Magick Milk

I wanted to share this poem with you, I don't think it needs anything by way of an explanation or introduction, but suffice to say that it is about motherhood and in particular, breastfeeding...

Magickal Milk

At first the tearful hungry infant

Suckling at the engorged breast

Leaves me tearful, fearful, tired

Will this tiny succubus ever be fed? 

But days and weeks to months they blur

And babies grow and live and learn

My goddess given gift of a child

Is sustained by this magick milk of mine

The bond grows stronger and we wonder

At the child before us now

He is walking, jumping talking

With messy curls upon his head

Year one done we journey on

Learning, growing, all the time

And still this sacred special liquid

Keeps him healthy all the while

Year two passes all too fast,

Babies are not made to last

Here he is, my little lad

With a smile so like his Dad's

And so year three arrives with fanfare

Cake and candles, gifts and friends

But in my heart there is a burning

This is where my baby ends

No more magick milk for Ozzy

He is not a baby now

I must not be seen to feed him

He must drink milk from a cow

I just wish that they would tell you

When you start upon this path

To treasure each and every feeding,

For they vanish all too fast

So though my breasts are full and heavy

The time has come for us to stop

tears of sadness fill my eyes now

I have to let my baby grow up

(C) Arietta, aka Mama Witch
13/11/13

Magickal Story Telling

As a lover of books and stories I have been reading to my children from before they were even born. They have been read to on car journeys, at bed time and in the bath, even whilst they were on the loo!

As a Pagan Parent I was mindful that their most beloved stories should not contain too many disparaging remarks against Witches and I have searched long and hard to find books with positive role models for both my son and my daughter.

A favourite book for both of my children is "Big Mama Makes The World" 

Written by Phyllis Root and beautifully illustrated by the awesome talent of Helen Oxenbury, Big Mama is a spin on the traditional creation myth, taking a little pinch out of several well known versions and blending them perfectly into one which has humour, heart and hugs

I would recommend anyone with children, grandchildren, nieces or nephews to grab a copy of this book and share it with any child who will sit still long enough to listen ... And I promise that by the time Big Mama is finishing it all of with "one big BANG!" they will be joyfully joining in with the repeated lines of ....

"Good. That's very, very good." 

Big Mama Makes The World is available from all good bookstores and can be found on line too:

Big Mama Makes The World - Buy it from Amazon.co.uk

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Such a love for literature and my own curiosity about how my children tick has led me to get them to make up stories of their own... 

I let them tell their stories and I record them so that we can read them again later. 

My favourite so far has to be the story from my son Oz who is 2 years old... 

"Once in a time, there was a little boy called Ozcar and he lived in a tree outside a big house which he shared with lots of birds, they flapped and soared in the sky but Ozcar's wings did not work because be was just a boy and his wings were only pretend. Once in a time there was a little girl called mama sitting next to me. We all lived in a tree and there was a see-saw"

It is not much perhaps but think the visual is really strong and I love that he has picked up storytelling traits like "once upon a time". 

My daughter is older and having just started Secondary Education she is experimenting with dialogue and hopes to be like me and write a book of her own in the future; she has already helped tremendously by contributing towards the storyline and characters for my forthcoming children's book "Little Lizzy Witch" ( for more about Little Lizzy and my other writing projects the check out my facebook page www.facebook.com/Arietta.smallsongs )

Her latest story is called The Magic Flower...

"One day a boy called Harry went to the park with his friends, Lilly, Tom and George. When they got there, they played on the slide and the swings. Later they all had a big game of football.

It was all going good until Tom kicked the ball over the fence...

 "Don't worry, I'll get it." said Lilly.

When Lilly was walking towards the ball she tripped over a tree and .... 

...CRASH!!!!

"that hurt....uh ? what's that ?"

Lilly had landed in front of a flower. Suddenly sparks shot out off the flower.

"Oh it's a magic flower!  Cool."

"come on Lilly!" shouted Harry. 

Lilly picked up the flower, gripped the ball and ran back to the park to tell her friends about the magic flower....To be continued. "

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To further aid the imaginative process you might like to include Story Bags (sometimes called Story Sacks) these can be created to help tell an existing story, like this one below for The Very Hungry Caterpillar 

You can also just put several interesting and different items in to a bag and allow the children to be inspired by the objects which will then inform the story they tell.

Interesting Items for a story bag include:

Toy food

Dolls

Cotton reels

Magazine pictures

Blocks

Words ( printed on card and laminated where possible )

Shapes

Photos

Leaves

Pine Cones

Flowers ( fake ones, unless you remember to change them regularly )

String

Crystals

Material

Toy Crockery

Doll house furniture

Change the contents regularly to keep the ideas fresh and let the kids go wild!

As a Mama I am so proud to have these connection with my children, to be able to share their stories with you and also to share the stories again with them as they get older, I love to see their creativity growing and blossoming with each day and storytelling is a lovely way to explore this .... Go ahead, give it a go,

Autumn Harvest, Always better when shared....

When my daughter was born, back in 2002, she was gifted a dwarf pear tree by a dear friend. This tree lived in pot for the first 7 years of her life, where it did ok ( considering the many house moves we put it through )but a few years ago we decided that we really were unlikely to move again and could risk planting the little tree out in our garden.

For a couple of years the little tree did very little but this year it really seemed to come into it's own, we had lovely blossom which was thankfully not blown off of the branches by gusty spring winds, and then  plenty of small fruits began to develop.

Waiting for the right time to harvest fruit trees seems to be a bit of a gamble. You don't want to pick it too early but if you leave it too late it will spoil. And so we,play the waiting game, watching, watching, checking every day...

And then in typical fashion I looked out of the window today to see several pears on the ground beneath the tree. As the weather was definitely on the turn opted to pick them all now.

In my daughters absence my son became a welcome helper and he enjoyed getting stuck in and checking out the mini beasts which had already made the windfall pears into their breakfast.  

My son also enjoys any excuse to play with water and so was more than happy to be put I charge of washing our harvest too!

In the end we have 12 smallish pears this years ( not counting the 4 which were sacrificed to the Garden Gods ) I think they,will be great, poached, for pudding and I am confident that next years harvest will be even better.

I am now grateful to be snug and warm indoors listening to the rain and thunder which seemed to hit our area as soon as we had finished our work for the day. Hot Chocolate and Marshmallows on the sofa with my son whilst he enjoys some cartoons and I enjoy a bit of blogging ... perfect! 

I hope that each and every one of you is having a productive harvest and that you are finding the beauty of autumn an inspiring time to be creative with your families

Bright Blessings

Arietta x