I grew into it almost perfectly,

I realized a couple years ago while trying to come up with a Sabbat Steed that uh hello I had a perfect one sitting patiently waiting for me to get my shit together, lol,

So I before even fixing the head, started working it, cleaned it up nice, put the pieces near me while sleeping on Sabbat nights, bring it into circle, ect. Last year I finally put the dear together enchanted and Named horse, and off to the Sabbat we went, with my new snake wand tagging along,

And so we flew again this year!

May 1st is also my great aunt who raised my ma's birthday, I never got to meet her but I owe her my existence so I went to put a Coke can (her fav) out for her when I got a shock of a 'welo don't put the whole damn can down' so instead I shared a can with my great aunt for her birthday,

After that I did some work with The Spirit Of The Land, to bridge a better connection between us, that went extremely well

[rosecoloredtarot]

Hagging Out in May

Woo! Welcome to my first hagging out participation. Hagging out has been on my radar since I turned 30 in October. I had actually first heard of it only after I was eligible to participate. But I wasn’t really feeling the prompt, and then it wasn’t on the forefront of my mind so I completely forgot about it (thanks ADHD). Anyhoo, I get home on Friday, already planning on making an infused gin and what is the first post I see on tumblr? This month’s prompt of throwing shit in a jar for an infusion. Well that’s a few too many stars aligning to ignore. So please enjoy the pictures of my Strawberry Gin!

he ingredients, super simple. Just some fresh strawberries and a midtier gin. I almost did blueberries instead, but strawberries were a bit cheaper.

Cut those suckers up. I did quarters because reasons.

The berries came up higher than I intended but whatever. Just cover them up, seal it up and wait.

I’m probably going to let them sit for at least a week, but haven’t gotten that far yet. After just a day, the strawberries lost most of their color and are this lovely blush pink. I love the bleaching effect that happens. I’ll take a picture when I get home.

Was this made to be magical? Nope, I just wanted a tasty drink. BUT both strawberries and gin have magical correspondences that I can’t begin to remember right now. So maybe down the line this will have a purpose. Or maybe it’ll just be a cocktail.

Special thank you to @graveyarddirt for including me, this was a lot of fun :)

[grimnirs-child]

Hagging Out December: Twelfth Night for the Wild Hunt

For several years now I have honoured the Wild Hunt - the fierce spirits who hunt evildoers across the worlds. In my practice I consider Wōden as leader of the Hunt, and with Him at their head they ride throughout the dark half of the year, with their activity reaching a head during the liminal time between the Winter Solstice and Twelfth Night.

During this time I try to observe nightly devotionals and contemplation, culminating in ritual on Twelfth Night itself.

This year I offered loose-leaf berry and rosebud tea, its redness recalling the blood of the Hunt's prey. Offerings to the Hunt are both propitiatory, to encourage them to leave me and mine unharmed, and in thanks for the work they do to punish and destroy evil.

As part of my ritual, I recited rounds of my Wōden prayer beads, nine times nine heiti of the Old Man. This led me into trance and deep communion with Him and with the spirits of the Hunt. It also seemed an auspicious time both for some rune-casting divination for the year ahead, and for a spot of old-fashioned blasting with the aid of my blackthorn athame.

This calls to an end both the time of the Hunt's greatest activity, and the most important phase of my two-month Gēol season.

[With thanks to @graveyarddirt for running Hagging Out monthly.]

[abwatt]

https://andrewbwatt.com/hymns-and-odes/

The poems I wrote in honor of the seven planets, and the hymns I wrote (based on 17th, 18th, and 19th century ballad tunes) for the Eight Great Days of the neopagan festival cycle, are now accessible through a single page on my website.

I got to sing the song, "Goshen Lammas," today, for about fifty people, who joined me in singing the chorus. I was nervous, but I think it went well.

[prairiefirewitch]

I’m hagging out a day early because I’m headed out of town for a couple of days, but I was not about to miss this month’s hag party. I love making infusions and have managed to turn infused witch things into my full time job, so this is my strawberry jam. Strawberry vanilla hibiscus infused mead, specifically.

I try to make at least 2 batches of mead a year; one at Yule to be shared at Midsommar, and the other made at Midsommar to be shared at Yule. It’s a nice way for me to slow down and apply patience (I’ve got zero) to a project, and eventually reap the delicious benefits of waiting for the mead to mature. And it’s very sweet to taste the labors of summer in the middle of winter, and then to taste the warm spices of winter in summer. It’s alcohol-fueled time travel.

This mead is my favorite of all the batches I’ve made, so I made 3 gallons instead of the usual 1 gallon batches I make.

Mead is incredibly easy to make; once you toss everything together, it’s just a waiting game. Here’s the down and dirty but there are many good recipes online if you want something more complex. Sanitizing your equipment is the most important step and you can use San-star from a homebrew supplier, or make your own with a gallon of cool water and about an ounce of household bleach. Everything you use here needs to be sanitized.

You need all this stuff to make a gallon:

2.5 - 3 lbs honey

1/2 pack sweet or dry yeast mead (I used champagne yeast because I like it bone dry)

1 gallon spring or purified water

2 cups berries

Vanilla bean, split and scraped

10 raisins

1/2 cup dried hibiscus flowers

You’ll also want a gallon sized glass carboy, a big funnel, a large cooking pot, a small cooking pot, an airlock, a sieve, a rubber stopper that fits your carboy, and a big spoon to stir with.

Put your honey in your large pot and add about half a gallon of water. Warm it on low just until the honey dissolves. Watch the heat, honey scorches quickly. While it warms, put your clean chopped strawberries into the small pot with about 2 cups of water. Bring it to a low simmer and use a potato masher or an immersion blender to make a purée. Add your hibiscus flowers, heat for a few minutes to let them soften and turn off the heat. When it’s just barely warm, use your sieve to filter out the seeds and flowers.

Once your honey water cools to about 100 degrees, pour it into your clean carboy. Add the other half gallon of water, and your sieved strawberry purée. Top up with additional water if needed, leaving about 3 inches of head room. Add your vanilla beans and raisins. Raisins provide nutrients for the yeast. Sprinkle the yeast on top, but be sure your mixture is 90 degrees or cooler or your yeast will die.

Pop your rubber stopper into the carboy and insert the water filled airlock. Now you wait. Let it ferment for 2 weeks. Most of the activity will have stopped.

Now you need to filter the mead into a second carboy. If you don’t have one, use a sanitized pot or bucket while you wash your carboy for the secondary fermentation. You want to pour or siphon slowly and carefully, using a fine mesh strainer, so you leave most of the settled yeast and bits of strawberry out. Once it’s carefully filtered, add it back to the carboy, put the stopper and airlock back in. Now wait for a long time. This mead should be ready to drink in 6 months, but it’ll be a bit rough and unrefined. You can bottle it at this point, which is what I do, but lots of people just let it age in the carboy. I like heavy duty swing top glass bottles, but wine bottles work too.

If you’re patient, save a few bottles to age for a full year. This is when your mead becomes a nectar fit for gods, with all the roughness gone, and the delicate honey flavor gets complex. Keep your bottles in a cool dark place.

Thank you @msgraveyarddirt for hosting!

[pagan-stitches]

Anointing Morana/Smyrtka today with holy waters and oils in preparation for her drowning a week from today (I’ll be drowning her on the Sunday traditional in Moravia this year rather than the actual Spring Equinox; this year just a day earlier).

@msgraveyarddirt documentation has begun for #haggingout.

[henbane-and-honeysuckle]

A Yuletide Offering for Berchta and the Perchten

This is my way too late posting for #Hagging Out. I just completely spaced on posting what I actually did this year.

On the eve of Epiphany I made an offering table for Frau Berchta and her accompanying spirits, the Perchten. In my craft Frau Holle is honored in the December aspect of Yule as a part of Mothers' Night celebrations, while Berchta rules the January aspect of Yule. However, a visit from my family prevented me from celebrating Frau Holle on her actual day. So I included Frau Holle in my Perchten offering, though the primary emphasis was on Berchta and her accompanying spirits. (I did get to spend Mothers' Night trying to replicate my grandmother's special peanut butter fudge recipe with my mom which was really touching)

I set up a traditional offering table of nine gifts to Frau Berchta and her retinue, recognizing her role as a gift giver and mistress of rebirth. I even tried my hand at making Perchtmilch. It turned out pretty well except I think I brought the milk up to temp too fast.

The altar was dressed with a table cloth and embroidered napkins gifted to me by my mother along with gifts of fiber, fruit, field, and flight. The winter has been harsh here (by my standards at least) and the land has been experiencing quite the drought . We could both really use the renewal She brings.

[thedosianexplorer]

HAGGING OUT: MAY

@graveyarddirt

For the month of infusions, a big bowl of calm down juice!

This month has been a lot and my best laid plans for more time and materia consuming infusions are on the back burner for now. Instead I'm celebrating our bumper crop of spearmint (regrowing some from the grocery store) with a big jar of chamomile mint sweet tea.

[crazycatsiren]

Hagging Out: April [🧹]

"Choose Your Own Adventure"

April showers brought May flowers.

Since we overhauled our garden several years ago after buying our house in Germany, May Day became the start of planting season for us. Which more or less matches local customs as well.

This year, I finally have newly planted healthy daisies flourishing in my garden. My dream of a pollinators' garden is just about complete. It's now time to prune the roses in the other patch.

[passifloramoonlight]

New thorns on the Sacred Rose 💗 22 September 2024 Equinox