It also struck me that Saturn’s motion is as if affected by the stasis of the Fixed Stars and the proximity to the immutability of the divine. Not saying this is the way traditional astrology conceptualizes it but that these ideas can inform magic.

I’ve been learning a lot from this book, but it would have been a lot better if he had not spent so much time attacking modern astrology. In one chapter, for instance, almost half is taken up with attacking modern astrology. If I wanted to read about that, I would have gotten a book on that topic. And he is very snarky and taken with his own wit when commenting about modern astrology, constantly bringing up California and the New Age and aren’t we oh so sophisticated, very much of a stripe with those in Traditional Withcraft(TM) who yammer on and on about Wiccan fluff bunnies and how traditional witchcraft is teh real witchcrap.  It gets tedious and is not helpful. When Frawley does actually talk about traditional astrology, he is wonderfully clear. Too bad he so frequently slips into self-indulgent rant here. After a while, I just skipped those bits.

Speaking of Saturn, I just dug up my mandrake roots to see which ones I could harvest and which needed to spend more time in the earth. I got four fresh ones to add to the two dried ones.  I’ll put that page up shortly.

I started out by using the side of a knife to crack the garlic peel and so make it easier to strip off, my usual way of peeling garlic, but after about 30 cloves, my fingertips were starting to burn. So I decided to actually try the tip on p. 313 of Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving for getting the peels off–dunk them in plenty of boiling water, bring the water back to a boil for 30 seconds, then douse in cold water. The skins slide off with ease. What a relief! I modified the recipe on that page a little, using wine vinegar instead of white vinegar (which is only good for cleaning, IMO), slivers of dehydrated Aleppo pepper I grew last year instead of whole dried red chilies, and fresh golden oregano harvested from my garden instead of dried oregano. I also used the French bailed canning jars by Le Parfait that I bought on ebay (where they can be found for a slightly more reasonable price than elsewhere, at least, so far). This was my first time canning with bailed jars, which the USDA considers evil. I found that these jars seal like a champ. In fact, it is difficult to open them. After pulling them out of the kettle, you let them cool with the bails on overnight. The next day, unbail and test the seals by lifting the jar by its lid. I had no seal failures in 12 jars. Leave the bails off and store. These jars are built like tanks. I look forward to using them for many years. I should wait a week or two before tasting the garlic so all the flavors have a chance to meld, but I couldn’t resist and am having some right now, along with dilly beans I made last week, kalamata olives, and carrot and celery sticks. Delicious!

I was looking for info on Hekate suppers and was interested to find in The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology the following: “She would send spooks up into the world at night, or would appear in her own right, especially at crossroads under the dim light of the moon, to roam the pathways at the head of a crew of ghosts. Her retinue, the host of Hekate, was made up of the shades of the restless dead who had died prematurely or violently, or who had received no proper burial. Since she would also be accompanied by loud-barking daimonic dogs, her passage bears a resemblence to the ‘Wild Hunt’ of Western European folklore” (p. 194, emphasis mine). I’ll say it bears a resemblence. Since Hekate is a very old deity, I wonder who the Good Lady of the Hunt really was. I’ve seen her identified with Diana, but perhaps Diana is here a simple euphemism for Hekate. They are both associated with the night and both are childless. It might have been considered perhaps foolish but harmless to follow Diana, but to follow Hekate would not be dismissed as mere silliness, since she has been identified with witchcraft and sorcery since ancient times. That’s a rationale for morphing Hekate into Diana. Also, the image of the restless shades of the dead in her retinue clicks for me with the guiding of the dead that Carlo Ginzburg describes in Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches’ Sabbath. He found that women generally journeyed to the Great Hunt and men guided groups of the dead. This sounds very much like they are interacting with the same deity and retinue, does it not?

When I planted this garlic, I was not intending to honor Hekate but only, outside of ending up with a lot of good organic garlic, honoring Saturn. This summer has turned out, though, to be one where I become more and more turned towards the Dark Spirit of Crossroads, whoever that might be.