Michaelmas

T Moore age 14 The Dragon

In autumn Saint Michael with sword and with shield
passes over meadow and orchard and Field.
He's on the path to battle against darkness and strife.
He is the heavenly warrior, protector of life.

~ anonymous

My son's dragon sketch adorns our breakfast table with a passage from a harvest song which my son learned in Kindergarten so many cycles of the sun ago.. as we celebrate the Feast of St Michael, the harvest and the coming of the darker cycle of the year, we turn inward to find the strength in our own light
- not always an easy thing..

with this in mind we send strength and light to Sophia..

a tribute to beautiful Leticia may she shine in heaven

St Michael symbolizes courage, strength and strong will, bringing light to the dark. This month we lost another mom to cancer. Young and beautiful, she leaves children and a husband to find their way, may she guide them from heaven. May St. Michael be a beacon of courage to those she leaves behind. May we all heed our inner light.

More sketches at BlueChairDiary

Guardians

It looks a bit like an early Christmas but that is not the intention.. continuing with the fall cycle of festivals, days of longer darkness and shorter light, the children and I have been considering Angels and Guardians. What that means to various cultures and more importantly how we can best use these stories for ourselves. Michael, Gabriel, Metatron, Djwhal Khul an eclectic group living happily side by side, the feast of the Guardian Angel yesterday (Oct 2nd). Ancient wisdom. What wonders we find in the plethora of mythologies!

Guardian Angel by C Moore age 10

Angele Dei,
qui custos es mei
me, tibi commissium pietate superna
illumina, custodi
rege et guberna

Michael by T Moore age 13



sketch plan for guardian a multimedia

This one has a wee story. Six years ago when I was diagnosed with cancer and going through surgeries and decision making as to treatments, I felt a strong presence many times of someone watching over me - it gave me strength and I always new that one day this would all be a story and I would be fine. Much of this was due to the people who surrounded me, carried me, did amazing things for myself and my family, and to them I am forever in debt, however the synchronicity was uncanny. My father had dreams of his grandmother, my great grandma; he found them disconcertingly real. The message in his dreams from grandma was always that I would be well. At school a teacher and healer told me I had an old soul watching over me, basically hanging around. The skeptic in me shuddered, my heart felt peace.

Guardian

My father gave me a tiny photo of great grandma when she was a young woman and mother. I used this photo to create Guardian, as a card for a friend as she goes through the roller coaster of cancer treatment.

I have a question for you all - should I pencil line the image to bring her all together, or leave her as is?

Dragon Bread

Infinity Dragon by T Moore age 13

Dragon Bread

1 c water or milk
1 Tbsp honey
2 tsp yeast
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 c white flour
1 1/2 c spelt flour (or any whole grain)
beaten egg plus water

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Warm water to wrist temp and add honey
Add yeast and allow to flower (bubbles - about 5 mins)
Mix salt and flours
Add oil to yeast mixture and to flour mixture
On well floured surface knead - add flour as necessary
Form ball and rub with a little olive oil
Place in bowl and cover with tea towel
Leave in warm place to rise 30 min (to about double)
Shape as dragon
Decorate with beans, dry fruit, pumpkin seeds etc
Brush with a beaten egg for crust colour
Bake 20 minutes at 400 degrees


Of course any recipe works, but this recipe is single rise and really easy! The fun is is the building of the dragon! Our children love any excuse to make bread!

Warren Lee Cohen in Baking Bread with Children suggests that bread baking provides life lessons; work, alchemy, nurturing, waiting, kneading, watching, magic!

"Home is where the hearth is and few foods remind one of this more than fresh baked bread. Common wisdom says if you want to give guest a warm welcome, bake bread before they arrive."

"Let us sing with joy as we work
Let us work with joy as we sing"

traditional Hebrew

Baby Pig-Dragon by C Moore age 10


We will share some other easy festive bread recipes
in future as he seasons turn.

Now all we need to do is convince dad to build us a bread oven in the yard! Oh what a fun project that would be!

More on Michaelmas

left in our Wonder Book one knight by the Elvin folk
(more on that another day!)

"In autumn Saint Michael with sword and with shield,
passes over meadow and orchard and field.
He's on the path to battle against darkness and strife.
He is the heavenly warrior, protector of life."

we got this years ago from preschool - author unknown to us

Dragon's Head by T Moore age 13

Good vs Evil by T Moore age 13

We are still considering the upcoming celebration of Michael - Michaelmas (see previous post for more) drawing dragons and knights while considering on our own personal strength,
courage and goodness and will.

..and yes we will still be making dragon bread this week,
Michaelmas is September 29th so we have time..
watch for it and join us for a slice!

more Dragon Practice by me

and more..


We see in St. Michael the knight in shining armour that we can be,
the absolute of good over evil.


..and yes we will still be making dragon bread this week,
Michaelmas is September 29th so we have time..
watch for it and join us for a slice!

The 3 Requirements for Making a Wand by C Moore age 10


This is not a sword but my daughter's wand!
She was so excited about her story to post for the Practical Magic Blog Party yesterday (and it is a sweet story of the wand her grandfather made her) that she is posting her wand once again and asking if you might like to read (if you haven't already) the true story below or click here.


Many thanks to all who participate in Sunday Sketches and inspire us to continue to doodle away some hours together!

Where Has The Time Gone?

We are half way plus through the month and I cannot believe it. The morning routine has really helped to set our rhythm and all is going quite smoothly. This morning the children quite spontaneously sang “For the golden corn” as our blessing at breakfast – so I guess its time to change the morning verse as I had planned to mid month anyway. As we are half way to our focal festival Michaelmas or St. Michael’s Name Day we will also repeat one of my son’s favorite St. Michael verses at breakfast:

Morning Verse for second half of September

(spoken)

“In autumn Saint Michael with sword and with shield

passes over meadow and orchard and field.

He's on the path to battle 'gainst darkness and strife.

He is the heavenly warrior protector of life.”

Followed by (sung)

“For the golden corn and the apple on the tree

For the golden and the honey from the bee.

For fruits and nuts and berries we gather on our way

We thank our loving mother earth we thank her every day”

I will have to find the authors of these.

This weekend we coloured in the children’s St. Michael line drawings (1st of our September projects completed). They are fabulous! I have some lovely white frames from Pottery Barn that have a sleeve that allow you to change the picture so I put the children’s art in these and have leaned them against the wall on the corner theme or seasonal table. I have changed the table last night slightly, changed the flowers to new cut from the garden and replacing the fall fairy with a harvest cart and ox from the children’s wood toys. Plus the wonderful addition of the framed art (if I did not have these frames, which I have had for 8 years and never used until now! I would have simply masking taped them to the wall). We have replaced the “golden cloak” line with the Saint Michael verse as above. My son wrote this out for us 3 years ago so it is fun to use see his young handwriting as I keep it in our fall basket for the table. The children love seeing things they have made in past. I will instruct the children to look at their art and say the verse for a meditative experience. I will suggest once a week.

I will look for the brightly coloured dragon fruit in stores as it is usually available this time of year. It looks great on our theme table with its bright pink scales. Later in the month we will try eating it though in past it has been mostly left on our plates, even mine. It’s very bland!

Last week in the car on the way to school we began by testing each other on spelling words as these are coming home from school weekly now, and then we did a new meditation lead by me and focusing on greeting friends and teachers at school with words of kindness while connecting with their eyes. I am hoping to instill looking at people when speaking with them and the virtue of courtesy. We also picture the goodness from the world around us as a colour and breath it deeply into our cells and our being! On the way home we do one math times table as we need some work there, we keep it short and fun!