Re-taking The Hill. Again.

Blessings Darlings!

Dreams last night were frustrating but immensely informative. In them I took on every single task other folks gave me. Every . Single . One . Of . Them . I also had my repetitive dream of 'driving a vehicle so big that I can't see the street to steer and drive over other vehicles'.

Time to re-assert sovereignity over my life and time. I've been slipping on that again.  

 

Yeah, I slip on this with GREAT regularity.  Okay - it's not 'great' for me.  It sucks for me, and is a habit ingrained from childhood.  I'm not going to bore myself by citing some of the examples.

So today I'm back to setting time limits on housework, on cruising the internet for other folks, etc.  Freed time is for MY goals - food gardening (yes, even in winter), writing, study, exercise, planning healthier meals for myself, etc.

Gotta run - it's going to start raining again soon, and I need to get stuff done in the garden before it does.

Frondly, Fern

Mercury Retrograde is Coming, and I Feel Fine.

Blessings Darlings!

People in the Pagan/Witch groups I'm in have started their regular freaking out over the upcoming Mercury Retrograde. They have started praying that it's smooth. Have I mentioned that 'hopes and prayers' put my teeth on edge? 

 

So here's a reminder that the Merc Retro is a needed and useful thing, where you unwind stuff that no longer serves you. And that there are things you can do to prepare for it, so it goes more smoothly. Do what you can to make sure (and double check that) all your bills are paid, especially insurance. If you look at things and note that you won't be able to make a payment - contact that creditor in advance and see what you can work out. Back up your computer in advance. Maybe get your car checked out/change your oil, etc in advance if you can. Make sure you have a patch kit for the tires on your bicycle. 

 

Get your self-care in place. Taking care of yourself will make things smoother, and help make sure you have more energy and are more centered to face anything that comes up. 

 

Finally - start facing things you don't want to face NOW. Make it a habit. This will help build your ability/ease of handling crap as it comes up. 

 

Frondly, Fern

Weight. Fiber. Healthy Stuff.

Blessings Darlings!

Book reviews are coming - but life's been busy lately.  Very busy.  My husband has a new contract that's a bit of a death march on timing (so much to do, so little time to get it done) - so I'm doing all the housework except the bathrooms (our spawn does those.)  I'm also doing a lot of support work on the project, since, after all, I am the co-owner of the business even if I don't do the programming.  And then there's the keeping him fed/coffee'd, etc...

Meanwhile, I've got a butt-ton of my own goals that I'm working on.  Not just the reading, but increases in magical practice and ... there are a lot of health goals in play.  So the rest of this post is going to be whining about problems manifesting the sometimes contradictory actions to reach an assortment of health goals.  Just ONE part of ONE thing I'm doing - getting at least 10,000 steps a day - takes me a lot of time.

Still with me?

Okay.

I'm old, chubby, and out of shape.  Actions are underway to work on those things.  Part of the problem is insulin resistance due to metabolic syndrome.  For that - increase exercise, reduce weight, reduce carbs in my diet (especially highly refined ones.)  Being a woman over 60, I'm also supposed to get 21 grams of fiber a day.   That's the fiber in about 4 cups of cooked broccoli - one of the BETTER vegetable sources of fiber.  A cup and a half of salad mix has only 1 gram of fiber.  The double serving of spaghetti squash I had for breakfast had only 2.2 grams of fiber!

The only good food sources for fiber are ... starches.  Sweet potatoes. Cooked dry beans.  Cooked barley.  Exactly the types of food I'm trying to reduce in my diet.  The foods I was heavily relying on (and getting heavy from!) during the last decade of Broke Ass Eating.

I feel personally betrayed by this, even as it makes clear what I'm going to have to top my salad with.  And I might end up buying some fiber supplement to add to water/coffee/whatever. Because I'd really like to have fruit as my carbs - I really like fruit.  I don't mind beans, but fruit is, well, sweet.

Yeah.  First world problems - losing weight and making sure I poop regularly as I age.

Frondly, Fern

More Book Review Criteria!

Blessings Darlings!

Having consulted with others, and thought about it myself - there are more things I'd like to see in Wicca/Pagan 101 books.

Let's start with ... footnotes for history claims, and suggested reading lists!  And the authors need to have their facts right.  "Truthiness" is not an option tho' LABELED UPG (unverified Personal Gnosis) is fine.

That you should pay attention of all sorts of spirits, not just the Gods.

THAT THE PAGAN COMMUNITY HAS PREDATORS.

Witch books better include the concept of raising, shaping, and sending energy - not just 'put up mirrors to block negative energy.'

Rede Thumping along with the Rede. 

That Karma isn't what most Westerners think it is, and that Dharma matters.

How well the book is edited, spell checked, etc.  No book is perfect, and I know that it's HARD to get Kindle editing to do what you want, but a good-faith effort should have been made.

I fear that expecting them to NOT go on about Christianity is too much to ask ... but I'm asking it anyway.

More criteria might be listed later, as things bug the shit out of me.

Frondly, Fern

Wiccan Book Reviews Coming!

Blessings Darlings!

I'm going to be doing a bunch of reviews of 'free for kindle' Wicca 101 books (When I told a friend this, she asked me why I was going to torture myself.)

So now, before I start doing the book reviews, I'm going to be up front about what I want to see in any Wicca 101 books.  So here's the list:

HISTORY OF WICCA
WHAT YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE TO BE WICCAN
WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO BE WICCAN
     SABBATS
     ESBATS
    LETS TALK INITIATION
THE WHEEL OF THE YEAR
QUARTER CAST CIRCLES
    WHY/WHEN TO DO CIRCLES
    ELEMENTS
    ELEMENTALS
   DIRECTIONS
    WATCHTOWERS
    IF YOUR CIRCLE TAKES YOU TO A TIME THAT IS NOT A TIME, A PLACE THAT IS
         NOT A PLACE ... HOW DOES THAT WORK WITH THE CIRCLE OF THE YEAR                 AND YOUR EVER SO CAREFULLY DECORATED SEASONAL ALTAR?
DRAWING DOWN THE MOON AND POLARITY-BASED MAGIC (THE ONLY TYPE OF          MAGIC THAT I FEEL CAN BE CALLED 'WICCAN') 
YEAH, THROW IN SOMETHING ABOUT GROUNDING AND CENTERING
THROW IN A TINY BIT ON STUFF YOU MIGHT WANT ON YOUR ALTAR.

Now you know what I'll be looking for when I do book reviews.  Gods help us all.

Frondly, Fern

Cause? Effect? Random?

Blessings Darlings!

I've had more energy and less executive dysfunction lately than I've had in ... ages.  This is WONDERFUL when you've had various types of depression, well, pretty much all my life.  Therefore, I'm trying to figure out 'what I did' that caused the change.

I'm doing this even tho' I fully realize that I'm not actually in full control of my brain chemistry.  But I REALLY WANT TO BE fully in charge of my brain chemistry.  I like feeling good.  I want to stay feeling good.

So, I'm reviewing what I've been eating, drinking, exposure to sunlight, the changes I've made in the offerings I'm giving to all sorts of Spirits, the bed board I've added to the bed so the mattress is firmer, improved sleep, reduced caffeine, exercising, etc.

But ... I can't tell what might have helped CAUSE the improvement from what was CAUSED BY the improvement.  I've no idea what came first amongst the variables.  And there are SO MANY variables. 

I want to be in control,  while realizing that I'm never going to be in full control.  I'm doing factor analysis, laughing at myself for doing it, but continuing to contemplate it.

That said - I'm happy with what's going on.

Frondly, Fern

Pinterest Pagans

Blessings Darlings!

This is a continuation of last Wednesday's blog "Consider the Source!"

There are some Pagans/Witches/Magic Users who violate my "Sources  Matter" rede all the fucking time.  They see something that tickles their Elmo in some way, and NEVER checking to see what the source is or even checking to see if it's total nonsense.  They just add it to their Pinterest/Tumblr/spam it in FB groups immediately.  They don't care if it's true or false, or if it's plagiarized, or if actually followed it can be dangerous.  The best that I can say is that they have their feelz going, but not their brains (or ethics in the case of plagiarism.)

I'm calling them Pinterest Pagans because I really like alliteration.  In my never humble opinion, they are the Becky and Chads of the Pagan/etc community. 

I've posted before about folks who try to 'buy' paganism/witchcraft by buying craploads of tools and oils and other 'stuff'.  This is another form of that - collecting random stuff from the Internet most of which they don't use.   Judging from what I've seen - 90% of the witch/pagan stuff they share is shit.  Just ... shit.  Shit with no sources cited.  Because apparently they think that everything on the Internet is true.

If they share spells and are asked details about them, it's usually clear that they never did the spell.  They can't tell you what exactly occurred when they did it.  They can't give you success/failure rates, they can't tell you why any specific item is called for.  They can't discuss the magical theory behind the spell.  They can't tell you a specific statement of intent that they used. 

IMO, Pinterest Pagan are, for the most part, uneducated and not willing to do REAL work to educate themselves.  Not willing to even investigate what they read for veracity or intelligence or reality.  They clearly don't believe that the sources matter.  To quote Isaac Asimov, they believe that "[their] ignorance is just as good as your knowledge," or equal to the knowledge of folks who have made deep study for years into what they are posting memes about. I'm not saying that *I* am an expert that they shouldn't be comparing themselves to - I'm saying that the sources I quote are the experts, in case anyone was wondering about that.

I weep for the human race. 

Frothing Fern