Making Votive Offerings I - Suet Balls
Suet Balls Recipe
Basically it’s 1 part fat to 2 parts dry ingredients.
I didn’t keep track of how much of each I put in because I keep having to add more to make it less sticky. You will totally underestimate how much dry ingredients are needed to firm up the fat balls.
Fats:
I used lard and chunky peanut butter; about equal amounts of each. 1 lb of lard equals about half of the large jar (2kg) of peanut butter.
Dry Ingredients:
cornmeal
quick oats
raisins
bird seed (go for no shell seeds) I used a mix called Happy Garden from Urban Nature Store &/or a small-grained Finch + Friends mix.
shelled peanuts
In The Cailleach Library you can find Tabhartas Bòid; a Celtic Teaching about Votive Offerings, given by Muireann - our Iron Age Celtic Ancestor.
Join the Library for free if you’d like to learn more about the meaning, history and practice of Tabhartas Bòid in pre-Christian Celtic culture.
This is the first of 3 “Making Votive Offerings” posts sharing how I build relationship with Spirit + the Land through Celtic cultural practice on Mishiike Minisi.
Directions:
Mix all the everything in a giant bowl - or melt the fats down in a giant pot and then mix in all the dry.
I like the melty version better because it’s easier to mix. I use a metal mixing bowl in a pan of water on the stove. It takes about 10 minutes to melt the fats.
Put the bowl of mix into the fridge or freezer for awhile to firm up the fats. I leave mine in the freezer for about an hour.
Once formed, roll the balls in the cornmeal to make a non-sticky outer coating.
Freeze them or put them into a garage or shed during the winter.
The animals LOVE these and I have to ration them or they will eat them all in a day.
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The structures and systems of our society have been made up based in beliefs of separation, “special” and supremacy. Nothing in western society is fixed or “natural” or absolute.
Everything has been choices made based on faulty understanding.
It’s all made up and we can re-make it into something that benefits everyone.
Witches unite. We remake the world.