Blessings Darlings!
My ambitions tend to outrace my grasp - which means that my To Do list is really, really, REALLY long. So much to do! So little time to do it in!
Today I got several unexpected free hours, courtesy of hurricane Florence. Because I have the To Do list - and keep it prioritized - I checked my list and decided to catch up on the dishes then do a blog post or two. Wonderful uses of some 'found time'. Without the To Do list, I'd have had to dither about what I should do with those hours. Instead, I could IMMEDIATELY get to work. Thus, the To Do list existing at all increases my productivity.
But ... literally the moment I stood up to go to the kitchen ... power went out. Our water is from a well. No power = no dishwashing (or flushing toilets, or washing kitchen floors, etc). Doing any research online for one of the blog posts was also out of the question. Writing the blog posts on the computer was iffy - how long would my computer battery hold out for that?
So, back to the To Do list (which I don't keep on the computer, it's in my daily planner.) What chore that takes no power is the highest priority? Dusting, then straightening the living room. AND doing them would take about as long as the dishes would. A great substitution! So I did those tasks, then sat down and wrote this by with pen on paper. Again - having the To Do list made life more efficient and increased my flexibility when power being out threw me a curve ball.
Heck - back in the day, when I was having a problem with insomnia, I had an entire To Do list made up of things to accomplish if I was up between 3 and 5 in the morning. It didn't help me sleep, but at least I didn't have the added stress of feeling that I had 'wasted' that time.
Make your To Do list. Use your To Do list. Get your goals done. Or at least more of them.
Frondly, Fern
Tuesday, September 18, 2018
Tuesday, September 11, 2018
Omen Or No Omen.
Blessings, Darlings!
Dear Gods, I just tried 'reading' the same of a murmeration of birds as an omen. Not that I had just asked a question or had an issue that I needed guidance on in my mind. Hey, it looks like boobies! That, and the cow that was nursing, must mean that everything is tits! And tits are great! So everything is great!
Well ... that's not quite how omens work.
While omens can come in myriad forms ... there are some constraints on what constitutes one.
One vital constraint is setting. If you haven't just asked a question or have an issue preoccupying you - then whatever you see is probably not an omen. Most stuff is just the world doing its thing. Cows with calves nurse their calves. Murmerations of birds happen when a lawn tractor moves towards where they are feeding. Snakes - or deer or bunnies or turtles or squirrels or whatever - cross roads. The beautiful yellow flickers now around the house are here because the thistles have gone to seed and these birds LOVE thistle seeds. As noted in the Psychopomp blog: it's not all about you. But if I just asked a question or was pondering an issue - that one of them showed up RIGHT THEN might be an omen/message/whatever.
Another constraint is that you understand it/can interpret it. A message you can't understand is worthless as an omen (or a message from the Gods.) If it's a symbol that means nothing to you, then it's extremely unlikely to be an omen. You shouldn't have to do further research on an omen. If it's a message from something that comes in Gaelic ... that message isn't going to be something I can use, so isn't what my psyche will have picked up as an omen. Th FACt that I'm picking up Gaelic MIGHT be. An omen in Hebrew I'd be able to understand, even if it coming in Hebrew is unlikely to be important.
Sometimes repetition indicates an omen. That wouldn't be true here about the 'cow nursing', even tho' Hathor and I have somewhat of a relationship - the fields around my house feature at least 25 cows that are still nursing their calves. Mice in my basement is just an sign that we failed to block all the ways that they have been getting in. Deer around here tend to eat the same patch of vegetation every day at the same time until they've eaten it all. Crows are common. But if I have something on my mind, and while I'm out doing things I repeatedly see murders of crows on the buildings I'm entering that day ... that's a sign.
Go forth and be amazing.
Frondly, Fern
Dear Gods, I just tried 'reading' the same of a murmeration of birds as an omen. Not that I had just asked a question or had an issue that I needed guidance on in my mind. Hey, it looks like boobies! That, and the cow that was nursing, must mean that everything is tits! And tits are great! So everything is great!
Well ... that's not quite how omens work.
While omens can come in myriad forms ... there are some constraints on what constitutes one.
One vital constraint is setting. If you haven't just asked a question or have an issue preoccupying you - then whatever you see is probably not an omen. Most stuff is just the world doing its thing. Cows with calves nurse their calves. Murmerations of birds happen when a lawn tractor moves towards where they are feeding. Snakes - or deer or bunnies or turtles or squirrels or whatever - cross roads. The beautiful yellow flickers now around the house are here because the thistles have gone to seed and these birds LOVE thistle seeds. As noted in the Psychopomp blog: it's not all about you. But if I just asked a question or was pondering an issue - that one of them showed up RIGHT THEN might be an omen/message/whatever.
Another constraint is that you understand it/can interpret it. A message you can't understand is worthless as an omen (or a message from the Gods.) If it's a symbol that means nothing to you, then it's extremely unlikely to be an omen. You shouldn't have to do further research on an omen. If it's a message from something that comes in Gaelic ... that message isn't going to be something I can use, so isn't what my psyche will have picked up as an omen. Th FACt that I'm picking up Gaelic MIGHT be. An omen in Hebrew I'd be able to understand, even if it coming in Hebrew is unlikely to be important.
Sometimes repetition indicates an omen. That wouldn't be true here about the 'cow nursing', even tho' Hathor and I have somewhat of a relationship - the fields around my house feature at least 25 cows that are still nursing their calves. Mice in my basement is just an sign that we failed to block all the ways that they have been getting in. Deer around here tend to eat the same patch of vegetation every day at the same time until they've eaten it all. Crows are common. But if I have something on my mind, and while I'm out doing things I repeatedly see murders of crows on the buildings I'm entering that day ... that's a sign.
Go forth and be amazing.
Frondly, Fern
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Psychopomps, or "I've Got a Hot Date Tonight"
Blessings Darlings!
A couple of weeks back I blogged about how the air in my land base is full of bats, moths, and butterflies, normal for this time of year. That said - all these critters are well-known to be psychopomps, magical critters that help you travel between the worlds. Clearly, not every moth and butterfly in your area isn't there for your personal spiritual/magical service. 99.9% of them are NOT 'all about you'. That's true even if your astrological sun sign is Leo. IJS.
That said - one in 1000 probably IS 'all about you'. So today as I was sitting outside, having a cigarette and thinking about the post I was planning on creating about psychopomps - getting some serious attention from a gorgeous red spotted blue swallowtail was the equivalent of being asked out on a date to do some traveling with ker tonight. We chatted so I know what I'm supposed to do to prepare, I left ker an offering (mashed ripe peaches, heavy with juice - I know this species. Actually if I was giving the offering to a 'normal' member of the species, it would be even better had the fruit been a tad ... uh ... fermented. They REALLY like that. But in the case of psychopomps the extra 'spirit' is redundant.)
In many minds, psychopomps are associated only with leading spirits after death. That's certainly a psychopomp role, but it is far from the only role they take. They are there at births (often with the Ancestors riding them, as in the case of dragonflies in Japan.) They are there at soul retrievals. They can be sent as transportation for your spirit by another spirit that is summoning YOU (which can be a scary thing.) And they can (as in this case) be a spirit helper to a Practitioner heading to the Otherworlds.
At any rate - I've a date tonight to go soaring off with a Psychopomp. See you later!
Frondly, Fern
A couple of weeks back I blogged about how the air in my land base is full of bats, moths, and butterflies, normal for this time of year. That said - all these critters are well-known to be psychopomps, magical critters that help you travel between the worlds. Clearly, not every moth and butterfly in your area isn't there for your personal spiritual/magical service. 99.9% of them are NOT 'all about you'. That's true even if your astrological sun sign is Leo. IJS.
That said - one in 1000 probably IS 'all about you'. So today as I was sitting outside, having a cigarette and thinking about the post I was planning on creating about psychopomps - getting some serious attention from a gorgeous red spotted blue swallowtail was the equivalent of being asked out on a date to do some traveling with ker tonight. We chatted so I know what I'm supposed to do to prepare, I left ker an offering (mashed ripe peaches, heavy with juice - I know this species. Actually if I was giving the offering to a 'normal' member of the species, it would be even better had the fruit been a tad ... uh ... fermented. They REALLY like that. But in the case of psychopomps the extra 'spirit' is redundant.)
In many minds, psychopomps are associated only with leading spirits after death. That's certainly a psychopomp role, but it is far from the only role they take. They are there at births (often with the Ancestors riding them, as in the case of dragonflies in Japan.) They are there at soul retrievals. They can be sent as transportation for your spirit by another spirit that is summoning YOU (which can be a scary thing.) And they can (as in this case) be a spirit helper to a Practitioner heading to the Otherworlds.
At any rate - I've a date tonight to go soaring off with a Psychopomp. See you later!
Frondly, Fern
Thursday, August 30, 2018
You and Me, Baby, Ain't Nothing But Mammals
Blessings Darlings!
In a conversation with the Chubby Hubby, I was again decrying folks looking to 'consume' spirituality - buying lots of items, saving lots of shared 'information' on someone's ideas of what each days correspondences are, short meanings of symbols, short info on herbs, memes, etc. The CH, being wonderful and brilliant (why else would I marry and have children with him?) pointed out that 'consumption' is a very basic animal survival skill. He pointed to the cattle in the fields around the house - and that they spend darn near the entire day eating/chewing their cuds. They, literally consume ALL DAY LONG. He's certainly right about that!
OTOH - they eat grass. Grass is very low in nutritional value. They have to consume all day to get what they need, BECAUSE WHAT THEY EAT IS OF LOW VALUE.
We're mammals, yes - but we aren't cattle or sheep, right?
We humans are omnivores. Our systems are able to handle food with higher nutritional (and caloric) density. Eating a pound of meat will give us way more calories (the macroelement that powers our larger brains!) and still leave us more leisure time to focus on other things than eating enough raw spinach to provide us with the same amount of calories. Even cooking the spinach - putting some effort in early on - provides us with the vitamins and minerals that are more abundant in spinach, and makes it faster to eat it.
Now, apply that knowledge to our minds. You can try to fill up your mind using ... generic stuff shared on Facebook, from unknown and unvetted sources (even if you know the person sharing the printable cliff notes on herbs or crystals or whatever). Feeding your mind well on that stuff is going to take ingesting that all day every day. And not leave you time to do other things, whether than be your family, your job, cleaning house, overthrowing patriarchy - whatever.
Now, apply that knowledge to our spirits. Action (like at least cooking the spinach) helps you feed yourself better. There is a difference in the 'nutritional density' between active an passive spirituality. Passive spirituality would be things like consuming a public ritual done by others, where you are rather like an audience member at a performance, passively letting the actors move you 'between the worlds' and them doing all the work vs you being there and actively sending energy to everything from the casting of sacred space to the magical working (you've now cooked the spinach!) and doing ritual/magic yourself. There is a difference between lying out in the grass 'open for the Divine to fill you' vs making offerings to a specific God or Goddess, or writing poetry for/about that Divinity. There is a difference between gathering what you find from whatever unvetted source online and saving it on your hard drive vs getting stuff from vetted sources online vs taking classes from vetted sources vs putting what you learn into action.
You might just want to actively think about this.
Frondly, Fern
In a conversation with the Chubby Hubby, I was again decrying folks looking to 'consume' spirituality - buying lots of items, saving lots of shared 'information' on someone's ideas of what each days correspondences are, short meanings of symbols, short info on herbs, memes, etc. The CH, being wonderful and brilliant (why else would I marry and have children with him?) pointed out that 'consumption' is a very basic animal survival skill. He pointed to the cattle in the fields around the house - and that they spend darn near the entire day eating/chewing their cuds. They, literally consume ALL DAY LONG. He's certainly right about that!
OTOH - they eat grass. Grass is very low in nutritional value. They have to consume all day to get what they need, BECAUSE WHAT THEY EAT IS OF LOW VALUE.
We're mammals, yes - but we aren't cattle or sheep, right?
We humans are omnivores. Our systems are able to handle food with higher nutritional (and caloric) density. Eating a pound of meat will give us way more calories (the macroelement that powers our larger brains!) and still leave us more leisure time to focus on other things than eating enough raw spinach to provide us with the same amount of calories. Even cooking the spinach - putting some effort in early on - provides us with the vitamins and minerals that are more abundant in spinach, and makes it faster to eat it.
Now, apply that knowledge to our minds. You can try to fill up your mind using ... generic stuff shared on Facebook, from unknown and unvetted sources (even if you know the person sharing the printable cliff notes on herbs or crystals or whatever). Feeding your mind well on that stuff is going to take ingesting that all day every day. And not leave you time to do other things, whether than be your family, your job, cleaning house, overthrowing patriarchy - whatever.
Now, apply that knowledge to our spirits. Action (like at least cooking the spinach) helps you feed yourself better. There is a difference in the 'nutritional density' between active an passive spirituality. Passive spirituality would be things like consuming a public ritual done by others, where you are rather like an audience member at a performance, passively letting the actors move you 'between the worlds' and them doing all the work vs you being there and actively sending energy to everything from the casting of sacred space to the magical working (you've now cooked the spinach!) and doing ritual/magic yourself. There is a difference between lying out in the grass 'open for the Divine to fill you' vs making offerings to a specific God or Goddess, or writing poetry for/about that Divinity. There is a difference between gathering what you find from whatever unvetted source online and saving it on your hard drive vs getting stuff from vetted sources online vs taking classes from vetted sources vs putting what you learn into action.
You might just want to actively think about this.
Frondly, Fern
Monday, August 27, 2018
Wandering in the Mists.
Blessings, Darlings!
We are coming off a week of cool - almost fall-like - weather (if Fall meant 70 degrees and no rain.) Today starts a week of more 'normal' hot weather. As a result, last night was a Fog Night. That's not unusual here - our subdivision tends to get very thick fog.
But last night I was outside relaxing as it developed, and it was back-lit by the Full Moon. It looked amazing.
The fog crept in from the East. First it filled in the low areas of the fields, leaving the ridges still visible. All of the stars were blotted out the stars in East. There were a few holdouts in the West, and Mars - at about midpoint in the night sky - fought a valiant battle against being obscured.
The fog thickened, covering the ridges, then the trees. By dawn visibility was almost zero.
But now most of it is gone, wisps only remaining by the Rivers, probably making walking the old Tow Path full of encounters with the shades of the Civil War dead.
For Autumn is a-coming in, and Summer's going away oh.
Frondly, Fern
We are coming off a week of cool - almost fall-like - weather (if Fall meant 70 degrees and no rain.) Today starts a week of more 'normal' hot weather. As a result, last night was a Fog Night. That's not unusual here - our subdivision tends to get very thick fog.
But last night I was outside relaxing as it developed, and it was back-lit by the Full Moon. It looked amazing.
The fog crept in from the East. First it filled in the low areas of the fields, leaving the ridges still visible. All of the stars were blotted out the stars in East. There were a few holdouts in the West, and Mars - at about midpoint in the night sky - fought a valiant battle against being obscured.
The fog thickened, covering the ridges, then the trees. By dawn visibility was almost zero.
But now most of it is gone, wisps only remaining by the Rivers, probably making walking the old Tow Path full of encounters with the shades of the Civil War dead.
For Autumn is a-coming in, and Summer's going away oh.
Frondly, Fern
Tuesday, August 21, 2018
Breathing Room
Blessings Darlings!
Long time readers of this blog know that money - well, lack of it - has been a feature in my life for a bunch of years now. Things have FINALLY eased up for a bit! Since this ease is from FINALLY having some serious work for our home-based business ... we don't know how long this will last.
Still, rent being due is no longer panic inducing. And bills that we've had to ignore are being paid off. It feels really nice.
Of course, since the financial reality is still 'future uncertain', the basics of our lifestyle isn't changing. I'm able to re-stock the staple foods we got very low on (flour, canned veggies for specific dishes we make a lot, coffee, tea, etc) but still did it with the 'low-end' replacements (generic tagless tea bags rather than nice loose tea, for example.)
That said ... it's the Chubby Hubby's birthday. The Spawn is treating us to the Maryland Renaissance Fair. The Fair is a 2 hour drive from here, so we're planning on getting a hotel room for the night before, and are planning meals at three of my husbands favorite restaurants in the Annapolis to Baltimore corridor. We'll use my employee discount at the hotel, and his senior discount at the Fair.
It's going to be a 30 hour or so family vacation. With most of our money (vs the Spawn's) spent on food, since the motel won't be much. Our first vacation in ... 20 years.
I'm chuffed.
Frondly, Fern
Long time readers of this blog know that money - well, lack of it - has been a feature in my life for a bunch of years now. Things have FINALLY eased up for a bit! Since this ease is from FINALLY having some serious work for our home-based business ... we don't know how long this will last.
Still, rent being due is no longer panic inducing. And bills that we've had to ignore are being paid off. It feels really nice.
Of course, since the financial reality is still 'future uncertain', the basics of our lifestyle isn't changing. I'm able to re-stock the staple foods we got very low on (flour, canned veggies for specific dishes we make a lot, coffee, tea, etc) but still did it with the 'low-end' replacements (generic tagless tea bags rather than nice loose tea, for example.)
That said ... it's the Chubby Hubby's birthday. The Spawn is treating us to the Maryland Renaissance Fair. The Fair is a 2 hour drive from here, so we're planning on getting a hotel room for the night before, and are planning meals at three of my husbands favorite restaurants in the Annapolis to Baltimore corridor. We'll use my employee discount at the hotel, and his senior discount at the Fair.
It's going to be a 30 hour or so family vacation. With most of our money (vs the Spawn's) spent on food, since the motel won't be much. Our first vacation in ... 20 years.
I'm chuffed.
Frondly, Fern
Tuesday, August 14, 2018
What's Up In YOUR Land Base?
Blessings Darlings!
Here in my land base, the fireflies are long gone. Night are LOUD now, with cicadas and crickets having meet and greets. I can count on seeing some shooting stars every night that is clear enough ... but I can also count on late day thunderstorms often enough that at least half the nights aren't clear enough.
And it is so very much butterfly and moth season! Monarch and swallowtail, lovely moths I don't know the name of, and the ubiquitous cabbage moths are everywhere. Night features other moths, plus visiting bats (I'm guessing that they share barn space with the barn swallows).
The local peaches are ripe - and a local church is having their Peach Festival tomorrow. My tomatoes are nowhere near ripe since I planted them late, but the cucs and peppers and occasional zucchini (I only started one plant) are producing.
The rivers are high due to all the rain over the past month. Water practically pours out of cracks in the cliffs of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The humidity is high. Every day the forecast is "Today will be much cooler than yesterday was," but that's just wishful thinking. The temperature has been pretty constant.
This is when county fairs should be. Before school starts, in the gap between when farmers harvest stuff. Everyone should be eating funnel cakes with diced fresh peaches and powdered sugar.
Frondly, Fern
Frondly, Fern
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