How I got here

Last week I went out searching for special items in the desert with the Rain walker and Krystal. We found amazing gifts from nature, sun bleached bones, a basket full of Datura, snake skins, and quartz. I had planned on doing another blog on our find, but have been struggling with this last bunch of bones. I posted on Facebook something along the line of "bones don't want to get clean"  which opened up the conversation to many giving me advice on how to clean bones. I find it funny in a way, because I've been working with, finding and cleaning bones for quite some time now. So I decided to write a blog on how I first started finding bones, and harvesting things from nature. 

First we have to go back years, and years. I was a strange child but was fortunate to spend my early years in Florida. I was home schooled (my mothers choice) and finished my work at about noon. I would head out the back door as soon as I slammed my books shut. I would put my wellingtons on and out I went into the swampy woods. I would spend hours in the swampy waters behind my house, singing with the birds, standing in between the vastness of the cypress trees. It was then that my connection to nature, and my obsession for collecting took off. I had a cottage that my father had built be behind our home, I had flowers, and plants hanging up to dry, I had jars of crudely made essences, tinctures etc. Quartz, and other stones adorned the shelves. At the time I had no idea what I was doing. I look back and realize I was using my instincts...... I was a natural Witch. I enjoyed this way of life for several years, catching snakes, starting to grow my own vegetables and raising small animals all before puberty.

Life takes its turns and we ended up moving, I grew and was interested in boys, sports, and other modern things. I graduated high school and got my bachelors degree in a little hippy town that introduced me to a freer life style, great friends and Henna! I got married, had a baby and moved to Japan all before I was 23. I had no idea that Japan would make such an impact on my life. 

It is interesting on how things circle back around. I was a full time mother, and dancer and had a wonderful life. I started to get back out into nature, gardening, learning the local plants, and wandering the beaches forreging for bones, seeds, shells and the like. It was at the shrine of the Sea Goddess that she brought me my first dead bird, and I started on the path of Animal Necromancy, and the Natural Witch once again. I started learning the Craft with a local group, and was so fascinated by it, I started rigorous study and found myself again.

When we moved back to the states, my connection with the Goddess was strong, and she brought me to a coven that taught me the ways of ritual magick. It was then that the Goddess started bring me dead birds. I was finding one a month at that point, it then turned into other animals, and reptiles. This is when I started to learn how to clean and preserve bones, wings, and feet. These ritual items I have made from the death that the Goddess brought me has become such an important part of my path. It has branched out into Ancestor worship, Necromancy, and Animism.