Giveaway! Amethyst Pendulum from Green Owl Curiosities

This month at Love of the Goddess, we are having a giveaway for a beautiful Amethyst pendulum! Graciously donated by Cherie over at Green Owl Curiosities. Pendulums are a great tool for divination. Especially getting started in the New Year! I had the chance to speak with Cheri, here's what she had to say:


1. Tell us a little about your business.
Green Owl Curiosities is an online shop run from my home. I manage to make it to a couple of shows a year, but having a full time job on top of running my business makes it difficult to get days off sometimes. I try to keep my Etsy shop as updated as possible with new products and listings. It remains a challenge, being the only person doing everything from choosing supplies, making products, taking pictures, listing items and promoting the wares!

2. How long have you been making jewelry and other pagan crafts
I have been crafting since I was a very little girl! I started making pagan crafts and jewelry about 10 years ago, when I first got in to paganism. It's an ongoing process of learning new skills and making new things!


3. What is your favorite product that you make?
Choosing a favorite product would be like choosing one's favorite child, or most beautiful sunset! Because I can't (and won't!) pick favorites, I end up making a vast array of wonderful treasures! Consider yourselves lucky that I don't have a house big enough to keep everything, and must sell things to make room for more wonders.


4. Can you explain the item your giving away?
The give away item is a lovely amethyst crystal pendulum. Amethyst is a wonderful stone used for meditation and enhancing psychic skills. The pendulum is topped with a carved clear quartz bead. Clear quartz is wonderful for enhancing the energies of any other stones it is paired with, and helps provide one with "clear answers." These stones were paired with purpose to aid and further the user's divination skills.

Ok so the rules are as follows: To enter the giveaway, you must first go to Cheri's Shop, find an item that you like and come back here and comment on it. Please make sure and leave contact info in your post so that I can get in touch with you. The giveaway will last for one week, and at that time I will choose the winner using random.org. Good luck to everyone who enters! Thank you to Cherie for donating her beautiful pendulum! Have fun playing!

Blessings )O(

Yule, Winter Festival of the Sun

The Winter Solstice is a time to celebrate the rebirth of the sun. Since the Summer Solstice, the days have been getting shorter and the nights longer. Now at Yule, the shortest day of the year, the opposite is true, where the days are now growing longer, and the nights shorter. This is the time of year, when the Goddess is pregnant with new life. Full and ready to give birth to the sun once again. Ancient peoples would hold great bonfires to honor the returning Sun. They would make Yule logs and carve their wishes into them for the New Year. Then would then throw them into the fire. Women would decorate their homes with evergreens, holly and mistletoe.

The Goddesses we honor at Yule are Freya and Isis. Freya is the Norse Goddess of beauty and love. In the Nordic tradition, Yule was referred to "Mother Night", for this is when Freya gave birth to her son Baldur, the Sun God. Many women would invoke Freya for her blessing while they were in labor. It is said that they would also burn a white candle to insure a safe delivery.

We also honor Isis for she too gave birth to her son Horus at the Winter Solstice, and his symbol was a sun disk. Isis is the Egyptian Mother Goddess of the universe. She is all loving and all knowing. The Ancient Egyptians would celebrate her on the Winter Solstice with a great feast.

There are a few magical things you can do at Yule. Get a fire going in a fire pit or another safe place to hold a fire. If you have made a Yule log, carve some of your wishes in it for the new year, visualize, then throw it into the fire. Visualizing your desires coming true as the log burns. If you dont have a Yule log, you can use some bay leaves, write on them your wishes and throw them into the fire.

On our altar for Yule, have a Yule log with three candles in it, colors of red, black and white to represent the goddess. Some evergreen, mistletoe and/or pine cones. A representation of the sun. A statue of the Goddesses Freya, Isis or any other goddess associated with Yule. Crystal colors of green or red.

I hope everyone has a wonderful and magical Yule!


Blessings )O(




Photo courtesy of Wendy Andrews Art

Freya, Norse Goddess of Beauty and Love.

Freya, daughter to Njordr and wife to Od, is the Norse Goddess of love, fertility and beauty. She was a very sacred Goddess to the Norse, right alongside Odin. She is depicted with long golden hair, blue eyes and wearing her famous necklace, the Brisingamen which was made with amber and rubies. She is the leader of the Valkyrie, which are the "choosers of the slain". These warrior women rode over battlefields on winged horses, taking the souls of noble warriors killed in battle. Freya is also said to have a magical falcon cloak, that allows the wearer to become a bird.

In the myth of her wedding to Od, it is said that not long after they are wed, Od disappeared, and all feared that he had died. Freya distraught over her loss, cried tears of gold but refused to accept that he was dead. She put on her magical cloak made of falcon feathers, rose into the sky, and searched all over for him. She did eventually find him, and saw that he had not died, but was banished and lost at sea. Although Freya was too late, as Od had already been turned into a hideous sea monster.

Freya was said to ride a chariot lead by cats. The cat was the most sacred animal to Freya. There is a myth involving Freya and Thor, with magical blue kittens and their cat mother. The mother cat was singing a lullaby that was putting Thor to sleep. Thor did not like this so he brought them to Freya. The mother cat got angry, turned into bird and flew away, so Freya decided to keep the blue kittens, and give them the honor to accompany her on her trips around the sky.

Freya helps us to get in touch with our emotions. She is said to be able to see the future and was a Goddess of magic and divination. She helps us to accomplish our goals, or do something we've been longing to do for sometime. She is also a warrior Goddess and can give us strength and courage. Call on Freya when you need to get in touch with your emotions, or if you have trouble doing nice things for yourself. Freya reminds us to love ourselves as well as others. Sometimes we are too busy taking care of and loving others, that we forget to love and take care of ourselves. She is there to remind us to never forget ourselves.

On your altar to Freya, have representations of cats, rose or sandalwood incense, stones of amber, jade or moonstone and candle colors of red, silver or black or a combination of all three.

Enjoy working with this beautiful Norse Goddess of love and fertility!

Blessings )O(



Picture courtesy of Mahalo.com

Yule Log Crafts and Magic

The Yule log was used by the Celts in their Yule celebrations and rituals. It was usually made from an Oak tree, and decorated with evergreens, mistletoe and holly. Burning the Yule log comes to us from the tradition of the Yule bonfire which symbolized the power of the sun, which was thought to be reborn at the Winter Solstice.

There are many different crafts and magical rituals you can do with a Yule log. For your Yule ritual, take a log of oak or pine (really anything you can get easily) Cut out three holes on the top, you can cover it with some varnish or sealant so it wont dry out. Now put three chime candles in, colors of red, black and white to represent the Goddess. Now you can use this for your Yule ritual! You can also take your Yule log on the night of Yule, carve some symbols in it representing your hopes for the coming year, decorate it with some red ribbon and holly, and then burn it to release its powers.

Making and using a Yule log can become a great family tradition! Kids love making holiday crafts and it's a good way to introduce them to your Pagan faith. A great little craft to do with kids, is to make mini Yule log ornaments. You can give these away as gifts for Yule, or just simply hang them on your own tree.

Mini Yule Log Ornaments

*A stick about 3 in long
*Red yarn or ribbon
*Small feathers
*Small pieces of evergreen like pine, holly, fir
*Seed beads in your choice of colors
*Hot glue gun

Decorate each small log with the feathers, evergreens and seed beads. Tie a piece of red yarn or ribbon around the center and knot it in a bow. To hang as a tree ornament, add a small ornament hook or a bent paperclip.

These are very easy to make and fun too! Enjoy making your Yule log family traditions!

Yule log ornaments is from About.com

Blessings )O(



Photo courtesy of GardenSpirit.net

Winner of Yule candle by Montserrat

Thank you to everyone who participated in this giveaway! and the winner is....Tinnekke! Congratulations! Thanks again to Montserrat for donating her Yule candle. I hope everyone had fun playing. Enjoy your candle Tinnekke! Stay tuned for more giveaways in January.

Blessings )O(