The Feri/Faery split.

I hate to see it come to this, as Feri was one of the Traditions I had an interest in, and a lot of respect for. But it did have to happen.

You cannot water down Mystery and sell it to the highest bidder, as though it was your own possession. When you inherit Tradition, it is not your belonging. You have to keep to the y'know, TRADITION part of Tradition, or else it becomes something different. And when it changes, it's name should change too.

"Thanks", just ain't enough.

Libations to you, Enodia. Key-holder, way-keeper, many-formed.
Water, and wine, bread and blood to you.
For you have blessed me as no others have.
Incense, and perfumes, sweet resins and fruit for you.
For you have blessed me as no others have.

Libations and thanks to you, Enodia.
Pale and darksome.
Shining and black.
Illuminatrix, initiatrix.
Poisoner and thief.
The Hosts of the Sabbat bow and scrape to you.
You alone.
Libations and thanks to you, Enodia.

Tip/Trick - Candle Recycling.

I'm no master chandler by any means. I've played with making candles before, and had some really good success, but I have yet to advance to hand-dipping or casting them regularly. However, I do cast a few candles about once a year.

All year long I save the scraps from my altar and votive candles ("votive" in the sense of "votive offering") in a bowl. This includes the tea-lite tins and wick stands. Whenever the bowl gets full, I melt these down and re-cast them into new candles.

A few days ago I turned a few stubs, and a lot of left-overs into seventeen new tea lites. I used stuff just about anyone can obtain. If you'd like to give it a try, here's how I do it:

1: I dice the wax chunks up into 1/2" or smaller pieces, making sure to remove any unburnt wicks, and the "wick stands" from votives and tea lites. I clean any excess wax rings or residue out of my containers. NOTE: If I want to color the new candles, I separate my waxes into colors, but usually I add 1/4-1 whole "dark" crayon and make the whole lot dark brown or black. If I want to "Extend" the batch into a larger number, I incorporate blends of palm, beeswax, and soy wax. Crushed activated carbon (a small amount at that) also provides a DEEP black color to candles. Whenever I am making all-natural ritual candles, this is the colorant I use.

2: I re-open the hole in the wick stands using a corkscrew on an old swiss army knife. An Ice-pick also works well. I thread about 1.5" of good wick through the wick stand (for tea lites), or 4-ish inches (for votive cups), crimp it with a pair of pliars, and snip off the excess. These are "wax set" into the containers. For votive cups I also wrap a loop around a pencil across the cup, and secure with a clothespin. This keeps the wick centered.

3: I add a couple of tablespoons of wax chunks to the reservoir of an "oil burner" with a removable glass dish. Like this one. And let it melt completely. I use a pair of pliers to handle the glass dish, the rim on mine means a pair of "Parrot's Beak" wire cutters hold it perfectly. However, a pair of regular pliers do the trick just as well. I fill the container to within about 1/8th inch of the rim, and move on to the next.

4: When I've got all of the containers "filled", I melt more wax and return to the first, topping off the top where it has shrunk down . All of the candles get topped off like this.

5: I let the wax cool overnight, clean up any spills, and snip the wicks down to 1/4".

The tea lites burn a little shorter than normal, owed to thicker wick than factories give 'em, however the votive cups will burn about a day, sometimes longer, continuously. Almost nothing goes to waste. I take a lot of time and effort to consecrate my candles, and it seems somewhat disrespectful (and wasteful) to discard unused portions as "trash".

In this way, I can recycle an altar candle several times, bit by bit, until it's just -gone-.