Gardening Idea Of The Week

Landscaping the pond outside your home will increase the appeal of your home in several ways. But, this requires a lot of planning and you will need accessories to give your pond area a great look, feel and atmosphere. Your pond will contain living and nonliving things and will be the center of attraction when people meet at your home. Here, we talk of a few ways in which you can landscape your pond better.


How large an area do you have for your pond? How are you going to populate it? What are you going to accessorize it with—live rocks, aquatic ferns, pebbles, etc. could be great additions. How will you place your lighting? Do you want a static pond or a pond that has a motorized bubbling system or something similar added to it? There are a lot of designs you could pick up from the Internet itself. Any home improvement magazine could have some good ideas as well. Do not hesitate to visit a local home improvement store and talk to people there, especially if they stock pond landscaping products.


Plants will add an amazing amount of detail to your pond landscape design. They will provide natural food for some of the life-forms in the pond and they will add to the overall esthetic effect. Choose plants with care. If you have your pond in the shade, you could best choose different kinds of water lilies such as Virginia, Texas Dawn, Indiana or Comanche. Some other plants include Cardinal Flower, Corkscrew Rush, taros and certain varieties of mints.


Fencing is important to your pond landscaping for many reasons. It provides safety if there are small children near the pond, as well as privacy. Fences can also come in a wide variety of materials and structural types. A wood fence is great for keeping your pond area natural looking, while stone will add a more integrated look into your landscaping. An ornate metal fence will add elegance and style to the entire backyard.


Pond lighting adds a powerful impact to your pond design. Both perimeter lights and underwater lights can be used to provide a great place to swim at night. There are many decorative lights to choose from and even add color for more appeal.


Pond landscape design is only limited to your imagination. You can design your pond area to include waterfalls, spas, eating areas or recreational items such as slides and basketball nets. Design your pond the way that will fit in with your overall landscape design, as well as the needs of your family.

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Plant Of The Week

Hanging baskets extend a touch of the garden to the home, porch, or patio. Many garden flowers and foliage plants can be

Serenity Sunday

Pet Protection Spell

Always choose a good collar of natural leather, undyed is best. Save the pink or blue for your animals handkerchief or

Elemental Dignities

Today I'm going to try something a little different, I've been looking at how Elemental Dignities figure into tarot readings and the depth that they can add when the cards just don't seem to make sense. This isn't a "Tarot Tuesday" post per se, but my attempts at reading dignities instead of traditional meanings.

I am struggling a bit with learning to read this way as I see the card's meanings first and it tends to get in the way of seeing dignities so, I thought if I do a Friday post, the information can creep into my brain as well as help you out there to learn right along with me.

So, with no further ado...Elemental dignities

 I had a wonderful conversation with Catherine Chapman, author of Beyond the Celtic Cross, secret techniques for taking tarot to an exciting new level  and owner of the Tarot Elements website in which we briefly discussed her new book and what Elemental Dignities were about. She was very kind to send me a copy of this book and I am so looking forward to getting it in the mail because it will give so much information on card counting and Elemental Dignities and how when applied to my readings...I'm pretty revved and ready to gain a whole new perspective on just how I interpret tarot.

The first thing I'd like to get into is the Major Arcana and what the Elemental Dignities are for each card, that will give me a firm foundation to continue into the Minor Arcana's elemental meanings and thus introduce the rules for each element and how they interact with each other. This week I'm going to go through my Majors in the Alchemical Tarot Renewed deck, it has the elemental symbols on the Minor Arcana which makes it so much easier to tell at just a glance without too much mental work from myself...(yes, I tend to be a bit lazy at times.)

Fool - Uranus/Air
Magician - Mercury/Air
High Priestess - Moon/Water
Empress - Venus/Earth
Emperor - Aries/Fire
Hierophant - Taurus/Earth
Lovers - Gemini/Air
Chariot - Cancer/Water
Strength- Leo/Fire
Hermit - Virgo/Earth
Wheel of Fortune - Jupiter/Fire
Justice - Libra/Air
Hanged Man - Neptune/Water
Death - Scorpio/Water
Temperance - Sagittarius/Fire
Devil - Capricorn/Earth
Tower - Mars/Fire
Star - Aquarius/Air
Moon - Pisces/Water
Sun - Sun/Fire
Judgment - Pluto/Fire
World - Saturn/Earth

The rules for Elemental Dignities are:

Active - Masculine - Energizing -Active

Fire - Wands...  Hot and Dry
Air - Swords...   Hot and Wet


Passive - Feminine - Inert/Nurturing - Passive
Water - Cups...   Cold and Wet
Earth - Pentacles...   Cold and Dry


Fire and Air are friendly and active and strengthen each other
Water and Earth are friendly and passive and strengthen each other
Fire and Water are enemies; they weaken each other
Air and Earth are enemies; they weaken each other
Fire and Earth are neutral and do not effect each other elementally
Water and Air are neutral and do not effect each other elementally


That having been stated, here's a fun exercise to help with how these Elements interact with each other:


Shuffle your deck and pull two cards, setting them side by side...what are the permutations (or possible actions) of the two cards... How do they act with each other, are they friendly and active or are they enemies and weaken each other... or do they not affect each other at all? Next Friday I will go further and add a third card which will add a new dimension to seeing these Elemental Dignities and permutations at work.

Tarot Tuesday

Osho Zen Tarot- Going With The Flow

Going With the Flow is also called "The Ace of Water" ( the Ace of Cups in traditional tarot decks) and shows an indistinct figure that is floating in a large pool of water in which soft waves are rising and falling ... the water is blue and empty and the figure appears to be naked and shallowly submerged in the water itself.

The figure's posture is relaxed and reminds me of a loose version of the Hanged Man's posture ...one leg tucked lightly behind the other, the left hand tucked behind the head while the other floats outward comfortably from the body.

The companion book states, "When this card appears in a reading it is an indication that you are able to float now, trusting that life will support you in your relaxation and take you exactly where it wants you to go. Allow this feeling of trust and relaxation to grow more and more; everything is happening exactly as it should."

Sometimes, when our plans are thwarted or things do not go as we wish them to, it reminds us that we are not in control and sometimes it is easier to just let go of the imaginary reigns we hold on to so tightly and understand the universal mind has our best interests at heart and we can just sit back and let it happen.

Elemental Herbs

I moved into this house just about three years ago and started to revamp the yard as it was mostly red rock (super yuck) and weeds. So far the front area is now sporting a thriving rose garden and a majority of the weeds are gone but there's this one really ugly area that I've been wracking my brain to come up with a solution to. It is a raised area that nestles in the corner of where my house and porch meet.

The previous owner had thrown in two monstrous, ugly, stinky, juniper bushes and I've been wanting to remove them, I just haven't had a whole lot of time or energy to apply myself at fixing it. Just when I thought it might have to wait till next spring, I read the page about The Language of Flowers Ritual in the book Pagan Everyday and my little light bulb switched on.

How about if I combine a small water feature with this ritual, the result would be a gorgeous little area that would catch visitors eyes like a magnet! The ritual basically goes like this...I am going to pick an herb that, to me, would signify all five elements...Air, Fire, Water, Earth and Spirit. Air could be Sage and symbolize wisdom or clarity of thought....Fire can be Lemon Balm to symbolize healing...Earth can be Briony for money and protection...Water can be Catnip for love....Spirit can be Bay symbolizing psychic powers and purification.

I'm going to place them in the directions that they correspond to and in conjuntion with the pond I have in mind, with water lilies and koi, I think this is going to be one of those projects that I can't wait to get going on and show off when finished. I think I will like explaining what my little garden represents and how it reflects my spirituality. What better way to celebrate my inner goddess!

Elemental, Dear Watson

Wicca is a nature based religion and follows the tides of the moon and the path of the sun in my celebrations. I like to honor the world around me and one of the most important ways I integrate the natural world into my daily life and my expression of this is by honoring the elements. Generally, there are four elements that are recognized by all wiccans, these are Air, Fire, Water and Earth. Depending on the path (or tradition) a person is working like myself, I recognize a fifth element, Spirit. Each element has a different energy and fits into my daily life in its own special way. There are correspondences which focus on the energy of the element that I might be working with. I work a solitary eclectic path ( I do not belong to a traditional coven) and since I am in the northern part of the world, there may be differences in other paths and things in the southern hemisphere are generally opposite of the way I work with them.

AIR...the element of the east in most traditions and is where the sun rises . It is the place of new beginnings and morning is it's time. Air is associated with thought processes and mental working, intelligence and learning... birds, feathers, insects, clouds and the dawn are all associated with air.... its colors are generally yellows and pastels.

FIRE...as the sun moves South, it becomes noon time... the heat of the day. Fire is associated with movement and action, the fires of passion and anger and of our will. Lizards, salamanders, scorpions, deserts, spices, heat and the noonday sun are all associated with fire.... it's colors are reds and oranges.

WATER... is in the direction of the west and is the time of the setting sun, the coolness of twilight.... it is the rain, rivers and oceans and streams. It is the element of emotion and intuition... it's colors are blues and greens, turquoise and aqua.

EARTH... is in the North and is the dark, the time of rest. It is planting and nurturing seeds of all kinds, growth and abundance, but it also signifies the passing (or death) and returning to the earth. Most mammals and earth dwelling creatures are associated with the earth as are plants and trees, stones and seeds. Its colors are greens and browns and black.

SPIRIT... is an element that is difficult to explain and even harder to show. It is the hub of the wheel of the year and wheel of the elements... the top of the five pointed star. It's associations are different for everyone, and some will say purple, gold or white is it's color. I associate it with the manifestation of the goddess and god figure (the spirit evident in all natural creations).

I hope this explains a little of what I incorporate into my life in the form of rituals and spells or even charms. The more people know what goes into my spirituality, the less that there is to be fearful of. I firmly believe that tolerance is a commodity that sometimes falls by the wayside but hopefully, with a little education and understanding we will make great progress in this world.