Blessings Darlings!
Today's installment in my series on 'oft bandied about Wiccan/Neopagan sayings' is "Wicca/witchcraft/paganism is a path of personal responsibility." Oh, you'll find that all sorts of folks mention that it's part of the path, investing one line or two - maybe even one paragraph! - to the concept, but then you look at what happens in almost every online esoteric group ... and you see them violate it. And calling them out on it can easily make you a pariah in online groups and gets you booted and banned. I touched on this a LITTLE in an earlier post about how most online Pagan groups are dysfunctional.
Short definition of personal responsibility is that you are responsible for your actions and inactions. That you do the best you can with what you have to grow and mature. That when you fuck up (and you will) you admit you did and try to remedy the situation. Most folks try to do that ... to some extent. But we all have serious blind spots here (and in most areas of our lives. And, yes, I do too.)
The biggest blind spot about personal responsibility that I see in others (because seeing things in others is WAY easier than seeing them in myself, sort of by definition) is that people take a lot of actions to DISable other folks' personal responsibility.
When a person asks a question in a group instead of taking the responsibility of Googling it - you do them no favor by NOT pointing that out. By not pointing that out, you are enabling their lack of responsibility and initiative. To put it Kabalistically - you are pushing them into the Vice of Malkuth. Telling them to Google and read, and then when they see that sources disagree on something to come back and ask about the disagreement ... that is promoting responsibility.
When a person in a group complains about a situation (assuming it's a support group and that them posting that is appropriate there), you validate their experience and then help them go on to find solutions THEY can do. And hold them responsible for taking those actions. BY THE WAY - I've run real support groups. The point of the groups is support in changing their situation, not in keeping them in that situation but letting them vent about it.
Yeah. Me. I ran support groups. Stop giggling.
Ain't nobody out there has infinite time to do anything, and most of us don't have unlimited money to buy supplies/get medical care/afford the best foods/whatever. This is the reason that you should ask that folks stop saying that 'all books have at least one thing that is useful in them'. Respect yourself enough to insist that folks respect your time/money/etc, by allowing folks to challenge the books/authors they recommend. Because that info help you have responsibility for your choices.
And respect yourself enough to present yourself as ... a functional adult. I don't mean LIE about your life. I mean, be a functional adult. You want to know about, say, 'how to cast a circle'? GOOGLE IT BEFORE ASKING IN A GROUP. Google it, read about it, think about it, TRY one of the ways - and then ask fucking INFORMED questions in a group. We all feel isolated/alone at times. We all ask for attention at time. Try to not ask for attention by presenting yourself as someone too lazy to do any work on your own. The only supportive attention that you will get from such an approach is by folks who will enable your laziness. Is that what you want? (BTW, if that's what you want, then why haven't you figured out that this blog is NOT a good place for that?)
You're not going to get replies to PMs or tagging most Pagan authors on Facebook ... because they take personal responsibility for their use of their time. If they are participating in an online group on a topic, and your question is on that topic, they are likely to chime in ... because they have chosen to participate AND because it reaches more than one person. Respect that in yourself as well. Set clear and enforced boundaries.
You're going to find some group leaders want to hoard information, only giving out what they agree with. They are trying to keep you a spiritual/magical child. They are taking away discussion of their recommendations and limit your access to discussion of other sources.
There are lots of folks out there trying to limit your control and responsibility for your life and choices. Be aware. Be very aware.
Frondly, Fern
Showing posts with label neopagan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label neopagan. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
Thursday, May 31, 2018
My Worship Is In The Heart That Rejoices.
Blessings Darlings!
This is the first in what will be (I hope) a multi-post series on phrases from Wicca bandied about in the neopagan community.
While Wicca is primarily an orthopraxic mystery religion, it has a few phrases that are quoted y some as orthodoxy. One of them all y'all have almost certainly heard/read the phrase: "My Worship is in the heart which rejoices. For behold - all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals." It's towards the end of Doreen Valiente's "Charge of the Goddess".
Unlike some other sound bites often quoted most folks agree that this is not the whole of the story. The heart that rejoices is not the ONLY place that the Goddess' worship exists, right? Folks accept that Her worship is often in the heart that aches or despairs.
No one (I hope!) would be crass enough to tell someone in the midst of crippling depression, or hospitalized with some other disease, or with heart-rending bereavement, etc. to rejoice or they are failing to properly worship the Goddess or are otherwise 'not a true Wiccan or Pagan'
So too, while 'all acts of love and pleasure" are Her rituals, Her rituals and worship is not LIMITED to such acts. For example, honoring a loved one's end of life directive - as a friend of mine recent had to do for a loved one - and removing a breathing tube was clearly an act of love but NOT an act of pleasure. And yet it was certainly one of the Goddess' rituals.
Are you with me so far?
Any questions? More parts coming, and I hope I have the energy to write them soon ...
Frondly, Fern.
This is the first in what will be (I hope) a multi-post series on phrases from Wicca bandied about in the neopagan community.
While Wicca is primarily an orthopraxic mystery religion, it has a few phrases that are quoted y some as orthodoxy. One of them all y'all have almost certainly heard/read the phrase: "My Worship is in the heart which rejoices. For behold - all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals." It's towards the end of Doreen Valiente's "Charge of the Goddess".
Unlike some other sound bites often quoted most folks agree that this is not the whole of the story. The heart that rejoices is not the ONLY place that the Goddess' worship exists, right? Folks accept that Her worship is often in the heart that aches or despairs.
No one (I hope!) would be crass enough to tell someone in the midst of crippling depression, or hospitalized with some other disease, or with heart-rending bereavement, etc. to rejoice or they are failing to properly worship the Goddess or are otherwise 'not a true Wiccan or Pagan'
So too, while 'all acts of love and pleasure" are Her rituals, Her rituals and worship is not LIMITED to such acts. For example, honoring a loved one's end of life directive - as a friend of mine recent had to do for a loved one - and removing a breathing tube was clearly an act of love but NOT an act of pleasure. And yet it was certainly one of the Goddess' rituals.
Are you with me so far?
Any questions? More parts coming, and I hope I have the energy to write them soon ...
Frondly, Fern.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Earth Religions
Blessings Darlings!
I'm a bit confused today. I mean - aren't ALL religions we know about 'Earth Religions'? It's not like they are Alpha Centauri religions. They are being practiced here on Earth ... or at farthest they were practiced on the Moon, but still from Earth by Earthlings/humans.
"Oh, but Fern," I've been told, "Other religions seek to TRANSCEND Earth."
You mean the folks who keep telling me that we are NOT humans, but 'spirits having an Earthly experience'? You mean the folks who are after Enlightenment as opposed to Gnosis?
"No, I mean Christians because they deny folks Earthy Pleasures." Actually, that could better be said of the Buddhists, who could see walking out on your Wife and newborn child as "the path to enlightenment' and see the entire Universe as illusion/Maya keeping you from enlightenment. And to whom attachment to pleasure leads inevitably to suffering.
And, darlings, it's not like Christians are one uniform group. Sure, some of them see Earth as corrupt and evil. Most don't. OTOH, most Pagan religions have a 'golden age' as part of their mythos, so it could very well be argued that 'we' see the Earth/Humans/the whole shebang as 'fallen' and 'corrupt' and 'entropic' and dammit what is the word I'm looking for? I'll think of it eventually .... might even put it in here.
"We" are not significantly different from 'them'. We have more in common than most of us like to admit. Because all religions on Earth arise from [the Gods] filling human needs and the experiences of living on this planet in these bodies.
Frondly, Fern
I'm a bit confused today. I mean - aren't ALL religions we know about 'Earth Religions'? It's not like they are Alpha Centauri religions. They are being practiced here on Earth ... or at farthest they were practiced on the Moon, but still from Earth by Earthlings/humans.
"Oh, but Fern," I've been told, "Other religions seek to TRANSCEND Earth."
You mean the folks who keep telling me that we are NOT humans, but 'spirits having an Earthly experience'? You mean the folks who are after Enlightenment as opposed to Gnosis?
"No, I mean Christians because they deny folks Earthy Pleasures." Actually, that could better be said of the Buddhists, who could see walking out on your Wife and newborn child as "the path to enlightenment' and see the entire Universe as illusion/Maya keeping you from enlightenment. And to whom attachment to pleasure leads inevitably to suffering.
And, darlings, it's not like Christians are one uniform group. Sure, some of them see Earth as corrupt and evil. Most don't. OTOH, most Pagan religions have a 'golden age' as part of their mythos, so it could very well be argued that 'we' see the Earth/Humans/the whole shebang as 'fallen' and 'corrupt' and 'entropic' and dammit what is the word I'm looking for? I'll think of it eventually .... might even put it in here.
"We" are not significantly different from 'them'. We have more in common than most of us like to admit. Because all religions on Earth arise from [the Gods] filling human needs and the experiences of living on this planet in these bodies.
Frondly, Fern
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Orange Extract
Blessings Darlings!
During this last round of being broke I took using every bit of food to new heights. Which meant I had to buy ingredients only, never 'food' as such. Baking everything from scratch, however, meant that I went thru' even ingredients at a rapid pace. And things like extracts can be expensive!
So even every orange, lemon, and lime we ate had to do double duty. We'd eat the orange/use the juice of the lemon or lime, and then the peel would be transformed into the citrus extract du jour. They are VERY easy to make, except for the price of the vodka. And as you all know while it is legal to homebrew your own beer and wine it is NOT legal to distill your own liquor.
Anyway, take the peel of the citrus fruit in question. Just the colored part as much as possible, the white pith is pretty darn bitter. Put it in a jar (I prefer glass jars, YMMV). Cover it with vodka. Rum or Everclear or whatever might be fine, too, but I use cheap vodka. You can probably add up to a pint for one orange, somewhat less for the smaller fruits. Let it sit for a few days. Strain. Done.
If you're in a hurry, just use a microplane grater on the fruit you want the flavor of and add the peel to the dish, but it's not quite the same.
If you were actually after essential oils for some ritual use ... add the peels to a small amount of flavorless vegetable oil, like peanut or 'vegetable oil' and let it sit.
Frondly, Fern
During this last round of being broke I took using every bit of food to new heights. Which meant I had to buy ingredients only, never 'food' as such. Baking everything from scratch, however, meant that I went thru' even ingredients at a rapid pace. And things like extracts can be expensive!
So even every orange, lemon, and lime we ate had to do double duty. We'd eat the orange/use the juice of the lemon or lime, and then the peel would be transformed into the citrus extract du jour. They are VERY easy to make, except for the price of the vodka. And as you all know while it is legal to homebrew your own beer and wine it is NOT legal to distill your own liquor.
Anyway, take the peel of the citrus fruit in question. Just the colored part as much as possible, the white pith is pretty darn bitter. Put it in a jar (I prefer glass jars, YMMV). Cover it with vodka. Rum or Everclear or whatever might be fine, too, but I use cheap vodka. You can probably add up to a pint for one orange, somewhat less for the smaller fruits. Let it sit for a few days. Strain. Done.
If you're in a hurry, just use a microplane grater on the fruit you want the flavor of and add the peel to the dish, but it's not quite the same.
If you were actually after essential oils for some ritual use ... add the peels to a small amount of flavorless vegetable oil, like peanut or 'vegetable oil' and let it sit.
Frondly, Fern
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Havamal, Part 9
Blessings Darlings!
It certainly has been a while since I did a Havamal installment. I'm sorry about that. But I plan to get back to them regularly now - well, there are only going to be one or two installments after this one, but I figure to do them once a week again.
What was I doing while away? Part of it was working on marketing. Which means I'm reading business and marketing lessons into this segment of the Havamal. Of course, I see most of life as being about business and marketing, so that's nothing new.
Let a man with his guests be glad and merry,
Modest a man should be"
But talk well if he intends to be wise
And expects praise from men:
Fimbul fambi is the fool called "
Unable to open his mouth.
Fruitless my errand, had I been silent
When I came to Suttung's courts:
With spirited words I spoke to my profit
In the hall of the aged giant.
Some people say that it's hard to find the sweet spot between being too quiet in a group and babbling too much. If I might be so bold - I'd suggest that it's not that difficult to find. If you read the front page stories in any paper regularly, have a hobby or two, pay bills, buy/cook/eat food, etc, then you have things to talk about that work their way into most conversations at one point or another. And if you listen to what others say, and let them have their say, you easily avoid being obnoxious and monopolizing the conversation. Here Odhinn did talk. He talked with, not to, Gunnlod, won her confidence, and ended up winning the Mead.
The following day the Frost Giants came,
Walked into Har's hall To ask for Har's advice:
Had Bolverk they asked, come back to his friends,
Or had he been slain by Suttung?
Odhinn, they said, swore an oath on his ring:
Who from now on will trust him?
By fraud at the feast he befuddled Suttung
And brought grief to Gunnlod.
Uh - isn't Har another name for Odhinn?
It is time to sing in the seat of the wise,
Of what at Urd's Well I saw in silence,
saw and thought on.
Long I listened to men
Runes heard spoken, (counsels revealed.)
At Har's hall, In Har's hall:
There I heard this.
Yes - listen. Yes - watch. Yes - THINK ON. These things you can do while holding up your end in a conversation. And certainly do the thinking all the time. Remember, the fountain of Urd is in Asgard, Odhinn is silent and thinking even there.
Now, on to advice. "Rede" if you will.... It's mostly about building community, one person at a time. Aligning with the honorable and wise, avoiding the fools, putting distance between you and the evil.
Loddfafnir, listen to my counsel:
You will fare well if you follow it,
It will help you much if you heed it.
Never rise at night unless you need to spy
Or to ease yourself in the outhouse.
I wonder if in the original this is "to watch" - to be on guard.
If you must journey to mountains and firths,
Take food and fodder with you.
Never open your heart to an evil man
When fortune does not favour you:
From an evil man, if you make him your friend,
You will get evil for good.
If others don't trust someone, there is often a reason. If it's because they've been shitty to others, they WILL turn on you when it is to their advantage.
If you know a friend you can fully trust,
Go often to his house
Grass and brambles grow quickly
Upon the untrodden track.
Nurture good relationships. Invest in them. Yes, I AM typing this at a writing date with Suz, why do you ask? Friends that you can trust and, at times, vent to are a need in life. They will help you sort of the gold from the dross, and help you find the right word to use when writing.
With a good man it is good to talk,
Make him your fast friend:
But waste no words on a witless oaf,
Nor sit with a senseless ape.
Gawds, once in high school, ages and ages ago, I was desperately trying to finish writing a paper due later that day. I was in the library in a two-person cubicle with my best friend. She WOULD NOT SHUT UP. I ended up screaming at her, walked out, and finished writing in the loud, active cafeteria - it was easier to do their. The witless will sap your strength and attention.
Cherish those near you, never be
The first to break with a friend:
Care eats him who can no longer
Open his heart to another.
An evil man, if you make him your friend,
Will give you evil for good:
A good man, if you make him your friend"
Will praise you in every place,
Affection is mutual when men can open
All their heart to each other:
He whose words are always fair
Is untrue and not to be trusted.
Bandy no speech with a bad man:
Often the better is beaten
In a word fight by the worse.
THAT advise is SO hard for me to follow! Some of you know me well, and know that I ... uh ... tend to enjoy a verbal joust rather too much. I tend to find douchebaggery entertaining when I turn them into targets.
Be not a cobbler nor a carver of shafts,
Except it be for yourself:
If a shoe fit ill or a shaft be crooked"
The maker gets curses and kicks.
If aware that another is wicked, say so:
Make no truce or treaty with foes.
And THAT is how I justify my targeting/identifing/pointing out douchebags.
Never share in the shamefully gotten,
But allow yourself what is lawful.
Stop the piracy. We're software developers, ffs, bit torrents are killing us.
That's it for now.
Frondly, Fern
It certainly has been a while since I did a Havamal installment. I'm sorry about that. But I plan to get back to them regularly now - well, there are only going to be one or two installments after this one, but I figure to do them once a week again.
What was I doing while away? Part of it was working on marketing. Which means I'm reading business and marketing lessons into this segment of the Havamal. Of course, I see most of life as being about business and marketing, so that's nothing new.
Let a man with his guests be glad and merry,
Modest a man should be"
But talk well if he intends to be wise
And expects praise from men:
Fimbul fambi is the fool called "
Unable to open his mouth.
Fruitless my errand, had I been silent
When I came to Suttung's courts:
With spirited words I spoke to my profit
In the hall of the aged giant.
Some people say that it's hard to find the sweet spot between being too quiet in a group and babbling too much. If I might be so bold - I'd suggest that it's not that difficult to find. If you read the front page stories in any paper regularly, have a hobby or two, pay bills, buy/cook/eat food, etc, then you have things to talk about that work their way into most conversations at one point or another. And if you listen to what others say, and let them have their say, you easily avoid being obnoxious and monopolizing the conversation. Here Odhinn did talk. He talked with, not to, Gunnlod, won her confidence, and ended up winning the Mead.
The following day the Frost Giants came,
Walked into Har's hall To ask for Har's advice:
Had Bolverk they asked, come back to his friends,
Or had he been slain by Suttung?
Odhinn, they said, swore an oath on his ring:
Who from now on will trust him?
By fraud at the feast he befuddled Suttung
And brought grief to Gunnlod.
Uh - isn't Har another name for Odhinn?
It is time to sing in the seat of the wise,
Of what at Urd's Well I saw in silence,
saw and thought on.
Long I listened to men
Runes heard spoken, (counsels revealed.)
At Har's hall, In Har's hall:
There I heard this.
Yes - listen. Yes - watch. Yes - THINK ON. These things you can do while holding up your end in a conversation. And certainly do the thinking all the time. Remember, the fountain of Urd is in Asgard, Odhinn is silent and thinking even there.
Now, on to advice. "Rede" if you will.... It's mostly about building community, one person at a time. Aligning with the honorable and wise, avoiding the fools, putting distance between you and the evil.
Loddfafnir, listen to my counsel:
You will fare well if you follow it,
It will help you much if you heed it.
Never rise at night unless you need to spy
Or to ease yourself in the outhouse.
I wonder if in the original this is "to watch" - to be on guard.
If you must journey to mountains and firths,
Take food and fodder with you.
Never open your heart to an evil man
When fortune does not favour you:
From an evil man, if you make him your friend,
You will get evil for good.
If others don't trust someone, there is often a reason. If it's because they've been shitty to others, they WILL turn on you when it is to their advantage.
If you know a friend you can fully trust,
Go often to his house
Grass and brambles grow quickly
Upon the untrodden track.
Nurture good relationships. Invest in them. Yes, I AM typing this at a writing date with Suz, why do you ask? Friends that you can trust and, at times, vent to are a need in life. They will help you sort of the gold from the dross, and help you find the right word to use when writing.
With a good man it is good to talk,
Make him your fast friend:
But waste no words on a witless oaf,
Nor sit with a senseless ape.
Gawds, once in high school, ages and ages ago, I was desperately trying to finish writing a paper due later that day. I was in the library in a two-person cubicle with my best friend. She WOULD NOT SHUT UP. I ended up screaming at her, walked out, and finished writing in the loud, active cafeteria - it was easier to do their. The witless will sap your strength and attention.
Cherish those near you, never be
The first to break with a friend:
Care eats him who can no longer
Open his heart to another.
An evil man, if you make him your friend,
Will give you evil for good:
A good man, if you make him your friend"
Will praise you in every place,
Affection is mutual when men can open
All their heart to each other:
He whose words are always fair
Is untrue and not to be trusted.
Bandy no speech with a bad man:
Often the better is beaten
In a word fight by the worse.
THAT advise is SO hard for me to follow! Some of you know me well, and know that I ... uh ... tend to enjoy a verbal joust rather too much. I tend to find douchebaggery entertaining when I turn them into targets.
Be not a cobbler nor a carver of shafts,
Except it be for yourself:
If a shoe fit ill or a shaft be crooked"
The maker gets curses and kicks.
If aware that another is wicked, say so:
Make no truce or treaty with foes.
And THAT is how I justify my targeting/identifing/pointing out douchebags.
Never share in the shamefully gotten,
But allow yourself what is lawful.
Stop the piracy. We're software developers, ffs, bit torrents are killing us.
That's it for now.
Frondly, Fern
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Book Review - Mystery Teachings From the Living Earth
Blessings Darlings!
I won another book from Weiser/Red Wheel books that I was already planning on buying. This time it was John Michael Greer's Mystery Teachings from the Living Earth. I am a happy Fern. I have been a JMG fan for about a decade now, having 'met' him on the Order of the White Oak e-mail list, then reading his books, reading his weekly blog here on Blogspot , and meeting him for the first time at the Between The Worlds conference in Delaware in 2008. Yes, I'm a JMG fangirl, even as I disagree with him on any number of things.
So I CONSUMED this short book when it arrived. The environmental themes are familiar to those of us who read his blog - but while his his blog is about environmental and fuel energy changes happening around us and how to adjust to them, his book is not on on those changes.
What JMG does in this book is explain the teachings of mystery schools (he is a member of several and has studied others) in the language of the environment. Now, a whole lot of neopagans describe their religions as "Earth" or "Nature" religions, but this book in unique in demonstrating the teachings using a meadow and all the many and varied ecological systems in it to flesh out the teachings.
Keeping the tradition of having 7 laws he traces wholeness, flow, balance, limits, cause and effect, the Planes, and evolution thru' nature. Then he examines the spiritual ecology of Magic, Initiation, and History. Along the way he patiently explains why the mysteries have to be explained differently for different audiences, clears out misconceptions embodied in the idea that the individual and the individual alone creates their own reality, and perhaps most importantly points out that simple is not the same as easy.
That last point is one to remember as you read the book. The truths explained in it are simple, but not particularly easy to fully understand. Some of them could have used more explanation and details, in my never humble opinion. Heck, I had to have the Chubby Hubby remind me of the difference in energy creation (via nuclear power) vs energy stored and released (via coal) .... which was an interesting conversation in the Urgent Care Clinic while waiting to get antibiotics for the CH's abscessed tooth.
I totally recommend the book, but for those who are new to environmental systems theory and/or the teachings of mystery schools .... you may need to read it, do more research and study, and then read it again to get the most out of it. I'm certainly going to have to read it more than once myself.
Frondly, Fern
I won another book from Weiser/Red Wheel books that I was already planning on buying. This time it was John Michael Greer's Mystery Teachings from the Living Earth. I am a happy Fern. I have been a JMG fan for about a decade now, having 'met' him on the Order of the White Oak e-mail list, then reading his books, reading his weekly blog here on Blogspot , and meeting him for the first time at the Between The Worlds conference in Delaware in 2008. Yes, I'm a JMG fangirl, even as I disagree with him on any number of things.
So I CONSUMED this short book when it arrived. The environmental themes are familiar to those of us who read his blog - but while his his blog is about environmental and fuel energy changes happening around us and how to adjust to them, his book is not on on those changes.
What JMG does in this book is explain the teachings of mystery schools (he is a member of several and has studied others) in the language of the environment. Now, a whole lot of neopagans describe their religions as "Earth" or "Nature" religions, but this book in unique in demonstrating the teachings using a meadow and all the many and varied ecological systems in it to flesh out the teachings.
Keeping the tradition of having 7 laws he traces wholeness, flow, balance, limits, cause and effect, the Planes, and evolution thru' nature. Then he examines the spiritual ecology of Magic, Initiation, and History. Along the way he patiently explains why the mysteries have to be explained differently for different audiences, clears out misconceptions embodied in the idea that the individual and the individual alone creates their own reality, and perhaps most importantly points out that simple is not the same as easy.
That last point is one to remember as you read the book. The truths explained in it are simple, but not particularly easy to fully understand. Some of them could have used more explanation and details, in my never humble opinion. Heck, I had to have the Chubby Hubby remind me of the difference in energy creation (via nuclear power) vs energy stored and released (via coal) .... which was an interesting conversation in the Urgent Care Clinic while waiting to get antibiotics for the CH's abscessed tooth.
I totally recommend the book, but for those who are new to environmental systems theory and/or the teachings of mystery schools .... you may need to read it, do more research and study, and then read it again to get the most out of it. I'm certainly going to have to read it more than once myself.
Frondly, Fern
Monday, April 30, 2012
Video Making
Blessings Darlings!
Having a home business means pushing your limits and doing things you never thought you'd do. And that you have NO training to do. Which is how the Chubby Hubby and I have found ourselves spending today (Saturday, tho' I'll schedule this post for Monday) working on a video. Andy Jenkins is running a contest for a free subscription to The Video Boss - see the details here. We want to win it. Actually, we NEED to win it - you should see how painful our video is. Actually, you WILL be abe to see it, since we'll be uploading it to Andy's YouTube channel to enter the contest.
I've filmed mega mansions (and the CH being dragged away from them). We've done Oven Cam shots (with the camera 'mounted' in the oven in a bowl of raw rice to hold it at the proper angle). Most those shots showed how dirty my oven is - ooops.
We are battling gnats outside and the learning curve on Camtasia software inside. We're not done with the outside filming, but the noon time sun is preventing us from getting the right camera angles.
I plan to make some Wiccan, Druid, general Pagan, and Magic videos sometime, so doing this will help that goal as well! Never a dull moment here.
Frondly, Fern
Having a home business means pushing your limits and doing things you never thought you'd do. And that you have NO training to do. Which is how the Chubby Hubby and I have found ourselves spending today (Saturday, tho' I'll schedule this post for Monday) working on a video. Andy Jenkins is running a contest for a free subscription to The Video Boss - see the details here. We want to win it. Actually, we NEED to win it - you should see how painful our video is. Actually, you WILL be abe to see it, since we'll be uploading it to Andy's YouTube channel to enter the contest.
I've filmed mega mansions (and the CH being dragged away from them). We've done Oven Cam shots (with the camera 'mounted' in the oven in a bowl of raw rice to hold it at the proper angle). Most those shots showed how dirty my oven is - ooops.
We are battling gnats outside and the learning curve on Camtasia software inside. We're not done with the outside filming, but the noon time sun is preventing us from getting the right camera angles.
I plan to make some Wiccan, Druid, general Pagan, and Magic videos sometime, so doing this will help that goal as well! Never a dull moment here.
Frondly, Fern
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
End-Of-Storage Soup
Blessings Darlings!
Tonight there is a late spring snowstorm happening in the north east US. Trees, which have already pretty much leafed out, are losing branches and bringing down power lines. Nevertheless, I'm fully in Spring mode, and have started making batches of "let me clean out last years dried veggies' soup.
Today's soup is a pretty typical one: dried tomatoes, wild onions, jalapenos, celery, zucchini, along with wheat berries, chickpeas and the plantain leaves I posted about on Monday, in chicken stock. I'll make another pot in a few days, with eggplant in for the zucchini ... and maybe dock weed in place of the plantain. This weekend I'll make a pizza and turn the dried tomatoes into pizza sauce.
Very soon I'll be getting lots of veggies from the garden and fruits and veggies from local farms - I'm going to need every inch of shelf space and every available jar for canning. If I don't use the older yummy stuff, I won't have room for the NEW yummy stuff.
And I need to start experimenting with this recipe for coffee jelly I ran into on line. I'm thinking about kicking it up with cinnamon and/or hot pepper. And giving it out as Yule gifts.
It's NEVER too early to get started on Yule gift when you're a reconstructionist, since preparing gifts by hand takes longer than spending money on 'em.
Frondly, Fern
Tonight there is a late spring snowstorm happening in the north east US. Trees, which have already pretty much leafed out, are losing branches and bringing down power lines. Nevertheless, I'm fully in Spring mode, and have started making batches of "let me clean out last years dried veggies' soup.
Today's soup is a pretty typical one: dried tomatoes, wild onions, jalapenos, celery, zucchini, along with wheat berries, chickpeas and the plantain leaves I posted about on Monday, in chicken stock. I'll make another pot in a few days, with eggplant in for the zucchini ... and maybe dock weed in place of the plantain. This weekend I'll make a pizza and turn the dried tomatoes into pizza sauce.
Very soon I'll be getting lots of veggies from the garden and fruits and veggies from local farms - I'm going to need every inch of shelf space and every available jar for canning. If I don't use the older yummy stuff, I won't have room for the NEW yummy stuff.
And I need to start experimenting with this recipe for coffee jelly I ran into on line. I'm thinking about kicking it up with cinnamon and/or hot pepper. And giving it out as Yule gifts.
It's NEVER too early to get started on Yule gift when you're a reconstructionist, since preparing gifts by hand takes longer than spending money on 'em.
Frondly, Fern
Monday, April 23, 2012
Wildcrafting: Plantain
Blessings Darlings!
We are finally getting rain here in the northern Blue Ridge Mountains. We were at about half our normal rain for the year, with yesterday and today (today be Sunday) we might get up to 65% of normal. The grass and fields planted in winter wheat are loving it - they were both VERY unhappy about the lack of rain.
The wild greens are loving it, too. We've moved out of dandelion and chickweed seasons (well, I have one patch of chickweed on the north side of the house I will harvest tomorrow, but that's it) and moved into the dock and plantain seasons. Today, out in the cold rain, I harvested a scant quart of plantain. Here are some pictures of it. I have both the narrow and broad leaf varieties in the yard, but I harvest the broad leaf.
Most parts of the plantain plant can be used, either for food or healing. If you have a choice, the best parts for eating are young leaves. The leaves get tough later. And while the seeds are often listed as an item 'Indians ground and used for bread' ... that speaks more for how hungry folks got rather than the taste of the seeds, says a friend who tried doing that.
I'm going to use these as the greens in soup, with canned or dry tomatoes, whole wheat pasta or wheat berries, chickpeas, wild onion, and some asparagus.
What's fresh and tasty in your land base?
Frondly, Fern
We are finally getting rain here in the northern Blue Ridge Mountains. We were at about half our normal rain for the year, with yesterday and today (today be Sunday) we might get up to 65% of normal. The grass and fields planted in winter wheat are loving it - they were both VERY unhappy about the lack of rain.
The wild greens are loving it, too. We've moved out of dandelion and chickweed seasons (well, I have one patch of chickweed on the north side of the house I will harvest tomorrow, but that's it) and moved into the dock and plantain seasons. Today, out in the cold rain, I harvested a scant quart of plantain. Here are some pictures of it. I have both the narrow and broad leaf varieties in the yard, but I harvest the broad leaf.
Most parts of the plantain plant can be used, either for food or healing. If you have a choice, the best parts for eating are young leaves. The leaves get tough later. And while the seeds are often listed as an item 'Indians ground and used for bread' ... that speaks more for how hungry folks got rather than the taste of the seeds, says a friend who tried doing that.
I'm going to use these as the greens in soup, with canned or dry tomatoes, whole wheat pasta or wheat berries, chickpeas, wild onion, and some asparagus.
What's fresh and tasty in your land base?
Frondly, Fern
Friday, April 20, 2012
Self Evaluation: Plastics Use
Blessings Darlings!
I use Earth Day as a time of evaluation and vow taking. Two years ago my vow was about reducing my use of plastics. Evaluation (a few days before Earth Day, I admit) makes it clear I'm failing at this.
I've had some success at reducing styrofoam and #5 plastics that are brought into the house - because we can't afford Chinese take out any more (comes in #5 black plastic bowls with a translucent plastic lid) nor can we afford to eat out (leftover brought home in styrofoam plastic boxes). OTOH many of our groceries still come into the house in plastic bags, because we fail to use the cloth bags. Even at Aldi's, where we use bags from home, the bags we re-use are the plastic bags from other stores.
Implementing a system other than Gladware for refrigerator food storage has also been a failure. I can't buy Pyrex replacements (which still have plastic lids) and I am afraid that if I DID use them I'd break them. I drop things. A lot. And we have regular 'landslides' in our freezer and refrigerator.
I'm going to keep looking for metal bowls of all sizes at garage sales, in the hopes that they will be useful for fridge storage. I would be able to use aluminum foil to cover them with ... not that the mining and refining of THAT is not destructive to the environment, just that aluminum foil can be recycled more readily than plastic wrap can be. Like - it can be recycled at all.
I use Earth Day as a time of evaluation and vow taking. Two years ago my vow was about reducing my use of plastics. Evaluation (a few days before Earth Day, I admit) makes it clear I'm failing at this.
I've had some success at reducing styrofoam and #5 plastics that are brought into the house - because we can't afford Chinese take out any more (comes in #5 black plastic bowls with a translucent plastic lid) nor can we afford to eat out (leftover brought home in styrofoam plastic boxes). OTOH many of our groceries still come into the house in plastic bags, because we fail to use the cloth bags. Even at Aldi's, where we use bags from home, the bags we re-use are the plastic bags from other stores.
Implementing a system other than Gladware for refrigerator food storage has also been a failure. I can't buy Pyrex replacements (which still have plastic lids) and I am afraid that if I DID use them I'd break them. I drop things. A lot. And we have regular 'landslides' in our freezer and refrigerator.
I'm going to keep looking for metal bowls of all sizes at garage sales, in the hopes that they will be useful for fridge storage. I would be able to use aluminum foil to cover them with ... not that the mining and refining of THAT is not destructive to the environment, just that aluminum foil can be recycled more readily than plastic wrap can be. Like - it can be recycled at all.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Covens vs Paleopagan practice
Blessings Darlings!
Many Pagans operate within covens or other small groups. Such groups can be intimate. But are they 'traditional'? I suppose it depends on what part of paleopaganism you look at.
CELTS
Yeah, the Celts had Druids. They had their own training and such. We don't know much about how that worked out. But after training, they were out in the communities 'Druiding' - doing legal stuff, mediating between the people and the Gods, teaching history and other lore, etc. The villagers would have their own tales, shared by elders. They'd do their own folk magic, interpret drops of cream in water, etc.
No small group structure - everything was pretty much village wide or individual. No 'cities', no group cultus.
GREEK
Here we have cities, and with cities we can have Temples for different Gods and Goddesses. But even with different temples ... people poured their libations to Hestia in their home, and the entire city went out to the temple for the high day of the specific God/dess.
Again, no small group structure. Not even a 'coven full' of priestesses at the average temple.
Were there some groups? Yes. Lupercalia had some group in charge of the sacrifice, and they weren't 'full time' priests (some were politicians as I recall). And the Elusinian Mysteries were not done by everyone, but the experience was totally individual.
WITCHES
Were there some folks who did magic outside of the bounds of the Druids/temples/dominant paradigm? Sure. The Greek and the Celts did not look positively upon them. They were VERY much on their own, no structure, no group worship - they were probably magic only, not a different religion.
WHERE DID THE COVEN IDEA COME FROM?
As near as I can tell ... it was invented by Christianity. Maybe they got 13 members as a 'bad reflection' of the Last Supper, just like the Black Mass is a 'bad reflection' of the Mass. I don't see it anywhere before being mentioned in the Malleus Malificarum, tho' I admit I've not looked that hard. Certainly that's where the phrase "You cannot be a witch alone" comes from, which so many witches/pagans take as 'law' now.
SO WHAT?
So nothing. Just a train of thought about what the ancients did vs what we look to do today. They did it all alone or with the entire area. We focus on small groups (okay, except for ADF which was formed specifically to provide entire area public ritual ... and even their groves tend to 'choose' who gets to be a full member of the grove, tho' not the denomination).
Frondly, Fern
Many Pagans operate within covens or other small groups. Such groups can be intimate. But are they 'traditional'? I suppose it depends on what part of paleopaganism you look at.
CELTS
Yeah, the Celts had Druids. They had their own training and such. We don't know much about how that worked out. But after training, they were out in the communities 'Druiding' - doing legal stuff, mediating between the people and the Gods, teaching history and other lore, etc. The villagers would have their own tales, shared by elders. They'd do their own folk magic, interpret drops of cream in water, etc.
No small group structure - everything was pretty much village wide or individual. No 'cities', no group cultus.
GREEK
Here we have cities, and with cities we can have Temples for different Gods and Goddesses. But even with different temples ... people poured their libations to Hestia in their home, and the entire city went out to the temple for the high day of the specific God/dess.
Again, no small group structure. Not even a 'coven full' of priestesses at the average temple.
Were there some groups? Yes. Lupercalia had some group in charge of the sacrifice, and they weren't 'full time' priests (some were politicians as I recall). And the Elusinian Mysteries were not done by everyone, but the experience was totally individual.
WITCHES
Were there some folks who did magic outside of the bounds of the Druids/temples/dominant paradigm? Sure. The Greek and the Celts did not look positively upon them. They were VERY much on their own, no structure, no group worship - they were probably magic only, not a different religion.
WHERE DID THE COVEN IDEA COME FROM?
As near as I can tell ... it was invented by Christianity. Maybe they got 13 members as a 'bad reflection' of the Last Supper, just like the Black Mass is a 'bad reflection' of the Mass. I don't see it anywhere before being mentioned in the Malleus Malificarum, tho' I admit I've not looked that hard. Certainly that's where the phrase "You cannot be a witch alone" comes from, which so many witches/pagans take as 'law' now.
SO WHAT?
So nothing. Just a train of thought about what the ancients did vs what we look to do today. They did it all alone or with the entire area. We focus on small groups (okay, except for ADF which was formed specifically to provide entire area public ritual ... and even their groves tend to 'choose' who gets to be a full member of the grove, tho' not the denomination).
Frondly, Fern
Monday, April 16, 2012
Let There Be Quiet
Blessings Darlings!
I love music ... tho' I cannot carry a tune in a bucket and have failed at every instrument I've tried. But, as I try to search for Twitter posts with "Pagan" in them (and try to ignore all the @#$%%~@~! sales posts there) it makes it seem as if a lot of folks have music playing all the time. And when I was in college one of my roommates had music or TV going pretty much constantly. Later I had neighbors who .... uh .... liked to share all their music with me. Then there were the many, many times I've been driving and I've not be able to hear anything except the music from another car at the stop light.
Which is not to say that my world is silent. Right now the loudest sound is the neighbor using a power edge trimmer around his fence. and probably another neighbor will mow their lawn and I'll hear that later. Not my favorite sounds, but .... really, my dishwashers noises bother me more when it runs.
Even with those outside man-made sounds, tho, I can still hear birds, and the wind, and my husband, and the creak of the window (I don't know WHY it creaked, tho), the hum of my computer fan, etc.
Even with THOSE sounds .... I can still hear myself think. And at times, I can hear the soft voices of the God/dess/es. I don't recall any time when I've heard the voices of the God/dess/es in music or TV, altho' I've certainly heard them in the quiet times of some guided meditations.
I've never understood the impulse to always have music/TV/etc sounds going on all the time. It's just not ME. I'm not going to claim that it's because I am doing Deep Thinking or anything - more likely it's because I'm too easily distracted and that would put me over the edge on being able to concentrate be so irritating that I'd get a headache.
Is it because I'm an only child of older parents? Probably part of it is from that. My suburban upbringing, without the constant pressing noises of urban life? I'm sure that's part of it .... tho' my neighborhood had so many toxins on the lawns that we didn't have crickets at all, and not a ton of birds.
But I DO value quiet. Intensely. I don't travel without ear plugs, and the discomfort of those have always been far FAR outweighed by the quiet they provide. If I had to make a binary choice between music and silence .... okay, I'd opt out, because I don't accept that paradigm.
Frondly, Fern
I love music ... tho' I cannot carry a tune in a bucket and have failed at every instrument I've tried. But, as I try to search for Twitter posts with "Pagan" in them (and try to ignore all the @#$%%~@~! sales posts there) it makes it seem as if a lot of folks have music playing all the time. And when I was in college one of my roommates had music or TV going pretty much constantly. Later I had neighbors who .... uh .... liked to share all their music with me. Then there were the many, many times I've been driving and I've not be able to hear anything except the music from another car at the stop light.
Which is not to say that my world is silent. Right now the loudest sound is the neighbor using a power edge trimmer around his fence. and probably another neighbor will mow their lawn and I'll hear that later. Not my favorite sounds, but .... really, my dishwashers noises bother me more when it runs.
Even with those outside man-made sounds, tho, I can still hear birds, and the wind, and my husband, and the creak of the window (I don't know WHY it creaked, tho), the hum of my computer fan, etc.
Even with THOSE sounds .... I can still hear myself think. And at times, I can hear the soft voices of the God/dess/es. I don't recall any time when I've heard the voices of the God/dess/es in music or TV, altho' I've certainly heard them in the quiet times of some guided meditations.
I've never understood the impulse to always have music/TV/etc sounds going on all the time. It's just not ME. I'm not going to claim that it's because I am doing Deep Thinking or anything - more likely it's because I'm too easily distracted and that would put me over the edge on being able to concentrate be so irritating that I'd get a headache.
Is it because I'm an only child of older parents? Probably part of it is from that. My suburban upbringing, without the constant pressing noises of urban life? I'm sure that's part of it .... tho' my neighborhood had so many toxins on the lawns that we didn't have crickets at all, and not a ton of birds.
But I DO value quiet. Intensely. I don't travel without ear plugs, and the discomfort of those have always been far FAR outweighed by the quiet they provide. If I had to make a binary choice between music and silence .... okay, I'd opt out, because I don't accept that paradigm.
Frondly, Fern
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Who's Green?
Blessings Darlings!
Earth hour was March 31. I KNOW I wrote about it a few years back, but I can't find where. It might have been somewhere other than my blog. Oh well. I find it rather a feel-good gimmick, similar to clicking 'like' on a picture on Facebook thinking that's going to change something.
But it got me to thinking about how environmentally 'green' most neopagans are, by looking at me.
By most of those 'measure your environmental footprint' things .... our family uses less resources than 'average' in America. Which of course means NOTHING, since the 'average' American uses a disproportionately high amount of resources. And those measurement tools don't count how many resources your job uses. We're lucky that way - since we work at home at least it DOES take that into account for us.
But .... if we used our fireplace for heat, using the 100% non-fossil fuel of wood, it would be GREAT for helping stretch out the end of oil .... but it would be TERRIBLE for air quality, pumping incredible amounts of particulates and carbon dioxide into the air.
I'm online a HECK of a lot, as a part of my work. That means that I share responsibility for the raping of the groundwater in Silicon Valley, the work conditions in factories in Asia, environmental damage from mining and refining rare earth elements used in the batteries and such.
It's not like my coven is in the town I live in, either. It's 65 miles away. The denomination covenstead is 190.
I can, and pretty much do, recycle every scrap of paper, every bit of plastic, every bottle, etc. than comes into the house. That does not negate the energy that went into making them, the pollution they generated, the mining/drilling/etc. Heck, recycling some of them take more water than creating them from scratch. Recycling doesn't mean not consuming.
Right now my dishwasher is running. In part because it uses less water than washing that many dishes by hand, and in part because it sanitizes the dishes better than I can do by hand. Saves water, saves electricity used for heating and pumping water, but uses electricity to run.
The fact that I cook from scratch actually causes me to use MORE energy than if I didn't. It woul be FAR more energy efficient to have a central bakery do all the baking, a central kitchen do all the cooking. Cafeteria food is efficient. It is not what I'd like to eat. It is not HOW I'd like to eat, giving up deciding what to feed my family personally. But environmentally - not having every house have a kitchen thus saving on all the appliances, cooking in big batches not individual family servings - is better for the environment.
All this before even looking at the coffee and chocolate issues. Or citrus issues (that's sure not a locally grown item, either). Or my beloved avocados.
Yeah, I only spend 12 minutes a week showering - I time it. In, wet down, turn off water, soap, rinse, do the same for the hair. Rain water, mostly, for the garden - tho' right now we're kind of droughty already so who knows what this summer will be like. Clothes line for laundry, but I can't afford to get the washer fixed and the cold water line is blocked .... so it's washing with warm to hot water, not cold.
Everything has trade offs. We have cats, how much less can I vacuum without cat hair being everywhere? How many holes in my husbands underwear before we have to toss it? Bleaching the tighty whities isn't happening, the better to make them last longer. They are now tighty off-whities.
The freezer that saves me HUGE amounts of money on food ... uses electricity to run, and wasn't great for the environment to manufacture. Two cycle engines, like on tillers for the garden, are TERRIBLE for polluting the air. Deer netting is made from plastic - other mesh is from metals that involve mining and refining, too.
The 'measure your footprint' things say I'm green. I look at my life and know I'm not. At all. "Relative to other Americans' is a foolish comparison.
Frondly, Fern
Earth hour was March 31. I KNOW I wrote about it a few years back, but I can't find where. It might have been somewhere other than my blog. Oh well. I find it rather a feel-good gimmick, similar to clicking 'like' on a picture on Facebook thinking that's going to change something.
But it got me to thinking about how environmentally 'green' most neopagans are, by looking at me.
By most of those 'measure your environmental footprint' things .... our family uses less resources than 'average' in America. Which of course means NOTHING, since the 'average' American uses a disproportionately high amount of resources. And those measurement tools don't count how many resources your job uses. We're lucky that way - since we work at home at least it DOES take that into account for us.
But .... if we used our fireplace for heat, using the 100% non-fossil fuel of wood, it would be GREAT for helping stretch out the end of oil .... but it would be TERRIBLE for air quality, pumping incredible amounts of particulates and carbon dioxide into the air.
I'm online a HECK of a lot, as a part of my work. That means that I share responsibility for the raping of the groundwater in Silicon Valley, the work conditions in factories in Asia, environmental damage from mining and refining rare earth elements used in the batteries and such.
It's not like my coven is in the town I live in, either. It's 65 miles away. The denomination covenstead is 190.
I can, and pretty much do, recycle every scrap of paper, every bit of plastic, every bottle, etc. than comes into the house. That does not negate the energy that went into making them, the pollution they generated, the mining/drilling/etc. Heck, recycling some of them take more water than creating them from scratch. Recycling doesn't mean not consuming.
Right now my dishwasher is running. In part because it uses less water than washing that many dishes by hand, and in part because it sanitizes the dishes better than I can do by hand. Saves water, saves electricity used for heating and pumping water, but uses electricity to run.
The fact that I cook from scratch actually causes me to use MORE energy than if I didn't. It woul be FAR more energy efficient to have a central bakery do all the baking, a central kitchen do all the cooking. Cafeteria food is efficient. It is not what I'd like to eat. It is not HOW I'd like to eat, giving up deciding what to feed my family personally. But environmentally - not having every house have a kitchen thus saving on all the appliances, cooking in big batches not individual family servings - is better for the environment.
All this before even looking at the coffee and chocolate issues. Or citrus issues (that's sure not a locally grown item, either). Or my beloved avocados.
Yeah, I only spend 12 minutes a week showering - I time it. In, wet down, turn off water, soap, rinse, do the same for the hair. Rain water, mostly, for the garden - tho' right now we're kind of droughty already so who knows what this summer will be like. Clothes line for laundry, but I can't afford to get the washer fixed and the cold water line is blocked .... so it's washing with warm to hot water, not cold.
Everything has trade offs. We have cats, how much less can I vacuum without cat hair being everywhere? How many holes in my husbands underwear before we have to toss it? Bleaching the tighty whities isn't happening, the better to make them last longer. They are now tighty off-whities.
The freezer that saves me HUGE amounts of money on food ... uses electricity to run, and wasn't great for the environment to manufacture. Two cycle engines, like on tillers for the garden, are TERRIBLE for polluting the air. Deer netting is made from plastic - other mesh is from metals that involve mining and refining, too.
The 'measure your footprint' things say I'm green. I look at my life and know I'm not. At all. "Relative to other Americans' is a foolish comparison.
Frondly, Fern
Thursday, March 29, 2012
I Dream In Color
Blessings Darlings!
I rarely share dreams here, but last nights dream seems different.
It started post Shit Hitting The Fan, with lots of trains, all going down the same track. Then a parallel track, on which a train of Army women in green colored fatigues. I was wearing my Assembly of the Sacred Wheel tabbard, in it's specific blue. Had to deal with a train full of folks in black on the track my stuff was on. Another train had all sorts of brightly colored children's books, one series that was coordinated by color. Realized that coordination of trains on tracks had to be re-established and my group was the one to do it - me standing on the tracks waving at the random trains wasn't cutting it. Found the original round house area .... where I realized that the train lines were coordinated by color. A Wise Woman - rather like the recently passed Shakmah Winddrum - commented on how finding this was the right approach, so I showed her the few clues to how it was done before that we'd found and where we were looking for more.
Okay, that was the dream. But let's add in that yesterday online in a group we had been discussing Kontantinos' "Nocturnal Witchcraft". Which I compared to Scott Cunningham. I didn't go into detail on WHY saw them as equivalent (other than to say both tend to be rather Kindergarten Wicca). But the dream commented on that for me.
Cunningham and Konstantinos both tend to work strongly with a white/black duality. Black. White. Only grey lies between them. Okay, that's one map of the territory.
In my dream there were all the colors of the rainbow, shown by the rainbow of knowledge in the books. My job is to see the best way to combine all those many and varied colors. I suspect that the roundhouse also has 'color wheel' associations - there are NO 'pure colors' outside of the filing systems like the Kabala and the chakras. Which are GREAT filing systems, but it's not good to mistake the map for the territory.
But the stuff on trains, or in books, don't do any good while still on trains. Mix, match - and use in every day life. The train load of coal is nice and all, but it's more 'useful' to me as electricity that I use to power my life.
I rarely share dreams here, but last nights dream seems different.
It started post Shit Hitting The Fan, with lots of trains, all going down the same track. Then a parallel track, on which a train of Army women in green colored fatigues. I was wearing my Assembly of the Sacred Wheel tabbard, in it's specific blue. Had to deal with a train full of folks in black on the track my stuff was on. Another train had all sorts of brightly colored children's books, one series that was coordinated by color. Realized that coordination of trains on tracks had to be re-established and my group was the one to do it - me standing on the tracks waving at the random trains wasn't cutting it. Found the original round house area .... where I realized that the train lines were coordinated by color. A Wise Woman - rather like the recently passed Shakmah Winddrum - commented on how finding this was the right approach, so I showed her the few clues to how it was done before that we'd found and where we were looking for more.
Okay, that was the dream. But let's add in that yesterday online in a group we had been discussing Kontantinos' "Nocturnal Witchcraft". Which I compared to Scott Cunningham. I didn't go into detail on WHY saw them as equivalent (other than to say both tend to be rather Kindergarten Wicca). But the dream commented on that for me.
Cunningham and Konstantinos both tend to work strongly with a white/black duality. Black. White. Only grey lies between them. Okay, that's one map of the territory.
In my dream there were all the colors of the rainbow, shown by the rainbow of knowledge in the books. My job is to see the best way to combine all those many and varied colors. I suspect that the roundhouse also has 'color wheel' associations - there are NO 'pure colors' outside of the filing systems like the Kabala and the chakras. Which are GREAT filing systems, but it's not good to mistake the map for the territory.
But the stuff on trains, or in books, don't do any good while still on trains. Mix, match - and use in every day life. The train load of coal is nice and all, but it's more 'useful' to me as electricity that I use to power my life.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
The Threefold Bitchslap
Blessings Darlings!
Some neopagans say that they live according to the Rede-as-harm-none (which I covered earlier here) and the Threefold Law Of Returns. And that the three-fold law, they will tell you when asked, is "Whatever you send out you get back three times over".
Well, no, that's not what the Threefold Law is.
The root of the Threefold Law seems to be in the "long version" of the Rede, as written by Lady Gwen Thompson .... who was not Wiccan but but BTW .... and BTW at the time was NOT "British Traditional Wicca" but "British Traditional WITCHCRAFT". It was published in Green Egg in 1974, don't recall which issue.
The line in question reads "Mind the Three-fold Laws ye should three times bad and three times good." I copied that from http://rialian.com/wiccrede.htm
That's not about you getting back three times over what you send out. That's "Whatever someone does to you, good or bad, do back to them three times over." Yes, I checked this with a Gardnerian, in case anyone was asking. It's supposed to be YOU being the manifestation of the hands of the God/dess/es handing peoplekarma logical response to their actions. No room for passive-aggressive behavior here.
It's not you sitting in front of a picture of the dude that dropped you and repeating "The three fold law will get you" and expecting some bean counter in the sky doing it for you.
It means that you are expected to take an active, involved role in creating Justice right here on Earth.
It's easy being nice to someone who's been nice to you. Co-worker jumped your car and you bring them cookies or whatever. Easy peasy, no risk.
It's harder, especially for women, to take an active role in bitchslapping someone who has worked to do you harm. We've been rather socialized to just walk away, to be non-confrontational. It's DANGEROUS, we've been told, to say "No, that is not allowed, stop that". Bullies are supposed to be out for attention and we've been told that to ignore them makes them go away.
But that's not the case. Bullies get worse without confrontation. Silence ENABLES abuse -ALL types of ause - rather than stops it. I can't find the scholarly article right now, but last year I read one that pretty definitively showed that social confrontation did not CAUSE conflict - it ENDED conflict.
Yeah, it might take doing it more than once. Like, maybe three times.... or more.
But when pushed - push back ... or make dang sure that the push-ers momentum is used by you to make sure that they fall. Hard. And in public.
Administer the Three-Fold Bitchslap.
Frondly, Fern
Some neopagans say that they live according to the Rede-as-harm-none (which I covered earlier here) and the Threefold Law Of Returns. And that the three-fold law, they will tell you when asked, is "Whatever you send out you get back three times over".
Well, no, that's not what the Threefold Law is.
The root of the Threefold Law seems to be in the "long version" of the Rede, as written by Lady Gwen Thompson .... who was not Wiccan but but BTW .... and BTW at the time was NOT "British Traditional Wicca" but "British Traditional WITCHCRAFT". It was published in Green Egg in 1974, don't recall which issue.
The line in question reads "Mind the Three-fold Laws ye should three times bad and three times good." I copied that from http://rialian.com/wiccrede.htm
That's not about you getting back three times over what you send out. That's "Whatever someone does to you, good or bad, do back to them three times over." Yes, I checked this with a Gardnerian, in case anyone was asking. It's supposed to be YOU being the manifestation of the hands of the God/dess/es handing people
It's not you sitting in front of a picture of the dude that dropped you and repeating "The three fold law will get you" and expecting some bean counter in the sky doing it for you.
It means that you are expected to take an active, involved role in creating Justice right here on Earth.
It's easy being nice to someone who's been nice to you. Co-worker jumped your car and you bring them cookies or whatever. Easy peasy, no risk.
It's harder, especially for women, to take an active role in bitchslapping someone who has worked to do you harm. We've been rather socialized to just walk away, to be non-confrontational. It's DANGEROUS, we've been told, to say "No, that is not allowed, stop that". Bullies are supposed to be out for attention and we've been told that to ignore them makes them go away.
But that's not the case. Bullies get worse without confrontation. Silence ENABLES abuse -ALL types of ause - rather than stops it. I can't find the scholarly article right now, but last year I read one that pretty definitively showed that social confrontation did not CAUSE conflict - it ENDED conflict.
Yeah, it might take doing it more than once. Like, maybe three times.... or more.
But when pushed - push back ... or make dang sure that the push-ers momentum is used by you to make sure that they fall. Hard. And in public.
Administer the Three-Fold Bitchslap.
Frondly, Fern
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
The Mau types
Blessings Darlings!
Oh, oh, oh! The Mau is writing on .... life. And dying. And, of course, Persephone. http://melittabenu.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/links-that-made-me-think-dying-before-you-die/
You really should read it.
And I really need to meet her sometime soon. Suz, we HAVE to get to a ritual over there!
Frondly, Fern
Oh, oh, oh! The Mau is writing on .... life. And dying. And, of course, Persephone. http://melittabenu.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/links-that-made-me-think-dying-before-you-die/
You really should read it.
And I really need to meet her sometime soon. Suz, we HAVE to get to a ritual over there!
Frondly, Fern
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Havamal Part 8 - The Mating Game
Blessings Darlings!
This week in the Havamal - Odhinn trashes women. And men. Or at least dating. Or speaks of the challenges of actually finding intimacy.
While the words used usually say love here .... more of the time it sounds like lust, or day dreams. For all logic, all sense is thrown away. This is not about finding someone to spend the rest of your life with!
At best it's love as illness, love as destroyer. Tristan and Isolde-level strurm und drang. I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise, given the era this came from. Survival then really did depend in large part on wise choice in a mate and their family. You had a role in the survival of your extended family, your clan, your tribe, your village to uphold.
It didn't matter if you were gay or straight, for that matter. You needed to marry, to form an alliance to strengthen your tribe and to have children, explained Alexi Kondratiev in a class at Sacred Space Conference some years back. The group was more important than the individual.
No man should trust a maiden's words,
Nor what a woman speaks:
Spun on a wheel were women's hearts,
In their breasts was implanted caprice,
To love a woman whose ways are false
Is like sledding over slippery ice
With unshod horses out of control,
Badly trained two-year-olds,
Or drifting rudderless on a rough sea,
Or catching a reindeer with a crippled hand
On a thawing hillside: think not to do it.
Naked I may speak now for I know both:
Men are treacherous too
Fairest we speak when falsest we think:
many a maid is deceived.
Gallantly shall he speak and gifts bring
Who wishes for woman's love:
praise the features of the fair girl,
Who courts well will conquer.
Never reproach another for his love:
It happens often enough
That beauty ensnares with desire the wise
While the foolish remain unmoved.
Never reproach the plight of another,
For it happens to many men:
Strong desire may stupefy heroes,
Dull the wits of the wise
Yeah, the blood leaves the brain and goes to regions farther south, in both men and women.
The mind alone knows what is near the heart,
Each is his own judge:
The worst sickness for a wise man
Is to crave what he cannot enjoy.
So I learned when I sat in the reeds,
Hoping to have my desire:
Lovely was the flesh of that fair girl,
But nothing I hoped for happened.
I saw on a bed Billing's daughter,
Sun white, asleep:
No greater delight I longed for then
Than to lie in her lovely arms.
"Come" Odhinn, after nightfall
If you wish for a meeting with me:
All would be lost if anyone saw us
And learned that we were lovers."
Afire with longing" I left her then,
Deceived by her soft words:
I thought my wooing had won the maid,
That I would have my way.
After nightfall I hurried back,
But the warriors were all awake,
Lights were burning, blazing torches:
So false proved the path
Towards daybreak back I came
The guards were sound asleep:
I found then that the fair woman
Had tied a bitch to her bed.
WHY is it that "All would be lost if anyone saw us and learned that we were lovers'? I'm thinking that would have been a question he should have asked and dealt with up front. Probably back to individual pleasure over the needs of the tribe?
Many a girl when one gets to know her
Proves to be fickle and false:
That treacherous maiden taught me a lesson,
The crafty woman covered me with shame"
That was all I got from her.
Certainly this rings true about dating/courtship. Odhinn here seems to have wanted to get laid, rather than the public 'we are an item' coupling, and certainly not marriage. If marriage was the goal he'd not have agreed to keep things secret.
Courtship. Let's look at the third definition from the Bing dictionary: friendly and often ingratiating attention for the purpose of winning a favor or establishing an alliance or other relationship. Were any of the folks talked of so far doing anything working towards marriage, towards intimacy - the #1 definition of 'courtship' from Bing (the period of a romantic relationship before marriage)? Nope. It's all game playing.
Now, I personally think that dating to have fun and even get laid is fine - not all dating SHOULD lead to marriage. But I'm of the opinion that if you're out for a good time, be up front about. Own it. It's okay.
But some folks ARE going to lie about their intent and lead you on to think that they are on the same songsheet you're on. Which is why you test, you evaluate. How do they treat others? What are their values? Especially if YOU are into dating/courtship in search of marriage and real intimacy.
Gunnlod sat me in the golden seat,
Poured me precious mead:
Ill reward she had from me for that,
For her proud and passionate heart,
Her brooding foreboding spirit.
What I won from her I have well used:
I have waxed in wisdom since I came back,
bringing to Asgard Odrerir,
the sacred draught.
Hardly would I have come home alive
From the garth of the grim troll,
Had Gunnlod not helped me, the good woman,
Who wrapped her arms around me.
Here, of course, Odhinn is the jerk, having tricked Gunnlod into giving him 3 'sips' of the mead according to Prose Edda version of the story, one for every night spent schtupping. Not unlike Freya sleeping with a dwarf for every stone in her necklace Brisingamen. Of course, Freya didn't totally empty the supply of amber, while Odhinn DID drink all the Mead of Poetic Inspiration!
Shun a woman, wise in magic,
Her bed and her embraces:
If she cast a spell, you will care no longer
To meet and speak with men,
Desire no food, desire no pleasure,
In sorrow fall asleep.
Snort. Baby boy, a woman wise in magic doesn't need spells to keep a man. Or just cue my dear Frank Sinatra singing "Witchcraft".
Sigh.... Ahem. Back to the Havamal..
Never seduce anothers wife,
Never make her your mistress.
Never open your heart to an evil man
When fortune does not favour you:
From an evil man, if you make him your friend,
You will get evil for good.
I saw a warrior wounded fatally
By the words of an evil woman
Her cunning tongue caused his death,
Though what she alleged was a lie.
Is all of this, really, about putting one's self and one's personal desires above those of your tribe? About forgetting to judge a potential mate by the same standards you judge the worthiness of your friends and associates? Of putting pleasure above sense?
I'm going to have to puzzle that one out more over time.
Frondly, Fern
This week in the Havamal - Odhinn trashes women. And men. Or at least dating. Or speaks of the challenges of actually finding intimacy.
While the words used usually say love here .... more of the time it sounds like lust, or day dreams. For all logic, all sense is thrown away. This is not about finding someone to spend the rest of your life with!
At best it's love as illness, love as destroyer. Tristan and Isolde-level strurm und drang. I suppose that shouldn't be a surprise, given the era this came from. Survival then really did depend in large part on wise choice in a mate and their family. You had a role in the survival of your extended family, your clan, your tribe, your village to uphold.
It didn't matter if you were gay or straight, for that matter. You needed to marry, to form an alliance to strengthen your tribe and to have children, explained Alexi Kondratiev in a class at Sacred Space Conference some years back. The group was more important than the individual.
No man should trust a maiden's words,
Nor what a woman speaks:
Spun on a wheel were women's hearts,
In their breasts was implanted caprice,
To love a woman whose ways are false
Is like sledding over slippery ice
With unshod horses out of control,
Badly trained two-year-olds,
Or drifting rudderless on a rough sea,
Or catching a reindeer with a crippled hand
On a thawing hillside: think not to do it.
Naked I may speak now for I know both:
Men are treacherous too
Fairest we speak when falsest we think:
many a maid is deceived.
Gallantly shall he speak and gifts bring
Who wishes for woman's love:
praise the features of the fair girl,
Who courts well will conquer.
Never reproach another for his love:
It happens often enough
That beauty ensnares with desire the wise
While the foolish remain unmoved.
Never reproach the plight of another,
For it happens to many men:
Strong desire may stupefy heroes,
Dull the wits of the wise
Yeah, the blood leaves the brain and goes to regions farther south, in both men and women.
The mind alone knows what is near the heart,
Each is his own judge:
The worst sickness for a wise man
Is to crave what he cannot enjoy.
So I learned when I sat in the reeds,
Hoping to have my desire:
Lovely was the flesh of that fair girl,
But nothing I hoped for happened.
I saw on a bed Billing's daughter,
Sun white, asleep:
No greater delight I longed for then
Than to lie in her lovely arms.
"Come" Odhinn, after nightfall
If you wish for a meeting with me:
All would be lost if anyone saw us
And learned that we were lovers."
Afire with longing" I left her then,
Deceived by her soft words:
I thought my wooing had won the maid,
That I would have my way.
After nightfall I hurried back,
But the warriors were all awake,
Lights were burning, blazing torches:
So false proved the path
Towards daybreak back I came
The guards were sound asleep:
I found then that the fair woman
Had tied a bitch to her bed.
WHY is it that "All would be lost if anyone saw us and learned that we were lovers'? I'm thinking that would have been a question he should have asked and dealt with up front. Probably back to individual pleasure over the needs of the tribe?
Many a girl when one gets to know her
Proves to be fickle and false:
That treacherous maiden taught me a lesson,
The crafty woman covered me with shame"
That was all I got from her.
Certainly this rings true about dating/courtship. Odhinn here seems to have wanted to get laid, rather than the public 'we are an item' coupling, and certainly not marriage. If marriage was the goal he'd not have agreed to keep things secret.
Courtship. Let's look at the third definition from the Bing dictionary: friendly and often ingratiating attention for the purpose of winning a favor or establishing an alliance or other relationship. Were any of the folks talked of so far doing anything working towards marriage, towards intimacy - the #1 definition of 'courtship' from Bing (the period of a romantic relationship before marriage)? Nope. It's all game playing.
Now, I personally think that dating to have fun and even get laid is fine - not all dating SHOULD lead to marriage. But I'm of the opinion that if you're out for a good time, be up front about. Own it. It's okay.
But some folks ARE going to lie about their intent and lead you on to think that they are on the same songsheet you're on. Which is why you test, you evaluate. How do they treat others? What are their values? Especially if YOU are into dating/courtship in search of marriage and real intimacy.
Gunnlod sat me in the golden seat,
Poured me precious mead:
Ill reward she had from me for that,
For her proud and passionate heart,
Her brooding foreboding spirit.
What I won from her I have well used:
I have waxed in wisdom since I came back,
bringing to Asgard Odrerir,
the sacred draught.
Hardly would I have come home alive
From the garth of the grim troll,
Had Gunnlod not helped me, the good woman,
Who wrapped her arms around me.
Here, of course, Odhinn is the jerk, having tricked Gunnlod into giving him 3 'sips' of the mead according to Prose Edda version of the story, one for every night spent schtupping. Not unlike Freya sleeping with a dwarf for every stone in her necklace Brisingamen. Of course, Freya didn't totally empty the supply of amber, while Odhinn DID drink all the Mead of Poetic Inspiration!
Shun a woman, wise in magic,
Her bed and her embraces:
If she cast a spell, you will care no longer
To meet and speak with men,
Desire no food, desire no pleasure,
In sorrow fall asleep.
Snort. Baby boy, a woman wise in magic doesn't need spells to keep a man. Or just cue my dear Frank Sinatra singing "Witchcraft".
Sigh.... Ahem. Back to the Havamal..
Never seduce anothers wife,
Never make her your mistress.
Never open your heart to an evil man
When fortune does not favour you:
From an evil man, if you make him your friend,
You will get evil for good.
I saw a warrior wounded fatally
By the words of an evil woman
Her cunning tongue caused his death,
Though what she alleged was a lie.
Is all of this, really, about putting one's self and one's personal desires above those of your tribe? About forgetting to judge a potential mate by the same standards you judge the worthiness of your friends and associates? Of putting pleasure above sense?
I'm going to have to puzzle that one out more over time.
Frondly, Fern
Ornithomancy
Blessings Darlings!
The Mighty Suzanne Thackston has a new Pagan Examiner article out!
I would SO love to know more about birds and ornithomancy. Of course, the basic bird knowledge would have to come first. At this point I don't recognize enough of them to do any divination via them.
Just another thing on my to-do list. And it's a heck of a LONG to-do list!
Frondly, Fern
The Mighty Suzanne Thackston has a new Pagan Examiner article out!
I would SO love to know more about birds and ornithomancy. Of course, the basic bird knowledge would have to come first. At this point I don't recognize enough of them to do any divination via them.
Just another thing on my to-do list. And it's a heck of a LONG to-do list!
Frondly, Fern
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Victimless Genocide
Blessings Darlings!
The wonderful Morgan blogged about St. Patrick. And included full citations. You - each and every ONE of you - should read it. http://lairbhan.blogspot.com/2012/03/st-patricks-day-snakes-and-irish.html
In short: The neopagan "we are eternal victims mythos" about Patrick are not based in fact. They are simply a way to justify neopagans playing the victim card.
Many people are amazingly invested in playing the victim card. A person on Twitter tweeted the "St Patrick committed genocide" thing, I cited sources showing it's not true and asked for HER sources. Turned out the woman is a few sandwiches short of a picnic, and is now accusing me of being a part of the Russian mafia, involved in sex trafficing, just saying I'm in Druid and Wiccan groups because I'm trying to shut her up. And asked "REAL Druids" to "Take Fern Out" (and implied a few times she's going to hex me).
In response I DID get a date offer (we riffed on 'taking me out'). Keeping the joke going I suggested we catch the Trans Siberian Orchestra.
Frondly, Fern
The wonderful Morgan blogged about St. Patrick. And included full citations. You - each and every ONE of you - should read it. http://lairbhan.blogspot.com/2012/03/st-patricks-day-snakes-and-irish.html
In short: The neopagan "we are eternal victims mythos" about Patrick are not based in fact. They are simply a way to justify neopagans playing the victim card.
Many people are amazingly invested in playing the victim card. A person on Twitter tweeted the "St Patrick committed genocide" thing, I cited sources showing it's not true and asked for HER sources. Turned out the woman is a few sandwiches short of a picnic, and is now accusing me of being a part of the Russian mafia, involved in sex trafficing, just saying I'm in Druid and Wiccan groups because I'm trying to shut her up. And asked "REAL Druids" to "Take Fern Out" (and implied a few times she's going to hex me).
In response I DID get a date offer (we riffed on 'taking me out'). Keeping the joke going I suggested we catch the Trans Siberian Orchestra.
Frondly, Fern
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