Possibly a description of weather conditions, right? The sky was a dazzling blue this morning as my thermometer read about 12 degrees. Frost and ice glistened on every surface. My stack of Yule-tide cheering cards lay on the table, awaiting a journey to the post office.

Water was running in my bathroom sinks, a steady little stream to make sure water moves in the pipes to keep them from freezing. For my house is still more or less heatless. The propane fireplace is without flame; awaiting repair in a season of screw ups and delay. A few small electric radiators are keeping the house about 60, the central rooms anyway. In the bedrooms, it is icy as old stone castle chambers.

And yet, it seems somehow appropriate. Everything this year, from last February onward, slowed down to an agonizing crawl to a distant finish line.
Spring was slow coming, and the garden didn’t sprout till June. Strange and uncanny truths came to light as summer proceeded. Difficult and painful alliances were made and broken. A heat wave sweltered the end of summer and made fall a relief, and still the pace of dragging zombie-dead-effect continued. Illness and bizarre allergy effects dragged me down and rendered me ineffective at everything.

Winter came hard and sudden with bitter early cold. Holidays loomed, people around me in life and online began getting that snappy tone of holiday-baggage-stress. Nothing worked. Everything seemed impossible. And finally, in the icy rooms and shivering; I had enough of it. To my hearth altar I went to light the “mother of all problem solvers” candle.

This was a pyramidal beeswax candle I made one day while feeling bored over other candles. I was making hand-dipped tapers at the same time. I trim the ends off the tapers….little conical ends that often end up as breasts on my hand-shaped “God & Goddess” tapers. I studded all four sides of the pyramid candle with these. I bronzed the dark black wax with metallic dust and sprayed it with a shine. The very look would have sent good little church ladies into shock.

So I used oils composed for magical effect…one for change of luck, one for financial ease, one for protection, one for purification. I stated my needs and when I wanted to see the change happen. I stressed the need for heat before the pipe froze and burst….before weekend’s end, I emphasized. I said I was ready to move forward, done sitting still. Done being polite and waiting for call backs all many aspects of my life. Ready to pick up the reins, lash the “horses” and gallop onto several fields of endeavor.

I have someone coming tomorrow. I will have heat. I will continue with holiday and magical plans. I am finished sitting. My mind, like the weather, is clear, cold….and making peanut brittle!

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